“Exactly,” Farrah said. “They know just enough to do a specific job. Most of those people don’t have essences and lack the proper grounding in theory. The fundamental theory is the same, whether you specialise in rituals like me, magical craftsmanship like Gary, or something like alchemy. Same basis, different applications.”

“What about you?” Jason asked Rufus.

“I’m good at stabbing.”

“Rufus doesn’t know external magic,” Farrah said. “His obsession is swordsmanship.”

“Your skill book gave you the minimum to be considered a proper ritual magician,” Farrah told Jason. “The bare minimum. That’s how you awakened a familiar summoning power.”

“You can only awaken that kind of essence ability if you already understand ritual magic,” Gary said. “That’s why me and Farrah have summoning powers and Rufus doesn’t.”

“You’ve seen Gary and myself call up short-lived monsters,” Farrah said. “Rituals that are also essence powers tend to be—”

“Quick and dirty,” Gary said with a grin.

“Please stop,” Farrah said.

“I remember when you summoned those things,” Jason said. “You just kind of knocked out a circle and out they came.”

“Summoning a familiar is a more elaborate ritual,” Farrah said. “Unlike a regular summoning, you should only need it each time you go up a rank. Unless your familiar gets killed, in which case you’ll have to summon it back.”

“Not everyone summons their familiar,” Rufus said.

“That’s true,” Farrah said. “Some familiar powers act like a call, and a creature that has an affinity to that call will come and form a bond with the person. Less costly than summoning, but if that kind of familiar dies, you can’t just summon it again. You need to find a whole new creature to be your familiar, which may or may not be like the one you lost.”

“Let’s get this thing going,” Rufus said. “You don’t want Anisa to walk in on us.”

“You definitely don’t,” Gary said.

Jason stood in front of the diagram. He could feel the power inside him aching to trigger the ritual. He knew the incantation; he had known it since the moment he used the stone. He held one hand over the magic diagram. In his other hand was a knife. He hesitantly cut the palm of his outstretched hand, letting blood drop into the circle as he chanted.

“Let this mortal blood beckon the all-devouring power of the final threshold. Answer the call and claim the offering. Heed my command and bring forth the avatar of life’s annihilation.”

“Oh, using that stone was a terrific idea,” Rufus said.

“Shush,” Farrah told him.

Red liquid started oozing out of the floor where Jason’s blood had fallen. Dark, thick and viscous, it spread out over the entirety of the magic diagram, obscuring the lines and only stopping when it reached the edges.

“Does that remind anyone else of something we saw recently?” Gary asked.