The bug demon may not have had the last laugh, however it nearly woke the nearby demons. Their eggs moved subtly as if responding to the danger, before calming back down as the silence returned. 

Ryan did not fail to notice the correlation. Between the noise made by breaking the shell and the screeches of battle, it seems he has found what may trigger the mass hatching. He believes that normally, the first demons to hatch start a cascade event. This occurs either by hatching loudly or attacking another loudly. So far, Ryan has not triggered it himself in this isolated area, and now he has begun to think that perhaps he can milk this early stage if he can keep his victims from crying out in alarm.

With only one soul from the weak bug, Ryan opens his system to craft a weapon, but stops, stunned by what he sees.

His Black skin, silver lines upon it, and even the horn nubs he knew about, but the short off-white hair and very human eyes and body make very little sense. He has no claws, tail, mutations, or even the proper demon teeth now that he thinks about it.

Aside from the strange markings and horn nubs, he looks remarkably human. Looking over his status, he is surprised and scared shitless at what he finds.

Name: Vir, Reditus, Daemon, Algens, Convivium, Anima, Osiris. (Ryan)

Race: Deamon? Demon

Bloodline: Mixed, Multiple demon bloodlines & Human.

Form: Infant, Hatchling.

Hierarchy: Bottom of the Low rank

Attributes: None

Strength: 15

Speed: 10

Magic: 1

Stamina: 10

Status: Unaltered

Powers: None

Racial talent: Soul Peer, Demon Blood, Soul Devouring Addition.

Inventory: Empty

Soul Type: Noble?/Fallen?: Low-Quality.

Evaluation: S.O.L.

Ryan closed his status and opened it again, hoping to see something else written in its place, but alas, this was no figment of his imagination.

‘How did a half-breed demon even end up on this island? If I remember correctly only low ranks had children via eggs. High-ranking demons have live births and a purified bloodline. The implications must mean that some poor man, willingly or not, had a child with a female low-rank mixed blood, with an unpurified bloodline.’

Ryan’s ruminations towards his origins didn’t change the fact that he was in an awful situation. His stats were worse than even Roy’s, and he was premature. Just looking at the magic stat of one, brought out the rage in his blood.

‘Time to fix this.’

Moving back towards the crafting tab, Ryan begins to create a weapon fit for his size. He starts with the mental image of a narrow stainless steel metal pipe before adding an offset handle, large enough for a two-handed grip.

Next, Ryan modifies the other end into a dangerously sharp tip, cut at a shallow angle much like a needle. Like a needle, this “Pipe-Sword” that Ryan has crafted is meant strictly for piercing. However, unlike a needle, this sword is meant to cut a hole out of the victim. The opening is more than an inch wide, allowing the sword to act like a hole-punch, when plunged into something. This leaves behind a wound that isn’t just a simple cut, or puncture, but rather takes a bite out of the victim. There is no stitching a wound caused by this back together or, stopping the bleeding if sufficiently deep. This sword might just be a war crime.

With the physical aspects completed, Ryan moves on to adding the flavor text and definitions to his creation.

The perforator- A lightweight weapon capable of cutting through bone, and other hard materials with ease and silence.

The cost of the weapon was just below the value of the solitary low-ranking soul Ryan had, but he wasn’t concerned with efficiency right now. Saving the weapon’s design and bringing it forth from within his inventory, Ryan armed himself and tried a few test stabs with his new toy before getting down to business.

Moving quietly, Ryan treks over to a new undisturbed area, across the rocks he was born on, towards the other side of the beach. The walk is slow, his soft feet not meant to traverse the terrain let out sharp pains of disapproval at his decision.

On the beach in front of Ryan, the vast majority of the eggs are grouped, higher, where high tide must have deposited them. However, the newest arrivals have yet to gain that safety, which Ryan, has no qualms about using to his advantage.

Futhest down the beach in the water itself, laid a dark orange and black egg on its side. To test his weapon, Ryan used this likely worthless egg. Gripping his sword with two hands he lines up the tip and plunges it into the egg. The tip of the blade effortlessly pierced through, never slowing as it cut through everything in its path coming out the other side.

Retracting the sword from the egg, Ryan flicks the blood away, along with a core sampling of whatever poor demon lies inside of it. Meanwhile, the demon egg started to disgorge the internal mucus, followed by blood, and the glow of a small soul.

+1 Low Quality Soul (weak)

Ryan grins, a decidedly demonic smile spreading across his face as he leisurely walks towards another recently washed ashore egg, repeating the process. One demon after another fell to his blade, as if he were some famed demon hunter, let loose in a demon nursery. A few wobbled about, but none made any distinguishable noises as he plundered their souls.

+1 Low Quality Soul (weak)

+1 Low Quality Soul (weak)

+1 Low Quality Soul (weak)

+1 Low Quality Soul (weak)

+1 Low Quality Soul (weak)

Ryan’s easy slaughter, unfortunately, came to an abrupt end as the volcano rumbled, shaking the island awake and proving to Ryan that things were never quite so simple.

