[165/200 EXP]
—
The next day, things were surprisingly calm. Classes were canceled due to the assembly incident as the academy leaders were busy having a meeting about what happened. Everyone was treating it as effectively another weekend day, but something was different as security around the school had tightened.
Originally, Erin wanted to play power fighters to level up and increase her strength that way, but after the whole assembly incident, she realized that was too slow. Leveling up improved her health, but only gave her 1 stat point. Increasing her health was nice, but what would be the point of having 100 health if she couldn't defend herself?
Instead, she decided to do something that both her and Quinn wanted to do yesterday.
{Erin} Quinn, let's meet up at the gym. I'm going to bring Layla with me.
{Quinn} You actually remembered her name this time. Wow.
{Quinn} Sorry, I really shouldn't be so mean, I know you just got your but whooped yesterday.
—
Before Quinn left for the gym, he asked Fex to keep an eye on Peter. Fex didn't look up from his vampire romance novel and nodded. At least, Quinn thought it was a vampire romance novel because Fex seemed to be laughing at it. He was most likely laughing at the inaccuracies.
Quinn had a thought that he hadn't been spending as much time with Peter, but with Erin's vampirism, he was busy. He made a mental note to meet up with Peter after class tomorrow.
—
Erin and Layla traveled together to the gym, each bringing a bag with them. This time, Erin had managed to safely arrive at the gym. At least the improved security was doing something.
The gym itself was large and expansive with numerous forms of equipment inside including the ones used in the initial test. There was thankfully a roof overhead. It wasn't the only one that they had at the school grounds, and there wasn't anyone else inside.
While waiting for Quinn, Erin decided to send a message to him.
{Erin} Quinn, we're both here.
{Quinn} I'm almost there! Try not to get beat up while I'm waiting.
Soon, Quinn arrived, and the tension in Erin's shoulders were relieved. The words "Are you alright?" were stuck in her throat, but she didn't say them.
With Layla and Quinn both here, Erin began her speech.
"We're working out. We're all clearly too weak, and I just got my ass handed to me. Quinn, if it were you, you'd be dead."
Quinn began slow clapping and in his best sarcastic voice, said, "Very motivational, Erin, you'd make an amazing general."
Erin felt a very strong urge to slap him, but refrained from doing so. She wanted to be on good terms.
Layla gave Quinn a quick glance. She didn't exactly like to be reminded of the ever looming threat towards humanity.
Erin crossed her arms before glancing around the gym, "I'm putting us all on a training routine, Every couple of days, we're going to meet up and work out."
Layla nodded and walked over to the archery section of the gym and began stringing her bow, Erin grabbed her sword and began practice fighting against a target dummy, leaving Quinn not quite sure where to begin training.
"Hey Quinn, try the weights," Layla said as soon as she was done preparing her bow.
Before Quinn could ask what she meant, Layla ran off to the jungle gym section of the archery area. She began climbing the walls, and shooting her bow at unusual positions using purely her legs to keep herself upright. Quinn thought that she must've had some good leg strength to be able to do these things.
Quinn looked to the bench press, and grabbed a weight that was labeled 50 kilos.
'This isn't too heavy right? I'm sure I've moved furniture heavier than this,' Quinn thought.
Quinn got underneath the large weight and began lifting it, suddenly surprised by how much effort he had to put in. Grunting a little, he managed to start doing some reps.
"Layla!" Erin called out to her roommate, and Layla came over, still practicing her aiming.
"What is it?"
"How's your blood collecting?" Erin casually said while she used nearly all of her strength doing a spin slash.
"It's going fine but uh—" Layla let go of 3 arrows using her telekinesis to hit the furthest away target in the archery range, "I just talked to Hayley about volunteering. I still don't have anything to show for it."
"Good enough," Erin said before running up to the practice dummy and slicing it in half.
Layla was in shock, those dummies were made out of metal and she sliced through it like it was butter. She couldn't help but clap and be impressed.
Erin, however, didn't look too amused.
"This isn't enough, I was only able to do this by using a beast weapon," Erin muttered while looking at her sword.
