The Secret Artifact that gave me a system

Olivia woke before the artificial sun started to rise. She couldn't wait to see her first sunrise from the surface of Earth. She had always dreamed of being able to experience her home planet.

Before she left for the transit hub Olivia checked and rechecked that she had everything she needed for a long expedition. From what she heard the archivists spent a month on the planets surface to sort through everything that was found to determine what was most important to save.

Once Olivia cleaned her apartment and readied it for being empty for the month, she grabbed her rice balls that she had picked up the evening before and left her home.

When Olivia made it to the transit portal she again heard that now familiar sound in her head that indicated she finished her daily quest.

[Daily quest complete. 10 exp earned]

[Experience: 30/300]

Once Olivia went through the portal and landed at the transit hub she made her way over to the rail system platform to look for Dr. Richardson. She checked the time on her data pad and noticed she was an hour early and decided to get a drink from a nearby vending machine.

With drink in hand Olivia found a bench to sit and wait.

"You're here early." A familiar voice said as they walked up behind Olivia.

"Tori what are you doing here?" Olivia got up and turned to greet her friend.

"I would be a pretty lousy friend if I didn't see you off on your first great adventure." Tori replied with a smile. "Besides I have something for you."

Tori then pulled a tiny black object out of her bag. "Think of it as an upgrade for your data pad. It will link to station Alpha and allow us to communicate while you are away."

"Oh wow Tori, you are amazing!" Olivia exclaimed as she handed her data pad over to her friend.

"Just remember you may lose signal the farther away from the camp you go." Tori explained as she installed the upgrade to Olivia's data pad.

"Ah I see my travel companion has arrived early." Dr. Richardson said as he greeted the girls.

"Good morning Doctor." Both girls replied together.

" I have our travel documents and I took the opportunity to register you as an apprentice researcher with the archives." Dr. Richardson looked at his data pad to make sure everything was in order and to send Olivia everything she needed for the trip.

"Shall we go find our seats? The train will be leaving shortly."

Olivia nodded then turned to Tori. "I guess this is goodbye for now. I'm going to miss you."

"Don't worry. You will be home before you know it, and when you get back we will go on an epic shopping spree." Tori grinned as she hugged her friend goodbye.

Olivia and the doctor found their seats and settled before the train pulled out of the station. This was only the second time Olivia had been on the train and marveled at how fast it went. They had to go to Lunaria first, as it was where the space shuttled departed from. Lunaria was bigger than Arcadia as it was the first settlement that was built on the moon.

The doctor was deep in thought during the ride so Olivia decided to learn more about her system as they travelled since she was the only one that could see and hear it.

As Olivia looked over her stats she noticed that only her hp improved. The rest of her stats were still the same. Then she saw the notice at the bottom that said she has a free stat point. Olivia pondered over what she should put this point in to. At first she thought agility would be good to improve in case she needed to run from any dangerous animals. Then she thought strength might be better as she would probably be needed to help carry heavy objects or to clear rocks and debris. If she was really lucky Olivia might even get to explore some of the ruins. With that thought she put the point in strength, raising it from 5 to 6. As she did she felt a rush of energy run through her entire body. It didn't hurt like her last upgrade experience did. In fact it made her feel more invigorated.

She then looked at the quest tab and was a little disappointed to still see the same two quests. At this rate it would take her forever to get to level 3.

After travelling for two hours the train finally started to slow as it pulled up to the transit hub in Lunaria. Olivia gasped at the sight. There were even more buildings, and so many people. Arcadia was a large city but Lunaria was a sprawling metropolis. There were so many more portals to choose from, and Olivia even saw some of the shuttles as they left for the star bases.

"Ok. Make sure you have everything and stay close. We wouldn't want you to get lost in the crowd." Dr. Richardson said as he pulled a large case behind him. Olivia didn't have much, just her sling bag with her data pad and personal items and a duffel bag that she hoisted onto her shoulders like a backpack for easier transport. Olivia nodded to the doctor and stayed close to home as they weaved through all the people in the transit hub. They stopped at a portal that had fewer people using it.

"This portal will take us to the shuttle station. I want you to enter first and wait for me." Dr. Richardson explained.

Olivia then walked through the portal. The other side of the portal felt like she had stepped into a science fiction movie. Everything was white and chrome. It was so bright that it hurt her eyes just being there.

"We are almost there." The doctor said as he exited the portal. "Outside this room is the main gate. We will need to show them our credentials and our boarding passes." Dr. Richardson again led the way out of the portal room and into a very large area that had gates to different shuttle pads. In the middle was a large kiosk with a few people there confirming flights. These people worked for the government and the defence force. Not that humanity had come across any enemies yet, nor had there been any attempts at starting a war. Things were relatively peaceful that there was no need for an army but old habits and human history kept them around just in case. They did however want to make sure that only those authorized to travel away from the moon were permitted.

The check in procedure was quick as Dr. Richardson was well known and travelled back and forth quite regularly, and before Olivia knew it she was boarding the shuttle craft that would take her to earth.

The shuttle was small and could only hold six people plus the pilots. Olivia was glad for the fact that she wasn't claustrophobic as that would have made this trip very uncomfortable.

Once the other passengers got on the shuttle and all the safety checks were done the door was air locked and they took off towards Earth.

During the flight Olivia saw that Dr. Richardson was chatting with the other passengers. She learned that they were engineers being sent to the settlement to make repairs and upgrades.

Most of the chatter didn't interest Olivia so she busied herself by reading a books she had saved on her data pad. Half way through the flight however she started to get distracted by a faint thump - thumping noise. Olivia looked around but didn't see anything that would be making this odd sound, and the others didn't seem to be bothered by it.

'System do you know where that sound is coming from?'

[That is the sound of multiple human heartbeats.]

[New quest: Drink human blood. 50 exp]

Olivia's eyes get wide when she saw the new quest appear. 'I need to what now? I'm not going to drink another persons blood. That is just gross!'

[Your hunger will grow. If you do not consume human blood in two days you will loose 10hp every hour.]

Olivia did not know what to do. She couldn't hurt any of these people. She would just wait until they got settled on Earth and then figure out a plan.