3

A few days had passed by since arriving here but I've mostly lived on ledges outside buildings. That some of the locals have taken to calling me a statue due to this. But Pandora honestly likes the living situation as she gets to be close to me at night, and fly freely a bit in the morning. Our more frequent spot to sleep is by a little food stall that has the Goddess of the Hearth, aka Hestia, working at it. Simply because the small Goddess enjoyed the morning company, since well we always bought big portions for breakfast. She's the goddess of family and while bratty she does occasionally give information.

Like the fact that apparently the gods have taken to calling me "Destructive Gargoyle" as their useless alias for me. When I mentioned the whole alias thing seemed stupid Hestia just giggled at my comment. Today after visiting the guild I was headed to the gates for a job, along the way I met Ais and some of the Loki family. I didn't really pay attention to the others as I looked at the child I had helped raise for as long as Zeus was still allowed in the city. Seeing me the emotionally stunted teen walked quickly towards me before stopping and looking at me.

I tilted my head and her's followed till we started signing with our hands. Which just confused those watching as we held a silent yet lively conversation.

'Dakota… you're in Orario? Since when? Are you staying anywhere?'

'Ais, I've been here for a week and a half. Also no I'm not living anywhere unless you count the rooftops at random spots.'

'You should stay with me.'

'Eh? So I can do your fuckin chores again brat? Also I'm going out of town for a job. I got some Wargs to subdue, but I may tame one as a mount.'

'No. You're family. When will you be back?'

'Depends on how far I got to track the pack, four days at most Ais. Now I won't live with you, but I could see about claiming an abandoned house near the walls near the right of the main gates.'

'Okay. Stay safe.'

'See ya around.'

Leaving Ais and the ignored Loki members behind I fed Pandora some Mouse Jerky from a pouch on my belt. The young Thunder Phoenix gobbling it up happily as she cooed thunder arcing along her feathers zapping me a bit which causes the Archaena in me to feel pain. Until the thunder arcs end as I just dealt with it by soldiering on through the pain that felt like my blood was becoming magma in my veins. Pandora seemed to realize what had occurred as she rubbed her head and beak into my cheek silently saying sorry through such an action. Along the way to the gates to leave some Apollo members tried harassing the only known Eldritch Adventurer.

"Songs of the Deep, resonate and subdue."

The Apollo Adventurers looked at me as I kept walking as if they truly didn't understand what I had said until the last second. When watery glowing ripples appeared all around them as I walked right through them with tentacles of Hulentia, one of the many turned priests of Cthulhu, violently whipped out from the watery ripples with a melody of the seas singing out softly. Some of the higher leveled Adventurers could evade them for some time before escaping, their lower leveled members were instantly restrained with the tentacles slamming them into the ground before holding the out cold bodies up. A tentacle around their necks ready to snap it as the surroundings watched me keep walking as if nothing was wrong.

"Leave me the fuck alone you useless pretty boys and girls, you attempt anything but doing so and these people will die. So fuck off I've got some work to get done, I don't need you useless sacks of shit wasting my time."

"THE APOLLO FAMILY CHALLENGES YOU TO A WAR GAME!"

"Denied, unless its a death match then fuck off."

"Why would you want such a thing?!"

Looking back at the Apollo family as I was almost out of the gates I lazily smiled.

"So I can murder all, but one or two of your familia as you have a seer yet treat her as shit. Also to piss your God off so that he'll use his full powers and be ejected back to the heavens because I wouldn't end you quickly. I'd play with you after making sure you can't move anymore then execute you."

That stunned them and the surroundings as I left Orario fully and cackled as the guards gave me looks on not knowing how to handle me. Once fully outside of the gates I pulled my bike from storage and hopped on, ISAC using the aether in the air to set a waypoint to the destination though only I and Pandora could really see it as she's apart of me and ISAC is my skill even though he is currently physically manifested as a watch. Revving the bikes engine we shot off kicking up dirt and dust as ISAC tracked the Adventurers from the city just in case.

{PLAYING ANOMALY BY NERDOUT}

{Awakened changed, thrown into a clouded haze

One people saved, one person to rise above the grave

All these forces surrounding me, this air we breathe, oh it's digging me deeper

Out of focus, too far to see what's underneath, will the pressure release you}

Coasting along the plains outside the city I followed the waypoint calmly as Pandora took off from my shoulder and started circling above me. The young Thunder Phoenix enjoying the air ruffling her feathers as she would let out a cry that sounded like a hawk and an electrical surge combined into one grating, but natural sound. Coasting up along some tree's I swiped an apple from a low hanging branch as I abruptly stood up then sat back down in one quick motion jostling the bike. Lowering my face mask I ate and drove as my feathery friend soared in the air above me, ISAC pinging a stealthed Adventurer. Chuckling, I decided to surprise them since they seemed to have just arrived.

