Just the fists this time. As the demon, singled out from its pack, came running at him, Daven felt the rocks cling to his legs, gliding up from the ground as they ran over his body, coalescing around his two fists.
A small moat around his feet was formed, the hardened dirt and stone excavated in an instant.
Minimal strength. 1 essence a second. Sustainable.
Normally, at such a low level of strength, the rocky gauntlets would be no thicker than simple, woollen gloves. However, by having all the rocks converge around his feet, it was like he was holding a cask of mead in both hands.
Less like gauntlets and far more like large stones at this point.
Lifting them up, feeling their heft, Daven couldn’t help but smile. This should do some damage, he thought.
Taking a firm stance, hands ready, waiting for the demon to lunge at him, Daven remembered a time when he was younger, before he had his first level, even.
It was customary to train a variety of martial forms, seeing what best worked for you. Of course, the combination of a defensive shield and the versatile offence of a sword was what he ended up with but that wasn’t the first thing he tried.
Amongst all his practise, he did, briefly, dip his toe in pugilism, although, any bastard who fought demons with his bare hands would have to be insane.
For one moment, time seemed to slow as the beast demon lunged forward, sharp claws out to strike.
Then the next, Daven’s weighty fist came slamming down onto its head. He felt it deform from the impact, smacking against the ground with almighty whiplash.
Testing his skills flexibility, the rocks on his unused, left hand snaked down across his body, reforming around his foot as that, too, came smashing down onto the small, mole-like body.
Not enough. As he lifted his foot, the demon, as swift as a snake, slithered out from underneath, rapidly creating a bit of distance.
Damn. The added weight of the rocks could only augment his measly power so much.
The rocks shifted once more as he focused on another party of his body. It was strange and not always instantaneous, depending on what he was thinking about. For now, this reconfiguring was merely practice with the skill. If he had his sword, the demon would be dead already.
The demon jumped forward again, catching Daven off-guard as he focused on the skill. A few, quick swipes clawed at his legs.
With a grunt of pain, two heavy fists slammed down on the beasts back, a torrent of rocks suddenly flying up his body like a rockslide in reverse.
Thick, rocky armour covered every inch of him apart from a few slits for his eyes and holes for air.
Wasting not a moment, he stomped down hard on the thing, grabbing its head as it flailed uselessly, claws unable to pierce the hard rock.
From there, he battered the demon to death with supreme ease, breathing heavily. Even with magical help, moving with all this added weight took its toll.
Meren and Lefie ensured no other demon reached him while he was training. It was with this safety that he finally released the skill, the rocks tumbling down his form.
The wound stung but, thankfully, wasn’t too deep. He reached down, running his hand down his stained-red trouser leg as he activated [Heal].
Not quite as talented as Riza, he needed to use his hands to focus his healing.
Since the humanoid demons were dealt with, the excursions of the beast demons were less and less frequent. With this last party dealt with, they were good for another hour.
This left plenty of time for Daven to try another of his skills that was a bit more essence-intensive.
He’s had time to think about the skills. Riza brought up [Essential Earth] as a possible skill for him to take. Naturally, Daven was hesitant about taking any skill that wasn’t sword or shield–they were untested, after all–but this one sparked his interest.
Weapons of magic. Normally, they were for Guardian’s only. A spear that froze whoever it touched. A spear that arced with lightning. A dagger shrouded in flames.
Perhaps this skill could do something similar? Could manipulate the ground, pulling up a spike infused with ice essence to freeze his enemies?
That was just one application. Another was a tad more complicated.
Kneeling down, Daven activated [Earth Sense], searching for the hardest of stone. He repeated this a few dozen times before finding something both hard enough of large enough to be of us. Thankfully, due to this crater, it wasn’t that far down at all.
Once located, he kneeled down once more and began to excavate, the earth moving aside like a viscous liquid, his fingers moulded the ground like clay.
The useless material side, he maximised the skill, lifting up the large section of rock as nearby earth swarmed together, creating a thicker plinth as he eventually stood up, the hardened rock now around waist height.
Smoothing over the ground, he made sure it was safe to stand upon as he stood before this tiny plateau.
His fingers danced over the rock like an artisan, twisting, shaping, moulding it into his ideal form.
Slim here, thick here, and tapering to a point. Again and again, he focused his attention all over, gradually adjusting and carving out the perfect weapon.
