That night Vorden struggled to sleep just like every other night.
He couldn't remember the last time he got a good night's sleep.
Some nights he was able to sleep peacefully and dream just like any other person but then there were times where his mind was sent to the back room. At that time no one was sat in the chair, no one was in control.
Lately, this was happening more and more frequently.
In the black room, the three of them would usually talk to each other while the body rested but he always had a worry when he was in that room.
The chair was empty, at any point and time, anyone of them could sit in the chair and take control. For now, Vorden acted as the gatekeeper but that was only because the little one allowed him to.
That's when he felt a slight tug on his arm.
"Hey wake up kid, it looks like you were having a nightmare," Ian said.
As Vorden opened his eyes he looked around and noticed that he was still in the pitch-black room.
"Oh, sorry about that, I hope I wasn't making to much noise," Vorden replied.
"Well this is a scary place, a kid like you shouldn't be here on their own in the first place, so don't worry about it." Said Ian, "Do you mind if we swap for a bit?"
Ian then switched places with Vorden. While Ian lied on the uncomfortable hard floor, Vorden would look out of the gaps in the bookshelf, keeping watch.
In almost an instant from behind him, Vorden could hear the sound of Ian's loud snores. Unlike him, Ian was able to get to sleep almost instantly.
"Hey Vorden, so if you aren't going to kill him now what about when we find the portal?" Raten asked. "The advanced crystal he is carrying would be very helpful to us and no one would find out. You've seen how weak he is and now we have his ability it would be easy to finish him off."
"While I'm in charge nobody gets hurt," Vorden replied getting annoyed.
"Fine but one of these days when we're in trouble, I won't be coming to help you, and when he sees you're doing a bad job, I will be put in charge instead and I am not going to let you decide a single thing."
When doing nothing it was hard to tell how much time had past. Vorden didn't even know how long he had been asleep for and with the sky always showing black, he had no way of knowing.
After waiting what felt like an entire day, it seemed like Ian had finally woken up. As he lifted himself off the ground, he continued to wince in pain and hold onto his ribs.
"I'm telling you, I can't wait to get home," Ian said.
Vorden turned around to look at Ian, seeing that he was struggling to get up, he offered his hand once again and pulled him up from the floor.
But as Ian got off the ground, his face suddenly dropped, in one of the hole's he had made, all that could be seen was a single large eyeball looking through.
Ian immediately went to his waist and grabbed a small dagger throwing it at the beast's eye. Using all his strength and the added stats of the equipment he was wearing, the dagger flew right through the eye and out the other end killing it in a single blow. Then when he pulled his hand back the dagger flew back into his hand.
"Let's get out of here!" Ian shouted as he kicked one of the shelves knocking it over. As the two of them climbed on top of the fallen shelf they could see that they had been surrounded.
All around the library, on top of the ceiling, on the side of the walls, where multiple slug-like creatures everywhere. They had a single large eye on its head and sticking out of its sides were multiple tentacles coming from the beast's underbelly.
"I thought you were keeping a lookout?" Ian said.
"I was but the small space would only let me see so far."
Vorden was a little distracted deep in his thoughts but even so, it was hard for him to see beasts like these. For they were able to scale up the side of the walls and hang from the ceiling.
They were completely surrounded not just around them but also above as well. A few of the slug creatures dropped from above, while the ones around them reached out with their tentacles.
There were too many attacking at once, Ian then held out both of his hands with his palms open, objects from all over the library started to vibrate. Slowly they were moving along and coming towards him as if they were being pulled by an invisible force.
Then shards of metal from all over came flying towards the two of them at an incredible speed. "Stick close to me kid!" Ian commanded and Vorden did as he was told.
The pieces of metal from all over the library and a few pieces from outside had come towards the two of them and formed a ball completely made out of scraps of metal surrounding the two of them.
The beast from above fell on top of the metal ball but no damage was done as they slid off. The tentacles from the slugs outside started to attack and made dent's in the ball, loud clanging sounds could be heard from inside as they continued to attack. The force of the tentacle strikes were similar to someone swinging a bat and it would only be a matter of time before the metal ball broke.
"Repel!"
At that moment, the ball exploded with an incredible force, just how the scrap metal had been pulled together, it was now being pushed out. Little pieces of scrap metal were flung out so hard it had caused several puncture wounds in the beast's body killing them all as it went through their brains and hearts.
"Good thing this planet is covered in metal huh," Ian said with a smile on his face. "Come on then, let's not waste these crystals."
The two of them went up to the dead slugs and started to carve out the crystals. At that moment in time when the slugs had surrounded them, Vorden had tried to activate his earth ability that he had gotten from Peter on one of the beasts but there was no such luck.
Which meant that he had at least been on the planet for twenty-four hours now. However, he still had Ian's ability handy. Touching him in the library had reset the time frame, so even if Ian was unable to fight or they got separated, Vorden would still be able to use the ability for another twenty-four hours.
After gathering the crystals Ian had handed Vorden half of them.
"Here take it."
"I can't, I didn't do anything."
"Look these are only basic tier crystals, I could earn these in my sleep."
"Fine," Vorden said.
Although Vorden had agreed, he had no space to put the crystals anywhere. He hadn't brought a bag, a pouch or a storage unit with him.
After all, it was an unexpected visit. For now, Ian said he would keep the crystals until they returned back to earth.
Finally, it was time for the two of them to leave the library and search for the portal once again. The two of them made sure to not attract any beast on their way and to their luck they hadn't come across any more dangers.
Then finally the two of them spotted something.
"You see that, now if I was going to put a portal anywhere, I would put it in there," Ian said pointing at the large dome building.
"What is it?" Vorden asked, "It looks like a training centre."
"That's exactly what it is, and it looks like it was well built, the beast around here haven't even been able to scratch it, and it's big enough to build a secrete base underneath."
The two of them continued walking forward with their next destination in sight, the training centre.
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