Reborn to Devour: A Demonic LitRPG

We began our trek across the sands and towards the obscured landscape that waited beyond. The unrelenting vastness of the Tar Gardens served as an illusion that kept our destination feeling perpetually in the distance. Only the dutiful plotting of the map and the slight growth of the fogbank informed us that we were not walking a desert treadmill.

It was somewhere in the midst of the rolling dunes that I remembered that I had yet to see a message about the completion of the Dungeon.

“By the way,” I said as we were traveling. “Did we ever receive rewards for defeating the Drowned Giant?”

“Yes, we received them while you were missing,” Yoshitsune answered. “Since I was only cutting off your limbs and did not do much damage to the beast itself, I only got stats for it. But, that is fine; I got a new ability during my fight with Uragoe.”

“That lightning bow?” I asked.

Yoshitsune offered a nod in return. “I feel foolish for being so dependent on my Father’s bow that I could not think of using my own power instead.”

I tried to explore my menus to find the notifications that would explain to me what I earned. It appeared that they were irrecoverable. I imagined whatever being that crafted these communications to be smugly self-satisfied that I am punished for dismissing their messages upon regaining consciousness.

Instead, I had to scour my character sheet to locate any differences.

Name: Ishmael

Level 12

HP: 509/509 MP: 0/0

Title: The One Who Entertains the Aspect of Wrath, Inductee of the Follies

EXP: 19654/14400

Transformation: Reptilian (Stage 4)

Stats:

Strength: 88.57 (+10.64)

Agility: 70.70 (+10.64)

Magic: 0

Body: 89.11 (+10.64)(+20)

Armor: 10 (Natural)

Skills

Passive Abilities: Taken in One’s Prime. They Don’t Make Them like They Used To (C). A True Beast Has No Need for Magic (C). The Body is the Best Weapon (D). Lernaean Blood. Spirit of the Drowned Giant

Active Abilities: Flaying Tail. Sanguine Bite. Acid Spit. Limb Regeneration. Burning Rain

Notoriety:

Pharaoh of the Tar: Oh ye who extended a warm hand of salvation only to pull the wayward souls that gripped it into shackles. You have forever altered the future of the Tar Gardens. +10% XP gain.

Skills

Spirit of the Drowned Giant - Passive

Even tens of thousands of years after falling befoul of a helpless death, this proud and tenacious beast refused to succumb. You will inherit that power of will.

+20 Toughness. -25% Damage from all fire sources.

Burning Rain - Active (INACTIVE)

THIS ABILITY IS BLOCKED BY A CONFLICTING PASSIVE ABILITY

My pleasure with my progress turned to confusion at the final line in the ability description. An ability sealed away by nature of another passive ability. It was the first time that I had come face to face with the potential trade-offs that my previous rewards offered. Additionally, it put into further question the benevolence of the previous gifts. If I were not careful, I would be building myself a brick house with no doors.

Without knowing the strength of the new ability, I decided to shelve these thoughts until I learned more. But, even if I did decide that [A True Beast Has No Need for Magic] was not to my benefit, I had no idea how to be rid of it.

I looked towards Yoshitsune, but held my tongue and dutifully marched onwards. To vocalize these questions and concerns would only attract the gazes of those that viewed me. Who could know when their near omnipotent eyes and ears would be directed my way? At the very least, there were no obvious signs of their active watching.

Eventually, we reached the border of sand and mist. The hot temperatures that radiated off the tar lakes like a sauna fueled by tire fires were absorbed by the heavy moisture of the mist.

I felt my body temperature plummet drastically in the mist’s midst. As someone that lived in a state that shut down after a half inch of snow, I was already not predisposed to the winter months. However, this was far more severe than a geographical quirk. My new cold-blooded nature meant I could not create my own body heat.

“Fuck, why is it so cold?” I complained as I pointlessly rubbed scale against scale.

“It has cooled down considerably,” Yoshitsune commented. “You may just need a change in attire, Ishmael-san.”

I grunted and opened up the shop. Since bodily progress and money were now merged into the same bloody currency, I had grown into far more of a penny pincher than I was in life. Buying clothing in this world seemed like the biggest waste of effort that could be thought of. But, now I was going to turn into a scaly Popsicle without either a giant heat lamp or some clothes.

