Bonded Summoner

Book 3. Chapter 5: The Race Begins

Jake and Ophelia hastily formed runes of fire, and merged them into a single formation of runic phrases. They coalesced and formed into a giant spear of flame, and shot it at their target: a giant gelatinous blob.

It lit aflame and screamed, or rather warbled in agony, and Bloodberri’s upper body’s runes lit up, along with her [Mace of Hestia] attack lighting her up even further. At the top of her giant maul, Jake’s [Aura of Heavenly Flames] coalesced, lighting it with Hestia’s Holy fire. She blurred towards the creature that was actually larger than her, and smashed it into the already agonized blob like she was going for another home run.

When the maul hit the creature, it was like a bomb went off. It was a localized one, and it exploded from Bloodberri’s maul, into and through the creature. A large hole went straight through the core of the creature, and it fell apart into a large puddle rapidly, dead.

Rift Closed.

Contribution Points Earned: 1543

When Jake, Ophelia, and Bloodberri arrived at the first rift and started to clean up the enemies, they quickly realized that they likely would not require Fhesiah’s help, at least for the first. She would miss out on the kill energy granted by closing the rifts, but her work was paramount. Both for the beastkin, but also her personal progression. By mastering these alchemical skills, she could likely improve on her own creation of pills with the Framework’s aid.

They were skeletons, including many archers and mages, and strange bone-constructs that Jake bet even the ranged attacks of the beastkin would not be very effective. This made it easy for the three to completely dominate the enemies, their spells perfectly tailored for destroying the creatures. Since it wasn’t a Necromancer, they were even able to loot everything. Every Credit counted, now that they were fighting a war.

When they arrived at the blobs, they realized that they once again didn’t really need her help, and Jake was definitely noticing a pattern. [Tartarus] had certainly chosen creatures that would be good against the beastkin who lacked magic. He bet that the blobs would have been nearly impossible to be killed without any awakened warriors, and to strike at the core of the boss creature with melee attacks alone even with them would have been very challenging. At the same time, even the not so great mages of Ariminium would have had no problem with the creature.

But for Jake and Ophelia, the creatures were a bit of a joke. Bloodberri would have felt a bit useless against the smaller ones, but Jake’s aura helped out, allowing even slices of her serrated tail to trigger the effect. She swayed through the field of blobs without a care, causing miniature explosions of holy fire to blast the blobs that tried to attack her or that she targeted.

Jake was quite surprised at the ability, as it was the second ability of his that truly felt gamelike. Almost all the magic he had learned followed what Jake would consider a sort of equivalent exchange: magic or spells followed rules, on the most basic level. Doing something costs mana, and something could not be gained for nothing. You could get better at using spells, or the Framework might assist or otherwise help empower the spells, but this appeared to be a fundamental truth to Jake.

What Jake would expect for how the Aura should work based on that, would be that every time an explosion was triggered, Jake’s mana should be drained an appropriate amount to cause the effect. Something was happening each time an attack was blocked, or his allies made an attack, so shouldn’t that cost mana?

But it didn’t. It only cost him an amount of mana to maintain the effect, other than the radius of his aura. Whether his Aura covered a hundred or a thousand people, all attacking and defending, it didn’t cost him more or less to maintain. Even Jake’s other buff spells, except for one, followed this same rule, for the most part. Jake had felt that the mana cost for buffing the badgerdillo instead of his girls was certainly lower.

Thanks to this fact, once again, Jake really had no reason not to keep his Aura of Heavenly Flames active at all times. It drained his mana regeneration, but he had that in spades. Between the three girls now sending him energy, he hardly noticed the difference surrounding his party when they were near.

Divine Reinforcement was different, as well. Unlike the Einherjar weight lifting example, it affected Bloodberri just as much as Fhesiah or Ophelia, for all the same cost; it simply made them 54% better at everything, well, 67.5% now, at Champion Magic level 2 with his buffing specialization. This defied what Jake considered the usual rules from what he’d seen, and he guessed it had to do with their divine nature. He could now see why Hestia wanted to put as much budget into a divine spell, rather than several of a lesser quality for his class, his template.

