The situation so far had been complicated, confusing, stressful, and downright disastrous. However, now that Zoe had escaped the ruins and the deadly paladins and cultists within, her experience as a newly awakened Demon in this shitty world had become fairly straightforward and simple to describe. She was miserable.


    Just run away into the wilderness, she said, don’t go back to the caverns she said, you won’t die of hypothermia, she also said… Zoe realized she was grumbling her own thoughts under her breath. Trudging to a stop in the knee-deep snow, she clenched her fists, set her jaw, and punched a tree. It hurt, but the tree actually shook. Pine needles fell down around her. Benefits of stat-enhanced strength—ignoring the fact that it wasn’t that much more than a sapling. “Fuck you Lilith!”


    Lilith was the name she had settled on giving to her telepathic imaginary twin. It wasn’t completely accurate to call her ‘the Demon,’ because that sort of applied equally to Zoe herself now. Giving Lilith the Demon-themed name was enough.


    It was also an edgy and extremely cliche name, but that was fine. Zoe was feeling shitty enough that she was fine letting herself indulge in a little edge. Cliches were fine too. They were cliches for a reason, right? Zoe could use some familiarity. Also, who was even going to call her out on it? The fucking trees?


    The most annoying thing though? The most annoying thing? Lilith wasn’t giving her the satisfaction of shouting back. No—worse, even. She wasn’t even looking at Zoe! “Whatever.”


    And so Zoe trudged on. She had spent half an hour or more running as fast as she could away from the entrance to the underground ruins. Once Lilith had convinced her that they shouldn’t stick around, it wasn’t hard to figure out that Zoe should put as much distance as she could. It wouldn’t take the cultists very long to figure out that she went missing.


    Zoe had to hope that they didn’t have any more of those bottled rifts lying around.


    In any case, she now had no idea where she was. The forest looked pretty much the same in every direction. Where now? Lilith hadn’t been able to give a good answer. Well, Zoe didn’t consider ‘find civilization’ to be a good answer, because she was already planning to. It also didn’t help her decide on a direction.


    I really hope my tracks get covered up soon. As it was, Zoe wouldn’t be very hard to hunt down. Tracks was a bit of a misnomer—it was really more like a torn up trail. The snow went up to her knees, after all. At least I was able to remove the mark.


    Lilith had helpfully informed Zoe that tracking her would have been even easier due to the link between her and Basil—if not for her Outsider title. It came in handy once again by allowing her to completely sever the magic.


    And now that Zoe was all alone again, there was nothing stopping her from pulling the full description from her status.


    [OUTSIDER]


    Integrate into the system as an Outsider.


    -Effects-


    > Grants Quest System (Pro Unlimited)


    > Grants Natural Language Mastery 3 (Sys-Tier)


    > You are unaffected by marks. You can freely remove your marks without consequence. You cannot be unwillingly marked.


    > You are not bound by your oaths. You may freely terminate your oaths without consequence.


    > You have no alignment restrictions. Alignment restrictions cannot be applied to you.


    > You have no affinity.


    > You are slippery in the grip of Fate.


    > External attributes preserved during integration cannot be directly modified, removed, suppressed, or otherwise altered by system means.


    > Grants exhaustive status change options as determined applicable during integration. (Consumable)


    > Grants 1 Level


    -Disclaimer-


    All effects of this title are entirely and exclusively provided, protected, and administered by the system.


    The interpretation of any part of this title is at the sole discretion of the system.


    Any part of this title may be freely modified, removed, appended, reinterpreted, or otherwise altered without notice at any time for any reason at the sole discretion of the system.


    You walk a path to anywhere.


    Watch your step.


    It was, frankly, ridiculously long. It also looked ridiculously useful. Zoe had been wondering where her special cheat power was before she decided it would be the Demon core. It turned out that it had been part of her system from the very start.


    You may freely terminate your oaths without consequence. That sounds extremely useful. Also extremely sketchy. Zoe didn’t know what specifically was involved with oaths, but she assumed it was a big deal. It was definitely going to be yet another thing to ask Lilith about. But the part right before that seemed even more absurd. You are not bound by your oaths. That meant that Zoe could trick people into forming oaths where they were still bound to the terms but she wasn’t. What other way was there to interpret it?


