Broken Anomaly

After the white urstigar had roared, the yellow urstigar changed its attitude. Before, it would swipe lightly, making feigned attempts at killing Alex. But after the roar, those attempts become deadly serious. Alex had slowly been inching closer and closer towards the scorch mark that the urstigar had on its left side, but that roar changed everything. The urstigar was now careful of every move that Alex made and had pushed him back toward his original position, completely getting rid of all his advancement.

Now Alex stood before the beast, more exhausted than ever, seeing no clear way to reach his objective. Suddenly, the beast stood still, looking at something behind Alex. Sensing an opportunity, he acted swiftly, taking three wide steps to reach the scorch mark. Even though his stance was unstable, he knew he might not get another chance. He punched with all the strength he could muster, almost tripping as he did so. As soon as his punch landed, the beast recoiled, snapping out of its stupor.

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As the beast set its sights on Alex, a wooden spear appeared within its field of vision. It saw as the spear pierced directly where it had been hit by the lightning, piercing with ease. The ease at which the spear pierced the beast was because the lightning did more than a superficial burn, it had even reached the nearest organ. The spear wielder also aided the ease of the pierce with strength that the beast thought was impossible to achieve so early. The beast struck down upon the spear wielder, only to miss him and fall forward. The spear had pierced it at on odd angle and didn’t stop until it something harder than itself, the beast’s spine.

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After exiting the trees, Eric put his hands on his knees and took a moment to catch his breath. Having his head down, the first thing he saw was a leg that was turned in such a way that it made him recoil at the thought of going through the same.

“That... leg… is beyond fucked,” he said to the owner of said leg.

After waiting a few seconds and not hearing a response, his gaze shifted toward the wooden spear the young man was holding and walked toward it.

“Can I…. borrow this?” Eric asked as he grabbed the spear.

After not hearing a response for a few seconds, Eric answered himself.

“Taking that as a yes,” he said as he took the spear and started to run toward the others.

Looking forward, he saw that the closest group were the ones fighting the white beast, however he noticed that Alex was fighting a similar beast on his own and considered him to be in more need of help. He ran past what thought was Stella and another woman.

“Anna….?”

He didn’t ponder about who the other woman was at all, he had more important matters. As he ran toward Alex and the beast he was fighting, he saw that Alex was making a very clear effort to move to his right. As he got closer, he could see that on the beast’s left side, there was a scorch mark. Is that a weak point or something? he asked himself.

At some point he noticed that the beast had stopped moving at all. Alex advanced and struck the beast, causing it to recoil. Having confirmed that the scorch mark was indeed a weak point, Eric grasped his spear and as soon as he was within range, drove it into the same spot Alex had struck. The spear entered with little resistance and as he advanced, the beast swiped down on where he had been only a second earlier, missing him. Eric drove the spear as deep as he could, when the spear advanced no further, he grasped it firmly with his left hand and punched it with his right, driving deeper into the beast.

The beast fell forward just as Eric’s fist hit the spear and further punches drove the spear deeper. Turning to see Alex, who had regained his footing, he gestured at a spear that was nearby. Alex understood what he meant and went toward the spear while Eric climbed the beast’s back. The beast moved from one side to the other in an attempt to shake Eric off but had no success in doing so. Once Eric was firmly on the beast’s upper back, right behind its head, Alex called to him.

“Here!” he exclaimed as he threw the spear at Eric.

Eric grabbed the thrown spear but had to lie down on the back of the beast due to all the shaking. He pressed his left hand against the beast’s back and clenched it firmly, grabbing its skin. He adjusted his grip on the spear and plunged it into the beast.

The beast roared in pain, its shaking becoming more violent.

Eric had to clench his left hand even stronger, as he adjusted his grasp on the spear once more and plunged it into the same spot. This repeated until Eric was sure that the spear wouldn’t fall out. He grabbed the spear with his right hand and grasped it firmly, letting go of the beast’s skin with his left hand and moving it to also grasp the spear. He slowly got to his feet and once he had as secure a position as he could, given the circumstances, he drove the spear deeper and deeper. The beast thrashed around violently, clearly in pain, but soon, not even a whimper could be heard from it.

