I appeared in my personal space, surprised to see Melvin taking a break from the training room. Not only was he taking a break, but he also had flopped on the seat of the rocking chair. I didn’t know if he actually enjoyed the chair or if he was just copying my actions. Whatever the reason, I was happy to see my gelatinous cube friend.
“Melvin, it’s nice to see you getting some rest and relaxation. Is everything okay?” I asked. He sent feelings of contentedness and then suggested I focus my attention on the reward chest. Sitting next to the reward chest was a new figurine, it looked like a set of armor that was dripping or melting in some way. I picked up the figurine and the system granted me some information on what Melvin had created.
Gelatinous Armor. Gear cost 5, Crafted by your bonded companion, this set of armor may be summoned the same way you would summon one of your minions. Once activated the armor will appear, already equipped. The armor will cover any existing armor, reinforcing it and granting additional modest protection against crushing, slashing, and piercing damage.
Well balanced, the additional weight of the armor is negligible. In addition to the enhanced protection it offers, the armor will also damage any foe that touches it, quickly shedding a portion of itself as it attempts to consume the foe.
“Thanks Melvin, I’m sure this will come in handy,” I said. Through our connection, I could feel Melvin brim with pride.
Before I could ask him about how he managed to keep crafting these things, the summoning portal opened, and I felt a compulsion to enter. Before I was forced in, I managed to run to the armory and add the armor to my loadout. I would most likely add it to my take home pile when the summoning series was done, but for now, I’d keep it in the loadout for emergencies.
As I stepped through the portal, a system prompt appeared telling me what my newest summoning entailed.
Your summoning parameters are as follows:
1. You are being summoned by use of a magical device.
2. Summoning tier, 1.
3. Summoning rank, 4.
4. Rewards level, modest.
5. This summons is combat related, prepare accordingly.
6. Forced compliance is active.
7. Your armory loadout has been equipped.
I stepped out of the portal and into a darkened hallway. A flickering torch in the distance granted me a bit of light to maneuver, but until my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I wasn’t going to be very effective at whatever I supposed to do. Checking for my summoner link, I could see a thin thread of mana leading to a small alcove with an empty pedestal near where I was summoned. More system prompts appeared, explaining the new type of summoning I was experiencing.
You have been summed by a magical trap. Any intruders that attempt to exit from the nearby room are to be attacked on sight. Pursuit of any intruders is allowed for up to fifty yards from the summoning pedestal. If there are no targets in range, you will return to this spot and guard the area.
Compulsion washed over me, and my attention was drawn to a door set in hallway about five yards from where I stood. Whatever, or whoever came out of there was to be attacked. For a moment, I contemplated using a Notice of Cessation, but until I could confirm if I was the bad guy in this situation, I’d hold off.
With nothing moving out of the door, I had time to summon my minions. Out first was the ghoul who I placed on one side of the door. Lillia Farwind covered the other side; her spear and shield would be particularly useful in the choke point. Rupert stood nearby, ready to step in if either of my minions fell. Once again, I handed Rupert my original mace, giving him a decent weapon to use.
My final minion was the hound who I kept at my side. With my hammer and wand at the ready, I waited to see if anyone would try to exit though the door before my summoning timer expired. I had been summoned by an item and from what I’d read in the database, item summoning tended to have the shortest summoning length.
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An experienced summoner had class skills and abilities that would typically extend the time of a summons. When crafting an item, everything reverted to the baseline summoning spell the item was duplicating. Other than unique situations, such as with my Foe Summoner class, things were limited to around two- or three-minutes per rank of the summoning spell. At tier one, rank four, I’d probably be stuck here for around thirty- or forty-minutes max.
Normally, my summonings ended much sooner than that, but for some reason, whatever had triggered the trap that I was bound to hadn’t made itself know yet. I was perfectly content to just wait here for the entire time and let the spell expire. Doing so should grant me at least an average rating, and perhaps above average as I’d summoned all my minions and prepared as best I could for the task at hand.
After a few boring minutes, my eyes adjusted as well as they could to the dim lighting. A single torch placed fifteen feet down the passage allowed me to barely make out the door I was guarding. A few feet from me, a second, unlit torch was placed in a wall sconce. I used the existing torch to ignite the second one which gave us a bit more lighting to work with if things turned into a battle.
I still had that Everburn torch in my loadout, but if there were normal ones provided, I’d use them instead of risking my personal gear. It was part of my loadout, so I was reasonably certain it would return after I used it in a summoning, but since it didn’t have a gear cost associated with it, I couldn’t be entirely sure. It was something I’d try to research when I returned home.
Time passed and after around ten minutes I could hear something inside the room behind the door we were guarding. There was a series of low growls that went silent soon after. The sound of people moving drowned out any further growls, and I got ready to deal with whoever was coming through the door. A roar followed by frantic shouts was heard as the sounds of combat erupted. I was tempted to throw open the door and see what was happening, but the compulsion prevented me from opening it.
A loud shriek of pain was heard before the battle died down. Screechy voices chatted among themselves, and I placed an ear to the door to try and eavesdrop on them. It took a moment or two before my Linguistic Adaptation Interface kicked in and I could make out some of what was being said.
“…not like we expected, and now Glumb is hurt,” one voice said.
“We need to keep moving,” another answered.
“No, we’re not going to leave anyone behind or waste good rations. Hurry up and butcher Glumb, he’ll feed us for a day at least,” one of the voices ordered. More sounds of fighting ensued, followed by the death cry of whoever Glumb was.
“Bah, too stringy, we’ll have to cook this one a bit, and that giant cat was just a summoned thing, and those don’t leave nothing to eat,” one of the voices complained as the disturbing sounds of a body being butchered were heard.
“Hurry up, we’re almost out of this place. The sooner we get back to the village, the better. I hope what we found was worth it,” one of the voices stated.
“Shut up, you’re the one that missed the traps. Some shaman you are,” another challenged. The pair began to argue, with others joining in on one side or the other. For a while, it seemed like they were going to do my work for me and kill each other off, but in the end, no further fighting broke out.
The door began to creak open, and I could see drool dripping from the mouth of the ghoul as he waited for his next meal to appear. A stunted, gangly humanoid creature emerged. It was dressed in filthy clothing and had a few pieces of makeshift armor strapped onto seemingly random locations. In one hand was a shortsword with a notched blade, and in the other was a hunk of raw meat.
My ghoul lunged forward, but the little creature reacted quickly and leaped back into the room. The door slammed shut and the ghoul scratched at it a few times before returning to the position I had selected for him. He hissed at me and proceeded to snatch the hunk of meat off the floor where our foe had dropped it. It turned out to be a small hand with long green fingers that the ghoul quickly stripped of flesh.
Our opponents didn’t seem to be in a hurry to rush out and engage in a fight, and I was fine with just sitting here in a stalemate. The clock was ticking on my summoning, though I was reasonably sure the things that we were facing weren’t the good guys here. My mind clicked, finally recognizing what I faced. They were goblins, and from the sounds of arguing that broke out again behind the door, there were more than a few of the creeps.
“…you dropped yours. You want more rations, go out there and get your portion back from whatever is on the other side of the door,” one goblin shouted.
“It’s a ghoul, if you want to fight it, go out and do it yourself. You’re lucky I wasn’t paralyzed and blocking the door open,” the first goblin commented.
The arguing continued in earnest, with half the goblins arguing to press the attack, and the other half realizing the ghoul was probably summoned and would disappear eventually. I almost chuckled at what the goblins would think when they realized the ghoul wasn’t the only threat waiting for them outside the door.