"This is just the beginning, kid. We have some work to do. You're honestly lucky none of the training you've done over the last few years gave you nothing." Bazelphios nodded.

"Why? Wouldn't it have been better to have learned something at least?" Gabriel found it hard to believe that wasting time was a good idea.

"Don't get me wrong. The sword training you have been doing will still be useful. However, your mother was probably building you toward being a Paladin, right?" Getting a nod, Bazelphios continued. "That would have led to bad habits for a summoner. Paladins are frontline fighters. The sword subskills they train are based around that ideology of a primarily melee focus. For you, that would be a terrible idea, and you're better off focusing on subskills that will make disengaging easier. Plus, once that mindset has cemented itself, it's hard to throw."

"So, I'm not going to learn how to use a sword?" Gabriel was disappointed at that after having just gotten the skill.

"No, that's fine, especially early on. As a weapon, swords are balanced and versatile. While they have a higher skill threshold than, say, daggers or spears, it will help you more in the long term. Seeing as they will be more effective in a greater variety of situations."

"Ok," Gabriel brightened up. "So, where do we start?"

"With your sword training? I don't know, not my field. I'm here to help you with the other aspects of your Calling. For example, what exactly do you think is most important to a summoner?"

"Ahh…" Put on the spot, Gabriel was at a loss.

"Think about that. Take your time; I want your best answer."

"Well," Gabriel started after a moment. "I would be the summons themselves, right? Using them correctly and in the right situations. Summoners usually have a lot of different kinds of summons, right? So using all those different powers has to be really hard."

Bazelphios nodded, then shook his head. "While you're not wrong, that is not what is most important to a summoner. The most important thing is you, the summoner themselves." He poked Gabriel in the chest.

"What? But the modifier description said I would be weaker than was normal for my Calling. Doesn't that mean I'm the least important part?"

"No. It's exactly because you are weaker that you are important. The summoner is always the linchpin and weakness among his summons. After all, if you take out the summoner, the summons are gone. Your opponents will recognize that and attempt to circumvent whatever you summon to get to you. The most important thing a summoner can do to make themselves as strong as possible is to first ensure that it is almost impossible to take them out of the fight." Bazelphios explained. "That's why the first thing we are going to do is get you up to Beginner in swords."

Quest: Reach Beginner 1 in Swords.

Reward: One Called Skill

"Oh," The message surprised Gabriel. This was his first quest. He hadn't known what to expect, but this felt… underwhelming. He had imagined quests being things that were difficult, or at least dangerous, to accomplish.

"What is it, kid? You're staring into space."

"You didn't feel that?" Gabriel asked. His teacher had said he could feel these messages manifesting after all.

"Feel what?" Clearly, he couldn't.

"I have a quest to get to Beginner 1."

"Ahh," Bazelphios nodded in understanding. "You've noticed how Atay pretty much hijacked your Calling, right? Well, the World Spirit can hide that from the god who gave you the Calling. I'm not going to notice anything it sends you. Your Display Portfolio skill still comes from you, not Atay."

"So I'm doing sword training?"

"For a bit, yeah."

"Well, alright then." This was familiar, at least.

{}

Gabriel spent the next week training his swordsmanship with Bazelphios in the gazebo. The old man would lie on a bench, his voluminous robes acting as a cushion for him to rest comfortably while he drilled the essentials of being a summoner into Gabriel's head. Right now, there wasn't much for him to learn beyond theory. After all, until he completed his quest, Gabriel only had one summon.

After a few days of having his teacher throw random scenarios at him and ask him what the correct solution was, Gabriel had caught onto the gist. A summoner's duty was to protect himself. Every time in these hypotheticals, the answer was to hide or act defensively. "This isn't very heroic." he had said, after a scenario where he had to run away from a battlefield because all his summons were killed.

Bazelphios had sat up and looked him dead in the eye. "Kid, if you go and get yourself killed, you won't have an opportunity to 'be heroic' at all." His harsh violet stare bore into Gabriel. "You can be a hero when it doesn't mean dying for nothing or sacrificing yourself for minor gains. You need to think bigger."

