Now outside the ruined tower, Enochia was doing something that would have looked completely insane to anyone watching, which, thankfully, there was no one, because explaining this to another human being would have been hard.
She had dragged a massive sack of white powder out into the open, and was busy clipping it onto the underside of one drone, the fabric sagging like an overfed cloud while the little machine buzzed in protest but held steady. The second drone got the empty sack, because she needed both of them if she wanted her stupid plan to work.
Once they were secured, she straightened up, wiped her hands on her thighs, and flicked her wrist.
[Dispel]
The drilling unit shimmered and collapsed back into raw mana, folding away into nothing with a soft pop. She gave the spot where it had been a quick salute. “Good job out there, you greedy little rock-muncher. You earned your rest.”
Then she turned to Cervain, who had followed her out without a sound.
“Thanks for last night, dude,” she told him, voice softer than usual. “Seriously. You deserve some downtime too.”
[Dispel]
And the knight dissolved into black motes that swirled once around her before vanishing, leaving her suddenly.
She exhaled, rolled her shoulders, and looked up at the two drones hovering overhead.
“Alright, my little sky babies—scout high, stay directly above me, and ping the second you spot anything with horns, wings, claws, or bad intentions. Got it?”
They buzzed once in unison and shot upward until they were just faint specks against the ceiling of this hellscape. She started walking towards the camp, boots crunching over brittle stone and ash, and let her mind wander out loud.
“Okay, Chia,” she muttered. “Current plan is to get as stupidly powerful as fast as humanly, well, formerly humanly possible. This whole place is basically one giant permanent gate, right? Which means the deeper you go, the better the loot, the tougher the fights. My drones haven’t spotted any other structures yet, so odds are the camp is the next real step.”
She looked at another black rock similar to her recent friend, Chad. “I hate being this alone, so I’m clearing that village now, Knight or no Knight. Level fifty would make it a cakewalk, obviously, but I’m not even thirty yet and my skills are still baby-tier. Tough, but possible. I’ve done tougher with less.”
She kicked a loose rock, watched it skitter away into a crack.
“WAIT.” The thought hit her like a slap. “I still have that quest. The imp one. Did I finish it?”
She swiped the interface open mid-stride, scrolling to Quests with the same eagerness she used to check her phone for exam results back in the world.
─────────────────────────────
Quest Completed – Slay 100 Imps
Progress: 100 / 100
Reward: Permanent Miracle (Passive), Unique Title
─────────────────────────────
─────────────────────────────
Grade 3 Miracle Gained
[Born of Fire] – The user becomes immune to any and all types of damage from basic fire/heat.
─────────────────────────────
Grade 1 Title Gained
[Heir of Nothing] – Doubles the EXP gained from slaying demons.
Restricted until Level 50.
─────────────────────────────
For a solid three seconds Enochia just stood there, mouth open, staring at the words like they might vanish if she blinked.
Then she coughed, and again, and a few more times.
Her foot caught on absolutely nothing, a completely flat piece of ground, and she pitched forward with all the grace of a sack of bricks, arms windmilling uselessly before she ate dirt face-first.
She lay there for another second, stunned, then rolled onto her back and let out a laugh that started low and built into something loud, wild, borderline manic.
“DOUBLE EXP?!” she yelled at the ceiling, voice cracking with pure, unfiltered glee. “ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW? I GET TO KEEP THIS SHIT FOREVER?!”
‘I don’t even fucking care that I can’t equip it until I get to level 50, this shit rocks!’
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
She punched the air with both fists, legs kicking up little puffs of dust like a kid throwing a tantrum in reverse.
“Born of Fire is kinda bums, but not too bad for a grade 3! But double XP—double—holy shit, Roo, you beautiful bastard of an angel, I could kiss you if you had a face!”
She scrambled back to her feet, brushing ash off her armor with frantic, excited swipes. She soon stopped brushing because holy shit this was the least productive cleaning method in the history of ever.
She hated being dirty, more than basically anything except maybe evil people, devils and wet socks, and right now she was a walking biohazard who needed three things in this exact order: a bath, a drink and food.
To be honest, she could not focus the fuck up without those basic things, and there was a real chance her brain would short circuit and go to them when she was in a middle of a fight.
Her eyes slid sideways to the river of lava flowing not even fifty feet away.
“Hey, big guy, this Born of Fire thing, it gives me full immunity to any and all heat damage, right? Like, literally any? No fine print?”
[Affirmative. Complete immunity to thermal damage from basic sources, which include basic attacks and all natural thermal sources.]
Enochia’s grin split her face so wide it hurt. “Say no more, you glorious bastard.”
She broke into a sprint, boots pounding ash and brittle stone, straight toward the river that should have been cooking her alive just from proximity.
The closer she got the hotter the air became, and right as she skidded to a stop on the bank the flour still dusting her armor and hair decided it had had enough and ignited in a sudden whoosh of white flame that raced up her body like someone had lit a human sparkler.
