Modern Age Online

Kaleb slapped yes without thinking too much about it. Amos gasped from behind the desk and pointed his wand at the gnome. The gnome on the other hand smiled wide behind his brown beard as he rubbed his small hands excitedly.

“What did he do?!” Amos shouted still pointing his wand at the small gnome.

Kaleb tried to act concerned. “I think he formed a Contract with me.”

“You know I did, you stupid lizard. You had to accept it.” The gnome spoke up from his position on the desk.

“Did you accept the contract?” Amos asked lowering his wand and staring hard at Kaleb.

Kaleb shrugged apologetically. “Sorry, but I did. He surprised me.”

Amos sighed loudly shaking his head. “Damn, there goes another test creature.”

Kaleb raised an eyebrow at the Wizard as he picked up his two books. He let go of his new gnome Familiar; he figured that the gnome wouldn’t run. Sure enough, the gnome stood up and just looked curiously at Kaleb.

“Well, boss, what are we doing?”

Kaleb nodded his thanks to Amos, who was deep in thought behind the counter. “Now we get out of here.”

The gnome nodded and ran toward the edge of the counter. He leapt from the counter and latched onto Kaleb’s shoulder. Lifting himself up the onto Kaleb shoulder the gnome sat down and slapped Kaleb on the back of the head.

“Mush, Ya lizard.” The gnome cackled.

Kaleb tucked his books under his arm and walked toward the library door. Amos waved absentmindedly at them. Kaleb quickly went through the door and turned to where Araella was still waiting outside. The tall woman was standing against the wall and seemed to be asleep standing up.

“Oh, she’s a looker, isn’t she?” Kaleb heard the gnome say from his shoulder.

Araella cracked an eye open looking toward. “Looks like you picked up a friend.”

“More like he attached to me and won’t let go.” Kaleb said smiling.

“I have a name you know.” The gnome grumbled.

Araella smiled wide as she moved over to inspect the gnome. “And what would your name be, friend?”

Kaleb felt the gnome wiggle happily on his shoulders as it replied. “Ahhh, She speaks the honorable language of the Gnomes. I am Daivor, 2nd grade Builder Gnome and now I am this knuckleheads Familiar.”

Araella glanced at Kaleb. “You have a strange type of luck. You walk into a Wizard library and come out with a gnome Familiar.”

Kaleb just shrugged. “That just means my luck will probably take a nosedive sometime soon.”

“Probably. Anyway, it was good to meet you, Daivor. But, I expect your master wishes to head home.” Araella said, nodding to Kaleb and Daivor.

“Master is a bit much.” Daivor grumbled as Araella waved a hand at the hallway creating a portal.

Kaleb stepped up to the portal but stopped short when he saw his front lawn through it. “Should I be concerned that you know where I live?”

“I wouldn’t be.” Quipped Daivor.

Araella smiled gently. “We had to file your information when we summoned you as a witness.”

Kaleb wondered where she found the time to do all this clerical work as he stepped through the portal before stopping again. “How can you summon portals? I thought you were a Warlock and bound by all their rules.”

He felt Daivor slap the back of his head again as Araella just smiled. “Ya idiot, she’s not a Warlock. She’s a magical creature, like me. A High-Elf, if I had to guess.”

“I am a representative for the magical realm.” Araella said pushing Kaleb gently through the portal.

Kaleb stopped himself from tripping on the sidewalk and tried to turn around and ask more questions. But she had closed her portal, leaving him standing outside his house. Wondering if he had stepped over some line Kaleb tried to twist toward Daivor. The gnome stopped any questions he had though.

“Leave it alone, boy. She just learned that another magical creature was in that library. I imagine she will have a long conversation with those kids and she won’t like what she hears.” Daivor said.

Kaleb started to ask more when several voices shouted at him.

“Professor!”

“Doc!”

Turning Kaleb saw his entire raid group, except for Deckart and Robert, standing in his driveway. Roy was also standing next to his truck in front of an open garage door.

“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Kaleb asked.

Jar-lock waved a hand. “We finished a raid, man! We have to celebrate!”

Two Gun nodded. “Yeah, time to split the spoils and toasts some beers.”

The others all nodded their heads and gave noises of agreement. Vivienne moved over to Kaleb’s side as he walked toward his driveway. Her eyes seemed locked onto the small man on his shoulder, but she couldn’t seem to find the words. Kaleb felt Daivor shift around on his shoulder as the others all turned their gazes to his Familiar.

