Chapter 14: First Summon

As he sat there against the cave wall he realized that he must have been floating on his back when he woke up and when he tried sitting up he had stopped floating. Trying to remember what happened to him all he could remember was sinking in the water feeling like he had been stabbed over and over. His revery didn't last too long however as he saw the stupid ellipsis flashing in time with the ticking and the beeps he had been hearing. It ominously sounded like a countdown. Opening his screen, he was met with a timer, that took up his entire vision, counting down in red.

[Time left: 00D: 00Hr: 17Min: 37Sec.]

[Denizen it has been noted that you have not placed your Summoning Gate yet, please remember that if you do not place the summoning gate in an appropriate area in the allotted time you will lose the title of a Noble and become just another initiated that the Summoning Gate Crystals will not react too.]

Seeing the low amount of time Rosario rushed to his feet and began scrambling his way back though the winding entrance way. He did not want to place the Summoning Gate in the underground cavern because he had already dealt with the ground falling out from under him in there. The last thing he needed was to place the Gate in the cave and then have it fall into the water.

It took him only seven minutes to get back outside where the sun greeted him from its zenith in the sky. Squinting as he wasn't used to the light, he stumbled around trying to find the perfect place to set the portal till finally he decided on a spot next to the cavern. He figured that if he places the portal near to the cavern ha can defend them both together instead of having to defend two different spots. He would build a castle and walls around this area and possibly build a massive iron door custom made for the cave entrance. The last thing he would want is someone accidentally wandering into the cave and falling in the nightmare he had or destroying his Summoning Gate.

Pulling out the Summoning Gate Crystal he looked to where he wanted to place it, immediately a grid popped up in his field of vision. He could see a neon blue outline that looked like an arch that was ten feet wide and fifteen feet tall at its peak. As he looked at different places to put the Gate he watched as the outline would move to the spot he was thinking about placing it, eventually he decided to place it into the cliff face about ten feet from the cave entrance. According to the grid he was looking at the arch would look like a doorway leading from the inside of the mountain, it should look pretty cool.

With about a minute to spare Rosario confirmed that was the spot he wanted the Summoning Gate to be. Right as he confirmed that was the spot he wanted, the crystal flew out of his hand and hovered in front of him. It began to rotate slowly at first but then then began to pick up speed. As it began rotating faster and faster it started glowing brighter and brighter until eventually it flashed brightly and shot at the cliff face. Hitting the ground where the Gate would be anchored, Rosario watched as pillars began appearing as if they were being generated by a 3D printer. As each metallic pillar rose up Rosario noticed that spaced even on either side of the arch were 7 clear crystals the size of his fist that reminded him of Herkimer Diamonds. All of the Herkimer Diamonds were clear except for the bottom left which was a white color. He watched in fascination as the remainder of the gate was built and when the last part of the arch portion, the very peak of the gateway was finished appearing, another crystal was created and socketed into place. This crystal was also clear as the others however, it was not the size of Rosarios fist but was five times larger than any of the other crystals embedded into the gate.

After the last crystal was socketed into placed there was a ripple across the inside of the gate and instead of seeing the cliff face behind the gate instead a wavy and shimmering silver and purple fluid like substance appeared on the inside of the gate.

Rosario stood looking at the gate in awe, the pillars reaching up were a metallic black, while the 14 crystals socketed every two feet on the pillars sparkled. As he noticed before, only one of the 14 crystals on the pillars was lit and it had a milky white hue that was swirling around. Atop the shimmering gate sat a 15th crystal as big as a basketball. Just like the other 13 smaller crystals this one was also clear with freshly cleaned glass like transparency.

[Congratulations Denizen, you have now set up your Summoning Gate and can begin summoning Citizens to your territory. Keep in mind all the citizens you summon are denizens that were once like you and coming through that gate is their last chance at life again.]

[Title: Honorary Noble ->Squire]

Seeing the messages come across his vision Rosario also noticed there were a whole lot of messages he had not looked at that he must have received while he had been unconscious. Being too excited to summon his first citizen he put the matter of reading the messages aside and pulled out the Leather satchel containing the Summoning Vellums.

Grabbing the Vellums from the satchel Rosario approached the shimmering gate before him. His hands were sweaty, and he was taking deep breaths through his nose and out his mouth to stay as calm as he could manage. He was equal parts nervous and excited for whomever was going to come through the portal. It would be nice to talk with someone again, the last conversation he had was with Rena on the ship and that was around ten days prior.

As he neared the shimmering surface Rosario reached out his hand and pushed it into the portal but before it could enter, the simmering liquid like surface of the flowing portal solidified under just the portion his hand was touching. Looking in awe at the material that the portal was made of it crossed Rosarios mind that he is a complete idiot as touching shit he shouldn't is what awarded him with so much pain recently. He was lucky all that happened with the portal was it solidified under is touch.

Backing away a couple of feet Rosario took a look at the vellums in his hand. Not sure if he should throw them one at a time or by color he tried remembering if he saw anywhere that it said in the system how the gate actually worked. After a very short amount of thought, probably not near enough thought, Rosario decided he did not want to risk any issues, so he grabbed one vellum randomly from the pile and tossed it at the gate.

Rosario watched as the blue vellum he had chosen at random hit the surface of the gate and disappeared inside as if there was nothing there stopping it from entering. Right after the vellum entered the gate the surface shimmered and out walked a figure.

Before Rosario stood a charcoal skinned humanoid, with eyes that were burning red. The figure was fit as if he had done calisthenics all his life, he was a little shorter that Rosario was and had jet black hair that was shaved on the sides and not more than an inch long on top of his head. Rosario noticed the figure wore a set of black leather pants and a black wool shirt that mirrored the clothing he himself was currently wearing.

"My Lord"

As Rosario stared in fascination at his summon, the man in question took a step forward, dropped to one knee, and placed his right fist over his heart as he bowed his head.

"Stand up, I am not into that 'My Lord' shit. My name is Rosario, what is yours?"

"My name is Tormund. Sir"