This summoning was odd, I didn’t find myself in Rico’s Place, and instead was back inside the void. The system prompt had mentioned something, it had said that a summoner link had been activated, whatever that was. I also had full autonomy, and I was very curious what that meant.

Sadly, I wouldn’t have my dagger with me, but I would have my magic, if I could figure out how to use it. A blue portal opened in the void, and without hesitation, I stepped through. I found myself in a ruined courtyard, the crumbled buildings around me had an ancient feel to them. The feminine voice of my summoner called out from behind.

“Stop the orcs!” My summoner commanded. I turned to glance at her and recognized the woman almost immediately. It was her, the one that summoned me for the very first time. Just like my first summoning, she looked frightened but determined. Compulsion began to push my focus toward the enemy, but it was much less obtrusive than any other summoning I had been on. This full autonomy was rather nice.

Climbing though the ruins were a trio of orc warriors. All were similarly armed and equipped as the first one I had tangled with. Each had an axe and was armored in reinforced heavy leather gear. I was just as unarmed and unarmored as the last time I’d faced these foes, but this time, I had something I didn’t back then. This time, I had magic.

Just thinking about casting a spell caused new images to place themselves in front of my vision. A small targeting reticle, like something you’d see on a fighter jet appeared and I positioned over the lead orc’s head. I had been worried that I wouldn’t be able to figure out how to cast a spell, but the response from my mana core was almost instinctual, and two points of its power flowed out to cast my first Psionic Jolt.

There was no visual clue to the spell that was casting, at least there wasn’t any clue until it hit the point on the orcs head that I had targeted. When the spell hit, I could see a haze appear over the targeted area. It was minor, and unless you were specifically looking for it, you’d miss it. What you couldn’t miss was the orc’s reaction to my spell.

With a porcine squeal, the orc grabbed his head and crashed to the ground. Since he was running full bore toward my summoner, his momentum added to his troubles. The orc landed face first onto a partially collapsed column, his face giving a meaty thwack when it impacted.

My Psionic Jolt may not have killed him, but between it and the orc kissing the column, he was definitely out of the fight. The other two orcs only paused briefly to observe their ally’s misfortune before continuing their attack. A small ball of flame streaked out from my summoner and detonated into the midst of the orc attackers.

More squeals of pain followed as the surviving pair were coated in flames. The flames from the fireball seemed to stick to the orcs, like it had been a ball of napalm and not your typical fantasy fireball. Stubborn, the burning and badly damaged pair continued their assault. Checking on my mana pool. I could see that I had regenerated one point already, giving me a total of three.

Pulling two more points of mana from my core, I targeted a second Psionic Jolt at the lead orc. Just as with his kin, the orc squealed in pain and dropped to the ground clutching at his head for a moment before going still. Three balls of light streaked from my summoner’s hand before hammering into the last orc standing. Something in my mind clicked and I knew that I had just witnessed in real life the standard gaming spell, magic missile.

I could hear the impact of the magic as it hit, and it sounded like someone being punched by a prize fighter. Between the damage from the fireball, and the pummeling from the magic missile spell, the final orc fell, and the ruins were bathed in silence. With the potential of other attackers showing up at any time, I ran to the fallen orcs, looking to retrieve a weapon of some type.

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They had each wielded large axes that were a challenge to lift. One of the orcs had a blade belted to his waist that looked like a better option for me. I undid the blackened and scorched belt, and then placed it around my own waist. Drawing the blade, it was a simple, double-edged blade that tapered to a sharp point. The length was somewhere between the length of my dagger and that of a short sword.

It was crudely made, but the long dagger had been well taken care of by its now deceased owner. Some motion to my side caught my attention and the orc I had just looted turned out not to be not quite dead. His oversized hand clamped down on my leg and pulled.

Even on the brink of death, the orc was frighteningly powerful. As I fell, I pointed my new blade toward the orc’s neck. The blade sunk in deep and yellow-green blood poured from the wound. It gurgled once as if trying to speak before going still.

“Thank you,” the woman said as she looked at me.

“Uh, you’re welcome?” I replied, surprised to see I could talk.

“You’re a rather unusual summons. How can a tier zero, rank zero summoned creature speak,” the woman said, looking at me in confusion.

“I can speak because I’m human. My name’s Rico, by the way,” I said, trying to introduce myself.

“Impossible. You should have already despawned,” she said, more to herself and then to me.

“Yeah, I heard about a minute per caster rank. What rank are you? I’m tier zero, rank three,” I offered, more than a bit happy to have an actual conversation with someone during a summoning.

“I’m tier zero rank six. This is bizarre, you shouldn’t have even been summoned. I just used my lowest rank spell to buy some time to cast fireball,” she replied.

“When I was summoned, it was different than normal. It said something about a summoner link, and I didn’t go the place I normally go before I’m summoned,” I offered.

“That’s odd, I also received a notice that was different than the norm. I was told that I had achieved a critical success and the link with the summoned being was enhanced. This shouldn’t be possible, summoned beings are just constructs of mana, but you seem so real,” she said.

“It’s probably because I am real and not some mana construct. I don’t know where you learned about summoned creatures, but we’re real people that are summoned from a different world. While we’re at it, do you have a name, what should I call you?” I asked.

“I’m Sharnlynn, a guild adventurer of tier zero rank six,” Sharnlynn said formally.

“Rico Kline, normal guy from Earth, and a summoned being that’s tier zero, rank three,” I replied in a much less formal manner.

“I’m finding this a bit hard to believe or explain. Why don’t we do this. You have been summoned to help defend me, perhaps we continue with that?” Sharnlynn asked.

“Sure, I’d love to ask you a bunch of questions about your world, but hey, you’re the one that summoned me so I’ll help you however I can,” I replied.

“Excellent, we need to look for an underground entrance. The artifacts I’m looking for are not something that would just be lying around up here. Before we begin, what types of skills and abilities do you have?” She asked.

“Not much, unfortunately. I just learned a spell called Psionic Jolt that I used on the orcs, but other than that, I can stab stuff, but I’m not very skilled with fighting,” I admitted. It was too bad that I hadn’t had time for more lessons at the martial arts studio. The way things stood; I felt a bit useless once my mana ran out.

“The spell seemed effective, how many more times can you cast it?” Sharnlynn asked. I did a quick check of my status to see where my mana was at. It seemed like it was regenerating much more quickly wherever this place was.

Rico Kline, Summoned Being.

Tier 0, Rank 3.

Experience/experience needed for next rank: 7/10.

Summoning points: 19.

Skills: None.

Abilities:

1. Linguistic adaptation interface.

2. Open.

Mana core, current mana/mana capacity. 3/10.

Gear: Orcish toothpick dagger.

“I’m at three mana now, and I need two to cast my spell. It seems to be regenerating pretty quickly, though,” I added.

“My mana is low as well, maybe we should try to avoid that ettin,” Sharnlynn said, pointing off into the distance. Towering over the nearby ruins was a hulking figure with two heads. One of the heads turned and seemed to look straight at me.

“Oh no, this isn’t good,” I said as the ettin pointed in our direction.