Bonded Summoner

It was time for his date; Jake having asked the valkyrie out on one the previous evening for today. Jake had previously asked the demoness if she had wanted to go on a date, and she had declined. Ultimately, he had wanted to take her on one because they hadn’t had a real one yet, for good reasons of course; they couldn’t leave the [Refuge], and they had very little funds before now. Still, he felt she was first, and that if anyone was going to go on one, then it should be her, he thought.

She said to him, “I know that you can probably come up with an excellent date for us here in our [Refuge], but I am patient and can wait until we can truly go somewhere.

As much as I might enjoy it, Ophelia wants one even more. She has read countless stories with romance and heroes, and she wants to experience those things the most. Then, she will even have one of your firsts with you: your first real date. I had gotten your first time in the bedroom, and she would get your first romantic date, something that she will cherish going forward. Not only that, but I had gotten a lot of time alone with you before she came along and many evenings after. It’s time for her to get you all to herself for a while.”

Jake couldn’t argue with that line of thinking, and while he thought she was being truthful, knew that he should plan a date for her as well, later. This concession of hers was more proof to him that she was working on making this odd relationship work and was matching the actions with her words; he would just try to make sure that if her feelings were hurt that they were not left to fester for very long.

After that conversation, Jake primarily planned the date, but Fhesiah ironed out a few details related to the execution, as well as making herself scarce for the majority of the date, and would be sleeping in her own room that evening: whether the valkyrie and Jake slept together tonight or not, it just wouldn’t feel right to go on a date with the valkyrie and then sleep with the demoness, after all.

Fhesiah was still doing her best to catch up in level, and she was not too far behind, the hearth helping her dramatically. What also helped was Jake hitting level 5 in [Mana Control], and his own core and thus [Mana Siphon] reaching higher levels as well, increasing the rate of infusion of heavenly energy into her. Jake was a little disturbed when one night during their usual evening activities, she received a leveling notification. Now, her favorite thing was to use leveling up as a euphemism for having sex.

Fhesiah aside, Ophelia and Jake’s relationship had now progressed to one that felt similar to two horny teenagers, and Jake supposed for the valkyrie that was accurate. They would kiss between bouts of training and hold hands from time to time when practicing magic and while watching movies, and sometimes have intense make-out sessions that started involving some heavy petting over their clothes, or grinding, but things would often stop shortly after they started. Jake thought that Ophelia might be ready for the next step, and if she wasn’t ready after this date then it would be soon.

Up to now, Jake and Ophelia had many times together that might resemble a date in terms of individual activities. They’ve had dozens of picnics together during training or even in the dungeon with Fhesiah on the lookout, along with watching movies together. Fhesiah often lounged floating in the air, though she often shared the couch with Jake and Ophelia too. Still, this would be nearly a whole day dedicated to date activities and each other.

The look on Ophelia’s face almost mirrored Fhesiah’s when he used [Einherjar] on her in training once, her eyes hooded in desire, from the high of having such strength that he provided her. Either way, he would not pressure her, just make his desires known. Jake would do his best to make her first time special, whenever she was ready.

For their first part of their date, Jake was just dressed in a light work-out outfit; they would be doing physical activities. This was one aspect that Jake came up with to enjoy with her, and while a little odd for a date, he thought she would have a good time and should be memorable. Jake went to knock on her door, when he overheard the demoness talking; her thought-link disconnected during their private date. He also was holding a vase full of roses that he thought she would like purchased through the [Multiverse Market]. He didn’t bother with handing over a bouquet for her to put in a vase, as he knew she did not yet have a vase in her room, so he skipped a step.

“Why, just wait until you feel his rod inside you. You’ll want to level up with him all the time after that, believe me.” Jake could actually feel Ophelia blushing, and feel the demoness completely enjoying that through her emotions carried over their bond. He heard the shy valkyrie start to reply, “I…do you think I can really get stronger, like that?” Jake decided to interrupt whatever the crazy demoness was going to tell her by knocking on the door. It was the demoness that spoke again, “There he is. Don’t worry about things so much; he’ll take care of you. He is patient, and whether you go forward or not he will understand. Just have fun, and see where things go. If it feels right, then let it happen.” Jake didn’t hear if she responded, but the door opened.

Fhesiah stepped out, gave a smile, wink and a wave, then headed to do whatever it was she was going to do during their date. She would be there to help during a portion of the date later. The valkyrie now stepped out of the door, and she was dressed in what was quite similar to her underclothes she wore the day they met; a sports bra and some short shorts made out of a similar material. She also had her hair braided instead of the loose ponytail that it was usually in.

