So…You remember when I said that I was going to kill the other demon, right? Well…I have good news and bad news. Let me tell you the bad news first, the thing that didn't have a demonic crystal isn't really a “demon” per se.

When I found it even I was a bit shocked. It is a plant, at least I think it is. This thing didn’t move at all until I came close to it. It just whipped one of its vines at me and it almost killed me. The bad news is that it didn’t have only a few “vines” It had hundreds of them!

I barely got out of its range in time. That’s the good news.

Right now I’m in a dilemma. I don’t know what to do. I could kill the goblins that had demonic crystals easily because they are low ranked beings, namely [Lesser Goblins], I still don’t know how one manifests such a crystal but I guess that it has to do something with intelligence and wisdom, goblins aren’t as humans but they are more intelligent than other demons. One could see that from the fight between the [Goblin] and White Deer.

I’m still in a pinch here. My only way of getting stronger is meditating while using [Water Affinity] to gain some understanding about the Law of Absolute Zero I got. Others get the affinity abilities by comprehending laws, I got it in an essence, which means that I already have a set law somewhere in my memories.

The law is somewhere in the dump of information called memories. I am still a bit confused as to why I don't have any memories from before I took over this body though.

Getting on with it I decided to use my time here to meditate on the Law of Absolute Zero, find it actually. I really don't know how to meditate so I just sat down and silently waited.

I hope that is how you do it. I sat down, I think I did sit down, I don’t really know I’m a rat, and started meditating. I just tried to copy those old monks that were in living on mountains in my world. They meditated all day only stopping to eat and wash themselves.

I sat and waited, and waited… nothing is happening. Am I doing something wrong? Isn’t this how you meditate? You sit and wait.

It seems that isn’t how you meditate. Let me try something different.

Feel the world. Feel your surroundings. Feel yourself….

I repeated these thoughts until my breathing started to harmonize itself with my thoughts. With every thought my breathing became more unstable and more harmonized at the same time.

I repeated this for fifteen breaths of time then I felt an icy cold aura come slowly towards me. It slowly entered my body! I don’t know what it was but it hurt really badly. I thought I would freeze to death.

I stopped meditating and looked around. I couldn’t see anything. Was that just my delusion? No way! This feeling was just too realistic for it to be a delusion.

I started meditating again. This time I managed to hold out for twenty breaths of time, each time it was more and more painful but I continued doing it. The pain only vanished after I stopped meditating.

For some reason I was hungry so I decided to eat the rest of the goblin that I brought with myself. It was delicious! For the first time in ever was it delicious for me. The rotten flesh just seemed to be perfect for my current situation. I of course decided to leave some for later because I remembered that I ate the [Blood Mole]’s whole corpse during my little recovery session.

After I ate I started to meditate once again. This time I lasted thirty breaths of time, during my meditation I could once again feel the icy energy around me.

I gave up on meditation after the third time you see. I was scared of losing my little precious life to that icy energy. So…you ask yourself how I’m going to kill that damn plant if I don’t meditate, right?

Easy, I’ll lure the other demons that were near me at that time so they fight it out in a battle royale. I, of course will be watching on the sidelines while imagining that I’m eating popcorn.

Now…how to do that is the question. You see I could use the goblin flesh to lure the demons but… I really want to eat it too! No! Listen up myself! You need to live, a bit of delicious goblin can’t be worth as much as your life!

But it’s so delicious…

No!

Alright then…

And so I set my plan into motion! I needed a few minutes to activate [Rat Demon Sense], I confirmed the locations of the other two demons.

I carefully slipped pass the territory of the plant and found the other demon. It was a pitch black bat with red eyes. Does every demon have red eyes in this dungeon? I don’t know…Probably.

I think I’m going crazy, I’m not right?

You’re not.

Good.

I threw some goblin flesh at the bat and ran towards the plant. Due to my weak little physique I managed to only throw it near the bat and not at the bat directly so I was a bit nervous that it wouldn’t notice.

It noticed though, but now that I think about it there were better way of luring it to the plant other than directly throwing rotten flesh at it…

It still followed me though. I entered into the range of those vicious vines and so did the bat! I immediately left the range of the vines while the bat needed some time to react it seems. But before it came out of the range the vines started their barrage of attacks. The bat also noticed the vines and started furiously screeching and sending out what seemed some kind of air bombs from its mouth.

