Luna decided to take some liberties with the summon she had cooked up. She had already found out that summons were completely independent from each other. A summoned rabbit at a 20 mana cost was a completely different rabbit from the “same” summoned rabbit at 20 mana. Same for swords, bows, and spears, all with different summoner point allocations.
That said, the goblin that she had rolled up was not a copy of the woman goblin she had killed, but it was definitely inspired by her.
Also neat little thing: apparently creatures of sapient races are summoned at Level 1.
And, of course, they were stupidly expensive. Animals and basic monsters followed a nice, neat “about ten mana per level” pattern. Swords, spears, deer, weasels…she could feel the scaling. Sapient races, though? Her newly summoned level 1 goblin started at a chunky 50 mana template cost. Dicks.
Luna’s plan of just having a hand in killing a Level 100 demigod warrior then calling it a day was ruined before it had even fully formed. The dude would just end up being summoned at level 1 where she would have to level it like the world's second useless pocket monster.
Luna Caine — Summoner Lv. 5
Goblin Shaman — Lv. 1
Health: 10/10
Health Regen: 0.03/s
Mana: 0/50
Mana Regen: 0.5/s
Summon Points: 0/4
Abilities:
Claw — 1d4 slashing + 1d4 poison.
Bite — 1d4 piercing + 2d4 poison.
Curse — cast a curse on a target dealing 1d8 necrotic damage. The cursed target receives 1d8 necrotic damage on any future instance of damage for 1 minute (does not stack). Cost: 10 mana.
Magics:
Splitting Spell 1 — create a clone of a single target spell to target multiple enemies. Cost: ? the original spell cost per clone.
Rot 1 — dealing necrotic damage to an enemy causes the target to receive reduced healing from all sources. Cost: passive.
Pound of Flesh 2 — when your party deals 8 or more necrotic damage to an enemy within one round, all members of the party regain 2 HP. Cost: passive.
She notably didn’t have the Tribe Frenzy trait. Must be a warrior thing. She instead had a cool new curse spell to try out. She could see the synergy already.
Her summon points also did insane work. She really liked the theme. She even doubled down on the Pound of Flesh magic, increasing the HP gain from 1 to 2 for even better survivability.
Just as Luna finished messing around in her menus, George stirred awake.
“Uhhhhh…” George was stunned as he took in the form of Luna’s newest summon. Probably speechless at how cool and hot she looked.
“You want kill me?” he asked, hanging his head.
“George, it’s me,” Luna answered both telepathically and by way of her goblin mouth to get the point across.
“Luna?” George questioned. “But you spear, not goblin.”
“Yes, I was a spear,” Luna agreed. “Then I leveled up into a goblin.”
“That not how that work,” George mumbled. “But okay Luna to be different.”
“Thanks, George.”
“We fish now?” George asked excitedly.
“Actually…” Luna mused. “I was thinking that you could teach me how to hunt.”
“Hunting also good!” George decided, just as excitedly. “First, you need spear.”
George looked around the area for a bit before picking out a broom handle thick sapling. Having no need for a saw, George went full beaver until the sapling was felled.
He gnawed the small branches off the trunk of the tree, then chewed the end to a point. It reminded Luna of when she would sharpen candy canes to stab her siblings with.
“This for you,” George said, handing the spear to her.
Wooden Spear — Lv. 1
Damage: 1d4 piercing.
Nothing fancy. Nothing fancy at all. Her bite did triple the damage if you counted poison. Hell, scratching someone with her improved fingernails even did double.
George quickly acquired an almost identical spear of his own.
“You ready learn hunt?” George asked her.
“Yeah, just a quick question,” Luna started. “Why not just use our claws?”
“Can throw spear, no can throw claws,” George explained wisely. “Lose spear, get new one fast,” he continued. “Lose claw, take time get new one.”
“You make good points, George,” Luna assented.
George just nodded and gestured for her to follow.
Luna inspected their party menu, looking at what George was working with.
Goblin Warrior — Lv. 5 (George)
Health: 50/50
Health Regen: 0.12/s
Mana: 20/20
Mana Regen: 0.02/s
Abilities:
Claw — 2d4 slashing + 2d4 poison.
Bite — 2d4 piercing + 3d4 poison.
Lv. 5 — gain +1d4 to all damage dice.
Geeezzzz. This guy using a Level 1 spear was an insane nerf. She guessed she would roll with his logic for now, but he would have to learn that with her around, he could really get in there and stack some poison and necrotic damage.
Luna was thankfully at full mana by the time they came across their first target.
Armadillo — Lv. 2
Health: 40/40
Beefy little thing.
“This good for you,” George decided. “Just don’t put hand in there.”
“Sounds good.” Of course she wouldn’t put her hand in the armadillo. Freak ass goblin.
Luna opened up with a curse for 3 necrotic damage, then immediately followed up with a spear thrust at the already curling creature. Two piercing, plus 1 necrotic from the curse activation.
Luna Mana: 40/50.