    Something like that could be incredibly advantageous. Frighteningly so. It was also most likely something that she should be careful with. Ethics aside, it would only continue to work in the future so long as she didn’t get found out.


    The rest of the effects from the title were pretty easy to group up. The majority of them seemed to boil down to the same sort of idea. Basically, Zoe couldn’t be restricted by a whole bunch of important system things. The only two things that didn’t fit thematically with the rest were the Quest System and Natural Language Mastery.


    Unfortunately, there wasn’t much supplementary info on either of them. More specifically, there was none at all. Frustrating.


    “Hey Lilith, mind telling me about the quest system?”


    Lilith was walking above and beside her. Unlike Zoe, who was still struggling to trudge naked through the deep snow, the apparition was lazily walking on top of it. That would already be infuriating enough, even without it putting Zoe on the wrong end of a two-foot height difference.


    “No, I wouldn’t mind telling you about it if I could.” She shrugged. “I think we know pretty much the same stuff though. We’ve already gotten one quest, yeah? It’s pretty simple, I think. Get a quest, complete it to get the reward. Fail or just ignore it, and you don’t get the reward. Might have a penalty too. Quests aren’t usually super common to get randomly, but there are a few circumstances where they’re expected. Not that we’ll encounter one of those yet.”


    Zoe was mildly interested in hearing what those circumstances were, but she had a more important question. “Why don’t you know any more than that?”


    While Zoe still wasn’t thrilled with the presence of another person in her own head—especially not after what Lilith tried to do to her and her body when she first became a Demon—the would-be body-snatcher was turning out to be undeniably useful. Lilith had a lot of important knowledge about how this world worked.


    “I don’t think the possibility that we would be a literal Outsider was a consideration when creating our core,” she answered. “Honestly, people might not even know much about this quest system. That’s if other people even know about it at all.”


    Zoe frowned. Despite her usefulness, Lilith’s origins were still troubling at best. The phantom claimed not to know who created them, where in the world they were specifically, or having any unique memories from before today. Not that she didn’t have any memories—only that all of them were also Zoe’s.


    It was unsettling. Lilith could remember everything that Zoe could from her previous life on Earth, even if their opinions on some of it were different. But at the same time, she couldn’t have started off as just a mental clone of Zoe, because there was so much extra knowledge she had. It almost seemed like Lilith was native to this world.


    It was puzzling, concerning, and also frustrating. Frustrating, because it meant that Zoe was the only one who needed to ask any questions.


    Zoe shook her head. There was no use dwelling on that right now. She needed to find shelter.


    _____


    Zoe did not find shelter.


    It wasn’t that she wasn’t looking. Everything just looked the same. It was starting to seem like she was going to have to make it herself—the absolute indignity! At least she wasn’t in danger of dying—not from being cold and wet, at least. Lilith had spent a lot of time and effort to successfully convince her of that. Perks of no longer having a fully Human body, I guess.


    There were a lot of perks, actually. It seemed like becoming a so-called Higher Demon was just a straight improvement from traditional Humanity. That was probably why that Basil guy spent all the effort killing those people to do it. For example, Humans normally gained five stat points with every level. Zoe had, when she first leveled up. But now? With each of Zoe’s subsequent two levels, she had gained fifteen.


    It seemed more than a bit unfair.


    There was also the whole new section of her status which hadn’t been there before.


    [NASCENT FIEND CORE]


    According to Lilith, Zoe was now considered a monster by both the system itself and most Human societies. Also, it turned out that the name actually meant something pretty specific—it meant that she had a core.


    The Demon core she had stolen? It didn’t disappear when she bound herself to her. It was now physically embedded in her lower chest, right at the bottom tip of her sternum. It was now the single biggest source of her strength, and her greatest potential weakness.


    Like Zoe, most monsters started out as regular animals. Yes, Humans were animals. Unlike Zoe, most of them formed a core gradually through a more natural process. And while there were a huge number of possible varieties, even from the same base species, they all had the same vulnerability. Shatter the core, destroy the monster.


    But that weakness also came with an upside—something Lilith had explained when Zoe asked for elaboration. “Your core is the only way to permanently destroy you.” If her core survived intact, there was always a chance Zoe could come back. It wasn’t necessarily likely—she would still need to recover a body—but even without one, her mind and soul would just fall into a dormant state.


