After the Heaven's Dictate, God created the numerous dungeons for humans to get strong through combat. These dungeons did not just have dangers within them but were also treasure troves of resources and information to help those who are able to conquer them stronger.

What was within the dungeons? These were ancient creatures that were sealed and locked during ancient times. Now God removed the seals and surfaced them. But God had put one fail-safe in place, these creatures were locked within the area of their dungeons and could not just roam around wreaking havoc on Earth. They were limited to the territory of their dungeons.

As to how God chose where to place these dungeons, there were two criteria. Firstly, the dungeon was chosen such that the creature could best exhibit its powers in such territories. Grim Reapers appeared in highways; the half-human and half snake Nagins and Lamias appeared in underground railway tunnels, and golems appeared in mines.

Most monsters were solo hunters – like the Minotaurs- with the head of a bull and torso of a human, which appeared in basements of castles and such huge building, including many appearing in Parliaments of countries; or the fire-breathing Chimeras appeared near volcanic caves. But solo hunting monsters too generally had a sizeable number of mindless apostles, ready to die for their Masters.

There were also the Necromancer and the Harpy Queen who had a horde of the mindless army behind them.

Apart from these single leader Monsters, there were also some which had organized hierarchy among them- the Monster Clans. There were three main monsters with clans- The Demons, The Vampires and the Werewolves.

The Vampire Clan occupied hospitals. The Werewolf Clans occupied vast swathes of forest lands. The Demon Horde of Hell occupied the City Central Library.

The reason why the City Central Library was chosen for the hell's demon horde was that the library was in the area directly above where their Master, Solomon's aura had vanished from Earth. And secondly, the location had to have eight floors, for each of the seven levels of hell. The Eighth Floor reserved for their human Master.

And the most important criteria was that it had to be in a library. The Lemegeton was the most powerful artifact that the demon horde possessed and the more information its Owner could provide it, the more powerful it would get. As such Solomon and the Four Kings were all scholars and had spent endless amounts of time sieving through knowledge.

And of course, the Mummies appeared in the Pyramids.

The mutation also created other menaces which were out in the open and not in dungeons - the mutated beasts and spirit beasts. From Rat Kings and Queens set up their own kingdom in celebrity mansions, to Bull Lords claiming sovereignty over huge lands.

The spiritual beasts, on the other hand, were those animals that had stimulated their ancient dormant genes through the mutation. These created new 'miracles' where the chicken literally leapt to become the Phoenix. At the high seas appeared hydras and krakens.

And when places all around suddenly became dungeons, everyone in there almost certainly died. More than half the world's population was wiped out when they found themselves in these dungeons all of a sudden.

The lucky ones were those who were only in the first level of the dungeon. They could still run away from the dungeon. However, anyone who found themselves on the subsequent levels, all met unsightly ends.

---

Bang

Bang

Dale fired his automatic rifle at the huge creature standing before him, swinging a club.

This would be Dale's third attempt at clearing the dungeon.

A tall 32-year-old man, with a clean shaved face and cropped hair, Dale's entire personality screamed military.

Dale detested persons who attained success without working for it. And for him, almost everyone from politicians to activists fell into this category. The only persons, he felt, were deserving of respect were military men. Men who had earned their worth.

Dale was in a mountain range with his buddies hunting, when the mutation occurred. He was the only one who survived.

But when the mutation occurred, Dale was definitely happy. He saw this as God's way to correct the hierarchy of the world. To place the deserving, himself, at the helm of the society.

As he moved through the mountain range in his Hummer, Dale shot at a mutated deer with his sniper and immediately realized that the quickest way to become stronger was also the bloodiest.

And that is how Dale ended up in the Ogre Cave Dungeon.

[You have entered The Ogre Cave Dungeon]

[Dungeon Level- 1]

That was the message he received. And this was his third time receiving the notification. It was only through the notification that Dale came to know of the name of the creature inside.

The reason why he failed the last two times was that the Ogre's skin was so thick that the bullets could merely scratch his skin at best.

And it was only so long before dodging the Ogre's Club tired a man. If the Ogre landed a single swing of the club, it would be the end for Dale. And consequently, he had to retreat the two previous times.

'But this time will be different,' Dale vowed. This time around he had an ace up his sleeve

---

The second time he had to retreat, Dale noticed a Winged Serpent perched on a tree nearby. Steadying his breath, with a precise sniper shot, Dale brought it down with a headshot. Dale was lucky. If the Winged Serpent had noticed him first, things would have become quite difficult for him.

Dale cut its meat to store it for later, he was a survivalist!

