You are Summoned

“Who is it?” I shouted as I stepped out of my bedroom and approached the front door. While I tried to sound intimidating, my efforts weren’t that effective.

“Rico Kline, it’s Mrs. Tran, I need to speak to you about your apartment,” the shrill voice of my landlord said. From the way she was pounding on the door, I had thought it might be a home invasion robbery at first. Confirming through the peephole that it was the diminutive elderly landlord; I unbolted the door and opened it.

“I’m getting complaints about you. You’ve never been trouble before, Rico, and as you know, I won’t put up with troublesome tenants,” Mrs. Tran announced.

“Woah, I’m not any trouble, what kind of complaints are you talking about?” I asked.

“An alarm going off for several hours and smelling smoke. Another resident also claimed you were parading around nude in front of the window. I don’t rent to perverts, you know,” Mrs. Tran said, crossing her arms as she glared at me. She was tiny, but she was intimidating. I figured she’d give an orc a run for their money if it came to a glaring contest.

“I admit the smoke alarm went off, something spilled in the stove. Everything was cleaned up and the alarm wasn’t going off for hours, it was just a few minutes,” I said. It was the truth, but I was going to have to come up with something on the fly to explain away the rest of her concerns.

“Show me the stove,” Mrs. Tran demanded. I had cleaned things up pretty well after the burnt gravy incident, so I had no problem opening the oven door. It was probably cleaner than when I had moved in. She grunted in appeasement at the sight of the clean oven.

“Okay, that’s good, but no naked things in front of the window. I don’t care what you do inside your home, as long as you don’t wreck the place, just don’t show it off to the world,” Mrs. Tran said, pointing her index finger at me as she spoke.

“That was all just a misunderstanding. I was taking a shower when the smoke alarm went off, and I ran in here to take care of it before getting dressed. Would you want me to take my time to dry off and get dressed if there was a real fire in here?” I asked. For something come up with on the fly, I felt it was a pretty good excuse.

“Fine, just don’t make a habit of it. As long as you keep up with your rent, we don’t have any problems,” Mrs. Tran said as she left without so much as a goodbye.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, I planned out my day. I had been taken for the last summoning series early in the morning, so there was still the entire day ahead of me. I found the bag of loot in my bedroom and quickly confirmed it contained all 51 silver coins and the three gems.

I didn’t want to walk around with all my loot in one bag. It would be just my luck that today was the day I was mugged out there. Instead, I used the smaller bags I already had and divided up the coins and gems into two groups. One I tucked into my sock and the other was in my front pocket. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I really needed the money and couldn’t risk losing a cent of it.

Before I left, I planned out my route. I wanted to hit the pawn shop, then stop at my bank. It was a good three blocks away from the pawn shop, but carrying around a bunch of cash scared me almost as much as carrying all the silver and gems. After the bank, I would head home and wait for tonight. It was Friday, so that meant heavy bag workout at the martial arts studio. Maybe if I was lucky, I could get Sifu Dan to teach me a bit more about fighting with a knife.

The trip to Big Dave’s Pawn and Jewelry was thankfully uneventful. I kept an eye out for Linda during my walk there, but she wasn’t anywhere in sight. If I ran into her, I’d make sure to give her a few bucks once I had sold my loot. The bell over the door to the pawn shop rang out as I entered. A few customers were already inside, but I had no problem waiting a bit for Gary, the owner who had helped me the other day.

“Back again, you’re the guy with the coins, right?” Gary asked as he finished up with the customers in front of me.

“Yeah, I’m Rico,” I said, shaking his hand.

“More of the same today?” Gary asked.

“You guessed it, here’s what I have,” I said, placing both pouches on the counter.

“These were from your dad’s inheritance, right?” Gary asked, trying to confirm my story. He likely had to fill out another form of some type to prove he wasn’t buying stolen goods.

“Yeah, the executor of his estate sends over some every few days,” I lied. If word got out that I had a bunch of valuable silver coins and gems stashed away in my apartment, it wouldn’t be long before someone tried to break in and take them. Gary seemed to be shooting straight with me, but I didn’t want to tempt him.

Gary went through the same process, testing each coin and gem to make sure they were authentic. Trust but verify was the name of the game when it came to pawn shops. It didn’t take long before he came up with a number.

“You’ve got just under 46 ounces of silver here. These coins must be pretty old, their weight is all over the place. The gems aren’t great but do have some value still. I can give you $500 for the lot,” Gary offered.

“That seems a bit light, how about $600,” I countered.

“I can’t go that high, but if you promise to keep bringing these to me first, I’ll bump my offer to $525,” Gary offered.

“Make it $550 and we got a deal,” I said, trying to squeeze out every dollar I could.

“All right, I’ll do that if you promise not to squeeze me so much the next time,” Gary agreed. He had agreed to the terms rather quickly, which probably meant that I had left some money on the table. Still, Gary hadn’t given me any hassle and he paid in cash. I’d keep bringing coins and gems to him, but I may also need to look for another source. The amount I would hopefully start earning should mean I’d have at least over a hundred silver each time I returned home.

I left the pawn shop $550 dollars richer. It felt like a lot of money, but I knew it would go quickly. Rent alone was $1400 a month, and after my phone, utilities, and food, my total expenses were closer to $2500. That was if I lived pretty frugally, which I tended to do. With the cash I had, I might even splurge and order a pizza or something for dinner tonight.

On my way to the bank, I had just crossed the street when pain flared inside my head. It was the most painful headache yet, and the pain was getting worse by the second. I had a bad feeling about this, and with all the cash in my pocket, it, and probably all my clothes, would be gone before I could return. There shouldn’t have been a summoning so soon, Minerva said I’d have extended time between sessions, but it had only been a couple of hours since I had returned.

Looking around, I knew I needed to find a place to hide before I disappeared. A nearby alley was the best choice, and as the pain reached a crescendo, I crouched down behind a dumpster. The alley was open on each side, and other than some old, broken pallets that had been strewn about the place, I was still pretty exposed, and all my stuff would be found by anyone who happened to walk by.

Inside the dumpster might be a better option. If I could get inside, no matter how gross it was in there, nobody would likely find me. Just as I was opening the lid to the dumpster, my vision started to fade, and I collapsed to the ground. I could see a shady looking character approaching the alleyway, from the look on his face, he wasn’t heading over here to help a citizen in need. A system prompt appeared, and I was taken away.

Summoner link has been activated. Prepare for immediate summoning.

Your summoning parameters are as follows:

You are being summoned by the mage Sharnlynn.

Summoning tier, 0.

Summoning rank, 3.

Rewards level, minimal.

This summons is combat related. Prepare accordingly.

Forced compliance is active. Full autonomy is active.

The armory has not been unlocked. A facsimile of your current attire and gear will suffice for the tier and rank of this summons.