After confirming I was ready to return home, the portal opened, and I stepped through it and back into my apartment. For a moment, I was worried that I was still in the strange experiment that I had just endured. A quick check of my phone and a peek out the window confirmed that I was truly back on Earth.
Things here at home seemed normal enough. It was nice to finally let myself take a few moments and relax. It looked like it was the middle of the afternoon outside, and the normal morning haze had burned off and the sun was shining down to make a perfect Southern California day.
Everything I wanted to bring back with me had been stored in one of the large leather sacks that the system was kind enough to provide. I sorted through it, taking out the figurines and the mana tabs that I wanted to keep. The coins, gems, and the bulk of the mana tabs would go to Jeanette. She would be my next stop, and then I’d try to find Marie to see what was on the agenda.
Leaving the apartment, I said hi to a few people that were out, including the young summoned being Elliot, who didn’t bother to reply when I greeted him. The kid was smack in the middle of that “I’m too cool for everything” phase. He’d have to break out of that quickly. Having a bad attitude as a summoned being was going to get him into trouble.
Jeanette’s apartment was the de facto headquarters for our little branch of Refuge, and I found her in the front living room, talking to our newest member, Tran Nguyen. I still didn’t know what class he had, and I’d have to make a point to spend more time with him when I got a chance. Once they finished up their conversation and Jeanette handed him an overfilled leftover container of food, she turned toward me.
“I know those bags, get anything good?” She asked.
“Not a bad haul, and I was able to visit Somhagen again. I’ve got more mana tabs for you and loot for you to convert to cash after you deduct whatever Refuge needs,” I said, handing over the sack.
“You look a little stressed, was there anything bad that happened? Usually, the system blocks out most of the trauma, and I hope you were smart enough to equip a Notice of Cessation for emergencies,” Jeanette asked.
“Yeah, but I did have a rather odd summoning, and I found out something important. The Notice of Cessation doesn’t always work,” I warned.
Jeanette pulled me into her office and called Marie and Julio to join us. The three of them seemed to run things here, with Jeanette holding down the fort and running the day-to-day things here at home. Marie dealt with finding new summoned beings and integrating them into Refuge. Julio was the only non-summoned being in a leadership role, and he oversaw security, which fit his prior military experience.
Everyone else helped where they could, and I was still trying to find my role in the whole organization. I had a combat class, so I was currently protecting the others when they went out, but I didn’t know if that was going to be a permanent thing or not. I was just glad to have a place I belonged, and if escorting people and protecting them with my minions was what they wanted me to do, so be it.
“That’s a new one, Rico, I don’t think anyone’s documented something that could block a Notice of Cessation yet,” Marie said after I had given them the rundown of my last summoning.
“Not only that, this entity that you dealt with didn’t seem to be bound by the normal rules of the system. Based on the system prompts you mentioned, the system couldn’t even identify a name or what the entity was,” Julio added.
“It was disturbing, and I’m a bit worried it did something to my mind while it rooted around in there,” I said, voicing my fears.
“You seem normal enough, and your new mental resistance is nothing to sneeze at,” Marie said, trying to comfort me.
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“I’m more concerned about why it wanted to observe your life here. Did you get the impression it was planning something? Does it intend to come to Earth?” Julio asked.
“No, I didn’t get any hostile vibes, or the feeling that it meant to conquer the planet or anything. Now that I think back on it, the entity seemed more like it was a scientist conducting an experiment it wasn’t particularly invested in. I don’t think we have to worry about it invading us anytime soon,” I offered.
“Make sure you document everything you can remember in the database. Maybe somebody at one of the other Refuge locations can help decipher what you experienced. Now that you’re back, I’ll let you get settled again. I’m sure Julio has some work for you once you’re rested up,” Jeanette said.
“We need to get back to the range when you’re ready, Rico, we also need to start on some combatives training. You can’t always count on having a minion to summon, and your Basic Unarmed Combat skills will only get you so far,” Julio added.
He was a really nice guy, and I enjoyed the time we spent at the gun range. Despite that, I didn’t like the evil gleam in his eye when he mentioned sparring. I expected that I’d have more than a few bruises and bumps after a session with him.
After that, Jeanette gave me the obligatory leftover container full of food that was not only delicious, but would also give me a bonus to some random stat. She also gave me the account information and logins for my personal bank account. So far, I’d been using a generic Refuge account, but now, I had my very own to work with.
I wasn’t needed for anything else today, so I headed back to my apartment to check out my bank balance and take care of a few things. Mostly, I was embarrassed at how messy the place was. When the entity recreated it, I realized that a pile of dirty clothes on the floor wasn’t the way to do things. Also, scattered belongings were a bit hard to keep track of.
I tried to get everything organized, keeping my figurines and other system related items in a separate pouch that went in one of my dresser drawers. My pistol, the real one, not the magic missile one, was kept in an end table drawer near the front door. The magic missile pistol was kept in a drawer near my nightstand. If I needed either of those, I’d need them to be somewhere I could get to quickly.
Julio promised to get me a couple of locking pistol cases to keep them safe. I could hit a combination of buttons and open them almost instantly, but it would keep kids or whatnot from stumbling across the loaded, and deadly weapons. They were good for now, there weren’t too many children on the property, and none of them had a key to my apartment. If I left the place, the weapons would be on me, so no risk there.
I made a list of stuff I’d need to buy on my next trip to the store. The apartment was well furnished, but a lot of stuff like laundry baskets, hangars, and other organizational stuff was on me to provide. A quick check of my bank account showed that I wouldn’t have any problems affording a Target trip. Jeanette hadn’t even sold off my latest loot, and I already had several thousand dollars in my bank account.
With my summonings happening as often as they did, this was going to be the highest paying job I’d ever had. Of course, being an insurance adjuster may have paid a lot less, but it didn’t include being killed by monsters, maimed by traps, or desperately trying to save lives. Despite the danger, and the frequent pain, I would choose my current life as a summoned being over my previous one any day. If I was still running around the streets on my own, it would be a different story, but now, I had a place to call my own.
As night fell, I enjoyed Jeanette’s leftovers for dinner, it was beef stroganoff, which I usually despised, but this was delicious. The system wasn’t working the same way here on Earth as it did on mana rich worlds, so there was no prompt telling me what stat had been improved by the meal. Trying out a few things, I finally decided that it was probably agility this time since I was able to balance my plates, phone, cup, and utensils as I brought them back to the kitchen.
A knock on the door almost caused me to drop everything, but I managed to put it all away quickly and without breaking anything. Checking the peephole showed that Marie, Julio, and some guy I’d never seen before were waiting impatiently outside. Following Julio’s advice to always be armed if I was entering an unknown situation, I made them wait a few more seconds while I collected the 1911 and used the sticky holster to conceal it behind my back.
“Hey Marie, what’s going on?” I asked as I opened the door, giving the new guy a once over. He was dressed in a grey suit and didn’t look like he belonged in Refuge.
“Rico, can we come in? There’s something important that we need your help with,” Marie asked. I invited them in, even more pleased with myself that I’d cleaned up the place today. Everyone crammed uncomfortably into the kitchen and the small table I had there.
“What’s going on? Hi, I’m Rico,” I said, holding out my hand for the new guy to shake.
“Good to meet you Rico, I’m Calvin from the Grimslade Group,” the man said giving my hand a firm shake. Uh, oh, I was getting a bad feeling about this.