Elania felt the growl escape as she pawed the barrier in annoyance. Tanyan had been arguing with the frightened novices about not letting them in for an extended amount of time, and she wanted to get in and shake them until they knew their place.

"Elania! That's not helping."

Her grumble came out a bit more intimidating than she had meant, and the novice stepped back, looking at her with worry. The one who had been terrified was nowhere to be seen.

'Probably hiding in the back with his blanket over his head.'

The acerbic thought made her realize that it was getting a bit easier to think. They weren't going to be able to break in, and her antagonizing the novice was just setting things back. She needed to change back into a human form, but how?

She sat down on her haunches and did her best to imitate a good cat while trying to think of a solution. Tanyan continued to argue, but he didn't seem to be having any luck; the frightened man inside was way over his head and still terrified.

The desire to be a human didn't seem to be enough. How had she changed back last time? Running out of 'Power' then... That didn't seem right because that would be very troublesome.

"I'm not letting you in! You know the rules about demons, and you were alone with her! You might be under her influence already!"

Elania suppressed the rumble in her throat. The man's voice was annoyingly high pitched and frantic. There wasn't any reason to be so ridiculous. Rather than answer him, Tanyan looked toward the device's control.

"Taniel..."

Elania's gaze followed, and she stood up excitedly. Taniel was awake, turning the magic shield device in what Elania hoped was the off position.

The novice turned in a panic. "Nooo! Don't do that!" The man started over to stop Taniel, but then the barrier winked out of existence.

Elania surged forward and pounced on his back.

"Elania! No!" Tanyan's yell reminded her not to use her claws as she pinned the novice to the ground, and she let out a growl right over his head before she decided to sit on him.

When the other monks realized she hadn't pin cushioned the man, they seemed to relax. The same couldn't be said for the novice, who was sobbing. Elania couldn't muster much sympathy, though; he had kept them waiting outside and in possible danger for at least an hour.

"Calm down, I think you just made her mad."

"Get off of him." Taniel ordered, and Elania glared at him, just barely restraining a snarl. The novice underneath tensed up, sensing that she was about to leap.

"Elania, please."

Elania turned to look at Tanyan. She wasn't sure she owed him anything--- she sure didn't owe Taniel anything but tormenting the novice didn't really accomplish anything, and she had gotten back at him.

Not wanting to cause further drama, unless it involved pummeling Taniel like a mouse for a bit, she moved off and found a spot to settle near the magic device. It looked interesting, and she could smell a faint... electronic smell?

She moved closer, and she noticed a faint light escaping from the base of the pillar. Surely magic devices weren't lit up like a nerd's LED-lighted PC case?

As she got closer, she realized the light was coming from crystals contained within the stone. It was held in a chamber inside, and there was a little stone grill that allowed her to see inside of it. [Identify] didn't activate when she tried it, and she wanted to sigh. The crystal seemed like a larger version of her Mana Shard.

She pressed her nose against the stone, trying to see more, when a sudden shock zapped her. A laugh followed as she jumped back in a hurry and hissed.

"A curious cat lives 7 times shorter."

Elania peered at Tanyan, who had made the joke, or was it a saying? It was different than the one she remembered on Earth, but she guessed that cats were the same no matter where you were. The thought comforted her that things were at least a bit similar.

She wanted to know what the device was, and she couldn't ask because she was now a giant black panther, [Darkwalker] thing.

'I'm not a cat, I'm a fucking human, goddammit.'

Something seemed to snap, and suddenly the black mist flowed off her skin, and she felt her body respond to her will. It was just as disorienting as the first time she transformed, even if it was in reverse from [Darkwalker] to human.

"Fuck!" Elania cursed and shivered as the air suddenly seemed cold, and she felt the sudden drop of temperature all the way to her core. The important bits of her 'Status' screen that she had designated her 'Hud' appeared, and she noticed her power had dropped from the fighting and transformation, although not as drastically as she had feared.

[Hud]

Power: 53 / 208

Level: 40

When she checked her skills, though, she was surprised. There were New Things, and she had not seen any mention of the skills being gained!

[Transformation Acuity Lvl - 1]

[Transformation Control Lvl - 1]

Was that because she was transformed when she got them? That seemed likely; she had not had access to her status. She felt a bit of relief. If she accidentally transformed again, at least she would be able to... not lose herself so much.

One particular memory was a bit fuzzy, and she felt her stomach turn in a bit of disgust as she remembered thinking the big Darkwalker would have made a suitable mate. Having kits was a good idea?