That was the hardest lesson for Gabriel to learn. He just wanted to be the best Hero he could be. Running away or saving himself first didn't sit right in his mind.

Also, during this time, Gabriel continued to spend time with Skylar. They started to work out various signals they could give each other through the familiar bond. It was hard, since the bond was vague on specifics, but it was moving along well. Gabriel even felt like their bond had grown a little more detailed over these days of practice. It had only been a week; more time would tell.

In his off time, Gabriel continued to do as he normally would. He helped the various staff of the mansion with cleaning and cooking. He assisted in some of the maintenance work, but only holding tools and the like, since the intricate physical magic involved required people with the proper skill to do the work.

In that time, many of the staff had come to appreciate Skylar, while others had come to loathe them. On the one hand, they would heal various cuts and bruises without a thought, but on the other… When Skylar got bored, they tended to start playing pranks. Gabriel had done his best to curb that behavior, but the tricks were never harmful, and Gabriel found that any sense of guilt Skylar felt after he admonished them went out the window the next time they were bored.

"You're going to end up making someone really angry, you know."

All he would get was remorseful feelings, and then he would hear about how they made some poor maid's mop look like a snake. Already he was starting to wonder why he kept saying it since the worst thing that happened was someone getting startled. It was honestly a bit strange how Skylar's pranks never caused more damage, even by accident. They seemed to have an inherent sense of when and who would be the most startled without collateral.

Which all led to today. A week after, he had started to raise his sword skill. He was once again swinging away in the same disciplined forms his mother had drilled into him. He was excited but also apprehensive. It was likely he would finally rank up from Novice to Beginner today. He had reached Novice 8 yesterday, after all. He wanted to know what skill he would get for completing his first quest. His nervousness came from the next step with his swordsmanship.

The first two ranks of any skill were easy to get, by normal standards. So long as you wanted to learn the skill, you could get to Beginner by just going through the motions, much like he was. At Beginner though, things changed. You had to start developing the skill into something real to advance. He would have to start learning moves, understanding the way his movements affected the sword he was wielding, and how that would practically affect any fight he was in. Basically, he would have to fight other people. He would also have to observe others using their own skills.

The problem with all this was telling his family. For the last week, no one had asked him how his training was going, and he hadn't brought it up. He had heard that fighting had started up earlier than normal with the Warborn Lands. Apparently, there had been orders from Balthazar for a massive mobilization on a scale Gabriel had never seen before. Those he asked said this was normal, but Gabriel still felt bad about asking anyone for more advanced sword training when more important things were going on.

"Kid! Focus up! You're drifting again."

The comment jarred Gabriel. "Sorry, what was the question?"

"You've been off today. What is it?" This was the third time in the last several hours that Gabriel's thoughts had drifted, and Bazelphios had noticed.

"Nothing, just excited about my skill."

"Hmm," His teacher didn't sound convinced. "Fine. I'll let it go for now. The question was, an assassin has entered into melee range past your rancerios and averhind. What do you do?"

Gabriel looked to the board floating next to Bazelphios. He had brought this with him the last two days, so they had a visual representation of the battles and scenarios the space mage was running him through. It could change its surface to give a rough idea of the terrain and had little carved pieces that represented all the combatants involved. They were using random Beasts for Gabriel's summons since he didn't have any yet.

"I'll activate my defensive barrier and call my bearowl to pick me up and fly me over the enemy formation. Then I'll summon my other averhind into their backline." Gabriel said confidently. He had started to expect things like this. Bazelphios liked to drop hidden pieces into combat right when Gabriel had established a strong defensive position.

"Huh, not bad." Bazelphios waved his hand, and the pieces on the board shifted to copy what Gabriel had described. "This is the third time you've summoned into the backline." There was no judgment in his voice. He was just commenting.

