Bonded Summoner

Jake could both feel and hear the voice Jake recognized: it was Odin. Clearly, he could not knock from the other side of the portal, so he stood at the entryway that they had configured when they re-did their [Refuge]. Jake looked at the girls, and they nodded their heads. Clearly if he wanted to force his way in, he could, apparently, so Jake might as well be welcoming. He was still a tiny bit sour about being forced into this dungeon business without being given a choice, but thought that all’s well that ends well. It had worked out, and now he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jake replied, “Welcome, Odin, you can come in.” Jake opened the door for him, and the wizened older man in armor entered. Fhesiah and Ophelia were next to him, and they had their game faces on in terms of being wary of their visitor.

Odin said, “Thank you. This should be the last time I show up unannounced, and I have already lost the ability to hear your thoughts; Hestia’s divine spark making it especially difficult or rude to do so. Before, it was little different from you whispering under your breath and me being able to hear it. I’m here to congratulate you, as well as hand over the keys, as it were.”

Jake raised his brow at that, and asked, “Keys?” Odin nodded, and said, “That’s right. Now that you've completed your trial, you're in complete control of your refuge. You can now go where you choose, and you can now lock out unwanted gods, such as myself. You will have to welcome us for us to enter in the future; even a determined evil god would be rebuffed by [The Framework].” Odin grasped with both hands above his head, and then Jake felt a tugging sensation as what he thought was likely the [Refuge]’s control or connection being laid on his soul.

“It is done,” Odin said, and he turned to look meaningfully at Fhesiah and Ophelia. Jake realized he was probably wanting to be introduced, so he said, “This is Fhesiah and Ophelia, my Summons, and, er, lovers?” Jake scratched the back of his neck; they had not really defined what their relationship would be seen as with others, at least not yet, though he realized his mindset was stuck on Earth human. There was just no reason to, as they had met no one else besides Hestia, and the Champion of Apophis if they could be counted, up to now. They’d talk about it together later.

Odin smirked at that, but spoke “A pleasure, your lovers are exquisite. I suppose this Fhesiah was the one trapped in that relic? I hadn’t known who or what was inside, but merely divined that you of all people would be able to make the best use of it, and how you could. Even as a god, I could not make sense of it after finding it in my travels.

Whoever created that relic must have been advanced in such ways that could compete with or excel even gods. Cultivators are quite reclusive, most rejecting [The Framework]’s help entirely. They fend off the outsiders in their own ways and we have found a co-existence with them within [The Alliance].”

Jake was happy that they answered this burning question for him, and Fhesiah took great interest in the information as well. He also wondered how a cultivator that rejected [The Framework] could help when they likely could not enter dungeons and receive a fair experience, but he would learn later.

Odin looked over at Ophellia with a serious look on his face, filled with regret, and said, “And you, Ophelia. What happened to you and your world was tragic, and I was glad to have been able to swing things for you to end up with Jake. Your world was lost shortly after, many of those in that world rejected [The Framework], but also, treachery and failure.

I deeply regret that we were not able to save it. Our losses against the outsiders and their evil allies were too great. I know you would have been happy with one of my [Einherjar], but I also knew you would be much happier with Hestia and Jake, as they needed you. You have become an excellent valkyrie, and I just know both your mother and father would be proud of you.” Odin had given her a sad smile at the end, and the valkyrie was in tears, to which Jake and Fhesiah surrounded her in a hug. She would finally have closure on what happened to her family, but it would take some time to work through it.

Jake decided to ask Odin, “Ophelia joined us long before we thought about Hestia. You knew that we would choose her?” Odin smiled and said, “Of course, I know who you most resonate with. That’s not to say that you are not compatible with me. Your wisdom and focus on runes and magic very much matches many of those that align themselves with me, and Ophelia encompasses some of the aspects that you don’t. Still, your family and Hestia are perfect for one another: you can help each other.”

Odin gave them a moment, but eventually spoke, “Now, I told you I also came here to congratulate you. Make no mistake, what you accomplished in that [Trial] was a meritorious deed deserving of a major reward, one that has partially already been awarded to you. Thanks to your efforts, Earth is now very close to no longer being a [Fringe] world, us closing the incursions permanently a near-certainty to happen later. Within a year, you should be able to walk on Earth as it will have officially joined [The Alliance], introduced to [The Framework] following a much safer and less-intrusive means than the apocalyptic event a world becoming contested would experience, I promise you that.”

Jake took that in, but was shocked. He could tell that the challenge of defeating a champion like himself was high, but was it really that big of a deal? Jake’s doubt must have shown on his face, because Odin snorted, and said, “I had Heimdall watching you for a while, as you may be aware he is a watcher capable of his sight reaching across the cosmos. I know you had quite a bit of leeway with that fight; It’s why I recruited you and told Hestia about you in the first place. You know about the [Law of Balance], yes?” Jake and the girls nodded, and Odin continued.

