Bonded Summoner

Book 3 - Interlude 2 - Ophelia - Gifts and Empowerment

The black leather armor Berri held out looked extremely well-made. Sturdy, yet supple.

Tanda stammered, “W-What, for me?”

Blood said, “Berri wanted to thank you, for the show you put on for the kids, and for how you’ve been helping our efforts. Also, it’s kind of our practice trash.”

Tanda looked at it doubtfully. “Practice trash?”

Blood nodded. “Well, yes. This was our first attempt at enhancing your auril beast hide leathers, using essence extracted from more magical beasts. She even ‘tricked’ Jake into enchanting it with your runes. We were worried about you. You are strong for your level, but it is only that. You are still weak.”

Ophelia realized the ‘trick’ was merely that she hadn’t told Jake who the leathers were for.

Tanda frowned, and looked a little hurt with her ears flat on her head. Blood was more than a little blunt, but Ophelia could tell that Tanda knew that she was just stating the facts, and that from her immense strength, she certainly had every right to.

Blood continued, “Regarding the previous topic, I think it is perfectly fine to seek power in a mate. Even human women do, even if they delude themselves otherwise, as power takes many forms. I can both see and feel your potential, but you are not yet strong. When you used your power of death, I felt similarities with my darkness. You appear to be the most proven without a mate female in the world, and that’s why I support you in joining our clan. Make sure you keep it that way.”

Tanda frowned in confusion. “Keep it that way?”

“Yes. Do not be weak. Do not let some other beastkin woman pass you in strength, or you will lose my endorsement. Also, if you failed to take and succeed your Trial, I would be severely disappointed in you.”

“And I just want to see you in more plays! I really liked your song, dance, and your voice, and– Well, I’m rooting for you!”

Ophelia picked up on Berri almost bringing up that she really wanted to play baseball with the talking dog, but Blood stopped her.

Tanda looked dumbfounded, holding up the auril leathers. From what Ophelia could tell, this was a well-made rare item, but still Tier 0. It had a helmet that was covered with a hide that looked like a wolf, the wolf’s snout protruding at the top and bottom of where her face would go. The ears were removed, allowing her own wolf ears to pop out where the ears on the wolf’s head were. The rest was not all that dissimilar from her old leathers, but Ophelia could feel some odd deathly energies coming from it. She could tell from her magical senses that it was quite sturdy, that metal was somehow embedded inside in various locations, protecting her vitals.

“Still, this looks like it should be expensive, what about the law of balance?”

Blood responded, “Surely, you have to have earned some more credits from your rift closures? We can use a debt contract, if you can’t afford it. You’ll have it paid in a short time from rifts, and it will hardly influence their difficulty, Tier 0 that the item is. You are facing Tier 1 creatures with hundreds of your allies, it is no problem.”

Berri added, “Try it on! I want to see you wear it!”

They did the debt contract, finding she did have enough for the item, and they quickly guided Tanda to try it on. She stepped out from behind a divider in an area for dressing in the armory, and Ophelia was surprised.

“Yay! You really look like the ancestor! Well, mixed with his raven wife.”

Tanda asked, “What are these flaps on the side, that go around my wings?”

“Heroes should wear capes! Everybody knows that! But, it would get in the way of your wings, so I draped them down the sides.”

Ophelia covered her mouth as she chuckled. She really did look like she was wearing a cape, especially when her wings were down, resting.

“W-What’s so funny? Why should a hero wear a cape?”

Ophelia just shook her head. It was too hard to explain about the many superhero movies that humans watched. Berri had recently watched one for kids that had many dogs and other animals that were super, one of which wore a cape.

Berri then stood her in front of a mirror. “I think you look cool, see!”

In front of the mirror, Tanda was smiling as she looked at herself, and her tail was wagging– though when she noticed this, she frowned, willing it to stop. Ophelia saw that Berri had a sly look as she noticed the same thing, perhaps enjoying the aspect of their new friend that was like a dog. Ophelia did think Tanda looked like a cool hero. Her bracers looked extra thick and sturdy, along with her chest piece.

Blood added, “We made sure to add extra protection, sort of sandwiched some thin steel plates between the beast leather. This way, your vitals are still covered when you are low on auril, or if you had been taken unawares. We extracted and infused a death beetle’s essence into the armor, that had a strong carapace.”josei

Berri said, “You should try out Jake’s enchantments! Try your auril now.”

Tanda moved her auril, and the armor really came to life, as it began exuding the finality of death. The feeling of death became palpable, and Ophelia was amazed.

Tanda punched out her fist, and swung her spear with noticeably increased power.

Tanda was awed, and nearly speechless. “Such… Such a huge difference. I… Thank you. Thank you so much. I don’t understand how?”

“Jake said lots of stuff, but I didn’t really listen!”