“Geez, haven’t they seen a gnome before?” Daivor said.

“Probably not. Plus, you are wearing a giant red hat. Kinda draws the eye.” Kaleb answered.

“Oy! What’s wrong with my hat!?” Daivor shouted.

Kaleb just shook his head as he looked around at his friends. Abby was staring up at the Gnome curiously.

“So you go to a Wizard trial and come back with a garden gnome? How did you pull that off?” Abby asked.

Kaleb sighed. “Let’s all go inside. Well split the loot, order food, and I’ll explain about what happened.”

D43d–I waggled Kaleb’s car keys.

*Quack*

“I’ll take your car to get drinks. We passed a liquor store on the way here.”

Kaleb nodded to the duck as he walked to his front door followed by the others. Vivienne reached a hand out and tried to touch Daivor. The Gnome watched the hand move closer to his body before the Wizard poked him. Daivor shot the Wizard a withering look. Kaleb supposed the gnome had strong feelings about being poked. Vivienne retracted her finger and smiled apologetically.

The group piled into Kaleb’s living room. Looking around his living room Kaleb realized he didn’t have enough space for 9 people. A feeling that the others seemed to agree with as they piled in and looked around. Mass especially was trying hard not to crowd the others. So Kaleb walked down his hallway and opened his door to the backyard.

“Oh gods, what is that smell?” Daivor asked from Kaleb’s shoulder as they walked out back.

Looking around Kaleb saw Roy’s leather working station along with a barrel full of oil. The Ifrit skin was drying on a rack nearby. The stink coming from the skin and the barrel pervaded the backyard. Kaleb felt Daivor shifting on his shoulder again.

“I can fix this.” Daivor said as Kaleb turned to see the gnome pointing a finger at the leather station.

Kaleb felt something drain out of him as Daivor cast some spell. He checked his status and saw that his Mana was down to 95 out of 100. So Daivor’s Magic would cost Kaleb Mana, that seemed unfair. Kaleb noticed that the smell was now gone as the others finished following him to the backyard.

“Well, that trip seemed pointless.” Claire joked.

Kaleb laughed. “Sorry I realized that my living room wasn’t big enough for everyone. So I figured we could bring the chairs out here. Could be nice; dig a fire pit, have a few beers.”

“If that’s the plan then we have to get some barbecue.” Two Gun said.

Kaleb looked around his open backyard shaking his head. “I don’t think I have a grill. We would have to order it.”

“Not the best choice, but I agree with Two Gun. It's got to be a barbecue.” Varlin added.

Kaleb around at the rest of the group. Abby, and Mass looked indifferent at food choices while Jar-lock and Claire were almost drooling. Vivienne was still staring at Kaleb’s Familiar. Kaleb chuckled softly and spoke into his communicator.

“Farrah, I don’t suppose you could make the call for us?”

“Sure, no problem. I know just the place.” Farrah answered.

As Mass, Jar-lock, and Varlin brought out the chairs, Two Gun and Claire dug a fire pit. Soon a speedster arrived with their food and they all sat down around a fire to eat. While eating Kaleb slowly filled everyone in on what had happened between Derana and Torero. As he described the magical combat and Torero’s eventual win Jar-lock interrupted.

“So she wins and you come back with a garden gnome?”

“He calls me a garden gnome again and cut off his fingers and feed them to him.” Daivor grumbled.

Kaleb coughed to cover up a smile at the aggressive gnome's words. “He is a Builder Gnome and apparently he hates being called a garden gnome.”

“So you understand him?” Vivienne asked excitedly.

Kaleb nodded as he went over Diana Torero opening his Mana channels and his visit to Doctor Danforth’s library. As he introduced Daivor and explained how the gnome had dosed him with Magic dust, Varlin asked his own question.

“So will they still consider you a Mundane when you finally choose an archetype.”

Kaleb thought about it before he shrugged his shoulders, making Daivor almost slip off. “I don’t know, honestly I don’t think so. But, that’s for the HLO to decide.”

Two Gun finished adding up all the credits stick the raid group had collected and walked over. As he did Abby tossed a vial of something at Kaleb. Kaleb caught the vial without thinking and when he looked at it he realized it was his drop from the giant jellyfish.

“You dropped that when you died.” Abby said as she sat down.

Kaleb was about to thank her when he heard his doorbell ring. He ran to get the door revealing an overladen D43d–I with multiple cases of beer in his four hands. Helping the duck-man carry the beer out back Kaleb continued his story. As he did Daivor tapped his head saying.

