Test Summoning: Apocalypse

We ended up focusing on the main cavern and didn't go down the other tunnel. We were still getting working on our rhythm and the unpleasant environment was wearing on us. We were also building up grey in our stamina bars, the others more so than me since I spent most of my time hanging back and letting them get kills.

I suggested we call it a day and rest at the camp, let our clothes and boots dry and eat. I received no objections to my proposal. Everyone wanted to finish for the day after we tackled the mud people. The three of them did not like the feeling of being covered in muck for the brief time it took to get their mana cores out.

Back at the camp, Lia charged up the fire once more and we began unpacking our dry clothes. I was happy to see Void had brought along the turquoise vest I got her. As we were unpacking, I noticed Tizek was already starting to strip his clothes off. "Tizek? Buddy? Please do that over behind the rocks in the bathing area."

Tizek turned and looked at me. He already had a thumb hooked in his pants. "My lord? Why?"

I pointed to Lia and Void. "I doubt they'd appreciate seeing you bear it all in front of them."

Lia and Void both gave nods of agreement. Tizek looked puzzled. "I don't understand. This is how we do it at home."

Right, Tizek's people barely went around dressed at all and they didn't have qualms about stripping in mixed company. Cleaning off after training was something they all did together. "It's just how things are here."

Tizek looked at his discarded clothing and silently picked up his dry replacements. He then took them behind the rock to get changed. He quickly returned with his simple sleep clothing I purchased for him and he hung up his old, wet clothing and armor on the provided hooks to dry.

Lia then stood and fidgeted before looking at me. "Oliver? Didn't you say you could blow dry? I don't want my fur getting matted."

"Sure, I can help with that," I said before standing. Lia got up and we headed behind the rock. Once there, she started to disrobe.

"Hold on, let me close my eyes first," I said before closing them and sitting against the rock wall.

"You've seen it before," Lia replied as I heard her clothing shifting.

"You weren't happy about it the last time," I replied. "I'm just being polite. Tell me when you're ready and I'll stick my hand out. The effect comes from the palm. You'll need to make it quick so I can save mana for Void."

After some more shuffling, Lia spoke. "Ready."

I willed up a combination of my Pilot Light spell and the Minor Gust spell. I found if I swirled the soft circular curves of air along with the spiky fire mana shapes, I was able to blow out warm air. I was only able to blow for a few minutes before I ran out. I couldn't tell right now because, interestingly, the status bars weren't visible when your eyes were closed. I imagine being visible would have been annoying when trying to sleep.

As warm air blew out of my hand, Lia spoke. "Did I do good today?"

"You did well," I said as I moved my hand up and down. "There are still a few rough spots, but you're adjusting marvelously. I figure you three will get your coordination settled and we'll end up spending more time at the camp here waiting for monsters to form again."

"I am feeling better. I think we can try for the mermaid tomorrow. I really hope they aren't pretty like the stories. I'd feel bad about killing one," Lia commented. "I'm dry now."

I cut the air off and waited while I listened to Lia dress. I opened my eyes when she indicated she was decent. She had picked out a burnt orange shirt and black shorts to go along with a pair of simple sandals. Her stocky thighs and wide hips were exposed by the tight shorts, which was partially amplified by her thick fur. Fur which I noticed was starting to get ratty ends. "Did you bring a comb along?"

Lia nodded. I smiled at her. "Great, to take care of that fur or you'll get unpleasant knots. Also see if Void wants a blow dry as well."

"Thank you for today," Lia said before she scuttled off with her wet clothing to hang up to dry. It didn't take Void long to come by. I closed my eyes when she arrived in the bathing area, which I knew no one would want to use after spending all day wading in water.

"You aren't doing that thing where you look like your eyes are closed but you're looking through little slits, are you?" Void asked with a teasing tone.

I clamped my left hand over my eyes. "Drat, I should have thought of that."

Void chuckled and I could hear her start getting undressed. I badly wanted to do what she accused me of and peer through the split in my finger. I didn't because that would be rude. I'd wait for her to give me the full show if I earned it this time around.

I activated my warm blow dry spell and began waving my hand up and down. Then I heard Void yelp in surprise. I immediately cut off the air. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, nothing," Void said. "You just, well, went a little too low. You blew air up…there."

