“What are you doing?”

Looking up from where she was hunched over the corpse of one of the many cultists, Zoe wiped her hands on the woman’s robes and flicked a lock of hair out of her eyes. “I’m looting.”

Alexander squinted. “Looting?”

“Yeah, you know — I’m seeing if any of these cultists had any useful items or anything like that. Checking to see if there’s any loot.”

The paladin scoffed. “Like a common criminal.”

“Hey! I’m not the one who sacrificed a bunch of innocent people to fuel some sort of demonic blood ritual.” Zoe huffed as she went back to rummaging around within the robes. “And I’m also way weaker than you. I’ll take whatever I can get. In case you somehow failed to notice, I was literally naked just a minute ago.”

Zoe pulled the ill-fitting, stolen robes tighter around herself. Without the heat of the battle and literally being on fire, the still, cool air in the underground complex was beginning to raise goosebumps all along her flesh.

“You didn’t plan the ritual, but nevertheless you were the one to benefit from it.” The paladin had since sheathed his sword, but the way he spoke and loomed over her still made Zoe nervous. “Don’t take too much longer. There are doubtless many more enemies ahead of us.”

Ignoring him, Zoe scooted over to the next corpse. This one was pretty badly charred, so much so that she couldn’t discern any particularly distinguishing features. She didn’t know if that was better or worse.

In any case, a glittering ring on his finger caught her eye. It was a dark but highly reflective band, set with a single purple stone. It looked vaguely like amethyst, but Zoe wasn’t sure, even as she held it up to glimmer in the torchlight. “Is this valuable?”

Alexander shrugged. “It’s a well made storage ring. You could sell it to a decently high leveled artificer for a good amount, but it wouldn’t be of any use to anyone until then. You would need to inject it with your own mana to open it.”

Zoe frowned. “Like this?”

With a simple activation of {Mana Manipulation}, she guided a few points of her own demonic mana into the purple crystal. To her surprise, a system prompt came up.

{You have claimed a Gold rank storage ring. View contents?}

She hadn’t actually expected it to work right away, as the way Alexander spoke made it sound like it would be difficult for some reason. Shrugging, she selected ‘yes.’ A new system window appeared within her mind, and she quickly surveyed the contents.

“Looks like it has a few books, some coins, a few weird crystals, and some kind of metal thing?” With a thought, Zoe attempted to mentally reach in and withdraw the last item. It worked, and a small metal box with various bits and bobs attached materialized in her hand.”

Alexander didn’t say anything for a few seconds. The paladin was just staring at her with a furrowed brow. “How did you do that?” He shook his head. “Ah never mind, just typical worldwalker bullshit.” He muttered the last part like he was mostly talking to himself.

“Anyway, that’s an earthshattering charge.” He pointed at the box. “Just open the lid, pop in a mana crystal, and set the timer there. When it goes off it releases a spell that cracks all the dirt and stone around it and sucks it in. Pretty dangerous to use underground, but also likely more effective.”

“Got it, don’t cause a cave in.” Returning the charge to the storage ring, Zoe pulled out one of the crystals. “I guess this is one of the mana crystals that goes with it.”

“Indeed.”

Turning the lumpy, foggy white rock over in her hand, Zoe analyzed it with her system.

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{Medium Grade Mana Crystal - 0 / 150}

After returning it to storage, she stood up and stretched. Looking around, she tried to find a weapon.

The obvious choice would have been the daggers that the {Wind Slasher} woman had wielded. Unfortunately, unlike the others, her corpse had started to dissolve into some kind of sickly black miasma. It didn’t look like something Zoe wanted to deal with, and all of her equipment was engulfed in the oozing cloud.

That left the two dozen or so other bodies — but Alexander was starting to really look like he wasn’t going to wait any longer. His next words confirmed it. “Alright, enough. We’re going.” Turning around, the paladin began striding towards the exit of the chamber. Once more, his heavy boots glided silently across the once finely polished stone floor.

