Chapter 45, 46, 47 / Cultist Access (Patreon)

Hello everyone! Because of the way releases went, Cultists are ending up with some extra chapters tonight while the Lesser Demons suffer. It's mainly because I combined the public releases (the interludes especially) together so they wouldn't be so short. I know all my patreons suffered during the really dry spell when I was having trouble writing, but I'm hoping that all the releases will be back to where they should be this month. I'm definitely managing to write more this week.

Thank you all for being so understanding and supportive, I'm pretty excited for where the story is going, and I am doing my best to get more content out because I know you all are too!

Get the chapter here! 

Or read below!

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Chapter 45 – Tessa (Continued)

Elania felt the need to fidget as Tessa sat across from the round ‘outdoor’ table and stared silently. After the sudden violence, including ‘magic’ and counter-magic, that ended as suddenly as it had started, Elania felt more than just a loss of words. Fighting seemed to be taken as something that was a common occurrence, and she couldn’t imagine someone causing such a scene on Earth and getting away with it... although maybe that was just because she never visited such places on Earth.

“So, Elania.”

Elania’s eyes widened as her attention snapped back onto the other Demon with the realization she had been wandering off in her own head again during the dragging silence. The look caused Tessa’s lips to stretch into a smile revealing the teeth again. The discomfort Elania felt at the visible display of razor teeth must have been visible because Tessa quickly hid them.

“Sorry, I’m told it's a bad habit that makes others uncomfortable, but it is hard to remember.”

Elania had to hold back a frown, a sudden feeling of empathy going through her. How would it feel to be told smiling was a bad habit? Elania knew she had some bad habits herself.

“That’s alright. I try to tell myself not to get lost in my head, but it is hard to remember.”

Tessa smiled at her again, although this time with her lips closed. Elania still felt it was a bit unfair to be required to hide one's teeth, but Tessa’s were... scary. Something people would probably be able to get over seeing after a few times, but the first sight was always going to make people uncomfortable.

“Is that so? What type are you? You smell like a human, and the rest is so subtle I can't tell, which is strange. Normally your first form would still leave at least a little hint, and daydreaming could come from too wide a range.”

That was when Elania realized Tessa’s ears were pointed. Like elf ears. Elania knew a whole host of earth folklore and fantasy stories would fit Tessa right into them, except right now she couldn’t remember a single one of them. Tessa certainly wasn’t a Tolkien elf. Elania had seen some patrons at the Inn in the Waypost that resembled those, along with the name to go with it for their race. Tessa didn’t seem to match them. Maybe there were two...

Suddenly, Tessa reached across the table and took Elania’s hand, turning it palm up and bringing it to the center. Elania started to ask what she was doing when she leaned forward and bit her finger without warning.

Elania’s yelp came as she tugged her hand back. Tessa released it without complaint, and Elania held her now-bleeding finger. Four bloody spots she assumed were teeth holes closed themselves up quickly, but still left traces of blood dripping down her hand until she wiped it off with a shirt sleeve.

“Why!?”

“You were lost in thought again, little kitty. So I thought I’d test your reaction speed.” Tessa licked her lips, which confirmed that Tessa was definitely of the more meat-eating variety if the teeth didn’t give that away. She tried to avoid thinking about how it was her own blood Tessa was licking, though.

“You have so much potential, Elania, its exciting. You’re very young, only level 48, and you don’t have a master controlling your every action. You seem to have a nice attribute, too, although I didn’t think feline hunters could take regeneration?”

That last was styled as a question, but Elania shook her head, wanting to deny the whole thing.

“I’m not a ‘kitty’ or anything else, I am... was a human.”

“Hmmmm.”

It was apparent Tessa wasn’t convinced, but the waitress picked that moment to show up. The way she was looking at them angrily told Elania that she, at least, wasn’t as afraid of them as the mercenaries who had beat a retreat inside.

“Are you two going to order something now, or are you going to keep manhandling the other patrons and poor Buno?”

Although Elania was included in the statement, the woman was clearly looking to Tessa for an answer.

“Poor Buno should learn to keep his hands to himself, and the other patrons should mind their own business. Everyone has a right to sit down and have a drink, yes?”

“Paying customers have a right to sit down and have a drink. This isn’t a hostel or a place to sleep.”