"Oh, wow, I'm sorry," I stuttered, feeling embarrassed. "I'll hold still and let you move around."

I turned on the air again and waited while I heard Void do her thing. "You can turn it off now."

After some more shuffling, she indicated she was dressed. I opened my eyes and saw her in her usual nightwear, except she was wearing the turquoise vest I got her. "You look good in that."

Void gave me a little smile as she turned her head away. I looked down and notice she had forgotten to fasten the bottom two buttons on her shirt. Her well-muscled six pack was showing, which was accented by the thin fur across her body. "You forgot to button up again."

"Did I?" she said with a hint of playful sarcasm. She then, very slowly, reached down and buttoned up, allowing me a long look before her belly vanished behind the cloth. "How careless of me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Oh, what's gotten into you?"

The look on her face changed to something I couldn't read. "Have we…been together before? I've never experienced sex and it feels strange to know it's happened before."

"We have," I replied, forcing old memories away.

"Was it good?" she asked. The old memories flooded back of our last time. I couldn't respond and remained silent. "Was it that bad?" she said when she noticed my silence.

I shook my head. "No. It's, well, I just don't want to talk about it. I'd rather just enjoy the moment with you three instead of talking about the past."

I recognized the new look on her face. She realized something and didn't press further. "That sounds nice. I'm going to head back now to dry out my clothes."

"I'll be by in a bit. I need to let my mana recharge to dry my own hair," I replied.

I watched her get up and walk away. She gave me a little bit of a shake of her backside and a swish of the tail. It was amazing how identical the anatomy of the people was here to humans, save the different heads, feet, tails and full body fur. She turned back one more time. "That air thing? I think you should remember it for later if we get to that stage."

I let out a low whistle for a response. She smiled and started to walk away. Of course, she then ruined the moment when she absentmindedly picked at a piece of her pants which had started to ride up into her crack. Good old Void. That's the part I love about you.

I didn't delay because I had to let my mana recharge. I was mentally exhausted from the exchange with Void. She dragged up old memories I wanted to repress. The last night we had before my multi-century stretch of avoiding them was magical. What happened the next day ruined it. I shook my head a few times and stuffed that one WAY down next to the Gully Jack memories.

After returning, we ate our bland travel rations and made small talk. The cavern was empty and all we could hear was water splashing from above and a few distant noises from the mannows from the two tunnels we didn't explore.

Now dry and next to the fire crystal, I found the air comfortable. Sure, we were still in a dank cave illuminated by blue fungus, but it was now less damp after a long march in water. The little things feel much better after misery. We then arranged our sleeping rolls evenly around the fire with our heads facing the warmth and went to sleep.

I was disturbed in the night by a shuffling sound. I glanced up at the clock the Guild had provided on the island to keep time. It was a little after midnight. I turned to the sound and saw Lia dragging her bag over next to me. "What's wrong?"

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"The monsters formed again," Lia whispered to me. "Can I sleep next to you?"

I trained my ears for unusual noises and heard splashing and a few gurgles and growls. The mannows had formed again and were patrolling near the island. Monsters always came back at the local stroke of midnight. "You can. Don't worry though, they don't even recognize we're here with the repellant crystals."

It was a reasonable request. It was her first time in a dungeon and even though she had gotten accustomed to fighting monsters, sleeping around them was a whole different animal. It was also in a cave and I hated being in here, too. I heard her shuffle some more and then I felt her face press against my back. "Thank you," she whispered.

I could hear Tizek snoring away. I suspected he was face down and splayed out. He was always unflappable and spending the night in a dank cave didn't change that. To my other side, my eyes met Void's. She was also awake and looking at me. She gave me a warm smile and closed her eyes to sleep. I did the same.

The next morning, I was awoken by uproarious laughter. I could hear Lia joyfully yelling. "That's disgusting!" I turned over to see Lia and Tizek pointing out over the water.

"What's going on?" I said as I stretched and got up. I looked where they were pointing and my jaw fell to the floor. "Oh, that is disgusting!"

The mannows had returned and now I knew why they had the legs and arms they did the day before. The monsters took on the form of whoever was in the dungeon when the monsters reformed. Now I was looking at a mannow with little skinny arms and legs that looked like mine. They were extra disgusting because the legs had thick black hairs growing out of them.

