Tsukuru looked down at the ground. On a hunch, he imagined the "Basic-Tier Knight Gauntlets" he had received after creating his Haunted Knight appearing on the ground in front of Quinn.
Instantly, a System message appeared in front of him.
[Would you like to withdraw Basic-Tier Knight Gauntlets from the Weapons Tab?
[Yes] [No] ]
Gritting his teeth in irritation, Tsukuru thought 'yes'.
Now realizing that he could access the System's Inventory through mental commands, he wanted to kick himself.
He now felt like an idiot, as up till now, he had always accessed it manually using the System's interface.
Quinn's eyes widened in surprise, as pixels began to appear on the ground in front of him.
The pixels clustered together into the form of two gauntlets.
There was a flash of light. When it faded, Quinn saw a pair of rusted, metal gauntlets on the ground in front of him.
Seeing their state of disrepair, he looked up at Tsukuru, his eyebrow raised in confusion.
"This is Beast Gear?" He asked.
Hearing his words, Tsukuru's eye began to twitch.
"If you don't want to use them, you can go back to breaking your fists every time you hit him!" Tsukuru snapped, somewhat annoyed.
Remembering back to how much it had hurt when he had hit Riley's hardened face, Quinn gulped.
He looked down at the gauntlets, and activated his Inspect Skill.
[Knight Gauntlets
Basic-Tier Beast Weapon
+4 Strength
+2 Defense]
'They seem to be Beast Gear.' Quinn thought.
He lifted the gauntlets off of the ground, and put them on.
As he did, he suddenly felt a surge of strength run through him.
This was most likely due to the "+4 Strength" granted by the gauntlets, increasing his Strength stat from "10" to "14".
Quinn looked down at his hands in amazement.
He was broken out of his train of thought by Tsukuru's voice.
"C'mon, Quinn!" He yelled, as he dashed towards Riley. "Get your head in the game! Seeing how our Systems labeled this as a 'Shared Quest', we probably have to beat him together!!"
Quinn clenched and unclenched his hands. The gauntlets made a slight creaking noise.
"Right!" Quinn replied, dashing after him.
Riley clenched his teeth, as he saw both boys in front of him, their arms pulled back, prepared to strike.
He could only harden one part of his body at once, and Tsukuru was aimed to strike his gut, while Quinn was aimed to strike his face.
He decided to harden his head again, thinking that Quinn was the weaker of the two.
However, he greatly underestimated Quinn's newfound increase in strength with the Beast Gauntlets.
Both strikes hit true, and Riley felt intense pain, right before he felt himself losing consciousness.
"You little…" He muttered, as he fell backwards, passing out from the pain.
Instantly, a System screen appeared before both Quinn and Tsukuru.
[Shared Quest has been completed. You have defeated Level 2 Ability UserRiley Blake. 25 XP has been granted. Additional Reward: 20 XP received. You have successfully defeated an enemy with System User Quinn Talen. Bonus 20 Exp received. XP: 145/100. Level Up.]
[Shared Quest has been completed. You have defeated Level 2 Ability UserRiley Blake. 25 Exp has been granted. Additional Reward: 20 Exp received. You have successfully defeated an enemy with System User Tsukuru Hikiko. Bonus 20 Exp received. Exp: 145/100. You have reached the required threshold. Would you like to Level Up?]
Quinn looked at his message confused.
'Would I like to level up? Why would it bother asking?' he thought.
A new System message appeared.
[Once you have Leveled Up, all changes are irreversible.]
'Who cares?!' Quinn thought, not heeding the warning. 'Yes!'
Meanwhile, with Tsukuru, two new System screens appeared, with the smaller one slightly overlaying the bigger one.
[Congratulations, you have reached Level 2. XP: 45/200.
Your HP has increased. HP: 15/15.
You have received 1 Stat Point.
You have received 1 Summon Point.
Your Basic-Tier Haunted Knight has received 1 Pawn Point. Pawn Points: 2/5.
Your Ability Level has increased. You are now a Level 2 Ability User.
Your MC has increased. MC: 40/40.
A New Skill is now available.
New Skill Video Stasis - Lv. 1 has been acquired.]
[Video Stasis - Lv. 1
Active Skill
You can telekinetically freeze and control objects. Controlled objects will be surrounded in an aura of glitching pixels
Requires MC
-1 MC for every second of use per affected object.
You can only target objects weighing a maximum of 10 pounds.]
'Cool.' Tsukuru thought with a smile, as he brought his watch up to his chest to look at it.
The number had increased from 1.3 to 2.3.
'I got a new Skill plus my Ability Level increased.'
However, before he could start celebrating, a piercing scream filled the air.
Tsukuru whirled around to see Quinn on his knees, doubled over in pain.
"QUINN!" Tsukuru yelled.
He ran over, and kneeled next to him.
Reaching down, he grabbed Quinn's mask, and slid it up and off his face.
With the mask now gone, Tsukuru could see Quinn's face contorted in pain, his eyes glowing red, and his veins bulging.
"What the hell?!" Tsukuru yelled.
He noticed that a new System screen had appeared in front of Quinn.
[Congratulations, you have reached Level 2.
Evolution process will now begin.]
Tsukuru's eyes widened, as he read the message.
'Evolution?' He thought.
The scream was so loud that it reached Shizuku and Layla as well.
Instantly, Layla's eyes shot open.
She tried to leap forward towards Quinn and Tsukuru, but Shizuka extended her hand out in front of her, blocking her.
Layla looked up at Shizuka, a confused look on her face.
However, Shizuka wasn't looking at Layla. Her eyes were locked on Quinn, writhing on the ground in pain.
'I've never seenthat happen before…' She thought.
Back with the two students, Tsukuru looked down in worry, not sure of what to do.
'I mean, is there even anything I can do?!' Tsukuru thought in panic.
He couldn't use a Health Potion on him. Looking at Quinn, Tsukuru's System's "scanner" function told him that he still had full HP.
And if these "Systems" were anything like the video games Tsukuru had played all his life, using a Health Potion on someone with full health would have no effect.
He would only be wasting a Health Potion, and thus, dumping 30 credits down the drain.
Meanwhile, with Quinn, he was in pure and utter, hell.
The second the evolution had occurred, his euphoric feeling of leveling up had instantly been overpowered by a sharp, stabbingpain in his chest.
He felt his heart beat faster than it ever had before.
It felt as though Quinn had just run a whole marathon without stopping once.
Blood was rushing through the veins all over his body, causing them to bulge. The excruciating pain was too much for him, hence his constant, agonized screaming.
The pain spread throughout his whole body, and he soon felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his teeth.
For Quinn, this torturous pain seemed to last a lifetime, while for Tsukuru next to him, it had only been five minutes.
Eventually, the pain stopped. Quinn stopped screaming and calmed down.
Tsukuru let out a sigh of relief.
"Oh, thank god." he muttered. "It's over."
A new System message appeared in front of Quinn, which Tsukuru could also read.
[Congratulations, you have successfully evolved. You are now a Halfling.]