Robert Vlaho
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[DEVILICH] Chapter 14 - Horror in Human Skin
🕑 Added 2024-04-02 18:51:25 +0000 UTCI slowly opened my eyes. Above, the thick canopy of a forest greeted my sight, with a few rays of sunshine peering through, flickering as the lukewarm wind caressed the leaves. The sound of rustling, the light whistle of air, and the smell of loamy soil moved in to occupy the sensory void.
The agony that had been permeating every cell of my body and threatening to tear me to pieces was gone as if it had never even been there.
I got up with a start, anxiously looking around me. I found myself in a far thicker forest than the one I had been moving through; none of the signs of sickness were present. Beneath me was a soft bed of half-rotten leaves and grass, leaving small, barely noticeable marks on my medieval garb. My breath was caught in my throat.
Should I sigh a breath of relief? I asked myself.
Frankly, I didn’t feel like it.
I was, in fact, anxious—afraid of what I’d become and what the future would bring me.
I had been teleported, clearly. If that goddess was to be trusted, it was close to a human settlement. I didn’t believe that she had done it intending to get me killed or trick me in some other way. If she had been after that goal, she could have simply left me to die from the tide of good energy violating my evil physique.
I forced myself to take a deep breath. I didn’t know where to go from there—literally or figuratively.
The obvious thing to do would be to get up and look for people. But I didn’t feel comfortable with that. Not in the slightest. The image of the horrible thing in the reflection—in my reflection—flashed before my eyes, and I shuddered. That was who I was. That was what I was.
But at that moment, I appeared human, when in reality, I was merely disguised with the intent to blend in.
I was the type of creature parents scared their children with. I was the horror folklore sung of.
I… I was an abomination.
For the second time, I forced myself to breathe deeply, and this time, I lightly slapped my face with both hands.
Not all hope was lost. I had faith in my ability to control myself. And while the idea of… killing or hunting bad people wasn’t something I was comfortable with, I had come face-first with monsters I didn’t mind using my powers on. Humans needed protection from this stuff… right? Maybe if I just focused on that, I’d be fine.
While it was grim, I was praying that I wasn’t about to find myself in a peaceful, idyllic town without any such issues.
With that out of the way, I decided I had better things to worry about for the time being. So no more thinking about this stuff until it became more relevant to me.
First, I oriented myself. It was forest on all sides, and the growth was far thicker here, making it difficult to see far. Also, the area was quite bumpy, with numerous large rocks scattered around, which made the visibility even worse.
Given the utter lack of hints about where I should go, I simply picked a random direction and started walking.
While moving forward, I decided to take a look at my status.
Name: James
Race: [Devilich]
Alignment: [Good]
Class: [Arcane Neophyte]
Passive Skills: [Quasi-Immortality] [Fire Affinity: B-rank] [Death Affinity: B-rank] [Hellfire Affinity: C-rank] [Rot Affinity: C-rank] [Witherflame Affinity: F-rank] [Dark Affinity: F-rank] [Regeneration: S-rank] [Strength: C-rank] [Agility: C-rank] [Endurance: C-rank] [Perception: D-rank] [Mana Core: C-rank] [Magic Sight: FFF-rank]
Active Skills: [Energy Absorption] [Resurrect] [Summon Elemental] [Oath of Loyalty] [Inventory] [Meditate: A-rank] [Create Item: FFF-rank] [Mana Manipulation: F-rank] [Magic Missle] [Magic Barrier] [Shapeshifting: Human Form]
Titles: [Symbiote] [Otherworlder] [Aberration] [He Who Passed Heaven’s Judgement] [Traitor of Hell]
Blessings: [Divine Blessing of Voiya]
Symbiote: [Archdemon Cancer Cell Biomass]
So… I mused internally. This is just a product of my imagination, I guess?
The revelation that there was no such thing as a “system” regulating the powers in this world was simultaneously disorienting and relieving. On the one hand, the fact that no greater power was in charge of controlling what I could do was comforting. But on the other hand… it was surprising, I guess. I had really thought that would have been the case.
That being said, given that this menu was a product of my imagination, I wondered if there was a way to organize it better. Frankly, this seemed to list more or less everything that was “magically relevant” about me, and while certainly informative, it was too cluttered to keep track of key skills I wanted to monitor.
Given what the goddess had told me, if I could pick any number of classes as I wished, I could easily see this menu becoming too cumbersome to adequately inform me of my capabilities.
I already knew that I could influence what I saw. I had already done it once when I replaced “Name: Unknown” with “Name: James.” And, sure enough, by merely willing it, I could remove or rearrange whatever I wanted.
Keeping half of my attention on the forest around me, I spent at least half an hour meticulously deciding on what I cared about, and what I didn’t.
