Chapter 71 Storage room
The storage building was a single level large floor, which resembled that of a hanger. The main purpose of the building at a shelter was to keep equipment such as mechs, airships and all sorts. They also used it as a temporary room to store things for travellers.
Quinn had left the other building and slowly started to make his way to the storage room, he had no clue when the sun would rise and needed a place to stay for the night. After fighting the group of Rattaclaw's he was feeling a bit tired.
Not only that but he was hoping that he might come across some treasures at the storage room. He just couldn't see the downside of trying to reach the building.
On his way he treaded carefully to make sure he didn't alert any more beasts in the area, as he walked through form building to building, he spotted a few Rattaclaw's feasting on something in the middle of the street. '
"Damn there everywhere, there just like Rat's back on earth." Quinn thought.
If there was a single Rat on its own then he might have chosen to confront it, but while there were three of them out on the street, he didn't want to risk it. The experience points gained from killing a beast was tempting but to fight three at once, meant there was a chance he would either have to use his blood spray or at least his blood swipe skill.
Quinn continued to head towards the storage building until finally, he had arrived. At the front, there were two large steel doors which slid open. Afraid that they might make a lot of noise and attract unwanted attention. He decided to walk around the building to see if there were any other openings or entrance.
After walking around the side of the building, he had no such luck but as he nearly reached the back of the building, he started to hear strange noises. He slowly crept down the side making sure to make no noise.
With his back hugging the side of the wall, he peeked out to take a look, it seemed like there was another Rattaclaw, only this one was squealing and on its back in pain.
Its cries were weak and he wondered just how long had the beast been there for. After waiting a few moments there was no sign of any other creatures.
He came out from the side of the wall and walked up to the injured Rattaclaw on its back. As he got closer to it, the Rattaclaw snarled at Quinn and tried to swipe its claws out, but the attacks were far to slow and the beast could hardly move.
"Still trying to kill me even in this state." Quinn thought. As he got closer the beast continued to swing it's arms out towards Quinn despite it not being able to move. Its leg's had been crushed by something and it had a large wound on its stomach.
"Let me put you out of your pain." He walked up to the beast and with a single blow to its head, it had died.
< 100 exp points gained >
< 1140/1600 exp >
As Quinn looked at the back of the building, he could see a small hole in one of the corners.
"Did the Rattaclaw come out from there?"
Before entering he gulped at the thought that perhaps whatever injured the Rat might be inside. Crawling on his front, he had reached the hole and tried to pop his head in. It was big enough for a human to fit through but what he was afraid of was inside the building. If he entered the building there might be a hundred of those things or something that was stronger than the Rattaclaw itself.
Quinn crawled forward to the entrance of the hole and started to look into the hanger. Although the hanger contained no light source and was completely void of light from the moon. His vision allowed him to see clearly inside.
After scouting the area for a while, it seemed like there was nothing inside, but of course, he couldn't be sure. He thought about it for a while but in the end, the possibility of getting a new beast weapon or something amazing was too tempting for him.
He crawled through the hole and entered into the hanger. As he stood up onto his feet, he was quickly disappointed by the state of the hanger.
Nearly everything inside had been destroyed and just piles of scrap metal and rubbish remained.
There were no Airships, mechs, and no beast weapons. Whatever was left was unable to be used. However, the building was large and Quinn wouldn't give up just form his initial view.
He started to walk around the hanger for a while until eventually, there was a room stationed in the corner. It was hard to tell how big it was but it seemed like it went the whole length of the hanger and on closer inspection, it looked more like a large container.
He walked up to the room and there was a single steel door with a passcode device next to it. The door was military-grade which meant even those with abilities would find it hard to break it down. Perhaps it was the reason why no one so far had been able to enter including the beasts.
But it was clear to him, that whatever was in the container had yet to be destroyed and most likely whatever was inside was important stuff worth locking.