“I’d smack you, sister, if it didn’t hurt myself. He said the material was good enough that he was willing to try a formation, and we had him use the runes that he thought were most likely to be successful, the beastkin language. We’re lucky it worked out, but he added strength, death, life, protection, balance, and harmony, he said. He even put ravens and wolves on your cape.”

She looked down at the runes on her chest. “It’s kind of like a song. I… I owe you, Clan Hart. I’ll try to find a way to restore the balance, between us.”

Ophelia heard a snort. “Didn’t you already pay the debt contract? Still, I’m glad I made it in time, too.”

Fhesiah floated in with her fan, giving it a small flourish before closing it.

Tanda was surprised. “Fhesiah?”

“That’s right. I, too, come bearing a gift.”

“This–”

“We are happy that you have been a decent sport. That you’ve added several villages already, reduces the burden on us, and our husband. It’s only been a couple of days, but we had really pushed ourselves in the training prior to arrival, too. You have truly taken your job as our envoy seriously, and we can’t thank you enough for that. Not only that, but you are an important resource in this war. Let us do our best to help you, just like we’ll help your brethren. We hope that in time, you see us as one and the same. We heard that your people didn’t have a high opinion of those that joined the Framework, and before we arrived, we thought this was going to be an uphill battle convincing your people. But really, you’ve helped a lot in that, and our success has already been greater than our best predictions.”

Tanda was startled, and it seemed she was reminded of this fact. “The adventurers… They were really terrible! Even during the defense of the first HQ, they went out to close rifts, instead. When Harmony Peaks was attacked, they wouldn’t join because there was no quest! They said the risk wasn’t worth the reward, that it was too far. One even offered to lay down his life, only if we handed them over some brides! When we refused, they threatened to leave this world.”

Ophelia was shocked. “What guild were they from?”

“War, Glory, Profit. It was mostly humans that were adventurers, but there were some dwarves, orcs, and trolls, too.”

Ophelia did some digging in the wiki, and found that this guild didn’t have a patron god or goddess listed, but it was known to have connections to [The Golden Legion], and [Swift Traders]. These guilds' patron gods were Ares, and Hermes, respectively.

Fhesiah quirked her brow. “Hestia’s Nephews? Well, they are only tangentially related, but I can’t help but feel it’s similar to some things I read about them. Hestia feels like a diamond in a sea of garbage compared to some of those.”

Ophelia nodded, judging by their behavior, the separation of the guilds was probably more for plausible deniability for dirty deeds than there really not being a true connection.

Fhesiah said, “Back to the gift. I’ve been working very hard to try to create a repeatable process, for allowing your herbalists and alchemists to create pills and tonics. These are for improving the concentration of life energy, and latent will extracted from the plants, to allow your people to ingest them and gain as much as possible. Things are not where I want to be on that yet, the effectiveness using your methods, as I had to start over from scratch on this.”

Fhesiah pulled out a pill container, and opened it up. A waft of herbal aroma entered Ophelia’s nose, and she felt like she was back in the Highlands jungle.

“But my methods are more than good enough, for trapping the life energy and adding latent will. There were even some trash Tier 0 [Inner Force] concoctions available on the market. I condensed those further, and merged it into these. You should be able to consume these once per day, and combined with fights where the Framework rewards you the latent will, you should find yourself increasing in level towards Tier 1 reliably. They may be enough on their own with enough time, but I think you will get much more benefit if you do both.”

Tanda said with a frown. “You… How? We’ve only had the Framework for a month, but so few had leveled. We really couldn’t see much of a correlation with fighting, other than that some leveled after battle… ”

Fhesiah smiled. “The multiverse is truly vast. Your auril is interesting, and it is unique in its own way; your people have every right to be proud of it. However, in the end, it holds similarities to other things. I used that knowledge to create these. Something cannot come from nothing, your people’s strength and life force both increases from what you consume, but also the growing of your spirit. These pills shall do both, though the latter is minimal. Doing any better than I have would make the items Tier 1, and too expensive.”

They created a Debt Contract once again, Tanda looking over at it in confusion. “Something this valuable, how come it is so cheap?”

Ophelia replied, “Many consumables for restoring resources are affordable unless they are truly special or rare, but I think Fhesiah is giving you something quite close to food, which has very little value in the multiversal war. The Framework had negotiated the value of food to near-zero, to reduce Tartarus’ manipulating it overly much in the great game. If food cost too much, people would be forced to fight just in order to live, or being gifted too much food would cause their difficulty to skyrocket thanks to the ledger.”

Fhesiah nodded. “Yes, that is accurate. These are ultimately just plants you are eating, condensed and distilled into a concoction, their life force. It has value, but it is not overly much. Their effectiveness for combat is minimal, so Tartarus can’t arbitrarily increase the value without the items having excessive rarity or influence on your potential. Really, your people could simply eat thousands of these plants and get the same result, I’m just making it…a little more palatable.”