One after another, the eggs all began to stir, some far more than others, but it was obvious that the metaphorical bell had rung. Ryan lashed out at the closest two eggs, gaining two more souls before he backed off hiding himself closer to the water amidst the swath of dead eggs he created, hoping to go unnoticed in the coming rush and to design his first body modification.

Ryan isn’t too sure what he can do with his total of eight Low-Quality souls, but first, he runs behind some dead eggs. bashing the two open even more to make it obvious. this is all to help dissuade any curious company that may arrive looking for easy souls.

Afterwards he ducks down with his back towards the water, intending to wait until the coming battle is over, versus getting involved.

Eight Souls isn’t much, but Roy made a crappy gun with limited ammo using only one. 

Ryan, worried about his human appearance, pulled up his image and started making changes. That was until he heard the first screech, followed by another and then two more, as the demons all began to hatch.

feeling the pressure, Ryan hurriedly made changes. Toughening his feet was his first decision. He can’t imagine making the trek towards the volcano as is, let alone the climb down.

He widens his feet, thickening the sole, turning his toenails into proper black claws, and adding a long dew claw that reaches out from just above his heel much like a reverse talon. He gives the new sharp appendage some flexibility in his mental image of the design, with some retractability built in to avoid any issues. With the main design complete, he covers the tops of his feet in small black scales and finalizes it, spending six of the souls he acquired.

Ryan could only lament the cost for a second before the pain of the mutation occurring dropped him to his ass. He bled profusely from his toes as his nails fell out and new black claws emerged. The bones in his feet moved and grew, while the muscles and tendons for the dew claw were added. His skin practically melted, falling off in large chunks revealing the meat underneath, only to be replaced by fast-growing scales.

This transformation was not a silent one, as Ryan bellowed out aloud for any to hear. All the nearby demons heard his screams. Looking towards his location, somehow knowing that the screams of pain promised easy wounded prey.

Ryan was only saved at the time by the greedy nature of demons not wanting to share, and their limited attention span. Only one sneaky demon managed to keep his eyes on the prize, bidding his time before slinking off to investigate while everyone else was preoccupied.

If only the Demon were faster, he may have found Ryan disarmed, and in a pitiful state, but he took far too long. By the time the sneaky demon arrived, peeking his four red eyes over the long-dead eggshells Ryan hid behind, he only found death in the form of Ryan’s sword piercing through his face. Ryan using his sword ended his life without remorse followed by his soul being stored in his system.

‘Son-of-a-bitch! That hurt!’ Ryan screamed in his mind.

The pain made his blood boil, and he wanted nothing else but to go on a rampage. His demon blood craved violence, but he held it in, locking those instincts away. Instead, he opened his system to spend the two, now three souls he has left.

Looking down at his new feet with glee, he repeats the process, of ‘Demonifying” his body. His hands are next, but this time he is more detailed under the hood. 

He reworked the bones and more specifically the joints, muscles, and tendons in his hands and wrist entirely, not only to look less human, but to enhance their function.

The new hand design sports reinforced ball and socket joints all through the fingers to give a high degree of flexibility in the range of motion. Extra muscles and tendons lay in those same fingers that aid in grip strength. His palm and wrist boast the greatest redesign, going so far as to completely change the way that the Ulna and Radius meet the wrist, allowing for far more power to be exerted. The changes add up quickly, leaving him with just enough to add small black claws to replace the human nails, and the modifier of the change being painless before he saved the design.

This time, he calmly watches the demons ahead, which are too busy with each other to bother him as his body is modified under his skin, implementing the changes he made with his system.

Ryan drops the Perforator, his hands going slack, turning into jelly under his skin. The sudden surge of helplessness in his situation reaches a crescendo when the sound of gunshots rings out. The sounds are mere echoes, from the other side of the island, but it puts Ryan’s mind in a panic. The sounds may as well have been cannon fire to his strained mind, confirming that Roy is here with him.

Bang!…Bang!, Bang!………Bang!

The gunshots brought a temporary silence to the area, that was broken by one last shot ringing out, the subtle sound of the spinning ricochet traveling with it.

Bang!

With the sound of gunfire happening, Ryan understood that it would soon be time for them to descend the volcano, and move through the magma tubes. That’s not to mention what he should do with Roy.

‘Should I just go up to him and say “How ya doing?” or should I eliminate him? I could also simply avoid him, but I never finished the story, and who the hell knows what he eventually does or becomes.’

‘Wait…I can’t recall Roy’s demon name off the top of my head, but wasn’t it in the story? couldn’t I just make a potion to remember it and keep it as a trump card? That would only be useful if he was alive though. And once used, Roy will be pissed. both at me for using him, and for hiding, both myself and my knowledge. So many decisions…so little time…’

As Ryan ruminated over what to do next, and Roy recovered from his first life-or-death fight, the volcano rumbled, inviting the tiny screeching demons inside of its depths.