Jonah recognized the building as one of the newer office buildings built downtown just last year. The project was funded by the City in an attempt to draw more businesses to the city center. Each of the 6 towers had been built using cutting edge tech. Fire and flood-proof, earthquake resistant, and the lower floors could even act as safe houses and shelters for citizens in case of emergency.
Unfortunately, they didn't account for gargantuan Snakes when they built them.
The Snake had swallowed a good 2/3s of the tower, which was now sitting on its side, in the middle of a brightly glowing orange barrier. The barrier, which had glowed strong enough to light the chamber, was slowly flickering and dimming, and waves of acid washed against it.
Jonah climbed down from the platform and made his way towards the building. Halfway there, he stopped and returned to his hut. He'd already learned his lesson about being reckless from the Worm. No matter how excited he was, he had to play this cautiously.
He didn't know what was forming the barrier, or even if it was the same thing the Snake had been fighting, but there was no reason to go in unprepared. After a moment in the hut, Jonah emerged with his newest creations.
The first was a kite shield style carved chunk of worm plate. It was dull and slightly awkward, but the worm plate's ultra-light nature meant he wouldn't kill himself just trying to carry it. In his other hand, he held a small splinter of worm leg topped with a tentacle scythe, forming a crude spear-like weapon. Finally, on his back, he wore a long cloak of worm leather, a kilt like strip on his waist.
He didn't have very much worm leather left, let alone enough to waste on a full set of clothes, and he didn't have the skills needed to turn the worm plate into anything like armor. Hopefully, his cloak would be enough to protect him from any surprise attacks, while the shield could take anything from the front.
Jonah returned his focus to the building. The barrier had faded while he prepared, once more throwing the chamber into darkness. After a moment of hesitation, Jonah ducked under the hut platform and pulled out a small worm plate raft he'd used to transport the worm materials.
It was one of his first creations, and it showed, barely holding itself together. Jonah shook his head and tried to reinforce it as best as he could. It wasn't perfect, but if he managed to find anything useful, he'd need a way to transport it safely back to the hut.
Feeling more confidant than he had in months, Jonah finally made his way forward, as prepared as he could be.
The building was lying on its side at a slight angle, but thankfully it had landed in a more shallow section of acid, only a few feet deep. None the less, Jonah didn't want to enter in at the bottom. While the acid still wasn't strong enough to damage the reinforced concrete yet, he didn't want to risk being buried under debris if it suddenly collapsed.
Instead, he scaled a nearby fleshy cliff and moved towards the side of the building farthest from the acid. For as large as the chamber was, the building was still a tight squeeze, taking up nearly 1/3 of the space lengthwise, and leaving only about a dozen feet of space to the roof.
Jonah prayed the Snake wanted to sleep off its "meal" instead of look for another fight, or he really might not make it out of that one.
He walked along the length of the building, searching for a good entry point. With the barrier gone, his [Mana Sight] took over, and he regularly scanned the building below him for signs of danger. It didn't give him x-ray vision or anything, but mana seemed to allow for some form of 'permeability.'
At the very least, he shouldn't be caught off guard. He needed to look for a small office or room he could use as a forward base. The gears in his head were already turning as he started to imagine blueprints for his next projects. This place could be a gold mine if he used it correctly.
Hell, with a little luck, he might even find a working cellphone or something similar. He didn't know if services were even still up or if he could get a signal through dozens of meters of monster flesh, but even a slim chance of contacting the outside world was enough.
Halfway across the building, Jonah's [Mana Sight] picked up a sudden burst of mana from deep within and several meters ahead of him.
[Jonah]: "Oh, ****..."
He barely had time to raise the shield, before a glowing humanoid figure slammed into it, sending him flying back the way he came. He fell on his side and rolled with the momentum like his uncles had taught him. He came up from the fall, kneeling with the shield raised, just as the glowing figure vanished and reappeared in front of him.
The figure swung downward as a whip burning with mana snaked around his shield and carved out a deep gash in the front of his chest. Jonah gasped and collapsed in shock, as a burning pain erupted from his wound. He instantly activated [Arcanic Regeneration] and tried to thrust with his spear, but the glowing figure was to fast.
It reached out and snatched the spear with one hand while raising the other, preparing to strike down with the burning whip once more. Before it could, however, a female voice called out from the hole the figure had blasted in the building's side.
[???]: REGGY! WAIT! That's a human!
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The glowing figure looked towards the building and call out in a deeper voice, distinctly male;
[Reggy(?)]: "The hell you going on about now, Gwen? We're in the belly of a Raid Boss. There're no humans here. You're not gonna try and convince me to bargain with the Goblins next, are you?"
[Gwen(?)]: "You know my skills, Reggy. [Radar] is saying 'Human,' and it's never been wrong before.
[Reggy(?)]: "Bull****. This thing looks like Gollum ****ed a Cave Troll. And I've never seen any human heal that fast."
Ouch. Ok, that one hurt a little. Jonah knew he probably looked like some kind of wildman, but that was just rude! One hand over his wound, trying to hold everything in as he healed, he flipped the glowing man off and wheezed through partly damaged lungs.
[Jonah]: "Well, then, **** you too, buddy."
