Chương 27: [1.27] The Bigger Picture (Part 1)

The next morning, despite everything that had happened, Angelica decided to stick with her routine and go for a run. She was doing so in her Imp form. While she was still avoiding making any direct decisions about her future, there were aspects of her situation she couldn't discount that were direct advantages, even if she chose to live on as a normal human. First, the invisibility in her Demon form.

Of course, it wouldn't work on everyone, but as long as it worked on most people, it was still an extremely useful power. Even if she had no plans to use it for illicit means, being able to avoid awkward social situations was a beautiful thought. Angelica could even pretend she wasn't home when her landlord came knocking. She actually had the money to pay Ms. Gate this time, but the fewer interactions with the woman, the better. So Gelic wanted to get better at moving around as an Imp.

She was surprisingly dexterous when bouncing around, but bouncing wasn't always the optimal choice. Running, and heck, even walking, in her blobby body was still difficult, so she wanted to get better at it. Of course, she could always rely on Orders to get her moving if absolutely needed, but part of her didn't want to make them a crutch. She, at the very least, wanted to be able to operate her own self functionally without needing the firm hand.

That was definitely not to say that particular power should be ignored, either. Complete control over herself was definitely optimal, and something she'd want to continue using regardless of the path ahead of her. And she was presently taking advantage of the new Summoner Skill she'd received, Simultaneous Orders. Its description was pretty much what she expected, but did add a little extra insight about Contracts in general.

[Simultaneous Orders | Add a simultaneous Order to a Contract that supersedes the inherent sequential Order limitation. Additional Order must not impede or contradict the original Order. If there are conflicts, the original Order will take priority, and additional Orders will take priority in the sequence they are issued. Priority may be shifted by spending MP. Current additional Orders allowed: 1. Amount of additional Orders scales with Summoner Rank] [Note: If Contract type is Order Exhaust, Simultaneous Orders will cause Contract to count down] That part was the stickler. Lustre had used an Order Exhaust Contract on her, which was probably why she hadn't used Simultaneous Orders, assuming every Summoner got the ability pretty early on. That, or by the inherent nature of what she wanted done, they needed to be taken care of sequentially, regardless, or maybe she just didn't want to use up the MP.

Since Angelica didn't expend MP for her own Orders, she couldn't check how much it cost, but her gut told her it was a lot more resource-intensive to make them simultaneous instead of sequential. And, of course, she knew that other types of Contract existed, and that was what worried her more. Completing fritsy Orders was one thing, but the real terror came from the idea of being permanently Bound.

Like her Soulbound Contract, there were definitely others that made the Demon and Summoner a continuous pair until they were either graciously released, or managed to break free. Undoubtedly, there were more types than those, too, probably ones with conditions like time limits, or other requirements. While she hadn't encountered them yet, there was enough to go on that made her fearful. To counter that, Gelic wanted to increase her Obstinance and the related Skills as much as possible.

Currently, her primary Order was to complete her run as usual. Because of her short and stubby Imp body, that would take significantly longer than usual, maybe even most of the day. But it gave her plenty of time to think things through, and to practice. Angelica was using the free Simultaneous Order slot to repeatedly give herself junk Orders and then cancel them with Order Rejection.

They were usually nonsense things she couldn't feasibly complete like "Steal the Sun" or "Punch the President," whatever her mind randomly came up with. Something she did firmly deduce was that more complicated and wildly idealistic orders were easier to reject than simple ones. They had a higher percentage chance to succeed and cost a lot less MP in general. A very simple order like "Jump Once" had only a 2% chance and cost almost all of her max MP.

It was as if the DGS was telling her to "just do them, dumb-dumb." The caveat was that rejecting simple Orders felt like they provided more Obstinance training if it succeeded. She was being more stubborn by refusing to do reasonable things, so it made sense. As a Summoner, she would switch out the type she gave, usually letting a simple yet reasonably chanced Order drain her MP, followed by absurd Orders with practically guaranteed success and minimal cost.

During this time, while she let her MP regenerate, she'd focus on training Order Resistance, by just riding out the pain, tricking her mind into thinking it was akin to the burn she felt from running. Sadly, she had no way to practice Bind Resistance or Bind Break, at least not by herself. All it took was failing to break Soulbound one time to meet her end, not that she'd even really want it to break.

