Bonded Summoner

It turned out that the reason Ira was nonchalant about the creatures ahead was because they were not much of a threat, both from their size not really being much bigger than Bloodberri, but also their temperament. Despite being a strange looking creature to the stegosaurus, Bloodberri’s own serene nature made it so that they ignored her and just continued eating their greenery.

This large creature was taller than Bloodberri, but not nearly as long; her tail being longer than theirs. This creature’s torso was much more massive, however, and Jake did see that they had auril flowing through them. It was different from the beastkin, being a thinner or more dull, but permanent effect.

The concentration of the energy was much lower in the heart, so Jake guessed that it was like these creatures were always running at 5 to 10 percent of their auril capacity at all times, to permanently strengthen themselves. While they might be able to increase it during battle, Jake wagered it wouldn’t be by very much.

Still, Jake guessed that these creatures would be nearly permanently immune to what unawakened people would be capable of doing to harm it, as these were certainly Tier 1 creatures. He could see that it would take a large group of awakened to take them out, and why it was seen as a waste of life to attempt.

But during Jake’s inspection, Ira gave a feeling of alarm, and even the stegosaurus’s heads snapped at the same direction. It appeared there was going to be an attack. Jake urged Bloodberri up a tree for them to watch, though he didn’t feel they were much in danger based on Ira’s feeling. Bloodberri snaked up the tree with ease, wrapping themselves around the trunk as they ascended.

The stegosaurus started moving into a semi-defensive position, the large group of a dozen now being in sight and in the same area from each other. It was then that Jake saw them: a group of raptors. They were taller than Jake, but not by much.

They blurred with how fast they were moving, and they were covered in a ferocious red auril. Unlike the stegosaurus that had a light permanent blue Auril, these were blazing theirs to improve their speed significantly. Once again, Jake could tell that these creatures were Tier 1, and he could tell these creatures were fast enough that even Rookard might find it a challenge to escape once they had him in their sights. Only by defeating them or taking one down and forcing them to flee would he have a chance at survival.

The raptors were not more numerous than the stegosaurus, but this didn’t appear to matter to them. The larger creatures swung their tails with great power and speed, but it wasn’t enough to land a solid blow. They did their best to protect each other, but eventually large rents were scored on one of their backs in the frantic melee, releasing a shower of blood.

From there, one slash after another landed on the same stegosaurus, until it went down in a pained wail. At that point, the raptors all positioned themselves on the dying body, leaving the other ones alone, staking their claim on the dying creature. Some of the stegosaurus tried to save their friend, but they were quickly rebuffed by the raptors. Eventually, the larger creatures had gotten the message, that their friend was as good as gone, and there would only be more losses of their own if they persisted. They began to leave.

Jake was very interested to observe this struggle by the two sets of creatures, witnessing the law of the jungle first-hand. But there was another law that these raptors were about to learn. There’s always a bigger fish.

Bloodberri dropped from the tree while Jake stood on his invisible platform, and he began to cast a spell: [Runic Ring of Frost]. It released a wave of frost at the base of the stegosaurus, and locked all the raptors in place with a layer of ice at their feet, and some even up to their short arms. They struggled against their bonds and wailed, some of their efforts having an effect. A couple had even broken free using their auril when Bloodberri arrived. This was the spell Jake had worked out with Ophelia, but the one he was able to do with her was much more powerful.

Bloodberri smashed her mace into one and wrapped her tail around another, killing both in mere moments. More broke free, and Jake even saw two of them move to free two others. Jake sent spears of ice at them, and was surprised to see one leap into the air at him, blazing in their red Auril. Jake was only maybe 10 meters in the air, so he shouldn’t have been so surprised. He realized that this one was the largest of them, he guessed the Alpha.

Jake easily rebuffed his assailant with a wave of force, slamming them into a tree, and he followed them to the ground with his own spear and shield. The alpha was disoriented, and Jake stabbed it with a few thrusts of his spear, weakening it. He then bound it thornwood vines, locking it into place as it struggled against its bindings. Jake now prepared his summoner spell, [Capture Template].

After the Fortress Assault, Jake had realized he unlocked a new subset of Summoner abilities like that he had in the game, called [Monster Menagerie]. These allowed him to find beasts and either bind and store them as permanent summons in the void, or add them to his list of [Summon Humanoid] or [Summon Beast] spells, making them out of a magical construct.