Urstigar +0 exp

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

Vanguard (B): You receive a substantial boost to stats while in conquered areas. You receive a minor boost to progress while in conquered areas. Can be evolved.

ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!

BREAKER DETECTED

Title effects modified.

Vanguard (B): You receive a substantial boost to titles while in conquered areas. You receive a minor boost to progress while in conquered areas. Can be evolved.

Eric dismissed the bombardment of windows and looked at the blue crystal that had appeared before him. Thinking back to all the web novels he had read; he had an idea about what this crystal was. The excitement that he had felt when the system first arrived had started to fade away, but the blue crystal brought it all back. There was a risk that it wasn’t what he thought, but he was sure that it was.

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Stella and Anna were about to join the others when Eric ran past them. It was only enough time for a short glimpse, but Anna managed to see a bit of the state he was in.

“Wha—”

“Later,” Stella said, cutting Anna off.

Anna nodded and grabbed a wooden spear that was on the ground. Together they rushed at the white urstigar. On the way there, Stella picked up a spear for herself since she still didn’t have enough mana to cast a fireball.

When they arrived, they saw that the beast was shaking its head, as if waking itself up. The remaining fighters had not let the chance pass and managed to injure it further, the beast now bleeding from various wounds. Even if not all the spears were capable of piercing the beast’s skin, they were capable of worsening its existing wounds. Sadly, there were no longer as many fighters as there had been in the beginning of the fight. Some had given up and didn’t return to the fight, while others had been killed by the beast soon after it received its first injury from Tony. Now only three fighters remained, and Tony was not among them.

Stella and Anna both tried to coordinate with the others, attacking the beast at every chance they had. However, even in its wounded state, the beast became more adept at evading their strikes and left fewer openings. It had not been long since they joined the fight, and now only one fighter remained. Though he was no longer in a fighting condition, lying on the floor, bleeding from a wound in his neck.

Both Stella and Anna were covered in blood, not all their own. Anna struggled to see clearly as a cut on her forehead refused to stop bleeding. They both backed away, but the beast followed them closely, not allowing them to take a break. They continued to back away, until Stella fell, and Anna rushed to cover her from the beast’s attacks, as the beast’s claws were about to tear them apart, a familiar sound could be heard.

Zzztt— BOOM!

The explosion hit the beast on its side, causing it to falter. It turned to see someone near the entrance of the building, it was about to rush at them, only to see that another bomb was already heading its way. It jumped sideways completely avoiding the explosion.

Zzztt— BOOM!

As it landed, it felt a rush of mana enveloping the area around it. It snapped its head toward the origin of the mana wave, only to see the odd human already jumping at it, spear in hand.

The mind of the beast started to work beyond its normal limits. It started to think about its first moments of consciousness within an incubation tube. About how it learned of its purpose, how it was at the limit of what the System allowed before the first wave of incursions. It was supposed to be the apex predator in a world that had just gotten its mana back. It was supposed to prepare the field for when its superiors arrived. He knew he had failed; the pack would not remember him.

As it looked at the odd human who was about to strike, it remembered when it first saw them. The odd one was running toward a group of humans that were hiding in a nearby building. It considered that it would be fun to rip their hopes away as soon as they were near the finish line. But as it got closer to the odd one, they froze in place, they didn’t know why but their body did not respond. Only when the odd one entered the building, did it regain its movement and decided to go somewhere else, ignoring what had just occurred.

No, not just this one is odd. They’re all odd, the beast thought to itself. The one responsible for the explosions. The one who could already perform magic. The one who covered himself in stone and the one who had no fear even as death was before them.

