Get back here! the demon screamed, his words raking against her soul like a rasp over exposed flesh. Cass doubled over in pain, a whimper leaking from her grit teeth.

“Never,” she growled.

You cannot win, he hissed. How much Focus do you have left?

Focus: 24/198

It was already dropping. The strain was building on her eyes and pounding in her head. And it was only getting worse.

How long can you last?

Soul Guard consumed at least one point per minute, countering the demon’s poison and locking him in place. Realistically, it was probably more if he was at all actively trying to hurt her still. Call it 3 points per minute? Was that too low an estimation? To high?

Focus: 23/198

She closed her eyes. It hurt to do the math. There was no time for thinking. Whether she had 5 minutes or 20, she had to do something before she ran out of Focus.

Something One: Attempt to remove the obviously cursed treasure.

The Azorth Necklace was a small, black pendant on a silver chain. Unassuming and already hanging from her neck. The chain was long, easily hanging well below the neckline of her pajama shirt. Despite this, she could not get it off. The chain stuck on something every time she attempted to lift it over her head.

Error: Azorth Necklace is bound to Initiate Cass. Unable to separate.

Definitely cursed.

Focus: 22/198

You cannot escape me.

The obvious solution was no good. What else could she do?

Something Two: Set camp, regen Focus to full, never let Focus drop to zero.

It wasn’t a perfect plan—it wasn’t even necessarily a good plan—but it would at least buy her more time.

Luckily, Cass already knew where she could find a campsite. She Sprinted back the way she’d come, back toward cockroach territory. There wasn’t time to worry about where the Centipede might have gone or if there were other monsters between her and her destination. There was no time for sneaking and no time for fighting. It was blind hope she wouldn’t run into any monsters along the way that fueled her sprint.

I am inevitable.

Focus: 21/198

You will fall here.

Focus: 20/198

Curse whoever led you beyond what you could handle.

Focus: 19/198

Cass ignored him, and the timer her remaining Focus had become. She would make it. She would survive. She had to.

Give up. I will make the end painless, he whispered. Every word was a new nail in her chest, hammered deeper into her soul with every syllable. But she couldn’t fall. She couldn’t give up here.

You cannot hope to survive.

She ignored him, running as fast as Sprint would let her. Her heart hammered in her chest. Her head pounded. How much time was left? How much further did she have to go?

Focus: 15/198

Your death is inevitable here. It was but a matter of time. Even had you not met me, you cannot survive the Deep.

Her head was spinning, his words were venom in her blood. Burning, hissing, evil things. She needed to ignore him. He was wrong.

There was the cave. It looked like little more than a slit in the rock from outside. She clambered up into it, squeezing through to the pocket, out of sight. Her fire pit was untouched beside the opening, and surprisingly warm still. Were those mushrooms still smoldering?

Focus: 9/198

Give up. Let me make the most of your body, he hissed.

She collapsed to her knees beside the embers of her fire. Her vision swam. Pain split her head and twisted in her chest. Was she even breathing?

You will not live either way. His whispering never stopped. But if you give up now, it can be a painless death. Just slip into the quiet oblivion.

Cass grit her teeth and growled through the pain, “Shut up.”

Focus: 7/198

Why struggle further. You will die in the Deep. These caverns will be your tomb. Accept it.

“Shut up,” she snarled. What did he know? She’d made it this far, despite the odds. She knew it was a long shot. She wasn’t delusional. There was no shortage of ways to die here.

Let me take over, he whispered.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Cajoling.

Soft.

Desperate.

I will live. I can survive this place where you cannot. I can avenge you. I can make the one who brought you here suffer. Just tell me who. There is no reason we both must perish.

You will die.

Let me live.

Maybe, there was a kind of sense to his words. If she was to die either way it would be better if someone lived.

But she refused to die.

Not here. Not now.

Not to him.

If she died, she’d go kicking and screaming and clinging to life. She’d fight the Grim Reaper and Death and God if it meant getting home to them again.

A burst of warmth erupted in her chest as the effects of Beacon of Hearth and Home kicked in. It chased out every other sensation, the pain and the exhaustion and the strain. She would live. She would find her way home.

Focus: 8/198

This changes nothing, he whispered, his voice still painful against her soul but no longer all-consuming. Something else will still kill you. All you have done is kill us both.

Cass shook her head, leaning back against the cave wall. He was wrong. She would live. Kaye and Robin deserved nothing less.

***

She sat there a long time in front of the embers of her campfire. He kept whispering, his voice fluctuating between sweet whispers promising her inevitable death and desperate shouting in frustration at her sheer arrogance. She ignored him, gritting her teeth through the pain his every word inflicted on her.

All the while, her Focus recovered, point after point.

Focus: 81/198

Nyxdran Demon has been Subdued.

[You have defeated the Nyxdran Demon in a Battle for Possession.

Nyxdran Demon has consumed chance to leverage past Growth against you, level has been permanently limited.

You have been awarded experience for Subduing the Nyxdran Demon.]

Level Up!

+ 1 Dex

+ 1 End

+ 1 Ala

+ 4 Free Points

You have reached the First Step! Congratulations!

+ 9 Free Points

Choose one stat to Extend your growth.

Cass exhaled in relief. She won. The pounding on her insides had stopped. For once, he had fallen silent. Now she just needed to figure out what all this meant.

