Broken Anomaly

As the blue light enveloped Eric, he lost all his senses. The only thing he had access to was to his sense of self, it was as if his consciousness was floating within the blue light. The feeling of being enveloped started to recede, his senses coming back one by one, his sight being the last to return. He looked around and saw that his friends had been waiting for him.

“So? Anyone feel stronger?” Marcus asked.

“Yes, much stronger,” Alex answered.

“Same,” Anna added.

“My core feels… larger? No…deeper? Wider?” Stella said.

“Barely, but more importantly, what class did you get Marcus?” Eric asked, genuinely curious. He knew that Anna and Alex likely got warrior, and he saw Stella throwing a fireball, so mage was her obvious choice. Marcus on the other hand had mostly been crafting up until this point.

“Craftsman,” Marcus answered simply.

“That’s it?” Alex asked.

“Yes. Maybe the classes will get more specialized later on,” Marcus said, guessing.

“Twenty, fifty and one hundred,” Eric said.

“What?” Stella asked as she turned to look at Eric, curiosity written all over her face.

“They’re the levels at which our classes advance. Also at level ten, though I’m pretty sure that this is what we would’ve gotten at level ten.” Eric answered as he brought up his notifications, but before he could read them, Stella spoke again.

“You’re not going to explain?”

“Maybe later. We have a lot to do, and I have to check some things. I also wanna move the hub closer to the dungeon and—”

“Ed!” Anna yelled, having remembered her companion.

“Here!” Ed answered as he limped toward the group, his leg facing the right direction this time.

“Thanks for the weapon,” Eric said.

“No problem.”

“Ok. I have stuff to do, later.” Eric said as he dragged the hub crystal with him.

“There’s some people back at admin, I guess I’ll go get them.” Anna said, looking somewhat annoyed at the idea.

“I’ll go with you,” Alex said and pointed at Ed’s leg, “Ed, right? Let that rest.” Anna and him leaving shortly after.

Ed walked toward the wall and sat down. Hilda had walked out of the lobby and gave the survivors a bottle of water, Ed having received that last one.

“I’ll gather my stuff and come help you,” Marcus said as he kissed Stella on her cheek and left.

Stella looked around at all the corpses and took a deep breath. “Better get to it,” she said as she started to gather the dead from their side, the other survivors joining soon after.

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Eric, now sufficiently removed from everyone, opened his system messages.

You have activated a Hub crystal.

You have earned the title: Lesser pioneer

Lesser pioneer (C): You get substantially more rewards while on your land.

You have earned the title: Settler

Settler (D): You receive a small discount from the System shop. Building projects on your land are completed significantly faster.

Starting to notice a pattern with the words used. Gotta ask Alex for help figuring out the exact numbers, Eric thought as he closed these windows and opened up some more.

Your Hub crystal has reached level 2.

You now have access to classes.

“Oh! So, classes weren’t supposed to be that easy to get.”

Urstigar +3200 credits

+4000 credits

Congratulations. You are one of the first to kill an area boss on your planet. You have earned the title: Vanguard.

Your title has evolved.

Greater Vanguard (A): You receive an unparalleled boost to stats while on conquered areas. Progress is moderately faster while in conquered areas. Substantial boost to stats while in the territory of an area boss. Can be evolved.

ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!

BREAKER DETECTED

Title effects modified.

Greater Vanguard (A): You receive an unparalleled boost to titles while in conquered areas. Progress is moderately faster while in conquered areas. Greater rewards from conquering areas. Can be evolved.

“What’s the difference between this title and the others? Why wasn’t Tireless fighter modified instead of being removed?” Eric asked himself as he closed the windows. He then touched the hub crystal, opened the store and selected his credits.

+3200 Credits: Killed Urstigar.

+4000 Credits: Killed area boss.

+4000 Credits: System gift.

+1000 Credits: Killed area boss.

“I still wasn’t in my area when I killed the first boss, so I only got the original amount. But I did get boosted rewards for the second boss and the System gift. I guess this means that Breaker, Vanguard and Lesser pioneer activated before the System gave me the credits for the last boss. Triple? no… I need to test this.” He was getting ready to return to Stella when he finally noticed it. “Urstigar +3200 credits? Is this the way the System balances things out?” he said to himself. “But I killed two…whatever.”

