Bonded Summoner

Book 4. Chapter 9: Aftermath and Meetings

The beastkin were somber, arranging their dead. Some avian and wolf beastkin conversed with the reptile beastkin, and some news was spreading about the resurrections that were possible. Many had already witnessed this, but many were filled with doubt, looking on with interest.

Fhesiah asked, “What do you think happened, husband?”

Jake looked over at Fhesiah, and he sighed. “All the anger and rage in our bonds really added up. Bloodberri’s anger at the loss of her necklace, wanting vengeance. Tanda’s desire for vengeance for losing the beastkin. Ira’s frustration at being unable to make a difference. Even Fhesiah had some frustration at her surprise being spoiled. When Ophelia died, I… Lost myself to all our emotions, I guess?”

Ophelia hugged him harder, once again reminding him she was there. He smiled at her.

He continued, “I’m guessing, there was some level of compatibility with Wrath and my emotions, but the covenant was still broken on some level. My body and core are suffering a major backlash now, as a result of forcing the shift to a new covenant. It’s too early to say, but when I redesign this… I may be able to use this. Even my skill went up as a result.”

Fhesiah’s eyebrows rose in surprise, but she smiled. “Well, at least some good came of it, then? Clan Hart came out on top once again. We have much of this mana water to drink ahead of us, unfortunately.”

They worked on recovering, and Bloodberri started resurrecting.

When Bloodberri resurrected the first beastkin, the surroundings went completely still. They were raised up with holy light, and they stood on their own feet, as the light dissipated. It was an avian beastkin woman that she raised first.

“I… I’m alive? I had felt a pain in my chest, and then…” Jake saw that she stirred her auril with his [Arcane Eye], her heart beating powerfully in her chest. The beastkin surrounding her gasped, and a woman exclaimed, “Lina! Your song… it’s really you!”

“Y-Yeah. Why’s everyone looking at me?”

The reptile beastkin looked over fervently to Bloodberri once more, as she continued to resurrect each of them. Between the three of them consuming mana water, they were able to resurrect one every five minutes, but over a hundred had died. Many didn’t have bodies to be resurrected, and would instead be revived within a week.

Tanda looked at Jake and her new Clan mates with pride. She had tears of joy in her eyes. “I’m so glad… We really did it! I’m an auril hero now, just like my father and mother before me. I can truly feel the connection to the world better now.”

Berri said, “We all did a good job, Tanda! Even you, you destroyed the tower. It would have taken me a little too long, that knight might have carved through half the battlegroup by then.”

Jake nodded, smiled at Tanda. “That health drain was going to become harder and harder to counter as more died. We all did it together.”

Vesuvius walked over from his people. “The Goddesses powers are truly amazing. That they can revive our fallen brethren is proof that they are above our old gods.”

He turned to Fhesiah, “We didn’t talk about this the last time, but there has been some talk that many will want to worship Hestia or Echidna instead. Your fire makes our hearts beat with fervor, but our minds are at odds with our hearts. We followed that feeling blindly before, and we have suffered for it.”

Fhesiah smiled at Vesuvius. “That’s no problem for me at all, Vesuvius. I told you I wasn’t a jealous goddess. The gods of Lugh, Cernunnos, Brigid, and Arawn appear to be related to this world’s founding. There is also Bastet and Athena, that are likely joining our family. They, too, should be considered. We’ll be adding shrines to our new Alliance HQ shortly, along with anything else that becomes available.”

She turned to Jake, “Speaking of, Husband, don’t you think that you should claim that building? It feels like it is currently dormant, despite releasing that wave of light.”

Jake nodded, but he realized he had a number of screens to review first.

[Conquest Complete! Primary Alliance HQ recaptured. Conquest Points gained, split among all involved: 350,000 Party Share: 225,000]

Jake viewed the conquest progress, and found that it did move nearly ten percent in the Alliance’s favor. They were now at 41%. This one action earned Jake’s party the same amount of conquest points and progress as closing around 150 rifts all at once, by themselves. Throughout the week and a few days, Jake’s party had closed over fifty.

