Broken Anomaly

Once Eric finished clearing the final room, he went down to the cafeteria and grabbed a snack and a drink. He was sulking internally. This was his final run of the day, and he was hoping that his title, Dungeon runner, would trigger and grant him an extra skill point, but it hadn’t.

He no longer earned experience like the others, but he had noticed that he did gain some, albeit in very small amounts. The amount of experience gained was so small that only after killing the entire third floor did his experience counter finally go up by a single point. He also couldn’t earn titles that boosted his stats, so that meant another avenue of strength was cut off. Despite this, he didn’t regret what he had done with his core. He had come to genuinely believe that this was the way to greater power, much greater than any power he could get from leveling normally or pursuing titles. Titles could be conditional, like Tireless fighter that would only trigger when he was exhausted. Experience wasn’t only dependent on him, but also his enemies. His stats, on the other hand, would always be his.

Eric exited the dungeon, turned to see the sun and saw that it was at its peak. Eric felt a sense of urgency surge from deep within, he had told Stella that he would be back before the timer ran out, but he was sure that timer had run out some time ago. He gave himself a light visual check and then started running towards the safe zone.

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Earlier in the day.

Marcus was still in a room on the second floor of the building assembling and dissembling new devices, Stella and Alex just having left. Marcus’s interest in technology started because of his parents. Their attempts to reduce his number of injuries by developing indoor hobbies had led him to a fascination with technology. It had also not reduced his level of injuries, as he still played outside and even got injured while inside. As he got older and learned more about the world, the more disillusioned he was with the current state of technology, he admired the advancements but cursed that what he considered “cool technology” would not arrive until he was long dead.

When the System arrived, he saw a way forward that would allow him to bring the technology that was far away, much closer to him. He practiced assembling and disassembling whatever he found, but mostly phones, until he finally saw a skill that he liked.

Tech sense: You have a higher understanding of technology.

The description of the skill didn’t really say much, but he could see what any piece could generally do. If he saw a battery all it said was:

Battery: Powers electronics

There was no specific information as to what devices it powered, for how long, or what it was made of. Thankfully, the usefulness of the skill appeared when he focused on the individual parts of any particular component like capacitors and chips. As a result, most of his work involved closely examining the various electronic boards in the phones and the ones he brought back from the language center.

Marcus’s skill level was increasing at a rapid pace, after he reached level five in Tech sense, he started to feel a slight tug towards the idea of mana. Up until this point he had rejected the idea of using anything related to magic, as he felt that it would somehow corrupt his ideal vision of giant robots and spaceships, since mana would bypass the need for various technologies. However, as his skill level rose, he started to accept the idea more and more, somehow gaining an understanding that he couldn’t grasp but changed his idea of mana.

While the idea of mana he had up until this point made it seem like nothing more than something capable of creating wonderous phenomena, his new understanding slowly made him see it as just another resource. Similar to how electricity powered electronics or how gold is used for those same electronics, mana could be used for technology. With his new understanding he easily spent his extra skill points in both Mana sense and Mana manipulation.

Upon gaining both skills, he could see a sort of resonance between his devices and the mana around them, some even had mana within them already. With renewed vigor, he started to dismantle everything, even what was already finished and started to work even harder than before.

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Anna and Ed sat at the bottom of the stairs, catching their breaths. They had been killing rats in every office that had them and since most of the three floors in the building were small offices, there were a lot of rats. They had tried to get others to help them but had no luck. The visiting parents and remaining school workers just passed from fear of the monster outside the door to fear of the giant rats inside, not wanting to disturb them and getting attacked. The students, both those of the university and those that were visiting, were equally paralyzed both from the fear and the attitude of those that were supposed to be in charge.

“We would already be done if they helped us,” said Ed as he glared at the group near the entrance.

“Leave them Ed. Not everyone is as dumb as us,” Anna said, as she grabbed a water bottle. She was visibly exhausted, and her casual attitude was nowhere to be seen.

“How can you be so ok when—”

“I’m tired.”

Anna and Ed had spent whatever remained of the first day and most of the second day just killing rats. Today they had also woken up and started clearing rats. While they did get faster because of the level ups, they weren’t as fast as they could be due to the lack of food. They’d found some snacks and some water here and there, but not enough to fill either of them.

“Something’s happening outside. The monster keeps pacing and looking towards the gym,” Anna said as she got up. “Come Ed, I feel like I’ll see my friends soon.”

“How would you even—”

“Let’s go!” she said in a playful tone, her energy seemingly having returned a bit, as she walked towards the third floor.

Ed got up and started going up the stairs slowly, feeling how tired his body was. He knew why he listened to her at the beginning of all this, but now, this was no longer because of a crush. Now, it was different. He had fought the rats and seen how they wanted to kill him, when the rats saw them through the glass they would jump and try to attack, but something stopped them from breaking the glass. He now listened to her because she seemed to be the only person who was actually doing something instead of just panicking. That being said, he still had a crush on her, which had probably only grown after spending so much time with her. And yet, he still didn’t know her name.

“You’re taking a room by yourself,” she said as she entered an office.

“Huh?!” Ed exclaimed as he reluctantly headed towards office with giant rats, thinking about how he would kill them.

