Newly Summoned Demoness 2 - Chapter 11 – Gears and Gratitude (Patreon)

Squeaky clean and relaxed from the heat of the shower, Elania felt a sense of renewal wash over her as the last droplets of water cascaded down her body. She shut off the shower, the steam lingering in the space like a comforting embrace for a few seconds longer before the vent fan sucked it away.

She let herself drip for a few seconds before stepping out and toweling off with brisk, efficient motions. The shop was still silent, Yolani likely still cocooned in the soft clutches of sleep upstairs. There was something to be said about being the first one to wake up. The quiet solitude was refreshing.

A fresh set of the sports-like small clothes from Bella’s tailor shop slipped on easily—a small luxury she appreciated. Bella, unlike many others, had never flinched at her lesser demon status. That had prompted pretty much her entire wardrobe to be bought from the shop.

The tunic and trousers went on next, and finally her green cloak got wrapped around her middle. At least until she felt the need to put it on to go outside.

Fully dressed, Elania placed her soiled small clothes in the basket designated for washing later. It was already nearly full of the sewer coated grime from the day before. There was a slightly musky odor that seemed to try to fight through the steamy remnants of her shower. Maybe she should ask Yolani to use her cleaning wand on the stuff, even if it was expensive.

It wasn’t like they were doing badly, and skipping a laundry day didn’t sound too bad.

She moved to the main workshop room and surveyed for a project that she could work on, something to keep her hands busy while waiting for Yolani to wake up. The way stone clock on her HUD reported it was really only a little after seven in the morning. Normally Yolani was up by eight, and then they opened the shop by ten.

There was a half-finished gadget she settled in front of. It was meant for gauging mana shard and crystal density, plus their charge levels. For those without [Identify] that was very useful. She’d been learning the basics of [Artifice] under Yolani’s tutelage, and the little trinket required a lot of basic knowledge, so it was an ideal teaching tool.

Her eyes glazed over as she looked at it, though, maybe it was too early in the day to think about projects. She hadn’t checked her [Status] in a while, so maybe now was a good time?

[Status: Elania Reyes]

[Level 121 Lesser Demon (Ascendant)]

[Karma: 12243]

[Power: 1115/1526]

[Perks: (Soul Siphon - Visible) (Summoned from Another World!) (Regeneration) (Demonic Transformation)]

[Class: Artificer Shop Assistant]

[Skill Slots: 4]

[Slotted Skills: Improvised Combat (Rank S+), Stealth (Rank S+), Mana Manipulation (Rank S+), Martial Bladesmanship (Rank C)]

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

[Magical: Demonic Aura (Rank A) (Deactivated), Artifice (Rank D), Enhanced Mana Sensing (Rank D), Elemental Affinity (Rank E), Presence Concealment (Rank D)]

[Physical: Body Conditioning (Rank D), Mobility (Rank C), Darkvision (Rank B) (Activated), Throwing (Rank S+), Tracking (Rank S+), Archer (Rank E)]

[Mundane: Identify (Rank B), Universal Speech (Rank S), Reading (Rank A), Writing (Rank B), Crisis Management (Rank S+), Navigation (Rank D), Negotiation (Rank B), Intimidation (Rank D), Bribery (Rank C), Basic Handcrafting (Rank D)]

She’d been slacking off.

Other than the adventure to hunt down the Hornar spiders, she really had done little fighting. Until yesterday, that was.

She had mostly been focusing on learning things from Yolani and helping with the shop. It turned out that learning new skills became harder the more you had, and without her near cheat-like ability to just gobble skills from animals and monsters, she had gained little.

Well, they definitely needed to improve her fighting skills. The fight with Taniel proved that.

She should have easily bested him considering her massive [Power] capacity. Instead, he had not only been tougher than he looked, but he’d also nearly brained her with his staff.

A knock at the door jolted her back to reality. It was a steady, deliberate sound that spoke of purpose and an almost, but not quite there, urgency.

