Things had not been going well since they started meeting people again, but it was not so bad as far as Kalle was concerned; he had so many new strangers to analyse.

That was the part he’d disliked most about life in Salcret, the limitations. He was a city kid originally after all, and while the fruits of nature and variety of animals to be found there was nice–and the people with Classes handling them all well and good–Kalle craved variety.

That might have been why the call of the open road had been so strong.

Now he was on the way back to his original home, and going right past soon, on the way to building a new one like he’d always wanted.

But there were plenty of pieces to the puzzle still missing. First of which was his darn [Prize Familiar].

It nagged all the worse when he looked over at Harold, sporting a mosswolf by his side, and happily ribbing the owl riding next door with his brother.

“You know, that new crown of yours doesn’t suit you Algernon,” The owl glared at him and hooted something back, making Roldy laugh out loud. “I’m telling you man, you don’t have the beak for it,” The owl tried his best to ignore him.

But the [Druid] knew just what buttons to push. “It’s gonna decay soon too, how exactly did you plan to keep it green with your wind-affinity?”

That actually seemed to make the bird sad, and he started searching around almost immediately; hoping to find more of the strangely shaped laurel leaves in some of the forests they were passing in between the fields belonging to [Farmer]s.

“Oh, don’t be like that, you know I’m teasing,” Before Algernon could respond Roldy reached over and touched the crown. It turned a strong green again in milliseconds–every dried out, grey spot suddenly gone. “All you gotta do is ask man,”

That made the owl look at him again, before looking up at his crown as well, seemingly pleased. But in the next second he did his best impersonation of a scoff.

Kalle doubted very much that the proud owl would ever be asking, but Harold did not look like he minded. It would just turn into another game for them to play as far as he was concerned.

Gah, I want a little buddy. He thought back to the strange, blue imp figurine. I wonder if it could talk, it looked so strangely Human compared to the others.

The path to a familiar felt like it had so many steps. He was still stuck on rituals that did not even require a Class, with his mana pool too shallow to power the ritual far enough to find what he searched for, despite his time spent practicing, and with an enhancing Skill like [Ritual Practice] to help. But obviously he was not giving up, not yet.

The third town they entered was the last before a rather steep decline down to a city by a lake; Dormata.

It was visible from here, if still far off, and it looked to Kalle like a… Well, like a smudge. They would have to get closer.

The small town was called Dormat. Yeah. Real original. And it was a thriving hub where several roads met before becoming one for the last stretch to the city, but the town remained small considering the amount of traffic.

It was just a few day’s trip from Solhem, but the biggest difference was the marked improvement in the graffiti.

Kalle’s favourite piece was on the side of the general store, depicting a magi of some kind, with energies of different shades hovering all around; in his full control.

They would be stopping here for the night, despite the sun still being high in the sky. After all, there was no point pushing the pace just to arrive in the dead of night, with everything already closed.

Kalle took that time to have a proper look around, because it seemed like there were plenty of merchants around; and not just travelling through either.

One shop in particular had a painted sign with a blue fire on it, supposedly symbolising magic. And it attracted not only Kalle, but Livia, Elin and her Soon-to-be Aspiring [Enchanter]-brother–Felix too.

He was out of luck though, the shop did not sell enchanted items. If so the man behind the counter would have been heading out for the most distant of villages, where magic was always at a premium, come the first morrow. Or so he claimed when Felix inquired.

No, this was a shop for magic ingredients. Albert and Alfred would have loved it, but the two had yet to notice this particular store.

Browsing around, no prices were listed, so you had to ask. And supposedly even the jars with the same ingredients differed in price in accordance with the varying quality. You would need to have a real nose for it to spot a deal here–but Elin was obviously busy asking for the cost of every item, doing everything she could to fill out what her market Skill had to work with.

The shopkeeper was looking more and more annoyed, but she did not care. As far as Elin was concerned it was up to him to keep a list ready to show the more discerning customer.

In the end he snapped. “Look lady, ask for the price of something you’re actually gonna buy, or else bugger off. I don’t stay in this shithole to deal with non-paying customers and freeloaders trying to work a Skill,”

It looked like they were getting ejected, but that was when Kalle spotted a glowing stone parked high up on a top shelf. “How about that, what does it cost?”

The shopkeeper looked surprised. It was clear he mostly dealt with organic matter, but a merchant looking for bargains could hardly afford to be picky.

“Eh that, it’s just an uncut magicore, not fit for any magic items, so I’m certain you’re not interested. It’s pretty though, I’ll give you that.”

A magicore needed to be cut because enchantments required highly directional energies, but a ritual was completely different. This might be just what he needed to summon the Glowthorn before gaining more levels and increasing his magic pool; but he tried to stay cool.

“Eh, even so I might be able to swing it in Dormata, how much do you want?” Kalle reached for his jingling purse.

“Well, if you’re heading there then I get it. It goes for 239, not a silver lower I’m afraid.”

And if that wasn’t an invitation to start haggling, then Kalle did not know business. But first he looked behind him to make sure with Livia and Elin. Their Skills were providing no warning, so it seemed like a good enough starting point. They gave him the nod.

