Back in my personal space, I could see that Melvin was heading for the training center. I left him to it; his figurine was recharged so he’d get to spend the next summoning with me. Before I got called away, I needed to sort through my loadout to add the new items that I’d gathered.
There were some tough choices that I needed to make about what I was going to take with me on the contracted mission. Since this was going to be an extended summoning, I would use the mana stone I’d purchased. It gave me an additional 25 mana which brought my total mana pool for this mission up to 120. If I equipped the ring of the mind, I’d be up to 125.
The boosted mana was going to allow me to bring even more of my Foe Summoner minions along for the ride. I currently had Grunlok, Rupert, and the hound equipped in my loadout. They required a mana reserve of 77 after my discount for Presence. I added Lillia Farwind, who I considered my best tier zero, rank five minion. With Lillia, my reserved mana bumped up to 102.
I would have 23 mana to work with for spells and buffs during the next summoning. The gear cap was going to be a bit of a problem as well. My maximum gear score after hitting tier one, rank five was up to 175. I was over that limit now, and if I didn’t pare things down, I would risk the system deciding what I had to cut for me.
Dropping both my cantrip spells would be fine. Psionic Jolt was becoming less useful, and Redirect hadn’t really come in handy yet. Duplicate was powerful, as was the new Health Bloom, but both had a gear cost of 20. My other two spells, Empower Minion, and Fail Weapons cost 10 each. With more minions along for the ride, and not likely facing a modern foe with firearms, I could reasonably cut Fail Weapons.
That meant my spells were still topping out at a combined gear cost of 50. From my other standard loadout items, I would drop the Notice of Cessation. This was going to be a contracted summoning and I was pretty sure that the Pakrinas wouldn’t take a job that required undue torture of one of his contractors.
My weapons were also getting downgraded for this mission. The warhammer had a steep gear cost of 50 and I replaced it with the simple mace. For Rupert, who I normally gave the mace to, I would bring my dagger along for him to use.
With a few final tweaks of consumables, I came up with the following loadout.
Gear cost 174/175
Spells:
1. Empower Minion, gear cost 10.
2. Duplicate, gear cost 20.
3. Health Bloom, gear cost 20.
Weapons and Armor:
1. Studded leather armor, gear cost 25 (20).
2. Simple mace, gear cost 10.
3. Simple dagger, gear cost 5.
4. Magic missile wand, gear cost 10.
Miscellaneous equipment:
1. Apprentice Ring of the Mind, gear cost 10.
2. Headband of the Apprentice Summoner, gear cost 10.
Consumables:
1. Ring of Duplicate, 2 charges. Gear cost 1.
2. Whistle of the Houndmaster, 5 charges. Gear cost 9.
Consumable Figurines.
1. Gelatinous armor, gear cost 4.
2. Dire rat x2, total gear cost 8.
3. Deadspore fungal patch, gear cost 4.
4. Orc Commoner x3, total gear cost 12.
5. Wild razor boar, gear cost 4.
6. Gnome technician, gear cost 4.
7. Zombie pair, gear cost 4.
8. Ballista emplacement, gear cost 9.
I was only a point away from maxing out my gear score. There was a solid collection of consumable figurines, but I would try to hold off on burning them up without good cause. Each one I didn’t use on the summoning was one that might save my life back home. As it stood, the first aid station figurine, a razor boar, a dire rat, and a pair of orc commoners were going to remain behind from my pool of consumable figurines.
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The loadout was a good enough compromise on effectiveness vs. efficiency and I figured it would see me through a longer summoning. Just like with my mana situation, it was becoming evident that I’d need to do something on my next visit to expand my gear score. The second tier of the city likely had what I needed, but I was sure that whatever I found would be expensive. Getting a higher ranking and the ensuing greater rewards was going to be more important than ever.
For this trip I’d also have Melvin to help, but Fitzfazzle’s wasn’t quite ready yet. It’d been a while since I’d seen my gnomish friend, but I knew that he would be ready to go if I needed help. I had to admit that I wouldn’t mind being summoned by him again. I’d like to see how things at the village were going now that a bunch of undead weren’t trying to kill them.
