Isaiah panted on the ground, burying his head between his knees and wrapping his arms over his head. He squeezed his eyes tight with terror.  Suddenly, a sound assaulted his ears, and Isaiah screamed.  In time, his throat dried out and his limbs grew stiff, but Isaiah continued screaming.

 

After a some time, Isaiah realized that he wasn't being tortured any more.  He stopped screaming.  He then realized that his arms were stiff from squeezing his head so tightly.  He loosened them.  Then, the sound started again.  Isaiah flinched, before realizing that the sound did not cause pain.  As he allowed himself to gain more and more awareness, Isaiah realized that he understood the sounds.

 

"Its a feisty little thing." A disembodied voice said.

 

Another voice joined it: "Where is Brother Marcus, he should be able to identify it." 

 

Isaiah hesitantly lifted his head.  Then, when no new pain assailed him, he opened his eyes.  Two glowing blue lines of text covered his vision.

 

A free Racial Trait is available

 

Racial Trait "Dimensional Instinct" has been chosen

"Dimensional Instinct" exceeds subject's current energy capacity

"Dimensional Instinct" has been downgraded to "Instinctive Dimensional Navigation"

 

Isaiah stared, blinking fast.  When he focussed more on the sight, he recognized it as something like a game notification.  After he read through it, it grew subtlety brighter before disappearing.  With the message gone, Isaiah was finally able to see his surroundings.  He appeared to be in a brightly lit but mostly black room.  There were no windows, and the walls appeared to be rough, large stone blocks.  The room had six corners, and at each there was a single veiled torch.  The roof was supported by an elegant wood arch that started from each of the floor's corners and supported a peaked ceiling, although the wood itself wasn't finished.  The floor had dark red markings drawn in a circle around Isaiah.

 

The markings were by far the most interesting thing about the room, as they seemed far more ornate and... artistic than the rest of the room.  Isaiah felt as if a deep meaning were hidden within the occult shapes.  The smell they let off was also pleasantly reminiscent of human blood... that didn't sound right.  Isaiah recalled that in many reincarnation stories vampires would be attracted to blood, but vampires had smooth, pale skin.  They certainly did not have only three knobby fingers tipped with nail-claw hybrids.  

 

This didn't seem right.  Ignoring the hooded men around him, Isaiah continued to inspect his body.  He was thin, painfully so.  His knees bent past his head, brushing ears that extended sideways into points far away from his head.  His skin was a burnt red, with random black spots interspersed throughout.  His feet and hands were both disproportionally large and in possession of the weird claw-nail hybrids.  

 

Shivering slightly, Isaiah recalled what the goddess was said about reincarnating him (and what happened after).  Closing his eyes slightly, he invoked the all-powerful mantra.

 

'Status'

 

Name:  none 

Race: Chaos Demon

Class: Imp

Stats:

Magical Health Reserve: 9/∞

Intelligence: 10

Defence: 13

Speed: 11

Strength: 17

Optimization: 7

Learned Traits:

Holy Aura Resistance lv. 7

On a Separate window there was also:

Racial Traits:	Class Traits:
Endless Compatibility lv. Max	Dominant Reproducer lv. 8
Temperature Resistance lv. Max	Mischievous Personality lv. 3
Holy Element Weakness lv. Max	Clannish Nature lv. 3
Light Element Weakness lv. 5	Demonic Touch lv. 1
Night Vision lv. 4	Illusion Magic lv. 1
Instinctive Dimensional Navigation lv. 1	Mind Magic lv. 1

 

So, that was one thing that actually went mostly as expected.  It was weird to see his magical reserves and his health bar combined into a single stat, but it kinda made sense if he was a magical being.  It meant that using magic could actually kill him, but it also meant that if he could figure out how to recover magic, he could grow nigh infinitely powerful.  There was no level, he assumed that the "Class" entry substituted for it?  Intelligence, speed, strength, and defense all made sense.  He had no idea what the optimization stat was though.  Focussing on it brought about no change, except causing the screen to glow transparent around that spot.  He tried touching it, but it seemed like the screen was directly on top of his eyes.  He also had questions about the Traits page.

 

Status, pt. two is now accessible by the keyword "Traits"

 

Ok... so the system could read his mind.  He should have known that, considering he had summoned the status screens with his thoughts.  So, that means that the system also heard his inquiry about the optimization stat and had just chosen not to answer.

 

'..............'

 

'System, "Optimization"?  eh?'

 

................

 

'System?'

 

Your Lamar World System favor level is too low to necessitate a respond to query.

 

'Well, there's that.  Where do I see my favor level?'

 

Meanwhile, the men that Isaiah had been ignoring had stepped aside to allow a new member through.  Unlike the others, the newcomer had copper lining on the outside of his cloak and hood.  He stepped up to Isaiah with an air of tired authority.

