Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution LitRPG]

With his number called, Gawk hopped off the chair and began to inch forward to the front, headed in the direction of the flickering candle guiding him. But his progress was slow, so very slow, to the point that the Demon waiting for him at the booth, who was actually quite humanoid, began clacking their long nails against the counter impatiently. Angelica wanted to pick him up and carry him the rest of the distance, but he hadn’t asked for help, so she didn’t want to intrude and overreach.

“Now assisting #530.”

She felt a little bad that she’d be jumping ahead of him, but hopefully the little guy wouldn’t take too much offense. Though Angelica did slightly hesitate a bit as she approached her own designated booth. Her assigned helper Demon was the most… unique… of the bunch. The creature sort of looked like a relatively small obelisk, maybe six or seven feet tall. Its pillar shape was covered in what she could only describe as a fleshy, drippy muck.

There were no eyes to look at, nor most other facial features. Well, except for lips. Its whole body was covered in pairs of thin, flappy lips. “What do you need?” One of the lip sets warbled as Gelic approached, with each word exaggerated by a wet, vibrating trill.

“Erm…” She wanted to use Scrying Eye so that she could address the one kind enough to assist her properly, but fortunately, she didn’t have to do so, since the tower-like Demon actually had a nametag embedded in their… skin? “Smook, I am an Imp looking to get registered so that I can Evolve.”

“Ichor, please.” Smook spat, wasting no time. Though that threw Angelica off a bit, both by the request and the attached politeness. Demons saying please felt wrong, but maybe customer service workers had to put on the same friendly courtesy masks in any reality.

“How do I go about giving you that?”

“I will take it.” With that warning, hardly a warning at all, one of the unspeaking lips shot out, stretching toward the human, apparently attached to a tendril-like appendage that had been hiding. The lips smacked against Angelica’s cheek, and an instant later, she felt a toothy prod. Before she could even try to complain or think about smacking it away, the invasive mouth was gone, reeled back into the attendant’s body.

“Very good. What do you want your Alias to be?”

Oh damn, jumping right to the moment of truth. Hopefully hers was available, or she’d probably struggle to come up with another on the spot. Despite authoring a webcomic that had a whole bunch of characters, she’d always had trouble coming up with names. “Gelic.”

“This spelling?” A lipped tendril once more shot out at her, but stopped a few inches short, then a translucent screen, similar to the Demon Growth System, hovered in front of the appendage.

“Yeah, that’s right.” Angelica honestly wondered how it would look in the Demon language, and considered asking if she could briefly turn off Tongues, but she didn’t want to hold up the process.

“Very good, now let us take a look at your profile.” Several more of Smook’s lips jutted out and began tapping away at screens that appeared briefly only when touched. Whatever information they were accessing, they were doing so with haste. “I see you are currently Bound, and have been since… since the second after you were born?!” Gelic didn’t know if she should be panicking by the attendant’s realization, but strangely, it almost sounded like genuine concern.

“What sort of sick Summoner…? Tell me, Gelic. Is your current master mistreating you? While not something we normally do, I can report this to the higher ups, and we can see if assistance can be provided. This is definitely an abnormal situation, so perhaps the rules can be bent a bit.”

Wow, she was genuinely not expecting that level of care. “Umm, I’m alright. I am quite content with my master.” Really, she just didn’t want to draw any excess attention to the strangeness of her Self-Summon situation. Still, it was nice to know that there could be an avenue for assistance in truly dire situations.

“If you insist. But do know that if you ever end up with a really nasty Summoner, there are support groups to help you work through your binding, whether its assistance with the tasks you’re charged with or advice on Skills and paths to follow to break it faster. You are never alone. But moving on.

“I see you are currently cleared for nine worlds. Hmm, very high for an Imp. Ah, you have the maximum Tongues level, that explains it. Likely due to your Bound, I see you’ve been active almost entirely exclusively in Casniem, but have answered one summons on the planet Krosele. It is not bad to stick with familiar places, especially if you’ve made connections, but consider branching out more. New horizons can be good for your growth.”

The frits?! Krosele?! Another planet?! What sort of scuffing nonsense was Smook spewing?! Or… was it nonsense? Ugh, she was too tired to have such revelations suddenly dropped on her, but had she really been to another world already? Thinking back, there was only one instance where things lined up: when she was summoned by those girls who were fooling around and ended up mercilessly beating one of their brothers.