Its buff of providing increased Bind Resistance was too good, especially when it came to another of her biggest fears. Even if she refused to take part in the whole business of being summoned, that didn't mean she'd always have a choice. Anyone who knew her name could summon her against her will, her true name, at least. Fortunately, that was currently zero Summoners, except for maybe Garvin, if he ever put together her slip-up.

However, knowing her alias gave them the ability to specifically perform a summons targeting her, but she could reject that call… supposedly. Gelic had a stinking feeling, however, that higher-levelled circles wouldn't give her a choice. Soulbound had been listed as being able to even summon a Demon Lord, and there's no way one so strong would give out their true name so easily, so it had to be otherwise forced.

That meant one day, there was a good chance she could just be called away against her will, forced into a Contract, and that was the end of it. Plus, Angelica still hadn't found a good way to get rid of the voices. While she was on a Contract with another Summoner, she wouldn't hear them. Sadly, that didn't apply for her own self-made Contracts, for some reason, maybe because she was such a low-ranked Summoner that her Demon could be tempted away, or something along those lines.

Already, this morning, a few had trickled to her mind, and that would be a constant annoyance. Who knew, maybe she'd just give in someday and accept one to make the voices stop for a while, ending up in a repeat situation as with Lustre. She had very recently learned a lot of this that very morning from checking her DGS screen. Simultaneous Orders wasn't the only Summoner Skill listed now.

There were several, actually, presumably ones she already had the capability to do, or at least knew about, and getting a new one had likely just forced the system to update it and present them. She hadn't read through them all yet, and used an MP Regen break to get more details. There could be more she was capable of and just hadn't seen yet. And first on the list was, of course, the base of it all. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

[Summon | Summon a Demon via a Summoning Circle. If the Demon's true name is known, they may be forcibly summoned. If their Alias is known, they may be requested to answer. Should no specific Demon be desired, a general call may be made. A Demon may be summoned without a Summoning Circle, but it is not recommended] That had provided the information about the naming specifics with summoning.

Gelic also hadn't known about the last caveat with a circle not being needed, but doubted it was something many Summoners did, since it was what kept them safe until the Contract was made. Also notably, it didn't level up, and neither did any other Summoner Skill. In general, the information was pretty sparse about the specifics compared to all her other Skills. Her best guess was that the Demon Growth System just catalogued them for consistency's sake, rather than really incorporating them.

[Bind | Attempt to bind a Demon into your servitude. Once Bound, a Contract will be forged based on the rules engraved in the Summoning Circle and negotiations with the Demon. Negotiations are not required, but recommended for Demon cooperation. Bound Demons cannot attack their Summoner, and the pair become linked with the circle as a catalyst, allowing for additional skills to be used. If binding fails, the Summoning Circle will become inert, and the Demon will have all restraints removed. Recommended to Banish them immediately. Current Binding limit: 1 Demon. Amount of Demons capable of being simultaneously Bound scales with Summoner Rank] Most of that essentially fell in-line with what she speculated. The circle becoming the catalyst was noteworthy, though. It definitively explained why the one in her apartment couldn't be removed, and would assumedly remain for as long as she lived.

And Angelica also learned she had a limit on binding Demons, not that she'd have reason to try, but it would dissuade stupidity. Since she was Bound to herself, it meant any others would fail from the start, so she shouldn't risk summoning anything else for now. [Forge Contract | Should binding fail, attempt to forge a Contract through negotiation alone. This is not recommended unless the Summoner is confident in their ability to suppress or defend against the Demon. Previously Bound or Contracted Demons may be more open to an unbound Contract, but continue to be wary. When in doubt, Banish] That made sense. If a Summoner had built a rapport with a Demon, they could make Contracts without the threat of binding. Hell, Gelic would probably be more open to that if she found one she could trust. Garvin had definitely been playing with fire, though. Since she'd resisted the bind, he should have gotten rid of her immediately.

