That morning, Erin was thinking about her ability number. It still listed a number one on it, and thoughts about how she was running on borrowed time began to run through her mind. She had yet to find anything that would help, and it's not like she knew how to do something specific about it.
Perhaps she could figure out a way to survive outside of the military base, and be on the run. It didn't exactly sound very inviting to her, though, and there was no way she'd be able to accomplish her real goal all by herself.
Leaving her dorm room, and heading over to the cafeteria, she met up with Quinn and Layla eating together. Erin felt a little twinge seeing those two spending time together, but she ignored it thinking that feeling was dumb to feel.
"Hey," Layla happily greeted her roommate.
Erin just sat down and began eating her food.
"Anyways, as I was saying, after our experiments with testing Erin's weaknesses, I found out that sometimes vampires get called 'night demons.' I was thinking that maybe that was the reason why she's only affected by sunlight and nothing else to do with vampires, because she's actually a demon."
"Sure," Erin replied after taking in a bite of her breakfast biscuit, "But don't demons have horns?"
Quinn grimaced at Layla's openness, "Shouldn't we be a bit more private about this? What if someone hears us? Like Fex?"
"Why are you so worried about Fex finding out that humans know about vampires?" Erin said as she finished chewing, "We don't even know if there's some sort of secret society of vampire rules about this, and he's the only vampire we know."
Quinn sighed, "I'm just trying to stay safe about all of this. What if—"
"What if what?" Erin interrupted, "You're getting caught up on something that we don't even know is going to happen, when I'm running time about this."
Erin then lifted her arm and showed her watch to Quinn and Layla, which caused him to shove Erin's hand down.
"Don't reveal yourself—!" Quinn whisper yelled, and nervously looked around in case anyone saw, "Are you trying to make yourself a target?"
"That Mono guy knows about me, Quinn. It's only a matter of time before I'm treated just like you."
Layla looked nervously between the arguing duo. She checked her watch before lying, "We should head to class, we're going to be late!"
Erin and Quinn glared at each other, before they grabbed their things and went to class.
—
Del was the homeroom teacher of Erin, Quinn, Layla, Peter and Fex. As the homeroom teacher, it was his job to teach his class about the history of the human race, as well as notifying the students about the school events that were to occur soon.
Erin sat in the front with Layla while Quinn sat in the back. Due to them arriving earlier than usual, they waited for everyone else to join the class, and soon enough, Del arrived.
"Alright class, I have an important announcement to make, the preparations for your first portal outing are complete. It's time for you kids to go explore the universe."
Del then proceeded to explain how portals worked. Erin knew this already as she used to live on an orange portal planet that was almost marked green. The general gist of it was that green portal planets were safe since the type of beasts found weren't above intermediate or advanced most of the time.
Orange portal planets hadn't been fully explored, and more difficult beasts would be found. There were a few shelters on these, but most of the time only experienced travelers would live there.
There were the red portal planets. They were unexplored, and had no shelters for humans to live in. Sometimes very seasoned travelers would go there to acquire rare crystals. These portals were very dangerous since no one knew if the Dalki were on the planet or not.
Of course, Erin knew from personal experience that the Dalki could arrive at any time, regardless of if it was a red portal planet, or a green one.
Lastly was the white portal planet, or earth. It was said to be a beastless world, and the safest in that regard. Earth was the only planet marked as a white portal planet.
Del then closed the presentation that was playing behind him.
"Now for the important part, the portal expedition will take place next week, but before even that you will be required to form your own team of five. Although on this trip you will travel as a class, you must have a squad and stick together. Even the green portals are a dangerous place filled with beasts and the trackers on your watch will not work outside the academy. We will have no way to come and save you."
A student from the center of the class room raised his hand, and Del had this annoyed look on his face.
"Do you know where we will be going?"
"That information will be revealed to you on the day of the event. Many of you here have family who, if they knew where you were, would send guards out to protect you, but that wouldn't be fair. Especially since we will also be assessing you on this."
The student raised his hand again, but Del starred him back down, causing him to slowly put his hand away.
"Now if there aren't any more questions, your combat classes for today are canceled. Today you are to form a team of five and report back to us by the end of the day."
Del left the class, leaving the students to discuss amongst themselves to form teams.
"Hey, do you want to make a team with me, Erin?" Layla said as she turned her head to her roommate.
