Chapter 1
Prepping For Battle
Waking up in the morning is both the worst and the best part of the day. Today it was the worst because I was snapped out of my dreams and the best because today was the first day of summer vacation. School was out, my family and my best friend's family are going to be spending the summer in a condo that they were renting for the summer (In Virginia Beach, too!), and I had more time to play Summoner's War.
I shuffled my way over to the closet and opened it up, looking for my Daily Reward. I closed my eyes and pulled something off the hangers. Upon opening them I learned it was a blue sundress. 10,000 mana; barely enough for one rune power-up. Can't wait until I get those sweet 50 summoning stones and can try for Galleon again, I thought to myself as I pulled off my nightgown and slipped the sundress on. It felt light and swished against my bare legs.
I quickly made my bed and unplugged my tablet, throwing the charger into my satchel. I headed over to the kitchen; it was time for my daily wish from the Temple of Scams. My dad was in the dining room, talking to my mom, who was in the kitchen. He was eating an almond croissant – looks like he got a Gold King Angelmon. Wonder what I'll get.
"Morning, Lillian!" Mom cooed. About ten suitcases rested near the living room doorway. We finally finished packing last night, and with great effort dragged them all over to the living room, where we could grab them when it was time to go to Virginia. We lived in a nice suburban town in Maryland, so Virginia was just a few hours' drive away.
"'ey Mom." I muttered, pulling open the fridge. What was I going to land on this time? There wasn't really much to choose from; we made sure that we emptied out the fridge before our vacation. I spied a leftover slice of apple pie and pulled it out. Apple pie is my favorite.
"Can I have this for breakfast?"
"Of course." Mom smiled at me as she says this. Nice, scored me 150 crystals; a lot better than what I was expecting. My Colleen eyed it suspiciously.
"You eat way too much apple pie, Lillian. You're gonna get yourself fat." She says to me. I liked to pretend that my monsters were living with me in real life; they could faze in and out of my reality at will and I could faze in and out of their reality at will. Of course, only I was the one who can see and hear them in real life - or so I thought.
I shrugged at Colleen's comment as I unwrapped the cellophane covering the pie and grabbed a fork. I stabbed into the crust and thick gel, shoving the forkful that was dislodged into my mouth. The taste of apples filled my tongue, the cold pie practically melting as it met up with my body heat. It was the best thing ever. Anavel looked horrified.
"Oh my GOD, Lillian; at least microwave that!" She shrieked, snapping her umbrella shut.
"Can't; don't got the time to." I said to her after swallowing the first bite of pie. Mom would have been confused, but she and Dad accepted a while ago I never grew out of my "imaginary friends"
"Eh, you know how Lillian is." Lapis sighed, resting her chin on her hand. Her blade was in her free hand, as always. Ever since the Paladins were released, I found a lot more uses for Lapis. Now that she had two skills that decreases attack bars, she was perfect for Trial of Ascension and DB10. "Besides, I hear Virginia Beach's great. Don't wanna get on her bad side and get banned from coming to her reality."
I eventually finished the pie, my Energy sufficiently refilled as I placed the plate and the fork into the sink. "Thanks Mom." I said to her as I headed on over to the living room, sitting down. I glanced at the clock: 8:45 A.M.; just enough time to get some of my daily quests done. I closed my eyes and breathed. When I opened them, I wa back at my island. Sunlight streamed down on everyone, monsters roaming about calmly.
"Good morning, everyone!" I shout from where I'm at; in front of the Arena Defense tower. I heard a few monsters shouting the greeting back. Ellia walks over to me, looking sharp as always with her blonde hair tied up and clipboard in hand.
"Morning, Lillian!" She chirps. "Today's the day you, your family and your best friend's family are going to be driving to Virginia to stay in that condo!" Ellia was kind of like my secretary. She managed rune power-ups, my schedule, and told me about all the latest events going on.
"Sure is. Got a few minutes to myself, though, and I can do some stuff until then. What's the most important thing I can do in five minutes?" I asked. She flipped through the papers in the clipboard.
"Loren's requested some power-ups on rune slots 1, 2, and 5." Loren was the newest addition to my island. She's the light Cow Girl; I snagged two copies of her when I got lucky and found her Secret Dungeon. One of them was going to be used in fusing Jeanne, despite what I've heard about her. I could use someone like her without having to waste three spots in Trial of Ascension for Neal, Ahman and Kai'en.
