As much as it was expected that he left the spaceship, actually leaving felt…, painful in a weird way. A place that had been your home since coming to Mars…

Tatehan wheeled the Dust Rider out of the spaceship entrance, the bike's frame catching the harsh morning light filtering through the open hatch. He stood there for a moment, one hand on the handlebar, staring back into the vessel that had been his home for the past months (techically in a way).

"Well, this is it," he muttered to himself.

Walking through the ramp to the martian ground, he put the Dust rider to a stop, setting it.

Then he looked at the Spaceship for a long time, standing akimbo, letting out a small sigh before focusing mentally, reaching for that strange connection between his mind and the system inventory. He'd done this with smaller things before (books, weapons, food) but never something as massive as an entire spaceship. He half-expected some slow, gentle dissolving effect, maybe a shimmer of light as the vessel faded away piece by piece.

Some gentle stuff he could watch with a smile.

Instead, it was like a violent storm descended on the thing.

A massive rush of energy erupted from the spaceship, swirling around it in a chaotic vortex. The air itself seemed to scream. Dust and debris exploded outward in all directions, and Tatehan threw his arm up to shield his face. The force of it nearly knocked him back a step.

"Shit!" he shouted, squinting against the onslaught.

He quickly summoned his armor, just the helmet, snapping it into place over his head. The visor sealed with a soft hiss, and the filtered view cut through the worst of the dust cloud. His eyes tracked the spaceship through the chaos, watching as the Red Dragon seemed to collapse in on itself, pulled into some invisible point in space.

Then…

Boom!

A final burst of energy, a thunderclap of displaced air, and the spaceship was gone.

Gone!

Where the massive vessel had stood moments before, there was now only empty wasteland. Flat ground, scattered rocks, and the faint scorch marks where the landing gear had rested.

Tatehan stood there, staring at the empty space. His hand slowly lowered from where it had been protecting his face. The helmet retracted, folding back into the armor and disappearing, leaving his face exposed to the dry Martian air.

He didn't move for a long time.

Until he was disrupted by a series of messages from his system:

[Congratulations on getting the Red dragon spaceship into your inventory!]

[Your abilities have been upgraded by one level each]

[You have received knowledge points]

[You have received repair points]

[You have leveled up!]

[HOST STATUS]

Name: Tatehan

Level: 8 [+1]

Species: Human (Enhanced)

Knowledge: 114/200 [+6]

Repair Points: 50/100 [+3]

[ABILITIES]

• Gravity Manipulation - Level 8 [1]

• Regeneration (Partial) - Level 6 [1]

• Enhanced Durability - Level 2 [1]

• Heightened perception - Level 4 [1]

[INVENTORY:]

[Shadow Goblin Cores: 56 total]

[Tri-Edge Shadow chakrams]

[Backpack]

[Shadow-Forged Blade]

[Kinetic Absorption Armor]

[Devastator Hand Cannon]

He stared at his stats, not saying a word.

The wind picked up, carrying dust across the barren landscape, and Tatehan just stood there looking at where the spaceship had been. Feeling... something. Nostalgic, maybe. Or just aware that a chapter had closed.

That vessel had brought him to this planet (in a way). It had been his sanctuary, his home base, in this alien wasteland. And now it was just data in his inventory, waiting to be summoned again when he found the right place.

If he found the right place.

He exhaled slowly, then turned toward the Dust Rider.

Tatehan crouched beside the bike and opened the small compartment on its side, the one designed to hold the shadow cores. The panel popped open with a soft click, revealing the empty slot inside.

He summoned one core from his inventory. It materialized in his hand, that strange crystalline structure gleaming with dark purplish energy trapped inside. He placed it carefully into the slot, and it clicked into position, held by some magnetic mechanism. The core immediately began to glow, brighter and brighter, until the entire compartment was bathed in light.

The Dust Rider hummed to life beneath him, vibrating gently as the energy fed into its systems.

Tatehan closed the compartment and stood, swinging his leg over the bike and settling into the seat. He gripped the handlebars, feeling the responsive thrum of power running through the machine.

