"Damn...I lost it. That thing, whatever it was, sure runs fast if nothing else," I muttered to myself.

I had followed a mysterious bird-like creature into an unknown forest, only to get myself dragged deeper and deeper...now, I ended up lost (and I lost the bird too), uncertain of where to go to get out of this place. I could just exit the summoning dimension manually, since only my ethereal body was in this place, but I still wanted to explore this world a bit more - especially that unique bird I found. That being said...by 'exploring', I don't mean getting myself lost in uncharted territory.

Eventually, after nearly an hour of wandering around, I finally came to a clearing, but to my chagrin, it seemed I wasn't quite outside the dense forest of black and green yet. The terrain all looked so similar in this dimension, and I found myself getting dizzy if I stared at the trees for too long. So, instead, I just sat down on a (opaque black, with bright green lines on the edges) rectangular-prism-shaped rock, and closed my eyes, sighing deeply.

Where do I go from here...? Wait, does time pass differently in this dimension? I've been in here for around an hour and a half or so...but there's no guarantee the ratio of time here to time in the real world is 1:1. Welp, maybe it's just time to leave this dimension, and come back next time?

...Hold on. If I come back to the summoning dimension some other time, will I return to this same exact spot? While the surroundings make it seem similar to a code, game-like setting, it's not actually a game, right? There aren't 'spawnpoints' or anything, right?!

Man...if every time I came here, I would end up in the same exact spot where I last exited, then this is going to be so troublesome. I may just give up on summoning magic altogether. Well, no use dwelling about that right now...guess I'll ask Mei Gui about this after I get out.

The process to leave the summoning dimension was pretty simple - I read about in a textbook in the school library. Basically, all you had to do was reattach your ethereal body to your physical one. To do so, you were supposed to visualize your physical body and its surroundings (which wasn't hard for me, since I, unlike other Summoning Magic users, could still perceive the real world while simultaneously being in the summoning dimension with my ethereal body, thanks to my unique and incredibly powerful ability to multicast). Then, you were to picture yourself snapping back into those physical surroundings.

As you would expect, this required proficient spatial senses, and so most mages with the Summoning Element also excelled in the Geometry strand of mathematics. As for me, I aced every single academic subject at Shenzhen Magic High School, in order to make up for my barely passing mark on every magic-related subject, so my imagination and spatial sense were no problem whatsoever.

However...this method of returning to the real world didn't exactly apply to me. As I stated earlier, I could still perceive my physical surroundings, so all I had to do was shut off the first-person 'game' that was being projected into my head. Indeed - when I my ethereal body is in the summoning dimension, thanks to my ability to multicast, instead of having all of my senses sent into the dimension with my soul, a 'video game' booted up in my head. I could move around my character (my ethereal body) freely, from a first-person perspective.

Thus, in order to return, I merely closed off the thought of this 'game', and my ethereal body would naturally return to my physical one.

But just as I was about to do that-

"Chirp!" a loud, high-pitched squeal rang out beside my ethereal body, and a hard beak began poking at my hand.

"Ngh!" I quickly pulled my hand away from the pain. This was one of the few aspects of this dimension that tragically reminded me that this was not a mere video game, and I could still feel pain like it happened on my physical body.

I then glared down at the perpetrator - a cute and fluffy reddish-orangish bird about the size of my palm. "...Oh, so now you decide to show up."

"Chirp! Chirp!" the bird sang...though it wasn't a song whatsoever.

"I have zero idea what you're saying, so please stop chirping," I said, irritated. "You're so noisy..."

Then, suddenly, a hard and sharp beak digged deep into the back of my hand, and I was overtaken by a familiar pain...just amplified many times over. I cried out in pain and immediately moved my hand away once more.

"What the hell was that for?!" I complained, slightly angry with this tiny bird.

The bird merely crossed its short, stubby wings, and looked away. Huh...? Is that...a pout I'm seeing? Crossing its wings across its chest...is that the bird version of 'folding your arms'? Yep, it's definitely pouting. What the hell?!

