What do you think happens to a rat that's surrounded by wolves?
Do you think the rat will just lay down and die?
Will it try to run and take its chances in the wolves territory?
Or....will it fight?
....because sometimes that's all you can do.
Fight.
And take the chances that you'll either find an opening to escape....
Or die trying.
Cause, even if you're a cornered rat, the fight's not over until you breathe your final breath.
______________________
In a fever dream-esk landscape....
A body could be seen flying through the air uncontrollably.
Muscles torn and body battered to the point where bone and tendon could be seen.
If this were anyone else they'd be long since dead.
But, as the body skipped and ragdolled across the like a tumbleweed being blown by a strong gust of wind, there was an incredible reaction.
For in a moment of pure determination, the battered and beaten body suddenly flipped to its feet and skidded to a halt.
Its claw-like appendages dug trenches into the ground as he finally managed to stop his moment.
He took several deep, gasping, breaths of air.
His muscles screamed at him and he could feel his bones cracking with every ragged breath.
But he couldn't stop.
His body....
No....
His entire being wouldn't let him rest.
The ground began to shake as the beings responsible for his current condition began to approach at blinding pace.
His eyes flashed forward and stared at the approaching hoard of shadows.
"....."
A wide crazed grin split his face as his body began to heal at an unnatural pace.
His bones made sickening crunching sounds as they snapped back into place.
His once torn muscle fibers began to sprout from bare bones as if nothing had happened.
And then....
A thin layer of skin, followed by a familiar black, scaled, armor.
Our protagonist, one Puck Gier, slowly stood to his feet.
He rolled his shoulders for a moment before his body suddenly blurred forward in a burst of speed.
All was silent in the place he once stood, only for the ground to crack and completely explode as the force of his takeoff finally seemed to catch up with the world.
Puck's body flew across the ground like a projectile flung from a rail gun.
The ground shattered and melted due to the speed and force of each of his steps as he ran towards the incoming horde like a berserker on a war path.
Two black swirling orbs of destruction formed in each of his hands, screaming with the energy he poured in.
The air rippled as Puck pushed an orb forward into the chest of one of the shadow entities charging towards him.
Time seemed to halt for a moment, as if processing what was about to happen before....
Crack.
The ground.
The air.
Hell, the very fabric around Dark's dimension seemed to crack, like a calm slate of ice being disturbed by a sudden foreign weight.
Everything fell silent for a moment.
And then....
CRASH!
In a flash of blinding light, Dark's dimension promptly exploded.
________________________
Back On Earth, Australia~
Australia.
One of the many places on Earth that managed to become a stronghold for humanity....
Somehow.
Anyway, this area had been changed since the first dungeon outbreak those many years ago.
It became an area that was resembling a national park, rather than an outback.
Ginormous spiralling trees littered the landscape, along with large ponds and different types of fauna that had yet to be discovered or named....
Well by humans at least.
And the inhabitants of said landscape had changed in order to survive the ever changing and even harsher environment than what previously was thought possible.
You think the rumors about Australia having huge spiders was a joke?
Heh, well that may be true.... For the most part at least.
But with the shit that's stalking the plains of the outback now....
You wouldn't believe the stuff people had to go through in order to survive such a harsh and uninviting climate.
And yet they did.
In fact....
They flourished.
Australia had one of the highest population of awakened known to date.
Some say it was due to the harsh environment and density of mana in the air, but every person born on this continent after the year 2020 seemed to be born awakened with the abnormally high chance of being born with a high ranked job.
So it was no wonder why their population was skyrocketing, especially with those who wish their children to be born high rankers.
.....
But this was one of the many dominoes that was placed that would eventually lead to humanity's downfall.
_______________________________________
Sydney, 2:00am: Outside a Underground Dungeon Rift~
You know....
Some people like to joke that Australia was the closest place a person could get to hell.
And....well....
They'd be right.
For you see, after the appearance of dungeon rifts, Australia became notorious for having, not only the most amount of awakened, but also the most amount of dungeon portals....
So you could see where problems could arise if the appearance of higher ranked dungeons were to suddenly increase.
