Chapter 338. Subcontracting.

  Before I dug into my new class feature, I inspected the trinket and scroll that were part of my dungeon rewards. The trinket was a thin, coin-sized medallion with strange symbols carved into it. By concentrating on the trinket, the system gave me a description and an idea of how to use it.

  Trinket of Eternal Resistance. This trinket can be affixed to any armor or clothing and grants the bearer a 5% bonus to the resistance of their choice. Once every 24-hours, a different resistance may be chosen. To affix or remove the trinket, merely push 1 point of mana into the item.

  That was a handy addition to my gear. I activated it like the system suggested, pushing a bit of mana into it and concentrating on attaching it to my armor. There was a bit of vibration in the trinket, but then it became solidly attached to my chest armor near the shoulder. Experimenting, I reversed the process and then reattached it again, just to make sure I could do both without trouble. For a final test, I unsummoned my armor and called it back. The trinket remained in place when I recalled the armor.

  Selecting a resistance was difficult, as I didn’t need the fire resist after having completed the dungeon. Thinking on the various possibilities, I figured that toxin resistance might be the best call. It would help in a variety of ways, including food poisoning. I already had minor resistance to toxins, so another 5% resistance would help bump it up to something a bit more robust. After 24 hours had passed, I could always shift it to something else.

  Next up was the reward scroll. The system announced its purpose as soon as I grasped it.

  Minion enhancement upgrade scroll. This scroll will allow you to upgrade one of your existing minions, allowing the minion’s selected ability, gear item, or skill upgrade to improve its Rank by 1. This upgrade allows the selection to improve past the current Tier and Rank of the summoner.

  This was a nice surprise, and anything that would let my minions surpass my current tier and rank was welcome. The decision was a bit more difficult. Before, it would be a no brainer, I’d just select something from my most powerful minion. Now, all my minions were the same tier and rank. My drone was a powerhouse and upgrading his attacks or armor was tempting, but so was upgrading the healing abilities of Elida.

  Both had become a bit stronger after hitting tier three, rank one, but they hadn’t unlocked any new abilities or noticeable upgrades to any existing ones. There was no system confirmation, but I had a feeling that they’d see more substantial improvements at rank five, and at each new tier. Of the two minions, I wanted to either improve Elida’s Battle Mender healing ability, or the drone’s combat potential in some way.

  Both minions had exceeded my expectations so far. We hadn’t faced anything too difficult, but the ease of how they handled tier two threats, even elites, was impressive. After considering my options, I realized that Battle Mender also helped to heal both minions in sustained combat, so it was probably the better bang for the buck with the scroll.

  Your minion Elida Silverbarrow has improved her Battle Mender ability. The self-healing component has increased to 52%, and the allied healing component has improved to 26%.

  It wasn’t a huge bump, only 2% more healing for Elida, and 1% for any allies, but it was going to pay dividends in any long, drawn-out fight that we found ourselves in. For a dungeon reward in a tier two ranked dungeon, I couldn’t complain. Last up on my rewards review was my new class feature.

  Summoner’s Gift. You may choose a lesser version of one of your personal offensive or defensive abilities and share it with your minions. Once selected, your choice cannot be changed until your next contracted summoning. Since this summoning is already in progress, an ability has been chosen for you.

  Lesser Riposte. Your minions have a 10% chance to instantly retaliate when struck in melee. The instant strike by your minion will be for 50% of the damage a normal melee strike inflicts, though any special effects or enchantments on the weapon will remain at their full strength.

  While I might have chosen something else if given the option, Riposte was a solid choice for what I expected my minions to face. Both Elida and the drone were primarily melee focused, and the extra attacks, even at 50% damage, would add up quickly. My drone had a mana drain ability, and Elida had a healing one with Battle Mender, which would help to maximize the effects of any additional attacks.

  “Thank you for the delve, I look forward to challenging your dungeon again in the future,” I said loudly to the dungeon core before leaving through the portal that opened nearby. This dungeon hadn’t responded to any of my contact attempts, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t listening, so I’d be as polite as I could when delving.

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  “That was a quick run,” one of the guild guards near the entry portal to the dungeon commented.

  “As long as I come out in one piece, I’m happy,” I replied, not wanting to give up too much information on myself and my abilities. The guard merely nodded in reply as I left to check in with the outpost clerk. Though the guard had been rather nonchalant, the clerk was visibly excited that I had finished early.

  Apparently, there was a bit of a bottleneck, and a lot of adventuring groups were getting impatient with the wait between delves. Mostly, the gathered parties ignored me as I left, my armor not giving them any indication I was with the school. It was probably better not to advertise that I was a professor and had used my school connections to get ahead of the queue.