Her smile was beaming, and Jake’s now matched. He held out the vase of roses for her, and she accepted the flowers and returned them to her room. She spoke, “Thank you, Jake, they’re beautiful. I’m so excited for our date…” she leaned forward and kissed Jake on his cheek. Jake gave his arm to her, to which she wrapped hers around, him escorting her to a new door that was added to their [Refuge].

Through the door were some stairs, taking them down to their new lower level, or basement, Jake supposed. They went down, and through the door was their new training area. They had previously added some additional space with a room, but Jake added even more yesterday and moved it once more. It was a large room with a high ceiling, over ten meters high: enough space for the girls to really be able to use their wings. Jake had prepared various areas for different activities, only changing their original plans for a training room by making it larger overall.

Ophelia took it in with awe and excitement. There were a lot of areas that she didn’t understand or were new to her, and she looked over everything with interest. Jake spoke, “I thought that for part of our date we could have a for-fun competition. The loser of each event would have to play a sort of penalty game, by spinning this wheel here to select the game. So, you’ll have to do your best to beat me, otherwise you might end up eating spicy food, or something a little gross, that kind of thing. There’s more planned for today aside from this, but I thought since you enjoy competition so much, you’d enjoy this.”

The valkyrie’s eyes changed to her usual battle mode, but she still had a beaming smile on her face. She was getting excited about this premise, and said, “It sounds like fun! Which thing are we going to do first?” She looked around, and Jake saw that she was very interested in the area that took up a large portion of the training area: an obstacle course. Jake took inspiration from a certain show in which both professionals and non-professionals would cross an obstacle course and hit a buzzer at the end of it, but if they fell into the water they were out.

Those that completed the first round would work their way up to much harder or strength-oriented challenges that only someone that trained intensely would ever have a chance of completing, in addition to feats of balance and coordination that matched. Jake’s didn’t have any water to fall into, but there was what was more like a gym mat all over the bottom. Jake did his best to scale the difficulty well above what the people on that show would have to go through, as Jake had already far surpassed the strength and speed of any Olympian back from earth, and Ophelia is even stronger than that.

Jake said, “Interested in this obstacle course? We can start there. The rules are no magic, and no use of your wings. If it will help, we should tie them so that you don’t accidentally use them. If you fall on the mat, you’ll have to play a penalty game. If we both complete the course without falling, then it’ll be who gets the worse time between the two of us who does. How about it? Think you can beat me without using your wings?”

Jake’s last words took a challenging edge to them, playing up the competition portion of things for Ophelia’s benefit. Her eyes gleamed, and she said “You’re on. I saw that wheel had a penalty game of wearing a maid outfit, very appropriate for the wife Fhesiah says you are. I have to win as many of these events as I can to have the most chances of seeing that.”

Jake laughed, and wondered if maybe she had been spending a little too much time with Fhesiah lately. He said, “Alright. I will go first and set the time that you need to beat. I have the advantage of having designed it, after all. I think going second counters that somewhat. You can watch from anywhere on the mats that you like.”

With that, he prepared for his run on the obstacle course. He had planned on using this to increase their balance and work through some obstacles and traps that they might run into later in the dungeon, but it was pretty vanilla for the time being. He hit the buzzer for the timer, and he launched himself across an enlarged version of the obstacle course seen on the TV show he had seen. Jake’s personal fitness was superhuman at this point, and he blazed through the course jumping across various areas, easily running and climbing up a curved ramp. He stepped across some difficult to balance on platforms, swung across ropes, and eventually arrived at the final buzzer and he slammed down on it.

Jake was surprised at how quickly he completed the course, but he had doubts that his time was going to be the lowest time when this was done. He had underestimated his own personal advancement, and the parts of the obstacle course that he thought had a chance of eliminating the valkyrie were probably going to be no challenge at all for her. Jake had thought about the other events, and found that he had a hard time thinking of anything physical that he would be superior to the valkyrie on. Still, he would give her a run for her money with a few of them. Jake’s time was 55 seconds, and he was sure the valkyrie would have no problem beating it.

Ophelia had a confident smile on her face; she thought the same way. She started her run with her wings easily tucked in, and she was blazing through the course even faster than Jake. She cleared the jumps with precision and ease, and her balance on the obstacles that required it made the challenge look simple and as easy as walking. She reached the end and slammed her hand on the buzzer. Her time beating Jake’s by nearly ten full seconds, at 45. She pumped her fist and said “I win! spin the wheel, c’mon maid outfit!”

