6 Ch. 5 New Equipment and Double Teaming (1/2)

At the crack of dawn, I wake up and begin doing my morning routine of eating breakfast while my summons both eat their respective cores. Instead of heading straight to the gate like I normally do, I veer on the cobbled street towards the commercial district to pick up my wolf-hide jacket and tusk dagger that I had commissioned earlier in the week.

I enter the smithy soon after walking into the burgeoning district and once again see Garth behind the counter. The moment he sees me he instantly reaches under the counter and pulls out a curved ivory-colored dagger from what used to be a boars' tusk along with the sheathe it goes in.

After admiring the craftmanship for a while and testing the sharpness, I pay Garth the remaining 2 credits I owe him and secure the dagger and its' holster to my waist before going a few shops down to the leather workers shop.

I greet the worker after entering the pungent shop to which he just motions for me to follow him to the back. We enter into a larger back room with a plethora of leather in various stages of being stretched, cured, dyed, and then made into clothes.

Hanging up with the rest of the finished pieces is a sleek black wolf hide jacket that the leatherworker hands to me. I put on the jacket and feel it's cool but smooth interior coupled with the warm and soft fur coating on the outside. I give my thanks to the leatherworker before heading out the door having already paid for it when I commissioned it.

After having gotten both of my previously ordered items from the respective stores, I head towards the gate giddy with anticipation at the thought of all of the monsters my summons will be able to defeat with their combined might.

With those idle thoughts running through my head, I managed to entertain myself till I pass through the gate and am able to bring out both of my summons who both seem ecstatic to be out of their crystals. They seem almost as if not more so happy at seeing me, judging by the way they happily pounce on me the moment I bring them out.

After giving them enough attention and head pats which Brutus seems to greatly enjoy, I indicate to them that we should head north, and I lead my party once more into the forest with the aim of making money and growing stronger.

Money is my most important focus currently because there are many things that money will allow me access to or at least make things easier for Mira and I. When I eventually have enough after all of the costs deducted from summoner expenses, I'll focus on making my summons stronger or better. Summoning seems to eat up most of my money currently, but money isn't my priority because, with power, money can be easily gotten at any point in time.

Eventually, we come to the border of the outer area of the forest where the tier 1's reside and I adopt a serious expression on my face, any lax in concentration could result in my untimely demise to even tier 1's if they were smart about it or just plain lucky.

With the combined assault of Jareth and Brutus, we managed to tear through 12 tier 1 monsters, some of which were in groups that were taken care of almost as easily as the individual monsters, the only ones of note were 4 spiderlings that must have traveled from a nest in search of food in two separate pairs.

Before we enter the territory of tier 2 monsters I decide to take a break and feed my summons a core each before bringing out my own cheap but satisfying meal of meat stew with hard bread that Mira had set out for me this morning.

After resting long enough to recover some energy and finish our respective meals, we enter the tier 2 area deeper in the forest. Soon enough we come across another iron-hide boar which Jareth and Brutus quickly take care of, they manage it with no injuries as a result of their team work and having the numbers advantage.

With quite a bit more space remaining in my storage and a decent amount of daylight left, we continue our trek before coming across a pair of spike tailed squirrels, each summon takes on one of the squirrels by themselves.

Jareth has an easy time with his squirrel due to his reach with his club, but Brutus was at a standstill with his squirrel due to the danger presented by its tail and his lack of any ranged attacks that would let him escape said tail. He manages to trick the squirrel once with his illusion ability and takes a swipe at its face.