Chapter 4: Guardian Summon.

[Knowledge Crystal #1 of 12: Dungeons For Dummies

What are dungeons?

Dungeons are trials set by the Administrators for adventurers to overcome. They are located at the center of every Biome and are split up among the level gaps.

Beginning at Rank E, challenges and monsters inside reach a cap of level 50. Rank D dungeons cap at level 100. Rank C dungeons at level 150. Rank B dungeons at level 200. Rank A dungeons at level 250. And Rank S dungeons at level 300.

Challengers may form parties of up to six to complete a dungeon, although, the final reward will be divided as a result.

Dungeons can only be completed a single time by a challenger. Completing a dungeon rewards the challenger with a single Extra Skill. EXP generated inside dungeons has a 10% buff.

Throughout a dungeon, obsidian slates can be found to leave the dungeon and return to the entrance. Leaving a dungeon without completing it results in failure. Failing a dungeon has a penalty of 1 full level of EXP being taken from the challenger.

Dungeons must be challenged annually. If not, on the eve of the new year, dungeons will enter an Overflow State. In an Overflow State, for one hour, monsters may escape the dungeon.

Dungeon Monoliths create a ‘bubble’ safe space in the center of every Biome. Inside the bubble, only challengers may enter. However, during the event of a Dungeon Overflow, monsters may invade the bubble until the overflow has passed.

Dungeons come in five categories. [Elimination], [Duel], [Maze], [Tower], [Trial].

To check what category a dungeon is, enter a dungeon, or see the time until the next Overflow, make contact with a Dungeon Monolith.

We hope you enjoy your dungeon experience. Grow strong and prosper.

* Sinclair, Administrator of the Cleric Path. ]

‘That’s….a lot of information.’ Jace hummed while holding his chin in thought. His analytical side read through the new page a few times before gesturing to the opposite page to start taking notes. Making sure to copy and summarize the above points in his own words for easy reach.

It was only at the bottom that he paused. ‘There are apparently Admin’s in this world?’ Jace hummed louder at that. ‘If they have admins, does that mean this is all coding or something? Like a video game?’ He thought it over before quickly discarded the theory. ‘No, this is real. Elm told me to treat it like reality, and I’m inclined to agree with him.’

Beneath the bullet points he made; he added a few questions and points to ponder.

‘Who are the admins? Can they directly interfere with me?’ That was often an aspect of games he had no interest in seeing be part of real life.

‘It was signed by the admin of the Cleric Path. Cleric was a starting Rank E class, and there were nine class options. Does that mean there are nine admins?’ It had only been less than two days since he filled out his application, he could recall all nine classes clearly.

‘Do the level gaps correspond to my Skill Tree? Do I need to reach level 50 to unlock Rank D summons?’ He didn’t think it was necessary to know in the short term, but it was a good question to find an answer to.

‘What are Extra Skills? It said that dungeon reward one upon completion.’ That one would have to wait until he actually completed a dungeon to find out.

‘Failing a dungeon will make me lose a level. I need to see what the limits of that are, will it affect me at level 0?’ He wasn’t the type to rush in guns blazing without a plan.

‘Dungeon Monoliths create a safety bubble. Is that what this cave is? Is that why I haven’t seen any threats so far? I need to find the limits of this bubble before I can rest easy.’ His starting cave still seemed like the safest spot to camp at, but if the larger cavern was safe, he could move around without constantly being on guard.

‘Dungeon Overflows can be a direct threat. I need to check how long I have.’ An Overflow poured monsters out of the dungeon and into the safety bubble. While they couldn’t inhabit the bubble, they could tear him apart while they were there.

Jace ran his eyes over the two pages once more before nodding and stepping back. ‘That’s about everything I can gather of immediate and long term need.’

Waving the book to the side, he looked up at the imposing obsidian Dungeon Monolith in curiosity. It was a dozen feet tall, glowing in a faint red light, and seemed to be carved from a single piece of stone. ‘So, I just…touch it?’

Once more pulling on the ancient wisdom of humanity, Jace poked the giant stone.

The moment he did, the red light flared gently as letters wrote themselves on the stone like a blowtorch taken to metal with a dull red font.

[Dungeon: Cavernous Goblin Grotto.

Rank: E – Level 50 and under.

Category: Elimination

Goal: Slay the Goblin Chiefs (0/3)

Time until Overflow: 6 months, 4 days, 13 hours.

Participants: 0/6]

And beneath that, a single word was written in a deeper red the color of blood.

[Enter?]

