[Leela] Chapter 2: Contract

[Throndir]

"Yes. Newborn imps are physically similar to adult imps. When an imp dies, there is a large chance that they become who they once were. Both in terms of personality and their abilities. However, in some cases, they change as well. As for their memories, they describe it as if they are looking at someone else's memories, at the same time, they don't always bother to keep those memories either. Once a newborn imp has started to develop a lifetime's amount of memories, they usually have trouble recollecting any of their past lives."

Zavan bowed low again.

"Please follow me."



You went deeper into Roshandan castle, though Ghorat decided to stay behind to keep watch over the imps, it had been a long time since he sat on his throne, and he told the both of you to look for the quarters yourselves.

Abi then decided to accompany you. Soon enough, Zavan made it to a set of large doors. The doors had knockers on them, each one looked like a malformed skull, with two horns each. Zavan pushed the doors open then, and inside was a spacious room.

There was a study off to the side, and what looked to be a room designed to be a washroom, and lastly there was a spacious bedroom itself. Normally this would have been fine, the space for each room was large, but it was the decoration that gave you pause.

The walls looked like they were cavernous, with many jagged protrusions and uneven surfaces. There were shelves lined up on them as well, filled with metallic objects that were shaped into Ghorat's likeness himself, along with another set that looked like some sort of demon that you did not recognize. That other demon looked to be younger and more feminine than Ghorat's features.

It seemed like most of the entire room had something of Lord Ghorat's or the unknown demon's features. The stone bedframe had a picture of Lord Ghorat's face grinning on one foot post, while the other had one of the unknown demon smiling mischievously. On the ceiling itself was a picture of Lord Ghorat smiling down, with the unknown demon peeking from behind him, staring down as well. The washroom itself contained lye-soap carved as Ghorat's bust. Even something as mundane as a bucket had his face imprinted on it as well. The various knobs in the washroom looked to be that unknown demon. There was even a statue of Lord Ghorat in one of the corners who seemed to have been in a flexing pose. It wouldn't be so far-fetched to say that most every item in the room had a carving, caricature, painting, or likeness of Lord Ghorat or the unknown demon in some form or another.

Similar to this, but a lot more weirder decor.

Spoiler

[close]

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela did not even step into the room. She took one look at it and immediately understood why Zavan had seemed to have a disappointed look on his face when he said Gorat had decorated it. She was sure Zavan would have done a better job.

"Is there... a different room with... simpler decor? I don't think I can... concentrate in here." She asked, feeling extremely uncomfortable with all of the likenesses to Gorat. Even without entering the room, she felt as though he were watching her every move. She hoped that there was another room without everything looking like Gorat staring at her.

"Also, is that other figure Gorat's wife?" She pointed at a random object with the other figure on it.

[Throndir]

"Lord Ghorat is amazing! This room is neat! So many cavern walls! He is everywhere! He sees everything too! I like the bed! I like you too Leelasama!" Abi quipped as she bounced around.

"There are other rooms yes... But they aren't nearly as furnished as this one. But if you would like, I can show you to one of the more simpler guest quarters. As for the other figure... Actually no, that is Ashaki. Lord Ghorat gets too depressed seeing images of his wife, though I am sure he still keeps one of her in his own quarters."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

"Yes. Please let me use a simpler room." Leela said as soon as Zavan said there were other rooms. She did not care if they were not as furnished or only had the bare minimum. If she absolutely had to stay in the room Gorat had decorated, she would have to ask for cloth to cover pretty much everything. She was sure that if Gorat saw, he would be insulted. So the best course of action was to just take a different room.

"Oh, I see. Is she... gone?" She did not want to say "dead" or even "passed away." There was always the chance that she had left Gorat for another demon lord...

[Throndir]

"Very well." Zavan said as he started making his way to the guest rooms. How the castle had been setup was that your own quarters was only next door to the various guest rooms they had.

"Yes... Lady Leilana is no longer around." Zavan said simply.

"I like Lady Leilana too! So fluffy! I miss Lady Leilana! Do you remember her wings? I liked her wings!"

Soon enough you made it to the new room.

This one was a lot more plain than the special quarters reserved for you. It consisted only of a single room, though it had a closet, a table, a chair, a bed, and a cabinet. There wasn't much of anything else, though it did have a window of the outside sky. The light had shone in, and it was muddy and grey. It was starting to be evening if you were to guess.

"The washrooms themselves are a separate room from these."

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela decided to drop the subject of Gorat's wife. They would probably tell her more if they felt she needed to know.