    There was a reason most monsters didn’t live to be immortal, though. Even if Zoe could survive a full decapitation—and Lilith said she technically could—whoever decapitated her was unlikely to just leave her core sitting around. If they did, another monster would quickly come and eat it. That was the fastest way for other monsters to get stronger. And if a Human were the one to take it? Zoe would undoubtedly be turned into a potion or used as some other kind of crafting ingredient.


    And I’d prefer not to be eaten, thank you very much.


    Aside from influencing the details of how and why Zoe might die, the core also served as the primary power system for almost all monsters. The only one, really. Unlike the classes and skills the more intelligent animals like Humans typically got, monsters evolved traits. Zoe was mixed on the fact that she already had quite a few of those.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    -Traits-


    > Demonite Claws


    > Arcane Antennae


    > Infernal Constitution


    > Lesser Vampirism


    > Bloodlust


    > Heart of Alchemy


    > Personal Inventory


    > Light Resistance


    > Wind Resistance


    None of them had any further description, but most were fairly easy to understand. The three that stood out the most to Zoe were Arcane Antennae, Heart of Alchemy, and Personal Inventory. It was the last of those three that was pissing her off right now.


    “Fucking racist piece of shit jewelry!” Zoe clenched her clawed fist around the storage ring so hard she felt something in her arm creak. She was tempted to hurl the ring away from her as hard as she could. The only thing stopping her was the deep snow—it would be even more annoying having to search for the small object when she inevitably decided to go look for it.


    To Zoe’s absolute joy, Personal Inventory was exactly what it sounded like. She had an inventory now! And it turned out she could store a whole lot of stuff—it was like having the deepest pockets ever, but they didn’t become heavy or bulky no matter how much she stuffed them. She’d already done plenty of testing with random rocks and sticks.


    And the best part? I don’t even need a storage ring! The inventory was part of Zoe herself now, not an item she had to equip. Lilith said it was one of the more unconventional features that came with her Demon core, and Zoe had already decided it was her favorite. She could already imagine sneaking a bunch of weapons into places where she wasn’t supposed to have them. The guards would never see it coming!


    Well, aside from the fact that they’d already try to kill me for being a Demon before then. Lilith had been pretty clear about that. Demons weren’t popular, even the cute and awesome ones like her.


    Except I also have a class that lets me disguise my status and appearance! Muahahaha! Her snap decision to choose the Demagogue class was looking like it would work out surprisingly well. They hadn’t tested it yet, but the ‘system display privileges’ should prevent people from accurately using Identify on her.


    It was definitely good that Zoe was able to become a higher Demon specifically. As a higher Demon—even a ‘lesser’ one—she got to have a monster core and have classes like a Human. That was the difference—a lower Demon, even a ‘greater’ one, was just a fancy way of saying an infernal monster.


    According to Lilith, higher Demons weren’t just special among Demons—they were the only beings in the entire system that got to use both. Zoe finally started feeling adequately special after hearing that. It was a pretty solid ability, as far as extensions of her de facto cheat-power went.


    The so-called Demonite Claws, however, were not.


    Zoe fumed as she glared at the storage ring. She still hadn’t made any progress getting it onto her finger, which was because she didn’t actually have a proper finger anymore. Sure, it could still bend in mostly the same way, but it was also a much thicker, much sharper, segmented claw.


    The storage ring was even supposed to change size to fit the wearer! That was apparently a standard addition to the main enchantment, and Zoe had even gotten it to work. Making the ring contract and expand wasn’t even hard, no matter how freaky it was. The problem was that it just wouldn’t get quite wide enough. It seemed to max out just barely too small to slip beyond the tip of her smallest claw.


    Are there seriously no people in this world who have bigger hands than Humans? Surely there had to be giants or orcs or maybe even beefy dwarves. What about Human dudes with big sausage fingers? It was, simply put, annoying as hell.


    And of course, Zoe couldn’t even see whatever was inside if she wasn’t wearing it, let alone take anything out. And obviously, it was like the one thing she couldn’t stick in her own inventory to manipulate. Sure, it probably made sense that you couldn’t put pocket dimensions within pocket dimensions—but that would be really super helpful right now!


    Zoe had already confirmed earlier that she could manipulate objects while they were in her inventory. She tested it by tying a suitably flexible twig into a loose knot. After putting it in her inventory, she was able to untie it before it came back out.


