230 A jungle out there!

When going through the portal, the group made sure to hold on to the person in front of them tightly. Last time it wouldn't have been such a big deal, if they were to disconnect and let go. Although this might have caused them to split up, they were guaranteed to teleport somewhere safe in the shelter, but this time was different.

Shelters were often incomplete, and sometimes not all of the spawn areas had been marked yet. So the possibility existed that they could be chucked deep into beast territory, and be left there all on their own.

The fear could be felt in Cia's shoulders as Layla gripped on tightly. While Cia was starting to move her hands towards a certain place on Vorden's body. She inched closer and closer and went down lower. If they weren't in the middle of being warped, he would have turned around and pushed her, but even Vorden wasn't that cruel, and Raten wasn't complaining one bit about what was happening.

Finally, the distorted space was ending and white light could be seen up ahead. When the white light vanished a bright light entered their eyes and they felt stunned. Their eyesight slowly started to return and the first thing the group could see was green, lots and lots of green. More specific, giant green trees.

"Please, step aside and allow the other students to arrive!" A loud voice said as he pointed to his side.

Just like last time, they had arrived in one of the areas that had been circled off. When looking at the person who had given them commands, he hardly looked any older than them. Most likely a recruit who had just graduated and decided to stay with the army.

The group went over to where the man pointed and it seemed there were other groups of students standing by the side waiting as well. There were also several soldiers checking and coordinating with them. Making sure they stayed in place and didn't wander off.

"It's a lot better organised than our last trip?" Layla said.

"Of course it would be," Cia replied. "A green portal planet is practically safe, you would have to be a moron to be killed on one of those. But here, on an orange planet there could be a much higher risk, so they have to be extra careful."

Cia's words had rubbed a lot of the group the wrong way. They had almost been killed in the Dalki attack, and there were still deep mental scars from it. Although the students knew of what happened, they weren't informed on which group of students had encountered the Dalki. Many of them thought it was only Ben's group that had met them and died.

Vorden looked towards Peter still disguised as Pio.

Raten nodded his head in approval, "That's my kind of girl."

While standing off to the side, Quinn was finally able to take a good look at the shelter they had arrived in, the planet and the shelter itself were vastly different to the one before. First thing Quinn did was prop up his trusty umbrella to protect him from the sun, but this time, it didn't do much to make him feel better.

When looking around all that could be seen was green. Giant trees, bushes, vines, and even plants that Quinn had never seen before. They were now in what Quinn would call a jungle. This was why Quinn's body still felt extremely sluggish. The place was humid, hot and sticky and it looked like he wasn't the only one being affected as everyone around was sweating heavily as well.

When looking at Peter though, he seemed absolutely fine, at this point he was thinking Peter might have gotten a better class than himself, but then he started to remember Peter digging into human flesh. Quickly causing him to abandon that line of thought.

The shelter was vastly different as well, in a way it looked incomplete. Most of it seemed to be made from some type of wood and mud, although the architecture was impressive. They had managed to build upon the large trees. Incorporating them into their shelter.

There were stiff large bridges made from wood and spiralling staircases that would lead you from floor to floor and tree to tree. The Ground floor where they were on was mostly empty and only had certain areas that had been marked out for where the teleportation spots would take you.

When looking upward, Quinn could see residential houses and some market shops, although nowhere near the amount compared to before. But the thing that surprised him the most, was just how many residential houses there were on an orange portal planet like this one.

Quinn was even able to see children playing on the bridges above. Layla could see the surprised look on Quinn's face.

"This is one of the cheapest places for people to live in," Layla explained. "This is a tier five city. So it doesn't have any walls to protect the citizens, and they're open to attacks. The soldiers will do their best to protect them, but because this planet is still in the middle of exploration their focus isn't so much on the shelters themselves.

"The citizens aren't required to pay tax on an orange planet, so those who can't afford to live on earth, and can't even make a living on a green portal planet end up here. Of course, red portal planets are just too dangerous in the first place, and only the strongest of military shelters and factions are able to survive there."

When hearing about this from Layla, Quinn started to have strange thoughts. If it was true those that couldn't afford a place to live on earth had no choice to be here. Why didn't he end up in one of these shelters like these kids?

When his parents had died, a government official had come over and explained to him that they would look after him until he was sixteen and would provide him with an apartment until then. So why didn't these kids get the same type of treatment?

Now that he thought about it further, it was also strange when he had received the book that gave him his vampire abilities at age ten. They were so keen on trying to keep things for themselves so why did they allow Quinn to have the book. At first, he thought it was because the book was useless but now he was starting to have second thoughts about the whole thing.

Thinking back, he really didn't know his parents all that well and they haven't left much behind beside the book. How did they even get the book in the first place?

"System, do you know how my parents obtained the book?" Quinn asked.

"I'm afraid I am unable to answer that question for you at this time, but in the future, when the right moment occurs I will be able to answer you."

It seemed like there really was a link between Quinn's parents and the book after all. However, the system wasn't willing to share this information with him. Not until he unlocked a certain condition as it explained before.

As Quinn was deep in thought, he noticed that a group of travellers had arrived at the shelter. One of the higher-ups in the military went forward to greet them and they both seemed to respect each other well.

After a brief chat, the traveller handed the man something before heading off, back into a part of the jungle where they had come from.

"They looked kind of strong," Fex said with a grin on his face.

"That's because they are," Vorden replied. "To be able to travel through a planet alone where the level of beasts is unknown. And with just five of them at that. They must have to be confident in their skills."

"What were they doing at the military shelter?" Quinn asked.

"Most likely sharing information," Vorden replied. "You see on an orange portal planet there is more than one shelter. Different factions including the military usually set up a base here. Exploring a planet is a collective effort. Once they finish scanning their individual parts of the planet, the shelters share information with each other. This saves time and money, so the different shelters aren't exploring parts of the planet that have been explored already.

The students were now being led along to an open space, and while doing so, they could see the people from the shelter and children came out peeking at them from above.

All of the first-year students were once again lined up in rows with the homeroom teachers at the front. While Fay and Leo stood in the middle of all the classes.

They had come to an open area of the jungle that looked to have been man-made. The trees had been rooted and dugout, and the ground flattened. Most of what they were standing on was mud. When looking ahead. They could also see several paths from the circular open area leading deeper into the jungle.

"Alright everyone, each class shall now explore a different path." Fay said." I hope that you'll listen to your homeroom teachers well. The scanners will not activate until your teachers say so. So don't try to get ahead of yourselves. You will continue to follow the path and your teachers will tell you when you are in an unexplored area. Remember, to always stay on your guard, and have your scanners by your side."

"My last warning to you all, you will encounter beasts on this trip, at what level I do not know. I wish you all luck!" Fay shouted.

The students saluted to the two sergeants before heading off down their paths.

'I wonder what kind of beasts we will run into' Quinn thought. 'The very thoughts of experience points made him shiver in excitement.'

****

Mass release day has been moved to tomorrow

(I moved apartment today, which took the whole day)

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The stone goals are in the author's note.

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