*POV Eric*

[Skill "Energy perception" leveled up to lv. 5]

[Skill "Energy manipulation" leveled up to lv. 3]

[Skill "Water techniques" leveled up to lv. 3]

[Skill "Fire resistance" leveled up to lv. 3]

[Skill "Body manipulation" leveled up to lv. 5]

[Skill "Appraisal" leveled up to lv. 5]

[Appraisal has reached a certain level, increasing domain of the system the user is allowed to access. Success, evolving system capabilities.]

[Conditions fulfilled. Skill "Energy absorption" lv. 1 was added]

[Conditions fulfilled. Skill "Energy conversion" lv. 1 was added]

[Title "Reincarnator" was added. Fate has been adjusted. You will be watched.]

[Conditions fulfilled. Skill "Forbidden" lv. 1 was added.]

Hm? So I'm awake now, huh.

I hadn't slept for so long that I kind of forgot how sleeping is like, my body doesn't need it after all, I'm actually not even sure how to even go to sleep, I can't seem to close my eyes after all.

Now that makes me wonder, do I even have eyes? How do I see? I can't answer these questions, so I'll just say it is magic.

Now, I need to appraise myself to see how much stronger I am after evolution.

[Eric] lv. 1

Species: Greater spirit
Skill points: 1
Stats:
Hp: 104/104
Ep: 178/178
Strength: 39
Defense: 26
Energy strength: 112

Well, I am quite a bit stronger than previously, thought the difference margin would be bigger but whatever, and it appears that Appraisal had leveled up while evolving, that is pretty useful. But it looks like the layout changed, now there is no more useless info, pretty good, as it does take space from my eyesight the larger it is. Can I still enable them though? Hm, it looks like I can, wait a moment? "Sex: N/A"... I'm not commenting on that. Let's just disable that.

Ahem, l-looks like I'm focused on energy attacks a lot more than physical ones, my hp had jumped from around 60 to 100 in this evolution. Looks like evolution is the way to go for getting stronger, so if I want to survive better against the demons in here, I'll have to evolve a lot more.

Now I can finally explore a bit more, some demons I have to absolutely ignore no matter what. A large muscular demon had around 1200 HP for example, that is definitely beyond me. No question about it, no ifs or buts or whatever, if I fight it, I die. Simple as that.

I'll need to be careful, one wrong step and it's over. I do wonder what others would do in this situation though, probably despair. But I ain't weak like that, I can handle anything. I do wonder what my ma and the old man would do though, can't really remember 'em much. They were quite estranged from each other, would rarely even talk. But that's the only thing I can remember.

Huh, maybe I spent too much time in here worrying about not getting mauled by demons, it is actually quite concerning how my memory about them isn't completely clear.

Nothing I can do about it, I'll have to explore the rest of hell now, maybe find an exit. Although I'm a little doubtful whether I'll find one or not.

I'm just praying that there is an exit. But I need to get out there no matter what, without strength, I'll get mauled to death or maybe something even worse by these demons.

When I exited the crack in the roof, I could see the familiar sight of fire, lava and stone. This is one mean looking sight, I'll never be able to get used to it.

Staying out in the open for too long would be a bad idea, these demons can come from anywhere, almost like they can smell me.

Surely enough, the moment I had mentioned that, a demon had appeared on the floor. It wasn't like the imps before it, no, this one was smarter. It had a humanoid shape, except that its arms had bones coming out of them in the shape of blades. And it had a set of wings, and had no skin covering it.

[Demon] lv. 3

Species: Osteolepid Demon
Status: normal
Stats:
Hp: 165/269
Ep: 77/101
Strength: 144
Defense: 77
Energy strength: 66

Not good, that is a very powerful foe, but unfortunately for it, it looks to be specialized in melee attacks, too bad that my body cannot be attacked by physical attacks, wait I should say thankfully instead because I'm rooting for me not for it.

Unlike the imps, it didn't charge immediately, it stayed there, watching me with its slit eyes.

