《The Demonic Army from another world》


 Ch. 1 - Class-ic Tragedy

    I looked at the man with a gun with fear and anxiety. I wasn''t the only one, all of my classmates were terrified as the man laughed hoarsely and approached us, eyes blazing with madness.


    My name is Leon. Born in a middle-high class family, I was always privileged. Not necessarily spoiled, but I definitely never lacked basic necessities.


    Whenever I heard about terrorists attack, I would always smile weakly, thinking that it could never happen to me. And yet, here I was. Facing a man with an automatic rifle who could end our lives in an instant.


    Our teacher, a middle-aged lady who had a knack for making fun of kids she ''liked'', was facing the man as she shielded us with her own body.


    "What do you want?" She asked, her voice quivering. I felt like I was looking at a true hero, someone who stands up when the time is right.


    And yet, despite my feelings, she was gunned down in an instant. After her death, a couple of the girls cried and some tried to run away. And yet, the man was obviously a trained professional, rarely missing a shot as he hit our vital points one after the other.


    While everyone was being gunned down, I sat there, under my desk. I felt like my world was ending, and there was nothing I could do.


    Finally, my turn came as the man eyed me for a split second and then shot me in the head. Thankfully, there was no pain. It was an insta-kill.


    It felt strange. The moment I felt my consciousness fading, I also felt a strange call. I wanted to ignore it, but the call turned into a roar that sucked me toward it, willing or not.


    When I woke up again, I tried to look around but found that I couldn''t. I was in absolute darkness, without a hint of light. Furthermore, I felt extremely light. Weightless, so to speak.


    My mind raced for answers, and it didn''t take long before I realized I must have been in some soul-like state. I giggled to myself as I realized that souls truly exist. I had been wondering for a while about that.


    Just as I was starting to come to terms with what had happened, a majestic voice rang out from the void.


    "Welcome, children. I am Kadox, a representative sent from the Council of Gods. You all have met an early end at the hands of unfairness, hence, us gods have deemed it opportune to gift you an opportunity for a better and more fulfilling life. Whether you take that choice or not depends on you." The voice paused for a second, and I felt as though it was examining me... no, us.


    So I wasn''t the only one like this. A shame, I liked the idea of being unique and special.


    "Your first option is to be reborn in a world where magic and monsters exist. We will give you a full-grown body, and even gift you special abilities unmatchable by anyone native there. We won''t put any restrictions on you or force you to do anything. All we ask if for you to... live? Just don''t die too soon, as that wouldn''t be fun."


    "The other option is to disappear forever, your consciousness will disperse and your existence will be forgotten. You won''t ever be able to become sentient ever again, and you won''t be sent into reincarnation. Take your choice" The voice was extremely smug as it said this.


    I scoffed a bit. Choice? Where was the choice? I don''t wanna disappear. But how do I tell the voice that I pick the first one?If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "Good. I can read your mind, child. Good pick, good pick..." I heard someone whisper in my mind.


    I cried out in surprise or at least tried to. The voice laughed in my mind and then began explaining.


    "Since you have chosen the correct choice, I will now proceed. You can choose the race you will be reborn as, but it cannot be a human again, ''cause that''s dull. Your special ability will depend on a mixture of race choice, personality, past, and destiny. Here child, take your pick..." the voice said as it faded away, leaving a small screen in front of me with many names and explanations.


    1) Skeletal Dragon


    2) Death Knight


    3) Hellhound


    4) Giant Turtle


    5)Elemental Tiger


    6)Dryad


    7)Light Angel


    8)Fallen Angel


    9)Ouroboros (pick this one child)


    10)The Swarm


    My eyes bulged as I looked at the list. I hesitated for a moment, but then reached out with my mind and clicked on the Ouroboros one.


    A small explanation popped up and I anxiously read it.


    Ouroboros - The evergrowing snake. Starts out small, can devour planets and destroy stars if maximum potential is reached.


    Racial Abilities - Devour, Major Regeneration, Magic Resistance, Poison Immunity.


    I smirked as a small window saying ''This or not?'' popped up. I clicked the not, wanting to check out the other races.


    After looking through every other one, it was safe to say that the Ouroboros stands at the top of the list despite being near the bottom. Other than it, the other notable picks were the Swarm and the Skeletal Dragon. The Swarm seemed to be borderline invincible, and that it could become so powerful that literally, nothing could stand against it.


    However, it would also destroy my own mind, I would become a computer of sorts, and I didn''t want that. The other choice, the Skeletal Dragon, was pretty neat, but I still found the Ouroboros to be better.


