CHAPTER 67: DUST RIDER AWAKENS

Tatehan placed the core in the circular slot in the center of the engine compartment.

As it entered, he and Riven exchanged glances. The more he looked at her, the more he realized she was simply too stunning.

’Beautiful’ was the right word.

If he tried to compare her with his now-deceased girlfriend back on Earth, he’d say Riven came out on top. And she had these eyes...

’Huh.’

He must have stared longer than he intended and got carried away. If not for the helmet, Riven might have noticed.

The motorcycle suddenly roared with energy, faint lightning-like lines running through its frame.

Tatehan and Riven both took two steps backward, watching the motorcycle come alive.

The engine roared again by itself, powering up with a monotonous hum.

Finally, the sounds stopped. Tatehan and Riven looked at each other, then Riven pointed the gun at him.

"Take a step and I shoot you. Run away, the bike’s mine."

Tatehan smiled behind his helmet. He knew she was making a joke.

There was a pause, then she burst into laughter. It was contagious, and Tatehan almost joined in but stopped himself. For some reason, he wanted to keep up the act, play the tough Knight in armor.

Tatehan walked over to the motorcycle, looking at it with curiosity. It felt really cool to behold. Like one of those bikes he’d seen in movies, the ones ridden through deserts.

He gripped the handlebar and looked at Riven.

"Time to go."

Riven hesitated, looking at him like he was some stranger.

"I’m helping you here, not forcing you," Tatehan said as he noticed the hint of hesitation.

Honestly, she was a strange one. At first, she seemed playful, cracking jokes and teasing. Then she’d turned serious while picking a bike, and now this — she was hesitating when clearly she was the one being helped.

Tatehan mounted the Dust Rider, gripping the handlebar and rolling it forward. He looked at Riven.

"C’mon, we don’t have all day."

Riven slowly walked toward the bike. "You know, I would have really loved to see your face. Don’t know why you’re hiding it."

Tatehan looked at her and sighed. He wanted to say something but stopped. He only gestured for her to get on behind him.

Giving up, she climbed onto the Dust Rider.

"You might want to hold onto something," Tatehan said to her. "I’m going to move with insane speed."

Riven ended up holding him by the waist. He couldn’t feel anything, though, as he had the armor on, and that was probably why Riven was okay with doing so.

Words flashed across his retina just as he was about to zoom out of there.

[Congratulations host on meeting your first Martian female]

[You made friends with her]

[You powered the Dust Rider with the core from the Shadow Goblins]

[You have gained knowledge points]

[HOST STATUS]

Name: Tatehan

Level: 4

Species: Human (Enhanced)

Knowledge: 66/100 [+13]

Repair points: 28/100

[ABILITIES]

• Gravity Manipulation - Level 6.2

• Regeneration (partial) - Level 4

• Enhanced Durability - Level 0.5

[Inventory:]

[Shadow Goblin Cores x4]

[Chakrams]

[Map]

[Sharp sword]

[Knight armor]

Tatehan looked at his status very quickly, wondering why the cores from the Shadow Goblins didn’t have a specific name.

When he’d killed the Lunatic Carapace Brutenecks and found cores on them, the cores had names. Well, the ones from the Dwarf Brutenecks didn’t exactly have names either.

’Weird power system.’

With that, he revved the engine one more time, summoning the map across his vision. He saw the direction he needed to take and aimed his bike toward it, ready to zoom out of here.

But then he felt Riven gripping him too tightly. He turned to look at her with an inquiring expression, but all he could hear, in a whisper, was:

"More Shadow Goblins."

Tatehan’s instincts kicked in. He summoned his chakrams instantly and looked left.

Sure enough, four of them were crawling closer.

But something was off. The earlier ones were huge, thick, solid creatures. These were different.

They were unnaturally thin, like the malnourished children he used to see on TV back on Earth, only worse.

Words appeared across Tatehan’s retina:

[Shadow Goblins identified]

[Threat Level: Very Easy]

[Recommendation: Minimal effort required]

Tatehan couldn’t believe his eyes. It felt as though they were burning from shock. While it was expected that the Shadow Goblins in front of him wouldn’t be as strong as the ones he’d fought some minutes ago, (he was certain they wouldn’t even come close to their difficulty), seeing the system identify them and tell him directly was a joy to behold.

"It says easy to kill," Riven said to him as the monsters slowly walked toward them like zombies.

Tatehan furrowed his brow in confusion. How had she known?

"You have a system?"

Riven looked at him with one of those ’duh’ expressions.

"Every human on Mars with an awakened weapon has one."

Tatehan realized there was still a lot he had to learn about humans on Mars and their life on this planet. He’d honestly thought he was the only one with a system here. Clearly, there were many people on Mars with systems, so it wasn’t as special as he’d thought.

Well...

His was special. It wasn’t every Martian human who had a system that granted multiple abilities. He wasn’t even sure he had a limit to the number of abilities he could get because they all came in different ways, like his Kinetic Absorption, which could only be used with the armor on.

He looked at the Shadow Goblins with curiosity now. He was ready to dismount and face them.

Of course, it would be stressful and drain him, but it wasn’t like he had a choice. He needed more cores.

But then he felt a hand on his chest plate.

"Let me handle them," Riven said, dismounting from the Dust Rider and gripping her rifle tightly.

"I saw what you can do. Now see what I can do."

Tatehan relaxed back on the motorcycle. He couldn’t wait to see what a rifle could do.