Ruins

My view of the city got better as I closed the distance with my newfound agility, and soon I had the answer to why the city seemed so odd from afar. 

It was in complete ruin, even the gate I entered from, which was once an imposing metal barricade, and an archway was nothing but sheet metal. 

The once impressive city was now just collapsed concrete and rebar as buildings had collapsed in on themselves from structural damage. 

The city looked like a site where an intense war had broken out, but one could tell the weapons used were far from conventional.

Pools of melted metal lay abundant among the rubble along with charred brick and ash. 

Some places were flooded despite there being no evident source of water. 

Spikes of rock were embedded into the walls of various structures. 

One building looked as if it had been bisected cleanly, its two sides later falling apart. 

It looked as if God himself had unleashed his fury upon this city, leaving nothing standing in his wake. 

Traversal was significantly more difficult now, the remains of structures blocking my way, as I vaulted over collapsed pillars and jumped over chunks of concrete. 

It was a lot more exhausting, and I aimlessly moved further into the city. 

I had a lot on my mind, but I needed to find supplies first, clothes, food or water would be nice. 

I tried to enter several buildings, squeezing into the gaps between concrete to look for something. 

To my disappointment, nothing could be found, the destruction was absolute, as if the one responsible deliberately left nothing in their wake. 

I searched for quite some time; the sun had mostly set as I used my awakened perception to navigate through the streets. 

I jumped on top of a large pile of debris, to gain some high ground when something caught my eye. 

A light! Distant but certainly from an artificial source, which could mean people, or supplies.

Making a mental note of the direction of the light I leapt off the debris, as I traversed the ruins as quickly as I could to reach it. 

I reached the source of the light in just a few minutes, but slowed down as I got closer as my wariness grew. 

The light came from the windows of a building that seemed to be a fortress, it's walls made of a metal and a rock resembling obsidian. 

Only a few windows were present, and the structure looked imposing, despite there being some damage made to its structure.

Its metallic walls were deformed slightly and had a slight char to them, having endured intense heat. 

Many cuts were observed on the surface as well creating nicks and gashes on the surface but nothing severe enough to cause permanent damage. 

On closer inspection it was a guild building, an emblem carved into the surface above the door. 

The emblem was a drawing of a wolf, baring its fangs colored in purple, I couldn't think of a guild with such an emblem but for them to have such a base, they must have been impressive.

The guild most likely activated a mana barrier before they abandoned their base to make it harder for to destroy, and clearly it worked as the attackers didn't have time to finish the job.

I wondered if with all the fortifications, if I could simply walk inside and to my surprise, the answer was yes. 

The door made of hard steel took effort to open but I was able to create a slight opening which I squeezed through, the mana barrier had probably run out. 

Thankfully the damage hadn't reached the interior as I was met with a grand reception hall.

A main counter with a semicircular desk where I assumed employees once stood, couches and chairs to accommodate guests, laptops and computers that were used by the staff. 

Most importantly however, the area was well lit, the lights in the building seemingly functioning like normal which made me slightly nervous. 

Reaching behind the reception I attempted to turn on the laptops present on the desk. 

They were functioning, but they were all password locked and the only information I could gather was the date.

'12th July 632 EM' 

The EM represented the new calendar set up in this world after the events of the first cataclysm, notably the appearance of dungeons and mana. 

Anyway, this meant that tomorrow the story would begin, the first chapter being the main character giving an entrance exam. 

Satisfied with this information I moved on to the next few rooms of the guild building.

Next were a few meeting rooms, an office space and the electric room.

From these I could only find two more bits of information.

The name of the guild was Violet Fang, one of the most influential guilds in this city with over 300 awakened in their employ. 

And the reason the building still had electricity was due to a mana generator, which converted mana stones to electricity to power the building in case of emergencies. 

Finally on the second floor, I walked into an extremely spacious room containing towering shelves lined with boxes and packets containing various merchandise. 

In this world, extremely accomplished awakened were akin to a celebrity, their influence undeniable and so, a guild, a collection of such individuals was extremely powerful as well.

Many guilds would use this influence to expand their revenue stream to sell products such as clothes, shoes, bags, etc. 

This seemed to be a storage room for said products, which meant I could finally get something to wear despite this cloak. 

After some time rummaging around, I finally had proper clothing and shoes along with a bag to carry extra clothes and supplies. 

Next to the regular products seemed to be a weapon storehouse, with empty glass case, weapon sheathes, katana stands and more with only one weapon left behind. 

=====================

F-Tac Combat Dagger

F Tier Artifact- Artificial

====================== 

A system window appeared as I picked up the sleek black dagger, it's handle easy to grip and its edge impossibly sharp.

I didn't intend on using it anytime soon but found a sheathe for the dagger and carried it along.

It would be a waste to leave behind an artifact, no matter the rarity.