Anomaly

Chapter 350 – The Primordial Fear [68]

Novel Recommendation: All Jobs and Classes! I Just Wanted One Skill, Not Them All!

Synopsis: Ludger was supposed to be just another forgotten soul, reborn into a quiet life under the care of his young mother, Elaine. With nothing but a mysterious system in his vision and the faint promise of growth, he resigned himself to learning the humble trade of cooking. Knives, fire, seasoning—his skills grew sharper than his years, but it wasn’t the power-fantasy adventure he once dreamed of. That is, until one reckless night in the tavern, when a hooded mage and a simple spell shattered the illusion of normalcy forever.

Marked by the system as a prodigy, Ludger finds himself juggling more than just knives and plates. Every Job, every Class, every Master holds a new path forward, and he refuses to let his second life waste away like his first. From kitchen tricks to forbidden magic, his journey forces him to carve out his place in a world that rewards ambition—but punishes those who rise too quickly. Allies, enemies, and masters appear in unexpected places, and Ludger soon learns that every choice he makes reshapes not only his future, but the balance of power around him.

What begins as the daily grind of a precocious child slowly transforms into the legend of a boy who refuses to follow anyone’s script but his own. With wit, stubborn pride, and the determination to never be helpless again, Ludger steps onto the path of true ascendance—one coin, one skill, and one risky gamble at a time.

(POV – Protagonist)

My body spun through the air with minimal movement, just enough to keep my balance as I climbed. My feet propelled me upward with steady force, while my free hand, the only one not holding my little sister, dug into the inner wall of the tower.

With every contact, my fingers left small, irregular holes in the surface, fragments of stone breaking loose and falling into the void below as I moved forward, gripping the concrete as if it were clay.

Honestly, I didn’t even need to use that much strength to stay stuck to the wall, since there was barely any weight pulling me down. To be honest, my little sister practically weighed nothing, it was like holding a sheet of paper. I won’t lie, it still feels strange to me, but considering the current situation and everything that’s already happened, I really didn’t have any valid reason to complain.

Victor, Rupert, Arthur, and the rest of the response team technically weren’t being lifted by me either, but by my Alter Ego. Because of that, I couldn’t feel their weight.

My gaze instinctively drifted downward, drawn by the sluggish yet furious movement of the shapeless, bubbling amalgam of darkness that continued to rise. The living mass pulsed in a constant, repulsive rhythm, and from within it, blackened skeletal hands emerged in irregular waves.

They clung to cracked walls, fragile ledges, any minimal support that could lift the thing chasing us a little closer in our direction. Each advance seemed to require brutal effort.

The hands twisted under the pressure, bones snapping before shattering apart, breaking beneath the very force they exerted, reduced to broken fragments that were quickly swallowed by the same darkness they had emerged from.

Even so, new hands sprouted without hesitation, replacing the previous ones as if they were disposable. The entity controlling that mass showed no concern whatsoever for the constant sacrifice of its own limbs.

There was no hesitation, no pain, no fatigue, only cold, relentless determination. Its only apparent objective was us, and judging by how mercilessly it pursued us, I was certain that thing wouldn’t stop the chase... not until it got exactly what it wanted.

That said, it wasn’t as if our escape was actually working, quite the opposite. Our climbing speed had increased considerably since I started jumping between the tower’s edges, using its protrusions and irregular structures to propel us higher and higher.

The wind cut across my face, and the sound of impacts echoed through the structure like hollow knocks in an endless void. Even so, the higher we climbed, the more the tower seemed to stretch internally, as if ignoring all spatial logic.

The feeling was similar to staring into a deep abyss, a bottomless hole where darkness swallowed any sense of distance or progress. And the most unsettling part was the growing impression that the farther we advanced, the less we approached any real destination.

Still, it wasn’t like I could just stop and reflect on all that. Not when I already had enough problems trying to keep us alive while the amalgam of darkness chased us, voracious, like a starving creature unwilling to give up its prey.

Victor, Rupert, and Arthur seemed fully aware of how serious our situation was, or at least aware enough to know we were seriously screwed: “Shouldn’t we!... I don’t know!... try shooting at that thing or something!?” Rupert shouted, his voice tearing through the air and echoing around us as I made another leap, the wind vibrating all around us.

He breathed heavily, almost gasping: “We’re running out of options here! We’re not getting anywhere, and that thing won’t stop following us! If I’m going to die anyway... then I’m going down fighting!”

He grunted at the end, eyes fixed on the darkened amalgam writhing below us like a living tide of shadows. There was hatred in his gaze, and fear too, though he tried to hide it behind clenched teeth and a defiant tone.

“Normally I would agree with you, my dear Rupert!” Arthur replied, his sharp voice cutting through the air and nearly swallowed by the violent roar of the wind caused by my own uncontrolled bursts of movement. He narrowed his eyes, trying to maintain focus amid the surrounding chaos: “But I don’t see how that would work against this thing... as far as I know, we’re not even looking at the real entity!”

Rupert’s expression tightened, as if he had just swallowed something bitter. His lips moved hesitantly, as though searching for words that never came. In the end, he remained silent.

