Erin walked off, thinking her feelings of frustration out loud in her mind.
She could've gotten some sort of bonus in her fight against Nill, but Fex just had to swoop in and ruin everything. Acting as if she hadn't gotten hurt before in a fight.
Still, with how injured she was from the fight, she found herself to be quite hungry. Erin was going to go to Layla for blood, but then she remembered that Quinn was right there. She was about to ask him, when she hesitated. Erin, for some reason, felt off thinking about asking.
'Wait, am I actually caring about what Quinn thinks?' Erin thought, 'Do I… Like like him?"
Erin shook her head, and instead held her hand up. There was Nill's blood on the tips of her fingers, and grimaced at the thought of tasting it.
It wasn't because it was blood, but because it was on the floor where a ton of people had walked over it already, and with that annoying prick's comment about taking a leak in the area, tasting it didn't seem very appetizing.
"Well… If I'm a vampire, then surely I can't get sick," Erin whispered before licking her fingers.
[Blood type B+ has been absorbed]
[+ 1 Agility point has been added]
It was then when Quinn had managed to catch up to her, and he was looking at the same system message that Erin was looking at.
"I got agility this time, but when I drank Layla's blood, I got strength," Erin began, "Would drinking Layla's blood again give me another point in strength?"
Quinn thought about it, "Maybe it could, but if all you had to do was just drink one person's blood, then you could gain power very easily. Game's are meant to be balanced, right? But the inspect skill displays everyone's blood types, so it would make sense to need to drink a lot of different people's bloods..."
He then had the mental image of Erin going around and serial biting people for blood.
"Right…" Erin responded, "If having a large variety of blood types is what allows me to gain stats, then that's gotta be the quickest way to get stronger."
"Hey— uh…," Quinn lightly scratched the back of his head, "Thanks for helping that guy earlier."
Erin looked back behind her, "Help? I wasn't even able to beat that Nill guy."
"It's not just about beating up the high levels," he sighed, "but also helping out the low levels when you can. I saw that they were able to get away."
They entered the school and continued walking down the halls.
[Erin is no longer being hit by direct sunlight. All stats will return to normal]
Erin let out a slight sigh of relief, her posture relaxing.
"You said it yourself, we need change, and just because we helped one guy escape, doesn't mean that Nill guy won't just go bully another student."
They were both right, change needed continuous efforts to come into effect, but even small achievements should be celebrated.
Quinn was getting tired of all the bullying, he was tired of never having the ability to fight back, and he was tired of waiting for something to change. He was going to unfortunately need to bite the bullet.
He was going to accept the military's offer of learning the earth ability.
Honestly, Quinn considered asking Erin to buy him an ability book, but he didn't want to ask Erin to help him more than she already did, she had done a lot for him already. Quinn just didn't feel intimate enough with her to ask for monetary help anyways. They've only known each other for a few days, and he had waited long enough to get an ability.
"Then I'll do something about it," Quinn replied with determination. He stopped in his tracks, looking at his hands, which caused Erin to stop as well.
"How exactly are you going to do that?"
Quinn looked up to meet Erin's eyes, "I'm going to get stronger."
Erin stared at him, confused, "Why are you staring at your hands?"
"...Isn't that where power comes from? You know… like your ice powers?" He said as he wiggled his fingers.
"They come from the mutant cells in your body, and ability books."
Quinn awkwardly chuckled, "You know, I used to have one too, but I guess I'll need to get another one."
Erin rolled her eyes.
"Whatever. Go get your book."
—
Erin returned to her dorm, a hunger growling in her stomach. She was hoping to see if Layla was around. Not only that, but she wanted a change of clothes.
Looking around, she spotted her roommate hurriedly put away a book under her pillow.
"Hey, Layla…" Erin said before slowly shifting her gaze towards the pillows. What was her frien… roommate hiding?
"H-hey! I thought you were going to be out!!" Layla stammered.
"I was."
{Erin} Is Layla a vampire too?
{Quinn} What?
{Erin} She's making me feel really weird… like my insides are floating.
{Quinn} I thought you drank her blood already.
{Erin} So? What if vampires could drink vampire blood?
{Quinn} You can use the inspect skill if you're unsure. It told you Fex was a vampire.
Erin decided to inspect Layla anyways, seeing as it cost no time at all to do.
[Name: Layla Munrow]
[Race: Human]
[Ability: Telekinesis]
[Blood type A+]
[HP 12/12]
{Quinn} See? She's human.
Erin gazed down at her roommate, who happened to be nervously fidgeting with her hands as if wanting to tell her something.
"Why did you hide your book?"
Layla immediately flinched, laughing obnoxiously, and began stammering over her words.
"AHAHAHAH WELL— UH— SEE HERE—" she laughed.
