Jordan stared at the dead body of the succubus, the battle was over and all the enemies were killed.

The only survivors were those that were locked in the cages, they looked scared some sobbed and some looked at Jordan with dead eyes.

None of them thought that they will be able to live better than before, there were about 220 survivors locked in the cages, surprisingly the female-male ratio was 2:1 so there were about 150 females and 70 males.

The females were all skinny and malnourished but still looked better than the males, most of the males looked like they were ready to die.

However, this didn't bother Jordan right now, what bothered him was the body of the succubus, Jordan gulped and thought to himself ´should I eat her center of power? It works for beasts so it should work even for humans and demons, but the moral question is destroying me, if I eat it, it would be like giving up on being a human, but… I always hated what I was and how helpless I felt before the world, and eating third circle center of power should provide huge boost…´

With this Jordan bend down and with his claws he easily cut the succubus open, ripping her heart out wasn't enough, she could have a mana organ just like Jordan or she can have an awakened brain or only her heart.

Jordan looked through the insides of her torso and was disappointed, nothing gave him the feeling like the hearts of the beasts, which means it was her brain and that was what Jordan didn't want to eat at all.

While Jordan was butchering the succubus all the survivors were looking at him with shocked eyes, before theirs vitality and life energy was sucked out of their bodies and now they are going to get eaten, they couldn't believe their luck, at least theirs dead will be quick.

As Jordan was too immersed in what he was doing he didn't notice the stares that were piercing his back, Jordan moved to the head, and with his ax, he cracked the head open, he could see the succubus brain and the same feeling he felt before he ate the heart of beasts rich with mana came, he found what he was looking for.

Jordan thought once again ´should I really do it? I feel like it´s wrong, there should be some technique that should enable me to absorb it without eating it, but what´s the difference between that and eating it, maybe I shouldn't think so much about it, sure I could give it to Sunny or some other beast.. well, fuck it´

Without further ado, Jordan reached for the brain and ate it as fast as he could so that he cant have other thoughts about it.

Jordan held in his former human instincts that were making him want to puke, while he did so the human instincts were becoming more and more suppressed by the instincts of his demon side, after Jordan ate the brain and said to himself "yes.. this is what I am, I am a demon and I will do anything survive and if this helps me not to be someone´s dog so be it"

The humans in the cages still stared at Jordan but theirs stares changed a bit, they understood, they were agreeing with Jordan, they too will do anything to survive, if eating a human brain could help them escape the cages, they would do it.

It took a minute but the brain was starting to get absorbed and Jordan felt an increase in the top capacity of his second heart like never before.

The pain started to show itself and assaulted Jordan but he held on and didn't let the pain overcome him, in few moments the brain was absorbed and Jordan felt that he wasn't that far from reaching the third circle.

When Jordan looked at himself he noticed some changes, his skin turned hard, at the places where were his organs were the skin formed some sort of gray natural armor, the armor was full of cracks but at the very least it did not block Jordan´s mobility, also at most the hardened skin was at best 1 cm thick, Jordan let a claw grew from one if his fingers and tested it.

The hardened skin resisted the claw and for a few seconds it did even successfully but in the end, the skin failed and the claw pierced in, the resistance of the hardened skin was similar to rock and the only difference was that the skin was still to some extend flexible.

Satisfied Jordan moved his sight to the survivors, they all looked down when Jordan stare fallen on them, they saw how the succubus advanced so the few moments of pain Jordan went through didn't look weird to them but now all of them were silent.

They all believed that they will be killed, no one begged, dead seemed better than being starved and abused every day, and even if they were released nothing much better awaited them.

Some of them were from angel camps and were kicked out because of the lack of food, some of them didn't join any camp at the start and when they tried doing so later no one let them in, the beasts or the demons weren't the biggest problems, the lack of food was, with the transport of food cut off there was nothing for most of the cities and many people were starving, it was so bad that the angels had to exchange their crystals for food instead of techniques.

The situation will stay the same until a reliable source of food is found or the population decreases enough so that the meat from hunted down beasts suffice.

But Jordan didn't know much about that, he had his cowsts and the supply of the dead rats, with this he is fine for months to come.

What´s more, Jordan doesn't need food anymore so this doesn't really concern him.

