A question entered Quinn's mind of why Erin was even bothering with him about all of this, and why she wasn't treating him like the usual high levels did to the low levels. Her behavior seemed a little strange, and part of him wondered why that was the case.
Quinn and Erin stood opposite of each other, both in their battle stances. Quinn held his arms up in a defensive position, while Erin held her sword up over her head offensively. She purposely chose a basic tier weapon simply because she didn't want to break Quinn's gauntlets with her intermediate sword.
A few onlookers decided to pay closer attention to the fight at hand. They never expected the ice queen herself to willingly choose to fight the abilityless Quinn.
Right before they fought, Erin used her inspect skill on Quinn.
[Name: Quinn Talen]
[Race: Human]
[Ability: None]
[HP 6/6]
[Blood type O-]
[Quest: Defeat Quinn Talen]
[Reward: 10 EXP]
{Erin} Only 10 EXP?
Quinn awkwardly smiled and shrugged.
{Quinn} I guess so?
{Erin} Damn… weak ass…
{Quinn} Hey! I watched plenty of martial arts movies ya know! Don't underestimate me!
{Erin} Sure…
She gave Quinn a small frown, making him slightly shrivel up.
Immediately, Erin went in for a swing of her sword, it was too fast for Quinn to dodge, and he only narrowly managed to block the hit. He stumbled, trying to regain his footing. He peeked through his gauntlets only to see Erin landing a kick to his face, forcing him to fall and land on his back.
[10 EXP received]
[75/100 EXP]
"Look, I don't like to hang out with weaklings, but we're unfortunately linked, and I have to do something about it." Erin spoke.
Quinn took off a gauntlet and held his nose, it throbbed a little in pain. He was slightly glad that his nose took the brunt of the damage instead of his glasses.
"Think you could go a little easy on me?" He muttered, sounding slightly naisally.
He got up from the floor, and looked at Erin, who seemed to be a little transfixed at something on his face. Quinn was about to say something, until he saw the message appear on his screen.
[You have received an optional quest]
[Drink the blood of your victim to absorb a stat point]
Quinn then looked down at his hand to see a few droplets of blood as his nose was bleeding.
"What the…" he said before having his face suddenly grabbed and lifted.
Erin's eyes were glaring at his bloodied nose, and for a moment, Quinn feared what exactly she was about to do, until she dropped him. Quinn quickly wiped away the blood on his face, but when he looked back at Erin, she was transfixed by his blood that dripped on her hand. Slowly, she held it to her mouth, a bit of her teeth were shown through the crack of her lips. The entire situation had Quinn worried for her wellbeing. Was this related to the system?
"Erin!" he called out, snapping her attention back to reality.
A few students glanced over, curious on how someone like Quinn was on a first name basis with the ice queen herself.
Erin looked at Quinn, then back at her hand. There was certainly something strange about this system. They needed to do some research about this after class.
—
Quinn tapped away at his desk, his mind fogged up with the glare Erin gave him earlier. The teacher monolouging at the front of the class was not helping him snap out of it either.
He could remember her eyes, a tinge of red surrounding the rims of her pupils, a strange lustful aura emerging from her body whilst looking at him.
Shaking his head, he snapped back into the present tense, realizing that most of the students had already left the classroom, and some were finishing packing up their belongings.
'Damn, I'm failing that test…' He thought as he shoved his notebook into his bag and walked out.
He scanned the halls for any sign of Erin, swerving between and around students to avoid any painful confrontations.
Not sure where she was, he decided to message her.
{Quinn} Erin?
{Quinn} Meet me at the library.
He paused for a moment, waiting to see if she would respond.
{Erin} K
Quinn frowned. Her answer was bland like usual.
—
Quinn had arrived at the library, the place was vast as it was quite tall with its numerous floors. He wasn't allowed up those floors since they were for the second years, but it's not like the 1st floor slacked off, as there were walls and walls of books. Quinn found himself enjoying the place quite a bit since he was less likely to be beaten up here.
He initially came to visit the library so often because he was researching different abilities in case his old book couldn't open, but it was genuinely a nice place to hang out. There was even a puzzle corner where he could fit two puzzle pieces together before ultimately getting frustrated and giving up.
Heading to the back of the library, Quinn went to his usual spot which had very few people around. There was a booth embedded into the wall with a table, a window, and some cushioned seats that were quite comfortable, making it his favorite seat. Not only that, but a wall of books covered the area giving him some privacy.
He sent a message to Erin to where he was, and immediately got to work collecting books about anything that resembled what Erin was going through.
—
Before Erin went to the library to meet up with Quinn, there was something she wanted to do first. Currently, she was three thirds close to leveling up, and wanted to get closer to level 2.
Currently, she walked down the hallway, unsure what to do exactly, until she remembered a game that she used to play being Power Fighters. One quick game before heading to the library shouldn't take too long.
Something Erin noticed ever since she acquired the system was how much faster and stronger she felt. There was a limit the natural human body could accomplish without outside help like from beast gear, but somehow, Erin felt like she could easily surpass that.
Purchasing an hour of run time for a round, Erin entered one of the gaming pods then started the game.
Immediately, it was like she was transported into a white room, and she took a quick look at her profile. It still listed that she had an ice ability, and a bittersweet feeling tugged at her.
