Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 4 – Conflagration (Patreon)

Time lost its meaning in the dark.

Eventually, Elania nodded off for a nap. Eventually, consciousness slowly returned.

Submerged in the murky depths of her refuge, her tear-streaked face reflected palely in the dim light as she scanned her surroundings, taking stock of her situation.

The absence of the luminescent moss plunged the caverns into semi-darkness, leaving only a few glowing fungi to cast their muted violet hues on the stone walls. The secluded rocky chamber she had hidden in was cloaked in even darker shadow, absent the nearly ever-present moss.

A pang of hunger gnawed at her empty stomach, and she studied the fungi with a reluctant curiosity. Maybe they were edible? The idea of munching on raw mushrooms wasn’t very appealing, but if she found nothing else, she would eventually have to consider it.

That would come with the risk of toxins or something that could make her sick or worse…and this wasn’t a biology test at her university where a mistake would mean a bad grade—here, errors could cost her life.

She shook the fatal thoughts away and then considered a more pressing need: water. The presence of vegetation suggested moisture must exist somewhere nearby. Maybe an underground stream or pool that fed the ecosystem? She’d not seen any dripping water from above, but the moss needed something for it to grow, and while the air wasn’t exactly dry, she didn’t think it was humid enough for the water vapor to be the sole source of water.

Searching for that would mean resuming her trek. She shifted position and stretched her legs, but her entire body felt stiff from remaining stationary for so long. The various bruises and injuries she’d suffered didn’t help either, and there was a familiar soreness in her muscles from the earnest exercise of running away from the cultists and knight.

A hard lump pressed against her side, and she reached into her stolen robe to pull it out. It was the glowing stone she’d picked up and knocked the cultist out with. She had to squint as the burst of bright light filled up the small chamber—revealing a vivid array of colors that had been muted in the darkness. Holding onto it sparked a strange sensation, like soft vibrations pulsating rhythmically under her fingertips.

She scrutinized the crystal further with a growing fascination. She wished she knew what it was.

A small status screen with text appeared over the crystal as if summoned.

[Mana Shard (Condensed)]

Elania blinked in astonishment. The system had answered her! Was this her [Identify] skill at work?

She hadn’t called for the skill by name, or even been thinking about it. She’d just wanted to know what the mana shard was. Even if the information was lacking, maybe that was because it was Rank E?

She pulled out her dagger from her other pocket and repeated the process. She wasn’t disappointed.

[Steel Dagger]

It worked! Not super helpful, but at least it was a start. She turned her attention toward anything she could find.

[Glow Moss (Inactive)]

[Black Robe]

[Rock]

[Fenicia’s Fungal Growth]

The last surprised her a little. The purple-hued mushrooms had a proper name she had never heard before. That told her the skill didn’t just name something generic based on her own knowledge. It was providing her with answers she didn’t already know!

She wondered if ranking up the skill would increase the information and add descriptions, but she wasn’t sure how or even if she could level it up. In most games, she knew, one typically enhanced their abilities through repeated use—but was that logic applicable here?

Her level had increased, potentially from when she had defeated the cultist. A frown creased her face. Or killed him? She shook her head; she didn’t think she hit him that hard. Maybe it was an effect from using the crystal as a weapon?

She just didn’t have enough information on how things worked.

[Mana Manipulation] was another skill she needed to figure out. Everyone knew that in RPGs, magic was usually overpowered, and if she could somehow use it to conjure food or water, that would solve her current problems.

The flip-side was that magic was probably dangerous. At the very least it was weaponized in this world, considering what she’d seen the cultists doing with it.

Maybe she could use the skill like she had [Identify] and just think about what she wanted?

She closed her eyes and pictured a jar of clean water and a sandwich as hard as she could. After a minute of trying, she cracked an eye open to look at the bare ground in front of her. No dice.

Well, that would have been too easy.

The sparkling white light of the mana shard caught her attention. Maybe [Mana Manipulation] went with the mana shard? She picked it up and held it up in both hands and closed her eyes in concentration. She just wished something—anything—would happen, but there was a frustrating silence of nothingness.

Maybe she needed a stronger intent, a clearer visualization of what she wanted to achieve? Shifting her thoughts, Elania imagined guiding the light from the crystal into her hands and up her arms and away from her palms. At first, nothing seemed to happen, but then there was a slight fluctuation, and then she could feel an almost imperceptible shift in the energy flow.

