Test Summoning: Apocalypse

When we returned to the mainland in Leoren, after waiting for Void's metaphorical green coloring to subside, we returned to The Gnashing Teeth to stow the control crystal. Doun agreed to let us leave it in a ground floor storage room since we didn't want to risk hefting it up the narrow stairs and break it.

It was getting late in the day so we decided to split to perform our different tasks. Lia, Tizek and Void had the unenviable task of sitting in the Exterminator's Guild waiting room at the peak of rush to get their Advancements updated on their Guild IDs. They'd need it since at least one party member must be equal to or greater than the dungeon rating for entry.

I, on the other hand, was going to find out where I could find someone to precision machine a crystal. That was going to be a huge challenge. I recalled the mug I sold my first day here for financing. I was able to get a lot for it because of how difficult it is for craftsmen to produce something like that manually. It was near impossible, not entirely impossible. With the right mages, they could produce a fine cylinder out of the control crystal.

Finding those mages? Armond would know. He had to keep a reliable inventory, so he knew the suppliers. First, though, I'd stop by Jummi's Baubles to get the gloves appraised. Not because it was important, but because her shop was on the way.

Jummi's shop was a nice little oddity in the city. She had a handbill outside the shop with my face on it and words underneath indicating I thought her shop was my favorite in Leoren. I mean, that was somewhat true, but I had only been here once on the latest run. I let it go because my celebrity was tapped since my dud status was now widely well-known. All I got on the walk to the shop were a few quick glances, mostly at my pink boots, and one or two polite nods.

I entered the shop and looked at the glorious mess. A pile of merchandise with a clear burrow hole was sitting on the floor in a corner. A poor patron, or possibly shoplifter, had disturbed the precarious materials and was buried. The burrow was proof the individual didn't die in the avalanche.

I carefully squeezed through the narrow shelving and pressed up to the counter. Jummi didn't notice the little wooden bell at the door again and wasn't out front. I pressed my finger against the bell on the counter and it pulsed out a little ring.

"Oh, you've returned," Jummi said after she came from the back. She was just as disheveled as always.

"Good afternoon, Jummi. You're looking amazing today," I said with a smile.

She raised an eyebrow at me. "I heard from Sari you're a charmer. While I wouldn't mind a quick tumble in the back, you won't get any special business consideration. I have a few minutes available right now if you want."

"I wouldn't dream of taking advantage of you," I deflected. This was another first. Jummi never indicated an interest like that. It must have been a result of how I conducted myself when meeting Sari.

"Your loss," Jummi said in a businesslike manner. "Now, what can I do for you today? I know you didn't come just to chat."

I placed the gloves we found in the dungeon on the counter. "I'd like to get these appraised."

Jummi reached beneath the counter and extracted a paper scroll. "Since you're new here, if anyone tries to charge you for appraisal, it's a scam. Appraising is contracted by the Exterminator's Guild via the Commerce Consortium. Appraisals are free to Exterminators and we're reimbursed by the Consortium."

"Good to know," I said to Jummi. I, of course, already knew that. I had pulled out my Guild ID even before she gave me the spiel. Jummi took the ID, gave a glance at my terrible photo, then up at me and gave an approving nod before handing the card back. Once more, I felt slighted by the fact someone had no trouble telling the bad picture was me.

Jummi slid the parchment toward me. "Here, place your seal and we'll get started."

I pressed my finger to the circle on the page and willed my mana into it. After my seal appeared, Jummi filled out a few of the bureaucratic requirements on the paper with her quill and then picked up my gloves. I could see her eyes flash as she cast her identification spell, something which was a spell available to Air aspect people. Why Air? I have no idea; it's just one of those accept it as it's part of this world things. She had also done it on my mug, though I wasn't paying attention at the time.

"Interesting," Jummi mumbled. "I take it you found this in an Advancement 0 dungeon."

"Why is it interesting? I'm just doing this since I was told it's a good habit to check everything. Aren't Advancement 0 clothes virtually worthless?" I asked. I was genuinely confused why Jummi would think a random pair of junk gloves was interesting.

"If I didn't know you're fresh to this world, I'd have accused you of lying," Jummi retorted in her classic disinterested monotone. "These gloves have a Miner's enchantment on them. When a pickaxe is held, the user won't get blisters or lose their grip on the handle. There is also a 5% reduction to stamina use when mining."

"Oh, that's something," I said, my perplexion continuing to flow. I really had no idea how this was even possible.

"Finding magical equipment is extremely rare in Advancement 0 dungeons, let alone anything this valuable," Jummi explained. "You must have caught the Grand Creator's eye for this to show up."