Maybe since her situation was so weird, or because she was so innocently ignorant, or because he was just too desperate, he'd pushed forward, regardless. [Give Order | Give an Order to the Demon that adheres to the terms of the Contract. If the Order does not adhere to the terms, it will not be imparted unless the Demon accepts it willingly. Keep Orders reasonably related to the Demon's capabilities. The more unreasonable, the easier it is for them to reject the Order] Yup, that confirmed what she'd discovered with her tests. A Summoner couldn't unreasonably ask the impossible. At least there was that safety net. Was that why Lustre had given Gelic the heist Order despite her being a mere Imp, because she'd proven herself capable otherwise? That might be something to dwell on should she answer more Summons, try to present herself as within her means.

And what went hand-in-hand with Give Order was another Skill, which she didn't care for at all. [Command | Should a Demon refuse an Order, force it upon them through Command. Commands are harder to resist, but easier for a Demon to reject by default. Larger disparity in rank makes them harder to reject. Additional MP may be spent to further increase the difficulty of rejection. Named Orders are treated as Commands without requiring additional MP] When Lustre had commanded the Imp to steal the tiara, it had actually been a pretty high chance of rejecting the order, initially, at least. So she must have not wanted to spend the extra MP to make it harder. Or maybe Command normally cost a lot of MP upfront. Angelica couldn't actually try it on herself to see. All of her Orders were accepted without question. All she knew was that she hated it, that was what had almost gotten her killed.

Should she ever summon other Demons, she swore to be a better Summoner, and never use Command, knowing how awful it was on the other side. [Recall | Summon a Bound Demon back to their Summoning Circle. Additional MP may be spent to call the Demon directly to your side] That was what Angelica knew as "Return." She didn't know about the second part, but it would be useless for her, since it would assumedly just waste MP to put her right where she was.

[Mind-Link | Form a telepathic link with a Bound Demon, allowing for telepathic communication and an approximation of their location. If unbound, a link may be formed if both parties consent at the cost of significant MP to establish the link in place of a Summoning Circle, and minor MP to continue with each communication] Once again, she didn't know about the location part. Once again, it was worthless for her. The final bit was a bonus, though.

Should she find friendly Summoners that didn't try to bind her, they could still take advantage of that power. [Banish | Send a summoned Demon back from whence they came, either to Hell, or to the circle of their primary master, if they are Bound by another. This will only work on Demons previously summoned directly by the Summoner, and it will only work once per summons] Ah, so if Gelic were to find her way back to Lustre, wanting revenge on her old master, she wouldn't be able to use Banish again.

That was good to know. However, the Imp's temper had cooled overnight—partially bribed by the tiara—and it would be far too much of a pain to travel to another country. Plus, the Summoner and her family's mansion almost certainly had protections to prevent any random Demon from just waltzing in. But if their paths were to coincidentally cross again, maybe she'd get her bite of flesh, after all. More importantly, though… Wait, Hell is real?!

That felt like far too important of a bit of information to randomly drop in a Skill description. Angelica probably always assumed it was, ever since she'd turned. Demons had to come from somewhere, right? And it made more sense for there to be a place they called home than for them to have been freely roaming her planet all this time without every human knowing. If they just came and went when summoned, then that would be a far easier secret to keep. Still, the idea dug at her for a while.

If Hell was real, did that mean Heaven was, too? Had she forever forsaken herself from it by becoming a Demon? Now she kind of wished she'd paid more attention in the religion classes her mother forced her to take. Were the teachings of Vissiem accurate, then? Up until Gelic got lost in this train of thought, she had actually been making good progress training during her run. [Order Resistance Lv. 4] [Order Rejection Lv. 3] [Obstinance notably increased] Sadly, because she kept cancelling Orders, she didn't get the experience for having them completed, meaning her Summoner Rank had barely budged. She did get a very small amount from just issuing the Order, but it was honestly negligible. Angelica had forgotten all about more Orders while working through her existential conundrum, leaving her body to run on autopilot. Well, it was still more like a sustained waddle with her rotund body.

She didn't really notice the usual ugly, aggravating feeling she typically got when running by a particular mansion. What finally snapped her out of her mental funk was a heavy, yet piercing, voice calling out to her.

"Hello, Imp. Not wearing your disguise today?"