Broken Anomaly

Eric left the gallery and sat down in the cafeteria with a couple of water bottles. He cleaned his bite wound and the small scratches he had suffered.

He wasn’t tired, but he didn’t feel that he was ready to fight again. He took this moment to cool down and rest.

After about ten minutes of staring at the floor and thinking about nothing, he rose from his seat and headed upstairs.

After climbing the first set of stairs, he noticed that the light from the outside no longer reached the top of the second set of stairs, where the entrance to the music room was.

“This might be a problem,” he muttered to himself.

Climbing the second set of stairs, Eric stood before the glass entrance to the music room. He reached for his phone instinctively to use its flashlight, but he didn’t find it.

“Marcus!” he exclaimed, snapping his fingers.

Eric had never really used his phone, other than for phone calls, and even then, he would very rarely be the one calling. So he had no problem handing it over to Marcus.

The more he looked into the music room, the odder he found it. The room seemed to be significantly darker than where he was currently standing. There was also no light coming from the hallway in the back that led to three smaller rooms that, unlike the main room, had windows. Maybe the doors are closed, he thought.

At this point, Eric had been looking into the room for a couple of minutes. He had a small hope that his eyes would get accustomed somewhat, and they did, but only to the darkness in the stairway, not the one in the room.

Eric took a deep breath and spoke, “Fuck it.”

Grasping both the knife and the scissors firmly, he pushed the door open. He entered the main room, moving through it mostly on memory. He had been here a couple of times accompanying other people, and the layout was always the same.

He walked toward the hallway in the back, the entrance being near the right wall. He used his hands to feel around, and once he made it to the entrance, he could see a small amount of light coming from all three open doors. It was as if a dim flashlight was somewhere inside each room.

Eric turned his entire body back to the main room without really knowing why. He also had no chance to question it, because as soon as he turned, he was thrown against the wall.

He couldn’t tell what had attacked him because of the darkness, but he knew it was right in front of him. He could tell because both his right shoulder and upper left arm were pinned down.

Eric adjusted his hold on the knife, but as he did so, he could tell that whatever had him pinned down was getting ready to attack once more because of the movement he felt in both his shoulder and arm. He moved whatever he could from side to side.

Suddenly, he felt something graze his cheek. Reacting instinctively, his arm shot forward, stabbing at whatever was attacking him.

As he struck, something in the room changed for a second, the darkness seeming to flicker. During that brief moment, he noticed the faint outline of what seemed to be a giant spider standing before him.

Perception +1

Eric hadn’t stopped moving his head, attempting to dodge any possible strike. But stopped when he felt a sharp pain invade his right eye. Luckily for him, he didn’t get to dwell on the pain, as he suddenly felt two more sources of pain in his torso.

He could only guess as to what it had been, but he was pretty sure that the spider was using its legs like blades. He felt that something was slowly digging deeper into his sides.

You have developed the skill: Pain Tolerance level 1.

Pain Tolerance has reached level 2.

Pain Tolerance has reached level 3.

Somehow, in the middle of all the darkness, three well-illuminated system windows appeared before Eric, their brightness not affecting their surroundings. He ignored them as he felt the spider’s legs dig deeper.

He clenched his teeth and, with little regard for his left arm, rapidly moved it forward. This caused the spider to falter, as its front legs were the only thing keeping it upright. The spider tried to force Eric back, only for him to kick one of its hind legs, causing it to slip.

Eric managed to free himself and ran toward the closest room, where, with the faint light, he could make out chairs and music sheet stands. He dashed forward, grabbed a sheet stand, and made a sharp turn back toward the door.

The faint light that reached the front door disappeared completely. Eric lunged forward, hitting it in the face. The spider retreated, its legs striking everything in front of it and hitting him. But he didn’t retreat. He pulled the sheet stand back and thrust it forward repeatedly. After a while of exchanging blows, the spider’s movements became sluggish, its legs no longer carrying the same force they once did.

Finally, the legs of the stand broke, and the remaining piece pierced the already beaten face of the giant spider, finally killing it.

-----------

Fledgling spider of darkness +350 experience.

You have killed a child of darkness. Beware of the shadows.

Level up!

Mental Focus has reached level 3.

Eric collapsed to his knees, finally feeling every single wound that he had.

The bleeding stab wounds on his sides and shoulder, the gaping wound that he had in his upper left arm, and his right eye, from which he could no longer see. If anyone were to see him now, they would be disturbed by his lack of care for his condition.

“That was interesting, and I guess my depth perception is fucked for a bit,” he said casually as he looked around the room. “The darkness is gone, woo...”

Eric watched as the darkness started to behave like a viscous liquid, dripping from the walls and ceiling, coalescing into various dark puddles that made their way toward the spider’s thorax as light enveloped the room.