In this case, he was capturing their template for use for [Advanced Summon Beast]. Jake’s massive amounts of mana and presence quickly overwhelmed the creature, weakened as it was, and the spell began deconstructing them for template storage, turning them into cubes of light, and then heading into his hearth. When Jake captured a template, they must be alive, and upon successful capture: the creature would die.

The creature died, and Bloodberri finished up on her side too. The raptor’s auril enhanced attacks were ferocious, but in the end they were no match for her [Armor of Faith] and her thick plate armor. Not only that, but their auril was much lower as a result of their previous fight with the stegosaurus.

In the end, their posturing was a bluff. While they had taken out that stegosaurus with ease, they were sort of on their last legs of auril. If the herd of stegosauruses pushed, they would have actually easily killed them off, or forced the raptors to flee. Their auril stores were nearly empty, with the stegosaurus being able to keep their charge forever.

They set about looting the creatures, but then Jake realized the stegosaurus was still alive. He understood he might be able to heal the creature, but really, he could probably make good use of it to help others. If he had done nothing, it would already be dead, being eaten by a pack of raptors. He cast [Capture Template] again, capturing the stegosaurus template for usage as his summon.

It cost a lot of his mana to capture, and he knew that summoning the raptor versus the stegosaurus, the difference in cost would be significant. Just like the turtle, Jake thought the stegosaurus would be excellent for providing protection, just by being a large, sturdy body that could get in the way. While Jake’s specialization weakened the resulting creature, he could counter that by adding [Divine Reinforcement]. His level and hearth control could also improve the creature, making the creature likely much more effective than it was originally. He was excited to see what the result would be.

Jake and Bloodberri quickly filled up several storage bracelets worth of raptors with their looting skill.

They moved on, traveling many miles uneventfully, until they reached the next leg of their journey, going through the mountains. Jake was surprised at the revelation of there being dinosaurs, because everything the beastkin said about them was just that they were ‘Auril Beasts.’ Jake found the whole prospect very interesting.

He could only have four permanent summons active at this tier, but he could even bind a permanent summon and use them temporarily, similar to how he summoned the badgerdillo or any of his other creatures. Their performance would only be reduced slightly as a result.

In addition to capturing the template, he could bind a creature and keep them in the Menagerie, which was almost like them laying in wait within the void of the framework. The reason he was not very interested in that for them was because they were beasts, the detriment of his specializations likely not being worth it.

Theoretically, he might be able to bind or capture a beastkin and use them like the badgerdillo. But he felt their intelligence was too high for binding them for this purpose to be nothing more than a terrible existence, always waiting in the void inside his [Menagerie]; waiting to be summoned only for fights. There may be some changes to that in the future, such as at higher tiers, but for now he was limited in how he could have his permanent summons. He would really only want to use a simple creature in this way, rather than one that was smart enough to use speech, unless it loved nothing more than a fight, he guessed.

For capturing the template, a beastkin simply wasn’t good without their intelligence or training in comparison to a specialized humanoid creature. Plus, Jake doubted that the beastkin’s awakened status would carry over with the template, their spiritual awakening being a part of their very being. The dinosaurs likely did not require this sort of awakening, their spirit and mind being too simple, and he could tell that all the dinosaurs he’d seen had full usage of their auril. He also thought that they might not even be able to manifest their spirit in the same way that the beastkin could, though that was just his conjecture. A beastkin could do this at Tier 0, so perhaps at Tier 1 at some point a dinosaur could do it.

Finally, and this was important, at least to Jake: capturing the template would kill them. Jake wasn’t going to go about capturing beastkin templates for that reason. Jake wasn’t even sure if they were considered monstrous enough, perhaps, it would require something as ‘monstrous’ as Bloodberri was. At the same time, his summons included a Valkyrie. Surely that meant he could capture one in this way? It felt like it should be taboo for him to accomplish this, and obviously, capturing someone from the Framework in this way would be impossible for him. He would consider it if he found a Tartarus humanoid worth capturing.

Jake wondered if he could find an auril beast with an interesting [Auril Manifestation] ability that made them more situationally useful.

