I Was Called A Demon

The day passed with little further incident. There were some that attempted to speak with her or Song Ming, but none were quite as keen as the man from two days ago. They were also able to contribute a decent amount to the logging effort despite their workforce consisting of only two women without significant experience in the field – as experienced as Xue Yaling looked, she claimed to have done little work of this sort in the past – so there weren’t any that felt that their efficiency was affected by their presence.

One thing that she did learn during the day was that the more wood the group as a whole was able to deliver to Long Shiyi, the more they would earn as a whole, which finally clarified why Xue Yaling was so insistent on them helping out as much as possible.

If they were able to contribute more to the overall effort, the larger the reward for every single log of wood gathered, so it would naturally benefit them to have Bianca’s group do as much work as possible. In the process of explaining this, Xue Yaling also mentioned something about encouraging competition, friendly or not, since Long Shiyi wouldn’t care who provided her with the resources so long as they ended up in her hands. Thus, if someone thought to steal all of the work that this camp had done and pass it off as that of their own group, or even as their very own work, then the dragon would have little reason to object.

Bianca even managed to understand that this meant that Long Shiyi was not looking for long-term contributors or providers – a consequence of the business lessons her school and college had, presumably.

Aside from this, she met with the feminine man again, though he merely greeted her before moving along. Additionally, she saw the man that first met them several times, going about the camp and shouting at people every now and then, but she couldn’t hear any specifics, nor was she particularly concerned with it. Even if she understood a thing that he said, she doubted that she – or Xue Yaling, for that matter – would be able to do much about it.

‘Everything going on around here is not really any of our business. As soon as we’ve waited for the sects to do their thing and gathered whatever information Xue Yaling wants, we’re moving on,’ Bianca recalled as she departed from her tent, having made sure that Song Ming was fine and tucked in, ‘Now, guess I’ll see what she’s come up with. Hope it’s nothing… annoying.’

Of course, since she was dealing with the kitsune, it was hard to imagine it being anything else. Most likely, it would also be perverted and make her regret ever listening to the tricky fox, though it was impossible for her to keep that regret for long when listening to her was one of the only reasons she survived to begin with. Had she tried to flee back when they first met, she might not have acquired any additional skills, ended up running into someone that didn’t like the look of her, and then being overwhelmed completely.

It sounded ludicrous, and yet that was the world that she had the misfortune of landing in – or appearing within, depending on how exactly she even came to be here.

‘Still, at least-’

Her thoughts froze as she saw a man stumbling through the camp with a drunken gait, his eyes looking vacant and unfocused. Normally, such an appearance would make her even more inclined to look away than usual, since he looked and smelled awful even from afar – the heavy stench of alcohol around him being perhaps the most pleasant among the unfortunate mixture – but there was something in his pocket.

‘A manual… like the rest that I’ve gotten my skills from…’ she couldn’t shift her focus away, nor could she stop the excitement that rushed into her body.

Despite having no real reason to want it, despite being all too well aware that Xue Yaling could probably provide her with a manual similar to or superior to whatever it was that the man had – regardless of the fact that it didn’t change a single thing about the skill she’d receive – Bianca couldn’t help but desire it.

She wanted to steal it, to hold it in her own hands and, ideally, give it the time to lose the terrible scent being spread across the camp by the guy currently possessing it. There was somewhere else for her to be, something else for her to do, but she stopped in her tracks completely nonetheless.

Immediately, Bianca imagined how she’d go about claiming her prize. The man was drunk, visibly so, meaning that his awareness of his surroundings would be minimal. If he was ordinary, she could probably walk up to him and take it without much effort. However, most of the people here were cultivators, and he seemed to have a certain aura around him even with the alcohol deafening it somewhat, so she had to presume he’d be a little more aware than that.

Even then, someone that was simply tipsy could still miss out on something obvious so long as there was something better to grab their attention. As such, all that Bianca needed to do was find something to momentarily distract the man and give her the opportunity to borrow the manual. Luckily, it was a small object, and thus a light one, meaning that she wouldn’t need to find something to replace it if she wanted to avoid detection. Of course, it would be best to do so anyway, but she did not have the time or item to substitute the manual with.

Inevitably, she approached the man while ideas popped up and vanished within her mind, trying to determine how much effort she even needed to invest into the deed. Perhaps she’d need to work hard, or perhaps the book would be trivial to take off him, though it never hurt to be prepared.

“One hundred and one silver trees… I swing my axe, close my eyes, and there’s only one hundred trees left…”

‘That… doesn’t sound very good in Antanian, but maybe it’s better in the language of the Planar Continents…’ Bianca couldn’t help but remark within her mind, getting nearly close enough to touch him – and far closer than she would have liked on account of his absolutely overwhelming stench. Sweat, alcohol, more sweat, a mixture of natural forest-y scents that might have been fine if not for them accumulating over several days and growing into something utterly abysmal.

Of course, the fact that they were all related to a guy skewed her perspective quite a bit, but if she was to defend herself, she’d say that it wasn’t her fault that all men were unpleasant, stinky and generally gross.

