Levi’s aura sense woke him up to Anna moving around in the room outside his door. He looked over to see Anza had perked up and was staring at him. It made a whirling sound and Levi shook his head. Anza and Levi had learned that Anza could make noises out loud, and Levi would be able to understand the language it was speaking. It was the same with Willow. It seemed like their connection deepened and the two of them enjoyed the parlor trick.

Levi got out of bed and met the women in the living room. They were decked out in their cold gear and had rucksacks on their backs.

“Do you not have inventory?” Levi asked.

“It’s limited,” Anna said. “We’d prefer not to waste it on something that we can carry.”

“Fair enough,” Levi said. “Our grand adventure awaits.” Levi had a goofy smile on his face that got 2-stark reactions from the girls. Piper smiled and rubbed her hand affectionately across his facing whispering how cute he was. Anna rolled her eyes unable to keep herself from smiling. The trio walked out the door ready for their journey home.

Anna had set the pace; they were walking at a 10-minute mile pace, casually. They were able to maintain conversation without panting for breath. This was a testament to how ranking up affected the physical body. Levi was amazed how he could walk so fast and talk so easily. A few months ago, he couldn’t even run a 10-minute pace, let alone walk one. He silently thanked whatever summoned him for this life. He was thoroughly enjoying it.

“I know we eat everyday cause lunch is provided,” Levi asked. “But do we actually need to eat?”

“No,” Anna said. “But yes, it’s complicated.”

“We have time,” Levi said.

“True,” Anna said. “We can sustain ourselves on star tokens, as we rank up the magic within us grows and takes over the need for normal food. Food can still provide the necessary energy we need but it becomes increasingly less effective as we rank. For instance, a 4-star would never need to eat normal food for calories, protein, or carbs. Eventually the protein doesn’t really do anything to help with muscle growth. It just tastes good.”

“How do you sustain yourself at those ranks? The star tokens are not easy to come by,” Levi said.

“No, they are not,” Anna said. “Potions. There are various quality potions but if you are simply trying to recover quickly without meditation then potions.”

“So, potion brewers are huge I assume,” Levi said.

“For lower ranks, like us,” Piper added. “The higher ranks they tend to get potions by the thousands in dungeons or in completed quests.”

“I see,” Levi said. “I have a couple lesser potions that I got earlier.”

“That will be good, but we can hunt our food, if need be,” Anna said.

The trio had passed by the spot where they first met Levi. It wasn’t too far from the city walls, a lot closer to that small town where he decided to not steal their clothes. Levi was shocked that there was no one even in the little town. When he first got here it was buzzing with people.

“That’s weird,” Levi said.

“What?” Anna asked.

“There isn’t anyone here,” Levi said. He stopped to look at a track in the ground.

Quest: Trouble in Quiet Town

There is something suspicious about the small town you are in. Solve the mystery.

“Well,” Levi said. Tossing the quest box to his friends. “Willow and Anza, go search the place,” he instructed his familiars. Willow left Levi’s eyes and shot off in the opposite direction of Anza who slinked their way through the town. “Let me know if you find anything suspicious.” Piper did some parkour and jumped on top of a roof to get a different vantage point. She was jumping from roof-to-roof scanning for any sign of life.

Anna took out her wand and book. Levi pulled out his staff as well conjuring some orbs to float around him. Anna chanted a spell, “Onyx is mine to control”, blocks of onyx flowed from her robe and flowed around her quickly.

“I’ll go this way,” she said.

“Bet, keep an eye on my aura,” Levi said. He pulled out some coal dust and his wand, putting away his staff. With his wand he drew a basic summoning circle. In the center small hummingbirds with fire for wings appeared.

“Great, see these tracks?” Levi pointed to the ground. “Find what made them and let me know when you do, thanks!” The hummingbirds examined the track for a long time then all shot off in different directions.

“LEVI,” Piper called from a roof top. Levi spotted her and ran over to where she was standing. Anza was growling at something in a house. A strange aura started to emerge from inside the house. It was thick with anger, fear, and power. “A 3-star monster,” she said quietly. “I’ve alerted Anna, but I doubt she’ll be able to sneak around it with this aura.” The aura pushed harder, and she looked visibly strained.

Levi sent an orb of lightning into the door to see what would happen, as he did a serrated tongue shot out and grabbed the orb. There was a burp and satisfaction on the aura now. The creature who owned the aura started to make its way out. Willow turned into battle mode and set the house ablaze, not waiting for the creature to come out. Levi sent fire orbs to the building too. There was a hideous sound that erupted from the burning house.

Blasting the roof a part a creature that was a frog standing on two legs with angel wings holding a staff floated down.

