After the battle with the boar, I realized how bad it would have been for me if Jareth had been severely injured or killed, leaving me with no other summons or weapons to protect myself.
Thinking about how I could remedy the problem facing me I eventually decided to find a second summon to add to my summoning roster, not only can I hunt more monsters with two summons, but I'll also have backup protection in case of an emergency or if there are multiple monsters.
In addition to adding a second summon, having something to protect myself with is also necessary on the off chance that I need to fend something off or do damage, so I'll bring the tusk from the boar Jareth killed yesterday to a weapon-smith and get it made into a dagger for myself.
I start off the day by eating a quick meal of scrambled eggs and bacon and then head out to find a weapon-smith to make me a dagger. Eventually, I find a small but nice smithy and enter the workshop to find an older man with greying hair and a bushy beard whose body is covered in muscles that I assume developed as a result of years of hard work.
I greet the man and introduce myself to him, which he responds to by telling me that his name is Garth and that he owns the smithy. After the brief introduction, he asks what I came here for, to which I bring out the tusk and tell him that I'd like to commission for a dagger to be made out of the tusk.
Garth takes the tusk from me and inspects it with a discerning eye and informs me that he can make a dagger from it, and since I provided the material for it he will only charge me 5 credits for the labor involved. He also tells me that he will make a sheath for the dagger since I can't just keep it out in the open all the time.
I mentally mull over the price and decide that it's probably as fair a deal as I'll get, and so I agree to his price and go ahead and hand him 3 credits ahead of time as an installment. Before I leave the smithy Garth tells me that the dagger will be ready tomorrow, and I can come to pick it up in the morning. Deciding that I've wasted enough time in the city, I head out to the gate and head towards the forest once more.
Once in the monster plane I bring out Jareth and feed him a goblin core for breakfast, which he quickly gobbles up. Once he finishes his meal we head into the forest once more, killing everything in sight, most of which are some tier 1 bug type monsters like spiderlings and giant centipedes that seem to have taken up nesting in the trees or under them.
Once we reach a bit deeper into the forest where Tier 2's usually reside we come across a Shadow wolf, which is a wolf variant that is darker and larger than its' normal wolf counterpart. As soon as I recognize the shadow wolf as a variant monster I become giddy at my luck on finding my next potential summon on the first day.
Most of the time, it can take weeks or months for someone to find their ideal summon, it's not a position to hand out lightly since there is a limit to how many summons we can have. Deciding that this wolf will work just fine as a battle/mount class monster, rounding out my current team that so far is focused on defense with a relatively strong offense based monster.
Seeing that the dark wolf is hesitant to charge blindly into battle, I will Jareth to take the initiative. He slowly advances towards the wolf, all the while maintaining proper caution due to the unknown nature of the wolfs' abilities.
After closing in on the wolf, which is now about a club's length away, Jareth assumes a low and defensive stance while tracking the wolf with his club to meet any potential attack. The wolf remains in the shade of the trees in the forest and watches the incoming goblin with weariness and the patience of a true predator.
Jareth eventually loses the waiting game and closes in while swinging his club towards the side of the wolf's head. The club hits its mark but goes straight through as if he was hitting an illusion. After Jareth makes contact with the illusion, the real wolf comes out and takes advantage of the opening and swipes at both Jareth's side and back before darting away from the club being swung at it in retaliation.
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Jareth becomes much more cautious of the wolf, and after my prompting, he attempts to corral the wolf to a lit-up area. All the while ignoring the awkwardly positioned wound that luckily didn't go too far in as a result of the goblin's tough hide.
After feinting and corralling the wolf slowly into the light, the strategy finally works. Just as the wolf realizes where it is and that it has no shadows to control, Jareth's club comes down hard in an overhead swing towards the now powerless wolf and hits it on the neck, damaging the spine and concussing the wolf.
Jareth wastes no time and hits the wolf repeatedly on the head as its' defense is lowered due to being stunned. With no time to recover, the wolf is quickly ended with a crushed skull as a result of the powerful blows from Jareth's club.
Seeing that the battle is over I go to the wolf corpse and retrieve the core before placing it on top of the body and letting a drop of blood from my freshly pricked finger fall on the core to bond it to me. The core activates and absorbs the wolf's corpse and changes color and has an outline of a dark wolf on the crystal.
After retrieving the core and putting it in my storage to use later. I went over to Jareth to check on his condition, and to feed him a goblin core and the Tier 2 core. It was from an iron winged hawk as a reward for winning against his most difficult opponent to date.
After checking to make sure that the wound was stable and already healing. I unsummon Jareth to let him rest and summon out the wolf that I had just bonded with.
Looking closely at my newest summon I notice his size immediately, noting that he is about 1.5 times the size of a normal wolf. Not only that, but his fur is a deep dark that seems to blend into any shadows near it.
Noticing my discerning eye, the wolf cocks his head to the side in question and my heart melts just a little at this adorable act that has no place on such a menacing-looking predator turned ally. I pet his head to assuage him which he leans into with contented looking eyes and I spend a few moments just getting used to him and petting his deceivingly soft fur.
Knowing that he would be a long-time companion of mine I decided that he deserves a name and set my mind towards thinking hard about what name might suit him. Eventually, I come up with the generic but suitable name of Brutus and when I inform the newly christened wolf of his name he seems rather ecstatic at this new revelation with him pouncing on and licking me.
With the recently named wolf walking beside me, we head back towards the weaker outer area of the forest to hunt for some additional monsters to sell and to test out the strength and capabilities of my new summon.
Surprisingly enough, I discover as soon as we encounter a monster Brutus responds to my mental commands and we manage to sync in battle like I did with Jareth in the past. With my direction, Brutus manages to kill 6 more tier 1 monsters for a total of 14 tier 1 corpses in my storage.
Deciding that I had done enough hunting for the day I bring out the bodies from my storage to remove all of the cores from the bodies before storing them all away and then head through the gate and back into civilization.
Following my usual routine, I go to the core exchange center and once again place all of the cores I collected onto the counter as prompted for a total of 14 credits from cores alone. Once the cores had been sold off I head towards the Summoner Association to sell off the bodies remaining in storage.
Seeing Max at one of the reception stations when I enter, I immediately head towards the familiar stern-faced clerk. Most of the bodies sell for the normal rate of 3 credits per tier 1 corpse, but the giant centipedes' carapace is used in common armor and so sells for 5 credits and the 3 spiderlings that I killed have many organs and venom used in potions so they each sell for 6 credits each.
My earnings today come out to with 90 credits and I even register my newest summon Brutus while I'm at the station. Once Max reads the form info he gains a surprised look on his face before congratulating me on managing to gain another variant summon so soon after gaining Jareth only 3 days ago.
Purchasing another quick meal for a credit I decide to head back over to the core exchange now that I have an appropriate amount of funds to pick up some cores for my newest summon. I end up buying 5 common goblin cores, 8 common wolf cores, an iron-scaled newt core, and the core of a dark hound, coming to a total of 23 credits.
Left with 66 credits in my account I spend another 25 credits for a storage upgrade, leaving me with 41 credits. When I get back to my apartment I see Mira once again sitting on the couch and quickly bring out Brutus to show her the new summon I obtained today.
She cooed at the sight of the dark wolf which she apparently found extremely cute, and after letting her pet and harass Brutus I take pity on him by unsummoning him and relieving him from her grasp.
Despite Mira's words of protest at having her new toy taken away from her, I head to my room and fall asleep after summoning and feeding each of my summons a common wolf and goblin core respectively.