Still, this was an absolutely absurd amount of conquest points. They had only earned 25,000 from the level 15 [Fortress Assault]. This was over ten times the amount.

Ophelia said, “If I had to guess, it looks like we earned a lot of conquest progress because Tartarus invested heavily in the defense. There wasn’t a limit to how many people could assault and would really be required for victory. The final battle required ten elite combatants instead of our five with the Fortress Assault, and then hundreds of people outside to beat those towers. Since we could regenerate so much mana over the course of the conquest, this challenge was manageable for us. But for a party unable to defeat the catapults, or unable to regenerate mana, it’s hard to imagine it being possible to win for others without thousands of people.”

[Additional Party reward: Access to Epic+ Temporary Conquest Store for 24 hours.]

Jake then realized the reason there was such a huge disparity in the conquest point earnings. The four of them had each earned Mythic Items as a portion of the reward, previously, the 25,000 likely just being a remainder. There were many Mythic items available to choose from, each in the ballpark of nearly 50,000 CP. This time, they got to decide on their reward.

The girls immediately began browsing the temporary store, and Jake’s brief looking at it found that many of the items were so rare, they wouldn’t even appear on auction. Many were capability improving items, such as those that cultivators sought, and rare equipment. After feeling some flashes of desire from each of the girls, he realized that he was glad he had saved his Contribution Points as much as possible.

He let them peruse the store, and began to head over to the door at the base of the tower. Jake looted the death knight and the dragon, him needing several storage bracelets to contain them all. The skill split everything into pieces in which they could be used for different purposes.

From what Jake understood, while some young titan or some sort of giant out there might be able to wear the large death knight’s armor, most of the time, the high-end materials were often used for crafting. They would learn what they could from the materials, then melt down or carve out and make armors and weapons for many Adventurers, instead.

As Jake walked by, the many beastkin were jovial, their brethren rejoining them one at a time. They were proud of what they accomplished, taking back the territory that they thought they had lost forever.

Vesuvius was talking with Rookard, the two getting along well. Jake had promised Vesuvius his people would have a place to live, should they take back this city. They had done it, so there was a happy mood among them as they looked around at what would be their new home.

Jake lamented that he could not bring his own guild to participate in this conquest, but many were just not strong enough. Rookard’s hunters, Vesuvius’ tribe, and Tanda’s flock were just a cut above his guild at the moment.

If Brock and the rest of Jake’s guild were here, they would have died and became undead in that final battle, becoming nothing more than a burden. Jake hoped they could advance rapidly, so that the next Alliance HQ they attempt to retake, they could all do it together.

Jake attempted to activate and enter the building beneath the tower, and was once again presented with a prompt.

[Conquest Option]josei

[1. Revert City, Lose Alliance Buildings, Gain HQ Node: Gain 50,000 CP for Replacement HQ]

[2. Keep Current City including defensive tower, repair damages, keep HQ only: 25,000]

[3. Upgrade City, Merging Styles: Keep defensive walls and tower, change to Tribal style city, Restoring previous Alliance Buildings and fixtures: 100,000]

Jake groaned. Already, he could see that if they picked the third option, there was no way they could afford everything that they wanted. He knew that it was important to pick it, because it had a teleportation portal.

Then, he realized something. A majority of the people who participated in this recapture were within his guild, and the guild received fifteen percent by default, earning something around 20,000 of the earned points just from this.

Not only that, but his guild had stored thousands from similar things, as the incursions that his hundreds of guild members were doing daily added up, even if they were low level. Each solo incursion only earned his guild a handful of CP at Tier 0, but with nearly a thousand members having completed some, this added up.

While Jake had been slow to finish his first incursions, he was a beginner when it came to being a warrior. These people had been stuck at level zero for years, but fought nearly daily, or survived in harsh conditions.

Many of the beastkin were like Ophelia, their stats and skills almost similar when it came to melee combat. He still remembered how, at level one, she stomped level 5 gnolls with ease. The natives completing incursions because it was a contested world split the rewards between CP and credits.

