Demons are supernatural beings. It may sound painfully obvious but you would be surprised just how often that little fact goes unnoticed.
Amongst the myriad of spirits and immaterial entities, demons are the only ones that hold a special property. They adhere to the expectations and preconceptions of their summoner. Of course, a demon will always be inherently selfish due to their infernal heritage, but pretty much everything else about them will be formed by their summoner, including a great deal of their personality.
Right then, Kelteth was feeling particularly pleased. His summoner was a rare one - not stupid enough to have unearned confidence, and not experienced enough to be strong willed. As a result, the old demon felt the most powerful he had ever felt, elevated as he was by his summoner's intense terror.
"Who calls me to this mortal plane?", Kelteth's newly formed voice boomed. It had been such a long time since he was able to use his favorite line.
He was in a small apartment room, maybe closer to a closet in size. The space was littered with books and lit candles, dimly illuminated by moonlight filtered through the lone grimy window. The demon was in a magic circle, seemingly painted with blood. The complicated symbology would most likely be impressive to a layman, but Kelteth wasn't particularly moved. It was painfully obvious to him that it was made by a beginner, with how subtly shaky the brushwork was, though the theory behind it was solid enough.
"That would be me", a hushed voice graveled in response.
The origin of those words came from the opposite wall. Firmly pressed against the wall's surface was a pathetic young man. Greasy and long blonde hair draped in front of his eyes, framing his pale and gaunt face. His plain white t-shirt and jeans were disheveled from weeks of wear, hanging loosely off of his thin frame. The man's cracked lips quivered and hands shook in obvious fear.
"Then explain", the demon rumbled, "Why I am here, worm"
The summoner gulped and shakingly stood to his feet before bowing in a stiff manner.
"Kelteth, the Great Hunger, I welcome you to the world of humanity", he recited the traditional greeting, desperately trying to keep his voice from cracking, "I am Seth Reese and I have summoned you to forge a pact."
The vocabulary in demonology is very precise. Every word has to be chosen with great care or disaster will most likely follow, similarly to the rules of the monkey's paw. Deals between mortals and demons are par for the course, but a pact is the most serious and long-term of them all. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that the souls of both parties were on the line if a pact was broken.
"Ohoho. A pact, hmm? I have never enacted one with a mortal before. The terms of this deal have to be very tempting indeed to get me to bite, but I doubt you have anything substantial to offer, judging by the squalor you live in", Kelteth chided.
"N-no! I do have something to offer: my body!", Seth contested.
The demon was silent for a moment before replying, "You should have brought forth a succubus for that kind of thing, human. I am above pleasuring mortals for fun."
Blushing furiously, the summoner shook his head, saying, "That's not what I mean. I'm offering you permanent ownership of this body to do with what you will. In exchange, you have to guide my soul to Elysium. I know you're capable of that, given your past."
Elysium. The most exclusive and mysterious of the afterlives. It was the only place in all the multiverse that a soul could have eternal bliss. The earthly conceptions of heaven or paradise didn't even come close to its splendor. Many magicians spent their entire lives trying to get access into the Domain of Eternity, but all failed.
"Hm! It was certainly wise of you to do your research, mortal. I am indeed a fallen angel and as such, I know the path to the golden gate. And your offer is indeed tempting, given how rare it is for a demon to have unfettered access to the world of mortals", Kelteth contemplated, "However, your desire to be rid of your body has piqued my interest. It is weak and pathetic, to be sure, but you are still youthful. Why are you so keen to be rid of it?"
Seth was quieted for a long while before finally answering, "I'm a failure, Kalteth. Nothing I've done has ever been successful and I've failed everyone close to me. I'm .... I'm tired of being here. I'm tired of living this sad excuse of a life. If you really want to know more, you can look through my memories when the deal is completed."
The demon, for the first time in a long time, felt understanding. Though he never considered himself to be a failure, even through the great many hardships he had undergone, he always felt the small but undeniable urge to end his existence. Part of it was his long age, he was ancient even among demons, and part of it was the sheer boredom of being on top for so long. It was a strange sympathy, from one so weak to one so powerful.
"Very well, Seth. I accept your terms. Prepare yourself, this will be painful", Kelteth warned, his tone more subdued than the rest of their exchange.
Without even a moment's hesitation, the demon shredded through the ineffective defenses of the magic circle and grabbed hold of his summoner's head. Seth's hair fell away from his face as he faced Kalteth. His icy blue eyes held no fear, there was only acceptance.
The demon hadn't lied, if anything, he had undersold just how painful the process was. Seth's screams rung through the night like a banshee's mournful wail.
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The young man sighed. The integration process was much more convoluted than it seemed to be. Cramming such a massive soul into a weak body took more than a few tricks, but it was finished.
Kelteth grasped his new hand, noting how feeble its grip was.
"Tch. To be this close to death and yet still perform a summoning. What a madman", he tonelessly noted.
