Chapter 2: Preparations
She had barely started her adventuring and already she felt herself work up a sweat as she shoved the basement door open, pushing aside the debris that had collapsed in the doorway. She squeezed through the gap in the doorway out into the corridor, and a quick glance around was all she needed to know that something had gone horribly wrong, with half of the dorm room wall scattered across the carpet and opening the room up like an interior designer’s worst nightmare to the chaos of the outside.
And there was plenty of chaos to see.
Casting her eyes across the city in front of her, she was met with the sight of destruction everywhere. Collapsed buildings, split roads, it looked like an earthquake had torn the city upside-down. Which judging by the tremors that still came from below, it probably had. Pillars of smoke rose up from the collapsed skyscrapers, accompanied by fire that lit up the now rather empty skyline. An eerie silence was continually punctuated by the sounds of explosions and gunshots in the distance.
An explosion nearby shook her out of her musings, alerting her to rapidly increasing vibrations that first made her leave the basement, and were suspiciously coming closer. With a glance, she noticed what could only be a head sticking out from above a house the street over.
“A half-giant, level 30, flee this place while it is distracted. I’m surprised such a beast has appeared so early.”
The head let out a roar of frustration, likely caused by whatever seemed to be annoying it inside the building it was occupied with. Needing no more incentive, she quickly moved in the opposite direction. As much as she wished to help whoever was there, from just a glance at a creature the size of a building she could tell she would be useless.
“Your class would normally be virtually useless against such a monster unless you have proper ritual ingredients and a focus. However, you have unlocked an extremely valuable perk earlier called [Ritualist] that lets us substitute these ingredients for your Demonic Mana.”
Lucifer seemed oddly informative for a literal demon from hell, maybe he actually did want her to survive.
“Of course I do, there is no need for me to lie to a weakling like you. Now you need to use those stat points if you want to have a chance to survive here. Early integration casualties are immense.”
Having put a couple of houses between herself and the half-giant, she ducked into an empty house. Too on edge to sit down, she stood by the window and peered out while deciding to get her stats in order. Quickly thinking about her stats, perks, and abilities all at once, they all appeared in front of her again.
Status:
Name: Sarah Rose
Race: Half-Greater Demon
Class: Hellbringer
Level: 10
Strength: 7
Agility: 8
Wisdom: 32
Intelligence: 32
Vitality: 8
Endurance: 7
Charisma: 13
Unused Stat Points: 50
Abilities:
* [Ritual Magic] Rank 2 Level 1
* [Demonic Mana Manipulation] Rank 1 Level 6
* [Soul Sense] Rank 1 Level 1
* Empty -
* Empty -
Perks:
* [Adaptive] - +1 free stat points per level.
* [Ritualess] - You may substitute reagents for mana in your rituals.
* [Demonic] - Your mana has the demonic attribute.
With some quick mental maths, she noted her Wisdom and Intelligence had increased by 20 each from her 10 level-ups. Each level seemed to give her 2 wisdom, 2 intelligence, and 5 free stat points, with one of those coming from her [Adaptive] perk.
Why intelligence and wisdom? She asked Lucifer. She seemed to have a lot of it already, surely its better she balanced out some of her stats for survival?
“I have told you what to do. I will not answer your questions.” It replied in a bitter tone, obviously annoyed from being questioned by her.
Well if you wont answer then ill just split the points evenly between all my other stats to keep it balan-
- no, fine. The higher your intelligence and wisdom, the more powerful rituals you can conduct. Allocate your points now and I will show you. I need you to survive so listen to what I say.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Despite Lucifer talking in her head, she didn’t like his tone. Nevertheless, he seemed to know what he was talking about and have some kind of plan, which is more than what she had at this point.
Evenly splitting her points between intelligence and wisdom, she could feel the change in her body from the title as a warm energy seemed to flow into her body. It only took her a moment to infer from her ability [Demonic Mana Manipulation] what this energy flowing inside her was. It seemed the higher her stats, the greater the amount of demonic mana she could feel inside her.
“Your endurance will increase your body’s resistance, whether to wounds or poisons, and will also help you to heal. Your vitality however will allow you to carry more internal mana, or in your case demonic energy, in your blood. This will in turn increase your health as your mana holds you together. However, with your class on the summoner path, you should be more focused on the mana located deep inside you, in your mana pool. This is guided by your wisdom and intelligence.”
With her [Demonic Mana Manipulation] she found herself easily able to follow the mana in the air to her body, where it was being absorbed. As her senses brushed over it, the energy began to change into something warmer and gather around her body. Tracing it, she found herself looking at a deep pool of mana inside her, sitting around her stomach and glowing a vivid blood red.
“As a caster class, you are able to manipulate the energy of the world, called mana, and manifest it externally while physical classes would typically only be able to use their mana internally. Your class has already specialized to now convert that mana to give it a demonic attribute, referred to as either demonic mana or demonic energy, a more… destructive form of your typical mana.”