Jake just smiled and spun the wheel that he had placed in the center of the room. It landed on: eat spicy egg. Jake had soaked a boiled egg in a spicy solution which should have heavily absorbed the spiciness, making for something that would be spicy and weird to eat as a penalty. He took it out of his storage bracelet, and the valkyrie looked on in interest. He ate the egg, and his mouth just burned and his face became red, he was sure. He was sweating and had a hard time finishing it, but eventually he did. He could not feel his tongue other than the burning, and he practically choked it down, but he finished it and drank a glass of milk, also from his storage bracelet.

The valkyrie’s expression was full of mirth, but she had actually seemed worried for a moment as he was forcing the egg down. He cleared his throat after drinking the milk, and said, “Alright. The next challenge is going to be an Earth sport that I have only played a few times, but I think I should have an edge on you. It’s called table tennis.”

Jake explained the rules and they did a couple of volleys so that she could get a feel for the game before the competition. The game began in earnest, and it appeared Jake did have an edge in this game, her strength working against her. He took the first game, the two of them playing a best of three matches.

She became extra focused, and the second game tied up near the end, but Jake took the win. She was really well-coordinated and had a fast reaction time that he felt was uncanny. Jake thought if the game went into the third, she’d have won for sure, as she was still getting used to aiming her returns and getting better as the matches progressed. Besides, it wasn’t like Jake was a pro table tennis player himself, only taking advantage of some of the tricks he’d seen in matches to earn surprise points, and those tricks would only work once or twice on her.

Still, she lost, so she would have to spin the wheel. Jake smiled; he was happy to at least beat her once. He would be satisfied even if he lost the rest of the games. The wheel landed on the mustache slice, to which she had a very questioning look about what that could mean for her. Jake retrieved the silly curly-q mustache, and placed it above her lips. He laughed; she looked absolutely ridiculous with the black mustache on her face. She was embarrassed, finally the feeling exceeding the feeling of defeat from having lost their friendly competition.

She continued wearing the mustache, and they kept playing different games. Jake lost them all, but he could tell Ophelia was having an absolute blast trying out these sports and enjoying the friendly competition. She danced around and flapped her wings when she won, and Jake couldn’t help but smile at her excitement, the losses hardly bothering him.

Unfortunately for her, he never did land on the maid outfit. They had worked up a pretty decent sweat, and Jake decided to call an end to this particular aspect of their date. They had a light snack of fruit and some iced drinks, and they removed their mustaches; Jake having ended up with his own, at some point.

Ophelia said, “That was so much fun; thank you for that. You really put a lot of thought into this…” Jake smiled, and pulled her in for a kiss. It lingered for a while, but Jake pulled back; their date was only just beginning. Jake said, “I hope that you like the next part of the date. I have some ideas in case you don’t, but I think you should enjoy it. The location has the clothing appropriate for what it is that we’ll be doing, so we can just head there as we are.”

Jake led her back up the stairs, and into one of the other newer doors in their [Refuge] back on the main floor. Inside, the smithery that she had designed, with all the trimmings and stocked with things that she would need to begin. She was excited, but a little perplexed at why this would be a part of their date. Jake said, “I know it seems like a strange place to go on a date, but I wanted to celebrate with you about you having your own smithy, as I know this is usually quite the big deal. You’ve had it for a while, but I had always been too busy with Enchanting to be involved in here. I did some research on all the things that would be expected of a smith’s apprentice, and wanted to know if you would like to craft an item together. I’ve prepared all the resources, even if you may have had most of them already.”

She took her time thinking for a moment, but eventually showed a big smile. “You really put a lot of thought into things that we could do without going anywhere, and put in effort on this. I always used to craft items with my father…it’s nostalgic. I’d like to give it a try, but we shouldn’t craft anything big or it will take a long time. It’ll be different being the one in the lead here.” Jake nodded, and they set about getting the fires stoked and everything prepared for making just the beginning of what would become a knife.

They hammered away together with their superhuman strength, and were able to use magic to control flames and make the process much faster than any Earth blacksmith, and an hour later they had finished what would later become a knife. She had spent time explaining each step in the process, and Jake listened on with rapt attention. There were still many steps such as grinding it, or creating a sheath or even a proper handle, but that would be achieved later. For all intents and purposes, they had crafted their first item together in her forge, just like she used to make with her father.

Jake knew that as they grew in Tier, this scene would become a more and more common occurrence. For him to craft more advanced items, he would need to work together with her. Not only that, but Jake had some ideas for how he could improve her smithy with his enchanting, and he talked with her about these as they made the item together. She was really in her element, and Jake was happy to see this side of her.