Victor stepped in between them: “As much as I hate to make things worse... Arthur’s right”

My fingers dug back into the tower’s internal structure, the cold, uneven surface scraping against my skin as I adjusted my balance. My gaze settled on Victor, his face looked visibly tense, a silent concern he seemed to be organizing before speaking again.

“At first I thought it was just in my head” he continued in a low voice: “I’d never felt anything like this before. But now... now that we’re climbing fast enough, I can perceive it more clearly”

Victor’s eyes scanned the interior of the tower, attentive to the smallest details. Then he narrowed his gaze toward the bubbling, shapeless mass of darkness below us, slowly pulsing like something alive.

“We’re not going anywhere” he said at last: “Every time we climb past a certain point... we just slide back again. It feels like... swimming downward”

I wasn’t sure what he meant by those last words, but I could agree with everything else. Honestly, I’d been feeling that same strange impression too, as if instead of simply climbing, we were both descending and ascending at the same time, trapped in an endless loop.

Whenever we climbed beyond a certain point, it felt like we were going up and yet returning to the same place. I have no idea how that dark, shapeless mass fits into all this, or where exactly it came from. Still, the fact that it hadn’t caught us so far already said something... probably.

“I don’t care how this damn tower works! What I want to know is whether anyone has a plan to get us out of this stupid place!” Rupert demanded, raising his voice above the constant noise around us.

His fingers nervously gripped the shadow-made strap wrapped around his waist while he continued muttering about feeling like a rag doll being tossed around.

Victor’s expression turned thoughtful and tense. Sweat ran down his forehead in thin streams, reflecting the faint light filling the tower’s interior.

His eyes moved tirelessly through the environment, scanning every stone, every shadow cast by the irregular walls, perhaps searching for a hole, a crack, any hidden passage that could mean our way out.

The end came when his gaze met mine. Still perched against the tower’s inner wall, I remained perfectly still, staring back at him. Victor’s expression tightened, his brows drawing together as something, a sudden idea, lit up behind his eyes.

“You need to do that again!” he shouted toward me, his voice heavy with urgency.

Naturally, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. I tilted my head to the side, confused, and he seemed to understand the gesture immediately.

“That thing you did to save me from the crab! Just... I don’t know, wish for there to be an exit!” he said, gesturing desperately, as if he could pull a solution straight out of the air: “Either way, if you don’t do something, we’re all going to die!”

The event he referred to surfaced naturally in my mind, the power I had used to save him from certain death, which had technically happened according to everyone else. However, there was just one small problem... what exactly was I supposed to do to use that power again?

Last time, it hadn’t been conscious. There was no preparation, no deliberate effort. And honestly, I hadn’t felt anything at all when it happened. From my perspective, I had simply... I don’t know, arrived in time. Maybe it looked different to the others. But to me, that was all it was. I just showed up at the right moment.

Pairs of eyes turned toward me, filled with expectation, waiting for an answer that, to be honest, I wasn’t even sure I could give. My mind scrambled desperately for some explanation of what I had done. I didn’t even understand how I had done it... and frankly, the bubbling darkness chasing us didn’t seem very interested in waiting for my doubts to be resolved.

As the churning mass advanced, devouring everything it touched with a wet, hissing sound, my thoughts raced at full speed. Just as Victor had pointed out, I couldn’t believe we would get anywhere given the tower’s bizarre condition.

On the other hand, we had another concern to focus on: the constant feeling that, sooner or later, we would inevitably be caught. And judging by how things were unfolding, it didn’t seem like it would take long for that terrible future to arrive.

I racked my brain for a while, but in the end every line of thought led to the same conclusion: Victor was right. If we wanted to get out of this stupid tower, I would somehow have to use that power again... the same power I had used to save his life.

(I’ll try) I murmured to myself. That said... where was I even supposed to begin?

To start with, I had no idea what that power actually was. It was different from my golden dimension, and also different from when my sphere appears to absorb my sisters’ powers. In the first case, I just... do it, and it simply happens.

In the second, every action is completely intentional, guided by my will. But what I had used to save Victor... that one, I had no idea how or where to begin. I shook my head, trying to push away the storm of thoughts. This wasn’t the time for theorizing.

Below me, the bubbling dark mass advanced again, pulsing like a living creature. I ignored it and adjusted my stance. I would think about it while moving.

With that, I let one last warning echo through the space before launching myself once more between the tower’s inner walls: (Watch out for the teeth)

In the next instant, my feet barely touched the surface before propelling my body forward again. The air vibrated around me, sliced by the sharp sound of my passage as I ricocheted between the walls like a living projectile.

The moment my feet and hands touched the wall, I pushed off again, repeating the movement in rapid succession. Each jump was faster than the last, my body completely ignoring gravity as I tried to reach something, something that should have been inside me.

I focused my mind and senses on that single intention, completely isolating myself from the chaos around me. The noise, the weight of the moment itself faded away, as if I had plunged into a silent void.

And then it happened. I don’t know exactly what triggered it, but I felt a connection forming, distant, almost intangible, like an invisible thread stretching across an infinite abyss toward me.

It was faint, almost like dust floating in the light, but behind it there was something vast, deep, incomprehensible... something barely perceptible, like a sleeping presence. Even without understanding its nature, a certainty rose within me, firm and unquestionable. This was it. This was exactly what we needed.