The sound of clinging metal echoed loudly from behind the wreckage that was destroyed and abandoned...
'Slash! Clank! Slash!'
Behind the wreckage, a man relentlessly swing his sword, slicing through a lump of rusty metal that was alive in front of him.
The attacks from both sides were relentless, with the moving metal striking slowly, giving the man an opening to keep pushing forward.
As he attacked, his guard dropped for a moment, and the metal lump almost crushed him—his reflexes kicked in, eyes locked on the creature's clenched fist, like his head would shatter if it take the punch
As he attacked, the metal lump clenched its fist, ready to punch—and the man braced himself to dodge and counter.
Just as the punch was about to land, the metal creature got blasted away by a massive bull with huge, sharp horns, impaling it.
The rusty metal creature struggled to get up, its chest badly damaged, but it was too late... The bull charged again, horns aimed straight at the junk heap's head, and it was done for.
The bull's horns smashed into the creature's head, crushing it instantly, and it dropped to the ground—finally, it was dead.
[ Blacklead Bull Killed Metal Golem... ]
The bull approached and approached the man, the man only breathed a slow breath and also said with a thin smile.
"Good job..." the man said, stroking the bull's head.
The man approached the dead metal lump, also known as a Metal Golem. He crouched down and took the golem's mana core, storing it in one of his lower pockets.
He accessed his status with Perk, a power that became humanity's strength after the post-apocalypse that occurred 7 years ago... specifically on November 9, 2037.
Back then, monster nests emerged all over the world, known as Dungeon Spawners—places where demons and monsters spawned, ultimately becoming the main trigger that almost wiped out humanity.
The Surga Genocide, that's what they call it...
The man was one of the humans who survived when he was just 9 years old back then, and that's when humans gained powers like in fiction, known as Perks.
[ Perk: Statistic Reveal Activated... ]
「Name: [ Ray Arcelius ]
「Mana: [ 167/278 ]
「Class: [ The Summoner ]
「Perk:
[ Summon ]
[ Mana Flux ]
...
Ray then stood up, deactivated his Perk [Summon], and made the bull, which turned out to be his summoned creature, vanish instantly.
Though he thought The Summoner class was pretty useless—it's still got its uses, especially when hunting monsters like today.
The pocket he's carrying is already full of other monsters' mana cores and their body parts, which are still worth selling to make a living.
He's still holding onto that pocket and his own makeshift sword—before finally turning around, Ray decides to call it a day, ending his hunt.
***
He walks through the buildings and ruins of the city, ravaged and abandoned since the apocalypse's monster and demon attacks.
Monsters still lurk around here, but they're rare to find—unless he's planning to venture out and raid some Dungeon Spawners.
He keeps walking until he reaches the surviving city. The city's a mess, small and rundown, but it's one of the few that made it—and some folks are still living life like it's normal.
Ray heads to one of the rundown buildings there, a place filled with scrap, but lots of people are milling about. It's a trading post, where folks sell stuff they got from monsters.
He steps inside and heads straight to one of the vendors, no fuss. He dumps the pocket full of monster loot right in front of them.
"Ah, Ray! You're here again, like clockwork, haha... Looks like you've got quite a so much today," the vendor says with a wide and polite smile.
"Yah, gotta make that cash, right? Gonna be rich soon, eh?" Ray says while wiping down his makeshift sword blade with a cloth.
"Haha, I love your mindset! Here's your money, 3 gold coins and 2 silver coins... Bring more loot tomorrow, yeah!" the vendor says, handing over the payment with a goofy chuckle.
Ray just lets out a slow sigh before taking the payment and splitting the place—lots of other folks are selling their loot there too.
As he walks, he gazes up at the massive bunker in the city's center—the Quixa City, they call it. This rundown, poor area he's in now is just called Fool City.
Quixa city is only inhabited by the high-ranking officials and important people in this city who have wealth, while Fool city is the opposite, filled with poor people, hungry people, even stupid people.
Ray gets into his home, a pretty small place, not too shabby, one of the few spots he crashes at nowadays. He goes inside and heads straight to a room in the house.
The room's like a workshop, and it's the biggest space in his house—he plumps down in a chair where he designs stuff, and sets his makeshift sword on a blueprint table.
"Damn, lucky this thing didn't break," he mutters with a slow sigh, polishing and sharpening the makeshift sword's blade.
Ray's have nobody, no one's got his back, no one's got his front. He doesn't know his folks or family.
All he knows is he was in an orphanage before monsters and demons assault everything apart.
