Broken Anomaly

Eric opened his eye and immediately closed it as the sunlight pierced his vision. He rubbed his closed eye, relieving the painful sensation and opening it once again. He found himself on a couch within what appeared to be a single room wooden cabin, barely wide enough to fit the couch. He turned his body, so that his feet would touch the ground. As he moved, he noticed that he was wearing a different set of pants and that there was a shirt hanging on the backrest of a wooden chair that was between the cabin door and the only window in the cabin. He walked to the chair and picked up an entirely black t-shirt, noticing that underneath was a more delicately made eyepatch than the one Hilda had fashioned for him in the dungeon, it was also completely black.

Eric had been hearing loud noises from outside ever since he woke up and he was curious as to what was causing them. But before that, he had to find his shoes. He went to the couch and looked around it, finding his shoes between the wall and the couch. As he reached for them, he felt an intense pain coming from his core, causing him to fall to his knees. He clenched his teeth and with both hands, pressed against the wall and the couch, resisting the urge to scream. When the pain finally settled, he sat on the couch bringing up his status, he had to know what was going on, the pain was more intense than any other before.

Eric Aguilar

Class: Warrior

Mana 120/120

Rank F

Level 10

Experience 0/9075

Stats

Vitality 29

Endurance 45

Strength 42

Dexterity 25

Constitution 33

Agility 26

Perception 27

Charisma 17

Intelligence 22

Wisdom 22

Stat Points 0

Skill points 1

Skills +

Concepts –

Titles +

Magic –

Credits 20

“Five levels, huh. Basically, the same total stat points as the first time I forced mana into my core. Wait, shouldn’t I have some free stat points?” he said, opening some system messages that were blinking red.

Warning! Your core contains too much energy1

Warning! Your core is cracking!

Warning! Your core has cracked!

Cracked core: You now suffer from constant energy loss. Experience and Stat points will be lost until the core is emptied.

Duration: Permanent.

Eric opened his single eye wide, not knowing what to say. He grabbed his head, trying to form a thought, any thought at all. “I…. wow…. that’s…. yeah,” He got up from the couch and paced around the small cabin. “This is, this is…. great. Its motivation, yeah, that’s what it is.” As he started to spiral, the same anger that had allowed him to resist the outer god, suppressed his emotions, as if finding them to be an insult.

Having calmed down, Eric analyzed his situation, “Its not all bad, it just means that I have to put more effort into leveling up and that I have to spend my free stat points immediately. And if that’s not enough, I can still force mana into my core, just not as much. How did I level up anyway? Did the experience change from losing experience cause it?” Eric dispelled his thoughts and nodded, leaving it for later, maybe. Being calmer than he had been a few seconds ago, he finally exited the cabin.

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The first thing Eric saw upon leaving the cabin, was a bunch of people moving from one place to another. Some were carrying tree logs, tools or boxes, while others were receiving and working with them. He was bad at remembering people, but he knew that there were far more people here than there had been in the gym. Are these the people that Anna and Alex went to get? Aren’t they too many? he asked himself. From a simple glance, there were more than thirty people working, all of them looking like students or school workers. As he turned to the east, he saw a huge pillar of light in the distance.

Eric turned his head back down, noticing the cafeteria building, he was right beside it. In front of the main door there seemed to be a line of about twelve people and walking away from the main entrance, were three people carrying boxes and bags. He kept his eye on the group that was leaving, seeing them arrive at a bigger cabin, where some people received what the three were carrying and after a small interaction, sent them away. Eric stretched lightly and walked toward the cabin.

He didn’t recognize any of the people that seemed to be working in the cabin. He noticed that inside were shelves similar to the ones that were in the storage room in the kitchen. Must’ve found some or they disassembled them inside the dungeon, since only the things you’re carrying come out with you. “Hey, do any of you know where I can find Stella or Alex?” Eric asked as he approached.

“Stella should be in the workshop, over there,” a woman stopped and answered, pointing at a cabin that was directly in front of the cabin he had been in.

“Thanks. Oh, and can I have some cup noodles with sauce?” he asked politely.

“Sure, let me get it,” she said as she walked into the cabin. She came back a few moments later with some cup noodles and a plastic spoon holding the paper lid down. “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Eric said again as he turned and walked to the cabin where she said Stella was, and where he guessed Marcus would also be.

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I should knock, Eric thought as he pushed the door open with his free hand, since it didn’t have a handle. The first thing he saw upon entering was the back of a man he easily recognized; it was Marcus who was working at a table directly in front of the door. He turned his head to the left and saw Stella sitting at her own table doing something with her hands.

“So, who changed me?” Eric asked, startling both of them as they were deeply concentrated on what they were doing.

“Eric, you’re up!” Stella exclaimed, happiness clear in her voice as she got up and hugged Eric. “What happened? Are you ok?” she asked, examining him.

Eric moved his left arm away, trying to keep his cup noodles safe. “A few complications, but nothing major,” he said, as he pushed Stella away carefully and started to eat. “Why are there so many people? Are they the one’s Anna mentioned?”

“No and I think it’s better that you ask her about that,” she answered, trying to not give anything away. “Most of them were in the auditorium. They arrived on their own, the day after we fought. They came from the auditorium. Apparently, some famous person came to give a speech or something.”

“Do I know them?”

“Probably not,” Marcus answered, joining the conversation. “And it was us who changed you,” he started to ramp up as he continued speaking. “I found you on the floor of the cafeteria covered in blood, barely breathing. What exactly did you do and why do you seem to be fine now. I’m not sure even I could survive that.”