“What the hell is that?”

Objective: Defeat the Frog Angel

“Frog Angel,” Levi said. Sharing the box with his friends. “Any idea how to kill it?”

“By killing it,” Piper said. She threw some kunai knives at the weird creature. It used its staff to conjure an aura bubble. From behind Anna used her onyx stones to shoot directly at the creature. The rocks went faster than bullets, some of them passed through a shield. Anza lashed out a sharp tentacle, it went straight through the shield and the shoulder. Another hideous squeal. The frog lashed out its serrated tongue at Anza’s arm to yank it off and presumably poison it.

Anza was immune to poison being metal, at that moment though, Willow sent fire onto the tongue. The tongue began to smell like burning flesh, it was not pleasant. Levi sent in two orbs of chaos and instructed the fire hummingbirds to attack the staff arm and eyes. In a short amount of time the creature was being pelted by sharp rocks, knives, fire, chaos, and metal tentacles all at once. Before its arm was burnt off it raised its staff high and chanted something.

A huge rush of mana appeared around it and started to push the team back. It started to glow bright white; Levi could see its wounds were healing every passing second. Levi summoned three more mimics; his limit was five. Anza wasn’t being pushed back, its body could be segmented in different tentacles and let the wind pass through it. The three other mimics did the same thing as the Anza. The creature was impaled with four tentacles that opened at the back like a harpoon. The mimics all pulled down as it got closer Piper and Anna went to work. Piper started attacking with a short sword, bobbing and weaving from the attacks of the frog’s staff.

The powerful wind attack stopped, and the frog was no longer healing. The frog was a lot faster than the trio. It was stronger and had higher vitality. This was the difference between star ranks. They were stronger and had higher resistances to lower ranks. The Frog Angels were creatures with relatively low vitality and high manna. Their strength was adequate, but their speed was a lot faster. If the mimics weren’t there to hold down the frog angel the fight would have likely been over.

There were enough slashes on the skin from Piper that the hummingbirds and Willow started to get fire inside the frog angel. From the inside the frog angel was starting to have embers burning. The smell became unbearable.

“Anza finish it,” Levi said. Anza grew to be its normal alpha size; the mimic was two times the size of the frog angel now. It shot three more tentacles then went used more tentacles to stab its body. The frog had several tentacles speared into it. Eventually it stopped moving. The monster’s body grew limp then it sizzled and dissolved into nothingness.

“Is everyone alright?” Levi asked. “Good job Anza. Thank you, hummingbirds! Here,” he held out piles of coal and the hummingbirds happily took some out of his palm then faded back to where they were summoned with grateful gestures.

“I’m fine,” Anna said.

“I’m good,” Piper said. “Anza is a beast, you too Willow! You have multiple mimics?”

“Yes, when did that happen?” Anna asked.

“With the star rank, Anza is an alpha leaving me to create, I think it create, more drones, which was its first form.” Levi responded. Anza whirled. “Anza said that I’m an Omega now after the rank up so I can create as many drones as are allowed.” Anza made another sound. “At 2-star that means 50 or so.”

“Whoa,” the girls said together.

“Well, it is a swarm creature, it would make sense they could swarm.” Levi said.

Quest: Trouble in Quiet Town – completed

Reward: Gold Pieces x100 Silver Pieces x1000 Copper pieces x10000

Reward: Lesser Recovery potion x15

Reward: Silent boots

Reward: Silent Essence

Objective: Defeat Frog Angel - completed

Reward: 0-star token x15

Reward: Runic Staff

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Reward: Frog Legs x25

Reward: Angelic Cloak

“Did y’all get rewards?” Levi asked. Closing the windows.

“No,” Anna said. “Did you?”

“Yes,” Levi said. “You should have gotten something, check again.” The girls did as followed and this time they noticed they had received some rewards. They were little items, a few coons and a star token. “Lame, well I’ll split the loot I got with y’all. I think I got some good gear for each of you.

“Maybe because you killed it?” Piper asked.

“I bet it’s a star rank thing,” Levi said. “Here,” Levi divided the money reward into three and handed it to the girls.

“Levi,” Anna said. “We don’t need money.”

“I have a feeling you will,” Levi said. “If your parents really want you to make it in this world as great adventurers.”

“He’s got a point Anna,” Piper said. “It’ll be nice to start saving a reserve now, besides this is a great amount of money.” She happily too it from Levi and stored it in her inventory. The coins came in a little chest that had the summoner’s crest on it. Anna reluctantly took the box as well.

