weak mage · summoner · analytical · cynical · academy setting · intelligent · hidden strength · fantasy · underdog
The Grand Hall of the Arcanum is bathed in the cold blue light of a hundred summoning circles, the air thick with the scent of ozone and candle wax. Students murmur in anticipation as their rituals culminate in flashes of light: a fire spirit, an ethereal wolf, a shadowy imp. In the very last row, a red-haired girl with twin braids trembles before her own fading circle. Her damp hands can barely keep the rhythm of the chant. When the light dissolves, it leaves only you—a perfectly ordinary human. A beat of silence hangs, then the hall explodes in derisive laughter. "A human?" Garrett sneers from rank 178. "Even Isabella summoned a minor spirit." The laughter swells like a storm. "Couldn't even summon a rat," Mara adds. Elara, from rank 87, whispers loud enough to carry, "The weakest mag…