Bonded Summoner

When they reached the other side of the portal, the shy winged woman was nowhere to be found. She was replaced with a soldier, and her demeanor was completely different. Her shield and posture were at the ready, and she had the appropriate level of focus for looking for threats near the portal. Satisfied that there were no enemies, she looked back to her “commander,” and said, “There are no enemies present! Your orders, sir?”

Jake had eyed the demoness, and she had a satisfied, almost smug, expression on her face, hidden from the Valkyrie behind her fan. He pointed over to the hill, and said “The gnolls are located inside of that fence on top of the hill, for which there are over one hundred. We have cleared most if not all patrols, but we will need to keep on the lookout during our approach in case there are more. I will cast support spells on us, and if you have any you should use yours as well. You take the front of the formation heading to the hill on foot, and await instructions at the foot of it.”

Jake started casting his buffing spells on himself, to which he now had many. He realized that she did not cast any spells on herself, as she simply just waited on him. He hadn’t had the time to check her status within his [Menu], especially due to the act he was putting on. He figured he would view it while on the march, so long as the demoness was on the lookout, to which she nodded. Jake would not have to pay much attention to their movement.

He finished casting Haste, Reinforcement, Bolster, and Stamina Regen on himself, then cast it on the battle angel, as well. She took on a look of surprise, but quickly pushed it down and started their march towards the hill. With her back turned, Jake took a look at his [Menu] and into his [Summon Information] section.

Summon Information: Ophelia

Name

Ophelia Smithsdottir

Age

18

Class

Shield Maiden

Race

Valkyrie

Shieldmaiden Class: Tier 0 Uncommon

+25% Additional Durability and Hardiness

3 Spendable Attribute points per level

A shieldmaiden trains to be the shield for their chosen. Meant to fight alongside their chosen warrior, they will suffer any pain or carry any burden for them.

15% Increased Effectiveness for Str and Con

Ophelia Base Status Level 1

Strength

26

Dexterity

22

Constitution

21

Intelligence

14

Wisdom

22

Charisma

24

Ophelia Combat Skills Level 1

Melee Specialization

Level 4

Runic Magic

Level 1

Summoner’s Bond

Level 1

Mana Control

Level 1

Ophelia Non-Combat Skills Level 1

Dismantling

Level 3

Smithing

Level 2

Ophelia Melee Specialization Subskills

Spear, Shield, Charge, Flight

Jake was surprised at some of the effects of her class. Durability and Hardiness were both sort of attribute results, similar to how Intelligence and Wisdom provided more mana in addition to all of the other things that they did. Constitution would increase many things, from how much blood lost or harm could come to them before they died: their hardiness. To also increasing how much damage it would take to harm them at all: their durability. Strength and dexterity also provided some of this, but in different ways. That her class directly improved the result was interesting, but not all that different in how Jake's Summoner class increased his total mana and mana regeneration in combat, rather than just the attributes.

It turned out that Ophelia had really just come of age, being only 18 years old. Jake wasn’t sure about what life was really like for those that lived in contested territory, but her mastery of the spear and shield was definitely one that showed she fought a lot, having much more skill than Jake. Jake looked over this [Summoner’s Bond] skill, as it was mentioned when he picked his specialization.

Skill

Summoner's Bond Lv. 1

Represents summons’ happiness and connection to their summoner. The stronger the emotions are and the more in sync with their Summoner, the stronger the bond. 1% reduction in reserve Total Mana and Mana regeneration per level of this skill. Provides subtle increases to being’s effectiveness.

Jake just knew by looking at her attributes and her skill of the spear, that she would trounce him if he did not use magic in a spar. Not only is she using a shield, but her use of wings during melee combat could cause bursts of speed at unexpected times for those not used to fighting them, to which Jake is not.

That’s not even mentioning if she was able to dive in from the sky to attack, Jake was not confident in dealing with such an ability without some additional practice or training. Jake had never faced an enemy that had done so.

