.....NINETY ONE

Seeing that the intermediate beast was patrolling around the storage room, Ian and Void had decided to go to a different part of the shelter. As Ian said it was most likely the Portal wasn't there in the first place.

Even though the portal was in a red zone, the portal on the other end still had to be placed in a safe place to make sure either beast from the other planet didn't enter it or destroy it. Of course, a party or a group could bring a portal with them to get back to their own world but these were very expensive.

Someone at Ian's level didn't have one of these devices because once they had been set up, they were unable to be taken back with them. It was a one time use device.

"Any ideas of where the Portal might be?" Void asked.

"My guess is somewhere underground. It's safe from most of the beasts that way. Most likely they have a special building that looks like any other and a secret entrance."

"Wait so are you saying we just have to keep going into buildings?"

"Well we can rule out all the residential buildings, they wouldn't be able to build a large enough base under those, and any of the small buildings or dangerous areas you can rule out as well. There are only so many big buildings that would be large enough to store a big base under."

The two of them continued to look into building after building but there was no luck or no sign of a secret room. Eventually, they had entered what looked like a library. Although most of the books had been destroyed and several of the bookcases had fallen over as well.

That's when a loud grumbling sound had come from Void's belly.

"I guess we have been travelling for a while now, why don't we rest here for the night, it doesn't look like there any beasts here and we can build our own fortress," Ian said.

The two of them then went up to the second floor of the building. There were large holes and broken-down walls on the first floor which made it easy for beasts to attack them. Once they had reached the second floor, the two of them started to lift up a few of the bookshelves.

It seemed like Ian had the ability of super strength seeing how easily he moved the heavy bookshelves, but Void knew that wasn't true. The reason why Ian seemed like he had extra strength was actually from the beast armor he was wearing.

Certain beast armor once above the basic tier had special properties. If the user was able to activate these properties, they could increase the base strength of the user. Giving him more power, extra speed. Overall, it just improved you as a human being and almost made you seem to be a superhuman.

Void could see Ian was still struggling though, most likely due to his injuries but there was no way he himself could move the giant bookshelves so easily. So instead Void helped out in his own way by clearing a space and moving all the books and piles of rubbish away.

After an hour or so they were done. Ian had moved the bookshelves to create a small type of fortress around them.

"It's a nice home isn't it?" Ian said proudly of his work. "Well, what are you waiting for, come on let's go inside."

As Void walked inside Ian followed behind and as he did, he pulled one last bookshelf around them, sealing them up in a cube-like shape surrounded by bookshelves. The room they were in was now pitch black.

Ian then punched part of the bookshelves with his fist, creating a hole in all four directions letting in a little bit of light, but more importantly, it was used to let them peak through and see if any danger was coming towards them.

He then pulled out a little small stone from his pocket and placed It on the ground in the center of the room. He tapped the stone once and a warm orange light started to shine from it. The light wasn't very strong but in the small dark room, it made a huge difference.

"Here take this," Ian said as he handed a small circle pill to Void.

"Is this a food supplement?" Void asked.

"Yeah, I'm guessing if you came here on accident you don't have any with you."

Void looked at the pill before shoving it down his throat and into the stomach. A food supplement was a pill that contained all the things a human needed to live. As long as a person took one pill of these a day, they no longer needed to eat.

Although it gave the human enough calories and vitamins, it did nothing in terms of water continent. You would still need to find your own water source. Luckily in the shelter, it seemed like the waterworks in nearly every building was working.

So it wasn't a problem for Ian and Void.

"You get some sleep and I'll keep watch, then will do a little switch later on," Ian said. "Sounds good?"

"Yeah."

******

As he heard the sound of the door unlocking a grin appeared on his face that couldn't be contained.

"I love you system, I swear I'll never talk badly about you ever again," Graham said as he stepped into the container.

But as he stepped in, his hopes of finding legendary beast equipment or stashes of beast crystals were soon lost. The room was simply filled with shelves of books, nothing else but books.

However, as soon as Graham picked up one of the books closest to him his mind was quickly changed.

[ Earth ability book level 1 ]

[ Unable to learn would you like to convert into 10 exp? ]

It was a container room filled with ability and skill books. Although Graham was unable to learn the ability, he immediately converted the book into exp points.

As soon as Graham decided to convert the book into exp, it started to vanish in his very hands as if it was disintegrating. A sensation was felt form inside and finally, the message had appeared.

[ 10 exp gained ]

[ 1150/1600 exp ]

After absorbing the first book Graham started to pick up book after book. After going through the books Graham found out that a level one skill book would give him 5 exp points while a level 1 ability book would give him 10 exp points.

If he had already absorbed that book again the system wouldn't even pop up with another message. It was a shame since most of the books inside the container were earth books that the military had the most control over.

Graham got closer to the back of the container and found that the level of the books would increase. A level 2 ability book would gain him 100 exp points, while a level 2 skill book would gain him 50. This would be the case even if he had already absorbed the level 1 version of the ability book.

And finally, after absorbing multiple books after another, a message had appeared.

[1650/1600 exp points gained ]

[ You are now level 6 ]

After levelling up Graham immediately put his stat point into strength, and now without his gauntlets, his strength was at 15 meaning he would be able to perform the Hammer strike skill with or without the gauntlets.

As Graham looked around the room there were still several books he hadn't even touched yet, the place really was a gold mine for him.