Jace very carefully removed his finger from the stone and backed away. ‘I’d rather not.’

Thankfully, the text vanished when he moved back.

Jace waved his grimoire back open to his notes and copied everything down. ‘Elimination? That makes thing simple and complicated.’

He ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. ‘A title like Goblin Chief means it has a tribe. I have no idea of their numbers, levels, intelligence, abilities, or anything. I don’t even know what they look like. All it says is to kill the three chiefs. That means at least one, if not three tribes.’

He was considering jumping into the dungeon to check things out a minute ago, but quickly vetoed the idea now. ‘Being level 0 might make the dungeon penalty for failure non-existent, but it doesn’t mean shit if I die before I reach a dungeon slate. This isn’t a game, and I have no interest in dying.’

His gaze fell to the Overflow timer. ‘However, I’m on the clock here. In six months, they are coming out of there even if I don’t go to them. I’ll need to know how to deal with them before that point.’ A thought occurred to him then. ‘Wait, does this world even follow the same concept of time that Earth did? How long is a month here? How long is a day?’ The timers smallest denomination was days, not hours, minutes, or seconds.

Jace scratched his chin in thought before recalling exits to the cave to each end length wise. ‘I’ll just keep an eye on the time outside. When the sun returns to the same position tomorrow, I’ll check the timer again. If there even is a sun in here…’

According to what Elm said, Jace was in a Biome pocket dimension, separated from the outside world which was a wasteland where monsters of any level roamed and the weather patterns fluctuated violently.

So the question became if his Biome actually had a day and night cycle.

‘I really hope it does.’ He looked back up at the Dungeon Monolith. ‘I don’t fancy hunting in the dark.’

Turning away from the stone, he surveyed the area once more with a critical gaze. His hesitation was gone, his fears cast aside, and now all that was left was what left underneath, an instinct to act and bare fangs that had been biding its time for an entire lifetime.

‘If I can’t enter the dungeon, I’ll need to look elsewhere for prey to hunt and level with. Elm said Biome’s were full of monsters, I can take my time and get an idea of the land outside this cave.’ Knowing he had six months to discover his strength, if he didn’t want to die from a Dungeon Overflow, helped him focus. It gave him a goal. Six months was both a long and brief time, and he wanted to use it wisely. ‘I need to hurry, but I can’t rush recklessly or I’ll die. A hunt needs patience, tools, and knowledge. Gather that, and I can move quickly and efficiently.’

Throughout the years of hunting with his father and brothers, patience and knowledge were ingrained into him. He had to know the prey he was hunting, learn it’s habits, what it’s tracks looked like, what it liked to eat, where it was likely to rest, and find the softest and most lethal spots to strike efficiently.

And to learn those things took patience. So he would be patient, but only as long as he was gaining something from the time spent.

Stepping down from the Dungeon Monolith’s stairs, he surveyed his general area once more. ‘The path is smoother around here. Seems like a flat path from the Dungeon Monolith to each of the two exits I saw earlier.’

The Dungeon Monolith stood on a pedestal of black stone, with the pond of glowing blue water in a perfect circle in the center of the pedestal. Five steps down, a dirt and sand path about five feet wide led in a straight line to each end of the cavern.

But behind that path was the rocky landscape filled with a rocky terrain, streams and stone pillars that Jace traveled through, taking up over 80% of the cavern up until the waterfall at the back.

One side of the sandy path led to a doorway leaking orange light, while the other bled a whitish blue light.

Looking both ways, Jace shrugged and took the path to the orange light. ‘Gotta check them both anyway, might as well pick one at random.’

He worried for a bit about sharp stones in the sand filled path, but thankfully found nothing but a smooth ride. ‘I could at least wrap my feet in some cloth, but the only thing I’ve got on me is briefs, and I’m not about to tear them up for foot wraps. Gotta keep the package safe and secure when I have to run.’

For whom knew how long he would be there? If there was one article of clothing that mattered above all else, it was briefs. Boots came next. Then pants. ‘I wonder if goblins wear pants?’

That thought amused him as he made the short half mile journey to the doorway.

The exit was shaped like a large upside down V, with black stone to each side. Yet that wasn’t the most eye catching part. No, that worthy belonged to the rippling orange doorway itself.

Like a strange mix between a solid and a liquid, almost like Jello, pulsing with ripples like a rock thrown onto the surface of a calm pond.

‘Is it a doorway or a portal?’ There was no markings to tell him what to do or what it was, so he figured he would test it like anything else, by poking it, except not with his finger.

