Bonded Summoner

Book 4. Chapter 11: Mass Migration

The meeting with the Eternum completed, Jake and his girls returned to their Refuge. They did not spend a lot of time at the meeting. Only a little over an hour, thanks to Blood and Ophelia providing many of the details over their Menu.

They would continue doing this, as Valtor had plenty of questions. He was also reaching out to the few people Ophelia and Blood had delegated to over the last week.

Valtor would need to do some research using the Guild Summary and working together with Mysticus and one of their strategists to come up with an overall plan of action, something Jake was happy they had. They needed to get a good idea of where he felt Highlands stood in the war for their meeting in the morning.

When it came to CP expenditures, Valtor had two things he wanted. For his people, he only requested a small area for his people to call home, separate from where the living were.

While his people never slept and could continue their jobs at all times, a place where his people could congregate was desired. The reason for setting it aside, was their unliving status.

While the Framework protected intentions against others that were part of the Framework, it did not protect against accidents. This was part of Valtor’s plan, to hopefully turn things around on the contract owner for his people’s servitude contract.

From what Jake understood, he had wanted to Rube-Goldberg that person into tripping and being drained. The previous times they were summoned, they were just alone in the room with some lordly type, as he gave them all a bunch of orders.

At some point during his theatrics, he would have aggressively moved toward the person. That person would then trip on the witch’s broom, scared by him, where they would stumble or fall onto a waiting Eternum.

There, their spark of the unliving would be so hungry it would consume the lordly type, through no action of their own. Then, they would flee before they could be ordered to do anything else, the contract of the non-Head Administrators being much looser with the contract owner dead for a time.

Valtor would still suffer stuck to the guild despite the one summoning him dying, but it was a price he had been willing to pay.

Now, the entire clan was more than happy, and took their duties Jake handed out with happiness.

Most of Valtor’s people were in fact barely Tier 1. Jake guessed they were born that way, as even Rhia appeared to be. Jake learned that the loss of the grandfather was due to some end of the world sort of fighting, that resulted in him dying and choosing not to be resurrected.

He did wonder if there was some form of enchantment he could do to protect them from consuming these souls and going crazy, but that was certainly a problem for future Jake.

The other expenditure Valtor requested was a [Node Advisement Array], which allowed monitoring of the area around Alliance nodes. Through this monitoring, data could be gathered and reviewed.

This would allow Valtor and his staff to micromanage advancements at the village level, even for those not in the guild, or even not initiated into the Framework.

For those not in the guild, it operated as a suggestion, that village leaders would see and could act on if they so desired. Valtor could create incentives, the people seeking the credit currency.

People that selected to be a full-time crafter could even earn a small amount of CP, for creating items directly used in the war. There were limits to this, both in how much an individual could earn, but also how many bounties for goods could be created.

They would have a completely different selection of what they could purchase from the CP store, but often were given opportunities that were better than merely earning credits.

The importance of this was that Valtor could do was an effective way to help with the economy and development of Highlands, not only for the current war, but future ones.

While individuals could use and browse the market on their own and find demand, having someone further up the chain such as a Chieftain or Tribal Council to direct their people helped significantly.

Merchants of the world had value in accomplishing aspects of this, but this allowed Hearthtribe to capture part of the market transactions or fuel the war effort on their own. Valtor could even incentivize accomplishing tasks such as constructing walls using credits.

That was only 10,000 CP with their current number of Nodes and HQ’s, so that left them with only one concern before they made their purchases.

It was one topic, that one person in particular had what Jake considered was an unhealthy level of interest in, for the [Mass Migration]. Clan Hart was now sitting around the couch in the living room, leftovers on the table in front of them.

They had waited until now to make this decision, for various reasons. The lack of CP was one of them, but another was that the war was doing so poorly, that the Framework would not allow them to bring people here with this method to what was clearly a lost war. Now that they were over 40% on the conquest progress, it became a possibility if the representative of the other party accepted.

Clan Hart and Hearthtribe were interested in this for numerous reasons. The first, was that it would give them more integrated people that had a clear stake in the success of the defense. While Adventurers could be effective in fighting off the enemy, they would leave if the going got tough. They didn’t live there, and wouldn’t care overly much about the outcome, other than that they simply got more rewards for winning.

