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Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 39 – Contracts
🕑 Added 2023-10-11 09:10:17 +0000 UTC
The energy that cloaked her had died down from an inferno to just turning her into an omni-directional radioactive yellow flashlight.
It had taken an hour of her sitting while attempting to meditate to block out the pain. Slotting out [Throwing] for [Crisis Management] had helped with that considerably, but it was still a terrifying experience. She wasn’t sure if she would have made it without an on-demand skill that was the world’s equivalent to Prozac.
When the pain had died down and she had been able to think she had connected to her mana shard and dumped the excess into it. That had calmed things down, but apparently there was still more energy left over. It just hadn’t been able to enter her body.
The light swirled around her for a while until it stuck to her like a glowing layer of paint. It slowly absorbed into her, heating up her [Power] level again until she was over the limit and burning again. It was like being covered in radioactive fallout. When the amount of [Power] became too uncomfortable, she dumped it into her mana shard.
Another mark for ‘mana shard’ critical to survival, although in this case she probably could have hurled a [Power] ball into a wall or something to relieve the overcharge.
Taniel was completely unconscious, and Joren had to carry him like a princess as they continued the trek toward the next waystation. The novices seemed to have gone past the terrified crying stage to the emotionally exhausted zombie one.
To the group’s credit, they had rested and waited for her to get the rampaging [Power] storm under control. How much that was because Taniel was knocked out, she wasn’t sure. There was still a question that was burning as hot as the over-limit heat flooding her body.
Halfway to the next cavern, she finally blurted it out. “Joren, why did Taniel attack me?”
Depending on his answer, she was going to split from the group. She worked her jaw in her mouth, her mouth still hurt from the new teeth suddenly growing and erupting to shove the shattered old ones out. That was not a magical experience she wanted to relive again anytime soon.
Joren looked at her with an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. He wouldn’t have done that normally.”
She raised an eyebrow. “He’s not kept his disdain hidden the entire time.”
Pausing, Joren reached into his robe and pulled out the clear crystal orb with the gold center. Instinctively, she identified it.
[Monster Core – Ralfot]
“This is a monster core; they form inside of ‘Alpha’ class beasts that have been exposed to a dungeon. When raw, they can invoke and amplify emotions when handled,” Joren explained.
Elania eyed the core warily. When he handed it to her, she was surprised. “What? It’s safe now?”
He nodded. “I purified it. Taniel tried to do so himself, but only partly did so before he lost his composure.”
Lost his composure. Is that what they were calling his attempted homicide now?
“Why’d he handle it if he couldn’t purify it safely?” Elania asked.
Joren shook his head. “He should have been able to handle it, but I suspect his own emotions were unstable. One of the abilities of conclave monks is to control their emotions so they can purify the cores.”
Control their emotions? “Honestly, he’s done a shit job of controlling his emotions from what I’ve seen.”
One of the novices spoke up. “Taniel is from an orphanage that was massacred by a demon.”
Elania eyed the young man, and she shrunk back. She didn’t argue. Of course, it was something like that, right?
Joren sighed. “You can keep the core. You earned it fighting the thing anyway and from… what happened after.”
“Is it valuable?” Elania asked.
“It’s probably worth a large gold, maybe two,” Joren replied.
She wasn’t sure how much that was, so it was her next question.
He gave her a quick rundown. “A cheap room at an inn, with a meal, is probably one small silver in Neftasu. Up to a large silver in one of the surrounding outposts. Ten small coins to one large, with copper, silver, and gold denominations.”
So, it was worth… ten small golds, one hundred large silvers, or a thousand small ones? That was 1,000 days of rent, then. That was an impressively sized reward, although she wasn’t sure how much other things in the city cost.
Maybe the rent and food were cheap. Although living in the city could possibly not be the best choice. If people hated demons, then maybe an outpost where she could stay in the caverns and hunt things to get stronger would be best.
Elania frowned. Was she considering living in the Underdark for the rest of her life? She had gotten used to the endless caverns, but it was dangerous without question. Maybe the ‘Overworld’ would be better? Being back under a normal blue sky would be nice.