That was as far as its thoughts could go, as the spear wielded by the odd one pierced one of its front legs. An explosion hit it on its side, followed closely by a single fireball that struck its face. It felt a strike on its other leg and fell to its side, as it touched the ground, a spear pierced its wounded abdomen. The odd human retrieved his spear and walked toward its face and stabbed its eye, not stopping until the spear hit the back of its skull.

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Everyone was sitting around the corpse of the white beast. Anna, Alex and Eric sat down as soon as the beast died, and the others made their way toward them. Floating on top of the beast’s corpse was another blue crystal, identical to the one the other beast had dropped.

“Is that what I think?” Alex said, pointing at the crystal.

“Yes,” Eric answered.

“Who’ll take it?” Alex asked.

“Who took the other one?” Stella asked, having caught a glimpse of the first crystal, as she turned to look at Eric. “You?”

“Yeah,” Eric answered as he got up and touched the crystal.

You have activated a Hub crystal.

This zone is already under your control.

Would you like to expand your area: Yes/No

Would you like to level up your Hub crystal: Yes/No

“….and those are the options,” Eric said after explaining what he saw when he touched the crystal.

“What do you want to do?” Stella asked.

“Level. The zone is already pretty big. According to the map that the hub shows, it covers most of the school. All of it actually.”

“There’s your answer,” Stella said.

Eric chose the level up option, and the crystal disappeared, becoming strands of mana that flowed into the crystal near the yellow beast. Everyone got up and walked toward the other crystal, which physically remained unchanged.

“Is there anything else that the hub can do, like buildings or a small workshop?” Marcus asked.

“Yes, but they’re pretty expensive. Come and look,” Eric said, inviting his friends to come closer.

As they touched the crystal, they all saw the same windows.

Credits unlocked

+2000 Credits

“Credits?” Stella said in a questioning tone only to be answered by Eric lifting his shoulders. She returned her attention toward the windows.

Store

Class

She selected Store and another window appeared. In the new window were various categories like weapons, potions, armor, buildings and more. The cheapest thing she found among all the categories was a small knife that cost one thousand credits. The cheapest building was a small shed for five thousand credits.

“You weren’t kidding,” Alex said.

Stella returned to the first window and looked at the bottom right, where the credits were shown. Upon selecting the credits another window appeared showing credit movements.

+1000 Credits: System gift.

+1000 Credits: Killed area boss.

She again returned to the first window and selected the class option. Before her appeared two classes.

Mage

Rogue

“How many class options do you guys have?” Stella asked.

“One,” Alex answered.

“Two,” Anna added.

“Two,” Marcus continued.

“One,” Eric answered at the end.

“Are they mage, rogue and warrior?” Stella asked.

Everyone except Marcus answered affirmatively in one way or another.

Eric selected the only class available to him.

Warrior: You are someone who likes to get close and personal with your opponent. Prove your might.

+20 mana

+10 strength

+5 endurance

+5 constitution

Stats on level up:

+10 stat points

+3 free stat points

Being the only available option to him, Eric selected it, only to once again be inundated with system windows.

You have selected the class: Warrior

ERROR! ERROR! ERROR!

BREAKER DETECTED

Access to advanced classes unlocked

Level 10 classes available: 1

Level 20 classes available: 0

Level 50 classes available: 0

Level 100 classes available: 0

Eric selected the level ten classes, to see what it was.

Warrior

All that and I’m in the exact same place, Eric thought, as everyone else became enveloped in a bright blue light. He selected the warrior class and he himself was enveloped in a bright blue light.

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A small group of people exited the bathrooms that were located at the back of the gym. They turned their head left and right, afraid of something popping up out of nowhere. They were being led by Diana, a woman with short red hair, about the same height as Stella; she tried to oppose her after they had cleared the building. She was someone who had refused to help with anything related to hunting or fighting and also someone who had tried to resist Eric’s group every chance she got.

“See, everything’s fine. The beasts didn’t even get close,” she said.

They walked toward the door of the gym, only to retreat once they saw the corpses, some vomiting at the sight.