Chapter 2 – The Familiar

Lord Tharn Zon sighed after the Sword ended his first record. “Yes, that is how I remember it as well. We went to a few strange places. I wonder what the next World will be like.”

“World detected. Portal connected. Get ready, Master.”

“Finally! This time it took more time than usual!”

The Magical Portal appeared, and Lord Tharn crossed it. While he was blinking, trying to get used to the strong light, the System Sword alerted him. “Master! Dangerous Magic on the ground! Hit it! Destroy the Magical Rune before you get trapped!”

A woman’s voice was chanting some unknown words, and she stuttered in the middle of the chant when Lord Tharn hit the ground with his sword, right where a strange rune was drawn and a circle with more runes that were flashing with Magic. The slash was so strong that it broke the pavement, and with it, destroyed the rune and the circle, dispersing the Magic.

The System Sword did his usual routine. “Accessing World Magic… Standby… Accessing Language… Finished. You can now understand her, Master.”

Lord Tharn looked at the surprised woman. Pointy ears, long light green hair, light brown tanned skin, dressed in a long white dress, opened on both sides, leaving her thighs and toned legs in plain sight, and with leather sandals with strings tied around her ankle. The dress was also open at the front, leaving a nice cleavage on display.

He heard her stutter, and he frowned, “Y-you… are m-my Familiar… Y-you can’t destroy the Magical Rune or the Magical Circle like that! It took me a long time to make them! I was up all night! You… recognize me as your Master, right? I mean, the Rune and the Circle are destroyed, but I Summoned you, and for sure it had time to control you… right?”

Lord Tharn looked around. They were in a large room with pillars on the four corners of the room that were glowing with Magic. He saw a large window on his right and a vast green prairie on the horizon.

He then faced the surprised woman again and asked, “What is the name of this World, and where are we?”

“This… this is Varges Mondar World, and we are in the Summoner School of Magic…”

“Are there more Schools of Magic? Or it is only this one?”

“No... There are five big Schools… and one smaller… You… are very smart for a Familiar… I read that most Familiars can barely understand the orders of their Masters…”

Lord Tharn walked to the window and looked at the scenery while he asked, “Is there a Magic School that deals with Undead? Like, giving life to corpses and creatures of nightmares?”

“No… But… Some years ago, Summoners that went to the Dark Path dwelled with those… They were called Necromancers… There are still a few that use Necromancy, but they are all in hiding because every Mage in the World has strict orders from their Kings to kill them… There is a rumour about a powerful Necromancer that used to be a Summoner two years ago. Many of the recent corpses that gained life and killed people are supposed to be his creation. No one knows for sure what he wants, and no one knows where he is, because he never stays too long in the same place. When there are no more corpses for him to gather, he moves to another location with his army of corpses.”

“Do you know his name?”

“No… Dark Necromancer is what he is called...”

Lord Tharn whispered in such a low voice that the puzzled woman could not hear him. “System Sword, what are my Attributes and Class? The initial ones?”

“It reset like always, every time we arrive at a new World that has Magic, Master.”

The usual translucent screen appeared in front of his eyes.

[Magic – 100]

[Health – 100]

[Stamina – 100]

“I see… Benefits also reset and are now zero, right? I need to do this all over again… I am still a Mage Evoker? Because, according to her, the Magic in this World seems to use the same names as your System.”

“Checking. Please standby… Confirmed. Class is Mage Evoker, Novice Rank. The Spells you can use are Fire Rune, Fire Bolt, Frost Rune, Ice Spike, Lightning Rune, and Lightning Bolt.”

The woman gulped and said, “Familiar… come… come here!”

Lord Tharn crossed his arms and asked while facing the nervous woman, “What is that Familiar thing, big ears? Does it mean I am your slave, by chance?”

“Don’t… don’t call me big ears! I have a name!”

“So do I, but you didn’t bother to ask me. You keep on calling me Familiar, so I will call you big ears, see if you like that.”

“You… you have a name? That… that is impossible! I just summoned you!”

Lord Tharn tilted his head and said, “You didn’t summon me. I was arriving here anyway. It just happened that you were using some strange Magic upon my arrival. What was that Magical Rune and that Circle? The Rune seemed to be dangerous for me, so I destroyed it, together with the Circle.”

That was too much for the nervous woman.

She fell on her knees and cried, “Buuaahh!... It took me all night to do that! I studied so hard! Buuaahh!... I am going to fail the test today!”

“Do you mind stopping all that noise? Explain to me what you were trying to do, what this School is, and I might be able to help you if you help me as well!”

With his words, she stopped crying and asked, “Buuaahh!… Sniff!… Sniff!… Help me? I… don’t know how you can help me… The test will be in a few hours, and I was supposed to arrive there with my new Familiar!”

“And what is supposed to be a Familiar? A slave? A servant? A Magical conduit?”

“No… a Familiar fights for his Mage… While he gathers Magic to make Spells… and… and… the test will be fighting against a weak creature… an Elemental… and… this School is focused on teaching Spells for instantaneous transportation, conjuring manifestations of creatures, energy, or objects, and object creation. Wizards who specialize in this School are known as Summoners. I am a student here, a first-year. I need to study for three years to achieve the Master Summoner Rank so that I can work for the King, a Noble, or a Guild of Mages, but that will also depend on my knowledge and my amount of Magic.”