"Uh...can you understand what I'm saying?" I asked, in a more gentle tone.

The bird glanced at me, then averted its gaze again and closed its eyes defiantly, as if saying 'hmph!'.

You damn little...I'm trying to be nice here.

"A-Are you mad at me for calling you noisy?" I tried again. "If so, I'm sorry."

...I can't believe I'm sitting here on a rock, in another dimension, apologizing to a bird.

The bird then opened one of its eyes, pointed at a nearby tree with some weird black fruits on it (again, with a neon green outline), then at its own mouth.

Are you kidding me? You want me to get you something to eat? What am I, your slave now?

Despite these thoughts, I really wanted to know more about it, so I obliged to its request and picked up one of fruits that had fallen on the ground. I then patted off some dust off of it, and brought it over to the bird. However...against all expectations, the bird glanced at it, and immediately looked away, shaking its head. It then pointed at one of the fruits hanging on the tree, then its mouth again.

What the hell...your standards are quite high, huh? ...Whatever.

Getting more and more impatient and annoyed by the second, I went over to tree once more, and jumped in order to grab one of low-hanging fruits. I then brought it back over to the bird obediently.

This time, the bird saw the fruit, and took it from my grasp immediately. But it was so small...the fruit was literally half the size of the bird, and I honestly wondered how it was able to hold it properly. However, what happened next was something I would never expect, even when told by someone else beforehand.

The adorable orange bird suddenly grew in size exponentially, but also grew skinnier. Its wings, tail, head, and main body all grew bigger, but compared to its original cute and chubby appearance, it had grown considerably skinnier (but still bigger as a whole). Flames erupted from its magnificent orange wings with a beautiful pattern inscribed on them, and its tail separated into nine different branches at the end.

"What in the world..." I couldn't help but mutter as my eyes widened at the sight.

The majestic animal before me, clad in its brilliant orange flames, stood out in stark contrast with the dull and dark black and green environment. There was only one thing I could compare this mythical creature to - an immortal beast spoken of only in legends - the bird of crimson flames, a Phoenix.

The bird then plopped the fruit into its mouth and chewed on it with relish (I mean, with pleasure. There wasn't any actual relish). After a while, the bird cawed, then...turned back into its tiny form.

...I'm not sure how I feel about this. This tiny bird in front of me just turned into a phoenix, and now he's gone back to being a baby orange chick. I'd like to think what I saw just now was just a dream, but there was no point lying to myself like that.

Remembering my original goal in coming to this dimension, I took a deep breath and approached the bird, now sitting atop the rock where I had been just a couple minutes ago.

"Now then...you already ate the food I got you, so now you gotta listen to my request," I said with a sly grin.

The bird raised one of its eyebrows and looked at me in skepticism. "What do you want?"

Wait. D-Did it just-

I quickly jumped back a good distance. "Y-You can talk?"

"Hmph, indeed I can. I just didn't even bother speaking with you earlier."

I gritted my teeth in annoyance, but still put up a feigned smile. "Well then, uh...right. I have a request to make of you...but before that, just now, I was about to leave this dimension and return to the real world. Why did you stop me?"

The bird, whose voice was like that of a childish young human girl, flapped its wings a few times, then laid down completely on the rock. "Because I was hungry, why else?"

I stared at it with deadpan eyes, not bothering to keep up the friendly facade anymore. "...I saw that transformation just now...it's clear you are insanely powerful. Acquiring food should be no problem."

"Well, that may be true, but I was too lazy to get it myself. Transforming takes a lot of energy out of me, you know?" the bird replied, rolling around on the rock as if it was its - or rather, her - bed.

"...Okay, I won't judge," I muttered quietly. Then, after a deep sigh, I continued. "Now, as for my request..."

"Since you got me food, I'll consider it," the bird replied with an arrogant attitude.

I was getting increasingly annoyed by the second, but still managed to speak to her without losing my temper.

"Alright...I would like you to form a contract with me."