Looking around his area, Jace quickly found a loose stone about a foot long in length and carried it over to the orange doorway. Grabbing a handful of sand, he made a small pile on top of the stone and grabbed one side with both ends. ‘If the stone can enter without issue, I’ll know it won’t cut me off. If the sand stays on when I pull it back, it’s a doorway and not a portal.’

The stone with sand on the end entered without issue, and after ten seconds, he pulled it back and found the sand right where he left it. ‘Good, that’s pretty much the best safety test I’ll be getting without anything else to use.’

The stone was a bit warmer to the touch, but he didn’t think much on it.

Only then did he test it with a finger and poked the rippling doorway. It felt fine and so he pushed his hand through, feeling a great deal of heat hit his palm from the other side, yet when he pulled it back he saw nothing wrong.

‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained.’ Taking a deep breath, he stuck his head through.

The second he did, his senses were assaulted by an array of new information.

His nose was filled with smoke and sulfur.

His ears rung with the distant roars of beasts and the raw force of mother nature.

His skin was assaulted by a wave of stinging dry heat.

And his eyes took in an apocalyptical scene of natural beauty.

Jace was upon a mountains peak, gazing over a platform only fifty feet long shaped like a fan, overlooking a scene beyond even his own imagination.

Ash and molten stone rained from the sky, belching from one of three towering volcanos in the distance. They curved like a crescent to his gaze, with one directly straight ahead, and one to his left and right at an angle. Lava leaked from their lids, pouring down in molten rivers that ran down their bodies like veins, collecting in pools at the base and spreading further to encompass the earth as far as he could see.

No ground existed beyond the edge of his fifty foot platform, allowing him to see the earth far down below undulating like waves of ice upon the ocean of magma.

But those details were nothing more than a background to the true sight before him.

An array without pattern, a web with no strings, stone as black as night, glowing with faint yellow veins, formed into oval shaped platforms, some not more than fifteen feet across and others miles long, spread throughout the air as far as his sight could see.

Connected by thin strips of stone, these platforms bobbed through the air, almost like magnets caught in a force Jace couldn’t see.

Like a game board for 3D chess then went on for miles, the platforms went high and low, east to west, beginning twenty feet away from the ledge and going to the farthest reaches of the Biome Jace could barely make out between the towering volcanos.

Heat waves rose from the magma below, turning the lowest platforms he could see a glowing red color like metal in a furnace, yet the higher he looked, the less heat he saw affect the platforms. And contrary to expectation, life bloomed where his eyes landed.

A particularly large platform, clearly over a mile long, surged with green vitality, overflowing with plant life like a prehistoric jungle.

Just then, a cry of an avian predator pierced through the air as a bird three times the size of an eagle swooped in from the sky, almost too fast for Jace to even see, and grabbed something with its talons before flying to the apex of a tree.

Yet in the next moment, blue vines exploded outward from the tree, wrapping up the avian in seconds and dragged the beast beneath the foliage with a cry of fear.

Jace couldn’t blink. Couldn’t look away. The raw force of nature was as terrifying as it was visually stunning.

With careful and slow movements, he casually pulled his head back inside the cave with dull eyes, staring ahead at the rippling orange doorway in silence. ‘Well….that’s not good.’

He stuck his head back in to double check he wasn’t imagining it and nodded to himself. ‘Right, that’s not happening. Lava is bad, I should stay away from lava, all kids learn that early on. It has nothing to do with anything else.’

There was a reason some children games and songs lasted centuries, and that’s because they had real meanings.

The Floor is Lava = Lava is bad. Don’t touch hot glowing stuff.

Ring Around the Rosie = The Black Plague was real. Getting ill is serious. Wash your hands with warm water.

And those were just two examples.

Jace sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. ‘What the hell is this Insanity level difficulty? Lava? Are you fucking kidding me? Lava is around nine hundred degrees Celsius on average. Normal humans will die in less than six minutes by being in an environment at two hundred degrees Fahrenheit, let alone Celsius, meaning platforms to close to the lava would literally cook me like an egg in a heated iron skillet. I could still use the upper layer of platforms, but I have no way of knowing how hot black fucking stone is. Touch the wrong one and….’

The mental image was something he did not need.

‘Let’s try the other door.’

Jace about faced and walked back the way he came, passing the Dungeon Monolith at the halfway mark and continuing to the other side.

Here, everything was the same as the orange doorway, except this time, the stone to either side was covered in frost, and the doorway itself was a mix of whitish-blue. ‘I’m pretty sure I get the idea. Orange meant heat, whitish-blue means cold. Please don’t be an iceberg out there, I might really start regretting this opportunity if it is.’