His guild was able to pay more than half the amount, and Jake knew this was a worthwhile expenditure. He chose to upgrade the city and merge the styles.

A wave of golden light went out, and like the lights in his refuge, the city began to change. Near the tower was high in the city, so they could observe the changes as the light cascaded over the city.

Most of what changed was the stone paved streets, though Jake found that the main boulevards stayed paved.

Plants grew on much of the stone buildings, and the style of the buildings certainly resembled more closely to the tribal huts and other structures he had seen in Kenwodi. Except they were made of a mixture of plant, hides, bone, and stone.

The detection shield was back in place, but Jake could feel that it was theirs now. The tower’s orb was restored and changed to blue, now owned by the Alliance. The four large buildings they fought challenges inside stayed as arenas or coliseums, and Jake realized that that must have been what they had been before. He wondered why Kenwodi didn’t have such buildings.

Fhesiah floated over. “I think that we still need to reclaim that Node over there, too. It looks inactive.”

Jake saw that there was yet another plaza not far over from where they fought, in view from this one. Jake was reminded of where he arrived in [Ariminum], the HQ right across from where they arrived from the portal. The plaza could hold thousands of people, and Jake guessed that normally there would be hundreds of stands here.

Jake and his girls, except Bloodberri, who was busy with resurrections, walked over and activated this as well.

When he did, there was another flash of light. Hundreds, then thousands of figures appeared in motes of light. In front of Jake, was a massive beast of a man, and he thought he recognized him.

He was a lion beastkin man of heavy beast blood, having the face exactly like that of a lion. He was even wearing the equipment and holding the large axe he was when Jake killed the zombie version of him. The man was brimming with vitality, and he radiated warmth. Jake thought that he also felt a bit like the paladins they met, but he wasn’t sure.

As other beastkin stirred and began to talk, Jake looked around, and saw a lot of interesting figures nearby. There were many races present, the usual humans, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, elves, non-Highlands beastkin, and–Jake was sure he saw undead.

But just as surprising as those, were some humans in what looked like Chinese, or Asian style armor and robes. Were those cultivators? Jake looked at them with his [Arcane Eye], and he thought not.

Fhesiah’s voice sounded in his mind, [They’re not. The many men do have a different energy in them, along with mana. It’s interesting, as the energy is even closer to Inner Force than Auril is.]

When the lion man had his full faculties, he took a deep breath.

“I live again!” He let out a booming laugh after his shout, his voice deep. He looked around, and the lion man’s eyes found Jake’s, and he laughed once more. “What, don’t tell me you four took this city by yourselves? Ah!”

His eyes met with Tanda’s. She said, “Uncle Seamus!” She leaped into the air, wrapping her arms around his shoulders in a hug. He returned it with one arm, and Jake could tell his mates looked on fondly. One in particular, a raven woman, came over and hugged Tanda too from the side.

She said, “Clan-sister! It’s so good to see you.”

The lion man said, “Niece, it’s so good to see you.” He pulled her back, so that he could look at her, and Jake thought he was using his auril heart. “My, you’ve grown! An auril hero!” He frowned. “How long was I out?”

“Only a few weeks, Uncle!” She dropped, and returned to Jake’s side. “This is my prospective mate! Jake Hart, Champion of Hestia. These are his current mates, Fhesiah and Ophelia. Bloodberri is off resurrecting others!” She nodded to each in turn.

He laughed once more. “Amazing! A Champion, is it? He is not beastkin, but I can feel his power. I can tell you just fought, but even now, weakened as you are, I can see the vitality in you. We must fight!”

The man began pulling back his sleeves of torn hide armor and getting into a fighting stance. Jake could just feel his excitement.

He was taken aback at the enthusiasm for fight. Tanda laughed with her tail wagging, pointing at Seamus.