Scanning through the store’s page, I managed to find an outfit labeled as “winter wear.” However, the style looked like it was directly out of a stuffy Victorian era novel about a vapid couple enjoying a budding winter love.

But, as they say, beggars can't be choosers. Not only were clothes relatively cheap compared to other items on the catalog, they also had a good amount of cold resistance.

A few minutes and several thousand XP later, I was transformed into a crossover between Jurassic Park and A Christmas Carol. I was given a fur-lined yellow great coat, some thick pants that felt woolen, a scarf, some gloves, boots, and a top hat.

I immediately returned the top hat, gloves, and boots to my inventory. Donning the smokestack hat would only make me wish to beat myself up and the gloves were as useful for my clawed hands as a condom on a cactus. Stupid as I felt, I did already feel warmer.

“You look nice,” Yoshitsune complimented in her usual tone, making it impossible to tell whether she was being honest or just supportive.

“Thanks,” I replied with a tight jaw.

Sand turned to dirt and grass. A thin path wound its way through the blinding white to offer to direct us deeper in. Water accumulated on my scales and my new clothes. Large beads of moisture formed before finally falling off my wet skin.

Trees the color of charcoal hid within the thick fog. Spindly branches devoid of leaves reached deep into the sky and across the path like a skeleton ripping into cotton candy. A strange energy radiated off of the forest and left me with a strange feeling inside. I could not explain why, but it felt like something was watching us. I could not figure out where this entity was, but it felt as though the entire forest stared at us.

“Ishmael-san,” Yoshitsune began to say as her blade slid into her hand. “The way behind us is gone.”

I looked over my shoulder to see a mass of wooden silhouettes where the path used to be. Ahead of us, the roots and branches reached across the road.

“Let’s move quickly,” I advised. “We may need to cut our way through this.”

We only made it five steps before bony black fingers brushed against Yoshitsune’s armor. The samurai immediately lashed out against the tree. A bright flash illuminated the woods. A patchwork of knots and protrusions that resembled human facial features were etched into the tree bark.

However, something else appeared to be stalking between the trees. The hulking black form hung low to the ground and moved at speed, making it difficult to track.

My claws and Yoshitsune’s sword cleaved through the arresting branches like boy scouts digging out a backwoods trail. An unnatural screech emitted from all directions as red sap slowly leaked from the removed branches. An overwhelming number of branches raked across our bodies and scratches formed on my exposed claws.

As much as I would have loved to play lumberjack and chop this homunculus forest down tree by tree, I did not want to be jumped by a mobile National Park. Instead, I launched some acid towards the trunks and smiled at the agonized screeches and the notifications of awarded kills.

However, with each labored slash and chop to clear our path, my mind could not help but think how useful some burning rain could be at this moment. I could rip through branches and individuals with overwhelming violence but Yoshitsune could spread her lightning to multiple targets and cleave her way through this closing path with far more prowess. I felt like a 50-caliber rifle in the middle of a zombie horde.

Thorns and barbs fired from the cover of fog and trees to pepper us with needle shaped projectiles. Large barbed balls could be seen floating between the gaps in the branches, ready to whittle us down with their wooden machine gun fire.

Before I could return fire, Yoshitsune summoned her golden bow and delivered the wrath of Zeus upon these more evolved floaters. The trio of creatures popped like balloons against power lines. With a quick chug of a summoned blue mana potion, she swapped positions with me to continue to unleash a storm upon the creatures between the trees with wrathful booms and cracks.

I was now relegated to being a glorified weed whacker. Sprays of acid and clawed strikes dutifully cleared a path forward while Yoshitsune got to do all the gratifying work against the living forest.

Between the flashes of light, I continued to watch for the beast that prowled in the distance. However, more and more silhouettes formed from all directions. One became two became four. Each intently watched from all directions with shimmering eyes of gold; eagerly awaiting for the first sign of weakness before they pounced.

However, I also noticed a far larger figure approach. A wolf shaped silhouette that stood as tall as the trees encroached upon the fighting. Each flash of Yoshitsune’s light brought it ever closer.

A pair of crimson eyes opened and stared directly at us. The sound of television static filled my head with discordant sounds. Foreign feelings were forced upon me through the beast’s gaze. I felt vapor clouds seep into my scales and grip around my heart. My pulse quickened and my brain rang the emergency bells. I was overcome with a feeling that I thought that I would never feel again towards combat.

