Bonded Summoner

Jake watched as Ophelia spun through the air in an odd pirouette and blazed towards the frozen Sleipnir; a giant horse-like monster. She dodged the monster’s kick with ease, piercing above its shoulder with her spear infused with the flames of Hestia.

The giant Boss monster collapsed, and the floor was completed.

Floor Complete 4/4

Kill 100 beasts of the cold and defeat Boss monster.

Incursion Complete!

Reward: 4,374 T1 Credits, Accessory Loot Box, 325 CP

Berri cheered from atop a near-mound of monster corpses, and Fhesiah cleaned her claws with her cleaning spell-form with a smile. It had not yet been two weeks, but they had already come a long way in their advancement. Jake felt like they were close to being ready.

Jake had talked with a few guilds over the course of the last week and was surprised to find out that the [Sons of Rome] were the best positioned to be the ones involved in their [Fortress Assault]. There were other more powerful guilds in this contested world, but this guild had the most members within their needed level range. They too were now preparing for the assault, and Antonius even had a lead on their potential fifth party member.

They just had some things to wrap up on their end, and they would meet this person. Jake was a little concerned about the overall war efforts, though. Within the last week, things appeared to be on a downward spiral. Many rifts opened, and those sent to close them were often ambushed with few survivors. It became clear that the outsiders were trying a lot harder than usual, or something unexpected was happening. While the war effort was at 65% in favor of [The Alliance] and steadily climbing before, it was now under 55% and steadily losing.

Jake’s party even had to scramble to save the very town they originally helped protect, where they had closed the rifts nearby. They had once again set out to clear up the rifts, and even more egregious things occurred while attempting to close those than the young wyverns from before. It was actually only thanks to that frantic scramble and fights that led them to reach even remotely close to their goal, at likely more than half way through level 13 for Jake and Ophelia, and Berri being close to level 15, Jake guessed.

They would like to level up more, but they knew the longer they took, the more dire things would be when they eventually arrived at their desired destination. They hoped the large amount of enemies they faced on entry would get them to 14 and 15. Though Fhesiah had surpassed them in level, thanks to her Alchemy and consuming [Foundation Establishment] pills, she was now level 15 already.

“Don’t worry, Jake. You will all catch up as these pills lose their efficacy. Knowing that we were in a rush, I did everything I could to scrape out every ounce of power in the time we had left. I will not make the same mistake again.”

Jake was amazed at her speed, but learned that her high soul strength from already having reached the Nascent Soul realm before, along with her having created her body with the proper preparations really made it possible for her to skyrocket through the early levels like this.

Jake smiled at Fhesiah. She really learned from her mistakes, and has set about to make things right. The entire party now had [Techniques] from the framework, including her, and everyone had advanced all of their Tier 1 skills slightly. Jake was very excited to try out his new abilities in this Assault. He wasn’t even sure he fully understood Fhesiah and Berri’s new abilities, but could not argue with their effectiveness.

Each of the techniques accentuated their strengths, while compensating for each of their weaknesses. Jake was really excited to see the girls at their maximum, as the incursions did not require them to bring out even half of their overall strength, even against the few bosses they ended up facing. The surprise enemies prepared by Tartarus’ machinations would have required it, if not for Jake’s liberal use of his spell, Einherjar.

When his Hearth Runic Magic hit level 2, he was able to add a rune configuration to his Champion’s spell-staff, along with his personal capability increase to cast the spell freely. He had been able to do 15 Runes at the first level, and he was now at 18 Runes. He was still able to keep the easy casting of his runic spears in his regular rune setup as well. While a level 22 to 24 creature would be nearly impossible for a level 12 or 13 to face normally, his girls were different. Thanks to how powerful Jake’s buffs really were, at least against foes that were not at the level of Boss monsters, they were able to bridge the gap.

“I’m done looting. We’re going to leave for the real fight soon, right?” The valkyrie was just brimming with excitement, Jake able to see a wide smile of anticipation on her face. Jake smiled and nodded at her, and he could see Berri just cleaning her massive club lovingly from her pile of corpses. She had no interest in spell-forms until Jake showed her the cleaning spell, and it seemed to spawn much more interest in her own spells.

