Chapter 17 - Credit

  “It’s a Familiar summoning ritual?” Reuf asked.

  “That would be my best guess,” Daniel said. “It’s different from any of the ones I’ve seen, but that isn’t unusual. Familiar summoning rituals are unique to the Familiar intended to be summoned.”

  “But I thought that was a complicated ritual,” Jack said. “I remember you telling me it wasn’t something that could be done easily.”

  “It’s not,” Daniel said. “It’s not a ritual that can be done with just Mana and formations alone. Each Familiar summoning and binding require specific formations and items, but I can’t see any associated with this ritual or any of the other rituals up here.”

  “Perhaps it uses the store feature for resupplying and purchasing as the other displays,” Reuf said.

  “It’s possible,” Zajowle said. “But I still haven’t seen anything like a storeroom here.”

  “Could it use one of those portal storages like the ones you and Jack have?” Elaine asked.

  Zajowle paused in thought for a moment. “That might be possible. I didn’t consider that, but that would mean that the shop has a pocket dimension built into the design.”

  “It is the Akashic Order,” Jack said. “I don’t know how difficult it would be to do that, but almost every building we have inspected so far had some kind of spatial warping to them. I don’t think adding a pocket dimension for a storage room would be out of the question.”

  “Still, that would only answer how, not what,” Daniel said. “There is still no way to determine what kind of Familiar it will summon.”

  “Could be a waste,” Elaine said. “But of all the things here that we know about, I can only think of two items from the first floor that might be useful for us right now. If we are going to try to purchase anything, it should probably be that runic cube and bouncing ball. We might not have much money right now, but we might be able to afford those two.”

  “True,” Zajowle said. “Those would be the best to choose in our current state. We can test it by trying to remove one and seeing if the System lets us.”

  “How much money did we collect from the goblins?” Reuf asked.

  “I have six-hundred and thirteen copper pieces and 2 Silver pieces from all that,” Jack said checking his Storage. Since he was the only one with the Storage ability at the time, he still had all their loot and money from the battle. Fortunately, a feature of his Storage ability separated all the System currency into its own area for viewing, making it easy for Jack to always know how much he had at a glance.

  “Is that a lot?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I had more in my back up bag before I was captured,” Zajowle sighed.

  “It’s not a lot considering,” Reuf confirmed. “Even if we sell most of the loot we got from the goblins as scrap, we should still make more than what we currently have. Another way to look at it is, whatever we do end up spending won’t be hard to earn again.”

  “Yes,” Zajowle confirmed. “The Goblin King’s head can be turned in for at least a gold in some places. Two if it’s a dwarven town.”

  “Don’t remind me that I still have that in my inventory,” Jack grimaced.

  “Why do you still have that?” Daniel asked.

  “Savgar wants it,” Jack explained.

  “Let’s see if what we have is enough to purchase one of the items below,” Elaine said. “It won’t help much, but better than not having them.”

  “Which one should we try first?” Jack asked.

  “Maybe the Runic cube,” Zajowle suggested. “If there is a chance that we can only afford one, then that will be the most useful. We can raise our stats through training, but we can’t learn this Runic script without assistance.”

  They moved as a group back to the first floor. Once there, Jack didn’t waste any time. He walked up to the cube and attempted to remove it from the display. He had barely begun to lift it when a message appeared in front of him.

  *Purchase Toy Runic Cube?”

  Y/N?

  Mentally, Jack chose yes, but that only brought up a second message.

  *Member Status level: Associate of the Akashic Order*

  First time purchase detected

  As a newly joined Member of the Akashic Order you have been granted one Akashic credit that can be used for one free purchase from any of the member’s shops instead of using coins or contribution points. Would you like to purchase this item with Akashic credit?

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  “Not enough coin?” Elaine asked.

  “Not sure,” Jack said. “I got a strange message when I tried. I apparently got something called Akashic credit since I’m a member of the Order. It says I can use it to purchase any one thing from this place. The System called it a member’s shop.”

  “Don’t waste a free purchase on something we might be able to afford ourselves,” Zajowle said quickly. “You should use that on one of the more expensive items. It doesn’t mention a cost limit of the credit, right?”

  “No, it doesn’t mention a cost limit,” Jack said. “But what good would an expensive item we don’t know anything about do us?”

  “What purpose?” Zajowle asked, deeply confused. “To sell of course. One rare item from here could sell for hundreds, maybe thousands of golds.”

  “It would be gambling,” Daniel said, ignoring Zajowle’s protest.

  “Can you purchase the items without the credit or is that the only form allowed here?” Elaine asked.

  “It mentions purchasing with coins or contribution points,” Jack said. “Pretty sure I have no contribution points. I’m not sure what that is or how to get them.”

  “Contribution points are usually something of an internal currency in a group. You help or contribute to the group or a project sponsored by them and you get something akin to money but specific to that group,” Daniel explained. “A lot of groups use a system like it. The Wizard’s Order uses it as well.”

  “I think I remember seeing a couple places back on Earth do something like that,” Elaine said.

