Summoner (Summoner, #1)

by Eric Vall

When I felt more rested,

He said he was drained of mana earlier, so i guess we're to assume this "more rested" means he regained mana? Author didn't mention how much time passed at all, so i guess we should assume mana returns ridiculously fast?

trains, airships,

Here we go.... these magic meets industrialisation books are usual trash.

Finally, as they worked, I grabbed a large crystal the size of an apple from a pouch on my hip and held it in front of me. The coloring was dark grey, and it felt heavy, but it was a simple monster that slept within.

The size of an apple? Really hope bags of holding are a thing in this, cos having several strong monsters sounds real inconvenient right now if simple monsters are already the size of apples.

goatee.

Oh dear

rifles

Sigh, why do they have to shove rifles into fantasy books

“One day, a beautiful woman came to his town and asked for their strongest man to help her. Naturally, our hero volunteered. The woman tasked him with drinking this warm, golden concoction, for if he did, he would have eternal glory and the strength of the old gods. But he had to survive the ordeal.”

Naturally. Cos a mans always gotta fall in line with what a woman wants. Especially if they happen to be a looker. And of course the mans gonna drink the mysterious liquid cos the strange woman wants him to. Yup.

“Our hero didn’t hesitate. All he wanted was to be a legend. He knew he could do anything. So, without any thought, he took the drink and chugged it whole. Then he died on the spot. The woman, you see, was a former lover who he had spurned years ago, but he did not recognize her. She had gotten her revenge.”

He died? Shocking. Did not see that coming. Dear me.

“That is such a stupid story, and depressing.”

Hope for this kidyet. Idk about depressing though. One less moron tainting the gene pool sounds good.

not doing anything a woman tells you to, no matter how beautiful,

Holy shit, i didn't see this coming. There's hope for this story yet. Lessons, that could mean the MC doesn't start out dense. And there could be character development.

“What do you think’s going on?” I asked. Which was stupid, for how could he know? He wasn’t a mage. Well, not that kind anyway.

This is concerning a bit. Author knows its a stupid quest, makes the MC admit it but ask anyway instead of evaluating first. Could even have just asked himself that question in his mind. Makes me think author is leaning toward dense protagonist

but not the light grey smoke of a fireplace. No, this smoke was black as night.

Wish the author would add on WHY the smoke being black is different or special compared to smoke from a fireplace. Am i supposed to be a smoke expert here? Brb googling i guess.

I placed the slug on my shoulder and suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline. Then I took off at a speed that wasn’t humanly possible.

Author has gotta put some downsides on these slugs otherwise it'd be stupid to not use them all the time.

I felt bile rise in my throat, so I pitched over and heaved. That always happened after I used the slugs.

There we go

And Anya, the barmaid at the inn, could attest that I was certainly not ugly.

Oh i was worried since he'd lost his parents and been raised by some crusty old guy that our MC would be all shy around the women. Thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case.

I grumbled, but I also wanted to make Maelor proud. If he wanted me to do this, I knew I should. “Fine.”

Usually a MC changing his mind so fast like this is annoying and not really believable, but i think it was well done here.

We returned to the table, and I sat up straight. “I have decided to come with you.” I hadn’t decided anything, but as Maelor said, I was as stubborn as the seven-toed dog.

Liked this part. Stubborn is so often underrated in MC's

And so we departed, mutual enemies who would settle our issues once and for all in the best way possible. A magical duel, strength against strength, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This would have been a great spot to add in something: waiting for gawain to start going down the steps a bit then asking the headmaster to use the lift