Blood Queen Reborn

Chapter 154: Brand New Team

The moment the students heard the words "Orange portal outing" they were frantic.

"An orange portal outing? For our second one?!"

"I know I’m strong, but don’t high level travelers die on orange portal planets?"

"What are they thinking!?"

"Silence!" Nathan shouted, slamming his foot onto the ground.

He didn’t like getting mad like this, but he had to get the student’s attention before their murmurings went out of control.

’I don’t know what the Head General was thinking. This is far too soon to send the students into an orange portal planet, but this is something she ordered, and I have to follow.’

"Worry not, for there will be two Sergeants sent out with you on this journey! Leo, head of the beast weapons class, and Faye, head of squadron training. These two are of our strongest Sergeants, so even if you do run into high level beasts, they should be able to help you. I will now let Faye explain how the portal outing will work for all of you."

He nodded to Faye, and left the stage, allowing her to walk over to the microphone.

"An orange portal outing is different from the green portal outing you did before. The green outing is focused on competition between each group, but the orange outings focus on working together. Each class will travel together in groups of fifty. The main goal is exploration. Orange portal planets have yet to be fully explored. Each class will head in a different direction, but we shall remain close to each other."

"You will remain in your teams of five while traveling in the larger group of fifty. Each team will be given a certain device that would be used to survey the land, and map out the terrain. The data recorded will be used to automatically create a world map and other maps for future use on the planet."

"More details will be explained once the devices have been given to you. It will also go into depth about how points will be distributed per each team. For those of you who lost members on the last trip, and a few new faces, please fill in those groups lacking members. If all teams are filled, please come to me; I will randomly assign you to a group. Please do this now," Faye ordered.

The students in the hall immediately began getting into the same groups as their first initial outing. Erin, Layla and Fex were able to group up quickly, but Erin was struggling to find Quinn in the crowd. It was a little harder to find his presence as Layla’s familial connection was stronger to her than it was with Quinn’s. It was like trying to find a night light when a flood light was next to you.

{Erin} Quinn, where are you?

Elsewhere, Cia took Peter’s hands and began taking him towards the rest of her team.

"Are you sure?" Peter worriedly asked.

"Again, I keep telling you, we’re lacking a member," Cia replied.

Before she could introduce him to her team, Quinn found Peter and ran up to him.

"Hey, Peter, do you want to join our team?" He quickly asked.

Peter paused, and looked off to the side, a little guilty about what he wanted to say.

"...Quinn, I... Cia has some friends of hers she wants me to join."

Quinn took a step back, "What’s wrong with our team? Aren’t we friends?"

Peter winced, "We are, but... I don’t know if I can call myself good friends with the others. Not after I..."

His voice trailed off, and Quinn knew what he was talking about. Still, despite his hesitance, Quinn couldn’t help but feel like there was something wrong.

"Hurry up, Peter," Cia said, then turned to look towards Quinn, "There’s no need to keep standing there, you need to find someone to fill your 5th team member, you know."

Before Quinn could say anything more, Cia took Peter’s hand and ran off.

Eventually, Erin and the others managed to find Quinn in the crowd, and he turned around with a look of concern on his face.

"Erin, I wanted Peter to join our group, but he didn’t want to. I think he might be pushing me away," Quinn said, "I’m not sure if I should pry further, or just respect his space."

Erin glanced over his shoulder to spot Peter getting introduced to 3 other new faces, then returned her gaze.

"You should wait until he gets punched by a bully, then swoop in to save him," Erin said with a straight face.

"Erin, no!" Layla scolded.

Erin let out a huge exasperated sigh, "Okay, fine. Wait until he almost gets punched by a bully, THEN swoop in and save him."

Layla gawked, "How is that better?!"

"Well what do you want me to do? Force him to get close to Quinn?" Erin replied.

Quinn glared at her. With how she tried to use the influence skill on him before, hearing this response from her was rather strange.

’Right, Erin isn’t the best person to talk to about this kind of thing,’ Quinn thought, ’It’s a miracle she even has as many friends as she does now.’

"Not to interrupt, but what are we going to do about our 5th member?" Fex casually asked, and the group immediately began thinking who they could ask.

—

"Alright so, this is my team!" Cia said with a smile.

In front of Peter were two boys and a girl, each with varying expressions to the newcomer.

"... Who’s this guy?" A guy with chest length dark blue hair, and deathly pale skin said. His voice was rather dour, and his bangs partially covered his eyes.

"Come on, don’t be mean, Howard," A large girl with yellow hair and black stripes said, before taking out her hand with the sweetest smile, "I’m Sarah, Sarah Beeswax!"

Peter took it, "I’m Peter Chuck."

"Peter Chuck? Well, Peter, you’re gonna chuck us up to first place in this assessment!" A bright eyed boy with medium brown skin and deep maroon coily-spiky hair joked, "My name’s Micheal, but you could also call me Mike."

When looking at the trio, Peter noticed that they were all quite the colorful bunch. Namely, they looked like the primary colors. It certainly matched their personalities.

As everyone was getting into their teams, there were 2 students that got onto the stage with Faye, needing to get assigned teams as nearly everyone had 5 max members.

"You go over there," she pointed at one group, and one of the stray students followed.

The other one was a boy with short black afro hair, and deep brown skin. Faye was about to point him in the direction of a team with only 4 members, Erin’s group, but saw a blonde boy approach them, so she instead pointed towards Cia’s group.

"You head over to the girl with purple hair near the left side of the room," she said.

The boy nodded, and he walked over to the group.

—

Howard blew a bit of air towards his bangs, "What’s this new guy’s ability? He’s only a level 2."

"Howard! That’s—" Sarah began saying, before they saw a boy walk their way.

"Hey, can I join your group? Sergeant Faye told me to join you guys."

Everyone turned around, and Peter immediately recognized him.

"Wait, you’re—" Peter pointed at the newcomer.

The boy in question stared back at Peter, as he too recognized Peter.

Then, with a heavy reluctance, "I’m... I’m Garret."