Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution LitRPG]

Gelic’s head reeled. She could suddenly see much more clearly thanks to Gawk’s Ocular Transmission, except it wasn’t her own vision. In fact, she was seeing herself. Her flying eye friend was apparently just a few feet behind her now, looking down at her from up high by the ceiling so he could avoid the poisonous gasses and spores. It was kind of like looking at herself through a security camera, and thanks to his scope of vision, she could actually see in all directions, down several paths since he was at the center of a junction.

And… she could also see the Spawn that had been hunting her. Sort of… As Gawk had relayed, it was indeed in hiding, behind some layer of mushroom wall, maybe in an alcove where it thought it wouldn’t be found. She could see the general outline of the creature. It was pretty big, but not as large as she originally thought. Maybe about as tall as her human self. The silhouette was also a bit wide and goopy, and she could make out the shape of several other mushroom caps growing all over its body.

[Spawn Lv.48 | Health: 66%]

That was all the information Gawk’s Scrying Eye gave to her. No clue about any sort of weakness, nature, or even who had made it. And the number didn’t seem to be ticking down anymore like he’d first said. So either it had already shed the numerous Toxic stacks she would have inflicted earlier, or it was only doing enough to counteract any sort of Health regen it might have had.

“We should go after it before it can heal up more,” Gelic suggested. “If we can corner it, I’m sure I can kill it.” If the monster was another Demon, or even someone’s pet Malignant—which would be weird, but she wouldn’t put it past them—then she’d have a lot more reservation about putting it down. But since it was made by magic, something created just to hunt them, there was no reason to hesitate.

“Okay, hop up and grab onto me!” Gawk suggested. “I know you can’t fly as high as me, but I’ll cart you there, so you’ll get hit with less of the poisons.”

“Uhh, are you sure?” From what she knew, his Might should be pretty weak. Would he be strong enough to carry her full weight? Granted, she shouldn’t be that heavy… Thankfully the mass amount of food she’d eaten wouldn’t count, or it’d be like trying to lift a boulder.

“Yeah, my Auto-Bumble has levelled a lot since I’m pretty much always using it,” he assured her. “It should be no problem at all.” So she took him up on his offer, failing initially. The first jump was a complete whiff, having to get used to the strange new angle of her perception. She got it on the second-and-a-half, realizing the original second one wouldn’t work at all, not even attempting the jump. It took a bit of finagling, but she wedged her wing through the inner curve of Gawk’s horned body and wrapped it tight, pulling herself up as high as possible.

Their path was still blocked by her ice, so Gelic Salvaged it away to let them continue forward. She actually got back more MP than her previous usage, since it being coated in Toxic apparently meant there was more magic to reclaim. Agkh, frits. While flying through a specific corridor, her Health suddenly started dropping dramatically. She must have been hit with Toxic herself. Fortunately, it didn’t last long, but that few seconds ate almost ten percent. And that was with mostly keeping herself out of it, but part of her still dangled in the mist, and she undoubtedly inhaled some before attempting to hold her breath.

At least she now recognized the color, and they could maybe avoid it in the future, if there was another path. If not, she could jump up and bumble her way across like Gawk, if just for a short time. Thanks to his flying, though, they caught up in no time, and Gelic actually had them stop a bit away, since she could slightly see around the corner thanks to his boosted vision.

She got her first proper glimpse of the monster. It kind of reminded her of Crectal, but bigger and more plant-like. Looking a bit half-melted like it had never properly formed or someone had dumped acid on it. As guessed, it was indeed hiding in an alcove, currently attempting to stitch together the deep gash in its face with vines it was somehow making.

Since it hadn’t noticed them, it was time to spring a trap. Gelic completely boxed it in with another wall of ice, this time not bothering to make spikes or poison the barrier. As expected, the Spawn didn’t like that, and immediately began trying to bust out of its cage. So she beat it to the punch, salvaging away just a small hole in the center of the ice. Then she held her good hand up to it and opened fire with Seeking Projectile, shooting a continuous volley of frozen shards.

Her perspective of the beast was super wonky, a mix of Gawk’s sky view and the distortion through the clear ice, but it was clear enough that her Skill could actually target it this time. And her bombardment did its job, pushing the Spawn back, making it duck and try to protect itself, basically cowering from the stabbing peltings that were digging into its body. Gelic had no illusion that she could defeat it this way—cornered animals and all that—so she needed to act fast with her real plan of attack.