Seth's body was mere hours away from collapsing from lack of sleep, water, and food. The idiot had been obsessive over preparing the ritual over the last months and eventually even necessities were disregarded. It was thanks to his delirious state that the demon felt such boundless confidence.
Kelteth sipped a glass of water carefully as he began rooting through Seth's memories.
The kid was the eldest child of the filthy rich Reese family. For the majority of his life, he turned heads. He was undeniably handsome, intelligent, and charismatic. Seth was a role model for his sister and brother and the perfect heir for the family's massive conglomerate. He basked in the attention he received, feeding his ego to gigantic levels.
Then it all came tumbling down when his brother awoke as an adventurer.
Adventurers were humans with supernatural powers and the ability to grow as if they were in a video game. They started appearing 50 years ago when the dungeons came to Earth. Portal to subdimensions full of monsters, dungeons posed a huge threat to humanity if left unchecked. Making up about 50% of the population, adventurers served as defenders against this rising threat. As a result, they were elevated to the very top of society. Even the weakest F rank adventurer was considered to be nobility, so it wasn't a stretch to consider the very strongest to be kings.
Simply put, adventurers had the monopoly on this otherworldly power. Normal people didn't just treat them better out of courtesy, but also due to fear. Adventurers had legal authority to do whatever they pleased to the normal population with little to no punishment.
The normally complex socio-economic situation of the world became a clear cut dichotomy between the weak and the strong. The difference of treatment between these two castes was like Heaven and Earth.
Seth was treated so well not only because of his innate talents, but because the hope that he would awaken as an adventurer himself. That hope proved to be fruitless when not only his brother, but his sister awoke when he did not. He immediately lost his status as the golden boy of the family and his siblings began to be groomed to take over the company.
It wasn't long after his fall that Seth became obsessed with adventurers. Everything fell to the wayside. His friends, family, and even fiance were ignored in his monomania.
He tapped into his massive trust fund and begged his business associates for money. His research into adventurers was focused solely on the concept of artificial awakening. After years of nonstop work by the leading experts in the field, nothing was found except dead ends.
By this point, Seth was a broken man. He was desperate to escape the hole had dug himself into, but was too much of a coward to end things himself. It was at that point that he started looking into demonology.
"I underestimated just how pathetic this man was ...", Kelteth sighed, "All of his credit cards are maxed out and he has no cash. He would have definitely starved to death if he hadn't made our deal. Well, I guess it can't be helped."
Wobbling over to the magic circle, the demon plopped down in the dead center, sitting in the lotus position. Breathing in a rattling breath, Kelteth focused on the pre-existing connection that Seth had made. It was indeed shoddy, but it would suffice for his purposes.
He began slowly, tugging and urging the energy from the other side into him. Hellfire, the native power of the demon world, was normally very stubborn and difficult to control. Well, it would be for a normal person. A demon controlled hellfire as easily as breathing.
The blistering energy flooded the human body freely. The sensation overwhelmed his nerves, thankfully registering as numbness instead of pain. It only took Kelteth ten minutes to perform this particular work, reinforcing his new body with a network of pure hellfire. The demon had done this countless times for humans. The effect was cheap, but it was exactly what he needed.
Satisfied, he cut off the energy flow and opened his eyes. What he saw surprised him.
You have gained the passive skill "Demonic Vigor"!
Demonic Vigor
Rank C Passive Skill
Max level
Using a forbidden rite, the user of this skill has rid themself of their metabolism.
You no longer require sleep, food, water, or air. Normal poisons no longer affect you.
Congratulations! You have awoken as an adventurer!
Due to the nature of your awakening, you will not be granted a class.
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Your current rank is F.
This was odd to say the least. He had never imagined that awakening would be this easy. To think that the system that gave the humans their powers would recognize something demonic in nature. Though Kelteth immediately recognized that the method he used would bring forth a slew of problems. Normally, an adventurer would hurry to register right away, but he couldn't do that without drawing in suspicion.
"They would know right away that I was fishy given that I have no class. At minimum I would be ostracized. At worse, I would be kept in a lab to be experimented on", he bemoaned, "But unregistered adventurers run the risk of being heavily punished."
After agonizing over his situation for a moment, Kelteth thought of a potential solution.
Pricking his finger, the demon filled an inkwell with blood and set to work altering the magic circle. First, he corrected all of the obvious mistakes, using elegant brushstrokes to cover the older and less impressive ones. Then he began adding sub-sigils, each of them more complex and refined than the last. There were quite a few that only an archdemon would know, but Kelteth's long age worked to his advantage.
Wiping his brow out of pure muscle memory, he looked at his work with satisfaction.
"Well, no use just sitting here", Kelteth muttered quietly, tying his hair back into a ponytail, "Come forth."
The upgraded magic circle hummed in response, coalescing motes of light above it into a vaguely humanoid form. After a moment, the light faded away to reveal the object of the summoning.
There, in the center of the circle, stood a handsome man. His ensemble was entirely white, from his suit to his top hat and even to his shoes. Nobody would bat an eye if you were to call him a ringmaster in a circus. His expression was bemused and utterly serene.
