Broken Anomaly

It didn’t take long for each of the groups to return with their second round of rescues.

After their first round of rescues, they came to the conclusion that whatever monsters remained, if any, currently posed no risk to them. So, they all ran at full speed, not caring for any potential problems that might arise, as they were sure none would.

And they were right. Eric returned with a group of athletes that had hidden in the locker rooms and had only eaten from a vending machine that was within the same building.

The group that was sent to the lone building brought back students, teachers, and people that had been a part of Anna’s tour but had run in a different direction when the chaos started.

The biggest group was, without a doubt, the one that Stella and the rest had brought back. While the labs comprised one big building, it was divided into three different sections.

The largest section belonged to engineering, which took up half the building and was made up of various workshops—electrical, wood, metal, and others. When the integration began, most of the labs were full; they were always full, whether due to classes or students working on personal projects.

Initially, some were shaken, but after a while, they gathered themselves, grabbed tools, and used them as weapons, clearing the labs with greater ease than Eric and his friends had.

Programming was where everything remotely related to computers was located: computers meant specifically for programming, others for design, and others meant for students to use during their free time for whatever they needed. The only area that tended to be free most of the time was the area with computers meant for everyone; every other room was usually booked. So, during the integration, few monsters spawned here.

Lastly, chemistry and cooking basically shared the same area. In total, there were only four rooms, and none were occupied at the time. One was specifically for cooking, another for more specialized chemistry, and the remaining two rooms could be used by either without issue.

Their group was the last to return, and they brought back almost two hundred people with them. None of the people they brought back seemed to be particularly scared or injured, unlike everyone else they had encountered up until this point.

The front of the dungeon was designated as a commerce area and was currently full of the recent rescues. They were given food and water, and not much else. There was no shelter to offer them, as the only material currently available for construction was wood, and the builders were overwhelmed. However, this was actually beneficial for the builders and future customers, as each finished building meant that the one that followed would be better, thanks to their skills leveling up.

Thanks to the current situation in front of the dungeon, Eric and his friends had to move places to be able to speak comfortably, so they went to the workshop with two new people in tow.

“Finally, silence,” Eric said as he sat on a table. “Who are these two?” he asked, pointing at two people that he didn’t recognize.

“You already met Ed. Don’t you remember?” Anna asked with a confused expression.

An expression that Eric returned to her, clearly not remembering.

“You borrowed his weapon when we were fighting at the gym.”

“Oh!” Eric exclaimed, looking at Ed’s leg. “Leg’s fine now.”

“Yeah, it is,” Ed said sheepishly, feeling a bit awkward among people who he knew were older and that knew each other. All his confidence evaporated as he felt like an outsider that was somewhere he shouldn’t be.

“Good, and this guy—wait, I know you.” Eric paused for a second before continuing, “You’re that guy who’s in charge of the tools, right?” he said to the man with subtle East Asian features.

“Correct,” the man said, nodding slightly. “Name’s Caleb.”

“You done with the introductions? Great,” Stella said in a sarcastic tone. “Let’s get down to it, then. Our supplies are gone now.”

“We might look good, but in reality, we didn’t have much food either,” Caleb said, a bit of discomfort on his face. “You guys basically saved us today. And from what I hear, the water problem has been solved.”

“Only partially,” Stella began, “We have a water source, but no way to get it here reliably.” She paused for a bit, considering something. “We can take containers from the workshop and use them to transport the water, but that still leaves us with a food problem.”

“Before anyone suggests it, monsters are a no-go,” Alex said, cutting off that avenue. “Something about them is toxic. Our resident “alchemists” are trying to figure out how to deal with it, but for now, they’re inedible.”

Anna noticed that Ed was fidgeting a bit, as if he had something to add. “What is it?” she asked, nudging him with her elbow. “Why are you shy all of a sudden? Is it Eric? He doesn’t bite. Is it Alex? He might.”

“What?!” Alex exclaimed, taken aback. “I think you’ve got Eric and me mixed up.”

Eric only chuckled at the exchange.

“The garden,” Ed said, finally speaking. “During the tour, Anna said that the school had a small garden. If the trees are growing this fast, what about the garden?”

“The garden,” Stella said in a soft voice. “Weren’t there only spices grown there?”

“There were,” Alex added, before continuing. “Except, they planted a bunch of different seeds, and only the spices really took. There was also a watermelon one, remember? Eric came out of nowhere and said to eat the evidence. He stole it from the garden.”

“No, I didn’t,” Eric said calmly. “I took it from the basket of a student who had just harvested it,” he said, correcting Alex.

Ignoring what Eric had just said, Stella turned to Caleb. “Did any of you see anything?” she asked since the garden was behind labs, on the edge of campus.

“No. We didn’t really leave the building.” Caleb said, a tinge of regret in his words.

“I’m going,” Marcus said out of nowhere.

“Going where?” Alex asked.