"Well, I think it's—" before Layla could finish her sentence, they both heard a large grunt come from Quinn.
They both immediately turned to look at him, very visibly straining himself trying to lift the weight.
"Quinn watch out—!" Erin yelled as she ran to his side, just barely catching the giant weight in time.
It didn't feel too heavy to her, but Quinn's arms flopped to the side as his face was completely red.
"Don't push yourself too much, Quinn or else you're going to—"
Quinn couldn't wait for Erin to finish her words as he rolled over to his side and let out a 'colorful' display of his insides.
"....puke."
"Geez…" Layla whispered, disgusted by the sight.
—
After cleaning up his mess, they decided to take a break from working out. Quinn sat on a bench and drank some water as they were going to test out vampire weaknesses.
Feeling a little bad for him, Erin quickly grabbed a protein shake from her bag and tossed it to him.
"Here, drink up."
While Quinn opened up the protein shake, Layla took out her bag. Inside were a few items that she wanted to test out.
"I got a couple of things… an umbrella, a cross, sunscreen…"
As Layla was saying these things, she took them out and placed them on the bench next to Quinn. He started investigating the umbrella, noting its pitch black color.
"Let's test out the sunlight stuff first," Layla said as she tossed a bottle of sunscreen to Erin, "This one has an SPF of 105, the best I could get."
After putting it on, the trio left the gym and Erin stepped outside of the shade and into the light.
[Erin is being hit by direct sunlight. All stats will be halved]
"This isn't working," Erin said.
"Did you miss a spot?" Layla asked, looking at Erin's bare skin.
When realizing what she was doing, she shook her head with a bit of a blush forming on her face.
Erin turned to look at Layla and noticed her slightly red face.
"Is it really that hot?"
Layla shook her head, "No! Not at all!"
"I think I know why it isn't working," Quinn said as he grabbed the sunglasses from the bag and tossed them to Erin.
After putting them on, there were no further messages about being out of sunlight.
"Okay, try the umbrella."
Quinn began opening the umbrella and handed it to Erin.
"...Anything?" Layla hesitantly asked.
Erin frowned.
"I'll take that as a no."
An idea popped in Erin's head, and she began adjusting herself to have every bit of her body in the umbrella's shade.
[Erin's stats have returned to normal]
Looking a little happy at the good news caused Erin to shuffle a little bit in her pose, which caused just the tiniest bit of sun to hit her skin, and she was back to her usual self.
[Erin is being hit by direct sunlight. All stats will be halved]
"It worked, until I moved. How am I meant to fight like this?" Erin complained.
"Er, well you could just get a bigger umbrella," Quinn scoffed.
"It's the only method so far that works," Layla shrugged, "that umbrella's meant to be a special one that blocks about 90% of the sun's UV rays."
Quinn leaned back on the gym's walls, a hand on his chin, thinking about Fex.
"Hey, Erin, do you think we could ask Fex for help?"
Erin turned around and visibly gagged, "Ask that conniving vampiric bitch? Hell no."
"He's a vampire?!" Layla almost yelled, excited by the news.
"Oh, hahaha, Erin is just describing his personality. He's— y'know— he's a bit of a shut in," Quinn nervously lied.
Erin gave Quinn a weird look, "Why are you trying to hide the fact that he's a vampire? Layla literally knows I'm one,"
"Oh my god, Erin, he's probably going to kill her for knowing I think? He just seems like that kind of guy, and Layla is still a human,"
Erin shrugged, "Okay, and aren't you a human?"
Quinn was scrambling for words, "Well— I'm trying to help you— and— You have my system, it should've been me!"
Layla was scratching at her cheek, trying to remember who this person might've been, "Wait— Who's Fex?"
"What— OH! You're still good! You don't know who he is! We can keep this secret!" Quinn said.
Erin, however, didn't care, "He's this really annoying guy who smelled me in a library. He uh…. What did he look like again? He has black hair that's gelled back."
"Erin!" Quinn scolded.
"What? I really don't see what the big deal is," Erin shot back.
