Chapter 15 - Treasure

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“You have selected ‘Infernal Summoner’ as your class. You have acquired 1 free Control Limit Slot for minionization purposes due to your class selection. You have made a pact with Oblivion Imp. Oblivion Imp is now registered as your minion. To see more information about your minion, go to its Status Page. Please note that minion status pages accessed from your own page are simplified unless you specifically ask your minion to show you the entire version.”

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A spark of energy flashed between them and he abruptly felt the imp’s presence as an extension of his own. The prompt then disappeared a couple seconds later and was immediately followed up by another prompt. This one was a detailed explanation of how his newfound class would work, and Trey was rather delighted to have such information available to him. He’d been worried after the initial debrief on classes that he’d have to fish around in the dark for details, but apparently that wasn’t the case.

Not entirely, anyways.

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“The Infernal Summoner Class focuses on the ability to bind Demonic, Fallen, and Enslaved class minions to you. Minions are essentially extensions of the summoner: they are unable to knowingly cause you direct harm, they must obey direct commands, and you have complete control over their status pages and growth. Because you are now an infernal summoner, you gain the knowledge of what it takes to become one. The criteria are as follows:

1 - Dark magic attribute combined with either Curse or Chaos magic attributes.

2 - A demonic, fallen, or enslaved class NPC has either befriended you or is subjugated by you.

3 - A high affinity for violence.

4 - A powerful soul.

“There are several branches and types of Infernal Summoners with different personalized skill trees depending on which magic combination you have, the choices you make while governing your minions, and your eventual subclass fighting style. Your magic combination of Dark and Chaos will reflect a role more personally DPS (Damage Per Second / High Damage Output) oriented when compared to Curse wielding summoners, whereas Curse combinations within the summoner profession reflect skill trees that enhance minions with buffs more-so than yours does. Other than that, it is up to you on whether or not you wish to be a benevolent or cruel master, or which subclass you eventually take.”

“When compared to Warlocks, which are essentially another side to the same coin, Infernal Summoners do not have a cap on how many minions they require and focus more on subjugating. Warlocks on the other hand can have a maximum of 1 minion early on, but focus more on high damage output with offensive spells. At much higher levels, Warlocks are also able to acquire more than 1 minion if they choose the correct subclass. However, this is at a much costlier expenditure of Willpower stat points than a summoner would ever need."

"There are aggressive and passive ways to acquire minions. As an infernal summoner you will have the option to subjugate your minions, forcing them into contracts against their will instead of befriending them or cutting a deal, but in turn you may have occasional rebellions with battles of will to maintain authority if you keep them too unhappy. Such a rebellion, where the minion’s will overpowers the master’s will, could lead to losing the minion or even being killed by your previous minion.”

“As with all classes concerning minions, the ‘Willpower’ stat is very important and will directly determine how many minion slots are available. You have 1 free minion slot to start off with that requires no Willpower, but every 5 Willpower for the control slots 2-10 you will obtain 1 additional open slot to use as an Infernal Summoner. This Willpower requirement per minion is different for other minionizing classes."

"PLEASE NOTE: Every 10 control slots your Willpower requirement per slot will double, this rule is broad spectrum across all minionizing classes.”

“For Infernal Summoners, minions will require anywhere from 1 to 3 minion slots dependent upon both happiness of the minion and relative power of the minion. Happiness concerning their opinion of you comes in positive or negative categories: Negative categories include things like Hated, Feared, or Disliked, while Positive categories include things like Loved, Admired, and Liked."

"These happiness categories can be monitored through your status page under the minions tab or on their status pages, and come with various benefits or penalties. Some of this is common sense: Although minions are bound to do as you say, a minion that hates or dislikes you is less likely to do things for you that you do not specify. A minion that likes or reveres you is more likely to do things that it knows would benefit you even without being specifically told to do so."

“Aside from the willingness of the minion to help you without direct instructions to do so: happiness and their opinion of you can also affect how many control slots they will take up (relative strength also influences this), hidden evolutions or skill trees for both negative and positive categories, and what bonuses to growth they will experience. Minions that have a negative opinion of you will suffer a 15% decline in their XP gained, while minions that have a positive opinion of you will have a 15% increase to the amount of XP they gain. The exception is a neutral opinion, which gives neither buffs nor debuffs. ”

Only minions that require 3 slots may challenge your authority as master in a battle of wills (only minions that are far stronger than you and/or are displeased with you will require 3 slots), and if you lose that battle they will gain their freedom from your minionship. If you win that battle of wills however, that minion will never again be able to challenge your authority and remain forever as a 1 slot minion regardless of happiness or relative strength.

