Reborn in hell with a skill creation system

Chapter 8: That’s Not Good

[Souls: 558.3]

Pure bliss.

That was all Mael felt as he lay flat on his back at the very top of the cliff, staring up at the red sky with the satisfaction of having figured out a cheat code on the first day.

He was completely full, his stats were sitting at numbers that would have seemed impossible this morning, and his soul count had climbed to heights that he thought impossible with [Void Skin’s] current rank.

With this amount he could upgrade every skill he had and still have souls left over.

Or better yet, create something entirely new.

Something actually strong this time, not a watered down version of what he really wanted but the real thing, or close enough to it that the difference wouldn’t matter.

He pulled up the interface lazily, not in any particular rush, and started mentally browsing through his options lesurely.

He was thinking of drafting a new skill concept when the rock beneath him shifted slightly.

It was a subtle shift by he immediately noticed it.

Mael sat up slowly and looked down at the ground beneath him.

A crack ran from behind him all the way to the cliff edge, it was thin but fresh and it was widening by the second.

"That’s not good," he muttered.

CRACK.

The section of cliff he was sitting on immediately started breaking off, and he scrambled to his feet but there was nothing to grab unto.

His sudden movement made it worse and before he could get to safety, he was already plunging towards the battlefield below.

[ACCELERATED RECOVERY activated]

The system’s screen was swimming in his vision as his recovery kicked in.

Fortunately, with his increased stats, the fall hadn’t broken anything else he’d definitely be caught between a rock and a hard place,

Especially given where he had just fallen.

He pushed himself upright slowly, shaking rubble off his back, and finally looked up at his surroundings.

He was surrounded by hundreds of demon corpses and usually, he’d see this as a gold mine, especially with the notification that appeared before him,

[VOID SKIN — ambient absorption: +47.3 souls]

But,

One demon was still standing.

It was enormous relative to anything Mael had fought today, easily three times his height.

One of its arms was twisted at a wrong angle and deep gashes ran across its torso, its breathing coming in labored pulls that suggested the battle had cost it considerably.

It was heavily injured but still terrifying.

It turned and looked directly at him.

Mael stood up to his full height, which was not very impressive in the current context, and looked back at the demon that had just survived a battle of hundreds.

"I don’t suppose," he said in his garbled demon tongue, "you’re too tired for this?"

The demon’s answer was to lower its head and charge.

Apparently, it was not.

He threw himself sideways as it barreled past him, close enough that the displaced air shoved him off balance.

He spun to track it as it skidded to a stop and turned with surprising speed for something that size....and injuries.

It charged again, this time leading with its good arm, claws extended.

Mael ducked under the swipe and drove both his claws into the existing gash on its torso as it passed, dragging them through, widening the wound before he had to let go or get carried off his feet.

The demon roared and swung its damaged arm in a wide backhand that caught him across the shoulder and sent him tumbling.

Again, Accelerated recovery kicked in, making sure that he didn’t bleed more than necessary.

He rolled away from the demon that tried stomping his head next, and just in time too, because the next second, a crater was formed where Mael previously lay.

He then stood back up and looked at the larger demon, who was also looking back at him.

Mael could just wait for the demon to bleed out, something that didn’t seem fat from happening.

The problem with waiting for it to bleed out was simple.

0.1%.

That’s all he’d get if the demon died without his involvement and given that this thing had just survived a battle of hundreds, Mael was fairly confident it was worth something significant.

So....

He needed to kill it himself.

Wonderful.

He rolled his sore shoulder and looked at the demon that was looking back at him, both of them taking a brief unspoken intermission from trying to end each other before it charged first.

Mael jumped, landed on the arm as it passed beneath him, and used it to push himself up onto the demon’s back before it even registered what had happened.

Both his claws and teeth found its neck, and after that, what followed was not graceful.

The demon threw itself sideways into a pile of rubble, and Mael’s whole body was shaken from the impact but he held on.

It tried rolling and its damaged arm buckled immediately, turning the whole attempt into an ugly crash that shook the ground.

He stayed on through that too.

He stayed on even when the demon tried to claw him off and yet, it couldn’t get the right angle to grab the pest.

Mael stayed on through the second and third attempt at crushing him against the nearest solid surface.

He just held on.

He very clearly knew that if he let go right now, he was definitely going to die, and he had no intention to die again.

Especially not with him gaining such a system.

Fortunately for him, the demons thrashing eventually slowed down and it slowly fell to its knees and then to the ground.

Mael rode it all the way down and stayed on its back for a few extra seconds after it stopped moving, just to be sure, because he was a scientist and a scientist didn’t call an experiment finished until the results were confirmed.

Well, the system gave the confirmation he was waiting for, and he finally let go.

[Enemy defeated.]

[Soul acquired: 1,000]

He stared at that for a moment, but the system was far from done, because the moment he swallowed the piece of meat in his mouth from the demon,

[DEVOUR activated.]

[STR +40]

[AGI +35]

[VIT +30]

[END +25]

That feeling of bliss, it was slowly returning and Mael was liking it very much,

But before he had the chance to celebrate, he suddenly felt a heavy pressure fall on him and the next second.

Click!

Something was wrapped around his neck from behind forcing him to lift a hand towards it and realize,

"A Slave Collar?"