She hesitated, a frown creasing her brow. They rarely received visitors this early, especially without notice. After the events of the previous day, she felt a twinge of apprehension. She rose from her seat, then moved to the wall with the ready gear and replaced her cape-belt with her leather dagger harness.

Whoever it was that had chosen an odd time to call upon them… she was not in the mood for more surprises. There wasn’t even a good way to check, but she’d ask Yolani to build a peep hole. She’d suggested it once before, but then had simply forgotten about it.

The wards wouldn’t let anyone in without lowering them, even with the door open, but being able to look outside without going up to the second-floor balcony was something that should be installed by default.

Elania opened the door with care, her hand on her dagger hilt relaxing when Henri’s dumb face greeted her.

“Henri,” she said, her voice tinged with annoyance. “It’s way too early for this.”

Henri’s expression was a mix of concern and official duty. “What happened yesterday? I had to bring the squad back to keep watch on you two.”

Elania peered past him and sure enough, a squad of half a dozen city guards stood at attention along a wall, their presence a statement of the Magistry’s interest. She sighed, a frown forming. “They just stopped doing that a few weeks ago. Don’t they have anything better to do?”

“What did you do, Elania?” Henri pressed.

Elania clicked her tongue before giving him a quick rundown of the riot, their encounter with Darius and the Black Candle, Tessa’s reappearance, and the skirmish with the Conclave monks. Henri’s eyes widened with every word.

When his hand went to the doorframe, there was a sudden crackle of blue energy. Henri yelped, snatching his hand back as a small wisp of smoke rose from the singed fingers of his glove.

Elania raised an eyebrow. “Remember, the shop is warded, and Yolani is still asleep. After yesterday, I’m not waking her up for anything short of an invasion.”

He bit his lip and frowned. “Right. Sorry. I was just a bit shocked and worried about—”

Elania cut him off. “—worried about Yolani. Right. I think it would cause her more distress if you suddenly appeared standing above her bed while she’s asleep.”

He winced and nodded.

“Take your squad and do something useful,” Elania suggested. “We’re fine here, and we’ll reach out if we need anything.”

“We’ll just be around outside, patrolling. We don’t really have much choice in this. Orders from on high and all,” Henri said with a tinge of apology coming through his voice.

Elania sighed and shrugged. “Sure, knock yourselves out. I’m going back inside unless there was anything else?”

He shook his head, and she gave him a respectful nod before shotting the door with a soft click, locking it behind her.

Yolani was down a minute later, her raven black hair a tangled mess. Her eyes were still full of sleep and she rubbed one of them. She gave Elania a frown. “Who ‘as that?”

“Henri. They sent a bunch of goons to watch us again,” Elania replied.

The other girl stopped and frowned, processing that for a second. She skipped past it, though, to another question. “You’re already awake?” A yawn punctuated the question as she ran a hand through her hair in a futile attempt to tame the mess.

Elania nodded. “I couldn’t sleep in. Had too much energy, I guess. Do you want me to put breakfast on while you freshen up?”

Yolani’s face morphed into a smile. “Yes, please!”

A little thrill ran through Elania, and they separated. The water system wasn’t really connected, so she didn’t have to worry about running the kitchen water or the Geru brew messing with Yolani’s shower time.

By the time Yolani reappeared, the small dining table they used was already set with a pair of plates holding two slices of toast, two fried eggs over easy and some of the coffee-substitute.

“Yay. Thank you. This looks great,” Yolani said with a smile.

As they settled down, Elania reached for her cup, cradling it between her hands. She took a cautious sip, letting the rich, earthy flavor of the slightly bitter Geru brew add a little caffeine to her system.

“I don’t like that they sent more men to watch us. Even if they are probably there to protect us… it feels like we’re being spied on again,” Yolani said before dipping her toast into an egg yolk.

Elania nodded. “I guess after yesterday, it’s not a surprise.”

Their breakfast finished with some small talk. When they were nearly done, Yolani’s tone shifted to business. “Elania, could you make a run to another artifice shop after this? There is a crate that should be ready for us.”

“Sure,” Elania agreed without hesitation. “Mira and Finn’s place?”