"Should I try hammer strike on it?" Quinn looked around the hanger, the ceiling was high and the roof was made of metal. If he was to perform Hammer strike in a place like this the sound would just echo out.
However, Quinn didn't want to give up that easy, all that stood in front of him and his treasures was a single door. There must be something he could do?
He looked at the passcode on the side and pressed four random digits before pressing the enter button.
"Beep!"
"Of course, I'm not that lucky." He thought.
Right now, Quinn was desperate and wanted to try everything, he thought perhaps if he was to use the inspect skill maybe it would give him some information.
< Inspect >
< A passcode machine which is linked to a steel door. Entering the right combination to the door will successfully open it. >
Just as Quinn was about to give up another notification sound was heard in his head.
< Inspect skill is now Level 2 >
< Inspect skill will now display more information, about objects, humans, items and more >
Ever since his Blood swipe skill had levelled up, Quinn was sure his other skills could level up too but he never thought about his inspect skill too much while using it.
Looking at the lock again, His gut was telling him to try it.
< Inspect >
< A passcode machine which is linked to a steel door. Entering the right combination to the door will successfully open it. Please touch the lock for more information. >
Quinn then did as his inspect skill said and touched the lock. Nothing happened but then, he used the inspect skill one more time.
< A passcode machine which is linked to a steel door. Entering the right combination to the door will successfully open. The combination to the door is 2536725364 >
Quinn immediately tested out the number the system had given him.
"Beep!"
*Kachuck
The door then made an unlocking sound and swung open.
Chapter 72 Inside the container
Seeing that the intermediate beast was patrolling around the storage room, Ian and Vorden had decided to go to a different part of the shelter. As Ian said it was most likely the Portal wasn't there in the first place.
Even though the portal was in a red zone, the portal on the other end still had to be placed in a safe place to make sure either beast from the other planet didn't enter it or destroy it. Of course, a party or a group could bring a portal with them to get back to their own world but these were very expensive.
Somone at Ian's level didn't have one of these devices because once they had been set up, they were unable to be taken back with them. It was a onetime use device.
"Any ideas of where the Portal might be?" Vorden asked.
"My guess is somewhere underground. It's safe from most of the beasts that way. Most likely they have a special building that looks like any other and a secret entrance."
"Wait so are you saying we just have to keep going into buildings?"
"Well we can rule out all the residential buildings, they wouldn't be able to build a large enough base under those, and any of the small buildings or dangerous areas you can rule out as well. There are only so many big buildings that would be large enough to store a big base under."
The two of them continued to look into building after building but there was no luck or no sign of a secret room. Eventually, they had entered what looked like a library. Although most of the books had been destroyed and several of the bookcases had fallen over as well.
That's when a loud grumbling sound had come from Vorden's belly.
"I guess we have been travelling for a while now, why don't we rest here for the night, it doesn't look like there any beasts here and we can build our own fortress," Ian said.
The two of them then went up to the second floor of the building. There were large holes and broken-down walls on the first floor which made it easy for beasts to attack them. Once they had reached the second floor, the two of them started to lift up a few of the bookshelves.
It seemed like Ian had the ability of super strength seeing how easily he moved the heavy bookshelves, but Vorden knew that wasn't true. The reason why Ian seemed like he had extra strength was actually from the beast armour he was wearing.
Certain beast armour once above the basic tier had special properties. If the user was able to activate these properties, they could increase the base strength of the user. Giving him more power, extra speed. Overall, it just improved you as a human being and almost made you seem to be a superhuman.
Vorden could see Ian was still struggling though, most likely due to his injuries but there was no way he himself could move the giant bookshelves so easily. So instead Vorden helped out in his own way by clearing a space and moving all the books and piles of rubbish away.
ChapterMid();
After an hour or so they were done. Ian had moved the bookshelves to create a small type of fortress around them.
"It's a nice home isn't it?" Ian said proudly of his work. "Well, what are you waiting for, come on let's go inside."
