"…Why are you such a strange vampire?"
Erin's face grew insulted, and she nearly got up.
"What are you trying to say?" Erin spat out.
Fex quickly held his hands up in a sign of peace, waving them, "No! That's not what I meant at all! What I really should've asked is who your turner is."
With a scrutinizing gaze, she was trying to figure out what this meant.
{Erin} Quinn, Fex is asking about my 'turner,' what does that mean?
Suddenly, the ai system voice began to speak with an undertone of superiority, "If you want to learn more about vampires, then you can ask me. That is my purpose after all."
{Quinn} What?
{Quinn} Is it someone who… Turns things? Like valves?
"I might as well explain, since he doesn't seem to know," The system audibly made a sound like it was clearing its throat, "A turner is the term used for the person who has turned a human into a vampire. You don't have a turner, but if you were to make your friend Layla into a vampire, you would be her turner. Only leaders and those they give permission to can turn others, and depending on the subclass, a vampire's turner is very important. Undeads subclasses like the wight are—"
"Er… Okay," Fex was feeling a little awkward just watching Erin stare at him, so he decided to ask a different question, "Maybe your turner didn't tell you what that is. What about your family? Do you know who you are under? Or what their last name is?"
Erin grimaced. She was being thrown questions she didn't know the answers to.
"I suggest you don't tell him the truth. Even though he has saved your life, its best to exercise caution," the system said.
{Quinn} Who's that voice? You're hearing it right? Its not just me?
{Erin} Now Fex is asking about what family I'm under. What should I say?
{Quinn} Is this the same as the big four? Should you say you work under the Sunshields? Or the Bree?
"Vampire families are a very different thing compared to human families, especially since there's always been 13 vampire families. Because you weren't turned by one of the 13 vampire families, you should stay silent." The system then added, "Just in case he has to report to a vampire knight, or someone higher."
Erin didn't understand why there was so much secrecy about her circumstances. She could understand it somewhat with how it was hard to explain that she has a vampire system, but Quinn wanted her to stay silent about her system, and the system wants her to stay silent about how she became a vampire. What Erin was really more concerned with was her loss of ability.
Finally, Erin spoke with a dead serious face, "I'm from the fruit bats family."
Fex stared at her in disbelief, then started laughing and slapping his knee.
"HA! good one!" He cried with tears in his eyes.
Erin internally cringed. Even though she didn't care as much about telling people she has a system that made her stronger, what she didn't want to explain were the two voices that talked in her brain. So instead, she tried to come up with a lie.
She vaguely recalled Layla mentioning that vampires have a connection to bats, and she hoped there was some sort of vampire family with a similar enough title.
Fex then looked more genuine, "Okay, but seriously, you've done a lot for me, and if you need me to keep your ability a secret, or if you need help with anything, then feel free to ask. I mean it," He then added a wink as he held up his ring, "So long as you keep this a secret, of course."
He didn't know much about the shadow ability, other than the fact that it was supposedly lost to vampire history. At least, he thought it was lost, but he saw Erin use it right in front of him to block an attack. Thinking about it, Fex was theorizing that Erin's turner was an exiled shadow user stuck hiding on earth, and made her swear to keep the ability a secret.
Meanwhile, Erin was thinking about something else.
'Keeping my ability secret? Is he talking about how I lost my ice ability? Or is there something special about the shadow ability? It really doesn't seem that special other than the fact that it can store stuff and block attacks, and someone with a portal ability could do the same thing. Could it be used to block out the sun? Is that what makes it special?' Erin thought, 'Wait, I should ask how he doesn't get affected by the sun!'
Erin got up from her chair and walked over to Fex, "Why are you not affected by the sun?"
Fex looked at her in confusion at first, until he continued to put the pieces together.
"Ohhhh!" he placed a hand on his chin staring straight at Erin, "I think I figured it out now! The reason why you don't seem to know what turners are, don't even have the basic vampire gear, and are a recently turned vampire, is because your turner must've abandoned you!"