After fixing up his sword, he heads to the bathroom—the sound of water washes over him, cleaning off his entire body. Though he's just 16, Ray's got a pretty athletic build.
***
After cleaning up and getting out of the bathroom in some comfy clothes, he heads back to his workshop and plumps down in the chair again.
He pulls out a book from the drawer and starts reading "The Anatomy Of Fantasy"—Ray get it from some abandoned building he explored, and books are super valuable, worth a lot in this day and age.
He flips through the pages, the book's got fantasy creatures with their anatomy and descriptions—got him intrigued, considering Ray's class is all about this kinda knowledge.
'Flip'
Ray's studying the creature illustrations in the book, using 'em as references for his summon creatures.
He keeps flipping pages until he lands on one that catches his eye—a monster called The Weaver.
It's a spider monster, its body clad in sharp steel armor, with the ability to shoot out super sticky and sharp webs.
"Now that's interesting."
He stands up from the chair and turns around. Ray stretches out his hand and focuses, channeling his mana to summon the creature known as The Weaver.
His mana flows out smoothly, and the spider's body reconstructs perfectly. He's finally summon The Weaver.
「Name: [ The Weaver ]
「Mana: [ 100/100 ]
「Perk:
[ Lead Web Spread ]
[ Sharp Slash ]
...
Ray's pretty pleased with how it turned out, but with his mana capacity still lacking, the summoned creature's stats are kinda weak, guess that's just how it goes.
The Weaver's body is about the size of a big basket, with shiny purple steel armor and a fierce, menacing look—should be helpful for Ray's hunting trips later.
Ray's not gonna test The Weaver's combat skills, his house is too small and the city's too cramped and dirty—he glances at the wall clock and sees it's getting late.
He dismisses The Weaver and it vanishes instantly. Ray decides to head out just to get some fresh air, even though it's just pollution and dust everywhere.
Poor people, dirty people, and even naked people are a common sight in Fool city—animal corpse and trash are strewn everywhere, even discarded drugs are plainly visible on every street corner.
But despite that, the city's been safe from monster and demon attacks for the past few years...
***
As Ray keeps walking, he spots a Quixa city guard patrolling Fool city, looks like they're getting into it with some locals, but Ray's trying to mind his own business.
The local's getting ganked by those 3 guards. Ray's not looking for trouble, so he's pretending not to see it and trying to just walk on by.
"Hey, you there! You think you can just ignore us, huh?!" one of the guards says, pointing at Ray.
The guard storms up to Ray, reeks of booze, grabs his collar, and snarls, "You don't answer when someone's talkin' to you, asshole!"
"Smells like booze... this guard's drunk," Ray mutters to himself.
"Sorry, I wasn't looking to cause any trouble," Ray replies, a hint of annoyance in his tone.
"Know your place, peasant! You think you're talkin' to who, huh?!" the second guard steps in, fist clenched, looks like he's ready to punch at Ray's face.
The guard's clenched fist is enveloped in a fire, it's clear the guard wants to smash Ray with a Perk.
Ray who sees that immediately prepares to use his Perk [Summon], and as the mana starts to manifest, suddenly a great jolt occurs around them...
The guards and also the civilians who are ganked start losing their balance and fall down due to the great jolt that continues—Ray is also crushed and can only balance his body.
"W-what the fuck going on?!" one of the guards stammers, panicked.
"W-wait a minute?! Don't tell me this earthquake is because-" Ray thinks to himself, panic setting in.
"Hey you guys! Evacuate to the shelter at the cen-" a civilian yells, but the intense shaking causes a building to collapse, crushing him down and dead.
Ray and one of the guards start sprinting, dodging every collapsing buildings, leaving the other two guards behind—one of whom gets crushed by the rubble.
The sound of screams and shouts echo throughout the city, this disaster is not an ordinary disaster—there's something more terrifying than just an earthquake.
After the moments later, rubble blocks their path ahead, and the violent shaking intensifies.
Ray quickly climbs up the rubble and tries to keep dodging as much as possible. The guard, who has no other choice, starts following Ray's footsteps and also climbs up the rubble.
'Boom!'
As they're climbing, Ray and the guard are startled by a massive boom from the east, nearly knocking them off balance and intensifying the shaking.
Ray's eyes snap towards the east, his face etched with shock—and the guard's expression mirrors his.
"What the...?!" the guard exclaims, eyes wide with shock.
To the east, a tower resembling the Tower of Babel begins to rise, shooting upwards. As it grows taller, the booms and shaking intensify.
Ray's eyes scream panic as he gazes at the tower... and in that moment, he's certain of one thing.
"N-no way."
. . .