Tanda frowned. “These pills contain thousands of plants? But the balance of the area will be harmed! If we remove too many plants, the effect will cascade across the territory, having countless effects.”

“The balance? Ah, so this is the reason, huh? I had wondered about this. I saw benefits of eating Auril beasts, but your people do not consume them often. Aside from feasts, or rare hunts on the calendar, your people avoid eating them, opting for farm animals or Tier 0 creatures instead. This is because of the balance once again? Surely, your people saw the benefit of eating auril beasts, I don’t think your people are stupid.”

Tanda frowned, and looked conflicted. “Not entirely. We kind of… Keep people from hunting them and consuming them too much. It’s for the balance, but we somewhat knew hunting and consuming auril beasts and some high vitality plants deep within the jungle would eventually result in more auril heroes.”

Ophelia gasped. “You know how to make your people stronger, but you keep yourself from doing it? But Rookard said that your people refused to be weak.”

Tanda sighed. “Ever since the taint, more auril heroes has always led to more tyrants. It has always led to more greed, and hatred. So we, the ravenwolf, lion, wolf and many other tribes concerned with the balance, have moved our traditions to avoiding hunting what you know as Tier 1 Auril Beasts except on special occasions.”

Blood said, “You have knowingly kept your people weak? I am very disappointed. That is the way of cowards.”

Tanda shook her head. “It’s not an act of cowardice. It really does preserve the balance, improving the overall life within the world. Only when the world is in harmony, can it truly heal. We may have taken what feels like the weaker path, but it was necessary. The world has healed significantly thanks to us taking this one, and it would only be a few more generations before the taint was finally removed. Only when the world is healed can the curse be eliminated from our hearts.”

Tanda bit her lip, her face morphed into a scowl. “If we had left things as they were, the taint would have grown, instead! For the first few hundred years, the curse had only gotten worse! Tyrants came about, and they behaved just like that dragon. They would plunder all the vast resources in the jungle, undoing decades of progress in an area, and slay their brethren. It was twofold, the death god’s curse hurting us from both sides– hurting the world, and cursing it further. It goes without saying that even if we defeated the tyrant, the loss of beastkin life each time was immense, besides.”

Ophelia and the other girls were left speechless, but they could picture what she was saying. Not only would war come to Highlands each time one appeared, and many resources squandered, but many beastkin would die, and decades of work would be undone.

She continued, “Since then, we changed our traditions and were very selective on who would or could eventually become auril heroes. Only someone talented and strong, but resonated strongly with the world itself, could become an auril hero after the changes to our traditions– we would even aid the right ones, bringing meat and rare plants from deep within the jungles. My people were in charge of making sure the nomadic peoples were still sticking to the traditions. Luckily, it takes quite a bit of time of just eating auril beast meat to noticeably improve. The growing of the spirit is probably more done with the connection to the world.”

The girls stood in silence for a moment, but Blood added, “I’m sorry, Tanda. I was wrong, not knowing the whole picture. Surely, you could consume the beasts some more to help win the war, though?”

Ophelia said excitedly, “Maybe you can just be more efficient about it, like Fhesiah’s alchemy? The balance won’t be harmed as much, if you make sure to extract every morsel from the corpse?”

Berri added, “Oh! What if you just eat them while they’re still alive?”

Tanda was speechless, but Ophelia laughed. “I was thinking more with some special method of cooking them, or maybe adding some of these plants. I bet Jake could do something amazing with them!”

Tanda looked at her doubtfully. “Jake cooks? But he’s a warrior, crafter, builder, enchanter, champion of a goddess, lord, guild leader, and mage?”

“Yes! Jake’s cooking is the best!”

Fhesiah added, “Yes, he’s quite something. Why don’t you have one of those pills before you go? What level are you, anyway?”

Tanda held the small pill in her fingers doubtfully. “I just eat it? I’m level 6.”

“You swallow it. Hopefully you’ll learn that properly if you become Jake’s mate.”

Tanda frowned in confusion, but swallowed the pill.

Ophelia added, “I’m surprised, you were only level 6? Yet you fought to close many higher level rifts, had you not leveled?”

Tanda shook her head, and said, “I think… I haven’t been eating all that well lately, running myself ragged with travel and fighting. If what Fhesiah says is true, that– What’s going on?”

Ophelia could feel it where she was standing: the life energy was being released from the pill. It was palpable in the air, the feeling of life energy, far greater than that in the jungle. Tanda was looking a little distressed. Ophelia thought she saw even the armor react to the energy, loosening and tightening around her body. She thought she even saw the ‘cape’ move.