The demoness snorted, “You thought it was because of the cleaning spell? Yeah, sure, it had nothing to do with [Energy Sharing], or you spending time with her. There was even a close call. Did you forget already?”

Jake blushed in remembrance of the event. He didn’t forget, but he was optimistic, he supposed, about her having an interest in magic. It was certainly true that after that day, Berri spent a lot more time mastering her own spells, and that was even without Jake helping her. But it was also true that when they were practicing the spell-forms, she had needed him to send some mana using [Energy Transfer] in addition to guiding her, and she had gotten excited. She had nearly wrapped her tail around him once again, her breathing heavy, but Jake managed to distract her by declaring that it was time to make dinner.

Her other hunger must have won out, because it snapped her back to reality right away. Still, Jake had seen her practicing a lot without him, hence his optimism. The demoness cleared up his misunderstanding, speaking into his mind so that the topic of their discussion could not be overheard, [I may have hinted to her that if she practiced hard, she just might get some more time with you using [Energy Transfer]. It’s been quite the carrot to motivate her, has it not?]

Jake was a little annoyed, but responded, “Just when were you going to tell me I was a carrot about to be eaten? I don’t feel that she’s ready to join you girls, and skipping to the end might undo some of the work we’ve done.”

[She is strong, but she shall not get the jump on me again. You have nothing to fear from her with me around, and she needs a firm hand if it comes to that. Still, I think she’s made at least some progress in getting into the right mindset. Hestia’s comment appeared to carry a lot of weight in her mind. She’s making a genuine effort.]

Jake felt like she was close. Berri now approached them with a big smile on her face, satisfied with the punishment she meted out against the outsiders, and he couldn’t help but feel like their training for the last ten days helped her the most.

Berri had almost felt like a one-trick pony before, relying so heavily on her weapon and monstrous body, but now she had a versatile list of spells. She even had a real single target healing spell, and some interesting debuffs that strengthened herself in the process. Not only that, but she had taken great interest in learning [Runic Magic] of her own in elvish, to be more in-tune with the group.

The elvish language was not as much a magical language as Nordic runes, having fewer rules and restrictions. In a way, you could see it as her writing sentences in English. This reduced the overall power somewhat, but the elves also had a sort of faith and conviction that carried into the language as well, supplying it with slightly more power than what English would be able to accomplish.

Really, Jake didn’t feel like she was a Priestess or Cleric type at all, and more of a sort of Templar archetype. If it weren’t for her being able to add [Armor of Faith] to other party members, or the massive amount of healing that she could accomplish using [Dark Siphon] or her newest healing spell, he wouldn’t agree that she was a true healer at all. Most of the time, she only kept [Armor of Faith] on herself and Jake, the mana cost too high for her to keep active on all party members at all times.

When [Holy Dark Priestess Magic] reached level 5 and she had enough practice in it, it became [Advanced Holy Dark Priestess Magic]. She still had Dark Magic with no level though, and Jake wondered why this was. She still requested some Dark Magic spell books, and Jake purchased them for her. They purchased the spell books from the [Alliance Shop], and she learned several options that really felt like they didn’t fit for a Priestess.

Still, [Mace of Hestia] was clearly Holy Magic, and her new healing spell was also of the Holy variety. At the same time, many of her other spells, while not quite evil in Jake’s opinion, were all-too-similar to some of the spells that the Champion of Apophis himself was using. Jake wondered what the difference was and, if her abilities were Dark themed, just where did the Dark magic of hers come from?

When Jake watched her cast Dark spells with his Arcane Eye, the dark mana was simply released from her core. This wasn’t that odd in and of itself, because Ophelia’s mana and other resources would be converted to the sacrificial flames of Hestia in the same way, and even [Ride of the Valkyries] generated holy mana, after all. But as far as he could tell, Berri’s magic was always Holy by default. Surely, converting that to Dark was a waste? Was this more of Hestia just using the right tool for the job? One thing was for sure, her spells were effective.

Jake asked Fhesiah if she saw anything with her divine sense. She could see down to Jake’s soul, so surely she could see what was going on with her?

[Not quite, Jake. Your bond with her isn’t so good, and her hearth obscures things for me. I can say that something definitely changes when she casts dark magic, or when that other personality took over, but everything is obscured from even me. It’s a strange thing, but my guess is that it’s something more than the multiple personality disorder that you had guessed. I think she has another passenger in that massive body of hers. It’s why I relented so easily when she said she was sorry: she genuinely was.]