Tessa’s reply was to fish out a coin from a hidden pocket that Elania hadn’t even realized existed on the maid uniform. It was a large round gold coin, and Elania was sure it was the large gold that had been explained to her at the Waypost. It was worth ten of the smaller golds; surely a pair of drinks wouldn’t cost that much.

The waitress's surprise confirmed Elania’s suspicion, and for the first time she showed something other than annoyed anger.

“We’d like two Frujuices, whatever you have that is sweetest.”

“We have some fresh Apnels we got yesterday.”

“That will be fine.”

The waitress nodded and turned and hurried back into the tavern clutching the coin to her chest, ignoring a few customers calling to her to stop at them.

“Two uhh, Frujuices? Didn’t really cost that much did it?”

Tessa smiled at her without the teeth.

“No, of course not, most if it is for the trouble. The rest is for some goodwill. A Frujuice shouldn’t cost more than a small silver.”

“Oh. I see.”

Tessa had been paying to smooth things out for having roughed up the tavern’s patrons and beating the bouncer. Elania thought they all kind of deserved the thrashing they got, considering their behavior, but she also didn’t know what was normal or expected. She suspected Tessa had over-paid whatever reparation was customary from the look on the waitress’s face.

“About the drink, I don’t think I should be drinking anything alcoholic.”

“Alcohol? Why would I order that? Don’t you have regeneration anyway? Yours doesn't help with poison then?”

Elania started to reply but stopped, thinking about it. The razor-claw poison from its claws had been stopped, but she had also had a horrible hangover at the Waypost.

“I still get hangovers, at the very least. Otherwise, I think it might depend on what kind of poison... I haven’t exactly tested it.”

“Well, that’s probably for the best, in my experience poison testing isn’t pleasant.”

For the first time, Elania caught a hint of pain on Tessa’s face and wondered if she’d been forced to test poisons. She wasn’t sure she should ask, and Tessa quickly filled the gap in the conversation.

“Well, at least someone has already taught you to count money, although it looks like they didn’t do much beyond that?”

Elania frowned. Her previous companions certainly hadn’t given her any money. She should have demanded some, she had done Marcus’s job for part of the trip anyway, and while they had left her with one of their spare outfits, it seemed like they could have afforded her enough to sleep somewhere for a night or two.

“They taught me the conversions between coins, but not much else.”

“Well, remember a Frujuice is about one small silver. It’s one of the few things we Demons like to drink, even if we don’t really get anything from it. I’m sure you’ve figured out your [Demonic-Self Sustenance] by now?”

“Yes, it uses ‘Power’ and I don’t have to eat, drink, or... other things. How do you know I’ll like the Frujuice though?”

“Well, you might have a different preference in what fruit you like the most, but it is a common trait among all of us that we love fresh fruits. Even the ones that other races consider bitter or sour will taste sweet to us.”

Elania wanted to ask why, and she remembered the sweet drink that she had tasted before to wash away the terrible taste of the stew.

“Cooked meat and vegetables are bad though?”

“Anything cooked will be bad, you’d probably be fine eating them raw, but why? It wouldn’t taste good, and you won’t receive any power from it. So there’s no reason to.”

Elania frowned; eating dinner together with others seemed to be pretty important, but if there was no benefit to eating anything, then it would just be a social thing. Well, one thing was certain, her experience with cooked food was enough for her to believe Tessa easily. Not that she’d ever try raw meat to see if it was merely 'ok.' Fresh fruit it would be.

“You can’t really deny being part Darkwalker you know, after tasting it, I feel a bit silly that I couldn’t make out the scent, it seems obvious now. Your smell is very subtle though.”

“I absorbed the Darkwalkers after being summoned, not the other way around.”

“It really isn’t something to be ashamed of or to hide. Even if it was a lot of them. I imagine it was with how diluted you are. Did you get your master with them? Is that how you got free?”

“I was summoned by some weird cultists. They were trying to worship me or something, then some knight or paladin attacked and I escaped while they were fighting.”

Tessa looked at her like she was crazy and, for once, seemed to be at a loss of words.

“Huh?”

“They were all wearing black, and I was standing there naked. The stupid circle shocked me, and the paladin cut it with his sword somehow, then the bishop attacked and I ran out. Then I spent… days or weeks running around the caves until I ran into the Mushroohums.”

Elania continued to retell her story, not skipping anything and including the role the mana shard played in events. Tessa stopped interrupting and listened attentively, only stopping her a few times to clarify a few things.