Finally, after laborious effort, a sleek, smooth sword made of rock stood before him, attached to the earth by the thinnest of rocky linkages. They were numerous, and all along on side, needing to hold the weapon aloft.
A limitation of [Earth Shape] was that whatever he was shaping needed to be connected to the earth beneath his feet somehow. The moment the connection was broken, whatever earthen material abandoned ceased to be earth according to the skill.
With an earthy gauntlet, Daven punched through each support, one hand cradled around the rough handle.
With a sudden grunt, the sword broke free, falling a little as Daven put in more effort to lift it. Heavier than he intended, and a little crude, it did resemble a sword at least.
Sword skills were a little stingy with what they considered a sword. Material didn’t seem to be important, working just fine on the wooden training swords they had at the patrol house. Therefore, shape seemed to be the deciding factor.
Unfortunately, without someone with a sword skill to use it with, whether this replica qualified was unknown.
Although designed to be wielded with one hand, Daven ended up holding it with two, the weapon heavier than intended.
A few practice swings, getting used to the weight. They were wide, lop-sided, and a bit slow as well.
I’m getting the hang of this, he thought. Going through the motions, it was starting to come back to him. He had to adjust some stances, some cuts, based on the weight, but they would probably still work.
“What do you have there?” Meren’s sudden voice startled Daven from his practise.
“I tried to make a sword. I know, I know, it’s terrible-”
“It’s not bad, for your first try. May I have a look at it?”
Daven agreed, handing over his weapon.
Meren accepted it with ease, as if it weighed as light as a feather.
She turned it over in her hands, inspecting every inch. Once done with that, she held it aloft in one hand. She gave it a few experimental swings, making a noise of intrigue.
“I have some suggestions,” She said with a smile, as if to soften the incoming blow.
“Have at it.”
“To start with, it’s really fucking heavy. What is it made of?”
“Stone?” Daven offered, not knowing much more himself.
“Well, that’s part of the issue. You’ve made the blade far too thick. Look at this,” She held the sword sideways, holding her hand beside it. “That’s two of my fingers! Regardless of how sharp it is, you’re not going to be cutting anything with this thing!”
Meren continued to point out flaws and ways to improve the weapon and happily agreed to supervise Daven as he tried making a new one.
Again, he searched for viable stone, raised that up out of the ground, and went to work.
Unfortunately, as he used Meren’s advice to slim down the blade, it snapped into two.
“Ah, shit,” Daven sighed, taking a step back. He patted his hands against his legs.
“That’s not good.”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t worry. It happens a lot. We usually just melt it down and try again,” Meren said.
“That’s not the problem. The moment I tried going too thin, it’s like the sword rejected me.”
“Maybe you just need practice? [Earth Shape] isn’t even level 10, right?”
“Hmmm. Maybe.”
“And, anyway, if you need a weapon, try making a hammer. It’ll put the extra weight to good use.”
Not wanting to be too down, Daven nodded along, stepping back towards the sword and moulding it into a ball. Maybe a hammer would work…
----------------------------------------
With a frustrated sigh, Riza sent a stone flying across the ground.
It still isn’t working? Her attempts at using [Manipulate Air] were fruitless. Sure, it worked before but that was on fog. Is it because I can’t see air? But I know it exists!
[Intrinsic Tank] is indiscriminate. It just sucks up all gas within a radius. [Manipulate Air] requires my concentration on specific gas.
Riza thought to the two other manipulation skills she’s seen in action: [Manipulate Water] and [Earth Shape] (although the latte didn’t follow the naming convention for whatever reason).
Both of them influence a visible, discrete quantity of mass. With how Daven worked, he used his hands to mould the earth, which meant the skill was only manipulating a couple kilograms of earth, not that deep below the surface.
Lefie, likewise, manipulated water that she conjured. They were specifics masses that were disconnected from any other bodies of water.
So, in that respect, [Earth Shape] was closer to [Manipulate Air]. Was she just trying to affect gas too far away?
Forcibly calming herself down, Riza took deep breaths as she turned her focus towards her hands. She didn’t really know what to focus on, only that she tried a method similar to how [Intrinsic Tank] worked but with [Manipulate Air].
And still nothing. Her arms went limp as she exhaled her held breath.
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Out of options, she brought up the skill tree, looking at one skill in particular with an evil eye.
