Since the day of her first ´hunt,´ the Demon girl´s behavior drastically changed; She no longer attacked her family but instead relied on and cared for them, making the life of the Goblins so much easier... and more fulfilling. With her newly established openness and upbeat conduct, she was quick to integrate into her 3 siblings´ group, playing with them every day. Due to their differing growth-rates and because of her strong-willed personality, the Demon girl at one point assumed the role of ´leader´ and ´Big Sister´ for their small team. Before they knew it, her siblings began looking up to her, not only literally.
Furthermore, she now was periodically going on hunts with her father, venting her natural aggression and fierceness on monsters. As she was still too weak to take on a monster on her own, she strictly followed her father´s guidance, learning something new every time from his instructions.
The Girl also learned how to open her Status, one of the most essential necessities in this world. As of now it looks as follows:
Name Vienessa (?) - The Abandoned
Lesser Demon
Species Demon Child Level: 2 Stats
HP
MP 22/22
9/9 Vitality 8 Strength
----------------------------------------
Intelligence 9
----------------------------------------
6 Endurance 7 Agility 7
Titles
[Child], [The Abandoned]
Skills
Normal
3 Characteristic
2
Active
[Minor (-) Physical Reinforcement]
Passive
[Minor (-) Mana Handling]
[Minor (-) Language Comprehension]
[D (-) Mana Handling]
[D (-) Language Comprehension]
It was after their third hunt that she discovered her |Status| for the first time. Her father was laughing tears when he saw his little Demon freak out about it. Though after her disbelief was overcome she got excited for days, annoying the Goblin family to no end by repeatedly telling them how amazing her |Status| was.
In this sense, their normal life continued
– – –
“We out to hunt now!” the Demon girl´s voice echoes inside the cave. She and her father are just about to leave when the three Goblin kids rush to see them off. Re is first to reach them and jumps into her sister´s arms where she´s caught into a hug. The Demon twirls with the little Goblin girl and both of them begin laughing. Her brothers approach them too. Being ushered forward by his big brother, Ba, the youngest of them, shyly opens his arms. The Demon girl picks him up and spins around with him as well. The corners of his mouth turn faintly upwards as some chuckles escape.
“Ro” the Demon girl faces the eldest of the three Goblin children “Take good care of Re and Ba until we back”. Ro smiles confidently and taps his chest twice with his fist. ´Leave it to me,´ is what it means. "Good boy" the girl smiles and ruffles a hand through his hair. The Goblin mother joins the send-off of the hunters and the four wave them a successful trip.
--
“Where we going today?” the girl asks after the two have strolled through the forest for a bit. Her father points eastward with an anticipating gaze, but the Demon girl can´t really relate to his excitement: “But there few monsters, why going?” she furrows her brows. The Goblin looks his daughter in the eyes before pressing some air through his nose. “Today plan different?” she asks curiously. Receiving two nods from her father, they continue walking eastward.
After a while, they arrive at a small clearing. A pond lying near the continuation of the forest. There, a middle-sized monster on four legs and a tough-looking carapace has its snout in the water, taking large gulps. The Demon girl´s body tenses as she remembers her very first real fight. “Smaller, but same” she mumbles. Suddenly, rage starts flooding her body, making her gaze darken. Her father, noticing the girl´s agitation, places his hand on her shoulder and holds her back with a firm grip. The Demon girl jumps out of the stupor she momentarily fell into and turns her head to her father. He points at her, then at the monster and finally releases a grunt. “Fight?”. He nods “Alone?”. Another nod. The girl´s face twists into a grin. “Revenge…” She mutters.
***
The Steroplyx was just about to take a small rest from a long day and planned to relax in the cool water, but suddenly a sharp pain penetrates its back. An agonized cry escapes its throat as it immediately raises its head and turns around to see a small figure jumping down from its carapace. The figure lands in front of it and smiles, showing her sharp fangs. Blood drips down from her claws, its blood.
The monster´s eyes become bloodshot as it furiously charges its attacker. The girl continues to stand in place as the Steroplyx rapidly closes the distance between them. Though just before its large body can connect, the Demon puts everything she´s got into her left leg and jumps to the side. She escapes the Steroplyx´ body-slam by a hair´s breadth. The monster, having lost the target in front of it, desperately tries to brake its momentum. But its movement is too rash; its leg twists, it trips and falls on its side. The Demon doesn´t let this chance slip, she picks up speed and flings herself into the monster´s belly, tearing through its soft skin unprotected by a shell. The smirk on her face grows as she hears the monster writhe in severe pain
But this is not the end, the Steroplyx bears the vortex of pain and swings one of its legs. The girl gasps, clearly not having expected a counter in its state. There´s no time to dodge. She just manages to quickly shift her arms to protect her side. A fraction of a second later she´s launched through the air. A stinging pain runs through the bones in her arms, but other than that she avoided extensive damage. As her body connects to the ground, the momentum keeps her rolling. Though she manages to jump onto her feet in an elegant motion and meets the monster with an angry glare. Activating its |Quick Step|, the Steroplyx suddenly appears in front of the girl, one more time swinging down its front leg. But the Demon only grins as her body dimly glows. She activates her newly acquired trump card, |Physical Reinforcement|. Raising her arms above her head she blocks and takes out all momentum from the attack. The ground cracks beneath her feet. The monster´s eyes widen as the next thing it knows a claw deeply penetrates its throat.