    Hence, I clicked on the Ouroboros again and hit This.


    The moment I did so, my mind was sent spinning and I quickly lost consciousness as I was sucked into a new, foreign world.


    <hr>


    Waking up was not fun. I groaned as I looked around, finally able to move. I looked at myself with a sad smile as I understood that everything that happened had been real.


    I was a snake. A beautiful one at that, though. I had beautiful silver scales lined with black and white patterns that made me look like a treasure.


    My previously broken ego was stroked quite a bit, and I felt somewhat proud. I was never particularly good-looking in my other world, not that I cared. However, now that I looked so good, I could afford to be proud.


    My body was that of a normal scale if the color was ignored. After a bit of thinking, I deemed myself to be around 2 meters long.


    After checking myself out, I closed my eyes for a moment and tried to call out to the status screen that I was confident existed.


    My hopes didn''t go unanswered and a row of text appeared in front of me. After going through it, I smiled savagely. Not that my face could convey emotions easily.


    Name - Leon


    Race - Ouroboros


    Age - 1


    Level - 4


    Skills - (null)


    Abilities - Devour, Major Regeneration, Magic Resistance, Poison Immunity


    Innate Cheat - Oblivion Body


    After clicking around and a lot of reading, I understood about 3/4 of everything on the screen.


    Apparently, levelsrepresented the overall power of an individual. Although I couldn''t compare myself to anything yet, I knew I wasn''t weak.


    Meanwhile, skills were the things you can learn, like magic and swordsmanship. Abilities are things you are born with and are far more powerful than skills.


    Innate cheats... The name should say it all. The system said that only us, those who were reborn, had them and that they were extremely powerful.


    I clicked on devour, curious to see exactly what it did.


    Devour - User can devour the flesh and blood of others and use it to grow/enhance his/her body.


    I raised an eyebrow, which I didn''t have, at this. While I knew that my peaceful life would never again come to be... this... was a bit extreme.


    I didn''t refuse the idea outright, but it still felt strange.


    Next, I clicked on Oblivion Body.


    Oblivion Body - With a body originating from the Oblivion, this creature is capable of withstanding the most powerful of attacks. Damage from all sources is reduced by 90%, regenerative powers increase by 500%, soul attacks and mental attacks are rendered null.


    I took a deep breath. Now I realized what it truly meant to have a cheat ability. This was beyond powerful.


    After a couple moments of deep thinking, I decided to get something to eat for now. Everything else could wait.

 Ch. 2 - Forest Nightmare

    As I slithered around, getting used to my new body shape, I observed my surroundings.


    Sometimes, I would climb up trees by wrapping myself around them and slowly rising up. Then, I would enjoy the view for a while before moving on.


    This continued on for a couple hours. During that time, I ate a half dozen fruits, not worried about poison at all due to my ability.


    Just as I was swallowing down another fruit, a voice rang in my ears.


    "Hello? Is anyone there? I''m Carl. I''m using the transmitter tool in the System. Can anyone hear me?"


    I was surprised for a second before I smiled and checked the system, then called out. "Yes, I can hear you. Glad I''m not the only one alive after all."


    Another voice rang out right after mine. "Yeah. I can hear you too. Guys, there''s a map option in the system. Check it out, it tells where we all are. We should use it to gather up in a specific location. Mrs. Kaiz, could you decide?"


    I recognized that voice. It was from one of the shut-in kids. He usually didn''t talk much, but seeing him act up and take responsibility made me smile.


    After a moment, a female voice responded. "Alright. I''m still confused about everything happening, so I hope you kids will explain it to me. For now, everyone, open up your maps."


    I did as she said and opened the map option that I missed before. A huge screen appeared, showing forests, mountains, plains and even ocean. It looked as though it showed the entire continent, but I couldn''t tell since the map seemed incomplete.


    Several blue dots dotted the map, sparsely spread out. However, they weren''t too far away from each other. At most, it was 50 miles between each other.


    "Everyone on it? Hopefully. Contact me privately if you need help, and I''ll try to provide it. For now, let''s gather at the lake near the mountain. I''ll see you there." Mrs. Kaiz cut the call as she went back to doing whatever she was doing.


    I smiled as I turned towards the direction of the lake. I wasn''t in a rush to get there, and now that I knew I wasn''t alone, I felt like a weight had been lifted off of me.


    Slithering forward, my senses suddenly went into overdrive as I smelled something... extremely succulent.


    My eyes darted around as my sense of smell went into overdrive. I quickly slithered over to the location of the smell, and when I got there, my eyes widened.


