A massive panther hunted her in the dark. No, she recognized the shape; it was a Darkwalker. It thought she had no inkling it was slowly creeping closer. Water dripped from the dark stone above, and a single drop plunking into a puddle was the hunter's sign to attack. Except she turned toward it as it pounced, and opened her mouth to reveal a massive set of deadly sharp teeth and swallowed the beast whole.

Elania snapped awake, the vivid imagery of the dream... or nightmare, staying with her. Everything seemed dark, except the flicker of a white light that sat near her. She decided to check her screens quickly.

Elania's eyes widened. The sheer number of level up messages filled the screen and threatened to spill out into separate pop-up boxes. Apparently, they didn't appear in moments of intense pressure once so many had accumulated. Instead, they had waited until now when she could deal with them. That was polite of them. She swiped them away, choosing to view her Status to get a general overview instead of trying to read them all out one by one.

[Status]

Name: Elania Reyes

Race: Lesser Demon (S Class Monster)

Level: 36

Power: 56/204

Karma: 24

Titles: [Locked]

[Some functions are disabled due to insufficient requirements.]

[Skills: Elania Reyes]

[Class: None]

[Affinities: Demonic, Mana, Darkwalker(Complete)]

[Magical: Demonic Aura Lvl - 6 (Deactivated), Mana Manipulation Lvl - 24, Battle Concentration Lvl 4]

[Physical: Unarmed Combat Lvl - 4, Darkvision Lvl - 3, Dodging Lvl - 28, Block Lvl - 16, Stealth Lvl - 31, Throwing Weapons Lvl - 34, Combat Mastery Lvl - 32]

[Mundane: Identify Lvl - 4, Universal Speech Lvl - 5, Reading Lvl - 4, Writing Lvl - 3, Athletics Lvl - 12, Improvised Crafting Lvl - 19, Tracking Lvl 4]

[Attributes: Elania Reyes]

[Current Attributes:

Demon Contract (1 Available)

Regeneration (Normal)

Demonic Self-Sustenance

Enhanced Physical Abilities (Strength, Mana Capacity)

Immunity (Darkness)

Resistance (Poison, Mana)

Weakness (Holy)]

Nothing seemed out of place; she felt fine, albeit tired, her [Status] said she was okay. She was fine. Then why was her heart still pounding? Was it just the aftereffects of the dream?

Her eyes slid away from the [Status] window, and it blinked out. A faint light cast shadows across the dimly lit room, and she mentally flicked on her [Darkvision] without effort. Everything brightened considerably, and she realized she was in some type of primitive storage room.

The walls were lined with baskets made of some type of wicker, and spears sat in neatly tied bundles beside them. There were some shields stacked on top of each other as well. Elania recognized them as the Mushroohum's weapons.

The other side of the room had different tools and instruments; hoes, pickaxes, shovels, and the like. They had metal tool-heads and looked like the type of stuff she might have found in Home Depot or Ace Hardware. Just with a self-made flair, as the tools didn’t have the machined smoothness of modern tools. As she took a closer look she realized they were all probably made by hand by real blacksmiths.

As she propped herself up and took in the remainder of the room she slid her hand through the simple bedding. It was soft to the touch, a mat made of some type of woven grass, or was it moss?

'Ralfot maybe? Yeah I think it is made from the Ralfot moss.'

Elania stroked the fiber of the mat, it was better than straw, but it wasn't going to beat simple linen. It did make for the softest sleep surface she had experienced in the caverns so far though. The simple luxury had her thoughts turn inward and she wondered how long she had been unconscious, and she began to probe her last memories.

The battle was a haze, but she did remember the transformation or at least part of it. One specific part set her cheeks aflame and she was extremely grateful no one would ever know it had happened. She hugged herself just to confirm she was still human before looking for some clothes. There didn't seem to be any in the room. What did finally catch her eye was the singular light source in the storage room. It was her Mana Shard; it had been returned to her.

'That's how I got more power after running out. I'm lucky they put it close enough.'

'Why do I keep ending up naked? This world sucks.'

She did see her belt, javelin loops empty, hanging near the crystal. She sighed, then choked back a laugh at picturing her running around naked wearing nothing but the belt, armed with javelins hunting Darkwalkers. ‘Ok, not funny, what if they don’t have any clothes?’

She collected her things before heading to the single door. She hesitated as her hand went toward the latch.

'It isn't safe to transform or absorb Essence. I almost lost myself.'

Most of it was a haze even if she had picked out a few little details, but the one thing she remembered clearly was how she'd almost really become a Darkwalker. The worst thing about it was that it had all felt so... right to her at the time.

'I have to be more careful, I'm just fooling around with things I still don't fully understand.'

She eyed the Mana Shard; it seemed a little dimmer than when she had first taken it. How long could it keep sustaining her? If she had to go back to absorbing essences... she'd have to be more careful. She'd compared it to a drug before but it was a drug that, instead of fucking you up, would make you super strong and turn you into a monster.

