Bonded Summoner

Cleaning up all the orcs took a bit of work. Jake and Ophelia were just a few in the battlegroup that had such skill. Luckily, looting the enemies, intending to keep the loot on the ground instead of keeping the results in their storage bracelets, was easy enough. They worked through dividing out the loot evenly or by contribution, and Berri was voted unanimously to keep the giant club.

Jake couldn’t help but feel that Berri really stole the show here today. Other than Jake’s standard buffing of keeping everyone in his party with [Stamina Regeneration] and [Divine Reinforcement] twenty-four-seven, he hadn’t even buffed Berri, and this was the result. He had a hard time imagining just how deadly she could be with him using Runic Empowerment, let alone his [Einherjar] rod spell on her.

Ophelia had used her new Spear-staff with great effectiveness, as Jake had inscribed hers with two functions that would allow her to rapidly runic heal and shield. She still had her [Corrosive Spear] in her storage bracelet, available for any time that she needed a little more melee offense. She got to use these abilities a lot today, so while she did not set herself apart much, this was valuable practice for her. Thanks to her [Bonded Hearth Core] and her high [Runic Magic] skill, she could really behave as a sufficient group healer, using Renewal and Sacrificial Barrier sparingly to supplement the Runic spells.

Fhesiah, too, was focused on training during this fight. She was focused on making use of the framework, and advancing winged combat and her already [Advanced Melee Specialization]. She was also getting used to integrating her recently advanced Dao of Dragon Claw into her attacks, and trying to solidify her foundations. While Jake hadn’t felt that she had used it, she had been integrating the truths into her movements, the heavenly truths that she connected with that day against the Dark Elf Champion.

They were deciding on where to go next when Antonius of the [Sons of Rome] approached them. “Your help against this rift was greatly appreciated. I’m sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I had seen that there could be a difference in level and strength, but I had never witnessed one so great. Just how did you get so strong?” Jake noticed that many of those gathered in the battlegroup listened on with interest.

Jake wasn’t going to give everything, but he did go with a part of the truth, “We train many hours every single day, improving all of our skills. I’m told that completing the [Trial] also makes a significant difference. Many of our skills advanced as a result, not just to [Advanced] but to become something much more unique.”

The man got embarrassed, or ashamed, Jake supposed at the mention of the [Trial]. “That…the Trial, it’s just too difficult, and often instead of a simple respawn, results in people being changed far too much when they fail. [The Framework] collects the pieces, but what it merges together, I have met some of those people that failed… they are just not the same.”

Jake shrugged. The [Trial] was hard, but people were effectively immortal. They could train forever if needed and get their skills well beyond what their average peer had without raising their actual level. There were still limits to skill levels, and the soul based on level, as part of the great game it stopped assisting people’s progression to move beyond their Tier. Those people could still get so good at everything that when the dungeon only scaled on level, they could do much better than they had a right to, based on their talent.

They could farm the credits needed to get a really good set of equipment and consumables, and then take on the [Trial] for the best possible odds. Jake only took on the trial when nearly all his and Ophelia’s skills were already maxed out at level 5, and they each had their own specialties that had reached [Advanced], as well.

Antonius said, “What are you going to do next? Someone who passed the trial is definitely someone that has a greater potential than those who haven’t. Were you planning on going for #1 contribution?”

Jake frowned and was about to voice his question when Antonius interjected, “I see you likely don’t know the purpose of that. When a contested world is won by the defenders, the #1 contributor is raised in noble rank and is often made the owner of the world they helped save, effectively. If you join or start a guild, this can usually aid those that are interested in making this happen, sort of funneling contribution to the guild’s chosen representative. That can also be why becoming #1 without a guild is next to impossible; they are competing not with just individuals, but entire groups or even factions.”

This surprised Jake, as he had no idea that such a thing was a possibility, and that to some extent he had already embarked on the journey to being able to own worlds, becoming a [Knight]. Jake sensed that Fhesiah was greatly interested in this, and Ophelia was too. Berri was still playing with her new giant club, staring and examining it lovingly and taking practice swings, and was once again paying zero attention to the conversation taking place.

Jake said, “My party and I were mostly passing through, picking up a few things before we head to our actual destination. We’ll clear a few more [Rifts] and spend what little contribution points we earn, then we’ll be off.”

Antonius understood as Jake learned that those traveling the multiverse often contributed to the conquest before leaving for other locations. They worked out a plan to clear the rifts nearby, together, including stops for rest. Antonius and his guild had already collected all the information on them and had planned on closing as many of them as they could, before returning and regrouping.

