Chapter 135: It’s Fine
Later that night, as Erin sat awake in bed, she began thinking about the previous day. Everyone had a brush with death fighting against that two spiked dalki, Layla especially, but because of the vampire system, they all made it.
’I wonder if...’ Erin thought, almost scared to finish it, ’... Am I strong enough to let myself get close to them?’
If she wasn’t, if she miscalculated her strength, her heart would break once more if those around her had died. History would repeat itself, and she would have nothing again.
But it didn’t.
Still, Erin wouldn’t be comfortable until she knew that everyone else around her was strong enough to defend themselves against a dalki. They survived, but they were also lucky.
—
The next day, Quinn and Peter decided to spend the morning in the training center together reading the 3rd and 4th level earth book . It was easier to understand the next stages of the earth ability now that Quinn didn’t need to figure out everything himself, but Peter was still struggling to learn the ability.
’I don’t get it, it shouldn’t take this long for me to reach level 3. I have the books,’ Peter thought to himself.
Reaching a higher level of an ability was easier if you learned each level individually from its books. At least, that was what Peter was told. Even then, his sister Emily only ever had a level 3 super speed book, and reached that level in no time.
Walking over to a flat area of the ground, Quinn lifted his hands up, and several pillars of earth rose towards the roof.
By now, Quinn had become a level 4 earth ability user, meaning that he no longer needed to stomp on the ground, or physically touch the ground to control large swaths of earth.
’This is an improvement from before. This means that I can command earth from far distances away to cover up my body for armor,’ Quinn thought, ’But physically touching earth would be more efficient on my MC usage.’
Peter just watched as Quinn got accustomed to his improved powers, envy enveloping his mind. He didn’t want to have those thoughts, but it was hard not to with how expertly his roommate was controlling the earth like it was nothing.
Then a concerning thought entered his head.
’Am I physically limited by the amount of MC my body can produce?!’
Every human had the capability to produce MC, or Mutant Cells, but not everyone was able to make the same amount. Some people were permanently stuck at certain levels, unable to reach a higher one. There were even some cases where a rich family would buy their child a high level ability book, only for them to get stuck at level 5.
However, he also knew that there was a burning sensation associated with trying to gain more MC than your body could produce, and so far, he didn’t feel it.
It still left the question as to why he was struggling so hard with it. Was he just untalented? Or was the ability not for him?
Before his thoughts could spiral out of control, Peter got a message from Cia. He glanced down at it, and smiled.
’Be there in a minute,’ Peter typed.
Quinn looked over to Peter, and was wondering who he was texting.
He walked up behind the shorter boy, and saw he was chatting with someone named "Cia."
’Just who is this friend of his? The last time there was a friend talking to Peter that I didn’t know about, it turned out he was getting tortured,’ Quinn feared.
"Hey, Peter, remember, if you have any problems, you know you can always talk to me," Quinn reminded.
Looking up from his watch, Peter waved his hands, "No, don’t worry, Cia’s a good friend. She took me to a restaurant yesterday."
"And what ability level is she? She’s not a high level, right?" Quinn interrogated.
"Well—" Peter stumbled his words, "She’s a 4, but— I know how that sounds— She has a support ability— It’s not that bad, she’s just like me."
Quinn wasn’t buying it. Just because she had a support ability, didn’t mean that she couldn’t be a threat to Peter in other ways.
Peter sighed, "I can tell you’re not sure about her, so how about we all meet up, and get to know one another. I promise you, if I did have a problem, I’d tell you."
Quinn glanced back down at Peter’s watch and saw the message "I got the knives, you better prepare yourself."
"Yeah... I’m going to join you."
—
In a different part of the school, Erin and Layla were together in the bathroom. Layla stepped out of the stall to see Erin waiting for her next to the sink.
"You know you don’t have to follow me into the bathroom," Layla lightly joked, "I swear, I’m fine."
Despite this, Erin was still concerned for Layla’s well being. The system had told her that a ghoul could become hungry again at most in a week, or as early as a day.
After Layla finished washing her hands, Erin turned around to leave the bathroom.
"Come on, let’s go," Erin stated.
It wasn’t a command, as Layla didn’t feel intrinsically compelled to follow her, but there was apparently something important for her to do today with Erin.
They left the bathroom and headed to the area where there were the market stalls. Just like yesterday, the stalls were still up with several people running around.
"Did you want to take me to the student market?" Layla asked, then looked at her watch, "It’s not the weekend, but there aren’t meant to be classes today, so maybe that’s why they’re still around."
They went to Asahi’s stall where she was yesterday.
"Well hello there, my best and only customers," Asahi dryly commented, "Sorry about that, business is slow right now."
"Why is that? You’d think that with everyone returning from Caladi that they would have more money after selling their crystals, right?" Layla wondered.
"You’d think that, except I’m stuck with selling intermediate tier gear at best," Asahi sighed frustrated, "People want stronger stuff now that they came back from a beast planet, but I don’t have the money for that."
Shaking her head, "Enough about that, it’s actually a good thing that you two arrived today. I was able to complete the burningsnake beast gear."
"That fast?" Erin raised an eyebrow.
Asahi smirked, "Well, I was kinda known as the fastest forger in my family, and the ring was a small thing, y’know? It was basically done in 5 minutes after you guys left. Didn’t even sweat making it."
Erin took her hand out, beckoning for Asahi to get on with it.
"Fine, fine," Asahi rolled her eyes, and took out a small box from underneath her stall, "Here it is."
She opened the box, presenting an archer’s ring worn on the thumb to protect the archer’s finger while pulling the draw string.
The ring was mainly a deep maroon on the outside that gradually faded to orange, then yellow, on the inside, like the flames of a burning ember. On top of that, there were intricate rich black patterns that sprawled out across its surface.
Taking the ring in hand, Erin began to inspect it.