Quinn sighed, realizing that he wasn't going to win this, "...Fex's the one who saved Erin yesterday."
Layla smacked her face, "Of course he'd be a vampire, he's super pale and has red eyes! Why didn't I realize this sooner."
{Quinn} Erin… is this racist? Vampire-ist?
{Erin} Huh? How would I know?
"Wait, how'd you find out he was a vampire anyways?"
Quinn looked to Erin, realizing he let something slip out. He really didn't want to explain that it was the system who told him that Fex is a vampire. Even with abilities going around and space dragon people attacking humanity, being connected to someone who has a built in video game system felt too out of place.
Erin would've told Layla the truth under normal circumstances, but she didn't want to explain to her that she had a video game system attached to her now. It just sounded stupid in her head.
"He told me," Erin half lied.
"Really? That easy? Even though you haven't always been a vampire?" Layla slightly tilted her head.
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Huh."
Layla then grabbed her bag again and started handing Quinn a bunch of clothes.
"Here, if the umbrella worked then surely covering up every inch of her skin is going to do something."
Handing the clothes over to Erin, Quinn began trying to help her put them on until she snapped at him saying she could 'do it herself.' Which Quinn was slightly glad about since he did feel a little awkward doing so.
After Erin's entire body was covered, she looked a little goofy with how there was no visible part of her head that was exposed.
"...Well?"
[Erin is being hit by direct sunlight. All stats will be halved]
"I don't think it worked," Quinn said.
"Can we please take this off? I'd rather take my chances with the umbrella," Erin's muffled voice said under the numerous layers.
"If the umbrella worked, then surely this should've too," Layla said as she looked at Quinn expectantly.
"...Do you want me to say something?"
"I dunno, I think there might be more to this, maybe we need more layers."
Erin upon hearing this, sighed, "Fine, continue covering me…"
Layla and Quinn continued to cover Erin, up until she looked like a walking cloth homunculus. She couldn't even put her arms to the side of her body properly with how many layers there were.
[Erin's stats have returned to normal]
"Wait, I think it's working!" Quinn said after seeing the message.
"How can you tell?" Layla asked.
"It is working!" Erin yelled underneath four layers of clothing, "Now get me out of here, it's hot as hell!"
After quickly discarding the clothes, Erin grabbed the umbrella and lifted it over her head.
"So sunscreen doesn't work, but a specialized umbrella and four layers of clothing works," Layla began, recounting their recent findings, "But if this Fex guy doesn't seem bothered by the sun then there has to be a method behind why. I didn't recall someone walking around holding an umbrella on campus, and the dress code wouldn't allow all those layers of clothing. Think he's part of a special bloodline that lets him survive the sun?"
"He doesn't seem too special," Erin scoffed.
"I'd ask him myself, but I dont think he'd be willing to tell his secrets to a human," Quinn said.
"Does it have to be me?" Erin groaned.
Quinn and Layla were silent, giving Erin a look. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Fine…"
Afterwards, Layla tested other vampire weaknesses such as a religious symbol and silver jewelry, but neither of them had an effect on her. Both Erin and Quinn were glad that it was only the sunlight.
Before they left the gym for the day, there was one last thing Erin wanted to do.
"I need your blood," She bluntly said.
Quinn stopped his actions at that moment as he felt a little flustered hearing that. He knew what she meant, but it seemed a little… intimate.
"S-so… are you going to bite into me or—"
Erin took out a small cup from her bag, then her sword.
"I'm not going to bite into you like some sort of freak," Erin scoffed.
Layla choked on her spit, but pretended like Erin wasn't talking about her.
"I'm… going to head out… yeah…" She nervously said and proceeded to quickly pack her things.
Putting the tip of his finger on the sharp blade, a tiny little droplet of blood fell into the cup. Erin then proceeded to taste the blood
{Blood type O- has been absorbed}
{You have gained +1 free stat point}
They were both a little surprised by the new notification. Neither of them expected that this was something that could've happened.
Without further thought, Erin put that point into strength.
[Strength: 17]
"...Don't you bite Layla?" Quinn said.
"Shut up," Erin replied.