Gabriel did a little half-shrug half nod as he continued to swing his sword. He appreciated all the extra stamina he had now. It made extended sword training easier. "It seems to work a lot. Plus, with no enemies with ranged attacks, flying makes it easy." The only limitation Bazelphios had placed on summoning was that Gabriel had to see the summoning point. Apparently, that was a common condition.

"Speaking of which," Bazwelphios gave a wicked smile, only partially concealed by his bushy facial hair. "An arrow slams into your bearowl, dispelling it and dropping you into the enemy formation. Your defensive barrier breaks under the onslaught. What do you do?"

Gabriel frowned as the board shifted. There had been no archers. "Where did the arrow come from?"

"You saw it come from far away, somewhere over here." Bazelphios waved vaguely to a part of the board with several hills.

Gabriel's frown grew. "I command my rancerios to charge at my location. I'll retreat while the enemies are stunned." He had been hoping to keep the bearowl around for several more rounds.

Quest Complete!

Choose your reward

Gabriel dropped his sword. "I-I did it!"

Bazelphios sat up. "Oh? What skill did you get?"

"It says I have to choose?"

"Damn, Atay really is backing you. Alright, let's have a look at those options, yeah?"

"Right." Gabriel pulled up the options with a thought. "It's three options. Celestial magic, Summon Celestial, and Summon Celestial Beast. What's the difference?"

"You aren't thinking of getting Celestial magic?"

"What would I even do with that? It's like Human magic, right?"

Bazelphios nodded.

"Then I can't really do anything without Celestials to use it on."

Another nod. "A wise choice. Considering the keyword between the other two is beast, I'm assuming the first one will summon Celestials with forms closer to the sentient races. It only shows you the names?"

Now Gabriel nodded.

"Not uncommon. Well, it's up to you. We've been having these little tactic exercises under the assumption that you would have beast-type summons, since that is more common, but both are valid options."

Gabriel was torn. Already the idea of having beasts fighting with him had become familiar. Still, he liked the idea of having more summons like Skylar, intelligent and capable. Thinking of his companion, Gabriel looked to Skylar, who had flown over after hearing Gabriel. "What do you think, beasts or people?"

Skylar didn't even pause; they just held up two fingers. "Ok, people it is." He selected the option. Instantly, he felt new knowledge and power settle into him. He pulled up his Portfolio and made it visible to everyone.

Gabriel Godson

Calling: Celestial Hero

Abilities

Low Strength 50

Low Speed 50

Low Dexterity 50

Low Constitution 50

Middle Mana Capacity 75

Middle Cognition 25

Least Perseverance 1. Transcendent Celestial Affinity 100. Middle Death Resistance 1.

Skills

Beginner Sword 1. Advanced Cooking 4. Summon Celestial Familiar. Neophyte Summon Celestial 1. Neophyte Elemental Light Magic 1.

Called Skills

Angel's Awakening (Sealed). Heaven's Fall. Display Portfolio.

"Uh, that's different. Is it supposed to do that?"

Bazelphios was behind him in an instant, literally teleporting over. Gabriel didn't react, as this wasn't the first time the space mage had teleported out of nowhere. "Oh-ho. Oh-ho-ho." Bazelphios started laughing. "Well damn, kid. You really do have a stupid high affinity. You just absorbed the whole thing."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, normally Called skills are basically on loan from whatever gave you the Calling, but your affinity for the skill itself was so high you just yanked it, and now it's your wholesale. I can't believe I didn't notice the same thing happened with your familiar summoning skill. Can you pull up the skill?"

Gabriel focused on his newly acquired, apparently stolen skill.

Summon Celestial:

Rank 1(Worker): 1(Affinity 100)

Rank 2(Warrior): 0(Affinity 10)

Rank 3(Paladin): 0(Affinity 1)

"Well, alright then." Gabriel made the screen visible. "What's all this?"

"Hmm. The first part is your summoning type; second is how many you can have at once. Looks like your affinity boosted that all to the Hells and back." Bazelphios chuckled. "Well? Go ahead and summon one kid."