'Fuck. This transformation thing is dangerous.'

"Uhh... Elania?"

She looked up and Tanyan had a cloak in one hand and a bundle of clothes in the other. He held both out to her; the set was the same kind as the others were wearing.

"Your clothes were kind of ruined after you transformed, you can have one of our spares to wear."

She looked down and realized she was naked again. Sigh.

She did her best not to be embarrassed--- the world seemed intent on stealing her clothes, half the time with an audience--- but she felt a bit of heat on her cheeks as she realized everyone was staring at her. She pulled the cloak around her first and then took the bundle. Retreating to her room, she quickly got dressed.

The outfit was much more decent than the two-piece leathers or the cultist robe. It even came with footwear. The boots were fur lined, and while the pants were baggy and pooled out slightly, they were easy to tuck into the boots. The top was a cloth doublet, with a larger wrap covering her torso, before being topped by a cloak that covered her entire shoulders and chest. She’d have to manage to salvage together a breast wrap and smallclothes though.

It was a complete outfit, and she felt a bit grateful to Tanyan for giving it to her although it was somewhat tinted by being sort of a bribe for the other monk’s treatment of her.

'If there are any enchantments for clothing, I want durability first.'

She thought of how the transforming worked and worried.

'Would that even help? I'd need some kind of enchantment that made the clothes survive the transformation, and those kinds of things always seemed implausible to me, but who knows in this world?'

She sighed and pulled a length of her hair forward and examined it with a frown. While putting on the outfit, she had noticed a sliver of red highlights in the strands. Her long hair was becoming more of a problem as her braid had come undone at some point. She had it tied back in a ponytail, but it desperately needed shampooed, brushed, and rebraided.

Elania wished she had a mirror as she looked closer at the new color; she had always kept her hair its natural black color. She had never been one to go crazy with dying her hair. The change seemed to be the same as her eyes. Well, she hoped those amenities would come with Neftasu.

Elania decided she needed to top off her power again and went looking for her pack. She had left it in the Waystation before she had gone to look for Tanyan's mushrooms. She bit her lip; now that Taniel was awake again, the work she had done to get the Fenicia and Glow-Stem was probably wasted.

Her pack wasn't where she left it. It only took a few seconds to confirm it wasn't in the nearly empty room, and she checked the rooms to either side of hers with a frown, finding them empty as well. She turned to ask if someone had moved her things when her jaw dropped.

One of the novices was holding her bag, but more importantly, he held up her Mana Shard and was in the process of showing it to Tanyan.

'Oh the fuck no he didn't.'

Elania was furious and started marching over to them.

"HEY! That's MINE."

Everyone's attention snapped onto her at the shout, and the novice pushed the stone and backpack into Tanyan's hands with a terrified expression. Taniel, seeing her angry march toward them, jumped up from the campfire and placed himself in front of the two.

"Elania, calm down---" Taniel cut off as she ignored him and tried to brush past him, but then his hand came down and clamped down on her shoulder.

She was tired of people taking her things. Especially the Mana Shard. His attempt to stop her gave her the perfect excuse to respond in kind. She tightened her core and twisted, slamming her fist right into the center of Taniel's surprised expression as hard as she could. The blow wasn't as powerful as if she had been at full 'Power,' but it was more than enough to send him flying backward in a tumble.

He might have still been slow and recovering, or the strike came as a complete surprise as he didn't manage to mitigate the hit in any way. He didn't recover or get back up.

She whirled back around and glared at Tanyan and the novice.

"Elania---"

"Give it back."

Tanyan held up the backpack and [Mana Shard] without further protest and she took them back.

"Listen---"

She ignored him and tugged on the stone. Hard. It flashed to life with a bright light and she felt the rush of energy wash over her. Her 'Hud' counter went crazy, numbers spinning upward thirty to forty at a time. She went over her limit. She knew that was a bad idea, but she was angry.

[Mana Shard (Condensed 351/1456)]

She cut it off when she felt the heat in her core, spreading out through her body. She dismissed the normal warning messages that appeared, and then reached forward and grabbed the novice by his tunic and lifted him off his feet.

The asshole began to sob, and Tanyan started to try and repeat something when she let out an angry hisssss that silenced them both. "If any of you go through my things again without permission, I'll make you regret it."