"This will work for now. Maybe when I get back, we can redecorate the other room. Where are the washrooms?" She entered the room and set her backpack and purse on the table, as well as her sketchbook and drawing supplies. "Abi, would you like to keep me company while I work? I can maybe explain to you the things I am drawing."

Once she was alone with only Abi, Leela got to work on her list. She drew things she could remember from her home world. Potatoes, how they looked before being rooted in the ground as well as how they might look once pulled from the ground. She did the same with other root vegetables that she could remember, such as carrots and onions, though she could only remember exactly how a few others had looked before being pulled from the ground. As she worked, she explained to Abi things such as how they smelled, tasted, and how their looks could differ slightly from what she had drawn.

Next, she drew pictures of herbs, spices, and edible plants that she could remember. She made sure she drew in wheat, chives, pepper, sugarcane, honeycomb, and cinnamon. These kinds of things she could remember more of than the root vegetables. From there, Leela drew things that she could not remember how they grew naturally, but she knew what they looked like in stores. Garlic was the biggest one.

When she was finally finished, Leela asked Abi to retrieve food from the kitchen for her. It had been a while since she had eaten an actual meal, after all. She described the fruit that Zavan had cut up for her earlier, figuring that would be a good enough choice since she knew what it was like and did not feel like getting any surprises.

While Abi was gone, Leela took the moment to herself to think about the words that had flashed in her mind's eye. So much had happened since that moment, she hoped she could remember everything... There was being summoned as a demon hero, translate all, mimicry, personal status, something about mana... a lot of level up announcements. If this was like one of the video games she played back in her own world, then maybe there was a way to pull up some sort of menu. Surely there had to be something, since there had been a message about spending unallocated points.

She concentrated on opening a menu in her mind's eye. When nothing happened, she tried saying it out loud while still trying to picture something like a menu. Still nothing. She thought back through everything again. Perhaps this personal status thing was like a menu? It seemed like an odd thing to just gain. The concentrated once again on opening a menu, this time associated it with the term of "personal status." When thinking about it still did not work, she again tried saying it out loud, just in case.

"Open, Personal Status." Her voice came out hesitantly, unsure if it would actually work.

[Throndir]

"The washroom is just down the hall Leela-sama."

"What are you drawing? I'd love to accompany you Leelasama. Leelasama!"



When you gave her instructions to get you some food, Abi acknowledged it.

"I'll get something yummy! Abi will not eat anything. Maybe I can eat some too? I'll find that fruit!"

Leela Steading
Teacher of Demons
Level 25

Condition: Healthy

HP: 69/69
MP: 89/89
STR: 24 +
DEX: 28 +
CON: 28 +
INT: 10 +
WIS: 13 +
CHA: 12 +
MAG: 36 +

Blessings: Quick Learner, Mana Sensitivity, Translate All, Personal Status, Summoned as Demon Hero, Mimicry

You have 5 unspent ability points.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

It had actually worked. Leela sat there for a moment, stunned that it had actually worked and by all stuff it showed. When she finally started looking everything over, she went through it slowly.

First, right below her name, there was one of the titles she had received. Teacher of Demons. Hadn't she gotten other titles before? She stared at it, wondering if she still had those other titles or if this one replaced it. Hadn't something popped up with the title before? She thought she remembered one of her ability scores going up one or something along those lines. So what had all the other titles granted her if all titles granted ability points? She tried imagining opening a window for viewing titles and their benefits. If imagining it did not work, she would try saying what she wanted out loud again - though she hoped she would not have to. She also wondered if she only got the benefit of the title in use or if they all acted in the background like a passive ability.

Next, she looked at her ability stats. As she went through each one, she again tried opening up a window that would explain it to her. Perhaps it would explain why they were the way they were. She was not sure if 69 hit points and 89 mana points was a lot in this world or not, but she found it bizarre that her strength, dexterity, and constitution were as high as they were and her intelligence, wisdom, and charìsma were so low. In her home world, everything was the opposite for her. She was not strong at all, she tired quicker than others when exerting herself in exercise and she was terrible at sports. On the other hand, she had though she was a smart and wise girl and she was generally good at getting what she wanted, so she thought she had high charisma.

And then there was MAG, which she could only assume was magic, but she tried opening a window about it, too, just to be sure that her theory was correct. Leela had always wanted to be able to do magic, picking to play as a mage in almost all of her video games, and here she was with it being her highest stat. She wondered what sorts of things she could do with magic in this world.

It seemed as though she had unspent ability points. That must be what the plus signs were about next to each of the stats. She wondered what would be best to upgrade. Perhaps charisma, since she was hoping to settle things diplomatically with the humans. If stats here were like some games she had played, then only even numbers would bump up her skills. With that in mind, she decided to point one (1) point in to bump up her wisdom score and the remaining four (4) points into her charisma. She would have liked to increase her intelligence as well, but she needed to do what was most beneficial for her mission.

