'Seed of Chaos' System

Alesha dropped the last foot from the ladder onto the ground. Then, she gasped when it dissolved into smoke. She looked around quickly, registering her surroundings. There were no other ladders. It was a 20-foot cubic space, with a rough tile floor, four empty tables, and smooth stucco walls with a dozen torches spaced evenly too high up to reach. The ceiling was, of course, higher than the walls of the depression. Alesha found she could see only the heads of the Evaluators from where she was. Their table was too far back from the edge, and considering she was still up against the wall farthest from them, her view of them would only be further obscured when she moved. 

How were they supposed to evaluate her like that? If they couldn't see her, how would they judge Seth's ability to "control" or "reign in" his Summoned Demon? Even thinking about it that way felt icky to her, though. How was he supposed to "control" or "reign her in?" No matter how much she had asked, he had refused to explain. It made her nervous. 

She fingered the collar on her neck. It was leathery, had a semi-spherical gem embedded in the front, and buckled closed with a clasp in the back. The clasp didn't budge at all when she fiddled with it. According to what he'd told her during their exam preparation time, the collar would "amplify her demonic instincts," and since she barely qualified as a demon, he couldn't predict how it would affect her. 

Alesha gulped. When was this task going to begin? She'd been alright earlier, but now that she was here, in this eerie space, her nerves were getting the best of her.

The collar buzzed briefly, and a notification from the System accompanied it.

[Mental Magic: Instinct Amplification detected]

[Psychic stat too low, resistance failed]

[Instinct Amplification commencing]

A spike of nervousness accompanied these notifications, but that quickly died down when nothing else happened.

A few minutes passed. Alesha started to feel restless and bored, so she began to pace. Nothing was happening! The System's notifications told her that the magic was taking effect, but was it? She didn't feel any urge to destroy, rampage, hurt anyone, or kill, just … full of energy. 

She went to the side of the room closest to the Examiners and looked up towards Seth. She couldn't see him… why wasn't he watching? Wasn't this supposed to be HIS test, not hers? She felt frustrated and, without realizing it, snarled. The boy wasn't helping at all!

Crossing over to the opposite side, she looked up. Again, all she could see of the Examiners were their hooded faces, eerie and unnerving, but she couldn't gauge their reactions to her at all. Seriously, were they even watching?!

Here she was, on another world against her will, forced to play the part of a "demon" for some 16-year-old's magic test, worried sick about how her family was doing, scared about what effect Korak had had on Marshall, perpetually confused about her identity as a human, and constantly afraid of what the System would force her to do next. Yet these people didn't even have the decency to show their faces?! 

She always chose how to act based on people's expressions. Did they find her funny? She'd continue. Were they made uncomfortable by her words or actions? She'd apologize. Was her behavior too eccentric? She'd dial it down. 

Yet now, when there were actual stakes on how she behaved, even if they were just the grades of some 16-year-old kid from another world, she didn't have anything to work with?! No information whatsoever on how she should behave?! No clues at all on how to act?!

Something inside Alesha shifted. A suppressed emotion, a deeply seeded fear, the fear of being misunderstood, outcast and judged, roiled within her. And it started to rampage.

How could she cope in this situation? What should she do? Alesha's pacing quickened as she patrolled the edges of the depression. Was there anything she could do? She hugged her arms and started to rub her hands up and down between her shoulders and elbows. 

Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.

The danger was all in her head.

Her concerns were real, but the danger was not. 

She didn't know what was going on with the exam, she had no way to figure it out, and she had missed the additional explanation. It sucked. But she had to get through this. If she just lasted the hour of the exam, then she'd be alright. 

A few minutes after that, she'd managed to calm herself down. She continued to walk the perimeter of the depressed area, figuring that it was better to remain active than let her fears get the better of her. However, her arms swung freely, her breaths came steadily, and the panic which had been creeping in was gone.

She was starting to feel pretty hungry, though. And her anger at the situation was returning. Reflecting on that, she facepalmed, finally realizing what was happening. Of course! How had she missed it before?

If the System's notification from earlier was accurate, then the spell embedded in the collar was simply "Instinct Amplification," not specifically "Demonic Instinct Amplification." As a "Carnivorous Human," what "instincts" would the spell amplify? What instincts did she have? Apparently, this wasn't limited to what she would define as "instinct," because it was making her emotions fluctuate dramatically. When she felt the slightest bit upset, she quickly became furious. When she felt a spike of fear, it didn't take long to grow into panic. When she felt the slightest pang of hunger, like right now, it was becoming ravenous.

Unfortunately, this one was starting to prove a lot harder to control than the others. 

Emotions were something she'd grown up with. She'd had plenty of practice dealing with those. Hunger, however? Not so much. She'd grown up in a relatively prosperous world, and had never had to go hungry for any longer than a few hours. 

As the hunger built upon itself in her stomach, Alesha grit her teeth.

It was starting to become painful.