Of course, since Jake kept the deaths down to 0, this meant they could likely close them all; Jake doubted that they would have closed more than just the one had his party not been present, not unless Antonius waited longer for more groups to show up. For Jake’s plan, closing the Rifts together was just fine, as it saved him the trouble of doing the same, even if he thought there was a good chance Berri could just roll in and crush everything.

They settled into a pattern over the next two days of joining the [Sons of Rome] and anyone else that joined in the area and clearing out the rifts, completing a total of five with the one that they had cleared already. The risk to each party member was very low, both supporting and being supported by the random multiverse members.

Jake got to see various other casters and classes, and Ophelia even got her duel against the half-ogre. The half-ogre was strong, but Ophelia was stronger. She was also faster and more skilled. Jake couldn’t help but feel like he was watching a giant child fight a somehow smaller adult; the man being well over two meters tall.

That’s not to say that there was no danger, however. Jake and his party finally learned just how it was that the outsiders could tip the scales in their favor. During their third [Rift], suddenly a group of young wyverns flew over their battlegroup. They were wrapping up a large army worth of many colors of goblins and hobgoblins when Jake spotted them and used one of his spell rods: [Sanctuary].

The young wyverns spewed bile and acid all over the battlegroup from the sky, but Jake’s [Sanctuary] shielded everyone. A giant white dome rose to meet the bile, and they then returned the assault. Fhesiah and Ophelia took to the skies and cut them down to the ground, for the battlegroup to kill. Berri looked on as they helped in dismay; she didn’t have a ranged attack. Jake promised her he would help her work on one, and she beamed with delight.

[Sanctuary] worked exactly like Jake had originally predicted, where it would allow attacks out but not in, and protect everyone inside. It was also covered with a number of large runes, and Jake was given a sort of moniker: Runemaster. He was now being called Runemaster Jake. Jake thought this was laughable, as skill tiers went: Advanced, Expert, Master, Divine, God. This meant that some Tier 3 actual runemaster would probably be offended by people calling Jake a Runemaster.

Antonius had guessed that the group of young wyverns were about level 20. This had felt unfair, the [Rifts] being only level 15. When Jake mentioned this, Antonius just laughed.

“Who said [Tartarus] was fair? [The Framework] does what it can to negotiate a fair fight, but if it can cheat, you better believe it will. An encounter such as the rift’s [Challenge] might be mostly balanced, perhaps even in t he defender’s favor, but this world has creatures native to it. It can both indirectly and directly under some circumstances manipulate them to achieve what it wants, and make no mistake. A death in combat in the world, it feeds on, even if it was one of those creatures and not one from an encounter.

That’s one of the reasons I gave you a hard time originally: a level ten is just prey for the dungeon out there, normally. There’s nothing to ensure that you won’t run into a level twenty or above and just die in a single blow. I’ve seen it.”

“No hard feelings, Antonius. Now you know that level isn’t the full picture now though don’t you?”

Antonius chuckled as he looked at Berri. “No, you got that right. You should offer a huge wager for someone to duel your level 12 priestess with her out of sight. I won’t be taking that one anymore until I see ‘em.”

While it was not possible for the outsiders to send young wyverns directly against their battlegroup assaulting the rift without paying a large price of its own directly, it could still find a means to cheat.

After it was explained to Jake, he liked to compare it to a Rube Goldberg machine. Where small, almost inconsequential actions would eventually build up until it achieved the desired result, completely unrelated to the original thing that started things moving.

You would start by rolling a marble down a ramp, it would continue until knocking over a domino, which then hits a lever that releases a rubber band, which then pulls a string that lifts a weight, which then drops and hits a button that turns on a fan, which then blows a feather off a table, completing the desired result of blowing the feather off a table. In this case, most likely a rift spawned near where the wyverns were nested, and then the resulting spawns of creatures indirectly pushed the wyverns out of their nest with their presence alone: directly at their battlegroup, completing the desired result of killing adventurers with an unfair advantage.

While Jake’s outdoor preparations were far from “roughing it,” Jake’s party missed being back at the [Refuge]. Jake had found that there was in fact a way to set a portal point for the refuge and enter it from anywhere and return to that same location safely, but as they were traveling with others, they did not use this. Nobody else had one, so Jake was wondering if such a thing was actually rare.

Jake got to enjoy something that he had not gotten to enjoy back in the [Refuge]: sleeping with all of his women at once. As everyone was more or less exhausted from travel and clearing rifts, they only wanted to sleep. So, they all joined together on the bed, and even Berri joined them in the large tent, with her large sleeping blanket and many pillows.

For Jake, it was like having a slumber party that he never got to have as a kid, and he enjoyed it. They stayed up late telling stories and talking about their plans.