“He fights everyone that’s strong! He’s the Chief of Life’s Haven. Those four arenas were because of how much him and his people loved to fight! But Uncle Seamus, I think you’ll need to wait to fight Jake.”

The lion man looked a little let down as he went back to a normal standing posture for him. He just gave out a barking laugh with what Jake thought was a smile, his lion face harder for Jake to read than his eyes and ears.

Ophelia said, “Jake will fight you, but I’m a lot more interested than him! I’m ready to fight any time! Well, preferably not right now, I kinda just died?”

That appeared to remind the man of something, and his eyes became stormy. He said, “Excuse me.”

He approached the party of undead, who were not far away from where Jake was standing.

There was what he thought was a man that he thought looked like a dullahan, having a cold flaming skull inside an open-faced plate helmet. He was covered in plate armor from head to toe, and he was riding on a sort of spectral horse with a large war scythe. This weapon was not all that dissimilar from a glaive, aside from the curvature of the inner and outer blade matching that of a scythe.

Really, the being looked a lot like a miniature version of the death knight they just killed, but riding on a spectral horse, and his skull covered in blue flames.

There were three zombified humanoids near him, Jake realized each looked like a specific class. There was an archer, a warrior, and a mage. Then, there was a woman with a veil over her face, wearing robes and holding a powerful staff of bone, who appeared to be their leader.

Jake thought, from the dullahan and the woman, he felt something similar to what he felt from paladins and priests.

The woman appeared to meet the lion man’s gaze, from underneath her veil. The dullahan appeared to be interested in the exchange, but Jake could tell it wasn’t worried.

The lion man stared intensely, and the woman raised her chin. Jake thought there was going to be a fight.

The lion man then laughed. “I thank you! We were so rude to you before, but you fought with us until the very end. Your strength has earned my respect, even if you are so different. You stayed true to your word till the very end, and I apologize for my doubt, and what my people said to you.”

The woman’s voice sounded elegant and firm, as she raised her chin. “Apology accepted. We understand your people hold significance to your corpses and this life of the world. For that, we will respect your desires to not resurrect your corpses, unless we’re given permission. My only request is that you do not afford that right to any betrayers.”

He nodded. “You may have the corpses of any betrayers, or tainted, that you find. That you would use them to protect life, or defeat evil, upholds the balance.”

The woman nodded, then turned to Jake. “Greetings, Champion Jake. I am Morwen, Priestess of Arawn. This is my husband, Bedwyr, Paladin of Arawn. These three are my raised servants.”

Jake was very interested in these people. A sort of undead necromancer priestess, and an undead paladin? He could tell that they were guildless. Watching them with his [Arcane Eye], he could see their undead energies were somewhat struggling against this environment with high vitality in it.

They were all wearing a sort of necklace, that Jake thought was protecting them from it somewhat. In addition to Morwen’s group, there were a few dozen emberborn of various classes, but mostly priests and priestesses, judging from their equipment.

They each had raised servants of various classes, but the emberborn usually had a flame in their chest or in their skull. It almost appeared to be the difference between male and female, but they each had a different amount of flesh versus bone being shown.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Morwen, Bedwyr. I am new to the multiverse, and I have never met those of your kind. Could you tell us more about you, and your…raised servants?”

Bedwyr nodded from atop his spectral horse, his voice scratchy through his metallic helmet. “We are the Emberborn. Born with a cold spark of the unliving, our souls and bodies are powered by deathly energies and mana itself.”

Morwen continued, “And our raised servants are the souls of betrayers; the corpses whatever we find appropriate. They serve, seeking penance for their wrongdoings. Once they find absolution, their spirits move on. We came at the behest of Arawn, in hopes that we could buy the people and world of Highlands more time.”

Seamus laughed. “And you did! Without you countering their undead with your own, we’d have been finished all the sooner. I also appreciate these warriors very much.”

Seamus nodded over to the Asian-attired warriors, that appeared to be their leaders. Their party was two men and three women, two of the women being some sort of mage or priestess, and one archer, that appeared to have talismans tied to her person and arrows.