He twisted the throttle.

The Dust Rider shot forward, kicking up a plume of red dust behind him as he accelerated across the wasteland.

The landscape blurred past—endless stretches of flat nothing, broken only by scattered boulders and fields of loose pebbles. The wind whipped against his face, and he squinted against it, leaning forward slightly as the bike picked up speed.

The cores ran for about an hour before burning out. That meant he'd have to stop frequently to replace them. Annoying, but necessary.

He sighed.

"Work," he muttered to himself.

Still, there was something freeing about this. Just him and the open wasteland, nothing but empty horizon in every direction.

An hour passed quickly. He'd fallen into a kind of rhythm, his mind drifting as the bike carried him forward. Thinking about Waython Hollow, about what he'd find there. About Kael's daughter and whether she was really okay. About the commander and whatever help she needed from him.

Then the core died.

The Dust Rider's engine cut out immediately, and the bike began to slow. Tatehan guided it to a stop, planting one foot on the ground to steady himself.

"Work," he said again, this time with more irritation.

He opened the compartment, pulled out the spent core (now just a dull, lifeless crystal) and tossed it aside. He summoned a fresh one from his inventory and slotted it in. The glow returned, the bike hummed back to life, and he was off again.

The wastelands stretched on. Empty and silent except for the roar of the Dust Rider's engine.

Tatehan was starting to think the whole trip would be like this, boring and uneventful, when something massive erupted from a boulder directly in his path.

It happened so fast he barely registered it.

One moment he was riding. The next, something huge and red launched itself at him from the side of a rock formation, slamming into him with devastating force.

Tatehan was knocked clean off the bike.

He hit the ground hard, rolling across the rough terrain, his shoulder taking most of the impact. The Dust Rider skidded away, spinning out and coming to rest on its side several meters away.

Tatehan scrambled to his feet, immediately summoning his armor. The material flowed over his body in an instant, encasing him from head to toe. His helmet snapped into place, and his HUD lit up, scanning the threat.

The monster was really fast and didn't even give him time to see how it looked but thanks to Tatehan's heightened perception, everything seemed to slow down and he really studied the creature.

The creature was massive, easily three meters tall, built like some grotesque monkey. Its body was covered in slick, dripping slime that glistened in the sunlight. Its skin beneath the slime was a mottled red, almost raw-looking, and its limbs were long and muscular, ending in clawed hands that scraped against the rocks as it moved. Its face was twisted and bestial, with a gaping mouth full of jagged teeth and small, hate-filled eyes.

It roared at him, the sound echoing across the empty wasteland.

Fully identifying the creature and studying every part of it, the heightened perception went off.

Tatehan didn't hesitate. He summoned his chakrams, one in each hand, and hurled them both at the creature in quick succession.

The first one sliced through the air with a high-pitched whine and struck the creature in the shoulder, cutting deep. The second one followed immediately, hitting it in the chest. Both impacts made the monster stagger back, howling in pain.

The chakrams curved through the air and returned to Tatehan's hands, spinning perfectly into his grip.

He grabbed them, then immediately unsummoned them and summoned his pistol instead—the Devastator Hand Cannon.

He didn't plan on wasting time here.

The weapon materialized in his hand, heavy and solid. He raised it, aiming directly at the creature's center mass.

The monster charged.

Tatehan fired twice.

BOOM. BOOM.

The first bullet caught the creature in the chest, punching through the slime and flesh with brutal efficiency, exploding the region it met. The second hit it in the head, and the top half of the monster's skull exploded in a spray of red and black.

The creature's momentum carried it forward for another two steps before it collapsed, skidding across the ground in a heap of twitching limbs and oozing slime.

Tatehan stood there, pistol still raised, waiting to see if it would get back up.

It didn't.

He lowered the weapon slowly, breathing steady inside his helmet. His HUD confirmed the creature was dead—no heat signature, no movement and all that, it was good as not alive.

He unsummoned the Devastator and walked over to the lifeless corpse of the creature…

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