Demonic and Fallen minions may be found or summoned, while Enslaved minions may only be found and subjugated. More specifically: Enslaved class minions may only be taken from mortal races (Dwarves, Humans, Elves, Greenskins, etc.), must be an NPC (they may not be another Earthborn), and must undergo ritualistic soul domination or some other means of turning them into what is called a ‘Thrall.’

In order to summon Demonic or Fallen minions from afar, you will have to access the planes of Oblivion, Hell, and the Void with summoning circles. Different planes of existence will have some of the same species, but certain species will only be found in one specific infernal plane. Summoning circles come in a wide variety. Different summoning circles may be specialized for different types of summoned creatures, may be specific to a certain infernal plane, or may be more broad; but be warned that summoning a creature does not mean you have minionized it. Summoned creatures may come of their own will or may be forced into coming depending on the type of summoning, and if the proper protections are not in place with the summoning circle they may kill you for disturbing them. Otherwise, they may be bargained with or you may try to subjugate them for minionization."

“You will not be able to see your skill trees as all skill trees for all classes are hidden. Skill trees will not manifest themselves unto you with the upcoming options, rather they will present themselves to you as individual spells, sacred arts, miracles or skills. Some skills or spells will be available only to your class but will never be given to you via skill tree and must be learned through a teacher, a grimoire, a spell scroll, or your own experimentation of the black magics. Unique and never-before seen spells or sacred arts may also be created through experimentation. Also of importance is that you will be responsible for the skills and skill trees of your minions as well, unless you give them autonomy to do so themselves.”

“Please also note that while your permanence cycle is on, your minions also acquire this immortality protection from the All Spirit. When your permanence cycle is off, your minions may have the option to permanently die depending on circumstance - just as you can. Be aware that if your permanence cycle is ON and you die, your minions will be immediately drawn back into their nether realm to await your resurrection. Also note that minions may not have their own minions, but they may acquire familiars – bonded allies that are not under their complete control.”

“For choosing this class, you have been gifted the Skill Tree: Summoner’s Calling. The following spells have been provided from this skill tree: Least Summoning Circle and Minion’s Call. ‘Summoner’s Calling: Least Summoning Circle’ is the most basic means of communing with the infernal realms, and ‘Summoner’s Calling: Minion’s Call’ either summons a specific minion you already own or dismisses them to their personal nether realm. An additional spell called ‘Roar of the Banshee’ has also been provided at random. This third spell: ‘Roar of the Banshee’ silences enemies within earshot for short amounts of time, rendering them unable to cast their own spells during the debuff’s effect. You have also been gifted 20 Wisdom, 15 Intelligence, and 5 Willpower with your class selection.”

“Please review your current minion’s simplified status page below, name your minion, and then it is advised that you look at your own status page for further details.”

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Simplified Status Page

Name: Oblivion Imp

Race: Oblivion Imp, Lesser Demon

Class: N/A

Level: 3

HP: 94/94

MP: 91/130

SP: 60/66

DP: 1/1

Skills: Firebolt (lvl. 5) (Fire), Sneak (lvl. 4)

Traits: Fragile, Intelligent, Trey Bon’s Minion

Magical Attributes: Curse, Fire

Opinion of you: Liked

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Trey looked at the prompt for a second and then looked back down at the little creature who waited expectantly. Immediately noticing below Trey’s own HP, MP and SP bars in the top left corner of his vision: there was another a set of similar bars appearing next to the name “Oblivion Imp”.

“Huh.” Trey smiled as the critter came to sit in his lap and look up at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to do something. “So you really don’t have a name then?”

The Oblivion Imp shook its head. “I told you you. Me me have no name. Me is me.”

Trey grinned, “I have the perfect name for you then my dude. Your name will be ‘Napoleon.’ That ok with you?”

‘I can see why you picked Napoleon,’ commented Sithis out loud - startling the Oblivion Imp who jumped and whirled around, trying to figure out where the voice came from.

‘I am here little one,’ Sithis said as he materialized the jaws mask and began to speak in conjunction with moving its mouth so that the little demon could understand. ‘I am your master’s symbiote. My name is Sithis. I am sure we will become more acquainted as time passes.’

Trey laughed and it visibly put the little guy at ease. Napoleon slowly reached up and stroked the blackened demonic face overlapping Trey’s own with growing curiosity.

“Two of you yes?” asked the Oblivion Imp quizzically.

“You got it!” Trey smiled and pointed to the sinister demon face, “That face is one of my attributes, but Sithis is speaking through it right now. He’s a part of me, but not me. Two of us share the same body.”

“Oh I see see. You strange. Me like though.” The imp nodded in approval and Sithis internally grinned.