Blood interrupted his thoughts with a laugh, “We just fought and captured some beasts, and your mind is moving a mile a minute just imagining having these things at your call. Echidna was right.”

Jake frowned in confusion. “What did she say?”

Blood replied, “She said you loved beasts, that if Fhesiah didn’t have her way, you would be specialized for them, instead. That she might have tried to put one of her children in your party.”

He thought back to his choice back at level five, remembering Fhesiah talking him into it. Of course, he had sort of wanted to go no-focus like he had in the game, but he had found that this wasn’t an option. Because of that, he felt that he would both enjoy beasts the most as they had the widest variety of creatures under one type, but also, they were simply the most versatile. In an infinite multiverse, while there might be special elementals or dragons and golems and things, the likelihood of him encountering a special beast felt all that much higher. Here he was, already finding special beasts that he knew would be absolutely amazing with the specialization. Perhaps one of those other specializations would feel a lot more powerful at higher levels, though.

But the idea that Echidna had enough interest in him even without his women making him better, aside from Fhesiah, was thought-provoking. Odin had said that Jake’s affinity to the void and thus capability of being a summoner was rare, but was he really that special that a goddess would take interest?

Blood laughed. “Don’t you think you’re a little too humble, Milord? How can one that is so successful be so doubtful about their capability? Didn’t the wizards in the battlegroup in Ariminium prove that you are talented? These were men and women that had grown up with the Framework, and likely had practiced mana control for years. You have had mana for only a few months.”

Jake frowned, “But I have a mana core, it’s different? I could tell that when I formed my core, it made using mana so much easier. It’s not really fair to compare me to them. Besides, Ophelia created her core just as fast, and progressed her mana control the same way.”

Blood sighed. “I suppose too many things happened at once, it’s hard to pick out what your success was, and what was just the Framework and your core, thanks to Fhesiah’s help. But Echidna said something else that you will find interesting. She said that adding spells and skills to your soul and mind, eventually it becomes full, and that we should be quite considerate before we add any more spells and skills.”

Jake’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Perhaps, he was considering spells and skills too much like a game, where adding everything that seemed useful made sense. He thought back to some of his skill-ups, and noticed that many of them happened after his level increased, and sometimes, he could not even learn a spell from the skill-book, only being successful after similar. Could it be that his soul or mind was already strained?

Blood said, “It would explain why those wizards did not use many framework spells and abilities, perhaps, because they couldn’t even learn them. While it could be related to their attributes, perhaps, they are limited by their talent. Conversely, you are brimming with talent, able to learn many spells.”

“But Ophelia–”

“Is it really fair to compare a human to a valkyrie, normally? Not only that, but doesn’t your bond improve her talent even further? That girl is also becoming a master smith in no time, you’d think if she was that talented, her father would have never let her leave the forge. Your bond is significant, and Berri likes to believe it is thanks to you, somehow. All I want to say, Milord, is that while you seem to believe you are only amazing thanks to us girls, you have to accept and agree that we girls are amazing at least in part thanks to you.”

Berri added, “That’s right! Before I joined you, my mana was like vrooom, whirrrrr, but then now it’s like wahhhhh, shooom! I’m much better at it now. It’s all thanks to you, Jake. I know it.”

Jake wasn’t sure how the second was better than the first, but he guessed that his mana and the bond connecting them really did improve their talent, enough that Berri was able to notice it. Thinking back, Ophelia had in fact had mana as she was younger, but hadn’t really progressed until she was bonded to Jake, though, the Framework does not aid you directly until you come of age. She had her accident in the cave not overly long after.

While some of that can be attributed to her believing she was poor at it, it was certainly true that she progressed extremely rapidly with Jake’s, and the Framework’s help. He doubted that he was that much better of a teacher than those at her academy.

Ophelia responded over the bond, [That’s right. I had felt that after the bond, moving the mana felt more like I expected it to. I had never been good at it in the academy, I had tried for weeks straight to improve beyond Mana Control 1, and just couldn’t do it. Off and on I tried for a long time, and it never happened. But it became so natural for me after you summoned me.]

This surprised Jake, as he had in fact moved from Mana Control 1 to 2 pretty rapidly himself. He had just assumed it was because Fhesiah was able to help over the familiar bond.

