My summoned familiar Jason swung his club at the first skeleton. The club was large and my summon had to struggle a bit to just to swing it. The skeleton blocked with its mace, but the blow pushed it back slightly. I held my breath as the skeleton nearly fell over the edge. Then, for no reason, my familiar charged the skeletal archer instead of knocking the first skeleton off. He was then stabbed by another skeleton before he got close to the archer and an arrow slammed into his chest. Just when I had given up all hope, my familiar was tackled off the side by the first skeleton.

  Your familiar, Jason Storgan, has died.

  Skeletal Warrior level 3, defeated.

  109 essence obtained.

  Would you like to split this essence with your familiar Yes/No?

  Would you like to give all this essence to your familiar Yes/No?

  I dismissed the first prompt, as it was obvious Jason had died. The second prompt that appeared grabbed my complete attention. I stared at it for a long moment. I was unsure if I could choose where the points were placed if I let him have the essence. My gibberish-speaking familiar likely lacked the mental capacity to place his points properly. Also, I needed to reach level ten. Using magic would no doubt make all the difference. Having a familiar that also needed essence was not something I had expected.

  Eventually, I made a decision. I needed to level up my familiar. I would need him to complete this dungeon. Though I was unsure if there would be any penalties to him dying, surely there had to be some sort of penalty. Maybe he would lose all his essence or something. But only one way to find out. Selecting yes, to give all the essence to my familiar, the prompt closed. I would at least do this until it reached level two. No. Jason, I needed to stop thinking of him as an it.

  “Your familiar is pretty pathetic.” Ben said.

  “Yea, I agree, but at least we aren’t the ones dying.”

  “True that.” Ben said with a wide smile. “Serves the human right to die for us.”

  I opened my mouth to say something, then remembered that Ben’s family had been eaten by humans as he watched. I planned to ask him about that some day. Did they put him in a cage and force him to watch? Did the humans realize he could talk? I found it hard to believe that your average Joe would kill and eat talking rabbits as they pleaded and cried for their life. Though there were some sick people that would probably get off on that. Shaking my head and pushing the thoughts away, I took the offered mushroom Ben offered me.

  The mushroom helped my mana recover in about ten minutes. Once it was full, I turned to Ben.

  “Alright, my mana is basically full, ready to see if we can’t get Jason to take out another?”

  “Let’s do it.”

  “First, let’s see if we can find that mace the skeleton dropped.”

  It didn’t take long to find the mace, and I summoned Jason. The poor guy was looking worse for wear. I wondered if he had emotions like a normal human, but pushed the thought down.

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  “Okay, you did good, Jason. And now you have a proper weapon.” I said, indicating the mace.

  My familiar said something in gibberish and picked up the mace. I had no idea where the club went, but that didn’t matter now. “Okay, let’s try this again.” More gibberish from Jason.

  “Look, I don’t know what you are saying or if you are even trying to say anything at all. But if you have any sort of personality in there, I’m sorry, okay. I don’t want you to die, either.” I sighed. “This time don’t charge at the archer. I know it shot you first, but you will get your revenge.”

  More gibberish from Jason. I nearly ordered him to not speak at all, but I didn’t want to take away all Jason’s freedoms. I was already forcing him to fight for me. Though from my understanding he had to choose to become my familiar.

  “Okay. There are only three up there now. If you can just try to knock them over the edge, they would die on impact. Also, if you are about to die, I want you to take a skeleton off the edge. Now let’s get to it.” I glanced at my mana bar. It was already nearly down to a half. I really hoped I made the correct choice in giving my familiar the essence. As Jason walked up the trail, I used identify. Sure enough, he now had the essence.

  I was contemplating helping Jason. He looked quite depressed. But there wasn’t much I could do. I didn’t want to waste my slow time bar, less I needed to survive.

  “Hey Ben, could you boost him? I would rather him not die.” I had completely forgotten to have Ben buff him last time.

  Ben did so, then began munching on a bit of mushroom before speaking. “Why does it matter how many times it dies?”

  “I’m unsure, but there has to be some sort of disadvantage to him dying over and over.”

  This time, Jason was able to get a good hit with the mace on the back of a skeleton’s leg. It looked like it shattered the bone and the skeleton dropped. An arrow missed my familair by a hair’s breath. The other warrior charged Jason while the first skeleton was still trying to stand on its now shattered leg bone.

  “Maybe we should help.”

  “Ahh, let the human skeletons and human fight this out.” Ben said.

  This had me wonder why they were human skeletons and not wolves or six-legged cats, but my attention was quickly brought back to my familiar.

  The fight between Jason and the warrior was intense. My familiar seemed to be letting out all his frustrations from dying on the skeleton. He was using his weight to his advantage and pushing the lighter skeleton back. However, the skeleton was much more skilled and got a couple of good slashes on Jason. I winced as he yelled out in pain. Luckily, the one Jason hit first hadn’t been able to join the fight, though it was slowly crawling towards them.

  An arrow slammed into Jason’s chest, and I knew that was it. To my surprise, Jason was able to still grapple the skeletal warrior to the ground and roll off the edge of the cliff with the skeleton. The entire time screaming in pain, or maybe anger, I was unsure.

  “Wow, that was actually a good fight.”

  “Yeah, I suppose it was okay for a human.” Ben said dismissively. I saw how the rabbit was watching. He had been invested in it as well. Without Ben’s buff, the fight would have gone very differently.

  Your familiar, Jason Storgan, has died.

  Skeletal Warrior level six, defeated.

  199 essence obtained.

  Would you like to split this essence with your familiar Yes/No?

  Would you like to give all this essence to your familiar Yes/No?

  Dismissing the prompt about my familiar dying I selected yes to send all the essence to my familiar. I was curious to see if I could place his points or not. Ben and I went over to find the weapons when I saw a green glowing ball of fire.

  “What is that?”

  “What is what?” Ben asked.

  “That green thing right there it looks like fire.”

  “I don’t see anything,” Ben said.

  Walking over towards the glowing ball of green light, I pointed at it. However, Ben still didn’t seem to notice it. The green flame looked ghostly in nature. Getting closer, the flame shot towards me and before I could even flinch it shot into my chest and I received a prompt.

  Essence obtained 109.

  ~Upon a familiar’s death, all essence will drop. Unless the summoner recovers the essence within 10 minutes of the familiar’s death, it will be forfeited to the aether.~

  Well then, this was good to know. Looks as I wouldn’t be able to level my familiar this time after all. At least I didn’t have to worry about losing the essence as long as I could claim it within the time limit. Noticing my mana was low, I walked over and ate some of the blue shrooms with Ben. They were absolutely delicious. I dismissed the prompt, telling me I had ingested blue shrooms. I asked Ben what the aether was, but he had no idea.

  “Now we wait till my mana recovers and the cool down for Jason ends. At least there are only two skeletons left this time.”