Leela also took this time to allocate her skill points. Her spellcraft was crazy high! She hoped that she would get the chance to play around with it soon. Perhaps she could talk with Zavan about it.

Finally, Leela turned her attention to the blessings, again trying to pull up windows on each. She would have thought that something like "quick learner" would give her an intelligence boost. If that were not the case, she wanted to know what it actually did.

Spoiler

Basically, Leela opens up information pages on everything she can see in her status and reads as much as she can about it all.

[close]

[Throndir]

Leela Steading
Teacher of Demons
Level 25

Condition: Healthy

HP: 69/69
MP: 89/89
STR: 24
DEX: 28
CON: 28
INT: 10
WIS: 14
CHA: 16
MAG: 36

Blessings: Quick Learner, Mana Sensitivity, Translate All, Personal Status, Summoned as Demon Hero, Mimicry

You have gained a new title:『She Who Knows of Status』
You have gained +1 INT

Focus on『Leela Steading』
The name you identify with.

Focus on 『Teacher of Demons』
You've taught demons a lesson.

Focus on 『Summoned Hero』
You are a summoned hero.

Focus on 『From Another World』
You have come from another world.

Focus on 『The Magical Mirror』
You have the Mimicry blessing.

Focus on 『Savior of Demons』
You are tasked to help a demon lord.

Focus on 『The Lengthened』
Your Mimicry blessing's copied abilities now last an entire day.

Focus on 『The Efficient Mirror』
Your Mimicry blessing is more efficient.

Focus on 『Level』
Numerical value to roughly represent how strong your are.

Focus on 『Condition』
Represents a status of your condition.

Focus on 『Uninjured』
You have no wounds.

Focus on 『Refreshed』
You do not feel tired.

Focus on 『HP』
Represents your hitpoints.

Focus on 『MP』
Represents your mana points.

Focus on 『STR』
Represents muscle and physical power.

Focus on 『DEX』
Represents agility, reflexes, and balance.

Focus on 『CON』
Represents your health and stamina.

Focus on 『INT』
Represents how well you learn and reason.

Focus on 『WIS』
Represents willpower, common sense, awareness, and intuition.

Focus on 『CHA』
Represents personality, personal magnetism, ability to lead, and appearance.

Focus on 『MAG』
Represents the users mana capacity, as well as the user's innate control of magic.

Focus on 『Translate All』
Ability to understand all spoken languages.

Focus on 『Personal Status』
Ability to pull up the Status screen. Focusing on specific items will bring up more information.

Focus on 『Summoned as a Demon Hero』
Summoned by a Demon Lord.

Focus on 『Mimicry』
???

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Well, this was a curiosity. She gained yet another title just for looking into her status in more detail, making that two titles for something she had "accomplished" that gave her stat bonuses. This was a much different way of handling such bonuses than in any video game she had played. Usually, she had to find books and tomes of knowledge for a specific stat in order to increase it permanently or special items she could wear or runes or stones she could attach to her gear for more temporary stat increases. But if simply doing stuff gave her titles that gave her stat increases... what else could she get titles for? Could she get a Baker or Chef title if she managed to cook bread for the demons? Would she get one for forming a contract with the imps? Could her skills in sewing and crafting get her titles associated with those skills upon performance? Leela decided she would begin testing ways to get more titles. Her Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma stats compared to the other stats were completely opposite of what she would have expected them to be, so if she was able to earn more titles, she hoped for ones that would give her increases in those three that were lacking.

The descriptions of some of her titles were also interesting. Specifically those for the ones related to her Mimicry blessing. Her title of The Magical Mirror that she apparently obtained by her Mimicry blessing made her wonder if she could make herself look like other creatures. If so, would it be an illusion or would her body physically change? Could the Mimicry also allow her to copy people's voices? That would be so cool! The title of The Lengthened confused her about her previous thoughts about Mimicry. Apparently, she could copy abilities of others for a day - she hoped that meant a 24 hour period. If that was what Mimicry did, then could she also copy people's voices and appearances or was she only like the Copy Cat Ninja from one of the anime she used to watch? She decided she would have to play around with it when she finished going through the rest of her status information.

Before moving on from the information about her obtained titles, Leela tried to select the Summoned Hero title so that it would appear below her name in the basic status screen. If she was going to be entering a human domain that hated demons, she wanted to make sure that if titles could be seen by other heroes, hers would not be cause to spark distrust.