My eyes briefly glanced up. Sure, that was ridiculous since if there was a Grand Creator, the entity wouldn't be floating out in that random direction in space. It was a symbolic glance. Still, magic existed here and I've been living with an impossible ability. Maybe there is some credence in a higher power.

"How much would you buy it for?" I asked.

She lifted the gloves and turned them over for close inspection. "Hmm…I'll give you 30 gold Sovereigns. And that's the no haggle, friends of family rate."

I really wished I had my beer right about now so I could take a sip and spit it out. Not that Jummi would appreciate me spraying cheap brew all over her store. My eyes peered upwards once more. You know what? Maybe you do exist and this is you telling me I'm finally on the right track. I wish you'd just tell me outright.

I was greeted with nothing more than silence and Jummi waiting on the strange otherworlder staring up at her ceiling to say something. I looked back at Jummi. "That much? The effects don't seem that impressive."

Jummi huffed. "Sellers usually exaggerate their products. A miner in a higher tier dungeon would love these. The 5% stamina alone would allow a gramicite miner to pay back my asking price in three months. By the time these wear out in two years or so, they'll have made a tidy profit."

"I'll take it then," I said. My mood was suddenly rising fast. I just got the funding for the lenses I needed. If my luck held, the remaining 10 gold Sovereigns was enough for the rest of the project.

After accepting my payment, I made my way to Exterminator's Excitement. I hoped Armond would have a lead on what I needed to make a MASER medium. I dreaded having to see everyone I cared about lose their memories just to fiddle around with finding someone through multiple loops.

I arrived at Exterminator's Excitement just as the street lights started to flicker on for the evening. Walking around a city this size really ate up time when there wasn't a transit system to utilize. It was another major roadblock to what I was trying to accomplish.

Inside, I noticed Armond was already with another party at the counter. I decided to pass the time looking at a catalog. I picked up one I hadn't looked at in a while. It was the selection of polearms Armond had available, either for special order or in stock.

I mused on using polearms in dungeon running. They had their uses, such as against the Red Speckled Stomper. It wouldn't have done Aoto any good since he hadn't Advanced yet, but longer weapons would have worked well to impale the larger Advancement 1 boss monster.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The downside of polearms was they had limited use in dungeon environments, especially subterranean ones. Bringing one along would burden the group. The usual tactic is if there was a large monster in the dungeon, a party would bring one along and leave it at the campsite until it was time to tackle the creature.

Polearms ended up being mostly used by the Royal Army against rival kingdoms in wars. They trained in their own private Army dungeons instead of the ones used by other Guilds. This is where the other five heroes were training since they didn't have to compete for reservation spots.

"Hero!" I heard Armond call out to me. "Interested in a halberd?"

I looked up and saw Armond standing next to me looking at the catalog page I was on. It had a bronze halberd for sale for one platinum Sovereign. I looked back and smiled. "I'm nowhere near that rich."

Armond shrugged. "Shame. What can I do for you today?"

"Actually, I'd like to see if you know someone who can help me with a project," I replied.

Armond tapped his chin. "Promise to make me your exclusive equipment source first."

I snorted. The man was a merchant at his core. "I promise. I'll even sign a contract if you have one."

"I'll take your word for it," Armond replied. "Now, what are you needing?"

"I have a large control crystal for a view slate. I need someone who can shape one for me to exacting specifications," I said.

Armond looked puzzled. "There isn't a demand for those. You could practice carving them out from a normal crystal. You'd probably get very good making them with how big they are."

"I need a big one. It needs to be a cylinder 7cm across and 90cm long," I said. "It needs to be mirror smooth and I'd need the roundness accurate to three decimals of the Confounding Ratio. I'd need the two ends parallel with no more than 1cm deviation at 10 meters. I'll also need to have someone make a round mold used to cast glass 5cm thick to the same diameter along with a vial of Magic Reflection tonic and a bag of dungeon sand. Add to that order 20 Advancement 2 grade mana batteries."

Armond whistled. "That's quite the ask. You'd need a water mage and an earth mage to properly shape and polish that. Fortunately, I know someone. With my fee to arrange everything, I'd need 5 gold and they can have it to you in three months. The tonic is 20 gold and I'll throw in the bag of sand for free. For the batteries? Another 20 gold."

I sucked in some air. "What would it take to expedite it to this week?"

"That would be costly. The two mages would need to rearrange their work and possibly pay penalties," Armond said. "Are you sure you need this? I can't imagine what you'd need a giant control crystal rod for. The things are practically worthless."

"Just something from my world I'm testing out," I lied. "It's time sensitive."

