Broken Anomaly

Eric and Stella were sitting in the cafeteria, in complete silence. The other two had gone to check the storage room in case spiders had spawned in there or if there were people inside. Eric had completely forgotten about the people in the storage, and asked Alex to check.

Eric waited for a while, concluding that Stella wouldn’t say anything and checked his system messages.

Congratulations! You have accomplished something unheard of across the multiverse.

Accomplishment: You have injured an outer god as a first stage.

Accomplishment: You have injured an outer god before the second stage.

Accomplishment: You have injured an outer god before the third stage.

You have earned the title: Anomaly.

You have done something unique in the System’s history. The title is shaped to suit you.

Anomaly (S): You are immune to external influences. Your stats double against higher level foes. Your vitality increases greatly.

I resisted the influence of the creature, so that explains the first effect. Hmm, it was definitely higher level than me. I guess the third effect is because it injured me by taking my eye. Eric’s thinking stopped as Alex and Marcus came back, both carrying boxes.

“I, have found, treasure,” Alex said as he opened a box on the table. “Look and admire,” he said as he showed the others some cup noodles.

“That’s not much better than chips,” Stella said.

“No, but at least it will be hot, and it will taste like something. I want flavor, Stella. My tongue is numb from the chips,” Alex said as he stuck his tongue out.

“Yeah, Stella,” Marcus added as he also stuck his tongue out.

“You won’t join them?” she asked, staring at Eric.

“Hmm, no. They speak of flavor and yet I see no sauce. Liars, both of them.”

Alex and Marcus glared at Eric, feigning anger at the lack of support from him. They all started to laugh at the dumb situation they were currently in.

They were now back to their regular group dynamics. After the music room, they had been… off. It was a mix of fear for the creature and a hint of unease at how Eric acted toward the end. But now, they let go of those feelings and genuinely laughed. Eric even forgot about the lingering pain he felt in his empty eye socket. When they stopped laughing, Alex closed the box and put it next to the rest.

“Okay, so what’s next?” Alex asked.

“We have to go back, help the others get ready,” Stella said as she started to empty the cup noodles into bags. “Come on.”

They all started to fill the bags with food and drinks, once they were done, they left the dungeon.

“I’m staying,” Eric said once they were outside. “It feels worse now,” he said pointing at his empty eye socket. “I’ll run the dungeon a few more times and get the hang of it. I’ll be back before the timer runs out, promise.”

“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” Stella asked, genuine worry in her eyes.

“No, but we’ll see. Later,” he said as he entered the dungeon once more, leaving no room for discussion.

“Fuck, we have to carry his share now,” Marcus said, the other two following his lead, “Fuck...”

---------------

Eric meant what he said to the others, he really did feel worse now than he did before. It wasn’t just the lingering pain, his entire body felt different. Every movement felt off, like it was missing something. He was about to put his skill to use but decided against it, as it might be needed. He was still on a timer and the sooner he got used to his new condition, the better.

Eric ran through the dungeon as fast as he could. Each time he fought a spider, the feeling that something was missing became obscured. He would switch between the knife and the broken mop, still not feeling an affinity for either of them. The fights with the regular spiders became predictable for him, the fights with the boss lost their sense of danger as it was not as strong as it was when he first fought it. After he cleared it three more times, he got a new system message.

Dungeon runner (F): You have cleared the same dungeon multiple times. You have a slight chance to earn the dungeon reward. Can be strengthened.

Eric had noticed that he didn’t get a reward when he cleared the dungeon with his friends or the last three clears, but he chalked it up to it being how the dungeon worked. Good to know I can earn more. After two more clears, he got two more system messages.

Title strengthened!

Solo delver (F): You have cleared all the monsters in a dungeon by yourself. Your progress in dungeons receives a small boost. Can be strengthened.

He entered the dungeon again and decided to find out what Solo delver did. He cleared the middle of the cafeteria, moving the chairs and tables to the side and sat down, legs crossed. This is how they usually do it, he thought, remembering all the web novels he read. He waited until his mana was full, he hadn’t used Mental focus, but he had used Mana sense in a passive way. It didn’t use much mana but with being active all the time, he needed time for it to recover.

Eric started to think out loud. “What can I do? If I use Mental focus, I don’t really have to do anything, but what if it takes too long? Hmm, wait—what about that mana I felt as I killed the spiders? That could work.”

After Eric started clearing the dungeon and having Mana sense constantly active, he would, at times, depending on the angle, feel mana flow into his body. He could always feel it inside of him, but he had to be conscious of it or he wouldn’t notice it because it disappeared quickly. Having decided on an objective, he let his mana recover and got up. He resumed his killing of spiders, trying to focus on the mana he felt flow into him. He also put Mental focus to work. After clearing the language center, he returned to the cafeteria and once again sat, waiting for his mana to recover.

Mental focus had stopped right before he killed the last spider, it was why he was comfortable returning. He thought about the results from Mental focus and compared them to what he had concluded, noticing many similarities up until the final portion. The final portion was the vague notion of experience.