I am not going to be the one to charge first, if you want to play this game, then let's play.

I floated and kept moving to the right, it moved opposite to me. We kept circling each other, until it eventually decided to attack.

It leapt forward, moving at a speed that I could not predict. Then, it shot fire from its mouth as it dropped on me.

I split my body in half to avoid the attack. The disorientation from such a move made me take a second to be able to continue moving.

The demon was close to me now, I retaliated by firing a water whip at it. Stinging its flesh red and taking off a small piece of it.

The demon was enraged by my retaliation, it created flames on the tip of its bone blades, and then shot them towards me.

I flew up to dodge its flames, but then the demon had jumped out of the fire and flapped up to cut me in two with its flame covered bone blades.

No you don't you bastard!

I split off the parts that were done for and had saved my body, in the air, I had total superiority over it, as it now was trying to glide back to the ground.

Although your last attack was less effective than I thought, I can assure you, that hurt like hell.

I prepared a ball of water, I had then pressurized it to the extreme by surrounding it with energy.

Then I chased after the demon, and held that ball into its chest, then I let the ball explode.

The ball had violently exploded into the chest of the gliding demon. A large hole the size of a fist had appeared in the demons chest, and it was now falling.

Looking at its status, it was now at 40 HP, and had a severe bleeding debuff on it. Serves you right you damn demonic bastard.

Looking on my own status, an attack like that consumed 40 EP, crap, pressurizing it that much for that long was definitely too much. But I have a gut feeling that tells me I'll level up against a powerful opponent like this.

The demon had started rising from the floor, it slumped over and stumbled as it rose.

It then roared loudly and started firing everything it had at once. It filled the entire area with fire, and shot several dozen fireballs at me.

I couldn't dodge all of them, so I had to minimize my losses. It looks like a wounded beast is the most dangerous.

I retreated up against the roof, and then spread out my body as much as possible, it might seem counterintuitive, but spreading out would be better than compressing myself, it makes it more likely I'll survive, albeit with more damage than I would want.

Then the fire had reached me.

Argh!

I nearly screamed out from how bad it hurt, I must resist it, god damn it!

[Conditions fulfilled. Skill "Pain resistance" lv. 1 was added]

[Proficiency of skill "Pain resistance" reached the required amount. Increasing level of skill "Pain resistance" to lv. 2]

[Proficiency of skill "Pain resistance" reached the required amount. Increasing level of skill "Pain resistance" to lv. 3]

I held on as more parts of me were burnt, I didn't even know where I was anymore. Until finally, the fire vanished.

Haah, haah, looks like I win.

The demon had collapsed on the floor, with its EP at 0, it was bleeding out, and was going to die soon.

I floated down to it, then I grabbed one of its blade arms, and slit its throat with it.

[412 Exp points were added]

[Required exp amount reached. "Eric" leveled up to lv. 2]

[Proficiency of skill "Energy absorption" reached the required amount. Increasing level of skill "Energy absorption" to lv. 2]

[4 skill points were added]

[Stats increased]

Haah, it was finally over. My god, that was terrifying... I'm feeling like I'm shaking, this is a lot different than fighting imps. And I'm not sure how I persevered through that fight.

Suddenly, I started hearing more roars, and the sound of approaching steps, then I could see the approaching demons. 4 of these Osteolepids had arrived, they were fast and were glaring daggers at me.

Upset that I killed that one? Or perhaps you just want to kill me? Whichever one it is, I'm not letting you get me.

I started retreating from them, fighting four of them at the same time sound like a bad idea. They might be specialized for melee, but they still have energy attacks.

I started retreating up into the roof, but then they started bombarding the roof. Staying up in one of those holes is suicide now. The only way to get away is to run, or fight.

I started flying away from them, but they were far too quick to get away from, plus, they could even fly, although not as good as me, but that means getting away will be practically impossible.

It looks like I have to fight.

Hahaha! Whatever! If you want to fight, then I'll rip you apart! Bring it on you damn demons!