“You almost evolved into a Darkwalker?”

Elania nodded, “I had absorbed a lot of them and I transformed into one and it... was really strange. It was like I really was a Darkwalker.”

When Elania got to the part about meeting the Monks and Marcus, Tessa almost exploded.

“You showed them your status and skills screens? What in the hell were you thinking? Don’t ever do that for anyone! They shouldn’t have even asked!”

“Well... it felt... like I needed to gain their trust or something, and the Mercenary hinted that they would deal with me somehow if I didn’t go with them...”

Tessa shook her head, the disapproval was evident. “Don’t let anyone walk over top of you, Elania. Even if you have to fight them. You’re unbound and don’t give that up, no matter what.”

Elania started to continue, but their drinks arrived and interrupted. Tessa happily scooped up her glass, and Elania followed the example, finding that the large glass was chill to the touch, with condensate already forming on the outside.

“You... don’t have refrigerators here do you?”

“A what?” Tessa and the waitress asked simultaneously, and Elania shook her head.

“Nevermind, I meant to chill the drink down, its a think where I come from.”

“Oh, no. We get ice from the local ice mage and keep it in the coldbox. We keep the glasses in there to cool the drinks.”

Elania nodded. Ice Mage. Ice deliveries. Right. It sounded like she needed to avoid trying to explain condenser coils, refrigerant, and the concept of ‘iceboxes that kept themselves cold,’ or she’d probably end up waking up in an ice cube and the prisoner of some irate out of business ice wizard.

“Is it a problem? I could bring you a different glass,” the waitress asked.

“Oh, no its fine.”

Elania looked at the glass for another second, then copied Tessa and took a sip.

It was certainly sweet, and it tasted like the fruit she had back at the Waystation.

“It’s good right?” Tessa smiled at her and Elania nodded.

“Do you have any idea who the cultists and this ‘Bishop’ were?”

Elania frowned, she did remember a name from the contract that had been offered to her, though. “I refused the contract they sent without looking at it. Something like... Cult of the Black Candle...?”

Tessa let out a breath at the same time the waitress let out a gasp. Elania felt like she had been caught in a trap as soon as the two reacted, Tessa letting out a breath and the waitress gasping a stereotypical hand going to her mouth.

Tessa turned to the waitress and shooed her away with a ‘thank you, that’s all’ then turned back to Elania.

“Don’t mention them, at least, not that loudly. ‘The Black Candle’ is a boogeyman that a lot of people fear. I think I know what paladin you are talking about, too. There’s been some talk of his actions in the city, and there was a bit of pushback when he was allowed to operate freely.”

“So.. You believe me then? I was a human when summoned and then escaped.”

“Well, I don’t think you’d insist so much on something so... very rare if you weren’t very certain of it. Still, I can’t think of any real example of another Demon summoned while a human, maybe because they were all discarded or... worse.”

Elania gulped, there were more questions she wanted to ask Tessa, but the sudden idea that she’d need to be ‘terminated’ or ‘dealt’ with because she was summoned was unwelcome. Maybe she shouldn’t mention it to others in the future. Better to fit in with what others thought you were than be something ‘different’ and feared?

“I have a lot of questions, especially about levels, attributes, and skills, contracts, and stuff...”

Tessa nodded, “I know. I can only imagine, there is a lot to go over, though.”

“Actually... why are you helping me? It isn’t like I don’t appreciate it, but so far everyone has... seemed to be taking advantage. Or worse, warning me about people taking advantage of me while trying to take advantage of me.”

“I might say that I don’t want to see you end up like me, but that isn’t all of it. You’re unbound, and you don’t realize how much potential just that gives you. Most of us don’t have any say in what skills or powers we take, its all decided for us. Usually not to our own benefit, or likes either. So if I help you now, which doesn’t cost me much or anything hardly now, you might be able to help me later. You’re sort of small, but I can tell your power density is high, too. So later you might be a very good friend to have.”

Tessa smiled, “Plus you’ve already given me a bit of information that might be valuable making this conversation really worthwhile for me, and for free. I might be able to leverage that into some favor from my master and get out again with it. It isn’t often I’m rewarded by being free to roam like this.”

“Uhh... I did?”

“Movements of the Paladin will be of interest to him, yes. He is on the council that rules the city, and having that kind of information might work to his benefit. The council is often contentious and some didn’t agree with allowing a forgeiner with powerful abilities the freedom of the city.”