He went through the same round of tests with the doorway as the first time to be sure. The rock with sand, his finger, then his hand, and finally he took the plunge and shoved his head through.

Thankfully, the first thing to greet his gaze was no glacier. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem that much better than the hot side.

His nose was filled with the scent of pine.

His ears tickled with the howl of the wind and groaning of wood.

His skin was assaulted by a wave of sharp icy gales.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

And his eyes witnessed a mystical landscape of snow and ice, spread out through a forest like something out of a Narnia movie.

‘Wo.’

The heat had a raw primal beauty to it, but the wintry forest had a sirens call that hit him close to home. ‘I feel like I’m back in North Dakota, only, more ancient.’

Once again, he was looking from the top of a mountain, except this time there was land reaching up to the entrance of the cave.

Feet of snow piled high kissed the ground like a fluffy looking cloud. Pine tree’s rose high into the sky, far larger and higher than he ever remembered ones back on earth growing to. Snow blanketed the branches, and ice hung like crystal chandeliers.

In the distance, he could make out a blizzard raging, slowly moving across the forest with an intensity that was sure to make him lose his way if he were ever caught inside at the best and freeze him dead at worst.

And while the sounds of combat were far less explosive than the hot side, they still echoed throughout the forest from where he observed.

Jace slowly pulled his head back inside once more and enjoyed the warmth of the cave rushing forward to thaw his face of the icy chill.

‘That’s going to have to be my way forward.’

He knew it. There was no other choice.

‘I need to get stronger. To get stronger, I need to unlock my summons. To unlock my summons, I need to reach level 5. To reach level 5, I have to kill stuff without dying. The dungeon is a no go until I can guarantee I can at least survive long enough to get out. The lava side is an instant death sentence for the current me unless I’m confident in jumping to the closest floating platform without falling to my death. And the cold side, while lethal to me as well, is at least somewhere I can scout out a bit. Maybe gather some pines and wood from the trees to make some snow shoes?’

He sat down and deeply considered what to do while running his hands through his hair. ‘I need information. [Identify] would be a hell of a good skill to have right now, but without it, how the hell am I supposed to tell if a monster is level 1, 50, or anything in between? Can it tell me if something is edible or not?’

Groaning in annoyance, he considered his immediate next step. ‘Whether I like it or not, I’m going to have to eat soon. I don’t know if the whole HP-Regen heals hunger pain, and frankly, I don’t want to find out without food ready. So I need to play it smart, I need intel, and I have to move fast.’

Sticking his head back out the doorway, Jace grimaced at the space around the door. ‘It looks like the same platform the Dungeon Monolith stands on, but its covered in ice.’ Thick whitish-blue ice covered the dark stone underneath, for fifty feet around the doorway, where steps vanished under snow and frost. ‘I can’t walk barefoot on ice. Well I could if it were warm enough out there, but that wind chill was below zero. Plus, that ice isn’t smooth.’ His grimace became a pronounced frown as he saw the jagged edges of ice here and there. ‘That shit will cut my feet up like a knife through butter.’

With no other alternative, and an unhappy expression, Jace turned and went back to the hot side. ‘At least there I can exit the door without an immediate threat. I think I saw a few piles of what might be obsidian near the door. Maybe I can chip some off to make a weapon. The Aztecs made insanely sharp weapons out of that stuff.’

Sadly for him, he overlooked a simple part of physics.

Sticking his head back into the lava filled landscape, he checked out the platform the doorway stood on and happily noted it was simple looking black stone, just like the Dungeon Monolith platform and Ice side platform. Figuring he was high up enough to be away from the worst of the heat, he stepped out of the doorway, moving into a crouch to make himself unseen by any more avians around.

However, he had no idea that the innocent looking black stone outside the door was not as innocent looking as he first assumed, having judged it based on what he could see of platforms in the distance.

The second his bare foot touched the stone, Jace had half a second to register a prickling of pain before cold spread through his foot. Eyes widening in shock, he looked down to see smoke drifting off his skin as alarm bells rung in his mind. In less than three seconds since he stepped down, quickly ripping his foot back, but that was a second to late as the stone claimed a surface layer of skin that remained behind and burnt to a crisp.

Jace was only halfway through the door when the situation registered, and he fell back inside the cavern seconds later with a roar of pain escaping his lungs.

“SON OF A BITCH!”

He was no stranger to pain, but feeling an entire layer of skin get burned off the bottom of his foot from contact with a stone that was at least 150C, if not more, was a new experience for him.