Her attributes had also proven that Jake was right in his thoughts: that humans just couldn’t compare in attributes to some other races. Valkyries appeared to excel in their physical attributes and charisma, plus their ability to use [Runic Magic] was high, as shown by her high wisdom. Really, just everything was better than the bog-standard human, with Jake only being better than her at level 1 in intelligence. He was level 5, had a core that improved his physical attributes, and yet he was still bested by a long shot in physical attributes by the level 1 Valkyrie.

He had hoped that he could learn [Runic Magic] from her before he summoned her, as that was of great interest to him. Seeing that her proficiency was so low, he wondered if maybe they could work on it together. He would now guide her advancement, and he would push her to take advantage of her heritage.

They got near the base of the hill, and saw that the gates were once again manned with a set of guards. The Valkyrie did not take her eyes off the gate, but she asked, “Your orders, sir?” when Jake arrived.

“One moment,” Jake said. He then cast his [Summon Beast] spell. When the motes of light dissipated, what was left was what appeared to be a dog not unlike a German Shepherd. Jake couldn’t help it, but he looked over at the Valkyrie with a look of betrayal and blame, and noticed that even the demoness mirrored his look. The battle angel had turned to look at the summon, and caught this. “W…What? Did I do something wrong?”

While Jake had chosen the humanoid specialization, that did not prevent him from using other summons, only receiving a penalty for not using summons within that specialization. [Summon Beast] was a temporary summon spell that was both outside of his humanoid specialization and his permanent specialization, resulting in the spell barely being worthwhile.

In this case, his badgerdillo was downgraded to a dog. This was very unfortunate as Jake would rather have a single badgerdillo than a half-dozen of this dog, and he was stuck with just this one for now. The valkyrie would have some very large shoes to fill when it came to convincing Jake and Fhesiah that she was a better option than the vicious badgerdillo.

Jake shook his head, and he fixed his expression. “It’s nothing. This creature is expendable and can help with providing a target for the gnolls. Do not worry about keeping it alive, as it is not. I want you to head in there with the dog to take out those gnolls, and I will provide support from the rear. Pay attention to my commands, as I may need to call a retreat if we receive more enemies than expected.”

The Valkyrie saluted, and replied, “Yes sir!” and began to move towards the enemies, to which Jake used his will to have his summon head in the same direction. The demoness watched on with interest, it was clear she was hoping to see how this new party member did. Jake was not worried. The gnolls had a similar assortment of weapons to the group they faced before, and if the Valkyrie got in trouble she could simply fly away, as they had no ranged capabilities.

Keeping the Valkyrie permanently summoned had a cost, but it was not very high, about 10% of his mana in reserve and mana regeneration at all times, no matter how much mana he has. Once he had four permanent summons, he would be limiting his mana regeneration to nearly forty percent in perpetuity. The [Summoners Bond] would reduce this consumption and reinforce the bonuses Jake got for specializing in [Permanent Summons], but Jake was still worried because buff spells such as his stamina regeneration also consumed some of his mana regeneration in order to keep them going.

Jake’s concern was that between the buffs and summons, there’d be nothing left for him to cast any spells such as heals. That would leave him just standing around, as a living and breathing summon and buff-bot, as they call them in MMO games.

The good news on that front was that the specialization would reduce the cost significantly, and that there were many buffing spells to choose from. Jake could definitely optimize which buffs to use for each scenario, and leave enough mana for him to be effective at some other tasks, but also, he could spread the load. When their party added a true healer type to the group, that party member could handle some of the buffs.

The healer might have some that were unique to their class, but nothing would stop them from learning Haste, for example. Of course, the valkyrie could learn some too, but Jake had intended on picking the buffing specialization which would increase all his buffing spells, making it less worthwhile for the valkyrie to use any that Jake knew, as his would simply be better.

Jake, despite providing adequate healing especially over a duration, was not a full replacement from a class that specializes in healing. True healers could produce much more healing per second, and had various other spells and effects that could not be replicated by Jake. Many would have health-buffers that would heal instantly when someone takes damage, allowing someone to live through bursts of damage that exceed their maximum health even without a response from the healer themselves.

