When the moon was high up in the sky, the city of Lando was covered in the veil of silence. Most people in the city were asleep, but there were a few, who were wide awake. Some of them were roaming the streets, while some were keeping a lookout for the monsters. These people were an essential part of the city, and it was because of their sacrifice everyone could have a peaceful sleep.
And then there were these other ones, people who were not really serving the city in any way, and they were still awake. Most people in the category were drunkards. Unfortunately, Arun also fell into this category that night. He was also awake because he just couldnt get himself to sleep or touch any part of the room that he had rented.
That room had a musty smell to it. The sheets of the bed, the mattress, everything was greyish, and smelled a little bit like pee. He didnt know what the people of this city had with pee, but he was not even getting near that mattress. He swore to himself, that if he touched that mattress that night, only an acid bath would be able to wash away his sins. He was tired and really wanted a good bed to sleep in, but he couldnt do it on the bed. So he took the next best thing, chose the least dirtiest corner of the room, and closed his eyes.
Arun didnt know what happened, but when he woke up, he saw it was still dark outside. He didnt know what woke him, but he felt that something weird was going on. He went to look out the window and saw the empty street outside. For some reason, he couldnt shake a feeling that something was wrong there, it was as if something was staring at him. He didnt know what tempted him, but he looked in the sky. And it was then he saw something, that he couldnt understand.
A bird was flying around his inn. This bird was glowing as if it was made of light.
Wait. That is not a bird.. It looks more like an owl.. FUCK! That invitation letter….
Immediately he ordered the system to show him all the invitations that he had gotten till now. And sure enough, there was an invitation letter from the Mistress of an Owl that he got a while ago, which promised him a skill called Owl Familiar. He didnt know what the skill could do. But based on its name, and the astral bird before him, he figured that it might be a reconnaissance skill or some sort. There was also a chance that it could be an attack skill, but he couldnt say it for sure.
It was then he saw a silhouette, walking down the stretch of a street, which was visible from his window. The astral bird that had been flying over his inn took a dive and went straight for the silhouette. The bird went through the silhouette, it didnt look like it attacked it. From what he saw, it seems that the silhouette just reabsorbed the bird.
So it is a resonance skill… Unless, I am wrong…
Arun looked at the silhouette with curiosity, trying to understand what was it doing there. The silhouette was soon joined by two more people, who came out of nowhere in an alleyway. When they passed another alleyway, they were joined by three more people. And before he knew it, Arun found himself staring at a group of people heading his way.
Something is not right here.
It was then suddenly a window appeared before him. Unlike the normal blue window that had been appearing before his eyes, this one was different. The window was broken from the corners and seemed like a glitch in the system. Glitch or not, the window came bearing a message for him.
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Quest- First Step as the Anamoly
Description- As an Anamoly, it is your job to disrupt the movements of factions in the Tower of Yggdrasil. Currently, the faction of Mistress of an Owl is heading your way, to kill a fellow comrade. As an anomaly here is your first quest and your first exam. Show your worth Shikari, and more tasks will come your way.
Help your comrade to escape. Help the barkeep to get away from the clutches of the Faction. Kill five of the Faction members. Please note, if they saw your face, you would have to face the animosity of your whole faction. Kill ten members. Kill the Leader of the Faction.
Rewards- Based on what tasks you are able to achieve.
PS- You can also ignore the task and run away if you want.
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The message was an eye-opener for Arun. Especially the knowledge about the Barkeep being an anomaly like him came as a surprise to him.
Also, he has always wondered what it really meant to be an anomaly in the game. And now he knows it. Now the question was, what should be done about the quest? Based on the number of people in the Faction, it was very tempting for him to just abandon the quest.
But I cannot do that now, can I? He thought, Clearly it is mentioned that the person who gave me the quest wants to test out my skills. If I were to abandon the quest, then I could be losing an opportunity to get some badass skills. Based on the difficulty of the task, it seems that there is a Skill waiting for me at the end of the quest.
He then looked up, to see that the person in charge of the group was sending people here and there. He realized that the person was trying to cover all the exits that his fellow comrade could take.
Let's start with the basics. Let's inform the barkeep first about the imminent attack. He then immediately jumped up and started heading downstairs. As far as his other quest was concerned, he would see what he would be able to do about it, after he had tackled the first task at hand.