    It was a nuance of the ability that she already felt was going to become extremely convenient at some point. She wasn’t sure how, but it was definitely good to know. Lilith agreed as well. “I don’t think that’s normal” is what she had said.


    One thing they had yet to test—other than figuring out what the devil was in the ring the cultist had given her—was whether she could store living things. It seemed unlikely, but how could they be sure? It wasn’t like there was anything they could test it on. Or wait…


    Putting aside the problem of the storage ring for a moment, Zoe began thinking of another question to ask Lilith as the slope of the ground shifted and they began to trudge more slowly uphill. “Do sticks count as alive if you just snapped them off?”


    Lilith stopped and turned around. Zoe kept trudging along, because moving was the only thing keeping her from passing out. She might not die from the cold, but it was still thoroughly tiring and unbearably miserable.


    Lilith seemed confused. “What?”


    “Sticks. Are they alive?”


    “I don’t know, I mean, why would you ask that?”


    Zoe snapped a fresh stick off a passing tree and waved it around in Lilith’s imaginary face as the apparition fell back into step beside her. “We wanted to see if I could store living things, yeah? What about a stick? These trees are alive. I think? Anyway, plant tissue doesn’t just instantly die when you disconnect it. The individual cells should keep working for at least a little while.”


    Lilith frowned. It seemed like she was really considering it. “Okay, so—well—like I said, normally you can’t store living things. But I feel like you could also store a fresh stick normally? So I don’t think it ‘counts.’” She paused for a moment—“but you’re still technically right, I think? About the actual tissue? Well of course I think you’re right, because I am you and—and you are me and I am you and you are me and—“


    Zoe sighed. Lilith had done this a couple times already. It really freaked her out the first time it happened—her phantom twin just kept repeating that creepy phrase endlessly, like her uncle’s old record player would do sometimes when the needle got stuck. Zoe had to start violently shaking her to snap the apparition out of it.


    Was it concerning that Zoe was already getting used to it? It was definitely not something that was supposed to happen. Sighing again, Zoe got ready to slap her disembodied ‘sister’ across the face.


    Lilith flinched back. Coughing, she took several deep breaths. Not like she actually needs air. “Holy hell. Sorry. I—sorry.”


    Zoe just shook her head. It wasn’t something to really worry about. Not yet. She might as well continue their experimentation. It seemed that they’d already explored her inventory to the best they could—what next? There were still eight more traits, not to mention the ridiculous number of sudden new skills.


    Skills next, I think. Not only had Zoe barely begun to familiarize herself with even the ones she initially got with her two classes—testing skills seemed more intuitive than most of the traits. They were designed to be consciously activated. Most of them, at least. So which one first?


    “Hey, look at that!”


    Lilith was pointing at something on the ground a few feet in front of them. Zoe squinted at it, though she didn’t actually need to. The massive boost to her perception from her first class helped her eyes find their target instantly. The difference the increase in the stat made was scarily impressive. Not only was the rabbit’s white fur a perfect camouflage against the snow, it was also small and unmoving.


    Noticing it had been spotted, the little bunny perked up, sniffing in Zoe’s direction. It didn’t run away—not even when she stepped closer. That’s weird. Zoe wouldn’t have expected that.


    Lilith chuckled beside her. “Ha, I think we might have found our first test subject.”


    Bending down, Zoe gave the apparition a look. “I do hope you mean testing my inventory and not the skills I got from the cultist. I’m not going to go around massacring bunnies.” Well, not unless they turn out to be good for level-grinding.


    But Lilith just batted her eyes with mock innocence. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”


    “Sure.” Crouching right above the fluffy little critter, Zoe tilted her head. The little bunny looked up at her without fear. “You’re a cute little fella, huh? Guess you don’t have any predators around here?” That seemed weird, but then again, it was the first animal Zoe had seen at all. Maybe this forest was just a super chill place. “Alright little guy, let’s see if maybe we can help keep each other a little warm.” She finally reached out to scoop it up.


    The bunny jumped at her. Surprised, Zoe fell backwards, then panicked as something long and way too sharp stabbed straight down into her throat. The hell? She didn’t scream, because the fluffy bastard had already chewed straight through her windpipe. Shit!