“Ok..ok.. This is a bit much for me, though. I’m still trying to figure out things like what skills I should try to level up, what attribute to take in two levels, and how to find an artisan to sell my stupid monster orb thing so I can afford a place to rest while I figure it all out.”

“I can offer you a few suggestions, especially on --”

Tessa’s head snapped up as she spotted something, and Elania turned to look at where she was staring. A few armored men were walking toward the tavern, but they were still a block away.

“Shit, my handlers have caught up with me. I have to go.”

Elania blinked, “I thought you said you were rewarded by being free to roam?”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that, it’s an unspoken agreement.”

Tessa suddenly fished out several silver coins, five small ones, and one large, then slid them across the table to Elania before standing up in a hurry.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find you again, it’s what I’m good at, anyway,” the statement was accompanied by Tessa licking her lips. Elania suddenly felt that wave of discomfort wash over again with the memory of Tessa making a snack out of nipping her finger.

“Just don’t make any long term contracts. Or short term ones, if you mess it up, it will bite you badly.”

Before Elania could respond, Tessa vaulted a wood railing and started sprinting down the street opposite of her ‘handlers’ with enough speed to draw attention all around.

One of them yelled almost immediately, “Stop!” It was no use, though, as the other Demon quickly disappeared around a corner. The two armored men hurried after her in pursuit, but as they passed by the tavern, one of them stopped and stared at her with a glare.

‘Oh shit, he saw me talking with her.’

Elania’s worst fears didn’t come to pass, as the man shook his head and then continued after his partner in pursuit of Tessa.

It took a moment for Elania to regroup. Tessa’s sudden disappearance had been as abrupt as her appearance. Elania still wasn’t sure what she thought of the more experienced Demon, but... she hoped that Tessa would show up again soon; she still wanted to ask her all those questions.

“Would you like another Frujuice?”

Elania looked up, not realizing the waitress had returned.

“Umm. They aren’t going to come out and get revenge on me now that she left, are they?”

“Don’t worry, I think they would have more a problem with her than you, and I’ll cut them off if they try.”

“Oh.. Alright.” Elania looked down at the few coins that Tessa had left her. She actually wanted another drink, it was a pleasant distraction, but would it be wise to spend one of her few coins on something she didn’t strictly need?

“It’s already paid for if that’s what you’re thinking about, after your friend left such a generous tip.”

“Ok then, I would appreciate another one then, thank you.”

“I’ll be back with it in a bit sweetie.”

Elania nodded, then settled into her chair, checking her clock. There were still hours to go, but she thought she would head toward the shops and scope them out before the opening time came so that she wouldn’t waste any time getting lost again.

Chapter 46 – Maps and Thugs

Elania was starting to rethink her plan to look for the Mercenary District’s Artificer Row as she walked down the side street. She had asked directions from the waitress again, just to confirm the ones from Henri and Elburn had given her. That, and that she hadn’t misremembered or scrambled them in her head, which was probably more likely, she admitted to herself. Luckily, what the waitress said matched what Elania remembered, so after her fourth Frujuice and way too much people watching, she had set out to look for her goal.

She hadn’t needed to go far on the main row, as the side street she needed to turn off on wasn’t that much further into the district. She’d barely hesitated at the slightly dimmer lighting. Elania hadn’t appreciated just how much light the extra fixtures on the buildings had provided the main street, and the further she delved into the district, the fewer and fewer those were in appearance until they were only present on the block corners. The alleys didn’t have any at all and were darkened enough that her eyes would adjust into a near monochrome if she looked down them.

The fact she had a sort of night vision made them a lot less scary. However, they looked quite full of trash and debris and definitely not the type of place to spend any time in. She had spotted a few shadowy figures sleeping or moving about in a few of them as she went. That was enough to prod her to walk closer to the center of the street. The feeling of being watched started to prickle at her back, but the few times she peeked back the way she had come, there was no one there.

‘Maybe if I learned Demon-Jujutsu or whatever, I’d stop feeling so nervous.’

Or really, any real fighting ability would do. So far, she had flailed her way through everything, relying on her superior racial strength to survive. She had turned her [Mana Manipulation] into a weapon, but that was risky at best and limited in range unless she wanted to burn copious amounts of her reserves.

