Chapter 16：Devil's burning church outpost

As Daniel made his way through the jungle inside a little outpost in the middle of the jungle next to the second city of the jungle something was going on.

A short man even shorter than the dwarves was standing still on a tall chair shouting at his subordinates, he had the Devil tattoo on his seemingly thin and weak left arm, it was so thin that you could barely discern the tattoo on it, but his right arm was bulging with muscles and veins, his face was average and his hair was a deep purple color while his eyes were yellow. He was a Devil Lord of the Devil's burning church who was visiting the jungle outpost to receive the goods from the Mature Devils.

His name was Gioconda and he was an extremely angry little guy he especially hated people calling him short. His anger would also increase his strength and speed, this was one of the abilities of his gene.

The Mature Devils which were subdued by Daniel were being admonished by him because there were fewer and fewer dwarfs being sent to be guinea pigs and slaves every month, but it wasn't their fault since the dwarf's population was always going down due to their shenanigans of kidnapping them and using them as guinea pigs, but Gioconda didn't care about that, the Devil God wanted more and more guinea pigs and he told him that he could even take children and women from the dwarfs now.

It seemed they were ready to make a breakthrough with a new gene they were testing!

Daniel was already near the outpost as he got nearer and nearer to the city so all he needed to do was run for a bit before he could reach the outpost. He decided to not attack the outpost to not reveal that the Mature Devils were spies, he would make it so that the meeting with Gioconda would look like an accident.

Ropego was eager to get his claws on a Devil Lord who had direct contact with the Devil God so he could extract some good information from him, while Daniel could take the fight with the Devil Lord to train his technique and improve his Z Gene by a bit. Even though energy was needed to increase the Z Gene and turn the DNA branches, the passive speed could be increased by fighting strong opponents that would make Daniel adapt to their strength.

The Devil Lord Gioconda was unsuspecting of what was going to happen to him as he led the dwarfs towards his giant truck. Daniel smirked as he hid in the crown of a tree observing Gioconda, Ropego widened his eyes as he took a better look at Gioconda then he whispered to Daniel:

"Daniel be careful of this guy, he is a special unit of the Devil's burning church, he is extremely popular and has the strength of a Devil Duke, he didn't become one because he likes to be free and he doesn't like being settled in one place, you should be able to defeat him but it will be a hard fight."

Ropego had some information in his chip for people with strength above and at the Devil Duke level, even though it was meager it was better than nothing.

Daniel used some of the stealth techniques that Ropego imparted to him to get nearer to Gioconda but unfortunately for him even Ropego underestimated Gioconda's powerful senses, even though he didn't look the part Gioconda had quite the acute sense of smell and hearing even though his sight was normal.

Gioconda smirked to himself then threw a knife directly towards Daniel's direction, if the knife hit home it would go directly through Daniel's head!

Daniel's instincts entered into hyperdrive as he didn't think that he would be found out so easily, he barely dodged the knife making it slash his face creating a pretty deep and long gash on his face which started to heal and peel immediately, the scab disappeared seconds later leaving no scar behind.

Gioconda didn't know if his knife hit the target so he started to walk towards Daniel's hideout, Daniel decided that there was no reason to hide anymore and jumped directly towards Gioconda, Gioconda recognized Ropego at first glance then he took a serious look on his face, Ropego had quite the big bounty on his head and he would be a troublesome opponent due to his techniques, he couldn't be caught easily!

He ignored Daniel as Daniel didn't make a name for himself as he always did things fast and left no survivors behind, while the survivors he did leave behind became his trusted subordinates. Gioconda let his guard down against Daniel which proved to be a big mistake!

Daniel's weight wasn't normal at all and when he barreled down on Gioconda like a cannonball from the crown of the tree he made quite the deep hole into the ground, Gioconda spat out blood due to the impact then used his muscled arm to punch Daniel into the stomach, veins started to appear on his forehead that squirmed like worms, that meant he was extremely angry!

He was so angry he didn't say anything only a bone-chilling smile remained on his face his skin started to turn from the normal white to a deep red as horns grew out of his head and a tail appeared from his behind.

He took a loss from Daniel and was injured by the impact so he decided to go all out from the start!

Daniel coughed out a bit of saliva as he shot through a few giant trees toppling them down immediately, some mutated animals wanted to try their luck and attack him when he was down but some razor-sharp teeth immediately clomped on the animals that got close enough transforming them into nutrients which healed the internal injuries that Daniel got from the punch, a Devil Duke wasn't an easy opponent!

Daniel got from the ground as he started to increase his power, his muscles started to enlarge and his physique grew wider and taller, his veins squirmed under his skin as blood started to pump at high speeds in his veins, this was an instinctual effect of the Z Gene against strong opponents, Daniel didn't actually 'power-up' consciously.

Under Gioconda's feet, the ground broke up into fragments as a deep hole appeared where he was before, the truck he was supposed to embark turned over and trapped the dwarfs in it making it impossible for them to get out.

Gioconda's eyes turned a deep red after his transformation and he also gained green spikes over his body which looked like they were containing poison. He ripped a spike from his shoulder and accurately threw it towards Daniel's hand, Daniel blocked the spike with his hand, but the spike was so sharp that it is directly going through his hand almost reaching his head!

Fortunately, the spike stopped near his nose but the poison that was in the spike entered his circulatory system stunning him for a second while the Z Gene was at work neutralizing the poison and making Daniel immune to it.

A second was precious in fights between experts so it wasn't anything surprising when Gioconda hit Daniel directly in the head with his fist almost breaking his head open and leaving his brains on the forest ground. Unfortunately for Gioconda, the Z Gene was a peak gene so Daniel didn't die nor did he become unconscious from having his head cracked open.