“Sithis, I just had an idea. From now on whenever you speak out loud and outside of combat, use the mask and speak with it the way you just did. That way other people will have a better idea of who’s speaking.”

'Very well, master.’ Sithis said as he moved the jaws again. Thereafter the infernal face vanished to leave only Trey’s.

“So anyways what about the name ‘Napoleon’? Do you like it?”

The small demon patted the ground a couple times with one hand. “It good name if master give. Me take name master give. Good master.”

The demon smiled widely to reveal a set of tiny sharp teeth, giving it a hilariously joyous look.

The top left-hand corner of status bars that belonged to “Unnamed Oblivion Imp,” upon acceptance of the name, changed to “Napoleon.”

“So what’s this treasure you’re talking about lil man?” Trey asked, standing up and brushing himself off. Condensation was collecting on his bare torso and it was starting to feel kind of clammy.

Napoleon ran up Trey’s pants and then his arm to perch atop Trey’s shoulder. He pointed further into the caves where winding tunnels shot off in multiple directions. “Follow greens and turn left left and face. This me home forever before you. Me know secret ways no one else know. Come come.”

He swatted Trey’s shoulder as one would do to spur a horse on. Trey tried not to chuckle and made his way forward as his new minion Napoleon prompted him to do, genuinely curious as to what he might find.

The little demon had guided him through a bizarre maze of hallways and tunnels for many hours. Trey wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get back to where he was without Napoleon’s help, so just to be safe he had been using his claws to mark a path through the moss along the walls.

“Left you ugly, left left!” Napoleon was getting excited as Trey kept going. Eventually they saw and approached the object of Napoleon had gone on about for the last while: an older-than-ancient statue of a man’s face down one of the tunnels, with the carved stone figure standing up to the height of Trey’s nose.

The left side of the face had fallen to the ground and shattered, leaving debris amongst the walkway. Both the debris and remaining face statue had been overgrown with the green glowing moss about the cave, and to either side of it a passage split off to wind inwards. At the far end of the passage on the right, a beautiful shining globe of light stood in the center of a small bricked room.

“Wow. That’s pretty…”

When Trey caught sight of it from afar, he found that he couldn’t take his eyes off of it. Napoleon was saying something to him but his mind went blank and he took a step forward to the right, ignoring the imp’s protests and instructions to continue on left into the passage with the fallen stone. He took another step and then another, then he straightened his posture and lunged forward. It was calling to him. He needed to touch it. He didn’t know why… but he felt a compulsion to go towards it. He wanted it… He wanted it so badly…

“STAHP!” screeched Napoleon as he slapped Trey repeatedly in the face and then covered Trey’s eyes. “IT TRAP YOU NO TOUCH YOU DIE YOU DIE!” The imp began to sputter out gibberish in its high-pitched voice until Trey came to again.

“DO NOT LOOK AT LIGHT!” the imp screamed.

He had only known Napoleon for an incredibly short time, but he felt like Napoleon had no reason to lie. And after all, Trey was now his master… right? Trey kept his eyes down as he backed up and turned around.

“What WAS that?” asked Trey in awe, filling with a sense of regret at not being able to collect the shining globe. “It… it wanted me to touch it…”

“It trap you die.” said Napoleon bluntly and pointed down the opposite hall, the one on the left that Trey had originally failed to go down.

Trey loudly sighed with regret evident on his features. “Fine, fine.”

He ended up going back to the crossway at the statue, examining the features once more. Littered stone off the broken face covered the hall to the left and he took his time stepping over the rubble as he went on, carefully trying not to catch sight of that strange light again as he went.

While they walked onwards, Trey stepped in something gooey. He pulled his boot up and looked down with a disgusted look and tried to wag his foot around to dislodge the green sludge. He had no idea what it was and didn’t really want to ask either after he caught a whiff of the foul smell it had.

Wiping his foot off as best he could on the rock wall he grimaced in disgust and left most of the goo behind him. Eventually they came to a dead end with nowhere to go.

“This is it? Are you sure?” He frowned, folding his arms in the process. More rocks and debris were piled up to the ceiling at this dead end from a tunnel collapse that’d probably occurred many centuries ago. Trey turned back and forth to see if he was missing something, but Napoleon jumped up and down while excitedly pointing to the rubble.

“Master kind but stupid ugly, he not see. Me me help master get treasure.”

“No need to be a jerk...” Trey muttered as the little black imp leapt off him and scurried over to the pile of rocks. “After all I AAAHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!”

Napoleon had pulled a hidden switch that Trey had seen last second. The mechanism had been covered completely in moss and was lodged between two piles of stone. Trey’d failed to notice it at all until it was too late.