Jace roared in agony as his brain fully registered the damage done. The closest nerve endings to the disfigured skin sending thousands of signals for cold and pain that overwhelmed him from the start as they all withered and died.

He could do nothing but grab his ankle and roll around on his back as he thrashed. “This is such bullshit! What kind of starting scenario is this! Fuck you Elm! Fuck me for being so fucking tired I filled out that fucking application!”

Curses flew from him in a train for a minute longer until the nerve endings were damaged enough to dull the pain, leaving him there whimpering like a wounded animal.

Jace took deep breaths of air as he tried to reign himself in. ‘Stop panicking. Panicking isn’t going to help!’

He gently hit his forehead on the ground to focus himself, and with gritted teeth, he pushed back the panic and pain to take stock. ‘I’m an idiot. The other side was covered in sharp ice, of course this side would have a catch. But how the hell am I supposed to test that? I’ve got nothing to burn here!’

His mistake came from thinking that if plant life grew on the black stone platforms that were high up enough, then the platform outside the door should have been safe. A mistake that caused him a great deal of pain.

‘Hindsight is a bitch. I could have used a lock of hair to test it.’ Jace grumbled and, making sure to keep his foot elevated while refusing to look at the damage, pulled out his grimoire again. ‘How did that effect my HP?’

[HP: 35/50

MP: 50/50

SP: 48/50]

‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Jace groaned and let his head fall back onto the stone. ‘I lost 15 points of HP from that one little step?’

He called up the backlog and saw the exact numbers.

[User took 15 damage]

[User inflicted with status condition: Minor Burn – Damage taken +5 per minute for 2 minutes]

‘And there are status conditions? What kind of bullshit is this?’

Inside, he knew it wasn’t bullshit. It was logical, and it made sense. But logic was not very welcome in the face of pain.

‘In two minutes, I’ll be down to 50% of my health. 50% of my health, from one fucking step. It’s going to take me 50 minutes to recover that. God, is this what the price of a Special Class is? I should have just taken the [Villager] class and started from the bottom.’

Laying there, with a dead foot sticking up into the air, with his back to hard stone, in nothing but briefs, Jace seriously considered the option of going for a do-over. ‘Maybe returning to the ‘Great Wheel’ wouldn’t be so bad? Elm did say it would be painless. Then again, Elm also told me a lot of other shit. Including encouraging me to come to this place.’

Pinching the bridge of his nose, he tossed away the morbid thoughts and really looked for a solution. ‘I had my moment, stop crying over spilled milk. Knowing fantasy stories, I’m sure to experience worse pain in the future than a burned foot. I need a path forward, but what can I do here?’

He had three paths available.

One, stepping into an unknown dungeon, where he would have to find a slate to escape while not dying to anything he runs into inside.

Two, a lava filled hell where he can’t touch the ground and had to jump twenty feet to reach the closest platform. Oh, and those platforms seemed to be active frying pans at best.

Or three, a winter forest whose exit is covered in sharp jagged ice.

Between the three, the ice seemed best.

‘Yeah, I’m gonna die.’ A chuckle bubbled out of him at the absurdity of it all. Thirty six hours ago, he was a depressed, repressed, game designer with shattered dreams living alone in NYC, wasting his bachelor years away with work.

And now, even with many of his insecurities and fears washed away, he was stuck between a rock and a hard place of epic proportions.

‘What the hell am I gonna do?’

Jace ran through dozens of scenarios in his head, not noticing as something was trying to get his attention out of the corner of his eye.

His grimoire, which had been silently following his will up till that point, had flipped it’s pages on its own and was flashing with blue light, trying to get Jace to notice something.

Yet, gone in his inner thoughts, Jace didn’t realize it was doing something until it literally hit him in the side of the head with the cover.

“Ow, what the fuck?” Jace sat up and rubbed the side of his head as he looked to the offender. “My grimoire?”

The book flared back in response to his call and Jace felt something inside him twitch through their connection. Like a feeling of annoyance that didn’t originate from him.

Jace blinked at the book. “Please don’t tell me you can talk. Or turn into a humanoid female that tries to seduce me. My sanity, what little is left, does not need some Japanese anime tropes right now.”

The book flashed again, and this time Jace actively saw it close in to smack him. “Oi, I was just joking. Mostly. Since when can you understand me?”

Despite the question, there was no verbal response. Nor was there a written one. The book simply floated before him, pulsing with calm blue light and shoved a page in front of his eyes to get his attention.