    Several wolves surrounded a large stag. The stag seemed injured, but it was surrounded by a wall of fire, keeping the wolves at bay.


    The elements themselves seemed to roll off from around the stag as it slowly retreated, the wolves advancing as it was pushed back.


    I checked the map for a second, and my suspicions were confirmed. The stag was indeed once my classmate, although I didn''t know which.


    Knowing this, I observed the situation for a couple more seconds before striking the wolf closest to me.


    Although it wasn''t easy for me to camouflage, impossible even, the wolf had been distracted, so it didn''t notice me. I saw the stag look at me from the corner of my eyes, and noticed its surprise, which was quickly turned into hope.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    I wrapped around the wolf and crushed it with my body. The wolf tried to bite and scratch me, but my cheat took effect and he could barely dent my scales slightly. Meanwhile, I obeyed my new instincts and effortlessly crushed the wolf.


    I left the wolf there and waited to strike at another wolf. From the previous 6 wolves, 4 remained. The stag had managed to impale one with a stone spike from the ground.


    The wolves noticed that something was wrong, so they began to retreat. The stag snorted cruelly and sent a wave of fire washing over the wolves.


    As the wolves yelped and dodged, I struck out and bit deeply into the neck of one of the wolves. The other wolves noticed me now, but it was too late.


    I shook my head side-to-side viciously, ripping the wolf''s throat apart. It cried out in pain and was about to bite my side, but before it could do that, I threw it against a tree.


    I turned to the other wolves with a vicious smile before heading over to the stag, who did nothing to block me. Rather, it was happy to see me come help.


    Together, it didn''t take long for us to massacre the wolves. The first one was impaled by a rock spike after I grabbed it and held it in place, the second one was crushed by me after getting hit by lightning from the stag and the third one was cooked to death by the stag.


    After everything was done and dusted with, I turned to the stag as it laid on the ground, panting in exhaustion.


    I looked at the list of my classmates in the communication tab of the System, but I couldn''t determine who the stag was. Eventually, I gave up and headed towards one of the corpses.


    I knew what I was about to do was extremely gross, and yet, a sense of expectation welled up inside me as my mouth opened extremely wide and engulfed the head of the wolf. It took me a good 10 minutes to shove the entire creature into my body, where it would be digested.


    However, to my surprise, I found that I was still hungry. Hence, I headed over to another wolf and did the same. Then a third wolf. Then the fourth, fifth, and finally the sixth wolf was inside me.


    I was extremely bloated and my insides felt like they were burning. However, my body stayed strong, probably due to Oblivion Body, which was probably the reason I didn''t just explode.


    Each wolf was around 1.3 meters long, and considering there were 6 of them and I was only around 2 meters, it was a surprise I could even fit them in me. Even the stag looked at me with a mixture of surprise, astonishment, horror, and curiosity.


    I laid on the ground. Whenever I moved, I could literally feel the wolves in me moving along with me. It was an extremely uncomfortable feeling, but I had brought it upon myself and deserved the pain.


    Finally, the stag got up and looked at me with an anxious expression. Using its horns, it carved a name into a small wall of dirt. Elena


    I sighed as I read it. I went to the communication tab once more, and after a bit of searching, mentally tapped on Elena''s name on the list.


    "Hi." I simply said. The stag was surprised for a split second before smiling and answering telepathically, "Good evening, Leon."


    I smiled weakly and struggled to get up. A giggling came from Elena''s telepathic voice as she said, "You look so fat! Why did you eat all of those scary wolves? You should have left one for me..." Her voice contorted in rage. Obviously, the things she would have done to said wolf corpses would not have been pleasant.


    I understood her situation, and I could sympathize. "I''m sorry. My instincts went into a bit of an overdrive..." I apologized.


    The stag, no, Elena took a deep breath as she calmed down. "No, it''s my fault. I''m sorry for dragging you into this... I just wasn''t expecting that these wolves... would attack me..." She seemed somewhat downcast.


    I shook my head slightly. "We''re in a foreign world filled with dangers. You could have probably handled the wolves, but what if something stronger came along?" I asked. She looked down in shame.


    "We were lucky this time. We should head over to the others. The map says there are already 3 people there, and everyone else is heading there."


    Elena nodded. She seemed hesitant but obeyed nonetheless.


    Seeing this, I added, "I don''t want to be the leader. I won''t force you to follow me, but if we go together, our chances will increase by a lot."


    She smiled bitterly as she nodded. From what I remember, Elena used to be a cheerleader, someone with a bright future and a handsome boyfriend. In short, she used to be popular and privileged, but now, things were different and she knew it.