Especially if said dungeons were to go undiscovered for an unknown period of time.
The rate at which dungeons were to break, even with the constant vigilance of the Awakener's Bureau, would cause an unknown amount of destruction....
Like for this newly discovered unstable dungeon rift.
Known as the "Den of the Queen of Arachnids", it has been ranked as an A-S ranked rift and could break at any moment.
Unfortunately, it had been found in its unstable state, so the time at which it could break was unknown.
Which is exactly why the Australian government decided it was best to evacuate the citizens of Sydney, leaving behind a single squad of their highest ranking awakeners, known as the "Knights of the Golden Order", they were classed at the 11th ranked guild in the entire world.
They were a small guild of less than 10 people, yes.
But that didn't mean they were any less formidable.
Their leader was a young man in his early to mid twenties. He had wild golden blonde hair that fell past his shoulders in a low ponytail and bright blue eyes.
He wore the trademarked golden armor of his guild, revealing little to no skin, as well as a broadsword around his waist.
He couldn't be taller than 5'6, yet the aura that covered his body spoke of his calmness and authority.
On either side of his body stood four of his guild members, wearing the exact same armor, though they were missing the red cape that their leader wore.
______________________
The guild didn't have any time to relax however, for as soon as they took a step towards the already unstable rift, it suddenly began to spark and let out a loud piercing screeching noise.
The group stood firm, readying their weapons as their leader held up his hand to stop their movements.
His eyes narrowed in suspicion at the rift, knowing that it could break at any second....
And his suspension was correct, for a long slender black leg, belonging to an insect of some sort, began to stretch from the portal, easily towering over the gathered awakeners who could only stare in fear and awe at the ungodly size of the appendage.
Several more legs swiftly followed and then it gargantuan body.
The creature had a horrifying grace about it.
It had the humongous abdomen of a black widow and the upper body of an adult female with black hair and demonic red eyes.
She was topless, and the only thing hiding her dignity was her hair.
The guild didn't even flinch as the woman reared her head back and let forth a horrid screech that was accompanied by wave after wave of humongous spiders from below her.
______________________
Name: Veronica, Queen of the Arachnids
Rank: S???
Title: The Queen who Tried to Eat God
Race: Arachnid
Threat Level: Continental
______________________
"THE QUEEN HAS ARRIVED! ATTACK!"
That's the only order the guild leader gave before all contact with the "Knights of the Golden Order" was lost....
But the battle that ensued shook the earth and made all of Australia tremble.
The only thing that would forever be engrained in the channels of history....
Would be the bright explosion that split the sky in all directions....
In the shape of a roaring golden lion.
There was no sight of the Arachne Queen.
Nor the Golden Knight Order....
All that could be found was a humongous crater of what was left of an underground dungeon.
And a golden blade....
With the remnants of a red cape draped over the handle.
______________________________
America, 5:00 am: Pennsylvania
Puck let out a small pained hiss as he slowly sat up in his bed.
He held his head in his hands to try and stop the slowly building headache that threatened to split his skull.
"Fucking hell.... Has it always been this fucking bright in here....?" He mumbled to himself, daring to risk opening a single eye to look at the clock on his nightstand.
5:01 am.
"Fuck.... Dark wasn't kidding when he said time moves slower in his dimension.... It's barely been a few hours.... I could've sworn I was down there for years.... Hopefully nothing's happened since I've been away." He grumbled this under his breath as he stretched.
He let his eyes adjust to the familiar "brightness" of our dimension, even though the sun had yet to officially come up.
The difference between this and Dark's dimension was literally night and day.
"It's different when your dimension actually has a fucking sun...." Puck thought to himself with a chuckle, only for a notification from the system to interrupt his thoughts.
~System~
Connect to the system has been successfully reestablished.
All skills and abilities can now be used.
You 5,732 unread notifications.
~System~
Puck's eye couldn't help but twitch at this.
"I can't say I missed this...." He mumbled with a small sigh of defeat as he slumped back down on his bed.
He quickly began the grueling task of reading all 5,000 system notifications, which wasn't easy to say the least.
Luckily most of it was just the system repeating the word "Error" over and I er again.