Armond shrugged. "30 gold for the rod and mold, so 70 gold total."

I glanced upward. Really, Grand Creator? You couldn't have gotten me something for 70 gold? I'm back to thinking you're not real and I was just lucky today.

"I also have some tin and copper," I continued. "Would you know anyone who could fabricate a stand able to hold the crystal? I don't need anything special, just something I can sit the cylinder on and can tilt up to a full 90 degrees. I don't want the crystal to slide out when tilted up."

"I know a smith with an apprentice who needs practice. He'll do it for free," Amrond said.

"Great. I'll pay for the mold and crystal rod now. Is there a lot of demand for the tonic and batteries?"

"Not at the moment," Armond replied. "I take it you need to save up for that. Don't worry, we'll have plenty of stock. You can bring the crystal by tomorrow morning and I'll have it delivered. It should be ready in six days from today."

I painfully parted with my newly attained 30 gold Sovereigns after I filled out some paperwork on the control crystal and lens mold contract. As I left, I sighed when I realized that I had to visit Gully Jack. I was deluded into thinking we could save 20 gold Sovereigns from dungeon runs and random monster hunting out on the surface let alone the 40 I'd need.

I also wanted to go with a bigger battery array, but I'd have to start laying out serious money for the Advancement 3 and better batteries. Worse, we had to charge them ourselves and we didn't have the mana capacity for anything more than the batteries I inquired about.

I made it back to The Gnashing Teeth around 9Af. The last of the customers for the day had already cleared out and went home, leaving Lia, Tizek and Void sitting at one of the booths. All three of them had a look of sheer exhaustion on their faces. It was reasonable, they just did sit quietly for a few hours at the magical DMV just to touch a crystal ball.

"How bad is it?" I asked as I slid in next to Void. Tizek had lowered his head to the table top and was struggling to keep his eyes open.

"I knew boredom could put grey in your stamina bar," Void mumbled. "But the mana bar, too? A quarter of it went grey."

"My head hurts," Lia moaned. "I'm at half grey in my mana."

"Your mind is what drives magic. If you get foggy up top, you'll have a hard time accessing your pool," I heard Mira interject. I turned around in the booth and saw her approaching with four bowls of stew.

"And the food wizard has summoned up something amazing once more," I commented when I caught a whiff of the stew.

"Oh hush. You're supposed to be courting Void, not me," Mira said with a twinkling laugh.

"Hands off my wife!" I heard Doun playfully shout from the direction of the bar.

Void thunked her head against the table. She was embarrassed her parents were joking around in front of her. I gently patted her back in sympathy. Not that I wasn't enjoying the show.

"I'll get out of your fur. Have fun!" Mira said before leaving.

Void lifted her head back up after her mother left. "So, how did your part go?"

I took a moment to collect my thoughts. I watched Lia slowly sipping her stew on the other side of the table as I considered my words. My eyes then drifted to Tizek. His head was laying on the table and he was carefully transitioning food from the bowl to his mouth via spoon. I chuckled at the sight. The poor guy was so exhausted from the day he was actually using utensils and not drinking directly out of the bowl.

"At risk of sounding cliché, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first?" I said after I finally decided how I was going to broach the subject.

"Let's hear the good part first," Lia said with a yawn.

"I sold your gloves," I said.

Lia raised an eyebrow. "That's strange. Sure, it's good you managed to sell Advancement 0 trash, but still strange."

I raised a finger. "That's just it. It wasn't trash. It was a set of gloves with a decent mining enhancement. I sold it to Jummi for 30 gold." That got their attention. Well, two of them. Tizek had fallen asleep with his spoon partially hanging out of his mouth.

"That's great news!" Void said, holding her shout in to avoid making a scene in front of her parents. Tizek snored in response. "That's 10 gold more than you said you needed. What's the bad part?"

"I made a huge error and assumed the rest of it would just happen. We're 40 gold short," I replied.

Lia and Void's expressions fell when I gave them the news. Lia poked at her stew while Void stared at the table. Void then looked back up at me. "What are you thinking? Is it possible we can make that off mana cores?"

I shook my head. "I know I said we could make 20 gold if we lived outside the walls. Problem is I need time to fabricate and test the device. You three won't even be able to make Advancement 2, let alone kill enough monsters to get that kind of money. We also need to repair gear, which will eat into the purse. We can't rely on getting lucky and having a mystical force hand us valuable gifts again."

"What do you think we should do?" Void asked.

I closed my eyes. I was dreading the words exiting my mouth. "Tomorrow, after we drop off the crystal with Armond, I think I need to sell my belt to you-know-who."