She had no idea where to even start with ‘Magic,’ so the idea of using some sort of ranged weapon...a bow or crossbow maybe, appealed to her. The memory of Marcus preparing to shoot at her was still fresh and outlined just how vulnerable she’d be to someone with a projectile weapon where she couldn’t get into ‘Power Punch’ distance.

The thought of having to learn to use a bow from someone like Marcus made her feel uncomfortable, though. Maybe if she met Tessa again, she could learn to use a sword and shield with a few lessons instead. With a class like ‘Knight,’ the other demon should know all about swords, Elania told herself. Although it was probably wishful thinking that she’d be free to teach anything.

Elania frowned and came to a stop at a large T-intersection. The path going straight ahead shrunk and became almost as dim as the alleys she had seen, while the turn continued to be about the same. Her first instinct was to follow the better lit main path, but... the directions she had been given didn’t include any turns or junctions like this.

She was supposed to follow the street she was on until it ended in a square with multiple branches... that was definitely not where she was at now as directions and reality didn’t match up once again. Was everyone so bad at fucking directions? Elania bit her lip and looked down both paths again.

‘What I need is a map.’

Suddenly, she recalled a brief tidbit from Marcus of all people from one of their early conversations.

“Fun idea, but no. It’s an artifice that provides certain functions to those who reside in the area. Clock, maps, the ability to call the guards, among other things.”

Elania repeated the keyword in her head.

'Maps.'

Henri had shown her the stone, and it had been as simple as putting her hand on it and getting a simple status box to show it to her. Neither he, Elburn, or even Tessa had mentioned Maps. They had all given her directions when a map would have been much more straightforward, especially if it worked somehow like her [Status] or other screens.

Why had they not even mentioned it?

[User Binding: Neftasu]

[Clock: 5:18]

[Emergency]

[Locked]

[Other]

Yeah, that looked like it had earlier when Henri had shown her the Binding Stone. It had been easy for her to transfer the [Clock] function over to her custom [Hud] window, so she’d not used this screen more than once. Was the locked function the map? A quick glance around showed no one nearby, so she decided to test [Other] before going on.

[Unbind]

[Locked]

[Locked]

[Activate Management Interface]

Well, she didn’t want to ‘Unbind’ that would take away her Clock she guessed, and everything else seemed locked except the last option, which she wasn’t sure about. It was the only choice if she wanted to continue investigating, though, so she activated it and received a deluge of messages she wasn’t prepared for.

[Attempting to Grant Management Access]

[New Management Permissions Restricted]

[Management Authority Exceeds Current Management Authority]

[Overriding Management Permission Restrictions]

[Management Access Granted: City-State Neftasu, Elania Reyes, Full Access]

[Stripping Previous Management Requires Core Access]

[Resetting User Confidentiality Settings to Management Default]

[Management Interface Activated]

What the hell had she just done? Elania bit her lip, the messages stopped, and nothing else seemed to happen, so she activated the [Bind] screen again.

[Manager Binding: Neftasu]

[Clock: 5:19]

[Emergency]

[Map]

[Other]

There it was. For such a verbose response, just the first part of the screen had changed from ‘User Binding’ to ‘Manager Binding’, and the [Locked] function now revealed was a map. Rather than spend time panicking over the log messages, Elania quickly activated the [Map] function.

She was rewarded with a huge screen popping into place in front of her, the slightly transparent image expanding to several feet wide and tall. It was much too close and almost made her go cross-eyed. Elania took an instinctive step backward, but the screen followed her movement perfectly, which was even more disorienting.

‘Fuck, whoever designed this was near-sighted or something.’

Thankfully, she knew what to do to actually manipulate the screen and push it a bit further away, just like she had managed to customize her [HUD] screen.

The map was not what she expected. Google Maps might have spoiled her. The dark blue background has several weird areas where beige bled through in irregular patterns. Over that, a grid of darker black lines arranged all over it in what she assumed were buildings as she looked closer. There were absolutely zero labels of any sort, and she was barely able to get an understanding of the city’s layout. If the map was even the entire city. She’d been told the magic barrier she’d passed through was a sphere, and the map was shaped in a circle, which suggested what she was looking at was probably a top-down view.

Of course, there was no legend anywhere to be seen, but there was an odd-looking rectangle box in one corner. Elania was about to try to figure that box out when she realized that the blue and beige colors were shifting. She focused on one of the beige splotches that stood out, and sure enough, around the edges of it, the blue was shifting.

