She Demon

by A P Gore

  “Yes. Relax, human. I’ll make the antidote for her.” Roderich pulled a white cloth from a plate he had carried out earlier. There was a set of equipment on the plate: a small crusher, a cutter, and a glass tube. A few green leaves were also present on the plate. Noah tried to identify them, but the system errored out, saying he had a low level of herbalism. One more reason to improve his herbalism.

  “But will this save her permanently, High Mage?” Noah asked, putting the broken cup on another plate.

  Roderich ignored him and first crushed a couple of herbs in a small stone pot. Then he ground them with a marble crusher for a few minutes. Next, he pulled a pink, pentagon-shaped crystal from his pocket. Noah suspected it was Roderich’s bag of holding, which Noah couldn’t see—a soul-bound bag of holding, indeed. Roderich slammed the core on the stone pot, breaking it in half. Pink liquid oozed out of it; he let mix with the herbs. He threw the empty shell of the crystal away and started mixing the herbs with the crusher slowly.

  After ten more minutes, Roderich put the pot away and covered it with a marble lid. “This will take an hour to complete, but we’ll go to the inn and check on the girl first. This antidote should stabilize her condition for a few days.”

  Noah’s heart filled with hope. “Thank you, High Mage.” Noah bowed, and for the first time it was out of respect. The demon was doing this for the little girl, and Noah would be in Roderich’s debt. “But what about a permanent solution? Is there any way to save her from this curse?” He needed to find a way to save her permanently.

  Roderich's head hung. “I don’t have one.”

  Noah’s heart shrunk. There had to be a way, and he had access to the goddess Sumara. Yes, I’ll go and ask her as soon as Thia drinks this.

  The journey back to the inn was a silent one.

  Thia was still unconscious in Noah’s room, and Mathial was sitting near her with a half empty red vial on a tray. Noah quickly checked her status with perception, and her health was at 202/235. Five seconds later, it dropped to 198. It was a slow decay, and would have been okay in other times, but right now Thia was unconscious, and her face was twisted in pain. Noah sniffed his tears back and turned away.

  By examining his own emotions and actions, Noah understood the immersion of the game, making it so realistic that he was doing everything for the NPC. But she wasn’t an NPC anymore. She had ascended to the next level for him. She was a family now, and he would do anything to save her—even face the evil goddess. He would visit her soon.

  “She is stabilized. We have to wait two hours,” Roderich said after checking her pulse.

  When the two-hour wait finished, Roderich poured the brown liquid from the pot in Thia’s mouth. The effect was immediately visible. Her chest—which had been heaving up and down like a restless child—settled into a normal, steady rhythm.

  “She will wake in few hours,” Roderich said with a reassuring smile.

  “Thank you, High Mage.” Noah once again bowed willingly. He pushed away a few notifications that had popped up. “How can I repay you?”

  “Did you learn more about the cave I asked about?”

  “Yes, indeed. It’s a cave of Xamphala, and it has level seven restrictions.”

  “Wonderful.” A smile appeared on the Roderich's face. “I’m sure it would help you in clearing the cave.”

  A notification with a golden border appeared. A golden border meant a quest update or quest complete. He looked at his all notifications, since he had some time to kill.

  Congratulations! You have demonstrated courage that no other player would dream to show by risking your life for a demon and demonstrating the will to pay everything you have to get her the antidote. +1 to charisma, +1 to wisdom.

  Quest updated: Inaccessible Cave. You have provided more information on the dungeon to the High Mage Roderich. Reward: Map to the human town. Reward deferred until quest completion.

  Congratulations! You have gained +5000 reputation with High Mage Roderich for the care and dedication you have shown for the demon girl Thia. Current level of Reputation: Considerate.

  “I can’t give you a map to the human town unless you get the diadem of our head demon, but I can teach you one spirit related skill,” Roderich said.

  “That would be great.” Noah cast a quick glance at Thia, whose health was now rising bit by bit. Her face too had eased into a relaxed state.

