I was back in my personal space in an instant, all the while trying to remember if I’d locked the door to my new room or not. My new converted garage home was in a nice enough neighborhood, but I didn’t want to risk some crackheads coming in and pillaging all my stuff. Odds were everything would be fine, and even if it wasn’t’ I’d taken time to hide my cash and other valuables inside a little hidden compartment I’d cut into the wall and covered with one of the pictures the old couple had left in the room.
A thorough search of the room would find my hiding space, but I figured whoever was breaking into my place was going to go for the quick cash and leave. To that end, I left one of my burner phones and a couple hundred dollars in cash inside the drawer on the nightstand as bait. Hopefully, they’d be content with that after tossing the place. I was probably just being paranoid about getting robbed again, but the way things have gone in my life lately, it was probably smart to be a bit paranoid.
“Hey Melvin, how are you doing?” I asked as I spotted the little guy sliding his way from the propped open door of the training center. My link with the pet kicked in and I could tell he was happy that I was there but was perfectly content to continue his never-ending exploration of the room when I left.
“Sorry I can’t stay long; I’ve got a new summoning session starting. I’ll be back in between each summoning, so I’ll catch you later,” I said to the silent cube. The portal appeared at the usual place on the wall, and I made one final check of my loadout before stepping in.
Your summoning parameters are as follows:
1. You are being summoned by the mage Dalbezon.
2. Summoning tier, 1.
3. Summoning rank, 0.
4. Rewards level, nominal.
5. This summons is task related with a limited chance of combat. Prepare accordingly.
6. Forced compliance is active.
7. Your armory loadout has been activated.
With that, I stepped out of the portal and into a frozen wasteland. My normal clothes, even with the leather armor I wore, weren’t enough to keep from starting to shiver almost immediately. I felt the summoner link activate and there at my feet, propped up against what looked like a pine tree on steroids, was my summoner.
“I need your help, I’m trapped. Can you get me out of here?” The man asked, pain wracking his features as he spoke. It was dark here, and I had missed that the man wasn’t just reclining against the tree, a branch had fallen and was pinning his legs under the snow.
“Let me dig you out, do you happen to have a shovel?” I asked, realizing I’d made a mistake by not including some basic tools in my loadout.
“No, just get me out of here,” the man demanded.
Compulsion kicked in and I started to dig in the snow under him. It was hard packed, and I made slow progress. Given the bluish look on the man’s skin, he wasn’t going to last too much longer out here.
“Here, this might help,” I said, passing the man one of my healing potions. Those potions could come in handy later, but I wasn’t going to watch this man die when I had the means to help him. He quaffed down the potion and a bit of color returned to his cheeks.
“Thank you,” he muttered. The potion had helped a bit, but the guy was still in dire straits. Pawing at the snow, I realized that I was being an idiot. I didn’t have to do this alone, so I started summoning my figurines.
First up was the ghoul, which gave my summoner a bit of a scare before he realized that I was the one that had summoned the undead monster. After that, Rupert the dwarf and the mangy hound. All three joined me and we made quick progress. The ghoul was especially adept at digging, his claws easily cutting thought the packed snow.
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In only a few minutes, we had dug down enough to free the man. I grabbed his arms and slowly slid him from under the log. His legs had been broken and the healing potion hadn’t been enough to mend the bones. Laying the man on the snow, I waited for his next command.
“A tavern, back down the mountain about a mile, take me there. A trail is over there,” the man gestured toward the trees, his voice fading and his speech choppy as the pain and cold took their toll on his body. He was an older man, no spring chicken, and this had to have been agony for him.
“We’ll get you back, don’t worry,” I replied, before ordering Rupert to carry the man over his shoulder. Despite his diminutive size, the summoned dwarf was as strong as the rest of his race and the scrawny old man barely slowed him down.
Pulling out my Everburn torch, I led the way, the ghoul flanking me and the dog bringing up the rear. Deeper into the trees where the snow hadn’t built up as much, I could see the trail that the summoner had mentioned. It wound down the mountain and the footing looked risky in the best of times. We started our descent, my boots slipping on a few icy patches before I got the hang of spotting the danger areas.
The trail led toward the side of the mountain, and I was getting a bit nervous walking on the narrow ledge without any safety railing whatsoever. My ghoul had an easier time, his clawed feet easily finding purchase. The dwarf wasn’t as sure footed as the ghoul, but he was keeping up okay.
With a yelp, the poor hound went sliding over the edge, giving a mournful wail as he rocketed toward the bottom of the mountain. Poor dog, he was a good boy and I’d have to give him some attention the next time I summoned him. We kept a slow and steady pace, and after several minutes, I could see a glow from the windows of a building in the distance.
I tried to speed up our pace, the summoner was now unconscious, and I didn’t know how long he was going to survive out here. He wasn’t the only one struggling. I think frostbite was setting in and I had a numb feeling in my fingers and toes. The trail widened as it met up with the ledge that the building was on. A large area of the side of the mountain had been leveled out, enough to fit several buildings.
The place looked like one of those rustic mountain resorts that people paid a lot of money to stay at when on a ski trip. I stumbled forward shouting for help as we approached. My mind was becoming foggy as the cold threatened to take me. About that time, Rupert collapsed and turned into a puff of mana vapor, dumping the summoner back into the snow.
“You, take the summoner to the cabin and bang on the door,” I ordered the ghoul. I collapsed near where Rupert had fallen, and for some reason, the cold no longer seemed to bother me and I felt perfectly fine. In the back of my mind, something triggered, reminding me that I wasn’t really feeling warmer, I was in the last stages of hypothermia.
The ghoul hissed at me once more, only the fact that it was bound as my summons kept it from feeding on both me and the unfortunate summoner that had called me here to this frozen place. As an undead thing, the cold didn’t worry the ghoul all that much and he dragged the summoner quickly to the first building, a large structure that was well lit and I could hear the sounds of several people inside.
The ghoul dropped the summoner on the porch and started clawing and banging on the door. I closed my eyes as the door opened, too tired to watch what happened next. Drifting into sleep, I wondered if the summoner survived his ordeal. If he made it through this, he’d have quite a story to tell his friends.
My mind wandered and I tried to figure out how that man had wound up in the position he was in. He was a mage of some sort, or he wouldn’t have been able to summon me. He also was all alone out in the woods, without proper clothing. Was it a teleportation gone wrong, or had something nefarious happened to him? Sadly, I’d never have answers to the question.
A system prompt startled my mind back into wakefulness.
You have died from hypothermia. Your summoning is now complete.
Your performance rating is calculated as Good.
Your rewards will reflect that you were summoned at tier 1, rank 0, and earned a performance rating of Good.
You have earned 7 experience points.
You have earned 5 summoning points.
Prepare to return to your personal space.
I had to assume that given a rating of good, the summoner must have survived the ordeal. My rewards weren’t bad either, a bit better than I had gotten from my last good rating. Maybe the bump to tier one had improved the payouts from the system. As I returned to my personal space, I headed toward the reward chest to find out if the cash rewards had also improved.
Melvin wasn’t in sight and must have slid into the training room or armory where I couldn’t see him. Strange, I looked forward to seeing the little guy each time I arrived here. Having a pet was pretty great when you didn’t have to do anything to care for them. Thoughts of pets were set aside as I opened the chest to see what I’d received from my most recent summoning.