Demonic Society
Andrew stood at the corner as instructed, he marveled at the changes that metamorphosis brought upon him.
His flexibility reached new levels as he performed a couple of martial arts. The speed, precision, and power were far stronger than his previous human shell.
He could freely spin around his head, his joints weren't as weak as before. Even though Aria's humans were far stronger and more advanced on the evolutionary scale, they still possessed flaws that nature granted them.
But Andrew found out that he had absolutely none of them!
He could freely manipulate his body, twist his limbs in any desired direction, bend in any way he wanted! It's as if he didn't have bones at all!
He wondered what might be the reason for such absurd motoric functions. They were incredible, the martial arts that he had previously learned became useless as he could now move his body in any direction he desired.
'From one of the books I read, it's said that Demons existed for millions of years, they were one of the first intellegnt races that appeared in the world of Aria, but Solaris were far more powerful than them, having existed longer than them and perfected the compatibility with their mana types. At the time when Solaris suppressed Demons, it's said that Demons were still in their infant phase on the evolutionary scale, so mortals had a hard time surviving in the Desolate Regions even though they wielded corrupt types of mana. Only after the ascension of Demon God and subsequent spread of his bloodline did Demons finally become fully compatible with negative mana types' Andrew recalled from one of the books.
Andrew tested out his newly gained abilities for a while until sounds spread from the direction of giant double doors.
Sloppy sounds of wet material hitting hard surface could be heard.
A girl appeared in Andrew's view. She confusedly looked at Andrew for a while until her mind clicked.
"A-Andrew, is that you?" the girl asked as she was genuinely surprised by the new looks of #1 cadet in their class.
She could barely distinguish him due to his new looks, but some small similarities still remained.
Andrew just looked at the girl, not showing any emotions.
Her appearance changed too. Long wild black hair and pitch black nails, sickly pale skin and pointy black nails. Not much different from Andrew's appearance.
This girl was none other than Eve, the one that managed to finish a hundred laps alongside Andrew and Noah.
She intently looked at Andrew, trying to understand this emotionless battle genius, yet there were no abnormalities present, even his body language was neutral as ever.
She sighed inwardly as she approached him and sat beside him on the cold floor of the cave, due to their transformation into demons their bodies became far more resistant to heat and cold.
They sat in complete silence...
3 hours later, one by one previously humans and now transformed into demons, kids kept coming out of the blood pool.
They had acquired more or less similar features. The most notable being their skin tone. It was just too white as if there was no heat or blood. They looked like straight up corpses from the graveyard. Yet, they were perfectly fine, stronger than they ever were.
They had to wait for a couple of more minutes for the person responsible for their batch to arrive.
Soon, a figure appeared in their view. He slowly strode towards cadets as he had nonchalant air around him. He wore a common black robe like anyone else, he had similar features to newly transformed cadets.
He looked at each of them as he eyed them with absolute indifference. As usual, he didn't spot anything notable. He hoped that someone will undergo a special type of mutation, yet he didn't know that someone like this was right in front of him because he was too weak to perceive it.
"Hello, trash. I'm Samuel, the assigned curator of your group. Obediently follow my orders or I'll tear apart your bodies limb by limb" said Samuel as killing intent flashed in his eyes.
Due to the fact that he was a mage, his killing intent could be spotted by others since his emotions can influence the surrounding mana.
The kids shuddered from the increasing invisible pressure all over them. Samuel just wanted to put them into their places since they were nothing but Bottom Demons, the lowest of low.
He just didn't want to deal with a few brave kids that might go out of their way to create trouble for him. He had enough of this shit in his life.
'Mere 27 kids successfully managed to undergo a blood cleansing, what a waste' Samueld scoffed inwardly as disdain for those kids increased.
On average 1 out of 3 specimens would successfully undergo a transformation, yet with the numbers of kids there were originally, this success could be considered a failure.
Such low numbers were caused by none other than Andrew! His transformation required an absurd amount of resources compared to ordinary kids.
All the kids which were around his location were stripped of the Lesser Demons' blood. The majority of them were undergoing a crucial phase in metamorphosis, yet the sudden lack of fuel and energy caused everything to go haywire.
The kids died on the spot. Fortunately, the blood pool is automatically refilled every day so no one will be able to notice any abnormalities and link it to him unless they went out of their way to deeply investigate the truth.
"I think you all understand your positions in demonic society. You all are nothing but the absolute bottom in the demonic hierarchy. Nothing but common roadside trash, in short, mere mortals. Only by advancing in Evolutionary Realms you can get the treatment befitting your power and strength" said Samuel.
"Until you reach the age of 30, you will be all under the protection of Enforcement Hall. It means that small fish stronger than you will not go out of their way just to kick your asses or bully you, but if you fail to become a mage even after so much time, you will be given treatment befitting slaves" Samuel coldly stated.
It didn't take a genius to understand that power was the most important thing in the demonic society. If you don't have power, you have no right to decide your freedom!
"Follow me to your dormitories" said Samuel as he turned back and took the direction towards the tunnel.
With a bit of hesitation, kids soon followed after. It took them a while to reach the assigned dormitories since they had to pass multiple tunnels and conjunctions.
They passed by multiple demons but none of them deigned attention to the kids. Even Samuel was largely ignored.
Soon the group stood in front of the double doors. Samuel approached the wall and took out a token from his robe.
He knocked on the wall couple of times until a slit appeared, he placed the token in and the doors opened.
A dimly lit room unfolded in front of the kids. It wasn't big at all, it barely had enough space for the bunk beds. There were 3 beds stacked on top of each other.
"This is your new home, trash. In the morning I'll come and get you to show you around the facilities which you are allowed into" Samuel said as he turned around and left.
Kids awkwardly looked at each other, not knowing what to do. Soon, one by one, kids started picking their bunk beds. Andrew picked up the one in the middle of the room and he chose the highest bunk bed since he didn't want to test the durability of those shady-looking beds.
Hours passed like this and eventually, everyone fell asleep.
___
The next morning, the stone doors to the dormitory opened as it instantly alerted the kids' senses. Once they woke up, they saw Samuel standing in the doorway of the dormitory.
He still had his cold and indifferent gaze.
"Line up" Samuel said as kids started to jump out of their bunk beds. Many of them still had bloodied and ragged clothes on them. The bed bunks had no mattresses or blankets. They had to sleep on the bare stone that bunks were made out of.
Samuel gestured for everyone to follow him as they set off to the various available places for Bottom Demons.
After walking for a while they stopped in front of a 1 meter wide and tall hole in the wall. It had a sign saying *Distribution Point*.
"This is *Distribution Point*, from here you will obtain basic necessities, like clothes, blankets, hygiene and food"
They went to another place which was packed with various demons.
"This is public *Training Grounds* where you can hone your close-quarter combat skills* said Samuel.
"This is everything you can access so far as Bottom Demons, become mages if you want to elevate your statuses to get more".
"Oh, there is also a library, no one will teach you anything, you have to do it by yourselves" Samuel added as his figure disappeared.