Armadillo: 34/40.
As Luna's attacks bombarded the creature, the armadillo completed it’s transformation into a tightly curled defensive ball.
All right, my turn again then. Spear thrust!
This time when she hit the shell, she felt like she was hitting a cement wall.
1 piercing.
*Minimal physical damage imposed by defensive curl.
“Well, good thing most of my damage isn’t physical,” she thought as 4 necrotic ticked on.
Armadillo: 29/40
The armadillo again didn’t attack, but seemed to want to investigate its opponent. The curl opened up a bit, providing a clean shot at the armadillo’s underside.
Luna took the opportunity to make a deep thrust with the spear, only for the armadillo to react by snapping the curl closed over the spear shaft, cleanly snapping it in two.
“Ah, you fuckinnn… That’s what George meant,” she thought. “No hands in there.”
Well, no spear, sooo curse spells it was.
She cast again. 4 necrotic, plus 1 from triggering the previous curse.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“That’s neat, you can trigger curse damage with curse damage. Too bad it didn’t stack though…”
Mana: 30/50.
Armadillo: 25/40.
Luna just kept chipping away at the creature using her curse spell three more times, each spell bringing along another damage instance from the previous curse spell.
2, 2.
3, 4.
4, 1.
“Come onnnnn.” Luna was baffled by the terrible rolls. Out of all ten of those d8 rolls, not a single one over 4?!
Mana: 0/50.
Now out of mana, she took matters into her own claws.
Two claw attacks:
Minimum slashing damage-1 slashing damage + 4 poison.
Followed by 1 slashing, 2 poison.
And the bite to finish:
1 piercing, to kill, plus 4 + 2 poison for fun.
You have slain Armadillo Lv. 2.
Level up. Goblin Shaman Lv. 2.
Health: 20/20.
Health Regen: 0.06/s.
Mana: — overwritten by Nothing. 50/50
“Good job hunting!” George praised. “But…”
He turned sad, looking at the poison and curse melted remains of the armadillo.
“Yeah, probably shouldn’t eat that,” Luna agreed.
“Next one, kill with just spears, then we eat,” George suggested.
“Sounds like a plan.”
George reloaded Luna on spears, this time they had stocked up leading to George’s current role as a spear caddy.
Luckily, the next animal seemed more susceptible to physical attacks.
Deer — Lv. 3
Health: 30/30
Abilities:
Hoof — 2d4 bludgeoning.
It was definitely going to kick her ass, though. She was bringing a stick to a trample fight.
Luna threw the first spear, hitting nice and clean.
4 piercing.
She then charged with a second spear in hand, getting ready to do one of those anti-horse pike maneuvers you see in old war movies.
The deer met her charge straight on, taking 4 more piercing damage as the spear impaled it.
Luna was then pretty well screwed.
1, 3.
1, 4.
3, 1.
1, 1.
Fifteen bludgeoning damage as each hoof came down on her for 2d4 damage each. What a charge.
Luna HP: 5/20.
Deer: 22/30.
Damnnnnnn.
It was frustrating to her that she had so much mana, but she couldn’t use her curses unless she wanted to ruin the meat. She couldn’t summon herself a better weapon because she was at her summoning cap with just her goblin summoned.
Hmmmm, time to cheese it?
Luna didn’t have time to cook up an entire new weapon summon, so she stuck to the basics.
Luna remained on the ground and acted hurt, which she was, so it was easy to sell it. Her ribs were definitely broken.
The deer stopped and circled back around, getting ready for a second charge.
“I got it, George, don’t worry,” Luna had to call off the nervous goblin before he jumped into the fight.
Luna waited until just before the deer was about to step on her before she unsummoned her goblin, getting back to full mana, then summoned a—
Lvl. 5 Spear
Damage: 5d4 piercing.
Repeating the pike maneuver for:
1, 4, 2, 1, 3 = 11 piercing.
Hey, above average.
Deer: 11/30 HP.
The deer craned its neck down and pulled the spear out of itself, looking pretty rough.
Luna didn’t even let the spear hit the ground before she unsummoned it and returned to goblin form, full HP.
Luna HP: 20/20.
Mana: 0/50.
Hell yeah. She stayed at Level 2 after the resummon. She had been a bit worried she’d start back at Level 1.
That maneuver did cost all of her mana though, as anything over her cap was wasted when changing forms.
“Give me another spear, please,” Luna called to a bewildered George.
“That not how that works,” George explained to no one as he tossed Luna another spear.
The deer had some gnarly looking puncture wounds by this point, but it seemed determined to take Luna out.
Instead of a charge, the deer switched tactics. This time, it circled around Luna before it turned, reared up its hind legs, and kicked at her…hard.
3, 1.
3, 2.
9 bludgeoning.
Luna responded with a spear thrust right in the ass meat.
2 piercing.
Luna HP: 11/20.
Deer: 9/30.
The two squared up for a repeat exchange, neither backing down.