“You’re going back to labs, or at least, you’re going to pass by them, and I want to get some things from there.”

“That settles that,” Stella said. “Who wants to—” she was interrupted by a new system message.

New quest!

Quest: Hospitality. Objective: Help the survivors who have come to Solace. Reward(s): +5000 Exp. +1000 credits. +1 skill point.

All five of the friends froze for a bit, having been the only ones to receive it.

“What’s going on?” Caleb asked.

“New quest,” Stella answered. “We have to prepare to receive more people—"

“No,” Eric said in a stern voice, cutting her off. “They’re being chased,” he added as he looked at an additional quest that only he had.

New quest!

Quest: This is my land. Objective: Kill the field bosses that have entered the land of Solace. Trolls 0/3. Reward(s): +5000 credits. +5000 credits. +2 skill points.

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He had continued to run, even though he knew that the people that were following him had separated. Some had taken a moment to rest, others passed out due to exhaustion, and there were even some who had given up. He didn’t care though, as he ran, he lightened his load, leaving a clear trail to follow by those who had fallen behind.

Last night they had taken a moment to rest, at least that’s what they told themselves. In reality, they had collapsed, their hope vanishing as the light from the sky had disappeared earlier in the day. It wasn’t until Lydia and her group met up with the survivors that some hope returned to their faces.

At some point, the troll had stopped following the rescuers and disappeared into the forest. They heard the screams of some beasts and took advantage of the situation.

They took turns staying up and guarding the group, each of them having gotten the opportunity to sleep three hours. During Lydia’s watch, she kept looking at her quest window.

Quest: [Unnamed]. Objective: Reach the new settlement of [Unnamed] and grant safety to your people. Reward(s): +5000 Exp. +1000 credits. +1 skill point.

When suddenly, the system window blinked.

Quest: Solace. Objective: Reach the new settlement of Solace and grant safety to your people. Reward(s): +5000 Exp. +1000 credits. +1 skill point.

“Guess that means they’re still alive,” she muttered, the old man’s words about the creature still fresh in her mind.

It was during the early hours of the day, as the sun rose, that Lydia saw the familiar silhouette of the troll in the distance. Everyone had made use of the cars on the road to sleep, Lydia having used the top of a van.

Moving carefully, she grabbed pieces of hard mud from her shoes and threw them at Connor. When he turned to her in confusion, she gestured for him to activate his skill, and through it, she gave instructions as to who to wake and how. Though slow, everyone got up with as little noise as possible.

Lydia and her team then maneuvered around the vehicles, and as soon as they engaged the troll, the survivors began a mad dash, following behind the old man.

The old man had, at one point, decided to run into what was once a great body of water, now reduced to only puddles. He ran with the specific purpose of finding the origin point of the light in the sky. Lydia had not had the chance to tell him that the quest window had changed, nor did he have the time to check it himself, so he was guided by the same objective as the day before.

His focus was so singular that he didn’t notice that the puddles had grown in size or that he wasn’t even running that fast anymore, or running for that matter. He was merely throwing his limbs forward, using whatever strength remained so that his legs wouldn’t collapse.

Soon, he saw shapes in the distance. Normally this would have been enough to grant him a boost of strength that would allow him to continue forward until he reached his objective, but there was nowhere to draw strength from anymore. They had been running for days now, and before that, they had maneuvered through the city sewers for a similar amount of time. Whatever energy remained in him was being used to keep his body functioning. Still, he continued, until finally he stood before the figures he had seen in the distance.

Before him were giant crab-like creatures, all dead. Some were burned, others seemed to have been punched, others pierced, and some seemed to be totally fine on the surface. He maneuvered around a stone platform and saw some scaly, webbed feet, though he couldn’t make out the rest of the creature as it was buried under large pieces of rubble.

This was it; he had made it. He wanted to speak, but his mind was clouded and his throat dry. If he could speak, he would’ve said something about how he couldn’t continue and that he was glad that he at least reached this point.

His body began to collapse when suddenly, he was caught by a large man, who had been hearing his disjointed thoughts since earlier.

“Not yet,” Connor said with a hoarse voice. “Look,” he continued, pointing at some fresh footprints in the now moist dirt.

Adjusting his hold on the older man, Connor began to walk forward, following the footprints.

He ignored the piles of corpses, he ignored that the footprints appeared to go on for a long distance, he ignored it all. His only objective was to do as Lydia had told him, get the survivors to safety.

Behind Connor, a survivor stopped for a bit, wetting his mouth with water from one of the puddles. After reaching the same spot Connor had when he saw the footprints, he shouted like he never had before, “Footprints!”

That single shout traveled through the various groups that had become scattered. Little by little, they had begun to once again become a singular group, all advancing at the same pace. Helping Connor with the old man.

As the front of the group returned to the road, the large group adjusted itself, shortening the distance for those that followed.

They were all motivated by the same desire—that soon they would all be safe. That soon, they would be rescued.