I finished up the loadout just as the summoning portal appeared, along with a system message confirming that this was the contracted summoning.
You are Summoned!
Your summoning contract has been activated.
I stepped through the portal and into a small-town square. It was early afternoon, and the place was a bustle of activity. My summoner link led to an elderly man who held a crumbling scroll in his hand. He looked me up and down with a bit of disappointment. Sure, I didn’t exactly cut the most heroic-looking figure, but it felt bad to have your summoner look disappointed with you from the get-go.
“You’re the one I got from that contract?” the old man asked, but it felt more like a confirmation of his first appraisal of me rather than an actual question.
“Yes, what I can I help you with?” I asked, curious what I would be doing on this contract. My last contract had been with the dungeon core, and I’d found that a rather interesting summoning.
“I don’t know, what can you do for me?” the man grumbled.
“Hey, you’re the one that summoned me. Is there some kind of threat or something going on or did you just need someone to grumble at for an extended period of time,” I snapped back, my annoyance getting the better of me.
“Hamish, you hush now. Don’t take things out on the boy, he’s just here to help,” an elderly woman said as she slid next to the old man and wrapped an arm around him. The old man, who was apparently named Hamish, dropped his gruff demeanor for a moment, and I caught him giving the woman a warm smile.
“I’m sorry Esther, it’s just that we’re in quite the pickle, and I expected, well, I don’t know what I expected, except that I didn’t expect some young kid,” Hamish admitted.
“You, young man, what’s your name,” Esther asked me. She had a way about her that seemed to brighten things up with her presence. I couldn’t hold onto my annoyance at Hamish while she stood there looking like someone’s grandma that was about to bake me cookies.
“Ma’am, I’m Rico, Rico Kline. I’m glad to help in any way I can, I just have no idea what you folks need,” I admitted.
“There we go, Hamish, the young man is Rico. Oh, and don’t give me this ma’am stuff, you can just call me Esther. Rico, like my husband said, we’re in a bit of a pickle and one that we should have seen coming long before it did. As for what the danger is, well, we’re at war, and the enemy will be here by morning,” Esther said.
“What kind of enemy are we dealing with?” I asked.
“I’ll take that as my cue to leave. Hamish, the old soldier that he is, will be more than happy to fill you in on the details. I’ve got other things to work on,” Esther said, taking her leave of us. Even with her gone, Hamish was much more cordial to me.
“We’re facing a mixed force that is a combination of reavers from the blighted lands and the mercenary companies they’ve managed to hire. These aren’t your normal sellswords they’ve hired either, they’ve hired groups of kobolds, gnolls, and even a few ogres if our scouts are to be believed,” Hamish said.
“Why are they headed here? What’s this war about?” I asked.
“Long story, but I’ll give you the condensed version. We belong to the Empire of Veldtland, and normally, the legion would be here to deal with such things. Unfortunately, the powers that be don’t believe that the enemy is appearing in the numbers they are. The army is mustering, but if a few outlying villages like ours are destroyed, it’s deemed a reasonable sacrifice by those in power,” Hamish said. I could see him getting red in the face with anger as he spoke.
“Can’t you evacuate?” I asked.
“Not likely, you see, we’re right on the edge of the blighted lands and this is a muster village,” Hamish said.
“What’s a muster village?” I asked, confused about the term.
“Must not be the same where you’re from, but here, a legionnaire can retire from the army after putting in twenty years of service. The empire grants veterans a stipend and an allocation of land. Unfortunately, the lands they grant us tend to be places like this, places the empire has little use for, and where we might be a roadblock for any hostile neighbors.
“The muster village is full of retirees, many of which wouldn’t make a forced march evacuation. Even if the people here were still top shape, active-duty legionnaires, no legion can outpace the march of the reavers,” Hamish explained. Looking around the village, I could see that there did seem to be a larger than normal percentage of elderly people.
“So, you can’t leave unless you want to abandon those that need you the most,” I confirmed.
“Exactly. Now, I’ve called in a lot of favors to get his summoning contract, so tell me, Rico, what can you do to help me stop an army?”