Chapter 18 - New Arrivals (Patreon)

A massive panther hunted her in the dark. No, she recognized the shape; it was a Darkwalker. It thought she had no inkling it was slowly creeping closer. Water dripped from the dark stone above, and a single drop plunking into a puddle was the hunter's sign to attack. Except she turned toward it as it pounced, and opened her mouth to reveal a massive set of deadly sharp teeth and swallowed the beast whole.

Elania snapped awake, the vivid imagery of the dream... or nightmare, staying with her. Everything seemed dark, except the flicker of a white light that sat near her. She decided to check her screens quickly.

Elania's eyes widened. The number of level up messages filled the screen. Apparently, they didn't appear in moments of intense pressure once so many had accumulated they instead waited until now when she could deal with them. She swiped them away instead, choosing to view her Status.

[Status]

Name: Elania Reyes

Race: Lesser Demon (S Class Monster)

Level: 36

Power: 56/208

Karma: 24

Titles: [Locked]

[Some functions are disabled due to insufficient requirements.]

[Skills: Elania Reyes]

[Class: None]

[Affinities: Demonic, Mana, Darkwalker(Complete)]

[Magical: Demonic Aura Lvl - 6 (Deactivated), Mana Manipulation Lvl - 24, Battle Concentration Lvl 4]

[Physical: Unarmed Combat Lvl - 4, Darkvision Lvl - 3 (Activated), Dodging Lvl - 28, Block Lvl - 16, Stealth Lvl - 31, Throwing Weapons Lvl - 34, Combat Mastery Lvl - 32]

[Mundane: Identify Lvl - 4, Universal Speech Lvl - 5, Reading Lvl - 4, Writing Lvl - 3, Athletics Lvl - 12, Improvised Crafting Lvl - 19, Tracking Lvl 4]

[Attributes: Elania Reyes]

[Current Attributes:

Demon Contract (1 Available)

Regeneration (Normal)

Demonic Self-Sustenance

Enhanced Physical Abilities (Strength, Mana Capacity)

Immunity (Darkness)

Resistance (Poison, Mana)

Weakness (Holy)]

Nothing seemed out of place; she felt fine, albeit tired, her [Status] said she was okay. She was fine. Then why was her heart still pounding? Was it just the aftereffects of the dream?

Her eyes slid away from the [Status] window, and it blinked out. A faint light cast shadows across the dimly lit room, and she mentally flicked on her [Darkvision] without effort. Everything brightened considerably, and she realized she was in some type of primitive storage room.

The walls were lined with baskets made of some type of wicker, and spears sat in neatly tied bundles beside them. There were some shields stacked on top of each other as well. Elania recognized them as the Mushroohum's weapons.

The other side of the room had different tools and instruments; hoes, pickaxes, shovels, and the like. They had metal tool-heads and looked like something she might have found in Home Depot or Ace Hardware. There were certainly much less of those than the more primitive items.

She was lying on a mat made of some type of woven grass, or was it moss?

'Ralfot? Oh, it's made from the Ralfot moss.'

She stroked the fiber of the mat, it was better than straw, but it wasn't going to beat simple linen. Elania wondered how long she had been unconscious, as she began to probe her last memories.

She hugged herself and looked for some clothes. There didn't seem to be any. What did finally catch her eye was the singular light source in the storage room. It was her Mana Shard; it had been returned to her.

'That's how I got more power after running out. I'm lucky they put it close enough.'

'Why do I keep ending up naked? This world sucks.'

She did see her belt, javelin loops empty, hanging near the crystal. She sighed, then choked back a laugh at picturing her running around naked wearing nothing but the belt, armed with javelins hunting Darkwalkers.

Standing up, she went and collected her things before her hand went toward the single latch. It paused just above it as she got lost in thought.

'It isn't safe to transform or absorb essence. I almost lost myself.'

The memories she had from after the transformation were hazy, but she still clearly remembered what had happened, how she'd almost really became a Darkwalker. The worst thing about it was that it had all felt so... right to her at the time.

'I have to be more careful, I'm just fooling around with things I still don't fully understand.'

