Erin woke up to being on the cold hard ground. She rubbed her eyes as she slowly got up. At first, she thought that Layla had left the curtains closed in their dorm room when she remembered what had happened.
Judging by how dark it was, it was still night time. She was familiar enough with other planets to know that they didn't follow the typical 24 hour day night schedule that Earth did. Even back on planet Kilo, the day night schedule had a 20 hour day night schedule.
Surprisingly, Erin wasn't all that sore or uncomfortable from sleeping on the ground. A thought came in mind about something Layla said to her before how vampires went to sleep in coffins.
'Don't tell me I'm getting weird vampire habits now,' Erin thought.
[Your hunger grows]
[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. The other message, however, was more concerning. This is exactly what she had feared, and it was the fact that she hadn't drank any blood in a long time. Erin needed to find Fex.
Erin had 30 milliliters of blood left in her blood bank, 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 better 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 non zero chance it could be the result of the dalki.
Her body shivered, and she sat with her knees to her chest. Erin still remembered the smell 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 home.
Erin was going to get off of this planet. She had to. She needed to surpass her old self, and she promised to Quinn that she had to live.
She opened the door of the safe, about to leave, when she caught sight of something that wasn't there before.
Immediately, 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]
[Intermediate level beast]
Nothing else was revealed about the beast.
Erin then was recalculating how capable she was of defeating the intermediate beast. She had been able to defeat them in the past, and was able to defeat the one from the start. Although it did come at a major cost to her health, she was a lower level yesterday compared to her current level now.
'Is it worth the risk? No, I don't have a way to regain my health.'
Erin delicately closed the door, and sat down. She could wait it out, the beast wasn't here originally, so it was bound to leave. Instead, Erin had something else to occupy her time.
She took out the shadow ability book from her system inventory, and opened it. According to the system message, Erin could learn the book instantly. 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.
'dimensional 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 supporting the user wasn't a bad idea. Erin used to get her strength from her ice ability, but now she had the system to give her strength. It gave her skills like bloodswipe and blood spray which were very offensive moves.
Erin let out a sigh, readying herself, and closed the book. In ideal conditions, she would've liked 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 messages.
[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 dimensional 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 immediately 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. 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 came 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 movement 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.'
Looking at the other skill, dimensional 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 feat.]
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 didn't buy it since she didn't know when she would get more skill points, and some 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} Why are you so worried about the expedition when you're on a RED portal planet? Have you found Fex yet?
{Erin} No, I'm still in the safe. There's a beast right outside. I was going to check to see if it was still there until you started messaging me.
{Quinn} I know you're strong, Erin, but I still worry about you.
She temporarily ignored him, just long enough to take a glance outside. That was when she noticed 3 round objects sitting in a heap of scrap metal.
[Inspect]
[Scordana eggs]
[Intermediate 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} The beast just gave birth. Its going to be weaker. Creating a new being takes a lot out of a person's body, which definitely 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 risk starving.
{Quinn} You'll be fine, right? You already beat an intermediate beast when you first arrived, and now you're level 8.
{Erin} I don't plan on dying here. 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 was 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, mere feet away from the scordana.
Utilizing flash step, she jumped up and slammed 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."