With her almost healed but still wobbly left arm, she held it out to her side and once more made her intricate ice axe. But this time it was bigger, more than double the usual size. With quick mental math, she measured out the trajectory, realizing she’d need to move back a few steps, having to twist her body at a weird angle so she could keep firing. “Okay, Gawk, I don’t think my strength alone will be enough for this. So help me push on my mark.”

She then counted down, hoping that the concept of countdowns translated to Demons, but he got into place at the very least. “Now!” Gelic Salvaged the wall, grabbed onto the axe’s handle with her wings, and pushed. Gawk slammed into the ice weapon’s head with his body, flapping with as much power as he could muster, making the axe topple downward with immense force. It split the Spawn straight down the middle, cleaving it in half, completely defeated. That made it vanish away like a Malignant upon death, unlike a Malignant, though…

Really, nothing?! There was no Essence, no rare material drop, nothing to show for their effort. The only positive they got was ridding themselves of the monster that would hunt them down while they tried to escape the maze. She didn’t even get an Achievement called like Spawn Kill or something, probably because it would be too easy for Demons to force it with the help of others. Well, since they were out of combat, she did get notifications about what all the fight had gotten her otherwise.

[Manifest Ice Lv.16]

[Frostbite Lv.10]

[Toxic Imbuement Lv.7]

[Plague Resistance Lv.4]

[Seeking Projectile Lv.7]

[Swipe Lv.5]

[Salvager Lv.4]

[Might, Competence, Creativity notably increased]

[Vigor, Malice increased]

[Destruction, Suffering Attunement notably increased]

[Glacial, Pestilence Attunement increased]

A decent haul for the effort, though it was probably more effort than it should have been. Fighting against poison resistant enemies sucked, so hopefully she wouldn’t run into more anytime soon. It became clear that she’d definitely need to up her arsenal and diversify where possible. Combust was starting to sound like a more viable purchase. But it still probably wouldn’t have been the best in this situation. Would the Zebub Cult be pissed if their mushroom maze was burned to the ground. Not to mention… what if some of these noxious fumes were flammable? Well, hopefully they’d be out of them soon.

Gelic hopped aboard the Gawk Express once more. He piloted, while she navigated, giving herself a bit of an Order edge. Reach Morgo Gorgo’s manor. Mentally map the maze to avoid backtracking, and identify dangerous poisons so you can find the safest path. Do so with reserved yet reasonable haste, because time is running out.

[Order accepted without resistance | Current Contract: Escape the maze]

Time was running out in more ways than one. Her Health was still steadily dwindling at various rates, depending on the atmosphere. Fortunately, most were clearly meant to be non-lethal, and even then, she only got small doses of each. She got to experience the laughing gas herself, sending her in a giggle fit, only to immediately be hit by another that made her eyes water uncontrollably, to the point that she’d be run dry from tears if she didn’t have Hydration. Whoever created this maze must revel in making Demons have mood swings.

Thankfully, Gawk managed to avoid basically all of it, scraping the ceiling or various mushroom caps with his wings. His constitution was definitely much lower than hers, so it was better that he be on the safer side. As for the other reason to hurry, the Cultists would be waiting for their food. And after all this, she was at least getting the promised Essence. No “delivery by a certain time or it’s free” nonsense.

Actually, finding the exit didn’t take them that long, and the manor, the payment, and fresh—or at least non-toxic—air was in sight. But of course, it wasn’t that easy. There was a sudden rumble, and in front of the archway leading out of the maze, a big but flat mushroom sprouted. The pair of Pucks halted their progress to scrutinize the errant fungus, which was apparently the right call. If they’d gone any farther, they would have been squished.

There was a loud crack, and the ground erupted. The mushroom grew, or rather, the rest of it uprooted itself. A new massive giant monster appeared, completely blocking their path with no way around it to get to their exit. The only way through was to defeat the thing as they had before. But this time would be even worse, because besides its gargantuan size…

[Slothful Spawn Lv.115]

“Hey, uhhh, you said something about Sloth earlier right?” Gelic pried while they kept their distance from the monster. Fortunately, it apparently had no interest in engaging them, or even really acknowledged their existence. The big boy was just kind of chilling, and she’d honestly think it was napping if it hadn’t just violently exploded into existence. Slothful indeed.