As Quinn walked inside Ian followed behind and as he did, he pulled one last bookshelf around them, sealing them up in a cube-like shape surrounded by bookshelves. The room they were in was now pitch black.
Ian then punched part of the bookshelves with his fist, creating a hole in all four directions letting in a little bit of light, but more importantly, it was used to let them peak through and see if any danger was coming towards them.
He then pulled out a little small stone from his pocket and placed It on the ground in the centre of the room. He tapped the stone once and a warm orange light started to shine from it. The light wasn't very strong but in the small dark room, it made a huge difference.
"Here take this," Ian said as he handed a small circle pill to Vorden.
"Is this a food supplement?" Vorden asked.
"Yeah, I'm guessing if you came here on accident you don't have any with you."
Vorden looked at the pill before shoving it down his throat and into the stomach. A food supplement was a pill that contained all the things a human needed to live. As long as a person took one pill of these a day, they no longer needed to eat.
Although it gave the human enough calories and vitamins, it did nothing in terms of water continent. You would still need to find your own water source. Luckily in the shelter, it seemed like the waterworks in nearly every building was working.
So it wasn't a problem for Ian and Vorden.
"You get some sleep and I'll keep watch, then will do a little switch later on," Ian said. "Sounds good?"
"Yeah."
******
As he heard the sound of the door unlocking a grin appeared on his face that couldn't be contained.
"I love you system, I swear I'll never talk badly about you ever again," Quinn said as he stepped into the container.
But as he stepped in, his hopes of finding legendary beast equipment or stashes of beast crystals were soon lost. The room was simply filled with shelves of books, nothing else but books.
However, as soon as Quinn picked up one of the books closest to him his mind was quickly changed.
< Earth ability book level 1 >
< Unable to learn would you like to convert into 10 exp? >
It was a container room filled with ability and skill books. Although Quinn was unable to learn the ability, he immediately converted the book into exp points.
As soon as Quin decided to convert the book into exp, it started to vanish in his very hands as if it was disintegrating. A sensation was felt form inside and finally, the message had appeared.
< 10 exp gained >
< 1150/1600 exp >
After absorbing the first book Quinn started to pick up book after book. After going through the books Quinn found out that a level one skill book would give him 5 exp points while a level 1 ability book would give him 10 exp points.
If he had already absorbed that book again the system wouldn't even pop up with another message. It was a shame since most of the books inside the container were earth books that the military had the most control over.
Quinn got closer to the back of the container and found that the level of the books would increase. A level 2 ability book would gain him 100 exp points, while a level 2 skill book would gain him 50. This would be the case even if he had already absorbed the level 1 version of the ability book.
And finally, after absorbing multiple books another message had appeared.
<1650/1600 exp points gained >
< You are now level 6 >
Chapter 73 Skillbook grinding
After levelling up Quinn immediately put his stat point into strength, and now without his gauntlets, his strength was at 15 meaning he would be able to perform the Hammer strike skill with or without the gauntlets.
As Quinn looked around the room there were still several books he hadn't even touched yet, the place really was a gold mine for him.
As he went onto the next set of shelves, with it came a new set of books. He placed his hand on the first one and it was the first Level three ability book he had come across.
\u003c Level 3 Earth ability book \u003e
\u003cUnable to learn, would you like to convert into 1000 Exp? \u003e
Quinn placed the book down and picked the book up making sure he had heard the system right, but once again the numbers he had received where correct. The level three ability book was offering him 1000 experience points.
Without hesitating, he had decided to absorb the book right away.
\u003c 1050/3200 points \u003e
Quinn then picked up the skill book right next to him and as he though it too had offered him 500 exp points. So far it seemed like a skill book would offer half the amount of points that an ability book had to offer.
He once again went on rampage grabbing every book he could on the shelf, absorbing those that he couldn't and tossing the others on the ground. Although he would have loved to take the books with him as they would have sold for a healthy price.