  Noah thanked Mathial for his help, then followed Roderich around to the empty ground behind the inn. Roderich stood in front of Noah with a small stick in one hand. He stood still and silent for a moment, perhaps contemplating the best way to teach Noah.

  “This skill is called Spirit Run. When it comes to spirit and mana, there are multiple skills considered utility spells that can be learned by anyone with a high affinity to a respective school. Spirit run is one of those spells. It is not damage dealing, but it will help you in many other areas. The spell is based on spirit manipulation. In spirit manipulation, you improved your prime spirit channels and widened them. Now, using this skill, you will use those channels to imbue your muscles with the power of spirit and use it to run and walk faster.”

  “Is that why we opened the leg spirit channels?” He wondered what he would be able to do with the other parts of his body now.

  “Yes, but how big is your spirit reserve now? Did you keep practicing the spirit manipulation as your spirit increased?”

  Noah looked at Roderich in confusion. “Was that necessary?”

  Roderich smacked Noah’s head with the stick. Roderich’s slap hit Noah like a hammer and took 20 points of life away. Noah fell backward, landing on his ass. Mathial’s laughter echoed in his ears.

  Noah stood, mentally cursing Roderich, and cast a frown at the blacksmith who was still laughing at him from the nearby smithy.

  “That was for your foolishness,” Roderich said. “How else would you grow your prime spirit channels? If you haven’t done it, then do it now. It’s always wise to learn any new spirit skill at the highest level of your prime spirit channels. Do it now. I’ll wait.”

  Noah sat in a cross-legged position and concentrated on his spirit container. It was now the size of a baby’s fist. He pushed it through the marble-sized prime spirit channel of his left hand first. It was much easier than when he’d done it the first time. He managed to expand and improve all his spirit channels in less than an hour this time. By the time he was finished, he had gained +1 level in the spirit manipulation skill and +1 to wisdom.

  When he opened his eyes, Roderich was sitting on an iron anvil. “I assume you recognized that it’s the only way to improve your spirit manipulation skill, right?” Roderich asked.

  “Yes, High Mage,” Noah said.

  “Getting a student is a tough challenge after the curse settled on the town. So I take pleasure in teaching to those who are in need.” Roderich’s smile had changed. Previously, it was a wary smile, but now it was quite friendly. Was it a reputation effect?

  Noah nodded back. He was ready for hardship.

  “Spirit run is a similar spell to spirit manipulation, in a way. Like spirit manipulation, you push your spirit to your channels in your legs, but with this skill you keep it there until it starts leaking out of your prime spirit channel into the small paths that connect your channel to your legs and imbue them with spirit.”

  Noah looked at Roderich in confusion, understanding nothing. “Can you explain it again? In simple terms?” Noah asked, hating that he was missing terms here. He’d been treated like a genius throughout his academy training and career at Laxania, but here he found himself constantly dumbstruck.

  Roderich looked at Noah like he was a dumb cat. “Okay. Let me simplify it for you.” He sat next to him and made a figure on the soil with his stick; it barely looked like a human body, but Noah could imagine what he was saying now. Roderich then made a shallow cylinder starting from the figure’s heart to its leg. “This is your prime spirit channel.”

  Noah nodded. Even he kn
ew this much.

  Roderich started making lines from the figure’s spirit channel in the leg, pointing them toward his toes and the ball of the foot. He made dozens of small lines. “These are the smaller, unused channels that connect to various parts of the body. Understand now?” he asked.

  Noah nodded. With a picture, it was so easy to understand.

  Roderich pointed his stick at the leg spirit channel of the figure and traced it toward one line. He did the same for other lines. Now the spirit channel looked like the roots of a tree.

  “It looks like a tree root,” Noah chirped in excitement. “Now I understand. Roots take energy from the earth, but I have to feed my spirit to the roots in my legs.”

  “Exactly.” Roderich’s face lit with a smile. “Finally. Now try it on yourself.”