And on it, only one thing was displayed.

[Unspent Class Token(s): 3-Point Skill Token x2, Rank: E Unlock Summon Token x2, Guardian Summon Token x1.]

Jace raised a brow in question. “What are you trying to tell me? I can’t use that stuff until I unlock summoning at level 5.”

A feeling of irritation traveled through the bond, making Jace’s brow twitch at feeling as if he just got told off. ‘What a cheeky book. If it weren’t connected to my soul, I’d get a new one.’

Most of the text vanished, leaving one thing remaining.

[Guardian Summon Token x1.]

Jace’s eyes narrowed as he started to get it. ‘Wait, I tested the Unlock Summon token and Skill Point token, did I test the Guardian Summon one?’ He thought back to his observations after he woke up and it finally clicked. “I didn’t try it yet.”

The grimoire seemed to move up and down in agreement.

A part of Jace felt he should be annoyed with the book, but mostly he was annoyed at himself. ‘I used to do this all the time. Overlooking a piece of coding I was sure was done, only to have the final result fail because I missed one little thing. I can’t be doing that anymore.’ He sighed and shook his head. ‘This isn’t a simple job I can fail. This is my life on the line, and until I’m strong enough to be able to survive the fallout, I can’t lose myself in my hubris.’

The grimoire waited patiently for him to act, and after a few minutes of firming up his mind once more, Jace nodded to it. “I don’t know if you really understand me or not, or if you’re just a piece of my soul or something, but thanks. Please make sure to point out things I forget moving forward.”

The book bobbed up and down, and Jace got the strange feeling it was happy that time. A feeling of excitement passed through the bond, and it became infectious as Jace began to smile.

“Alright, I’m going to actually summon something. I feel like I’m a kid watching Pokemon again for the first time on a Sunday morning in my pajamas.” Jace chuckled and gestured with his will to the floating book to activate the Token.

The blue light around the grimoire increased in intensity as it turned to a new page. Lines of text began writing itself over the parchment before his very eyes.

[Guardian Summon Token used.]

[Generating Guardian Summon….Scanning users soul……Searching Database…..Match found.]

[Generating Element….scanning host for current major weakness….searching for beneficial element….Element chosen.]

[Generating Ability….host suffering from contact wounds …..suitable ability found.]

[Error….user currently level 0….reducing quality to a Rank E ability……suitable quality found.]

[Generating Guardian Summon.]

The words flashed by in moments before a flare of light escaped the Grimoire, blinding Jace from the intensity of it enough that he accidentally put his foot down, feeling all the blisters flare as it made contact with the ground, and forcing him to hold back a scream of pain to not give into its madness a second time.

Thankfully, relief came as something wrapped around his injured foot, preventing it from hitting the ground and supporting it in a cast.

Jace only distantly registered that through his pain as he blinked the spots out of his eyes to see a sight he didn’t expect. A baby snake, barely a foot long, flicked it’s tongue as it stared at him with beady amber eyes reminiscent of his own, stretched out upon his chest.

[image [https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/792095442053496832/1219027669966917643/Smaug.png?ex=6609cefc&is=65f759fc&hm=2fbb62c5252bd13d8544eaa15aba676d1f441805cd2dcf8398b3af6c12d9eb20&=]]

It stared at him just as he stared at it.

Man and snake, in a moment equally confusing to each.

And in the background, the grimoire happily bobbed as it wrote out a final line.

[Soul bond initiating. Brace yourself.]

But neither saw it as the two went from staring at each other to seeing something more.

An explosion of sound burst into existence, ringing far and wide with the sound of chimes in their ears.

Jace gasped as he found himself afloat, feeling as if as a hand had just jabbed into him and torn him open.

Something was taken from inside, and something else was put in it’s place before the hand left as quickly as it arrived.

Jace could neither scream nor shout at the sensation, it was like something fundamental to his very being had just been violated and connected to something else.

To someone else. Someone he could feel like a phantom limb he never knew he had.

With a rush of color and sound, the world flashed back into focus, returning Jace to his place on the sandy ground, with his guest still in the same place as before upon his chest.

Air rushed into his lungs, and in a moment of clarity, Jace felt not just his own, but a second beat of a heart echo in tune with his own. He matched eyes with the baby snake, who seemed to be in the same state as Jace.

The two stared, and suddenly, they knew. They knew the other, not in thought or character, not in experience or body, but in feeling.

The snake was curious, tasting the air over and over as it recorded and imprinting his scent into its memory.