Upon pulling the lever, Trey had fallen through a large trap door with a sudden startle, nearly giving Trey a heart attack while he screamed down the stone shaft. As he fell through the air – down, down, and even further down - he saw Napoleon swiftly dive after him grinning widely with outstretched arms.

Had he been duped by this little shit-eating midget?

Trey thought fast and cursed himself for being so trusting. He turned to face the bottom and lit up his night vision before landing face first into a lake - body flopping hard. The impact knocked Trey’s breath away and he struggled to get to the surface, gasping for air. Napoleon landed next to him, diving into the water and then jumping up onto land not far away. The little demon snickered and was openly laughing at his master’s struggles while Trey tried to catch his breath.

Trey sputtered and coughed up some water. “You really are a little shit. This is the thanks I get for saving you?”

He growled at the cackling imp and flipped it off before swimming to shore. Getting to the edge of the water he pulled himself up and glared angrily at Napoleon again while trying to wring his pants out. He emptied his boots and eyed all of the holes in his clothes. He sighed, acknowledging again that he really needed new garments.

Napoleon snickered even more loudly and began patting the ground vigorously when he caught sight of Trey’s hostile glare. The bastard imp started jumping up and down with his little back feet - tail flipping about in obvious amusement.

‘I like this guy,’ said Sithis confidently, infernal jaws moving with Sithis’ voice in a brief appearance before they receded to leave Trey’s normal features behind again.

“Shut it!” Trey retorted, absolutely unamused and he pulled himself up to stretch.

Then he cocked his head at the sight before him.

In front of him was a circular stone room encompassing the underground lake before it widened out into a vast chasm. It was definitely man made, or maybe demon made for that matter, but Trey assumed it was men who had built it based on the statue face he’d just seen. The chute was visible from where he stood, hovering over the lake by a good 13 or so yards and leading up much, much farther beyond that. The ceiling about him from that point expanded upwards into the main cavern. Patches of the green luminescent moss littered a vast underground cave about him to glow a pale green, and Trey instantly realized that he was on the edge of an ancient underground city. Or, more specially, it was the ruins of what had once been a city.

When Trey had turned, he saw that the cavern stretched out for miles. Broken buildings and wreckage were strewn about its entirety. The architecture was very strange to him, and he couldn’t quite describe it with any knowledge of previous civilizations he had read about. Domed or triangular buildings were in abundance. Occasional relics from a long-forgotten past could be seen littering the nearby street - old vases, a human skeleton, an anvil, a large tattered tapestry that somehow had survived the wear and tear of time. He switched to normal vision under the soft glow of the moss and took it all in.

Immediately in front of him was a large building the size of an elementary school. He quietly walked up to one of its pillars and put a hand up to touch the structure.

“Come come master we go fasts.” Napoleon urged Trey to follow him with a wave of his hands.

He gave the imp an irritated look, scowling and slightly distrusting the little runt now that he’d been tricked into dropping to a painful flop just a minute before. However, he eventually shrugged it off and began to follow the little shit inwards through the wreckage.

Traversing the ruined city was like traversing a massive obstacle course. A broken building here, a giant hole in the road there. The roads didn’t connect to one another anymore due to the debris and Trey often found himself hopping over large beams of decayed wood, destroyed homes, statues, skeletons, you name it. Once, Trey mistook a large moss-covered pond for land and walked straight into it, covering himself in the glowing green plants as he fell in to the furthering amusement of his wretched imp.

“So so so stupid.” Napoleon shook his head in mock sadness while Sithis snickered inwardly. Trey picked himself off with a huff, wiped himself off and continued to follow the runt without replying but wore a rather long-held grimace afterwards.

If Napoleon didn’t watch himself, he’d soon be used for punting practice. Or so Trey told himself inwardly.

A couple minutes later and Napoleon looked back to Trey with eyes widened, turning his head about nervously. “We need quiet quiet now master Trey Trey. This treasure has fat mean one wanting. But fat one can’t take. It wont let fat fat one take it. It must choose. But it choose you! I know. It sense you. It my friend and tell me. It tell me to take you here if you become summoner, it know you could. I speak it often in head before but now it want you. That why I say come.”

“Ugh… What the actual fuck is he talking about…” muttered Trey as he turned his head to the side questioningly. He didn’t see anything nearby except for more rubble amongst the decayed buildings.

‘You have designated Napoleon as a male then?’ Sithis asked.

Trey shrugged. “I suppose so, at least until I find out if I’m wrong. But that’s not important right now. Napoleon, could you explain it better? I’m not really understanding what you’re trying to say.”

