Reborn to Devour: A Demonic LitRPG

I pulled and yanked on the chain like an experienced angler reeling in a prized haul. Innumerable hands breached the pitch black surface of the tar to grip tightly onto my lure; their only lifeline to cease this agony.

I was blinded by the endless red messages that appeared in my eyes like splatters of blood as I constantly tugged on the chain. My muscles bulged as the weight on the other end grew heavier and heavier; the sheer volume of bodies surprised me. Hand over hand, inch by inch, I slowly extracted the boiling bodies.

Yoshitsune flinched as large globs of tar dripped from the chain and burned my scaled hands. I did not begrudge her impassive viewing and aversion to draw nearer to me; it had not been long since I had dragged her half-melted body from this agonizing prison.

The first deformed body emerged from the muck. They held on tightly to the chain, their skin melted to the metal surface and their voices hoarse from the throat-ripping screams that irritated my ears. A pile of bodies sat at my feet; their flesh sloughing off the bone like a well-cooked brisket. My toes burned from the pooling tar.

Eventually, the end of the chain slid from the lake. Near two dozen deformed cadavers lined the shore. All eventually succumbed to their wounds to allow them peace from that pain. Yoshitsune kindly severed hands from body and allowed me to recover my chain.

“I think we will need to buy a higher quality chain next time,” I said to Yoshitsune as I appraised the macabre tool; severed hands decorated the metal like grisly ornaments.

One by one, the rescued demons sputtered back to life. Most stayed on the ground and heaved large sighs of relief. For the first time in an unknowable amount of time, they were not in pain. Their eyes would eventually shift towards me, their savior.

“T-thank you,” a woman with mandibles sputtered. “I’m finally free!”

The first show of appreciation caused a wave of gratitude to wash my way. Praises and words of thanks accompanied overeager reaching hands that tried to touch my assumed divinity. I took a half step back and donned my warmest fake smile. With my small flock, I felt like a duplicitous pastor that could send them cheerfully towards my unholy purposes.

“You are very welcome,” I said, doing my best to not lop off any limbs that got too close to me. “But, all that I need from you is to continue to try to fight and grow. So please, go back out into the world and live your lives anew.”

My speech seemed suitable enough. The ones that seemed less enamored with me and the more intrepid demons set off first; leaving me with only the docile ones who continued to look at me with expectant eyes. Perhaps the heat of the tar boiled their brains and left them as irrecoverable imbeciles.

“What should we do?” One of the demons, a man with the head of a raccoon asked.

“You should all form a party and start hunting,” I suggested. “You have a better chance of surviving if you work together. I’ll be sure to let you know if I have anything else in mind.”

Satisfied with the suggestion, the remaining ten or so demons formed a party amongst themselves and set out to earn me money. For a manager, they were the perfect worker. They had no need to eat or sleep; every waking moment of their life would be solely dedicated to enriching me. Yet, I still watched them leave with distaste in my heart.

“You don’t seem pleased about their appreciation,” Yoshitsune commented.

“I’m not a savior,” I stated as I spat onto the sand. “It’s sickening how quickly others will latch on to such pointless hopes. I’m exploiting them and, for some reason, they are accepting it with a smile; like a cow before you slaughter it.”

“If I had stayed down there much longer, I may have acted that way myself,” she replied as she watched the large party leave. “I didn’t see any that appeared to be all that useful to use as an army, but, at least we will earn XP far faster than we ever could on our own. So, does that mean we are not going to do this anymore?”

“Are you kidding?” I asked, much to Yoshitsune’s surprise. “It’s true that I hate these kinds of people, but I hate what we were doing far more.”

After buying a chain made of a higher quality of Sin-got, we traveled from lake to lake to cast out heavy lines into the black water. Everywhere we went, ravenous fish clamped on in exchange for gutting their future.

Dozens were pulled into salvation and set upon the world by my own greedy hands. Before long, the Tar Gardens became smothered in loyal little servants that made money for us. XP accrual no longer became a concern. Innumerable people were contractually bound to donate to us their blood, sweat, and tears. Technically, they could choose to remain sedentary until the day I left without giving me a single thing. However, all knew what it meant to remain on the bottom of the food chain.

And so, this cycle continued for a long while. There was no shortage of abandoned bodies that needed to be fished out of tar and we still needed so much more to be able to pursue Yoshitsune’s old party.

“They are starting to rescue each other from the tar pits,” Yoshitsune commented and pointed.

