Hannya got up from the bloody cave floor and let out a tired sigh. She looked over at the piles of corpses and sigils written on the ground, forming an array.
She tapped her small chin and muttered. "Did I do something wrong?"
Hannya was sure that the formula she created was accurate, and just like the sigil she wrote in Gulas temple, mana flowed through it smoothly, her incantation wasn't rejected, and the discharge of energy was stable.
But unlike last time, she couldn't see or find anything that indicated her success in the spell.
She shook her head. Maybe there were some rules she was missing when it came to formulating custom sigils. She could only let it go for now.
Her efforts in contacting Vainglory via summon circle had only been a whim she thought of while she was flaying Haughty, the golden backed spider alive.
Knowing that normal summon circles wouldn't work in having his astral body descend, given he was wrapped in a medley of restrictions, she figured she could try and use a niche method she found in the novel.
A grand sigil, or array half completed by a devil scientist locked under a noble's estate in Neel's central continent.
Hannya, being the loyal fan she was, researched and completed the array during her downtime between chapter releases and blog posts. Once completed, she called it [Pay to Win].
The spell would bypass the astral descent if the devil in question had no time to speak to the contractee to discuss terms. Of course, this made the terms simple, offering an amount of essence in exchange for a timed boon. A streamlined devil deal.
With so much free time on her hands, she frequently delved into mysteries and questions constantly hinted yet never revealed in the novel.
It was one of the many things she loved about the long lived series. The mysteries, hidden stories, and legends touched upon. She figured the author left those small gems for worthy fans like her to deduce and piece together.
Though she never got a chance to post them all, the works and discoveries she made filled her hidden study to the brim, of course she'd have more room, had it not been for her vainglorious shrine taking up half the space…amongst her other gaudy things.
Her study was originally a place for more… ceremonial work, but she had quit that job when she found such an engaging novel online.
She stopped. Did she quit her last job for the novel, or did she find the novel after she quit? Wait, had she worked that job in her hidden study to begin with? A strange sense of incredulity flitted past her brain… something felt…
'Hmm, maybe I should build a new shrine in the future...'
She shrugged and continued walking.
She wasn't too concerned about the array not working, she would just research more about the systems of rituals and spells when she found the opportunity.
The little devil gave one last look at her impressive handiwork before leaving from one of the exits of the den.
With her newly acquired physique, she felt carefree walking through the tunnels, as a logia, who dared block her path now.
As she strode through the darkness happily she checked her level once more.
[
Name: Hannya 6th Luxuria
True Name: (?)
Lv: 15 - Young Devil
Age: 12
*NAA - Normal Awakened Average - at current level
MP: 7,500/7,500 - (NAA: 1500/1500)
CHI: 6,000/6,000 - (NAA: 1500/1500)
STR: 40 - C
DEX: 65 - B
INT: 75 - A-
END: 40 - C
CHA: 50 - B-
CHM: 95 - A+
LCK: 10 - E+(Favored)
Bloodline: 6 Star Heart Devil(Mythical Entity)(Awakening…)
Wishes: 1(-5)
Devil Aspects: 4
Devil eyes: (Unawakened) Devil heart: (Unawakened) Devil Physique: True Dream Body(S) Devil Knowledge: (Locked)
Potential: SS
Innate Abilities(Passive): Subtle Charm(S), Danger Sense(C)
Innate Abilities(Active): Method Actor(S), Devil's Whisper(B), Dread Mist Steps(A - Growth), Vicious Strike(A), Devilish Pose(EX)
Learned Abilities(Passive): Enduring Will(F - Growth), Cold Reading(C)
Learned Abilities(Active): Heart Devil Curse: Waking Nightmare - Parasomnia(Locked)
Boons: Quantifier,(??? - missing information)
Curses: Greed's Mark, (??? - missing information)
]
As she read her stats once more, she realized to her annoyance she didn't get any notifications telling her she leveled up, nor any logs about how much the spiders exp was worth.
'Is there some sort of setting to turn noti's on?'