Jake had confronted Berri on this matter and she got genuinely afraid, and just continued with her previous story of her being in a sort of mating frenzy, and her acting like a dark lamia. Jake had decided to drop it for the time being, but figured this could be the key to helping her move forward.

Her new Holy Dark Priestess spell, [Divine Intervention], was close to an instant-heal. It cost a large percentage of her Holy Mana stores, but it could save someone on the verge of death. They also purchased for her the Dark Magic spell [Absorb Strength], which drained strength from enemies around her, empowering herself. Combined with her [Weakness] spell she had used previously, she could really make targets weak around her, and unable to harm her through her thick armor and [Armor of Faith].

Currently their bond has reached level 3, which meant he really felt deep into her emotions, and she in turn could feel his quite well. Jake looked over at Berri fondly. When he wasn’t concerned about her monstrous nature, it was easy to enjoy her upbeat attitude and beauty. There was a certain serenity in her demeanor that relaxed him when she was entertained, which also attracted all the birds as well, he supposed. Berri smiled back at him, and he got the feeling that if she was not completely covered in bladed armor at the moment, his face would be a foot deep between her massive breasts in a hug.

The group headed through the portal, leaving the incursion, and finished cleaning themselves up in their [Refuge]. Jake took out the accessory loot box they had just been awarded and handed it to Berri. Jake felt her surprise, but he could not see it on her face due to her mask. “For me? Really?” Jake nodded, but said, “Take off your mask first, though.” Jake really wanted to see her reaction, as she hadn’t yet seen a loot box.

Jake had been quite disappointed at their jewelry options. He had wanted to get some for his party, but it appeared that these equipment options were highly desired and rare enough that they could not yet afford them. Crafting them was also a challenge at this tier, as it required powerful magical metals to really hold a meaningful enchantment on such a small item.

Jake had wanted to buy some unenchanted rings and necklaces and just enchant something on them himself, but even that was not an affordable option for them. Even loot boxes like this one were outside of their normal price range, the utility for the credits spent just not worth it. However, Jake was perfectly happy to take one if presented with it as a bonus, rather than purchased with their limited funds.

Berri triggered the opening of the box, and the memorable drumming beat and chanting began. Her face was filled with wonder as she looked on at the light show, until it eventually landed on what appeared to be a pair of earrings. They were a reddish-gold color that somewhat matched her eyes, and were in the shape of hoops. Looking closely, the hoops had golden snakes swirling around the reddish-gold ring.

Rare Item Obtained!

Snake-hoop earrings of Dark Magic

Effect: Effectiveness of Dark Magic spells increased by 15%

Berri looked over at them, almost confused. Jake realized what she was pondering. “You’ll need your ears pierced to wear them, as it looks like your ears aren’t.” He looked over to the demoness, and she sent reassurance that this wouldn’t be a problem for her to handle at all over the bond, but Berri looked like she was about to cry.

“I…you’ll let me wear these? But…these are more beautiful than what some Matriarchs would wear…I was never allowed to wear any jewelry, but most of them wore many piercings.” She smiled a small smile looking at them, and said, “The little snakes are so cute.”

Jake wanted to hug the lamia, but was stopped once again by her equipment. He sent reassurance over the bond along with the best mental hug he could send, and said, “Of course we will. You’re a part of our family, after all, and that equipment is perfect for you. Even if it provided no benefit, we’d be happy for you to have it.” The girls nodded along reassuringly, and Berri broke down into tears.

“Thank you so much. Other than my armor, I have never received something so precious…”

Fhesiah said, “Of course, Berri. Let’s get those in your ears, then we can head out and earn some more treasure.”

Fhesiah used some thick needles that she produced from her storage bracelet, apparently used in alchemy to prepare certain materials. Jake was surprised, but thanks to [Advanced Cure Wounds], he was able to somewhat guide the healing process now, allowing him to have the wound healed over in the way he desired. Thanks to the skill, he could now target more lethal damage as opposed to blindly healing his target. He was concerned that he would simply heal the hoops permanently into her ears, or heal the ears to where they would need to be re-pierced, but this turned out to be no problem at all for the new skill.

