Broken Anomaly

Through both Stella’s and Alex’s careful planning, Eric was able to maximize the amount of credits at his disposal. Through their experimentation, they also realized some limitations that they hadn’t considered but, on further consideration, made sense.

Items that Eric had already done a transaction with would no longer be beneficial to him. The tax would still be charged, but it wouldn’t be added to his hub credits, basically disappearing.

This also applied to his title effects, only to a lesser degree. The titles counted both sale and purchase as separate but also stopped when one of each was performed. Luckily for them, they had more than enough items to use to test the limitations.

They also noticed a limit on the number of trades they could do, but they weren’t sure if it was based on the number of trades or amount of credits traded. At the end of all their trading and testing, they were able to buy every cheap upgrade, along with the store and quest hub that Eric had mentioned to Stella before, leaving the hub with only 1140 credits.

Small System store: Location to buy and sell items. Cost: 10000 credits

Slight safe zone enhancement (weakening): Enhances safe zone to further weaken enemies within. Cost: 12000 credits

Slight safe zone enhancement (recovery): Enhances safe zone to further increase recovery within. Cost: 13000 credits

Quest hub: Location where governing authority can place and easily manage quests. Cost: 10000 credits

The minor enhancements to the safe zone weren’t noticeable, but they considered them a necessity for the future of Solace.

Stella then gathered all the people who were doing manual labor and gave them orders. They immediately stopped whatever project they were doing before and started clearing some more trees.

With Eric’s, who had the highest stats, and Alex’s, with the second-highest strength stat, help, they cleared the area they wanted in less than an hour.

With the area cleared and guided by the hub map, Stella began to make markings on the ground. She didn’t only mark the newly cleared area, but also the areas that were already occupied by shacks and cabins, condemning them to demolition.

Her plan was to use the dungeon as the center of Solace and build outward from there.

Stella hit Eric on the arm. “Really? She doesn’t like us, Eric,” Stella said in a scolding tone.

“I’m not talking about that, Stella,” Eric said, shutting her down. “Is this where you want it?” Eric asked, pointing at an area in front of the dungeon.

Stella sighed, knowing that Eric meant what he said. “Yes, the store goes here and the quest hub here, beside it,” she said, pointing out the exact locations she wanted for each.

“Why couldn’t you have done this?”

“I wanted to talk. I wanted to know what your plan for the dungeon is.”

“It might be my main source of growth right now, so I want to be able to enter again.”

“You don’t know how to do that? Have you not looked at the menus?” Stella asked a bit confused, showing a window to Eric.

What appeared before Eric was basically an FAQ that explained various aspects of dungeon management. As he read through it, many questions were answered.

Reaching max experience gave a dungeon point, the max experience was determined by the dungeon’s rank, and its rank was determined by the dungeon’s contents.

Looking through the FAQ, he eventually reached the point that interested him, how to raise the dungeon level, or rank in this case. Which would in turn allow him to enter once more.

Wild dungeons rose their rank naturally once their seal broke, continuously absorbing mana and modifying themselves, increasing their rank. Claimed dungeons needed the owner to determine their growth, hence dungeon points.

He noted that raising the dungeon to Rank E would be enough for him to reenter the dungeon, at least until level 20.

“How did you even find this?” Eric asked Stella, who was just waiting for him to finish.

“How did you not? You should also change the name.”

“Doesn’t it already have one? Why does it need another?” he asked, looking through the menus and finding the naming option, not really planning to defend its current name, “Building C.” After he found out how to change the name, he began muttering to himself.

“What are you doing?”

Eric gestured at Stella to wait. He was thinking about an appropriate name for the dungeon, and for that he needed to properly define what he wanted it to be and what it needed to be. The more he thought about it, the more he realized they were one and the same.

He wanted a place to grow stronger in, and considering his titles, he would get the biggest boost from within the dungeon. If the dungeon got better, everyone else would also benefit from it.

A clear image of what the dungeon would be became clear to him. And considering how Stella was arranging things, it appeared they had come to the same conclusion.

He muttered for a bit longer before finally speaking. “Training grounds,” he said, turning to Stella. “Good?”

Stella took a minute to consider it and nodded a moment later. Eric made the change, the updated dungeon window appearing before him.

Training grounds

Rank F

Experience 58/2000

Dungeon points 1

“I think that should give you an answer,” Eric said, putting the windows away.

The two then began to discuss the most optimal way to upgrade the dungeon. They would later consult Alex for exact numbers and calculations, but they were slowly making a rough outline of what they called, the “Dungeon Roadmap.”

The first part of the roadmap was to save enough dungeon points to add another floor. Apparently, even though there were three physical floors, the dungeon only considered it to be one. Considering all the options, this is what they considered to be the easiest way to raise the dungeon’s rank.

Eric brought up the dungeon menu and looked at the options that they had designated as top priority:

Add floor: Cost: 20 DP.

Add monster: Cost: 2 – 50 DP (dependent on monster tier).

Add floor reward. Cost: 10 - unlimited (dependent on reward).

Add floor reward (+1 random stat): 50 DP.

Add floor reward (100 credits): 10 DP.

Slight dungeon enhancement (mana recovery): Increases the speed at which the dungeon regenerates its own mana. Cost: 5 DP.

Slight dungeon enhancement (mana storage): Increases dungeon’s mana storage. Cost: 7 DP.

Dungeon core: Solidifies mana. Increases storage by an extraordinary amount. Speeds up mana recovery by an extraordinary amount. Can be destroyed. Cost: 100 DP.

