Vultressant sat outside the summoning circle, concentrating on something small and made of fire. He thought of a flame, but he was unable to form the image in his mind. He was good with something like replaying a song in his mind, but he had never been able to do that with images; he didn’t even dream in images. This was his third attempt of the day, and he felt the same resistance that he had on his last attempt the previous day. His first two tries had yielded nothing, but now he felt a bit of hope.
“Good. Good. Now, try to call it forth,” Oeister encouraged.
Vultressant nodded. He tried to concentrate on fire and small things, but nothing was happening. He thought about what form the small fire would take, and since he was trying to summon a creature, he searched his memories for what might qualify as a small creature. The first thing that came to mind was Tinker Bell; she was some sort of fairy. She matched what he wanted for his summons—a diminutive, non-threatening, helpful spirit. At the thought, the outline of a small winged form with a glowing aura appeared within the circle.
“Whatever you did, keep doing it,” Oeister whispered insistently. “It’s almost here.”
Vultressant tried to calm himself, but his breathing quickened. He tried to think about the little fairy flying around Jiminy Cricket, which he remembered from the classic cartoons that he had watched as a child. The cricket was always wearing a big hat, and the fairy would be flying around him. When he noticed that the image was fading, he stopped thinking about the cricket and just focused on what the fairy might be doing. He remembered her waving a glowing wand and flying very fast. He was finally able to break through the main resistance, and a creature materialized. He still felt a pull against his will, but it wasn’t as intense. It was like drawing a good compound bow: you had to strain to draw back in the beginning, but once you got the arrow to your cheek, the pullies helped keep the arrow in place, and you had to expend only a fraction of the initial effort to keep it drawn.
He could see a small red light appear in his vision. He didn’t dare read the message because he didn’t want to divert his focus from the small form in the center of the circle. The fairy definitely had a female form, and she was certainly larger than a cricket. She was maybe a foot tall and glowed as she hovered in place. She stared at him as he tried to think of what to do. Oeister had been silent since she had finally taken form, but Vultressant was too nervous to look around for him. Instead, he chose to whisper loudly to him. “What do I do now?”
“Just maintain focus. Now that it’s in our realm, you shouldn’t have to strain to keep it here. What is it?”
Vultressant shrugged. “Some kind of fire fairy.”
“What does the notification say?” Oeister asked
Vultressant chided himself. Of course, the notification would tell him what he had summoned. It might not give him all the information about it, but the creature type would be there. He accessed his interface and looked at the prompt. Congratulations! You have learned a new spell. Summon Fire Sprite; casting cost: 120 MP; maintenance cost: 5 MP per minute. He was elated to have learned the new spell. He did feel a sense of sticker shock at the cost of the spell. 120 mana was a large cost; it was almost a third of his total power, which now stood at 380 MP. He had meant to top off his language abilities in Elvish and Koraken, but he hadn’t continued his training since reaching Ildul. Once he leveled both languages to rank 10, he would have an Intellect bonus of 12, provided that the 6-point bump was standard with each maxed-out language. That would give him another 120 MP, which would exactly cover the new spell when cast. The upkeep wasn’t bad at all. What would happen if he had the Fire Sprite do something for him? Would there be added costs? He would watch out for that in the future.
Vultressant turned off his HUD. Oeister stood, looking at him expectantly. He quickly accessed it again and projected the spell information. “That’s a pretty cheap mana cost,” Oeister said after he read the notification. “I haven’t seen an upkeep that low, but then I summon things that do the fighting for me. That one,” he said, pointing at the Sprite, which was moving along the inner perimeter of the summoning circle looking for a way out, “isn’t going to be much good in a fight. On the plus side, if things go tits up and you lose control over her, your Sprite doesn’t look like it can do much to harm you.”
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Oeister had only summoned one creature in his presence, and that was a green muscular brute that stood over seven feet tall and looked very imposing. He had summoned it a few times over the last two days as he tried to gain more control over the creature. Vultressant thought about the cost of that summons compared to what he had to spend for the diminutive Fire Sprite. “How much mana does it cost you to summon the ogre-looking guy that you’ve been practicing on?”
Oeister had been watching the Sprite with interest, but he turned to Vultressant. “The Troll has a base cost of 1,500 mana.”
“1,500!” Vultressant exclaimed. “How much mana do you have?”
Oeister chuckled and held up a hand in a placating gesture. “As you level your skills in the specific magic types and increase the tier of your magic skills and spells, the spells get more efficient. I only use about 1100 for the summons.” That still seemed like a lot of points to Vultressant, and the thought must have shown on his face because Oeister continued before Vultressant could voice his thoughts. “I’ve been here for over three years, and most of that time was spent adventuring and leveling.”
Vultressant nodded—that made sense. Oeister hadn’t actually answered his question, but he had admitted to having at least 1,100 mana. Vultressant didn’t want to pressure him for the information because he didn’t want to risk upsetting the only other person from Earth that they had met thus far. Also, the man might just be being cautious and didn't want to reveal his abilities to a stranger.
Vultressant turned his attention back to the Sprite. “What is your name?” he asked, trying to strike up a conversation with the small creature. She seemed to have a full female form, albeit at a fraction of the size of a Human, or even a Gnome. If she were Human, he would have guessed that she was in her twenties, but he was bad at that sort of evaluation. If he could get her to talk, he could gauge her maturity and make a better approximation. She paid him no attention and ignored all of his attempts to engage with her. He quickly gave up trying and watched her for a few more minutes before ending the spell.
Vultressant summoned the Sprite two more times over the next hour. His second summons was much like the first; he cast the spell with more ease than he had earlier, but the Sprite’s reaction was much the same. The Sprite that was pulled into the circle appeared to be the same Sprite that he had conjured earlier. On the third successful summons, the little creature just looked at him, cocked her head, and waited. “I am Vultressant,” he said, pointing to himself.
She just looked at him for nearly a minute, but she finally spoke in a very high-pitched voice. “What do you want?” she asked in a high-pitched voice that sounded like baby talk. He realized that she was speaking a different language, and when he checked his notification, he found that she was speaking Fae. His was rank three in that language; it was one of the languages he had started with.
He switched to speaking in Fae. “I am practicing summoning you so that I can do so safely when outside of this lab.” Well, at least that was what he meant to say. From the confusion she expressed, it seemed apparent that there was a problem with the translation.
“In your words,” she said. He took the hint and switched back to Common. He repeated what he had said. She simply said, “Why?” in Fae.
“I think that you can help me explore this world. I am just learning how to cast a summon spell, so I need to do it until I can do it easily.”
She seemed to understand everything that he said, but she again responded in her own language. “I agree to this for now. I am Elida.”
Now he was getting somewhere! “It is very nice to meet you, Elida,” he said in as polite a tone as he could muster. She nodded and went back to inspecting the perimeter of the summoning circle. Wanting to keep her attention, he asked, “Where are you from, Elida?”
“I am from my home,” came the squeaky reply.
Not exactly a helpful response. Vultressant continued to try to engage her. “Where is your home?”
She cocked her head to look at him. “In the realm of the Fae, of course.”
She might have been small, but the expression on her face was unmistakable; she thought that he was an idiot. He thought about playing it off as if he were asking ‘where’ in the realm she was from, but he decided to refrain from deception. Instead, he just nodded and let her go back to inspecting the barrier. He had to be more informed for their next meeting. He maintained the spell long enough for Elida to make two more rotations, and then he dismissed her.