Shrugging, Alburet mimed opening a book and spoke the words for first time use, “I summon the Infernal Retinue Society to aid me in my choosing of a minion.” He chuckled as he finished the words, as no one would summon the IRS and expect actual help.
A glowing red pentagram appeared on the floor and began to blaze with hellish light. Stepping back slightly, Alburet watched as a bipedal toad appeared inside the circle. It glanced at Alburet before perching a pair of spectacles on its face. “Ah a first timer, greetings to you Summoner. I'm Bettzle, the assistant tasked with picking the Infernal best suited to assist you. You are looking for a Least Imp, correct?”
“Greetings, Bettzle. I am indeed trying to find the Least Imp that will be my helper.”
“Well, lucky for you we have a few to pick from. Your choice can never be changed, so pick wisely.” The toad gestured and four ID pictures with stats appeared in the air before Alburet.
Each of them showed a Least Imp, an orange-red creature two feet tall with pointed tail, small stubby wings on its back and long claws on its hands. Its face was sharp and angled with a lot of sharp needle teeth in its mouth. They each seemed identical in image, so he looked at the relevant info to make his choice. They each only had 2 Strength, 4 Agility, 5 Constitution, and 3 Charisma, but their Intelligence and Wisdom were different along with another rating listed on each of them: Loyalty.
“Bettzle, what does the Loyalty rating denote?” Alburet asked as he couldn't get a pop-up tool tip on what it was for.
“It merely tells you how easy or hard it will be for you to gain happiness with the creature, hardly worth noting. Most Summoners are very content to take the most apt creature that is available, none of them have ever voiced issue with the one they chose to my knowledge,” the toad said while adjusting its glasses.
Alburet recalled Vicky telling him differently, that Loyalty was very important. Sadly, that would mean taking the imp with the worst stats. The one with Loyalty of Very status only had 8 Intelligence and Wisdom, the one with the worst Loyalty rating of Not had 20s in both stats. Chewing his lip, he had to decide whether to trust Vicky's advice or to take the obvious numerical advantage. Shaking his head, he hoped he was right and picked the one with the best loyalty rating.
“Interesting pick, to choose the weakest Imp. Oh well, it's your business Summoner. Best of luck to you and I'll see you when you learn how to summon your next Infernal.” With that, the toad took off its glasses and snapped its fingers, vanishing as the sound faded.
Looking back at how to normally summon his imp, Alburet did as the spell instructed. He held a hand out level, palm down next to him and spoke the words, “Your master calls you forth.” A bright flash and puff of smoke happened and when it cleared a small imp stood there.
“Greetings my master. Thank you for choosing me. What is my name to be?” The imp asked, looking up at Alburet.
“What is your name normally?”
The imp chuckled then spoke briefly in a gut wrenching voice in some language that Alburet didn't understand. “That is why we normally take the name given us by our master while we are under his or her command,” the imp smirked up at him.
“Noted. I take it that was your native tongue?” The imp nodded but remained silent. “Okay. I'll call you Bob.”
“Bob shall be my name then, master,” Bob replied with a toothy grin. “What are we doing?”
“Escaping this place is our first business, then we shall try to find a town or city,” Alburet replied. “Oh, question, what does your loyalty mean exactly?”
“An Infernal's loyalty is tied to how happy we are, the more loyal we are the faster we become happy while the inverse is also true, the less loyal we are the faster we lose happiness. The happier we are the more we do for our master, the less happy we are the more we rebel. Getting us killed or treating us badly lowers our happiness, treating us well increases our happiness.”
Alburet chuckled inwardly, thinking back to games in the past that used similar systems. So sacrificing the imp to run away would be a drawback as it would lower the happiness of the imp. “So if I die, what happens to you?”
“I return to my home plane until summoned again but I do not lose any happiness.”
“What is your happiness currently at?”
“Neutral. There are seven levels of happiness. Hated, Upset, Discontent, Neutral, Content, Respected, Revered.” Bob said, looking slightly bored.
“I see this is going to take me some time to learn. Oh well, let's get going and you can help me learn as we go. I'm glad to have you by my side, Bob,” Alburet said as he stepped to the doors that should lead them out. A pop-up flashed in front of him and after glancing at it he paused to discontinue that pop-up through the menu.
+1 Happiness for Bob
He left alone the one that would tell him when the minion shifted to a different level of happiness but that was all. “Oh, almost forgot,” Alburet murmured, stopping to slap his hands together, “Retribution,” then pressed his hand to Bob's head. “Now you’re buffed, let's see what kind of trouble we can get into.” He repeated the process for himself and pulled the doors open.
A misty courtyard with a weak sun greeted his eyes, with billows of cloud wafting slowly through the space before him. The only notable detail were the thirty foot walls just barely visible at times when a gap in the mist opened.
“Obscuring mist,” Bob said, “to have such a large effect the caster would have to be very powerful.”
Pursing his lips, Alburet shook his head. It wasn't like he had a choice if he really wanted his freedom. “Hopefully they aren't hanging about. Let's find the gate and get out.”
Bob followed him down the few steps to the cobbled road that came to the front of the building. Following the road on the premise that it would lead to a way out seemed like a good idea. After a few hundred feet they came to a massive gate on their right. Studying it, Alburet noted that it looked like it led further into the complex.
“I don't think we should go that way,” Alburet said, turning to follow the road again. Another few hundred feet brought them to a mammoth double door with a smaller single door set in it. “This might be it,” Alburet said, when a large figure lumbered out of the mist.
Stepping back from the figure saved Alburet a lot of pain as a two-handed sword came through the space he had just been in. Alburet locked onto the figure, finding a level 6 Skeleton Gate Guard in rusty chain mail shirt attacking him with 500/500 health.
Tossing the torch at the skeleton as it was no longer needed, Alburet took his staff in hand and swung at the guard. The blow connected with the chain and only turned up a single point of damage. “Bob, could use some help here,” Alburet said as he ducked the next swing from the guard.
A small globe of fire splashed onto the guard’s unprotected legs, doing 21 damage. That caused the skeleton to turn toward Bob, who was already starting to cast another fire blast. As the skeleton turned, Alburet swung the staff into an overhead attack and brought it down firmly on the guard's skull. The critical to the unprotected head of the mob recorded 32 damage and made the mob turn back to Alburet.
Unfortunately for Alburet, the attack had put him a little off balance so the skeleton's attack as it turned caught him in the side and threw him back a few feet. Gasping, Alburet winced at having a small truck hit him costing him 24 health as well as leaving a gash in his side that coincided with the debuff Bleeding, which caused 10% of the wound’s initial damage every six seconds for one minute.