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A group of people jumped through the broken glass front of a bread shop, ignoring the cuts they got from doing so. Behind them, following closely, were three trolls, each armed with a random item they tore from the ground.

The current group had managed to survive the initial integration, hiding in a store that only had the main floor, a small storage area, and a single bathroom, which were all occupied when the monsters spawned. But that was as far as their luck took them. Not long after, they got window after window notifying them of new dungeons in the area.

They were warned about the monsters escaping, but there were so many dungeons, that even if one of them knew what to do, it was impossible to clear them all out. To make matters worse, three trolls were roaming the streets. The trolls would kill any monster they found, but they were actively searching for humans.

So, when the four people leading them came to help, they didn’t hesitate to follow.

The last one to jump through judged wrongly and hit their foot against the wall. She screamed for help as she tried to get up, only to notice that a large piece of glass that was sticking out had pierced her leg. Some looked back, seeing the terrified teen, but nobody stopped—not their rescuers, not the other people from the store, not even her friends.

As they continued running, the cries for help became cries that evoked true horror in all that could listen. They knew what was happening to her; they had all seen it at some point. The trolls would eat her up, limbs first, head last.

The survivors had considered it to be a sadistic choice by the trolls, but soon noticed that it was just the way they preferred to eat, at times smashing the head of their victim if the screaming became too distracting.

Taking advantage of the trolls’ distraction, they ran through the back alleys, not caring about the noise they made. They encountered some occasional monsters, but they were no issue for the four people leading the group. Guided by a homing skill, the lead runner was the first to exit the alley, turning and immediately finding their target, a manhole cover.

Together, the four rescuers rushed at the manhole cover and removed it as fast as they could. They then started rushing the others to go down.

“Screaming stopped!” one of the rescuers yelled.

“Hurry!” said another, their voice full of urgency.

Soon the trolls smashed through the walls of the buildings between where they just had their meal and where they could hear the group, but they found nothing. The largest of the trolls smashed its fists on the ground, causing it to shake slightly.

The four rescuers guided the survivors through the sewer system. They took odd turns and seemed to be following no specific markings of any kind. As the unease in the survivors grew, the rescuer that was in the lead finally spoke.

“Here,” she said, speaking for the first time.

What greeted the survivors was a large underground chamber, with large pillars spread evenly across its entirety. They could see hastily built shacks spread through the chamber. The moisture in the air was heavy, and as they descended, they noticed some puddles of water here and there.

Guided by their rescuers, they moved through the pillars, noticing more people, just like them. Wounded, dirty, and with a look in their eyes that could not appropriately convey the horror and death they had witnessed.

“Lydia! Over here!” an older man yelled from a distance.

The lead rescuer nodded and walked in the direction of the person who called out.

“Lost three of them,” Lydia reported matter-of-factly as she removed a dirty gray piece of cloth covering her face.

“Ok. Any trouble?” the older man asked as he took notes.

“The trolls seem to be getting faster,” Lydia started as she began to remove some poorly made armor from her arms and legs, “maybe smarter. They found us quicker this time.”

“Noted.” The man said. “Any safe areas to clear?”

“None that the trolls won’t notice. Like I said, they’re getting better. We went from one end of the city to the other, and they still found us.”

“We need to find one,” the man said in a grave tone. “How are we supposed to get rid of the trolls without leveling up? Supplies are running scarce, and we have nowhere to go—at least nowhere that we can be sure isn’t worse than here.”

“We die to the trolls, or we die to the hunger, or maybe,” Lydia paused, “we risk it beyond the city.”

“We don’t—”

“Yeah, yeah, we don’t know what’s beyond the city, and we know what’s here,” Lydia said, interrupting the old man. “Why does that matter if we can’t do anything about it?”

“Don’t interrupt me,” the old man said sternly. “And don’t dismiss my concerns. What if it’s worse beyond the city? We also have to worry about the monsters in the sewers. We’re lucky they haven’t found us yet.”

“The altern—” Lydia stopped as a system message appeared before not only her but everyone.

A Hub has been activated nearby. A Settlement has been established.

And another one, only available to the four rescuers and the old man.

New quest!

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

Lydia turned to the other three with a questioning gaze, and each of them responded with an affirmative nod.

Lydia began to put her armor back on, as did the others, except the tallest; they hadn’t even begun to remove their armor.

“Good job, Connor,” Lydia said, hitting the tallest on their makeshift breastplate. “Always ready to go.”

“What are you doing?” the older man asked, already knowing the answer.

“Got a quest, and the reward is credits. Credits means store, store means supplies. We’ll check it out and then come back. It’ll also let us check beyond the city.”

The older man looked at Lydia for a moment, examining her thoroughly. He knew that no matter what he said, she would go and the other three would follow. He also knew that she was right, they were beyond rationing now, some were lucky if they got a single grain of rice. They wouldn’t last much longer.

To think that all of this happened in only two days. In part, it was Lydia’s fault, she was extremely good at guiding people to safety. On every run she had made, she brought back more people than supplies, significantly more. He took a deep calming breath, taking that brief moment to come to a decision.

The older man turned to Connor. “What’s the range on your mind thing?” he asked, motioning with his hand.

“About ten meters, give or take,” Connor answered in a deep voice.

“Ok!” the old man said, clapping his hands. “Everyone, pack up!” he yelled, beginning to gather his things.

Lydia wanted to protest, but she knew how bad things were. If only one or two people had taken the initiative and actually created a safe zone, none of this would’ve happened, she thought. She walked toward the others and began to check her equipment.