A Familiar Foe and a New Ally

 

When Damien got back to the apartment, he was jumped by the other three immediately as he entered.

“Master!”

“Master...”

“Are you hungry?”

Damien chuckled slightly as the last one. Giving them all a hug, he said, “A bit.”

After having to give each of them a kiss, he sat down as Betty finished making breakfast. “So, how did it go?” she asked.

Damien blushed, “Fine...”

“Did she seem pretty happy?”

Damien thought of the beaming smile she had given him, and nodded. “Yeah, she seemed pretty happy.”

Bluey responded, “Of course, anyone would be happy mating with Master.” Aurora nodded in agreement.

Betty brought plates of eggs and hash over, “Right. You'll need to employ that strategy more often if you want to fulfill the Goddess's vision for you.”

Damien sighed, “But I don't need to sleep with every girl I know. I'd rather just stick with who I have.”

Betty blushed but shook her head. “I...appreciate that, but you can't just ignore the Goddess's path for you.”

That's truer than you realize.

 

After breakfast, they headed to the guild to grab some requests. They were still on the plan of level grinding until Damien was 10, and Kara to at least level 8.

As they were looking at the requests, Kara came up, yawning. “Sorry I'm late.”

Betty shook her head and smiled at her, “We only just got here too, we had to wait for Damien to get back.”

Kara blushed, averting her eyes.

What did they tell her!? Actually, it probably wasn't far from the truth...

After a bit, they decided to grab two parasaurolphus quests (since Kara wasn't level 8 yet, she wasn't able to take Bronze-Rank requests yet).

“We should be able to finish this today, especially having Kara with us,” Betty explained.

“Pa-ra-suh-rahl-... what are these?” Kara asked.

Bluey tried explaining while they walked out of the Guild. “...And they have these big shells on their backs. They're really tough, but you can smash through them.”

Kara was nodding slowly. “They sound a bit scary...”

 

After that, they went outside the city to hunt some parasaurolphus. When they found their first group of them, Kara was a bit nervous, seeing the giant creatures growling and swinging their giant tails about. However, the others all sprang into action, casting magic and attacking as if they had rehearsed beforehand.

Betty patted her shoulder, and she started to glow. “Just help Damien distract them long enough for Bluey or Aurora to finish them off.”

Kara shook her head to reset her thoughts and nodded. I can't get distracted just because they look like that! She ran and started throwing conjured knives. They stuck into the leg of the nearest parasaurolphus, which growled angrily, turning to face Kara before swiping at her with its tail. She jumped over it, throwing several more daggers as it staggered around.

After a few minutes, the group of three parasaurolphus had been easily dispatched.

“Wow, you're all incredible! This is easier than the chameleons,” Kara was in awe.

Bluey gave a thumps up, “We're pros at fighting these.”

Aurora nodded, “It's a lot easier when you know what they're going to do ahead of time.”

 

They continued on for the rest of the day, until they had done enough to complete both contracts. Since it was getting into early evening, they decided to head back.

“How close are you?” Betty asked, looking at Damien.

“Pretty close, if we did this again tomorrow, I'd probably hit 10.”

Betty turned to Kara, who nodded, “I should hit eight after a few more of those.”

Betty smiled, “Alright, we'll do this again tomorrow! Assuming they have more quests...”

 

The next day, they only found one parasaurolphus quest (not surprising since they had cleared out two the previous day) but decided to take it anyway and just continue hunting the whole day.

By the end of it, they were taking them out with relative ease. Having five members, they outnumbered and outleveled them easily and, combined with their experience against them, the dinosaurs made for easy prey.

“I don't mind fighting these, but I barely get any XP,” Bluey bemoaned as they finished off another group.

Betty nodded, “I know, this is for Damien and Kara.”

Kara blushed, “Thanks for helping me...” She pulled up her status screen, “Wait, I leveled up!” She started going through her level up eagerly.

Bluey and Aurora crowded. “Ohh, what are you taking? I don't know what Rogues get...”

Betty giggled and turned to Damien. “What about you?”

Damien blushed, “I actually got mine a bit earlier, I'm just waiting until we get back home to go through it.”

Betty nodded. “That's a good idea, it's a big decision.”

 

They finished off a couple more groups of parasaurolphus, then headed back to Ancona. They decided to go get dinner at the inn together.

While the girls were all chatting and drinking while they waited for their food, Damien pulled up his status screen. Hmm...