The men were definitely powerful melee combatants, that Jake bet could hold their own against someone like Roxo or Rookard just by looking at them with his [Arcane Eye].

The two men and many of the other men had a special energy inside them, but the women did not, only having mana. They all appeared to be human, to Jake.

Jake could tell they were members of a guild, [Warrior’s Brotherhood].

The smaller man in green spoke up. “Our lord sent us here to aid your people. He knew this fight would require much bravery and courage, to have a chance at victory. We knew there was a chance we’d be waiting in the void for a while before our souls could be retrieved. We never could have guessed it’d only be a week or two, and still be on this world.”

He turned to Jake. “Champion Jake, we thank you. Your strength and courage is unsurpassed at your age and tier, even our Lord did not become a Champion until tier 2. May you go on to fight a million battles. I am Yiming, and my cohort here is Longwei. The other three are our wives.” All five bowed to Jake, and he gave a slight bow of his head in return, not really knowing what to do there.

Two of the women had Longwei’s color scheme matching his red robes, the other matching Yiming’s green. Jake wasn’t sure what to say to this praise.

“Thank you for your kind words. We’re all glad we were able to free Life’s Haven so quickly. We opted for rushing here before Tartarus could move their own pieces, and it looks like it paid off. Who is your Lord?”

Yiming smiled. “It is best to move with expedience and bravery, but to temper your haste with caution. Our Lord is the great Guan Yu, from Earth. He has recently started his approach toward godhood, one of the few from Earth to ever reach as far.”

Jake was shocked. He had played a game in which warriors were from a certain dynasty. The man in question was a playable character, Guan Yu, who appeared during the Three Kingdoms era of ancient China.

Jake also knew that he was somewhat worshiped across Earth by the Chinese people, revered as a symbol of loyalty, righteousness, courage, and strength.

Yiming’s smile grew wider. “You seem to recognize our Lord’s name? He had sent us here to help, but also to meet you. He said you were the one to thank for him to soon be able to walk the Earth once more, and he does want to meet you himself.”

Jake nodded. He wasn’t sure what that would be like. “I look forward to it, should time allow. We have a war to fight, for the time being.”

Longwei laughed, his voice booming. “We’ll be busy for a while. Fighting evil is grim business, but business is good! There will be no shortage of enemies to raise our [Valor] with.”

Jake had read about [Valor] in his research about alternate energy types. What Jake understood was that after it was activated in a person’s spirit, one would grow it by showing courage and bravery, as well as fighting battles and gaining victories to expand it and make it more powerful.

It could be used for offense and defense, as they could manifest their spirit into their attacks. From the descriptions, it sounded like how the beastkin could extend their weapons with auril to aid in their attacks or defense, just without the unique flavorings that the beastkin could awaken: their manifestations.

It could even work together somewhat with mana, but if there was a problem with it, it was that it was a double-edged sword. Any trace of fear, doubt, or lack of heroism, and their spirit would become weakened.

When [Valor] users died, often, they would sometimes be set back significantly, a shadow of what they once were. Jake guessed that at least dying heroically may aid in reducing this to an extent, but it would still require some recovery.

In addition, awakening the battle spirit itself required a near-death experience. As far as Jake understood it, most attempted activation of [Valor] in their Tier 0 Trial, typically taking a concoction to ignite their spirit. If they failed, it would always result in reduced potential, their spirit harmed significantly.

By the time Jake learned of the energy’s existence, he was already sort of too-late to activate it. It may be possible for him to do it, but it would be a real challenge thanks to his hearth core interfering.

He also thought it was not something that matched him well. While valor users could also use mana, most of it was used internally within their bodies. Cladding their muscles and skin with valor or using it would cause the mana to be unable to leave them.

It was similar to how Tanda’s heartbeats would disrupt mana usage, yet different. It was more like they would form a barrier outside their body in order to use the energy, and mana would simply be trapped inside. Popping the barrier was a major detriment once they clad themselves.

