In Path of the Immortal, companions had several important uses, but their most important function was one that most of the players in the game would be currently unaware of.
Siegmund was a terrible fighter compared to almost every other companion—even compared to the weakest free ones which could be obtained through quests in the game. The Onion Knight could take a lot of damage, but his accuracy was terrible, and he had no dedicated combat skills.
In fact, there were many weak combat pets which could deal significantly higher DPS than him. The only advantage Siegmund had in combat was that all companions received a damage boost based on their player's Power Rating. So, technically, Siegmund's current DPS potential was probably higher than most players who were Level 3 or lower.
But it was nothing compared to what Ignatius himself could dish out. In the Eternal Tower, the Onion Knight would serve a much more important function: returning to town, buying and selling items, and then returning.
If a player left the Eternal Tower, they couldn't just return to the same floor they'd been on—unless they had a high-tier teleportation power or something similar. Beating every tenth floor unlocked a checkpoint which allowed a player to start from there, rather than from the very beginning, but these were extremely difficult to reach, since the Hunger Clock was always ticking down.
Especially since each fifth floor had a boss encounter, it was very easy for the basic 15-minute timer to run out long before a player hit a new checkpoint. And, of course, most early game food didn't give much more time to this clock.
But if a companion returned to town, sold loot, and brought back more food, the Hunger Clock could be sustained for a much longer period. If it allowed a player to break through to the next tier of the Eternal Tower, even the 25% extra cost for items bought by companions was worth the price!
"I need you to sell all this stuff," Ignatius said to Siegmund as they both sat against the hot metal walls of the Hell-Iron Jungle, the industrial forging facility where the souls of lost workers were trapped within the flames.
"It's lots of equipment I'll never use," he continued. "I'm very glad that we were able to fight so many monsters on the way here. It was such a pain in the ass to go through that first Library Labyrinth floor and get almost nothing from it."
Ignatius dropped almost a dozen pieces of very cheap, nearly worthless equipment on the ground. Mostly pieces of armor and weapons that had dropped from the enemies on previous floors. He'd already filled most of his empty equipment with trash, just so that he could later equip those slots with gems.
The only slots which were still empty were the Right Hand slot and the Amulet slot.
In Path of the Immortal, different Skill Gems required different kinds of equipment to cast. For example, a shield bash-style skill required the user to be wearing a shield. Many skills could be used with a broad selection of items, of course. Many basic attack skills simply required the user to wield any kind of melee weapon at all.
However, as a Monk, Ignatius's [✧Sacred Fist] required him to either have an open hand or to be wielding a "relic" item in that hand, such as prayer beads. He didn't have an item in this category.
Since [✧Sacred Fist] was Ignatius's only DPS skill at the moment—and was a very powerful one, gaining a damage bonus based on his remaining Energy—it was much more beneficial to leave one hand open than to wield a weapon and rely on auto-attacking.
However, in his left hand, Ignatius wielded a thin, dented buckler of worn-out tin. Every bit of defense was helpful, even if he didn't plan on using the shield for very long.
Also, he hadn't found an amulet yet. Those were fairly rare items, even as trash, and it would likely take some time before he'd find one to fill the slot.
In addition to selling the trash, Ignatius also told Siegmund to buy more food and to have two [✧Skill Gems] identified before returning.
"I'll be back in two shakes of a bloodhound's tail!" said the Onion Knight, then vanished.
Ignatius went tense. The amount of time it took a companion to return from town was somewhat randomized, though it took longer for each additional task that the companion was given.
"I really hope I didn't waste too much time catching my breath on this floor," he muttered to himself. "That would be such a stupid noob mistake to make."
One minute passed, then another, then another. Ignatius became more and more anxious as his Hunger Clock dropped.
He didn't want to start fighting on this floor yet, since he knew from experience that the spirit enemies had minor crowd control abilities that would add up quickly in large numbers. The floor would be trivial if he had Siegmund tank for him, but it could result in disaster if Ignatius carelessly stepped into an ambush with no backup.
Finally, when Ignatius had barely a minute left on his clock—and had eaten almost all his food already—Siegmund returned, appearing out of thin air as he teleported back into the Eternal Tower.
"I've returned, my friend!" said the Onion Knight in a tone of triumph. He dropped a wooden crate full of supplies on the ground between them.
Ignatius breathed a sigh of relief and picked up the very expensive [✯Meat Pie] which he'd ordered. He ate it hungrily, the gravy dripping down his chin to fall, sizzling, on the scorching ground below.
In a few moments, he'd finished eating. His Hunger Clock retreated as he gained 5 minutes of time, as well as increasing the Hunger Clock's cap from 15 to 17 minutes until he left the Eternal Tower. It also temporarily gave him a slight Strength and Endurance bonus for the same time period.
Then he ate some much cheaper bread until his Hunger Clock filled all the way to the maximum of 17 minutes remaining. "Excellent," he said. "We're definitely going to need this time. After we make it through this floor, we have to fight the Floor 5 boss."
"Oh, how exciting!" said Siegmund. "Take a look at the gems which that academic person identified for us. I think you'll find them quite helpful."