First Summoning

"Oh stars and heavens above, grant us your benevolent assistance. Bring forth a suitable companion, one to elevate and serve, love and protect, one made for this child and none other. In the Father's name, we pray."

I found myself fading into the middle of a circle filled with blinding silver light and surrounded by chanting giantess women in black habits. In the circle with me knelt a boy I guessed was a child based on his facial structure, but he was still more than twice my size. He had short, messy blond hair, and although he seemed to be praying at the moment, the scrapes on his knuckles and the torn knees of his pants told me that he was rarely so still. I looked around and realized that the women had fallen silent and were staring at me. I tried to move, only to find that my body didn't feel right.

"Mreow."

Oh no. I tried to speak again, but I heard only a meowing sound once more. No. I could not have been reincarnated as a cat. As I struggled to move my body, the light around the boy and me faded. He opened amber eyes and looked down at me. Excitement bloomed on his features. "A Shadow Cat!" he exclaimed.

The women were all smiles. "Very good, Nero. That's an impressive summoning. We can expect great things from you."

Nero picked me up, ignoring my hisses, and stepped out of the circle. "Calm down, kitty," he murmured as he joined a short line of children holding various animals. One girl had a monkey on her shoulder, while another boy had a slug in his hands, and yet another a bird of some sort. They all looked like perfectly normal animals to me, but who knew if they were special somehow.

The chanting started up again, and light filled the room once more, though it was less overwhelming now that I wasn't in the middle of it. The new child in the circle - a round girl with red hair tied back into pigtails - received a horse with wings that barely fit into the circle, and everyone immediately started whispering. From what I could hear, a Winged Horse was far better than a Shadow Cat. It was apparently 'SR' while I was only Rare.

That made sense. You could ride a horse. Wings or not, a horse was useful. It would probably cost a lot more to keep, though.

(I wasn't going to touch the familiar phrasing of rarity with a ten-foot pole if I could help it.)

Of the five additional children to go after that, none received anything but normal animals, which people said in hushed tones were 'Common summons.' Presumably, this was why the horse girl and my boy were held back. "Alicia, Nero, do the two of you know what makes your summons so special?"

Alicia raised her hand eagerly. "Because they can evolve!" she chirped. Her voice was high and bright, like bells.

"Indeed. A summon’s rarity is determined by how many times it can evolve. A summon’s level can only exceed thirty if it evolves, and Common summons cannot. A Rare summon like yours, Nero, can evolve once and reach level fifty, and an SR summon like yours, Alicia, can evolve twice, allowing them to reach level eighty. Evolution requires many materials, some of which are quite difficult to obtain, but we have full faith in the two of you."

While the women continued what sounded like a well-practiced speech, I tried thinking, 'Status.' Nothing happened. I tried thinking it with intention. That went better. A screen appeared before me.

Name: --                                                                           Level: 1/120
Summon Date: 10.21.19                                              Master: Nero
Type: Demon Cat - SSR
Status: normal                                                               Health: 10/10
Skills:                                                                               Available Points: 1
     Active: --                                                                     Passive: AGI UP Lv. 1, INT
                                                                                          UP Lv. 1
Titles: Agent of Fyth, Hated by God

I hummed to myself, a sound that emerged from my throat as a purr. Nero automatically petted me as he listened to the nun-looking women. It seemed the suspicions I’d wanted to avoid realizing had been correct. This world functioned at least partially like a gacha game, and Nero had apparently lucked out by getting me, even if it didn’t seem like anyone had realized that yet.

At the bottom of the screen were four options, with the first one highlighted: Status, Inventory, Skills Store, and Logs. I directed my attention to ‘Inventory’ and wasn't at all surprised to find it empty. It had a scrollbar to the side I could operate by thinking about it, and I guessed that if there was a limit to how much I could store, it was such an absurdly high number that I’d never reach it. ‘Skills Store’ had a frankly overwhelming list of skills I resolved to look at later, when I wasn't ignoring potentially useful information to do so. ‘Logs’ contained both a map with only a small area uncovered and a small set of entries about the world I'd noted so far. In other words, it was basically a diary. Not entirely useless, but not something I expected to spend much time looking at, either.

"-accompany Alicia?" I heard as I returned my attention to the conversation around me.