  “Okay.” Noah jumped to his feet and closed his eyes. He imagined and pushed his now larger spirit ball toward the left leg. Once it was near his shin, he focused on the prime spirit channel, trying to see the smaller spirit channels connecting to the prime channel. It was easy to say, but hard to find them in reality. After God only knew how long, he was able to see the tiny nerve-like spirit channels spreading across his whole foot. He started pushing his spirit into one of the small channels, but even after dozens of tries he couldn’t push it inside. A drop of water on his hand broke his concentration, and he was pulled out of his inner space. Sweat flowed freely across his whole body. A shiver passed through him as a chilly breeze blew across his skin.

  “Did you manage it already?” Roderich asked with a surprised look while sipping coffee from a giant mug. Mathial sat next to him, enjoying his own drink.

  “No. I couldn’t push my spirit ball into the tiny channels. It was easier when I tried that with the prime spirit channel.”

  Roderich glared at him like he was teaching a ten-year-old kid, and the kid wasn’t understanding anything.

  “Did I do something wrong?” Noah asked, face heating. This was shit. He had managed many feats in his first year at the Laxania research center, and here he couldn’t even push simple spirit in his spirit channel.

  “Those tiny channels are not meant for the whole spirit flow. that the tiny channels didn’t burst because of the pressure.” He paused, appearing thoughtful. “Let me rephrase it a little. When you push your spirit ball—or whatever you call it—to one leg, do you push the whole ball in the channel? Or do you leave something behind?”

  “I never thought about it. Let me check it.” Noah closed his eyes and started pushing his spirit through his right hand. But this time he turned and also imagined his main container. To his surprise, the container was filled with spirit. So he was pushing a copy of the spirit ball. “Okay, that’s strange.” He opened his eyes. “Does that mean I can push multiple balls in multiple channels?” It made sense. He could use the dual channeling without imagining this explicitly.

  “Yes, that’s the idea.” Roderich’s tail raised high and clapped his own hand, which was very weird looking. “One more thing. Those tiny spirit channels are not meant to be filled with a huge amount of spirit. They will grow eventually, but not up to the extent like your prime spirit channels. So, once you are there, try pushing only a small amount of spirit in one channel. Once it goes through, concentrate on the second channel and so on.”

  “Okay.” Noah closed his eyes and started pushing spirit to his left leg. When the spirit was near his toe, he imagined his main container to gain the feeling of what he was doing. He now had two different visions of the spirit balls, one at his feet and another at heart, connected by a small thread of spirit. He released the heart vision and focused on a small channel connecting to his feet and started pushing a small amount of spirit into it. Now he was looking at two pictures: the main spirit ball at his leg, and other small spirit ball traveling through the small channel. He kept those visions intact and imagined himself pushing one more small spirit ball in another small vessel. He successfully did that. When he was focusing on the fourth tiny channel, his mind twinged in pain, and something happened to his body. He saw numerous small visions available for him—all representing different tiny channels connecting to his prime spirit channel in his left leg. Now he could push his spirit into all of them at once.

  His left leg started vibrating when he filled all the small channels with spirit, and his vision filled with various notifications.

  Congratulations! You have gained a sub-skill: Micro spirit cycling. As you have demonstrated a strong resolve and capacity to learn new things quickly, you have received +1 to your wisdom. You have received +1 to spirit manipulation.

  Noah opened his eyes with a broad smile on his face. “Thank you, High Mage. I understand many new things and applications of a simple technique.”

  “Great. Now go one step back. Do it for both legs and see how you feel when you run. With practice, you should be able to do this at instant’s notice,” Roderich said with a grin.

  “Sure.” Noah closed his eyes once more, and this time it was way easier for him. Once he was one step back and pictured both his prime channels, he found hundreds of different windows in front of his eyes. He willed and merged them into one and got an isometric picture of his legs where he could see the spirit flowing into the tiny channels in liquid form. He felt satisfied and empowered in his legs. He opened his eyes and went for a run. It was easier and faster than he was used to, but it also drained his spirit way faster than required. When he got back to the inn, his spirit had dropped by twenty-five percent, but his stamina was full. He had also received one more notification.

