Bonded Summoner

Ophelia said, “I think you should take the item, Jake. Fhesiah won’t wear it due to it using mana to enhance her, and you could really use an increase to your strength and hardiness.”

Jake looked over at Fhesiah. He thought this was a decent item for her; him needing constitution even less because of having armor and a shield. Still, he mounted it outside of his armor on his chest, for now.

The three waves took less than an hour once again, and Jake wondered about the duration of the dungeon. Perhaps the dungeon master was given a time frame to play with, and they would pick to have long or short levels, depending? Jake had two party members that could fly, so perhaps designing a large level was a foolish waste of resources, as it would work against them. At any rate, the fourth-floor portal appeared once again, Jake’s party resting in a sort of framed tent that people might use for events. He wanted to be both out of view of the odd noisy audience of the arena, and also out of the sun. They sat in chairs and had some iced drinks and a snack. Jake could make the ice using his runic magic, as he used the [Arcane Eye] to watch outside the tent.

Jake looked at the girls with love and affection. He was really feeling like he had found the party that he was looking for when Odin first appeared in his apartment. It was not yet complete, and Jake felt more than ever that they needed a real healer, preferably with battlefield control spells, to join them next, but he was very satisfied with their performance. Their teamwork had improved, and they were a well-oiled machine, taking on creatures of various sizes and difficulties, without saying a word most of the time.

This was mostly thanks to the summoner’s bond and Jake directing the strategy of the party, but there was a lot more to this. They knew each other’s strengths, and despite their odd limitations Jake imposed on them, they had shown how effective their practice and training were.

They returned Jake’s feelings with their own, Jake feeling the love and affection they had for him, along with their resolve. They would beat this [Trial], and they would see the multiverse together. Whatever they faced, they knew they could win with each other by their sides. They packed up their things and headed for the portal.

On the other side, it was a giant frost cavern.

Floor 4: Ice Caverns - Defeat Giant Frost Yeti

The cavern was probably large enough to fit four football fields, and was mostly flat, with a large exit behind them. Just as Jake was wondering whether they would face more than just this creature or a variety of them heading through the dungeon, a ten-meter-tall blue yeti entered the room from the other side of the cavern. This must be the Giant Frost Yeti that they must defeat, this being the entire gambit by the dungeon master for this entire floor. The gigantic creature looked quite dangerous. Just how could you fight something that was taller and almost as wide as a two-story house?

If the yeti landed an unprotected blow, they would have to use their sacrificial barriers to block, which Jake was quite confident in. Otherwise, they would whittle away at the creature with lightning and barriers. Jake doubted that their dampening shields on their arms would really deflect enough of the blow from such a gigantic creature, but he thought it might be possible to turn a death blow into merely broken bones.

Jake decided to use another spell he had created, and he cast [Runic Magic: Field of Fog]. The fog filled the cavern, and Jake hoped the yeti’s frost would enhance this field if anything, but that would remain to be seen. His party obscured from view; they should have a much easier time harassing the [Giant Frost Yeti].

Plan in place, the two girls took to the air, and Jake and the valkyrie prepared their spells. Ophelia’s spell landed first, and it ineffectually hit a sort of frost aura that surrounded the yeti. Jake’s spell was an empowered lightning bolt, and it could not be repelled by the aura. It was weakened however, and only damaged the boss somewhat. The yeti roared in pain but otherwise unharmed besides smoke escaping from its body and some scorched parts. It appeared the aura was an anti-magic sort, and this would make things difficult for Jake’s party. He cast Runic Empowerment on Fhesiah and Ophelia, and they moved in to whittle away at the yeti.

When the two got close, the frost aura slowed them down, despite them being in the air. The yeti tried to capitalize on this, punching towards Fhesiah with speed belying such an enormous creature. She tried to dodge, but it looked like she would not be able to completely get out of the way of the large fist, despite her empowered speed.

Jake and Ophelia layered their Runic Barriers in a way that changed the trajectory of the blow, as the giant’s fist completely missed Fhesiah. Ophelia darted in and stabbed the creature a few times, but Jake could see the wounds were not deep, and she would need to get hundreds of them in to take the creature down, yet it would only take the yeti landing a hit of its own once to nearly kill one of them.

Still, Jake continued to cast his [Field of Fog] spell, to fill the area with more fog. The two girls started using the loss in visual to land more powerful attacks against the yeti. The girls moved fast in and out of view landing their attacks, and the Yeti was unable to score a solid blow against them when reacting only once they came into view. Jake kept peppering the yeti with empowered lightning attacks from within the fog, and so did Ophelia as they pierced their thick hide with her corrosive spear. Each of their blows were meant to cripple, aiming for the yeti’s joints on their legs and feet.

Eventually, the Yeti roared, and the fog was pushed back, and the frost aura increased. The fog nearby turned to ice on the ground, and the two girls were now in view. The yeti leaped towards Fhesiah, but she was able to get out of the way thanks to her enhanced speed. The yeti cast a ball of ice spell, but hurled it at Fhesiah with incredible speed.

Both Ophelia and Jake managed to get runic barriers in front of the blow, but they shattered and Fhesiah was forced to block with her gauntlets crossed, and a glow on her robes. She was blasted backwards several meters, and Jake was able to land a runic healing spell on her immediately after. Her bones might have been fractured on her arms, but Jake took care of them immediately.

Still, Jake could see that this would be a losing battle if they didn’t use one of their holdouts. Their sacrificial barriers would work well to stop the Yeti’s attacks completely, and the valkyrie’s [Spear of Hestia] would likely harm the yeti even through the frost barrier. Plus, Jake and Fhesiah could use fire of their own.