Healers often had instant heals as well, that can save someone from the brink of death with little more than a thought, something that Jake simply could not do as a summoner, at least in the game. Whether that was the same or not in Jake’s new reality or not Jake would have to find out, but he guessed things would be similar on that front.

The gnolls were in a similar formation to what they were when Jake and the badgerdillo had fought previously, where they were two separate groups. This time, though, they were unable to join up before the Valkyrie and the dog arrived.

The dog was now in an outright sprint to assault the gnolls, while the Valkyrie had taken to using an odd leaping jog, where each step sent her sailing much further than it otherwise would with a flap of her wings. She was going to reach the group of four gnolls before they could meet up with the other group, so they dug in, while the dog headed to the other group.

When she was one step-leap away, she sped up even further, blurring into motion and smashing into the lead gnolls, shield to shield, sending the two that had gotten into formation sprawling. Jake guessed she had used her [Charge] ability.

While the gnolls had been sent sprawling, she had only slightly slowed, and she leaped and flapped her wings once again to speed towards the nearest polearm user, pushing its spear aside with her angular shield and stabbing it right through the throat. The other gnoll remaining standing was hardly ready with their spear for her speed, and she moved on and repeated this same process for the spear user, as the two downed shield users were still picking themselves up off the ground.

“Two down!” she shouted, her face filled with excitement.

She easily knocked another gnoll’s shield aside and dealt a killing blow after it had just gotten up and was still not quite in a proper fighting stance, and then used her weight and strength on her shield against the other gnoll’s shield to push them down towards the ground. The gnoll was focused on trying to even stay up, and not fall over, and the Valkyrie just stabbed the gnoll now that their shield was out of position.

Meanwhile, the dog had managed to keep the whole group of gnolls from providing any assistance or flank Ophelia, so Jake felt like that was a small victory in its own right. The dog hadn’t managed to wound any of the armed combatants, but was able to dart away when they attacked and sprint in when they tried to break off and assist with fighting the valkyrie, so they were forced to turn and ward the dog off.

One had managed to break away and head towards her, but as she had already finished her group of enemies, that fight was a foregone conclusion. Jake sent some mana bolts in his own flanking maneuver against the ones the dog was harrying, and was able to take the three out before the Valkyrie could reach them after dispatching hers. She checked the bodies for life, giving them an extra stab with her spear.

Ophelia shouted, “All clear! I am ready for more battles any time, Sir.” She had a wide smile on her face, satisfied with how the fight went.

Jake could feel the satisfaction from the demoness over the bond. Fhesiah was very happy with the valkyrie’s performance, and he was too. Her martial prowess as a level one was quite impressive, and Jake was excited for the future. Jake noticed she was hardly out of breath. This fight was hardly a challenge, and not even her full capability.

Jake sent a silent question to the demoness, to which she nodded. He spoke to Ophelia, “Great work, soldier. You handled yourself quite well there. We will continue to try to thin the enemy out, staying near the entrance of the village and bringing the enemies here to fight. That way we can escape down to the portal if we have a chance of being overwhelmed. Captain Fhesiah here will attract enemies to us, and we will ambush them here.”

Ophelia nodded, but she was looking at her spear and gripping it, along with looking at her body with a confused look. She even did a few practice thrusts, but the look of confusion continued. Jake asked, “Something wrong?”

“Um, I don’t know, sir. I feel…Like I’m different, somehow. Better. It’s…weird.”

Jake laughed, “Isn’t that the enhancement spells I cast on you? Haste and Bolster are quite significant, granting you 15% to all attributes, plus Haste probably speeding yourself and your perception by nearly that much as well. Then, the stamina regen spell should keep you able to fight for long periods, making it hard for you to run out of breath or your muscles from getting fatigued.”

She smiled, “Yeah, they are really helpful. But no, we had trained using enhancement potions and scrolls so I know what the effects of that feel like, especially Haste. This is different.”