“So, nobody important huh. Can you catch me up to speed then.”

“No. first I—”

“After getting here and taking care of you, we had to start preparing the area,” Stella interrupted Marcus. “Nobody wanted to be at the gym anymore. It’s sort of a makeshift graveyard now. The cabins were mostly made by the only surviving member of Tony’s group, you don’t know them,” she said somberly. “And yesterday, that big pillar of light appeared, and we all got a message about the incursions having begun,” she finished, regaining her usual composure.

“That seems like a lot for three days.”

“That’s not the worst part. Some of the people from the gym told the others about how you seemingly came and took care of both the urstigars by yourself. And some have been waiting for you to wake up,” she said with a mocking grin.

Eric didn’t respond and only made a face that conveyed a combination of discomfort and disgust.

“If it helps, we’re all marked," she said with a similar face to Eric's. "Some guy from the auditorium has a weird version of Inspect and noticed that we all had the Vanguard title. He even snuck into your cabin to see if you had it too. Which convinced a good chunk of their group that we should be in charge, somehow,” she said, gesturing in confusion. “It doesn’t help that we were already well known even before all this started.”

“I can see that,” Eric said as he gulped down the remaining broth from his noodles. “Where are the other two?”

“Alex is killing some of the monsters that have made a home in the surroundings and Anna should be here soon,” she answered. “But before I forget, can you check your hub menu. We haven’t been able to use it since you were out. It could also help Alex with finding the monsters.”

“I forgot about that,” Eric said, some surprise evident in his voice.

Hub Level 2

Store

Class

Management!

Credits 2731

“Huh?!” Eric exclaimed, surprised by the new credits option. Stella tried to ask what was going on but stopped as Eric gestured for her to wait. He brought up his status and saw that his own credits were only 20. He selected the credits from the hub window, and a long list of small transactions could be seen. Most of them were small amounts, only adding between one or two credits, with the occasional ones that added ten or more. He didn’t see anything that suggested where the credits came from, so he went back to the main window and noticed that the Management option had an exclamation mark, demanding his attention.

Land

Citizens!

Finance!

Dungeons!

Eric decided to go in order and selected Citizens first. Like the last time he had selected the option, a list appeared before him, with his four friends on top. Upon inspecting the list, he saw that everyone, except his friends, had gained the role of “visitor”. I guess that’s because of the prolonged stay in my area, he thought. On further inspection, the status change of people was the only thing he noticed. So, he continued.

He selected the new Finance option and only saw two things, the credits and an option that simply said:

Tax: 5%

“Are people using credits?” he asked.

“Yes,” Stella answered. “About a day after you claimed the area, people got a system message that said they were visitors and got the same one thousand credits we got as a gift. Why? Is the extra money going to you?”

“Yeah, five percent of it.”

“That’s the amount we noticed too. Anything you can buy that would be useful?”

“Let me check,” Eric said as he opened up the store and went to the System category. Seeing a long list of options. He filtered it by price and saw the five cheapest options.

Small System store: Location to buy and sell items. Cost: 10000 credits

Slight safe zone enhancement (weakening): Enhances safe zone to further weaken enemies within. Cost: 12000 credits

Slight safe zone enhancement (recovery): Enhances safe zone to further increase recovery within. Cost: 13000 credits

Quest hub: Location where governing authority can place and easily manage quests. Cost: 10000 credits

Small storage: Storage room (1x1x1) where time doesn’t pass. Living things cannot survive for long. Cost: 8000 credits

I guess that explains why there’s monsters inside the safe zone, it’s not the same as the other one. Eric explained what he saw, mostly to Stella, he knew Marcus wouldn’t be interested.

“Can you afford any of them?” Stella asked.

“None. Though, I want to get the store when we get the chance, or have you found more ways to get credits? If you have, than we should get something else.”

“Other than when we killed the bosses, no. But I think you have the right idea. With everything being so expensive, I don’t think it will have an effect on local trade.”

“Local trade? We have local trade?”

“Barely, some of the bio and chem people are buying monster corpses. The storage area you went to buys supplies, mostly from the dungeon. Though, if you clear it too much, things stop respawning, including the monsters. Some people have gotten stuck inside, twice now, until the dungeon let them out without a reward. And people are getting paid to build things," she paused for a second. "I think that covers everything.”

“Feels like I was out for more than three days.”

“People adapted fast. You didn’t really see it because you left, but even at the gym, everyone was working hard,” she said with a bit of sadness evident on her face. “Oh! Right. What level are you?”

“Ten, why?”

“You can’t enter the dungeon anymore; the limit is ten. You can reach level ten inside but that’s it. Anna figured it out yesterday.”

“Ok,” Eric said calmly, while internally he cursed because he lost access to a great source of skill points.

Stella knew him well enough to notice his real thoughts and she smirked a little at seeing her usually uninterested friend, being bothered by something.

“Well, I guess that’s everything. I’m gonna go take a walk,” Eric said, turning to leave. “Later!”

As Eric walked out of the workshop, he heard Marcus yelling at him to stop, but he ignored it. Walking through the field, he noticed that they had built small wooden shacks around the dungeon, he even saw two dirty looking people, carrying a monster corpse to one of those shacks. As he was passing the dungeon, he suddenly remembered something. I didn’t check the Dungeons menu.

Building C

Rank F

Experience 33/2000

Dungeon points 1