 

---

 

Marcus the Initiated groaned as he approached the fifth summoning room.  He had won his Initiation by learning to use the rare trait "Identify" which allowed him to see another's status.  He had expected to be treated with a proper amount of respect after earning his copper robes, but fate was not so kind to him.  Apparently, "Identify" was a useful trait to have for a demonic researcher, but it was completely useless in combat.  While his superiors agreed that it would be "convenient" to intimately know an opponent's stats, "Identify" could only be used at close-combat range.  By then, you were either able to defeat your opponent, or you were not.  Knowing whether or not you stood a chance did not change the outcome at best, and demoralized or gave false confidence at worst.

 

Thus, Marcus was banned to working with the uninitiated by helping them identify research anomalies.  While he knew that he was technically their superior, he did not feel like it as he was hustled between rooms like some common tool.  Approaching the final bend into the summoning room, Marcus slowed his steps.  While his abilities might be considered nothing more than a convenience, he would still make an entrance befitting of a copper robe.

 

He squinted as he strode in.  Summoning rooms were kept especially dim out of some superstition that demons hated the light.  While most of the demons that Marcus identified had night vision, he believed that it was a forced evolution caused by the environment of hell rather than a sign of demons actively avoiding light.  Which brought up questions about hellfire.  Shaking his head, Marcus looked at the Imp that had been summoned and sighed in disappointment.  While a successful summon was rare and exciting, an imp class was little better than a common goblin.  Focussing, he activated Identify.

 

The disappointment Marcus had been feeling fled as he looked at the first stat.  Nine was a low MHR, even for Imps, but the potential was infinite!  He swiftly turned to one of the uninitiated.

 

"Go get Elder Brother Judis!  He needs to see this!"

 

As the messenger ran off, Marcus turned to the rest of the crowd.

 

"Who summoned this?"

 

One of the initiates pointed towards the messenger that just ran out the door.  Of course.  Still, he would learn what he could.  Focusing again, he brought out a book and charcoal to record his thoughts.  The cost of the paper was well worth this discovery.  

 

'Its race is new, could it be related to the legendary void demon?  The rest of the stats are about average, 10, 13, 11, 17, 7.  But its MHR, nine out of infinity, infinity!  It has a trait called Endless Compatibility, could that be the cause of its insane potential?  In addition to the normal Holy weakness, it also has a Light weakness, only level 5.  Its Holy Aura resistance is astonishing for an Imp, ours have died after achieving the second level!  So many anomalies are unsecured in one little Imp!'

 

Marcus lowered his notebook.  As a copper robe, we was well within his rights to have an Imp as a familiar.  Of course, normally making any sort of contract with a demon was considered very risky.  Not many people, even among the cultist, actually choose a demon as their familiar.  But this demon had infinite potential.  Infinite!  Of course, once the higher ups of the order got ahold of him, they would make good on it, and quickly raise its class past imp.  By then, Marcus would have lost the opportunity to contract with the demon.  He would be praised for having the discovery made in his jurisdiction of course, but then he would be forgotten, left to scuttle once more as the convenient identifier.  Better to risk greatness than be doomed to obscurity.  After all, wasn't that the reason he joined a cult in the first place?

 

Reaching into his robes, Marcus pulled out a thin knife.  He made a swift cut across his finger and began writing up a contract in the ancient demonic runes.  Of course, the Imp wouldn't be able to read it, but the system could take care of that.

 

---

 

Isaiah had been studiously questioning the system all the while.  He hadn't gotten any response since he learned about his "favor level" but knowledge was power.  He had seen another person arrive, but nobody was talking to him or asking him to slay the demon king.  How would that work now that Isaiah was apparently a demon himself?  Anyways, Isaiah had decided that the most productive use of his time was to try to figure out how to gain power through the system.  It was possible that his MHR regenerated passively, or that it would recover once he cast a spell, but he wanted to be sure before he burned through his own life for the sake of acquiring common knowledge.  

 

Finally, it seemed that one of his questions had been worth asking, since blue lines appeared across Isaiah's vision.  

 

Marcus of the Demon Cult offers a familiar contract

Accept

Deny

Read

As the lines appeared, of of the robed fellows stepped forward, holding a piece of paper. Isaiah crunched his eyes.  It seemed that this message had not been caused by any of his questions, but rather by the fellow in front of him.  Actually, it was rather hard to see with these words in front of his face, could spamming an opponent with messages be an effective battle tactic?  He read through the options, and almost agreed on reflex.  After all, this was like a quest, and wasn't accepting quest the only way to progress throughout any RPG game?  However, Isaiah also recalled with trepidation the last time he had ignored the fine print when talking to a certain goddess.  He was really going to have to move past that.  For now though, Isaiah focused on the screen and accepted the third option, "read".

 

'This had better not be like a terms and conditions sheet.  If it's over seven pages, then I am just going to accept, no, then I am going to deny it straight out.'