Taking a deep breath, Elania finally settled her thoughts and turned the latch. She pushed through into another, bigger room. Three Mushroohums turned in unison toward her. She felt herself tense up, but they didn’t offer any sudden movement or hostility to her which was a relief. Maybe they would actually talk to her now? She wasn’t sure of her status at all, was she a prisoner, or a guest? She had helped them, which she hoped might give her a little status and maybe make up for stomping the poor Elnat, or whatever she had done to piss them off at first?

The silence lengthened, and they seemed to look between each other, a faint scent of musty odor filling the room. She wondered about that, did they release some kind of smell when they got nervous? As the silence lengthened Elania began to fidget, and she wrapped an arm around her front in a poor attempt to cover herself. ‘Great, so much for finding something to wear before having an audience.’

Finally one of them stepped forward to speak.

"Glua-glaa."

'At least they don't seem angry. That's an improvement.'

"Where's Skinner?"

"Glua-glaa."

"Fuck."

Elania had found a comfy place on one of the roofs. She hadn't found Skinner, but the other Mushroohums had treated her with an almost reverent deference or even a little fear. Killing so many Darkwalkers in front of them all might have left an impression. She’d been able to lever that into bullying the ones in the storeroom to give her a set of leather, which she had spent a few hours converting into a very simple sleeveless top and skirt.

Having a needle and some thread made everything so much easier, although the outfit was far from fashionable and made her look like a cavewoman.

From her vantage point on the roof, she was able to watch the Mushroohums work; they had tied ropes around the Demon Darkwalker and were slowly dragging it out of the cave. She had considered going after it and trying to absorb it for the power, but she felt a bit wary. Even if it was still absorbable after however long she’d been asleep, she didn’t want to risk going native again. At least not without a really good reason.

Other movements in the cavern caught her eye, and she watched as others worked to carry the dead to a large mound that was being prepared. There were already a dozen bodies stacked up, while others had some powder they were throwing on them.

"What's the purpose of that?" Elania murmured to herself.

Her eyes widened when she tried to identify it.

[Fungal Spores]

[You have gained a level in Identify!]

[Identify has gained the ability to reveal additional information.]

'Ask and ye shall receive.'

[Fungal Spores (Mushroohum)]

Elania eyed the mound, and then the Fungal Spore dust. 'Oh.'

They were going to grow new Mushroohums from the dead. Did they even have females? She hadn't been paying attention to it, but she did realize that despite being mostly naked, the Mushroohums looked mostly the same, and she couldn’t think of any instance of seeing a Mushroom Woman. ‘I guess Mushroom Men is literal.’

Her thoughts on Mushroomhum gender were suddenly interrupted when a horn sounded. It came from near the entrance, where the Mushroohums were pulling the Demon Darkwalker's corpse.

The horn was not a Mushroohum sound. The Mushroom Men had stopped and formed a line, allowing a party of newcomers to pass by.

Elania stood up from her seat and leaned forward trying to get a better view. She couldn't see much detail yet, but what she did see filled her with an array of emotions: hope, dread, and anticipation.

The newcomers were human.

Taniel stared at the massive Darkwalker that the Mushroohums were dragging out of the cavern. It was obviously a demon variant, and he had no idea how the poor primitive fungus people had managed to bring it down with their primitive weapons.

A laugh at the head of the group had Taniel shiver. Of course, Marcus would laugh, their leader would find the dead demon pleasing, his bound-demon had been devoured earlier on the route by this very monster when it had ambushed them.

She had been caught outside the wards that had protected the rest of them. The loss was a relief in Taniel's mind as Marcus loved to taunt the rest of them with her. He'd actually set her on poor Tanyan, in an attempt to break his vow of chastity, which would have ruined his [Holy Monk] class.

Tanyan looked back at him and pointed at the Darkwalker.

"Look at the wounds. Looks like a bigger beast found it and mauled it to death."

Taniel looked again and saw what the other man meant. He had expected the body to have an array of puncture wounds from spears and the like. It was clear that the Mushroomhums hadn’t been the ones that killed it. "What could have done that?"

Another laugh came from the front, and Marcus was looking back at them.

"Don't worry boys, I'm sure we’ll find out when we meet the village chief. If it is scarier than the Demon Darkwalker, I'll protect you."

Taniel tried to hide his distaste for the man. Marcus was the expedition leader, but he wasn't a member of the Conclave of Neftasu. He was a mercenary, one of the rangers hired out by the monks to lead them through the Underdark's winding caverns.

In Taniel's mind, the fact that he was exceedingly capable of doing his job was his only redeeming quality. The man's character wasn't a concern by the elders who desperately needed the special moss the Mushroohum's could supply. That meant it was up to Tanyan and him to watch over the novices.

Looking at the village, it appeared to be undamaged, or at least mostly intact from the Darkwalker's attack. It was hard to tell because the Mushroohums lived in the ruins of a lost Underdark city that had been forgotten long ago.

Two red dots glinted in the distance, and Taniel blinked and looked again, a sudden fear sending his heart beating faster. He blinked and looked again and saw nothing. He was seeing things. There surely wasn't an unbound demon in the village. The Mushroohums were still alive.