Trial Of Monsters And Summons

Thomas takes a lucrative guard mission for a merchant traveling between the North American continental city and the South American City.

Having decided on the next direction Alexis and I would take our little group, we set out in the morning towards the Summoner's Guild. My back was still a bit sore, but luckily the healing cream took care of most of the injuries riddling my body.

One thing was for sure, and that was that I wouldn't be trying to throw us into some dangerous area just in the hopes of earning a bit more or finding something rare. Last time that happened we found a lot more than we wanted too, but it's not all bad since Alexis has a new summon now.

The little thing is the size of a puppy and is constantly wrapped around Alexis like a scarf, she would take a while to grow up properly, but when Violet did, she would be a force to be reckoned with. Seeing the antics of the twin-headed lizard couldn't help but make me think that it would be a while until that happened.

The little sucker was also a black-hole on four legs since she would eat anything and everything that we had with us. She didn't care for what type of core it was, and nearly ate me out of nearly all my and Alexis's cores this morning, due to that we will have to be making a stop at the core exchange after we decide what job to pick up at the Guild.

"What type of job do you think we should be taking?" (Thomas)

"I was thinking something easy like caravan guarding, low risk typically easy job that will let us get a taste for how these jobs are. I'd rather dip my toes in the pool so to speak than accidentally throw myself off a cliff into lava, if you know what I mean." (Alexis)

"Ughh... Yes, I know what you mean, especially since you keep reminding me of it every few minutes." (Thomas)

"I just don't want you to forget your lesson, if you didn't screw up I wouldn't have anything to remind you about." (Alexis)

"Guard duty sounds fine considering how crazy the past few days have been, a few days of rest and easy money sounds nice right about now, even though the pay likely won't be much." (Thomas)

"I'm glad to hear that you see things my way, low and slow will work just fine for me thank you very much." (Alexis)

Purring could be heard from around Alexis's neck and She got an even more infuriating smug look on her face. She couldn't refrain from adding on some more humiliation and looked over to me and said, "See, even Violet thinks you need to be reminded every now and then."

"I'm sure she's just hungry again or s.u.c.k.i.n.g up to you." (Thomas)

Even more shocking was the hisses and the tiny spouts of frost and sparks coming from the two mouths of Violet as she looked menacingly my way. I didn't know if her ability to at least partially understand what I was saying was as impressive as the hot and cold attitude she was giving to me at that moment after me feeding and playing with her earlier.

To console the little creature I tried placating her with some complements and a snack. "Sorry Violet, that was my bad, of course, a summon as pretty and intelligent as you wouldn't stoop to holding a grudge with little old me. Here, as my apology, why don't you have another core to eat for a snack."

It seemed to have worked as the tiny bydra snapped up the core from my fingers and then rubbed her neck on my fingers in thanks.

"Traitor" Alexis couldn't help but matter at seeing her own summon side with me after a few nice words and a snack.

I did my best to hold my snickers in as we continued walking towards the Guild, it wouldn't do to have her any more angry at me than she already is. I guess I still have a bit of making up to do before she forgives me, but at least she's still talking with me. The only thing worse than Alexis or Mira yelling at me is when they give me the silent treatment, once is enough of that. *shudders*

Luckily I didn't have to worry about the tense atmosphere between us as we came up to the large wooden doors of the guild. I'd try and be chivalrous to Alexis by holding the door, but I'm pretty sure she'd kick my a.s.s for treating her like a helpless girl.

It wouldn't be my intention to do so, but that won't matter to her, so I decide the best course is to walk through and leave it open for her. She huffs at me but doesn't say anything, I guess she's just extra fussy today, maybe she's nervous about leaving the city for our first job even if it's not on the monster plane.

We walked straight past summoners queuing up for the booths near the front entrance to sell their gains from hunting trips. Instead what we approached was a job listing board with papers plastered all over the cork board.

Most of the job listings had a drawing of the task or a monster to be fought along with a credit amount. This was so that it would not only be easier to find a job, but any illiterate people could find jobs as well. Not that there were many, but they did exist and were on the rise with the voluntary status of the informal education offered today for rising summoners.

We searched around for any that had something along the lines of what we were looking for, and eventually, in the bottom right corner of the board, I saw a post with a wagon on the front describing a caravan guard job for a smaller caravan requiring around 2-3 people.

I pointed the sheet out to Alexis and we carefully read over the exact description and what would be required of us on the journey, not to mention the amount of money for a job like this. The payment was 4,000 credits per guard, and would likely take a week to complete. There weren't any expectations of danger, and at most, some low-level thugs may try to rob the caravan.

We didn't see anything that seemed inherently dangerous about the request, and everything seemed to be in order, so it was unlikely that it was a scam of some sort. I was always watching out for those, Mira is too trusting most of the time despite what she's gone through, and usually, I have to help her avoid or deal with any scammers.

We took the job off of the board and brought it to one of the open counters to submit acceptance of the job. We had to register as having taken the job, in order to ensure people didn't try to take the job and then not do it, if that happened there would be hefty fines, an investigation, and potential banishment. For those reasons, most people did their best to finish whatever job they accepted, or they would recruit others to help them finish the task.

