Erin barged into the dorm, causing Layla to jolt in surprise, and flopped onto her bed. She groaned in disappointment, having discovered nothing useful about herself or her newfound system.
Layla, who had happened to be reading a book, was slightly shocked to see Erin in such a depressive state.
"So… how are you?" she asked, closing her book and hiding it under her pillow.
Erin only groaned in response, somehow sinking deeper into her blankets.
Their third roommate, Cia, simply sat there in confusion. She was sure that Erin wouldn't behave like this normally, being one of the top first-year students, and being someone who didn't really care for anyone else, it was strange for Cia and Layla to see Erin so down.
"What happened to you?" Cia remarked. "Didn't know the great ice queen could feel anything."
Layla shot a scornful look before shifting her gaze back to Erin.
"Erin, what's wrong?" she asked while going over and sitting by the groaning girl's head.
"Nothing…" she finally managed to grumble.
Layla crossed her arms. "Well something is clearly bothering you!" she said, slightly annoyed that her roommate is very obviously lying.
Erin instead grabbed her pillow around her ears and turned around to face Layla.
"It's annoying. I don't wanna think about it anymore."
"Oh," Layla leaned back and looked off to the side.
Erin thought about the vampire message she saw earlier about that one annoying black haired teenager. Just in case she were to get into a fight with the guy, she wanted to know if there were any weaknesses that a vampire may have.
"Hey… uh… do you know anything about vampires?" Erin asked, completely forgetting her roommate's name.
Immediately, Layla's eyes brightened, "I do!"
"Ok… well… what do you know about them?"
Layla turned to fully face Erin, taking a deep breath before beginning her ramble.
"Vampires have been recorded throughout history all over the world. There's been several names for them, but the word 'vampire' first appeared around the 1800s."
"Nerds…" Cia scoffed.
Erin ignored Cia's comment, "Okay, what about weaknesses?"
Layla practically radiated light when hearing this, "It depends on the culture! Sometimes its as simple as garlic—"
Erin thought about throwing a garlic clove at that annoying sniffing teenager.
"Or things like religious imagery, silver, a steak to the heart, and let's not forget sunlight!"
It was then that Erin thought about her weakness to sun exposure, and if Quinn's comment about her potentially being a vampire were true. She'd need to ask if that annoying teenager guy was someone Quinn knew, and if he was bothered by sunlight.
Suddenly, Erin got a message from her system.
[You've learned more about the system]
[+10 EXP]
[EXP: 90/100]
{Erin} …Crap.
{Quinn} what happened?
{Erin} I really hate to admit this but… You might be right.
"Oh and— in some iterations, vampires are related to other creatures like ghosts, zombies, damphirs, and sooooo many more creatures! They're even sometimes paired up with another really famous creature called the werewolf— but vampires are way cooler than those guys. Plus if vampires transform it's not like it will be painful like a werewolf, those guys feel pain like crazy ya know? Oh— and also…"
Erin listened to her roommate ramble on and on about the history of vampires. She didn't exactly catch all of what she was saying, but a few things managed to stick before falling asleep to Layla's rambles.
—
[Daily quest complete: avoid sunlight for 8 hours]
[Reward: 5 EXP]
[EXP: 95/100]
Erin woke up early a second time, not feeling any less tired.
She headed to the cafeteria, ordering some food before grabbing her sword and heading over to the game room with the gaming pods. She still had plenty of time from when she spent cash yesterday, and entered a pod.
After logging in, she appeared in the white room once more. Erin was considering changing her character avatar, it was something she did every once in a while. Selecting the customization, she changed her avatar from wearing a crystalline romper with white hair, to a soldier training suit with rose gold accents and black hair. She felt like having a change in appearance due to the change that happened to her body.
Exiting the customizer, she set up another quick match to start up. A loading screen began spinning until it linked her to a user with a level 5 bird transformation ability.
"Now that's more like it," Erin commented.
Erin still had her avatar listed to have an ice ability, but she wanted to see if she could fight without it.
The match began, and she saw a relatively short teenage boy with light blue hair parted to the left side of his head. He had no beast gear at hand.
[Quest: Defeat HarpyParrot]
[Reward: 50 EXP]
Immediately, Erin ran in, ready to close the distance, until she saw the bird boy transform into a light blue bird the size of a grown adult. His wings stretched out, and he flew above her, out of reach.
If she wanted to use her ice powers, this would be no trouble, but this is something she needed to practice. Instead, she would wait until the bird boy would make her move. She held her sword up in a defensive position. Soon the bird boy began to dive down, claws out ready to strike.
She held her sword tightly, and swung it into the boy's claws. He held it tightly and threw it to the side, disarming her. Instead, Erin decided to throw a punch into the bird guy's jaw, knocking him back.
He fell to the floor, wings frantically flapping about. He was surprised by the strength of the girl in front of him. Before he could get up fast enough, Erin managed to grab her sword in time, and threw it at him. He tried to dodge, but got stabbed in the lower torso of his body.
Erin ran up to the boy, now pinned to the ground with the sword, and kicked him in the balls. He hollered in pain, and fell to the side, grabbing at his most recent injury.
[50 EXP received]
[100/100 EXP]
[Would you like to level up?]
Erin was taken out of the battlefield and back into the white room, when she saw that message, she just shrugged.
"Yeah sure why not." Erin said to herself right as she was about to press the button. However, the button was just suddenly pressed, and somehow, some way, Erin felt like Quinn was the one to press the button for her.
[Once you have leveled up, any changes will be irreversible]
[Are you sure?]
{Erin} Quinn wait, give me a moment to thi-
Erin tried to get Quinn to not press yes for her, but she was too late as it appeared that Quinn had already done so for her.
[Congratulations! You are now level 2]
[Evolution process has started]
Suddenly, Erin felt a sharp stabbing pain in her heart as it began beating beyond that of what a normal human should experience, as if it was about to jump out of her heart. She almost fell to the floor of the white space, trying her damndest to stay upright. A system message from the game suddenly appeared in front of her.
[Outside pain detected, ejecting player from the game immediately]
Erin suddenly gasped for air as she grasped at her chest, it felt like her heart was about to explode as blood began filtering throughout her body, every cell of her skin felt alive. She was heavily panting, as a strange tingly feeling that quickly became sharp shooting pain around her teeth.
Eventually, the pain started to settle, and Erin could think straight. She was glad that she didn't scream because otherwise there might have been more attention brought to her. Instead, she saw a few messages
[Congratulations, you have successfully evolved]
[You are now a halfling]
Erin felt a really strong urge to punch Quinn, however the system messages did not stop there.
[Your stats have increased]
[Skill unlocked: Lv1 Blood swipe]
[Blood swipe: The skill has a range of 5 meters. It will fire out a red line of energy from the user's hands. To use the skill the user must use their own blood causing -1 HP per Blood swipe.]
'Finally, an offensive skill.' Erin thought to herself, but what surprised her the most was the final set of messages.
[Your hunger grows]
[You can no longer suppress your need for blood]
[Your HP will decrease by -1 HP every hour until you have consumed human blood!]
"...Fuck…" Erin whispered to herself.
Quickly getting out of the pod, she looked at the time, and swore under her breath again. She was about to be late for class. Erin grabbed her stuff and ran over to her general studies class.