They had now cleared a path to a village, but after having Ira check it and make sure it wasn’t in danger, they head off to clear the next rift instead. Jake wasn’t sure how long it would take for Tartarus to change the rift up, or mount a major attack on the nearby village. Time was of the essence, as it was getting kind of late in the evening, and he knew the feast was about to begin; he could always recruit later.

Before they left, they had one more task that they gave out to their new guild members. Ophelia purchased what Jake learned were called censers, that used magical holy incense to release a billowing smoke. This smoke would then remove the taint that Tanda was concerned with. They focused on their few avian beastkin teaming up with other members, to scout the area and ensure they weren’t attacked. This was primarily a test, to see if they could easily counter the blight with T0 items.

He communicated with Tanda, letting her know that two rifts were already closed, and wondering when her assault would be.

“You already closed two rifts? We’re going to assault ours shortly. Still, you got there pretty fast, did that shield fly you the whole way somehow?”

Jake just wryly smiled at the fact that she was quite aware of how he was flying, the shield dragging him through the air. He replied, “The shield’s flight is a little less permanent than we need. I’m riding on Bloodberri.”

Tanda paused. “You’re riding your mate?”

Jake almost felt embarrassed at the jab, but realized he wasn’t anymore. Bloodberri was an amazing mount. He decided to take a line from Fhesiah. “I’ll do that later. Right now, I’m riding in a basket on Bloodberri’s back and closing rifts.”

“That…that was a joke?” Tanda laughed. “Not bad, Champion. I’ll update you once we’ve closed ours, and we will bring the node out to the village here.”

Tanda ended their side of the communication, and Jake noticed Bloodberri was acting a little strange over their bond. “What is it?”

Berri blushed, and turned to look sort of towards Jake with upturned eyes, which was hard given how he was riding on her back. But she held a shoulder of the strap for the basket, allowing her to impossibly twist her torso around and still accomplish this. “Well, you said you would ride me later…did you mean that?”

Jake groaned. Now it was like he had to pay for his joke. It wasn’t her night, though, so–

“It’s okay, Jake. You can take care of her needs before mine, but I’d like you to make it up to me.”

Jake narrowed his eyes in suspicion at Ophelia. This one was learning a bit too much from Fhesiah, he thought. Just what was there to be made up for, this one was merely taking advantage!

[What was that rude thought, Jake? Would you rather tell the poor snake girl that she’d have to wait for her night, after looking at her cute, puppy-but-snake eyes? Still, it has nothing to do with taking advantage. I want my time with you just as much as she does, you know.]

Jake backed down, feeling a little bad. He apologized in his mind for having jumped to the wrong conclusion.

Jake said to Berri, “Of course, Berri. I certainly didn’t want to get your hopes up and then let you down. I’d be happy to spend some time with you tonight.”

He was about to move on in his mind, when he felt a flash of a feeling of victory from the snake-girl in question.

He narrowed his eyes in suspicion again. “Don’t tell me you were the one trying to take advantage, Berri!”

Berri’s expression shifted to a smile of satisfaction, like the cat who got the cream, but her eyes flashed, and it was Blood who spoke, “It would do you well to not treat Berri like a child; her acting has long since been by design, Milord. She’s done it for so long that it’s hard for even me to know where her personality ends and her act begins, but she is definitely not above using it to her advantage.”

But Bloodberri’s smile turned predatory, Blood taking control of the rest of their features, “And I’ve long since been guiding and pointing out ways for her to take advantage as well. Consider this your warning; you can’t consider it deception when you’ve been properly warned, yes?”

Berri now looked and felt a little ashamed. “I’m sorry, Jake. I just really wanted some more… quality time with you.”

Jake sighed, he knew it wasn’t like Berri was stupid, or a child. Of course, if both girls felt like he wasn’t giving them enough attention, then he was more than willing to give it to them. He felt bad that he was duped by, in retrospect, obvious deception, but he felt worse that she felt like she needed to do it in the first place.

Jake was glad that at least now, a majority of the flock Tanda would be assaulting their Rift with were initiated. While deaths would hurt their victory, it was still better than them being consumed by the dungeon and lost forever, or the village being attacked. Jake had learned that their assault was due to a promise they had made to defend the village in the past.