Zoom-In? Just her thought of looking for that function rewarded her with the map slowly responding, and she realized that the solid blue color was anything but solid. It was thousands of small blue dots. Most of them were stationary, but many were moving. It took a moment, but then she had a theory on what they were.

‘People. The dots are people, this isn’t a map of where to go, it’s a map of the population of the entire city.’

Suddenly, the blank rectangle in the corner made more sense to her.

‘Henri.’

The sea of blue dots disappeared, leaving just a neat beige with black lines all over it. That prompted her to Zoom-out and there it was. A single green dot sitting somewhere near the center right of the center of the city.

‘Tessa.’

The Henri-dot disappeared, to be replaced by another green dot, this one near the eastern, or what she assumed was the eastern side of the city due to her association with east being to the right.

‘This is why no one mentioned the map, and that function was locked, giving everyone a map that locates everyone in the city would be… dangerous.’

It didn’t explain why she suddenly was able to have this ‘Management’ ability, though, or why she’d be permitted to access it.

‘Elania Reyes’

[Confidentiality settings prevent this user from being displayed. Change status to visible? Y/N]

‘Oh, definitely not.’

Elania was quite happy that no one would be using this [Map] to track her. The question of just why she’d have more authority than the current management was a bit nagging though. She’d need to be careful and keep her access to the [Map] hidden, since she figured that someone would be rather miffed if they found out some random ‘Demon’ could locate just about anyone she wanted.

There was only one problem.

She didn’t know the name of any Artificer, and there were no street names or building labels at all, just a mess of black lines that indicated buildings, and only on a single level, at that.

Try as she might, whatever commands she tried failed to change that. The map was, in the end, a big people tracker, not a roadmap to the Artificer district.

Elania sighed and glanced down the two streets. She’d spent a good five or ten minutes just standing there, lost and looking at the map.

“Found another one, Mac.”

Elania’s heart leapt instantly as the voice cutting through the silence much too close behind her. Before she could turn around, an arm wrapped around her left side to grab her breast.

The sudden unwanted touch almost paralyzed her in fear; it would have done so before.

Elania's reaction after the brief hesitation was vicious as she reached up with her free hand to grab her assailant's hand and crush down on it with all her strength. Despite it being larger than hers, she felt the resistance he offered falter instantly as bone and sinew shifted under her fingers. The weakness allowed her to twist around in his grip to face him. The man had obviously not been expecting much resistance, if any, and while he was still reacting to the pain in his hand, she shoved him as hard as she could.

He didn’t quite go flying through the air. Her leverage had not been good enough for that, and the tight confines meant she hadn’t been able to produce enough momentum. He still staggered backward and tumbled onto his backside.

“Fucking bitch! I’ll kill you!”

Elania’s heart fell as she took in the scene; her assailant wasn’t alone. There were two others, standing just behind where her attacker had fallen. One was another man, and the other was a young girl that looked like she was maybe ten or eleven and had her head down looking at the ground.

[Bruiser – Human – Lvl 58]

[Rogue – Human – Lvl 78]

[Classless – Human – Level 15]

The one who had grabbed her was a Bruiser, while the one holding the girl was a Rogue. Both seemed relatively low level compared to everyone Elania had met so far.

As the man got off the ground and back onto his feet, his earlier words clarified their purpose as Elania phrased them in her head.

‘They’re grabbing girls off the street. Human-fucking-traffickers.’

A knife suddenly appeared but failed to produce any instinctive fear in her. She’d fought a Razorclaw with teeth bigger than the short length of metal, and she felt herself settling and preparing to counter whatever rush came at her.

The Rogue had apparently been doing his own examination because his hand settled on his partner’s shoulder and stopped him.

“Wait, Ned, she’s not a girl, that’s a Demon.”

Elania could feel the men’s attitude and posture change immediately from eager attackers to wanting to escape. Suddenly, she wanted to pounce on them, and teach them a lesson for attacking her. A system prompt suddenly appeared.

[Darkwalker Transformation, Y/N?]

‘At least if fucking asked this time.’

Turning into an oversized black panther monster seemed like it was a terrible idea in the middle of the city, though. It was good to know it was there if she needed it, but the last time, she’d had trouble turning back, and plus, she would end up naked and unable to carry her stuff.

“Don’t you two have identify?” Somehow Elania managed to bite back an expletive, but the tone in her voice seemed to convey enough sentiment to whip the Rogue at least.