“Now that you’ve passed your trial, you can learn more about the [Fringe World’s Trial]. The reason why we don’t have those in the fringe team up is because both the difficulty and value does not exactly scale linearly with incursions and Trials. We do make exceptions for some classes that simply cannot do well by themselves, such as healing classes.

As part of the great game that we play against the outsiders, the value of a dungeon completion or loss is exponentially more for each party member. It also gives the outsiders a much bigger difficulty slider to determine just how difficult they might make their dungeon, which must be paid for when either side wins. If they maximize the difficulty, which you’ll find the dungeon often does when it thinks that it will win by doing so, the amount that we win to power the Framework, or reclaim a world, is that much greater.

Conversely, how much [Tartarus] is able to move their agenda forward when we fail is that much greater, too. This is why we don’t team up five beginners. Their failure becomes greater than a hundred solo wins, and five Tier 0 beginners are likely to have glaring weaknesses for the dungeon to prey upon.”

Jake had thought about this before, and thought he had the understanding that his party was at best three, or four people due to him being a champion, since he had really only received the bare minimum of equipment and knowledge; the God not letting him speak in the first visit or ask questions, and the books barely contained more than what was in the [Alliance Wiki]. Surely it wasn’t that big?

Odin spoke again, “I see you still have doubts. Classes like your own that have summons do slightly count as more than one person, but as you picked permanence, each summon is, in fact, equal to a single individual party member. Not only that, but do you think that the difficulty of a human’s Trial is the same as that of a dragon, or a valkyrie? This Trial was for them just as much as it was for you. Then, you became a Champion of Hestia, and that accounts for yet another member, perhaps even more than that.”

Jake interrupted, “Um, wait a minute. Why wasn’t there any details about the Trial being more difficult depending on race? My book only said it was based on level and number of party members, and the incursions were certainly not that difficult..”

Odin sighed, “The information we are able to give to a Fringe World Trial are limited. Every piece of information has a price, and in the end, all people on Earth are Human. Why include this detail? Classes like your own are actually quite rare. Based on rarity alone, a Human Summoner with a connection to the void like yourself should be Epic, but your class was relegated to Uncommon: the best the Framework could allocate to a Tier 0 individual on a Tier 0 world.

In regards to the incursions being easy, the answer to that is simple. Tartarus was luring you into a false sense of security, waiting to crank up the difficulty for your Trial, where it could cause real harm to you and your family. While you wouldn’t have died if you lost, your fate would have been forever changed. Not only would you have been tortured, but your spirit would have been somewhat broken. Your potential would have been forever lower, so even if you could eventually rise up in Tier, it wouldn’t care. It would have already won, your potential stuck to a lower Tier. This is why you have the right idea, Jake. Prepare for the worst, and hope for the best.”

Odin paused to let that information sink in, and Jake looked over to Fhesiah. She now grasped her robes, and looked quite pained. They were certainly operating under the assumption that they were so much stronger than the incursions, they simply didn’t need to bother with armor.

“Back to the number of party members and your doubts on your influence. Overall, my gifts to you were not all that great, pushing the balance of the ledger to where there shouldn’t be much to increase your difficulty that significantly over the four party members you might be thinking in your mind. But there was one thing you might not have accounted for in your thoughts. I wonder, how much do you think those robes Fhesiah is wearing are worth?”

Jake looked over to Fhesiah, and he gaped. Not only were the robes she was so proud of a problem, but their Trial was made more difficult because she was a dragon. She now had a guilty expression and was in tears, though Jake knew it wasn’t exactly her fault. It’s not like she could have done anything about the robes, the gift already being there with her when she arrived; the damage done, whether they brought it into the dungeon or not, since this ledger applied to anything that they obtained outside the dungeon or through the supported market and shop. At the same time though, she hadn’t considered that she wouldn’t at the very least be pulling her weight, hence the duel with Ophelia. Odin interrupted their thoughts.

“I’m sure they only accounted for a single level eight human in difficulty at best, but this was still quite significant; going into Tier 1 dungeons the impact will be near-zero. Your party size probably exceeded even that five-person example compared to a human party, and I can tell the dungeon invested heavily in your failure. Adding a Champion of their own into the mix, and using an obvious counter to your party does not come cheaply; usually, in the name of balance, randomization is the baseline, and the cost of a creature is based on the simulated difficulty of your classes and races, but not your specializations or yourselves personally, mixed with different race possibilities. Champions and Valkyries are definitely more prone to use holy fire powered by their gods, not even mentioning dragons, so the frost creatures you faced were based on a reduced cost, and the fire eaters capable of eating godly or dragon fire were definitely very expensive.