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“Hmm. That human looked weak,” the beast said in her head as she walked towards the safe zone.

“There was one that was odd. Be careful,” another answered directly into her mind.

“He was not odd, he was not worthy of me or you, he ran when he saw our small horde,” the beast snickered.

“I must still warn you. I couldn’t kill him, even when he was before me, I was frozen in place.”

The beast stopped walking and considered what the leader had just told her.

“Is he a risk?”

“No, not yet. I was surprised by something unknown; we can overwhelm him with the small ones. If he still lives, that is.”

“Will you come?” the beast asked as she resumed her march.

“I will. The cowards in the building have not exited and I grow hungry. For the Monarchs!” the beast outside of the administration building answered, as it roared.

“For the Monarchs!”

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Everyone that was capable of fighting stood behind wooden spikes that were buried in the outer edges of the safe zone, each with their own weapon. Stella being the only one who had no weapon in her hands, but she did have the goblin knife, that Eric had given to her when they were clearing the building, in her back pocket.

“He’s still not here,” Alex said as he looked in the direction of the cafeteria.

“He’ll be here. I’m more curious about what Marcus is doing, last time I checked on him, he had less bombs than before,” Stella said as she looked at the second floor of the building.

Alex was about to respond but stopped before he could even open his mouth as barghest started to come out of the trees. First it was only five, then twenty and finally they couldn’t see the end of them. The barghest now completely surrounded the front portion of the safe zone and stretched until where the trees started.

“I thought you said it was only about a hundred of them,” Stella said in a sarcastic tone, nervousness evident in her face.

“I guess I was wrong,” Alex responded, trying to dispel his own nervousness.

“Three minutes” Stella said, starting a countdown.

Everyone grasped their weapons tighter and Stella started to gather mana into her right hand. She listened to Marcus and tried to gather mana near her heart, but it was not enough time and all she could do was form a small clump of mana with no real shape. She didn’t even have time to test if she could actually throw a fireball, forming that small clump took all the free time she had. Whatever happened next would be a surprise for everyone.

“Two minutes.”

Alex clenched his fists repeatedly as he looked toward the trees, waiting to see the large beast. He only hoped that his skill would last as long as he did. He had gotten a mana efficiency skill with the point he got from the dungeon, and he was also more adept at controlling where the rock appeared, so he had some confidence in his endurance.

“One minute.”

Tony and the rest of the people getting ready to fight, grasped their makeshift spears, with nervousness and fear. Many felt the urge to run but something made them stay and fight. It could be the fact that there was nowhere to run, or it could be the people that were right beside them, regardless of the reason, they would fight. There were less than thirty people ready to fight, including Hilda the cook. The rest were a small group led by Diana that decided to hide in the bathrooms and hadn’t been seen since they left.

“Twelve…. Eleven…. Ten.…”

Marcus was still in his work area, moving as fast as he could, ignoring the urge that kept tugging at him to go outside and join the others. He had to complete one more piece and another after that, maybe three more. “The more I have, the more I can help,” he said to himself.

“Five…. Four…. Three….”

A giant beast appeared from the trees, at least three meters high while it stood on four legs. It had yellow fur, with a face that resembled that of a bear but with stripes like those of a tiger throughout all of its body. Its upper body was considerably bigger than its lower body. It turned and smiled towards Alex, then it roared, signaling the beginning of the attack.

The barghest ran without a formation of any sort, causing some to fall and be trampled by the others. Some were pushed towards the wooden spikes and struggled to free themselves, while others died immediately.

As soon as the giant beast roared, all the fighters that had entered a daze when they saw it, came to and retreated towards the lobby. Some of the fighters fell and were ripped apart in a matter of seconds, their limbs, skin and muscles seemed to be made of paper with the speed that they were torn off.

While Tony ran towards the lobby, a barghest bit his left wrist and before he could try to struggle free, Alex grabbed the beast and tore its mouth apart. When they reached the lobby Alex became the defense that stopped most of the barghest from coming in, while the rest tried their best to attack the monsters with their makeshift spears. Alex couldn’t do anything other than defend and reinforce any area that he felt an attack on, the speed with which he moved his rock armor increasing little by little and his skill proficiency increasing at a similar speed.

Stella was still catching her breath when she saw that one of the barghest that got through, went up the stairs. She ignored her panting and started running behind it. With all the concentration she could muster, she started to move the mana from her newly created and crude mana core, toward the creation of the fireball she already knew how to make. Once she reached the second floor, she saw the barghest run towards the room Marcus was in, as if it had caught his scent. Without thinking any further, she threw the fireball in her hand, but she couldn’t see what happened because several windows popped up before her, blocking her vision.

Marcus heard a small explosion outside the room where he was working. He hurried and closed the device he was working on, grabbed his backpack and headed outside the room. When he left the room, he saw Stella panting with her hands on her knees and near the door was a burnt barghest. He knew exactly what happened.

“Congratulations. I knew you could do it,” he said as he walked towards the openings in the wall and laid the backpack on the floor. He took out a device that appeared to be completely sealed within badly melted plastic. It had no real form and seemed to have no way to activate it.

“My turn,” Marcus said as he pushed his mana into the device and threw it out the opening, towards the front of the building where there was still an ocean of barghest.