“We’re sorry, didn’t mean to grab you.”

“Wait, she’s lower level than us, we could—”

“Don’t be a fucking bigger moron.”

Ned turned toward her and held up a hand toward her. “We don’t want any trouble, just a misunderstanding. Mac, let’s go.”

The bigger Bruiser, despite his bravado, seemed content to retreat with his friend, but Elania’s eyes settled on the young girl. The Rogue’s hand had never left the girl’s shoulder, and as the two men turned away the girl was pulled with them.

The memory of Marcus urging her to ignore others who were in trouble when they first arrived in the city came to Elania suddenly, a frown taking shape on her lips as she made a decision.

“Wait.”

The two men flinched in response to her command, halting midway in their turn. Elania let the time stretch for a second as they stared at her blankly.

“Leave the girl.”

Chapter 47 - Orphans

The two men almost flinched when Elania ordered them to leave the girl. The girl responded as well, looking up from the ground for the first time to stare at Elania with widened eyes. A reddened splotch marred the side of the young girl’s face, and Elania felt her anger at the Rogue and Bruiser redouble.

The Bruiser recovered from his shock first, anger marring his face, “She’s only level 48 we can…”

“My master thought the same thing, but that didn’t make it any harder to pull his spine out of his back…” It was a lie. A bluff. Elania was grateful she’d taken that ‘All the World’s a Stage’ class as a Freshman. It hadn’t been required of a General Studies – Maybe a History Major, but she had been drawn to it from how fun the playacting activities were to do with her classmates.

She added a smile to the act, and suddenly wished she had terrifying teeth like Tessa did to add to the scene she had set.

The two men were frozen. Seconds ticked by Elania and felt like the bluff was eroding as the silence lengthened, that they might choose to fight instead. She did not want that, as it would almost certainly become a terrible mess in alley that she'd have a hard time explaining, although she felt quite confident at being able to handle the two thugs. She should have thought of that before she had acted.

‘Stupid, reckless, Elania.’

She changed her mask from casually polite to annoyed anger.

“I’m peckish, you two can stay if you wish. I’ll be more hungry later.”

Doubt gnawed at Elania’s core; what if she had misjudged the situation? What if the men knew the girl, or if they cared for her, and Elania had misjudged everything. Their actions didn’t seem to suggest that, but…

Elania focused some of her ‘Power’ into her hand, a slight yellow glow surrounding it. That seemed to spur the Rogue, who seemed to be the ad-hoc leader of the duo.

“Magic-type.” He said before suddenly shoving the girl forward toward Elania. The girl immediately lost her footing and went sliding on the rough stone, and Elania bit back a curse. The Rogue grabbed his partner’s arm and dragged him away, though, and the two quickly moved into a sprint down toward the darker street that she had been considering earlier.

The girl burst into sobs, whether from being hurt or fear – or even both, Elania wasn’t sure. Moving forward, she kept an eye on the retreating thugs to make sure they kept moving away while kneeling to help the girl.

“Hey.”

As soon as she spoke, the crying intensified, and Elania bit her lip. Maybe the whole insinuation that Elania would eat her had been overblown, but at least it had sent the thugs packing. The girl had obviously been paying more attention during the exchange than Elania thought, as that threat translated into terror as the girl finally looked up to stare at her.

‘Basics, Elania, Basics, let’s not terrify her more.’

“Hi. What’s your name?”

As Elania looked the girl over, she realized the mop of hair that she had thought was a light brown was blonde, molted over with dirt and grime. Her cheek was red where she’d probably been hit by the thugs earlier, and now she had some scrapes on her hands where she had fallen. The added layer of dust from the road barely seemed worth mentioning because the girl was already coated in a thick coat of grime.

It took another moment for the girl to bring her sobs under control, but Elania remained patient. A passer-by gave them an odd look as they walked past, probably because they were both sitting on the side of the street, but he hurried away without comment as soon as he saw Elania look at him.

“T… Tina…”

“Hello, Tina. My name is Elania.”

“A…are you going to eat me?”

“No. I just wanted to scare those men away. Did you know them, were they taking care of you?”

Tina’s head immediately started doing a tilt to the left that had Elania thinking the girl was having a seizure, then the situation where Tanyan had her tilt her head while a Darkwalker caused the gesture to click for her.

