A few hours had passed since Vorden had first arrived on the planet and it seemed like it was still night outside. It was troublesome for him and made it harder for him to spot beasts. Especially in the rundown shelter where they could easily hide between buildings.
There was no lights source anywhere since nearly everything seemed like it had been destroyed years ago and the only thing that was giving off light where the two moons in the sky.
Meaning while they were inside, it was even harder for him to see.
"Do you know when the sun will rise?" Vorden asked, "Maybe it will be best if we travel once the sunlight comes out, then we can spot beasts easier."
"You really don't know where we are, do you?" Ian replied, "This Planet spin cycle last an entire year and right now, we are only six months in. I'm afraid we won't be seeing light for a very long time. but if you want to wait six months, you go ahead."
With no sunlight, it was hard for Vorden to tell how long he had actually been on the planet and he could only guess. This was a problem for him. Right now Vorden had the earth ability as well as Ian, the Travellers ability but without knowing when 24 hours had passed. He wouldn't know when an ability would disappear.
After waiting a few more moments, Ian was able to stand up again, he winced a little as he stood up and placed his hands on his side. Vorden noticed it before but now he was sure of it, the man was badly hurt.
"You're wondering what happened aren't you." Ian said, "I was out hunting an advanced beast requested from a company. I don't know why they wanted it so bad, but it was from a specific beast that could only be obtained from this planet."
"Did you get it?" Vorden asked.
Just then Ian pulled out a crystal, the same size as Vorden had gotten form the Rat, only this one shined a lot brighter and had a clearer layer on the outside. The core itself of the crystal could be seen better. The clearer the crystal meant the higher tier beast it had come from.
Once the two of them were ready, they decided to head back outside, while Ian took the lead. They made sure to travel close to the buildings rather than in the middle of the street. If anything spotted them they could quickly dart inside for combat.
"Hey Vorden, I have an idea." Raten said, "Why don't we kill the adventurer while he's weak and get that crystal of his? We could sell it for a fortune or even make some really good equipment out of the thing."
"Are you an idiot, once we kill him then what would we do? His ability would only last for twenty-four hours, if we don't find a way out of here in time we would completely be done for."
Then suddenly Ian stopped as he spotted something.
"Look over there." Ian pointed.
In the middle of the street laid a single dead Rattaclaw, the two of them looked around before proceeding to move closer to it. When they arrived, they could see that the Rattaclaw had his head completely bashed in.
"It looks like it wasn't killed too long ago and had its head's been pounded in," Ian said as he bent down to get a closer look. Then he suddenly pulled out a beast crystal. "Whoever it was they didn't have time to remove the beast crystal, they were probably being chased by something else. Strange, I didn't expect to see one person here but it looks like there's now another."
"Hey, do you think that's your friend," Raten said.
"Maybe, it's hard to tell, we don't even know what Quinn is capable of Afterall," Vorden replied.
"Actually," Vorden said out loud. "I wasn't the only one who came through here by accident, my friend came here with me and I was actually hoping to find him."
"I won't ask for details." Ian said, "But don't get your hopes up, I was surprised to see you alive never mind your friend."
After hearing from Vorden that there was another student here. Ian felt like he should try help out. At least confirm whether or not this friend of his was alive. He knew that the Rattaclaw's rarely travelled solo which meant most likely he was chased by a few more after defeating the first one.
He started to inspect the Rattaclaw on the floor and found a trail of black blood. Single drops leading somewhere.
"Come on, let's go see if we can find that friend of yours."
The two of them continued to follow the trail until it eventually led them to a three-story building, as they entered the first floor it was mostly empty with no signs of anything, but Ian decided to continue to follow the trail of black blood that led up the set of stairs.
"What happened here?" Ian thought. As they walked up the first set, they could see more and more black blood splattered everywhere on the walls. Then when they walked up even further, the two of them were stunned at the scene.
Lying on the ground where ten Rattaclaws dead, completely still each one with their beast crystal carved out.
"Who did this? Are there more people here, maybe another team on a mission?" Ian said. "I'm sorry, I thought perhaps the Rattaclaw outside was killed by your student friend but it looks like I was wrong. You would need at least a small team to take out ten at once like this."
Even Ian who was a well-established Traveller felt like he would struggle taking out Ten at once. Although the beast whereof the weakest tier it was hard to imagine fighting ten of them and coming out unscathed.
"Do you still think it's your friend?" Raten asked.
"Probably not," Vorden replied, "But if there are others out there. I'm a little worried, just where is Quinn?"
The two of them then decided to climb to the roof. This way Ian had a bearing of where he was and could decide where to go next. They stood on top of the roof and looked down, that's when the two of them spotted something.
"Get down quick!" Ian said.
As the two of them laid on their front, they slowly peaked over the ledge of the roof to once again confirm what they had seen.
It was a beast that walked on six legs, three on each side, its body stood upright like that of a human while the bottom half was like that of a scorpion but then where it's head should be, there was a single largemouth, for arms it had four large claws. It was a hideous beast that clearly wasn't from earth.
"An intermediate beast," Ian said.
As they continued to watch it, they saw the beast slowly enter into a building.
"Hey what's that building?" Vorden asked, as he noticed the building was in good condition. "Could the portal be inside there?"
"That's the storage room." Ian answered, "I doubt the portal would be inside there, usually those places get targeted by thieves and such so they tend to not make the portal area so obvious and even if it was in there, it would be best if we let the beast leave first. The way I am now I would stand no chance against the thing."
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Mass release Day, please remember to vote for another mass release.
4600 Stones = 2 extra Chapters
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