After escaping a persistent wolf pack and surviving a treacherous fifty-foot fall down a cliff, Ethan is thrust into a village that mistakes him for the chief's son. Shoved into a carriage to attend his official awakening, he uses a roadside stop to expand his arsenal by executing a dying wild cat, whom he names Shadow. Shadow's scouting leads him to a Level 5 Green Goblin. After executing the creature, Ethan summons its loyal counterpart, Grug, and realizes his summons can actively communicate and coordinate. He commands Grug to hunt his own kind, leading to a brutal ambush where Ethan bashes a captured goblin's head with a rock to secure another summon. Emboldened by his growing team, Ethan decides to raid a local goblin cave. Grug acts as bait, luring out three goblins, including a massive Level 10 Goblin Brute wielding a heavy stone axe. The plan nearly collapses when the Brute exposes their ambush, forcing Grug to dodge deadly swings while Shadow and his wolf launch coordinated flank attacks. Ethan charges in, driving a pointed stick into the Brute's side and repeatedly smashing its head with a boulder. This victory pushes Ethan to Level 6 and secures the Goblin Brute as a summon. However, the high-octane battle leaves his summons heavily injured, forcing him to dismiss them into his system while he returns to his carriage. When he reaches the vehicle, he finds the driver has sold him out to armed bandits. As the swords of the mercenaries glint in the sunlight, Ethan is forced to rely on his injured summons to survive a deadly ambush.

The carriage driver, who is secretly a high-level assassin, sells Ethan out to two armed bandits. When the scarred bandit approaches to seize him, Ethan feigns helpless terror, dropping his stick to lure the mercenaries into a false sense of security. The moment they let their guard down, Ethan summons his newly acquired Goblin Brute, Snarl, who materializes with a roaring screech. Snarl instantly crushes the wiry bandit, while Shadow rakes her claws across the scarred leader's arm. The battle turns deadly when the driver assassinates his own ally with a thrown dagger to keep him silent, then turns his blades on Ethan. The driver moves with superhuman speed, easily dodging Snarl's heavy fists and sending Ethan's wolf flying into a tree. As Ethan is disarmed and pinned to the dirt, facing certain death, his Level 1 paralyzing spiders deliver a clutch bite to the driver's neck. The paralyzing venom slows the assassin's movements just enough for Ethan to retrieve his sword and madly hack the man to pieces. Realizing his identity is compromised, Ethan loots the driver's corpse, taking a mysterious black ring, and shaves his head to alter his appearance. He hitches a ride on a farmer's vegetable cart to enter the bustling trade hub of Rotherhollow. Safe inside the city gates, he spends hours in a local tavern gathering intelligence, discovering the cruel reality of the kingdom's class-based slave system. To navigate this hostile city without raising suspicion, he realizes he must find a trustworthy local ally who can act as his public face while he operates from the shadows.

While exploring Rotherhollow, Ethan witnesses a public slave auction where classless outcasts are sold like livestock. A sleazy merchant tries to sell him Lia, a frail, trembling woman who failed her awakening and was cast out by her own village. Ethan buys her for a single silver coin, intending to use her as a guide who cannot betray him. Back in his rented room, Ethan is shocked when his system prompts him with a slave contract transfer, offering to bind Lia as a summon. Fearing he might turn her into a mindless zombie like his previous human summoning attempts, Ethan hesitates. However, the system presents a unique option to confer a class upon her. Bypassing the bizarre Faithful Breeder option and the sacrificial Faithful Guardian class, Ethan selects Faithful Servant. Lia vanishes in a warm glow and returns transformed, her hollow eyes replaced by bright hazel vitality. She is granted the ability to cast minor heals and apply speed and strength buffs directly to Ethan's summons. To test her new abilities, they venture to a nearby riverbank to hunt slimes. Lia successfully slays her first slime, and when an acidic explosion burns her arm, she uses her golden healing light to restore her skin. Ethan summons his entire army of eighteen slimes, allowing Lia to cast continuous buffs on them while they passively farm the wild slimes. This cooperative grinding session not only secures them valuable crystal cores but also cements Lia's absolute loyalty to her savior, preparing them to face the guild's strict regulations.

At the adventurer's guild, Ethan registers Lia as an official adventurer while he remains a hidden support figure. Their plans to hunt wolves are shattered when a massive portal ruptures the eastern forest, unleashing waves of chitinous Zither Scouts and Zither Wings. Ethan uses the chaos to farm the insectoids, adding them to his summoning list before a powerful kingdom mage arrives to obliterate the threat. Seizing an opportunity, Ethan trades a salvaged insectoid corpse to a black-market vendor for an inert crystal ball, which is actually an awakening stone. When he touches its cool surface, his system triggers a massive breakthrough, granting him a second class: Mage. This dual-class achievement increases all his stats by five percent and gives him access to mana bolts. His sudden rise to Level 17 attracts his sister Marella, who drags him to Lord Nessleson's manor, where he is rewarded with one hundred silver coins and assigned to the Imperial Academy. On the caravan journey, they are ambushed by higher demons. Ethan's summons struggle against a Twin-horn Nightfiend's rapid regeneration. In a desperate move, Ethan summons his Level 1 spiders to deliver a paralyzing bite, allowing Snarl and Grug to bypass the demon's defenses and execute it, pushing Ethan to Level 19. They eventually seek refuge with an eccentric old witch named Agnes, who agrees to teach Ethan spirit magic after noticing his complete lack of basic mana control, forcing him to struggle through grueling training to master his new arcane powers.