It looked so badass! I mean, it’s basically using your voice to kill! Badass!

I decided to use the spare time to find the other demon so I can watch this battle royale from the sidelines.

Stolen novel; please report.

The next demon was a snake. Due to me being a rat I decided to be a bit more careful. Aren’t snakes natural predators to mice and rats? I mean I saw a friend of mine feeding his snake some mice.

I carefully put some goblin flesh in a line going towards the plant and screeched the loudest as I could. The snake noticed me but it didn’t follow. It followed the line of flesh! Great! My great plan worked. I think it did… What was my plan again?

Whatever, it worked.

The snake followed the line and entered the range of the vines as well. I was so happy! The vines split apart and started attacking the snake as well.

I thought that the fight would end quickly because the plant was so strong! But the snake and bat didn’t disappoint me.

[*Ding* Title earned [Rat of Mischief]] [Rat of Mischief – once upon a time there was a little demon rat that liked to play pranks and trick other people into doing stuff. The title gives you +50% chance of succeeding in any trick or prank if it is your main title, 25% if it is your secondary title.]

Great! Just what I needed, even more guarantee that the plan would work. I will put it as my main title immediately!

[Name: NotAFailure][Level 5][Race: Lesser Rat][Title: Rat of Mischief (main), Lesser Elemental Demon (secondary)]

Great. Now I only need to wait and watch.

The battle is pretty intense. The snake is managing to withhold the barrage of attacks from the vine because of its scales while the bat is dodging the attacks. They still can’t escape the range though. It seems that I was lucky to escape twice.

Haha…my luck is really good ever since I came into this dungeon.

Let’s see, the bat is barely dodging the attacks it seems that it doesn’t have a lot of stamina. As for the snake, not enough mobility, shouldn’t snakes have mobility? Why is this one so tanky?

The vines are also not in such a good shape. One third of the vines were just ripped apart from the air bombs that the bat threw out, while another third is being rendered useless by a certain toxins that the snake spit out.

This fight is worthy of being called the fight of the century in my old world! It’s better than some high quality movies. It’s like watching real life superheroes fighting. The snake is pretty good though, I want it as my mount. If only I had a beast taming ability.

*What are you doing?

Fuck…Nothing?

*What are you doing?

Making demons fight between each other? You got a problem damn Voice?

*…Are you mentally unstable? How did you even come up with such a dumb ide-they are really fighting each other. How?

I lured them! I put on a proud face while saying that.

*Y-you lured them?

You need something? Why did you come here?

*I sensed a weird energy undulation in this place so I thought it’s you. It seem that it’s not you but those three. I’m going now.

Damn Voice won’t even help me.

*Shut up damn rat, you aren’t worthy of my help, I’ve got higher ranked people to attend to and not a damn rat that somehow can come up with this kind of plan.

Hehe…I’m pretty smart aren’t I?

*…I’m going now and not returning. I’ll let someone else take care of you.

Great. You were kinda becoming boring.

*…I’m going for real now

Go,go and don’t return.

Now that the voice is gone I decided to watch the battle.

It seems that during my little talk with the Voice the battle came to its peak. The snake had almost half of its scales broken or missing from its body, the bat was bleeding out slowly and the vines and plant were ripped apart and had black patches on them.

The snake hissed and threw out a big ball of toxins towards the core of the plant. The bat just slowly bleed out and fell on the ground. It seems that it died.

The snake and the plant didn’t bother with the bat so I just sneakily took the corpse of the bat and started eating it. The bones were really crunchy and salty, just like popcorn! The bat also had a demonic crystal so I decided to keep it and eat it after the fight ends.

The battle was slowly coming to an ending because the snake was moving even more slowly than before. In the end it was slow but this is just like a snail right now!

The vines were ripped apart and the plant core is covered in those toxins. It should die as well if nothing unexpect- no…let’s not say that. I have a bad feeling for some reason.

Go,go snake! Go,go plant! I cheered.

After another half an hour the snake died. Another hour passed and the plant seemed dead as well. I carefully sneaked into the vines range and took the snake’s body. I even took the scales that fell off.