As he went onto the next set of shelves, with it came a new set of books. He placed his hand on the first one and it was the first Level three ability book he had come across.

[ Level 3 Earth ability book ]

[Unable to learn, would you like to convert into 1000 Exp? ]

Graham placed the book down and picked the book up making sure he had heard the system right, but once again the numbers he had received where correct. The level three ability book was offering him 1000 experience points.

Without hesitating, he had decided to absorb the book right away.

[ 1050/3200 points ]

Graham then picked up the skill book right next to him and as he though it too had offered him 500 exp points. So far it seemed like a skill book would offer half the amount of points that an ability book had to offer.

He once again went on rampage grabbing every book he could on the shelf, absorbing those that he couldn't and tossing the others on the ground. Although he would have loved to take the books with him as they would have sold for a healthy price.

The books so far were unable to go into his storage like the crystals and carrying them would just be more trouble than it was worth. After going through all the books Graham was able to level up a total of two more times.

[ Level 8 ]

[ 135/135 HP ]

No new skills were unlocked but Graham still obtained the regular stat points for every level up. Now that his strength and agility were at level fifteen, he decided he should finally increase his stamina points.

If there was a fight that needed him to preform flash step and hammer strike multiple times, he would definitely be in trouble. After putting the two points into stamina his stats were now looking a lot more even.

[ Strength 15 (2)]

[ Agility 15 ]

[ Stamina 14 ]

[ 510/12800 exp]

Although the Exp needed now was getting further and further away. Which made Graham think if there was even a cap to his levelling, or would the exp amount increase so much so, that it was no longer possible to achieve.

Graham had now nearly touched every single book that was in the storage room. Unfortunately, the highest ability Graham was able to find so far was a level three ability book. The further he went into the container the higher the levels but for the last few shelves, it didn't seem to be the case.

It seemed like they were just duplicates of the other level three ability books. As Graham picked up one book the system message didn't go off. It was because it was a level 3 earth ability book that he had already absorbed.

"Hey, maybe Peter could use this?" Graham thought.

It was only one book, Graham was sure he would be able to carry it safely with him. But as soon as he thought about Peter, a memory entered his mind and it wasn't a good one.

Peter was the whole reason why he was in this place, and he still didn't know how long he was going to be here or if he would even be able to survive. To be honest, Graham was just trying to make the best out of a bad situation at the moment.

As he thought about Peter anger started to enter his mind and body and he ripped the book up. He was willing to hear Peter out if he ever got out of here alive but Graham would no longer help him.

If someone like that betrayed you once, for whatever reason, it only meant there was the chance that the same thing could happen again.

Then as Graham looked around the container, he noticed there was one shelf at the very back of the room where he hadn't been yet. He didn't bother going over there yet because it looked empty from a distance, but as he got closer, he noticed there was a single book that had been placed on there.

As he touched the book on the shelf, a new message appeared.

[ Level 9 ability book Shadow Aether element ]

After seeing the first message appear Graham couldn't wait to see how much experience points a level 9 ability book would give. Perhaps it would finally shoot him up to level ten and he would unlock the use of the shop in his system.

But then something unexpected had happened.

[ Ability is compatible with system ]

[ Would you like to learn? ]

Out of shock Graham dropped the book back onto the shelf and took a step back.

Out of all the books in the room, it was the first time he had ever received a message of this kind. He wasn't even sure it was possible but the system was clearly telling him he could learn the ability.

Then Graham started to think back to the name of the ability "Shadow Aether element." It was something he had never even heard of before and Graham was quite knowledgeable about the abilities of the world.

He then picked up the book once more just to make sure and the same message had appeared. After thinking about it for a long time, he decided he would just learn there and then so he clicked the option.

[Yes]

But then something strange happened the book was lifted up into the air then forming a diamond heart shape and wait straight up for his chest, it was swift and unexpected which made Graham unable to do anything and soon he felt like his body was on fire.

His body muscles where visibly increasing in size from his thin and lean stature to a well built muscular body; soon the diamond in his chest started lightening up with a dark purple light massively increasing the pain Graham felt.

Blood started oozing out from his mouth, his eyes and his nose followed by a black substance and then he vomited all over the place and then a red orb came out with it.

The diamond became brighter in color and soon the ring on Graham's left middle finger started cracking and then...

SHATTER

Looking at the ground Graham expected to see broken pieces of the ring but all he could see on the floor was just some black dirt and then on his left middle finger a ring that was black in color with purple lines all around it's borders which then started stretching rapidly through out his left arm increasing the pain again.

This time Graham couldn't hold it and then he let it all out with a loud agonized shout, hoping someone would come to his rescue but also hoping no beast would find out suddenly he felt his left arm stiffen and tighten then he felt it twitch and soon his skin started falling off his left arm.

Graham didn't know what exactly to think of this as in all his years of being bullied this was the first time he was ever feeling that much pain looking at his left arm again he could see it was now in perfect condition although it was no more it's original color but was a bright metallic color then he opened his palm and saw what seemed to be a mouth on it.

At first he might have thought it was a tattoo but looking at it for a little while longer it smiled at him making him know it wasn't fake but real then it brought out a dark purple spiked tongue.

Graham didn't have much time to think about it as his consciousness was quickly swept away and his body hit the ground causing a dent in it like it was nothing.