“I shouldn’t have left him. He didn’t mean to hit me. He was just drunk.”

  Jason wasn’t sure what to say to that. No parent should treat their child that way, regardless of the situation.

  “I think it’s best you stay here for a bit,” Jason said. “Or I can get you a hotel room for a few days.”

  Katie looked around the apartment. It was a bit messy, but really nice. It had to cost a fortune each month.

  “I’m not sure what you get paid. But I’ll match it and pay you to clean my apartment and go about and get me food and stuff. I never know when I’ll be summoned.”

  Katie looked at him with a raised eyebrow and was just about to respond when a green light engulfed Jason.

  “Take it out and try to not take any damage.”

  I watched Jason swing his mace, knocking the skeleton back. He was much stronger than he was before Ben hadn’t even buffed him yet and he was already over powering the skeleton. Two more hits and the skeleton was dealt with.

  As long as he could keep the skeletons stunned, they were relatively easy to deal with, from what I could tell. Suddenly The familiar prompt appeared.

  Skeletal Warrior level 9, defeated.

  168 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 split the essence this time. The boss fight was coming up and Jason would likely die, besides he only needed a bit of essence to reach the next level. If it wasn’t for the wolves, I would have taken my familiar down to kill the other skeletons so he could gain more essence. But those stupid dogs were still in the dungeon.

  A quick glance at my stat page had me realize I was a good ways off from reaching the next level. I only had one fifty out of the seven hundred and twelve I needed to reach level six.

  I assumed the Mother tree sent us here so I could reach level ten, though she likely didn’t factor in that I would have to share the essence with my familiar or that the wolves would cause problems. However, the wolves provided some good essence. I couldn’t help but wonder if there was a way to kill that level eighteen wolf.

  “Are you about done?” Ben asked.

  “Uh yeah, one moment.” I nearly forgot that I was supposed to be leveling up my familiar before we crossed the final narrow path.

  Pulling up his page, I looked it over. I wanted to focus on strength; however, I didn’t think neglecting agility completely would be a good idea. I started to place the points when I realized he only had the two remaining from the previous level.

  The nap had been nice, but I really needed some coffee to kick start my mornings. If it was even morning. It was hard to tell inside this dungeon. Bringing my attention to the task at hand, I focused on Jason’s stat page. I had completely forgotten to level him up.

  Would you like to spend 340 essence to bring your familiar to level 3 Yess/No?

  Selecting yes, there was a quick flash of white light and the stat page closed, then I received another prompt.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Congratulations: Through hard work, determination and just a dash of luck, your familiar has reached level 3.

  For reaching a new level, familiar Jason Storgan has been awarded with 1 attribute point. Due to familiar Jason Storgan being summoned by a unique race, he has been awarded 3 attribute points. And for the summoner being a contestant in the Primordial games, familiar Jason Storgan has been awarded 3 attribute points.

  7 free attribute points available.

  This time I placed two points into vitality, four points into strength, and three agility. I didn’t want him to get so buff he couldn’t move properly.

  Name: Jason Storgan

  Race: Human

  Class: locked

  Level- 3

  Available attributes: 0

  Essence to next level- 464

  Essence available- 82

  Health- 151

  Stamina-50

  Mana- 25

  Vitality: 12

  Endurance: 10

  Strength: 19

  Agility: 13

  Intelligence: 10

  Wisdom 10

  Luck: 11

  Charisma: 10

  Looking over the stats, I was pleasantly surprised and also a bit irritated at how much his health jumped up with each point. The screams of pain had me quickly close out the screen.

  Jason was curled up on the ground in pain. I had completely forgotten to distribute his points one at a time.

  “Ha! Serves the human right.” Ben said.

  “Ben, could you send him a heal?”

  “But we are about to fight the boss and you told me to conserve my mana.”

  “And who do you think will be doing most of the fighting?”

  Ben looked over at the human before sighing. “Fine.”

  I wasn’t actually sure if it would help, but thought it was worth a shot. I felt bad as it was my fault and I didn’t want to cause my familiar harm.

  Once the golden glow surrounded him, Jason seemed to breathe easier. I thought about dismissing him, but was afraid it would mess something up. A couple of minutes later, Jason stood up, a smile replacing the look of pain as he looked at his hands.

  “Sorry buddy, I didn’t mean to place all your points at once again.” Jason said something in gibberish.

  “You are really toning up. I placed a couple of points into agility this time. It should help you from getting overly bulky. I need you strong and agile. We also need to get you a better weapon, eventually.”

  At that, Jason’s eyes widened a bit, and he held the mace closer to his chest.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll let you choose your weapons as long as it’s effective.”

  Jason seemed to like that. I glanced at my mana bar. It was only down a quarter. Seems placing all those points into intelligence was paying off.

  “Alright, let’s deal with this last skeleton, then I’ll send you back for a bit so my mana can recover before we face the final boss of this area.”

  “Why do you talk to it so much?” Ben asked as he started up the next set of stairs.

  “What do you mean it’s my familiar?” I said as I followed behind Ben. “I want to have a good relationship with him. If it wasn’t for him, we would have a much more difficult time in this dungeon.”

  Ben grumbled something under his breath. Then glanced back at Jason, but ultimately agreed.

  Reaching the top of the stairs, I looked out across the final narrow path. Several axes swung back and forth and multiple skeletal archers were in holes in the walls. Glancing at Jason, I noticed him standing there with wide eyes.

  Moving over next to him, I spoke. “Ah, don’t worry, I’ll dismiss you and re-summon you on the other side. No point in taking the chance that you will fall.”

  Jason seemed to like this idea. Green light surrounded my familiar as I dismissed him. I couldn’t help but wonder if he was becoming more intelligent as I leveled him up. He definitely seemed more cooperative than before.

  “Alright Ben, want to look for traps and anything out of the ordinary.”

  “On it.”

  This had become standard procedure as we reached each path. The rabbit had excellent eyesight and could pick up anything out of the ordinary.

  From what I could tell, this path was like the others, except for having six swinging axes. Though that didn’t matter to us as Ben or I could just walk under them as they swung.

  There were perks to being small. And as long as we kept moving, the archers weren’t an issue either, as they didn’t seem capable of hitting a small moving target. Ben nodded, then darted across in a blur.

  I glanced over the edge. There were several narrow paths below. I briefly wondered if there was any treasure hidden down there. Unfortunately, there had been no chests since the one on the first floor.

  I was hopeful there would be one on this floor, but I had every intention of having Jason open that first chest before we left. I really wanted to get some gear on my familiar.

  Pushing those thoughts aside, I darted across. The other side was no different from any of the other paths. There was a skeleton on the top of the staircase, completely unaware that we were even here. This skeleton was a bit larger than the others we had encountered so far and I used identify.

  To my surprise, nothing happened.

  “Ben, what’s up with that skeleton?”

  Ben looked up at the skeleton for a long moment, then his eyes widened. “I’m not sure you're familiar can take this one. It’s a level ten, but the issue is that it’s of the knight variety of skeleton.”

  “I’m guessing that means it’s going to be harder to kill than the others?”

  “Oh, absolutely not to mention all that armor. It also looks enchanted.”

  “Well, twisted tree rot.” I said with a sigh.

  The skeleton was wearing a chest piece and holding an enormous black sword. “Well, it looks like we will just have to help him. If we can’t take on the guardian, how do we expect to beat the boss?”

  “You’re right! The Mother Tree would have not sent us here to die,” Ben said.

  #26467. Right before I received my 2nd rating (Thank you, by the way) I was #37615. That’s a huge jump for one rating!

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