“Then I have these for either, I haven’t looked at them yet but,” he held out a pair of black boots. They were sleek and looked remarkably like high top basketball shoes, if basketball shoes weren’t so bulky. The black boots were radiating with some magic enchantment, the magic was clear to sense. In his other hand he held out a hooded cloak. The cloak was pure white with a golden trim around the lapel and the hood.

Item: Silent Boots

Rare

2-star

Boots that hide the footsteps of the wearer.

Item: Angelic Cloak

Epic

2-star

Bondable cloak that provides a slight boost in spell casting speed, mana reproduction, and evasiveness. The cloak can create an illusionary double to help avoid any on coming attacks.

“I didn’t know items had rarity here?” Levi said.

“They do and ranking,” Anna said. “Levi this is very generous, this is the highest rarity cloak, are you sure?”

“These boots are incredible; they would be perfect for sneaking around!” Piper exclaimed.

“That’s why I thought you should have them,” Levi said. “I definitely don’t need to have my steps silenced as I am in the back.” He chuckled. “You wanted to be a team, right? Well, that’s what teammates do, look out for each other,” he said looking at Anna.

Item: Cloak of Chaos

Legendary

2-star

Bondable; Growth

A cloak created in the realm of chaos. Bonds with the wearer to hide their aura. 2-star effect: allows the wearer to deflect oncoming attacks, all attacks that get deflected get sent back to the attacker.

Levi had pulled out his cloak to look at the description. He hadn’t gotten a great description when he first looked at it. Now that he had, he was even more impressed. He wondered about the rarity scale. If it were like video games, Epic would be the second to highest tier with Legendary being the highest. The trio wanted to investigate where all the townsfolk had gone but Anna argued against saying they should try to reach the edge of the valley before night fall.

As the trio continued their journey, Levi started observing all his items.

Item: Staff of Summoning

Epic

2-Star

A staff made of carbon fiber and Ent wood. The staff has runes etched in it to allow summoners to direct, summon, and attack with ease. Can be used to cast spells.

Item: Wand of Summoning

Common

0-star

A basic utility wand used to draw summoning and ritual circles. Can not be used to cast spells.

Progress: Levi Winters

Plus 5 to Strength

Plus 6 to Vitality

Plus 15 to Wisdom

Plus 2 to Speed

Plus 3 to Stamina

Attributes Total: 406

Strength 55

Stamina 53

Speed 52

Vitality 86

Wisdom 160

“Oh,” Levi said after looking at his attributes.

“What’s up?” Piper asked.

“I think I just realized something huge,” Levi said eyes wide.

“What?” Anna asked.

“I think every attack Anza and Willow land, plus enemy they kill counts as a landed attack for wisdom,” Levi explained. “My wisdom went up significantly after that fight.”

“Oh,” Piper and Anna said.

“That’s great,” Piper said.

“I’ve heard of people having familiars before,” Anna said. “Never heard of it helping their attributes though.”

“Were they summoners?” Levi asked. “Cause they are summoned familiars, which means I had to summon them. If they were to die in battle, I can resummon them.”

“They were not, they were familiars that they got from a familiar trader,” Anna said.

“There’s a familiar trader?” Levi said. “How does that even work?”

“They ask what kind of familiar you want and then they work with you to get it. It is pretty much restricted to monster and creatures on this world, or if there happens to be a summoner who can get familiars, they can do a summoning ritual that would give another person a familiar.”

“Make a career out of it,” Levi said. “Nice.”

“You’re not thinking about doing that?” Piper asked.

“Nope,” Levi said. “They aren’t some pets to just sell. They’re lifelong friends.”

“Will you get more?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, when I rank up, my capacity increases each time. I’d love to be a familiar specialist that would be so cool!” Levi said. Anza made a metal whirling sound. “Yes, I know you’ll always be my number 1.” It made another sound. “You’ll be fine, you love having friends like Willow, stop being extra.”

“Do you actually understand what it is saying?” Piper said.

“I do,” Levi said. The team had been walking for several hours keeping a mild pace while maintaining the conversation. The sun was starting to set. Levi looked around, over the hill led to a vast valley. The valley was covered in ice. The ice was glacial blue and glistened in the sunlight. Levi didn’t feel any change in the temperature as he had expected it to be below freezing to keep the ice from melting, but it wasn’t. It was an absolutely beautiful scene, as they approached the top of the hill, Levi stopped and took a deep breath in.

Growing up Levi’s family would go camping frequently, they would go to many different places. He was always a fan of nature; he thought it was beautiful. This, however, trumped anything beautiful he had seen on Earth. Levi wished photography was real, this picture would make an awesome screen saver. Staring for a few seconds longer, soaking up all the beautiful landscape as much as possible. Piper and Anna stopped and looked at their friend. He had the biggest goofy grin on his face.