 

Fortunently, it did not seem that that was the case, as the blue lines changed into only a single paragraph of legalese.

 

'Lets see what I am about to get myself into'

 

Familiar Contract:

One Chaos Demon agrees to be the contracted familiar of Marcus the Initiated.  Said demon will obey Marcus by word or intent, and in exchange, Marcus will extend his divine protection veil over said Chaos Demon.  Said Chaos Demon will also receive limited access to Marcus's magical reserves when fulfilling Marcus's commands.

 

Isaiah looked up angrily at the man, Marcus.  The deal actually sounded pretty sweet, since his own magical reserves were so dangerously low (he assumed, he hadn't had a lot of experience for comparison, but nine sounded pretty bad).  Still, Isaiah was in the habit of asking for more when he could get it.  Besides, some parts of this contract were just plain sloppy.

 

---

 

Marcus looked nervously at the Imp, confident that his hood would hide his expression.  The deal he had offered the imp was really quite nice, normally beings at that status would have to be content with a divine protection veil.  Of course, he had a reason for offering the Imp access to his magical stores, since many of the experiments he wanted to try couldn't be done with a mere nine magic points.  Still, it was a good deal for the Imp.

 

Which is why he was very surprised to see an angry look cross its face as it glared at him.

 

"What trash are you offering me?"  it asked.  "There is no way that I am going to accept this!"

 

Marcus grimaced, then signaled an initiate to remove the runes that kept divine influence at bay.  To his surprise the creature merely kept talking.  

 

'Of course, his Holy Aura Resistance is level 7.'  It would take the presence of a god or a priest's attack to get him to even flinch.  Seriously, how did the creature cultivate such a high resistance?'

 

---

 

Meanwhile Isaiah nearly paused his prattling as a pain vaguely reminiscent of the goddess's transformation.  However, it was far, far milder and more confused.  While the goddess's realm could be compared to a megaphone shouting "Rebirth" to an empty stadium, here it was more like dozens of confused whispers.  "Pain, Knowledge, War, Victory, Strength, Ocean".  They all pulled at him, trying to make his body perform several incompatible acts.  Fortunately several of them cancelled each other out, and some didn't even apply to him.  How could he "Ocean" anyways?  Isaiah was glad that he had managed to keep talking, as, judging by the faces of many of the robes, this was their trump card.

 

'This is why a good poker face is required for negotiations!'

 

"First off, this is sloppy."  Better start with the obvious and unimportant first.  "This contract looks like it would continue indefinitely, how on Earth am I supposed to serve you when you are just a skeleton?  At least specify that the contract ends when either party is dead!  Also, I will obey your intent?  How on Earth am I supposed to do that?  I can't read minds, you know."  

 

Finally Isaiah brought up the most important point, though he kept his tone casual.

 

"Also, what the hell is "limited access"?  I have never heard of such tenuous wording in all of my life!  Is it ten percent, fifty percent, a hundred?  Numbers, please!"

 

---

 

Marcus winced.  He seemed to be doing that a lot these days.  He had been worried when the demon had brushed off the divine influence, since it was the only known way to pressure demons.  However, most of the Imp's adjustments seemed surprisingly reasonable.  He thought he sensed a trap in ending the contract with death, however, so he added another caveat.  He made the adjustment in charcoal, by damn if he was going to spill any more blood for the imp!

 

Familiar Contract:

One Chaos Demon agrees to be the contracted familiar of Marcus the Initiated.  Said demon will obey Marcus by word, or intent and in exchange, Marcus will extend his divine protection veil over said Chaos Demon.  Said Chaos Demon will also receive limited access to Marcus's magical reserves when fulfilling Marcus's commands, up to 50 percent.  The contact will end when either party is recognized as "dead" by the world system.  Neither party may kill the other.

 

He looked at it, dissatisfied.  "By word or intent" was the proven formula when dealing with demons.  Of course, most contracts were made with high ranking demons who actually could read minds.  Looking over his shoulder hastily, he thought he heard the Elder Brother approaching.  Without time for more revisions, he hastily offered the contract to the Imp again.

 

---

 

Warning, you have received one point of damage!  MHR 8/∞

 

Isaiah jumped when he saw the message.  It didn't feel like he had lost a ninth of his health.  Maybe his human body had had the trait "Enhanced Sensitivity."  It would make sense, since most animals seemed able to ignore injuries much better then humans.  It looked like the human was in a hurry too, as it shoved the contract back into Isaiah's face.  Seeing that the requested revisions were all there, as well as one obvious new rule, Isaiah hurriedly accepted.

 

Both man and demon sighed in relief as a new hood walked into the room.  This one wore silver threaded in intricate patterns about the hood and seemed much more confident in his authority than Marcus ever did.

 

"Well uninitiated, let's see what you have summoned here."