Broken Anomaly

The four had gone over their plan to attack the last room. Considering the first two rooms, it was highly likely that the final room would be similar and only have five goblins.

Like in the previous room, Alex would open the door and the rest would rush in, each taking care of a goblin. Eric had handed the knife he got from the goblin in the first room over to Stella while he kept the small axe. Alex still had his barbell, and Marcus was now holding a taser he had found in one of the handbags that were left behind.

They all got into position, and Alex counted down from three. When he reached zero, he pushed the door inwards. As soon as the door opened, Eric saw the goblins near the door and activated his skill.

He felt the mana in his body flow toward his brain. His mind began to race as he took in the sight before him: five goblins, just like in the previous rooms. One of them was armed with a small axe, and it was surrounded by three goblins. The last goblin was on the floor as Alex hit him with the door. The goblins were near the door, waiting for us to open it. They probably heard us speaking, he thought.

Getting a vague sense of what to do, Eric lunged forward, swinging his axe at the downed goblin. Marcus tasered the rightmost goblin while Stella stabbed its eye and proceeded to do the same thing to the next goblin.

Alex let go of the door, and after Eric had lunged after the downed goblin, he jabbed the end of the barbell into the armed goblin’s abdomen with all his strength. Causing the goblin to fall to its knees. Alex pulled the barbell back and swung it as hard as he could against its head. The last goblin stood no chance as it stumbled back toward Eric.

Quest complete!

Temporary safe zone activated.

You have entered a safe zone.

Time remaining: 47:59:56

Warning! The safe zone utilizes a high concentration of mana, which will constantly attract monsters.

The relief that had barely started to rise within the four, was stopped by the windows that followed.

Potential safe zone has collapsed.

Dungeon has been formed.

Dungeons are the dens of dangerous monsters. Clear them before the seal breaks.

Dungeon: Building C. Is now available. Time remaining: 23:59:54

“Well, fuck,” were the first words out of Alex’s mouth after reading the windows.

“Fuck. Indeed,” Eric added, agreeing with sentiment.

Building C was where you went for one of three things: learning a new language, art like music or painting, and, last and most important, food. It was the main cafeteria building. It wasn’t the only cafeteria, but it was the biggest. The only other cafeteria was behind building D, near where Eric had come from.

“Let’s first go down and see what we’ll do going forward. Marcus needs to clean his wounds, and you’re hurt,” Stella said, pointing at Eric’s hip wound.

He wasn’t really bothered by the wound, but he wouldn’t say no to some rest.

They walked down to find the main entrance barricaded with the two couches and some gym equipment. Some people were sitting on the stairs and moved as they came down. There were various groups of people huddled together, trying to make sense of what was going on. They walked past them and headed toward the gym.

As they entered the gym, the four split into two pairs. Eric and Marcus headed to the nearest wall and sat down. As they sat, Marcus took his shirt off and turned his back to Eric.

“What?” Eric asked, frowning.

“Come on. I don’t want to have an infection during all this.”

“What do you want me to do?” Eric asked, lifting both hands and tilting his body away from Marcus. “There’s nothing to clean you with. And I don’t want to.”

“Grab some water from the lobby and find some cloth. Come on,” Marcus said in a pleading tone. Marcus was genuinely worried about an infection, and Eric knew this.

According to what Stella had told him, Marcus did recover slightly faster than anyone else she knew, but he still felt the pain. Whatever he had, it didn’t need the System to function.

Eric wanted to see if maybe the System would enhance it. In any case it was his secret and Eric was sure that Stella would tell him if she believed it was relevant.

As Eric and Marcus argued, Stella and Alex headed to the middle of the gym. She walked up to and climbed on top of a bench press and called for everyone to gather. After they did so, she explained everything they knew that she believed was relevant, which was basically nothing.

“I’m sure you also got the notification that we’re in a safe zone,” Stella began to speak with ease, as she had done countless times before. “You should have also seen the one that said that it would attract monsters. Because of that, we have to prepare.”

“Who put—” someone within the small crowd starting to say, only to be cut off by Alex.

“We don’t have time for that. Shut it!” he said in a firm voice as he glared at the speaker. A woman with short red hair scowled and took a few steps back.

“As I was saying,” Stella continued. “We need to prepare for the monsters. Grab whatever you can use as a weapon and do whatever you need to get ready.”

As she finished speaking and silence filled the room, low growls could be heard all around them, creating an unsettling symphony that made everyone’s hair stand on end.The dreadful feeling that was invading the crowd only worsened when they heard the sound of things falling, coming from the lobby.

Alex moved through the crowd at a hurried pace, quickly reaching the end. He grabbed the barbell he used earlier and headed toward the lobby door.

When he approached the door, he readied the barbell into a thrusting position. As soon as he stepped foot in to the lobby, all the tension left his body. The culprit wasn’t what he imagined it to be. It was Eric who was removing the barricade that had been made by the others.

“Wha—” Alex was about to speak but stopped himself and instead helped Eric.

They first removed the various gym equipment that had been piled on top of two couches, careful not to hit the water dispenser, as it was currently their only source of water. They then removed the two couches and put them back where they were previously, near the lobby walls.

As they walked through the glass doors, the small crowd following behind them, they saw monsters gathering around the building. At about ten meters from the entrance, monsters were clumped together into small groups of three or four, with more approaching. While Alex and the crowd looked at the scene before them with consternation, Eric remained unfazed.

