Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 20 - Mushroohum Siege (Patreon)

Elania lost track of time as she descended into the routine of a cavern predator.

Hunt. Wash. Sleep. Hunt.

She was vaguely aware that her life had turned into a training montage, but she still didn’t feel she was ready to explore the Mushroohum’s lair.

With [Stealth] at S+, she was able to sneak around nearly unnoticed by predators and prey alike. That allowed her to pick her battles, and she generally ambushed them whenever she thought there was an opportunity to do so without risking having to dump a large amount of [Power] into the altercation.

She’d learned that mistakes would drain a lot more [Power] to correct, either because she needed it to power [Regeneration] or because the amount of [Power] dumped to increase her potency was high.

Keeping her [Power] high at all times was ideal, she found. It wasn’t just having more to work with actively; having her [Power] ratio nearly full definitely had passive benefits as well. As she neared topping it off, it was clear she had become faster, stronger, and thinking was easier and it felt like she had more time to make decisions, even in stressful situations like a fight.

Her [Crisis Management] and [Throwing] both reached S+ rank as well, and [Survival Crafting] had improved again to Rank B. That seemed to be the limit she could raise it though, at least from grinding javelins out. That was almost certainly a limitation of her imagination or available tools. There was definitely a knowledge or mental component to upgrading a skill.

But absorbing the essence of something seemed to bypass that. She wasn’t 100% sure, but the skills being maxed out didn’t just mean she was a master of the craft, but it was a helpful boost.

She found it a bit funny that her weapon came out as [High-Quality Makeshift Javelin] now. The [System] was right, though. Each one came out a little different from the other. Makeshift for sure. Standardizing them when all she had was an old iron knife was difficult.

They worked well enough for her hunting purposes, though. She found that close range, high-power shots were very effective. Even when she’d have preferred a bit more distance between her and her target while it bled out.

Cooking was more trouble than it was worth, despite her misgivings. Part of that was convenience. Having to return to a place that was safe to make fire slowed things down. The other was the fear that she’d start chomping down on the animal carcasses without even cooking them. Rather than face that possibility, it was easier to vaporize them into [Power] points.

It was also much easier to find a simple cubby-hole for sleeping than it was to find one that didn’t have the flammable glow moss nearby.

Washing, however, became a necessity. If she allowed herself, it was possible to completely forget that she was covered in blood or filth. That was nasty.

She would not compromise.

Washing came before sleeping. Always.

She avoided external displays of [Power] or using [Mana Manipulation] as much as possible, because those tended to be much more expensive on her than internal reinforcement.

Her [Demonic Aura] also remained off. She didn’t experiment with it much, simply because it was like leaving a giant ‘I’m around here sign’ on all the time, and it was also a constant energy drain.

More and more she appreciated just how much her mana shard had saved her life at first. She’d never have survived the encounter with the Bone Demon if she hadn’t been jacked up on [Power] over her limit like an addict hopped up on something. The overcharge benefits had increased her maximum, too.

Eventually, she reached her goal.

[You have absorbed 15 Power!]

[You have gained a level!]

[You have gained Darkwalker Affinity!]

[Consume more Darkwalker Essence to enable darkwalker Transformation!]

[Your body has reached the limit of its capacity for Power!]

[Find a stronger body or reduce your current Power!]

It was time for her to move on to her primary goal. Maybe it wasn’t smart to confront the Mushroohums over her mana shard anymore, but it was hers. Needing it to survive wasn’t strictly true anymore, but they had stolen it from her. She hated being stolen from.

There were plenty of other justifications she could make for confronting them, from potentially better gear or knowledge… or even just companionship. Skinner had proved they weren’t all homicidal mushrooms.

But she’d be lying to herself if she tried to pretend it wasn’t just because the mana shard had been hers, it was powerful, and she wanted it back.

What was scary was that she had always been someone that let things go, before she had been summoned. Another change. More subtle than wanting to chomp down on some raw [Ralfot], but more insidious in how things had shaped her.

She still was herself, wasn’t she?

Elania made her way to a cavern she was familiar with and enjoyed a skinny dip to clean off. Drip drying to a hidden outcropping halfway up the cavern wall, she laid down and slept.

Dreams of pouncing on prey and running in a herd with her brothers and sisters were a fuzzy memory when she woke. Those dreams had come more and more often of late. She pushed the worry away and jumped down to the cavern floor and headed toward where she knew the Mushroohum lair was. This time, she remembered to bring her shield.

Scouting the area around the lair hadn’t been high on her priority list because she hadn’t wanted to engage in a conflict. With her [Stealth] skill topped out so much though, she felt confident in keeping hidden unless she wanted to reveal herself.

Her mental map that had formed of the complex network of caverns was precise, but it was still a surprise when she realized just how far she had roamed. It took several hours to make her way back, and that was with no mistakes while taking the most direct route.

When she reached the pool that she had washed up in after the mushroom men had chased her out of their fields, she decided to find her way back up to the chamber where the Bone Demon had nested. That took some time. There was no way she was swimming up the stream, and she’d never walked between the two areas.

She was thinking it wasn’t even going to be possible because the lair blocked off the only entry point, but eventually she found a winding ramp that led up to the cavern. It was too small for a [Ralfot] to fit through. It looked like it had been dug out by something smaller with sharp claws.

The Bone Demon?