Eric opened up the shop and bought a shovel, even with his discount it still cost him one thousand credits. Before he headed toward Stella to help with the bodies, he checked his status window.

Eric Aguilar

Class: Warrior

Mana 120/120

Rank F

Level 9

Experience 6/2500

Stats

Vitality 21

Endurance 38

Strength 35

Dexterity 20

Constitution 27

Agility 20

Perception 22

Charisma 15

Intelligence 20

Wisdom 20

Stat Points 9

Skill points 0

Skills +

Concepts –

Titles +

Magic –

Credits 12200

He was happy with what he considered to be high stats but grimaced because of what he considered “uneven” numbers, which was every stat that didn’t end in with a five or a zero. “I’ll fix you soon,” Eric said in a serious tone. He closed his status and headed toward Stella.

Stella saw him coming and when he arrived, she stopped him with her left hand and took the shovel with her right.

“Head back to the dungeon and find someplace to hide the crystal,” Stella said to Eric.

“Got it,” Eric said as he turned to walk away. He didn’t really want to help; he just knew it was the right thing to do, but now he got out of it.

“All of this is your fault!” someone shouted.

Eric stopped walking and turned to see a woman screaming at Stella. He felt a bit of annoyance. As their eyes met, the woman faltered, Eric’s gaze being too much for her.

“I’m not in the mood for this Diana,” Stella said as she massaged the bridge of her nose.

Diana swallowed hard, trying to regain her composure. “They all died because you provoked the monsters!” Her words came out with the same intensity, if a bit shaky.

Stella turned to face Eric and with an unserious face said, “I told you to go. Run along.”

Eric shrugged his shoulders and left. After he had walked for a few minutes, he tried to remember if he knew who the woman was, but no matter how hard he thought about it, he couldn’t remember her. Though that didn’t really mean anything, Eric was terrible with faces and names.

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He arrived at the clearing of the cafeteria building. He looked around and saw nothing but a plain field that was slowly being encroached by the trees that were growing at an incredible speed. Seeing nowhere to hide the crystal, he walked toward the dungeon, hoping that something would occur to him during the short walk.

“Nothing. Dammit,” Eric said as nothing came to him. “Maybe a dungeon run will help.” Eric got up and touched the door expecting to enter the dungeon like he had countless times before, instead he was met with a different window.

You have discovered a dungeon within your territory: Building C

You have cleared the dungeon: Building C.

Would you like to claim it: Yes/No

“Interesting,” Eric said as he selected yes.

You have claimed the dungeon: Building C

You can now modify it at the cost of credits.

Congratulations. You are the first to claim a dungeon on your planet. You have earned the title: Dungeon master

Dungeon master: Dungeon modifications are moderately cheaper. Your dungeons gain experience substantially faster.

“Dungeons also gain experience? Always or only after they’re claimed?” Eric muttered to himself, as he looked through his notifications and status, looking for the dungeon menu. He closed all his windows and walked toward the hub crystal and touched it.

Hub Level 2

Store

Class

Management

Management was an option that only appeared for him, he hadn’t really investigated it because he could more or less guess what it did. He selected it, causing another window to open.

Land

Citizens

Dungeons

He took this chance and carefully went through each option to check their contents.

The Land option allowed him to shape the land in any way he wanted at the cost of credits. It also allowed him to enhance the land in various ways, from mana concentration specialized for faster plant growth, to an effect that passively gave small amounts of experience. He checked the costs of both effects and grimaced, as the cheapest of the two had an initial cost of one million credits.

He opened the Citizens option to see that it currently only showed a list of people on his land, which were more than he had seen since everything began. When he selected any of the people on the list, another window would open asking if he wanted to invite them to be citizens. He selected his four friends and sent the invitations. The four of them accepted immediately, and they were marked differently than the rest, moving to the top of the list. It also showed their respective roles within the city, which only said “citizen”, while everyone else on the list lacked one.

