4) Danger close

  For a moment the room seemed to go all dim around me, and my thoughts slowed down to a crawl before the multi colored lettering began to appear in front of me again.

  [ Core Summoner class chosen ]

  [ +1 Spirit ]

  [ +1 Any ]

  [ Class ability: Create Rank 1 Totem]

  [ Rank 1 Salamander Innate Totem granted ]

  [ You have sufficient Merit points to advance to Level 2 Core Summoner ]

  “Viola? I got plus one Spirit, plus one Any, and the ability to create a Totem, as well as something called a Salamander Innate Totem. It also says I have enough Merit to advance to Level Two? And I would rather not just guess at what all that means. So...”

  The fairy hummed for a moment. “Huh. Rank one always gives you one ability bonus in your key ability score, which for you is Spirit which is what you use to power magic. The free point you can put in anything, and everyone gets at least one of those when they level up. Even the Rank 0 classes.”

  “A Totem is how you turn a Core into something you can use to summon Manifestations of the Beasts they came from…”

  She hummed again. “And I guess your Core must have come from a Saladmander, so you call one up without needing another Core to turn into a Totem. Cheater. You always got something you can summon even if you don’t have any other Totems. Your class is so Weird.”

  The fairy giggled again, and I found myself getting a little annoyed at her constant habit of finding me so amusing.

  “Weird? This is coming from a purple fairy. Now can you please explain what an ability bonus is?”

  Suddenly there was a rattling sound. “Hey, I’m not purple. Only boys are purple, I’m lavender!”

  What? “There’s a difference?”

  There was a lingering silence. “Suspicions confirmed. You are so a boy.”

  ...What I was, was so lost. “Got it. Lavender. Now please explain.”

  There was another giggle. “Well, boys have colors from the primary spectrum, while girls are pastels, and betweeners like neon colors…”

  Not what I meant. But I let her go on for a while about color coordinating, then where they got their clothing, which was by theft or bribes mainly, then she started going into fairie’s favorite treats they also liked to steal or get offered as bribes before I finally interrupted her.

  “I’m good just lying here, motionless while learning all about fairy culture. But I thought you might want to get out of your cage.”

  I heard what I imagined to be a tiny purple, sorry, lavender hand smacking up against a tiny lavender forehead. “Oh, right. You have abilities that measure what you can do, and the points you get from levels improve them by a multiple, each point adds ten percent to what you are born with or develop. You can see what you got by looking at the blinking thing and saying Status.”

  “Status?”

  Name: Fell

  Title: First Born

  Race: Core

  Classes:

  Rank 1: Child 1-

  Rank 2: Core Summoner 1-

  Might: Not applicable

  Agility: Not applicable

  Memory: 20

  If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  Wit: 12

  Spirit: 100+1

  “Might, Agility, Memory, Wit, and Spirit. Am I missing anything Viola?”

  The lavender hand reached out again and gave me a thumbs up. “That is the normal starting array, although you have to split them up later. You should have a plus one next to Spirit.”

  “Yes. And not applicable next to Might and Agility. Is that normal?”

  She hissed. “No… but then, you’re a rock. You can’t move or anything, so I guess the system can’t measure those two abilities? Maybe? Or it may be something else entirely. I’m kind of wandering in the dark here too Fell.”

  “Fair.” It wasn’t like she was an expert on these kinds of things anyways. She had said she was a Flower Fairy which unless that was some kind of ironic or misleading name didn’t sound like a scholarly class. Although to be fair, botany was a science.

  The fairy giggled. “Maybe if you put a point in one of them… no that wouldn’t work. The points multiply the scores, if you got nothing to start with, it would just be a waste.”

  “Yeah. My Wit is lower at twelve then Memory at twenty and Spirit at one hundred.” I focused on the blinking light. “Put my anything point in Wit please Blinky.”

  I didn’t feel anything happened to me, but “Status.” confirmed I had a plus one after Wit now.

  And for once, Viola wasn’t giggling. “One hundred Spirit? One! Hundred! Spirit! That’s insane, you have to be at least Tier Two with all your bonuses in a stat to get it that high! And you’re starting there as your base score! Unfair! Cheater! Broken! Dread Roaches!”

  Dread Roaches? Viola screamed more then yelled that last one, which meant that must be really insulting. “Dread roaches? I hardly think it's fair to call me-”

  “No Fell! You got Dread roaches coming into the room. They’re Demons. They want to kill you since you got a Tier one class now and aren't protected as a Child any longer. Summon your Saladmander or they’ll eat you!”

  Saladmander? “How?”

  She waved her hand around as if trying to think of an answer.”I don’t know. Bite you really hard?”

  From beneath a door at the far end of the room, I could see two long twitching fibers wiggling in the air in front of a low wide dark creature struggling to squeeze under a battered and worn, if still strong looking, wooden door.

  Viola’s shrill voice screamed “Oh! You mean how to summon something. I don’t know, I’m not a Summoner, but you should figure it out, and quick!”

  Real helpful there. “Blinky, show me how to summon something?”

  Available Totems:

  Salamander. Rank 1 Innate manifestation. Cost: 10 magic.

  Available magic: 110

  A blue circle appeared around the blinking light at the edge of where I was looking as the roach finally slipped below the door and into the room.

  “Summon Salamander”

  Everything changed.

  While I could see the orange scaly lizard in front of me as it stood there, flickering out its tongue and looking around with solid red eyes even as matching red flames flickered along its back from its head to the tip of its tail, I could also see through it eyes.

  And feel the cold stone floor under its feet.

  And the Fairy could see it as well. “Oh my gods! It’s so cute!”

  Now that I had a head to look up with, I could see a tiny lavender woman wearing a dress made of wilting multicolored flower petals as she sat crammed inside of a tiny crudely made looking bird cage that was so small that her knees were pressed up against her chest. The cage sat near the edge of the desk above where my Core had rolled to after taking down Nictob.

  And now that I had a set of eyes, I could narrow them in my displeasure at being called cute. I am fierce, I am mighty… I am half the size of the giant black roach scuttling across the floor at me.

  “Blinky, give me another Salamander!”

  [ Core summoner can only possess one Manifestation at any time.]

  [ Innate Manifestations must be possessed while in use ]

  “That would have been good to know thirty seconds ago!”

  Viola stretched her hand out between the bars of her cage with a pained look on her face as the sides of the narrow gap between the bars seemed to pinch at her upper right arm. Pointing at the roach with her finger she started yelling. “Get it, Salad boy, go bite it! Chew it up.”

  With a sigh, I set the Salamander into a collision course with the first of the Dread Roaches, even as another two struggled against each other as they tried to work their way under the door.

  Outsized and outnumbered... At least I had gotten to exist at all, even if it was only for a little while.