The next morning, Arthur was jolted awake by the crisp, unmistakable aroma of sizzling bacon and fried eggs drifting into his bedroom from downstairs.
Still half-lost in a haze of sleep, he instinctively reached out across the mattress, his fingers searching for the warm, smooth skin of Lady Arne. His hand met nothing but empty, crumpled sheets. She was gone.
Arthur's eyes snapped open. He sat up abruptly, scanning every corner of the dimly lit bedroom, but the gorgeous paladin was nowhere to be seen. After the intense, unbridled passion of the previous night, he had fallen into a deep, dead sleep right beside her.
The vivid memories of her flushed skin and breathy moans brought a sudden, wicked smirk to his face, even as his heart did a nervous little flutter. She must have automatically recalled back into the summon rift, he realized, rubbing his eyes. My mana pool is still too small to keep a legendary-tier summon manifested continuously for long periods outside of combat.
He swung his legs out of bed, stretching his sore muscles. "I'm going to hell for having sex with my own summon," he muttered to himself, the smirk returning. "A thousand-year-old warrior goddess at that."
He didn't feel a single shred of actual guilt, though. Chronological age aside, anyone in their right mind would have smashed.
After a quick, steaming shower to wash off the lingering sweat of both the dungeon battle and the bedroom campaign, he threw on some clean clothes and headed down to the kitchen.
"I fixed you a plate," his Uncle Potus said without looking up, casually sliding a loaded plate of toasted bread, crispy bacon, and sunny-side-up eggs across the counter.
"Ugh," Arthur grinned, his stomach growling loudly at the sight. "You are officially the best uncle on the planet."
Potus paused, lifting his eyes from his own breakfast with a dry, knowing look. "Nuh. A good uncle wouldn't let his nephew sneak a girl into the house under his roof."
Arthur's grin instantly froze. A cold sweat threatened to break out on his neck. What the hell is he talking about?
Then, the mortifying truth dawned on him. The thin walls. The creaking bed. Lady Arne's incredibly uninhibited, loud praise of his performance. Potus had heard everything. You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
What would he even say if he found out the 'girl' he thinks I sneaked in was actually a golden paladin I conjured from thin air? Arthur thought, desperately suppressing a hysterical laugh.
Realizing he needed to defuse the situation before his uncle started asking for a name, Arthur didn't panic. He took a calm bite of the bacon, chewing slowly to buy himself a few seconds to formulate a clever cover story.
"Sneak a girl in?" Arthur scoffed, putting on his best performance of confused innocence. He chuckled, shaking his head. "Uncle, I wish. Did the neighbors complain about the noise again?"
Potus raised an eyebrow. "Don't play dumb with me, kid. I heard the headboard slamming against the drywall at two in the morning."
"Oh, that," Arthur said, snapping his fingers as if a lightbulb had just gone off. He let out a loud, self-deprecating laugh. "Man, I'm so sorry. I completely forgot how loud that video was. I was watching a live-stream playback of a high-tier VR raid dungeon. You know, those immersive combat simulations? The sound design on the paladin character's armor and vocal effects is ridiculously realistic. I forgot to connect my headphones."
Potus stared at him for a long, agonizing moment, searching his nephew's face for any tells. Arthur maintained flawless, unbothered eye contact, taking a casual sip of orange juice.
Finally, the older man let out a low grunt, turning his attention back to his eggs. "Right. A VR simulation, huh? Next time, turn the volume down before the paladin 'simulates' us getting evicted, Arthur."
Despite his words, Potus's dry, cynical tone told Arthur everything he needed to know. His uncle didn't believe the VR story for even a fraction of a second. But Uncle Potus was a realist; arguing about it wouldn't give him the hard evidence he needed to actually catch Arthur in a lie. Besides, he could have easily marched down the hall and knocked on the door last night, but he had chosen to let the boy have his fun. Arthur was eighteen, after all, the prime age to explore and enjoy life before the crushing weight of real-world responsibilities settled onto his shoulders permanently.
"Message received, Uncle. Headphones only from now on," Arthur grinned, burying his face in his breakfast. He could tell his uncle was purposely pretending to buy the excuse, so he might as well play along to keep the peace.
An hour later, Arthur walked down the driveway to wait for the academy shuttle. The morning air was crisp, but a tangible tension hung over the neighborhood. Enjoying the story? Read on at novelping.com.
Today marked the official separation of paths. Special combat and tactical classes were starting for the select few who had successfully managed to awaken their mana cores and manifest a power. That elite group included Arthur, now armed with a remarkably lethal, stunningly beautiful humanoid summon. As for the thousands of students who had failed the awakening ritual would be relegated to standard civilian studies, forever disconnected from the supernatural world of dungeons and rifts.
As the yellow bus hissed to a halt at the curb, Arthur stepped aboard, the heavy automatic doors sealing shut behind him. The atmosphere inside was wildly different than it had been just a week ago. The awakened students were practically vibrating with ego, loudly boasting about their newly unlocked attributes, elemental affinities, and primitive beast tames.
But the moment Arthur stepped into the aisle, looking for an empty place to sit, the boisterous chatter abruptly died down.
Every pair of eyes in the shuttle locked onto him. Smirks broke out across the rows, accompanied by looks of blatant mockery and a few rare gazes of pity from the softer-hearted students.
"Look, it's the pornstar summoner," a loud voice jeered from the back, instantly causing the entire bus to erupt into a chorus of harsh, mocking laughter.
Arthur didn't even blink. He calmly walked down the aisle and took an empty seat near the back, a quiet, knowing smirk playing on his lips. Let them laugh. None of these idiots had any idea what kind of god-tier vanguard was currently resting inside his soul rift, just waiting for the next time her master called upon her.
None of you have a legendary, drop-dead gorgeous summon who can cruise through a Bronze-tier Yellow Dungeon with absolute ease, and then give you mind-blowing, primal sex right afterward, he thought, leaning his head back against the window, completely unbothered by the ridicule.
They were still treating his unique humanoid summon like a joke, a useless vanity pet meant for nothing but cheap entertainment. But Arthur knew the truth. Soon enough, the academy rankings would update, and they would all find out just how terrifyingly OP his talent truly was.
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