“Let me see that vial.”

Handing over the vial Kaleb continued talking to the others. He explained about how Araella was apparently a Magical creature. Explaining what Daivor had told him.

“I don’t remember High-Elf being an option for Race.” Claire said.

“It wasn’t. There weren’t any of the typical fantasy races.” Vivienne added.

*Quack*

“There are aliens, so why not have the magical races as well?” D43d–I asked.

“That’s a fair point. But it makes you wonder about future Events.” Two Gun said.

Kaleb nodded as he felt something hot on his right shoulder. He went to wave to off when Vivienne caught his hand. He turned to look at her seeing she was staring at Daivor on his shoulder.

“He is doing something to that loot drop you gave him.” Vivienne said.

Kaleb noticed that everyone was staring at his shoulder. So he tried to twist his head to look at what Daivor was doing. He could barely make out a light blue glow coming from the vial he handed the gnome. Soon the light dimmed and Daivor gave a loud sigh.

“Phew! Man, that was a chore. Here ya go boss!”

Daivor tossed the vial out in front of Kaleb who barely had enough time to catch it. He grasped it out of the air and inspected the glowing vial. Other than being warmer then it was before, he couldn’t tell a difference.

Jar-lock leaned forward. “What did he do?”

Kaleb shook his head. “No idea, I really need to figure out what he can do. The spell he used to mask the smell out here used my Mana but this he seemed to do by himself.”

“It’s probably like our Ifrit’s abilities. Natural abilities they can do without a cost but if they try to cast spells then they draw the Mana from us.” Vivienne explained.

Varlin agreed. “True, they can toss fireballs all day but if they try for anything bigger, it will drain us.”

Kaleb nodded as he addressed his Familiar. “Hey, what did you do to this?” Kaleb held up the vial again.

Daivor didn’t answer and as Kaleb shifted to look he heard a light snoring. Vivienne gave a coo of delight as Kaleb saw that the gnome had passed out on his shoulder. The gnome was splayed himself out over Kaleb‘s shoulder and Kaleb cringed as he heard the gnome snort loudly.

“AWWWW.” Vivienne said.

“That’s just adorable.” Two Gun said.

“Whatever he did most have worn him out.” Varlin added.

Kaleb sighed as he carefully moved his Familiar to the arm of his chair. “If you heard the little cuss speak you wouldn’t think him so adorable.”

Two Gun shrugged. “That kind of makes it more adorable.”

Kaleb held up the blue vial and twisted it in the fading light. Turning to Varlin he asked. “Can you use Identify to figure out what this is?”

Varlin nodded as he took the vial and quietly cast a spell on it. As he did Kaleb looked around at the others having their own conversations and eating pleasantly. He spotted Roy over talking to Mass and waved him over. Roy excused himself and walked over asking.

“What you need, Doc?”

Kaleb grinned up at his assistant. “I wanted you to know: I will see your grandfather in the next couple of days.”

“What?! Why does he want to meet you?!” Roy asked surprised.

“I don't know. It seems hee wants to talk about some stuff.” Kaleb answered.

Roy crossed his arms and looked at Kaleb in disbelief. “What stuff?”

Kaleb smiled as he shrugged. “Something to help us out. Don’t worry though he is going to make me work for it.”

“I’m coming with you.” Roy stated.

Kaleb shook his head. “No, you stay here and finish school. You want to hit the ground running with this Super thing, right?”

Roy nodded.

“So just focus on that for now. I swear whatever your gramps gives me I will share with you. Including the pain if he doles any out.” Kaleb explained smiling

Roy gave a reluctant nod and Kaleb smiled before looked to Varlin to see if he discovered anything. As he met eyes with Varlin, the Sorcerer spoke excitedly.

“This is a power source. It’s pulsing with Mana but that’s not what is generating the power. The power is organic, it’s like your gnome friend just amped up the biological processes that were already there.”

Kaleb nodded as he rubbed his chin. “Some jellyfish feed by photosynthesis. Maybe he sped that up somehow?”

Varlin shrugged as he handed the vial back to Kaleb. “I don’t know, but I received 30 SP just for analyzing the thing. Which ain’t bad at all.” The Sorcerer grinned wide and walked back to their group of friends.

Kaleb felt the warm vial in his hand and stared at the sleeping gnome. I feel like I got an amazing helper somehow. Kaleb thought as he carefully placed the vial in his pocket and picked up his plate of ribs.