Rolling her eyes, Zoe hastily caught up to him. Following a few paces behind, she tore a single long strip off of the hem of her new robe to tie around her waist. Once adequately tightened, it made the robe much more manageable. But still, the length of it didn’t feel very practical for fighting. So Zoe tore more off of the bottom and stashed the excess in her ring.

It didn’t take them long to reach the fork in the passage where Zoe had first emerged out of the natural caverns. Zoe spared a glance to the left side — the one with stairs leading upward — but Alexander took the right without hesitation. Begrudgingly, Zoe followed him. He said the way upward was now shut, and she was in no position to dispute that.

They continued in silence for several minutes. While at first there were many rooms on either side of the passageway, it soon gave way to monotonous, increasingly roughly hewn rock. It was darker, too, and Zoe found herself having to rely on the unnatural gleam of the paladin’s armor.

While the square passageway had transitioned to become more of a roughly cut tunnel, it was still clearly artificial. Given the constant width and the unerring straightness of it, it was clearly made by human hands.

Or nonhuman hands. Zoe wasn’t sure what kinds of different species she might encounter here — after all, she herself was no longer human.

Right. That’s definitely something to learn more about. With a thought, she pulled up her system status.

Zoe Blackwell

Lesser Demon of Wrath - 6

Healer / Kinetic Knight

Abilities: {Kinetic Manipulation - 1, Bronze}, {Heal Wound - 2, Silver}, {Medicinal Diagnosis - 1, Bronze}, {Mana Manipulation - 2, Bronze}, {Cleansing Hellfire - 1, Bronze}, {Kinetic Strike - 1, Bronze}

Perks: {Last Defiance}

Mana: 101 / 60

As she read through it, Zoe was surprised by both how much there was and how little. Seeing all of the skills at once impressed upon her how rapidly she had to adapt in the fight, and she suspected that reaching level six didn’t typically happen quite so quickly.

However, it also seemed rather sparse. Where were her stats? Resistances? Why didn’t it list health? It wasn’t entirely what she would have expected.

Well, this is a whole, actual world. There might be a system, but this isn’t a game. I need to be prepared to adjust my expectations from Earth culture to fit whatever I actually encounter here.

Should she ask her companion any questions?

Just as Zoe was about to formulate some basic questions for the paladin, he stopped and gestured for her to do so as well.

“There is demonic mana ahead. Far more than the stench you’re giving off.”

Zoe started. What did he mean by that? Did he really hate anything demonic that much? Yes, he probably does, actually. More alarmingly, it meant that people like him had the ability to sense demons. Not good.

In any case, she wondered if it was a skill she could learn herself. As a demon, did she possess some kind of affinity for other demons? And Alexander talked about their mana. She had been able to see the demonic mana during the cult ritual and also when she blasted raw {Mana Manipulation}, but that was it.

Perhaps that skill was the key? Something to think about.

Alexander gestured for them to continue, and Zoe obeyed. As they crept forward — more slowly, now — she began touching on her {Mana Manipulation}. She kept her eyes scanning the darkness ahead as well.

Soon, the pair emerged into a much wider, smoother tunnel with rusted gateways lining both sides. Alexander cursed silently. Zoe tilted her head, and he leaned in. “It’s all around us.” He licked his lips. “This particular sect was working on experimental modifications to the demonic descension ritual. I’m guessing these are their experiments.”

Zoe shivered. That didn’t sound particularly pleasant — though she had to remember that the paladin wouldn’t be the most unbiased source. But still, they did mutilate people.

Something slammed into the bars next to them.

Zoe jumped, but Alexander was quicker. In one motion he withdrew his sword and severed the scaled hand groping through the bars at them. An ear splitting wail reverberated around them, and then more joined it.

“Shit.” Zoe licked her lips. “The bars should hold them, right?”

The paladin grimaced. “The enchantments have been recently deactivated. Don’t count on it.”

Another monster slammed into the bars, shaking up dust as the hinges squealed in protest. Zoe’s eyes widened. Shit shit shit. Belatedly, she realized Alexander was already sprinting down the corridor. With one last look into the darkness, Zoe turned and followed him.