Nightmare Realm Summoner

Blade’s lips curled in amusement as he watched Alex start to meditate. He was pleasantly surprised to see that the boy had managed to deduce the room’s true purpose. If Blade was entirely honest, he hadn’t expected Alex to have figured it out.

A part of me was convinced he was just a rash, lucky fool. But perhaps those two things and being able to read a situation for what it truly is are not mutually exclusive.

Blade rose to his feet. There was no need to distract Alex right now. He had chosen a good spot to absorb the benefits of this room. Extra encouragement would not be beneficial at this point. There was nothing that Blade could say that would significantly improve his chances.

I can’t remember the last time I had a student like the ones from Mirrorwane. They’re far from the strongest that I’ve ever taught. Wouldn’t say they’re the smartest either, nor do they have the most potential. It’s hard to compare against those who are practically gods from the moment of their birth.

But for a group that are still Nativeworlders, come from a planet that hasn’t even had it’s Final Initialization yet… I’ve always been weak toward helping those who are determined to take the world for themselves.

Perhaps, if I hadn’t been, I wouldn’t be here in the first place.

Blade watched Alex in silence for nearly a minute.

He had sat down a few steps too early. Blade was certain he could take more. But to interfere was not his role. In truth, the mistake wasn’t a large one. It would only slightly delay his progress. But the greatest of battles were won by the smallest of victories. Even a faint improvement could make an enormous difference when it came to the matters of life and death in a fight.

A faint smile cut across his features.

Blade extended his hand, feeling the power flowing all through the room around him. And, with the tiniest nudge of his influence, the pressure changed. It was subtle. Small enough that nobody who wasn’t sensitive to the flow of energy around them would be able to notice — certainly far beyond anything that Alex was capable of picking up on.

Tiny mistakes were natural. Not even gods were perfect. But they were damn close to it. And if Mirrorwane had absolutely no idea who their competition was. The universe was huge. Far, far bigger than they could even begin to comprehend.

Mistakes may have been impossible to avoid for someone without the backing of a truly powerful organization. But if they wanted any chance of surviving against the Great Families, there wasn’t any room for them.

But if an instructor didn’t cheat just a little to help his students out every once in a while and level the playing field, then they really didn’t have any place calling themselves an instructor.

***

Mite crossed his arms behind his back as he looked over the results of the past few days of his work. It had taken him quite some time to figure out what exactly he was going to make from the incredibly tough monster. All of his initial ideas had been too… plain.

Armor. Cloaks. Bags. A number of different clothes options. Some very fancy hats. But none of that had been nearly stand-out enough for him to attempt. Alex’s challenge had been ringing in his head like an echo. It refused to let him waste this precious material on anything less than its perfect purpose.

He’d even briefly considered upgrading his puppet. As far as benefit to the town as a whole, having a near immortal assistant that could run around fighting their opponents and defending the city in the case of an attack would have been pretty damn significant.

But in the end, he’d gone on a different path entirely. It had been quite the pain in the ass, and he’d had to ask Rhyss for access to a small portion of the Town’s funds to buy the materials and training he needed from Finley. The only good thing about the whole process was how easy the learning parts had been.

What would have taken him months — if not years — of practice to discover back on Earth took just around an hour or two on 274-50. Memory Crystals were incredible for teaching new skills. But even with them, Mite had been working day and night nonstop to create the masterpiece that now sat before him.

He’d turned the monster into a musical instrument.

The Baveroth’s hide was stretched taught across a wide, circular drum made from the monster’s bones. Its fangs and claws jutted out the edges of the drum like the whole thing was a yawning maw waiting to slam shut on anyone who dared try to play it.

To the amusement of anyone who wasn’t Mite, his drum was bigger than he was. It rose nearly six feet when stood vertical and was easily two feet in depth. The mallet he’d created to play the drum with was equally massive. Someone could have used it as a warhammer had they so wished. It, just like the drum, was made entirely from the Baveroth, with the monster’s skull — now wrapped with its own fur — acting as its head.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The instrument was certainly quite gruesome. It might have been a bit screwed up to make a drum exclusively out of the materials of a single monster. But the result spoke for itself. The System had recognized Mite’s creation, both in the way of a very considerable amount of magical energy and in shimmering words that now danced above the proof of his labor.

Baveroth Bone War-drum (Epic) — Instrument

Play Effect: When this great drum is played, it will emit powerful waves of energy that empower the allies of Mirrorwane whilst disrupting the magical stability of anyone not viewed as a member of the town. When extra magical energy is injected into this instrument via its mallet, it will grant a minor repair buff to all structures and walls owned by Mirrorwane.

