Edge of the Fiend World - Day Two

'FiSha, are you sure this will work?'

<Answer: Yes.>

'What are my chances of success in this?'

<Answer: Your chances of success are approximately 73%, disregarding external and unexpected factors.>

'Alright, if you say so.....'

Today is the second day she is in the fiend realm. Having woken up after a long time of sleep, her body screamed in protest of hunger.

Being hungry, she couldn't help but curse Adimonde for having sent her to this desolate place, for she hasn't seen a single animal or fruit so far, only cursed skeletons and black shadows that roam everywhere.

However, to her relief and disgust, she discovered through the Fiend Shard that fiends like her do not need flesh to survive, but demonic energy. And such demonic energy could be extracted and consumed from any kind of creature that lives in the fiend world.

In other words, for her relief, she doesn't necessarily need meat, but to her disgust, she would need to fight and kill a demonic creature to absorb its energy.

That said, at the present time, she is hunting her first prey.

'Let's re-run the plan again, FiSha.'

She sits on the ground behind a big rock, and with her sharp nails she draws on the ground, 'The plan is for me to attack from behind with a rock, hitting the skull, which is the weak point of these skeletons, right?'

<Answer: Correct.>

'Can you explain the general knowledge about these skeletons again please?'

<Answer: Low-ranked Cursed Skeleton; Danger level: One — Description: A skeleton that over time has accumulated enough demonic energy from the ground to create a pseudo demonic soul; However, creatures like low-level undead haven't built up enough energy to become sentient, that being said, they're just skeletons that wander aimlessly or purpose. But, as they are pseudo-demons, the chance of being attacked by one is 100%.>

'Hm, what about physical capabilities?'

<Answer: Their physical capacity is extremely low, their movements are stiff and slow, sometimes just swinging the weapon once is enough for them to fall apart.>

'It will be easier than I expected then!' She thinks excitedly.

<Advice: Don't underestimate a creature that has the same level as you.>

'Hey, by any chance, are you making fun of me?' She asks annoyed, but there is no answer.

'Tch, whatever. We'll have a conversation about this later, FiSha. My prey is just ahead.'

She peers over the rock she was hiding in, and sees a humanoid skeleton not far from her. The skeleton looks surprisingly human, aside from the fact that he was 'alive', with red flames in his eyes and a rusty iron mace in his hand.

She raises an eyebrow, ' FiSha, are you sure this isn't a human skeleton?'

<Answer: Yes.>

'Explain'

<Answer: Humanoid skeletons are formed from a similar looking demonic creature, such as Fiend Goblins and Fiend Hobgoblins.>

'So there are no humans in this realm?'

<Answer: No.>

'Well, I kind of expected it. As ridiculous as it may sound, I was hoping to find a human here in the future, but it seems impossible.'

Now that she is a fiend monster, she has returned to feeling things, including loneliness. As stupid as it is, she really wants to find humans she can interact with.

She shook her head to clear these thoughts and looked at the skeleton ahead, ' Enough self-deprecation, if I want to survive, I need to hunt.'

Beside her, she picks up a black stone the size of which completely fit in her hand, and sneaks out from behind the big stone she was hididng and approaches the skeleton from behind.

The skeleton, on the other hand, just sat idle as it opened and closed its jaw forcefully, creating a cracking sound.

She cautiously approached the skeleton, and then positioned herself behind it, beads of sweat fell from his bald head and his grip on the stone shook, and when she was going to attack...she noticed something she hadn't realized before, or rather, she hadn't bothered to.

The skeleton is adult-sized, and she is the size of a five-year-old. As muscular as her legs are, she doesn't have the strength to leap up and reach for his skull.

'Fuck! How did I not notice something so obvious before? I feel like those idiots in a horror movie now...'

The skeleton seems to have noticed the movement behind it, and it looked like it was going to turn around at any moment.

'Shit!'

Panic began to take hold of her; even though she doesn't have specific memories of her past life, she still has general knowledge of the world she came from and her person, for example, she knows that she was a woman, that she lived on planet earth, and that she was a adult. That said, she knows she's never fought anyone, least of all a monster.

She forces herself to calm down by taking a deep breath, and, as if answering her desperation for survival, an idea comes to her mind.

Instead of attacking the head, she quickly lunges forward, and attacks the skeleton's right knee joint.

The impact brings the skeleton to its knees, but it wasn't strong enough to break the joints. She prepares to attack again, but shivers run down her spine.

She instinctively jumps back, and a black blur passes an inch from her face.

Startled, she looks at what it was, and saw that it was the mace that the skeleton was carrying. The skeleton reacted quickly to her attack and counterattacked.

'What the-! FiSha! Didn't you say those fucking skeletons are slow and stiff?! That doesn't seem like a fucking slow thing to me!'

<Answer: Affirmative. Cursed Skeletons are one of the slowest creatures in the entire fiend realm, on par with a Fiend Goblin.>

'Not that-! Oh.....I get it now.....'

'Cursed Skeletons are one of the slowest creatures in the fiend realm, along with the Fiend Goblin, which is to say.....I'm as slow as he is, so to me it looks like he's fast.'

She really wanted to complain to FiSha about not warning her about something like this, but unfortunately, she didn't get the chance, as the skeleton was already on its feet, and staring at her with its fiery red eyes.