“Ok, let’s do this.”

Eric had followed the mana that escaped the monsters as much as could, he noticed that the only way he noticed the mana was if he moved his Mana sense toward his lower chest. He closed his eyes and calmed his breathing as much as he could. He then moved Mana sense toward his insides and shrunk it as much as possible. He continued by activating Mental focus, so that he could better guide himself, maybe the skill had a better idea as to where the mana went.

He started to think deeper about the situation, incorporating what Mental focus had concluded. Is mana experience? If it is and it becomes experience and it basically disappears when it reaches my body, then maybe it changes into something distinct enough from mana, that its harder for Mana sense to follow.

As he slowly moved his Mana sense deeper and deeper into his chest, reducing the area more and more, he could eventually detect faint mana. Using Mental focus as an aid, he closed in on the faint mana, finally sensing on odd orb like thing. It was tiny, so tiny that he wasn’t even sure if it was what he was looking for and not just some coalesced mana that was coursing through his body. As he tried to examine it with Mana sense and Mental focus, he was bombarded by system messages.

Mana sense has reached level 4!

Mana sense has reached level 5!

Mana sense has been forcefully evolved into Mana perception!

Mana manipulation has reached level 5!

Mana perception has reached level 5!

Mana perception and Mana manipulation have been forcefully evolved into Mana Insight!

Mental focus has reached level 5!

“What the fuck!” Eric exclaimed as he felt in intense headache. He was clutching his head with both hands, not even realizing he could now move both just fine. His head felt like it was going to explode.

-------------

The three had an uneventful journey back to the safe zone. Alex had at one point stopped and climbed a tree to see toward where Anna was at and saw that the monster was still there, just roaming near the entrance.

“The trees are growing fast,” Alex said as he dusted off his hands and grabbed the bags again.

“I know. It must be the mana. I think it makes it easier to grow, regardless of the conditions,” Stella said, as she helped Alex with the bags. She didn’t say this casually, this was the conclusion that she had come to after seeing the spiders. If it were before the System, the spider’s exoskeleton would’ve been more difficult to penetrate or break. Their dungeon run would’ve been significantly more difficult.

Their walk back was mostly silent, they were tired and knew they would have to start the preparations before they could go to sleep. Any energy they might’ve had, was already spent. Nevertheless, they had a question that they were dying to ask.

“What was up with Eric and that creature?” Marcus asked, finally bringing up the topic they all wanted.

“I don’t know, but for a second, I was more afraid of Eric than of the creature,” Alex said in a serious tone. “Stella, you should know him better, any ideas?”

“…I don’t remember clearly, but once, when we were little— maybe six or seven—I remember feeling the same way...” Stella stopped walking. “It wasn’t as oppressive, but...” Alex and Marcus turned to look at her, “I don’t think I was the target. I still remember the feeling clearly. I can’t really explain it.”

“Yes! Oppressive, that’s the word,” Alex exclaimed. “Though, to me it felt more like a warning, you know. Like seeing your boss yelling at a coworker and you can only look for fear of being next, multiplied by ten. I don’t think I would be this relaxed if it was directed at me.”

“It felt heavier than a boss though, right?” Marcus asked. “Or was it just me?”

“I don’t know, but what about that deer creature. It accused Eric of something, did you guys hear what it was? Did he tell you something?” Alex asked, looking at Stella.

“No. Didn’t really speak until you guys came back,” Stella said. She wanted to say more, but stopped as they exited the forest and were now in the clearing that was before the safe zone.

There was a group of people moving all the barghest corpses toward the side of the building. Within the clearing that was within the safe zone, there was a fire being tended to by Hilda. Water was being heated in a pot, a pot that was brought by one of the survivors from the storage room. The kindling seemed to be made up mostly of tree branches. Curious as to what they were boiling water for, they looked around for David to get an explanation. Having found him near the fire, they walked forward and put the bags down and made some distance, pulling David with them and asking if anything had occurred during their absence.

“Nothing really. We gathered branches to start a fire because some people wanted to clean themselves. Hilda had brought a pot, so we used that and some bottled water to at least wash our hands. Ummm, and that’s it. Some wanted to go to the parking lot but were waiting for you.”

Stella nodded. “Anything else?”

“After the 24-hour quest completion, Diana gathered four more people for her group. Claiming that fighting wasn’t necessary and that just staying alive would be enough. I don’t think she’s wrong, but I don’t think she’s right.”

“She’s not wrong,” Marcus interjected. “I have a crafting skill, and I get experience without fighting.”

“And you were going to tell me…. when...?” Stella asked, looking at Marcus with amusement.

“I thought I’d already told you. Did I imagine that whole conversation?”

“Cute. We should go eat something, we have to prepare for tomorrow,” Stella said and headed toward the fire. She also wanted something closer to real food. As she took out some noodles, she rummaged through the bags, not finding what she wanted. “Dammit. The sauce.”