 

Damien leveled up

Summoner – Level 10

STR – 57

VIT – 61

MAG – 125

DEX – 60

 

Stat Share

Heal (summon)

Summon Boost

Summon XP Trade Boost

Message

Summon Start-Up Boost

Copy Ability

Summon Tether

 

Barely any stats as usual, but oh well. And no ability as expected, because... He went back out to his main status screen and saw another notification icon.

 

New Summon Available

 

He pulled up the list and started going through it. If the theme of his first summon was basic creatures, and the second was creatures with an element attached, these options were a bit more on the fantasy-side. Spirits, satyrs, mermaids, and other stuff he would expect from a children's fairy tail of his own world (including actual fairies).

He started going through the list, seeing what each one was like. Lots of magic based ones, only a couple physical...not like we necessarily need that with Bluey and Kara in the party. There's some healers, but we already have Betty, and I can heal the summons as well. I wonder if there's something we don't really have covered yet.

He kept scrolling, and Betty gave him a look of worry. “Are you okay, Damien? Do you not like any of the choices?”

Damien shook his head, “It's not that, I'm just making sure I see everything before I choose.”

Eventually, he found one that he thought was a good pick based on the brief description. Pixies – Can fly, provide support with a wide variety of spells, including invisibility, blinding lights, and sleep. This seems like it could really help our team. Crowd control is always good, right?

He was, however, a bit concerned about what would happen when it hit level 10. It's already sort of humanoid, so will it just get bigger? Or will it still be able to change it's appearance? I guess as long as she can choose, it's fine.

He put away his status screen and nodded at Betty, who smiled back at him.

 

After dinner, they got ready to leave back to their apartment. “Master, did you make a decision?”

Damien smiled and nodded. “Yup, I'll summon her when we get back.”

Bluey raised her eyebrows, “Oh, another girl,” and gave a knowing smile.

Damien sighed, but had no defense.

As they went to leave, Kara cleared her throat. “Um...is it okay if I come meet her too? I've never seen a summoning before.”

Everyone looked at her, then quickly ushered her with them.

“Of course! We weren't trying to exclude you,” Betty explained.

“It's really exciting, getting teleported into Master's lap...” Aurora reminisced.

 

When they got back to their apartment, they all gathered round as Damien sat on the couch. He quickly pulled back up the status screen and went to select Pixie. He was given a few color options, but wasn't sure what to pick. Uhhh...this dark green looks cute. It's hard to tell what she'll look like out of the screen, though.

When he went to select the gender, he ran into a familiar issue. The slider won't even budge this time, it's just stuck on female. I mean, I was going to do that anyway, but...well, whatever.

“Alright, I'm gonna summon a pixie.”

He got four pairs of raised, confused eyebrows.

“What's that, Master?” Bluey asked.

Aurora nodded. “I've never heard of them.”

Kara nodded in agreement.

Betty looked at Kara, then at Damien. “Is it from your...you know...”

Damien took a moment, then realize what she was implying. “Oh, well they were in our stories, but they didn't actually exist in my old world.”

Kara was now more confused. “Your old world? Like did you come from a different continent.”

Damien shook his head. “Um, I guess since we're a party, I should tell you...” and proceeded to explain the story of his arrival to this word.

Kara and Betty were crying by the end. “That's such an amazing tale.”

Damien sighed, “Why are you crying too, Betty? This is like your fourth time hearing it.”

Betty dabbed her eye, “It's just...so sad...”

“Yeah, but I wouldn't have met you all if I hadn't come here...”

“It's kind of incredible you came from somewhere completely different, but I guess summons do too...” Kara thought.

While everyone was emotional, Bluey clapped her knees. “Master...I wanna see the summon!”

Everyone took a moment, then laughed.

Damien realized he still had one thing left to do – think of a name. Hmm, Aurora was nice, but I don't know if I can think of anything that good again. Maybe I should just picked a short, cute name like 'Bluey' again.

After a couple minutes, he thought of one. Poppy! Yeah, we'll go with that. Poppy the pixie.

After clicking 'Finish', a small glow appeared in front of him. After a moment, Poppy was there flapping her wings as she floated in front of him.

“P-poppy?” he said tentatively.

Poppy smirked, then flew over and grabbed his ear, tugging it. “What are you doing giving me a name like 'Poppy!?' Couldn't you think of something better?”

While everyone else was too stunned for words, Bluey was having none of it. “Hey! Master gives cute names. There's nothing wrong with them.”