The more she thought about it, the more she realized, in her previous crusade, she never once saw a status screen for those path blocking heretics.
Hannya came to a stop once more.
"Hey, what the fuck is this?" She couldn't help but voice her grievance out loud.
Is this boon actually trash?
She remembered what Left had told her. '...everything you see, touch, or hear, everything will be labeled for you. As long as you will it.'
As she thought of those words, with a blank face, she looked down at the web beneath her feet.
'....Status.'
DING
[
Dread Spider Webbing
Durability: 6%
Value: .003 copper piece
Note: Old web from a dread spider, careful, these spiders carry high level paralytic in their fangs!
]
Hannya felt her vision darken from the anger. This system was a fucking stick shift! She assumed it had some sort of auto assist with stuff like monsters and entities that would randomly pop up. But it seemed she actually had to look directly at things and shout status in her mind to see it!
'Do people in novels constantly spam 'status' at everything in their minds when they are walking around?'
She shook her head at the thought, surely not. She also got a notification when she was debuffed by the dread venom, where was the consistency?
She felt like the boon she got was closer to a closed beta, rather than a full release.
As she continued walking and thinking of the inconvenience of such things, Hannya heard an ear piercing shriek echoing down the tunnel.
SCREEEEEEEEEEEE!
The shriek was different from the ones she was used to hearing, it was far louder and several times deeper. Hearing this, the 5'1 devil girl raised her guard once more. She could guess the origin of this shriek.
"Hmph! Figures, they caught onto me already." Hannya snorted.
She had hoped to get back to the tunnel leading to what she assumed to be the queen's lair and take her by surprise, but it seems these pests had other ideas. She quickened her pace with nimble steps.
She would meet them head on if that was the case, with her new powers, she felt no fear of these underground creatures.
The young devil darted through the tunnels silently and swiftly, heading to the direction of the echoing scream.
~~~
Dread Spider labyrinth, Spider Queen's lair.
The spider queen bellowed at the report she received. Her feeding den for her offspring had been raided! All slaughtered, none left alive, even the hatchlings!
Had a sentry not been passing the area, their slaughter would not have been known.
"Scree screee, scree scree!" In her fury, she ordered her strongest to mobilize all remaining troops and search for the slaughterer and bring them before her.
With a respectful bow, the horse sized spider guards turned and rushed into the tunnels surrounding the large cave dwelling.
The Queen would not move herself, now the size of a large elephant, she could barely fit through the premade tunnels. She would have to dig new paths for herself soon. Such an incident would not have happened had she not become complacent with her birthing and reign these past hundred years.
She sat and waited for her guards to bring the vermine to her, she will use its flesh as food for more soldiers. She waited, anger tipping to its peak.
Minutes passed, then hours. The Queens anger began to simmer down, replaced with looming anxiety. No warriors had returned nor reporting their findings. As time went on, the silence in the large space became all the more deafening.
Finally, after half a day, a spider guard returned, but he seemed gravely wounded. He had a broken mandible and his head was cracked. He was covered in purple blood and seemed to have lost most of his legs, barely returning on the two he had left, peculiarly using his foreblades to balance instead of walking.
He stood at the entrance, gazing at the Queen with eyes that seemed hollow.
The Queen was shocked, her warriors seemed to have taken heavy losses! Her anxiety grew. She voiced out.
"Scree Scree." She shrieked urgently.
'What of the casualties warrior?'
The Spider guard tilted his head, then looked around for a bit. Then, he shrugged.
"Uh, Scree?"
"???"
The dread spider queen was even more confused. What did her warrior mean by 'The fatherland shall drink from the voices of the everlasting epoch, gathered at the center of tranquility?'
Before she could voice her doubts, under her horrified gaze, her warrior reached up and…removed his head, revealing a pink haired, black eyed, horned devil.
The Queen was shaken, then enraged, she shrieked in recognition. The god of her enemies, wearing the skins of her slain kin. An inhumane display!
SCREEEEE!