Jake searched his skills and text within his Menu for what might be the cause of this odd feeling she was having. Jake realized that he had quite the stacking of increases between the permanency and humanoid specializations, and the Summoner’s bond itself. Jake thought it might be the mention of the “subtle increase to the being’s effectiveness,” that was particularly of note, as it was somewhat vague as to what this meant. Was this some kind of talent improvement?

The other mentions appeared to be mentioning attributes, but they were not increasing the base attributes shown on her status screen. Rather, it was saying that attribute point for attribute point the valkyrie would be stronger. That she was already stronger just by the points meant that she was significantly stronger than Jake, thanks to him, of course.

“I think it’s because of me. I’m your summoner, and I have specialized in the connection with you. Mana is always flowing from me to you, making you better, stronger. Here: have a look.”

Jake shared the three screens of permanency, humanoid, and the bond over their Menu, to which she read and took them in.

“I plan on specializing even further later, making my buffing spells even more effective. My goal is to make you and other party members the best you can be, and to support you in ways to bring out the most of your potential.”

Ophelia took on an almost embarrassed, but disbelieving look and said, “You’re focused on…making me better?”

Jake chuckled and said, “Is it that hard to believe? Does a commander not want his soldiers to be as effective as they can be? I think most leaders are reliant on their people to do the fighting for them.”

Ophelia stammered, “N–No, sorry sir. It’s just…that you are so focused…” As she trailed off, her voice became so small that it was barely audible, and Jake couldn’t hear it, “...on someone like me…”

The demoness appeared very happy at this interaction, but she took off to begin the process of pulling small groups of creatures to the entrance so they can take them on safely, and Jake noticed that Ophelia kept glancing at him, and hesitated, like she wanted to ask him something. “What is it?” Jake prodded. She finally said, “I…was wondering if you also fought with that weapon.”

Jake thought about why she was interested, and thought that it wasn’t just about tactics or strategy, otherwise, she wouldn’t have been hesitant to ask. Her demeanor when it was fighting related was that she was not bashful. Several times she had shouted out various combat-related pieces of information, or requested orders and there was no shy girl to be found, then.

Valkyries would often find their mates on the battlefield, just like the valkyries in stories would find their chosen to accompany to Valhalla. By Jake summoning her, he was definitely a top candidate for being her chosen, though it wasn’t exactly like she was forced to choose him. It looked like she had a preference for her hero to be able to get into the thick of things. Jake smiled at the question, and replied “I do. If enough enemies come, you may get to see me do so,” and he winked at her.

She blushed and looked away, so it seemed he was right. A month ago, Jake was certainly not able to deliver such a stupid line with a straight face, let alone to such a pretty girl, but the demoness’ teasing had long-since blown away most of his shame to the point where the demoness just upped her game further and further. It also did wonders for his confidence.

The demoness returned with five gnolls in tow. Once again, he sent in the valkyrie and the dog, and supported them with mana bolts where needed. They settled in for engaging several groups, but Jake called a halt after they had killed just over 30 total. They set out to loot the dead, and they worked together and headed home through the portal.

Jake felt like he had an excellent idea of the Valkyrie’s capabilities. She was fast and strong, but had low endurance to keep her fast movements with her wings for very long. Thankfully, Jake’s [Stamina Regen] spell countered most of this, but he could tell she was flagging near the end. She adapted well to Jake’s commands, and she did well to maintain her battlefield awareness. If a new enemy appeared, she would catch onto it and adjust herself well, rather than be blindsided. She did not have a tunnel vision problem.

All in all, Jake was quite happy with the demoness’ choice, though he couldn’t help but feel the Centaur would be even more overpowering. Just imagining how powerful such a large creature would be with his enhancements made it difficult for him to think the valkyrie would be better. The demoness looked over and once again it seemed like her eye might have twitched, but he was sure it was his imagination.

They started their post-dungeon run ritual, and Jake realized that he would need another coat or armor rack for the valkyrie. He took down some of the other items that were attached to bring them over to his room, and let her load it up for now. When he returned he was quite surprised at her figure, now that it was no longer armored and could actually see it.