How do I use it? she thought back to the demon.
“Your wisdom score reflects the amount of mana you can control and its rate of recovery, while your intelligence will allow you to condense and manipulate it to hold greater power. With your current high wisdom, you should easily be able to pull the mana from your pool outside your body. From there, with your intelligence, you can condense it into a simple shape, such as a ball, and launch it at your target. Your intentions throughout the whole process are important in shaping the spell to do what you desire.”
So, I pull it together, condense it, and boom- magic. Sounds simple.
And surprisingly it was. Maybe it has something to do with having over 20 wisdom and intelligence, or my 6 levels in [Demonic Mana Manipulation], but I expected it to be harder. A small ball of smoky dark red energy formed in front of Sarah, similar in appearance to the smoke that billowed out earlier when the demon first appeared. She found however that it would not fly out at a thought, but instead required a brief throwing motion for it to launch outwards. However, after travelling 20 meters it decayed into nothing.
“As you progress, you will be able to manifest and launch spells at a thought. For now, your stats are too low and you require some motion to help control the mana when it has been condensed.”
What else can demonic mana do? She asked.
“Demonic mana is mostly combative. Mana can be converted to different elements, and to other forms of mana alike to your demonic kind such as holy mana. However, neither of these are a possibility for you now, as the only attribute you can now give your mana is the demonic kind.”
She wasn’t sure if she should be sad that she could only access one type of mana now. But then again, only a short while ago she couldn’t access any.
“At your level, you could manipulate the demonic energy in your blood to increase your strength temporarily, or use cast basic spells. However, we should focus on your [Ritual Magic] which is already at Tier 2 and your [Ritualess] perk which will allow you to imbue an item with demonic power temporarily. I can guide you in this process as having such an item would make you far stronger than those at your own level.”
Her first ritual almost ended with her death, so she was hesitant in doing so again. I need some assurances, how do I know you’re not going to hurt me?
Another sigh rang out from the demon in her head, and she could feel his eyeroll once again.
“I can only think of one solution for me escaping that doesn’t require crippling me for hundreds of years under our current circumstances. I can only leave your body when your soul has expanded. For now, your soul is tiny and located in your heart, but it will eventually grow and form a core at Level 25. As you progress, your core will grow, and at Level 50 evolve. Then it will compress at Level 75, and finally at Level 100 it will rapidly expand, and the energy of your soul will fill your whole body instead of just a small core. To summarize; formation, evolution, compression, expansion. At expansion, during the process of your soul spreading out, I will then be able to leave you. So in other words I need you to reach level 100, and preferably as fast as possible. So until then know that I have your interests at heart.”
It was a long speech, and it seemed to make some sense. From his description the expansion of her soul at level 100 will give Lucifer an opportunity to leave. Should she believe him? She didn’t know any better herself, so does she have any alternative?
“I need you to level up so I can leave. You need to level up to survive. I have the knowledge and skills to help you do so quickly. Use it.”
Her instincts seemed to think the demon would not be lying to her, and so she decided to take his word for it. Although maybe she shouldn’t be trusting her instincts if they are telling her to believe a demon. Then again, she is apparently a demon too now.
But thinking about that half giant, she realised there wasn’t much choice for her. She would need to get stronger anyway to survive.
After some brief instructions from Lucifer, she found a large kitchen knife lying in the house. Her suppressed emotions seemed to help as she barely hesitated before cutting a small line on her left forearm and concentrating to move the mana in the blood that now covered the knife, into the knife itself. Concentrating on the knife, she felt her demonic mana be drawn from her mana pool and so she unceremoniously shoved into the weapon, and after a short moment the blade seemed to glow a dark red.
Ominous, but effective. She thought.
“With your Rank 2 [Ritual Magic] this process is far easier than it would typically be for one your level, and the drain on your body is only minimal. A normal ritual like this would be practically impossible for others considering the lack of resources and training currently available, so this weapon is incredibly strong for your level. Identify it.”
Um, how?
“Just think identify while you stare at the blade.”
She swore she could hear the demon sigh as she stared at the glowing red kitchen knife, or blade as the fancy demon liked to call it.
[Identify]
Demonic knife – Tier 1 (Common)
Well that doesn’t tell me much.
“Everyone has the [Identify] skill, but you will notice that it doesn’t take up one of your skill slots. If you want, you can get [Observe] which will give far more information but takes up this slot. I would not recommend it unless you plan to be a scout or something similar.”
“Trust me, nothing at your level can likely stand up against a tier one weapon for long, irrespective of quality.”
With a glowing knife, a strangely demonic case of multi-personality disorder, and still smelling strongly of sheep’s blood, it was time to begin her hunt.