Lord Tharn approached the woman, who was still on her knees, and held her hand to help her stand.

He gave a slight smile and said, “I am Lord Tharn Zon, but you can call me Tharn Zon. What is your name? And what Race are you, anyway? I suppose everyone has ears like yours around here.”

“I… I am Istar, and I am a Cathra. There are other Races in this World, but there are some that look Humanish like you… and some Beastkind of different species, and Orcas… You said Lord, are you a Noble?”

“I used to be, but I guess I am not one anymore, so it’s better if you call me just Tharn Zon. What Level are you? A Novice Rank, I suppose, but what Level?”

Istar gulped and answered, “I am a Novice, Level 4… You… know what are the Ranks and Levels?”

“I know, and I think I am a Novice as well, but only Level 1. Do you need three years to achieve Master Summoner Rank? I don’t have time for that because I need to find that Dark Necromancer and stop him once and for all. I will help you pass that test of yours, but then I must leave.”

Istar sounded alarmed, “Leave? You… you can’t leave! You are supposed to be my Familiar and help me! I am going to have many texts and exams, and for the practical tests, I need your help!”

“Well, then I suggest you make another Magical Rune and a Magical Circle and try again, because there is no way I am going to stay here for three years, considering that by that time, that Dark Necromancer will be all-powerful and impossible to defeat. I stopped him five times, but he won ten times. Many people have already died because of him. From what I could see through that window, your World looks too beautiful to fall into his hands.”

Istar jolted and asked while squeezing his hands, “What do you mean? He won ten times? What… what happens if you don’t stop him?”

“Your World will cease to exist in three years and it will be his eleventh win. When he leaves for another World after absorbing all the Magic, I will go after him and try again, if I am still alive by that time. I almost died a few times, but I refuse to die while he is alive.”

“That… can’t be... It is impossible… You… must be mistaken; it is impossible to absorb all the Magic in the World. If he tries, he will die!”

“As I said, he has already done that ten times. Before coming here, I almost killed him in a World without Magic, but two men who thought I was some kind of criminal stopped me. He then escaped to a desolated World inhabited by living Magical rocks and I arrived there some time after him. He thought there was no Magic there and left. From there, I arrived here. I know he is here, and he is most probably that Dark Necromancer that you talked about, considering that in all the Worlds he went to, he used some of the Magic he absorbed in the previous World to gather an army of corpses to do his bidding. I have no idea why he does that, but I have seen enough of his work to recognize his evil.”

Istar wobbled a bit, and Tharn held her arm while taking her to a chair at a desk near a bookcase for her to sit.

He put one knee on the floor and said, “I am sorry if what I said shocked you, but now you know why I can’t stay here. You can study as much as you want, and maybe when you graduate, you can stop him if I fail, but I can’t stay here for too long. I have to find him before he becomes too powerful, but I need to remain in hiding. No one must know who and what I am, because if he finds out, he will escape to another World, and I may lose track of him. You need to keep this secret.”

“Yes… no one would believe me anyway... But... I don’t have time to summon another Familiar for the test… I need time to recover my Magic before I can try again. You said… you will help me… You mean, you will help me during the test if I keep your secret?”

“That is the deal. I don’t want to kill you, but I will if you even try to mention that I am not your Familiar. Do you understand? My mission is far more important than you and me. I don’t know how many beings live in this World, but my life and yours are not that important, compared to hundreds upon hundreds of lives.”

“I… I am not that easy to kill, you know? I have a higher Level than you! I can easily use my Magic to kill you if you threaten my life!”

Lord Tharn touched Istar’s right foot with the tip of his sword and said, “You may have a higher Level now, but I have far more experience than you, concerning Magic. I am above your Master Summoner Rank, way, way above. Don’t be a fool and let my low Level deceive you. With the Magic and the Level I now have, I could kill everyone in this School, and get a tremendous boost to jump a few Ranks. My Class is now Mage Evoker, Novice Rank, but a few Worlds ago, I had five Classes and a Master Rank of Level 100.”

“That… that is impossible! No one can Master all the five Classes, let alone Master them to Level 100! To do that…”

She covered her mouth with both hands and spoke with wide-open eyes, “To achieve all that, you would need to kill many people… or Elementals...”

“Or thousands of Undead and other more powerful creatures that Dark Necromancer created. Together with a bunch of Necromancers that followed him that didn’t know what his objective was. Those fools wanted power to rule their World, and in the end, they also got their Magic absorbed and died. You study in this School to get a job after graduation. I gather Magic and I fight to stop a monster. What you do is important to you, so I hope I can stop that Dark Necromancer to let you achieve your goal. Now, where can I get some food around here? I can barely remember the last time I ate!”

“It is still breakfast time. I didn’t eat as well. Come, follow me. We can go to the main room and eat! It is probably better if you don’t say a word, because Familiars aren’t supposed to be that smart!”