Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution litRPG] Chapter 8: [1.08] Book Learning (Part 2)

Read chapter 8 of Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution litRPG] by Drim on NovelPedia.

Angelica settled back down with the book after moving her mountain of clothes. She wasn’t making many more strides after the name revelation, so she decided to flip forward to the illustrated pages. One thing she had noticed, however, was that the words she could read seemed to be those she’d heard in her head from the various messages. Not all the words, though. Many common phrases were missing, or so she had to assume. Imp? When did I hear Imp? she pondered after getting to the first set of depicted demons. Not that she complained while studying the little guys. They were definitely the lowest class and ranged from not-intimidating at all to creepiness incarnate. She couldn’t read the other names as she scanned up the assumed hierarchy, at least not until the last one. “Demon Lord.” That only had one sketch, and they were one of the more human-looking of the bunch. Frankly, they didn’t look that grand, almost like a person dressing up as a demon. However, the artist, or whoever had printed the book, had shaded their entire picture and the area around it with what looked like charcoal. Was it supposed to represent their power, or maybe some radiating evil? Perhaps they were trying to redact the drawing but failed. And was it supposed to be Ferrul? That was the only Demon Lord Angelica knew of, assuming that hadn’t been a figment of her imagination. If so, it was nice to put a face to the name. She continued onward to the various circles, now confirmed as Demon Summoning Circles. Was there a reason there were so many? Perhaps they served different functions. She saw Imp listed again several times, often one of the few words in an array’s descriptor. Could certain circles only summon specific classes of Demons? That sounded right, since she only saw Demon Lord mentioned toward the highest-leveled ones. There were also the words Contracts and Orders several times. Would the circles also dictate what sort of orders could be given or contracts formed? That didn’t sound right, since so far, she had found absolutely no limitations on ordering herself around. Maybe it was the number of Orders that could be given. Well, there wasn’t much point speculating until she learned more words, so she decided to move on to the circle she’d painted. As before, there were several common words, including Demon Lord. Perhaps this circle was capable of summoning one as well. But there was one word in particular that really stood out, and it was the only time she’d been able to read the full name of the array. “Soulbound Demon Summoning Circle.” The word soul was repeated a few times in the description, so it was definitely an important caveat that she hadn’t seen anywhere else. That was when Angelica remembered the last thing she’d said before everything went crazy that night. “I’ll give you my soul.” Had that been the trigger that had activated the circle? Was it the price to be paid? Things were starting to make a lot more sense, but it still didn’t answer one question. Why had she summoned herself instead of anything she’d called on? Angelica was pretty sure she had mentioned Demons in that same act of whimsy. Wouldn’t that have called upon one, assuming they were actually real? It felt like they had to be real after everything she’d gone through. She scoured the description of the Soulbound Circle a few times, which was significantly longer than most. The word “name” also stood out amongst the rest. So a name would be important? That made sense, she guessed. If the Summoner was offering their soul, they better get exactly what they were asking for. And she hadn’t named anyone specific in her chant, so that could have caused the problem, but her instincts told her it was something more specific. So she studied the circle itself for a while, focusing on the intricacies. Yet her eyes kept wandering over to the suspicious blank spot in the circle that was surrounded by what sort of looked like brackets. It really felt like something was supposed to