You are Summoned

I enjoyed my final stroll through Somhagen. For all the dangers and surprises the city held, it also had a mystical beauty that you would be hard pressed to replicate back on Earth. True to my word, I did stop and visit the food cart that Tonpu Zavai and his wife ran. Another batch of their fried dragon fingers made for a nice final meal in the city. As I exited the gates and walked past the tents and shops outside the first wall, the crowds dissipated and I had only Melvin, who was quietly resting in his box, for company.

Just where I had left it, the door to my personal space waited. Taking one final check, I realized that I hadn’t missed anything, and it was time to head back home. I stepped into the familiar space, closing the door behind me. Out of curiosity, I tried to open it again, only to have the door disappear before my eyes. For what it was worth, Minerva hadn’t lied to me about access to Somhagen.

First things first, I wanted to let Melvin out to start exploring his new digs. Near my rocking chair and storage chest seemed like a good spot. The one thing I forgot to ask Zillaria at the pet show was if Melvin needed a pet bed or something like that. Since she hadn’t mentioned it, and didn’t try to upsell me on one, I had to assume that Melvin would be just fine in the largely undecorated personal space.

“Here you go, buddy, have fun exploring your new home,” I said as I opened the box that he was stored in. The cube slowly slid from the box, sticking close to me for a few minutes before gliding across the floor at the pace of a snail. These guys weren’t fast, so playing fetch was probably not going to happen.

At least he didn’t seem too stressed or scared, not that I had any idea what a stressed gelatinous cube looked like. The mana in this place would keep him fed, so I didn’t have to worry about leaving out food and water or scooping out a litter box. With Melvin slowly doing his thing, it was time to tweak my loadout before I headed home.

Inside the armory, I reminded myself to leave the door open in case Melvin wanted to explore in here too. The same went for my training center. All in all, the little cube had quite a large area to slide around in, definitely much bigger than the scummy motel I rented back home. It was too bad Melvin couldn’t make the trip back and forth to Earth, he would do a great job cleaning up the place by absorbing all the crud inside the room.

The first thing I changed on my loadout was to swap out my armor for the new, studded leather set that I’d purchased. As I did so, an additional armor stand was created, allowing me to store the armor that I wasn’t assigning to the loadout. Hooray for the system giving you stuff when you needed it and not making me shop in Somhagen for an armor stand or having to just pile my stuff on the floor.

Next were my weapons. I equipped the war hammer, the wand, and my dagger. If gear points became tight, I’d ditch the dagger, but for now, I’d leave it equipped. After the armor and my weapons, my gear score was 85/150. Next, I made sure my Headband of the Apprentice Summoner was added.

The MESS key and Fitzfazzle’s figurine were both zero gear cost and I added them both the mix. I’d also take Fitzfazzle’s figurine home with me as it was one of the rare items that could travel between worlds since it was linked directly to my core. For the rest of my consumables, I added the three potions I’d purchased in town. Along with the potions, I equipped my ring of Duplicate. With the discount from Consumable Planner, it required only seven gear points for all three potions and the ring.

The healing and mana potions on my belt didn’t require any gear points, but their use was limited, since you could only consume a couple before they started to lose their efficacy. I also took five mana tabs, also free as far as gear scores went. The other five I’d take home with me. My Everburn torch was also equipped inside my pack of holding.

Before I forgot, I also added the Notice of Cessation. If I was summoned again by cultists trying to sacrifice me, I was going to nope out of there as fast as I could. When I added the notice to my loadout, it prompted a system notice.

You have equipped a consumable that you possess multiple copies of. If this consumable is used, do you wish to automatically replenish it from your inventory? Y/N.

Excellent, I wouldn’t have to worry about replacing it manually in between summonings. Sometimes, I didn’t have much time to prep before my summoning began, and it meant one less thing for me to worry about. I had to hope that a total of three of these would be enough to see me through to tier one, rank five.

After the notice of cessation was equipped, I added the summoning figurines from my class. I kept the ghoul, Rupert, and the dog as my choices. Since they were related to a core class ability, it didn’t take any gear points to equip them. My consumable figurines were a different story, and I had to decide which ones to add to the loadout and which ones needed to go home with me.

Just like with Fitzfazzle’s figurine, I could take all three of the class related figurines back and forth from Earth with no problem. The consumables could be used on Earth, but they were subject to the same restrictions that the system placed on most items. If I took them home, they couldn’t come back with me when I was summoned.

Thinking about the matter, I figured that taking the best of my figurines with me back home was probably the smart option. If I lacked a consumable during a summoning session, it might affect my performance by a small amount, possibly reducing my income. If I really needed one back home, it was probably a life-or-death situation.

In the end, I decided to take some of the better ones with me. I included the tier one Skeletal Blademaster, the skeletal warrior, the advanced ghoul, the pair of goblin raiders, the venom spitter flying snake thing, and an angry housecat, because who doesn’t want an angry housecat fighting alongside them. It was a total of nine figurines when you counted the three from my class. That should be more than enough to defend myself back home. When I was summoned again, I could pull some of the others from my loadout to replenish the ones I might use back on Earth.

I was left with two dire rats, the dwarven militia, and the wolf to add to my loadout. With my discount from Consumable Planner, those cost me a total of seven gear points. My gear point total was now at 114/150, and I only had my spells to add to the mix.

For my spells, I was able to equip everything and left my gear score at 149/150. It was as close enough to my maximum that I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Thanks to the armor proficiency and my consumable ability, I just squeaked in with most of my gear. I didn’t mind leaving behind my old mace, it was fine, but having a second main weapon wasn’t needed.

With my loadout squared away, I sorted through everything I wanted to take home. I already had the mana tabs and the figurines. The only thing left was figuring out how much money I wanted to bring back. I checked my loot chest, getting a total of what was left after my shopping in Somhagen.

Rico’s Loot contents.

Copper coins, 814.

Silver coins, 318.

Gold coins, 17.

Small gems, 12.

High-quality gems, 4.

Fine gems, 1.

Most of what I had would remain behind. I hadn’t been able to spend it all in Somhagen on this trip, but the stores will be stocked with new items by my next visit, and it might be smart to start stockpiling funds for the next tier. From what the shopkeepers told me, each tier offered better items, but the cost exploded upward as the items improved.

To see me financially secure back home, I’d need enough money to survive until the next summoning session where I’d get a chance to replenish my funds. Gold was very valuable back home, and a couple ounces would have me set for a while. From my practice with the gnomes, I was confident I could smelt the coins down with no problem.

I also wanted to test out smelting silver and copper, so in addition to three gold coins, I’d take twenty silver and forty copper to work with. Once home, I’d need to think about where to try and sell everything without attracting the attention of those who wanted to track me down for their own nefarious purposes. Long trips to other towns would be good, and I needed to expand out from just pawn shops.

Back home, I’d have lots of free time to deal with it. I said a final goodbye to Melvin, giving him a sticky pat on the back of his cube. Through our link, I could tell he was content with his new digs, which helped me not feel too bad about leaving him behind. With everything I wanted to take home designated, I notified the system that I was ready to go.

One moment I was standing in my personal space looking at Melvin, and the next I was back in my motel room. The system had been kind enough to bag up all the stuff I wanted to take back, just like it did with the rewards. Taking in a breath of hot, stale air, I looked around the room, trying to find my phone so I could see how long I’d been gone.

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, only now realizing that there were two men standing outside on my tiny deck.

“What are you doing here, get out!” One of them shouted as he pulled a pistol from his waistband. This was not the welcome home I was hoping for.