Overall, it had been almost identical to the world Angelica knew, but there were three things that were distinctly off by the whole experience. First, was the language. Them speaking a language she didn’t know wasn’t weird itself, but the way it sounded, it was completely different to any other foreign language she’d heard in Casniem, like it had scratched her hearing differently, somehow. And it hadn’t been the only time she’d heard summoning calls like that, so maybe each time it’d happened, they were actually from other worlds.

The second thing was the weird sports stick that had been in the brother’s room, which had been turned into an assault accessory. Angelica spent plenty of time around athletes during her cross-country days, so she should know all the standard equipment, only writing it off in the moment as some weird local sport in the strange foreign land. It had just been stranger and more foreign than she realized.

And last was the currency she’d been paid. It did not exist in her world. Maybe part of her suspected that, but she hadn’t been able to find any trace of it during her digging, even when reaching the obscure and outdated ones where she eventually gave up. Really, she wanted to spit it out now and take another look at it, but that felt like it’d be just discourteous in the moment, especially since Snook was being so kind and helpful.

“Oh, intriguing, you already have Transfiguration,” the attendant continued, oblivious to Gelic’s existential crisis. “But… yes, you still haven’t been cleared for them yet. If you wish to go to one of the Hero worlds anytime soon, I suggest joining a Cult.”

Okay, so maybe Smook wasn’t the most helpful with life advice after all. More realistically, Cult probably had a different connotation to Demons in Hell, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing Angelica felt the desire to jump on joining. Speaking of being able to go to worlds, though, she did have a question in mind. “What about ‘that place?’ Can I go there?”

“Ah, yes, I suppose you never would have been to that place,” they realized. “Unfortunately, Imps can only go as part of training with their brood. Then later stages require special permission to go there. Again, a Cult would be your best bet if you wish to visit. Alright, you are now registered. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

[Registration complete. Registered Alias: Gelic]

[Achievement unlocked: Registered | Congratulations, you’re official. Now get out there and make Hell proud. While not your first achievement, it is for most, so take this standard-issue Achievement that is meant to encourage you all to seek out more Achievements]

[Achievement unlocked: Achievement Hunter - Rank 2 | Achievements are proof of existence, that you have done something noteworthy or absurd. In some way, you have made an impact in this boring, cruel reality. Keep it up. For each milestone, you will receive a unique reward. Achievements with multiple Ranks will count per Rank, including this one. Current Achievements: 13. Next Reward: 25]

[Received 3 GP]

Oh wow, three free GP?! It was her lucky day! Or rather, it seemed like this was a very standard thing for Demons, so no luck involved. And actually, since she already had ten Achievements, which was likely the previous milestone, she should have gotten these GP already if she’d registered sooner. Rather unlucky, actually. Pretty strange that an Achievement gave another Achievement, too. But it was probably how they were introduced to the Achievement system.

No matter. With those extra GP, she was back to being able to afford Auto-Color. Angelica wanted to purchase it immediately before the chance got snatched away again, but she had to show restraint. Because, honestly, it felt like it had been so long since she’d done art properly, that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to restrain herself from doodling on this countertop to test out the new Skills. Hell would be covered in her graffiti in no time. Plus… just in case she needed some sort of special Skill to actually get out of Hell, it was best to leave them untouched. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that, hopefully Return worked as she suspected, but best to play it safe since she was so far from home.

“So, I can Evolve now, right?” Gelic inquired.

“Yes, and you are welcome to use one of the Evolution rooms just down the hall.” A lippy appendage shot out and pointed. “We recommend it for all Evolutions, but especially your first time so that when it comes time to speak your desires, there are no distractions. It is a quiet, safe place to do so. And if you ever become something much bigger than expected, the room will adapt to your new size. Do you need a container for any possessions? Also, as a reminder, any imprinted Runes you have will be destroyed.”

Hmm, good to know. It sucked about the Rune, but she could just retattoo it with Reprint when she got back home, so no big deal. And it sounded like she really could Evolve anywhere from now on, so that was convenient. As for any possessions, the only thing she had on her was the Hydration Rune earring, which she’d rather not be destroyed while still in Hell. But she could just throw that in Second Stomach. Actually… would that work?

“I have Second Stomach. Will all the items in there be okay for Evolution?”

“Yes,” the helper quickly answered. “Second Stomach is its own thing that isn’t really tied to your physical body. Everything inside will remain untouched. It was a wise Skill to purchase.”