She smiles nervously of the current situation, 'FiSha, now is a good time to give me advice, you know!'

<Answer: Affirmative.>

<Advice: Target change from skull to knee joint. Best choice: Pierce the joint at its tender point with your claws.>

'Easier said than done!'

The skeleton kicks the ground and places the mace on top of its skull, preparing to smash her with it into the ground.

As they were close, in a second he appears in front of her, and then lowers the mace over her. Following her instincts, she rolls onto her side, and the mace hits the floor, creating a small curtain of dirt.

Sensing this as an opportunity, she brings her fingers together and attacks the right joint again. And this time, the joint breaks under the piercing power of the nails. However, parts of the nails were also broken.

'How hard are these bones to break my nails like that?!'

The skeleton falls to the ground and on impact, he drops the mace from his hand, which lands at her feet.

She picks up the mace with some difficulty and looks at the skeleton, which even on the ground, began to crawl towards her while making rapid cracking sounds with her jaw, as if in a frenzy.

'That's for my nails, you bastard!'

With all her strength, she lifts the mace over her head and brings it down hard towards the skeleton's skull. With a loud crack, the skull is crushed.

She stands still for a moment, taking in the things that just happened. The adrenaline soon wore off, she quickly lost strength in her legs and fell on her butt on the floor.

She wipes the sweat from her face with her arm and sighs in relief, 'Well, not bad for the first hunt i guess.....wait, why is he still moving?'

She looks fearfully at the skeleton next to her. The skeleton, now skullless, are still moving, but only slightly, like the movements of a newborn.

'FiShi, explain.'

<Answer: Like an undead, cursed skeletons do not die, even if they grind every bone in their body. To effectively get rid of him, you must fully absorb his demonic energy.>

'I see, so it's lunch time huh. How do I do it?'

<Answer: First step, feel the demonic energy. Second step, absorb it.>

She sighs, 'Sometimes I forget that you bastard doesn't explain in detail, and how am i supposed to do what you said?'

< Advise: Follow your instincts.>

A vein bursts in her bald head and she clenches her fist tightly, 'Right then! I will do it alone!'

She positioned herself in front of the skeleton, and her hunger began to grow more and more.

'Follow my instincts...huh.'

Without thinking too much, she closes her eyes and tries to focus on her hunger. And to her surprise, she sees a glimmer of red in the darkness.

The red glimmer soon starts to grow, and quickly becomes something like a small crimson red bonfire.

'Could this be the demonic energy?'

Following her instincts, her body was naturally drawn to that energy, and when she got close enough, she felt like her body was calling the energy, and the demonic energy responded.

The demonic energy, like it was alive, rushes towards her, and her body absorbs it.

When all the energy was absorbed, she felt a comforting sense of satisfaction.

She opens her eyes and blinks a little in surprise, 'Now that's something interesting. I'll need to get used to this feeling of absorption later.'

By absorbing the energy, her fatigue was gone, and she felt stronger than before. She elongates her small body and feels a great feeling of euphoria and power.

'How can I describe this? It's like taking a lot of caffeine with steroids. This is dangerous, I could easily get addicted to this feeling.'

'FiShi, how much stronger have I become by absorbing that demonic energy?'

<Answer: The calculations->

'Summarize in a simple way.'

<Answer: If you absorb the same amount of energy nine times, you will have twice as much strength as you do now.>

'Serious?! I just need to detonate nine more of these bags of bones and my strength will double?!'

<Answer: Yes.>

Unbeknownst to her, her new demonic nature has made her extremely excited to learn that she can get stronger. Recalling the ecstatic feeling of absorbing demonic energy, his body trembled with anticipation.

'Alright, let's go beat the shit out of them!' she thinks excitedly as she raises her fist up.

.

. ( Scene change )

.

'Hey FiShi...'

<Answer: Yes.>

'I'm bored, tell me a joke.'

<Advise: Being lazy will cost you your life.>

'I'm not being lazy! I'm just in a energy saving mode.'

The little Fiend Goblin is lying on top of a rock while looking at the eternal stormy sky of the fiend realm.

It's been hours since her first hunt, since then she's successfully hunted down four more skeletons, in the beginning, she suffered in the fights, being careful not to be hit by the weapons of the skeletons, and every time she absorbed demonic energy, the next fight got easier.

She couldn't tell, but the feeling of boredom stemming from their destructive nature calls for a challenge, and cursed skeletons are like babies with guns, they don't fight, they just swing their weapons hoping to hit something.

'That feeling of boredom really doesn't want to go away. I think I'll go home and finish it for today. Let's go, FiSha.'

She gets up from the rock, and starts walking towards her hiding place.

Upon reaching her hiding place under the mourning tree, she snuggles in and sighs, 'I think I'm going to need to renovate this hideout tomorrow, even though it's cozy, it's too small. Maybe I will add a game room' she nods her head, satisfated with her own suggestion.

Getting ready for bed, a question pops into her mind, 'Hey, FiSha, Now that I think about it, am I going to be a goblin forever?'

<Answer: No. Upon accumulating enough demonic energy, your body will enter a growth phase.>

Can I assume that your answer, along with the explanation I didn't ask for, is the result of the 'growth' that Adimonde said?

There was no answer, then she laughs, 'I think now I have a clear goal now for tomorrow huh, good night FiSha.'

Again, there was no answer.