Erin woke up to the cold dark room. She rubbed her eyes as she slowly got up. At first, she thought that Layla had turned on the air conditioning in their room when she rembered what had happened.
Opening the door outside, the world was just as dark as it was yesterday, indicating that it was still night ti. Erin was familiar enough with other planets to know that they didn’t always follow the typical 24 hour day night schedule that Earth did. Even back on planet Kilo, a full day was 20 hours.
Surprisingly, Erin wasn’t all that sore or uncomfortable from sleeping on a bunch of books. A thought ca in mind about sothing Layla said to her before how vampires went to sleep in coffins.
’Don’t tell I’m getting weird vampire habits now,’ Erin thought.
[Daily quest complete, avoid direct sunlight for 8 hours]
At least the quest told her that it had been at least 8 hours since she first arrived, which likely happened while she was asleep. There was one thing that was still on her mind, and it was the lack of blood.
’Layla ntioned that vampires would starve if they couldn’t drink blood in ti, but I never thought to test how long a vampire could survive without blood,’ Erin contemplated, ’For another day, I’ll be fine. After that is unknown.’
There was also the fact that getting injured made her hungrier, like when she was at the assembly hall, or fighting against Nill. Currently, her blood bank only had 30 milliliters of blood left, but it was barely enough to continue surviving.
’Barely enough? No, it’s not enough at all...’ Erin rethought.
She was on a red portal planet of all places. The most dangerous kind of planet humans could easily go to. Erin had managed to survive this long but only because she had a body stronger than a normal human’s. Even then, the beasts were wearing her down, and that would be nothing in comparison to the biggest threat to humanity if her worst fears would be true.
Erin didn’t know why this planet was marked as a red portal planet, but if she had past experiences to go by, then there was a small, but not insignificant chance it could be the result of the dalki.
Her body shivered, and she sat with her knees to her chest. Erin still rembered the sll of burning flesh, smoke, and the sounds of screaming.
Shaking her head, Erin needed to snap out of it. She didn’t know for sure if there really were dalki here, and it was likely that they moved on. The planet was silent in comparison to the sounds of war being ravaged on her old ho.
Erin was going to get off of this planet. She had to. She needed to surpass her old self, and she made a promise that she had to live.
She opened the door of the safe, about to leave, when she caught sight of sothing that wasn’t there before.
Imdiately, Erin shut the door tight and nervously gulped.
’I don’t have enough health for this,’ Erin thought.
Erin carefully pushed down on the door handle again, careful not to make a sound. She slowly opened the door and peeked her head out as she saw a large beast inside the hanger.
It’s body was half humanoid and pale, but the bottom half was clearly different as it was dark brown, and shaped like a scorpion. Instead of having hands, it had big sharp claws.
[Inspect]
[Scordana]
[Interdiate level beast]
Nothing else was revealed about the beast.
Recalculating how capable she was of defeating the interdiate beast, Erin had been able to defeat an interdiate tier when she first arrived. Although it did co at a cost to her health, she had improved since then.
’Is it worth the risk? No, I don’t have a good way to regain my health.’
Erin delicately closed the door, and sat down. It was possible to wait it out since the beast wasn’t here originally, so it was bound to leave. Instead, Erin had sothing else to occupy her ti.
She took out the shadow ability book from her system inventory, and opened it. According to the system ssage, Erin could learn the book instantly, but the only reason why she hadn’t just yet was because when she had absorbed the other books, they disappeared. Since she had an ability in the past, Erin knew the importance of learning from the book itself.
’dinsional storage... shadow control... shadow cloak... This doesn’t seem like a very offensive ability,’ Erin read.
After thinking about it, having an ability that focused on defending its user wasn’t a bad idea. Erin used to get her strength from her ice ability, but now she had the system to make her stronger, and it gave her offensive skills like bloodswipe and blood spray.
Letting out a sigh, Erin made a decision, and closed the book. In ideal conditions, she would’ve preferred to learn from reading the book, but shortcuts had to be made.
[Would you like to learn the level 6 shadow ability?]
[Yes]
The book lifted into the air, the pages rapidly turning and flashing bright lights. Once all of the paged turned, it disintegrated into nothing, leaving Erin with a headache.