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Back in the gym, Stella got off the bench press shortly after everyone left, following Alex, and started walking toward Marcus. As she approached, she saw Marcus wiping his back awkwardly and smiled.

Suddenly, Marcus stopped moving and looked directly in front of him. As Stella looked at him, she felt the air shifting slightly and could clearly see his wounds slowly closing. Her smile vanished and was replaced by a blank expression that made it impossible to discern any emotion. Meanwhile, Marcus read the system messages before him.

Your bloodline has awakened!

Eternal fountain dares the world to break it!

Congratulations! You have brought back a bloodline thought to be extinct.

You have earned the title: Bloodline harbinger.

Bloodline harbinger: You are the new harbinger of your bloodline. Remind the cosmos of its greatness.

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Eric walked to the edge of the safe zone, where a group of monsters stopped their advance and only roamed around it, as if deterred by a wall.

Eric looked around to see where the monsters’ advance stopped, took out the small axe and marked the approximate location of where he guessed the safe zone ended. He walked toward another group and did the same. He did this until he was confident that he could get a clear image of the shape of the zone.

Eric came back from behind the building and walked up to Alex, who had also walked toward the edge of the safe zone.

“It’s a circle,” Eric said, making a circle with his index finger. “It starts somewhere in the middle of the building, and since the building is longer than it is wide, the front and back are narrower.”

Alex only nodded as another voice continued the conversation. “Did you count the monsters?” Stella asked as she and Marcus, who was wearing a different shirt, approached the two.

“Twenty-seven,” Eric answered as he got closer to the edge of the safe zone.

“What’s the—get back here,” Stella said as she grabbed Eric’s shirt by the shoulder, only for him to yank his shoulder forward, causing her to let go.

Eric extended his left hand beyond the safety zone. As soon as his hand left the zone, a monster reached for it. Eric quickly pulled it back but still felt how the monster managed to graze his skin.

Before anyone could react, Eric lifted his right hand and brought it down on the one that bit him. Moments passed, the monsters didn’t react to the death of their companion, and Eric finally spoke. “That’s the plan.”

Barghest +25 experience.

Eric walked back toward the building while looking at his hand. He was mistaken. The monster had not just grazed him, it took small pieces of flesh.

He walked into the lobby and sat down on the empty couch against the wall opposite the entrance. What to do next? he thought. After killing the monsters outside, of course.

He lifted his head to see the crowd gather around the others. He caught glimpses of Stella pointing at the monsters and making gestures that suggested killing them. After a few minutes, Eric put down a water flask he had found in the gym and looked at the crowd disperse. He got up and walked toward his friends.

“What are they going to be doing?” Eric asked, as he vaguely pointed to the dispersed crowd behind him with his thumb.

“WE, including you,” Stella said in a very clear tone. “Are going to clear the monsters that have gathered. Later, we’ll make teams to kill the ones who arrive during the night.”

“How’s your hand?” Alex asked.

“Good,” Eric answered as he lifted it and quickly spun it. “What about the dungeon?”

Stella kept her eye on Eric’s left hand, even as he brought it down and spoke. “We didn’t really talk about that; they were too worried about the monsters outside. But I was thinking that tomorrow morning, the four of us would go.”

“After we get a skill, you mean,” Alex added.

“Of course,” she responded.

“Eric, you said that your actions affected your skill choices, right?” Marcus asked.

“Only the recommended ones. All of them were still available.”

“Oh. That’s great then. Can I borrow your axe?”

Eric gave him the second axe they had gotten from the last room. Slowly, all four of them walked toward a group of monsters, claiming that area as their own and killing whatever monster came their way, from within the safety of the safe zone.

In one of the lulls between monster groups, Eric walked out of the safe zone, just out of pure curiosity.

You have left a safe zone.

Then he walked back in.

You have entered a safe zone.

He began to do more experiments as time passed by. He dragged one of the barghest’s inside to see if they could move and fight freely once inside. They could.

“So, the zone only stops them from entering,” he said to himself as he brought down his axe, killing the monster.

He then activated his skill, Mental Focus, this time focusing on the safe zone and trying to understand how it worked. Feeling the mana in his body rush to his brain, his mana points began shooting down to zero in an instant. He felt his body emptier somehow. Is this how exhausting your mana feels? he thought.

He brought up his status and observed the mana recovery speed. The reason he used his skill was twofold: he wanted to see if it was able to help him understand the safe zone better and to compare the mana recovery speed inside and outside the safe zone.

“Double the speed when inside,” he told himself in a low voice as the sun began to set.

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As the sounds from the outside grew louder, so did the unease of the three survivors. Their faith was shaken each time the box failed to react to the ring. They moved behind the skeletal remains of the great Krisk to avoid being seen by whatever was making the noise outside.

Worlds merged. Mana introduced. New species introduced.

Adjustments have been completed.

Welcome to the System. Your galaxy is in a protected state for the next 10 years.

New species have been incorporated into your new planet.

Solar system size has increased due to merging.

Once the messages stopped, the ring started emitting a faint blue light from patterns that couldn’t be seen before.

With renewed faith, the ring was pressed against the box. Similar patterns to those in the ring started to appear on the box. The box didn’t open immediately. The blue lights from the pattern kept growing in intensity, until the light settled down in a bright, solid, clear ocean blue color.

A click was heard.