The books so far were unable to go into his storage like the crystals and carrying them would just be more trouble than it was worth. After going through all the books Quinn was able to level up a total of two more times.
\u003c Level 8 \u003e
\u003c 45/45 HP \u003e
No new skills were unlocked but Quinn still obtained the regular stat points for every level up. Now that his strength and agility were at level fifteen, he decided he should finally increase his stamina points.
If there was a fight that needed him to preform flash step and hammer strike multiple times, he would definitely be in trouble. After putting the two points into stamina his stats were now looking a lot more even.
\u003c Strength 15 (2)\u003e
\u003c Agility 15 \u003e
\u003c Stamina 14 \u003e
\u003c 510/12800 exp\u003e
Although the Exp needed now was getting further and further away. Which made Quinn think if there was even a cap to his levelling, or would the exp amount increase so much so, that it was no longer possible to achieve.
Quinn had now nearly touched every single book that was in the storage room. Unfortunately, the highest ability Quinn was able to find so far was a level three ability book. The further he went into the container the higher the levels but for the last few shelves, it didn't seem to be the case.
It seemed like they were just duplicates of the other level three ability books. As Quinn picked up one book the system message didn't go off. It was because it was a level 3 earth ability book that he had already absorbed.
"Hey, maybe Peter could use this?" Quinn thought.
It was only one book, Quinn was sure he would be able to carry it safely with him. But as soon as he thought about Peter, a memory entered his mind and it wasn't a good one.
Peter was the whole reason why he was in this place, and he still didn't know how long he was going to be here or if he would even be able to survive. To be honest, Quinn was just trying to make the best out of a bad situation at the moment.
As he thought about Peter anger started to enter his mind and body and he ripped the book up. He was willing to hear Peter out if he ever got out of here alive but Quinn would no longer help him.
If someone like that betrayed you once, for whatever reason, it only meant there was the chance that the same thing could happen again.
Then as Quinn looked around the container, he noticed there was one shelf at the very back of the room where he hadn't been yet. He didn't bother going over there yet because it looked empt
empty from a distance, but as he got closer, he noticed there was a single book that had been placed on there.
As he touched the book on the shelf, a new message appeared.
\u003c Level 6 ability book Shadow element \u003e
After seeing the first message appear Quinn couldn't wait to see how much experience points a level 6 ability book would give. Perhaps it would finally shoot him up to level ten and he would unlock the use of the shop in his system.
But then something unexpected had happened.
\u003c Ability is compatible with system \u003e
\u003c Would you like to learn? \u003e
Out of shock Quinn dropped the book back onto the shelf and took a step back.
Out of all the books in the room, it was the first time he had ever received a message of this kind. He wasn't even sure it was possible but the system was clearly telling him he could learn the ability.
Then Quinn started to think back to the name of the ability "Shadow element." It was something he had never even heard of before and Quinn was quite knowledgeable about the abilities of the world.
He then picked up the book once more just to make sure and the same message had appeared. After thinking about it for a long time, he decided he would try to place the book in his storage. It hadn't worked with the other books previously but he thought it might work with this one.
And to his surprise, it worked. The ability book was safely put into his system storage with his beast crystals.
Before learning the ability, Quinn wanted to make sure he could find out more about it first. Maybe then he could find out why it was compatible with his vampire system and if so, maybe they were other abilities that would be compatible as well.
If that was the case, Quinn didn't want to rush into things. Usually, a human being was only able to use one ability for their whole lives and it could be the same for him.
As he continued to level up and get stronger, he thought about it more and more.
His system wasn't an ability, the book that was gifted to him by his father wasn't an ability book but it had completely changed him. He was no longer Human but something else altogether and it was why his abilities had worked inside the game and why he had received the option to learn another ability.
This was the only conclusion he could come to.
After storing the book away, he decided to close the door to the container unit and remain inside. It was safe here and he was starting to feel tired, at least he knew the container was strong enough to protect him from whatever beast remained outside.
He lied on the floor and in an instant closed his eyes.