Her eyes caught mine, and she frowned, trying to hid herself with her hands. Had I actually summoned a prudish demon? Wow. “Great, I finally get summoned, and it is by some pervy incubus. Couldn’t you have at least fucking waited for me to be dressed?” She went on, muttering, “Why couldn’t I have gotten a sexy female elf, damnit!”
I chuckled, and said, “And how am I supposed to know what you’re up to, hmm? I’m a ‘pervy incubus’, not a god. And this was my first casting of the spell.”
The girl blushed as I said that, coming to the realization that I couldn’t know what she was doing the first time. “Fine, fine. Damnit, let me just…” She trailed off as she cast a spell, conjuring a jade-colored robe that went nicely with the color of her skin. She squinted, as though she were used to wearing glasses, and sighed. “That’s good enough without the books, I guess. Anyways, since you’ve summoned me, I guess you have some kind of problem? Where is this place, anyways?”
Down to business, huh? I could deal with that. Especially since her… assets were hidden away now, and not tempting me anymore. “Well, I’m in the middle of the Trial of Ascension. You know about it?” She nodded in the affirmative. “So I’ve got three tasks to do, and this is the first one. I figured an extra set of eyes would help in getting this door open, so we could move on to the other tasks.”
“Right. Before we go forward, I guess I should lay a few things out about how this spell works. You’ve summoned me, so I’m supposed to use my abilities as best I can to help you. But I’m no slave, and you can’t force me to do something against my will. And while the magic lets me recover if I’m ‘killed’ while I’m summoned, you won’t get to summon again for another twenty-four hours after that, and I’m pretty certain any demon will be pissed at you if you use them like fodder.”
I sensed she was holding back something, but I wasn’t quite sure what. “Are you sure that’s everything?” I was rewarded by a flicker of emotion on her red-tinted ‘librarian’ face. “What aren’t you telling me, hmm?”
Kylana sighed, and said, “That is with the basic spell. If you dismiss me, and cast the spell again, you’ll get a new summon, based on your needs at the time. If you want to keep calling me, then you’ll need to… mark me, as a Familiar. The Familiar bond has different effects, but can’t be forced on someone.”
Secret Quest!
Taming the Librarian
Kylana, one of the librarians who looks after the books in the library of the demonic city of Thuressos, has been summoned by you only this once. However, it may be possible to convince her to become your Familiar, granting both of you power in return for her service.
Rank
D
Success
Kylana agrees to perform the Familiar bond with you.
Failure
Kylana refuses the Familiar bond.
You unsummon Kylana before she agrees to the bond.
Reward
Experience
Kylana becomes your Familiar.
Interesting. So this Familiar thing was more like the contracted spirits idea you saw in some games and animes. The contractor got to call on the spirit, and the spirit got something in return from the contractor, but first you had to earn that contract, or something like that. Not really my favorite brand of anime, but I’d seen enough to pick up on themes. Still, those stories typically had multiple ways to get a bond. Some could be forced by overpowering the spirit, if you knew what you were doing. I had the feeling that Kyana was deliberately leaving things out, but for the moment I had other concerns. Nodding to her, I said, “I see. In that case, why don’t we work through these challenges, to start?”
When she nodded, I turned, and looked at the room again, starting with the floor. I noticed a few squares that were oddly out of place in the otherwise regular stone floor. Standing one of them revealed it to be a pressure plate that slid down when I put my weight on it. There was a grinding sound, and I looked to see one of the bars retract away from the doors, but the other two were still holding on. I stepped off the platform, and the bar slid back in place. I looked over the rest of the floor, and counted a total of three pressure plates in a triangle on this side of the room, and another over closer to the door.
I looked over to Kylana, and said, “Right, looks like the first part is a simple pressure plate system. We’ll need to find weights to keep all three plates down, which should free the door. This puzzle was meant to be solved, so there should be something we can push onto these plates.” From the look in her eye, the fact that I was actually thinking through the problem instead of being a muscleheaded idiot about it raised my stock with her a few points. But puzzles like this were a staple of games, and had been for ages.
So I wasn’t too surprised when I found a large rock that you could roll around the room with some work in one corner. Together with Kylana, we got it into one of the depressed plates, and it stayed put. One bar pulled back, two more to go. Simple crypt raiding here.
The other two boulders were a little more difficult to manage. One needed me to climb up onto a couple platforms to push it off, that wasn’t too bad, really, but the second one was in a little six-foot ditch off to the side. To get the boulder out of the ditch, I had to push it onto this old wooden freight elevator, and then use my weight on an old waterwheel that no longer had water running over it to turn the gears and lift it up. Finally, though, we had all three bars retracted. The doors, however, remained closed.