“Thank you, Smook, you’ve been a big help!” Angelica turned and prepared to head down the hall, glancing back over at Gawk’s booth. It looked like he was still conversing with his attendant, but with how much he loved to talk, there was a good chance they’d gotten off track. Guess I’ll go ahead first, and then wait for him.

It didn’t take her long to find the clearly marked Evolution chamber. There were a few of them, next to another nexus of what she guessed were teleporting circles. Maybe they linked to other bureaucratic services, but she could check that out later. Now it was finally time to Evolve!

As part of final prep, though, she unhooked her Rune earrings and swallowed them. It was kind of weird that they hadn’t actually melted during her trial by fire. The Runestone she imagined would be fine, but the cheap metal definitely shouldn’t have held up. Maybe since they were attached to her, they were protected by her Demon status, or something. Another unimportant wondering, for now. She then gave herself an Order to Evolve following the same guidelines as before, because why not?

Angelica stepped into one of the chambers, and the wall closed behind her, encasing her in total darkness. A second later, a spotlight shone down on her, and then a voice entered her mind—not the usual DGS duplicate of her own tone, but something new, verbose, interlaced with dozens of unique voices. Actually, it was more as if the room, or more appropriately, as if Hell itself, were speaking to her. “Welcome *******a ******, the one now known as Gelic.

“In your time as an Imp, you have struggled, fought to survive, made many mistakes, but also had many triumphs. Learn from them all, take them forward, use them to become the best Demon you can be. The question now is: as we craft this new form for you, what will you become?”

Err, was that a rhetorical question, or was it actually expecting an answer? She was leaning toward the former, but there was a bit of an awkward, lingering pause that made her unsure. Oh wait, the clerk had mentioned something about speaking her desires. This must be when she was supposed to do so.

But what were her desires again? The suddenness of it all, coupled with the exhaustion and pain she was feeling made it hard to focus. She had been so eager on Evolving to get it resolved that she hadn’t been worrying about much else, nor expecting to have to think so critically about her future which she’d always struggled with. Right, art, definitely something to do with art. And… ball, yes, she had come to like her ball self, so maybe that could be incorporated in some way. Then what about—

“Time’s up.”

Wait, she had been timed?! Crap, right, the clerk had also warned her about distractions. She tried to vocalize the simple desires she’d come up with, but nothing came out, like her mouth was on mute, the words drowned out by the overpowering monologue.

“Very good. You have chosen wisely. We are reluctantly required to inform you that with each further Evolution, your voice will carry more weight with each Rank. But we advise against it, since so many taint their potential with foolish desires. Because you have elected to waive this right, we can put more care in crafting a cohesive form for you. But to honor your actions and accomplishments, we will still look to your past to better your future.”

Okay, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Since she hadn’t thought this through, there was a good chance her randomly spouting something without proper credence could have hurt her more than anything. They’d nailed it with Puffball Imp. She loved both the form and Race Exclusives, so it felt like she could rely on their judgment.

“In your short existence, you have Attuned with many of the Demonic Natures, and developed budding partnerships with them, far more than an Imp typically would.” New lights appeared around her, symbols for each Attunement, matching the colors she’d seen when experimenting with Runes. And the ones with a deeper Attunement burned brighter. Except, wasn’t something missing?

“But one has grown more than the others, standing above the rest, your reliable partner through your tribulations: Pestilence.” All the other lights faded away, and a giant purple emblem took their place. Yes, in the end, Pestilence had indeed eked higher than all of her other Attunements, and apparently that was a big deal. “Because you have placed your trust in a path that many deem weak and unreliable, it, too, will place its faith in you. Pestilence shall bestow upon you its power, and transform you into a potent soldier.”

Before Gelic could even really comprehend what all the deep voices had said, the emblem in front of her… melted? Perhaps it was more accurate to say it erupted, or perhaps sprung a leak. The light became liquid and started to flood the room, submerging the Demon in seconds. It was like she was drowning in poison, or maybe better compared to being back in the belly of the Malignant, because her body started to dissolve. Like the first night where she was turned into Imp, her very existence shredded away until it was forged into something new.

[Rune: Weathering Resistance Lv.5 has been destroyed]

[Puffball Imp has Evolved into a Pestilent Puck]

[Demon Rank: Puck Lv.1]