The Demon retrieves her hand as the Steroplyx stumbles back a few steps, not realizing what happened. Then, it falls dead.
***
*37 Exp gained*
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~Level UP: 2 → Level 3~
[Fixed Stats gained]
“I did it!” the Demon girl breathes heavily and smiles, turning around to her father who has watched over the fight. “I used |Skill| you taught! Did I good? Did I?” The Goblin nods and ruffles through his daughter´s hair. “I even Level-Up! Amazing, right!” The Goblin laughs as he agrees with his excited girl. He´s earnestly proud of how she fought her first fight without his help.
The Demon girl bathes in the glory and later on in the pond of fresh water as her father instructed her to wash down the dirt, blood and sweat from the fight. Meanwhile, he grabs the defeated monster and throws it over his shoulders. Getting ready to return to the cave, the girl skips to her father´s side. She has a constant, beaming smile plastered over her face on the way back.
--
Once they arrive, the little Demon rushes into her home and excitedly tells everyone about her heroic battle, naturally exaggerating the story. Her siblings listen closely, eyes dazzling while the Goblin mother giggles about her daughter´s excitement before praising her for the ´astonishing´ feat.
While the female Goblin disassembles and cooks the brought-back monster, the Demon girl reenacts the fight, showing it to her siblings. Her father is forced into the role of the raging Steroplyx, taking a small beating from the play. The Goblin mother gives her husband a look of sympathy, she´ll shower him with some love later.
Afterward, the family eats as the day slowly comes to an end. As there is nothing much left to do, they think about going to bed early. So they do
…
Some time into the night
…
Some more time into the night
…
Even More time into the night
....
“Can´t sleep” the Demon girl eventually states her unfortunate fate. Lying on her back she looks up into the nothingness of darkness, turning her head away from it. She hears her family snoring peacefully. “Haaa…” a long sigh slides from her mouth as she gets up and rubs her tired eyes. The Demon girl´s excitement hasn´t diminished a bit since her earlier fight. Although she is quite exhausted from the long day, her noisily beating heart won´t let her keep an eye closed. Approaching the exit of the cave, she sits down on the wet ground. Heavy rain falls in big droplets and thunderous noise bangs as an earthy odor fills her nose.
She actually manages to sit quietly for a few seconds, but then her toes start digging into the muddy ground. “Aaaaah, why can´t relax?” She asks herself frustrated while ruffling her hair with both hands, making a mess out of it. Did she not exhaust herself enough today? No, that can´t be. Maybe she slept too much the day before?
Such and similar thoughts won´t stop flowing through her mind before she finally can´t take it anymore. She comes to a decision what to do now.
Glancing back one final time, she steps out of her home and runs into the forest. “Ma mad if find out. But return before they wake, everything good” She convinces herself. Wet splashes sound beneath her feet as she swiftly makes her way through the dense vegetation.
Arriving at her goal, she finds herself atop a cliff. A cliff so high up that one´s eyes can´t even seperate the single trees from one another anymore. She discovered this location at one of her hunting trips and was fascinated by it. Why? She doesn´t know either. It´s weird, but sitting at the slope, gazing into the distance has ever since become something she very much enjoys. Maybe she is fond of how efficient this spot is to oversee the movement of monsters? Or does it have other practical use? No, that´s not it. It´s as if she´s reminded of something when she looks down into this abyss that really isn´t one, though she can´t quite put a finger on what it could possibly be. It´s complicated for the Demon girl to explain, especially to herself.
Looking into the dark night filled with ever more furious weather, a lightning thunders down. The light it provides reveals a figure sleeping beside the little girl at the cliff´s edge. She stops moving, her eyes widen somewhat in fear. But then she squints her eyes. As she recognizes the shape, her mood immediately deteriorates: “First don´t find one in months, now two same day? Really?” she groans. “Well, won already. Another isn´t problem. Help me getting sleepy.” she rolls her eyes. Another lighting falls from the sky and strikes a tree in the distance as the Demon prepares for battle.
Silently, she launches herself at the sleeping Steroplyx and strongly swings at it, confident that her claws will bury in its flesh. But her claws bounce away from the shell and a thumping pain begins coursing through the girl´s hand. "W-What?" she looks at her broken claws and swollen fingers. The monster opens its eyes and sets its slit pupils on the girl. It raises to its feet, only now does she realize how huge it actually is. The Demon´s knees begin to shake.