He continued and selected the Dungeons option. It first showed a list of claimed dungeons, Eric selected the only one he had, and it opened another window.

Building C

Rank F

Experience 0/2000

Dungeon points 1

Having checked everything, he closed all the windows and opened the shop once more. He wanted to buy a real weapon, not just a home appliance that could be used as a weapon. Up until this point he had tried to develop the skill for spearmanship on his own and had no luck.

“Maybe it’s not meant to be.”

He scrolled through the available weapons and receiving no inspiration from any of them, he bought four weapons. A spear, a sword, an axe and a bow with ten arrows. He spent his remaining credits modifying the ground, he made a hole big enough to bury the hub crystal and moved the dirt to cover it. Thanks to the magic of the System even he had trouble seeing where the crystal was buried. He dusted the small amounts of dirt he had on him and groaned.

“I should have bought clothes.”

With a small frown, he walked toward the dungeon and entered.

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“Let me handle this,” Anna said.

“Ok, you’re the boss”, Alex said as he raised both hands in surrender.

Anna wiped off the remaining blood from her forehead and entered the building. What she saw once she was inside was not what she was expecting. No words came out of her mouth as she looked at the scene in front of her.

“What happened here?!” Alex exclaimed with horror.

The scene before them was one of nothing but gore. The entire entrance lobby was covered in blood, a blood so thick that unless you grabbed some of the body parts and examined them directly, you would not be able to make out what they were. In the center of the room was a thin simple double-edged sword with a ribbon wrapped around its hilt and a letter resting evenly on the base of its handle.

Anna started to walk toward the sword, when Alex grabbed her shoulder.

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

Anna just nodded. She didn’t know why or how she knew, but that sword was hers. Every step she took was dripping with blood. She looked around and saw that there were far too little remains for the amount of people that were in here. She reached the sword and grabbed the letter, opening it.

To my little adventurer.

How have you been? I have missed you so much. I am sorry I had to leave; it broke my heart to see you cry at my funeral. Now we can meet once again, your parents are already here. Now we are just waiting for you young ones.

With love, Abe.

P.S. I hope the people left after you, if not, I apologize.

“Wha—”, Anna said as her head started to spin. The only person who called her a little adventurer was her grandfather, Abe. But it couldn’t be him, he died when she was twelve, she saw his body in the casket and saw the casket been lowered into a hole in the ground. She didn’t remember enough to know if this was handwriting or if it was the way he spoke, but she knew this was from her grandfather. A System window cut her off.

Your bloodline has awakened.

Edge of Life calls for you to cut the world.

Anna felt her entire being begging her to grab the sword. She tried to resist it, but her resistance was like a sandcastle in the middle of a storm and was thoroughly crushed. She grabbed the sword and was met by one more window.

Concept of Sharpness acquired.

The air in the room changed and Alex only looked at Anna, even as the air left small cuts on his skin.

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Marcus exited the building to see Stella coordinating the survivors that were helping her. Diana and her small group were helping with the deceased, ignoring the monsters.

“I heard the screaming,” Marcus said as he put his bag on the ground.

“Just Diana being Diana,” Stella answered.

“You talk as if you know her.”

“I know of her. But forget about her, just make sure to keep Eric away from her.”

“Why?” Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Just do it. Please.”

“Fine. Where do you need me?”

“I had an idea but forgot to tell Eric about it. Can you take some of the barghest corpses to him?”

“Sell them?” Marcus asked sure of the answer.

“Yes.”

“Got it.”

Marcus grabbed his bag, walked toward the smallest barghest he could see and threw it over his shoulder. He then started walking to the dungeon.

Stella saw Marcus as he disappeared into the trees and turned to look at the dead bodies. She could tell that her mind worked differently than before, and this difference numbed her somewhat to death. However, it wasn’t as effective when it came to people she knew. She hadn’t known Tony for long but she saw him working harder than anybody else with the preparations. She felt a pit in her stomach as she looked at him and every other one of the fighters. Out of a little less than thirty fighters and not counting her group, only eight people remained standing.

Stella looked up and took a deep breath, ignoring the smell of the dead that was already starting to permeate the area.

“I hope there’s more than just death in this new world.”