Reborn to Devour: A Demonic LitRPG

Notice

Hunger grips you all.

My stomach growled angrily. I had picked the bird clean to the bones over the course of the last hunger cycle, satisfying the pains in my body for at least a few more minutes.

I burped. The scent of the bird’s flesh that wafted up from my stomach taunted me with an odor that got my lizard brain excited.

For now, while I still retained my presence of mind, I decided to go back to the strategy of feasting on ants until I found a new target to satisfy myself. If there was any bright side to the situation, the hundreds of ants I ate started to build up my XP and stats. I already had capped out on gains and moved to Level 21.

I kept eating and my hunger increased gradually. My body rushed forward through the tunnels to find another demon, but there were none to be found immediately. There were chambers that appeared to have housed demons at some point; all barren when I needed them to be occupied.

My hunger grew beyond the levels that I managed when I first entered. I accelerated the speed that I ate bugs until I was scraping them off the wall directly into my mouth in a near endless stream.

It wasn’t good enough.

I reached the point where my health decreased faster than the bugs. I felt my body shake in pain from the deprivation of a meal. I quickly looked around for something, anything that I could eat.

As I spun around, I felt my limp arm slap against my waist. I looked over at the useless limb. My instincts fought each other for control.

Was it possible that I could save myself through self-cannibalism? Would an animal stuck in a box rather starve or consume itself? They would eat each other, certainly. Such cases had been observed, even in people. But, did any of them ever eat themselves? Did any of them sink their teeth into their own flesh and feel everything?

Prey and predator simultaneously.

Philosophy would not save me, only action. Without further thinking, I bit into my own shoulder with my teeth. I activated [Sanguine Bite]. I felt daggers stab deep into my flesh and my own blood filled my mouth.

I ripped my head back and excruciating pain filled my body and nearly caused me to vomit. I pulled a chunk of my own flesh from my mouth and chewed on the contents.

Some health was reclaimed in the act. But, what was more important was that the hunger inflicted by the Dungeon lessened. Through gasping breaths, the pain lessened but was not fully satiated. It would require surrendering much more of myself to the ravenous curse placed upon me.

I bit until my arm was loose enough to pull away with my opposite hand. I pulled meat away until my sanity fully returned.

Quickly, I tried to regrow the removed limb, but found my mana almost entirely depleted. I used a few of my precious potions to recover my health and mana and had my eaten arm fully restored.

I spat out the remaining blood and groaned. Though I survived, I did not want to do it again. I’d much rather eat someone else.

Fortunately, I was given such prey the next time. A solo demon sat in a meditative pose. As soon as I encroached in their space, their eyes snapped open. They stood weakly from their place, health mostly depleted but no less ferocious.

Sadly for them, the scales were tipped in my favor. I had more health, I had more energy, and I could safely eat them. My flesh could offer them the sustenance required to survive in exchange for the life they’d lose by eating it.

They died without struggle or incident; far too weak to properly put up a fight.

There was a scattering of demons throughout the tunnels. Some were corpses by the time that I reached them. Their flesh slowly decayed and offered nothing more than a free meal. Some were alone and weak. Others still were in the midst of killing each other and allowed me the opportunity to take all of them.

These feasts allowed me to quickly ascend up to Level 24 and still have plenty of XP stored away in my coffers.

Eventually, the tunnels opened into a space the size of a football stadium. Orbs of light floated lazily through the air to illuminate the area. Round walls and a high ceiling created a dome that hemmed the entire space in. Archways appeared at regular intervals to lead down tunnels like my own.

In the center of the area was a large obelisk made of obsidian. Robed demons sat in a circle around the obelisk. I encroached into the circle, but none of them rose to stop me.

“Welcome, brother,” one of the monks greeted while not moving from their position. “For you to make it this far means you must have obtained the blessing of [Resistance].

They were a gray rabbit with a pair of jade earrings. Their nose twitched as they sniffed me out.

“What is this place?” I asked.

“The center of the Cave of Starvation,” the rabbit answered. “But, considering you made it here, you already knew that. Specifically, this is the true exit of the Dungeon.”

I looked up at the obelisk. Golden hieroglyphs were etched into the black surface to depict some sort of nonsensical story. A golden block sat at the top and shone light down at different angles depending on what light from the moving orbs shone on it.

Several lines were carved in the stone foundation that surrounded the obelisk to form a maze-like pattern. A solid line was carved into the stone from the base of the obelisk to the edge of the outer ring of the circle where the gray rabbit sat.

“This is how you reach the boss then?” I asked for confirmation, tapping the line with my foot.

A few demons had their expressions twitch slightly at my physical touching of the line.

“We do not know,” a different demon responded. A skeleton with their head attached to their body by long metal screws. “We enter, endure hunger for as long as we can, and then die. Each time we return, we gain a greater resistance to hunger.”

“Each time we return, we last for longer and suffer less,” a reptilian demon continued.

“Eventually, we found our way to this place, the heart of the cave and the message that we need to decipher to move beyond this point,” a mallard-headed demon added. “This is the message left to us by a great entity.”