Eric rose and walked toward the spider’s corpse. Retrieved the knife that was still embedded in it and carved its thorax open, following the darkness puddles.

What he saw inside was a small, misshapen crystal. Inside the crystal was an incredibly dark substance. He grabbed it with his right hand, examining it.

He noticed that the light seemed to be absorbed by the crystal. Interesting, he thought as put it away.

He walked back into the room and sat on a chair, finally taking the time to check his system messages.

You have killed a child of darkness. Beware of the shadows.

Eric took a time to think about the message. “What does this even mean? Am I supposed to be careful of all the shadows?” he said dismissively. He dismissed the window immediately, not giving it more thought, as he really couldn’t do anything about it.

He then thought about his skill, specifically on what it had analyzed during his journey to the dungeon and during his fights with the spiders, mana regeneration, and how to increase it.

He knew there was a skill for it, but he had a theory—a theory that was confirmed just now during his fight. Skills could be developed on their own, just like he had done with Pain Tolerance, though he didn’t really plan that.

He thought about mana regeneration, and information about how it worked flooded his mind. Mana regenerated on its own; his body created it. Similar to how his body naturally converted food into energy, it naturally converted the air he breathed into mana.

The speed was determined by the mana concentration in the air, the rate at which he breathed, and how fast he could convert it. The way to speed up regeneration had to do with improving at least one of those aspects.

He started to think about his options and came to the conclusion that the only way he could increase it was to improve his conversion rate. He couldn’t really change the concentration of mana in the air or breathe like crazy, so that only left his conversion rate. Before he put his skill to work, he brought up his status screen.

Eric Aguilar

Mana 100/100

Rank F

Level 5

Experience 155/900

Stats

Vitality 8

Endurance 21

Strength 12

Dexterity 9

Constitution 10

Agility 8

Perception 7

Charisma 5

Intelligence 6

Wisdom 4

Stat points 4

Skill points 1

Skills +

Concepts -

Titles +

Magic –

“So, we do get a skill point at level five. Nice,” Eric said as he opened the available skill list.

Axe mastery. Spear mastery. Knife mastery. Amplification. Dash. Inspect.

He first checked the recommended skills, noticing that they remained unchanged.

He considered getting a weapon skill but ultimately decided against it because he really didn’t feel a connection to any of the weapons he used. Maybe spear, but nah.

Then his thoughts turned to Mana Regeneration, not on getting it, but on something that could help him develop the skill. He looked through the skill list and landed on Mana Sense.

Mana Sense: Allows you to sense mana.

Eric thought about it carefully because he could already sense mana, at least the mana inside his body. So, he wasn’t sure what the skill would allow him to do.

It might allow him to feel the mana in the environment, but if he could already feel the mana inside of him, maybe in the future he would be able to sense the mana outside as well. He also had to consider the countdown back at the safe zone.

The more he thought about it, the more his mind would become invaded by other considerations, like, maybe Mana Manipulation would be better, getting a weapon skill for a head start, or tossing a coin. Before he let anything more cloud his mind, he chose the skill.

You have acquired the skill: Mana Sense level 1.

As soon as he got the skill, he activated it. At first, he didn’t feel anything, but then he felt something akin to a cold hair strand brushing against his skin every so often.

He tried to concentrate on his area of detection and had no luck. Instead, he tried to focus on what he could already feel—the mana that coursed through his body. The skill responded immediately, giving him a clearer image of what was going on inside of him.

From what he could tell, the mana wasn’t really doing anything specific. It would flow in one direction, hit something, disperse, gather, hit something else, and disperse once more. This doesn’t feel right.

Now Eric had to make a choice, continue his investigation into mana regeneration, or figure out what was wrong or missing from his internal mana. He tried to focus on both and got back a negative response.

He got up and headed to the counter downstairs. He searched the register and took out a coin. “Heads I do regeneration, tails I do... the... other one,” he said, struggling to think of a name. He then flipped the coin into the air. “Regeneration it is.”

Eric took the chance to look around for a piece of clothing that he could use for his left arm, which currently had very limited movement. He didn’t find anything in the main cafeteria room, so he turned his attention to the kitchen, thinking that there might be some rags or maybe a uniform he could use.

He grasped the knife firmly, but as he approached the door, he noticed that it was ajar. Nothing appeared to be different from when he entered, so it must have been like that since the beginning.

Cautiously, he pushed the door open, unsure if monsters would be inside. When he fully opened the door, he saw that there were no monsters inside.

The kitchen wasn’t that big; it was a long hallway with two stoves, a big sink, and some countertops all against the left wall, which was the storage room wall.

A quick glance made him aware of an apron that was hanging on a mop near the storage room door. He walked toward the mop, and as he grabbed the apron, he heard whispers coming from inside the storage room.