{Where do we go when the sun burns out

A front row seat while the world goes down

I knew I was made for something else

Anomaly, anomaly}

Popping a wheelie I turned around abruptly on my bike, the hidden machine guns around the headlights lighting up and letting a hail of bullets fly. The sounds of a steady thunk and bang sounding as the Adventurer managed to dodge a few but got clipped by a majority of them. Stopping by the downed Adventurer I pulled a sawed off from an inner jacket holster and dismounted before crouching by them. The Adventurer looked at me with fear and I noticed what they were wearing.

"Ishtar huh? So an Amazonian. Welp, that doesn't matter, tell me why you're following me."

"W-what… Makes you think I'm following… you?"

The Ishtar member rasped out struggling to breath as a bullet was lodged within her left lung most likely. Without any fanfare I pushed the barrel of the sawed off shotgun to a joint in her right leg where the ankle is and pulled the trigger, dismembering the limb in a shower of gore. Some splatter onto my face and body as Pandora landed on a tree branch watching with a mixture of shock and intrigue in how I'll handle this.

"AHFJKGFHEKNB!!!"

"Well then you're just level two… So no big rounds needed for you to talk, good to know."

{And I won't be played by another game

You share my blood, but we aren't the same

The end of it all, you'll know my name

Anomaly, anomaly}

The Amazon looked at me with now more pronounced fear with her thoughts probably being 'How can he blow my foot off and act as if that's just something casually to do?!' Moving the gun barrel up along her leg to the knee I watched her with a smile on my face, mask dangling around my neck.

"What does Ishtar want?"

"I don't know what your talkin- AHSHKDSHKAQ!!"

A second gunshot sounds out. I removed her entire lower off her body just now as the knee was torn asunder splattering more gore around and onto me. The Amazon looked at me with a pleading expression but I just moved my gun barrel right at the section of her hip that it would connect to the rest of her body. Two spent disintegrating shells ejecting before closing up once more by itself. Pandora looked at me with some disturbance to her eyes, however, when the black snaking tentacle came from my left sleeve was when the two females shuddered.

"Now don't keep playing with me, I don't need you alive and whole to learn why. I just need a corpse and I'll know what she wants."

{Humanity so far from the life we lead

The power we bring this era will show you to your knees

All these forces surrounding me, this air we breathe, oh it's digging me deeper

Out of stories they make believe, they're not ready for what's underneath}

"Please…. Stop…."

"Ah I see the hard way it is then. Goodbye nameless slut of the Ishtar family."

"No please!"

Snapping the gun up to her chest suddenly I made a hole through it as two gun shots went off in succession of each other. The Amazon choking on her own blood as the Archaena tentacle winds back before striking like a snake, a section opening up like a mouth. The alien parasite snapping its imitation of a mouth around her head and ripping it off with a jerk to the left.

The now deceased body laying lifeless in a puddle of buddle pooling around my feet. Standing up I holsted the shotgun and stretched out as the parasite sent me the reason why she was here before it spit the head out without the eyes, brain, or tongue inside of it any longer as those typically get assimilated into the Archaena for information gathering.

{Where do we go when the sun burns out

A front row seat while the world goes down

I knew I was made for something else

Anomaly, anomaly

And I won't be played by another game}

"Ah Ishtar… if you think just because Freya has been stalking me you can do something. Well if you want to play games, let me ruin the game. After I do my job, priorities after all! I was asked to kill some dogs, I'm gonna kill them all but one who I'll ride as a mount. After that… I'll blow up half of her house with thunder. Whores love thunder frying them alive right?

{You share my blood, but we aren't the same

The end of it all, you'll know my name

Anomaly, anomaly

Anomaly, anomaly

Anomaly, anomaly}

Leaving the corpse for some animals and monsters to chow on, we got back on the road. Pandora was uncomfortable, however, a talk with the hatchling about things made her cheer up. Although through the bond of familiar and master I could detect the faintest sadness towards my… twisted state of being. I wasn't reset or had anything detached to not influence me. No, I still had the sixty plus years of restraining myself there, but looser. Letting a small bit of the inner monster I am peek through like with how I handled the Amazon.