Air
0th Tier
[Mistify] (1/10)
Convert 2m3 of air into mist or mist into air
2m radius
Casting Time: 1 second
Cost: 1 es
[Manipulate Air] (3/10) -Learned
Manipulate 6m3 of air
6m radius
Cost: 3 es/sec
1st Tier
[Alter Air] (1/10)
Modify the heat energy of 2m3 of air by 1K/sec
Cost 1 es/K
Requirements: [Mistifty] (5/10)
[Identifiable Air] (1/10)
Sense nearby air
2m radius
Cost: 1 es/sec
[Intrinsic Tank] (4/10) -Learned
Store and release up to 8m3 of air inside you
8m radius
Cost: 5 es
Requirements: [Manipulate Air] (1/10)
2nd Tier
[Internal Flow] (1/10)
Instead of breathing, consume 1m3 of stored air every minute
Cost: 0 es/sec
Requirements: [Intrinsic Tank] (1/10)
[Light than Air] (1/10)
Expend stored air to reduce your weight by 20%
Cost: 10 es/sec
Requirements: [Intrinsic Tank] (5/10)
[Obscuring Haze] (1/10)
Cloak yourself in a haze of air, obscuring your form
Cost: 5 es/sec
Requirements: [Alter Air] (5/10)
[Mistify]. Is the sole reason why this skill exists is to make air visible for [Manipulate Air]?
To boost her spirits, a small bit of fog seeped out from her palm, sitting on her hand like a wobbly, viscous liquid.
She had already used [Manipulate Air] once before. Concentrating on recreating that feeling, she exerted her will on the small bit of gas. Her hand dropped from under it but the gas remained stationary in the air.
Then, the blobby shape condensed, becoming smaller but spherical. Riza moved it a few metres before pulling it back up to her body. Grasping the ball in her hand again, she adjusted the radius on [Intrinsic Tank] to as low she could make it.
[Intrinsic Tank] (4/10) -Learned
Store and release up to 1m3 of air inside you
0m radius
Cost: 1 es
Requirements: [Manipulate Air] (1/10)
Skills with such a tiny range were interesting. Where did the skill originate in regards to range? If it was her hands, then holding her arms out in front rather than by her side would increase the range of a skill by the length of her arms.
Or, did the skills originate from a point inside her body? And so, regardless of the size of position of her body, the range wouldn’t change?
At such small scales, these distinctions hardly mattered but [Intrinsic Tank] got Riza thinking.
Say the skill originated from a point in the centre of her body. If she used [Range Compression] to reduce the range to 0.01 metres (or however close she could get), then it would only affect gases inside her body; oxygen, carbon dioxide, and so forth.
Normally, it’d be dangerous to try out such a hypothesis but, luckily for Riza, she had just the skill to counter it. How [Heal+] worked was by sustaining her body when there was an absence of sustenance. This meant water, nutrients, proteins, and even oxygen. Albeit, the skill worked for pretty much a single breath, then she’d be out of oxygen again.
So, Riza had done some experimenting. She held her breath and used only [Heal+] for a few minutes as a control. Afterwards, she tried breathing in, using [Intrinsic Tank] to delete her waste gases, and never breathing out.
This didn’t work at all which indicated to Riza skills started outside of her rather than inside.
All of this meant the small globule of fog was quickly sucked up into whatever pocket dimension [Intrinsic Tank] used and by setting the radius so low, she’d have to be physically touching something for the skill to work.
Riza’s gaze drifted up from her own work.
At Daven’s feet lay many discarded weapons, all made of stone. He was currently swinging around a hammer, trying different strikes, how he should move his feet, getting a feeling for the weapon.
Riza smiled as she watched him. It was an ingenious use of the skill, one she hadn’t thought of personally. Made her proud to see such creativity.
Meren had wrangled Sanders into sparring with her. She had picked up some new skills with her levels but Riza didn’t know what they were yet, except they were spear skills.
Physical skills were a bit different to essence skills. They tended to have more skills, more tiers, and the vast majority were passive. Constant training was needed to level them up, and Sanders seemed happy to relive his past through fighting even though he now lacked the skills to benefit from it.
Lefie was diligently keeping an eye on the demons. The beasts had really slowed down but with her range, now up to 120 metres, she covered a good portion of the crater from her perch.
The rest was being observed and handled by Adewyn’s small team.
All of which brought Riza’s attention to the colossal demon. It hadn’t moved at all, showing no hostility.
Once, Riza had used a demon spider to see through outside of the fog. Its senses were greatly reduced, extending not that far from its body. Perhaps this demon was similar, effectively blind except for around its feet.