The second, was that most likely, the population of the [Mass Migration] would be quite varied. The beastkin’s auril capabilities were varied and amazing, but they still had limitations. They were certainly more skewed to melee or physical-ranged combatants.

Their manifestations were not exactly the same as what a general caster could do, and it would be rare that someone was good at area of effect attacks, or crowd control for example. Their potentials were much less varied than humans or those with mana. As such, Jake desired more varied skill sets to supplement their forces and round out their capabilities.

Furthermore, the population joining would be very diverse. It was not just combatants coming, but also crafters, administrators, children, and more. It would go along well with the beastkin natives themselves, as opposed to Adventurers, which would only be combatants.

That was on top of the fact that, usually, those seeking [Mass Migration] were in need of help; in need of a home. Something likely happened to theirs, and they worked together to seek a sort of bulk-discount to move many people at once, the cost subsidized by the Framework to aid in the war effort.

Highlands required all the help they could get, so adding thousands of initiated people was a far larger force multiplier than simply waiting for Adventurers to come to the world and help. These people would have a direct stake in protecting the world, outside just personal gain.

The Hart family were back in their Refuge all wearing their tribal wear, which was now the standards for their at-home attire these days, with Fhesiah’s cultivator robes sometimes being the difference.

Jake gave Fhesiah a questioning look. “Why is this so important to you, Fhesiah?”

“Because it is important! Look, it’s not just about surrounding you with women, husband. I’ve done the research on this, and in the long run, a higher female to male ratio would lead to more power within our Tribe! I want our tribe, our kingdom, to be the respected and feared in the multiverse, and this is the path!”

Jake was doubtful. “I mean, I can see how in the long term something like that should result in more children, and thus Adventurers, this harem guild idea. To me, it’s just basic math. You have a hundred men and women, let’s say each of those women have five kids in twenty years. You would end up with a population of seven hundred in the end. But take the same number of people, 200 with the beastkin’s ratio of 150 women and 50 men, and each woman has 5 kids, you end up with a population of 950 instead. This doesn’t seem that large, even with them having way more kids than I feel adventurers would likely have, and that’s with a pretty big extreme. Not everyone has that many.”

Tanda was confused. “Just five? Most beastkin women have more than that in their lives. Now that we stay in our prime, I wouldn’t doubt that we’d have a lot more than that. Perhaps, we’d never stop.”

Jake was a little worried at this thought, already having a single baby-crazy lover. “Why’s that?”

Tanda laughed at Jake’s expression. “Most of us beastkin women go into heat twice a year, and unless we’re already pregnant, well, you can bet we will be after that if we have a mate. We do take a break for a few cycles after having a child to recuperate, but after that, we go right back at it. Though, depending on their beast parentage, some are different from that, most have that in common.”

Jake asked, “What do beastkin women do when they’re not mated?”

Tanda blushed. “We often take a milkthistle tea, which kind of prevents us from going into heat when we start to feel it. Some of the more submissive types or those seeking to get overpowered by a stronger mate may not, and just go to the dueling sands and find one.”

Fhesiah looked excited about this fun little detail, but Jake felt like she already knew it. “See, Jake? You can go to the dueling sands just about any night and get yourself a nice little housewife or warrior woman! How fun.”

Fhesiah continued, “We’re getting off-topic. Jake, while 750 to 950 doesn’t look like a very big of a difference, you’re assuming those two populations are the same. Let’s just keep saying that the women will only have five children in their lifetime, to get a good average. The regular ratio population will only have: 1250 additional children, but the other population would have almost three thousand in the next twenty years or so. So at the end of forty years, population 1 only has about 2000 people, but population two will have nearly 4000. Without going too deep into the math, it’s way beyond triple the population by the end of a hundred years, and the difference only gets larger and larger.”

She let that sink in with a smile. She continued, “That’s without considering that the higher female ratios will typically have more children per woman than adventuring couples. I’m sure you could say a party of men with women back at home wouldn’t have this problem, but then you’re losing half of your population as combatants. Really, the beastkin people are a near-perfect template for how to have a warrior race of people. They can propagate throughout the multiverse at the fastest possible rate, while having the most combatants, thus making the largest impact in the war.”

Tanda was a little proud, her tail wagging with a smile.