Jake made a few more purchases in the [Multiverse Market] using the Tier 1 Credits they just earned. He had been purchasing all sorts of materials to use for raising his [Enchanting] and reselling them. In addition, as they got closer to the deadline, he had purchased various preparations similar to their [Trial]. He had new tools and consumables, and each of the girls had some tools of their own to fill in their gaps in their [Storage Bracelets], even Berri as she had now raised her Mana Control to the Advanced stage.

They headed through the portal, and then moved their way through the original city they arrived at in this world. The group arrived at the [Sons of Rome] guild headquarters, where there were dorms, training grounds, and other facilities to help with both the conquest of the world and future recruitment endeavors.

Jake had learned that his [Refuge] was rare among newer Tier 1 adventurers. In the [Fringe], all recruits would receive one, and only be able to pick their destination once they completed their [Trial]. In contrast, those recruited on [Bastions] or [Contested Worlds] would not receive one until they spent contribution points on one, or reached the peak of their tier and were otherwise forced to leave their world in the case of those starting on a contested world.

Otherwise, they could pay for a teleportation gate to take them to worlds bordering their current one. It would take the same amount of time or longer to travel, and their soul would reside in the void during this time, completely unaware of time's passage. A Refuge that could travel anywhere was somewhat expensive for most. However, upon reaching Tier 2, nearly 100% of all adventures would have one.

They waited in the guild headquarters lobby for Antonius to pick them up. Jake had learned that part of Antonius’ pull to leadership was due in part because of his family having a lot more influence in the guild. When Jake reached out regarding his Champion status and the current situation, he was shocked, and nearly fell over himself to accommodate Jake and his party.

Despite what Hestia had said about it being an advantage to pick up Jake very early as champion, it was still extremely rare. Most Champions prove themselves long before they are offered to become one, and being picked up at Tier 0, or even Tier 1, was nearly unheard of. At the very least, they would often have achieved a noble rank from becoming a savior of a world to even be considered. At that point, it was more common, as many of the lower Tier gods would target these worlds and unattached prospective champions, being a valuable source of devotees for their worship.

Antonius entered the lobby with a serious look on his face, but shifted to a slight smile when he spotted Jake’s group. “Welcome, Champion Of Hestia, Runemaster Jake. Please, walk with me back to our strategy room so we can discuss our plans.”

They began to move through the halls together, and Jake asked Antonius as they walked, “Is the potential party member we discussed here? I realize we came unannounced, having just wrapped up an incursion.”

Antonius smirked, and said, “Yeah, your fan is here. We’ll be meeting her in a little bit.”

Jake was a little confused. “Fan?”

"That's right. Shortly after your help with the rifts, this woman had a lot of questions about you and your group, asking nearly everyone involved about you. When it was announced that you needed another party member, she went on a campaign of dueling all other candidates to be on the top of the list. We made it clear you had final say, but she's proven that among level 15's, she's well above her peers."

Jake thought the first detail was a little strange, but perhaps they had really set themselves apart from others with their display, starting various rumors. Jake could see someone like Ophelia expending just as much effort to join Jake's group once they learned they had an opportunity to join a Champion's adventuring party.

Still, for anything permanent, they would have to be willing to join as one of Jake’s summons. Jake would also only be interested in someone that would fit in well with their family, and not just their adventuring party, thanks to the Summoner’s bond. Jake already had a fourth summon slot after becoming a Battlemaster, but Tier 1 tokens were beyond rare, and Jake wasn’t so sure he wanted to use another, even with an Advanced summoning token like he had previously gotten.

Jake would rather find their respective party member, and his girls were in agreement. Of course, the demoness was quite excited at the idea of properly ‘shopping around,’ and not just accepting whatever girl a god or goddess shoved in their way.

They entered the strategy room, and Jake guessed the woman next to a planning table was their prospective party member. She was a beautiful elf dressed in dark leathers, with blades and knives tucked in holsters all over her body. Her hair was black and long in a ponytail that reached the small of her back.

Her body was voluptuous, and she had what Jake thought was a shy smile on her face as they approached. Jake would certainly think she was quite attractive if his familiar wasn't currently growling at her from the void.