I looked in the direction that Yoshitsune directed to see a team of demons throw a chain into the lake. With slow, methodical effort, the demons pulled out a large amount of unfortunate souls from the lake. The demons conversed with their newly revived brethren. After a few moments, they appeared to come to an agreement and the entire group walked off together.

This began happening all over the Tar Gardens; demons pulled out en masse to join their saviors and grow ever larger in size. The previously desolate wastes suddenly teemed with life to the point that Yoshitsune and I had difficulty finding our own creatures to hunt. Instead, we had to turn to the methods that I developed with Squealer while in the Bowels.

I sat atop a sand dune and watched the numerous silhouettes assault the beasts of the depths while I did squats with a Sin-got rod that I purchased off the store. Since we began our operation, I had managed to go all the way up to Level 9. All I had to focus on was maxing out my stat gain each level.

“Isn’t this far better?” I asked Yoshitsune, satisfied with the new arrangement.

However, I got no response. She appeared to be lost in thought; her mouth hung slightly agape as she perused the menus. After a moment, she looked up at me.

“Why are we making so much more now?” Yoshitsune asked in bewilderment as she saw her XP total endlessly rise.

We had not made any contracts in some time, but the amount that we earned was only growing exponentially. If anything, I expected it to slow considerably once the contractors leveled up and lost XP earnings.

I began to laugh as I understood what had happened. Yoshitsune tilted her head to look at me.

“Of course,” I continued to chuckle. “Of course that’s what they’d do.”

“What are they doing?” Yoshitsune pressed, annoyed with my fits of laughter.

“They’ve already gotten sick of farming for half of the reward,” I replied, finally returning to a more neutral emotion. “They have rescued more demons to impose upon them the same contract that we initially gave. These new demons will recover a portion of the XP that they lose in the contract with us. If they save enough, they will earn even more than they lose.”

My Aunt Casey fell for something similar to this. Instead of a hellish grind of monster slaying, she tried to sell nutrient shakes. There was little money in selling merchandise, it was all in recruiting more sellers under your name. The more people that she had selling under her, the more that she would make. But, by the time she was roped in, there were not many suckers left to siphon off of. Meanwhile, the people that started it had all the money funneled to them until there was nothing left to squeeze.

“So, since our contract with them is to gain 50% of all the XP they gain while you are in this realm, they must pay us any XP they gain from other sources?” Yoshitsune asked. If I could see her eyes, I knew that they would be wide in surprise. “Even if they sell items…”

“Exactly,” I replied, happy that I had a partner that was quick on the uptake. “The larger the system gets, the more that we earn. But, I would recommend that we make ourselves scarce.”

“Why is that?” She asked.

“Well, it won’t be too long before they finally get the bright idea to overwhelm us with numbers and threaten to throw us in the tar unless we rescind their contracts,” I explained. “If they can’t find us, then we can steal from them for a long time.”

The fingers on Yoshitsune’s face wriggled while she pensively touched her chin. Her eyes glowed as she checked and rechecked several different maps and menus.

“Alright,” she finally agreed. “How close are you to maxing out your stats for this level?”

“If I run with these weights, it won’t be long,” I explained as I summoned a few extra hunks of metal. “I’ll be Level 10 after this.”

“Good, you get your next ability then,” Yoshitsune said with a nod. “I just recently recovered mine.”

With that, we ran down the dune and in the direction of the mountains. My warning of an impending mutiny caused Yoshitsune to be additionally cautious. We took routes that led us as far away from the centralized hunting spots as possible.

Eventually, my stats ceased to increase with the exercise and I opened my menu to rise to the next stage.

Notice

Congratulations! You are now Level 10.

Your stats have increased.

You have unlocked Level 4 Transformation. Please choose one of the following:

Wings, Limb Regeneration, Thick Scales.

This selection took far less deliberation than the previous one. Still haunted by my experiences with crippled limbs, I determined that the ability to remove and replace wounded limbs had the most varied uses.

“Wait, Yoshitsune, I’m about to transform,” I said.

Yoshitsune focused her attention on anything that could threaten this vulnerable moment. I braced myself, ready for a new pain to light my mind on fire. I did not think of the possibilities out of concern that I would only be manifesting my own creative suffering.

Transformation: Reptilian (Stage 4) Completed

Limb Regeneration - Active

Some fights cost a literal arm and a leg to survive. Now, that cost will not linger until you die or pay a hefty price for a potion.

Able to regrow any limb.

Cannot regrow head or internal organs.

“Oh,” I said with pleasant surprise. “Finally, a painless one.”