Jake looked over at Ophelia and Bloodberri. Of course, those two had no problems believing that a Guild or population full of women warriors would not be weaker than one with a higher male ratio. Still, it felt weird coming from Earth, where most women warriors were…not very successful in history, to put it lightly.

Jake frowned. “Surely there are people more fertile, even without this ratio difference?”

Blood said, “There are. But what you’ll find is that something cannot come from nothing. The more fertile races that can give birth more rapidly are usually weaker or not suited for combat, or more monstrous and less intelligent. The Gods and Goddesses of Chaos knew this, and circumvented a lot of that by changing the Dark Lamia and Arachne, infusing the Dark Elves and making them monstrous. They mixed a potent blend of chaos where things should have resulted in an amorphous blob, but instead came out a near perfection, through luck and genius both.”

Jake knew there were rumors or myths that Echidna was some sort of template or involved in these races' creation. Perhaps for some reason, they had worked together to make something truly special.

Blood continued, “While a Dark Elf would only give birth once every several decades or more, a Dark Lamia would achieve it in a fraction of a time, by breeding with most humanoid races, as well. Some of the more fertile races also cannot mate with most human and human-adjacent races. While that might not seem like a negative tradeoff to achieve it, also keep in mind how much a Dark Lamia must consume. It becomes much more when we become pregnant, so there are other costs.”

Ophelia chuckled. “Well, I guess that’s not something we’ll have to worry about, but if that’s all it takes, don’t we have to worry about Tartarus doing the same thing?”

Fhesiah said, “We might, but I think how it tries to achieve its goals is a little different. Nevertheless, if we must do this to even the playing field, we should do it. That is, unless it goes against our morals or harms anyone? In this case, everyone wins!”

Ophelia scoffed. “Your argument would be a lot more believable if you weren’t so excited. You know that Jake isn’t interested in lining up a bunch of extra wives just for the sake of having them, and I’m not either. I value my time alone with him, and the idea you want a bunch of extra women around for your fun worries me. Can you explain this to me, so I can better understand?”

Fhesiah looked a little hurt, then a little remorseful. “I’m sorry, sister. Part of me wants my husband to have all the status and pleasure he deserves, and part of that would be having more wives; more women. Of course, I want to experience all the pleasure and enjoyment that comes along with it, along with him. I thought Tanda and Blood would be on board with this, too.”

Tanda frowned. “For beastkin it’s not really about status, or enjoyment, though? Sure, a chieftain would have many mates. But that is because his potential to protect is higher. It is the women that go into heat, not the men. The men need the strength and vitality to satisfy their mate’s desires, as well as protect and provide for them. As long as we can all find harmony with any additional women that join our family, I’m okay with it and welcome them to join our choir. I know Jake is strong enough.”

Fhesiah couldn’t be more interested, but Blood added, “I certainly understand what you mean, as the Dark Elf, Arachne, and Dark Lamia societies would have more mates as a point of status. Milord having more wives fits with this and is something I desire, but I think you are a little too hasty. We have only been together for a few months, there is no reason to rush this. We are nearly immortal now, and I would much prefer quality to quantity. Our bond is power, and spreading things thin across more women means our bond will be weaker, and us too. It has been a while since our bond has improved aside from Ophelia, and I think it would only become slower if we added more women. I’m with Ophelia on this, and I believe pushing to have a lot of women around milord is a little strange.”

Fhesiah sighed. “I guess, I let my desires cloud my judgement. Still, I stand behind my findings!”

She plopped down an easel into the middle of the room in front of them, next to the table filled with snacks. She then took out a stack of boards with all sorts of figures and graphs on it, and took out a pointing stick.

Fhesiah went over various figures, showing how, statistically, this ‘harem guild’ idea had a lot of merit in it. From population growth over time, to party cohesion, effectiveness, total time effectively adventuring, number of adventuring population per capita. Just where did she find all this information?

Fhesiah even countered questions on how women adventuring in these parties could still have kids, comparing downtime. The data showed that even if they were human women, they’d still have more children, especially from their advancement allowing them to live longer.

Yet, there’d be more combatants as a percentage even with the downtime of having children, so long as the family unit took turns raising the children rather than the whole party taking off for decades to raise them.josei

Jake now knew more about the topic than he had ever really wanted to know.