“Do you miss that childlike amazement?” Anna whispered?

“Sometimes,” Piper said looking at her crush. “I forget how incredible our world is after living in it for so long.”

“Yes,” Anna replied. “As do I. It is a big world and there are many more beautiful sites to see. I am excited to leave the Onyx kingdom and go to other big cities. We should pick a city and explore there first after we graduate?”

“That sounds incredible,” Piper said eyes beaming. “Do you really want Levi on our team, I mean I do, but I am biased.”

“I do,” Anna said. “He has proven me wrong, and I appreciate that. He has shown to me that he is loyal to you, that he cares for his familiars greatly, he is studious, and he works hard. I am always weary of the boys that enter our sphere. They are either after you for the wrong reason or me. I should apologize for how I treated him.” She was looking over at Levi. He had taken a seat to watch the sunset with his arm around Anza. Willow was in companion form sitting on his lap. “Do you think he was like this on his home world?”

“I don’t think so,” Piper said. “There is something about the way he does things that is different. Remember when we were children and that boy who was always causing trouble, what was his name?”

“Julian?”

“Yes! Remember how he got in big trouble for the prank?”

“Oh yeah,” Anna said. “He was sent away for some discipline school, right? It worked cause he came back a lot better.”

“He told me,” Piper said. “That it wasn’t the school that changed it, it was an adult there. The adult told him to not waste his second chance, cause third chances aren’t given out often in this life. The way he was after reminds me of how Levi is now. He doesn’t talk like someone who had a great time on his home world, he talks like someone who messed everything up and doesn’t want to repeat that.”

“Is that why you don’t push him to talk?”

“Yes,” Piper said. “He’ll talk when he wants to.”

“You really like him, huh?” Anna said.

“Very much so yes,” Piper responded.

“Your father-”

“Is the least of my concerns, my mom… now that’s something entirely different.” Piper said.

“Sorry,” Levi sad walking back to the girls. “I got distracted, it was so breathtaking.”

“No worries,” Piper said with a big smile.

“We’ll set up camp here,” Anna said.

“Cool,” Levi said. “Anza take these two and find us some food.” Two mimics appeared out of Levi. Anna looked at the three mimics, when Anza made itself smaller it was the same size as the other two, but Anza glowed blue while the others glowed orange. “Enough to feed us and you, kay?” Anza made a noise and left.

“That is very handy,” Piper said. “Do you have a name for the other mimics?”

“You know,” Levi paused. “I don’t. Willow is team Willow when he breaks apart but for the mimics, they aren’t exactly smaller versions of Anza…” Levi mused for a second. “Hmm I could call them minions but that is awful. Maybe emberites?”

“Emberites?” Piper said. “Why Emberites?”

“One ember can cause a forest to be set ablaze, it also matches their core color, and there are a lot of them so it’s like a group of embers is an emebrites. Team Emberites!” Levi said excitedly.

“I kinda like it… it’s not great though. That reminds me, by the way... Is Anza a boy or a girl?” Piper asked.

“I don’t think it has a gender but sometimes I call her her. Haven’t received any objections as of late.” Levi responded.

Levi had finished putting up his tent. Anza and the emberites returned with food in their mouths. They had grabbed some rabbits and an animal Levi had never seen before. He asked Piper if he could borrow a kunai knife, she let him use it and he started to skin the rabbit and the other animal. Levi had taken out the cooking gear he had purchased and put it over the fire Willow started.

Willow’s fire was magical, it didn’t need a source to constantly feed it energy. Therefore, they could have a fire without needing any firewood, kindling, or anything of that nature. It was very handy, then Willow could absorb it when they were ready to leave. Levi had pulled out some potatoes and other vegetables and made a simple rabbit stew. After a few minutes everyone was lounging around the fire eating the stew that Levi had prepared. Anna looked at Levi with assessing eyes. He was oddly prepared for this trip and the stew he made was incredible.

“Levi,” Anna finally said.

“Yeah?” Levi asked.

“I’m sorry,” she said softly.

“For what?” he asked.

“I was a jerk to you when we first met. I was ultra defensive and went out of my way to make you feel bad. It was wrong of me and I’m sorry.”

Levi looked up with his signature comforting smile, “thanks for apologizing. I understand why you were defensive. It must be annoying to have to constantly look over your shoulder like that.”

“It is but that is no excuse,” Anna said. “We could have helped you that first night and I didn’t.”

“Then I wouldn’t have gotten Anza,” Levi said.

“Positive outlook,” Anna said.

“Easy to have when you’re used to messing things up,” his smile faded.