She was wearing what Jake would consider a sports bra and some boy shorts underwear, and her back was to him, as she loaded her armor onto the rack. She was struggling because it was not really made for the purpose of armor and was difficult to maintain balance with such heavy objects. Jake would definitely need to buy one now and he may do that in just a moment.

Her back was well-muscled, and if she were human Jake would have guessed she lived at the gym. Her wings very much appeared like angel wings or what looked to be giant dove wings. She had long muscled legs, and her pony-tailed hair reached to the small of her back. She turned to him, and she had a shy smile on her face. She had some confidence in her body, or perhaps was just used to being dressed like she was in front of others.

From the front, she had just the right amount of muscle while maintaining her femininity. A six pack with a slim waist, and Jake guessed her breasts were average or above average in size. Her arms were muscular, perhaps more muscular than most men would want, but he felt that it fit her well. Overall, she was quite beautiful and strong, her wings adding to her allure.

He smiled back at her, and said “I’m going to have to make some purchases, now that we have you staying here. I can certainly add some clothes to the order if you help me pick out what you want.”

She was a little embarrassed at him needing to purchase her clothes, he thought, but she nodded. So, he motioned for her to join him at the computer, and took a look at what they could get on the [Alliance Shop] and the [Multiverse Market]. Jake purchased a functional armor rack. Ophelia looked on in interest, and appeared to be quite dazed at the whole experience.

He then looked into adding some extra space, even an extra room, and realized that he could afford it along with a bed and a few other things, with about half the funds they earned just today. It was a small room, but it was better than nothing. Jake was about to place her room next to where Jake’s lead out of the living room, but Fhesiah pointed to the opposite side of the living room and he complied.

Even the demoness got in on the shopping action, though she hesitated to make the purchase. It was not a regular mana crystal, but when Jake read the description, he found that it was a crystal containing heavenly energy, or Qi as it was otherwise known. If Jake had to guess, this was what the demoness actually needed from the beginning. It all started to make a lot more sense, Jake forming some sort of core with her help, her clothing, she was a cultivator the whole time. However, it became obvious why she was only buying the mana crystals, up to now: this was the cost of twenty of them, at 2,000 credits, and they simply could not afford that purchase until now.

The gnolls were worth a little more than the frogmen at over 125 credits each, so they had earned more than enough from just today alone for all of Jake’s purchases. The large spending after just finally earning a fair amount stung, but some of this was a one-time setup to help Ophelia feel at home. He would later spend some more on her room, as it was smaller than his, as small as that was already.

When Jake confirmed the purchase of everything, a door shimmered over to where he added it, and a few boxes slid out from the portal. They set about setting things aside, and Jake set about setting up the armor-stand and transferring things from the clothing rack, and cleaning them.

They settled in, and Jake for the first time set out to cook dinner for two, with the demoness’ help. The meal was much subdued and Jake felt it was awkward, but the demoness wanted to continue with the act, at least for now. The Valkyrie enjoyed the food very much and said as much, in addition to thanking him profusely for his purchases for her room, to which Jake just nodded and dismissed it like it was a matter of course.

He felt like he was nearing his limits with treating the Valkyrie in such an odd fashion, even if the acting was helpful, and the demoness reassured him that it wouldn’t be that much longer. Jake then helped Ophelia with how to use the shower, and it turned out that this was not a challenge for her as they reproduce similar-styled fixtures using enchanting instead of technology on her world.

He was dying to ask a lot of questions about her past and what her life was like; from Jake’s perspective, she’s an alien from another world, how would her life be nothing but fascinating to him? Of course, he had so many of those same questions burning to ask the demoness.

Showers and dinner done, they retired early to their rooms. Jake was exhausted, and it was hard to act like you were a commanding officer as you watched comedy reruns in your living room, at least for Jake. As he lay down attempting to sleep, he felt a burning determination from the demoness. This crystal was important, and he was dying to know what was going to happen, but she made no move for the crystal. So, he did what he could to think of other things, until he fell asleep.