    "Let''s go", I said as I got up. We had already rested for over an hour, and by now the wolves had already been digested by at least 90%. However, the feeling of being full didn''t go away, and in fact, I felt that I needed to do... something, soon. I had a guess as to that something was, based on the feeling of being restrained by a cage all around me.


    Nonetheless, now was not the time. Elena allowed for me to wrap gently around her since she was much faster than me. Together, we ran towards the large lake, our hopes high.

 Ch. 3 - A Teachers Purpose

    Four feet trampled the forest''s undergrowth as me and Elena sped along. I was wrapped quite tightly around her, doing my best not to fall off.


    "Jesus Christ, you''re fast!" I yelled as she ran at a speed a speed only a car could usually match. Elena laughed as she answered with a telepathic yell "I know right!!! This is awesome!"


    Apparently, Elena''s ability was that, as long as she was on the ground, she could run at 300% her normal speed, but only if there were no aggressors. Furthermore, her senses were quite sharp, so she could avoid trees or other possible collisions.


    I had no clue how she had gotten pinned down by such slow wolves before. She admitted that she had wanted to observe them or even touch them, but unfortunately, they too wanted to touch her... aggressively.


    Now, however, she revealed the true power of her Cheat Ability, Wild''s Daughter.


    In less than a couple hours, we traveled the distance it would have taken days for me to do alone. as we sped through the forest, Elena and I chatted and exchanged experiences.


    Apparently, right she had chosen to be reborn, she had felt a female voice filled with a sense of... wilderness, as she described, speak to her. This voice had given her the choice to be reborn as an Elemental White Stag, a mythical creature that was a mixture of elemental beasts and the legendary white stag.


    I explained a bit about myself too. She seemed fairly impressed when I told her about my various skills, and she even went as far as to mumble how unfair my cheat was.


    I had to agree with her, to be honest. Her cheat ability gave her maximum affinity with all elements and the ability to be extremely fast on land, but even then, she felt as though my cheat was better. In my opinion, it was debatable, as both of us seemed to be specialists.


    Finally, we broke through the foliage and entered an area without huge trees everywhere. I checked out the map and helped Elena go the right direction.


    On the map, there were already 8 dots gathered in a single location. Hence, I directed Elena towards that spot.


    She did as I said and, finally, after another couple minutes, we reached what could only be considered as an infernal gathering.


    Several monstrosities sat together, presumably chatting through telepathic connections. Elena''s eyes widened but she quickly smiled and ran even faster.


    The monsters there noticed us and turned towards us, some ''smiled'' and others shrugged us off.


    When we finally reached them, I slithered off of Elena. Before I could say anything, one of the monsters, a titanic wolf over 10 meters long raised a paw to stop us and scribbled something on the ground.


    Join the ''Lake Party (no alcohol)'' party


    I snorted at the name. Even Elena let out an exasperated huff from her nostrils as we both joined the party through the System.


    "Hi. I''m Leon, the small snake. Sup'' big guy." I said as I slithered next to the wolf, who for some reason, instantly backed up and seemed on the verge of freaking out.


    "H-hi, Leon. I''m Mike. Please don''t come closer, I... I don''t really like snakes..." Mike said as he quickly turned tail and ran away. Seeing this, the others all laughed, and I could hear their voice in the group chat mechanic.


    Other than the huge wolf, there was platitude of different beings. After greeting them all and telling my race, they told me that, since Mrs. Kaiz hadn''t gotten here yet, we were mostly free to do whatever we wanted.


    I silently thanked the gods for having such an intelligent group. Of course, I had been in honors science when tragedy struck, so the people in it weren''t hooligans, but even then for them to realize the implications and danger of everything that was going on made me smile.


    <hr>


    As I was about to doze off under a tree not too far off from the others, we all heard a shrill shriek as we saw a beautiful naked woman darting toward us. She had long, black wings and two ram-like horns, as well as a long leathery tail.


    Behind her, a large bear was chasing right on her trail, seemingly blinded by hunger.


    Seeing us, the woman cried out in joy as she darted toward us as she shouted "HEEEEELP MEEEEEEE"


    As she ran, the bear seemed to be gaining on her, however, it suddenly stopped as he saw 10 powerful beasts charging towards them.


    A giant wolf, a silver snake, a mythical stag, a panther with fire all around it, a skeleton with robes and a staff riding a giant asura, a flaming bird, a warrior with dark armor and spikes all around it, a dragon with three heads and finally, a living shadow.


    Just as the bear was about to turn around and escape, the Skeleton snorted and aimed its staff at it as he yelled in our chat "Magical super-duper cool attack! Witness me, brothers and sisters!"