“Yeah, they tend to be the most powerful Spawns,” he answered. “But they’re more used for defense because they’re also lazy. It should only attack if we get close. Long-ranged attacks would be best, because it might not even retaliate even if we spend all day hitting it from a distance—too much effort.”

“Well, I can test that, but be ready to run if it goes wrong,” she directed. Because it was so big, there was at least one positive. If it chased them, assuming it even had that capability, there’s no way it would fit into the maze. Meaning it’d either get stopped when trying to move out of its clearing, or rampage through the mushroom walls and possibly give them an opening.

Gelic fired the one-two combo of Toxic and Potent Toxic at it in quick succession. Both icicles hit the Spawn in its gut, which frankly, would have been hard to miss. Sadly, she still had to rely on Gawk’s Scrying Eye, and couldn’t see the stacks, but the way the numbers moved, the poison bomb definitely triggered. And for the results…

[Health: 98%]

Motherscuffer! It must have insane poison resistance.

[Potently Toxic Lv.6]

[Malice notably increased]

[Pestilence Attunement increased]

And of course that’s when it decided to give her a level. Kind of felt like she shouldn’t have gotten any experience for that pitiful effort, but maybe because she’d done anything to a monster like this, it saw fit to reward her. Even with that boost, it wouldn’t be nearly enough, and she’d run out of MP long before she whittled the Spawn down to zero. Not to mention any potential recovery it might have.

As for retaliation, Gawk was right, and it really didn’t seem to care. The thing reached down to its stomach and gave it a scratch, like it had been bitten by a bug, which it basically had. She could give Bug Bite a genuine try, maybe annoy it so much that it would move its fat ass out of the way, but since that still counted as poison, she had low hopes. Gelic tried a few more shots of just basic ice, sending a barrage into its belly, but that didn’t even drop its Health another percentage. Either it had insane endurance with a huge Health pool, or the attacks just weren’t getting deep enough to damage anything vital.

Sadly, she couldn’t repeat her axe tactic either. The weapon would need to be far bigger than the ceiling of the cavern would allow. And even then, she and Gawk could potentially not have enough Might and control combined to topple it in the correct direction. Since it was Slothful, maybe Combust would be viable, and she could literally burn it alive, with it making no attempt to stop, drop, or roll. But how long would that take, assuming it’d even work? Too untested and required GP she really didn’t want to spend.

Well, if she just had to hit it deep, then an idea did actually come into mind. A very obscure, borderline ridiculous idea that made her feel silly for even thinking of it. But if it was stupid yet it worked, then it wasn’t stupid. First, though, she needed to test just how lazy this thing was, and what its range of attack would be.

Step after hesitant step, she approached it. After reaching a certain point, one of the Spawn’s eyes opened slowly and stared at her with intent. Then as she persisted further, one of its globby arms shifted, steadily winding back, clearly readying itself to attack. Apparently, she eventually crossed the line, because it suddenly swung forward with way more speed than she could have anticipated. The power was so strong that it had the potential to end her life in a single hit. Fortunately, since it had been widely telegraphed, she was able to Bumble back out of the way fairly easily.

Though she wasn’t prepared for the second part of the attack that came with it. Out of its hands shot a wave of spores, like it was throwing a cluster of dirt that it had picked up, and she was pelted by the tiny particles, each one stinging her as cold revenge for the ice she’d fired at it earlier. Holy frits! Her Health plummeted from high forties to low twenties, and with some additional affect that she wasn’t sure of—felt tingly but not awful, that dropped it down to a flat 20% before stopping.

Strangely, that would normally be when she got a critical warning from the DGS, recommending that she high tail it out of there, but not this time. Maybe it knew that she had no intention of giving up. But that had still been helpful, slow to act, long wind-up, dead if she got hit. That was all she needed to get the pieces primed in her head.

First, though, she needed Health. Her plan involved getting up close and personal with the Slothful Spawn. And while she’d ideally never get hit again, she’d prefer to have as much cushion as possible from a swift death. “I’ll be right back, Gawk. I saw a Toxic corridor a few junctions back, right at the edge of your vision.”

“Uhm, what’re you gonna do?” he asked.

“Either something really stupid or brilliant.”