It felt like fire flowing through her veins. It didn’t exactly burn, but it was unpleasant, and she dropped the crystal, fearing that maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Worse, the weird sensation of tingling in her hands didn’t dissipate. A sheen of perspiration formed on her forehead, and she realized she was burning up. She shook her hands in a panic and tried to push away the energy.

There was a tangible resistance for a second before it suddenly relented—releasing a sudden surge of heat from her hands, which caused her to yelp and recoil as if she’d been stung by a bee. A shower of sparks flared to life, flaring out in front of her, each one a tiny firefly that seemed to dance in the air.

Most of them painted dim white trails that gradually deepened to an incandescent yellow-orange before fading into oblivion.

A few survived long enough to land on the floor.

One defied gravity and weave its way up to the ceiling, where it landed on the inactive glow moss.

She watched with growing horror as the dim spark began to grow brighter and then began to spread.

The moss was flammable!

What had she done? Before she could get up and try to smother the fire with her spare robe, white tendrils began to spread rapidly before self-igniting.

She scooped up her few belongings and rushed for the exit. That proved the smart choice because the chamber behind her suddenly flared red, the fire behind her was growing fast. The moss in the transition corridors between the larger caverns wasn’t that thick, but that didn’t stop it from spreading across the ceiling.

Wildfire seemed like a poor description. This was much worse. Her feet stung painfully as she barely reached the nearest cavern before the fire. At least there would be more space, even if there was also more moss to burn.

It felt like she was starring in one of those stupid volcano b-movies.

The conflagration was relentless, matching Elania’s frenzied pace as she fled deeper into the cavern. She could feel the heat licking at her back, and the bright incandescent light of the inferno cast elongated shadows that danced ahead of her like specters on a rampage.

She huffed as she pushed herself to go faster along the rocky path at the expense of her battered feet. She made it to the next cavern with barely any time to spare.

The spread slowed slightly at the intersections, but quickly picked up its pace as soon as it made it through. It quickly became clear that while her endurance was limited, the spread of the wildfire was not going to stop as long as there was fresh moss to burn.

What exactly was causing the moss to burn so crazily? Was it some type of natural chemical in the moss, or was it just super dry and ready to burn?

She reached another three-way intersection and froze. A faint luminescence was growing brighter—in both choices! She didn’t think she had doubled back, which meant the moss had somehow found a shorter route and cut her off!

She glanced over her shoulder and noted that the inferno behind her was rapidly approaching. There wasn’t any unscorched path left for her. A fiery death trap awaited her in every direction.

“That’s just perfect!” Elania muttered sarcastically to herself. “A hidden door right about now would be really helpful,” she called out aloud, half-expecting some divine intervention; none came.

The intersection had less moss, and more importantly, the ceiling wasn’t that high. An idea popped into her head, and she jumped up and grabbed the stringy moss. It came down with her in a thick heap, peeling away from the ceiling. That was a much better a result than she had thought she’d get and she began to strip a circle around the center of the chamber.

She only had a few minutes to work with, but she cleared an area twice her arm span in diameter before huddling in the center. None of her skills seemed suited to helping her more than that, so she pulled the spare robes she’d gathered over her head and hunkered down. Flames raced around the edges and flashed past her. The heat radiated and filled the space, sparks and flames licking at her despite her attempts to make a safe space.

The robes seemed fire-retardant though and didn’t ignite. That was nice.

The heat that bathed her like she was in an oven was less so. A string of moss ash landed on her unprotected hand, causing her to hiss in pain. She yanked it under the robe protectively and pulled the extra fabric tighter. Hopefully, nothing larger would blow on her.

The flames began to calm, the raging heat slowly replaced by a cloud of smoke. Panic gripped her as she realized that burning might be the least of her worries. If the fire consumed too much oxygen, or the caverns filled with unbreathable smoke, she wasn’t going to make it.

How had the fire looped around to get in front of her? Did the caverns go in circles? Was she really making progress, getting away from the cultist dungeon?

Every doubt and worry washed over her, warring with the pain and oppressive heat as she covered her face with the robes, creating a little bubble of air for herself.

A system message suddenly appeared, stealing her attention.

[Sufficient [Glow Moss] essence is available.]

[You have met the requirements for Ash Demon evolution.]

[Do you wish to evolve your race to Ash Demon? Y/N]