When Jun stepped out, his mind had already moved past survival mode and into something more deliberate. He found a room inside the shelter and it was large enough, structurally sound, relatively safe and claimed it as his base. Whatever supplies he had, he arranged them with quiet efficiency. His priorities had organized themselves into a clean sequence somewhere between the pain and the exhaustion, and he intended to follow them in order.
Once everything was set, he activated his teleporter. A brief flicker of energy, and the shelter was gone or replaced by the familiar walls of his room in Elysira. The room was exactly as he'd left it. Safe. Nothing had changed. But the comfort that a place like this was supposed to produce didn't come, and Jun didn't wait around for it. He went straight to the shelf and placed an order of medicines, antiseptic sprays, bandages, basic recovery supplies.
Then he turned to Ruhi,"Pack your things."
She nodded without asking why. She already understood. The delivery arrived quickly, Jun checked everything over, and then without any particular fanfare.
He said, "Let's go."
And they teleported back to Icolis. Red Eye was already waiting when they returned. She had used the time well the rabbit meal was ready, the fire burning low and steady, the space quiet in the way that only feels intentional when someone has deliberately made it so. Jun sat down without a word and ate. Ruhi sat across from him, somewhere between confused and curious, watching her and waiting for Jun's order.
When the meal was finished, Jun finally talked. He laid it all out the illusion, the skeletons, the key, the authority transfer, the system messages, and the one detail that carried the most weight the shelter claim broadcast that had gone out to every registered shelter in Icolis before he'd had any chance to stop it. Ruhi listened without interrupting.
When he finished, a few seconds of silence passed, and then she said, "So this place isn't just a shelter anymore. So you want to keep your identity anonymous and know everyone by the name Omnis. Besides, there's a lot of danger here after the message that's spread throughout Icolis."
The next day, everything changed. Jun established one rule for himself before anything else no wasted time and then he got to work. Mornings began with physical training like running, weighted movement drills, combat sequences repeated until the form was correct and then repeated again until it was good. His body resisted at first. The chest pain still spiked occasionally, sharp and unwelcome, but Jun had made a decision somewhere along the way that pain was information, not a stop sign. He worked through it every day, and every day his body responded a little better than the day before. His stamina climbed steadily, balance improved, and reaction speed sharpened into something he could actually rely on. And perhaps most importantly, his pain tolerance built itself into something that no longer had the power to derail him.
Ruhi's development was a separate project, and Jun approached it with the same seriousness. She was weak at the start not in will, but in the practical foundations that keep someone alive in a place like Icolis. Jun built her a curriculum from what was available like combat manuals, fighting strategy texts, archived training footage from Elysira. He taught her close combat basics, balance, movement, distance control. Then he introduced the bow. Her first sessions were rough shots going wide, grip inconsistent, aim drifting but she was stubborn in the way that actually produces results, the kind of stubborn that doesn't argue, it just keeps showing up. Jun matched her stubbornness with his own. Week by week her shots tightened, grip steadied, and aim became something she could trust.
Red Eye hunted daily, and the meals kept coming like fish, crabs, turtles, snow bear, and rabbit-type creatures, occasionally something else small enough to catch and worth the effort. After each meal, Jun's card would flash with a power point update. Sometimes it was a modest, higher, or zero, and every single time it did, the same line appeared beneath the total: Power Skill: None.
Jun felt the frustration each time and set it aside each time. The foundation came first. Everything else would follow from that. By the end of a month and a half, the results were visible in a way that didn't require any announcement. Jun was leaner, sharper, more controlled in every movement. His leg had healed completely. The chest pain still visited occasionally, but it no longer had any authority over what he did or didn't do. Ruhi was unrecognizable compared to the person who had packed her bags in Elysira without asking questions. She could fight, aim, and survive, and she carried herself like someone who knew it. And Red Eye had become something that didn't fit neatly into any single category anymore. Red Eye's body had now changed a bit from before; the words written on her suit were now visible in deep dark green-brown color. Apart from this, her body was looking even more smoky and glassy, one of her eyes had turned deep dark red and her hair was now in a greeny teal colored ponytail. Her body curves were more clearly visible than before.
Jun took Ruhi into a room and locked her inside. He did not give her any food or water for three days. Instead, he poured a few drops of his own blood into a bowl filled with some kind of liquid and gave it to her.
At the same time, a contract suddenly appeared in front of Ruhi. According to that contract, Ruhi became a slave and Jun became her master. After this, Ruhi drank the liquid from the bowl.
A short while later, Jun slightly cut his left thumb and drew a special kind of sign on Ruhi's chest. The moment the sign was completed, a message appeared on Jun's card:
"Slave Cast Contract Successful."
After that, Jun gave Ruhi a brown full-body suit and told her to wear it at all times. He also wore the Red Eye suit himself so that when people arrived at the shelter in the future, their identities would remain hidden and no one would know who they were.
With the training phase behind him, Jun turned his attention to expansion. He went to Elysira and contacted his uncle and after a few days later, a proper teleporter system was installed inside the Illusion Shelter and it was stable, secure, capable of handling multiple entries at a same time.
The first period after the installation was quiet. After some days some newbies people who came here for exploring, and hunting. They arrived cautiously, assessed the space, and found it safe, stable, and controlled. Word moved the way it always does in places where information is currency, and the trickle became something steadier.
Ruhi had been thinking ahead. She came to Jun with a framework she'd put together some rules for the shelter's operation.
Rule 01: You will have to register when entering or exiting the shelter.
Rule 02: You'll get enough water, then use it however you like. You'll have to bring your own food.
Rule 03: There will be no fight inside the shelter. If there is extreme need, you can fight in the general arena.
Rule 04: Five percent of every hunt contributed to the shelter's resources. Outsiders paid one hundred power points for entry access
Rule 05: Outsiders will be allocated limited access to the shelter, such as rooms, teleporter access, and food and water. They will also be required to stay away from restricted areas such as arenas and main halls.
Rule 06: You can form a group and go hunting or exploring, but you will not be responsible if they are outside the shelter.
Rule 07: In case of a disaster like alien attack or natural attack, you will be able to use your powers in the shelter but only for protection.
Jun approved it without modification. The rules went into effect, and almost immediately the shelter's internal dynamic shifted. People knew what was expected. The system stabilized. And as stability became the shelter's reputation, connections to the main lands began forming new routes mapped, exploration teams organized, information flowing in both directions. Within a relatively short stretch of time, the Illusion Shelter had become a hub for outsiders who travel from one shelter to another shelter.
It was late when Jun finally stopped moving for the day. The air had cooled, and he was standing on the top of the shelter with an old book in his hand looking strange, its cover worn down to something almost textureless, its pages filled with symbols that didn't belong to any system he recognized.
"I don't know why he gave me this book",Jun thought.
Red Eye came to stand beside him. She looked at the book for a moment, her head tilting slightly to one side.
Then she asked, "Master… what book is that? It looks… quite strange."