However, all the other demons were different. At least, they seemed to be different. Now that she thought about it, beast demons were so mindless she couldn’t tell if they were effectively blind.
The humanoid demons, however, were almost certainly not. They could see everyone and efficiently split up to tackle the different parties involved in the battle. They strayed far from the fog and remained a large threat regardless.
So far, the colossal demon had been docile as long as no one came near it, and no one dared to.
Would that change if Riza attacked it?
It was a prospect that she came to multiple times by now. It must’ve been a very high level, almost certainly above 35 which was enough for a boon.
In a perfect world, it would just stand still while she killed it with [Leech].
Riza doubted it would go that smoothly. For one, it was so tall that it could reach anywhere within the crater, and possibly even outside it. That meant everyone would need to evacuate and go far away.
Secondly, Riza’s range was only 80 metres which was smaller than the radius of the crater. She’d be well within its reach.
Which then brought on the time aspect. Assuming it had 100,000 health (most likely an underestimate), it’d take around a minute to kill it at 80 metres.
With 28 parasites left, and a single hit killing her instantly, would it manage to hit her enough times to kill her?
It didn’t matter if it couldn’t see her; as long as it swung one of its arms through the crater, it’d get her.
If she was in danger at 80 metres, she may as well go close to it then. At 5 metres, [Leech] dealt 24,640 damage a second. Even if its health was a magnitude bigger, it’d still be a matter of seconds to kill it.
Should I do it?
Riza sent a [Message] to each of her party, asking for their opinions. They were unanimously in favour of it. It’d be a giant increase in power, after.
But there was one last perspective she wanted to hear.
“Do you think I should kill the colossal demon?”
Immediately, Riza saw Adewyn turn to look at her. She was small, standing on the precipice of the crater, watching everything.
“That would be an incredibly bad idea.”
Unexpected, but a part of Riza wasn’t surprised.
“Why?”
“A whole bunch of reasons. You’re low priority right now. You haven’t killed anyone, are helping people and killing demons, and you’re around the strength of a guardian. If the Empire wanted to deal with you, they’d send a few guardians at most. But if you’re level 35? 40? Even 50?”
Adewyn stopped there, the implications obvious, especially since their previous conversations.
Okay then.
----------------------------------------
New day, same crater, old demon. They had alternated sleeping so at least someone was watching the demon and fog the entire time and with five people, that meant minimal lack of sleep.
There were no demons over the night and even in the morning, for the next few hours, nothing. It was so quiet; everyone was doing their own thing with no one watching the colossal demon.
There were, however, still plenty of demons underground.
Adewyn had even sent both of her people to Sotton to pick up supplies because, as it turned out, people needed to eat. She had scavenged what she could from the remains of the village that sat outside the fog whilst Riza sustained herself with [heal].
Sustained both herself and the rest of the party, in fact. Even though both Daven and Sanders had taken [Heal] as well, and trained it to level 10, neither of them could shape the skill to affect hunger as well.
Interesting information; there could be differences between skills outside of what the system tells you.
It was a good few hours into the day before Riza perked up from where she was sitting, stashing her journal. A sudden itch in her head, a strong sensation, compelled her to walk forwards.
The colossal demon didn’t look like it was moving but Riza wasn’t so sure. Just in case, she sent a [Message] to everyone to create a bit of distance and be ready for an attack.
Everyone quickly obeyed, with Sanders even commenting that something felt strange.
As Riza crept closer, the demon world underneath her feet clarified itself to her senses. An amalgamation sharpened into individual beast demons and even one, suspiciously strong, signal was travelling quickly from the north.
As it neared, it became more familiar. Not a greater demon, too weak for that. It was a humanoid demon.
Once she confirmed that, she hurried as close as she dared, avoiding the immediate reach of the colossal demon. Mentally going through a checklist, she closed her eyes as she felt her senses drift away.
Numerous beast demons were running around underground. There were long trains of them, assembled into lines of tunnels. Their density increased the closer to the central tunnel leading to the surface they were.
And, amidst these beast demons, there was one signal, stronger than a beast demon but not quick like a greater demon. The intricacies of this sense was hard to fathom, and all of this was a the limit of her range.
The humanoid demon was rushing towards this unidentified demon. If she had to say, it felt weaker than any of the seven that had appeared the day before, but its mere presence was already a problem. If she hadn’t caught it suddenly appearing from the north, she’d suspect they had started converting corpses from the village already.
