Xanther sat in his bed, staring out into the deep night sky while letting his thoughts run wild.

"I need to be stronger"

It's all he could think of in his day-to-day life to the point that nothing appealed to him anymore. He constantly craved power even though he had no use for this power. He tried to pursue it because he felt like he'd go insane without it. All of his thoughts screamed for him to reach further out for it for the sake of his mind. He had reached his boiling point.

"I have to sell my soul. If I don't keep trying to satisfy that craving, my mind will collapse."

He pulled out his outdated laptop and started researching how he could do so with what he had in his possession.

Eventually, he stumbled on an extremely old website that felt like it was older than the world itself. He didn't know why he felt that, but it came from deep within his instincts.

The website contained a lot of methods to summon a demon for a contract, however only one was possible for him to create with the materials he had.

He mindlessly drew the runes and circles as his instincts began to take over.

-30 minutes later-

The circle looked roughly complete. It said that you could say whatever you wanted to summon from this simple circle as long as it was a good enough trade.

Xanther took a deep breath and shouted.

"I'll give you my soul in exchange for power. Please make a contract with me!"

"..."

"Did it work?"

"..."

He kept waiting in his dark room for something to come out of the circle or at least an indication of failure, but he could hear nothing except the sound of his breaths.

"Of course, it didn't. What was I thinking? Why would demons even exist, and even if they did, why would they respond to this shit anyway?"

Then, a quiet voice that sounded like it came from deep within himself appeared in his head.

"...what do you want?"

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He immediately back jumped out of fright and fell onto the ground.

"Fuck, did it actually work? Wait. We didn't complete the deal, so are you trying to take over my mind!"

"...I won't take over your mind or take anything from you right now, just let me stay in your body and I'll try to fulfill whatever wish you had. Just keep me out of that place for as long as you can."

"So you'd help me get stronger than I already am as rent for staying in my body?"

"...More like near your soul, but yeah you could put it like that. Do you agree to this deal?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I?"

"...Great, so the contract is now finalized."

The intricate markings on the floor vanished into thin air as if they never existed.

"So will I get a system with an OP cheat to get stronger?"

"...No? Why would you even want one? From what I saw in your memories, those things are absolute trash. It's just a huge trap to make you overly reliant on it while making you worthless without it. If I'm going to be stuck with you, you can't be useless."

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad. I've seen countless stories of people rising to immortality and above with the help of a system."

"...I wouldn't make a trashy thing like that even if I could do so. I can give you a status screen for yourself at most, the rest needs to be worked for and made by yourself if you really want one that badly."

"Well then what are you good for? You're basically just here to give me information about myself at that point."

"...I am a demon who specializes in promoting growth and unlocking the potential within my hosts. For example, you have a great talent for magic due to your large soul. I'd be able to change your body to allow that talent to be usable."

It was at this moment that the demon noticed an extremely dark spot on Xanther's grey soul. It seemed to suck in the light around it, essentially making the areas surrounding it look darker. It was like a black hole, yet somehow, it seemed to make the demon fear it much more than just a black hole.

"So, do you have a name? Calling you demon just feels a bit weird to me."

"...My name is Ozryn. Say, do you ever get the feeling that a part of you is being forgotten alongside a sharp headache?"

"No? I've never experienced anything like that in my life as far as I can remember. Why do you ask?"

"...No reason, just trying to make idle chatter."

Xanther went to lie down on his bed to calm himself down. From the moment he had heard Ozryn's voice, his adrenaline spiked through the roof. His heart was beating through his chest and he felt like he had done a marathon.

He eventually fell asleep, but his heart never calmed down. His body began to continuously get hotter and hotter. Ozryn was changing Xanther's body to have the potential to break through the limit that he had reached and make use of magic energy. This was usually a painful process that had a high chance of death, but Xanther was lucky. He had Ozryn.

Ozryn belonged to a species of demon that was considered to be the weakest out of all the demons individually, yet was a protected species due to its supportive abilities. They could aid nearly anything to get stronger while allowing the host to control the demon with their strength easily. That being said, you could only grow through your own efforts while the demons could only give you the room to grow for yourself. They could not change your talent and they could not just give you power.

Essentially, they were slaves that were used as a training supplement by the other races who knew of them.

"...Why is this guy's body so difficult to change?"

Eventually, the sun came up and it was time for Xanther to feel his new body.