I am human... Or to say the least, was. I don't know though to be honest. I don't understand what a human even is. Some would argue that a human is a living creature that can walk on two legs. Then isn't a chicken a human too? I don't know. I'm too tired to think otherwise. Then again, I do know that I'm not human.

Now what am I then if not human. Well, I'm a Demon. Or so all others have said from the first impression they have of me.

What is a Demon you might ask? Even I'm not to sure. As a Demon's very existence was just a conundrum as the existence of humans.

Nevertheless, I do know that we were born from pure malice discarded from the cycle of reincarnation. As all souls that have died with regrets, despair, anger, the will of vengeance and all other negative essences were wiped clean along with the other positive things as well to become a clean slate to be processed for the next reincarnation.

Of course, the birth of a Demon is a slim chance to occur. By 1 in a million chance a Demon can be born from all that malice being discarded and concentrated into one singular point in the Demon realm. But given that billions upon billions die all the time from different worlds, Demons would occasionally pop up one after another. And about 1 moon ago, I was born.

How long is 1 moon? by human measures, it's close to one month. Or the time it takes for a moon to cycle.

Anyway, I should probably lay low and survive for as long as I can. Why you might ask? Well, it's because if I don't then I'll be dead.

And no. I didn't do any silly crime that would warrant my death. There are no laws here after all. But that's exactly why I should be hiding for my life. As everyone out there is out to either kill me to satiate their hunger for knowledge and magicules or for the pleasure of the sport.

There are a lot of sadistic fellows out there in this hellhole of a Demon realm. And yes if you've already guessed it, those sick fucks are also demons like me... But I'm a unique case.

Anyways, I'm just gonna make myself comfortable in this dark gloomy cave. Hopefully this area is deep enough that I wouldn't have to worry about stray magic spells hitting me. And once I'm cozy enough, it's time to think to myself as a way to pass the time while others out there are killing each other.

Speaking of killing each other, I actually died a lot of times here by the way. First time was not pretty for me for as soon as the world brought me to life, the first thing I see is not the beautiful face of my new mother but a giant fiery mushroom cloud that sundered the lands to waste and killed thousands of demons in the process. Including me.

Lovely. Second time I revived, I was then mawled alive by a Demon dog. Ah, to die almost immediately after my resurrection... It's sad but life can be so surprising, innit?

Then I died again and again. Sometimes killed intentionally, sometimes eaten by other Demon monsters and sometimes caught by a stray magic spell that was casted a mountain away... It's like the world doesn't even want me to live.

After my... What? 13th? 16th? I lost count. Anyway, after I revived again, I then noticed that I felt missing... And hungry too. Turns out that dying a lot of times causes a Demon like me to lose a bit of myself along with my own demonic energy as to recover from the damage to my Demon soul. Any part of myself that will be lost as damage can include my spiritual organs, my memories or a bit of my Skills. And if I keep getting damage or keep dying at this rate, I'll have no energy left to even pull myself from the grave and truly cease to exist. Fortunately, there is another way to restore myself. And that is to eat other demons. Thus, the reason why I'm hungry.

And demons, being the incarnation of malice, are filled with demonic energy that I need to recover. And to obtain demonic energy from them is to out right kill and eat them.

But there is just one tiny itty bitty problem. Can you guess what it is?

Yeah, I'm weak as fuck!

Forget killing a Demon, I can't even kill a demonic rat! And said rat already killed me twice! Screw that!

Sigh...anyway.

Luckily, there is another way to recover albeit painfully slow it is a better way to recover than actually killing demons stronger than me. And that is just to munch on the fragmented spiritual bodies of those unfortunate enough to die a gruesome death. Basically, just helping myself from the breadcrumbs leftover.

It took some time. Mostly the time was spent digesting those demonic fragments so that I wouldn't lose my ego to the demons I ate rather than hiding and knabbing a piece or two as if my life depended on it.

After that, I was finally restored with my memories and Skills.

Yahoo... Way to go, me! Congratulations me. Why thank you, me. I couldn't have done it without... me?

Sigh... I'm going insane, aren't I?

Anyway, speaking of Skills, this is a topic I heavily want to invest my time studying. It turns out, being a Demon has its perks more or less. And aside from having a innately high aptitude for magic, the skills I possess mostly reflect my character and shape of mind. And these Skills will allow me to possibly increase my chances of survival if used correctly.

I currently possess the following skills:

Passive and active skills - these are skills that can be acquired through repeated exercises, absorption or obtain through growth. In my case, I got them by just thinking about it.

Thought acceleration - a skill that allows me to process my thought faster. It also has the additional benefit to slow the world to a crawl so that I can observe everything with more time.

Analysis - this skill just helps me focus all my concentration in studying whatever piques my interest by maximizing all my mental capacity in deciphering whatever I am analyzing. Pretty helpful for someone like me who has the attention span of a child.

All of creation - allows me to obtain knowledge of any non-concealed phenomenon. And depending what I already know and understood, additional information can be inferred. Thanks to this skill, I came to know a lot of things like being a Demon and what are skills. Especially the things I saw for the first time in the Demon realm. It's kinda like a dictionary limited in my head.

