After waiting a minute to catch his breath, Quinn got back up on his feet. Slowly, he walked over to the Scordana's corpse. He had no hard feelings about tearing the Beast's body apart, as he looked for the Beast Crystal. Before, the old Quinn might have shown compassion, and been respectful. But the fight with the Scordana had shown him that even on other planets, strength ruled over all.
Before, even when he got bullied at school, it had never been like this. Of course, the strong ruled at school, and there wasn't anything Quinn could have done about it, but he never came close to dying. He just took several beatings. But for the first time, Quinn had truly felt like he was close to death. Finally, after tearing and rummaging through several limbs, the Beast Crystal was obtained.
Quinn held the Beast Crystal in his hand, and looked at it. Unlike the Rattaclaw Crystal, which was completely opaque, this one actually looked like a somewhat transparent Crystal. He placed the Intermediate-Tier Scordana Crystal in his System's Inventory, alongside the ten Rattaclaw Crystals, and the Level 6 Shadow Element Ability Book.
Now, Quinn turned his attention towards the cluster of three Scordana Eggs still laying in the pile of scrap-metal. He walked over to the cluster, and lifted one of them up. They were large, about the size of the "football" used in the old world, before the Dalki had appeared.
Quinn took a few steps back, and slammed the egg into the ground. Black blood splattered everywhere, and a little, half-grown Scordana could be seen inside. A System message popped up in front of Quinn.
[You have killed a Scordana Egg. 1000 Exp received. First time killing a Scordana Egg. First-Time Kill Bonus: 2000 Exp received. Exp: 11600/12800]
Quinn then threw the other two Scordana eggs on the ground, as well. A set of two overlapping System messages appeared.
[You have killed two Scordana Eggs. 2000 Exp received. Exp: 13600/12800. Level Up. You are now Level 9. Exp: 800/25600.
You have received 1 Stat Point.]
[Your hunger grows. You can no longer suppress your thirst for blood. Your HP will decrease by 1 every hour until human blood has been consumed. Current HP: 13/50]
Seeing the message, Quinn grit his teeth.
'So much for the Level Up healingme…' He thought. Due to Quinn's energy, and all of the blood in his Blood Bank, being used in the fight with the Scordana, his body was no longer healing on its own. He was too hungry to heal, and he now needed blood. As Quinn stared at the message, a certain number stuck out at him like a countdown, and he could hear it being repeated in his head.
Thirteen.
"With only thirteen HP left, that's only thirteen hours before I reach 0 HP." Quinn replied. "And that's only if I don't have to use any of my Blood Skills, or get injured along the way."
He was really struggling with what to do. Should he sit here and wait? Perhaps the school would send somebody after him. Or, should he walk around, and try to find the return Portal on his own? But, if he did, there was a chance that he would run into more Beasts along the way.
"I have no choice." Quinn finally replied. "I have to find that Portal."
It was his only option. While he would love to think that the school would send somebody after him, he knew it was unlikely. Maybe if he was someone with a strong family backing him, or if he was a high Ability User, this would be the case. But Quinn was neither of those two things. He had been an orphan with no family backing, and the school still believed that he was a weak, Level 1 nobody. Why would they even bother risking their lives for somebody like him? It didn't make any sense, even to him. He had no choice but to soldier on.
Before leaving the hanger, Quinn had to think hard about where the Portal might be. All he knew was that it had to be somewhere safe. Somewhere the Beasts wouldn't be able to get it. The shelter was a big place, with numerous buildings. It wasn't as big as the city on the base, but still big. For him to get from one side of the shelter to the other, it would take him at least2 hours, and that was if he walked at a decent pace.
As Quinn walked through the shelter, he decided to tread very carefully. Even if he came across a Basic-Tier Beast, it would cause problems for him. As he went through the shelter, he traveled at an extremely slow pace. Once in a while, he would come across a building with Beasts inside. Quinn's improved eyesight was incredibly handy for these types of situations, the Beasts could see in the dark, too. Although, Quinn's appeared to be better.
As he entered the buildings, there would be times where Quinn had spotted a Beast far ahead in the darkness. When this happened, he would quickly shift and hide in the shadows, or behind walls, waiting for the Beasts to pass.
Then, when he was ready, he would zoom past them.
With no direction to go in, and just simply wandering around, Quinn had already used up two of his remaining thirteen hours exploring the place.Eventually, a System message popped up in front of him.
[-1 HP. HP: 11/50]
The hunger in Quinn's belly was starting to distract him. And it was getting harder for him to focus, as his health continuously went down.
Then, finally, Quinn had spotted another building that was in relatively good condition. It was a large, dome-like shaped building. It was the shelter's training center, a place where Travelers could come to test out their Skills, or practice with new equipment. The outside of the "dome" of the training center was made out of a special material, in case practice matches got a bit out of hand, and sometimes, a stray attack would hit the outside now and again. The dome was capable of withstanding attacks from some of the strongest Beasts and High-Level Ability Users.
"No wonder it's in such good condition." Quinn replied, as he looked at the building. It was the only other place Quinn could think of where the Portal might be kept. The place was large, and had a sturdy outside that had yet to be destroyed.
As Quinn got closer to the dome building, he noticed that there were several mechs stationed outside of the building. Unfortunately, they had been destroyed, their cores being completely ripped out. Mechs were powerful devices used in the war against the Dalki. However, powering them took an enormous amount of "Beast Energy", and thus, required the Beast Crystal of a High-Tier Beast. It was strange, because the High-Level Ability Users preferred to use their own Abilities, while the Low-Levels could neverafford to use such things. Most of the mechs were used by the military, or by private companies that hired Low-Level Travelers to operate them.
But this was also a double-edged sword for a Low-Level Traveler. Usually, the mechs would come with contracts. And those "contracts" tended to have a stipulation that if the mech ever got destroyed, its pilot would be on the hook to replace it. Of course, a Low-Level could never afford to pay off one of these mechs, even if they saved up their entire lives.Causing them to become a slave in all but name to the company. It was just another one of the many changes that had happened after the Dalki War.
During the war, Humans fought together with the Dalki being a common enemy. But once the peace treaty had been signed, Human greed took over. If the Dalki knew how divided Humanity had become, Quinn was sure Earth would lose if the war restarted the way it was now. That's why he needed to get stronger. To protect himself.
As he reached the entrance of the training center, Quinn could see that two Rattaclaws were standing out in front. Before entering, Quinn decided to walk around the large dome, walking carefully to see if there were any other entrances. However, there were no other entrances.
Seeing this, Quinn returned back to the front entrance, and hid in a spot behind a destroyed mech, roughly thirty meters away from the front entrance. Even though Quinn had wasted a whole half-an-hour trying to find another entrance, the two Rattaclaw hadn't moved.
Quinn decided to wait a bit longer, seeing if the Rattaclaws might eventually move. A short while later, a System message appeared.
[-1 HP. HP: 10/50]