Fhesiah smiled and put a hand on Tanda’s back reassuringly. “Don’t worry, Tanda. Everything’s fine. Just breathe.”

Tanda took a moment to calm down, but began breathing slowly. Eventually, she spoke, “My heart started really pounding, but it seemed hungry? Now, I think it feels good?” She shivered. “I feel like, I really needed that. Oh! I gained a level.”

Fhesiah smirked. “It looked like you really enjoyed that. Still, I like my form of leveling up even better.”

Tanda frowned at that, but her entire demeanor perked up. “Wow, that really hit the spot! I feel great!”

Her tail was wagging once again, and there was an extra pep in her ears, standing straighter that Ophelia could clearly see.

“Regarding the balance of the thousand plants to make the pills, I only said that it was like eating a thousand plants. Only a few salads,” Fhesiah shivered, pausing, “worth of auril plants went into the making of those, but they were enhanced by Qi; the energy of the heavens, and a few other ingredients. This is why, so far, they are not repeatable methods by your people. I’m sure I could have them set up some kind of distillery to accomplish this, but then you would have to source plants from all over your jungle to keep up with production, and your people won’t like this.”

Tanda nodded, and Fhesiah continued, “I believe we will need to work hard on the growing method, to both maintain the balance your people are concerned about, but also to increase the life force present in the plants. This is outside my expertise, but I am trying to learn and work together with your herbalists. This will take much longer, but I should be able to work towards awakening guild members first using my methods, for now.”

Ophelia was far from being a fan of salads, but Fhesiah had an outright distaste for them; that was what her food eats, after all. Bloodberri was used to eating whatever was put in front of them, so they didn’t mind them. Still, all of Jake’s girls certainly preferred meat.

“Those were my personal gift to you.” Fhesiah took out another case. “These are for your flock, as many of them are in our guild. I will be handing the same out to our other guild members, so don’t worry about it. They have different levels of efficacy, though none of them compare to your special gift.” She winked at Tanda.

Ophelia interrupted, “How did you make so many? That looks like a lot?”

Fhesiah smirked. “Haven’t been into my lab recently, have you? I have several cauldrons and pill furnaces now. We now have thousands of guild members in total now, either here or on the way to Kenwodi, so this was the only way I could keep up. I did also delegate a few processes, as those should transfer into the final method we come up with together with the Framework.”

She continued, “There is an unawakened version, and one for each level where their potency will be higher. Feed one to your tribe mates each day, and along with some fights and auril beast meat, you should push your people closer to awakening.”

Tanda’s mouth was wide open as she looked at Fhesiah, Ophelia thought she was amazed. “Thank you all, for all that you’re doing and the gifts. You are really working hard to help the beastkin people, and I can’t thank you enough. I already do see Clan Hart as part of our people. You might not be beastkin, but you have found harmony with us, and that means a lot to me. So now, I really must go. I will bring the news that we should change our traditions for the war, regarding eating auril beasts, as well as adding Nodes to many villages. I will be gone nearly a week, as it takes several days to fly to [Harmony Peaks] with me stopping at villages on the way.”

Ophelia smiled at Tanda. She sang, “Soar high and free, dear friend. With your winds at your back and the sky as your home. Our hearts will miss your presence among us.”

Tanda brightened. “You learned it! Farewell, we are grateful for your songs, our heart will remember and be filled with joy and peace. Our heart yearns to be in your presence once more.”

Tanda exited the armory, and Ophelia knew she would be taking to the sky shortly, where she would take Alliance Nodes to various villages, and meet with many tribes with her flock on her way to the North.

“I hope she stays safe. The kids really like her. She came by when I was handing out soup the other day,” Berri said.

Ophelia nodded. “There is definitely a lot of room for trouble with how far she’ll be traveling, but it’s important. Luckily, if she dies she’ll be revived, but it will really harm the war if she does. She will be with a lot of her flock, so I bet they’ll realize this and keep her safe.”

Jake arrived. “What’re you girls doing in here? Ophelia, are you ready?”

Ophelia smiled. “Finally, I’ll carry you through the sky!”

Berri looked distressed. “You said carry, right? He’s not going to ride you, is he?”

Ophelia laughed. “You’re so silly, sister. It’ll be the prince carry. We need to put out the gondolas, and try out the censer at the other village. We’ll call you when we get there.”

Berri wrung her hands in worry. “I… Okay. I’ll be feeding and playing with the kids after some training and practice, but… “

Jake smiled at Berri, and Ophelia could feel him sending reassurance to her. “Time is of the essence, so we’ll do it this way today, as we travel through our own conquered territory. But don’t worry, I’m not replacing you as my mount, Berri. We’ll call you in a few hours.”

Ophelia and Jake headed out of the armory, to leave the city. Clan Hart were going to do their best to empower the beastkin to survive this war.