“Ughh.”

Jason groaned as he slowly pushed the corpse of the devil off him. For such a thin and lanky devil, it must have weighed a ton. He gritted his teeth as his sides throbbed painfully. It damn well packed a hell of a punch too. His piercing headache from what he assumed was overdrawing his ability was not helping.

After struggling for a while, he finally managed to get the damn thing off him. Attempting to ignore his headache, he counted his spoils.

[ a being. +5 Essence of Sin.

Grant to a being. +100 Essence of Sin.]

‘Nice. 230 Essence, 770 more for that system interface upgrade.’

He then glanced at the devil’s core in his hand. Unlike the others, this one had not crumbled upon the owner’s death.

‘Oh?’

He held up the core to his eye, observing it closely.

‘So, what makes this one so different from the others? Perhaps that devil was an Esquire like me? It could have a core because it was strong enough? Well, that explains the ability it used. Some sort of fear-inducing slowing ability, similar to mine. . .

It could not completely freeze the target, so does that mean its ability grade was lower than mine? Although, the effect of the ability is longer than mine . . .’

Deciding to figure it out later, he stopped hesitating and swallowed it.

Immediately, he felt power flow into him. This being the first time he ingested a supernatural item while not dying, he could truly feel its effects in his body. He felt his limbs strengthen, his claws grow sharper and harder, and his body more resilient.

*DING!*

[Ability unlocked ]

‘Ah, good! I unlocked a new ability. Will I unlock a new ability every time I consume another devil’s core?’

Jason glanced at his status, and his eyes lit up when he saw the change in his status.

[Name: Jason Mendalez

Bloodline: Drenam Shapeshifter Devil

Rank: Esquire

Abilities:

Form Claws: Grade 5 Induce Fear: Grade 3 Heavy Strike: Grade 2

Skills:

Dissection: Grade 1

Soul Power: 101

Essence of Sin: 230]

Without consuming a supernatural item from the reward system, his soul power had increased. Granted, it was by a very small amount compared to the rewards from the system, but he had not paid any essence, which he needed to purchase upgrades to his interface.

By now, he had figured out that his soul power was related to his physical power, despite the name. It would be good to increase it, considering he had been on the edge of death from every encounter so far.

He dismissed the system in his mind, and glanced at the corpse of the tall, lanky devil. He walked up to it, and held up its head, staring at the empty pits that were its eyes.

“Do you mind if I dissect your body, Mr. Devil?”

Of course, it did not reply, but Jason smiled happily as if it did. “Oh, thank you, Mr. Devil.”

He got up and activated his skill.

He sighed contently as he finished taking apart the last of its body. By now, he had quite a lot of materials, and he could only afford to take what he thought was the most important. The skin on its fists was as hard as rock, and he had carefully excised it and stored it. Nothing else seemed to stand out.

As he chewed on the stringy, tough meat of the devil, he thought of his next course of action.

Of course, heading to the pillar was the primary objective, but what could he do to improve his chances of survival? He could not simply get lucky every time, as was the case with every fight so far. He had won by a hair’s breadth, but that was not enough. He needed to win confidently, with room to spare instead of nearly dying.

‘I will need a better grasp on my abilities. They are the reason I won so far. So first off, I will need to explore the limits of my new ability. And next, I will need to know how much I can use my abilities. There is clearly a resource for using it, but I will need an exact measurement. . .

Hmm, perhaps, since this system has been somewhat game-like so far, there will be an interface upgrade for measuring this resource?’

He swept over the rewards list. Sure enough, there was.

[Interface Upgrade (Mana Analyzer I): Enables the host to determine the host’s maximum and current mana capacity. Cost: 2000 Essence]

Sighh

‘Well, then I guess I will obtain this after the bloodline analyzer, or this first if I have enough essence to spare when my next evolution comes.’

He got up, and took a stance. He balled his hand into a fist first, without using his claws, and activated his new ability.

He felt power and strength fill his body, and he instinctively directed into his fist and punched.

Whoosh!

He felt the air stir as he punched out, far stronger than he normally could. ‘How strong is it compared to . . Ah right, silly me.’

He walked up to a nearby rock, took his stance again, drew his fist back, and punched it as hard as he could.

Bang!

He grunted as his knuckles throbbed from that strike. His pain was forgotten, though, when he looked at the small indent in the stone he managed to make. ‘Oh wow, that’s a lot stronger than I thought. So my strength has increased from when I had appeared in Hell.’

Then, he activated his ability again and struck the stone with all his might, a little smoother than before.

BANG!

He was pleased, and surprised, at the slightly bigger indent he made, the stone also slightly cracked.

‘Well, I’m no expert, but I would say that that was at least 10 percent stronger. Not sure how much exactly, though.’

Next, he tested the limits of his skill. He activated his skill again, as fast as he could, and punched the wall.

Bang!

He did not stop this time, though, and activated the skill again, still as quickly as he could.

He battered the rock 3 more times before he felt a dull ache in his head. ‘So, five times is the limit? The activation time was also pretty fast, about half a second. A bit long in a real fight, though.’

He sat down and closed his eyes to wait for the headache to fade.

‘About half an hour? Not bad, although I can’t assume that I am at full capacity, and I’m not sure about the time either.’

Finally done with his experimenting, he got up, put on his hideous leather handbag, and started trekking through the blasted landscape again.

While stumbling through the rough terrain, he debated whether to claim a supernatural item in the rewards list to strengthen himself quickly, or wait to buy the interface upgrades so he could make better decisions in the long term.

As he was thinking this, he noticed a soul appear at the edge of his soul sense. Approximately as large as the previous devil he just slew.

‘I’m encountering devils more frequently. . . Perhaps they are also going to the pillar? Hmm, that means that when I reach it, it could be swarming with devils. Oh well, by the time I reach it, I would be stronger, I’ll worry about it then.’

The other devil must have detected him too, as it started to head towards him.

As it drew close, he heard its footsteps before he saw it crest a nearby hill.

It had light, controlled footsteps, not rushed, calm and steady. Jason’s eyes narrowed. A predator.

He saw its head, made of mist. It smoothly navigated the rough terrain, over the hill, revealing the rest of its body. Covered in mist, humanoid with elongated arms, legs and a tail.

Sure enough, it was another mist devil, some variant of his race considering its dark-red colour. Which means that consuming its compatible core would gain more results. Judging from the way its glared silently at him, it knew that too.

‘This one was intelligent, not to be underestimated.’ He grinned. ‘Oh, the excitement, the thrill of battle!’

They locked eyes, gazing intently at each other, looking for hints of weakness, as they lowered their bodies, ready to strike. Jason began to form his claws, his ethereal, misty fingers elongating and solidifying into cold, razor-sharp knives of grey steel. He saw that its tail began to solidify too, parts of it turning into thin, blood-red blades. Its tail had turned into a sort of segmented bladed whip.

As if agreed upon beforehand, they burst into action synchronously, its tail whipping around to shred his body, and his claws to tear its throat apart.