The First Summon

Actually, the reason why Roy decided to kill Jascalos was to verify if devouring a high-quality soul resulted in Jascalos having a more powerful soul.

The reason Roy saw the need to verify this was because Jascalos had mentioned that promoting to a middle-rank demon was necessary before he could enter the lower levels of the Abyss in search of a refining place. Jascalos could have known how to promote but chose to lie to Roy. Of course, it was also possible that Jascalos really did not know. Nevertheless, Roy's gut was telling him that the key to promotion was not only related to devouring souls but also the strengthening of the soul.

Only when the soul was sufficiently powerful could he become a middle-rank demon…

Unfortunately, Jascalos had encountered a powerful enemy during the summon, so he was killed and expelled. Although he had returned to the Abyss of the Demon World, his soul was damaged, so Roy could not see whether or not his soul had become stronger. Thus, it was temporarily unknown if consuming the high-quality soul offering had strengthened his soul.

Roy did not know if his guess was right, but he felt that there had to be a reason why demons tirelessly chased after souls, and not merely because of an addiction to the taste.

He has already confirmed that the first benefit of devouring souls could help demons accumulate magic power. Roy noticed that his magic energy had already fully restored, and the 0.3 increase had not changed. This meant that the previously devoured soul had indeed brought him an increase to his upper limit.

According to the information from Roy's conversation with Jascalos, a demon's heart stored magic power, explaining why Roy felt a heat flowing toward his heart when he devoured the soul.

In addition, Jascalos mentioned that low-rank demons had complicated bloodlines that resulted in their body being unable to construct a magic power output circuit. Thus, even though they had magic power, they could not use it. This was not applicable to Roy because he had already confirmed that he could use magic energy to activate Psychokinesis.

This allowed Roy to understand one thing. In the system interface, the reason why his attributes displayed magic energy instead of magic power could mean that he, this abnormal demon, could not only use magic but other powers as well.

Those powers might include superpowers, battle qi, spiritual power, and so on that Roy could use. The magic energy attribute was just a general term referring to the source of all supernatural energies. This was different from the magic power that demons needed for their system of demonic spells!

Having figured this out, Roy became excited. Right, since this is a personal customization system, doesn't that mean that I can create my own magic and skills? Since the final consumption is magic energy, there's no need to consider any overbearing and incompatibility Chakra issues!

If so, then how should I go about customizing my skills? Roy opened the system interface and looked at the 3D and AE functions. His gut told him these two functions were the key to customizing his skills. However, these two functions were currently dim, meaning that they were still unavailable.

Is this because I'm lacking some condition? Roy was unconsciously wagging his tail while thinking. Given how the system has to consume souls, the conditions to activate these two functions should also be related to souls! Moreover, it probably requires high-quality souls! Yes, those high-quality souls!

Roy suddenly felt enlightened. He had previously wondered that if low-quality souls could be used in the system interface to modify his body, then what was the need for differentiating between low and high quality? Now, he finally understood that high-quality souls were for advanced applications in the system.

Therefore, Roy now had a goal—obtaining a high-quality soul to verify his hypothesis.

Roy stretched out his claws, grabbed Jascalos's body, and dragged him down the altar with some effort. Jascalos was huge, so Roy could not leave him on the altar, taking up the little space there was. After cleaning the altar, Roy began waiting beside it.

From hatching until now, Roy had only caught low-quality souls in the upper level of the Abyss. It seemed like there was little hope of him obtaining a high-quality soul here. Even if there was a chance, it was probably very low. Therefore, Roy decided to look toward the other worlds that connected to the Gates of the Abyss.

Roy did not have to wait too long. The magic formation on the altar began to glow and buzz. And a stench of blood began to drift out from the void.

Ah, very good! This means the summoner on the other side of the gate is using blood to attract demons. It was good news to Roy.

It was important to Roy that he did not enter a world with high combat strength at his current stage. He did not want to end up like Jascalos, killed, expelled, and returning injured. Instead, this kind of summon that used blood to attract demons was a safer bet. It meant that the summoner on the other side was either a dabbler in a world where the supernatural was underdeveloped, or that their demand for the demon's strength was not high, merely wanting to attract low-rank demons to complete some small tasks.

Either way, it was a good choice for Roy for his first summon.

But Roy still waited a while, wanting to gauge the strength of the summoner based on the activation period of the magic formation.

As a result, a little demon was attracted by the bloody smell while he was waiting. When it climbed onto the altar, the little demon saw Roy, a competitor waiting by the side. Who knew where it got its courage from, but it even snarled at Roy to back off!

Facing this insolent little demon, Roy simply slapped it! Smashing the little demon's head into mush!

Roy grabbed the low-grade soul and stored it. He stepped into the magic formation and noticed that the glow from the magic formation was about to disappear, meaning that the summoner's magic power was not much, so Roy finally felt relieved about responding to the summon.

As the Gate of the Abyss opened, the mist enveloped Roy. It was a mysterious experience being in the Gate of the Abyss, surrounded by endless darkness, with only a glimmer of light shining in from the top of his head. This light was the exit to another world. Roy stood where he was as his body began turning illusory.

His body seemed to transform into a ray of light and fly toward the exit above his head. When he reached the exit, the surroundings became dazzling light, and his body began to reappear.

As the dazzling light dissipated, Roy found himself in a strange place, and he heard noises yelling in his ears.

"Suc… ceeded?!"

"The demon has appeared!"

"So-so scary! Quick, move back!"

There was a cacophony of noises coming from all kinds of voices, leaving Roy irritated. He looked down and found himself within a magic formation. The magic formation was similar to the one on the altar in the Abyss. The only difference was that it was engraved with dents onto the ground, and in the dents was red blood outlining the magic formation.

Four human skulls were placed equidistant around the magic formation, with a lit candle burning on top of each skull. Between these skulls were glass jars filled with internal organs emitting a rotten smell that pervaded the air.

A group of people wearing black cloaks were standing far away from the magic formation, looking fearfully at Roy in the magic formation. Observing from their panicked looks, it seemed as though they were in disbelief that they had managed to summon a demon.

Roy did not feel very good right now. It seemed like something extra had appeared in his soul during the summoning process, likely the Ouroboros Mark. Even though the mark was to protect his soul, it gave him dizzy spells. While his head was spinning, he smelled the disgusting rotten stench and heard the clamor around him, greatly irritating him.

Annoyed, Roy lashed out at these people!

"Shut up!!! Who the hell summoned me??!!"