Just A Pawn - Chapter 6 Numbers And Resolutions

[Index Menu]

[Name: [Pawn] [+]]

[Race: [Spirit] [+]]

[Rank: [5] [73/90,000] [+]]

[Age: [267 years] [+]]

[Gender: [Female] [+]]

[Affinities: [Support] [+]]

[Status Effects [+]]

[Status Summary [+]]

Pawn looked over her personal menu for the first time in ten years.

Due to the enchantments placed on the prison, Pawn had been unable to access it for an entire decade.

“Who was that meddling demon by the way, she never introduced herself?” Pawn asked Ember, only knowing the demon in question to be a big shot of some sort.

“She’s… most just call her the ‘Warden’, it’s ’cause she won’t tell anyone her real name… lots of demons are mysterious like that,” Ember summarized, not sounding overly fond of the type which did such things.

“Well the ‘Warden’ did something really unnecessary…” said Pawn as she examined the rank shown in her menu.

To exit and enter the demon realm as one pleased, they would either need a rank of 7 or above, to ‘break’ through the barrier that blocked the ends of the inter-realm tunnels, or a rank of less than 4 to go unnoticed by said barrier.

Pawn had previously been rank 3, but was now rank 5, the ‘Warden’ had raised her rank by a huge margin while she had been unconscious.

“Why would she do this, how did she even get so much spirit energy in this place, it shouldn’t be found anywhere in demon realm, except in-” Pawn complained as she looked at the rank, but then came to a sudden realization.

Pawn turned to look at the two who had been walking along side her for confirmation, the carefree one, ‘Lace’, gave an uncharacteristic bitter smile, probably out of sympathy, while Ember voiced her confirmation.

“…You guessed it,” said Ember with a cold look in her eyes, “It’s the low level spirits that constantly invade this place, your ‘former’ kin,” she added, putting a lot emphasis on the word former.

It was apparent that she preferred to think of Pawn as a fellow demon rather than a spirit.

It also was clear that Ember thought of spirits, other than Pawn, as less than dirt, not even batting an eye at the number which must have fallen to bring Pawn from rank 3 to rank 5.

One of the condition of a spirit to increase in rank, was having their current rank’s ‘energy’ reach a set benchmark, 10 fold the amount required by the previous rank.

Starting at the point of sentience, rank1, 1/9, then upon reaching 9/9 it would reset and a ‘rank-up’ would occur, becoming rank 2, 1/90, followed of course by rank 3, 1/900… rank 4, 1/9000… rank 5, 1/90,000…

The energy required by spirits to increase the number by 1 was measured in units simply called ‘spirits,’ as 1 point was the exact amount necessary for a newborn spirit to form from a simple speck of energy, going from rank 0, 0/1, to rank 1.

So having went from rank 3, 328/900, to rank 5, 73/90,000

“9,571 plus the extra 70 or so…” Pawn muttered, trying to determine how she felt about the topic.

In actuality, most of the spirits would have likely been rank 2 or 3, with most of their energy gained via absorbing ambient nature energy, not costing anyone their lives, and then from 1% to 99% of that energy being lost upon death due to the various collection methods.

Pawn followed the two sisters all the way back to their home, a medium sized cabin on the outskirts of a small demon village, very similar to many she had seen before.

She then talked a bit with the two about many things, the territory currently controlled by the ‘enemy’ for example, and where they had ended up upon escaping their village.

Apparently they had spent several years on the street, using their armature skills in both smithing and sewing to slowly gain enough money to make a shop of their own, all of which they had apparently traded to bail out Pawn from prison.

Though the action itself proved to be useless in the end, as Pawn would have escaped regardless of their actions, their motive, which seemed to be simply repaying the spirit for saving them, caused a feeling to linger within Pawn’s heart, further anchoring her onto a path of no return.

(So to get to rank 7, I need roughly 990,000 more spirit energy…) thought Pawn as she followed the two into the cabin, it was nearly 100 fold what she currently had

(…I’d better get started,) conclude Pawn, officially choosing her future path, alongside the demons, against her family, she resolved herself to become a demon.

…In the throne room, the ‘Warden’ sat with a huge smile upon her face, her ten year long plan regarding the spirit was going perfectly to plan.

She had spent an entire decade Layering an endless amount seals and alterations onto the Pawn’s mind, to make her remember things that never happened, to forget those that did, and to do as much damage to the spirit race as possible…

“Do work had for me, oh little ‘sister’ of mine,” she spoke in a voice different to the one she had previously used, a voice which Pawn would recognize as the voice of Lumin.