    At that moment, several skeletal hands reached out from the ground and grabbed the bear, holding it in place. The bear struggled and cried out as more and more hands grabbed it, but by then, it was too late.


    The dragon arrived first and it''s three large heads bit down into the bear, tearing it apart. He spat it out tho, apparently disgusted by the taste.


    After it, as everyone else arrived, the bear didn''t last for long, torn apart by both magic, claws, and bites.


    After the bear was done and dusted with, we turned towards the demon woman, who was currently panting as she recovered.


    Seeing our gazes, she smiled weakly as she said, "I''m Monica, I''m an Incubus, and thank you all for helping me..." She said as she fidgeted.


    After getting her to join the group chat, people went back to doing their own things. Some chatted, some practiced magic, and some slept.


    Looking around, I noticed nobody bothered to take the bear''s corpse. I smiled evilly as I silently slithered next to it. Several chunks were scattered around, so I first ate them quickly.


    After it, I called out in the group chat. "I''m hungry. I''ll take the bear if you people don''t mind." I said and my mouth opened to an almost impossible degree as I latched onto the corpse and slowly dragged it inside me.


    Everyone turned at me for a moment. Some people were horrified, others curious, but the skeleton was the strangest of them all.


    "Oh my god, that''s so cool. That''s some serious vore porn right there!" He shouted as he ran towards me and poked me and the bear as I ate.


    "Wow, how do you do that?? Wait, can you like, eat everything? Oh my god, that''s so cool! Can I help, can I help??" He asked incessantly. With a grunt, I answered.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    "Leave me alone or I''ll eat you next, creep," I said as anger and shame began to boil inside me.


    The skeleton seemed to want to say something more, but the tall Asura laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head with a wry smile as he dragged the skeleton away.


    As the hours passed by, more and more people came. However, Mrs. Kaiz still hadn''t shown up. After checking the map, we saw that everyone was coming closer at their own pace, Mrs. Kaiz presumably one of those slow ones.


    After another 2 hours, I finally gulped down the legs of the bear. I truly felt like I was about to explode, but I was satisfied anyway. For some reason, I had developed a strange desire towards meat.


    At this point, some of us were starting to get hungry. I was an exception, sort of.


    It was decided to send out some of the faster and more armed people to hunt for something and to gather fruits and berries for the herbivores.


    There was a small debate in the party. Some of us wanted to forsake the name of ''people'' and become monsters true and through, and they had good arguments. Humanity had forsaken us, after all, abandoning us to a serial killer and not even notifying us of his coming despite him having obviously entered the school armed.


    However, a part of the group refused the idea. They agreed that what transpired wasn''t fair, but they still thought it to be possible for cooperations between us and ''other'' humans. Eventually, it was agreed that a vote would take place once everyone was gathered.


    As the gatherers were sent, which included the three-headed dragon, the asura, Elena, and finally the fire panther.


    It didn''t take more than 4 hours for them to come back, each of them having caught several goodies. The dragon had been particularly successful, using a mixture of sheer strength, flight, and it''s three heads to decimate and capture an entire herd of strange creatures that resembled bisons but had stone carapaces and sharp horns on their heads.


    The Asura was kind enough to catch a small crocodile creature for me, which I profoundly thanked him for before beginning my comic attempts at swallowing the thing. Yeah, the bear didn''t last long.


    Finally, Mrs. Kaiz reached us. It turns out she had taken a long detour due to having found some adventurers on her way towards us and had trailed them for a while to find out where a city might have been. Her attempt was successful, so she told us all the location.


    She was as domineering as ever, and even her race showed it. She had become a Ghost Queen, a humanoid ghost with increased affinity for ghost, darkness and soul magic. Furthermore, she had an ability that allowed to form bonds with fellow monsters, and in exchange for their promise of mutual support, she could always sense their location, health, and various other attributes.


    She was very adamant that, although it was clear that this skill was given to her by those gods in order to make her the leader, she would only do so under our approval.


    There wasn''t a soul who denied the opportunity. After all, to be able to have someone know if you''re hurt or in danger while outside of the group was a godsend for all of us. Literally.


    After all the bonds had been made, everybody started explaining their own skills to the group, and more importantly, their cheats. There was a total of 18 people, 19 if Mrs. Kaiz was included, so there quite a few cheats to go through.


    First, she explained her own cheat. Apparently, it allowed her to pass through the ghostly world at will, become immaterial and immune to everything and everyone for as long as she wished.