Holding her in place by the shoulders, Erin gazed into her eyes.
"Layla… I—uh— need you…"
"Wh-WHat?" Layla squeaked, her eyes went wide as she heard the words coming from her roommate.
"I… need your blood… please…" she whined.
Layla froze. This was… unusual… and a little too much like her book.
"Uh— um— yeah sure. Let me just… uh… get some towels—" she said trying to stand, but was dragged back down by the arm.
"Please…" she begged.
Layla's face turned a bright red, her roommates tone and surprisingly pathetic behavior was… very… eye-opening.
"Y-yeah— sure," she managed to say, tilting her head, before Erin hungrily bit into the brunette, holding her upright as she was experiencing blood loss.
[Blood type has already been consumed]
[No additional stat point will be added]
The wave of paralyzing pleasure that followed the biting of Layla soon washed over her. Like a drug bringing her to a high she had only felt once before.
[HP 10/20]
[HP 14/20]
Taking note of how limp Layla was getting from her bite, Erin relaxed her jaw.
[Name: Layla Munrow]
[HP 4/12]
The poor girl had begun spiraling, and she collapsed onto her bed. Thankfully, she was still conscious. Erin was surprised at how quickly she drank her blood.
"Why'd you faint? I didn't drink all of your blood," Erin nonchalantly said.
{Quinn} Whoa, what happened to Layla?
{Erin} I drank her blood.
{Quinn} You drank her blood again? You have to be careful, I don't there's that much blood in a person.
{Erin} You could always offer your blood.
{Quinn} Uh…. maybe not…
{Quinn} Were you that hungry?
{Erin} Yeah, and when I bit into her, her blood tasted really good.
{Quinn} Why'd you bite into her anyways? I would've used a vial or a cup.
Not knowing what to do, Erin just sorta awkwardly left her there. She wasn't even at full health, and yet she had nearly brought Layla to unconsciousness. If Layla went to the nurse's office again for the same exact reason, then the doctor might think something was seriously wrong with Layla.
Actually, Erin could live with that.
However, Layla eventually managed to shake off the paralyzing drug that came with Erin's bite, a slight smile came upon her face.
"I'm… I'm more than good!" Layla slurred.
Erin stared at her roommate, and scrunched her eyebrows, before leaving for the kitchen, "I'll just eat from the fridge."
—
Later that day, Quinn found a box shipped outside of his dorm room, which held the glasses purchased earlier that day. He put them on and looked at himself in the mirror. They didn't look too bad on him, and with how sturdy they were, he wouldn't need to get another pair for a long time.
As Quinn looked at the blue color, he couldn't help but be reminded of Erin's icy blue eyes. They were fierce, and held an intensity to them.
"Do I… Like her?" Quinn thought.
He didn't exactly have a lot of experience when it came to thinking about romance and girlfriends and dating.
Not only that, but he hadn't garnered any friends close enough to talk to about this. Sure, he now had Peter as a friend, but he seemed to have even less experience than him somehow. Fex seemed to know more, especially with his good looks, but it would be a little awkward to ask after he just saved him. He'd probably just tease him about Erin anyways.
Instead, Quinn decided to look around the school for his favorite teacher, Leo. Leo didn't treat him differently from the other students despite his lack of an ability, he was the most approachable of all the staff Quinn had met so far.
Heading to the classroom where Leo taught the beast weapons class, he found himself in a dojo with dark wooden floors, and paper windows letting soft light aluminate the room. The warm light made the place feel quite cozy.
His elder practicing his swordsmanship skills on a fighting dummy. He took out his sword, threw out a slice, before quickly sheathing it, and the top half of the dummy slid off. Quinn couldn't help but be amazed by his teacher.
"Whoa, what kind of ability is that?" Quinn blurted out.
He was thinking that there was a potential chance that he could learn the ability of the war time hero, Leo Suiyan, and wanted to know what it was.
Leo didn't seem too surprised by the sudden appearance of a student.
"It is not an ability, but a skill in honing my body," he turned around to face Quinn, who couldn't help but be a little disappointed.
"A skill?" Quinn asked, "Do you think you could teach it to me someday?"
Leo's milky white eyes seemed to look towards Quinn's direction, to which he just assumed that Leo only 'looked' at him to make him feel a bit better when conversing. The older man stroked his beard, before chuckling and saying his response.
"...I am not entirely against the idea, but if you do, I would like you to train your body to grow stronger first."
"Oh…"
Quinn's body was on the smaller end. He had skipped a few meals in the past due to the lack of money he had growing up, and he couldn't afford the time to work out when he was busy taking care of himself and opening that damn book.
"But I see that isn't the only thing you wanted to talk about today, now what is it, boy?"
"I… I would like to take the military's offer."