"Those are mine!" Tizek excitedly shouted as he pointed to a mannow with lizard limbs. The scales on the limbs looked like they had some kind of fungal infection. I also noticed lynx-clan limbs with bad matting and wolf-clan limbs that looked like they had the mange. The mud men also returned and they bore a vague resemblance to us.

"What are you all lau…" Void had come to stand next to me and stopped when she saw what we were all pointing and laughing at. "Eww."

"Right?" I said. "I think I found a pair of your legs I don't want to stare at." I earned that slap to the back of my head.

"So, Lia," I said as I rubbed the sore spot, "How do you feel about fighting today?"

Lia chuckled. "Now they look so ridiculous it doesn't seem scary anymore."

The rest of our time in Mermaid Falls wasn't particularly noteworthy. I'm sorry to say, my dear invisible audience that's just a figment of my imagination, there isn't a lot of excitement in repeating the same fights over and over again. We were just grinding away. Not even the chests held anything interesting, just bits of tin and copper which I would use to make the housing for my magical LASER. Or would it be called a MASER here? I was worrying about our finances since an Advancement 0 dungeon wasn't going to cough up the 20 gold we needed.

What about the mermaid the dungeon is named after? It was a monstrous manatee. That's it. A manatee with tusks and a thick blubbery hide. All we had to do was avoid extremely telegraphed movements to keep it from rolling on us. Otherwise, it was mostly an annoying damage sponge which took a lot of hits before going down.

We also found our prize when I carved out the mana stone from the mermaid. Instead of the usual poof, the mana from the monster's body coalesced into a red crystal a meter tall and a half a meter wide. The thing was also heavy and since none of the others had their Advancement yet. I heaved it back to the island with Tizek before we continued on killing monsters.

In the evenings, the others spent time talking while I worked on calculations from the view slate book. I had to figure out how big the crystal needed to be and settled on 7cm in diameter and 90cm long. The length was mainly dictated by how big the crystal we obtained was.

In this world, they have the concept of Pi, but they call it the Confounding Ratio, mainly because their mathematicians haven't proven it's irrational. The rod had to be calculated to the third decimal and needed parallel ends. It would be a challenge finding someone who could make it.

The real excitement came on our last day before our reservation ran out. I was sweating since no one had Advanced yet and we were running low on mannows in the second tunnel. Then Tizek bashed in a mannow's head and he suddenly started moving faster. He'd finally Advanced. Lia quickly followed after him after she killed two more mannows.

That left Void. Because of her higher rating, she needed to kill a few more monsters to get over the threshold. We went to the central tunnel where Lia, Tizek and I caught the attention of the mud men. I spent a few moments dodging my doppelganger while Void took care of her own. She then killed mine and suddenly started moving with more grace and speed. She quickly finished off the last two.

"Want to keep going and kill the mermaid again? It should go down faster with your new Advancement," I said.

"Let's not. I want to get out of here," Void groused. "I doubt we're going to get anything useful beyond another crystal." We had left the other control crystals in there to dissolve back into the dungeon because they were heavy and virtually worthless.

"I'm not afraid, my lord," Tizek said. He looked like he was just wanting to show off his new Advancement.

"Some other time, buddy," I said. "We still need to get the spider silk from the Advancement 1 dungeon. I'll need you to stick close to me there since going in will be very dangerous."

When I brought up the spiders, Tizek showed a brief hint of panic on his face. That was interesting. Was he afraid of spiders? I keep learning new things about my companions.

As Tizek helped Lia strap the crystal to her back since she was now the physically strongest member of our band, I decided to pull out my Guild ID and check on the reservation status of Silk Caverns which was yet another underground dungeon. I internally cursed when I saw there was only a single open day a week from now. It was booked out solid until after the apocalypse.

I had to help Lia keep balanced as we carted the massive control crystal chunk from Mermaid Falls. She was much stronger, but not strong enough to manhandle the crystal all by herself. Void and Tizek both ranged ahead to take care of the mannows in the exit tunnel. Tizek was particularly enjoying his new power boost. I watched him backhand a mannow hard enough with his buckler to spray its innards all over the surface of the water.

The initial power boost from Advancing was no joke, though it wouldn't be quite as extreme on additional Advancements. Each subsequent Advancement would improve your stats by around 16%, which was why having a high initial potential was a big deal. If I ever fixed my mana pool, my first Advancement would put me on-par with an average Advancement 18. Probably not enough to punch out the giant sky squid, but that was something incredible. Shame I never ran across a method of healing.