The little dude, for Jace somehow knew it was a dude, was under a foot long, barely three fingers wide, and had a scale pattern of stripes split between sandy brown and mahogany brown.

Big round pupils stared up at him, alternating between rounded and slit as it familiarized itself with his scent before settling on round as it’s gaze became warm.

Jace sat there dumbfounded for a moment before the little guy seemed to get comfortable on his chest and curl up into a coil. The sight was so adorable, it struck right through any cautiousness Jace might have held and went right to protective instincts.

“Well, aren’t you a handsome one.” A smile stretched across his lips as he reached a hand forward to gently pick the baby snake up. He let it sniff his hand with a flick of its tongue before moving it so he could get up to a sitting position. “Are you my Guardian Summon, little dude?”

He knew the answer to that before he asked, both of them did, but he still had to ask.

The snake bobbed it’s little head, and Jace was interested to get a feeling of pride emanating from it. “You’re proud of that, huh?” A chuckle rumbled through him as he brought a finger forward to rub the snakes head. The baby hissed in delight at the feeling, and Jace couldn’t help but laugh at the sight.

The entrance of the adorable creature was a much needed reprieve from all the pain and stress he was under from the last thirty six hours of his life. And eerie bonding or not, Jace couldn’t stay mad looking at the small creature.

“Who’s a cute little guy. You are.” Babying the snake seemed like the right move as it twirled in pleasure at the attention, soaking it up like a morning daisy. Jace had a pet snake years before and had a major soft spot for the reptiles.

But after ten minutes of it, Jace came back to himself and what was important. “So my Guardian Summon is a baby snake?” The little dude raised its head proudly, making Jace give it a wry smile and a pat. “Not that I don’t enjoy the company, but how exactly is this supposed to improve my situation?”

The creature tilted it’s head in a human like sign of confusion that surprised him. ‘Maybe it’s not a real snake? It did come from my abilities after all. Or maybe magical species are just smarter? Is this little guy even magical?’

It only occurred to him then that he wasn’t supporting his injured foot yet felt no discomfort. Sitting up, he looked down at his foot with wide eyes to see a hardened cast of sand wrapped around it. Running a hand along it, Jace was amazed to feel it had a smooth, compact texture. ‘Is it molded to my foot? Did this baby snake do this?’

Jace turned his head to the small creature who was curled up and seemed to be dozing off peacefully without a care in the world. ‘Is this what you can do?’

His thoughts went a mile a minute as he turned to where his grimoire had been floating silently to get some answers. He flipped to the [Backlog] page and his brow twitched at the warning to ‘brace himself.’

“How about a little more attentive warning next time, eh?”

The grimoire seemed to bob in a shrugging motion that made Jace consider if the book was flammable, but his better judgement won out.

“Whatever. Can you tell me anything about this little guy?” He pointed to the snake and the book responded as it’s pages flew by.

Jace blinked at the Summon List page. It looked exactly like it did before, with everything greyed out. “Why show me this again?”

A glow of blue light flowed down the page and seemed to highlight one specific spot that Jace didn’t notice.

One of the four small [???] tags at the bottom of the page, two to each side of [Summons List], had changed and was lit up.

[Guardian Summons] it read.

‘Oh, why is it in such small font? I could barely see it.’

Responding to his will, the font changed size as it increased to where the bottom of the page barely held the one known, and three unknown boxes.

While picking up the little snake in one hand, Jace reached forward with his other to click on [Guardian Summon].

The moment he did, the pages turned as a new prompt appeared.

[Guardian Summon: The soul bound partner of a Summoner. The strongest and final layer of defense a Summoner depends on. Beginning from the start of their journey, the Guardian is unique in that it grows with the User, unbound by many of the restrictions most Summons have.

* Guardian shares a Mana Pool with the User.

* Upon death of the guardian, user loses half his remaining MP, 25% EXP of the most recent level, and must wait 6 hours to resummon the Guardian. Unsummoning the guardian does not count as death.

* Guardian has no MP cost to summon.

* Guardian has no need to eat, sleep, or breathe.

* Guardian can evolve at every fifty level benchmark.

]

Jace marveled at the latest information. ‘That’s….that’s amazing and terrible.’ He looked back and forth between the baby snake and the book. ‘Having no MP cost to summon, not needing to eat, sleep, or breath, and evolving every fifty levels are all awesome. The little guy grows with me as I level up. Sharing an MP pool doesn’t seem so bad, I don’t exactly have a use for mana right now. But the death penalty is severe.’ He grimaced at the idea. ‘I can’t just send him off to fight for me, he’s both a strength and a weakness. Sure, I can just wait to recover my mana, but if it’s in the middle of a fight, I’m in trouble. But how is the snake related to the sand on my foot?’