“Jake, did you hear that! King of the world? Isn’t that a perfect way to establish our family?” Fhesiah seemed very interested in this #1 contribution possibility.

“I don’t know. Is that really necessary? I’m not really convinced we need to own an entire world for us to have a place to call our own…”

Ophelia chimed in, “I want to try. A Champion should do all they can to save the world and fight back the outsiders, and becoming a [Landed Knight] or [Baron] is proof that you’ve helped many people, Jake. I think Hestia would be happy if you aimed for this.”

“See, Jake? And we need to start your guild. [Jake’s Wives]? Or maybe [We Take it from Jake]? See, Berri likes the second one.”

Berri was nodding her head and swaying her body, but she was not listening to the current conversation. She was listening to music that Jake added into a playlist from Earth. Her head was bouncing and bobbing, which was doing interesting things with her breasts, and her snake tail and hips swayed left and right, dancing to the beat. “I like this music thing!” Berri said perhaps a little too loudly, a beaming smile on her face. Jake couldn’t help but smile at her.

But Jake shook his head at Fhesiah. If he started a guild, it would of course be focused on fighting back against the outsiders and helping others, and would be filled with men and women that worked together for that purpose.

“That’s fine, but don’t forget that they’re there for you to accomplish your goals, too. You help them, and they help you. While I like that my husband is a Hero, I will not let him be a martyr, got it?”

Ophelia nodded her head at this. “Yes, while it is exciting to die in a blaze of glory, you’re still young yet. Don’t be doing that until we have achieved many victories and our children have grown.”

Jake figured they would look into forming their own guild or joining another if they could assist Jake in meeting their goals. They would research currently contested worlds, and try to get involved with a newly contested world where they could make the biggest impact, and generate the most contribution.

There was still the potential task or tasks lined up from Hestia, for them to worry about. Jake’s gut feeling was that she would help them find a place where they could contribute the most rather than make it difficult for them to meet her tasks and accomplish their goal at the same time, at least. One of the reasons that Hestia had chosen them was because they were not yet tied down, but she probably knew that they would eventually make their own ties, and Jake guessed with her guidance.

Not only that, but they had just entered Tier 1; Jake and Ophelia had both reached level 11 on the third rift, but a level 25 could simply contribute much more to the conquest than a level 11 could. They had gotten over the 300 contribution points for being major contributors closing each of the level 10-16 rifts they closed, but they found out that closing a level 25 rift would be more than ten times that amount. They were more challenging to close and could take a lot more time, but Antonius told them that even parties that were not even close to Jake’s party’s caliber would earn even more than two or three thousand contribution points by participating in a high-level rift closure.

Of course, when Jake and his party were ready, they could probably close a level 15 rift by themselves, and he guessed that would result in over 1000 contribution points, but it was clear that the war effort was primarily decided by those that were at the peak of their tier. For that, their goal should be to get much closer to the peak of their tier so that they can accomplish the much more challenging goal of saving a world from the outsiders.

They would need to gain levels, and boost their skills, once again. Jake’s goal was to purchase a [Technique] for each of them from the contribution store, and hoped their farming of the four rifts would be enough to purchase them. This would merge their melee-related skills into a single skill, and usually included movement, weapon, and utilizing both stamina and magic power to enhance their melee abilities in some way. Based on what they had learned from Antonius, [Techniques] were rare among those early in the 1st Tier, as the requirements were simply too high. Most of the best ones utilized mana or some other advanced resource, and thus required mana control at [Advanced], and then the weapon skill or skills as well.

Antonius had a [Technique] though, one provided to him from his guild. One of the foundations of the guild was a sort of template for the common soldier, to allow them to be effective when teamed up with others using the same list of skills. Antonius showed Jake the power of his [Technique] in a friendly duel, not long after Ophelia faced the half-ogre.

Thanks to his core and [Divine Reinforcement], Jake was both faster and stronger than Antonius. They sparred for a few minutes, and Jake thought he had a measure of the man’s skill. That was when he began using his [Technique]. When Antonius bumped Jake’s shield with his, or Jake blocked Antonius’ spear, he found his shield moving out of position; much more than it would otherwise be based on Antonius’ strength. Jake could just feel the pressure this would put him under if Antonius’ teammates were fighting at his side.

They could take advantage of angles and openings presented by Antonius’ minor movements, which were also meant to control both Jake’s advancement and retreat. When Antonius advanced on Jake, the momentum behind his attacks felt greater, allowing even further control of this. This could allow further opportunities for openings, as by pushing Jake back, it could open attacks against Jake’s adjacent allies.

