Erin, upon entering direct sunlight, was very visibly sweating. Out of all the planets to arrive at, it just had to have been a desert one.
"Here, let me help you—" Layla began saying before she saw that Erin had already took out her umbrella.
[You are no longer in direct sunlight]
[All stats have returned to normal]
Erin let out a sigh of relief, but at the same time, she felt like a wimp. If she couldn't even handle the sun, then how was she meant to be any bit helpful killing beasts?
Seeing Erin struggle with the heat, it made Peter wonder why she was in the first place. It seemed so simple to him for Erin to just use her ability to keep herself cold, but perhaps that was exactly why she seemed to melt in the sunlight.
"Huh, this place looks even better than back on earth!" Quinn said with a smile on his face, "I wonder why more people don't move to shelters?"
"Safety," Peter mumbled, "Most of the people here don't have strong powers, and were kicked off from Earth because they couldn't afford it. It's expensive living on Earth because there's no beasts, and companies hike up the costs for that reason…"
It was tough saying this as Peter knew this all too well with his family's financial situation being what it was.
"Not only that, but if you're a low level, then its probably too dangerous to even leave the shelter. Your whole life has to be here," Layla added, "Higher tiered shelters can afford to pay for stronger defenses, but in order to pay for itself, the taxes are more costly."
At the moment, the shelter they were at was a tier 4 shelter. It was capable of defending against basic, and intermediate tiers, perhaps even one or two advanced tiers, but nothing beyond that.
It was something Quinn hadn't even considered before. He was thinking about he didn't even need to worry about paying the bills as his parents had fought in the war, and so Quinn was given subsidiaries to live on earth. At least, that was what he was told. Pretty much nearly every adult back then had to fight in the war. It was that desperate, so it made him wonder why the people around him weren't given the same grace.
Hearing about this made Erin also realize that she had a privilege that others didn't get. Several years ago, Erin had once lived on a green portal planet with her parents. After the place was attacked, she had to move to another planet, and chose Kilo as it was a safe looking planet. Erin had the money to chose what planet to live on, and didn't need to worry about the credit tax being too high.
Interrupting their thoughts, the group heard a loud voice calling out for someone.
"Hey!" A vaguely familiar boy yelled out in their direction, "Heyyyyyyyy!"
The group looked at each other, then around themselves confused. Was this boy referring to them, or someone that was next to them? They knew that he was from their year as he was clearly wearing their school's uniform, but they couldn't recall when they had met.
"Do we know this guy?" Fex asked as he pointed at him with his thumb.
"I think his group might've accidentally let go while going through the portal," Layla guessed before pointing at the green circle that surrounded them, "Anyways, we should move, we're in the teleportation radius."
The group traveled outside of the circle, and not long after, another group of students had appeared right where they once were.
"How did you know?" Quinn asked.
"Have you never left earth?" Erin asked, "Or were you not paying attention in class?"
Before Layla could explain more about how the teleportation wasn't completely random, and what the green circles were for, the boy from earlier had ran over to them. Namely, he had ran over to Erin.
"Hey— I—" The boy slightly panted, before holding his hand out to the girl, "I'm Luke!"
Erin looked at the hand, then back at the boy. Even though she had gotten better at remembering the faces of her teammates, the same could not be said for strangers. It would have to take Erin a few days to commit someone's face to her memory.
"Who?"
"What? How can you not remember me? We met yesterday?" Luke said, gesturing to his face, "You know, when that one guy tried to propose?"
Erin's face contorted into a frown, and Layla looked at her with a slightly worried expression.
'I thought they stopped doing that?' Layla thought before her face grew a little flushed, 'But then again, maybe its her new vampire appearance affecting people? I certainly wasn't immune…'
Luke's hand awkwardly went to behind his head, "Anyways— Uh, I just wanted to say… Uh… cool umbrella!"
"Thanks…" Erin spat out between her teeth, "If you don't know this, but we're kinda on a time limit."
"Ah, right, well— Happy hunting!" Luke said before waving them off and running back to his group.
"Who was that guy?" Fex asked with his hands behind his head.
Erin, however, turned around and headed towards a large hanger like building, forcing everyone to follow.
"He's no one."
"Where are we headed to?" Quinn questioned.
"I think the traveler's hall, right?" Layla asked.
They arrived at a large hanger like structure. The whole thing technically didn't have walls, but it had pillars upholding a large roof. As they walked down the stalls, they saw several people enter and leave as they pleased.
There were several stalls, some with blacksmiths working on beast gear, some selling gadgets and beast gear, and a quest board located in the center of the area.
Before Erin could storm off into the hall, Layla ran in front of her, causing her to stop.
"Hey, lets slow down a little, alright?" Layla said in a calm voice, "You told me before that you wanted to get a good score on this assessment, right? You can't exactly do that if you leave us all behind."
Erin's anger dissipated once she turned to look at her teammates who seemed to be mildly worried about how this assessment was going to go. It was then she realized that she couldn't exactly blame them with how she started acting once that Luke guy appeared.
"Since we're at the Traveler's hall, we should gather as much information as possible about the hunting grounds. Let's not go into this blindly," Erin spoke now with a calmer mind.
'How did she not offend Erin?' Fex thought to himself, 'I swear, nearly everything I say to her gets taken the wrong way!'
The group headed over to a shop, and inside was a counter with an old man behind it. He had a digital monocle over an eye, and a white beard that was finely combed.
"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," the old man said.
"Do you have a map of the local hunting areas?" Erin asked.
"I sure do, that will be a total of 100 credits though."
"That's too much…!" Peter blurted out before trailing off his voice once he saw the old man glaring at him.
"If you think that's too much then I'll give you a price thats ACTUALLY expensive. 150, lady," The old man said.
At first, the group was a little dumbfounded that the man had called Peter a lady, almost forgetting that they were getting actively ripped off in broad daylight.
Except Erin.
"Listen here, old man," Erin said with an intensity as she started him down, a red glint to her eyes, "If you don't lower your price back to what they once were, then just know I'm not above using… other persuasive means."
Erin's hand went to the rapier on her waist, and, without realizing it, Erin had activated her influence skill. The old man's will was broken down a little by her threat, and his eyes glazed over as he spoke in a monotone voice.
"…That'll be 100 credits."
Erin swiped her card on the man's card reader, causing it to beep indicating she had purchased the map. While she was at it, she also bought the bestiary book. The group walked away from the counter, and looked at the map together.
They had known Erin to be intimidating, so it wasn't completely unexpected for her to go so far, and given that they were about to get ripped off, they didn't mind it so much.
"…Thanks." Peter weakly spoke.
"It wasn't for you," Erin coldly replied, "I wasn't going to let our team get held back by some stupid scam."
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Theres an event going on called Double Ticket where theres a fanfiction section. If you guys can vote for it, and get MVSEA into the top 10, that'll mean the world to me! I promise to upload more chapters more frequently if we do.