Summoned A Hundred Years Too Late

When I heard about her again, I knew where I had failed, where we had all failed.

A century wasted. My assumptions shattered.

But failure isn’t always definitive. In this case, we simply have yet to succeed.

I made a promise to myself. I will ascend.

Excerpt from the notes of the Iron Vein Magus.

Alexandra licked her lips as she stared at her class perk options. She had three perks left to evolve from Iron to Bronze, so it was just a matter of which came first.

Choose your level 7 class perk evolution. Which perk would you like to evolve?

Adventuring PartyStreak EnhancementContribution PointsConsidering her leveling speed, it would only take a little more than two months for her to reach level nine, so she didn’t feel much pressure. Still, as with every perk selection, she wanted to optimize her choice.

The question wasn’t so much whether she should upgrade a perk or not, but what perk would give her the most benefits if she upgraded it now.

With that in mind, she focused on Contribution Points. Without a doubt, this was one of her most useful perks. Perhaps it was even the best, though she believed Quest Ledger edged it out. After all, there would be no contribution points if she didn’t have quests to earn them.

Her working theory was that upgrading the contribution point perk would give her more options in the shop. Now she could buy skills, but perhaps the Bronze version of the skill would allow her to buy achievements, attributes, or perhaps some other powers from the system.

The thing was, she couldn’t afford them. She was already short on contribution points, and she wanted to see if the uncommon shop had an equivalent to Stasis Core Seal that would work with her solar mana. She was also starting to see the limits of her earning potential. Her uncommon skills were reaching high levels, and she would have to hunt Silver monsters to see bigger gains. It wasn’t an easy task, especially without a dungeon like the Troll Cave to control the environment.

Her daily quests had also been stingy with skill quests recently, a factor of the increased ease with which she completed them, she thought.

Maybe I should challenge myself more.

Another possibility was that the upgrade would reduce the cost of purchasing a skill with contribution points. But while Alexandra would very much like that option to be true, she knew deep down that it was wishful thinking.

“Never an easy choice, right?” Zeynep said as she set down the carpet she had just cleaned.

“Yeah,” Alexandra said. She pressed her lips together, then continued. “I just don’t know how the upgrades will turn out.”

“We’re all in the same boat. Even those with well-studied classes could end up with a brand new evolution.” Zeynep smiled as she picked up another carpet. “Though I suspect this is not the situation you’re in.”

Alexandra returned the smile.

Streak Enhancement was similarly uncertain. She could safely guess that it would give her another nice streak bonus. That much wasn’t complicated. But which one? Well, she would be walking in blind.

Of course, she could come up with ideas of bonuses she would like, and others that would leave her disappointed. But all of this was pointless speculation. She couldn’t know what the perk would give.

That said, she believed it was a rather safe option. It would give her something, and even a mediocre bonus was better than nothing, which she would get if she chose to evolve Contribution Points and couldn’t afford the price of the new shop items.

Finally, there was Adventuring Party. Just thinking about that perk made her roll her eyes. So far, the perk had done nothing for her.

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Sure, it had allowed her to learn about Louis’ death in advance. Not much in advance, however, as she’d been with Raymond when that happened, and it seemed like the Magus had wanted her to know.

Then she got a few contribution points from Willow and Kam. The amount was pathetic, and with her quest sharing limited to quests she herself had generated, well, it would stay that way for a while. They simply didn’t share the same skill set, so only common skills like Basic Hygiene would be workable. Technically, they could complete any of her non-daily quests, but many of her Training Quests were so specific to the skill in question that it was basically impossible.

For example, Aggressive Assimilation required her to assimilate buffs from various species, something one couldn’t do without the skill.

She shook her head. Okay, it’s not nothing, and they’ll be able to buy a skill eventually, which is nice.

For evolution paths, she could imagine the upgrade making her party larger. She wasn’t sure if she wanted that. Three people, five, or even ten wouldn’t make that much of a difference.

She could also see it sharing her dailies, which would be great, but it sounded too good to be true. Even then, it wouldn’t benefit her directly. If anything, it would make owning this perk even more dangerous than it already was. If word got around that she had a relatively easy path to skills, attributes, and experience…

She’d rather not think about it. In any case, the perk would have to evolve someday. If not now, next month when she would reach level eight, and if not then, level nine. She was stuck.

“It doesn’t get better,” Zeynep commented, still dusting her carpets with a brush. “Silver, Gold, Platinum, every level, every upgrade feels like making an impossible decision.”

“How do you manage?” Alexandra asked.

Zeynep didn’t look up. “You just have to pick something. To be fair, upgrades are easier than selecting a new perk. You’ll get to all of them eventually.”

Alexandra nodded slowly and turned her attention back to her journal.

Streak Enhancement was a sure bet, but not very exciting. Contribution Point had the potential to be very useful or completely useless. As for Adventuring Party, it felt lackluster. At least, in its current state, she’d rather have something else.

She chuckled.

“Did you make your choice?” Zeynep asked.

“I might have just done it.”

She’d rather have something else… Well, who said she couldn’t?

She directed her intent toward the perk she’d chosen to upgrade.

Adventuring Party (Iron) has evolved into Adventuring Contract (Bronze).

Adventuring Contract – Draft a contract to share your quests. Set the share of the reward in agreement with the quester. Daily and skill quests excluded. Contracted questers must be of the same rank or have a maximum difference of 15 levels.

“Oh,” Alexandra said, staring at her new perk.

“Surprised?” Zeynep asked.

Alexandra stood up. “In hindsight, no.” She paused. “What level are you?”

“Twenty-four,” Zeynep said.

Alexandra frowned. “Too high. I can only go up to twenty-two.”

“For? Testing your perk?”

She nodded. A better look at her journal told her that her party was gone. Not a huge loss. Presumably, she’d be able to issue contracts to her friends instead.

“I’ll just wake the others up.”

“Let Kam sleep a little longer,” Willow said, rubbing her eyes as she came out of her room into the living room. “What do you want to test?”

Alexandra turned the pages of her journal and stopped on an empty page. Guided by the instincts her new perk had distilled into her mind, she focused, and the page filled itself with her first contract.

First, she picked a skill. Those who still had Training Quests that Willow could complete were limited, so she settled on a common one. Then, she set the quester to be Willow. As for the share of the reward, she decided to take it all for herself. Seeing that it worked, she amended the contract to give the entire reward to her friend instead. There didn’t seem to be a limit.

Then, she tore the page from the journal. She knew inside her heart that it would regenerate on its own. The journal was not truly a physical object. It was a representation of her class art.

Alexandra read it and handed it to Willow.

Basic Hygiene Training Quest:

Grade: Common 5

Clear Condition: Wash every day for two weeks

Condition: Be Willow Dumries

Reward: 100 Contribution Points

Quester Reward Share: 100%

Willow’s eyes went wide. Then she frowned. “Basic Hygiene? Are you trying to tell me something?”

“It was the most convenient skill,” Alexandra said. “But you do stink. The trip from Oldwater wasn’t easy.”

Willow rolled her eyes and looked at the contract again. “Is this real?”

Alexandra nodded. “Yes. I set the condition and share.”

“This is…”

Alexandra smiled. “Has Laika heard of an Adventuring Guild?”

Willow looked at her. “I didn’t.”

“Me neither,” Zeynep said. “If you want to fill me in.”

“Well, let’s get Kam, because this perk of mine has the potential to change the world.”

“Change the world?” Zeynep asked, chuckling. “No less?”

“You’ll see,” Alexandra said. “You’ll see.”