Once it had rendezvoused, it stopped. No more movement.
Odd.
Riza looked up at the colossal demon, then back at the ground, then towards Daven. A worry had inserted itself into her mind and she was already thinking of solutions.
The ground suddenly shook violently, Riza able to maintain her balance, as the unmissable, colossal demon started to move.
Riza paid no heed to where it was moving; she had already turned and was sprinting away, sending [Message]s to everyone to get out of the crater.
But as she was running, the demon wasn’t chasing after her. The ground rumbled as it repositioned its hands, fingers digging into the hard earth and rock as if it was butter. With a form so large, small movements were invisible, but Riza was making distance. It only took a couple of seconds to reach the carved stairway and then a few more to bound up it, finally letting her watch what was happening.
The demon was… retreating? The arms closed in, tiny legs dangling, and then proceeded to drop into the hole one after the other like a cyclical elevator.
With each large movement of its limbs, the ground vibrated underfoot, the main body of the demon eventually sinking into the fog and then the earth itself.
It’s… gone?
Everyone stood around, dumbfounded at what they’d just seen.
“The fucker ran away!” Sanders shouted angrily, the sudden outburst surprising Riza.
“That looks to be the case. Did you find anything, Riza?” Meren asked.
“There’s another humanoid demon underground. It just arrived and then, that happened. It must’ve learnt that the attack was unsuccessful so it arrived to recover whatever it could, which must’ve included that demon,” Riza stated, the words exiting her mouth as quickly as she could theorise.
It makes logical sense. Thinking of them like an army, no way they would want to give the enemy their weapons. Sure, humans can’t control the demons normally but that doesn’t mean they can’t still benefit from increased level caps.
“The tunnels are all connected, right? So the humanoid demon must’ve been in a nearby nest to arrive so quickly!” Lefie stated excitedly.
“But no other nearby villagers have a nest,” Daven said.
When the crater emerged, their cart had been destroyed, the horses dead. They had gathered what was left of their stuff and heaped it all together. While they were talking, Meren began to descend back down the rocky path towards said pile.
“The nests don’t always have entrances on the surface. If we hurry, we could track the demon from above and follow it home, right?” Lefie looked towards Riza, seeking confirmation.
Riza just shrugged.
“Maybe. But I don’t think we should follow it.”
“What? Why not?”
“It’s an elder greater demon. Both times they emerged, it was because I was there. I’m sure of it. I mean,” She swept her arm out, gesturing towards where the village once stood. “All these people are dead because I stayed around.”
“It’s not your fault,” Lefie replied gently.
“I know; it’s the demons. But it’s escalation. Just like when they sent ten greater demons after us. They’re throwing all they can at once to kill us. They’ve got no reason to release that colossus on a village if I’m not there. In fact, they actively don’t want to. They’re leeches, feeding off the village without outright destroying it.”
“You’re saying we’re letting that thing go?” Daven asked without emotion.
“Everyone will be safer that way, including us. Our priority shouldn’t be that thing, anyway.”
By this time in the conversation was huffing as she climbed up the many steps, arriving with a map in hand.
“Here’s the map. No nearby villages have a demon nest,” She said.
“We’re past that topic, now.”
Meren looked at the other for confirmation before sighing, muttering a quiet ‘fuck’ under her breath.
“What are we going to do now if we’re not going after the demon?”
“I’ve got an idea but it’s going to take a bit of travelling. You remember what the village where we met was called?” Riza asked Lefie, receiving a shake of her head in response. “Doesn’t matter. That place had a large nest but we’re not going to touch it. South of that village is a caldera and at the centre is a nest, completely unguarded and, I think, unknown to the Dominion.
“At least, I asked Adewyn about it and she hadn’t heard of it.”
“What’s happened to not trusting the Dominion?”
“Nothing. I’ve worked out a deal with Adewyn where if I tell her where we’re going, she’ll help to stop the Dominion from finding out.”
“What if she’s lying?” Meren asked.
“I don’t think she is? Shit.” Riza shook her head. “Doesn’t matter too much. I haven’t told her the route we’ll be taking and made sure to not mention the location of the nest, just wondering if there were any more in the area.
“The point is, we can go there and get some levels and we’ll be aboveground and no one will be watching. I haven’t been using many of my skills while we’ve been here.”
“And afterwards? Once we’ve all hit our level caps?”
“Then we’ll be hunting that colossus.”