Yolani nodded, finishing her toast with a last bite. “Yes, there are some machined parts I ordered from them. Should be ready by now.”

Elania pushed back from the table, ready to get started. She already had her cape and belt dagger, so she moved to the mana shard board. It was a handy place they’d decided to keep their main shards, so they didn’t get lost. There were five of them now, four shining brightly, while the fifth that had been used the day before was almost burnt out.

A frown creased her face as she looked at it. “Looks like we’re going to have to send for a lot more chickens to recharge this one,” she muttered.

“I’ll put an order in for another wagon,” Yolani replied.

Elania turned to look at her and crossed her arms. “I swear if I start clucking or laying eggs or [Chicken] affinity replaces my [Darkwalker] we will have words.”

Yolani stifled a giggle. “That’s another vote for [Soul Manager] then,” she said. A sly grin appeared on her face. “If you lay eggs, we could save on the grocery bill.”

Elania inhaled almost enough to make a hiss.

The battle at the Magistry had pushed her above level 100, which was a perk threshold. With perks at 10, 50, 100, 200, 300, etc… she had already picked two: [Regeneration] and [Soul Siphon – Visible]. Her two built-in perks didn’t seem to count against her.

The former had saved her life more times than once, and the second was very effective when dealing with energy blasts that were dense enough. Or for draining raw [Power] right out of people. The only issue was that it was slow, mainly because people’s souls naturally resisted giving up their energy to someone.

It was probably missing some type of synergy with another perk or skill. [Regeneration] worked so well simply because it allowed her to power level her [Power] capacity and she could force more power into it to heal faster.

Yolani didn’t have a track on all the current options open to her, but they did at least know what [Soul Manager] did. It allowed her to measure the amount of affinity for different monsters, animals, or races in her own body. It even allowed her to manipulate them, as long as she had a sample.

It stopped short of allowing her to freely transmute a permanent affinity, but if she had wanted, she could maximize something else, then push it over the edge with further… snacks.

It wasn’t her first choice. Elania brought up the options and scanned them for the hundredth time.

[Available Perks: (Weakness Negation), (Resistance Improvement), (Resistance Selection), (Physical Ability Improvement), (Body Manipulation), (Reactive Adaptation), (Magical Resonance), (Soul Manager), (Total Regeneration)]

[Total Regeneration] sounded very much like it’d probably make her immortal or impossible to kill as long as she had [Power] remaining. That seemed fantastic at first glance, but it didn’t actually make her tougher or stronger. If something was able to kill her in one hit, it could probably do so a second time. Dying over and over until out of [Power] sounded like it would suck.

Still, what if it was something that killed her in one hit that couldn’t be repeated willy-nilly? Or if she had control over where she… well, she assumed she would reform somehow. It was maybe the strongest contender at the moment.

The [Physical Ability Improvement] sounded good, too. She was already amped up based on her [Power] percentage. Going over 100% not only increased her [Power] capacity but also supercharged her strength, agility, everything really.

The only problem with that was that now that her capacity had grown so large, it was getting to be pretty difficult to overcharge it considerably. That was one downside she hadn’t seen coming.

[Body Manipulation] was… a little shiver ran down her spine. It was almost certainly what Tessa had displayed in the sewers.

[Reaction Adaptation] sounded good too, but neither she nor Yolani had any actual idea of what it did exactly. [Magical Resonance] was out, because if it created a weakness like the Hornar spiders had with their antlers, she’d be in trouble. Being able to manipulate the resonance of spells wasn’t really worth adding a magical off button to her forehead.

Resistance and weakness improvements seemed like the lowest tier choices, although becoming resistant to magi would be nice, except it was divided up into a bunch of different magic types. She’d never get enough perks for them all.

“Hello? Eladu to Elania? You in there?” Yolani asked.

Elania blinked in surprise, knocked out of her mental journey down perk-selection lane. The table had already been cleared, and Yolani had her artifice goggles on.

“I know you sometimes zone out when thinking really hard, but we do need that crate,” Yolani said. A small smile appeared on her lips.