“Alright, well, I suppose you’ve convinced me. This is of course keeping in mind for the mass migration that we find people compatible mating with the beastkin and this world itself, as well as are effective combatants. If the women aren’t as fierce as the beastkin women and are instead smaller and weaker than the males, I kind of see this as a loss, even if there’s more of them. Your numbers did include about how magic mostly equalizes things. A human woman is about as strong as a man for everything that matters at Tier 1 or level 10 on average, but that doesn’t mean it’s the same for all races. Lastly, there’s the compatibility of the culture or their faith. If these people believe in some god or goddess that isn’t part of Hestia’s forming pantheon, then that’s yet another reason to choose another.”

Fhesiah looked a little proud. “Well, if I don’t get to play wing-woman for my husband, I suppose I can play it for our guild. Dave thankfully won’t so much as look at me beyond my feet, but I see him scoping out girls with his weird chameleon eyes when he thinks I won’t notice. His dedication and devotion deserves a reward, and I already helped set up Brock. I can live vicariously by playing cupid for Hearthtribe, I guess. At least until I have a son of my own, I suppose.”

Jake froze, and decided to change the topic. “So, how much does this [Mass Migration] cost? Part of what we saved up was for this purpose, and we now have a city with plenty of room. We even have refugees in Kenwodi that we can ferry over to here.”

Blood said, “It varies, on numbers of factors. The number of people, the compatibility and thus the incentive, even the distance is taken into account. There’s also how much their people have paid for the opportunity. I think we should shoot for a 50,000-100,000 CP cost at most, and with that, we have many options.” She frowned. “Even considering our new… criterion.”

Blood shared the screen of her filtered races, and Jake was surprised at the number.

Fhesiah said, “Monkey girls, Harpies? A little vanilla for the first, and we kinda have that flavor already covered with the second. The banshees and more undead sounds like they wouldn’t live here well. Sirens… I dunno, their numbers are kind of poor. It’s too bad there isn’t Valkyries, huh? Oh, what’s this?”

Jake could feel her interest, and seeing the option she was looking at, Jake was interested too. There was even a discount for these people, as it appeared they were a little desperate.

Blood said, “It appears they desire this world greatly, because of its high vitality. The mana levels here are a little below average for a Tier 1 world, so many races with viable combatants are not that interested. Even if we didn’t initiate the [Mass Migration], many of these races and populations could eventually show up, just not together.”

Fhesiah was a little excited, “They’re perfect! Don’t you remember the play? The treants were killed. They were a part of this world, so this would bring some of them back.”

Tanda was beaming, her tail nearly buzzing. “You can bring the treants back? That’s amazing!”

Jake said, “It’s also dryads, treants, hamadryads, fauns, satyrs, spriggons, and naiads, it looks like– the naiads being quite rare. The treants wouldn’t be the same most likely, just like if we grabbed other beastkin on this list, they wouldn’t have an auril heart.”

Jake frowned as he looked at the details, but the average male to female ratio, aside from the spriggons which were like plant creatures with no gender, was around 1:3, the same as Highland’s beastkin.

Jake asked, “How sure are we that beastkin can even have offspring with these races?”

Tanda blushed. “Um, there are already a few with child from the Adventurers. Some of them did succeed with finding a mate, even in the short time. They didn’t give birth yet, but so far, there were no problems?”

Jake was once again reminded that beastkin did move fast in their relationships. Tanda was the outlier, because she was a chief’s daughter and her high talent for using auril.

Fhesiah said, “It must be whatever Cernunnos and the other guardians did when he made them more human-like. Maybe when they were with the beast blooded creatures they couldn’t mate with others, but now, they are compatible with those that are compatible with humans, which many are. This says the treants, dryads, fauns, satyrs, and naiads all are, but the spriggons are not. The dryads and fauns are numerous, and are what fit the…criterion.”

Blood said, “Maybe their offspring could have this auril heart? So, that’s another 50,000 CP and 100,000 T1 Credits. This will bring thousands of Tier 1 treants, dryads, and naiads over time. Then, tens of thousands of Tier 0 beings such as spriggons, and some of the younger fauns and satyrs. It helps pay for some of their teleportation charges, and some lower-level people will be the first to arrive. Some Tier 0 people will arrive within a week, and within a month we should see the Tier 1 combatants that helped them pay for their side of the [Mass Migration] in the first place. This is just the first payment of many, the cost usually being absorbed by the arrivals.”