She tucked the core into her pack. Somehow her outfit hadn’t been affected by the [Power] surge, which was… a miracle. Also good for her sanity, because if she ended up naked every time something like that happened, she was going to go insane. Or become an exhibitionist.
The stony path slowly morphed from uncut and unhewn stone into an actual path. Stone and brick tiles were mostly worn or damaged along the way, but they were undoubtable evidence that at one point there had been a civilization in the area.
They followed it for several hours before they reached a small cavern that was filled with ruins. The waystation was located inside one of the buildings that dug into the cavern’s side. A small pond and stream ran around it to feed a small pond that was full of lily-pad like growths and mushrooms. The high ceiling gave off a feeling that the space was much larger than it actually was, like they were at the bottom of a massive chasm.
“We’ll rest here until Taniel wakes up,” Joren said.
Elaina frowned. “I didn’t hurt him too badly? I hit him pretty hard. There wasn’t any room to pull my punches.”
Joren gave her a reassuring smile. “I did some first-aid. He should heal fine, but he’ll be bruised pretty badly for the next few days.”
There was an exhausted and worn tinge to the air as Joren activated the waystation’s protective field.
[WY#88 has accepted your unauthorized presence in order to rectify a security boundary.]
She felt tired, too. Not physically tired, the high level of energy coursing through her saw to that, but emotionally and mentally. It was going to be hard to rest, and a bit selfishly, she hoped Taniel wouldn’t wake up for a while.
Taking the chamber nearest the exit, she found that this station was slightly better equipped. There was a [Tower-Cap] divider she immediately deployed that only left a small opening. That was a nice upgrade to privacy, which was nice, even if the only thing she intended to do was lay down for a while.
That turned into two solo hours of practicing [Mana Manipulation] so she could precisely control the flow of [Power] into the mana shard. It was like holding the jaws of an angry bear open while trying to feed it a spoonful of easy to spill liquid while a vacuum cleaner was trying to reach out of its throat and drain her pond. Over and over.
It got easier with practice.
By the time she stopped glowing, she’d raised the skill’s rank to S+ which felt like a big triumph.
[You have gained a Rank in Mana Manipulation!]
It raised the question though, what skill came after [Mana Manipulation]? With no skill tree and just the explanation that skills evolved and usually carried the benefits of previous versions… well, she would have preferred a list or someone to tell her what was next.
She’d just have to find out on her own, she guessed.
No one had bothered her or interrupted her practice, so she peeked out to survey the common room. The novices had put up their own divider and were likely inside their room. Taniel was laid out on a sleeping mat, still out cold. Joren sat by the slow burning campfire, watching the entrance in silence.
So, a pretty normal sight for a waystation camp. She popped out and greeted the senior monk.
“If you’re tired, I can keep watch,” Elania offered.
Joren shook his head. “I’m fine for now.”
“Then do—”
He cut her off with a grin. “Sure, ask away.”
Bah, was she too predictable? Clearing her throat, Elania came up with the first question on her mind. “We are getting closer to the city, I think. It’s been what, three days? Wasn’t it supposed to be a week?”
“We sort of took a shortcut after Marcus disappeared. Right through the Razorscale migration,” Joren explained. He glanced over at her. “Worried?”
“I am. I don’t know anything about the city. Will I be alright going there?” Elania asked.
“People won’t like you, especially without a contract. I don’t think you’ll have trouble getting in, but… there might be questions from the Guard. They have the final say and could deny you entry.”
“But like, people aren’t going to try and murder me, are they? Form a mob and stone me in the street?” She couldn’t help but look over at Taniel as she asked.
“I…I don’t think so, but it would probably be best to keep a low profile. Maybe…make a contract with someone so the stigma of ‘Unbound Demon’ isn’t around your neck,” he suggested.
He didn’t think so? That was not the most compelling of phrases and didn’t inspire confidence.
“I don’t even know how that works. The only contract thing I saw was when the Black Candle cultist person offered me one, and I rejected it without even looking,” Elania said.
“Eh. Should be pretty simple. Contracts aren’t just a demon thing; powerful mages use them as well. Don’t you have a [Contract] function in your system?” Joren asked.
