I Shall Pervert the Heavens

While he played with the flame control by testing some things he could do, the deadly silent sewage tunnel, out of nowhere, began to make some noise. With the heightened senses which he had trained and developed over time, Zach discovered that the noise came from a rat that was swimming in the water, probably coming after him. These monsters had very high senses when compared to normal humans or animals. Even tens or hundreds of meters away, monsters could still smell human sweat, and that rat was no different.

Preparing himself mentally, Zach extended his hand, and his sharp claws—talons strong and sharp like forged blades—slid into place, ready to be used in battle. Only one of the two would make it out alive after this confrontation, and with the instincts of his demon body, Zach felt it was going to be him.

He had already extinguished the flame of hell a long time ago, and he intended to leave it extinguished so as not to give any clues to his enemy as to what asset he would use during the battle.

At some point, a pair of black eyes crept slightly out of the water and began to watch Zach cautiously. Just as the rat watched Zach, Zach watched him, trying to predict what the rat would do.

'This rat is watching me… something is wrong. Usually these monsters just attack without thinking about the consequences, just following their instincts, but not that rat; he is intentionally watching me and analyzing his opponent… Hmm… What's going on here?' Zach thought about his current situation in the dungeon.

Schreeeeee!

Knowing that the rat was going to let that cry out to try to intimidate him, Zach simply ignored it and reacted faster than the rat expected, lunging with his claws aimed at its direction.

In a split second the monster that was already in the middle of a jump realized that jumping was not the smartest decision it could have made. Since the rat's size was almost as large as a hunting hound, it was not difficult for Zach to strike at it. However, with the size of the animal being greater, its resistance was also proportionally greater.

The claws penetrated only 4 cm into the rat's rib before stopping. Zach quickly plucked them out of the wound, causing the blood to spill out more intensely as well as doing more damage to the rat's organs than leaving the claws there. He moved away from the rat again.

The rat, feeling intense pain in its ribs, felt its anger increase exponentially and launched itself again towards Zach. Learning from its mistake, this time the rat did not jump but came running across the floor after Zach, causing the cut from the claws to continue to grow and more blood to leak.

Visibly, the rat was more agitated, but Zach knew it wouldn't remain that way for long. As the rat ran towards him, Zach opened his left palm and pointed toward the rat as a great blast of fire came out of his hand and engulfed the giant rodent.

Sensing the danger of fire, the rat tried to run back into the sewage, but the moment it turned its back on Zach to try to run, Zach took the opportunity to drive his claws into the monster's head, thus ending the creature's life.

[+5 Exp]

A small black window with words written in red flames appeared, floating in front of Zach quickly before disappearing again.

This time Zach knew that the words in the window were actually written with the flames of hell, and when he tried to compare the quality of his flame with the flame of the window, Zach couldn't help but sigh in disappointment as he realized the long road he had ahead of him. He'd have to wait a while for his flames to become as aggressive and intimidating as the flames in the window.

When Zach used a great blast of fire on the rat, he felt that much of his energy was being drained from a misuse of energy. 'My control over the energy is terrible, either in what I can do with the flame or how much energy I waste for such simple movements. In time I will need to train this.' Zach thought.

Looking at the dead rat on the floor, Zach looked at his left hand and decided to test his theory. With an open hand, Zach tried to control the flame more strictly so that he didn't waste so much energy, but when he paid more attention to it, he realized that previously it was as if he had lowered his bike gear and he was pedaling as fast as possible to get up a slope, when he could just increase the gear so that he didn't need to pedal so fast and thus saved more energy.

Of course, his control had improved little from this deduction; this was something he would need several tests and time to improve upon and not spend so much energy on unnecessary things. Trying to waste as little energy as possible with the fire he created, Zach pointed his hand at the rat and ordered the flame to go towards the dead body. Like a bonfire, the monster rat was burned until only the ashes were left.

As the rat burned, Zach felt as if his hunger was slowly being quenched. It was not literally hunger, but it was more as if by burning the rat, his flame was feeding, getting nutrients and becoming more powerful.

When the rat was completely burned, Zach opened his palm and summoned a small flame. Incredibly, he could feel the flame really had gotten stronger, obviously just a little bit stronger than it was before, but it really was stronger. If he kept killing monsters, it was only a matter of time before his strength moved from Rank F to Rank E.

Remembering the message, Zach opened his profile. "Status."

[Species: Dungeon Demon (Dungeon Master: None)

Name: Zachary

Mana: 300/330

Exp: 615/950

Level: 6

Abilities:

Dungeon Creation <Lv. MAX>

Mana Control <Lv. 5>

• Mana Infusion

Dungeon Control <Lv. 7>

Trapmaster <Lv. 5>

Overlapping senses <Lv. 4>

Dungeon Facility Construction <Lv. 5>

Skills:

(Hell Flames Lv 01, Exp 5/100: A technique that consists of invoking the flames of hell itself. The flames of hell were no different from normal flames, but after purifying so many sins and so many sinners, it became the most powerful flame, having even burned the flame God himself, making him beg Lucifer to extinguish the flames before he died. To increase the power of the hellfire flames, the user must burn sins or sinners.)]

Titles:

Level Suppressor]

The dungeon celebrated the large immediate growth of his skills. He felt that all the waiting was more than worth it in the end. All his skills had improved by leaps and bounds, and he had even earned a title in the process.

[Level Suppressor: One who restrains themselves and trains their skills in order to increase their foundation.

Conditions: Increase restrained potential in all skills and stats before leveling up; Increase all skills and stats by 30% or more on average on level up.

Effects:

• All stats +10%

• Bonus experience earned +15%]

"Hmm, so from killing the rat I got 5 Exp for my level and from burning the rat I got 5 Exp on my skill. Interesting... So if I burn a few more rats, my skill will rise to level 2 and become stronger. How much stronger will it become? Maybe just some new functionality from the skill? Because for now, the only thing I can seem to do is control the flame like a flamethrower, regulating only the intensity, but with bad control. Writing words like the system window is literally impossible for me today." Zach began to reflect on his own ability and what he could do with it in the future.

Surprised and excited by the infinite possibilities, Zach had a hard time controlling himself not to run through the sewage burning every rat he saw, but he knew that if he did that, eventually his energy would end and the rats would just devour him.

"Patience is a virtue. Patience has kept me alive until now and it will not be now that I will abandon it," Zach told himself and walked away calmly in search of another rat.