"Kikiki, Lilith fucking Prime, shut up you dumb animal." The small god showed nothing but contempt for the war cries of the Queen.
As the Queen readied to charge forth, her pounce was halted as black mist began to fill the surrounding of the devil, it increased in volume rapidly as it began to flood outwards in every direction, quickly taking the space of the large chamber.
~~~
As the Dread Spider Queen raised her guard, not intending to charge head first into Hannya's mist like the rest of her kin, Hannya squinted her eyes.
'Huh, not as dumb as the rest, it seems.'
She glanced at her worn dread spider helmet tossed haphazardly to the side. A gracious gift given to her by her bigger pursuers, essentially a hollowed out head. She wouldn't have guessed it would confuse the Queen upon her entry.
'But still dumb all the same.'
She looked back at the Spider Queen.
'Status.'
[
Name: Dread Spider Queen
Lv: 50 - Demonic Beast
Age: 233
Stats: [??? - locked - evolution required]
Abilities: [??? - locked - evolution required]
]
After manually activating her boon, Hannya wanted to point a middle finger to that invisible Observer in the sky. Three reasons made her feel such a way.
First, she ran into a level 50 Demonic Beast. She didn't particularly blame the Observer for this, it was the fact that her boon had revealed it, and it brought a bit of nervousness to her, so she blamed him by proxy.
She had tested her sight on the guards that came after her in the tunnels, and the highest level beast she came across was at level 25. She assumed, at max, the Boss would be level 35 - 40.
But her assumption proved very wrong. Hannya may have swaggered her way into the Queens lair with confidence, but the reality was, her battles with the guards had taken effort. Sure they were in groups, and with her mist body, illusions, and paralytic combo, they could not fight at full strength.
However getting through their armor had been harder than the last time, those spiders had what she could only call a sixth sense, evading at times when she would strike, swiping at empty air when they felt a presence, leading Hannya to hastily dodge, and resisting her paralytic far longer than her previous enemies.
Seeing that their boss was twice the level made her feel a bit overwhelmed with this dungeon's scaling.
The second reason for her ire was the fact that even with her boon she was restricted in seeing her enemies stats for the first time!
Previously, all stats and skills were there for her eyes to feast on, getting a good grasp about her approach in the encounter. But now there seems to be a limit to her vision, and further evolution is required.
She did not know the mechanics of her boon, but Lefts words about this not being a system sank in more evidently now, it wasn't a free for all, auto noti golden finger. It was a seal based, manually activated, high level skill.
And the reason she referred to it as a skill now was for the third reason.
The second she activated her boon on the Spider Queen, an entity dozens of levels above her. Not only was she barred from seeing her stats and abilities, she could feel her own mana reserves draining quickly the longer she kept it active!
She understood now, her own system had a mana cost. And that cost varied on level and possible factors she was still not aware of.
Hannya clenched her teeth and deactivated her skill, she had expended half her mana to fill the room with dread mist, and now she had a third of what was left sucked up from her 'boon'.
'Should I just retreat for now?'
That thought flashed across her mind, but ultimately, she decided to press on. Her combo didn't require any more mana outside of the mist, she had no reason to retreat nor prepare since the Queen's abilities would be unknown to her anyways. Also…
The young Devil glanced at her own level.
[Lv: 23 - Young Devil]
'Hmph! Just a number.' She coped.
Her pink eyes focused on the wary Spider Queen, backing from the mist slowly creeping towards her. Hannya gripped her bone daggers tighter. This will be her first boss battle, her first stepping stone.
Once she slays this bastard, she could finally be done with this place and make her moves towards freeing her beloved.
Hannya found the labyrinth's exit hours ago. The only reason she hadn't left yet was because she vowed to make these creatures pay the ultimate price. With their queen's head, the future of such vile beasts would be bleak.
The little devil grinned evilly as her body slowly dissolved into black mist. She would fight, she would win, and she would offer the heart of this beast to her caged god.
The pink eyes of the young devil began to slowly spin.