Quinn had seen a message about leveling up while eating his breakfast of cold cereal with Peter, and he wasn't sure what exactly it meant. He thought it had something to do with HIM leveling up. Unfortunately, when he saw the second message, he had already accepted yes before Erin's warning could be sent to him.
Nothing happened for a few seconds, then Quinn felt a sudden shiver down his spine as he felt like he did something bad to Erin by accepting yes. Instead, he decided to quickly finish up his cereal, and leave for class.
However, as he did, he saw the last few messages
[Erin's hunger grows]
[She can no longer suppress her need for blood]
[Her HP will decrease by -1 HP every hour until she has consumed human blood!]
"... Fuck…" Quinn whispered to himself.
He was worried about Erin, and also worried about himself as he feared what she might do to him for accepting to level up.
—
Erin and Quinn both made it to class in time, but despite Erin looking like her usual self, she kept staring daggers into Quinn who nervously looked away. During class, Erin was struggling to focus, all of her senses were enhanced, she could hear all of the students breathing, tapping their fingers, smacking their mouths together, making it hard to pay attention to her teacher.
Instead, Erin tried to focus on something else, her status. Earlier, her system stated she wasn't human and was instead a halfling, whatever that was, and was curious about that. She opened up her screen to look.
[User: Erin Heley]
[Race: Halfling]
[Level 2]
[45/200 EXP]
[HP 20/20]
[Strength: 15]
[Agility: 15]
[Stamina: 15]
'At least something improved…' Erin thought, referring to her health.
Every hour she was in that class, she would just silently wince in pain as more and more HP chipped down. Not only that, but despite eating right before entering the pods, she felt more hungry than ever with no sign of decreasing.
{Erin} Quinn…..
{Erin} I swear to god, I am going to beat you into next week.
{Erin} Why did you have to select yes to that stupid evolution thing?
{Quinn} I thought it was about me leveling up!
{Erin} I think your glasses aren't the only thing broken about you.
{Erin} Goddddddddd….. I'm sick of this.
[HP 16/20]
After class was over, they left the room at different times, Quinn notably taking his time. He really wasn't sure if he should help Erin out about this blood issue. He did feel bad for effectively taking away her ability, causing her to undergo all of these strange changes. Not only that, but also linking her to himself.
However, she'd been nothing but an annoying thorn in his side, constantly complaining about everything, not caring about how he thought. It was grating on his nerves.
As Quinn left class, he saw Erin standing not that far off from the entrance, leaning against the wall and arms crossed. The way that she stared at him was… unsettling. Her eyes were fierce, and piercing into him— no it was more like she only saw him as a potential source of food.
It was strange, he felt like prey cowering beneath a predator, but this feeling he was sure to have felt before. The countless years of bullying should've solidified this known emotion, almost embedded into his consciousness.
But in that instance, Quinn Talen felt true fear.
The one that the rabbit feels when the fox has its jaws clasped around its throat, when the bird feels the snake wrapped tightly around its body. An animalistic sense of imminent doom, as if his life was undoubtedly going to end in that very moment.
Erin's glare did not let up as she began to speak, "I don't like it, but I need to ask for your help on this. I need you to meet me in the library."
Quinn did his best to hide his true feelings on the matter, but he gulped in fear, unsure how to respond. Instead, he just stood there, shaking a little.
"Alright, good." Erin said before running off to the library, not bothering to get confirmation. She was far faster than he was.
Quinn waited, not knowing if he should help Erin out. He was scared of her before due to her high level ability, but those bloodthirsty eyes? He could've sworn they glowed a twinge of red. What if she drank him dry?
He slowly walked over to the general direction of the library, lost in thought. He really wasn't sure if he should help, but it was a problem he did cause, albeit accidentally.
In the end, he decided to help. There was the simple fact that having Erin's HP drop to 0 was most likely not a good thing, then the thought of her dying from reaching 0 hp hit his mind, and began sprinting. Even if he didn't like her at times, she didn't deserve to die a cruel death just for being annoying.
Unfortunately, Quinn had a bit of a reputation for being someone without an ability, easy pickings, and with him hanging out with a known high level ability user lately, the news spread to a few particular ears.
—
{Erin} I'm already here, what's taking you so long?
{Erin} Dude, how does it take you forever to get here? We literally left at the same time.
Erin was getting frustrated, her fingers anxiously tapping the shelf she stood by. She never understood why Quinn was always so late, he was always in a rush to leave but never got anywhere on time. It was strange to her.
{Quinn} Where are you?
Erin wanted to smack him. What could he mean by this? She's obviously in the library, like she said earlier.
{Erin} Library, I just told you this.
{Quinn} Where in the damn library?!
Quinn couldn't deal with this chick, what the fuck was he supposed to do? She just said the library, but nothing about where she was or anything. He was getting so frustrated, that he almost didn't notice a group of teenagers trailing him.
He walked to a section of the library, a bit more secluded from everyone else. Surrounding him at all sides except for the way he entered were walls of books. He was about to leave and turned around to see 5 students. One of them walked up closer to him, no doubt the leader with his air of confidence. Due to the library being open to both first years and second years, Quinn noticed that the leader was wearing a black armband, marking him as a second year. He was tall, taller than Quinn, maybe even Erin, and had brown hair in a ponytail.
"Say, I've been hearing some noise about a high-level student hanging out with a low-level," The second year student spoke with a faux casualness.
Sweat began to form on Quinn's forehead, he wasn't sure how to get out of this situation without getting hurt. Not only that, but Erin needed him soon.
{Quinn} Sorry, Erin, I'm going to be late.
"So what?" Quinn returned, trying to act tough, but his shaky voice betrayed him.
"Well, we can't have trash like you thinking they're hot shit just because someone actually useful to society decided to take a liking to you." The boy took a closer step to Quinn, and he took a step back, "and if a low-level thinks all that, then they might start to get a big head."
He leaned in close to Quinn's face, his eyes piercing into his very being, "We're here to keep scum like you in check."
Quinn knew he couldn't win, but he didn't want to make it easy for them. He threw out a punch, hoping to get the boy off guard, but it was like he predicted his movement, and roundhouse kicked him in return. Quinn fell to the floor, and the other students by that boy's side came over to attack him.
"Aren't you going to join us, Mono?" Another student asked the brown haired boy.
"He's not even worth my time, just make sure he can't get up anytime soon," Mono coldly spoke.
Not long after that, Quinn lost consciousness.