Then I decided to check up on the plant. It seems that it didn’t die. But…it is hibernating. I better get rid of it right now.

I used [Sharp Fangs] at least a fifty times until I managed to get the light blue screen that I wanted to see.

[[Bramble Plant] slain. 300% experience gained.] [Level up!] [Level up!]

I leveled up twice! That means I’m level 7 right now! Only 13 more levels until my evolution.

As for the demonic crystals from the snake and bat. Let’s eat them now and hoped that one of them left me an essence that I can absorb immediately.

[Black Scaled Shiny Viper lv. 2 Demonic Crystal eaten] [Noisy Bat lv. 12 Demonic Crystal eaten] [Lesser Rat has gained [Essence of Bat], do you wish to absorb it? Y/N?]

Noisy Bat? My name is better! Wait…that its species. My name is still better!

Absorb the essence yes.

[Absorption process initiated… Energy level needed : 7, level achieved. Absorption starting. Time left until fully absorbed : 2:00:00]

2 hours…no problem. Only one problem actually. Why was the snake level 2? It was clearly stronger than the bat. Why is its level 2 then? Shouldn’t it at least be level 19?

Maybe it evolved?

Yeah you’re right me.

Glad to help.

Thank you.

I slept during the absorption process. When I woke up there was that all so familiar light blue screen in my field of view. There were four screens this time! I’ve hit a jackpot. At least I thought until I read what was on each screen.

[Bat Language – You can speak the language of bats]

[Sonic Boom lv.1 0/100 [Active skill] – An sound based attack that has shredding attributes when it impacts.The skill resonates with your vocal cords and lets out an silent or loud bomb that sherds opponents. Leveling up the skill increases the range and damage of the attack. Can only be used if the demon has vocal cords of any kind. ]

[Glide Lv.1 [Passive skill] – Increases the effectiveness of gliding and similar actions by 50%. Skill can only be used by beings that have wings or have the required items for gliding or flying. Each level adds 5% to the bonus. Max lv. 10]

[Sonic Wave Detection Lv.1 0/1000 – allows you to detect things with a silent sonic wave. The user has to be adept at using sound based skills or the skill will have a backlash. Each level of the skill increases the range and efficiency of the skill.]

I can only use one of these in combat. The others are either useless or can’t be used.

So that means my only choice is [Sonic Boom]…Well, it is the second best out of the batch. I really want the [Sonic Wave Detection] for this kind of dungeon but I’m a bit scared of the backlash. I might lose my vocal cords or even worse, die.

I chose [Sonic Boom] and decided to level it up while I’m still on the first stage of the dungeon. I also want to level up the [Sharp Fangs] skill because it is currently at 57/100. Just 43 successful uses left.

The first stage of the dungeon also seems to be pretty large. The only bad thing is that there must be even stronger monsters and demons down the road. There was a second stage evolved snake on the first stage. Then what kind of things were on the second stage?

I don’t want to think, I think I’ll piss my imaginary pants.

But now I became a pretty powerful rat! I shall fear no one! Because this King fears no one!

I took on a proud pose and vented all of my feelings at once…

----------------------------------------

[Name:NotAFailure][Level 7][Race : Lesser Rat][Title : Rat of Mischief(main),Lesser Elemental Demon]

Active skills [Sharp Fangs lv.1 57/100][Sonic Boom lv.1 0/100] [Rat Demon Sense Lv.2]

Passive skills: [Cold Resistance Lv.1] [Wind Resistance Lv.1] [Enhanced Regeneration] [Night Vision Lv.2] [Poison Resistance Lv.3] [Water Affinity - Law of Absolute Zero] 

Toggle skills: none

My naming sense strikes back with the all mighty Noisy Bat and Shiny Black Snake! I actually feel proud of those right now.

Edit : The affinities and elements that can be got are as following : Metal,Water,Wind,Fire,Earth and Lightning.

Every element has a variation or mutated version like Water has Ice and Steam as the two variations. Earth has Nature and Destruction as a variation and a mutation of some sort. While Fire has Light and Explosion as a variation. Darkness isn't considered an element because Darkness is just a by product of Light.

Each element has its own unique attributes that will be revealed later in the series.