Three Challenge rewards, and he had to select one. Knowledge, Wealth, or Assistance. That was all the detail that The System had provided him. Not a lot to go on, he thought. He started going through each of the options. Knowledge was a hard one. He didn’t know enough about The System or how it worked. Did it mean information about the Dungeon? Or information about his Class? Would it provide him with a book of sigils? Or maybe something on rune crafting? The options were myriad. Also, they often said knowledge was power. But there was no guarantee of what he would get, and if he was being perfectly honest with himself, he didn’t even know what he needed.
As for the second option, Wealth was pretty clear-cut. He’d be given something of value to society. But he already had a tonne of gold in his spatial storage, and he moved down to the final option without giving it a second glance. Assistance. That was vague, too. If Knowledge wasn’t an option, he would’ve thought Assistance could be information about The System. But having both options present made him wonder if it could be something more literal, like someone or something to help him with the Dungeon. Would the System just kidnap some poor person off the side of the street and dump them in here with him?
“Here you go. Help each other. Best of luck,” Nate said out loud, playing out the scene with a laugh.
Maybe Assistance would be an animal companion. He’d seen those before in roleplaying games, and it seemed more likely that if the System was going to kidnap something, it’d be a creature rather than a person.
Looking back over the three, he weighed the pros and cons of Knowledge versus Assistance. In the end, though, what made the decision for him was the possibility of companionship. He’d been here a few days now, on his own. He’d had moments of being alone back on Earth, like when he’d been out making graffiti. Or preparing to do so. But he’d spent a lot of time out of the apartment with his friends or just wiling away the hours in public places. So, even if he was lonely at times, he was rarely alone. But he’d felt alone here. He’d been keeping himself busy, first with just surviving and now with the joy of levelling as he tried to find out how to escape the Dungeon. But he was still lonely. So, before he could second guess himself further, he thought Assistance at The System.
The System message closed instantly, and he felt a prickling pain in his chest. It was uncomfortable but nothing like what he’d just been through. Quickly pulling up his hoodie and shirt, he got a couple of seconds to look at the most complex runic array he’d seen yet. In the brief look at it, he saw at least fifty sigils interspersed within a hexagon filled with at least a hundred geometric shapes. Before he could do more than stare in wonder at the beauty of it, the rune faded, and he felt a slight tug on the mana from his Class Core.
A small amount of his mana seemed to float out of his chest and began to coalesce in front of him in the form of a pale white mist. Slowly the mist condensed into what Nate thought looked like a small humanoid shape that maybe stood as tall as his waist. The mana continued to flow out of his core, powering whatever was working the rune had created until, with a minor flash that Nate thought looked a lot like the rainbow he’d seen between universes, a small blue creature appeared.
“Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff!” it crowed as it turned to face Nate. The face of a blue goblin with razor-sharp teeth and a hungry smile stared back at him.
He freaked out, his hand instantly coming up and mana flowing into his projectile rune as he stepped away from the creature. Two seconds later, a chunk of stone blasted straight through the little blue creature. The resulting explosion of dust from the stone impacting the floor concealed the little bastard. The System had ripped him off. Instead of sending assistance, it sent him a monster.
Nate heard coughing coming from within the cloud of dust. A moment later, the little blue goblin walked out of concealing dust, dramatically coughing and retching before it peered up at Nate with one eye, its head slightly turned. It jumped around to face him, scaring Nate all over again.
“I’m just kidding, mate. I don’t breathe! Ha! You can call me Skullcrusher. No, no, no. Call me Meatrender. No, that's no good either. Yeah, call me Blooddrinker! No, that’s garbage. I need to get the right mix of powerful and scary while also acknowledging my goblin roots.”
Nate stared at the blue goblin, mouth agape.
“You can talk… and you even called me mate… what the hell are you?” Nate asked.
The blue goblin stared at him for a moment, then looked around, spinning on the spot until it had completed a full three hundred and sixty-degree turn.
“We’re in a Dungeon, aren’t we?” the goblin's face broke into a huge grin, and it started doing a little foot-stomping dance. “We’re in a fucking Dungeon! Jackpot! I’m going to get so much mana from this contract!”