After we exited the dungeon, we began rolling the giant crystal down the road because, in my infinite foresight, I didn't remember to rent a cart. I also gave thanks to the Guild for installing a big delivery tumbler like you'd see at the post office when dropping off packages. Without it, we would have had a hard time manhandling our big crystal through the turnstile.

When we returned to Orvis and I began pushing the crystal to the ramp, my party looked disappointed. Void because we didn't discover a sudden land bridge back to Leoren while Lia and Tizek longingly looked at the beach.

"I'm sorry, we just don't have time. Maybe we can come back after everything is over," I said.

"We reserved Silk Caverns a week from now. What will it hurt to take a break today?" Void said. She really didn't want to go on the ferry.

I considered her words and looked at the big crystal. Then I groaned internally. My idiot university researcher mind was on full display. I had only considered the cost of the alchemical solution. I was so used to just asking for equipment that I never thought of where it came from. I still had to pay to have the rod fabricated. Then I had to obtain the magical battery array. I also had to figure out how to make the mirrors.

I felt my head starting to spin and I leaned against the railing on the dock to the ferry. I could feel my heart palpitating as I took deep breaths. The day of the apocalypse seemed so close and I had fuck all beyond a big uncut crystal.

"We can go another time," I heard Lia say. She sounded concerned.

"Thanks," I said. "All of this is bothering me. I can't relax until everything is ready. I promise we'll come out here first thing after we save the world."

"First thing?" Void asked as she looked back at the ferry again. The thought of standing on it was enough to make her ill.

"Or, maybe find a nice beach on the mainland," I said.

I found a handcart rental before we got on the ferry since it didn't make sense to roll the crystal around or, worse, have Lia heft it on her back. I realized we also had to sell our mana cores and I suggested we use the Exterminator's Guild annex in Orvis. It wouldn't be crowded like the Victory Square location.

We arrived at the Guild annex where Lia and Tizek opted to wait outside with the tuning crystal. While I doubted anyone would want to run off with it, we didn't want to risk the chance leaving it unguarded.

Void and I entered and we were presented with…a smaller version of the DMV. Even in a resort town, the local Exterminator's Guild annex had to keep the sterile bureaucratic aesthetic going. The upside was there weren't any other Exterminators in the office.

"Lord Oliver!"

I looked around to see who was calling me and I saw the lynx-clan man who checked us in at the dungeon last week at a window. He waved over to me. "Don't worry about taking a number. I'll take care of you."

"Hey there," I called back as we approached the station. "We're here to unload our mana cores."

"You were in there the whole time? Let me get the scale. I figure you have too many to count by hand," the guild rep said.

"Yea. Let me tell you, the week completely wiped out any desire to ever tackle a water dungeon again," I said. The man chuckled knowingly as he hefted a manual counterbalance scale onto the counter. The scale used a mana core mechanism I hadn't taken time to research to measure the compression of mana fed into the array to measure mass. It was a surprisingly accurate mechanism.

The man fed some mana into the scale and gestured at the box sitting on top. "Just dump them in there."

I opened my backpack and poured out the marble-sized mana cores. The round, tan-colored balls clinked into the box. When I was done, Void emptied her bag.

After the last mana core fell out, the rep waited a moment for the scale to stabilize and then whistled. "7.7 kilograms of Advancement 0 stones. You four went hard. You'll get 76 silver Sovereigns at the current rate."

"We cleared the entire system every day," I replied. "I wouldn't suggest doing it without waders. We had to stop every 8 hours to avoid getting trench foot."

"I wouldn't suggest doing it at all," Void countered. "Oliver didn't have to worry about matted fur."

The man laughed. "No doubt. When I find two more duds to join, we're going to take it slow on Flower Peak. Speaking of, there's someone who would like to meet you. She's also a big fan."

"Sorry," I replied. "We're on a bit of a time crunch. I promise to make it out here some other time."

The man's expression fell. I felt bad since I was doing a great job disappointing people today. Unfortunately, I was in a near panic and struggling to keep my composure with the time crunch I was facing. Plus, the 76 silver Sovereigns, while a decent income, wasn't going to cut it. Even if we kept this up until the day of the apocalypse, we'd only clear round 8 gold Sovereigns. It wasn't even enough to cover equipment failures if they happened.

