Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 35 – Waystation (Patreon)

The vibrant red hues abruptly transformed on entering the waystation into softer blue and turquoise lighting. It created a pretty purple effect at the entryway. The moment she stepped into the area, she felt a strange pressure squeeze her.

[Demonic Aura has been suppressed and deactivated.]

That was new, but she supposed it made sense that the waystation had some type of safety or security system. There was a small, glowing pillar embedded in a stone near the center of the circular room Taniel went to straight away. When he placed his hand on it, the pressure grew until she felt a pop in her ears and it vanished.

[WY#348 has accepted your unauthorized presence in order to rectify a security boundary.]

Elania blinked. Looking over her shoulder, there was a shimmering blue field in the doorway. “Are we stuck inside?”

Joren answered. “If you are inside when the boundary is created, you can exit. Once it is established, those who were outside can’t get in.”

“How long can we stay?” Elania asked.

The other monks began to unpack their things and set them down against one of the walls. The main chamber was circular, but there were small alcoves cut into it, making each space a little more private.

Joren explained. “The field has enough power for a few days. One day is best, though. They are maintained by rangers like Marcus and built with deployable artifice from the city. Only work in the deep caverns though; they somehow siphon the excess mana from the environment.”

“And that doesn’t work anywhere else?” Elania asked.

Joren shook his head. “Mana is much thinner the closer you get to the surface. On the Neftasu level, it would take years to gather enough to power the barrier.”

Elania nodded. “I guess that’s why the [Glow-Moss] expedition exists?”

“Right. It wouldn’t grow in the city,” he confirmed.

Elania moved inside and examined the chamber in closer detail. The walls weren’t rough stone, but smooth and refined. Metal braces were hidden in grooves along the ceiling to reinforce the structure, and she realized that the glowing fungus wasn’t random. It was strategically placed as natural night lights.

Not that the monks needed night lights with their glow torches, but she guessed when they went to bed that it would work as such. A metal firepit in the middle of the chamber had a built in fire spit for cooking things, and a pile of cut [Tower-Cap] logs were waiting to be split into firewood to fuel it. Overall, it seemed like a pretty nice place to camp.

The stone shelves were probably meant for sleeping on, but the only cushioning would be what you brought with you. In that regard, it wasn’t going to be much different from her sleeping on top of the Bone Demon ruins.

Taniel pointed to the room closest to the entrance and furthest away from where the monks were setting up. “That room is yours. Don’t bother our stuff when we aren’t looking.”

She bristled. “I wouldn’t touch it. I’m not a thief.”

“Just a man-eater,” Taniel shot back. “You gave up Maurice to that thing to save yourself.”

She suppressed a feline hiss at him. Suddenly sleeping in the waystation didn’t feel safe at all. His insinuation was a step too far for her to control herself. She took a step closer.

“I didn’t give him up at all. I tried to save him,” she informed him coldly. Her voice took on a sharp anger as she continued. “If anyone gave him up, it was you, Taniel. You abandoned us and ran away with the others. Where was your magic shield when it used telekinesis to pick him up and eat him?”

He began to shout obscenities at her, and his hands turned into fists. It seemed like he was about to strike her. Her entire body went on alert, and her senses sharpened as she prepared a counterstrike when she noticed Joren walking up from behind.

The other monk caught Taniel’s wrist before he could do anything. “Your aura is disturbed, brother. You should go meditate.”

Taniel struggled against Joren’s grip, but it was futile, and Joren didn’t release it until Taniel gave an angry nod. The ‘Spiritual’ monk stomped off to the other side of the waystation.

“You shouldn’t have prodded him like that,” Joren warned. “He’s hurting.”

She fixed the monk with a stare. “I did my best to save Maurice.”

“We know. I think even Taniel knows. He is just upset with himself,” Joren replied.

Shaking her head, she glanced over to Taniel, who had sat down with the three remaining novices. “I won’t be slapped around. I will defend myself, and I don’t know how to pull my punches.”

Joren frowned. “I would have to defend my brother. Please don’t—”

“Don’t defend myself?” Elania hissed.

“Don’t encourage a fight.” Joren looked over at the others. “None of the novices should have been on the expedition. Losing one of the [Glow-Moss Baskets] will nearly fail the mission. The results would be…bad.”

Elania turned away. “You’re sure I can get back in if I go out?”

“That’s how it works,” he confirmed.

She didn’t need to hear more. He called after her, but she didn’t feel like talking anymore. The cavern outside the waystation was all reds and purples, and she let her eyes adjust for a second before taking off. The monks were exhausted, but she’d been getting stronger the entire time they had fled.

That was draining her mana shard. It was time to hunt. Maybe test out if she could refill her mana shard, too.

It didn’t take long before she spotted the telltale signs of some creature thanks to [Tracking]. Not a [Ralfot] and not an [Elnat] or [Darkwalker]. Quadrupedal, but with clawed feet. Not feline, but maybe something like a lizard, she guessed.

Razorscale something? She thought that one of the monks had mentioned some type of predator that made the trip harder. It didn’t seem too big, so she decided to stalk after it.

Thirty minutes later, she spotted the owner. Silently moving up to a rocky perch, she observed the [Razorscale] sliding into a small pool of water. It wasn’t large to hold much aquatic life, just a few plants and mushrooms. It wasn’t even deep enough for the [Razorscale] to submerge into it fully.

That didn’t seem to stop the creature’s enjoyment of the dip, though. It rolled over and made a large splash, sending water cascading across the floor. The cascade slowly began to drizzle back into the pool.