4, 3.
4, 1.
12 bludgeoning.
Luna lost fair and square.
Luckily, this wasn’t a fair fight. “You’re up, George,” Luna called telepathically as her goblin body had been forcefully unsummoned. “I’ll be back shortly.”
“AAAAHHHHHHH!!!” George yelled as he threw a spear from each hand then charged into the fight with a third.
3, 1, 2 piercing from George
Deer: 3/30hp
All the all but dead deer could do was try to kick the goblin warrior away.
4, 4.
3, 2.
13 bludgeoning.
And kick him away he did. George flailed through the air and landed next to where he started the charge. Right next to the bundle of spears they had still yet to use.
George gathered himself to his feet, took a spear in each hand, and launched them at the offending creature.
4, 1.
It was dead in one, but George was never one to half ass a hunt.
You have slain Deer Lv. 3.
No level up yet. She felt the progress happening though. George was probably getting tiny bits of XP towards Level 6, but the XP from a Level 3 deer to a Level 5 goblin warrior amounted to little. This was made even worse when taking into account that the XP was split between the two of them, three if you counted both Lunas. She wasn’t quite sure how that worked yet.
“Good hunting us!” George exclaimed.
“Yes, good hunting us!” Luna agreed telepathically. “Though we made it way harder than it needed to be using shitty sticks,” she added to herself.
Luna had to wait a minute and a third to get back to full mana so that she could come back and enjoy the fruits of their hunt.
“Hey, Luna,” George questioned once she resummoned her goblin form.
“Hey, George,” Luna acknowledged the little butcher as he continued to process the deer.
“Why sometimes you goblin but also sometimes other thing?”
Luna had been waiting for George to finally ask on the topic, as he had consistently shown confusion when she would change shapes. She had caught him talking to himself, walking through possible scenarios of how Luna could exist. The latest working theory was that she was a goblin that could turn invisible and that she just had a bag full of weapons which was also invisible.
“Well, to be completely honest with you,” Luna felt that she owed George a real answer since he was mostly to thank for her current level, “my race is ‘Nothing,’ so I don’t have a body as a default.”
“Mmmm.” George nodded along as he had turned away from the deer carcass to give his full attention.
“My class is ‘Summoner,’” Luna continued. “That means I can use mana to summon objects and creatures, including the goblin that I am now.”
“Okay, you shape changer,” George expressed his understanding with what she had said so far.
“I guess so, but this isn’t me. The items aren’t me. The animals aren’t me. They’re just temporary outfits that I can swap around if I have the mana for it.”
George just stared, seemingly more confused after Luna’s elaboration.
After a good while of gears turning, George spoke again.
“Then can you make whole new tribe?”
She thought about it for a second before responding seriously.
“Eventually,” she nodded. “Yeah, a small tribe of twenty goblins. Fifty mana per goblin, so five class levels per 50 mana cap, set them to do their thing and grow—boom, whole new tribe when I reach Level 100.”
“Never saw Level 100 before,” George mused. “How long that take?”
“Not really sure,” Luna answered, running through a mental timeline. She knew each new level required more XP than the last, and it took quite a while to get to Level 5… for the second time even. “Maybe fifty years or so for the whole tribe?” She pulled the number out of her ass, hoping that George wouldn’t be too discouraged.
George just shook his head. “So slow. Goblin make way more goblin, take less than one year.”
Luna just shrugged. From her short time in the goblin camp, she did observe that they reproduced like crazy. It would be much faster just to actually make new goblins. She didn’t want to go that route though… she wasn’t about to try to become a goblin mom in a summoned body.
Best case, it didn’t work. Worst case, she would have to protect that summon for the entire gestation, because who knew what would happen to the developing goblin if her summon disappeared halfway through. Would the half-baked goblin go with it? Or would it find itself suddenly out in open air? Not trying that.
Surely there was some kind of goblin husbandry class though?
She looked inward, seeking out her class options that she had barely paid attention to during this go around.
Choose a Class
(Selected) Summoner — use mana to summon creatures and objects. Summon level dependent on summoner level, mana pool, and summon catalogue. Gain summon points to further augment summons. Cumulative summon cost is capped at current mana pool max. Mana used to summon creatures is regained on unsummon up to max mana pool.
The description had become more detailed as she had used the class, seemingly unlocking knowledge as she went.
Classes available:
Summoner
Weaponsmith
Quartermaster
Goblin Shaman
Monster Spawner
…
Warning: choosing a new class requires a reset to the class choice level of your race. (Nothing Level 2).
Luna didn’t know about other creatures in this world, but she had a mechanism to reset and still gain progression. She could see that this would be absolutely devastating for most other creatures though. Going from a decent level you had worked hard towards for your whole life to being thrown back to weaker than a common animal.
Considering her choices though, she had certainly gained some new options, including one she wanted to explore next.
Monster Spawner. That seemed like something that might be a bit more viable for creating a tribe. At the very least, a swarm of killer bunnies.