“Contract?”
The goblin stopped its little dance and looked at Nate. “Yeah, boss. Contract. The Familiar contract. I can feel it in your chest pumping that sweet, sweet mana to me.” The little bastard of a thing started fake drooling as it stared at him. “Sooo good.”
“The System gave me a goblin as a Familiar? You’re my Assistance?”
The goblin stopped messing about for a second and looked at Nate's face for a moment before its eyes drifted down to his chest, its stare growing intense.
“Could you answer a single one of my questions, you crazy little bastard?!” Nate asked irritably.
“Alright, Boss. Let’s go for the quickest recap I can manage. I am a Spirit. Not a goblin. But I get to choose my shape, which is why you get this glorious figure assisting you! Yes, I am your Familiar. The contract is pretty standard. I get a little sip of the mana from your Mana Reserve and, in turn, you get my assistance. Most Mages find it a worthwhile trade. Extra set of hands notwithstanding. And to your final question about the mate comment, I am drawing my language capabilities from you. You think Spirits speak whatever this gobbledegook you got going on is? No. It’s part of the contract. So now we’re mates. Best buds. Forever friends!”
Nate stared at the goblin… spirit… familiar… whatever it was to him. His thoughts jumbled as his advanced intellect processed the information, but one thing stood out to him as incongruent.
“You can choose your own shape? Why the hell would you choose a goblin?” he asked.
“Because they’re obviously the most powerful species there is,” responded the spirit with a feral grin.
“I would’ve said they’re one of the weakest personally. They were always considered fodder in the games back on Earth. Are they more powerful here?”
“Pfft, you living beings don’t understand what power is. Goblins are the most reviled sapient species that exists! Everyone hates goblins. Even goblins hate goblins. And yet, for all that hate and self-hate and the cycle of violence that ensues, goblins still exist. Never been destroyed. If that’s not power, I don’t know what is! To survive in the face of those odds…. they’re like a plague! Only better. Because they’ve never been cured!” the familiar cackled at his little spiel.
Nate stared at the goblin as it danced around, laughing like a lunatic.
“How come my earthen projectile didn’t harm you?” he asked.
“I’m just a visual projection from the contract in your chest right now. I’d need to draw more mana to take on physical properties.”
“You said you're taking mana from my Mana Reserve? Am I going to run out of mana because of this…contract?”
The familiar continued to hop around, looking like a feral blue child if you ignored the big ears and sharp teeth. “Not while we’re in the Dungeon. And the draw is negligible if I am not projecting like I am now. So, you should be fine outside the Dungeon as long as I am only projecting. Ambient mana will be enough to fill your tank and support me.”
“Is it going to slow my levelling due to feeding you?”
The goblin stopped hopping around and looked straight at him like he was an idiot. “Aren’t you a Legendary Mage? How do you not know the difference between your Mana Reserve and your Class Core?”
Nate toyed with the idea of how honest he wanted to be. “Does the contract force you to keep my secrets?”
“Of course. Be a pretty shitty contract if it didn’t protect you, wouldn’t it? But yes. I can’t tell others your secrets.”Deciding to trust that the Familiar… his Familiar, he supposed, was telling the truth, he opened up. “I’m new to this universe. Only been here a few days, and my old universe didn’t have mana.”“No way, you’re a Dead Realmer?!” the Spirit paused, goggling at him with his big blue eyes. “You must know absolutely bupkis, hey? But you got a Legendary Class already….in just a few days? You’re under level twenty, aren’t you? I can’t access your Class Core till you let me. But you’ve got a Legendary Class as your first Primary Class? Totally unevolved?”
Nate just nodded dumbly.
“We’re going to get so much mana!” The little blue familiar started jumping up and down again in excitement before it settled down to explain. “Okay. Class Core basics. Ambient mana can’t be used to advance your Class Core until it has been processed by, you guessed it, your Class Core. Which means it can only process a bit at a time. Wow, your language has such good words for describing things. Your Class Core processing speed is a rate-limiting step, yeah? Yeah.