He stared at her, partially excited to have pieced it together, and Erin gave a scrutinizing gaze in return.
"I suggest you stick with his theory for now," the system spoke, "I don't believe that he is likely to be a threat to you, but its best to exercise caution."
Erin shook her head, not really caring about the details, "Sure whatever, just tell me how you're fine in the sun."
Fex held up his hand which had a ring on it, "I suppose you wouldn't know what my ring does. There was a reason why I had to… well…" He coughed as he said his next word, "pay someone to get the crystals for me before I arrived here, and it's because it allows me to stay in sunlight for up to 3 hours before it needs to recharge."
"If you want to make one of your own, then you'd need to get 10 deathbat crystals, but y'know," Fex shrugged with a bit of a awkward smile.
Erin realized that it completely slipped her mind to grab the crystal from the deathbat beast. Immediately, she was thinking up ways to sneak back to its corpse to harvest it, and turned towards the direction it was vaguely at.
'It was near the area at the parking garage, and it was about a 10 minute walk from there to here, but with the sounds of the building collapsing, beasts were bound to have come to the area by now. I'm basically at full health, and with Fex nearby...'
"Let's go back," Erin decided.
"What? No way," Fex protested, "I'll admit, my time at the school has been boring as all can be, and I did just promise to help you with whatever you ask for, but I'm spent, and we don't have a lot of blood left in my flask. You kinda drank all of it."
"I'm not going to get another chance like this to make my own ring," Erin replied.
Fex put a hand on his forehead, "I know, but shouldn't we see if there's a portal leave this planet first? Y'know, see if it's even worth it to risk our lives to make a ring?"
Erin sighed. Fex did have a point that they would be risking a lot to head back to the deathbat crystal for something they might not even get the chance to leave with.
"Fine, but if we can't find the portal here, then let's head back," Erin replied.
Fex nodded before heading out of the training center, "I was thinking the same thing."
While thinking about the topic of leaving the planet, Erin looked at her watch. It listed a 1, and for some reason it didn't list a 6 despite her learning the level 6 shadow ability. She had questions as to why this was the case, and Quinn didn't know why she had lost her ability when she absorbed his book, meaning she was left with the system voice.
{Erin} System, do you know why my ability number didn't change?
"I believe it is the result of you being a vampire. Take Fex for example. That boy has powerful control over his puppeteer ability, yet his watch says level 1. These watches were made to measure human MC, and vampire MC is something very different on the account that the two species have different cell structures. This is likely the reason why you lost your ice ability back when you first came across this book as it basically gave you a new body."
Erin frowned. She was really hoping that from learning the ability book, her watch would say she was a level 6 ability user. It wouldn't even be that much of a stretch to say she somehow gained a level while fighting for her life and had some sort of epiphany. Quinn managed to do it once going from a level 1 to a level 2. If anyone from the military came to question her, she wouldn't be able to explain why she suddenly went from a powerful 5 to a weak 1 while also gaining a completely new ability.
She could just tell the truth about vampires to the military, she didn't quite get why there was so much secrecy around their existence. Why would they hide themselves if they were so strong?
"There is a reason why vampires went into hiding, Erin," The system's voice sternly told her, "Just because vampires are strong doesn't mean that they can't be outnumbered by humans. Think about the number of humans you have met and compare it to the number of vampires you have met. If vampires were to reveal themselves to humanity, then how well do you think humans will take it when they find out vampires feast on their blood?"
'I would REALLY appreciate it if you didn't read my thoughts,' Erin forcefully said in her mind as hard as possible.
"Apologies, but I had to make my point clear. It's too much of a risk for you."
'Yeah yeah, I get it,' Erin audibly groaned in her mind, 'The military would probably try to figure out my secret by dissecting my body or something.'
Holding the wrist that held her watch, Erin pressed against the screen hard enough to nearly snap it in two. Then, she took it off, now the the security lock was broken, and tossed it to the ground.
'There, that way they can't see what level I'm at.'