Elania managed to sleep for a few hours before waking up. She wanted more time to simply black out the world and tried to go back to sleep for what felt like an eternity, but her new body refused to cooperate. The stone walls seemed too close around her and a feeling of claustrophobia hit her, so she decided to step out.

The monks seemed to be fast asleep, she could hear snoring coming from both rooms. She peeked into the novice’s space. Their bedrolls looked a bit plusher and more well-made than hers, but she did appreciate the fact that she had an entire room to herself. The hanging leather curtains gave them an illusion of privacy, but it was not much better than simply being open like hers.

The campfire had been banked with just a few glowing embers remaining. She stepped up to the cave entrance when a voice to the side surprised her.

"Going somewhere, demon?"

Elania's head whipped around to find Taniel sitting on a rock just inside the entrance. He had taken up a position there, and she had to admit it was a decent hiding spot to ambush anything entering--- or leaving if they weren't looking up.

"Everyone else is asleep, and I just woke up."

"Go back to sleep. There’s still plenty of time until morning."

Elania frowned. "I can't. Already tried. I don't need much sleep anymore. What about you, don't you need to rest? I could keep watch instead."

"Like I'd trust a demon to keep watch. Who would keep watch on you?"

That stung slightly. She shouldn’t have expected anything else from him, and she kicked herself mentally for even bothering to suggest it in an attempt to be nice. It probably just made him suspect her of being the horrible monster he kept assuming she was.

"Well, I can keep watch with you then. Do you mind if I ask some questions?"

"Yes. I do, actually."

Elania bit her lip, suppressing her annoyance. No matter how wary of demons Taniel was, she hadn't done anything to warrant his behavior toward her.

"Well, I'm going to collect some wood to restart the fire, and work on my crafting."

"Suit yourself."

Ugh! She wanted to hit him, but that wouldn't solve anything, so Elania decided to be the bigger person and walked away. She could work on her own project while waiting for the others to wake up.

The cavern connected to the waystation was mostly bare except for moss on the ceiling, but the next cavern over had a water source, and there was a plethora of [Tower-Cap] for her to harvest. Having a knife or hatchet would have made the job more comfortable, but she managed to find smaller ones to manage with her bare hands.

'If people only knew that Minecraft got it right.'

Once she had a pretty sizable bundle under her arm, she headed back. Taniel let her pass without comment, and she deposited it by the fire. Then she went and collected several more. She'd have plenty of material to work with.

Satisfied with the four wood bundles, she broke one up into shorter sticks while laying them on top of the still red glowing coals. She didn't have to wait long before the fire was crackling again.

The first task was completed, and Elania turned with a frown to the other stacks. She wanted to practice making spears, but her dagger had been discarded when it had become a molten mess. She'd need a knife.

She'd have to ask Taniel, who watched her warily as she approached.

"Hey, I need a knife to do some carving."

"No."

It took her a second to register the flat out refusal.

"You don't have one?"

"I have one in my things, but you can't have it."

"Why?"

Taniel glared at her and didn't respond, which just irked her further.

"If you don't give me a satisfactory answer, I'm going to go wake up Tanyan and ask him for one. I don't know why you're acting so childish all of a sudden."

When he didn't answer immediately, she turned to do just that, but he stopped her.

"Wait. I'll get it. Don't wake Tanyan up. They're all exhausted."

Elania realized he didn't look too perky himself as he got down off the rock and headed to his sleeping spot. She followed along and waited on the other side of the leather tarp for him.

It didn't take long. Taniel handed her a small blade with a polished hilt.

"Here."

"Taniel, you should get some rest, too. You're going to be exhausted tomorrow if you don't. I can keep watch."

When he didn't respond right away, she continued.

"I can keep watch, and if I see anything, all I have to do is yell. I'm not tired because I only need a few hours of sleep each day, and I'll be busy carving so I won't be bored."

She saw the moment he finally gave in on his face before he said anything.

"Fine, but if you see anything—and I mean anything—wake us up immediately."

She nodded confidently, although inside she was ecstatic at the prospect of building a little trust between them. She definitely wasn't going to mess up now.

 

---

 

Guard duty had gone splendidly while she made short work of the wood bundles. Most of it had been usable. The ones who’d been a bit too misshapen or short for her use, she added them to the fire. It took a few hours to finish them all.

Elania had no idea how time had passed while she had focused on working. The nearly perfect quietness was only disturbed periodically by a tiny wisp of airflow passing by the entrance of the waystation, and Elania frowned at how… stopped everything felt. She felt herself selfishly wanting to reach one of the ‘Binding Stones’ that had been mentioned so she could have a stupid clock.

Settling down, she waited and waited… and waited. Sitting idle was not one of Elania's strong points. The thought of going and getting another bundle of wood crept up, but she discarded it as being a violation of her duty to keep watch. She wasn't that childish.

She decided to check her [Status.]

 

[Status]

Name: Elania Reyes

Race: Lesser Demon (S Class Monster)

Level: 36

Power: 53/208

Karma: 24

Titles: [Locked]

[Some functions are disabled due to insufficient requirements.]

 

Titles locked, power pretty low, everything else the same, blah blah blah. She'd left the Mana Shard with her bedroll. Nevertheless, she figured she could practice her [Mana Manipulation] skill as an idea popped into her head. Maybe, at the same time, she could level up her Battle Concentration.

Holding up one hand, she worked on forming a spark of light in her palm. It didn't take long, and then, while focusing on not losing her concentration, she took the knife and pressed the tip into the top of her knee.

She drew a little blood. It hurt a bit as she kept up the pressure. It certainly made it a lot harder to concentrate on keeping the spark alive and in her palm. After a short period of time that felt like it took forever, she was finally rewarded.

 

[You have gained a level of Mana Manipulation!]

[You have gained a level of Battle Concentration!]

 

She smiled and focused on sustaining the effort. The amount of power it took was not that much, although it did drain her a little. It was nice to see the level ups come every so often. She eventually realized the amount of time was increasing between each one, but she couldn't tell what the exact increase was without a watch or timer.

Eventually, she became so focused on the exercise that she blocked out every other thought.

 

---

 

"Hey."

The voice startled Elania, and she dropped the spark, which went out as it fell onto the stone. A thin trail of blood was dripping down her leg as she redirected her focus on the source of the voice.

It was Tanyan who was looking up at her with a worried look on his face. "You can take a break now if you want. The others should be getting up soon. If you want, you can help make breakfast."

"Okay."

Elania quickly put away the knife and mopped up the blood, but she worried what Tanyan might think of her. She wanted to smack herself. She'd been so focused on the skills that she would have failed as a watchman except for something loud and obvious enough to break her concentration.

The level increases weren't anything to scoff at, though.

 

[Skills: Elania Reyes]

[Class: None]

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

[Magical: Demonic Aura Lvl - 6 (Deactivated), Mana Manipulation Lvl - 36, Battle Concentration Lvl 28]

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

[Mundane: Identify Lvl - 5, Universal Speech Lvl - 5, Reading Lvl - 4, Writing Lvl - 3, Athletics Lvl - 17, Improvised Crafting Lvl - 24, Tracking Lvl 4]

 

At least it wasn't Taniel that had caught her unalert. She doubted she would have liked his glare. She did feel a little guilty for not doing her best, but she'd know better than to volunteer for watch duty next time.

It was way too fucking boring.

---

Art!