She eyed the Mana Shard; it didn't seem that much dimmer than when she had lost it. How long could it keep sustaining her? If she had to go back to absorbing essences... she'd have to be more careful. She'd compared it to a drug before, but it was a drug that, instead of fucking you up, would make you super strong and turn you into a monster.

Taking a deep breath, she turned the latch and pushed through into another, bigger room. Three Mushroohums turned in unison toward her. Great, so much for finding something to wear before she had an audience.

"Glua-glaa."

'At least they don't seem angry. That's an improvement.'

"Where's Skinner?"

"Glua-glaa."

"Fuck."

---

Elania had found a comfy place on one of the roofs. She hadn't found Skinner, but the other Mushroohums had treated her with an almost reverent deference. She at least had been able to convince them to give her a set of leather, which she had spent a few hours converting into a very simple sleeveless top and skirt.

Having a needle and some thread made everything so much easier.

From her vantage point, she was able to watch the Mushroohums work; they had tied ropes around the Demon Darkwalker and were dragging it out of the cave. She had considered going after it and trying to absorb it for the power, but she'd learned a certain caution.

Other movements caught her eye, and she watched as others worked to carry corpses to a large mound. There were already a dozen bodies stacked up, while others had some powder they were throwing on them.

"What's the purpose of that?" Elania murmured to herself.

Her eyes widened when she tried to identify it.

[Fungal Spores]

[You have gained a level in Identify!]

[Identify has gained the ability to reveal additional information.]

'Ask and ye shall receive.'

[Fungal Spores (Mushroohum)]

Elania eyed the mound, and then the Fungal Spore dust. 'Oh.'

They were going to grow new Mushroohums from the dead. Did they even have females? She hadn't been paying attention to it, but she did realize that despite being mostly naked, the Mushroohums looked mostly genderless.

Her thoughts on Mushroom Man gender were suddenly interrupted when a horn sounded. It was near the entrance, where the Mushroohums were pulling the Demon Darkwalker's corpse.

The horn was not a Mushroohum sound. The Mushroom Men had stopped and formed a line, allowing the party of newcomers to pass by.

Elania stood up from her seat and stared at the entrance trying to get a better view. She couldn't see much detail yet, but what she did see filled her with hope, dread, and anticipation.

The newcomers were human.

---

Taniel stared at the massive Darkwalker that the Mushroohums had been dragging out of the cavern. It was obviously demon-possessed, and he had no idea how the poor primitive fungus people had managed to bring it down with their primitive weapons.

A laugh at the head of the group had Taniel shiver. Of course, Marcus would laugh, their leader would find the dead demon pleasing, his bound-demon had been devoured earlier on the route by this very monster when it had ambushed them.

It had been caught outside the wards that had protected the rest of them. The loss was a relief in Taniel's mind as Marcus loved to taunt the rest of them with her. He'd actually set her on poor Tanyan, who had nearly broken his vow of chastity, which would have ruined his [Holy Monk] class.

Tanyan looked back at him and pointed at the Darkwalker.

"Look at the wounds. Looks like a bigger beast found it and mauled it to death."

Taniel looked again and saw what the other man meant. "What could have done that?"

Another laugh came from the front, and Marcus was looking back at them.

"Don't worry boys, I'm sure we will find out when we meet the village chief. If it is scarier than the Demon Dalkwalker, I'll protect you."

Taniel tried to hide his distaste for the man. Marcus was the expedition leader, but he wasn't a member of the Conclave of Neftasu. He was a mercenary, one of the rangers hired out by the monks to lead them through the Underdark's winding caverns.

In Taniel's mind, the fact that he was exceedingly capable of doing his job was his only redeeming quality. The man's character wasn't a concern by the elders who desperately needed the special moss the Mushroohum's could supply. That meant it was up to Tanyan and him to watch over the other novices.

Looking at the village, it appeared to be undamaged, or at least mostly intact from the Darkwalker's attack. It was hard to tell because the Mushroohums lived in the ruins of a lost Underdark city that had been forgotten long ago.

Two red dots glinted in the distance, and Taniel blinked and looked again, a sudden fear sending his heart beating faster. He was seeing things. There surely wasn't an unbound demon in the village. The Mushroohums were still alive.