“This was why I wanted to do this for our date. I wanted to see a side of you I hadn’t seen. Everything I learn about you makes me more amazed, and happy that it’s you here with me. I want to help you like your father helped your mother be the best they could be, and I know you’ll do the same for me.”

She looked at the almost perfect blade that they had made together, and Jake could tell that she was filled with emotion even without the bond, her eyes tearing up and her lips quivering a bit. Jake hugged her from the side, and looked on at the item as well. He had learned a little bit about blades and their crafting, and thought that what they made was really neat, but she was likely thinking about her father; a detail he was able to infer over the bond which allowed him a greater understanding beyond even her current emotions. He just held her and waited for her to get a hold of her feelings.

After a minute, she said, “Thank you so much. It really means a lot to me that you were here with me, helping me make an item together. I often helped my father, too, and it felt good to put to use all that I learned from him, after all this time. That you helped me the same way I helped him gives me a warm feeling.” She then kissed Jake, but she kept it to a short affair; they were covered in soot and sweat, and wearing blacksmith overalls complete with thick aprons that they had put on over their clothes. With that, they shut down and cleaned up the things that needed to be done, and they were off to the next part of their date.

Before that part could begin though, they would need to clean themselves up. For this part, Jake and Ophelia separated, and this is the first part that the demoness was helping Jake with: she would help her out in the bath, while Jake took a quick shower and got ready. Of course, they could just use the spell-forms to clean up, but it just wasn’t the same. Cleaned up, Jake got dressed in an Earth suit and got ready for the finishing touches for their dinner.

While a suit was completely overkill for what they would be doing, Jake felt like he would really give her the opportunity to feel like the night was special. They would be cooking together in a sense, but Jake would prepare dessert and their drinks, and make sure everything else was organized and ready.

Luckily, with Fhesiah’s help it did not take the valkyrie long to complete her bath and get ready. She was now wearing a pretty blue dress that matched her shocking blue eyes, and it accentuated her slim but very fit figure. It was sleeveless and cut off above her knees, and she looked absolutely gorgeous in it. It had room for her wings cut out in the back, and she very much looked like an angel.

He decided to say, “You look gorgeous in that dress, Ophelia. I hope you enjoy the dinner that I have planned.” She blushed at his compliment, and managed to say, “You look really handsome in that suit. We always see them in those movies we watch, but I had a hard time imagining what you would look like in one, always wearing armor or simple clothes.”

Jake smiled, and he helped set her down and push in her chair, then he sat down as well. The valkyrie looked on in interest; on the table was a round gas grill. He knew that Ophelia absolutely loved meat of various kinds, so he would give her a buffet.

Really, Jake designed this based on his experiences at Korean barbecue places in America, so he was trying to give her a similar experience. He had various dipping sauces and little saucers set out, and a few side dishes. They set out to cook their meal, and they made small talk about what they liked and their plans over the next week. She had a smile on her face, and Jake could tell that she really enjoyed their meal.

Fhesiah appeared in a maid costume, the one that would have been a part of the penalty game. She delivered the dessert Jake made with a smile, seemingly enjoying that they were enjoying their time together. She left without a word, not even teasing the battle angel. Jake was happy for her help; Jake had her secretly take photos of their first date, so that they would be able to cherish them forever.

Meal completed, they set off for the final part of the actual date: watching a sappy romance movie. Usually, Jake would avoid those kinds of films and instead choose something that they would all enjoy; the boat sinking movie being one he wouldn’t want to watch normally. This movie was the same, but he sat and watched it with her anyway, knowing that she would enjoy it enough for it to be worth it. They held hands and enjoyed the movie together, and he could tell that the valkyrie enjoyed it as much as he thought she would. They kissed and hugged each other at various points in the movie, and glanced at each other to see their reactions.

The movie finished, and they just sat on the couch a while and kissed and groped each other for a while, not very different from regular days. Ophelia eventually pulled away and said, “Thank you so much for such a wonderful first date. The time and effort you put into making it special was amazing. I’ll always remember today, and…I think I’m ready. I really want you now, Jake.”

Jake smiled at her and said “I did really want to make your first date special, and it was mine as well. I really care deeply about you, and I plan to keep my promise of making you happy.” They both stood, and Jake let her begin to lead him to where she wanted to go. She wanted to do things in her own room, something Jake could understand. The beautiful valkyrie led him inside, and he closed the door behind them.