The shelter they had just arrived at was just as big as the military base they had come from. It was a similar size to the old towns that human civilization used to have. The only difference was there were no tall skyscraper-like buildings and the biggest building in this shelter was a military one which was only three stories high.
The ground they stood on top of was hard and solid, a dry orange colour, with no sign of green life. It was hard t imagine anything being able to grow on these lands. It was clear that hot blistering sun had dried out the ground.
It was the first time most of the students had arrived at another planet, and even for Quinn, it was a significant difference compared to the shelter he was at before. The streets were full of people walking left and right, with the children by their side.
Stalls everywhere selling all kind of things, hot smoky meat with fresh fruit and veg.
"This looks even better than some places on earth!" Quinn said. "I wonder why more people don't move to the shelters more?"
"Freedom," Layla said. "If you look around you, most of the people here aren't Travellers or work for the military. Most likely, all of them were low levels who could no longer afford to live on earth. They were forced to move here. But I bet not many have ever left this shelter and gone outside. It means their whole life is this shelter."
With power, it meant you had more choices. A high level was able to choose which shelter they wanted to live at and even have a place back on earth. They could travel in between, and they weren't really restricted to anything. However, it wasn't the same for these people, they had to pick a place and never leave it.
The shelters themselves were created and funded by companies or the military. The shelter they were at right now was owned by the government. As such, everyone was required to pay a credit tax for protection and to live there.
Even travellers who would go out hunting, if they wanted to return back to earth would be required to pay a tax.
While other shelters were owned by companies and Factions. Most of them owned by something known as the big four families. They were the strongest known originals and usually their shelters were a bit higher class and imitated more of a city back on earth.
With this was the tier system. Each shelter was given a specific tier. Tier 1 being the highest and tier 5 being the lowest. The higher tiers earnt more money and were more protected compared to the lower tiers.
The shelter they were in now was a tier 4 shelter.
The higher tiers had the power to protect it from higher level beasts, so the tax cost more to live on one.
When the group of five landed, they noticed that there was a circle drawn on the ground where they were and the people walking around were doing there best to avoid it.
"Come on, we better move," Vorden said.
"Just…give..me..a" Quin said slowly, as he was already starting to sweat buckets.
"Ahh, Quinn! I'm sorry." Layla said as she rushed over and handed him the umbrella.
"What's wrong with him?" Erin asked.
"Oh, he just really can't deal with heat and hates the sun. He came from really far up north, I mean like really far." Layla explained babbling.
Erin looked Quinn up and down, who now had the umbrella propped up over his head. "You might be even more useless then Peter on this trip. How are you meant to fight with an umbrella in your hand?"
This was a major problem, although Quinn now had an ability and he could use it to fight instead of his vampire powers, he still had the weakness of the Vampire. The sun.
If he was to fight during the day unless he used his skill Shadow Void the sun would still affect him. But Shadow Void took up half of his MC points not leaving him much to fight with.
The other option was to use Shadow cloak, which when he tested back at the military base also was able to block out the sun. The problem with this was he was unable to use his shadow abilities to attack while using shadow cloak. It was just a stealth ability. He could use his Vampire powers, but that would defeat the whole point.
Because of these reasons, Quinn still had to hide the shadow ability for a little longer until he found a solution to the sun.
They did as Vorden said, and after a couple of minutes, another group of five students had landed in the same circle where they were.
"How did you know?" Quinn asked.
"Although the teleportation is random, it's not completely." Vorden said, "Think of it like a game with random respawn points. No one knows which point you will end up at, but they can tell where all the points are."
"Well, where should we go first?" Layla asked.
"Let's head to the Travellers hall. It's a place where they have information for travellers, you can also trade in your crystal cores for credits there or just trade in general."
They walked through the shelter and eventually reached a very large hanger like building. It was an open space with no entrance, so people were free to enter and go as they pleased.
Form side to side it was filled with counters that were stationed with workers. Just as Vorden had said. There were blacksmiths here who could forge equipment. Shops that sold little gadgets and things such as Beast bait. And even a quest bored.
The quest board was mostly filled with other Travellers looking to group up and complete a task together. Sometimes civilians asking for protection were on there as well, as they travelled from one shelter to another.
"Looks like we're not the only ones here," Erin said as she looked at the groups.
It was easy to spot the students as they were required to wear the military uniform. Although some of them had beast gear on, nearly no one had a full suit of beast gear with them since they were only first years.
"What are they doing?" Layla asked as she saw them go up to the quest board.
"It looks like they're asking for help," Vorden said. "Those from a rich family will just hire Travellers to do the hunting with them."
"But how is that fair?" Layla asked.
"Since when have they cared about fair?" Vorden replied. "You know those that have close ties with the military, or have already sold themselves will actually be helped by the military."
"Well, there's no point worrying about it." Quinn said, "All we can do is focus on us and do the best we can."
"Says the useless one," Erin added.
The group walked up to one of the stalls that sold all sorts of items that would help with capturing beasts or even killing them. Behind the counter was an old man with a digital monocle over one eye.
"How can I help you, young soldiers. I guess it's that time again when they send you all out to do your first hunt."
"We were wondering if you could provide us with a map with all the hunting areas?" Vorden asked.
"Sure I can, that will be a total of a 100 credits though."
"100?" Layla said. "Are you sure you're not trying to rip us off."
The old man started laughing.
"Well, that will be 150 now because of the young lady's rudeness."
Vorden brought out a single card that was gold in colour. Since the watches didn't work on other planets, each student was to bring their own Money card to be used. However, the others noticed the colour of Vorden's money card for it was very different from the rest of them. The different colours indicated how much money could be stored on each card.
*Beep
"Thank you for your business, the old man said."
"Of course, you're a rich boy," Layla said, looking at the gold card.
"I don't want to hear another word from you, I may have a gold card, but I only get sent 200 credits a month. You just made me use up most of my allowance!"
"Guy's calm down, I can cover you for the map Vorden so don't worry," Quinn said.
As Vorden heard those words, he smiled back. He thought Quinn was just being nice. There was no way he would have that type of money, after all, he only received ten credits a day from the school.
The group opened up the map which was on some type of digital paper. On it, the map indicated where they were and different areas around them which were colour coded. It went from green, orange and red. The closer the colour was too red, the more populated the area was with beasts.
But then something caught Quinn's eye, on the top of the map it had the name of what planet they were on. Caladi. When he fought against Nate a while ago in the VR game, he had asked Nate where his friend had obtained the strong flexible cape.
And the name of the planet they said was Caladi. That they had forged it out of a winged creature out in the desert. If this was true, then he might have just found the solution to his sun problem.
***
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