Newly Summoned Demoness - Chapter 10 – Ecosystem (Patreon)

The feeling of Fire and Water was all-encompassing.

As Elania slowly regained consciousness, the first sensation she had was of being covered in a copious amount of sweat; if someone had told her they’d just fished her out of a lake, she’d have believed them. Her robe was soaked thoroughly and dripped onto the floor.

As she sat up, her heart pounded in her chest like she’d run a marathon, and every heavy breath felt like fire leaving her lungs. Her entire body was flushed with heat, like she had a deadly, crippling fever.

So why did it feel so amazing? All the pain that she had fallen asleep with had disappeared, and when she checked her sides, the bruises were gone. Her feet felt fine.

Standing up felt like she weighed nothing. She pulled out the items in her pockets and then disrobed so she could wring the article out; it made little sense, there was no way she could have sweated that much, and the fear of not being able to water was… mitigated? A little stream of her sweat had flowed out of the room, then down the stairs.

Magic. Or weird Demon related things. It had to be that, otherwise, she’d have been a shriveled-up husk.

She wiped herself down, but sweat formed almost immediately. Whatever was causing it, she still had the sensation of being on fire.

Was it related to the message about poison? Had she…sweated it all out or something?

She pulled up her [Status] and was shocked by the dozens of messages that had apparently arrived while she was asleep.

[Your body is reaching the limits of its capacity for power!]

[Your body has reached the limit of its capacity for power!]

[Find a stronger body or reduce your current power!]

[Your body has exceeded the limit of its capacity for power!]

[You have gained a Rank in Demonic Aura!]

[Your body is experiencing slight thermal degradation!]

[Your body has expelled impurities!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

[You have gained a level in Darkvision!]

[Due to your excess power, your body is exceeding its limits!]

[Your body is experiencing thermal degradation!]

[Your body has expelled impurities!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

[Due to your excess power, your body is exceeding its limits!]

[Your body is experiencing thermal degradation!]

[Your body has expelled impurities!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

[You have gained a Rank in Demonic Aura!]

[Due to your excess power, your body is exceeding its limits!]

[Your body has greatly exceeded the limit of its capacity for power!]

[Find a stronger body or reduce your current power!]

It took her a few seconds to take it all in. At some point, her [Power] had overflowed and caused her to… thermally degrade? Plus adapt? Her idea that she’d been sweating out the poison, whatever it was, seemed to be on the nose, too.

There wasn’t exactly an explanation for where all the water she had sweated out had come from, though.

[Status: Elania Reyes]

[Level 5 Lesser Demon (Summoned Potency 9999+)]

[Karma: 12345]

[Power: 168/112]

[Perks: 1] (Summoned from Another World!)

[Class: Escapee]

[Skill Slots: 3]

[Slotted Skills: Improvised Combat (Rank E), Stealth (Rank E), Survival Crafting (Rank E)]

[Affinities: (Demonic), (Mana)]

[Magical: Demonic Aura (Rank C) (Activated), Mana Manipulation (Rank E)]

[Physical: Darkvision (Rank B) (Activated)]

[Mundane: Identify (Rank E), Universal Speech (Rank S), Reading (Rank A), Writing (Rank B)]

Her [Demonic Aura] and [Darkvision] had gone up just like the messages had indicated, but why those two skills in particular had been effected, she wasn’t sure. Maybe it was the adaptation?

It was clear that her [Power] stat was responsible, but why was it going up like it was? The maximum level of it had even increased, but she hadn’t even figured out how to use it herself!

Where the fuck was a manual when she needed one?

It was probably self-explanatory to someone who was a native. The thought brought her the mental image of a class full of children being taught what their status screens meant. Since she was imported, she would have been happy with a brief PDF.

An alarming thought wiped the funny picture away. There was some sort of normal civilization or something with schools around somewhere, right? If she’d been dumped into some dystopian hellhole…

Elania winced. She’d feel almost right at home, right? Capitalistic Earth wasn’t such a great place. Then again…

She expelled an angry sigh. This line of thinking wasn’t helping, and she’d deal with things as she encountered them. Wasting energy on it in a survival situation was surely a bad idea.

[Crisis Management Rank E has been unlocked.]

Her eye twitched. Apparently, battling herself inside her head was enough to earn a skill. She noted it was not slotted like the previous ones. Did that mean she was limited to three slotted skills?

Elania rolled her arms and stretched. She still felt like she was still burning up on the inside, but other than that, she felt better than ever. The sweating had slowed down but was still present. She suspected it would probably not stop until either the poison was all gone or her [Power] stat was under control.

Everything appeared more vivid in the dark, even without the mana shard to light her way. That was definitely from her increased [Darkvision] skill. She slipped her slightly dried robe back on and pocketed her shard and dagger before heading up the next set of stairs.

The trek up the stairs was no less boring than the first time, but it was much less arduous. When she reached a second landing, there was even an extra spring in her step as she pushed herself to power climb faster. When she reached a slide of rubble, she jumped the entire section in a single leap. The feeling of being super light was liberating, even if deep down she felt an itch of concern.

How else was her body changing… ‘adapting.’

The constant stream of cool air working its way downward continued and felt amazing against her skin. It certainly helped with the burning feeling that was still filling her.

When the first signs of light seeping down from above appeared, she paused, thinking that she’d somehow dropped her mana shard. When she realized that wasn’t it, she carefully ascended while trying to suppress her anxiousness.