“I’m so tired of this.” She sighed, sliding further down the wall. She couldn’t wait for this next thing to blow up into something that would kill her. What kind of reward was this?

She yanked at the pendant again. To no avail. She Identified it, hoping it would give her some answers.

Azorth Necklace

[The home of a once powerful Nyxdran Demon, now your humble servant.

As you have survived the demon’s attempts to possess you, you have been granted ownership of the demon, giving you some bonuses.

Gain one choice of three Status Effects (choice can be altered once every 24 hours):

- Demonic Strength: Gain your demon’s listed Str.

- Demonic Will: Allow your demon to control any skill controlled by Will as if they had cast it.

- Demonic Vitality: Double health regeneration.

This item has Unbound Growth and may absorb compatible items to gain functionality.

This item is Soul Bound to the Initiate Cass and may only be removed on death.]

Cass groaned at the last line, but at least there were some solid bonuses here. She immediately picked Demonic Vitality and put the demon and his cursed necklace out of her mind for now.

Next was her Stats window, she’d leveled up. She had stats to distribute.

Name: Cass

[Race: Slyphid

Lvl: 9

Stamina: 36/45

Focus: 82/198

Health: 8/32

Str - 7 Dex - 15 End - 15

Wll - 18 Ala - 17 Res - 22

Frt - 8 Per - 9 Vit - 8

Free Points: 13]

Extension available!

Concepts:

[- Wind (Unapplied)

- Hearth (Unapplied)]

Status Effects:

[- Beginner Reward: Bonus Staff Skill Growth

- Beginner Reward: Bonus Mnd Skill Growth

- Beginner Reward: Increased Range on all skills.

- Demonic Vitality: Double health regeneration]

She frowned at the list of Concepts. There was another one that hadn’t been there before. She still didn’t understand how she’d gotten the first one and now she had a second. What did they even do?

Her only hint was that some of her skills had one of the two words next to their names after their level.

Stealth (lvl 6) (Wind)

Sprint (lvl 2) (Wind)

Beacon of Home and Hearth (lvl 5) (Hearth)

And that each of these skills said something about “Association with the Concept of blah does additional thing”. So it was probably a buff of some kind. She just wished she understood how or why some of her skills got concepts while others didn’t.

She wasn’t going to figure it out on her own. She put it back on her list of questions to ask once she found someone to talk to.

Her attacker, still locked in her soul, stirred at the thought, but she ignored him. She needed help, but not that badly.

Next was this Extension thing. As soon as she thought it a System window appeared.

Congratulations on reaching the First Step!

Extend your strengths. Choose one of the following to improve with you at every level:

- Str

- Wll

- Res

- Frt

- Per

- Vit

Cass hoped that was what it sounded like, that whichever she picked she’d get a free stat point in going forward.

But what to pick? She discounted Strength immediately. She was so close to figuring out how to use Elemental Manipulation as an offensive magic attack, she could feel it. The bonus to Range she’d gotten for beating the Centipede would be the difference, she was sure. Her days of hitting stuff with a stick were ending, and ending soon.

She also removed Perception from her choices. It was important, but only so far as there were hidden dangers to perceive. She was struggling enough with the blatantly obvious dangers right now.

Of what was left, she could split them into two categories: Mental and Defensive. Which was more useful to her?

Unfortunately, she didn’t know and there was no one to ask.

So she asked a different question: What kind of fighter did she want to be? If she was right, she would be getting a point at every level no matter what. And it would be doing that permanently. She could still use Free Points to add stats to the others.

So the question wasn’t what would help her more now but what would make her what she wanted to be later.

And framed like that the answer was obvious.

You have Extended your Growth into Will.

+ 1 Wll

Cass assigned her free points next.

Still nervous about the demon in her soul she added a few more points to Res, though not that many more given she had already dumped two entire level’s worth earlier. But just a little more so she had a little more of a buffer for keeping Soul Guard running all the time.

Res 22 -> 24

Then she gave Perception and Strength a point as an apology for discounting them so quickly for Extension. And then another to Strength because it was her lowest still.

Per 9 -> 10

Str 7 -> 9

That left eight more. Two whole levels worth. What should she do with them? She could go and put all of them in Res. See how the demon liked that.

No, that was probably overkill. That would be a total of over four levels worth of free points in quick succession.

What should she do with them then? Maybe bring everything up to 10? Frt and Vit were both still at 8, while Str was only at 9. Compared to her 24 Res or 19 Will, those values seemed really low now.

She didn’t know if she should be specializing or spreading her points. She didn’t know if this was a mistake. She had no idea what the stat spread on the monsters she was fighting was. She could only hope spreading them out was the right call.

Str 9 -> 10

Frt 8 -> 10

Vit 8 -> 10

That left three more points. She could give one each to Dex, End, and Ala, the three stats she hadn’t touched yet, but those three had already gotten a point from her normal level-ups, and she still didn’t even know what Ala did.

Or, she could put all three in Will to improve her chances of weaponizing Elemental Manipulation? That was the plan now, wasn’t it? That was why she hadn’t picked Strength earlier.

Will 19 -> 22

She did it before she could throw herself into another round of second-guessing. Magic was the goal. If she was going to be stuck in a fantasy world she was going to get magic, damn it.