547 Crow's Shelter

There was a manual option, and a few things one would need to do, but it had 1/20th of the number of buttons as the large ship did. If they didn't understand anything, Quinn's inspect skill would give him a rundown and explain what each button did.

For even the controls to turn on the aircon looked complicated. They didn't want to accidentally open the door when all they wanted was to be a little warmer inside.

"Have you driven a ship before?" Paul asked.

"No, Logan just has shown me a few things," Quinn replied. Knowing that Paul was watching him. But he wasn't too bothered by this. It didn't matter what Paul thought or learned about him.

Their relationship was they were using each other. At the end of the day, Quinn knew Paul would have to listen to him, because now they shared the same blood.

Up ahead, they could see the planet they were to land on. It wasn't very large in size and the surface looked to be mainly red in color. However, there were signs of machinery and water on the planet. Patches of green, a habitable environment.

It looked a little smaller than earth, but had far more landmass.

*BEEP BEEP

[A request of communication from SF-8201 has been made]

[Do you accept?]

The ship's voice read out a message to them, and suddenly, they could see that there were four small ships that had surrounded them. Each one black in colour, making it harder to see. On them though at the back were two symbols. The first one a picture of a crow, and the second one. The Graylash family's symbol. Three lightning bolts all heading down to one point.

Paul and Quinn nodded at each other, and Quinn had agreed that Paul would do the talking. When it came to factions, talking with adults, and such, Paul knew a lot more about this world than them.

[Accept]

"You have entered the Crow's area. This planet belongs to the Graylash family. State your reason for being here, or we will shoot you down." A man's voice could be heard.

"We had been approached by one of your recruiters at the earth station." Paul answered. "At present, there are four of us on the ship. We are armed with beast gear and are Wanderers looking to join a faction."

There was a pause before they heard a reply back, and Quinn was a little nervous. He could imagine something wrong happening, and them choosing to fire the ship while they were in space anyway. How would they survive?

Could vampires even survive in space? He doubted that very much. They were some things, no matter how strong one's body was that you just couldn't survive.

The four ships continued to follow them and now that they had reached the area of the planet. The ship needed to be switched to manual. It was a bumpy ride, to say the least. Paul took control as he had some basic training in such things, but he wasn't usually the one to fly things.

Eventually, they had arrived at the shelter and had parked in a space where there were around a hundred or so ships.

"Please do not leave the ship just yet!" A voice shouted from the outside.

A few moments later, and the heavy sound of metal clanking against the floor was heard. They had brought with them a couple of Mechs, and the people from outside of the other ships had come out as well.

"You may proceed to leave now!" The man shouted again.

Everything felt so strict, but it was understandable. They could have been just as easy as another faction coming in for an attack. When the doors opened. They saw what looked like young kids, and a scruffy old man leave from the ship. Seeing this, their guard was let down a little.

The four of them were told to wait, while the others went inside to search the ship to see if they could find anything unusual. Other than the blue crystals, there was nothing else, so they chose to leave it, and come back out.

"It's all clear, boss." A female said, and the group went back over to his side. They were all dressed in beast gear, which looked to be in-between the intermediate level and the advanced level. The man who was in charge looked to have a few pieces of king tier equipment as well. His hair was balck in colour and was pointed up like a brush. It made him at least four inches taller.

"Sorry about that. It's not every day that someone comes by ship to this planet. The name's Blip." The man said as he went forward to greet himself.

Quinn had stepped forward to shake the man's hand but then noticed that the man wasn't going towards him, but going to Paul instead.

It was a bit embarrassing as Quinn had his hand held out for a bit before putting it away.

"Wow." Fex said. "Did you really just… I would die of embarrassment."

Quinn's face went red, but then they both laughed it off in the end, It was only natural the only looking adult of the group they thought was the leader.

"It's great to have you here. We are always looking for new recruits. Come, follow me and we can have a talk while we head towards the main base." Blip said.

While walking, they were taken through the shelter. It looked the same as others that they had gone through before. There were many buildings, market stalls of people buying and selling things, however, there was a main difference.

This shelter seemed to be filled with a lot more Travelers than other shelters. While Paul and Blip were talking, Quinn had picked up a few things.

This planet was an orange portal planet. Not everything had been discovered on it yet. The main goal of this planet was to hunt for beasts in search of weapons. To improve their strength as well as the Graylash family's strength.

Blip had asked them about their background, which was expected and Paul stuck to the script. The people behind him were students, and he used to be part of Pure. The man's reaction didn't change from hearing this, so it seems like Paul was right, there must have really gotten a lot of deserters from the other actions swapping sides.

It seemed like odd groups would come here all the time, including to the other shelters. Wanderers who had grouped together thinking they could make it, only to find out later that the protection of a big faction was needed.

It was the same for the Crows, before this they were their own faction, but with the civil war, they had no choice but to team up and work for the Graylashes. Otherwise, the others would come and attack the shelter in hopes to claim it for themselves.

"Since you are all students, I assume that none of you have a traveler tag, or are ranked. Same for you since you were with Pure." Blip asked.

The group nodded.

The Traveler Tag, was a Travelers ID. It was a small piece of metal with a chip inside. This was the standard system created by humans to determine one's rank. Every time a task was completed, the faction needed to input it into the system and award them points.

The difficulty of the task would be registered into a computer system based on a few things. Eventually allowing the users to rank up. The computer system was complex and nearly every shelter had one in place.

Every crystal was unique, like a fingerprint. When placed into the system, it would register the crystal so the same crystal couldn't be registered again. The person imputing the crystal would then need the others to place their tags into the system as well.

Based on the tier of crystal, points would then be assigned to each of the tags. The more tags, the fewer the points were spread out. Of course, there were ways to cheat such a system. If a team went out to hunt an advanced tier beast, a single tag could be placed when assigning the points. Allowing them to rank up quicker, but people rarely did this. A higher rank meant you would be assigned more dangerous tasks by the faction.

If you weren't really the rank you said you were, then you would soon be found out, or worse you would be dead. So there rarely was any cheating that went on with Traveler Ranks. This whole system that was used by everybody was created by the Green family.

The family that Logan belonged to, and it also explained why the Traveler ID and Tag system was implemented into the game as well.

"Since you guys don't have a tag and have never been travelers before, we need to do an assessment." Blip explained.

An assessment could be completed by any of the factions that owned a tag system. There was a bit of a leeway since even students coming out of school varied in strength. The assessment itself was done by the faction. After seeing your skills they would assign you one of three ranks. F, E and D being the highest. to get any higher they would have to proceed with the other steps, obtaining points.

"Let's see how good you lot are." Blip said.

*****

For MVS artwork and updates follow on Instagram and Facebook: jksmanga

If you want to support the creation of the Webtoon, you can on my P.A.T.R.E.O.N: jksmanga