The little demon went from nervously looking about to giving Trey the stank eye. It obviously thought Trey was truly stupid.

“You lucky you strong human. Come.” Napoleon didn’t wait for Trey to protest as it began to quietly skulk into a nearby ruined building. Trey rolled his eyes, shook his head, and followed.

This particular ruined building led into yet another tunnel that had to have once been a small sewer for the city. Napoleons tail wagged about its small body as it crawled forward on all fours. Trey barely fit, but was able to do the same. Luckily he wasn’t claustrophobic.

Coming to the end of the sewer, Napoleon took a sharp right. Trey had to bend his back at a weird angle in order to fit but was successful after his initial attempt. The sewer made another few twists and turns, each time Trey cursed the tiny demon in front of him for taking him through such a miserable path. He had a hard time believing there wasn’t an easier way.

Through other holes leading into the sewer, Trey could see other structures and various pieces of rubble as he crawled. Trey was looking up into one of those other holes when he bumped into Napoleon from behind. The imp turned around and quickly whacked Trey repeatedly on the head in exaggerated irritation with his tiny clawed hand before turning back and pointing down another turn in the sewer.

“It is here master. It calls for you you. You go to it. But care of fat one.”

Trey bit down the urge to slap the annoying creature, telling himself Napoleon was only trying to help. He scooted forward and stuck his head down the narrow passageway in the direction Napoleon was pointing. The sewer stretched out quite a ways and Trey could only see a dark-brown stone wall through the windowed outlet. Trey scowled, kinked his back into a weird position again and started to crawl forward.

Making it to the windowed exit a minute later he stopped to take in his surroundings. He was positioned on some sort of hill. It sloped down a dirt mound and ended at a flat area of cobblestone. On the opposite side of the cobblestone was the large, brown, stone wall with an obviously odd shape to it - being irregular and curving down at one end. To Trey’s right and left were more of the same ruins that Trey had seen while traversing the old city for the past while now.

Cautiously, Trey peaked his head out and then glanced back over the exit, only to see more of the dirt hill that led up and out of Trey’s sight.

He didn’t see any treasure at all, and he didn’t see anything that he would describe as a ‘fat one.’ He continued to look around with scrutiny until a couple seconds later he caught sight of a large sword laying in the dirt near the cobblestone. It had blended in because of the mud covering pieces of it, but after eyeing it for a moment Trey could tell that this is what Napoleon had been talking about.

It was a massive beast of a weapon, a two-handed greatsword probably as large as Trey but possibly a little smaller. It caught Trey off-guard after examining it more closely. Directly over where the hilt met the blade, a single large crescent rune of deep red was etched into the blade’s base and the top of the handle flared out into intricate designs that he couldn’t quite make out from where he lay. The weapon flared near the top where it came to a point and then again halfway to the blade, and a third time at the base. The metal that wasn’t covered in mud was a dark gray color with an odd sheen to it.

Napoleon noiselessly approached and looked to Trey before pointing at the weapon. “I stay here. If fat one comes I die, you kill kill fat one. Or we steal steal and run run.”

Trey stared at the obviously nervous imp for a moment before taking its tiny hand in his, pressing gently against the demon in silent understanding, and soon began to make his way out of the sewer down the slope.

He could see the giant death machine glisten as he approached, and it made him cautiously stop for a moment. He looked about nervously, still waiting for something to jump out at him. But after his pause, and when he saw nothing seemed to be coming his way, he continued to sneak towards the blade.

When he had finally made it to where he was within a few feet from the weapon, it rocketed up off the ground into the air without warning; and to his immense surprise. The action startled the living shit out of him, as he hadn’t expected an inanimate object to move on its own. Trey stumbled back and fell onto his side with a yelp to look up at the now-shining monstrosity hovering in the air, mud flaking off the blade and burning away. The blade of the greatsword pointed downwards with the large, single, crescent rune glowing a deep crimson against the dark backdrop of the blade’s metal.

*BOOM*

A whirlwind of air erupted about where Trey stood, and suddenly he found himself kneeling within a tempest of black and crimson energy. Power poured forth from the weapon, and the vegetation around the sword began to wither and die. The ruins nearby began to deteriorate and turn to dust in a torrent of power that caused his body to ache. Trey tried to pull away and turn to flee, but for a reason he couldn’t fathom… his body resisted his commands. Some power was forcing him to reach for the blade amidst the chaos about them that was growing into a storm, and he felt sick to his stomach as the words he tried to scream just wouldn’t come.

The irregular brown wall in front of Trey began to move, and as it reached one massive hand behind it to turn - Trey saw that it wasn’t a wall at all.

It was none other than the fat one.