Nero nodded and bounced on the balls of his feet. "Can I?"

The women glanced at each other. At last, one of them nodded. "While your village would appreciate you returning to them, as someone with a Rare summon, you are well within your rights to join Alicia. Do keep in mind that if your next summon is Common, however, you will fall below the average required to remain in her party. Given the low probability of summoning a second Rare or higher, many find it more reasonable to return home rather than risk uprooting themselves for a future that will most likely get cut short."

Nero's hands clutched me too tightly, but there was no trace of his nerves when he said, "I'll stay with Alicia."

The pig-tailed girl shot him a grateful look. Nero grinned back at her, and I wondered if they were friends.

With that decided, the women began covering what Alicia (and thus Nero) would be doing for the next few months. Apparently, there were programs designed specifically to.... well, they didn't use this term, but let's call it what it is: the government would pay a group to power level the Winged Horse and me. Humans’ levels apparently were equal to the combined levels of their summons, so leveling one’s summons as quickly as possible was the best way to get stronger.

As a pair of children who’d received rare summons, the kingdom held a vested interest in strengthening Alicia and Nero, thus increasing the likelihood that they’d survive long enough to become strong adventurers. I wasn’t sure what role, exactly, adventurers played in this world, but I could think of several possibilities that would make a country’s government want to collect strong ones. As such, they'd get the Winged Horse and me to level thirty for free. After that, Nero and Alicia would be assigned to a party and sent on their way to begin traveling the world performing quests, collecting the materials to evolve, and gaining the experience points necessary to summon further companions.

Once that'd been explained, the women led the children to a small room with a handful of beds in it, saying we could stay there for the next month.

Nero set me on the bed. We were left alone while Alicia took her horse to the stables. He lay down on his stomach and studied me. "Hi, kitty, I'm Nero. What's your name?"

Did he expect me to answer? "Mrerow," I said flatly. Naturally, it didn't sound a bit like 'Lena.'

He smiled like I'd said something anyway. "How about Meowy?"

I scratched him. Then I looked around the room, seeking inspiration for how I could communicate my real name. Unfortunately, the room was depressingly empty. It had three beds with sheets, one desk with a chair, and two lamps attached to the walls. Nothing else. There wasn't anything on the desk, there weren't any books, and there wasn't even a closet that might be hiding more supplies. I sat down, irritatedly swishing my tail in sharp back-and-forth strokes. I never imagined selling my soul to a demon would turn me into a cat. Demon cat, shadow cat, whatever you wanted to call me, I was still a cat. I was cat-sized, had all the cat behaviors, had only cat language to communicate with, and I had a stupid owner who wanted to name me Meowy.

"Sorry, okay, what about Blackie?" he asked. I ignored him. I could only hope that, so long as I didn’t accept them, none of his names would stick.

I continued ignoring him as he ran through more pet names until Alicia arrived.

"Nero," Alicia said with a sigh. "Think about it. This is a Rare summon. When it evolves, it'll become an intelligent creature capable of speech. Are you really going to call something that can talk back to you 'Fluffy' or 'Shadey' or 'Purrer the Great'? No wonder she looks annoyed."

Nero's voice turned sulky. "What'd you name yours then?"

"Heather," Alicia said promptly. She leaned in to study me. "If you must name her something to do with her appearance, how about Luna?"

I tilted my head to the side, considering that. It was, in fact, my second favorite name. Had I had a second daughter, I’d planned to name her Luna, but that was off the table forever now that I’d become a cat. I had no idea how long it would take to evolve - it sounded like the materials were difficult to obtain. I also didn't know whether this world used the same writing system I knew, so who knew if I'd be able to communicate my real name to them any time soon? Taking the name Luna for myself was perfectly acceptable, I decided. "Mew." I headbutted Alicia's cheek and rubbed my head against it, trying to be as clear as I could be about my approval.

"No fair!" Nero exclaimed. "You can't go around naming my summon!"

Alicia shrugged. "She seems to like it, though. Are you just going to ignore her feelings?"

"Well, that's...." Nero slumped. "Fine. You're Luna, then, okay? Don't come whining to me later if you change your mind!"

I gave him a flat stare, then jumped off the bed to go explore.