Demon skills - these are skills that all demons innately possess since their birth. Power of skills can vary depending how strong the Demon is.

Demonic energy manipulation - this skill allows me to fully control my spiritual body, the energy inside my body and also the demonic energy outside of my body that isn't being manipulated or tainted by other demons. It also allows me to gain high control over magic. Which happens to be what demons excel at like second nature.

Demon instincts - this skill just let's me know what's good or bad for a Demon like me. This skill has saved me numerous times from danger that lurks or comes at me with the intent to kill. Other times it would start ringing in my head with goosebumps whenever a stray magic spell was coming.

Demon nature - this skill just let's others know I'm a Demon. Apparently I'm unconsciously giving off this vibe that allows others to determine my strength or otherwise, my battle experience. I like to turn this off if I can as this is many reasons why even a demonic rat thinks it could kill me, but it's a skill that is passively active and the way to turn it off is to learn to turn it off. Basically, I need experience to turn it off. And by getting experience, I need to kill demons so that I can suck out all the battle information from them... And you know why I'm here. Screw that.

Demonic absorption - thanks to this skill, I can recover back to my full stats by either consuming, tainting or just straight up shoving demonic energy into my body.

Magic sense - a skill that allows me to use the surrounding magicules to observe the world other than using my five senses. Night vision, infrared, magic detection, 360 degrees no scope, you name it, I can sense anything as far as I can detect magicules around me.

Resistance skills - these are skills obtain by either from the intrinsic qualities of the body or resisting any harmful effects and withstanding without going over threshold.

Magical effect resistance - a skill that allows me to resist a portion of magical effects and depending how much demonic energy I invest in my resistance skills, I maybe able to resist a magic attack entirely.

Natural effect resistance - is a skill that allows me to resist physical attacks. Same as magical resistance, I can resist a portion of any force attacking me whether that be pressure, temperature, impact shocks, explosions or the like so long as it is physical in nature.

Mental corruption resistance - another helpful skill that allowed me to digest those fragmented demonic bodies. As by consuming the spiritual flesh of the Demon, you are also feeding on the ego from that flesh, which will by some chance attack your own ego through mental corruption, and the damage can vary either rendering the consumer an absolute lunatic or losing your own ego permanently. Without this skill, I would be no different from those demons out there killing one another or just be an empty husk of demonic energy.

These skills... Feels lackluster to be honest. Heck, pretty much every Demon already had skills like these from the moment they're born. They can be helpful but it's not enough to increase my chances of survival.

Still sitting here comfortably deep in the cave with my thoughts accelerated, I then focus my attention on a particular set of skills I possess. Or rather, a unique skill.

Unique Skill - a skill obtain through meeting certain requirements.

Unique Skill: Protector - a unique skill born from the desire to protect... I think I got an idea how I even got this.

- Barrier creation - allows me to conjure a barrier out of my own energy to protect any harmful forces from affecting anything inside the barrier. Basically a magic filter or sorts. Pretty useful I might say. And the barriers strength is depended on how much I expended making the barrier.

- danger reaction - a skill that allows me to allocate all of my resources to defending any danger I deem life-threatening. This skill combine with barrier creation is making me subconsciously conjure a barrier around me. No wonder it smells like a new car in this cave. The demonic pollutants are being filtered out and only clean things are around me.

- Absolute territory - a type of skill that allows me to add or change any effects inside the barrier. For example, I can make it as hot as Siberia inside the barrier or create the same pressure that occurs 10,000 meters below sea level. It's a powerful skill and I could potentially kill something inside a barrier. Given that it stay inside the barrier while I kill it.

- Personal space - a skill that allows me to fully program my barriers by just adding a thought, thereby getting more effects from a barrier aside from filter and protection. It's simple as that but without it, I wouldn't even know how to even a create barrier in the first place. It also has the bonus that allows me to implement and incorporate other skills and magic spells into the barrier I'm programing. For example, if I create barrier that has my Demon instincts skills, this barrier will conjure itself to maximum power to protect me from said danger all on its own without my further instructions. And if I program let say an invisibility spell on a barrier that covers me, I can be invisible to others or to whatever surrounds that barrier. The potential for this is endless really.

And that's it. Pretty OP right? Not really. All these skills, especially my unique skill, will only be truly OP if I can use them properly on those who aren't powerful enough to rekt me. As the truth is, I'm only as strong as the amount of magicules and demonic energy I have. Which is not much, really. Just comparable to a Demon rat.

In the end, I'm still weak, and without battling other demons, I can't grow, without growth, I'll be forever weak. And to break this cycle of weakness, I must start killing other demons so that I can consume their demonic energy, memories and battle experiences and incorporate it into my own power. I also need to go out there and observe magical battles so that I can use my skills Analyze and All Of Creation to study the full potential of my magical prowess.

Sigh... So many things to do yet it will all kill me if I'm not careful.

