A Conjurer's Shield 1

“Well, this is certainly a pickle I’ve found myself in,” I muttered to myself as I walked out of the city.

Pro: I don’t have to go to any more chemo treatments.

Pro: I got a magical shield that has the potential to let me effectively become a god if my understanding is correct.

Pro: I don’t have to deal with these waves of monsters alone.

Con: I was summoned to an insane fantasy litrpg type world.

Con: I was summoned because there’s regular waves of monsters.

Con: The three other people I’m supposed to stop these waves with are all idiots, and if we’re too close to each other it cripples our ability to grow more powerful.

Con: I was just accused of raping the princess of the kingdom I was summoned into.

Overall, I’d say the cons outweigh the pros, just barely, because chemo’s a bitch and a half. Still, my folks didn’t raise a quitter, so I straightened my shoulders, rolled my neck, and walked away from the castle. As I did, I held up the hand with the shield on it, a single finger raised up high. I was just glad that I’d kept quiet about the separate notification box thingy I’d been seeing that no one else seemed to have.

[quote]Congratulations! You have been blessed with the Celestial Menagerie (Horni Version), enabling you to summon mighty creatures to your side.

As with all powers, the Celestial Menagerie (Horni Version) requires time and experience to grow in strength, versatility, and effectiveness. At the start, you will be limited to one or two summons no more powerful than mundane animals. At your discretion, you may choose to attempt to obtain either a new summon or expand upon your summoning power.

Current Summons:

Cougar

Expanded Power:

None[/quote]

I admit, I was far more curious about one particular aspect of this power than I probably should be. I blame the shit state of relationships back home and the fact that the notification box explicitly called it a horny version. In any case, I got some new clothes and shit from the bald smithy guy, picked a couple pockets, and I was now being led into a circus tent by what looked like the lovechild of the clown from Spawn and the fat homunculi from Full Metal Alchemist if he were the student of PT Barnum.

“This here is my finest specimen,” Shorty Ringmaster said, pulling me from my thoughts, pointing his fancy cane at what looked like a werewolf in a cage.

The RPG magic of this world kicked in, showing me that it was level 87, but I ignored it and chuckled, “Showing me what I can’t afford to try to gauge my reactions?”

“I see you are more observant than I gave you credit for,” he said, turning to face me. “Let us set that aside then, what sort of slave are you looking for?”

“They all have levels too, right?” I asked, an idea coming together.

“But of course! Everyone and everything that comes into this world does.”

Filing the implications of that sentence aside, I answered his earlier question, “I want something at level one. Something that I can guide and direct their growth around myself and my own abilities, instead of the other way around.”

He nodded, leading me further into the back, “You’ll want one of the demi-humans then, though they’re more typically used for housework and… entertainment if you understand my meaning.”

I shrugged, “Doesn’t matter. Anyone can be trained if they’re motivated enough.”

“True enough,” he agreed, but I had stopped.

A slight coughing had caught my attention. Following it, I stood in front of a cell containing a little girl dressed in rags, with round animal ears on top of her head and a poofy, fluffy tail behind her. She looked horribly malnourished, rail thin and sickly. But even under that, I could see the hints of steel in her, hidden under the weight of the struggles and trauma that she had been subjected to.

“What’s your name?” I asked her, making her look up at me, her eyes clouded over from fever and illness.

“Ra…” she started, her voice hoarse, before she had to stop as more coughs forced their way out of her. “Raphtalia.”

Tubby spoke up, having noticed my attention on the girl, “This one’s a raccoon demi-human, ten years old I believe. Quite ill, both physically and mentally. Her previous owner was rather fond of torture, so I doubt that she will last out the month.

Ignoring him, I knelt down, getting closer to her eye level, and met her gaze, “Do you want to leave here?”

“Y-yes,” she managed to say, her eyes coming into focus and her gaze sharpening.

“Do you want to get better? For me to heal you?”

“Y-yes.”

“If I buy you, will you serve me? Be my blade, my weapon, my tool?”

“Yes,” she answered with a nod, resolve and a hint of the strength I saw coming to the fore.

I leaned in close, an act that she mimicked, “Is there someone out there that you want to find? To exact justice… or vengeance upon?” Her eyes narrowed, and I saw a fire in her that had nothing to do with the fever. I had my answer, so I stood and turned to face Chubster. “How much for her?”

The slaver gave a thoughtful hum, before unlocking Raphtalia’s cage and picking up the chain connected to the metal collar around her neck. With him in the lead, the three of us soon made our way to his office, where I gave him the copper coins he requested and he painted a fancy-schmancy seal on Raphtalia’s chest. The seal glowed as there was a sizzle and smoke emanating from it, and she cried out in pain, before the display died.

“The rest of the ink, good patron,” Fatass said while handing over the bottle. I immediately took it and picked up Raphtalia into the crook of my arm.

Giving the slave trader a nod, I turned and left. I needed to get some gear for Raphtalia, then head outside the city to test out the summoning thing.

[hr][/hr]

“Right then, now that we have our test subject, I need you to stab it,” I told Raphtalia as the orange balloon monster gnawed ineffectually on my arm.

It took some encouragement, but she soon brought the knife the bald smith had given her up and stabbed it. The balloon monster popped, tattered scraps of orange rubber falling to the ground, and both of us received a burst of XP.