Holding her head, Erin was trying to process all the information suddenly stored in her brain. The pain eased, and she saw several new system ssages.
[Congratulations, you have learned the level 6 shadow ability]
[You have now unlocked the shadow skills tab]
[You have unlocked the Mutant Cell stat]
[10 skill points have been added]
[New skill dinsional storage has been activated]
[New skill shadow control lv.1 has been added]
[MC 100/100]
’Is 100 Mutant Cells enough?’ Erin thought, as she imdiately tried to control the shadow.
[Shadow control Lv.1 active]
The shadows that Erin’s body naturally casted felt alive, and then extended outward from herself. It was like an extra limb she could actively control, which felt different from Erin’s first ability. In comparison, the ice ability was more like a tool than an extra limb, and she could wield it’s power, but only outside of her body.
Just moving the shadow around didn’t seem to use up a lot of MC, with it only being 1 point of MC per minute.
The shadow moved to one of the books on the shelf, and she controlled the shadow to grab it, forming into a hand. Surprisingly, she was capable of picking it up.
She then set it down and tried to see if she could shape the shadow into a sword, but when she tried to slice the shadow sword into the book, it only moved it slightly to the left.
’I should’ve expected this, but I really hoped it would’ve been more offensive.’
An idea ca into her head and she used the shadow to carry a book, then used it to lightly smack her hand. She felt the force of the book, but the movent was kinda slow. A small fear crept in her mind that she had learned a crappy ability.
Erin shook her head, ’It’s a level 6 ability, it has to be good, and it was kept in this storage for a reason.’
Looking at the other skill, dinsional storage, she checked it’s description.
[This skill will allow the user to store items into its shadow storage. As long as there is a shadow nearby, you can take out and put in items as you wish. This includes your very own Shadow underneath your feet.]
Erin grabbed one of the level 3 earth ability books, and activated shadow storage. The book was enveloped by shadows before disappearing. This would at least solve her problem of carrying a book around.
Lastly, there were 10 skill points she could spend, but the only one she could’ve purchased was one called "shadow cloak." She opted not to buy it just yet in case skill points were sothing rare to obtain, and so part of her hoped she could save up and get an offensive sounding skill later.
When Erin was about to check up on the beast outside, she got a notification.
{Quinn} Erin, how are you holding up?
{Erin} I’m fine. I found a place to sleep safely in a safe.
{Erin} Is the portal expedition still on?
{Quinn} They postponed it.
{Erin} Good, I can still make it.
{Quinn} There’s better things to worry about than the expedition, have you found Fex yet?
{Erin} No, I’m still in the safe, and there’s a beast right outside.
{Erin} I was about to check it, until you started ssaging .
{Quinn} I know you’re strong, Erin, but I still worry about you.
She ignored his last ssage, and took a glance outside. That was when she noticed 3 round objects sitting in a heap of scrap tal.
[Inspect]
[Scordana eggs]
[Interdiate beast level]
{Quinn} Are those the eggs of the beast outside of the safe?
{Erin} It is.
{Quinn} Oh no, I think it’s going to stay there to defend it.
{Erin} I’m aware.
{Erin} The beast just gave birth, so its going to be weaker. Creating a new being takes a lot out of a person’s body, which has to apply to beasts.
{Quinn} I don’t know if you should wait until the scordana leaves, or go for it right now...
{Erin} I’d rather get out of here sooner than die starving doing nothing.
{Quinn} Are you sure you can take on another interdiate tier beast? You nearly lost a lot of health with the last one.
{Erin} Don’t underestimate . I don’t plan on dying here, and there’s still so much I need to do before I go.
Grabbing her sword, Erin walked out of the safe, and crept slowly through the hanger. The front doors of the storage room were destroyed, likely because of the scordana, and Erin kept a close eye on the beast.
Getting closer and closer, Erin prepared to make her first move. She was right behind a tipped over table, re feet away from the scordana.
’If I tried leaving normally, you’d notice right away. Its better for to make the first move.’
Utilizing flash step, she jumped up and slamd her sword into the scordana’s shoulder. Black blood oozed out, but not before a huge claw swung towards her.
She ripped the sword out, and jumped back. Both Erin and the scordana were now at odds, each holding their respective weapons up. Erin with her sword and the scordana with its massive claws.
"I’m not scared of you."
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