Lia's eyes went wide with worry while Void's turned stern. Tizek started to drool on the table.

"Are you going to tell him about the apocalypse?" Void asked.

I shook my head. "That's a last resort situation. I'd rather just go in and offer to sell the belt."

"How are you going to explain how you knew where to find him?" Void asked as she dipped her spoon in her bowl.

I nodded at Lia. "That's where you come in."

Lia pointed at herself. "Me?"

I nodded. "Yes. You're from the slums and you fell into a two-bit street gang. It'll be believable if you told us about the rumors about where we can find him."

"It's going to be dangerous," Lia said. "I hear he has underlings around him at all times."

I nodded. "It will be. The upside is most rank-and-file gang members don't have Advancements and there are only a handful of Advancement 1 lieutenants. The downside is he's Advancement 3, though his rating is average. He's also Water attuned and knows a few combat spells. I'd rather keep this peaceful since even though I'd give you three the win in a fight, I'm not confident I'd survive the battle."

Lia had a look of worry on her face as she set her spoon aside, leaving her stew minimally touched. I knew what she was thinking. "I know you haven't killed before. You don't need to do this if you don't want. I can always go in alone."

"No, I need to help," Lia replied. I could tell she was not into the prospect of hurting a person.

"Tell you what, we'll get you a blunt training sword. That way, you'll just wound and not kill if you hit them right," I said.

"Alright," Lia replied. "How about you?"

"I'm keeping my lethal one," I said. "His underlings aren't good people and I have no qualms taking them out if needed. There'd be fewer rapists and murderers on the loose. That said, I'm not a psychopath. I won't kill any who surrender or are incapacitated, just those who attack us first. This isn't a vigilante mission."

"Then I agree to come along, too," Void said.

"Have you killed before?" Lia asked.

"I have," I replied. "Granted, they're all alive again and I'd rather keep it that way. Killing isn't fun."

"I have, too," Void said. "I was attacked three years ago when I was walking to my Guard job. There were two of them and I couldn't risk pulling my hits. Luckily, they didn't have an Advancement since all I had was my long dagger. I ended up killing one quickly and the other didn't survive before the healer arrived."

I instinctually reached my hand over and gripped her hand comfortingly. I knew this story was hard for her to tell and she was doing it to help Lia. Void gratefully returned my grip and continued. "It haunts me still. I know they were bad people trying to harm me, but it was still a kill. Oliver and I will make sure you don't have to experience that if it comes to it."

"Also, I do want you to hang back in a fight for other reasons. You don't have a background fighting people. I know you've seen street brawls before," I said.

Lia nodded. "Yes. They are chaotic, fast and scary. I always avoid them and never got into a fight."

"Good instincts," I replied. "When you saw Void and I sparring? What you witnessed were two experienced and trained fighters. In many cases, I prefer fighting a skilled opponent because I know he's motivated to not get hurt in the process of defeating me. Short of open bloodlust, a skilled fighter knows to back down when even a winning fight is too risky. The unskilled fighter is very unpredictable and will hurt you in the process of getting himself killed."

"Also," Void added, "we have to recognize our Advancement doesn't make us invincible. Just because most of them are Advancement 0 doesn't mean we can relax. They can overwhelm us or a lucky hit can still cause damage."

We sat in silence for a while to let Lia get a handle on what we were going to do tomorrow. I hated suggesting it and wouldn't have if we didn't desperately need the funding. I also couldn't go to Jummi since it would cause problems I didn't want to persist after we stopped the apocalypse. This was the only way.

Lia seemed to get her bearings straight and went back to finishing her stew. Void followed suit and began her own meal. I was about to start when I remembered Tizek still out cold on the table. I reached across and tapped him on a hand. He opened his eyes and looked at me. "My lord?"

"Hey buddy," I replied. "We're going to see a criminal tomorrow to sell my belt. We may have to hurt people. Are you good with coming along?"

Tizek yawned and looked at his bowl. "They are bad people. I will keep you safe."

I knew I could count on him. He was trained since youth to be a warrior and didn't consider killing an issue. His only qualm was making sure it was honorable. He wouldn't go around murdering anyone. He would, however, not hesitate to strike down anyone itching to cause harm to him or his allies.

"Good. Finish up your dinner and go upstairs to sleep. A table in a tavern isn't going to leave you well rested," I replied before tucking into my own meal. I had to eat it before it went cold.

Tizek's eyes lazily stared his bowl. They then fully opened like those videos where you put a treat in front of a sleeping cat. Realizing he had food available, he picked up his bowl and started drinking directly out of it.

The rest of us let out little chuckles. Tizek was always good at lightening the mood.