The glow around the man vanished and revealing a clean-shaven man in his early thirties. His sharp features and jet black hair gave him a cold but chiseled look that would make most men jealous.
The man just looked down at Jonah, mouth agape, as a woman in her late twenties with short, curly brown hair and a cute face, walked out of the hole.
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One hour earlier
Gwen watched from the roof of the Office building as Reggy, Matthew, Billy, and the rest of the Association desperately tried to distract the Níðhöggr Serpent. Why the hell did the King of Stones wake up so early?! They were promised more time than this!
Something wasn't right, and now the City was going to pay the price.
When "The Game" started, it had been total chaos for the first few days. Thankfully, unlike the novels she often read, society didn't immediately collapse like some bad B-movie. The casualties and destruction the spawning monster's had caused were immense, true, but if there was one thing humans were good at, it was killing.
As soon as people realized that the monsters could be killed and they could fight back, they began to organize and put up a resistance. These numbers only increased as word of "The Game" spread, and the incredible power that it could give. Governments around the world had mobilized, quickly evacuating survivors and clearing out the Monster nests and Seeds that had spawned seemingly randomly around the world.
After a month of chaos, the "Contestants", started to band together and form their own groups, or Guilds, as they liked to be called (so original). A month after that, the world Governments worked with some of the larger Guilds to form the Association. A loosely connected network of major guilds and their subordinates aimed to support the contestant growth and completion of "The Game."
The whole situation was starting to remind her a bit too much like those cliche Korean web novels, for Gwen's taste. At least dungeons hadn't started popping up and spewing out armies of monsters...Yet...
Not everywhere was so lucky, however. This City was one such example.
As soon as "The Game" started, nearly 3/5 of the City had been wiped out. Refugees fleeing the once-bustling metropolis had reported creatures far more powerful than those spawning elsewhere. In most places, even small arms fire had been effective at the start, the creatures that had spawned here shrugged off anything but military-grade weaponry. And it only got worse as time progressed.
It was only later they would find out the reason why.
A Titan had been born there.
Jörmungandr, Champion of the Waves.
Veðrfölnir, Guardian of the Wind.
Níðhöggr, King of Stones.
The three "Titans" mentioned in "The Game" handbook were the 'end-game bosses' designed by that bastard of a Gamemaster to test Earth as he put it. According to the Handbook, they would lay sleeping, dormant until someone grew strong enough to catch their eye. At that point, they would awaken, slowly increasing in power while spawning armies of powerful creatures to defend themselves.
If the Contestants managed to slay the three Titans, Earth would be officially recognized as a member of Laniakea and move on to the next stage of "The Game." If they couldn't, the Titans would continue to rage across the planet until all intelligent life was wiped from its face. The cycle would begin anew.
At least, that's how it should have been.
But something went wrong. Níðhöggr awoke nearly the moment "The Game" began. The Gamemaster himself had admitted there had been a slight... hiccup. But the details he's kept close to his chest. Now they were suffering the consequences.
In the first few months, most people hadn't taken the threat very seriously. Yes, the monsters were much more robust than in other places, but instead of a place of fear, the City had turned into a place to grind and gather rare materials. Small trading camps had even started popping up in what was once the City's suburbs.
Once people started to gain levels and become stronger, the more influential guilds in the Association had even made plans to fight into the heart of the City. They wanted to slay Níðhöggr before it could grow stronger.
If they could strangle one of the Titans in their cradle, it would make dealing with the other two that much easier. Gwen thought they were naive.
Everything changed two months ago. Several small bases had been established in the City by the Association, all to find where Níðhöggr was hiding. She'd been stationed at this base near the heart of the City when it happened.
They'd thought it was an Earthquake at first. The ground started to shake violently, and several of the more damaged buildings in the area collapsed. Then the ground erupted, and they caught their first glimpse of it; Níðhöggr, in all of its terrible glory.
They'd spent weeks searching in vain for it, when It had been beneath them this entire time. A Gargantuan serpent, who's massive body stretched on for miles, burst free from its underground hiding stop, wreaking nearly half the City in only a few short breathes. Its head alone was bigger than a city block.
And then it screamed.
The wave of force that its voice produced was enough to level everything around its head for several hundred meters. Even Gwen, who boasted of being the "most powerful Contestant" in the world, could feel her bones rattle with the sheer power it released. Several of the weaker Contestants had suffered minor injuries from the blast. At the same time, more than a few of the normal humans they'd brought for logistical support had died when caught outside.
The Níðhöggr then began to violently thrash and squirm about, as if in some great amount of pain, though to this day, they'd yet to find any form of injury that might have caused it. When the Níðhöggr finally stopped its rampage, the City lay in ruins. Only a few building protected by her barrier, or other similar Contestants, had survived.
As for Níðhöggr itself, it merely collapsed where it lay. Some thought it had died, but Gwen's own skill and several other people confirmed that it was still very much alive, merely unconscious.
The total destruction of the City, and the hundreds of lives lost in the beast's rampage was a wake-up call for the Association. They had assumed that the Titans were only going to be stronger versions of the kinds of monsters they'd seen so far. Yes, strong, and maybe even dangerous, but nothing a large army of Elites couldn't handle.
Níðhöggr had shattered both this illusion... and the pride in their own strength.