I sat gloomily in my own despair with my thoughts accelerated 10 times the usual until an idea struck me like a bolt of lightning.

I gave this idea a deeper ponder, theorize it and then tried to test it if it was practical. Thus, I went outside.

Ugh... I hate going outside... Wait, I sound like a NEET now so man up already... Or Demon up? Whatever, focus already. Told you I have the attention span of a child.

I went out of the cave very slowly with my barrier up fully clothing me like it was winter clothing. This of course did not male me feel like was the Juggernaut as I know plenty of other things that can break my barrier almost instantly. But I still went out anyway, too late to go back.

Using my skill Magic sense, I was able to spot my desired target. It was a red glowing arm just sitting by itself in the ruins of what was once a battlefield. Once I was close enough, but far enough to escape if the situation deems it, I took a deep breath... Wait, do I even need to breath??

DUDE, FOCUS!!! I eternally berate myself.

And so, I began my experiment. First, I create a barrier and surround the red glowing arm then using my skill personal space, I added the skill Demonic Absorption and the effects to the barrier began to take effect. The red glowing arm, slowly but surely, begins dissolving as if acid was poured and became 4 different kinds of vapor trapped inside the barrier.

One colored vapor was black and seething with demonic power, that was demonic energy that I needed to feed on to increase my strength as a Demon. The second type of vapor looked dark like smoke with a face of a Demon roughly outlining it. This was the ego of the Demon that I didn't need. Then another vapor was showing a lot of images that was filled with information. These were memories, battle experiences or knowledge of the red glowing arm that I needed to grow even further from my original stats. Right now, there wasn't much of it, but that was to be expected since I was only absorbing an arm.
And the last one was colorful and dazzling like rainbows. I've always seen these kinds of things with my Magic Sense but not concentrated like vapor. Yes, these were magicules. The purest form energy that's all around us born from everythingness and nothingness. I do need magicules to develop but not more than I can handle though.

After the red glowing arm was fully dissolved, I then made a barrier surrounding me and the barrier keeping the vapors. And then release the demonic energy and memories so that I can absorb them. The action was rather easy to handle and there were no extra measures to handle as I've already filtered out the unnecessary things I don't need. I shit-eating grin formed half my face as I feel myself growing stronger little by little. Also, the memories and battle experience I absorbed made me realize just how weak I am in this cruel world... Not that I didn't know about it already but the owner of that red glowing arm could kill me 100 times over in single combat.

But hey, fire magic is awesome!

The next moment, I was absorbing the leftover magicules. If absorbing demonic energy felt like injecting steroids, then absorbing magicules was like drinking an energy drink.

And so, my experiment was finished. I finally found a way to safely absorb leftover meals with getting my mind raped. Though the consumption to expenditure ratio of magicules was roughly 3:8, it was acceptable since I get the added bonuses of memories and demonic energy.

I began doing this to other glowing limbs and pieces I found outside my stats were increasing bit by bit and that fills me with immense joy that I grinned like a maniac as I absorb all the way. It was a buffet for here. While other demons would struggle to digest the demons they ate, I was over here cherry-picking my meals and excluding the tasteless things from my plate.

It's a good day to be alive... So better be sure I stay alive if I want to maintain my current streak.

Before I noticed, I already ate everything in the ruins. And I felt tied from all that binge eating. I then created a barrier surrounding me with demonic absorption to absorb the magicules around me and replenish my reserves. Funny that as a Demon you can feel tired but don't have the ability to sleep. At most, if you're too tired to move, you'll just remain inactive and defenseless on the spot.

Hmmm... I better start planning countermeasures to prevent a situation where I run out of magicules. I thought as I returned to the cave with happy thoughts this time.

Then suddenly, something popped out from one of the holes and attacked me in an ambush. It flew with its claws about to rekt my face.

Not today! As my barrier blocked and repelled the thing that attacked me. Then with thought acceleration, the world around me slowing down, I captured in detail the ugly face of my assailant.

Ugh... A rat? Shit, these things are troublesome. Testimony to someone who actually died by one of these things.

A demonic rat that was as big as a dog, sharp teeth and menacing red eyes glares at me and prepares to pounce at me once more had I not surrounded it with a really strong barrier. Now trapped, it then screeched the most annoying screech an unholy thing could produce... Imagine a fork scratching the surface of a plate ten times the maximum volume.

Luckily the barrier filters out all kinds of harmful things that could affect me.

Now what to do? I've basically trapped the rat in a ball and now it's running like a hamster inside a plastic ball. Fairly entertaining but I rather want to kill it.

Perhaps I should start trying the fire magic spell I've just learned recently.

I then began manipulating the magicules and demonic energy to form a spell and with a point of a finger, I cast death to the demonic being.

Burst, napalm blast!

And just like that, the rat inside imploded with a fiery blast! It was reduced into fragments which I then quickly absorbed using demonic absorption through my barrier filters.

Hmm... That costed me more magicules then I thought. As expected, fighting is not the best way I can grow. But it's the best way to practice my demonic powers.

This is gonna be fun. I grin like a... Well, like a Demon.