Engineer’s note: Whoa. Now this is exactly what I’m talking about. Alex is going to love this. Who doesn’t love a big ass drum? But I didn’t realize making a magic item lets you fill in a description for it. The buildings didn’t let me do this. Maybe it’s because I don’t own the town. I — hold on. Delete. How come I can’t delete this? Are you kidding me? Why would the System just copy down everything I say? How do I delete? Delete! Goddamn it. Delete the description, you piece of—

Mite sighed. Then he looked over to Orchid and Claire. The two of them had recently returned from their trip to the Mirrorlands and wasted little time in seeking him out to check on the progress of the Baveroth’s hide.

“Well,” Mite said, clearing his throat. “What do you think? Of the first part. The actual item. I don’t know if this is what you were looking for. I was trying to think of something that would really benefit the town as a whole. Something that we wouldn’t grow out of after we killed a bigger monster or something like that. This was the best I could come up with. I used pretty much the whole Baveroth, so—”

“It’s good,” Claire said.

“So it is,” Orchid said, doing an impressive job of keeping her features completely straight. “It’s actually a very strong item. You managed to make this in just a few days?”

“I used Memory Crystals from Finley to show me how to make magical instruments. It cost a few credits, but Rhyss said that was an okay expense for the town to cover.” Mite looked back to his drum. Then he cleared his throat. “I didn’t know it started automatically recording a description after you finish making it. There’s no delete button.”

“Couldn’t have guessed,” Claire said. “It has character.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Orchid said. The corner of her lip twitched slightly. Then she nodded to Mite. “But this is seriously impressive. It’s the kind of item that even a Great Family would consider buying. Buffs during fights that affect an entire area — and that can differentiate between allies and enemies — those are really valuable.”

“Not to mention repair functionalities for the town,” Claire said with a nod. “This is great. We couldn’t have asked for anything better. Good job, Mite.”

Mite grinned. He couldn’t help but feel a slight wave of relief. Making an instrument instead of something a little more standard had been a risk, but it looked to be one that had paid off.

“Thank you,” Mite replied. “So… find any good monsters while you were in the Mirrorlands? You bring me anything?”

“We used the Harvesters to get our hands on a few monster cores,” Claire said. “Unfortunately, even though we did manage to take down a pretty strong boss, we didn’t get a chance to Harvest it. It was in the mouth of a bigger, stronger boss.”

Mite stared at her for a second, waiting for Claire to laugh.

She didn’t. It seemed she was completely serious.

Damn. The Mirrorlands are scary as shit.

I wonder what kind of other materials are just sitting around in there and waiting to be claimed.

“I guess that’s a pretty good reason not to harvest it,” Mite said. He was silent for a moment. Then he coughed into his fist. “So, what should—”

“Mite!” A booming voice echoed through the town. All three of them turned as Derek jogged up to join them. He raised a hand in greeting. “This is where you’ve been hiding!”

“Wait. You’ve been looking for him this whole time?” Claire asked. “How did we find him first?”

“I got distracted,” Derek admitted. “But I’m here now! And I need some help.”

“From me?” Mite blinked. “With what?”

“I’m lacking some weapons,” Derek said, looking down at his bare chest. “Used em up in the Mirrorlands. I want you to make me some better ones.”

“Oh. Sure,” Mite said. “I’m not exactly a blacksmith, but I’m sure I could try to make something somewhat viable. Do you have some Credits? I’ll need to get another Memory Stone from Finley. Then we can use some of the stuff in storage to—”

“Nah. I want something special,” Derek said. He held his hands up. “Like a stick. But without the breaking part. A different kind of stick.”

“A… stick?” Mite asked. He looked to Claire and Orchid for help. “What?”

“It makes sense once he explains it,” Orchid said.

Derek nodded. “It does. You’ll help, right? I’ve got Credits. Haven’t used ‘em for much yet.”

“Well, sure,” Mite said, shaking his head. “I’ll see what I can do. But if you don’t want the stuff we’ve got in storage, you’ll have to buy more.”

“Great! Let’s go! We can get the materials first,” Derek exclaimed, snagging Mite by the arm and starting back through town, dragging the Bioengineer along behind him. “But we won’t have to buy anything.”

“Why not?” Mite asked, forced to jog just to keep up with Derek’s loping steps. He hurriedly sent a call out for his puppet. It didn’t seem like he was going to escape the other man’s grip anytime soon.

“Because we’re just going to go collect it. Much more fun that way,” Derek replied cheerfully. It struck Mite that they were not moving toward the forest. They were heading toward the Warped Embassy.

“Find them where?” Mite asked, suddenly realizing it might not have been such a great idea to agree to help Derek without hearing out the rest of the large man’s plans.

“Where? What kind of question is that?” Derek sent Mite a wide grin. “The two of us are going hunting in the Mirrorlands.”