‘Ok, so nodding isn’t universal. Everyone’s probably been thinking I’m a weird head-up-and-downer everytime I’ve done it. Oook. Left-tilt-no, Right-tilt-yes. Don't confuse your directions or get them backward because the person facing you is looking the other way. Fuck.’

The answer confirmed one thing to Elania though, those thugs were definitely the bastard-creeps she’d taken them for, and she didn’t need to feel bad about kidnapping someone.

“Ok. Do you know where your parents are?”

“They’re dead.”

‘Way-to-go-Elania.’

“I’m sorry. Who is taking care of you? Do you know where you live?”

Tina looked away, and the sudden refusal to answer hinted to Elania that the girl didn’t have anyone and was probably living on the street or something. That certainly would explain the coat of grime on her. Elania frowned, considering what to do. Maybe there were some orphanages took in children? Did that kind of thing even exist in this fucked-up-world?

Tina’s stomach suddenly rumbled loudly, prompting Elania to ask, “Are you hungry?”

The rapid tilting of Tina’s head to the right had Elania bite her lip. Elania wanted to know exactly how head tilting had become a thing because just thinking about copying the gesture for very long made her neck hurt.

“I’m hungry too –“

Elania paused midsentence as she saw the fear crisscross Tina’s face again, before quickly resuming with a question.

“ – do you have any money?”

“N…No.”

“I don’t either. It costs money for food. Do you know your way around here? I haven’t been to Neftasu before and am a little lost.”

The girl blinked at her for a few seconds, but then Elania was greeted with the Eladu version of a nod.

“I… I know a little.”

“I’m looking for the Artificers, do you know where their street is?”

“The… the ones who sell to the nobles, or the ones who make things?”

God, even the little orphan girl, knew that much, and Elania was reminded of her earlier escapade and screw up going to the wrong shops. It also probably meant the girl knew a lot more about the city's locations and people than Elania did. An idea sprouted and took shape.

“Tina, if you help me find the Artificer I need, I’ll buy us some food.”

The hopeful look on Tina’s face made Elania smile.

“There is another thing. It will help me with trading with the artificer.”

Elania paused, suspecting the next ask would be a little troublesome, so she thought of a way to word it correctly.

“Do you know how red-eyed demons are more scary than blue-eyed demons?”

Tina hesitated as if her answer might offend Elania but ultimately tilted her head affirmatively.

“I need you to make a little contract with me. That way I won’t be so scary to people anymore.”

Before Elania even finished, Tina had a terrified look again.

“N... no! I don’t want to. Brucie says that is how demons eat people!”

Elania wasn’t sure who ‘Brucie’ was, but she didn’t have much to dispel that claim. Elania knew demons had a reputation for screwing people over with contracts… but the only way she could really disprove that was by offering one that the girl could hopefully understand was safe.

Elania quickly came up with as tame a contract as she could think up. There wasn’t really any need for penalties, so those went first. That made it relatively safe to leave the requirements open-ended. Either party could cancel at any time. Since Elania just needed the contract for the eye-color change, that seemed perfectly acceptable. She checked to make sure the Essence Upkeep was reasonable, not that she had much to go by that other than what Tanyan had accepted earlier. Still, it was a little less and seemed like a low amount.

“Please, Tina. Take a look yourself and decide if it is safe or not. I promise I’m not trying to trick you.”

[Spoiler]

[Contractor: Elania Reyes]

[Contractee: Tina]

[Duration: One Day]

[Essence Upkeep: Contractee 0.03/hr]

[Contractor Requirements]

• Contractor will buy Contractee some food after she has some money.

[Contractee Requirements]

• Contractee will help Contractor find the places she needs to go.

[Contractor Penalty Clause]

• There is no penalty for the Contractor upon failure or cancelation of this contract.

[Contractee Penalty Clause]

• There is no penalty for the Contractee upon failure or cancelation of this contract.

[/Spoiler]

Elania sent the contract, and to the girl’s credit, she stared at some air that Elania assumed was whatever form Tina’s system showed her. Elania stayed patiently quiet, although she was noticing more and more people walking by. None of them had said anything or paid them much heed, but the two of them were kneeling and sitting on the side of the road and that would probably draw attention to them sooner or later.

Attention was something Elania did not want, even if it kept happening.

Ding!

[You have gained a level in Contracting!]

The message and sound tore Elania’s attention back to Tina, who had accepted the contract.

“Ok… I’ll show you.”