Mhm, totally unbiased after all.

She took one final breath – through her mouth, to minimize the aforementioned unpleasantness – and began her plan, almost bumping into him while making sure to position herself on the opposite side of his occupied pocket. From there, she simply needed to be a little helpful, and if her hand just ended up in the right place for a moment, he wouldn’t notice a single thing.

Except… she was supposed to be playing the part of a demon. Casually helping people out didn’t seem like a typical component of such a character.

‘But, if I’m a little rougher, it should still work… and give me the chance to vent my frustration from having to be near him,’ Bianca frowned as she allowed her typical thoughts to come to the surface, “How much have you been drinking, you… you pig?”

The man mumbled something for a moment before doing his best to look her in the eyes.

“I’m not a lightweight, you hear! Not a fucking lightweight!”

“I didn’t ask,” she retorted, getting closer to him and grabbing his arm, “Where’s your tent? Seeing you walk around here any longer will completely ruin what’s left of my good mood, so I’ll help you along.”

“Heh… You think I don’t know what you want?” he slurred, the look in his eyes almost making Bianca cringe from discomfort, “Just shy, aren’t you?”

“Where the fuck is your tent, you drunken pile of shit?” Bianca threw in quite a bit more aggression, both due to its levels rising within her, and because anything to get this over with quicker seemed like a good idea, regardless of the crassness of the reply. Even with the change of tone, she doubted that her words were the harshest the man had ever heard – nor would hear.

“It’s right… there… but we can start-”

“Fuck off!” she grabbed him, let the Demonic Tyrant channel energy within her body, then used as much strength as she could find within herself to throw him towards the tent that was, indeed, rather close by.

Her strength had not grown much since she had reached the second realm, and she hadn’t been too strong to begin with, but luckily the weight of cultivators – if this man was indeed one, and the aura around him wasn’t just the miasma of his smell being bad enough to be outright visible – didn’t grow with each realm, and the tent was within a few metres of her.

Thus, with all those factors combined, he ended up inside his tent – or, at the very least, his head did. The rest of his body wasn’t quite so fortunate, though it did get a cushioned landing thanks to the thick grass growing outside this particular tent.

“If you’re this drunk next time I see you, you’re getting a kick to somewhere that’ll really hurt,” she said, already walking away and doing her best to seem relatively nonchalant.

It was challenging, for one hand was suddenly occupied by a manual, and the excitement that came with obtaining it almost turned her steps to skips, her heart racing and her whole body trembling just a little. She felt so good that even walking through the forest for several minutes wasn’t enough to dull that excitement, nor enough for her to remember that she wouldn’t be alone at her destination, causing the first thing spoken to shock her out of the euphoric state.

“Bianca… What the fuck have you done this time?”

“Huh? N-Nothing?” as her excitement fled her body, she found herself genuinely confused at the question, “Did I take too long?”

“Your hands. Look at them.”

Bianca raised an eyebrow, but looked down regardless, only to spot a manual that seemed both familiar and not within them, being held tightly as if it was some precious treasure never to be abandoned.

“Uh-”

“You better not have killed someone for it.”

“N-No! I’d never do that… I… I think I took it off some drunk guy. Ah, that explains the horrible smell around me… urgh…”

“… I don’t even know what to say anymore. I suppose me coming up with this training was done at the perfect time, since some self control – and ideally recollection of events minutes after they occur – is dearly needed,” Xue Yaling shook her head as she let out a frustrated sigh, “Also, your nose is more sensitive than that of a kitsune. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were cultivating something to enhance your sense of smell.”

“Don’t think I am…” she stared at the manual a little longer, then gasped as she finally recalled the reason she had for taking it in the first place – or one of them, however flimsy it may be – and turned it to look at the front cover, “Planar Stream? The fuck is this?”

“A defensive skill of the Planar archetype. People that use pure planar energy, rather than any kind of elemental variant, often even lacking an attribute like your energy has. Regardless, since you’ve taken it… You needed a defensive skill, didn’t you? You have an offensive one, a movement skill, body, planar and dual cultivation techniques, so if you’re still able to obtain one more, a defensive one would be ideal.”

“I… maybe able to, not sure yet. Nothing gets taken away from the manual when I do the thing with it, right?”

“Sounds like you’re planning to return it. Good, so long as you’re able to bring it back without bringing attention to yourself. If the person you took it from is drunk, or currently asleep, so long as you’re able to bring it back before they regain the ability to notice its absence, they wouldn’t have any reason to assume that they lost it to begin with. Oh, and yes, no difference as far as I can tell.”

“That’s good… let’s see what I get,” Bianca opened up the manual, wishing that it would give her something decent and non-evil looking, for once – and make no mistake, the Demon’s Commanding Rod was truly evil, just in a different manner than the rest.

As soon as she saw the words upon the initial page, she knew that she would obtain her sixth and final skill. Dark smoke surged out from the pages, flooding into her, and soon the last name appeared upon the familiar panel, immediately dashing most of her hopes in regards to the theming of the ability, for its name was no better than the rest.

