Devil's Chosen

Run

As I chewed the black heart, my mouth burned from the blood that gushed out from the bite. I cried out as I swallowed, praying for the pain to go away. As pieces of flesh made their way down my throat, I took another bite, now devouring around half of the complete heart. Midway through chewing, the purple box popped into my vision, showing me exactly what I wanted to see.

Acidic Blood lvl 1 acquired.

As I read the message, my body began to burn. It felt as if I was melting from the inside out. I screamed, dropping the heart. I began to claw at my skin, trying to release the heat in my body. I watched as my skin began to bubble, and I felt my organs start to dissolve. I writhed on the ground as I spat up blood.

Where the blood landed, the ground began to dissolve. My eyes widened. Was my own blood melting me from the inside out?

Pain Nullification lvl 2->3

Due to high exposure to acid, a new skill has been acquired.

Acidic Resistance lvl 1 acquired

Due to high compatibility, Acidic Blood lvl 1 and Acidic Resistance lvl 1 will attempt fusion.

Attempting fusion...

Fusion success

One With Acid acquired.

The burning in my body came to a halt, to then be replaced with a warmth that I had never felt before. The terrible pain that I had just experienced had vanished without a trace. My skin no longer bubbled, and my body felt rejuvenated. Feeling the warmth, I looked at my arms and saw a radiant glow; my paleness was gone, replaced by a brighter tone.

Resting my head against the wall, I wept, tears of pure joy.

I really thought that was the end of me. The pain was immense, but the skill I got must have been worth it! Quickly, I opened the Demon system.

Name: ####

Title: ####

Race: DemonBorn(Mythical)

Tier: 1 (fledgling)

Class: Devourer(Mythical)

Lvl: 1 (15/100)

Blood: (1/100)

Skills:

Intrinsic:

Gluttony lvl 1

One With Acid lvl 1

Tier 1:

Demonic Regeneration lvl 4

Tier 2:

Pain Nullification lvl 3

I focused on the new skill, One With Acid lvl 1

One With Acid lvl 1, transforms the user's entire body into a perfect acidic container. All body fluids are acidic. The skill grants full immunity to acidic attacks.

oh, that... It would have been really useful before I fought that monster. I'm complaining right now, but truly, that is an amazing skill. Looking back at my screen, the numbers after lvl 1 have gone up, but my blood number has not increased?

Do I truly have to devour this entire thing? I shuddered, looking down at the grotesque corpse below me. Well... I guess I'll dig in. I picked up the half-eaten heart that I had dropped on the floor earlier. I brought it to my mouth and took a bite. I braced myself for my mouth to begin burning again, but to my surprise, the only thing that hurt me was the heart's taste.

So this is the power of One With Acid lvl 1! The acid from the beast didn't hurt me at all, and I actually ate the heart quicker due to my saliva breaking down the heart completely. When I finally swallowed the last piece of the heart, a sight unfolded in front of me. The corpse of the beast began to shrivel up, almost as if all the blood had been taken from it.

I watched the sight, surprised at the sudden situation.

Was I too slow to eat it, or...

I opened the Demon System to confirm my thoughts.

Blood: (3/100)

My blood had increased! So was that it? Did I only have to eat the heart for me to gain the blood?

But any part of the monster gives me a skill... So, shouldn't I eat the heart last? Or is it only the first bite that has a chance to give me a skill?

The Demon System did not provide a clear enough description, so most of my information had to be found out or guessed. This sucks, but I can't complain. From just my basic understanding, I have an amazing class and skill to go along with it. I'll figure things out eventually.

Well, I have this new skill, so I should probably try it out. How should I use it? Should I spit on them... No, that wouldn't be effective. I looked around the cave searching for something to spark an idea in my mind. All I could see was rocks and dried blood.

!!

I bent over and grabbed a sharp rock that rested near me. Closing my eyes, I brought the rock to my wrist and slashed. I whimpered as the cut went deep, but after a moment I opened my eyes. It hurt, but not too badly.

Hot red blood dripped down my wrist; the warmth radiating from it made me feel cozy, but as I watched it drip, the effects of the blood shocked me. It wasn't that strong, but each drop made a tiny hole around five centimetres deep in the rock.

Wow... I flailed my arm out towards the cave wall and watched as a streak of blood splattered along it. Within a few moments, the wall had lost a few centimetres of thickness where the blood had landed.

I smiled when I saw the effects, and did it two more times before suddenly tumbling to the side. I had been hit with a burst of lightheadedness. I held onto the wall for support as my wrist began to heal and seal itself.

Don't overuse it... Noted. I waited another minute before my head felt right.

Ok, three is my limit.

I looked into the darkness and decided it was time to continue forward. I looked for a new rock to take with me since the one I had used to cut myself had been reduced to mush. Once I found a new one, I held it tightly and walked deeper into the cave.

I walked through the cave, noticing things I had not before. There were tiny holes in the walls, around half a meter in circumference. I poked my head into a few of them, but they went so far into the wall that I could not see the end.

The deeper I walked, the more and more of these holes appeared in the cave, some even starting to appear in the floor. After I noticed the first few in the floor, I unfortunately missed the small hole that was in front of me. My foot fell into the hole, causing me to tumble and bash my face against the hard rock.