Ophelia asked, “Are we sure about their ability to fight, and the culture and everything?”

Blood said, “It appears part of the reason for their mass migration is a failure on the part of Gaia. We should be worried about taking her people, but Gaia likely sees these people as failures instead, that their faith was simply not enough and thus why they failed.”

Jake thought there were still possibilities of worrying about there, but he was definitely in more favor of offering refuge to these people and hoping for the best. Gaia was not a part of the original Greek Pantheon like the Myths from Earth, and was instead an embodiment of life and nature, a lone figure.

Blood continued, “Regarding their ability to fight, the dryads and fauns make excellent casters of all kinds, from offensive mages or elemental druids, to healing priestesses or druids. It appears their physicality is weak and so none will make exceptional fighters, but that is easily made up for by their high magical potential.”

This was good news to Jake. A wide assortment of casters was something that the beastkin were lacking. While he knew the beastkin would eventually have healer types, and some of their auril-infused arrows and javelins could compete with spells on some level, an individual manifestation was usually limited to one type of attack.

She continued, “The treants are the physical race, mixing high resilience with their massive size. They are a little slow, but it seems they can grow vines and the like to both defend and attack. The naiads are like the dryads, just with a larger focus on magical water to go with nature magic. They can fight out of the water, but are certainly more effective near it. The satyrs are a little more physical than the fauns, making decent archers or melee combatants.”

Jake asked, “What about their non-combatants? Are there other races that are included with this, just those that don’t fight?”

Blood said, “There are many uninitiated and non-combatants, but that’s part of the reason for them desiring this mass migration. Many of the other races such as hamadryads, satyrs, spriggons, and fauns had been reduced to low levels and numbers. Their world was covered in blight, and while the Alliance might have ultimately won the war, the world is dying. Most of those left are ones that fought till the end and won, but it wasn’t enough.”

Tanda’s ears went flat. “It’s like what would have happened if the heart of the world was defeated.” She stood up, and entreated, “Jake, we should help these people! Plus, we can use their help.”

Berri said, “Yeah! Wait, what are we talking about? Did we get to the topic of Jake’s spell? I want to make a baby and be one with Jake! And I want that snowmaker made by the crazy little people!”

Blood sighed. “I told you six times, it’s a [Gnomish Weather Discombobulator]. It’s a complete waste for us. We can’t even use it on the world until the war ends, as it has possibilities for use in warfare, even as an explosive device! It would have to stay inside our refuge, and I’d prefer to not have something capable of exploding here! There are other options.”

Berri said, “I know what it’s called, it’s just too hard to say! Those gnomes are crazy for naming it that!”

Ophelia frowned. “Make a baby? Are you talking about the [Avatar Armament]?”

Berri tsked. “An item is not a baby! I’m talking about fusion spell, that will probably be a summon! Then later, we can become one with Jake! It’s clearly better.”

Jake said, “It’s not really like a baby, the summons don’t really have an ego. I’d argue the armament is just as similar to making a baby in that case.”

Berri said, “Pfft. Your summons clearly–”

Jake said, “Let’s not talk about that? We can’t be sure these would be the same, even if that was the case, you know they wouldn’t be our babies then, right?”

“Whatever! It’s still kind of like that, and I still want to become one later!”

Ophelia said, “I suppose we’re talking about this now. This is a choice that is going to influence us all the way into Tier 2 and perhaps beyond, so it does require us to think about this. I figured Berri was the one who would most want [Avatar Armament], because that would allow you to stay at home with all the kids and still help and be with Jake. I was interested because I thought that the number of situations where we get split up will increase, and this will allow us to accomplish our efforts better. Fights like the Alliance HQ, along with needing to travel around the continent and be in more places at once, are only going to increase. It has strategic merit.”

Fhesiah added, “I had thought selfishly about being able to include more women thanks to the armament, but I realize now this was a little foolish. We can get people devoted and loyal to Hearthtribe and Jake’s cause without him sleeping with them, even if it would be a lot more fun. Still, it has merit– more women means more places that Clan Hart can be at once, no? If Jake gets [Reverse Summon], this becomes even more viable or valid as a tool. Bound women across the continent would allow Jake to traverse the world, or perhaps even the multiverse later, with ease.”