“Abyssal Shield.”

“Ooh, sounds good… and it’s another new one. Making things really tough for me, Bianca,” Xue Yaling sighed, though her actual frustration was obviously minimal, “Come on, show me.”

She nodded, then, since she wasn’t sure what it would do until she used it for the first time, Bianca took a step away and made sure to pay attention to her surroundings, just in case the Abyssal Shield produced something that was dangerous, or needlessly shiny, or something of the sort. Last time she had acted without thinking, she managed to cut down a tree, so it wasn’t impossible for ridiculous stuff to occur in a world such as this one.

‘Alright, what is it going to be?’ Bianca raised a hand – for all she knew, it would produce a shield at her hand, so it was best to be safe – and let the Demonic Tyrant handle things.

The first moment, she felt a small quantity of energy surround her, darkening everything around her, as if a sphere of faint smoke manifested. It was weak, but as if her hand had been positioned correctly despite her complete lack of knowledge about the skill. Her energy flowed out from the palm of her outstretched hand, adding to the smoke, and with a pulse it grew deeper and darker, blocking almost all light that might have passed through it, this darkness extending to almost half of the sphere, leaving the back darker than before yet far fainter than the front.

Even with the smoke occluding her view, she could see through the smoke with ease, even as she saw the smoke itself. It didn’t seem to be an element of spiritual perception, as that would lead to her only being able to see a metre or two away, but she had no clue what else it could be.

“That… isn’t bad. The amount of energy expended isn’t especially great, and it can be kept in a more passive state if you don’t empower it. Furthermore, the defensive area that it provides is actually rather impressive for the second realm,” Xue Yaling noted, slowly walking around her, “You may be able to protect or two people within this dome, and if you’re able to extend or condense it, the defensive power seems like it would scale based on total area covered, so if you’re able to shrink it down, you’ll have a stronger shield than you currently do.”

“Uh… Not really sure… how to do that…” Bianca muttered, since the only thing she could decipher how to do on her own was to empower the barrier, which involved bringing her hand up and aiming the palm outwards.

She had a certain suspicion that it wasn’t necessary to do so, but she lacked the appropriate control over her energy to try the alternative, and when she did try lowering her hand, she wasn’t able to empower the shield without raising it again. No matter how much she wanted the Demonic Tyrant to help her out with this, it didn’t react whatsoever, so at least this particular idea wasn’t going to go anywhere for the moment.

“Try it, at least,” the kitsune encouraged her, perhaps missing the fact that she was already attempting to experiment due to how poorly it was going.

“Alright,” she stopped with those attempts and raised her hand again, instantly feeling energy rushing out but failing to memorise it even a moment after it occurred, ‘Please, Demonic Tyrant, don’t be a dick this time…’

Bianca wished for the area of dense smoke to condense into the area just before her palm, and it seemed as if nothing was happening. She wasn’t skilled enough to figure out if the planar energy around her changed in any way, so she took the simplest approach and simply tried to get closer and see if she could see a difference.

When she moved her hand closer to the barrier – and her whole body in the process – it didn’t move, but the reinforced part of the sphere did. It shrank down in tandem with her movement, quickly dropping from half the sphere to protecting a round spot roughly the diameter equivalent to the height of her hand, becoming pitch black to the point that even whatever had allowed Bianca to see through the darkness before could no longer help.

It almost seemed like this skill produced a static defence of sorts, akin to a very small bunker, but as she tried to push her hand a little further, to come into contact with the darkness, the entire barrier moved forward alongside her, keeping that tiny bit of distance between her palm and the smoke.

“Well, you got extremely lucky there, considering your typical ability to manipulate energy. Try moving around without holding your palm up… hm, so, it’s centred at you during semi-passive use, and tries to remain at your initial location when you use it actively. Overall, the energy can be condensed… massively, for a second realm skill. In fact, provided that you’re able to place that defensive spot correctly, it might even be possible for you to defend against a powerful third realm strike at least once,” Xue Yaling theorised, returning to Bianca’s front and raising a hand of her own.

Although she may have been rather ignorant, she didn’t need more than a moment to figure out what was about to happen. Thus, she used her other hand to support her arm just in case it moved in any way and threatened her survival.

Xue Yaling’s ghostflame emerged from her hand formed into a spear, a thick, destructive spike that seemed like it would have been sufficient to destroy Bianca’s body completely if it hit her.

It was thrown only a moment later, but the spike was flung and it hit the smoke – right in the middle of where they were focused, though this was likely thanks to Xue Yaling being accurate and not Bianca getting it right – with an explosion of greenish-blue light that washed over her vision, surrounding her for what felt like hours.

And when it faded, the orb of smoke that protected her was nearly gone, but so were the flames, save for traces on the ground that travelled all around the Abyssal Shield.

“Well, this is a good start for what I had wanted to do with you. Today, we’ll be practising fights to the death.”