    After her, the Asura went. He had two abilities, both of which gave him a significant boost when wielding weapons, and his cheat skill, Asura''s Martial Way, gave him mastery over all kinds of weapons, and that as long as he was using a weapon, his damage could increase by 200%.


    Elena was next, and she explained her own skills. After her, the skeleton went. He had a couple abilities that could boost undead and one that allowed him to summon them as long as he had either corpses or enough mana. He was quite pissed off when he explained that, without a corpse to work with, the cost of making an undead was 10 times more than when using a corpse.


    The dragon went next. His head had different abilities, one could blast lightning, the other fire, and the last poison. His cheat made him able to summon 9 heads if he wanted, each of which was extremely powerful. He said that his previous heads wouldn''t disappear either, so he could have a total of 12 heads. Quite impressive.


    The Fire Tiger could, well, wield fire. However, he could use that power so well that it was honestly scary. He could turn into a blazing inferno in an instant, but when he tried to he was shut down by Mrs. Kaiz.


    The Wolf, Mike, went next. He could summon hundreds of smaller wolves to aid him, and he could also dominate minds if given the right circumstances.


    He was quite unclear about the dominate minds thing, but I realized that he didn''t know himself. The matter was dropped and monster after monster went.


    None of them were particularly impressive. Sure, each one of them was impressive, but overall, we all seemed to be around the same level of power.


    However, one person shined out from the rest. Not because of power, but because of utility.


    He was a giant floating eye, and he said he was a Divine Eye. His cheat ability was called ''The Great One''s Workshop''.


    Apparently, in that workshop, he could sell things there, and in return, gain points that he could use to spend on whatever he wanted. However, the thing that he tried to sell, including trees and some corpses were worth extremely little.


    When Mrs. Kaiz heard this, she went nuts with joy. She had been extremely worried, because none of us here had much experience, nor the appropriate bodies, to do things like build, write, or even just the most basic necessities. She had made it clear that she wanted to first make a base here, where we could always come back to in case of need. However, the how had always remained.


    But now it was solved. Sort of. The Divine Eye, Noah, explained quite bluntly that he needed extremely expensive stuff to shove into the a-hole that was the shop. Apparently, he felt that his cheat was quite inferior to others, but I would disagree.


    I chose to go last, simply because I felt as though was about to happen. Something I desperately tried to suppress but knew that I couldn''t for much longer.


    Finally, Mrs. Kaiz turned to me as she nodded, but then she frowned. She slowly floated over to me, as everyone watched with interest.


    "Leon? What''s going on? Are you ok?" She asked nervously. I knew that she could feel my strangeness right now. Finally, I decided that perhaps it was time...


    "Mrs. Kaiz... Please... Move away..." I said desperately. Mrs. Kaiz instantly moved and hissed at everyone to do the same. They did, some with confusion and others with interest.


    I wasn''t the biggest of them, nor the scariest looking. I wasn''t the prettiest, but I was shiny, and I was a snake. I am a snake. I am the Ouroboros. I am the evergrowing snake.


    An almost religious poem formed in my mind and my whole being began to sing it. I am the Ouroboros, I am the Evergrowing snake, I am the Ouroboros, I am the Evergrowing Snake...


    At that moment, my scales all cracked. I let out a huge cry of pain as it felt my whole skin was torn apart. Everyone watched in horror as I screamed and screamed, pain ravaging my mind and body.


    My scales cracked, then my skin did the same. Veins wriggled under the skin as they threatened to explode. My screams only intensified as the seconds passed, much to my horror.


    Only after an entire minute of this torture did I suddenly feel like something clicked. A bright light shone out of my body as, for the first time, instead of pained cries, I let out a roar.


    My body grew, and grew, and grew. My old skin fell off, as did the old scales. A whole new body was formed for my evergrowing body and the feeling of being suppressed vanished.


    When the light shining out from my body finally faded, I looked up to see a lot of wide-eyed creatures looking at me. They all seemed... so small.


    I looked down at myself and judged my body to be around 20 meters long now. From the previous 2 meters, it was indeed an incredible growth. I could easily swallow a human now...


    I looked around, and after a moment of staring, I murmured in embarrassment, "Hey... Don''t stare... Have you people never seen snakes shed?"


    After a few moments of silence, laughter slowly broke out. Even Mrs. Kaiz started laughing so hard she seemed to roll over. No, she definitely rolled over as she laughed.


    "H-hey, it''s not funny! Stop!!" I yelled as I felt my embarrassment spike.


    The three-headed dragon placed one of its feet on me gently, getting my attention. "We were just worried for you. It sounded like you went through a lot... We thought you might have died. That would have sucked." He said with a sad smile.