Eventually, I cut it down to just this:
Class: [Arcane Neophyte]
Passive Skills: [Strength: C-rank] [Agility: C-rank] [Endurance: C-rank] [Perception: D-rank] [Mana Core: C-rank] [Magic Sight: FFF-rank]
Active Skills: [Meditate: A-rank] [Create Item: FFF-rank] [Mana Manipulation: F-rank] [Magic Missle] [Magic Barrier]
And that was pretty much it. It had been cut down quite heavily.
As for the things I left out, I did so either because I was keenly aware of the information already—such as in the case of my name, race, blessing, and alignment, the fact that I was a hyper-regenerating quasi-immortal freak, and the abilities I believed I would be using often enough that I wouldn’t randomly forget about them—or information that I probably wouldn’t need all the time, such as my affinities and titles.
And, if I was being honest, some information I’d rather forget—such as the fact that I had cancer. Being constantly reminded of that was simply something I didn’t want in my life.
And for the information I left behind? It was mainly two things for the time being—skills I thought were likely to upgrade soon or skills I didn’t want to forget I had.
[Magic Missle] and [Magic Barrier] were in the second category, and if they turned out to be useless, I’d take them off the list.
With that out of the way, I continued my trek through the forest, feeling like a tiny load had been removed from my back. Just enough to make me feel slightly more in control of my circumstances.
One of the things I ended up finding on my way was a stick. But it was a really nice stick. It was quite big, actually, perhaps 1.5 meters in length, and it was even enough throughout that it could be used as a makeshift staff.
I spotted a few imperfections, and I quirked an eyebrow as an idea came to mind.
Raising my hand, I manifested a magic shield in the air before me. I purposely made its edges as sharp as possible. Granted, my manipulation wasn’t nearly strong enough to make it into something actually sharp, but the shield did lightly damage things it made contact with.
I brought the staff up to it and used the edge of the floating mana construct to polish the stick's surface, removing the bumps and imperfections to the best of my ability. Every time the wood made contact with the shield, the shield vibrated, pulsing and buzzing almost like some form of high-tech sci-fi shield. It didn’t take long for it to weaken drastically and become unstable, but it held long enough to finish my product.
The final product was slightly lighter, a dash thinner, and maybe 20 centimeters shorter.
The only thing left was to freeze it as close to absolute zero as possible and use [Create Item].
Skill [Create Item: FFF-rank] has upgraded to [Create Item: FF-rank]
I wasn’t surprised at the sudden upgrade. And I only became less surprised when I checked the item.
[Frost Staff: Uncommon]
A wooden staff with frost deeply permeating its nature. Inflicts additional frost damage.
Given the… literally everything else at my disposal, I didn’t really need this stick to defend myself. But it was a comforting presence nonetheless. As a kid, I would frequently go out for walks in the woods, and carrying a stick by my side was mandatory. If I came across an aggressive stray dog or whatever, I liked the safety of having something to whack ‘em with.
One one hand, comfort and familiarity. On the other, a dash of magic, which was the one thing I was truly excited to explore in my new life.
Also, if I did encounter danger, I was curious whether using the stick would net me any new class options.
For a long while, I came across… nothing. Not even animals. Sure, some birds were singing high up in the canopy, but there seemed to be no ground animals whatsoever.
Eventually, I heard a noise.
I hid behind a tree, peeking in the direction the sound was coming from. My eyes widened once I spotted what was making the noise.
Standing at perhaps a meter and thirty centimeters was a creature roughly shaped like a human—it stood upright, with a head on its torso, two legs to carry it, and two arms, one holding a primitive club. But that was where the similarities ended.
First, its skin was entirely red, crimson red, like a bloody mark upon the sharply contrasted green of the natural environment it was in. It was bald, with tiny, spiky horns growing intermittently throughout its head, almost resembling some form of sickly growths rather than naturally appearing appendages.
It wore nothing at all, but it had nothing to cover. The space between its legs was just empty, as smooth as a Barbie doll’s. It slowly turned around, and I got to see its face. It didn’t scare me, but it was genuinely disgusting. Filled with nasty growth, such as warts and massive zits, it gazed into the distance with two dull eyes, one lazily steering slightly to the side.
The word “goblin” came to mind, but… well… the descriptions of the mythical creatures were definitely colorful, and it was likely that something akin to this bastard was described in at least one version of it.
That being said, I could instinctively sense that this thing was weak. Not toddler weak, but certainly not strong enough to pose any danger to me.
That’s perfect, I decided. I’m going to fight it.
I needed something to spill my stress out on, and no doubt, my… “nature” was affecting my thoughts, but I decided to ignore that. Because this time, my human side agreed that this was something that had to be smited.
But before I dove head-first into combat, I decided to pull up a particular option.
Classes available: [Brawler] [Survivalist] [Rookie Tinkerer] [Mage Apprentice] [Summoner Neophyte] [Fire Elementalist Neophyte]
Comments
Robert Blaise
Actually, "the one" is the correct way to write it. I was surprised too.
Kuraiji
Typo : One one hand, comfort and familiarity.
Beeees!
Summoner neophyte could be cool, see what one of those fire birds can be capable of