Tanda added, “And this would allow us freedom to accomplish our personal goals, too. I like that Jake could instead use my armament instead, bringing me along while I do things like aid the Tribe, or protect Highlands.”

Ophelia said, “But Jake will be protecting Highlands, you don’t have to worry about this. This will be our home base within the Sector. While we won’t always be here, our efforts within the multiverse will start from here, our actions protecting it. Our Hearthtribe will always keep Highlands safe. For me, I’m still against Fhesiah’s point for adding women for utility.”

Jake said, “I can see using the [Monster Menagerie] for this purpose too though, a normal [Summoner’s Bond] for bonded humanoid monsters instead. It would be limited at level 5 and not become [Summoner’s Bond - Love], nor become a [Hearth Bond]. For me, I feel like some day we’ll be able to make these types of armaments eventually on our own. My gut is telling me the Fusion is a better choice, the idea that it requires us to synchronize or harmonize means it might help us advance the bond itself.”

Blood sighed. “Part of me thought that by being connected to an armor or armament, I might be able to control it and interact with the world more. Seeing these Eternum make me believe it’s possible without this, though. Not only that, but my telekinesis has come far already. It won’t be long before I can use a puppet or similar. I believe I will join my sister in wanting the Fusion option.”

Fhesiah added, “Someday I may be able to make you something, but it’s a long way away. There are cultivator arts that allow for control of things like this, so it might be possible in the near future. At least for the armor, if Ophelia helps make something. Still, I guess that would sort of put us at three for the armament, and three for the fusion. Well, I am quite willing to change my vote, if we, or rather, Jake, makes a certain purchase!”

Ophelia frowned. “Why Jake? Don’t tell me because you want to make another purchase for yourself? Also, were we really voting? I thought we were just airing out our thoughts, so Jake can come to a decision.”

Fhesiah shrugged, ignoring the comment about voting, “Not because of that, but there’s that too! No, it’s because Jake needs to be the one to use it, but it’s for everyone. I think it will even help move forward this synchronicity or harmony, and, it should aid in all our advancement. Truthfully, it should help me the most, but perhaps not! It’s hard to know how everything will work out in the end. It will be in the hands of the Framework, what I like to call the [New Heavens].”

Jake could almost tell what was coming, Fhesiah’s lust increasing. He shook his head. This girl had a one-track mind sometimes. He did usually enjoy the result, though. “Alright? I guess, let’s hear it?”

“I’ll talk about the first purchase that makes this all possible. It’s the [Skill Personalization - Evolution Array]. What this does is, it will take a technique, spell, or ability that might not be fitting for you, and make a version that is tailored, or personalized, for your usage. It would then likely be chosen for skill evolution, when you increase in Tier. A powerful item.”

Ophelia said, “It sounds amazing, but also, expensive.”

“It is. It is 50,000 CP. When you consider that we received our Techniques for in the thousand or two thousand range, this is a massive expense. Though, a big portion of why the cost for those Techniques was low, was because the requirements were so high. Still, that’s not all. The skill or manual to complete the set is also 50,000.”

Ophelia was shocked. “That’s most of what remains! There are mythic weapons and armor in the store!” She folded her arms. “This better be good.”

Fhesiah chuckled, and shook her head with a smile. “Oh, you have no idea. The skill is a body cultivation or tempering technique, and my hope is to make it for Jake. It’s called [Yin-Yang Body Tempering]. The problem is, it requires a [Foundation Establishment] cultivator, expecting a [Dantian], and the usage of Qi to build and refine the body.”

She continued, “It requires Yin and Yang energies to clash within, to temper both the body and to a lesser extent the spirit; the soul. This empowers it and makes it stronger, more resilient. While I might be able to share Qi with Jake and do this, too much Qi in the body of a non-cultivator could end up being a detriment. To someone who’s not a cultivator, Qi will break the body down, unable to grasp or hold onto the heavens themselves. I do have some hope for his core itself, but we need more than that to refine the entire body.”

Jake and everyone else reviewed the information on this, being linked within their [Menu].

Ophelia read some of it aloud, “To practice the technique, Yin and Yang must meet. A partner is required. To begin, the man must dip his stamen in her velvet flower.” She stood up, blushing. “This… Why is it talking about sex?”