“I can go 200 tops, it’s dusty so don’t act like you’ve got customers clamouring at the door,” He held out his hand.

The door to the shop was indeed empty, but the merchant still took his hand for a solid shake way too quickly, immediately sending warning signals to both of the merchant-minded women behind him.

But all Kalle had eyes for was the loot that was the key to his first ritual step.

Kalle decided not to waste any time, he wanted to get this ritual done before they entered Dormata. But rather than do it in some room in the middle of town, he took his [Druid] friend and went to the nearest copse of trees large enough to contain a proper glade.

He knew far too little of how this all worked. Having another Caster there, not to mention a second set of Spells–to deal with anything unforeseen–it did a great deal to ease his mind.

Of course Oscar tagged along too, not because he had any real magic to contribute, but rather just for the novelty. He had already reached level 2 from his week of doing nothing but practising Skills.

They flattened the earth further and got rid of every obstacle in the circle they were making, then Kalle got to work painting.

The ritual circle was one of his own making, after much inspiration, but the Mantis influence was obvious for anyone who had seen it.

With the magicore at the centre, Kalle activated the circle and put all his focus into powering and directing the Spell: [Ritual Summoning].

Utilising the magicore was working. Despite not having gotten any results before, he had still gotten a clear feeling of the Spell expanding. He just didn’t have anything to compare it to, and so there was no way to tell if his Spell was reaching a hundred metres or a hundred kilometres. All he knew for sure was that it was finding nothing.

Now with the magicore to draw on, the ritual seemed to reach nearly ten times as far.

And he finally got hold of some targets pinging back to him.

It was surprising, because despite the massively increased range he was still only getting a couple dozen results. The Glowthorn was a widespread plant, present in every nation on the continent, so it really didn’t make sense.

But Kalle did not let it bother him for long, he was finally getting a connection.

He tried to work out the relative strengths, and extents, of the different plants he was sensing–but in the end it was futile, the impressions far too vague. He had to just go for it.

Harold and Oscar had been watching in awe at their friend using magic of the kind they'd seen performed twice to impressive results on the battlefield, but besides the circle activating there hadn’t been much more to see yet. Kalle was mostly standing there, looking intense.

But this was a far, far lesser ritual at work; there were no Gates to other dimensions required to open.

In a flash it was just there, having completely replaced the vanished magicore: The Glowthorn

It was tiny, only up to about, maybe their calves. It was pretty extensive, still a proper bushel's-worth, but yeah. This thing was not holding down anybody grown unless you summoned it to land on them.

There was no denying the plant was strange, but the strangely glowing-light blue colour was the least of it. It seemed malleable, but strong, more like rope than a static thornbush of more regular make. Even the thorns were soft, except for the very middle where an incredibly thin but long needle sat, ready to puncture more like a piston delivering venom than any traditional thorns.

Nevertheless, Harold’s eyes lit up like it was christmas. He ran up to the plant, hardly knowing what to do with himself or how to get started bonding with it.

Of course he managed to prick himself, and in just minutes all of him had a glow only slightly dimmer than the plant itself. Of course it stung quite a bit too, but the sensation was dampened for Harold after all the times he'd willingly dug up a wasp nest. But the glow would hardly be noticable–so long as you were standing in the sunlight. But if it was nighttime, and you were being hunted? Yeah… You’d be fucked.

The mood in the glade was incredible, they'd done it on the first try. Kalle belatedly related what he had been feeling while casting his first successful ritual. Only to get a funny look from Roldy before he leaned over to whisper in his brother’s ear, making the [Squire] laugh at something, and eye Kalle with delight.

Of course he grew suspicious and activated his Skill, but he sensed nothing but amusement from the two; there seemed to be nothing malicious in whatever they were laughing about. “Okay, what the hell is it, the size? I couldn’t get a proper sense okay, it’s not like I was given vision of the damn thing,”

But that wasn’t it. Harold hadn’t really thought of it before, but now that Kalle mentioned how many weeks he’d been working on the ritual and how he’d sensed nothing until relying on the magicore to boost the Spell; the truth became evident.

“Kalle, the Glowthorn isn’t in season until autumn. It’s a winter plant, it lies dormant this time of the year,”

And that was when Kalle realised how much time he had wasted.

He suddenly looked at the glowing plant in a much different light, but the [Druid] wasn’t finished. “Honestly, I don’t know how far your Spell must have gone to find that thing this time of year, it must have come from a closed off ecosystem with messed up seasons or something.”

And that actually made the [Esperlock] feel better. At least he had been practising how to extend the range all this time.

But that left them with another problem.

Harold could use the plant for his tier-10 summoning Spell now, but it was not going to survive the summer here. Not unless they did something, so the [Druid] leaned down and poured all his available power into enhancing the plant.

“There, that should give it an honest shot at least,”

And there wasn’t much more they could do, than that.

They left the plant there, to grow freely in the glade. The only difference being a slight change in affinity.

Kalle considered it a day well-spent, and that was before the System did its thing to make it even better.

[Level 11: Esperlock]