Jake felt like this could be extremely powerful, and thought about using this with Ophelia. The problem with that was that they did not always have the luxury of fighting side by side, and they had elements such as the bond to allow for advanced cooperation. Did they really need a unified technique to have similar advantages? Most likely, Jake and Ophelia would select different techniques. She had wings, and he did not.

Techniques like Antonius’ that only utilized stamina did not scale well into the higher tiers. Nearly all Tier 2 warriors and above would utilize advanced resources such as mana, though this was far from the only advanced resource available to those under the framework.

Jake’s group was certainly invested in [Mana] and [Qi], but the multiverse was vast, and [The Framework] encompassed many worlds with many different capabilities. Jake learned that it was usually during Tier 2 that the framework could help get one of these advanced resources, whether it be forming their mana core or even Qi, through a sort of pseudo-dantian.

Jake had read of [Chakra], which was a sort of life energy that the body could generate instead of mana, but acted somewhat similarly. It was more in-tune with the body than mana, and worked better towards enhancing the body’s strength than mana when used directly without any sort of spells. He had also learned of [Will], which was a near-physical manifestation of a person’s desires and intent, powered by their willpower and soul. There were many more kinds of unique energies that were discovered as worlds were added to [The Framework].

When thinking about a fourth Summon, Jake was interested in someone with a unique energy type. With his [Energy Sharing] ability, it could allow himself, or others in his party to take advantage of this advanced resource. For Qi, it may be possible for Jake to utilize this, but it was probably one of the worst ones to share. The Framework lacked a large assortment of abilities, and stealing this resource from Fhesiah would cause the energy simply being wasted, as she could better use it.

The properties of Qi were mainly to refine your own body into something greater and become one with the heavens, and then to use that on advanced techniques that resembled spells, that echoed the truths of the dao that had merged with your very being. But without a cultivation technique, dantian and meridians, the former was hardly possible, and the latter was once again something better left for Fhesiah to accomplish with her own resources.

Without refining their body using the Qi with the techniques, flooding it into their body to improve their strength like Fhesiah does is also something not likely to produce good results, but of course, it could be better than nothing. If, at Tier 2, he had the framework help him form a pseudo-dantian, Qi with his Energy Sharing would become much more attractive.

Something like [Chakra] had healing properties without using a special technique, and strengthening properties as well. [Will] could also be used to counter status effects such as [Fear] or [Mind Control], even without utilizing a special ability. Jake’s party was already strong against these things thanks to [Purifying Flames], but having such a tool in their belt would be much better than having a fourth person with more mana. Jake would even prefer another person with [Qi] over someone with [Mana], because at least then they could share their [Qi] with Fhesiah.

Jake had wanted a rogue or ranger type for the last party slot, but now he wasn’t so sure. Fhesiah’s [Divine Sense] along with [Arcane Eye] was more than enough for enemy and trap detection, and Jake had found that he could purchase various tools that could help with most of the things that rogues could accomplish in regard to trap-disarming and general thievery; unlocking doors, chests, and more.

Jake also had a plan that he would implement once he got back to the [Refuge] that should make their senses nearly absolute related to his recent purchase at the Alliance HQ. If it worked like he hoped, there should be nearly no way for anything to sneak up on them, soon.

Jake looked over his girls with a wry smile. He had ended up with three melee spellcasters already, girls that had a penchant for violence. All three are beautiful in different ways, and all three are deadly in a very similar way. Still, he wouldn’t have it any other way; they were strong, and they kept Jake’s life very interesting.

Each day was filled with excitement, and the amount of love and affection he felt from Fhesiah and Ophelia made him feel like he could take on the world. The affection he and Berri felt for one another was growing each day, and Jake was attracted to her pure nature and happy demeanor. It also didn’t hurt that she gave the best hugs.

Still, while Berri’s nature was pure, she was still at least part monster, and Jake couldn’t forget that. Outside of her sphere, she lacks empathy. She did seem to worry for Jake and the rest of his party, but for example, if Antonius and his entire battlegroup were slaughtered, she would probably stare impassively, and not care one bit or even give Antonius a second thought. She would only care about the others in the context of how their deaths might hurt Jake, and she would only care about that due to how that might affect herself.

To be fair, Fhesiah was not much different, only she had a rationale or logic for feeling this way. If Antonius died, she would probably not care much, but feel that it was the will of the heavens, that it was merely his fate for that to happen to him. Ophelia was much more like Jake, in that she would feel regret, that they couldn’t help more and save their allies, or otherwise come to their aid.

Jake and his party headed to cash in their contribution points and went back to their [Refuge]. They had a lot of plans to get started and training to accomplish.