´This is bad´ she thinks ´Fight wrong decision. Flee, flee now´. The girl activates her |Physical Reinforcement|, turns her back to the monster and sprints as fast as she can. ´Need wake Pa! He strong, he can–´ before she can even finish her thoughts, the monster appears right before her. The girl flinches, she stumbles back and falls.
She doesn´t get the opportunity to do anything. Not knowing how it happened she´s hit. The strike packed a tremendous punch, she coughs up blood and lands right at the cliff´s edge. Paralyzed from the pain, she breathes heavily as the Steroplyx approaches with slow steps.
´Can´t breathe´ her vision blurs ´Is... Over? Will I die here, just like that?´
Yes, normally the little Demon´s thoughts would be absolutely on point. The monster would simply end the girl´s life before moving on, soon forgetting that this minor event in its life had even taken place.
But reality had other plans, it unfolded differently; In this very moment, a miracle happened. However slim the chances are, in the end, they still exist. The Demon girl was incredibly lucky that the weather was ´bad´ that night:
As the monster raises its front leg for the finishing blow, lightning strikes down from the raging storm, hitting both the Steroplyx and the Demon.
The monster immediately falls dead, roasted by the mighty hand of nature. The same should have been the case for the Demon too, but instead she is left unscathed. No, not only unscathed; The violent energy from the heaven seems to be absorbed into her body, it fuels the something dormant that has been sleeping within her. A power not even the |Demon Lord| or the Classification Ceremony were able to detect. Although she falls unconscious due to the sudden change within her, a myriad of messages resound inside her head:
~Sufficient amount of r̸̢̡̟̂ẽ̷̡͉̦̃ê̷͎͘̕n̷̛̠̈́̈́y̶̠̲̖͑̐g̸͓̀̉ has been provided~
~Titles~
[Transcendental Being has been obtained]
[Primordial Demon has been obtained]
[Against All Odds has been obtained]
[The Abandoned has been Erased]
~Skills~
[Absolute Appraisal has been obtained]
[D (-) Mana Handling → D Mana Handling]
[D (-) Language Comprehension → D Language Comprehension]
~Species~
|Demon Child| → |Primordial Demon Child|
|Lesser Demon → Demon|
[Enemy at least 50 levels above your own]
Experience Multiplier: x5
*3635 Exp gained*
~Level UP: 3 → Level 4~
[Fixed Stats gained]
10 |Stat Points| have been gained for free distribution
~Level UP: 4 → Level 5~
[Fixed Stats gained]
10 |Stat Points| have been gained for free distribution
~Level UP: 5 → Level 6~
[Fixed Stats gained]
10 |Stat Points| have been gained for free distribution
Rain continues to fall on the small Demon and for the rest of the night, she remains unconscious on the muddy ground. In a sense, she has achieved her goal, she fell asleep just like she wanted…
–̴ – ̷–
An unlikely event to occur, an unlikely escape from death. ´Saved by lighting? Bullshit.´ Or ´An awakening of dormant power? How unbelievably cheap,´ you may think. And yes, I agree, the little Demon girl wouldn´t, shouldn´t even have survived if we just look at likelihood and probability. There is most likely more to it than just sheer luck, you are led to suspect. But, unfortunately, in this assumption you would be wrong. Why? Well, let me explain it to you:
First of all, our protagonist wasn´t the first to be born with such inherent capabilities. Truth be told, innumerable individuals with the potential to drastically change the world have existed over the countless years of the world´s existence. Some even bore higher amounts of might to be unleashed than our story´s main character. ´But, why isn´t the story about them then? How is the Demon girl special, different from the rest?´
It´s simple, really really simple, actually. Let me make you understand with the help of an analogy; Imagine that the potential of these individuals equals a ticket. Yes, a ticket to take part in a huuuge lottery, with an amazing prize. Some tickets have better chances, some worse, but only one of the participants can claim the main prize for themselves. Now then, what´s the big prize awaiting the winner? You may have guessed it: The privilege of becoming this story's protagonist.
Do you begin to understand now? Or does it still sound far-fetched or even nonsensical? Well, it really isn´t
None of the other ´participants´ survived long enough to bring their abilities to fruition, they drew losing lots; Some died seconds after their birth while some never even dipped the surface of their hidden powers throughout their entire lifetime. And then there were those who did achieve amazing feats but had their luck run out. Just remember a certain Assassin who was tasked with killing the |Demon Lord| for example.
So, do you get it now? The key-word here is luck. This tale did not choose the girl to be its protagonist and suddenly gave her amazing powers. No, it´s much cruder than that. Her incredible, unimaginable, stupid luck is the sole reason why this story exists in the first place. That´s it, nothing more and nothing less.
And I wish that you keep this in mind. Keep it in mind throughout the entirety of this journey I´ll be taking you on.