I sighed, and looked around again. Oh, yeah. Got to find another boulder, it seems. “Kylana, you see our missing rock anywhere?”
Kylana, who hadn’t been idle while I was doing the heavy work, nodded, and said, “It is up there, at the top of that statue. I think you need to get up there to release it.”
That brought a frown to my face. “Looks like a pretty complicated climb to get up there.” I paused, mapping the route in my mind. The only way I saw that would have a chance of working involved climbing up a series of ledges to another statue across the crypt from the one with the boulder, and then making a leap of faith to grab a rope and swing across to the other statue with another leap of faith, catch myself before falling to the ground, and climb up to a ledge behind the statue. With my stats, it should be possible, but I didn’t like it.
Looking over to Kylana, I said, “Your talents include conjuration, yes? Would you happen to have anything that would make getting up there easier?”
Kylana smiled, looking fairly pleased that I’d actually considered asking her whether she could help, rather than making orders or just doing everything myself. I felt I’d already earned points in her book by working out the problem on my own instead of being a meathead, but this kindof cemented my view that she was looking to be a partner to whoever got her Familiar bond, not a servant or slave. She responded by producing a set of spectral stairs, and I grinned at her, running up them to the ledge behind the statue, the stairs disappearing behind me as I ran.
Once there, I noticed a small nook hidden from below. Inside it was a well-preserved chest. Reacting with my gamer’s instincts, I opened the chest, and was rewarded with a small sum of platinum coins, and several items.
Soulbinder, Grimoire of Ended Dreams
Type
Spellbook
Rank
Artifact
This leather-bound tome is written in the blood of sentients upon pages crafted from the skin of angels, penned in the language of the Abyss. To say that it is a wholly evil artifact containing some of the most vile and dire magics imaginable would be an understatement of biblical proportions.
The book is both a grimoire and a treatise on Soul Magic. An ascended being who reads the book completely may learn the Soul Magic skill at Intermediate 1, as well as learning any spell from the book. An unascended being who reads the book completely has their soul ripped from their body and added to the book as a new page containing an original spell based upon their life. Any creature may use the book as a grimoire, using
it to cast spells as though they had the Soul Magic skill at Advanced 10. The tome may be used in this way once per hour, but has a cumulative 5% chance of using the caster’s soul to create a new page of the book. This chance resets at dawn one week from the first casting. It is impossible to learn any of the spells in this book without reading it completely.
Before a creature may read from the book, they must perform a binding ritual lasting one hour, offering their blood to the book. This serves to bind the book to the user’s soul. Aside from enabling the harsher consequences of the grimoire’s use, this ritual prevents any other creature from gaining the power of the grimoire unless they perform the ritual, breaking the previous binding. Attempting to read the book without performing the ritual results in a random attribute of the reader’s being permanently reduced to 0.
Restricted: Level 40+
Restricted: Must be able to read Abyssal.
After Ritual Bond:
+20 INT, +20 WIS, +20 CHA
+50% to Soul Magic while holding grimoire
-50% to healing spells received while holding grimoire
Gain Soulsight Perk
Gain Soulreading Skill at Beginner 1
+1000 Infamy
Bonecarvin Devilwood Scepter
Type
Staff
Rank
Rare
Damage
60 – 90
Damage Type
Bludgeoning/Hellfire
Made from a type of tree found in the Lower Planes and inlaid with carved human bones, this staff possesses great power. Half the damage it deals is Hellfire damage, making it useful for those who have resistances to physical or fire-based attacks. A spellcaster’s weapon, it shows its true use when used as an aid in casting spells.
Restricted: Must be (or have been) a member of the Hellion race.
Restricted: Level 40+
+50 INT, +50 WIS, +50 CHA
+100% to all magic cast by wielder.
Enchanted: Mana Shield – May sacrifice MP instead of HP when injured.
Robes of Demonic Misery
Type
Robes
Rank
Rare
Creatures of the Lower Planes are often called upon to act as Familiars or servants of powerful spellcasters. These robes were created by a powerful wizard in order to help keep his favored servants alive when he hid behind them using them as a shield. The cowardly nature of the creator aside, the robes do provide a substantial degree of protection for the wearer.
Restricted: Must be a bonded Familiar.
Defense +300
CON +50
+40% to all Resistances
Cursed: Truthsayer – The wearer of this robe may never lie to their Master.
Once again I silently praised my rather insane Luck score. I’m pretty sure no other Traveler has invested that much in Luck. Honestly, I had way too many points to play with when I reincarnated Torgan into Zayn, and it made me pick things I probably never would have looked at before. The benefits, though, were pretty good.