Skimming through the descriptions of most of her stats, she stopped to put more though into the blessings. The Personal Status blessing description was stupid and should have been something that appeared in her mind BEFORE she concentrated on it to find out more. The information for it was completely useless if she already knew that. But whatever.

Translate All was interesting. It was too bad that it did not include written language. If the demons had their own written language, she would have to learn it and the language from scratch. If they did not, she would have to teach them the English alphabet and probably teach them English from scratch. At least she knew why she could understand their strange speech. It wasn't that it was accented that made it sound weird even though she could understand, it was that it was an entirely different language. This blessing would help a lot in speaking to the humans if they used a different language, too.

Leela was not sure she would call being summoned as a Demon Hero a blessing. The only good thing it did was give her a free title. Otherwise, it basically sent her to the total opposite sort of place she would have preferred to end up. A forest would have been nice and would have made her more comfortable due to her camping experience. Although her attire was not the best suited for a forest. But still! If demons were a thing in this world, she could have been summoned by wood elves or even faeries! If she ever met the person who was in charge of deciding that being summoned as a Demon Hero was a blessing, she would definitely give them her "two cents" on the matter.

If her face had already been a scowl from her previous thoughts, it deepened when she noticed the description for Mimicry. Her titles about Mimicry gave her more information that that! If it were not for her titles, she would know literally nothing about the blessing and it would probably never get used. At least she could make use of the knowledge she obtained from the titles to get ideas on how to make use of it.

Unfortunately for Abi, a scowling Leela who appeared to be staring at something that wasn't there was what she got to see upon returning to the room.

TL;DR - Leela selects Summoned Hero as the title that shows up under her name in her main status menu.
- Abi walks back into the room to find Leela staring at something that "isn't there" and scowling so much it could be interpreted as a death glare.

[Throndir]

Default title switched.

"Hi! Leelasama. Leelasama! Are you mad? No! It wasn't me! I didn't eat it! I'm sorry!" Abi came back then bringing with her a plate full of fruits. There were a couple of different types, they were in hues of purples and blues. There was one particular fruit which look like it had a big bite mark in it. The thing was eaten half way.

"I didn't mean to eat it! What are you doing? Please don't get mad! Gabu made me! The fruit made me! It wasn't me at first! Gabu came and bit one, he did! I nibbled first though! But I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry!"

She stumbled towards you, with tears in her eyes, she seemed to be bouncing at the same time, and it looked like the fruits were about to spill...

Roll DEX, DC 10 to catch the falling tray of fruits.

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Startled out of her thoughts, Leela's attention snapped to Abi. Upon seeing the fruits start to spill, she moved to catch them. She was never very good at catching things back home, but she still always tried.

Rolled 1d20+9 : 4 + 9, total 13

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Somehow, Leela had managed to catch the spilled fruits.

"Abi..." The young woman sighed in frustration. Holding up one finger, she started a mini lecture. "First, you need to be more careful. If you are carrying something, you should make sure it does not fall. Second, nothing and no one can make you do anything you don't want to do; you are responsible for your own actions. Third, who is Gabu and why was he in the kitchen eating food without permission?" As she counted, she held up another finger. When she was done, she continued to hold up the three fingers as she waited for the imp to answer them.

[Throndir]

"I'm sorry!" Abi said, she prostated herself in front of you, in a similar way that Ghorat did earlier that day.

"Gabu asked me how the fruits tasted! So I told him no! But then he told me the personal assistant should know how the fruits taste like! So I nibbled it and told him! But then he wouldn't believe me, so I bit into it too! And now he believes me!"

[Ella]

Leela Steading

Leela lowered one finger when Abi apologized and prostrated herself. The young woman might have felt bad about the imp being in such a position, but she had threatened them all if they did not follow her rules. If she went back on her threat of punishment now, they might not listen to her later. It was clear to her that Ghorat did not really care to bother with them and Zavan seemed to dote on them in the same way that her aunt had doted on she and her brother when they were kids.

She lowered a second finger when Abi explained why she had chosen to eat some of the fruit.

"Again, Abi, you are responsible for your own actions. Until we are able to fix our dwindling food supply issue, no one can just go around eating whenever they please. Even me. I have only eaten a small snack this morning when I woke up and then a bite of fruit when Zavan was showing me the kitchen. Other than that, this will be my first real meal of the day, and it is already evening. I don't expect everyone to eat as little as I did today, but I do expect more self control out of everyone to ensure that everyone can eat. Zavan has a time when everyone is allowed to eat, right?"

"As for you not knowing how the fruits taste, have you not had it before?" She held up the fruit that had been eaten off of to inspect with her free hand, continuing to hold up one finger to signify the still unanswered question of who Gabu was and why he was in the kitchen.