Aurora nodded, “Poppy is a cute name.”

Poppy sighed, letting got of his ear, shaking her head as she floated down onto Damien's lap. “Fine, fine. Maybe I'll get used to it. Why did you summon me though? You didn't like your other options?”

Hmm, she seems familiar with stuff already. Maybe she's really intelligent? I mean, I thought Bluey and Aurora were, but that was compared to normal slimes and foxes. “Well, I thought the types of magic you could get might be helpful, since it sounded like you could get a lot of utility spells.”

Poppy blushed slightly, noticeable against her green cheeks. “Fine, fine, I guess you-”

“I thought the pixies looked really cute, too, so-”

Poppy flew up into his jaw to shut his mouth. “You don't need to go that far, I'm just your summon, not-” she stopped again and looked around. “Wait, why are you surrounded by girls? Are you a two-timer? Er...four-timer?” she added after quickly counting.

Bluey shook her head, “Master has more than four women.”

Betty also shook her head, “How is he 'timing' us if we all know about each other?”

Poppy nodded as if conceding. “That's fair.”

Kara, who was blushing at the accusation, “I'm not his woman! I'm just a party member!”

Poppy flew over and looked at Kara blushing, then smirked. “What? Is my Master not good enough for you?”

“You just got summoned and you're already defending him? Actually, didn't you comment on this in the first place!?” Kara seemed confused.

Poppy giggled a high pitch giggle that sounded almost like a bell jingling. “Hehe, I'm just teasing you.”

She seems like a mischievous one... Damien thought. While she was busy teasing/chatting with the others, Damien pulled up her status screen:

 

Poppy

Pixie – Level 1

STR – 34

VIT – 40

MAG – 84

DEX – 61

 

Pixie Sparkle – Temporarily blind an enemy.

 

Dam, Stat Boost is putting in some work already with those level 1 stats. That's an interesting ability, too.

 

“Are you really his lover? Those two have big boobs, but you're almost a washboard. Even I have bigger ones than you,” Poppy giggled, the mischievous grin on her face again.

Damien was about to reprimand her, but Betty smiled and cross her arms haughtily. “Of course! Damien goes crazy over me every night. You don't need big boobs when you have my charm.”

Poppy was slightly taken aback.

Damien grabbed her wings.

“Hey! Those are delicate! Even if you're my Master-”

“Poppy, apologize to her. If you wanna tease that's fine, but that's too far.”

Betty shook her head, but Poppy bowed her head. “I'm sorry.”

Betty blushed, “It's okay, I'm not upset.”

Poppy turned to Damien, “I'm sorry, Master, I just like to tease a bit sometimes.”

Damien shook his head, “That's fine, just try to keep it from getting mean.”

Poppy nodded. “I'll apologize to you with my body,” she said, and tried to comically drag him off the couch.

The others seemed confused (Kara blushing again), although Bluey gave a fist pump. “Yeah, you can have Master first tonight.”

Damien grabbed her (gently) and held her up his face. “Um, why are you trying to do that?”

Poppy blushed again. “You summoned me to be a lover, too, right? I don't mind. You must be pretty great if you have this many.”

“No, that's not-”

“My boobs are pretty big, too, see?” she said, pulling down her dress.

Despite the situation, Damien looked. If comparing to the rest of her body, her breasts actually were fairly large, although it was hard to completely tell. “But...”

He was saved from having to explain by Aurora, who explained, “You're so small, though. Once you reach level 10, you should be able to change your form, like Bluey and I did, then-”

Poppy held her cheeks, blushing, “I can't wait that long. We'll figure something out.”

No, I don't think we can.

Betty, however, leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Even if you can't have sex, spending some alone time with your new summon might be a good idea anyway.”

Damien nodded, realizing this was true.

Betty went to Bluey and Aurora, whispering to them as well.

“Hey, what's wrong? Why aren't you saying anything to me?” Poppy said.

Betty smiled, “It's okay, we agreed to let you have Damien tonight.”

Bluey and Aurora nodded.

“Kara, is it okay if I sleep with you at the inn? That way Aurora and Betty can share the other bed,” she giggled.

Kara took a second to respond (she seemed to have taken a stance of 'this is crazy'), “Of-of course! It was fun on Estora to have some company.”

The others all left the apartment or to the other room, leaving Damien and Poppy. “Come on, Master!” she said, resuming trying to drag him.

Damien sighed and get off the couch. What even...