“I—yeah, I’m off,” Elania replied, turning to make her way to the door.

“Don’t get lost! We have a bunch of things to do today!” Yolani called out to her as she made her way outside.

“I’ll be fine, and it shouldn’t take long!” Elania replied, her mood improving.

Not even Henri and his guard detachment waiting outside could ruin it. She gave Henri a parting wave while ignoring the two of them that broke off to follow her.

It was a bit early to be out and about. The morning street was just beginning to come to life. The journey to Mira and Finn’s shop wasn’t long, but it took her past Ranolf’s old shop, now a city-run mana charging depot. There were multiple wagons parked, which often ran to the city’s massive chicken farms that lined the outer walls of the city cavern.

A sour taste lingered from the knowledge of the enslaved demons that powered the operation below the building. Although from what she understood, the demons used weren’t more than livestock themselves. That softened things considerably. She really didn’t have a problem eating hamburgers or chickens, and the demons at least got fed regularly and didn’t have to worry about becoming dinner.

Although she was pretty sure they could have had nice accommodations and maybe allowed to stretch their legs a bit.

Oh well, she had to pick her battles.

She quickened her pace as she neared the shop, wanting to leave the thoughts behind. The shop sign was already turned to indicate the store was open, so she went on inside. The shop bell announced her and the cozy interior of an artifice workshop greeted her. It was much the same as Aetherhart’s was, although there were some noticeable differences.

Mira and Finn specialized more in metal machinery and less in the arcane. Precision metal cutters, countless gears of different sizes, and plenty of clocks filled the space completely. Mira was standing behind a counter and waved at her.

“Mira,” Elania greeted, offering a smile to the woman. “I’m here for Yolani’s order?”

Mira’s face brightened at the greeting. “Good morning to you as well, Elania.” The woman turned to call over her shoulder. “Finn! The package for Aetherhart’s Artifice! Elania is here to fetch it!”

A moment later, Finn emerged from the back, wiping his hands on a cloth. Elania followed him to the back, where he used a lift to pull down a crate from a heavy shelf. “It’s heavy,” he warned her. “Are you sure you can carry it?”

Elania eyed the box before kneeling down and lifting it with her knees. It was probably at least two hundred pounds, but that wasn’t a problem for her. “It’s fine. The weight isn’t a problem, it is just a little bulky to carry. I’ll make it back fine.”

He followed her to the door and she paused, realizing the issue. “Hah, a hand with the door would help, though.”

Finn nodded and opened it for her. “Tell Yolani that we appreciate the business. If she has another order, just send it on by and we’ll take care of it.”

“Of course! Thank you both for the help,” Elania replied cheerfully.

“Have a good day, Elania!” Mira called after her.

Elania replied with a smile. Her escort filed in behind her far enough to be inconspicuous, and she headed up the street back to Yolani. It seemed the day was ramping up quickly as more merchants and wagons began to fill the street, along with the regular day workers.

Henri spotted her returning first and opened the door to the shop for her.

“Thanks,” she acknowledged, adding a brief nod. As awkward as things were between him and Yolani, he really tried his best to be a gentleman.

Elania made her way to the back of the workshop, the box secure in her arms. Yolani nodded to her briefly while she took care of a customer.

Setting the box down, Elania found her way into the kitchen and got a glass of water. After the quick drink, she found Yolani had already finished serving the patron and was locking the door.

And then she flipped the store sign to closed.

Confusion filled Elania’s brow. “We’re closing again? We were gone all day yesterday.”

Yolani’s smile was full of anticipation. “We’ll open up later. For now, I want to dive into this.” She pointed toward the box Elania had brought.

With a nod, Elania followed Yolani to the crate, and together they opened it up. The contents were packed tightly with wooden spacers and little boxes holding different sized parts. She wasn’t really sure what she was looking at.

“What’s this all for?” Elania asked.

Yolani’s eyes sparkled with excitement. “Parts for the guard’s firearms. But most importantly…”

Yolani reached in and pulled out a piece of metal with a copper cord wrapped around it.

“Electricity,” they both said at the same time.