"Hello, old friend", came his jovial voice, "I would have never expected to be called here and by you, no less."
"It is good to see you again, Merchant", Kelteth bowed.
The Merchant was not a demon, per se. He was a multiversal being, travelling between dimensions freely to offer his wares. He sold literally everything imaginable
"Now, now. There is no need to stand on ceremony. We're friends after all, right?", the Merchant lightly laughed, "I am glad you summoned me. It would seem as if your new ... erm, 'attire' is rather lacking, if I may say so. You must be looking for some way to bolster it. Aura strengthening pills, perhaps? Or a bolstering elixir?"
"I'm afraid not", Kelteth shook his head, "I'm sure you are aware of the situation here on Earth. I was wondering if you had access to something from this 'System', specifically a class?"
"Ah, a discerning customer. Yes, it took quite a bit of work, but I have managed to get my hands on system resources. Though I will say that the administrator was not too happy about that", he beamed, "Did you have your eye on anything specific?"
One bit of interesting data from Seth's memories was the existence of unique classes. The average person didn't know about them, but given the mountain of resources that the man had poured into researching adventurers, it was a given that he would know a bit about them. Unlike classes like Berserker or Cleric, a unique class was only given to a single person. They were innately powerful and had unmatched growth potential.
"I was looking for something unique", Kelteth replied, seemingly offhandedly.
The Merchant's eyes gleamed in response.
"My, my. Discerning indeed", the Merchant proclaimed, "You've earned quite a bit of credit by doing favors for me in the past, and it's thanks to our relationship that I'm willing to give you a rather hefty discount. But even then, purchasing a unique class will take your entire balance. Are you still willing?"
"Yes", the demon said without hesitation.
The credit he had accumulated would no doubt be worth trillions of dollars in Earth money, but he had no qualms spending it. The memories that Seth had of unique class holders were tantalizing. They had power that not even a demon could hope to hold. Envy woke up in the old demon. He had ambition for the first time in millennia.
"Very well", the white-garbed man nodded, "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the system, I cannot offer you a selection of choices. All I can do is force the unique class process to begin. After that, it's out of my hands, and the system will determine what your final class will be."
Kelteth mirrored the Merchant's nod.
"I'm ready", he affirmed.
"Good luck, old friend", the Merchant snapped his fingers, disappearing in a flash of light.
Calculating ...
Congratulations! You have gained the unique class "Silver Dragon Knight"!
Silver Dragon Knight
Unique Class
More than simply an advanced version of a Paladin, the Silver Dragon Knight is the chosen vanguard of the dragon god Bahamut. The Silver Dragon Knight has a deep understanding of both combat and holy magics, utilizing them in tandem to defeat heretics and evil beings.
You have gained the passive skill "Divine Swordsmanship"!
You have gained the passive skill "Divine Magic"!
You have gained the passive skill "Silver Scale"!
Divine Swordsmanship
Rank S Passive Skill
Level 1
The user of this skill is able to utilize the combat techniques of the high heavens to obliterate their foes.
Divine Magic
Rank S Passive Skill
Level 1
A step above "Holy Magic", users of this ability weave the energy of the heavens into powerful spells.
Silver Scale
Rank S Passive Skill
Level 1
The user of this skill is granted the approximate physical abilities of a dragon, including enhanced physique, a layer of subdermal scales, and summonable wings. More abilities can be earned by improving this skill.
Kelteth guffawed.
"Absurd, giving a demon holy magic", he chuckled, "This system is definitely screwing with me."
Another source of worry came from the number of skills. Normally a class would be given five skills from the outset with a chance to learn more as it levelled up. Kelteth hoped that the power of the skills he got made up for their small number.
"My rank didn't go up either. How strange", he intoned, "Maybe the system didn't recognize the rank up because I got the class artificially?"
That would prove to be a problem. Rank F adventurers could only go up to level 20 and even then were weaker than level 20 adventurers of higher ranks. Increasing one's rank wasn't unheard of, but it was exceedingly difficult and only happened once or twice per person. Well, unless you used a rank-up crystal, and even the weakest ones were absurdly expensive.
Brushing aside these thoughts, Kelteth summoned his status screen.
Info Name Seth Reese Race Human Rank F Class Silver Dragon Knight Level 1 Titles - Status HP 80 / 80 Stamina 120 / 120 Aether 140 / 140 Hellfire 140 / 140 Attributes Agility + 8 Charisma 17 Constitution + 4 Intelligence 16 Strength + 4 Wisdom 12
It had been a few thousand years since he had felt the presence of heavenly energy within him, and to his surprise, it wasn't fighting against the Hellfire he had absorbed earlier. It must have been the system forcing the opposing forces into submission, Kelteth decided.
Gripping his hand with newfound strength, he made the decision to succeed where Seth had failed. He would become an adventurer worthy of respect.
... No. One that was worthy of fear.