[-1 HP] [-1 HP] [-1 HP] [-1 HP]
“FUCK!” she yelped, flailing for half a second like a startled cat before common sense caught up.
She sucked in a breath, focused, and triggered the skill.
[Born of Fire] – On
The flames didn’t go out so much as they… gave up, fizzling into nothing with a disappointed hiss, leaving her standing there in a sudden bubble of cool air while everything around her still looked like the inside of an active volcano.
And just like that the blistering wall of heat that had been pressing against her face vanished, replaced by this gentle, golden warmth that felt exactly like stepping out of air conditioning into a perfect summer afternoon.
She blinked. “God please let this actually work.”
One cautious finger extended toward the glowing orange surface.
She dipped it in.
Nothing.
No sizzle, no pain, just thick, slow-moving warmth sliding around armored finger like dipping into the world’s densest, hottest Jacuzzi.
“HOLY FUCK IT FEELS LIKE WATER!”
She yanked her hand back out, stared at the perfectly clean finger dripping slow molten droplets that cooled into harmless black pebbles the second they hit the bank.
“Lava is just melted rock, right? Why is it so runny?”
She plunged her whole arm in up to the shoulder, swirling it around like she was testing bathwater temperature, then pulled it free and shook it wildly, watching every last speck of grime and ash and flour evaporate in tiny puffs of steam.
“Hehehehe… Time to test the last thing”
She grabbed a few strands of her own hair and very slowly, very carefully, lowered the ends into the lava, watching as the orange light licked up the ends without a single hiss or sizzle.
She counted to three—one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, three—then pulled them back out.
They came back out glossy, soft, smelling faintly iron, but that did not matter, her hair didn’t burn or get melted off!
She took three running steps backward for momentum, then yelled “CANNONBALL, MOTHERFUCKERS!” to the empty hellscape, wrapped her arms around her knees, and hurled herself into the river.
The impact sent up a slow, syrupy wave of glowing orange that rolled outward, and she sank for a heartbeat before popping back, laughing so hard she snorted lava bubbles.
She immediately rolled onto her back and kicked into a lazy backstroke, arms sweeping wide while the thick liquid cradled her.
“Oh my god this is the best bath in the history of baths,” she groaned, eyes half-closed in bliss. “I’m never getting out. You can bury me here. Just put a little tombstone on the bank that says ‘Here lies Enochia, died happy.’”
She flipped over, paddled a few strokes downstream, then spun in a sloppy circle, arms windmilling, before scooping up a double handful of the molten glow and holding it up like a trophy.
Curiosity, her oldest and most dangerous friend had won again. She brought it close, stuck out her tongue, and gave the tiniest, most reckless lick..
To no ones surprise but her own, she was forced to spit it out. “TASTES LIKE HOT METAL AND LIME?! FUCK THAT, Zero stars.”
Still giggling, she dunked her head completely under, came up shaking glowing rivulets from her hair like a dog after a bath.
She ran her fingers through it, marveling. “I’m… shiny. I’m actually shiny. Roo, if you can hear me, please give me more of these quality of life skills. If you do, then we’re even for me going to hell. Fuck that, I’ll go a step further and will go on a date with you.”
Enochia’s proposal to the invisible one running her life got chopped clean in half the second something cold and hard brushed up her calf, making her yelp a high-pitched “Yiiip!” that echoed embarrassingly across the lava river before she thrashed her leg.
For one stupid heartbeat she thought maybe she’d just brushed the bottom, but then the thing tightened, yanked, and the entire world flipped upside down as she got dragged under the thick orange tide with a wet sucking sound.
[-50 HP]
The damage number blinked in her vision while lava flooded her mouth and nose and ears, and she screamed “FULSAKK SAHHIT” which came out as bubbly molten gibberish.
Pure animal panic took the wheel, making her unconsciously scream out “COMEEEE THE FLLUYYCK OUT CERVAIIIIINMMM.”
Cervain materialized in a beautiful swirl of black motes directly above the surface before gravity dropped him straight into the lava with a spectacular hiss-crackle-scream combo that would have been hilarious if it wasn’t her fault.
The knight flailed as he started to melt like a piece of scrap, and Enochia had just enough time to think 'Oh my god I’m a fucking moron' before she barked [Dispel] with every ounce of self-loathing she had left.
Black motes exploded outward, yanking Cervain back into safety while she thrashed against whatever had her ankle in a death grip.
[Infernal Pulse]
She roared, voice bubbling through lava, and the skill detonated outward in a violent shockwave that shoved the lava away in a perfect sphere around her, sending the unseen bastard recoiling with a wet screech, and left her floating in the sudden pocket of superheated air, dripping and furious.
She quickly launched herself upward with everything her legs could give, bursting out of the river and landing on the scorched bank, steam pouring off.
“WHO THE FUCK DARES!” she screamed through her teeth.