Fhesiah replied, [Of course, that helped. But a lot of it really was you! I saw with every mana bolt, you got noticeably better. Now, I have a theory on how it is your bond helps us. Your bond connects your soul to our soul. Your mind is connected to the soul, and what forms the bridge between your mind, soul, magic, and your body is: your subconscious. These elements are simply too complicated for your mind to effectively interact with, and I believe your subconscious is connecting to ours. Because you were already trained and skilled with magic, that easily carried over to Ophelia, and later, Blood and Berri. On some level, they still needed to train and practice with it, but it was like your talent was added to theirs in a sense.]

Jake felt like that does line up with the sequence of events and what they all experienced, but what about her subconscious being what–

[Don’t you dare take this accomplishment away from yourself. Our bond was nearly entirely one-way at the beginning, you to me. Even if it works like that, and my subconscious is helping you, you wouldn’t have benefitted until you had already achieved your core and mana control 3 in just a few weeks time, before our bond was fixed. I truly believe that you are talented with magic, and this bond being so effective is a part of your talents, somehow. Beyond that, your focus on self-improvement, and your ingenuity and focus on us girl’s to bring out our strength and crush our weaknesses, is special. My mother wouldn’t have made a big deal out of you if ‘any summoner’s bond would do.’]

All four of his girls sent their agreement, and Jake was overwhelmed with the awe and respect that they had for him.

He said over the bond to them all, “Thank you for that, girls. If all you girls believe I am amazing, then I really must be. Whether I am or not– and you convinced me I am, if all you believe that, then that’s all that matters to me. I love you all.”

The girls all sent their love, but it was Fhesiah that spoke, [Isn’t that great? Now, I just can’t wait to see that raptor and stegosaurus, too. I wonder if the first will be as vicious as that badgerdillo or not?]

Jake smiled. There were a lot of beasts here that should be interesting, and when he had the time he would certainly come explore the jungle. He’d do that to see if there was anything worth capturing or binding, though he bet humanoids would be the only ones worth binding to use for that purpose. He could only permanently bind a creature equal to or below his level, but he could capture any creature template if he was able to overwhelm their spirit. This would allow him to summon a scaled version of whatever he found, so long as Jake overwhelmed their body and soul with the capture template spell.

Ophelia finally wrapped up working with the beastkin and their training for the day, so he called her as they were scaling the mountain. “Done drooling over capturing a bunch of creatures like that game you used to play? You’re such a beast nerd, Jake.”

Jake smiled and shook his head, “I’ve always loved finding unique creatures back in [The Labyrinth]. I’ve won so many fights I had no business winning because I had situationally powerful creatures available to my call. If I can repeat that in my new reality, it will be worth it. Of course, I realize that it’s just another path to power, and I shouldn’t slack on all my others. In the end, my mana is limited too. Even if summoning some stegosaurus might seem powerful, a well-placed fireball can sometimes do better work.”

Ophelia added, “You should come up with a name for them, Jake. Those creatures died, so that you can use them to defend others.”

Jake nodded. “I’ll think on it.”

Ophelia quickly took to the air following Bloodberri as she traversed the mountainous terrain, snaking and climbing with her powerful arms. Jake felt bad that he was just riding through the mountains with her doing all the work.

Berri stopped for a moment, and looked down the mountain at the valley below. Jake looked over with her, and looked at the greenery in the distance. The forest looked so full of life, a wide variety of colors, the greens a lush color. The rivers and waterfalls cascaded in the distance, and Jake thought it looked better than any shots he’d seen of the Amazon or other jungles.

Berri smiled. “These mountains and forests are so pretty, Jake, I’m happy to climb them. When we get to the top, the views are nothing like what I saw in the Underworld. The world above is really beautiful. There are things I miss about the dark caves, but this comes out way ahead! I’m happy to climb for you.”

Jake smiled at her. “Well, I’m glad. If not for this, it would take us days to traverse, waiting for me. Well, I suppose I would eventually get superb at using my invisible stairs spell, but I think my enchantment on my boots would need to be refilled frequently…maybe I could make a hang glider? We’d just really have to pay attention to flyers then.”