    People finally stopped laughing and all of them seemed gloomy now. I apologized and then started explaining my abilities.


    "I''m sorry. I knew something like this would have happened, but I didn''t expect it to be so... intense. Well, I have the Devour ability, which lets me grow forever as long as I have something to eat, and I also have Major regeneration, Poison Immunity, and Magic Resistance. My skill is Oblivion Body, which reduces all damage I take by 90% and increases my regeneration by 500%" I stated.


    The skeleton yelped as he pointed his bony finger at me and furiously yelled, "You! Wow, that''s stupid strong. Basically, you''re like immortal. Just wow." He shook his head. Most people murmured in agreement.


    However, someone suddenly began laughing again. We all turned towards the source, who was the Divine Eye, Noah.


    "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! We''re rich! Rich!" He constantly yelled as he laughed. We stared at him in confusion and he explained, "Each one of these scales is worth over 10.000 points, and there are thousands of them! We''re filthy rich, Leon, you''re a heck of a living treasure!"


    I nodded. "I know. Praise me."

 Ch. 4 - The Trash Title

    "I want some swords.", "I need bodies", "I want this", "I require that"...


    It was almost a sad sight. After stealing my beautiful scales and skin, Noah, the divine eye, found out what a ravenous mob of internet-starved ex-teenagers looks like the hard way.


    Arguably, he seemed quite happy that his cheat was this useful. He had an abundance of points, so in less than an hour, everybody had gotten more or less what they wanted.


    Finally, Mrs. Kaiz stepped in and asked, "Noah, I''m glad you''re kind enough to share. However, what we need right now is a roof over our heads. Is there any way you can do that?"


    This raised quite a murmur through the monster crowd. The skeleton, who for some reason kept bugging me and insisting on talking to me, chatted me through private conversation, "I want a computer again... I miss my waifus".


    I snorted in contempt and ignored him. Instead, I focused on Noah again, who had begun to make a speech. "No, I cannot buy already made houses or buildings. And even then, with our sizes and shapes, I doubt we''d be able to make use of them. What I can do is buy materials, which we can use to construct stuff. That''s the best I can offer."


    He seemed downcast at this, but Mrs. Kaiz quickly reassured him and then spoke up herself, "You heard him, boys and girls. Who here has any idea how to build things?" She asked. Nobody spoke up.


    She frowned and sat there in thought for a minute. We didn''t have hands, or at least most of us didn''t anymore. Furthermore, we were only 16-17 years old. I doubt she expected us to know how to make houses, especially monster houses.


    Just as we were about to reach a deadlock, the incubus who had mostly stayed silent so far spoke up. "Why don''t we go to the city and ask for help from them?"


    Everyone''s attention gathered on her. The Fire Tiger snorted and said "Yeah, sure. Like they''ll help us. What can we offer them anyway?"


    Mrs. Kaiz''s eyes blazed as she shouted, "Silence! Monica, continue. I''m interested in your idea."


    She smiled as she explained, "From what I know, the city we found seemed to be somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. If we could convince them that we aren''t a threat and instead we can mutually help each other, we could have their support in building ourselves our own little city..."


    The three-headed dragon spoke up at this points, "What''s the point of even having a city for ourselves? Shouldn''t we only focus on getting stronger for now?" He asked.


    Most people agreed. Even I did. Having a city would be definitely nice, but it paled to the idea of training in case something or someone wants our skin. Or my scales. They seem valuable.


    Mrs. Kaiz sighed and spoke up again, "I don''t think we should all focus on one thing. Perhaps some of us, those less interested in fighting, should simply stay here and build up things, while those more combat-oriented should go and train together."


    After a moment of thought, she added, "I have an idea. We could make divisions, for example, a defense division, a food-gathering division, and a construction division. We have plenty of water, and the food is quite easy to catch with our bodies and power."


    Most people nodded, some were a bit skeptical but eventually gave in.


    By this time, the sun had gone down. Most people were quite tired, and everybody wanted to sleep to digest everything that had happened. Even Mrs. Kaiz looked quite weary.


    With my newfound body size and defensive ability, I offered myself to act as a cocoon-cum-shield for smaller creatures. Mrs. Kaiz, the skeleton, and a couple others were the only ones who didn''t need to sleep, as they were undead. Therefore, they were tasked with keeping guard.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    Seeing nobody take up my offer, I was a bit downcast but not too much. An idea came into my mind as I approached the lake and slithered into it, and sure enough, I found myself perfectly fine underwater.