But just as he was preparing the meat, a Mutated Deer appeared.

Dale quickly dropped the meat and load his revolver with bullets. He took aim and with a steady hand hit the trigger. The Deer thump down dead immediately, but to Dale's surprise, the area around the wound turned black.

Ding

Dale received a notification.

[Skill: Modified Shot has been learnt].

[Skill: Modified Shot (Novice)]

[Proficiency: 1%

Ability to use various mutation materials to improve the lethality of bullets. With the increase in Proficiency, the ability to incorporate other materials will appear.]

[Use I: Modified Poison Shot (Proficiency 2%)].

[Modified Poison Shot:

Ability to coat bullets with poison and kill. With the increase in Proficiency, the host will be able to find and use more toxic poisons without poisoning themselves.]

[Congratulation! on being the first to extract Winged Serpent's Poison Blood Essence.]

[Reward: 1/2 Blessed Stone]

Dale looked at his hands and realized. The bullets had been smeared with the blood of the dead Winged Serpent which he had not cleaned off his hands.

A smile crept up his face. The Modified Shot skill was amazing!

'No one can know about this!' Dale thought with a zealous gaze. This would be his trump card!

Dale touched his temple to check his stats

[Dale Stoudenmire]

[Strength: 31.1

Stamina: 26.8

Physical Resistance: 4

Perception: 2

Agility: 12]

---

Dale took out his revolver and fired four shots.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Dale took four shots one after the other and the air shattered. The bullets tore through space and hit the Ogre. But the bullets merely made a scratch.

Dale stood still, waiting for something. He had coated the bullets with the blood of the Winged Serpent. The only thing he had to find out was if the poison was strong enough to bring down the Ogre.

And it was!

Before the Ogre could move another muscle, the Ogre came crashing down, dead!

Dale gave a sigh of relief!

The notification he was waiting for came up,

[Congratulation on being the Second person to clear a dungeon]

[Reward: 1 Blessed Stones]

'Second? There is someone stronger than me?' Dale's eyebrows furrowed. It had been less than twelve hours since the mutation occurred and there was already someone who beat him to the buzzer! Dale promised, 'I will beat you. By hook or crook, I will be the strongest man on Earth!'

---

[RICK HANIQUE]

[Strength: 12

Stamina: 9.2

Perception: 2.1

Agility: 7.1]

Rick unlocked a new trait after his third round of pummeling at his sister Samira's hands. It was when he decided to run away from sparring rather than keep getting pummeled. The system treated his cowardice as a strategic move, and he got the new stat.

It was four in the afternoon when Rick woke up and he received a string of notifications.

Rick ignored them and washed his face before leaving to go look for his sister in the living room. The television was on and he could hear the news anchor blabbering.

Samira had her shoulder length hair tied up into a bun and her oval face was taut with worry.

"Hey! What are you packing for?" Rick asked, noticing her stuff clothes into a backpack.

"Check the news! Well, whatever is left of it!" Samira replied. "Everything is a chaos. The President was just killed. And they are reporting that nearly a billion people have died. People have taken to the streets and strange creatures have started appearing."

"I expected this would happen. But I didn't expect it to happen so soon" Rick nodded.

"Yeah! So I am packing an emergency backpack with essential things. You do it too."

"Sis listen. We have to start training to get stronger. The voice we heard today from the sky, I think it is all true. We have to get stronger. That is the only way to survive in this new world- from both beasts and humans." Rick didn't know how, but he knew this was going to be a world ruled by strength and not laws.

"Let's go find a dungeon then," Samira replied.

"Hmm! Ya, let's do it. Did you check for one on the internet to see if one's near us?" Rick asked.

"No! I don't think there is any use of going to a dungeon which has already been cleared right. Let's just go out, we have to look for an unexplored dungeon. " Samira explained.

"Okay, sure! Just give me some time to pack my stuff!" Rick replied.

He rushed back to his room and took out the Lemegeton grimoire. He could not let his sister into a high-level dungeon by mistake as he had. He had not told Samira about the Library yet. But he guessed that the Lemegeton would have information about the levels of the dungeons nearby.

'Would you know of any of the dungeons near me?' Rick opened the book and spoke in his mind. Although it was awkward to talk to a book, the outcome was even more shocking.

The book flipped through several pages on its own accord and then stopped at a random page.

[City Hospital: Small Vampire Clan, Dungeon Level 13]

[Graveyard: Expert Necromancer, Dungeon Level 42]

[Rat King- House No…]

The page actually had a list of the dungeons nearby!

Looking at the list, Rick left like he was here online shopping for the dungeon.