"Are you sure you can't spare a few moments to say hi?" Void whispered after the clerk went to the back with the box of mana cores.

I shook my head. "I need to get this project going. I can't go through this again. Not again. And at the rate we're getting money? I'm going to need to visit Gully Jack."

I felt Void put a hand on my arm. "Don't think of that now. The whole thing feels unreal. I'm worried about losing my memories but part of me still doesn't understand. I don't want to see the fun man I met three weeks ago get ground down."

"I'm more of a mushroom," I responded. Void looked at me perplexed, so I continued. "I'm not so much a fun man but a fun guy."

Void gave me a glare. "Alright, you're not completely gone."

I was about to respond when the Guild clerk returned with a small box with coins in it. He was also carrying two parchment scrolls. "Sorry for the wait. Here is your money. I know you're in a hurry, but could you sign these for us? I'm sorry if I'm being pushy, I don't know if I'll ever run into you again."

"You know what? I'll not only do that but I'll also write out a promise," I said when I caught sight of a young wolverine-clan woman peeking at me through the door to the back office. The man's face lit up and he handed me a magical quill. I unrolled one of the parchments and saw it was my face from the announcement posters the king sent out three weeks prior. "Who should I make these out to?"

"I'm Jehmia and my friend is Deena," Jehmia said with a big smile.

I picked up the pen and pressed my mana through it. I then signed my name and, on the back, I left a message. "Jehmia, if I'm not back to visit by the end of the first week of autumn, you can find me at The Gnashing Teeth tavern in Leoren. We'll sit, you, Deena and I, and talk as long as you want. Good luck!"

Based on Jehmia's facial expression, I believe I just salvaged at least one person's day. He looked back up at me with glee in his eyes. "Thank you very much! Oh, by the way, I suspect you Advanced when you were in there. You should get your rating updated at the main branch back in Leoren if you want to move on to higher level dungeons."

"Thanks, we'll get that taken care of," I replied. Of course, I already knew that. I wasn't about to take his joy by telling him I can't Advance. "Sorry, but we have to run. Hope to see you soon!"

After validating their authenticity, I swept the silver Sovereigns into my money pouch and secured it under my armor. We left the Guild annex and collected Lia and Tizek who were flanking the control crystal like a pair of British royal guards. "Ready to go?"

"Yes, my lord!" Tizek said snappily. Lia nodded and began maneuvering the hand cart.

"Oliver?" Lia asked as we walked back to the ferry. "Why did you spend so much on our equipment if we needed this money?"

I thought about it for a moment. "Well, first, I didn't know we needed to build my array. Second, it wouldn't have changed anything. I'm not skimping on your protection. I'm not about to let you three die when we end the apocalypse."

"Please don't say that," Void responded. "Isn't saving the world more important?"

"If we figure out a reliable way to save the world," I said. "Then I'm going to keep going until you three survive to see it. I'll forcibly reset the loop before that ever happens."

"There's no point in arguing is there? You'd do it and we wouldn't even remember," Void said.

"I'm not one of those toxic types that's going to hover over you for your own protection," I said. "That said, your deaths? Nope, I'm going to reset that immediately and go through this over again if I have to. Now, I have to ask, if you're crippled in the process? Are you fine with me continuing on?" I already knew the answer to it.

We had pulled up to the dock just outside the ramp to the ferry. It was still early in the day and no one was around. Void looked at me. "Save the world. I'd rather be crippled than lose my memories."

"Same," Lia said.

"It is a small price to protect my lord," Tizek happily responded.

I smiled. "Good. I think keeping our time intact is the most important thing."

Void looked up at the ferry. "Oliver? Now that I think about it, can you reset the loop now?"

I looked at the ferry. It had a magically driven paddle wheel as opposed to the sails on long-distance ships. It was bobbing gently in the water, beckoning us to board. "Sometimes, my dear, we just have to tough out the worst experiences to get ahead in life."

Lia snorted while Tizek gave Void a comforting clasp on the shoulder. Void moaned, hung her head low and marched back onto the ferry. I was going to spend the hour-long return trip sitting on a bench with her on the lowest deck at the center. No point in me enjoying the brisk sea spray when Void was miserable.