Elania shook her head and pushed through. Keeping an eye out for any Mushroohums, she picked her way past the [Elnat] plateaus and back to the ruins she’d stayed in. It was trivial to jump up to the second floor, then go prone and observe the rest of the cave.

Nothing noticed her, but she spotted plenty of Elnats and Ralfots without issue. Even the ones that thought they were hidden. Maybe she missed a few, but she was fairly confident. She was capable of sneaking up and stalking Darkwalkers, after all, and the animals in this cave were more domesticated than their wild cousins.

She could have taken them all out quickly if she wanted. If she ever wanted to use them as a food supply, though, that’d just be a waste. They’d all be dead and wouldn’t repopulate. Sneaking in every so often and taking one when she needed a recharge would be trivial though, if she didn’t do it too often.

Elania frowned. Had that been what the Bone Demon had done? Had it been smarter than she’d given it credit for?

As she scanned the area, she couldn’t see any evidence of her battle. No left behind spears or javelins. The mushroom men had cleaned up. So why was there a heavy tinge of blood in the air?

After a few minutes of watching, her brow furrowed. The Ralfots were on the wrong side of the cavern. Clustered up near the Elnats. They wobbled between the mossy plateaus with difficulty.

Something was not right.

After a few more minutes of looking for any sign of movement other than the animals, she decided to investigate more closely. She moved quietly between cover, advancing a bit more hastily than was perhaps prudent. The smell became stronger the closer she came to the blocked tunnel that led to what she assumed was the Mushroohum’s home.

When it came into view, her eyes widened. The fungal growth that had blocked her way before was torn open, large chunks of the barricade torn out and strewn across the area. Corpses of Mushroohums were interspersed between them. She approached the closest and examined the body.

The man was clearly dead, but small mushrooms were growing out of the dozens of wounds. Despite the rotting smell, she managed not to gag. The wounds looked like the ones Darkwalkers left on Ralfots they hunted.

The thought of reaching out and absorbing the mushroom man was dismissed quickly. She didn’t feel right eating sapient people. At least, not when they hadn’t tried to murder her first, and she couldn’t be sure any of these had been the ones that had chased her away. There was also the fact that she was nearly full on [Power] already, and too much power had its own drawbacks, mostly of setting her insides on fire.

What kind of [Darkwalker] could have killed all the hunters? Or were there more of them? Elania focused on the ground, looking for tracks. [Tracking] had been hard to level, but it was enough for her to clearly recognize the paw prints on the ground as coming from multiple animals. Not just two or three.

She felt a chill run down her spine. There had been dozens of them!

What could have possessed the Darkwalkers to group up together and attack? Viciously, and understanding that they needed to tear down the fungal wall to get inside, too.

It didn’t add up. One thing that she’d learned about Darkwalkers was that they were duo hunters. They didn’t group up with other adults other than their mates. She’d taken out two couples and spotted a half dozen more.

To see so many working together…was unnatural. Darkwalkers were animals, not an army!

Yet, she couldn’t deny the evidence staring her in the face.

Somehow, they had.

Elania gazed into the torn open passage and decided to investigate. Hadn’t she planned on doing so anyway?

The tunnel through the fungus oozed from where it had been torn. It was clear the events had occurred some day or days prior. It wasn’t a good sign for the Mushroohums that they hadn’t collected their dead or repaired their defenses.

But would an admittedly large pack of Darkwalkers stand a chance against organized spear fighters? She didn’t think so, so there had to be more to what was going on.

A half-decapitated corpse lay against the tunnel mouth, and as she approached, she heard the distant sound of growls and rumbling. She picked her way carefully forward. When she reached the threshold, she couldn’t help but play her gaze across the new chamber in awe.

It was massive.

Ruined stonework lined the far wall, likely at least a half mile away, and a waterfall poured from the ceiling into a lake, creating a near constant mist.

That provided a humidity she could feel all the way at the small entrance she had arrived through. The musky smell that she associated with the Mushroohums became thicker as well. Glowing moss grew from the ceiling, lighting everything in a pale green light.

Nestled at the base of the ruins was a round palisade of fungal trees, their tops removed and reformed into pointy tips. Yet there were more buildings in the cavern than just the settlement. Small farms of mushrooms were scattered everywhere, but she spotted Darkwalkers prowling angrily between them, and most of the crops looked like they had been crushed.

A few pockets of Mushroohum warriors stood atop the roofs, armed with javelins. Along the fortified village’s edge, they were still throwing them at any Darkwalkers that came close, but on the outskirts, the defenders had run out. Those defenders looked exhausted, like they’d been harried for days or weeks, and barely responded when an opportunistic Darkwalker found a chance to leap up on the building, in attempts to claw their way to their trapped prey.

She wasn’t sure what to do. Just figuring out how to get inside had been the extent of her plan. Not in a million years had she expected to find an ongoing war between the wildlife and the inhabitants.

How the heck was she supposed to look for her mana shard now? The leader of the group that had taken it looked like he was important, and her eyes automatically fell on the upper level of the far ruins. The village seemed to lead up to it, and there were signs of inhabitation when she looked closer.

That was probably the best place to start. She hoped that important people gravitating to the highest, more prestigious spaces was a trait the mushroom men shared with humans. Of course, that was assuming a lot. Like what if they saw the stone ruins as the slums and the refuse pits and farms were the fancy spots?

Elania shook her head and moved forward, looking to collect more information. She nearly ran into a pair of Darkwalkers that had been sitting quietly behind a rock.

They let out a growl, then hissed at her before attacking.