Jordan kept looking at the survivors and after a while he started to speak to them "I am Jordan Hall and as you probably noticed I am a demon, after your last experience with demons I am sure you don't want to trust me but it's same as with humans, there are bad and there are those that aren't that bad"

Jordan made sure to talk loud enough so everyone could hear him, the humans looked a bit less dead but not convinced, Jordan didn't care much about them anyway so he continued "I have some work I want to get done so that's why I attacked this camp, you will work for me and in this way, you will repay to me rescuing you and killing your captors, the time limit you have to work for me is one month, after that, you can choose to stay or to leave, I will provide you with safety, food, water and roof about your head and in return I want you to work hard and being loyal, to cut the crap I will warn you now if you try to escape you will be killed, brake the rules I set and you will be punished and can be even killed, you don't trust me and I don't trust you, work hard for a month and I swear that I will release you if you don't want to believe me, you can choose death here right now!"

The last part was shouted and some of the survivors flinched, they mostly didn't believe the word Jordan said, it sounded more like a fairytale, so they just kept on being silent.

Jordan expected at least some reaction so he was lost for words, he scratched the back of his head and spoke once again "anyway that´s all about that for now, I will take you to my base after I collect what I can here, you will be given food and water here, for now, is there anyone who knows where those demons hold their belongings or any valuable items?"

Once again everyone from the survivors kept on being silent inside their cages, some of them were timidly shaking their heads but nothing more, seeing that Jordan was getting a bit irritated, he knew that they were still scared and all that but some sort of reaction preferably spoken should be normal.

Jordan got near one of the cages and with a swing of his hammer he smashed the lock, the cage opened and Jordan shouted "SPEAK", everyone scared mumbled "nonono" until Jordan get to the third cage where one woman in her twenties finally said "…yes.." it was so quiet that if not for Jordan´s enhanced senses he wouldn't be able to hear it.

Jordan spoke to the woman "show me where", the woman tried to stand up but her legs couldn't even carry her weight, she was laying in a corner and was dirty from piss and probably even feces as she probably laid here for some time, upon seeing that Jordan went to the cage and lifted the woman, he took her to princess carry and told here once again "point to me where".

When Jordan came to the cage everyone backed off and they let Jordan took the woman without any resistance, scared they were trying to make themselves as small as possible, after all, Jordan´s giant build and demonic smile were truly intimidating.

Jordan carried the woman and thought to himself ´it´s worse than I thought, they didn't let them out of the cages at all, not even for the toilet, at least as humans they went on one place"

Jordan collected from the camp everything he could but it wasn't much, the loot was several shopping carts loaded with food, some weapons that were probably owned by the two demons, and two books about magic, one was the one Jordan already had and the other was a version that didn't have much theory but rather completed spells, and lastly about 40 crystals.

While Jordan looted the camp he let Sunny eat the rest of the succubus and Max together with the other second phase beasts ate the two demons, the two demons were too weak to make Jordan force himself to eat their center of power so he let his beasts to have some fun as well.

With everything taken care of Jordan ordered his beasts to haul the dead beasts back to his base, after that was done the last thing was transporting the survivors, some of them could hardly walk such as the woman that showed Jordan where the demons hid their stuff so Jordan made them walk in groups to his base while those that had some strength carried those that didn't.

Like that bigger part of the night was spent, the rats that roamed the streets at night were already killed and the few beasts stupid enough to bother Jordan´s group were easily dealt with.

All the survivors were thrown to the big hall of the fortress, there was enough space for everyone and the goblins that were left in the base because they were affected by the aroma of the succubus meanwhile prepared many buckets of water and on few fires, there were the 1,5 meter long and 1 meter big rats cooking, the survivors couldn't believe that sight.

Finally, food, until now they were eating only the leftovers and scraps.

And now they were given real food, they didn't care at all about that it comes from rats, they were staring at the meat that was sizzling above the fires.

Jordan came to the room with the survivors and looked over them "Today you are free to rest, tomorrow morning you will present to me someone that will represent you and I will speak to him my orders, for now, be at ease and feed yourself and also, so that you don't forget, those that try to escape will be killed, is that clear?!"

Many "yes!" were spoken or shouted, when Jordan heard that he nodded and left the hall.