Jake made his way through the thick woods of what used to be a city park. Now, it was so overgrown with vegetation that it looked more like a jungle. The area was crawling with ex-humans, so he stayed vigilant. He wove through the trees, leading with his assault rifle. Every now and then, mutants burst out of the foliage, but Jake stitched them with bullets long before they could get close. Fortunately, the city park was populated mostly by low-level mutants like walkers and leapers, so he didn’t have much trouble dealing with them.
Occasionally, he came across a replication pod hanging from a branch sturdy enough to support its weight. A replication pod created a mutant inside of it, nurturing it from a single cell to a fully grown-up creature in a matter of a few minutes. Once a mutant was fully developed, a replication pod opened to let it out. After that, a replication pod sealed itself shut once more, filling with some kind of life-giving liquid, and the process began anew. As Jake picked his way through the overgrown city park, he made sure to obliterate every replication pod he encountered, ripping them to shreds with bullets.
At one point, he leveled up, but he decided to hold off on allocating the skill point for now. He planned to do that once he finished his mission and got back to the safety of one of his hideouts. With the day drawing to a close and darkness descending, he decided he would call it a day after completing his current mission. While he had initially intended to check the survivors’ stash, he figured it could wait until tomorrow as there was no need to rush.
Finally, the trees opened out into a vast area of tall grass. Jake paused at the edge of the treeline, scanning his surroundings. With no mutants in sight, he took in the clearing, finding nothing of interest except for a magical anomaly right at the center of the open area. It hovered motionless a few feet above the ground.
Many anomalies he came across were difficult to detect, with some being entirely invisible and only noticeable by the sounds they emitted. However, the anomaly hovering in the middle of the clearing was different. It was clearly visible, resembling a large black hole as if the very fabric of reality had been ripped open in that specific spot.
As soon as he stepped out of the trees, Jake sensed an unseen force tugging him toward the anomaly. Initially weak, the pull intensified with each step he took across the clearing. As he approached the anomaly, the force grew stronger. At some point, he stopped walking. It was obvious that if he ventured too close to the anomaly, the pull would become so powerful he would be unable to resist being drawn into the abyss of the black hole.
Backing up until he reached the edge of the trees surrounding the clearing where the pull was weakest, Jake used his PDA to analyze the anomaly.
Name: Dark Void
Description: Dark Void pulls in living creatures to subject them to mana-infused morphogenetic mutation. If the victim is an ex-human and survives the process, it becomes significantly stronger. The chances of a regular human surviving in the Dark Void are slim to none.
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Danger Level: 10 (Very High). A failed attempt to close the Dark Void immediately triggers it, causing the Dark Void to draw in anything within its reach.
Jake pocketed his PDA and looked at the Dark Void once more, his brow furrowed in thought. So far, he’d encountered several types of anomalies, and all of them had different abilities. Some anomalies pulled you in only to fling you away with tremendous force in a random direction. Another could shatter every bone in your body. Yet another unleashed a blast of magical energy, inflicting harm on everything within its reach. Each type of anomaly had a different and dangerous ability.
Anomalies were also triggered differently. Some of them were triggered by physical contact, while others activated when approached too closely. Recently, he had discovered that certain anomalies could be set off by loud noises. The Dark Void, unlike the others, appeared to be constantly active, exerting a persistent pulling force on its surroundings.
Jake observed a ring of barren space encircling the anomaly, devoid of the tall grass in that particular area. The ground within this circle appeared darkened, as though scorched. This ominous dark ring likely marked the event horizon of the Dark Void—a point of no return. The dark circle measured approximately thirty yards in diameter, indicating the area where the pull of the Dark Void was strongest. Anything entering the blackened earth within that circle would likely find it impossible to escape the grip of the anomaly.
Jake was at a loss for what to do. Based on the description of the Dark Void, he understood that if for whatever reason, he was unable to seal it shut, the anomaly would trigger, dragging everything within its effective range into its depths. Although he stood at the edge of the clearing where the Dark Void’s pull was weakest, Jake was still within the anomaly’s effective range. He knew that if the Dark Void was triggered, its pull would intensify significantly. Jake found himself in a dilemma; he couldn’t move farther away from the anomaly but instead had to get closer to it. Based on his experience, he knew that he needed to be approximately thirty yards from an anomaly in order to cast a Closing spell on it.
And that was the predicament Jake found himself facing. He needed to make his way much closer to the Dark Void than his current position. So he needed to position himself about fifteen yards from the dark circle in order to be able to cast the spell on the anomaly. Once in the correct position, he would have to concentrate fully on using the spell for at least a minute or longer. Any distraction would break the spell, triggering the anomaly. Whether he would be able to avoid being pulled into the Dark Void while being in such close proximity was anybody’s guess.
He scanned his surroundings once more, noting the absence of mutants within the clearing. However, he was aware that many of them lurked in the woods surrounding the area. Upon entering the park, Jake utilized the scanner app on his PDA to identify the types of mutants he would encounter within the area. Due to the app’s current level being only 1, it was unable to display the proximity of mutants, though. As a result, Jake had no way of knowing if there were enemies nearby. Any unexpected attack while casting the spell would put him in serious jeopardy.
Just as Jake contemplated the situation, he noticed a mutant emerging from the trees on the opposite side of the clearing. The leaper, moving on all fours, immediately caught sight of Jake despite the significant distance between them. The ex-human instantly burst into a run across the clearing toward him. Jake brought up his assault rifle, aligning the iron sights with the approaching threat. His index finger instinctively found its place inside the trigger guard, ready to unleash a barrage of bullets on the charging mutant.