It was either that or "Your HP has fallen below etc.", which Puck was quite used to seeing at this point.
There wasn't any real updates in his actual status however.
The only major thing he noticed was the fact that the word "Mastered" appeared in his status a lot more.
~Status~
Name: Puck Gier
Age: 21
Lvl: 99
Race: Dragon (?)
Job: Summoner (Rank: Mythical) (Mastered)
2nd Job: Unstable Hero (Rank: ???) (Mastered)
Status: Awakened, Confused, Sealed, Cursed by God
Class Type: Gacha (Humanoid)
2nd Class Type: Demonic Berserker (Mastered)
Rank: SSS
Str: 750,000 (+200,000)
Int: 750,000 ((75,000)
Dex: 750,000 (+140,000)
Luck: 9999 (Max)
All Stats Increased by an additional: +250,000
All physical and elemental resistances +100%
(Not including effects from armor)
Armor/Defense: 50,000 (+195,000)
Fire Res: 1250 (+700)
Ice Res: 1250 (+700)
Poison Res: 1250 (+700)
Other Res: 1250 (+700)
HP: 90,000,000/90,000,000
Cost: 99,999/99,999 (Max)
Exp: 850,000,650/99,999,999,999
Current Titles: God of Gacha, Dragon Slayer, Bane of the Undead, Hero of Legends, Otherworlder Returnee, Blessed by the God of Insanity and Absurdity, Hero or Villain, A Hero Nobody Wanted, Heir of the Dragon God, Unstable Hero, Dungeon Destroyer, God Killer, Apostle of an Old God
Skills: Gacha Summoning, Gacha Inventory, Gacha Wave, Assimilation, Full Assimilation, Berserker's Rage (Mastered), Immortal (Hidden) (Mastered), Super Regeneration (Hidden) (Mastered), Monstrous Trance, Sanity's End (Mastered), Black Energy (Mastered), One Man Army (Mastered), Wrath of a Titan, Whale Stomach, Meat Head, Insanity's Blessing (Mastered), Inspection, Hero's Heavenly Body (Mastered), Conviction (Mastered), Ungodly Adaptation (Mastered), Martial Prowess, Martial Prowess: Adaptive Martial Arts, Hide Status, Draconic Scales (Mastered), Monster's Presence (Mastered)
~Status~
"Hmmm.... I'm guessing it's only showing the things as mastered if it wasn't already maxed leveled or capable of being leveled in the first place.... Heh, I guess Dark's training actually worked after all.... That old saying was right, in order to know one's enemy, they must know themselves.... Or something like that." Puck grinned and rubbed the back of his head as he absolutely mentally butchered a quote before going back to reading the notifications.
What he saw next caused his breath to get caught in his throat from however.
~System~
⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️
A God is trying to get in contact with you, will accept it? (4:50 am)
⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️
A God is trying to get in contact with you, will accept it? (4:51 am)
.
.
.
.
.
⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️
An unknown entity is trying to forcefully make contact with you!
❗ Error! ❗
❗ Error! ❗
❗ Error! ❗
❗ Error! ❗
⚠️ WARNING! ⚠️
System firewall failurrrrrrrr...
The system will now be forced to restart.
"Fucking finally!"
"Annoying ass, shitty ass, broken ass system...."
"Anyway, heya bud! I know it hasn't been long since we last talked, but I just thought you'd want to know that...."
"Umm...."
"I don't know how to tell you this.... But...."
"Yeah, we kinda fucked up...."
.
.
.
.
"This is Dark btw."
~System~
A loud THUD could be heard as Puck promptly slammed his head through his bedroom wall.
To be continued~
___________________________________________
End Chapter 32~
Author's Note:
Yeah, sorry for the long wait guys. Writer's block and depression are kinda winning the fight right now, but don't worry! They'll never win the war! ÒwÓ
Anyway, I'll try to update again as soon as possible!
Love you guys! And thanks for the support! <3
Oh, and btw, if I were to make a Patreon, what would you guys like to see on there? Cause I'm not just gonna make you guys pay $1 for nothing!
Just tell me what you think of the idea!