His party made their way to their second to last rift for the day. They found it to be undead, and so Ophelia’s Hearth of Hestia and consecration made for a quick clearing. They even utilized adding flames to the hearths after it had been spawned, making the strange summons last long and use consecration of their own, as well.

It was a three stage challenge, and a strange, massive bone monstrosity was spawned on the final stage. Jake thought it almost looked like the giant blob they fought, but with giant arms and feet with no legs that made it shuffle on the ground, and spikes of bone coming out from all over it.

Still, it was no match for Bloodberri’s maul. She blazed with Jake’s Heavenly Aura and Armor of Faith. Between the two, she felt invincible for anything that was not the peak of their tier. She had already hit level 19, being ahead of Jake and the rest. Her class was a bit weaker to give less attributes per level than Jake and Ophelia’s, but her base stats were high.

Her maul smashed into the bone, and much of it exploded away, with Jake’s aura adding onto the damage. Jake had signaled her that she might want to wait to expose a weak point before she used her [Mace of Hestia] attack. When her Priestess magic became advanced, it simply improved to hit harder, and heal in an even larger area around her. Or in the case of fighting undead, wipe them away in an even larger area.josei

Her armor of faith had reached advanced before the fortress assault, and they found that it changed little. It simply made it so that she could switch the protection much more rapidly from one person to another, but also so that it was easier for her to keep it permanently on a second target. Because of that, it was always active on herself and Jake, though that was usually the case before, it was just more efficient now.

When the spell was active, it had little visible difference. Jake thought it almost looked like the area around himself or Bloodberri was blurred. That changed when he or she were struck through. It was like some form of light would obstruct or lighten the blow significantly. Because of the blurring type effect, it made it easier for a blow to somewhat miss its mark and skid off his armor, like what happened to Ophelia when she fought Bloodberri in their refuge.

Between his Aura of Heavenly Flames, Divine Reinforcement, and her Armor of Faith, Jake had some expectation of surviving a powerful attack even without armor. With his armor filled with his enchantments, it would take an excessively powerful blow to pierce the defenses, or to significantly harm him, let alone Bloodberri wearing powerful full plate armor. After these rifts, it felt like if it wasn’t a boss monster or a champion, Bloodberri couldn’t even be harmed, other than some minor repairs necessary to her armor.

She continued to smash the bone away with miniature explosions with each strike, and the bone tried to regrow where she destroyed, but it was futile. She dug furrows into the monstrosity, the bone arms trying ineffectually to stop her. Eventually she decided it was enough, and charged up her [Mace of Hestia] attack.

It smashed into where Jake thought was near the center of the creature with a giant crash, and the center was destroyed in a giant sphere around her, causing the entire creature to collapse.

Rift Closed.

Contribution Points Earned: 1768

Jake was quite thankful for the looting skill, as playing one thousand bone pickup was not a game he was interested in playing. He was surprised that using the skill cost a fair portion of his mana, and that many bones of different types arrived in his Storage Bracelet, nearly filling one of them in one go. He wondered what he could use the bones for, as he even had some bones from the dragon, and the skeletons from other rifts besides. Jake could sell them, but he felt like if the bones were from Highlands creatures especially, they should have another purpose.

Jake noticed that where the undead had spawned, there was a blight on the crops. He had Berri use her holy mana, and she was in fact able to remove the blight, partially restoring the diseased and dying plants. But it wasn’t very efficient, taking a lot of her time. To clear a whole plateau of blight would take days.

The other thing he noticed, as they passed through the plateaus that contained villages, was that crops covered nearly the entire plateau. Where there was nothing growing, there was either grass that looked eaten by livestock, or it appeared that nothing could grow well enough. Jake guessed that the beastkin that lived in the village required nearly all the land to sustain themselves. The mountain was a bit too treacherous to transport significant amounts of food anywhere else for many of the plateaus. There were some trees near the outskirts, along with berries and other things that appeared good for foraging.

They headed to the last rift for the day, and Jake was wondering just what Tanda would have done against that monstrosity. He knew she wasn’t alone, but he couldn’t help but feel most of what he saw would be useless against it. Still, with his party all having some form of holy flames or abilities, he did feel like it was probably a type of undead that stood the worst chance against his group. A necromancer would have just been crushed by Bloodberri in a mere instant, or burned by Spears of Hestia.