There was a small stone arch and landing as she stepped out into an entirely different world. Vibrant greens and blues were a feast for her eyes as she took in the sight of the thick moss and other cave flora. The ceiling was a tremendous distance above, only visible due to the brilliant lime-green moss and vines that dominated it.

Massive stalactite formations sprouted down from the carpet in spots, and they shined with the red and orange of some other type of plant, breaking up the colors.

She activated her [Identify] and scanned the different things, each one gave her a basic name. She figured it wouldn’t hurt to know what to call each one, and on the chance that leveling the skill was done by usage… she didn’t want to miss her chance.

[Brilliant Glow Moss]

[Red Tangle]

[Underground Creep Vine]

Scanning the massive cavern, she realized that not everything was natural. In the distance, she spotted the remains of some stone buildings, covered in thick patches of grassy moss. They didn’t appear inhabited, and part of them had collapsed to the point where only a few walls remained. It gave off a serious ancient ruin vibe.

If this was a video game, it would have been at the top of her list for exploring for a looting run.

She didn’t see anywhere else interesting, so as she trekked forward, she headed toward it as her destination. The terrain was broken up into hundreds of small plateaus, each carpeted with the grassy moss. If she was going to ever start a fire, she needed to be very careful.

Burning the world down around her a second time would not be… ideal.

As she came closer to the ruin, she scanned them with [Identify] too.

[Stone]

[Worked Stone]

[Ruined Stone]

It was funny that the skill incremented on the names of the bricks based on their state. A towering mushroom tree had sprouted and grown from inside one of the buildings, pushing its way out and had caused one of the walls being knocked down. There were more of the same type of mushroom ‘tree’ behind the ruins and throughout the cavern as she reached a point that let her take in a view of the entire V shaped cave.

[Fungal Growth]

[Fungal Wood]

[Tree-cap]

The ruin was at the tip, and the two halves had their own distinct flora. Thick grassy moss and flat plateaus on one side, and tons of fungi and tree-caps on the other. A lot of the fungal flora gave off their own red-hued bioluminescence, and that warred with the blue hues cast from the ceiling, creating a purple shading that shifted along the walls.

It was a beautiful sight.

There was also a stream that ran down the length of the cave on the mushroom tree side that disappeared into the ground at the far end. It had plenty of its own flora as well. She paused and scanned those as well.

[Water Spore]

[Fenicia’s Fungal Growth]

[Rock Blight]

[Scour-Stone Moss]

[Itch Moss]

Elania blinked, her brain finally catching up with her eyes.

[Water]

Water. That was important, even if she had temporarily turned into a sweat spring on the way up. She almost changed directions straight for it, but restrained herself as she glanced across the caverns. It was almost a complete eco-system, but there wasn’t any sign of any fauna. Where were the animals or other creatures?

Shouldn’t there have been some insects, or… well, she had no idea. It just seemed strange that there weren’t any animals. Maybe they had heard her coming and were shy?

She wasn’t really thirsty, and although that worried her a bit, she was almost to the ruins anyway, so she decided to explore them first. The water wasn’t going to go anywhere, and if she decided to stay in the cavern for a while, she’d probably be making plenty of trips between wherever she decided to camp and the stream anyway. Why add an extra one?

The sound of trickling water added a pleasant sound to the air, and compared to the silence of the caves below, it was very welcome. She picked her way across the grassy moss plateaus and around the fungal growths and broken rocks. There were a multitude of names for each type, and she especially avoided anything with the word itch in the name.

[Identify] she was sure, was one of the best skills to have.

A [System] box appeared in front of her just as he neared the ruins.

[Due to your excess power, your body is exceeding its limits!]

[Your body is experiencing thermal degradation!]

[Your body is slightly adapting.]

Elania frowned as she swiped the message box away. Mention of the poison had stopped, but she felt like the heat in her core had increased. She had thought that it was just the lack of the breeze running down the staircase. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she was sure that it was, in fact, getting hotter.

The elation from the lack of pain and the abundance of energy had faded somewhat as well, replaced by a feeling that… something was seriously wrong.

She checked her [Status] for more clues, only to find that her [Power] had continued to increase further.

[Power 188/116]

[You have gained a Rank in Demonic Aura!]

Her [Power] stat wouldn’t quit going up. What if the burning got worse until she caught on fire or something?

It felt like doom was approaching, which added an extra bit of speed to her step as she searched the first building. It was disappointingly bare. The second sent a shiver down her spine as she froze at the entryway.

Bones.

Thousands of small bones, stacked in chaotic piles that lined the walls and nearly reached the ceiling. That’s where all the little critters she had expected had gone. Into something’s belly.

She took a step back and resisted bolting. There wasn’t a smell of rotting flesh and all the bones had been scoured clean; so maybe they weren’t recent.

Backing out of the building, she looked toward the third one. Whoever had built them had probably been about the height of a human…or elf, judging by the size of the door holes. Wasn’t there at least one game she had played that the elves were…cannibals? A shiver ran down her spine as she decided to skip the rest of the ruin and try the stream.

If she couldn’t figure out why her [Power] continued to rise, maybe she could find a way to spend it faster. She’d have thought that running up the stairs would have been training, but apparently not. Maybe [Mana Manipulation] would divest her of some more easily?

Elania glanced up at the ceiling and winced.

For that, she’d need to go back down the stairs and try practicing it there. There was absolutely no way she was going to accidentally loose some of the sparks on the flammable moss again.

She took a step away from the building, only for the faint sound of pebbles shifting, causing her to freeze. Breaking free of her shock, she spun around and looked up, coming face-to-face with a pair of blood-red eyes and a savage expression full of teeth.