Jake said, “I’m glad you are on our side, we can use all the help we can get. We have made progress with weaponry and equipment for the beastkin which helps a lot, but they are still low leveled.”

Jake looked over the large crowd of people, and did see plenty of other people in Asian-style attire, but hundreds of level ten to twenty Adventurers, as well. Most were guildless, though some were in random guilds.

Jake equated many of them to be about what he saw of the adventurers of Ariminum. Forming battlegroups, they should be able to complete rifts of their own. It would be slow-going, but they should reduce the burden on Jake’s party.

From what Jake understood, many of these people could and should be from Fringe worlds like Jake, having arrived early in the defense. Assigned to Highlands by the Framework, to aid in the war. In a way, it didn’t give them much of a choice, these people unable to leave until they had paid their dues from the Framework’s perspective.

The Adventurers that stayed in defense of Life’s Haven were only five or six hundred, from what Jake could tell. Nearly half or more of them were either undead, or those wearing the Asian-style clothing.

The separate crowd of beastkin were in the thousands, perhaps over ten thousand, and Jake was somewhat happy about this. Jake had thought almost nobody had integrated, but this was not the case.

However, this city was even larger than Kenwodi. Hundreds of thousands of souls had likely been lost to the enemy forever. While ten thousand was better than nothing, it was still a sparse number compared to the original.

Tanda picked up on this too, perhaps gathering Jake’s emotions as he looked over the crowd of beastkin with dismay. Seamus was still the only auril hero, despite originally likely having several tribes as part of the city. Many of his people were lion or lioness parentage, though their people were overall just as diverse as Kenwodi.

Tanda’s ears were flat on her head as she asked Seamus, “What happened to those from that guild, [War, Glory, Profit]?”

He scoffed. “They left! And good riddance! Those people indirectly killed thousands of our people. One of those assholes even activated a [Challenge] of a rift near a town and ran when we wouldn’t give him what he wanted!”

Jake was shocked. Activating a Challenge and not facing it in earnest was a major detriment. It was almost like giving the enemy a week worth of progress at that Rift all at once.

Ophelia couldn’t believe it, and despite how tired she was, she was furious. “How can they even do that? How dare they! There has to be some way that we can punish them!”

Yiming nodded. “The Framework works off intentions, and so if entering the Challenge to harm the Alliance by fleeing was your intention, the Framework wouldn’t allow you to do it. But if you order a subordinate to enter the challenge or perhaps by forcing a non-integrated native to activate it, then someone else order them to flee in the case of a subordinate…”

Yiming paused, letting people take that in. So, the subordinates intentions would simply be to follow orders, thus allowing them to do something they shouldn’t.

Yiming continued, “In regard to anything we can do, there is. Since Jake claimed the HQ here and was made aware of the crime, he can report this activity, as it indirectly harmed the war. They assumed this world was as good as lost, so their actions would go unpunished.”

Ophelia saw some hope at justice. She asked, “How does that work? Are there any witnesses, or what do we need?”

Morwen, the veiled undead priestess, interjected, “I witnessed their threat, and I am willing to provide my testimony. That will then be brought in front of the sector council, where they can review information from the Framework to see if there was foul play. There are all sorts of ways in which punishment can be meted, from reparations to hard labor, to even termination. The Framework is not the sole decider on these matters. It prevents most foul play, but you can see its rules like a lock on a door. It keeps honest people honest, but does little to those with a lock pick but slow them down on its own.”

Yiming nodded. “With this, that should be enough to find justice. However, it’s important to keep in mind the danger.”

Jake was perplexed. “Danger? For reporting a crime?”

Longwei laughed boisterously. “You’re new to the Alliance, huh? Their Guild can try to defend their Adventurer’s actions, trying to get you to back off your claim. They can make your Guild’s life a living hell, challenging your guild to [War Games].”

The dullahan man, Bedwyr, chuckled, his scratchy voice within his helmet resounding in the plaza. “Let them come. Morwen and I, along with all the other emberborn you see here: would like to join your guild, Champion Jake.”