Jake thought there was a small chance Fhesiah’s skill wasn’t known, so Jake would leave that unknown for now, and use one of his prepared aces: the offensive rod. He would use fire, and lure the dungeon master into a false sense of security. The rod could use ice or any other element he had learned, but they likely would not know that. Not only that, but he still had the other two for various situations.

So, Jake rushed in and meaningfully drew his empowered rod, and sent his intent to the girls to move out. The yeti prepared a frost spell of their own as Jake created the runes and empowered them using the ones in the rod. A giant ball of fire appeared, the power of it once again shocking. The cavern temperature raised a few degrees just from its creation, the heat from the fire palpable. He fired it at the yeti and they sent their own ball of ice to block it, but it was futile as the ball of fire easily smashed through it. It broke through the yeti’s frost aura, and then smashed into the yeti’s chest as it screamed and the ball of fire exploded.

The conflagration engulfed the yeti as it sent it flying a dozen meters until it landed on its back, and Jake could tell that its frost aura was now gone. The valkyrie added some runic spears of fire of her own along with Jake, and the demoness slashed all the areas that were not aflame, and the yeti died on its back, half of its chest missing.

4th Floor completed. 3 hours until the next floor. 6 hours maximum rest.

Reward: Yeti’s Claws

Fhesiah looked at the Yeti’s claws with disgust. Jake had pulled them out of his storage bracelet, and it reminded Jake of a certain child’s toy. But instead of giant green muscular man-hands of a certain comic book strongman: it was giant blue ones, covered with fur and claws at the tip, that you would insert your hands inside. The claws looked effective, but perhaps she would not stoop that low as to wear something that both looked like that but also didn’t use Qi. Still, he had her put them in her storage bracelet. If it was between life and death, would she wear them? Jake hoped she would.

Once again, they settled in to clean up and loot the boss, and Fhesiah absorbed her kill energy. In a way, they had lucked out during this dungeon. Three of the four floors were based on a single difficult encounter, instead of many smaller ones, allowing the demoness to gain the lion’s share of the energy without losing any.

Fhesiah thought she would hit level ten when they completed the next boss fight, allowing her to be ready for her entering [Foundation Establishment] as soon as it was completed. They would all be increasing their tier together. Not only that, but her heavenly energy reserves would increase even without her gaining a level, and it was not insignificant.

During this dungeon run, Jake’s [Looting] skill had collected a lot of materials that should be quite valuable on the [Multiverse Market]. With them being within the greater multiverse, they should get more for selling them, and Fhesiah should be able to get herself some alchemy materials. There were some materials they had gained on their run today, but it was likely they would end up buying most of what she needed to continue to skill up using guidance from [The Framework].

It was almost time for the final showdown, where Jake would win and become a true champion of Hestia, or he would die and be separated from the girls he cared about. He would not die permanently, but he could not imagine having to “start over” or become a servant until he could earn his freedom. Just how would being a servant summoner work?

He could end up summoning new people and be happy, but it just wouldn’t be the same for him. He loved Ophelia and Fhesiah, and he would do anything for them. Still, they would prefer to die protecting him, as it was a sure thing that he could resurrect them later, especially now that Fhesiah was a true summon of his.

Jake thought he had a good chance of having tricked this dungeon master, but perhaps his actions didn’t matter. Perhaps they knew everything a Champion of Hestia or Valkyrie of Hestia might be able to do the moment they entered, and perhaps they wouldn’t, and maybe they knew what Fhesiah would be capable of, her draconic heritage obvious.

Jake and Ophelia were both very close to level ten now, likely going to hit it either during fighting whatever the dungeon master had in mind, or after, if it was a single large creature once again. Jake hoped that it would be, as he felt confident with dealing with whatever creature using his actual [Einherjar] rod, or hitting the likely fire-immune or goddess-flame immune creature with ice or thunder. Jake had done his minor repairs to the rod while they were waiting for the portal to appear, filling it with Runic Ink and making sure it was charged and ready to go.

The girls nodded at Jake when he probed whether they were ready, and he could feel their resolve. They would be going all out on the next floor, and one way or another, their life would be changed forever when they were done.

They entered the next floor through the portal, and they immediately heard laughter.

Floor 5r: Trial of Hestia’s Champion - Defeat the Champion of Apophis, the dungeon master.

The voice came from all around them; Jake could not see anything and he looked to Fhesiah, where she just shook her head. It appeared there was something that allowed the dungeon master to laugh at them and they were not actually there in the small room that they were in. He was about to probe about moving forward with his [Arcane Eye], when the dungeon master spoke with them.

“I can’t believe you thought that hiding the powers of your goddess would have any effect. I knew the moment you entered you were a Champion of Hestia, and the little angel a Valkyrie of Hestia as well. Even that demon. How could I not see her heritage? You fools. I will enjoy torturing all of you for the 9 remaining days. You might think you are immortal, but your souls will be drained and ripped asunder, leaving so little of it left that you will never be the same, even if [The Framework] manages to piece you back together. By the time I am done with you, you might as well be dead. You will beg for it.”

Jake learned a lot with that little tirade, but he didn’t bother with a response. He just outlined everything Jake wanted to know, and before he could even spring his trap. He knew little about this god Apophis, but he knew that any god that sided with the outsiders was completely evil and malicious, along with their Champion. The dungeon master spoke once again.

“No response? I’ll have you know I have killed many paladins and priestesses of Hestia, so I am very proficient at it. The demon will be no challenge, and you are garbage without your women. That you could be the Champion of anyone when you are so weak is laughable. I will enjoy flaying your skin and enjoy the look of anguish you will give as you watch your lovers suffer along with you.”

With that, the dungeon master’s presence felt like it drifted away. The stakes were now quite high, but Jake’s party was resolved to come out on top in the next battle. They would defeat this evil prick, and they would be rewarded.