The first memory in his mind was that of the system forming.
Demon System Integrating: Standby
. . .
Demon System Integrated. Assessing Affinities.
. . .
Congratulations! You have gained the Bone Affinit-
Congratulations! You have gained the Blood Affi-
Congratulations! You have gained the Flesh Af-
Error: You may not possess more then 3 affini-
Congratulations, you have fulfilled the prerequisites to create a composite affinity! Your Bone, Blood, Flesh, And Death affinity have combined into the Necromantic Affinity! According to Demon Emperor Systematus decree demons formed with a compound affinity will be assigned a system administrator to help settle your system. Please wait while an available administrator is found.
Congratulations! You have gained the Curse Affinity!
Congratulations! You have gained the Growth Affinity!
Error: Local affinity values are extremely volatile. Destabilization in progress.
Warning! Your corporeal form is scattering.
Warning! Your corporeal form can not form in extreme affinity values.
Warning! You will be destroyed in 13 seco-
Administrator found. Congratulations you have been assigned System Administrator: Iodina.
"Oh Lords what have I just been assigned?"
He could hear the noise yet not understand. He had yet to even comprehend existence at this point. Only later could he figure out the meaning behind the words in hindsight.
Administration has stabilized your corporeal form. Time to complete creation of Corporeal Form extended. Current time 23 minutes and 43 seconds.
Slowly he came into existence. Not that he had any understanding of concept at the time. He was nothing but a soul in an amalgamation of planar fabric for the moment. After the allotted time came to pass however, he was finally born. He simply sat there in a puddle of yellow liquid resting in a white basin.
"Alright, integrating the system knowledge... Which planet is the next marked for the ascension? Earth? Alright we'll just toss in some Earth culture for their reference point. Better then the Shanno. They'll thank me later."
Suddenly knowledge poured into his mind. Nothing like the secrets of universe, but rather a large amount of basic information required to survive. Things like what colors were, common items, basic types of animals, how the system ran, and what he was. He blinked and tilted his head down to look into the yellow liquid as the scent of ammonia filled his... nose? No he didn't have a nose he noticed. Looking down at his reflection he saw that his face was a simple half skull with piercing blue flames for eyes deep in the darkness of his eye sockets. His skin was black, rubbery, and thin like wires wrapped into cords. A flicker of blue drew his eyes to the caricature of hair he had gained. Instead of hair he instead had long strings of black wax stylized like dread locks with tiny wicks of blue fire at the tips. Behind him a tail whipped with the same type of candle burning at its end.
He crouched in the wrist deep liquid on all fours. Taking a moment to look around while the system continued to burn lines of startup messages in his mind. He found himself in some sort of cavern of white stone. A crack on one side opened up to a grey sky with stalactites and stalagmites ringed around its edge. Crawling his way over on all fours in a bestial manner he looked out and down onto plains of white rock dotted with bodies. Hills in the distance broke the landscape with mountains even further beyond to the right and a misty wall to the left.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
For a moment the occasionally dotted body on the floor concerned him. Was he in a war zone? Was he in danger? He quickly realized however why the carrion was scattered in such a macabre display. The sky seemed to open as a body fell from the sky. The grisly deposit slapping on the ground with a sickening splat. He was pulled out of his observations by the system finalizing its work.
Status
Main Affinities: Necromantic (Blood, Flesh, Bone, Death), Curse, Growth
Necromantic Affinity 3% | 151/151 Mana | 50.6 Mana per 1% Affinity
Curse Affinity 7% | 70/70 Mana | 10 Mana per 1% Affinity
Growth Affinity 4% | 40/40 Mana | 10 Mana per 1% Affinity
Stats
6 Strength
10 Dexterity
12 Magic Power
14 Consciousness
6 Body 60/60 HP
Evolution Curseling: The most basic demon with an affinity towards curses and dark magic. Often used as familiars to witches or summoned to haunt ones enemies. Your hunger for knowledge is only contested by your ability to misuse it.
Skills
Necromantic 1/3
Animate Dead LVL 1: You may raise a corpse under your service by imbuing it with an amount of necromantic mana. Your maximum necromantic mana will fall in relation to the power of the corpse. Alternatively you may use a source of death or necromantic mana to fuel the undead via ritual or crafted item.
Curse 1/3
Weakening Hex LVL 1: You may weaken target by spending curse mana. Reduce health, regeneration, mana regeneration, mana, or a small amount of stats. Mana cost 10. Stacks. Lasts 5 minutes.
Growth 1/3
Regeneration: You may spend mana to cause a creature to slowly heal. Mana cost 10.
Not bad. Based on his knowledge 10 was about average of newly spawned demons stats. His magic power and consciousness were higher then average even if his body was a bit weaker in exchange. Maybe that's why he was so clear headed now?
"Your consciousness had to be raised in order to stabilize your forms creation. The compound affinity also raised your magic power as the concentration of mana increased in your soul."
He looked around as he heard the woman's voice before realizing it was probably the System Administrator. He tried to speak, wincing at the odd feeling of his body producing sound for the first time. His voice was deeper then he expected. "Can you hear my thoughts?"
The woman's voice, Iodina the system said, took on an amused tone. "Yep. Someone almost was destroyed before they were born and needed some correction. Now, if you don't want to dissolve I would suggest getting out of that giant skull. I won't have my work be broken right after I fixed it."
Surprise rose in his chest as he processed her words. Giant skull? Looking around he realized that he was in fact inside some giant mouth. The stalactites and stalagmites were in fact giant teeth. Judging from how high up he was in comparison to the floor though he realized he had a sudden problem. Poking his head over the side he judged the distance to the ground. "How? I'll splatter."
There was no response from Iodina. He sighed and tried to figure out the best way down. After a moment of thought it became clear he didn't really have many options. It was either climb down and hope his abysmal strength stat didn't give out on him or starve up here. Going to the back of the cave he found what he expected. A seam where the skull connected to the spine of whatever massive skeleton he was in. There was a crack just big enough to climb out of, and if he swung himself just right he'd be able to use the parts of the spine that stuck out as foot and handholds.
He moved before he could let doubt and fear stop him. Swinging his legs and letting go of the skulls edge he landed on the edge of the spine and clung to the vertebrae. Looking out, now that he wasn't in the skull, all he saw were more mountains in the distance, and white stone planes dotted with ravines of varying size. Slowly, carefully, so as to not expend his limited energy or slip he made his way down. After roughly a half hour, all the while questioning what the hell could be so big, he made it to the pelvis and found a tail that gently curved to the ground. With careful and sure steps he half crawled have ran down the tail and took his first steps onto the white stone.
Walking forward a few dozen meters he looked back at where he came from. To his shock he saw the skeleton of some sort of giant bipedal lizard. It seemed to have died locked in combat with some kind of giant multi-winged bird. Even now the birds skeleton was wrapped around the lizard with its talons latched into the lizards skull. The lizard had buried its teeth in the birds neck however. Both were blackened on the outside as if burnt. He had no idea how to even quantify how big they were.
Shaking his head he looked out into the plains of white stone, the same color as new bones, and took a step forward. Nowhere to go but forward.