She blinked and pulled up her [Status] looking for anything contract related.
[Status: Elania Reyes]
[Level 44 Lesser Demon (Summoned Potency 9999+)]
[Karma: 12345]
[Power: 322/321]
[Perks: (Summoned from Another World!) (Regeneration) (Demonic Transformation)]
[Class: Darkwalker Huntress]
[Skill Slots: 4]
[Slotted Skills: Improvised Combat (Rank S+), Stealth (Rank S+), Mana Manipulation (Rank S+), Basic Handcrafting (Rank E)]
[Affinities: (Demonic), (Mana), (Darkwalker)]
[Magical: Demonic Aura (Rank A) (Deactivated)]
[Physical: Body Conditioning (Rank D), Mobility (Rank E), Darkvision (Rank B) (Activated), Throwing (Rank S+), Tracking (Rank S+)]
[Mundane: Identify (Rank B), Universal Speech (Rank S), Reading (Rank A), Writing (Rank B), Crisis Management (Rank S+)]
Yep. No sign of contracts or anything, so it wasn’t on her [Status] sheet…
Maybe… maybe it was its own thing?
Instead of [Status] she tried to picture in her mind what [Contract] would look like and suddenly a new screen popped into existence.
[Contracts: Elania Reyes]
[(Available: 1) (Active: 0)]
[(Contract Essence Draw: -0.5)]
[Configuration: Default]
[(Contractor: Elania Reyes, (Contractee: None Specified), (Duration: Indefinite)]
[(Requirements/Contractor: Contractor shall protect Contractee from harm to the best of their ability.)]
[(Requirements/Contractee: Contractee shall provide Contractor with sufficient essence to sustain Contractor for the contract’s duration. Contractee shall not seek any harm to the Contractor. Contractee shall surrender their soul to Contractor upon death.)]
[(Penalty/Contractor: Contractor shall forfeit any right to Contractee’s soul upon violation of their requirements.)]
[(Penalty/Contractee: Contractee shall forfeit their soul and life immediately upon failure of any violation of their requirements.)]
Well, there it was. The mention of the Contractee giving up their soul immediately made her feel uncomfortable. People had souls in this world, and they were items that could be given up? It was like a B movie script where the devil tried to get someone to give up their soul.
A sudden feeling of sympathy for non-sapient demons filled her. They didn’t even get a chance to read the contracts before they were forced to sign them. Why would anyone be surprised that after they became smarter and learned that they were slaves, the demons lashed out if they got the chance?
Shitty world.
“I don’t want there to be friction if we get to the city. Why don’t we sign a contract?” Elania asked.
A series of gasps from the novices’ room drew her attention. Apparently, they had been eavesdropping on the conversation. The younger monks burst out of the room in a hurry.
“Senior, wait!”
“How could he…”
“Don’t do it!”
Joren gave all of them a firm look and they retreated. He gave her an apologetic shake of the head. “Conclave members are forbidden from ever signing any contracts with demons. It would compromise our position and status.”
Elania frowned. Compromise their status as the bogey-men who hunted down rogue demons? Was it a cop-out or legitimate refusal? She didn’t know enough to be able to tell. Rules were rules, she guessed.
A bit more experimentation with the new [Contract] screen proved that if she changed the contract from default, she could manipulate the terms almost at will. She removed the penalties, made the duration a few days, and edited the terms to simply be that they would work together to get to the city as party members.
It seemed valid, and she marked Joren as the Contractee and sent it.
“How about this?” Elania activated the contract and assumed that he received it.
Joren looked up with alarm, then reached out and waved his hand away. “Don’t do that! I told you no.”
“You didn’t even read it!” Elania objected.
“I can’t! I said no! It’s anathema!” he yelled back at her.
Elania bit her lip. “I just don’t want to be discriminated against.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t help with that.” Joren looked away and turned back toward the entryway to the waystation.
He was the only one that had been ‘nice’ to her. She liked him.
That’s probably why it felt like betrayal.
If Taniel had told her that, she wouldn’t have cared at all.
Comments
M. Lampi
So it looks like this world has soul food :-)
Toir
Sneaky boilerplate contracts.