    I didn''t need to breathe. My Devour ability allowed my body to run solely on food, hence, water and air were unneeded.


    I made myself comfortable in the deepest parts of the lake, where I closed my eyes. Before actively trying to sleep, I checked out my status card and was pleasantly surprised to find that my level had gone from 4 to 7. Almost double.


    Other than that, nothing changed. I sighed in my mind as I tried to will all the chit-chat of the system to turn off, and it did. Without any noise surrounding me, I slowly fell into deep, blessed sleep.


    <hr>


    My dreams were weird. I dreamed about my past life, but my body was the same as it is now. My parents didn''t recognize me, my older brother tried to kill me, and everything went wrong. It was... depressing.


    I was dragged out of my sleep by something poking at my face. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around, whereas I spotted a skeleton riding a fish made of only bones.


    "Rise and shine, sweetheart. Daddie''s here!" The skeleton cried as it and its mount swam towards me.


    I was horrified for a second and instantly retreated, instinctively hissing, although the water made it hard for me to do so. I noticed that the system had turned back on, hence why I could hear him speaking.


    "Aw, don''t run! I just want a nice loving hug!" The skeleton said with indignation as I retreated away from it.


    "Fuck off, I''m a man. I''ll eat you if you don''t go away!" I shouted.


    The skeleton went even crazier when it heard this, and eventually, just as it was about to reach me I reached my breaking point and chomped down on him.


    I didn''t actually swallow him, but I made sure to keep him nice and locked up in my jaws. Being a skeleton, I doubt he''d get harmed by it.


    I swam up to the surface, and when I re-emerged, Mrs. Kaiz was standing there, looking at me.


    "Good morning, Leon. Where did Charles go?" She asked, somewhat confused. I was still quite irritated, so I answered in a somewhat aggressive tone.


    "I have him. I apologize for not waking up sooner, but please never send that bastard again." I said and spat him out. He flew out with a shrill scream and landed with a faceplant.


    Before they could say anything, I retreated back into the huge lake. Mrs. Kaiz seemed like she wanted to say something, but she held off.


    Seriously though, what is wrong with that agglamation of bones? I already suspected that our rebirth affected our personalities in ways we cannot even imagine, but to turn a relatively normal guy into a complete creep?


    I had the skeleton in my class before. His name was Charles, a relatively quiet and friendly guy. Either he had been hiding his true personality all along, or my theory is correct. I don''t know which is worse.


    After a bit, I sighed, realizing I had been a tad bit childish as well. However, I really didn''t feel like leaving the water for some reason, so I chose to simply swim around for a while.


    I did poke my head out a couple times to see what the others were up to. For the most part, some were playing around with their powers, others practiced magic, some slept and Noah was constantly buying stuff usingmy scales.


    I did see Mrs. Kaiz speaking with the more human-ish people, and from what I could inquire, they seemed to be planning a trip to the human city. A terrible idea in my opinion, but then again, my opinion doesn''t matter that much.


    Sighing, I retreated back into the depths of the lake. Since I had nothing better to do and wasn''t particularly tired, I swam around and caught a couple larger fish, which I ate.


    Hours passed. By the first hour, I had caught around 20 decently large fishes, and after a while, I came across an extremely large shark.


    It wasn''t as big as me, only being around 10 meters long, but it was still a pretty big fish. I shivered at the idea of this monster attacking me in my sleep. Perhaps I should have checked out the lake before sleeping in it...


    As I was thinking this, the shark saw me and tried to run, but I gave chase. I wasn''t about to let such a good snack escape from me.


    It took me a long time to catch up to the shark. In the water, I was surprisingly faster than I was on land, but I still wasn''t fast. After all, I''m more of a tank than a speedster.


    Eventually, though, the shark seemed to have gotten tired of being on the run and turned to bite me. It succeeded in biting me, however, my body is that of a snake. My organs are all extremely dispersed, and that''s not counting my cheat. Hence, bites, stabs, and punches are all ineffective against me.


    Just as it was about to try and run away again, my jaws chomped down on its sides, firmly tying us together. I quickly moved my body around the shark and wrapped him up in my loving embrace.


    After that, I began squishing, and oh boy did it feel satisfying hearing the shark''s flimsy body crack.


    I only let go after 20 minutes of constriction. After I was certain it had parted from the world of the living, I swallowed it down. It wasn''t as hard as it was before since I was bigger and had a much larger mouth to work with.


    Feeling somewhat happy about my success, I decided to cleanse the lake of anything longer than a meter. I was totally doing it for the safety of the others, not my own hunger. Nope, not at all...