Fear.

!!!ALERT!!!

The Corpse-Watcher sees you!

“Yoshitsune!” I screamed as I grabbed the woman’s arm and pulled her forwards.

I began to sprint into the branches that obstructed our path as the ground rumbled beneath our feet. The sounds of splintering wood echoed through the trees. We needed to move faster even if it whittled us down to nothingness. I felt compelled to run as though my mind was no longer my own.

“Ishmael-san,” Yoshitsune began to question before it answered itself.

It smashed through the trees at a full sprint; wood pulp and fragments of carved faces exploded through the air like a mannequin fed through a wood-chipper. A mass of fur and teeth and claws tore through the empty air that we just occupied to turn an alternate version of ourselves into red mist. The momentum of the creature sent it skidding across the path and barreling into the trees on the opposite side; its massive frame battered the weak trunks like a bowling ball into matchsticks.

It did not lose much speed as it changed directions. Gnashing teeth snapped at our feet and caused us to run even more recklessly. Yoshitsune lacked the vitality to brave the branches without taking a significant amount of damage in exchange and had to follow closely behind me.

I heard a loud crack of thunder land right behind us followed by a panicked curse from Yoshitsune.

“It’s evading me!” She screeched. “It’s going to catch us!”

“Just keep running!” I ordered.

There was nothing else to do but hope that we could, somehow, evade this beast until we cleared these forests or found a cave to dive into. I still heard crashes of lightning behind me as Yoshitsune continued to try to hamper its progress. However, by Yoshitsune’s manic breathing, she had not found much luck.

The invisible needles of intuition pricked the base of my skull and cascaded down my back. The relentless sounds of heavy footprints and the low snarling that sounded like a muscle car revving up bore down on us.

I turned my head to see crimson eyes, like dying stars, blazing right towards our backs. Without thinking, I grabbed Yoshitsune’s shoulders and pushed her in front of me.

The crashing avalanche of teeth bore down on me; my tail became a sacrifice to the beast. Scales cracked like a stack of plates dropped by a busboy at the end of a long shift. Like ripping the meat of a skewer, the beast tore the flesh from bone. My head swam and my knees weakened from the fire that raced through my nerves.

The beast came to a halt to spit out the toxic morsel and growled in displeasure towards its tainted dinner.

“Ishmael-san, clench your teeth!” Yoshitsune called out to me as the world became far brighter.

I just barely had enough time to close my mouth before a massive weight hit my back at great speeds. My muscles tensed from the electrocution that gripped my entire body.

Yoshitsune’s arms wrapped around me and pushed me through the woods. I was turned into nothing more than a meat shield as trees were turned into sawdust from the force of the impact. All I could do to manage to get ahold of my recovery potion and keep myself from being killed by my own partner as I was waterboarded by logs.

The world turned blurry and flew by us. Fog and mist became scorched and burned away. The trees became sparser and the landscape more verdant.

We crashed into a hillside with a massive explosion of dirt, grass, and severed roots like a stick of dynamite in a mining accident. A great deal of negative timers smothered my health bar and my body was immobilized from the impact. Only a pained groan passed between my mostly paralyzed lips.

“Oh, gods,” Yoshitsune gasped as soon as she saw my body; something that I sincerely hoped that she was being overdramatic about.

A higher quality health potion, an activation of my [Limb Regeneration], and a couple minutes was all it took to return to normal. My new clothes had already taken a predictable amount of damage from temporarily becoming a makeshift chainsaw and a chew toy. All in all, it could have gone far worse. Perhaps some of the price went into raising the durability.

“We should keep moving,” I advised. “There is no telling how much ground that it can cover.”

I quickly looked around the new location and gained my bearing. Much of the fog that enveloped the entrance of the forests had been downgraded to a gray haze. The trees here were of brown bark and green leaves, giving hope that we had only been unlucky in passing through a more dangerous part of this new location.

However, as if something could read my mind, an explosion ripped through the day. My eyes snapped in the direction of the sound only to see a ball-bearing sized projectile fly by my head and snap through the branches behind me; splintered wood left in its wake.

“Can’t catch a fucking break,” I spat.