Ignoring that, she hit quick play and got matched up with a level 1, much to her disappointment.
[Quest: Defeat FalseStepper]
[Reward: 5 EXP]
Upon seeing how tiny the EXP gain was, Erin was just saddened with the quick play giving her such a weak fighter. Not only that, but their ability had something to do with false footprints, one that really seemed stupid in her mind.
Erin sighed, and was this close to canceling the match. This was NOT worth her time.
The fight began, and the other fighter projected some footsteps around her. Yawning, Erin shot out a simple ice spear to the opponent, stabbing him in the chest. She was declared the winner, and decided to leave the game after that.
[EXP: 80/100]
—
Quinn was basically knee deep in his books, going through every book he could find that recorded abilities, but every single one of them listed nothing about getting weaker in the sunlight, glowing red eyes, system messages, or even blood. He was skimming the books somewhat to save time, but even then there was nothing that matched up with what Erin was going through. The most he could find was something relating to soul weapons causing eyes to glow, but Erin simply wasn't old enough yet.
Partway through, Quinn saw a message about fighting someone named False Stepper, but he didn't pay that much attention to that, and was instead more bothered by the fact that Erin was getting into a fight instead of being here with him at the library.
After about 15 minutes, Erin made it to the library spot Quinn was at. She took a seat next to Quinn.
"Couldn't you have come sooner?" Quinn asked, a little scornful.
"I'm trying to level up, and why does it matter to you what I do anyways?" Erin shot back.
Quinn rolled his eyes, "Anyways, after doing some research, I can't seem to find anything that seems to match whatever ability we have. There's conditional abilities which seem to match us the most, but that requires something to happen first before being activated."
"What about the blood then?" Erin asked, "couldn't that be the so-called condition?"
"I was thinking that, but if we already have a video game system without drinking blood, then maybe that's not the case? And what about you losing your ability?"
Quinn's head dropped as he placed his hands under his glasses, rubbing his eyes. He let out a sigh of exhaustion.
"Ugh, research is not my thing… I wish I had some sort of ability expert to help me out."
Right at that moment, a certain teenager with black slicked back hair, and very pale skin came walking by the library holding a book he hoped to return. However, he began to sniff the air, noticing a strange unusual scent that he had never noticed before. Following it, he noticed his roommate, Quinn, hanging out with a beautiful blonde haired girl in a secluded part of the library.
A thought came to mind, and he decided to have a little fun. Quinn hadn't noticed him yet.
"Hey Quinn, didn't expect you to have a girlfriend." Fex began, with a sly smile crept on his face, jumpscaring his roommate.
Quinn's head shot up, a blush covering his face as he heard such a comment, "S-she's not my girlfriend!"
Fex put his hands up in mock surprise, "Hey now, I'm only joking."
Fex couldn't help but stare at the blonde girl though, he could smell something was off about her. She smelled human… almost human. He would have to take note of her incase he was ever to be found out.
Erin, on the other hand, did not take kindly to seeing Fex sniff in her general direction. She stood up, and took a step out of the booth, her eyes glared with anger. Unfortunately, due to her looks, people often did not respect her boundaries and she learned the best way to deal with them was a beating.
"Do I smell funny?" She asked, with venom lacing her words.
She was ready to get into a fight, and used her inspect skill on the stranger.
[Name: Fex Sanguinis]
[Race: Vampire]
[HP 65/65]
Upon seeing what race Fex was, and how there wasn't even a quest for a fight, Erin was more than confused. Quinn, however, was beyond mortified. Why did it say that Fex was a vampire? Are vampires truly real?
Fex took a step back despite him clearly being able to win a fight against Erin, and instead just held out his book to Quinn, "I just dropped by to return this."
Quinn hesitantly held his hand out, before eventually grabbing it, unsure what to think of his roommate. Fex, however, was more than relaxed.
"Anyways, don't let me distract you from kissing the girl of your dreams, bye!" And he was off.
Quinn snapped out of it, his face bright red, and cupped his hands around his mouth to yell out to his roommate, "WE'RE NOT DATING!"
Just to make sure no one could listen, Quinn opened the system messages.
{Quinn} You saw that, right? That it said he's a vampire?
Erin took her seat back.
{Erin} Of course I did, everything you see, I also see.
{Quinn} Wait, don't vampires drink blood? What if that's why he came to visit us?
{Erin} If you're here to imply that I'm also a vampire, then clearly you haven't noticed that my status screen states that I'm human.
Erin rolled her eyes at Quinn when she stated that.
{Erin} I'm heading back to my dorm room. Message me when you have some actually useful news.
Erin got up and began walking off, looking at the time, Quinn could see that it was in fact getting late. He too grabbed his things and prepared to leave. The lingering thought about Fex being a vampire, and the fact that vampires were real stuck in his mind. Maybe the system got something wrong, at least, that's what Quinn hoped.
—
Fex left the library soon after teasing his roommate. He really wasn't expecting to see him hanging out with another girl, especially since Quinn didn't exactly scream "handsome." What was unexpected was how the girl in question had a strange scent to her. She smelled human, but there was that slight offness about it, almost like a subclass.
He would have to take note of her, just in case.