But I had other things to check on at the moment. Turning, I pushed the boulder over the side of the ledge it was on, and heard a loud crash as it fell to the floor below. Fortunately, I didn’t need Kyana to provide me with a new set of stairs, since there was a chain hanging down nearby. It was too far off the ground for me to have reached it when I was getting up here, but climbing down it would give me an easy drop of about fifteen feet. Not rolling out of bed, but not something to worry about if I was careful, even if I was in my RL body.
Back on the ground, I pushed the boulder over to the final pressure plate, and was rewarded with the grinding sound of the two stone doors swinging outward to open for me.
First step completed. Continue on to the next step.
With a smile, I turned, and looked at Kylana. “Now, why don’t we discuss how one marks a Familiar, hmm?”
Chapter 51 – The Trial of Ascension, Part II
“Now, why don’t we discuss how one marks a Familiar, hmm?”
Kylana looked uncomfortable, and turned her head to face away from me. “W-well, you draw a magic circle, and then you and the familiar get inside. There’s an incantation you have to make, and then you seal the pact.”
“What is the incantation?”
“Magic to magic, blood to blood. Your power is mine, and mine yours. Walk the path by my side until the end.”
I nodded. Relatively simple, but there was some symbolic merit there, especially when considering the purpose of a familiar that could actually communicate, rather than being just a slightly more intelligent animal, like in some games. “And how do you seal the pact?”
At my question, Kylana’s cheeks, normally red, got a fascinating shade of purple as she turned, ducking her head in what I assumed was an attempt to hide her blushing face. “Well, you k—“ Her words slipped into mumbles.
Stepping towards her, I captured the woman’s face with my hand, and turned it to face me. I admit I had a bit of a predatory smile on my face when she gasped. “Oh? What was that last bit?”
“You kiss.” Now Kylana was definitely blushing. I’d seen reactions like this before, usually on girls who knew nothing of romance except what they read in trashy novels with covers featuring shirtless men with large muscles and long, flowing hair. Could she really be so innocent, being a demonic creature?
“You’ve never been kissed before, have you, Kylana?”
Her eyes sparked, and she tried to escape my grip. “So what if I’ve never been kissed? So what if I’d rather read books than engage in that stupid competition like a stupid bimbo? I know I’m just a nerd, damnit!”
“Oh my dear, I’m going to have such fun with you.” As I said that, one hand reached into my inventory, and pulled out a piece of chalk. With a thought, the dark tentacles sprang up around us, but I kept Kylana’s eyes on mine, while I tossed the chalk to the tentacles. I’d been practicing on fine control, given some of the… unorthodox uses I’d been putting the spell to, so drawing a circle on the ground was easy enough. When that was done, the chalk went back in my inventory, and the tentacles were dismissed. Kylana looked at me, still unsure what was going on.
Her doubts were shattered, and replaced by a shocked look when I began speaking. “Magic to magic, blood to blood.”
“What? You can’t be serious!”
“Your power is mine, my power is yours.”
“Wait, I’m not ready!”
“Walk the path by my side to the end.”
Kylana probably would have said something else, but I silenced her with a kiss. If this was really her first kiss, then I felt it was only right that I gave her one that she would never forget. I kissed her deeply, using one hand at the small of her back to help support her as I bent her back like something out of one of those pictures from the end of World War II.
When I finally brought her up to breathe, Kylana staggered slightly, and finally managed a single word. “Wow.”
I smiled, and said, “Was it everything you imagined it would be, my dear?” But any further conversation was cut off as a feeling of power filled us both. The Familiar bond taking hold had tangible effects, it seemed.
Quest Complete!
Taming the Librarian
Kylana, one of the librarians who looks after the books in the library of the demonic city of Thuressos, has been summoned by you only this once. However, it may be possible to convince her to become your Familiar, granting both of you power in return for her service.
Though not in a typical way, you successfully performed the Familiar bond with Kylana.
Rank
D
Success
Kylana agrees to perform the Familiar bond with you.
Failure
Kylana refuses the Familiar bond.
You unsummon Kylana before she agrees to the bond.
Reward
Experience
Kylana becomes your Familiar.
You have gain
ed a demonic familiar!
You gain the following abilities:
+10 to all stats
Hellfire Immunity
You gain the following skills from your Familiar:
Transmutation Magic – Basic 1 (0%)
Conjuration Magic – Basic 1 (0%)
Divination Magic – Basic 1 (0%)
Shapechange – Basic 1 (0%)
Your Familiar gains the following abilities:
+10 to all stats
Charm immunity
Your Familiar gains the following skills:
Sword Mastery – Basic 1 (0%)
Dark Magic – Basic 1 (0%)
Charm Magic – Basic 1 (0%)
Seduction – Basic 1 (0%)
Rules-Free VRMMO Life_Volume V_Power Base Page 2