“Did the Senior Brother send you all down here as a test as well?” I asked.

“Who?” The rabbit asked before understanding hit them. “Ah, you speak of the martial artist at the top of the mountain. The First Disciple of the Demonic Fist and his ilk are not the only demons allowed in here. Many Taoists and spiritualists through space and time will gather here to meditate and gain further enlightenment. To feel what has been deprived of us. It is us who feel closest to the Great Epiphany; not the one who throws demons through a Portal for entertainment.”

I looked back to the obelisk and the nonsensical images etched upon it. I flew up to the top to see if it made more sense at the top, but I did not see anything that made up for a coherent story. Just blocky carvings that looked vaguely like animals and people and items. They flowed down in bizarre orders like a melted cartoon.

My stomach turned. It was slowly becoming acclimated to the regular pulses of hunger that regularly struck me. It would not be long before I would need to find a new target to consume.

Though, as I looked around, I noticed something bizarre. There were no remains present in this chamber. Had these demons lasted all these hunger durations simply through meditating and possessing a resistance ability? Not a single one lost their nerve and tore into the supple flesh of their neighbor.

The willpower was impressive, but I found it misplaced.

“It is hard to think when your stomach is destroying you from the inside out,” I commented while I landed back down. “What reward do you expect to gain by constantly starving yourself when there is no need?”

“You think that being deprived of food is the real test?” The rabbit questioned.

“It is what is being taken from us, is it not? The only way to survive is to eat or starve yourself until your body becomes numb enough to earn you a passive ability.”

“That is only the shallow interpretation of the meaning of deprivation. You think in terms of what you have lost from your current self and no longer ruminate on what was taken from your original form. You had no need to eat after your death. Your body seemingly had enough energy for eternity. It was the right to feel hunger and thirst and true death that was your true deprivation.”

“You find the return of hunger as a gift?”

“What greater motivator to remember that lesson than hunger?” The rabbit asked in response. “What was a greater motivator to grow in life than an empty stomach? You will learn to adapt to this place or you will die. Learn to remember that hunger that drove you to wish to be great in life. Summon it, master it, make it your own; only then will you receive the reward of this place.”

I looked around at all the demons meditating and then back to the obelisk and then to the floor. I mulled over the words that the rabbit told me, but something within me told me that this would not be the lesson taught. It was far too triumphant for the types of beings that presided over this place.

“I disagree.”

“What is your interpretation?” The rabbit asked with an annoyed face.

“I think that this place is a reminder.”

“A reminder?”

I could feel the attention of the meditating demons focused solely on me. Their grumbling minds hungered for answers of enlightenment from a new opinion.

“You said it as much yourself already,” I reminded. “This place serves to remind you of the hunger that you felt to want to achieve something in life. I imagine that the demons here experienced starvation in their lives. Empty pantries and no money to buy more for a few days. You eat just enough to make it a bit further. You may have suppressed it and tamed it in life. But, I don’t think that it is the intention for you to master it again.”

“What is the intention?”

“To succumb to it.”

Murmuring broke out amongst the monks.

“Like some mindless beast?” The rabbit asked with indignation.

“Exactly like mindless beasts,” I agreed. “I agree that the lesson is to remind you that you used to hunger when you no longer do. But, I don’t think that it is a metaphor. I think that the being that made this place wanted you to continue to physically devour each other after the need was gone. Why else would there be no meat in Hell but of your fellow sapient? You, who have overcome the need to eat in this place, consume now that you don’t have to.”

Silence surrounded the circle after my speech. The monks kept their faces pointed down towards the floor. But I could feel their gazes shift between each other; probing out the feelings of the rest.

“What nonsense!” The rabbit groaned.

“I think he’s right,” the skeleton said. “There was never any purpose in reclaiming our humanity in a place where we have already surrendered it. I do not know about you, but I have only gotten as far as I have by straying further away from my human roots. I believed that this was the path that would lead me back to humanity. But, I realize now that it is what I wanted and not what the creator of this place wanted.”

The ground rumbled, turning the incomprehensible runes into a message that nobody could refute.

“The secrets below will be revealed to the one who embraces the true meaning of hunger.”

Notice

Hunger grips you all.

“What great timing,” I complimented. “I know that you all still feel it even though you’ve grown beyond it. What will you all do?”

Tension tied the monks together by invisible string. The Dungeon had talked to them for the first time. They looked to either side of them. Which of them was converted over to this new opinion and which of them were steadfast with their original purpose?

The skeleton was the first to provide their answer to the group. They lunged at its nearest neighbor and brought the entire circle into bloodied chaos. Teeth bit flesh and blood spilled down mouths in acts of pointless violence driven by desire.

Soon, I would join them in the discussion. I walked towards the final demon who had yet to begin fighting.

“How about we debate with our bodies to see who is truly correct?” I suggested, salivating over the rabbit.

The rabbit stood up calmly and raised their fists in front of them while making a wide stance. The tips of their wide feet tapped the ground rapidly.

“It is said that every moment in life is a learning opportunity. I will show you which of us is right.”