  “So, we can get more by contributing to the Akashic Order?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Maybe if the Order wasn’t gone,” Jack said. “I don’t think that will be an option for us. I’ll try to purchase it with coins for now.” It only took a few more prompts to get to the point where Jack could purchase the item with coins.

  *Purchase Toy Runic Cube with coins (1 sp)?*

  Y/N?

  Jack selected yes and he was able to remove the item from the pedestal. A moment later, a new Runic Cube appeared on the display as though the one in Jack’s hand had never been removed.

  “How much was it?” Elaine asked.

  “Only one silver piece,” Jack said, tossing the cube to Daniel. He checked his Storage and as expected, one of the silver pieces had automatically been removed from his inventory.

  “Cheap,” Zajowle said. “As expected.”

  “How much would something like this go for in Altur?” Daniel asked.

  “With the Wizard’s Order there,” Zajowle said. “Who’s to say. Afterall, can you really put a price on forgotten knowledge? I personally wouldn’t sell it to them for gold. That would be a waste. Not when a favor can go much further.”

  “Should we get another one then?” Jack asked. “One to share amongst ourselves and one to barter with?”

  “Maybe later,” Reuf said. “Let’s just get the one for now.”

  “Maybe we should hold off on the stat training tool for now as well,” Daniel said. “Just in case we come across something else we might want later.”

  “I could get it with my credit,” Jack offered, but everyone turned that thought down.

  “Only if you want to,” Reuf said. “The money was gained from the combined effort of the group so it makes sense to use it on what can best help everyone, but that credit came from your status, not the efforts of the group. You should only use it on something you want.”

  “I agree,” Daniel said. “I don’t believe it is something you will be able to get another of.”

  “Well,” Jack said hesitantly. “There is something I wouldn’t mind using it on, and I can almost guarantee the price of it would be out of our budget.”

  “The Familiar summoning?” Elaine asked.

  Jack nodded. “I must admit I have been curious about Familiars since I arrived. I was planning on waiting until Daniel could get the material and ritual created to perform one, but that might be a while, and we have one right here. Who knows, a new Familiar might even prove useful.”

  “Well, if that is what you wish to use it on,” Daniel said. “I admit, I am curious about the type of Familiar the Akashic Order used, and if it is something that is unhelpful then you can simply dismiss the summoning before making the contract. But you might still lose the credit.”

  “I think it might be worth it,” Jack said. “So far, everything I have gotten from the Order has proved useful and has saved my life a few times. It might be the same for this Familiar.”

  “One more trip to the fourth floor then?” Reuf asked.

  They all filed back up to the fourth floor again. Jack went up to the ritual Daniel had indicated before and positioned himself in front of it. Everyone formed a circle around the diagram waiting. Daniel took up the spot next to Jack, leaning heavily over his shoulder as Jack approached the pedestal for the ritual.

  “You are certain you want to do this?” Daniel asked.

  Jack nodded. “Yeah. It might be a waste, but I’ll do it anyways. I’m already heavily invested in the Akashic Order. I’m also curious. There might even be some kind of synergy between the Akashic classes and this Familiar.”

  “Could be,” Daniel said scratching his chin. “Well, if you’re sure.”

  “Can you check how much it cost without the credit first?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Oh yeah, sure,” Jack said. He was glad someone said something, as he wouldn’t have thought to do that originally. Jack reached out to start the process and was met with a similar message as before.

  *Purchase service: Random Tri-Familiar Summoning (Unique, Special)?*

  Perform the Ritual to summon and bind Familiars? This Ritual will summon three random Familiars. The Familiars summoned will be compatible with the summoner but unpredictable. The Summoner can choose to bind with one or more of the Familiars if desired.

  (Warning!: Binding contract will differ between Familiars)

  Pay for Ritual with Akashic credit?

  Y/N?

  Jack froze. Three Familiars! And it would let him bind with all of them if he wanted to. Was that even a thing? Daniel never mentioned having more than one, but why would the Akashic Order design a ritual like this for anyone to use if it wasn’t a common thing?

  “What is it?” Elaine asked. “You look like you are going to be sick.”

  “What?” Reuf asked.

  “What happened?” Daniel asked

  “One second,” Jack said. He quickly moved through the screens until he got the cost of the ritual in coins.

  “Alright, so a couple of things,” Jack said. “One, the cost would normally be three gold per use.”

  “Three gold!” Elizabeth groaned.

  “That is cheaper than I expected actually,” Daniel said. “It cost twenty gold at the Wizard’s Order. Then again, I never actually performed the ritual myself. Do you think they overcharged me?”

  “If they told you the price and you were willing to pay it, can you truly call that overcharging?” Zajowle asked instead.

  “Yes,” Elaine said. “To both. We are a newly integrated species that know practically nothing about the true worth of anything. Everyone is overcharging us for everything. What’s the second thing?”

  “I can’t believe I took out that loan,” Daniel muttered.

  Jack took a deep breath. “The second thing is that this ritual summons three random Familiars based on the summoner and lets you bind with all of them if you want to.”

  Everyone was silent for a moment until Daniel broke the silence. “I was definitely overcharged.”