Erin had a feeling Layla wanted to team up with her first, it only made sense with how they were already very close acquaintances.
"...Fine."
Due to Erin's reputation of being the highest level in their class, a couple of students started hounding her. There were a lot of lower leveled students, which Erin wasn't interested in. She'd only be willing to take one more low level and she already knew who she wanted.
Pushing her way out of the crowd, she spotted Quinn in the back, sitting next to two black haired students. She didn't recognize the black haired guy with the freckles and glasses, but she did remember that weird boy who sniffed her.
"Sure, let's be on a team together," Quinn said to the black haired students.
When looking at their watches, they were both listed as level ones.
Erin slammed her hand down on the desk in front of Quinn.
"I'll let you in on my team, but I'm not letting you invite him," Erin demanded, tilting her head at Peter.
Quinn frowned, "and why not? Is it because you think he's a level 1?"
"I'm just saying we can get a better grade by getting stronger people," Erin replied.
Quinn then gestured to himself and Fex, "Then what about us, huh?"
Layla was listening in behind Erin, and added her own two cents, "And what about me? I'm only marginally better as a level 2."
Fex crossed his arms, and leaned back in his chair. He had a sly smile, "you could use an expert, since you lack a lot of critical accessories, woman."
Erin was prepared to create an ice spear, mere seconds away from using an ability she no longer had, but nothing happened. It was yet another reminder that she didn't have the power she once had. Erin couldn't just pick and choose the people she wanted, not when she's weak and could easily get exposed.
"Fine, you three can join," Erin begrudgingly accepted, "but we're all going to the training center after this. I need to see what I'm working with."
A couple of students glanced their way, surprised that the Ice Queen herself was teaming up with mostly level ones.
"Why would she do that? I tried to offer my help and you know I'm a level four."
"Maybe it's related to how she was beaten up in the assembly room? It's crazy that she's not even safe from being hurt like that."
"How'd they even get to her? I thought she had a level 5 ice ability."
"Hey, so… correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen her use ice at all, not even when fighting that second year."
"What? No way, you probably haven't— actually, that IS strange."
"You think she's just challenging herself fighting without an ability?"
Tired of hearing everyone talk about her, she started leaving the class and headed to the training center. Everyone else followed suit.
—
At the training center, there were a few machines that were used at the initial test from the beginning of the year. The group gathered here and stood in front of the strength test. It was a large circular machine that required people to punch the center of it to record how much power was used.
"Alright, let's start with Layla," Erin said and tilted her head to her roommate.
Layla nodded and walked up to the machine. She focused her telekinesis on her hands and punched as hard as she could.
She was hoping to get a higher number than before due to her practicing and training per ability. Leveling up to a higher number was not easy unless you had a book to help you out. This is why ability books were so important, because without them, someone would almost certainly be stuck at their current level.
However, sometimes someone could make a breakthrough and be able to increase their MC points to go up a level. These breakthroughs could happen in a moment of pressure, by watching someone else use their ability, or brute forcing it by training really hard.
Unfortunately, that was not what happened to Layla when they all saw the display say 8.
"Damn it, same as last time. Looks like I haven't improved much," Layla complained.
Erin wanted to make a comment about Layla not being as strong as she had hoped, but she bit her tongue. Getting an 8 was low for a level two ability user, but Layla was a ranged user so maybe it wouldn't matter too much.
"Alright, you're next," Erin said, pointing at Peter.
Peter brought with him some mud and shaped it into a club. He lifted it high and slammed it into the machine.
"8"
"Not too bad, for a level one," Erin said, which got her a glare from Quinn.
"And you, Quinn?"
Quinn walked up to the machine, and shifted the mud bracelets into gauntlets. He put his foot down, pulled one hand back, and slammed the other into the machine.
"10"
Peter was impressed by Quinn's skill and couldn't help but clap.
Erin recognized that move. He was trying to recreate the hammer strike that the blonde man did. It was only at a strength of 10, unlike the 15 required to properly do the move. She then wondered if the machine's number also correlated to the system's stats.
Thinking about the system reminded her that was running out of time at the military school. This place was important as it was where she could grow stronger, and she needed more power. But… If she couldn't get a good grade on the first assessment, then how was she meant to defeat the dalki? Would it mean she couldn't avenge her family?
Then, Fex came up to the machine all casually. He lifted a fist and punched it creating a loud thud.
"25"
Maybe she wouldn't be so screwed after all.