“Good girl,” I told her, rubbing a hand over her head as I knelt down to pick up the tattered remains of the monster. “You’re still hesitant, but we can work on that. Now, let’s get some more medicine in you.”

I fed the monster remains into the Shield’s inventory (something I’d discovered by accident), and pulled out the various herbs that I’d gathered throughout the day as Raphtalia was resting. Smith had provided a little bit of medicine, and feeding a drop of it into the Shield had opened up an Alchemy menu. I only had a single recipe at the moment, that being Basic Medicine, but I could tell that there was a lot of potential there. My ability to attack directly was basically nonexistent, but if what I suspected about Alchemy was true, then it opened the path for indirect methods of attack. My favorite band had released a song not long before I was brought here about the man who invented chemical warfare, and if something like that wasn’t possible I’d eat my cape. Cloak. Thing.

“Here, drink it,” I said as I handed the Basic Medicine to Raphtalia. She complained about the taste, like any kid, but I told her to drink it anyway. “I’m going to try something, I don’t know for sure if it’ll work so I’m going to step outside of camp to do it. You wait here, I’ll call if you’re needed.”

Seeing Raphtalia nod, I stood and stepped outside our camp. Rolling my neck, I pulled up the Status Magic Menu doohickey and found a section labeled ‘Summons’. Selecting it, I was treated to a sliding screen filled to the brim with the silhouettes of countless forms. Right, is there an option to show only unlocked… well, that was convenient. No sooner than I had thought the question and the silhouettes disappeared, showing a single creature that I recognized as a mountain lion.

“Here we go,” I muttered as I selected it.

On the ground in front of me, a green circle with a myriad of mystical symbols formed, the grass within it burning away. The ash from the grass whipped around, almost like a tornado, before blasting away as a large, feline skeleton formed. The skeleton stretched and seemed to yawn, before muscles and sinew grew over it, followed by skin and fur. With a flash of light as the energy filling the circle died, the full grown cougar sat on their haunches and looked at me, their eyes showing far more intelligence than I was anticipating.

“Sup, Chief?” I thought the intelligence in their gaze was a surprise, but the husky, feminine voice that came from the mountain lion was far from what I was anticipating. “Call me Suni.”

“Sam Williams,” I introduced myself thoughtlessly, still processing seeing a flesh and blood puma talking like something from Disney’s Lion King (down to the way the cheek flap things moved like human lips). “I have to say you’re much more… eloquent than I was expecting.”

Suni raised an eyebrow, her face shifting to a deadpan expression, “You were given access to the Horni version of the Menagerie, not the Deviant version.”

“How do you know about that?” I asked, hoping to get some more information on just what the heck was going on. She rolled her eyes, before standing up and somehow strutting up to me, pressing the top of her head against my groin and letting out a rumbling purr. The vibrations went straight to my dick, and I came close to falling back on my ass as she lifted her head up, keeping her still purring throat pressed against my rapidly hardening dick.

“I was created for it,” she purred, literally. “Each and every one of us in your Menagerie was created by your power. Aiding you in battle is just one thing we were made to do. Each and every one of us is waiting for the chance to join you and satisfy your desires. Any of your desires.”

I gulped down the lump in my throat. There was no mistaking what Suni was suggesting. It was something that I’d done my best to ignore, back home. What she was offering was quite literally the best of both worlds, as far as my tastes went. I was always more attracted to cartoon animals than people, my first fantasy featured Nala and Shenzi from Lion King, but I still wanted someone that I could hold conversations with.

“Sam-sama!” Raphtalia’s voice snapped both Suni and I from the lustful haze we were falling into, and I turned back towards the camp, where she was standing, shortsword in hand.

“It’s alright, Raphtalia. This is Suni, she’ll be fighting with us,” I told her, making my way over and ruffling her hair. Going through my menu, I added Suni to my party and took a look at her stats. Level two, but with rather high stats all around if I understood it correctly.

Fortunately, Suni soon had Raphtalia won over. Letting the girl ride on her back certainly made that easy. When Raphtalia went to bed, she still needed a lot of rest to get over the sickness she had, and I had some more questions for Suni.

“How long will you be here?” I asked.

“Until you dismiss me, twenty four hours pass, or I ‘die’,” she answered as she lay next to the campfire. “I won’t actually die, I’ll just get sent back to the part of your soul that houses us. Then you can resummon me the next day. You can have ten of us out at a time, we have to be within five hundred meters of you, and unless you happen to upgrade the base power the right way we’re all completely sterile.”

“That… actually answers a lot of my questions,” I said somewhat haltingly.

“I wanted to get the basic stuff out of the way so we can move onto the fun stuff,” she said, putting a particular emphasis and purr on the last two words as she stood and sauntered over to me. “So Chief, are you ready to take me? To fuck me like I’m in heat? To grab me by the ears and pound my throat? Or maybe you’d like to take my ass, to force your dick where nothing’s ever been. How’s that sound?”

Even if I had the amount of attraction that a normal person would to animals, Suni’s questions would have had me ready and raring to go. My hand went to her neck, and with strength I didn’t know I had, I hauled her to the side onto her back. Rather than being offended or insulted, she held her back legs open while lightly licking a paw. As I worked my pants down, she said two words, “I’m yours.”