As they arrived at the final plateau, Jake noticed that the grass and crops were blighted. He guessed that there must have been undead here, at some point.

They arrived at the last rift, and they found it to be a single wave, more of a swarm of Hobgoblin skirmishers. This surprised Jake, as he thought that he would be seeing undead for sure.

They rode on top of giant wolves, and threw javelins. Once again, Bloodberri proved to be invulnerable, but they found that this was actually the most annoying of all the Rifts. They were quickly surrounded, the skirmishers throwing javelins from all directions and fleeing when Bloodberri approached. She was a little faster, but it took some time to catch up to any of them, so Jake had her pretend to flee around the outskirts of the [Challenge], seen as a pale translucent dome on the outside. His party could actually leave, but the creatures that spawned for the challenge would quickly join up with others and be a detriment to the nearby village.

She gathered the skirmishers up after half a lap along the outside, and Ophelia, carrying Jake through the sky, formed up the runes of [Chain Lightning] with Jake. They cast it several times, the lightning jumping from wolf to rider and so on, until many of them had been struck. They certainly couldn’t hit all of them with each casting, so it took many, but Bloodberri had already turned around and came after them, Blood casting her area of effect slowing and weakness effects. It was now pandemonium as riders crashed into downed wolves, and all trying to flee at once in all directions. Some were even trapped by the dome, unable to leave in that direction.

Ophelia and Jake were also waiting near where they would flee. They mopped the rest of them up in short order, and the Rift was completed.

Rift Closed.

Contribution Points Earned: 1435

That was the final rift Jake had marked for the day, and for all of them they hadn’t felt a need to call Fhesiah. This one had spawned on the plateau where the second village was, so Jake realized they really showed up just in time before it would be assaulted, or what might have been a major loss of life for them.

Jake had Ira check the village to see if they were in danger, them being able to teleport themselves over small distances rapidly. Ira was larger now, but still not at the level where they could kill anything at Tier 1, or assist them in fighting. It would be quite some time before Ira reached Tier 1, despite absorbing large amounts of energy in his hearth, even in their Refuge. Jake may need to find other ways to grow them, as they were not keeping up with their party’s growth, as far as Jake could tell. He knew it would normally be hundreds of years with the creature exploring the void before it might grow up, but had hoped his hearth would move the creature forward with his ideal conditions.

Ira returned after just a few moments, and gave Jake the feeling that there was a proper guard and the village seemed fine for the time being, as he was sent a feeling of vigilance. Jake decided to use his portal here, and to return to visit the village for recruitment tomorrow. No doubt it would be safe to portal back where he had won back the conquest map, but he could also check the conquest map prior.

It took a minute because he was not near town, but eventually the portal opened, and they entered their refuge and started getting cleaned up, finding out Fhesiah was there. She was wearing the clothing of the natives, though she had definitely picked one of the least conservative outfits he had seen. Jake saw that her firm breasts were wrapped tightly in what looked like a red beast leather sports bra with a wrap around her neck and back, and her navel exposed. She had a red skirt that went barely passed her thighs, though he could see she had some sort of tight leather shorts underneath, showing off the tightness of her ass. It also covered the area around her tail, that would otherwise lift her skirt slightly in the back. She had some gold-colored paint drawn on most of her exposed skin, and Jake thought it looked like Celtic patterns.

“Have fun without me? Here, I got these clothes for you. Apparently, your Tribal Council membership was officially approved, so you get to wear this headdress, too.”

Jake looked over what she held up, and found it to be red tanned leather clothing. The same lion’s mane of a strong golden color, with beaded black feathers laced inside. He started putting the clothing on, finding that his midriff was exposed, showing off his abs. The shirt was also like that of an a-shirt, so his muscular arms were exposed as well. The outfit was complete with a pair of something like shorts with no shoes, like the beastkin, as their often digitigrade clawed feet, or hoofed feet, would not benefit much from wearing shoes, he guessed. Fhesiah dropped a sort of sandals for him to wear, having thought of this, too.