“Anyway, your Mana Reserve can use ambient mana. As much as it can hold. That’s what you use to cast spells and activate some skills. I am using your Mana Reserve. The ambient mana. The excess that is too much for your Class Core. So no, I will not slow your levelling. Speaking of, where is the rest of your team?”
“I’m in here on my own. Kind of got stuck here.” Nate said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. This story is hosted at g.com.
“On your own? In a Dungeon? Oh shit, we’re going to die! I don’t want to go back yet. It’s too soon! I’m so young! And there is so much mana left to absorb!” the familiar started wailing, beating its hands on the floor ineffectually.
“That’s a little unfair. I got this far and beat one of the Challenges. That is how I got you,” Nate quipped.
The familiar stopped its tantrum act and rolled over on its side, looking up at him. “That’s a good point. You seem relatively intact. A little crispy, but in this mana, that should fade pretty quickly. And you do have a Legendary Class. Alright, I am in! Solo Dungeon Conquering, here we come. Gimme all the mana! So which Challenge is next?” It jumped back to its feet and looked from one door to the next. “One down, eh? Two to go!”
“And the giant crab in the lake,” Nate interjected.
The blue goblin spun on him. “There is a bonus Challenge?! Oh, we’re definitely doing that first. They give the absolute best rewards. No doubt about it. And I need you to live a long and fruitful life so you can veritably drown me in mana!”
Nate snorted at first but then stopped to think about it. He did have four Intents now he could impart to his runes. Speed, shape, direction, and density might be enough to fight the creature. If he could lure it out of the water.
“I suppose it would be possible. You’re sure that it’s a bonus Challenge?”
“Definitely. Anything singular like that and off the main path of a Dungeon,” the familiar waved at the doors behind him. “Always a bonus Challenge. Well, almost always. Look, I am fifty percent confident you’ll get something good. Even if all you get is processed mana,” the familiar muttered quietly.
“What would happen if we left it alone?” asked Nate.
“If it was still alive when you completed the Dungeon? The System would just move it to another Dungeon. It tends to reuse things,” responded the familiar.
Nate nodded. It made sense. No point ignoring it if it was fated to remain in Dungeons till defeated. Plus it should give him at least another level, and if the pattern continued, that hopefully meant another Skill. Looking back at the spirit, his familiar now, he reminded himself he was about to ask if it knew how often Classes got new Skills when he realised something. The little bastard had never settled on a name.
“So, did you decide what you wanted to be called?” he asked.
It was hard to tell with the goblin's lips and facial structure, but Nate could swear his familiar was smirking at him. “Oh yes. You can call me Frick.”
Nate shrugged and was about to go back to planning his next battle when he heard the goblin whisper, “Because in your language, that means fuck.”
Nate sighed and hung his head in his hands. This spirit was going to be a handful. He silently shook his fist at The System. This little bastard better be worth it! Looking back up he asked, “Do Classes get a new Skill every five levels?”
“Yep. That’s basic stuff. Oh, right, Dead Realmer. Umm, what else would you not know…. Classes can evolve every twenty levels. And you won’t get offered a Secondary Class until you’re at level twenty-one in your Primary. Hmm, oh yeah, higher tier Classes level slower. Takes more processed mana. But they’re more efficient, so kudos to you. Same for Skills. They get better with levels and evolve every 20 levels. Suppose the last thing is, your achievements will affect whether or not you can evolve your Class to a higher tier and will also affect the quality of Classes you get offered for your Secondary Class.
“I think that’s all you need to know for now. Now up up up. We’ve got a crab to beat, loot to collect, and mana to munch on.” Frick smirked up at Nate. “See how thoughtful I am? Those first two were all about you. All I care about is that succulent, absolutely delectable mana! Also, don’t you mortals normally wear more clothes than this?”
Nate winced at Frick commenting on his partial nudity. Looking down at Frick, he sighed, intentionally ignoring the question. Making sure he had all his runes and tools, he turned and headed down the corridor toward the workshop, not waiting to see if his Familiar followed him.
“I thought it was that way?” asked Frick.
“It is. But we’re looting the workshop first,” he replied, walking toward the now empty workshop.