Demoness to Aisle 5

I had this idea for a story earlier today and can't get it out of my head. So I wrote it down. Then Patron Nell / Enabler Nell told me to post it. So here you go, enjoy if you'd like.

Blurb ----
Mira was your average American supermarket employee. Terrible wage. Worse coworkers.

That was, until she accidentally killed an alien she mistook for a supermarket rat. Slaying the strange creature gave her access to a very practical power: the power of imbuement.

The ability to level up everyday items.

The wage is still terrible, and her coworkers still suck, but hey, at least now the cash register can fire death rays.

Ch. 1 ----

PLEASE DISTRACT THE ALIEN SO IT AVOIDS DAMAGING COMPANY PROPERTY

- EATSTUFF MANAGEMENT

The notice was taped poorly to the front door of Eatstuff Greenfield, West Greenfield’s premier location for discount food poisoning.

Or, if you steered clear of the food, it also happened to be the cheapest place in town to buy diapers.

Their target audience was a rather slim population of new mothers and the newly-hospitalized.

“An alien?” Mira muttered, studying the notice. “Has Oliver gone completely insane?”

Her twenty-six year old manager was a deadly mixture of nerd and bodybuilder, so he was prone to bouts of frequent insanity, usually involving the worship of whey protein, or convincing himself that the cast of Star Wars was going to visit Eatstuff Greenfield, for whatever incomprehensible reason, to promote their next movie. But this was a new low.

Mira peeled the notice off the door with a sigh, then used her employee key to shove her way in. The lights shuttered on, revealing a miserable series of half-empty shelves. She did her usual security check, inspecting the windows for any attempted break ins—

(There had only been 1 breakin in 24 years; the inventory at Eatstuff wasn’t exactly worth planning a heist over. It was much more respectable to do it in the full light of day, with the support of whoever was working the cash register.)

—and that’s when she saw it.

“Ah. So you’re the alien.”

The alien in question was no bigger than a hand purse, and resembled a small octopus. It was purple and fleshy, squabbling around on the floor. Mira had witnessed almost every kind of vermin invade the store at some point, but this, she admitted, was new.

But hey, West Greenfield was known for its biodiversity.

Not giving it another thought, she went to the back room and fetched her reliable baseball bat, affectionately labeled The Squasher, infamous killer of non-human living things.

Returning to face the small creature, she raised the baseball bat high above her head.

But then she paused.

“Maybe I should call Animal Control,” she mumbled to herself. “You look like some kind of endangered species. Actually, you look like a prehistorically extinct species.”

With an annoyed sigh of I’m not paid enough for this, she returned to the back room once more, grabbing a container and a fresh pair of rubber gloves, and then squatted in front of the small purple mongrel. Upon closer inspection, she saw that it had a perimeter of eyes running alongside its purple body. Not only that, but it had sixteen stubby, squishy legs, not eight, and a small array of teeth that protruded from flesh.

“You are the grossest rat I have ever seen.”

If it wasn’t clear, Mira was not known for her ability to identify animal species.

“Alright, come here….”

She scooped the slimy thing into her gloved hands, and then aimed it for the plastic container.

That’s when things took a turn for the worse.

The mongrel bit her—not a nibble, but a proper bite—tearing through two layers of gloves. Mira yelped, sending the thing flying. She hadn’t been looking where she was throwing it, because it did a spiral through the air, then landed with a splash into her mop bucket.

A mop bucket that was full of god’s deadliest chemical: Eatstuff-brand cleaning fluid.

A screech like the death of the universe echoed from the bucket. She ran to it, still holding her bleeding hand, to see that the creature had been completely dissolved. It was nothing but purple puddy swirling in a bucket of poisonous pink. 

Mira grimaced. “Sorry about that, little guy. I’m sure scientists would have loved to study you.”

Curiously, the bucket looked a lot... sturdier, than it had before the animal had flopped inside it. It seemed to be made of a stronger material than it was a minute ago, as if it had gone from shoddy plastic to reinforced steel.

But that's not possible.

Just as she was about to ignore it and go bandage up her hand, a blue, holographic screen came to life in front of her eyes, nearly blinding her.

Congratulations, slayer! Per Doctrine III of the Alkavari System, you have inherited the powers of the one you have slain. This one carried the blessing of IMBUEMENT.

IMBUEMENT (LVL 1) — To imbue commonplace things with uncommon traits.

Points of Imbuement: 1.

Good luck.