Turning back to the page, Jace saw a new tab beneath it.

[Guardian Summon: Sand Serpent]

Jace clicked on it and a new prompt expanded.

[Name: - (Please choose)

Species: Sand Serpent.

Gender: Male.

Element: Earth.

* Sub-Element: Sand.

Bio:

* Sand Serpents are predators of the desert sands. Burrowing deep underground, these serpents use their unique abilities to adapt to all ranges of temperature changes and drag their prey beneath the earth. Illusive and formidable, they travel alone and are highly territorial.

Ability:

* Sand Armor – Creates a layer of sand around the body that can retain or reflect heat, and defend the vulnerable flesh underneath from damage. Cost – 3MP per layer, per minute.

Resources:

HP: 50/50

Mana: -

]

Most of the information provided was interesting and helpful, but it was the ability that caught his eye the most.

Jace gaped at the baby snake, who somehow seemed to feel like it was being praised and sleepily stood tall in pride.

The tiny snakes ability was going to change everything. Jace’s mind rapidly slotted it into his plans, seeing dozens of ways it could be used to help him proceed with increasingly more excitement rising each passing moment.

He brought the little guy closer to his face and held him like a precious gem. “Little dude, me and you are going to turn this world upside down.”

The snake tilted in confusion at him but seemed to pick up on his excitement as it hissed and bobbed it’s head happily.

Jace chuckled and bopped it with a finger affectionately. “You need a name little dude. Want me to pick one?”

The feeling of excitement returned from the snake and Jace took that as confirmation.

“Hm…a name.” He eyed the snake and thought about matching names. “How about Nigel? I get the sense you have a few lazy bones in you.”

The baby snake shook it’s head in the negative, even going as far as to use the tip of its tail to point down like a thumb down gesture.

Jace scratched his chin in thought. “Odin? It’s a name from a king of gods. A powerful name for a strong warrior.”

The snake’s tail tip moved to the bottom of its chin as it pondered, copying Jace’s action, before hissing in the negative.

“No? Huh, thought that one would work.” Jace hummed. “How about something more classy? A gentleman snake deserves something like….Mr. Hiss.”

It was at that moment that Jace discovered what it felt like for a ten inch long baby creature to give him a deadpan expression.

He pouted slightly and looked away. “I thought it was a good name. It’s better than just calling you, ‘Snek’.”

And now he learned that even baby snakes can be intimidating, if adorable, with a glare that silently translated its displeasure thoroughly.

Jace chuckled and scratched the little guys chin to calm him down. “I’m just kidding, bud. How about….” His eyes lit up at an idea. “I’ve got it! Smaug. You will be my little Smaug, and the world will see you grow to become a fierce creature of doom and destruction to all those who threaten us and our eventual horde.”

All good Skyrim addicts horded everything they could get their hands on, and Jace was no different. He held the snake up above his head with both hands, and the little guy picked up on the mood as its eyes shined like stars. The snake stood tall and nodded his head regally to agree, getting Jace to coo over him all over again before mentally adding the name to the Grimoire.

[Guardian Summon – Sand Snake.

Name: Smaug.]

He showed the name change to Smaug, allowing his partner to see the book, and got the little guy to wiggle in joy at the sight.

Jace laughed and placed his new partner on his shoulder. “Come on, Smaug. We have some experimenting to do. And then we find some food, I’m getting hungry.”

He hefted himself up using the wall for leverage and winced as his foot touched the ground, as even through the cast, the pressure was still felt. ‘I’m still twenty minutes off from a full heal, but soaking my foot in cool water sounds just grand right about now.’

He limped forward using the wall for support, not noticing Smaug’s little head look toward to his foot in concern. The little guy narrowed his eyes and before Jace could react, sand rose from the path to grasp the injured limb with a new layer, creating a gap with a few inches of space between the bottom of his foot and the ground, effectively eliminating all feelings of pressure on the bottom of his foot.

Jace blinked, wide eyed at the change, staring at his foot in surprise before gently trying to put pressure on it. The cast held firm, stopping him from touching the ground and letting him stand on his own without support.

He looked from the cast to his straight backed partner standing tall in pride like a king cobra on his shoulder with a look that expected praise and obliged the unspoken request.

“Smaug, I think this is the start of a beautiful friendship.”

By the happy hiss Smaug let out in return, Jace was sure it was a mutual feeling.

Chapter end.