She set him down with a bit more force than she intended, and he fell unceremoniously on his ass. She could smell the fear rolling off of the man, but she was too angry for that to unsettle her. Wanting to make some space between her and the monks before she ended up pummeling them, she turned and started to walk away.

"You should go check on Taniel and make sure he didn't die or something."

She didn't look back as she headed toward her room. The other novice was peeking out from one of them but promptly disappeared when she glared at him on the way to hers.

'Maybe they won't bother me for a while.'

 

---

 

It had turned out that the bit of fungus Elania had gathered was useful after all. She'd been coaxed out of her angry isolation when she saw Tanyan begin to work with a mortar and pestle, creating some type of salve. She was interested in that sort of thing, even if it wasn't particularly useful to her now that she had [Regeneration.]

Tanyan eyed her warily as she approached, "What?"

"I want to watch. How's Taniel?"

"He's unconscious again, so I'm making the poultice. It should wake him up, but it would have been far better if you hadn't have hit him again."

"He attacked me the first time, and he shouldn't have touched me the second." The conversation was already veering off onto a course she didn't like and she pointed to his work.

"How's the powder going to help wake him?"

"Elania, that Mana Shard you have is unbelievably valuable. You sho---"

Elania held up her hand and stopped him. Why couldn't he just answer her question instead of bringing up the Mana Shard?

"Tanyan, any of you touch my stuff again, we're done. I'll try and find Neftasu on my own. I appreciate that you all have been letting me tag along so far, but you've all treated me like shit. Taniel actually attacked me. Herrik and Berrick act like I killed their parents. Marcus --- some guide he turned out to be --- looked at me like I was a piece of meat. You..."

She paused to think, nothing Tanyan had done to her coming to mind right away. He picked up where she left off.

"I...? I'll take that as a compliment, then. Taniel's parents were killed by a demon, the others have never been out of the Conclave before. I don't know where Marcus is, but he's failed his charge and any payment he was due is going to be severely reduced when the Masters hear what has happened."

Tanyan sighed as he stopped with the mortar and set it aside, frowning at her.

"Elania, you told us that you were a human before you were summoned. Maybe you're a rare case, but almost every demon is a monster or demi-human at best when first summoned. That isn't to say there aren't a lot of human demons--- they are very common. That's because once they have taken enough soul essence from them, they can evolve, and humans are very rich sources of that essence."

He paused to let that sink in.

"Most people will think that you are a Darkwalker Demon that ate enough humans to transform, not the other way around."

"Now, can I explain about the Mana Shard, without you being angry? We aren't going to try and take it from you. Gerrick wasn't trying to steal it; he saw it glowing in your pack and wanted to show me because it can be dangerous."

Elania let out a long breath as she tried to unpack. It was a lot to process, even if not all of it was new. If everyone thought she ate people to become a demon, then maybe they were a little justified in being wary, but still... hadn't she proven she didn't have any ill intent for them? How devious were other demons to make them so guarded?

"Ok. What about it? I got it when I escaped, and I need it. It keeps my 'Power' up so I don't have to go hunt Darkwalkers so much."

Tanyan nodded. "Well, you are a demon so it makes sense that you can use it. Mana Shards contain pure essence energy that can't be directly used by normal races. Demons and Seraphs are the only two that can actually use it without harming themselves. At least not without making a construct with it first."

Construct? Oh! Elania looked over to the device used to activate the barrier for the Waystation. "The barrier uses the same energy as the Mana Shard? So it has a Mana Shard inside of it?"

Maybe she'd be able to get energy out of the object?

"The barrier is an example and uses the same type, yes. They often contain the Artificer's own elemental additions as well in the device. They are very expensive which is why the Waystations further out didn't have a barrier, and why someone might--- will try to steal that Shard from you if they know you have it."

He must have noticed her look toward the waystation’s power source as he continued, "No, you won't be able to use the power from it if that was what you were thinking. Part of the construction process the Artificer uses seals the crystal and trying to pull energy out will unravel the work... usually with an explosion."

That was what she had been thinking of, and she felt her cheeks heat up a little in embarrassment. She was a bit thankful at the warning, as she probably would have tried to pry out some extra power or transfer energy to her stone if she had been left to her own devices.

"Thank you for explaining. I'm really not like you think, I didn't eat any humans to be me. I didn't even absorb the Mushroohums... I was a human before coming to Eladu."

"I don't know if many will believe you or even care, but I think I might. You wear your feelings on your sleeve, you know."

"Ehhh."

"Let me show you the process to finish this powder into a Wakening Powder."