The tall lady at the end of the desk didn't even bother talking to us, she just scanned the job and then our storage watches to confirm our acceptance of the task. With that, we were handed the paper as a physical copy of the contract and were shooed away somewhere else. The treatment made me miss my go-to surly attendant Max, unfortunately, I didn't see him working today.

...

Once the job was accepted, we went next door to the core exchange to stock up on cores while traveling, and to feed the bottomless pit that was Violet the infant bydra. The exchange wasn't especially busy today, so all we had to do was walk to one of the empty computers mounted on the wall.

Both of us got our own terminals and were purchasing a plethora of cores for our summons when I remembered that we still had some cores and bodies to sell from the day we stole the egg in the marsh. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but I needed as much space in my storage as I could get, and they would help cover the costs of all the rest of the cores we would have to buy.

I let Alexis know about the cores and we quickly selected the ones we would keep and then sold the rest. We would have to wait until we were done shopping to go back to the Guild and sell the corpses, preferably not to the woman whose desk we were at earlier.

Buying a few wyrm cores for my frost wyrm Jotun was expensive, but necessary to get him to grow more and evolve. I made the same sacrifice for my other summons, but most of the month's worth of cores I got for each of them were lower-tier ones with a few higher tier to help them evolve sooner. I threw in a few first-tier cores as snacks for Violet in case I ever needed to get on her good side.

It took a while to choose the right cores, but soon enough we were all stocked up on summon food, and ready to purchase a few traveling essentials. We would be living in the wild for a week and likely through some rough terrain, so a few gadgets or special clothing would be necessary.

Food wasn't as much of a concern now that my summons had something to eat, especially since we could hunt some animals for food any time we were hungry. I was mostly already prepared, but I decided to help Alexis purchase a few essentials since she seemed more like a city-girl at heart to me.

There was a difference between being able to survive for a day while fighting monsters and traveling through the wilderness for a weak with no one to rely on but the people around you. Not to mention that I would need some spices and vegetables if I wanted to eat anything palatable, juniper berries would be the first thing to buy in order to get rid of the gamy taste in most wild meat.

...

Going back once more to the Guild to sell our remaining monster bodies only served to recoup some of our expenses today, luckily we managed to avoid being served by that silent lady from earlier in the day.

There wasn't much left to take care of since our quest would only start in two days and there was no real need to hunt any time before then. With nothing left, we decided to get an early dinner at a taco restaurant of all places.

They were pretty popular in the main city square and served an assortment of odd and unique tacos to choose from. I got seared cactus and wolf steak tacos with a nice mix of pickled red onion and cilantro as a garnish, and the sauce to top off the meal was a spicy pineapple chutney.

Alexis got something a little more common and ordered marinated and cubed drill-rabbit along with sweetcorn and a roasted chili sauce that looked hot at a glance. I was just fine eating something that wouldn't scorch my tongue, to each their own I guess.

We idly chatted and argued about what the job would actually be like and whether the merchant we were working for was nice or at least agreeable. Either way, we were stuck with the request and would have to get along at least for a week at a minimum.

All that was left was to wait another two days and meet with the merchant in the morning at the south gate of the city to head to the South American continental city Southwest of us.

...

Alexis stayed over with Mira and me for the time being as we waited for the two days to pass until it was time for our job. She got closer to Mira, and I regretted ever introducing the two after they decided to gang up on me in a prank war.

I have had my u.n.d.e.r.w.e.a.r frozen, my room covered in sticky notes, saran wrap over the toilet, amongst other things and I was this close to strangling the two. Of course, I had to get my revenge and ended up covering most of their stuff with vaseline including doorknobs and toilet seats. I was paranoid about them getting back at me in my sleep, but they either took the prank well, or they didn't have enough time to do anything to me yet, I really was banking on the former no matter how unlikely it was.

They had a policy explicitly stated that the lives of the merchants were more important than the merchandise. It was a good sign that they had a policy like that in place during a time where people might sell their mother for a bit of strength or profit.

Speaking of, I couldn't help but be brought out of my musing by a gruff voice calling out to us. "You two must be the summoners I hired guessing by your apparel, not to mention that no one gets up this early if they don't have to. Name's Jerimiah Cross nice to meet ya."

The man talking was a man in his late 50's with a weathered face from a hard life in the wilds, he seemed rather jovial and kind. It was a bit out of my expectations to meet such a hospitable merchant when I was imagining that a miserly and suspicious merchant was the one who hired us.

"Best be getting on our way now, y'all can ride up with me upfront. The wagons are there as much for our comfort as they are for transporting goods, it's a mite cheaper than buying enough storage space to store it all. Although maybe I can eventually make enough to sink my money in now and make a killer profit later on." (Jerimiah)

Leaving the old man to his musings, we introduced ourselves to the crew and hopped on the front of the lead wagon. Once everyone was settled, they got the horses on their way and we were off towards South America.