With morning lessons over and done with, it was time for Combat lessons to start. Layla had come over with Erin by her side to Quinn. They weren't exactly friends now as the two didn't really talk much.
In fact, Erin didn't really say much at all to anyone. However, over the last few days after searching for Peter together, they started to hang around each other more often. They had also practised as a team together beforehand, and for the first time, Erin had actually called Layla by her name.
These were all huge steps forward in Layla's eyes, and before they knew it, the two of them would naturally just be around each other.
The three of them headed off to the beast weapons class while Vorden had already left for the elemental class.
Now sitting in the room all alone was Peter just blankly staring at the wall Infront of him. Even his fake friends were no longer talking to him at the canteen. Earl and his gang had been avoiding him ever since Erin had threatened them.
They had also already gotten their use out of him and no longer needed him anymore.
Peter continued to sit there and think back at all the stupid things he had done. If only he had done this differently, why did he decide not to ask for help, why did he agree to help them at the time? It had hurt back then and felt like he was going through hell, but right now, he couldn't even remember what the pain felt like.
As all these thoughts ran through his head, and he started clenching his hair in his hands.
Every time a stupid memory came up, he would pull his hair, trying to forget it as if he was pulling the memories out of his head.
"Why!" Peter shouted as he pulled out a clump of hair.
"Why!" He said again pulling out another.
His hands were now filled with parts of his hair. He could feel something running down from the top of his head. He had pulled so hard and so much hair that blood was starting to drip from his scalp.
***
As Quinn was just about to leave the second-year building to head to the beast weapons hall, he paused for a second right by the exit.
This whole time he had been back, not once had he set foot outside in the sun and for the first time, he would be doing so now. He had asked the AI system repeatedly what the effects were, but he would never tell him.
'Calm down Quinn, you already know you won't die so what's the worst that could happen?'
"Hey, Quinn is everything okay?" Layla asked, noticing he had stopped just by the exit.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Quinn said as he took a step forward.
*Bang.
Instantly the effect of the sun had hit him. The ray's affected him more than ever, and a pounding feeling was heard in his head. He stumbled a little but soon caught himself.
It took him a few moments, but he finally adjusted to the sudden feeling.
[You are being hit by direct sunlight]
[All stats will be reduced by 70 percent]
'70, are you freaking kidding me!' Quinn shouted in his head.
"Now, now calm down." The System replied. "I thought you would act like this, so I didn't want to say anything."
"At least I had a chance of fighting in the sun before, I thought if I increased my stats to at least twenty, suck a few people here and there, I would be like a normal person in the sun. What am I meant to do now?"
"Well honestly, I never really had this problem before, back at the kingdom we had plenty of items that stopped the sun form affecting us. Just take a look at your inventory. That ring you were looking at is given to the weakest of our men."
The System was suddenly revealing a lot more information due to the outburst. Whenever Quinn would ask the System who he was or if there were other vampires out there, he would ignore him and pretend he never heard.
However, Quinn needed to deal with one problem at a time and right now, and the sun was an urgent one.
"Look, I can see you're depressed." The System said. "How about this."
He then opened up Quinn's menu and went to show him the shadow skills tab. Out of the ten skills, 3 had been unlocked, but seven were still greyed out.
"You just want to be able to fight in the sun, right? You see the skill named Shadow void, it cost a total of twenty skill points. I would recommend you unlock that next. The skill allows you to create your own space of shadows. Blocking it from not only the sun but outside viewers as well."
Although it wasn't a permanent solution to Quinn's problem, it was a solution. While Quinn struggled to walk Layla quickly came over and pulled out an umbrella over his head. She had kept it on her at all times for situations like these.
'Heh, heh, Vorden, looks like I'm needed more than you after all.' Layla thought.
Suddenly, Quinn started to feel a lot better.
[The sunlight is being blocked, all stats will return to normal]
"Do you guys have to be lovey-dovey in front of me?" Erin said as she saw the two walking under the umbrella.
"We're not a couple, he's just feeling sick. The sun gives him heat stroke easily."
"What a wimp," Erin said as she walked off ahead.
Quinn didn't know why, but Erin's words always seemed to sting a bit more compared to when others said it to him.
The three of them had finally arrived at the Martial hall and no longer needed the umbrella. Once again as he entered, he started to feel his heart beating faster than ever. He was nervous; the reason was simple. It was because of Leo.
For some reason Leo had asked that the next time the two of them met, to speak to him. Although Leo did say that he wouldn't hurt him, those words didn't exactly reassure him.
The classes had begun as normal with Leo asking the students to warm up by sparing with each other, but once again Leo had asked Layla to step away as Leo wanted to be his opponent.
Leo then took Quinn to the corner of the room away from the others, making sure they couldn't hear their conversation.
"Thank you for saving me in the portal world," Quinn said first, hoping to get on his good side by sucking up to him.
"I was just doing my job, what happened to your gauntlets, there's no energy emitting from your hand."
"They broke in the portal world, I'm sorry, I'll pay you back."
Leo raised his hand, telling Quinn to stop speaking.
"Boy there is no need, those weren't expensive in the first place, but for something to break some beast gear, you must have fought against some beasts then."
Quinn started to laugh nervously, he wasn't prepared for this and didn't really know how to answer.
"Oh no, one of those Rat beasts jumped at me, and all I did was lift my hand trying to protect myself. The beast wouldn't let go, so I had no choice but to take them off and run."
"I see," Leo said as he stood there silent for a moment. "Quinn, do you know they say when someone goes blind their sense of hearing improves. Now let me be the first to tell you that is all a myth. However, my ability does improve my senses, and I can hear your heart beating ever so loudly."
Quinn gulped as he was afraid of what the old man might say next.
"Do you also know; they say that when a person is lying their heart beast changes ever so slightly and they start to sweat more. Now, Quinn, the truth is, I don't care what you are, but I only have one question to ask you."
"Are you on humanities side?
****
Please remember to vote. New mass release goal! I will also increase chapter length for mass release chapters to 1500 words instead of 1000 words for fast pass users.
20,000 Stones = 2 extra Chapters
22,000 Stones = 4 extra Chapters