It didn’t notice her, so she pulled out her last javelin. She’d need to make more of those, too.

She settled in and waited while observing. The [Razorscale] seemed content to splash around and lounge in the water for at least an hour. When it finally exited the water, Elania’s ears perked up.

The path out of the chamber lead right by her rock. When it was right below, she pulled a drag of [Power]then dropped on top of it, using her body weight to slam the javelin into the beast’s back just behind its head.

The result was swift.

[You have absorbed 28 Power!]

[You have gained a rank in Tracking!]

[You have gained Razorscale Affinity!]

[Consume more Razorscale Essence to enable Razorscale Transformation!]

Tracking! That was very useful since leveling the skill had been difficult. The amount of [Power] given was higher than a [Darkwalker] too, although the exact amount was always variable. A couple more and she’d be back to being topped off. Then she could experiment with her mana shard.

Several hours and five Razorscales later, she’d achieved her goal and raised her [Tracking] skill to rank S+ and overfilled her [Power] stat. Gaining skills from absorbing things was overpowered as heck.

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

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

[Your body has exceeded the limit of its capacity for power!]

[You have gained a Rank in Demonic Aura!]

[Your body is experiencing slight thermal degradation!]

Yes, yes. That was obvious. The question was did she want to keep hunting while over the limit, and potentially upgrade her capacity further or attempt to refill the mana shard? It had also been a while since she had left the monks alone. She hadn’t decided to abandon them yet, so it was probably a good idea to check on them.

Elania hopped up onto a ledge and perched as she made her decisions. Try to refill her mana shard, first. Maybe hunt some more. Then check on the monks.

Her shawl came off first, then she loosened the wrap holding the cloth necklace. The wrap around the shining crystal glittered in the dark as she removed the insulating cloth. The heat inside her chest that ran all the way to her fingers made it difficult to feel the faint warmth that the crystal had always put off.

[Mana Shard (Condensed) 423/1456]

A quick check of her power told her she’d already gained an extra point of capacity.

[Power: 262/234]

Hunting a few more then letting it bleed off would definitely be smart…or maybe she should focus on charging the mana shard fully? Urgh. Tradeoffs. Wait. She was getting ahead of herself. What if she couldn’t refill the shard?

Closing her eyes, she tried to picture the process: energy flowing through her body and flowing into the shard in the palms of her hands. It was the opposite of when she had used it to recharge herself. Nothing seemed to happen until suddenly it worked.

It felt like a vacuum had attached to her soul and began to suck it down a straw. The feeling of being compressed and… contained filled her. The sudden light-headedness threated to make her fall off the ledge, but she leaned back against it.

And fight the vacuum sucking her insides out.

The shard pulled on her and didn’t want to let go. She had to forcibly push back and cut it off. When the sudden drain on her [Power] stopped, she was panting.

[Power: 96/234]

Fuck. It had drained way too much. When she was finished, she winced.

[Mana Shard (Condensed) 492/1456]

It was much less than she expected. A quick mental math ordeal later she confirmed that nearly half the [Power] she had pushed into the crystal had just vanished. Where was the first law of Thermodynamics to save her??

Sixty-nine [Power] units was a lot to just vanish into thin air! There wasn’t even any heat.

“Urgh,” Elania grumbled. She wrapped her shard and tucked it back in and pulled her shawl back over her shoulders. The re-arrangement made her realize something else: she was covered in [Razorscale] blood. She needed to add a bath to her schedule, probably before returning to the waystation.

The improvement to [Tracking] enabled to her to easily locate tracks of another [Razorscale] that had passed by. If she pulsed a light amount of [Power] into the skill, it even allowed her to visualize the tracks as shiny lights on the ground. They even changed in color the more recent they were.

It was almost a cheat skill.

The [Razorscale] was busy drinking at a pool. Rather than try to get the high ground she went straight for it. [Stealth] was effective right up until she stood up from her crouch walk and jabbed her javelin into its neck where she had found the beast was vulnerable.

The wood shaft snapped instead of driving its point home. Elania’s eyes widened in shock, and the beast twisted around to snap at her. She darted back, pulling out her dagger and hissed. The beast let out a growl and lunged forward much faster than she had assumed the alligator wannabe was capable of.

She jumped over the bite, only for it to scramble back onto its hind legs and slap her side with three large claws. The blow wasn’t that strong, but the slashes still hurt. Looking down, anger filled her; she might heal, but her outfit did not! It would be heckin’ hard to fix the gash marks in it without any sewing material!

Her shout matched the beast’s volume. “Bastard!” Never mind the fact that she had tried to assassinate the thing to eat it. It had ruined her outfit!

This time, she didn’t allow it to rush her. She dashed toward it first. She jumped over a claw and then under the other before reaching up to stab her dagger into the thing’s chin. A [Power] pulse through the metal allowed it to slice all the way down to its collarbone before she rolled out from under it.

Blood poured everywhere in stupid amounts. Luckily for her, none of it was acidic like the [Manzitore]’s had been.

The [Razorscale] chased after her, but she avoided it, climbing up on top of a rock where it couldn’t reach her. It smashed into the boulder several times while bleeding profusely, but it quickly began to slow down. She waited patiently.

When it was dead, she dropped down and absorbed it.

[You have absorbed 25 Power!]

[You have gained Razorscale Affinity!]

[Consume more Razorscale Essence to enable Razorscale Transformation!]

That was a good start on refilling. Time to make some new javelins and then hunt four or five more.

There was no way she was going back to the waystation without being topped up.