To choose a counter such as those flame-eating demons to work alongside those dark elves, and their sheer numbers contained within the same impassable room, with a prepared ritual must have come at a significant cost. Then the dragon plate armor, something that should not even exist for Tier 0 or potentially Tier 1 materials? Tell me, how much are Tier 1 or Tier 2 materials on the [Multiverse Market]?”

Jake replied, “I couldn’t even find materials above our Tier on the market…” In response, Odin smiled and said, “You must have never had 1 million Tier 0 Credits at once. You did not even have a single Tier 1 Credit worth, so the [Multiverse Market] did not show what was available, but even so, you wouldn’t have been allowed to purchase them as part of your Tier 0, [Fringe World Trial] limitations.

1 Tier 1 Credit is equal to 1 Million Tier 0 Credits. Now, once you reach Tier 1, you will find that even Tier 2 materials can be found that only cost Tier 1 Credits, but really, Tier 1 is just the baseline. Tier 0 is nothing, most of the items merely being sold by the uninitiated.

You might have noticed that very few enchanted items are even sold due to the limitations, just which Tier 1 enchanter is going to bother enchanting Tier 0 items? It is simply not worth their time, they would have to enchant hundreds or thousands of items to equal a single Tier 1 Credit, when they could enchant a single Tier 1 item for much more.

Those who face incursions are not meant to stay Tier 0 for long in their immortal lives, and most solo trials can be defeated with Steel-crafted unenchanted items. Those on contested worlds do not even need to go through the same [Trial] that you went through, and some can reach Tier 1 in days rather than weeks or months, though, those that challenge themselves and attempt a [Trial] after proper preparations end up better for it.”

Jake and the girls just gaped at this idea. They were feeling like they had a lot of money, but really, they were just poor? Their depressing thoughts of sort of starting over from scratch in regards to their wealth was interrupted by Odin speaking once again, “We got sidetracked. Now, [The Framework] does not provide the overall accounting to me, but by my estimate with the increased stakes of a [Trial] and the enemy champion, your single victory was greater than tens of thousands of defeated solo incursions with no answer, and hundreds, perhaps even thousands of solo [Trial] victories under normal circumstances. It is possible that it was even much higher than that, and by the effects on Earth’s [Trial], I think it very likely.

As you can imagine, our victory rate in something like the trial is not much higher or lower than fifty/fifty when things are going well: otherwise, we’d be winning this war by a fair margin. So, you have done the work of thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of initiated men or women of Earth in just one go, all by yourselves. It is for this reason: I confer you [The Alliance] rank of [Knight].”

Jake took in all the information presented and was surprised, and Fhesiah and Ophelia were just beaming with pride. Jake was about to ask something, but Odin caught on to what he was probably wanting to know and spoke.

“The primary benefits of this rank is freedom and access, but you will find that there are many. You will not be forced to do incursions at set intervals but can have the allotment banked, so to speak. You can do them as you want to, within reason, or assist in conflict in other ways that you so choose: something that Tier 1 Adventurers are not normally able to; being assigned tasks automatically, they would find that they must travel to a specific location by the framework to aid in war before earning more freedom.

The access portion is your ability to travel the multiverse. Normally, the areas you could travel are quite limited, but you should have many more locations available to you, including a few locations where [Cultivators] might gather, which I know you will be particularly interested in. Combine that with being a [Champion of Hestia], and you should have quite the number of choices.

A secondary benefit is the ability to take command in [Contested Worlds]. Anyone of a lower rank than you in the area can report to you if you make a [Call to Action], which is like you giving out an area quest. Command other Adventurers and help push back the outsiders.”

Jake took all that in, and started feeling proud as well, mirroring the Fhesiah and Ophelia. They were smiling at being reminded of their ability to finally travel, but Odin once again interjected before Jake could decide on a topic of discussion, “I see you are proud, and you should be. You accomplished something that few ever do. I bet you might be thinking that your victories are practically assured now, with your new class with a long name and powers granted by a goddess. I hate to rain on your good feelings, but in regards to your strength: so what? You are only level ten, and I have seen just as promising or more promising people killed by the insidious outsiders, and if you are not careful, you will be no different.

Why do you think we call levels 1-10 tier 0? It’s because you can hardly be counted for anything: zero. There are some creatures that are born at Tier 1 or beyond, can you imagine? There are creatures just born stronger than you.

Up to now, you’ve fought many creatures that weren’t even armed, few with spells or abilities, and most incursions were just a single floor with one or a few creature types. Incursions will much more closely resemble your [Trial] going forward, being multiple floor affairs, with the dungeon actively trying to kill you, dungeon master or not.

