Lana managed to live through her day of boredom. She and Kattie prepared food for everyone. She ate what they prepared as well as the rest of her snacks. She then took a brief nap with a smile on her face. She couldn't wait to rank up now. The fight she had today was really fun. She couldn't say that about many she has had so she considered it a good day. Overall, her team only got 35 intermediate crystals for the day.
Both teams walked back together. Back at the shelter, they both logged their crystals. Lana's team went first so they could go eat. Nate went to update Blip on how the overnight time went. Lana put 20 intermediate crystals against Shalt. The Advanced tier she killed against her own ID and the rest against everyone. Everyone was now rank C except Shalt, herself, and Duff who were D-rank.
Lana took up all their crystals and stowed them back away, except those paid to the faction as required.
"Aren't you going to sell those?" asked the strange person with Quinn's group.
Lana looked at her, "Why would I want to do that? Please excuse us." She looked at her crew and told everyone to go get food. She needed Duff and Shalt to follow her. Caser wrapped a tentacle around her leg and they went to the computer to access the marketplace.
"Have a seat, Duff. We are buying you a new weapon. That sword is going to get you hurt."
The duo perused the marketplace for advanced-tier sai. Sai ran between 12,000 credits and 16,000 each. She looked them over and asked Duff which he liked. She told him he needed two as they were duel weapons. He chose two and she then selected four practice weapons so he could have a sparring partner. She paid 28,100 credits and input the code and got the new weapons. She told him to make sure he didn't confuse the weapons from the practice ones. He assured her that would not happen. They felt and looked different.
Lana, Duff, and Shalt then went looking for Nate. They found him in Blip's office arguing with the woman that was on Quinn's team. They had left the door open and based on what Lana was hearing, she clearly was not meant to see or hear. So, of course, she hung out waiting for Nate to be finished. The lady was saying that Nate had his opinion because Lana was a female and he was unable to think around girls. Lana had enough.
"Hey, Nate. Don't waste your time on Miss Psychopath. I just bought those weapons for Duff and was wondering if you could give him some pointers or does he need to watch videos? I bought him advanced tier for fighting plus two sets for sparring."
"She thinks you're weak."
"Of course she does." She ignored the strange woman. "Nate, I spent my whole life tricking people into thinking I was weak. At the same time, I was protecting myself and my brother from some seriously dangerous people. I don't care what she thinks. I know what I can do. You saw what I did yesterday. She can't stop me from being me. Right?"
Nate sighed, "no, she can't."
Blip decided to address her. "What is this about you getting an advanced-tier today? She is saying Quinn killed it and gave you the credit."
Lana laughed. "More like Quinn came over to yell at me because I was riding it while standing up. I had a whip in both hands, both around its neck and was steering it. It was great fun but I was afraid Quinn would kill it on me so I took care of it. It wasn't that big of a deal. Nate, can you show Duff how to use sai? You can tell me more about those beasts on the way to the training center."
"You got it."
Lana stood by watching them training and realized this weapon looked fun and easy to use. There were so many ways to make a metal rod with hooks on two sides into a highly dangerous weapon. She was excited about seeing Duff use this weapon in combat.
*****************
After they left, Linda revealed herself as the strange woman all in black, no longer needing to keep herself hidden. She was investigating Quinn's ability because Nate had called someone the Blood Evolver. She first was trying to figure out who the Blood Evolver was but then Suzy told her Quinn used a strange shadow power. She wanted to see it herself.
"That girl called me a psychopath! She's the weakling out there trying to get herself killed! She should have her ID pulled!"
Blip responded softly, "Linda, she accidentally killed someone because she put too much power into her whip. She is afraid of sparring. She isn't weak. She killed most of a herd of hypocen by herself and had the back of her people while she did it. I saw it myself. Intermediate-tier beasts are boring for her. If she wants to stay out in her shelter overnight, she can, especially since Nate said he'd stay out with her even though I no longer think she needs him to. She's a good leader and she is surrounded by people who care. I won't be surprised if the rest of the team ranks up the next time she registers crystals."
"That's another thing. She didn't sell us her crystals."
"Do we require them to? She has a lot of team members. She can do what she wants with their spoils."
"Something is fishy! If she's so strong, why was she on the sidelines talking to Nate when we walked up?"
Blip chuckled, "Because she's bored with intermediate-tier beasts! Perhaps not all of them lied on their applications. Based on what I saw, Nate is not exaggerating. Leave them be."
Linda walked off in a huff.
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Before the shops closed up for the night, Lana wanted to do something else. She went back and purchased three trunks that had wheels and went to the ability book shop. She bought one of everything and placed them in two trunks. She then asked if he had Earth skill books for Dobin. He had number 3 and number 5 so she bought those.
The man asked her why she needed them. She told him of her time in the orphanage with relation to abilities. While it wasn't true, she told him she was going to send these books to the orphanage so the poor kids could learn the ability they would like to learn. In truth, she was going to put them in her library in her settlement for her people so there will be no reason for them to not have an ability.
The third trunk was for her crystals. She was saving them for Dilly to make clothes or to power her shelter. She didn't know her crystal needs yet so she was just trying to be prepared for anything.
Shalt helped her get them to her room. She gave Dobin his new books so he could learn more tricks. She then asked Shalt to go out for some food for her. She was tired and wanted to sleep but knew better than to try to sleep on an empty stomach. Within ten minutes, he was back with all kinds of selections. Pregnancy didn't happen often in the vampire world but he did understand the need for food when a woman was with child. She thanked him, ate, and curled up with Caser. She was out in moments.
The next day would be a repeat of what they had just done. Rank C was in sight and she was going to get it. She made sure she had the snacks and food in her bag. She notified Blip and Nate. She told Nate to just meet them later at the bug grounds so he could do his faction work. Lana was disappointed nothing fun happened. Her team told her to let them handle the easy stuff. They needed the experience anyway while she took up overwatch to be able to respond if anyone got into trouble. In the two days they were out, they didn't even see an advanced tier beast. It didn't much matter. Overall, they got 164 intermediate crystals. She tried using max to find the bugs as she desired and it helped a great deal. The downside was he could only stay out and invisible for two hours before he was wore out. When they returned to the faction, they were all C-Rank and they did it in 7 days.