Actually, at a speed visible to the naked eye his head started to repair itself as it mended, his brain grew back the bits that left his head and after a few seconds, his head was back to normal!

Daniel growled as some of his reason left him, the more injuries he took the more his reason left him!

He started to bulk up more as his muscles increased and an exoskeleton armor started to appear on his body, a bone tail started to grow out of his spine as he shouted towards the skies, Gioconda didn't want to let Daniel grow even stronger as he was already pressured by the air Daniel was exuding in his new form.

Gioconda made a saber arm and threw himself directly at Daniel trying to dismember him and knock him out but when his arm made contact with the exoskeleton armor it only cracked the armor a bit before the armor restored itself immediately afterward!

Gioconda gasped and he was ready to run away as he realized he couldn't fight Daniel anymore, unfortunately for him, it was too late, he triggered the beast that was hidden inside Daniel's brain when he cracked his head open like an egg.

Daniel's eyes lost all color as they became white all his reason gone, he was like a rabid dog now ready to bite anyone that got close enough to him!

And Gioconda was the closest while Ropego was hiding some kilometers away sweating intensely, he was an assassin with a weak body any shockwave from the fight would kill him or maim him making him unable to fight again for his whole life.

Daniel grabbed Gioconda by the torso as Gioconda shouted in pain, Daniel's hand now had some kind of barb-like quality to them meaning that anything he would touch would be impaled by tiny spikes that were practically invisible in his hands.

Gioconda used all of his power to crack the armor from Daniel's arm open then he bit into his arm with all the force he could muster, Daniel shouted in pain as he let go of Gioconda, Gioconda's torso was mangled and full of tiny invisible holes as he started to bleed out.

Gioconda spat out a globule of dark blood from his mouth and the invisible holes started to close up, then he tried to run away from Daniel's location and contact some reinforcements.

Unfortunately for him, Daniel didn't want any of that before he could run away more than a few hundred meters, Daniel appeared in front of him creating a deep crater into the ground then Daniel just directly used his mouth to eat him!

Bones and flesh were broken inside Daniel's mouth as sickening crunches were heard, even though Ropego was a few kilometers away, he still felt a shiver go down his spine as he saw everything happen, he could also hear the loud and wet crunches and squelches from Daniel's mouth.

Ropego felt like he was going to get sick, even though he was a trained assassin who was an expert torturer, the image from before him was still a little too much for his taste, it was too disgusting!

Daniel seemed content with his launch as he patted his stomach and let out a loud and wet burp, afterward he directly reverted to his normal form his clothes now tattered into ruin as he didn't think he would be pushed directly towards his behemoth form so easily.

Only his pants remained and they were also in tatters, Ropego got near Daniel but he didn't prod him nor did he touch him, he didn't know if Daniel was just going to wake up grab him by the tail and eat him just like he ate Gioconda.

The truck already exploded a few minutes ago and all of the dwarfs were dead, Ropego didn't care that much about it but he was still pained on the loss of good guinea pigs.

Daniel started snoring as he started to sleep, a strange aura started to exude from him as crunches and loud sounds started to be heard inside his body, it seemed like his bones and flesh were grinding against each other then regenerating at the same time at quick speeds!

Inside Daniel, the DNA tree that housed nine branches started to change color to a deep Azure as the second branch almost lit up, his first branch was thoroughly lit up and some strange runes started to appear on it, the runes meant that the branch reached one hundred percent capacity and now he reached the peak of the first branch!

Even though he could still awaken other branches without the previous ones being at full capacity it was better to get the first ones at full capacity before moving to the next ones, The first branch of the DNA tree strengthened his body, the next one should give him an ability while also strengthening his body but not as much as the first one, the strengthening of the second branch would increase the ability's power while also increasing the physique capabilities but even at the peak of the second branch it still couldn't compare to the first branches physique enhance, at most it would increase the physique's ability by ten percent because the first branch was supposed to achieve the peak of the human body.

Even though he didn't reach the second branch Daniel was extremely close to it, if he ate another individual comparable to a Devil Duke he would be able to light his second branch and even make some progress towards its capacity percentage.

Ropego looked at Daniel with a strange look on his face as information streamed from Baidoa's computer into his brain chip, he now learned that Daniel was going through a metamorphosis due to him reaching the maximum output of the first branch of the Z Gene DNA tree.

He was already extremely monstrous before, how strong would he become after he finished the strengthening? Even though he might not reach the power of a Devil God, the only ones who would give him trouble would be peak Devil Dukes. Even though Gioconda was a Devil Duke he was only a beginner one in power, he barely reached the peak beginner phases and he was ready to launch himself towards the middle phases of the Devil Duke rank. Unfortunately for him he met with Daniel and became nutrients for him so he could strengthen his gene.

As Daniel slept Ropego kept his guard up and tried to drag him into a more safe and concealed spot but he couldn't because Daniel was actually too heavy for him! He could drag him before but now he couldn't anymore.

Ropego then decided to just wait here as Daniel was still exuding a strange air that kept the animals and anyone else who wanted to check things out away from here.

There was a city nearby but it was still a bit too far for them to hear the fight, even though it was loud it wasn't that loud, but there could be still people coming around from the city thus he needed to guard Daniel properly while he was going through his metamorphosis, he also needed to record everything so he could send it back to the bunker so Master Litoa could examine the process, it may give him insights on how to fix the problem with the Z Gene's personality alteration quirk.

If he made progress in his research the Iron Bunker could create quite a few Z Gene empowered soldiers, they might even discard the plan with Costil and Daniel!