There are [Permadeath Trials], level restricted [Contested Worlds], [War Trials], [Battlegrounds], [Raids] and more. You are just one party, and your strength will have to carry people of various strengths and weaknesses to victory; not everything is perfectly balanced like Incursions or Trials, either. There are some activities where the dungeon can gain a significant advantage, and even at level ten or fifteen you could end up facing enemies at the peak of your tier, at level 25. Sometimes even the strongest of us is lost to poor luck, or unfortunate situations engineered by the machinations of the forces of evil.

You have Hestia’s [Spark of Divinity] in you, but Gods and Goddesses are all tier four or above. You are now a target that the outsiders want, and they will stop at nothing to consume you and everything you love. Your journey to strength and security has only just begun. You should continue to remain forever vigilant, and continue to work hard and prepare. Hestia’s flames are about sacrifice. Make sure your sacrifices are all in preparation and for the help of others, and never on the field of battle.”

Jake solemnly nodded. He had read of a few of those things and even experienced some of them in the game, [The Labyrinth], but he realized once again that the multiverse is even more vast than he could ever have imagined. Odin spoke, “I see I put the fear in you, that is good. It is only through fear that there can be courage, and I know you have the makings of a hero, I just didn’t want your head getting too big.

Those spell-rods of yours that you came up completely on your own are quite impressive, and your preparations could hardly have been better with what was available to you, without you spending months or years training. If you had done that, the Trial would have become easier, but your rating and thus your reward would have been lower. Really, the large amount of preparations you made were the only reason you didn’t get an S rating.”

Odin tapped the butt of his spear on the ground meaningfully, and Jake glanced at it, and began looking at it with his [Arcane Eye]. He could see that it was absolutely covered from the bottom to the top in runes, and he did his best to make sense of them, and how they were arranged, and he took a look at his armor. He was interrupted from his inspection when Odin spoke once again.

“I absolutely loved all of your teamwork, you and your girls are going to become a very powerful party and do a lot of good, I know it. With that, welcome once again to [The Alliance], [Knight] Jake and family. I will take my leave.”

Odin turned to leave out their entryway, and Jake said to his retreating figure, “Thank you, Odin.” They were just two words, and they were a little hard for him to say, but he still decided to say them anyway. Odin turned just his head and said, “You’re welcome, Jake. We Gods are far from perfect, but those in [The Alliance] try to accomplish our goals in a way that people will be thankful and want to fight for the great cause, rather than be full of resentment. We think that this is the way to truly win against the outsiders, but here’s something for you to think about. If the outsiders get stronger by eating mortals, or the uninitiated, why don’t we just get rid of the food?” With that, Odin disappeared, and Jake felt that he could only enter again if Jake invited him.

Jake took a moment to think on what Odin was getting at. He had thought that not all people were initiated due to the cost, but it looked like there was a little more to it. Odin was insisting that logic dictated that the best move was to initiate a person or for them to be killed, lest they be consumed by the outsiders. But killing them would both make them not different from the outsiders, but also breed resentment, Jake guessed. At the very least, the Gods and Goddesses still adhered to principles, trying to both play nice and to win. Jake also guessed there was some contention on this fact, as he had learned that there were some gods and goddesses that could be judged as “sketchy” at best.

It was Fhesiah that broke the silence despite her poor mood, “That guy sure was heavy-handed. He barely even let you get a word in.” Jake thought on it, realizing that maybe he hadn’t really gotten much of a chance to speak on topics or ask any of the questions he had wanted, but it was the Ophelia that replied, “Heavy-handed? You mean like you, Fhesiah?”

Jake looked over, and saw the valkyrie with a look on her face he had not seen, like a sly, teasing look, and of course the demoness just looked perplexed with a, “what is this girl on about?” look on Fhesiah’s face. She said, “Huh?” The valkyrie spoke once again, “Don’t you remember? I do, and I bet Jake does too. Against the dark elf?” She splayed both her hands, making the space between her fingers as large as possible and swiping an imaginary opponent, and Jake started to laugh- she was referring to the demoness wearing the [Yeti Claws], that she was clearly not proud of wearing, teasing her.

The demoness absolutely looked embarrassed, and a little ashamed, and then the valkyrie started to laugh too. She even tried to imitate Fhesiah’s signature rolling on the floor laughing, but through the air routine, though she couldn’t quite pull it off: her wings required some actual flapping to achieve flight.

That made the demoness even more embarrassed, being the butt of a joke for once, but she laughed, too. Jake smiled as he looked at the two women, and them both getting along, with Ophelia really coming out of her shell or moving past her shyness. Jake could tell that she was trying to get Fhesiah out of her funk. Ophelia and Jake both knew that the point about utilizing the tools available to them was completely hammered home now. There was no use ruminating on it any further.

Jake was excited for what the future held. They would soon travel the multiverse, add a new party member, and have as much fun and happiness together as they could.