I screamed out loud at the sudden jolt of pain in my nose, hot blood dripped down my face and onto the stone, leaving small holes where they landed. I cursed myself for my carelessness. Trying to pull myself up, I found that my foot was stuck.

What? This hole is definitely big enough for me to pull my foot out easily. I yanked again, but this time I gained some ground. Down in the hole, I started to hear a noise, the sound of rock crumbling. Something had grabbed onto my foot and was climbing its way up.

Shit, pulling my leg harder, I heard a snap, which freed my foot from the hole. After escaping, I heard a screech from down below. The noise made me shiver, because it was a screech that I knew all too well. I backed away from the hole, making sure I did not fall into any others.

Watching the hole, I saw two talons claw their way out of the hole, then four, six, and finally eight...

The legs pulled a disgusting body of black, rotten, liquid flesh that was covered in eyes. The monster had a terribly disfigured smile on its face before it split open, revealing two black fangs. The monster screeched and began rushing towards me.

A flash of what the previous one of these monsters did to me crossed my mind, how it had pumped acid straight into my body while holding me down with razor-sharp talons. I did not want to experience that again.

As the monster dove at me, I used the rock I had grabbed earlier to cut my left wrist open, revealing the crimson blood inside. I flicked my wrist, sending a wave of blood towards the beast. It slowed its rush in shock at the blood being thrown at it, but decided that there was no threat and continued to rush forward.

As the blood came into contact with the beast, a sizzling sound could be heard from the affected skin. The beast screeched to a halt, screaming in agony, clawing at the infected flesh. I watched as it dug into the monster, but to my surprise, it stopped after only burning around two centimetres of flesh.

Did this beast have Acid Resistance?

After a few moments of agony, the beast continued its charge. I watched in horror as the burned parts of the monster also began to regrow.

I can't stand here awe-struck, I ran towards the beast, flicking my wrist again, sending another rush of blood towards the monster. As the blood rushed forward, I grabbed a nearby stalagmite, following the blood that I had thrown.

The monster, now learning from its mistakes, dodged out of the way of the blood, but after fighting one of these before, I expected it to dodge this time, and due to it only being focused on the blood, it was too slow to react to me right where the creature landed after dodging.

The beast looked at me in shock as I brought the stalagmite up and stabbed it into the side. Using my strength, I drove it deep into the creature and pushed it onto its side, immobilizing it for the time being.

While it was on the side, I let go of the spike since it had become useless, and decided to jam my hand into its deep wound. Black blood squirted from where my hand entered it, masking my face in its dark nature. The monster screamed as I dug deeper into it; the creature's head began to spasm, trying to turn in my direction. As it did, I used my free hand to push its head into the ground, keeping it from moving any further.

With only two hands, I could not avoid its multiple legs that struck me, piercing small holes in my body. I flinched as they entered me, but I kept digging, searching for the creature's heart. I could feel my open wrist inside the monster start to heal, but the blood that it had released had done enough to the monster already, as I could see an entire hole in the creature's stomach.

I watched as the creature tried to pull the talons out and attack me again, but to its dismay, the talon had completely dissolved, leaving a dull stump where it used to be. The small holes healed quickly. Seeing this, the monster's eyes began to jerk back and forth, searching for anything that might help it.

I dug deep into the creature until I finally felt it. I grasped the creature's heart. As I did, the monster screamed out, flailing and bashing itself against the hard rock. With a hard tug, the monster stopped moving. I pulled its heart out of its body.

Acquired 10exp

I smiled as I saw the number pop up on the screen. I did it! I killed it so much easier than last time. I looked at the heart, ate it up after taking a few bites. As soon as I finished the heart, the creature's corpse shrivelled up.

Heightened Perception lvl 4 Acquired

I had gotten the skill that the system had sacrificed earlier! As the message dissipated, I felt my eyes burn, and I closed them. Tears seeped through my closed eyelids, and after a minute or so of rubbing, I opened them.

With the skill, it felt as if my perception of the world changed. The dark cave I was once in now seemed so bright; the small circle that I used only to be able to see had now grown exponentially bigger. Now that I could see, I could finally understand the true scale of this cave, and it was massive...

In some parts, I could see the roof, but most of it was still shrouded in darkness. I wonder how high it goes?

The cave's size surprised me, but that was not all. Those tiny holes, like the one that the monster had climbed out of, were all over the place. I already knew there were a few, but not this much. There had to be at least a hundred of them. I took a step forward towards one of the closer ones and looked into it.

I could now see deeper into the hole, but darkness still loomed in it. Sighing, I was about to turn away before a movement from the hole made me look closer. In the hole, I watched as another one of those creatures made its way towards me, pulling itself forward by its talons.

I backed away from the hole quickly, preparing myself for it to emerge, but a noise from behind me made me turn my head. It was coming from another hole. My heart sank as I ran towards the new hole, and in it was another creature.

I backed away from that one as well. Putting myself in the middle of the cave. I kept my eyes locked on both holes, but as I did, more noises appeared from a third hole. And then a fourth, and then a fifth... Every hole started to make noises, and from each one a creature began to emerge.

I looked upon the holes in horror, and my instincts kicked in; I turned and ran as fast as I could.