I was getting tired of just bottling things up, that honestly I was tempted to live inside the dungeon. Where there's no rules, just me, the monsters, Adventurer's, the more sound minded monsters, an insane God or two, and Evilus all attempting to murder each other. You know the simple life of survival of the fittest. But if I did that now that Ais knows I'm here she'd try living with me down there and that's a no. Plus there is my guild attendant who would, and will as I've learned, fuss about her "hatchlings" if she doesn't see or hear from them.

Huh… actually couldn't I just give the two an ISAC phone that only they could use and have video calls with them then? Then I could hermit in the dungeon for the rest of my life. As monster meat, blood, and entrails aren't poisonous to me due to several skills I have so I could in fact live off those. Hm I wonder though… pulling up my Falna I do notice some growth as after becoming level four and diving into the dungeon for a bit they had been at a thousand as I tended to push my limits.

However, fighting Adventurer's always gave more as their more of a threat. They always are the highest threat for they can think complex things, unlike the usual monsters that are nothing but drones. So while diving I stopped tracking stuff as after a while the lawless one just kept attacking. So I just kept feeding the dungeon. That however seems to have gotten me an actual blessing.

[Falna of Cthulhu

Name: Dakota Levi Carter

Title(s): Division Agent, Eldritch Champion, Hunter, Sociopathic Butcher, Monster Master

Level - Four

Age: 1601

Strength: A+ - 45,000 (73,600)

Endurance: B - 13,000 (999,999)

Vitality: B+ - 19,000 (60,764)

Agility: B - 11,000 (254,800)

Arcane: B - 12,450 (54,678)

Wisdom: D - 1,200 (20,000)

Charisma: D - 1,400 (16,000)

Luck: D - 1,100 (4,000)

Blessing(s): Tartarus Passage - When you wish to leave a floor of the dungeon entirely, monsters will not obstruct you. If someone tries a Variant or Monster Rex will spawn to deal with the threat(s) towards your leave.

Unique Skills: ISAC, SHD Tech, Status Check, Eldritch Magic, Gunsmith, Infinity Ammo, Adaptability, Charm Nullification

Development Skills: Healing S, Marksman SS, Mage A, Mystery B, Stealth A, Fire Resistance B, Lightning Resistance EX, Swimming A, Keen Sight S, Stab Resistance SS, Slash Resistance S, Blunt Resistance S, Parkour I

Sub Skills: Iron Stomach, Magic Sensitivity, Hunter Senses, Sociopathic, Monster Taming, Enslave, Multilingual, Archaean Infection, Rapid Regeneration, Night Vision]

Aw, isn't that nice of the dungeon? I wonder if I ask if I could live in it if it'd make me a safe area? I felt as if that'd be a maybe… I am technically linked to the Dungeon now so it could possibly know I want something and is in kind giving a maybe feeling. Otherwise I've soared stat wise due to wholesale monster and humanity slaughter. Given that my Falna also works a bit differently in that I get a random percentage of my kills stats added to mine.

Because Cthulhu doesn't want a weak pawn I believe so they've tampered with mine to make me grow faster. However, that uncontrollable growth will hurt me so it's a double edged sword. The Eldritch sea god wants me to cause chaos, but also is active in trying to make me suffer as well. As while he wants to likely invade here to kill some god's he can't, thus I'm here. A willing but also partially disinterested pawn for his desire to kill god's and make things harder on the god's.

As herp a derp giant octopus god is banished to the outer realms. Just sending me here probably cost him an arm at most,as I don't think the universe itself would be happy about him doing what he did. However, since I'm here and not really doing anything against its rules so far the universal rules of this dimension aren't attacking me. Surprising as I've got guns and murderous intentions for anything or anyone on the wrong end of them be they God or mortal.

Now finding the Wargs was pretty damn simple, they were all essentially dead in one gore filled clearing. All but for one which was clinging to a dinosaur looking fuck nuggets neck trying to rip it out. Motorcycle sized wolf monster attacking a monster with the resemblance of a T-Rex which could curb stomp it to paste. Just I forget its name… I believe it's called a Bloodasuarous? Eh tomato tamato.

Drawing my Stoner 63 LMG I flick the safety and proceeded to control burst fire at the fuckin dinosaur's face. It's right eye popping as some bullets went up its nose and out through one side of its face. It stopped focusing on the Wargs who in surprise of loud noises let go and avoided being stomped on like an unwanted piece of trash.