Ophelia and Bloodberri were getting ready in outfits similar to Fhesiah’s. Fhesiah wolf-whistled, and approached with some golden finger-paint, Jake guessed the same that she had used on herself. She said, “Your body is really becoming something special, husband. Maybe we do have some time to sneak away for a minute or twenty? Though, I do look forward to seeing how these people party.”

Ophelia added, “I wonder what these Auril Beasts will taste like? Think they will have any of that available?”

Jake thought there should definitely be some of that, though he might have supplied a fair portion of the food for the same feast they would ultimately be eating at.

“Oh! I wonder what kind of games the kids will play? There will be kids there, right, Jake?”

Jake smiled at Berri. “I think so. They are family-oriented, so they should be a part of the celebration. Not only that, but they deserve to celebrate just as much as the adults, as they even helped fighting in the ways they could.”

Bloodberri now had a red massive sports bra and skirt, along with Ophelia. They both looked absolutely stunning to him. Fhesiah started adding some gold body-paint to each of them, but after they caught on to the method or theme, they helped get the group of them painted up, including Jake. The paint felt warm on his skin, and he realized it must contain small amounts of life force in it.

Painting completed, Fhesiah handed him four beaded, toothed, clawed, and feathered necklaces. Jake noticed that the feathers and beads chosen were of a red and gold motif.

Jake said, “These are?”

Fhesiah said, “These are necklaces worn by the women. Specifically, by those who already have a mate. If you see a woman wearing one, to approach and flirt with her is seen very negatively; you’ll be seen as a homewrecker, a destroyer of families and looked on in disdain. Their mate might even challenge you to an honor duel, and even if you win, it will be like you lost in the eyes of the tribe.

This is how the younger males know which women are available, to challenge to courtship duels for forming their clans. The men don’t really wear them, but may wear some adornments on bracers or other clothing to show their number of mates, and other symbolism. We girls will need to work on your adornments, but this was the best I could do with such short notice.”

Jake nodded, and sensing what Fhesiah had in mind, placed it over Fhesiah’s head and onto her neck next to her other necklace. Jake had eventually managed to make a necklace for all four of them, including himself, though the effect on the smaller necklaces wasn’t nearly as significant as Bloodberri’s. They were more or less the same, only having the girl’s or Jake’s color as the primary heart in the center. Instead of a barrier, it merely provided only the emergency healing portion of the effect, should it detect their life in danger.

Jake kissed her, and moved on to place the next necklace around Ophelia’s neck, doing the same. Jake launched himself up onto a runic platform to do the same for Bloodberri, putting two around her neck and kissing her.

Blood said, “Milord, that was certainly a lordly entrance. I think I will treasure for all time, our husband’s grand entrance on Highlands. I definitely want to reward my Lord for fulfilling my desires at his earliest convenience.”

Jake was a little proud of how things played out, but he chuckled. “Your entrance was just as grand, you know. I know you are a little sour about me not riding on you, Berri, but you really helped take the burden off the beastkin while I addressed them. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

Berri’s feelings were mixed. While she was proud about what she accomplished, and she took out some of her frustrations on the skeletal army, she would have enjoyed her Lord’s entrance riding on her back much more.

Ophelia added, “You were very heroic, Jake! Blood is right. We wanted you to come in big like the champion we knew you were, and you really delivered. Thanks, Jake.”

Fhesiah wrapped her body around Jake, caressing his abs and licking her lips. “Why’d you have to remind me of that? Now we need at least an hour or two before we can join the party!” She grabbed his hand, and started pulling him towards the bedroom, but Jake resisted. He could tell she was half-joking. She smiled, and Jake could tell that while she was jesting, she was immensely proud of what Jake had done.

He stepped back and looked at his girls, and his heart swelled with pride. All their hearths flickered in intensity, and he could tell that their feelings were mutual; they looked at him with affection, excited for what the future would bring. “I couldn’t have done it without you girls. You all make me want to be better, to work hard and fulfil all our dreams.” He looked at their necklaces. “I definitely want to make sure everyone knows that you’re all mine, even if they should already know. You girls are all amazing. We’re going to kick Tartarus out of this place, and make it our home. Let’s go have some fun. We’ve all earned it.”

Berri cheered along with Ophelia, and they went through the portal in their refuge back to the Alliance HQ.