  I’d feel bad for cutting in line, if the need wasn’t so dire. A few of the waiting groups even tried to recruit me for their runs. Given how over-leveled I was for the dungeon, if I participated in a group, I doubted if I would get any experience from the system. I politely declined and made my way back toward the academy.

  My run was quick and easy, but it granted minimal experience. Even worse, that experience, and the rewards, would be reduced for each successive run I made. Going dungeon delving regularly would generate some benefits, but I needed to progress more quickly if I was going to get strong enough to defeat Gary.

  If I could complete multiple dungeon runs each day, or perhaps convince the guild to let me delve into more difficult dungeons, I could make this work. As it stood, I was worried that I’d only gain a couple more ranks before my confrontation with Gary happened. Before heading back to the academy and my comfortable bed, I took a tour of the shops to see if I could find any upgrades to my gear.

  After my experience with Itzlebit, I kept an eye out for the smaller and more specialized shops. The larger shops catered to the large number of lower tier and rank adventurers and were mostly filled with entry level gear. Of the more powerful gear I found, most were items focused on classes, skills, and abilities that weren’t what I needed.

  That wasn’t to say I struck out entirely. I did manage to find a replacement for my Headband of the Apprentice Summoner, which no longer worked with my minions. With my class changes and the higher tier of my minions, it no longer gave me a bonus. The new headband was called the Circlet of Bolstering.

  The circlet was a simple steel band with a dark green gem in the center. It would grant me and all my minions a bonus of +1 to Constitution. Anything that helped my team stay in the fight longer was a good buy. At nearly forty gold, it was a rather expensive upgrade. It turned out that items that affected more than just the wearer were much harder to acquire, which increased the cost substantially.

  There were a couple of summoning figurines that I picked up as well. One was a tier three, rank zero pack of ghouls that looked interesting, as it was supposed to summon five of the monsters. The other figurine was tier two, rank seven, and it was a gnome pushing a small cart with blades sticking out of it. This figurine was labeled as a gnomish war contraption, and I was curious what the crazy-looking cart would do in combat.

  Both figurines went into my belt pouch, ready for an emergency. It was getting late, and I’d made it through only about a third of the shops in town when I decided to call it a night. I had an early morning meeting with Melody who would help me come up with a schedule for the classes that wanted me to share my experiences as a summoned being.

  One smaller storefront caught my eye as I walked back down a path I hadn’t taken before. At first, it seemed like any of the other shops in the area, though it was rather busy compared to the other smaller shops. The sign over the door is what caught my attention.

  Somhagen Exports.

  I followed a pair of dwarven warriors inside, the two quickly making a beeline for the small bar in the back. The front of the shop was a general store, like many of the others I’d visited, while the back was given over to the bar and a small food counter. Looking for any workers to assist me, I was a bit shocked to find one of the orange-robed attendants that I usually associated with the Summoned Market. The attendant, a middle-aged human woman, gave a friendly smile as I approached.

  “Hello, are you from the Summoned Market in Somhagen?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’m Ingrid, a pleasure to meet you,” she replied.

  “I’m Rico, glad to meet you, Ingrid. Tell me, what brings you out here to this world? I thought you mostly dealt in summoned being cashing in their summoning points. Not only that, but I also thought the market was bound to the city of Somhagen,” I asked.

  “While that is our primary function, we often have stale inventory that needs liquidation. That inventory is offered through small outlets in prominent locations, such as this one. With the academy and a conflux of nearby dungeons, this was determined to be an excellent location. You know, you have that look about you, were you a summoned being at some point?” she asked.

  “I was, and I didn’t realize it somehow showed,” I replied.

  “Hm, not to just anyone, but to someone like me, who has dealt with summoned beings for as long as I have, you seem to get a feel for identifying one. Is there anything I can offer you today? We have a new batch of inventory, and I’ll even throw in a small discount for a previous customer,” Ingrid offered.

  “I’m not looking for anything in particular. Tell me, Ingrid, do the system restrictions still apply if I tell you my class features so you can match products for me?” I asked.

  “They do indeed. That is a restriction placed on us for every customer we deal with, not just the summoned beings,” she replied.

  “Great, let me give you a rundown of what I need,” I said, explaining my class mechanics of the Contracted Summoner.

  “Tell me, Rico, are you interested in additional contracts? We do occasionally get broker requests to recruit interested adventuring parties. With your class and experience as a summoned being, I think there’d be many who would be interested in seeking out your services,” Ingrid asked.

  “Sorry, I’m already here on a contract,” I explained.

  “Oh, I didn’t realize you had agreed to an exclusive contract,” Ingrid said.

  “Wait, exclusive? No, I didn’t have an exclusivity agreement in my contract with the school,” I said, my class ability coming into play to remind me of the details of the existing contract.

  “Excellent, so now that we know you aren’t in an exclusive contract, are you willing to consider new agreements?” Ingrid asked.