  Congratulations! You gained a new skill. Spirit Run: Enables you to run faster than humanly possible. Spirit Drain: 5/sec. Run more to reach a new level. This skill can’t be increased by investing skill points in it.

  Wow!

  “High Mage, I have a couple of questions related to the class system. If you can answer me, it would be great,” Noah said.

  “Ask. I’ll answer them as best I can.”

  Roderich’s attitude had changed. Was it because of the reputation change? Noah shoved that question away. He had a more important question to ask. “I assume Thia’s speaking skills are undeveloped because of low intelligence. If it’s that true, I have low intelligence too. Then why can I speak properly while she can’t?”

  Roderich stood, setting his drink aside and wiping the foam from his lips with the back of his black robe’s sleeve. His tail floated high in the air and hovered with its own will. “I don’t have full information on this, as I’m just an initiate in the sacred dark arts, but I can tell you what I know. For different classes, life works differently. You are dedicated to the dark creature arts, and that’s why you have spirit as a dominant resource for you. For creature class species, the intelligence in reality is the sum of intelligence and wisdom. For melee races, it is the sum of strength and intelligence or dexterity and intelligence. The same is true for the real wisdom of a demon or a human.” He sighed heavily. “That’s what I know.”

  “Thanks, High Mage Roderich. That’s new information for me.” It was food for thought and did make sense. Otherwise, people with low intelligence would have found it impossible to do any intelligent work.

  “I have to head back now,” Roderich said. “Meet me once you have the core I asked for, and I’ll answer your other questions.” He walked away, leaving Noah alone with Mathial, who promptly went back to his work.

  It had been a good few hours for Noah, increasing his life to 405 and spirit to 290.

  4. Merchant

  Light shined through the only available window of Noah’s room and fell directly on his face, vexing his sleep. He tossed and turned to no avail. Giving up, he opened his eyes to stare at the small girl sleeping next to him. Her sleeping face showed discomfort as well. Noah got up and covered the window with a dark brown sheet, tying its ends to the window hinges. His efforts were wasted as the strong wind blowing across the inn tore his sheet away from the hinges as soon as he turned. Rain wa
s coming, if the dark skies and chilly winds were any indication.

  I’d better cover Thia with a blanket.

  He tied the sheet in place once again. This was inefficient. He’d have to ask Mathial for a better window covering. Maybe even shutters. Surprisingly, no room in the inn had shutters, but each room’s door had metal bolts fitted to them. It didn’t make any sense, but he’d never asked Mathial about it, thinking it must be some weird demon thing. But now he would get it fixed, soon enough.

  When the next wave of wind didn’t blow the sheet off the window, Noah stepped back, satisfied. He turned to look at Thia, who was now sleeping peacefully. She had awoken briefly yesterday evening, but went back to sleep after having some food. It was for the best, really. Her normal cheerful mood had disappeared, turning her into an annoying, grumpy little girl.

  He sat next to Thia and checked her pulse. It was stable, as was with her life bar, but he knew a black cloud of death hovered over her. That fact made him sick to his core. It was all his fault. If only he had let the head demon take the girl away. This could have been different, totally different, if hadn’t hesitated while making the decision. Thia would have been safe with some demon family.

  Don’t worry, sweetie, I’ll fix this for you.

  He was going to fix it, no matter what. Even it made him miss his own deadline of reaching the human town in six months. He would work on gaining the human king’s respect once he reached the human town, but before that he would save Thia from this curse.

  He cast a final, lingering glance at her and then went downstairs. He had planned a visit to the goddess’s temple for a long discussion.

  When he reached the temple, there were two demons in long black robes worshiping the goddess. Noah moved to another corner of the dark temple. He cleaned a lot of dust from an empty space and sat there, cross-legged, waiting for the demons to leave. He didn’t want to enter the respawn room in front of them. The eerie sound of the demons’s chanting was audible, even from the other side of the temple, but he couldn’t make anything of it. After almost two hours, the demons left the temple.