    It wasn’t hard to grab the little fucker, because it was already right there. It was considerably harder to yank it off without tearing away more of her throat. Doesn’t matter. It would already be fatal if she were still a normal Human, and now she had healing.


    The bastard wasn’t going down easy though. It kicked and clawed and thrashed, relentlessly trying to take away her fingers too. It was annoying that it went for the throat, because it meant she wasn’t able to say some badass one-liner about fingers and carrots. Regardless, Zoe was finally glad about her new scales and claws.


    Regeneration!


    Mending Touch!


    Her throat closed back up in no time. Well, technically it took about four seconds total, but that was still ridiculously fast. Regeneration alone was already way more powerful than she felt it should be. Using it as a sort of stacking buff for the even more potent, more  focused Mending Touch kicked it well into overdrive.


    Annoying that it ends up making me lose even more blood, Zoe thought to herself as she idly smashed the murderous rodent—were rabbits rodents?—against a nearby tree trunk. I guess it’s a reasonable limitation given how strong it is.


    It would be a bit strange if she could already become close to unkillable through constant rapid healing. If the bunny had been a more superior opponent, perhaps it could keep hurting her until she ran out of her own blood. Or just kill me faster than I can unkill myself.


    The good news was that she didn’t have to worry about it right now. The fluffy white bunny was now more of a sticky red pulp. Kind of gross. Wet, mushy, sticky, with crunchy chunks—yeah no. Bad texture. Two out of ten. There was also a weirdly smooth round thing in the middle. What?


    Zoe decided to extract it. The experience was bizarrely similar to ripping the pit out of an under-ripe peach. Instead of a peach pit, it was a dark green, asymmetrically cut gemstone about the size of a gumball. A monster core?


    [HUNGRY WINTER WOODLAND CORE]


    Rank F


    “You should eat that.”


    Zoe stared at Lilith and gave the apparition her best deadpan. “The core or the rabbit?”


    “Well, both?”


    Zoe continued to stare. Damn, she’s actually serious. Zoe looked back at the bloody mess in her hands. It looked—weirdly appetizing? It also smelled good. Okay yeah that’s super fucked up. Maybe she should go back to thinking of her Demonic nature as a bad thing.


    Whatever. She decided to toss both the core and the mangled up corpse into her inventory. She could decide what to do later.


    “Well, I didn’t expect that we’d be needing to keep an eye out for dangerous violent rabbits, but here we are.” Zoe really hoped that it was just the one rabbit that had developed a hankering for fresh meat. Or if not, that at least they wouldn’t encounter any others. She expressed as much to her imaginary twin.


    “Hate to break it to you, but you might want to take a look around.”


    Zoe frowned. “What? Wait, do you—nah, fuck off.”


    There were more rabbits—and these weren’t exactly leaf-eaters either, judging by the way they were eying the fresh blood running down Zoe’s hands. Is that what attracted them? Either way, the little assholes really must be bloodthirsty, because the obvious fate of their brethren didn’t look like it was going to deter them.


    Zoe clapped her hands—tried to. It was weird with them being covered in thick dark scales and tipped with large claws. She carried on regardless. “Anyone want a carrot? No? Good, because I don’t have any.” Shit, that was stupidly lame. I really need to work on my mid-combat shit-talking. “So you might want to ju—aaaargh!”


    They’re fast! They also jumped on her all at once. It was like being eaten by piranhas, except in a snow bank instead of in a tropical body of water. But two can play at that game.


    Zoe didn’t bother to heal herself yet. She wasn’t dying, and the toothy little fuckers would quickly undo whatever progress she made. She had a better plan. Now she just needed a rabbit.


    It wasn’t exactly hard to find one to grab. Zoe bit its head off.


    Hot blood trickled down her throat from between her inHuman jaws. Fuck it tastes good! It also tasted like blood. Like it always tasted. The difference was that the way it tasted now tasted incredible. And I think I know why.


    As soon as the blood trickled down to her throat, part of Zoe’s system flared to life. There wasn’t a notification, but she could feel which one it was.


    -Traits-


    > Lesser Vampirism


    And it was healing her.


    Don’t get distracted! It tasted so good, but there were still a lot more to kill. The rest of the bunnies hadn’t exactly left her completely unscathed. Swallowing the rest of her latest victim whole, Zoe grinned.


    I do think I’m in need of a little more healing.