I headed over to where I last placed Loren. She was on my third island, resting near the Monster Storage, pistols in hand. She tilted her cowgirl hat up and squinted at me; that bandage was still on the bridge of her nose, I note. I smiled and waved at her, and she reciprocated.
"Eyyy, look who came to visit us!" She said. She has your typical cowgirl accent, though I swear that sometimes I can hear her switch to an Australian accent when she thinks I'm not listening.
"Hey, Loren!" I briefly checked her stats. Level 35, awakened, ready to evolve, and Violent with Revenge as her rune set. The runes she wanted powered up were a Violent rune and both Revenge runes.
"Alright, which rune do you want me to start with?"
"Slot 1. The +11's been buggin' me for hours now." It was the Violent rune. After nine failures, the tenth power-up was successful. I get a max roll into CRIT Damage% and fist-pump. I would have powered up her Revenge runes too had it not been time to go already.
"Well, looks like I gotta go." I said. "Don't worry, I'll power up your runes in Virginia." As I reopened my eyes, I was back in the living room and check the clock. Shoot; I had to go now.
I struggled to grab my three luggage pieces: a duffel bag, a rolling suitcase, and my satchel. I take my satchel everywhere with me ever since I got my tablet. It fits just like a glove and I still have room for its charger. My parents were also struggling with their luggage inside as I managed to stumble out the door and to the car. Immediate relief washed through me as I popped open the already unlocked trunk and slide the duffel bag in. That was a successful rune power up and ten pounds off my shoulders already.
"Well well well, look who's finally here!" A voice that wasn't my best friend's chuckles at me. I looked up. Oh, it was Bryson, my neighbor's son. At 13, he almost lit his school on fire, at 15 he was a high school dropout. He likes to pretend he's tough, but cries like a baby at the drop of a hat.
"Ugh, do you ever give up, Gready?" I huffed. I wanted a real challenge, the Arena Rivals were getting too easy and all I've been getting were weak defenses.
"Did you just call me greedy?" He growled as I attempt to haul my suitcase into the trunk and fail. He wasn't a Summoner, so he didn't understand when I turned on my Summoner-mode.
"Alright, fine, which rival do you want to be? Razak? Taihan? Shai? Volta? You're not getting Kellan or Kian, though; they have good monsters but even they are too easy, so don't even think about it." He started harassing me, now visibly confused by all my terminology. I didn't have time for him. Luckily for me, my best friend Karen came to the rescue before I could sick Teshar on him.
"Leave her alone already, Bryson; she's an unrecognized genius." Karen was my age. Her dark hair contrasted against her pale skin, freckles splashed underneath her eyes. With enough bugging, he finally went away.
"Yeesh, sorry you had to deal with Gready over there." Karen said to me. Like me, she was also a Summoner and talked in Summoner's War terminology. I shrugged calmly. It was a wonder how someone like me actually had a friend, much less a best friend; I was more content to bury my face in my tablet and imagine myself as part of a world where runes were armor and you could have a literal archangel as your pet. Karen and I bonded over our love for Summoner's War and tendency to pretend our monsters were living in our reality.
"Eh. He's about as tough as the actual Gready." We laugh a bit at how pathetic Gready's arena defense was: Ursha, Shailoq, Lindermen, and Konamiya? They don't even synergize well!
"How's Iris doing?" I could see the monsters of people who I knew played Summoner's War, but only monsters I knew they owned. Iris, for example, was at Karen's side. She looked just like Lapis, except for different color scheme, and she was sobbing dramatically.
"It's horrible!" Iris squealed. "How could they take away my 100% chance to strip beneficial effects?! Now I'm useless! Useless I tell you!" Iris still hadn't gotten over her recent buff, just like Karen's Laika.
"Oh, she's still great, but she thinks she's useless." Karen noticed my struggling as I failed to power up rune after rune.
"Need any help with that?"
"Yeah, that would be great, thanks. You know how my mom packs." With our strength combined, the rune power-up was successful and both my bags were in the trunk. Eventually we got all my family's bags in the trunk and we were ready to go. Little did I know that one of the hardest Trial of Ascension stage awaited us at the first gas station we stopped at...