Jake didn’t think he was very far from being able to fly. A series of enchantments would allow him to do so, but not very fast. He’d be able to do this on his own power even without something like a hang glider, the primary concern being that if they were attacked, it would not be very easy to switch in combat. Armor served a purpose, after all, and for him to eliminate that purpose meant traveling by replacing it with stuff that could allow him to fly would increase their risk significantly. Only once a larger area was controlled by the Alliance would he consider traveling in that way.

Jake did have a look already about flight spells, however. [Flight] was a Tier 2 spell, and would require too much mana until he actually reached Tier 2, even if he managed to recreate it without the Framework’s help. A magic powered miniature airplane or something similar looked like something he could accomplish soon if he had enough time to spend on it.

Berri was a little distressed. “But then what about me, Jake? You would leave me?”

Jake smiled, realizing that some miniature airplane would in fact be unable to carry the ample woman.

“Well, it’s not something you have to worry about for a while, Berri. Just like we just gave Ophelia more time with the trainees before I called her, you could spend some time with those kids while we travel for me to call you once we need you. Really, this is just talking about where we pass over our conquered territory. Wouldn’t you enjoy that?”

Jake could tell Berri was conflicted. “I… I guess that wouldn’t be so bad, but I still don’t like it. I want to go with you on adventures, too!”

Jake laughed. “Not every time we travel will be an adventure, but we’ll see. I’ll certainly keep that in mind, I do love that you are my mount, Berri. Riding on you has been enjoyable.”

They finished cutting through the forest, ending up back on the mountainous terrain. They started encountering orc raiding parties, as they arrived near another village. The orc’s equipment seemed to be a strong balance of defensive melee combatants with shields, and archers and shamans in the rear of their formations. Jake thought the avian beastkin could handle this formation well, but the other beastkin could be in real trouble. These smaller groups of fifteen or so orcs were no problem for Jake’s party, but he could see how a village or small town could end up overwhelmed easily from them.

They saw that there were in fact some towers, like they had faced previously on Ariminium. As they got near the rift on the plateau, Ophelia from above said, “I think the town might be in trouble. We should head there first.”

There was a river running through the plateau, and Jake noticed a much larger amount of trees than they usually see on them. They were planted similarly to how Jake had seen a tree plantation, or man-made forest, would look. There were many bushes with berries in them spaced throughout, and at the edge of the forest he was able to see that many trees were cut down.

They arrived at the outskirts of the village, to which there was an attack by the orcs going on. They held torches and tried lighting the palisade on fire, but arrows and javelins rained down on them, the orcs shielding themselves. Some torches landed on the palisade, but water was quickly splashed onto it from above.

Jake leaped out of Berri’s basket, him and Ophelia quickly working together to cast their runic thornwood field spell on the orc warriors and even reaching some archers, the vines wrapping around and impaling them. In total, there appeared to be a hundred enemies, less than half being the shield warriors.

Bloodberri immediately went over the palisade, the inhabitants shouting in shock at such a large creature going over it. It looked like some might throw javelins or shoot bows at her, but they paused, when a beaver beastkin woman halted them.

Berri said, “Hi, everyone! I see you have wounded. I’m here to heal!”

Meanwhile, Ophelia blurred into action, her wings filled with white light. She quickly cut down the shamans that were building up some spell, and activated her hearth of Hestia ability, and consecration, cutting down the enemies with ease.

Jake began casting chain lightning attacks, to whittle away at the large number of enemies. He used the hearth to shield and protect him from arrows, as he rained attacks down on the enemy unit.

After a few minutes, Jake and Ophelia had finished cleaning up the enemies. They went to meet with the town, where Berri was healing people.

Jake met with the elder, a beaver beastkin woman. They exchanged the beastkin greeting, the woman returning it with a smile.

“I’m Champion Jake of the Goddess Hestia, and these are my wives, Ophelia, and you’ve met Bloodberri.”

“I have. I’m Damara, the acting Chieftess of the Riverbend Tribe. Thank you for your aid, I don’t think we were going to be able to repel them this time. That Bloodberri arrived and was able to save a few of us felt like the will of the world.”

“I’m glad we were able to get here in time.” Jake looked around, and he was just starting to notice what Ophelia and Bloodberri already noticed. There were many mammalian beastkin of the type that did well around water, like beavers, otters, muskrats, and some that he couldn’t identify. He saw plenty of children, and many, many women.

“Not to be rude, but… Where are your men?”