Blood Queen Reborn

Chapter 157: A Light Spar

That morning, as Erin and Layla were preparing to go out to the student market again, Erin noticed a vase of roses, daisies, and other assortments of flowers sitting next to the window sill.

"Has that always been there?" Erin said, pointing at it.

Layla turned to see what she was gesturing to, and shrugged, "I took it in the other day. I’m surprised that you just realized it."

They left their dorm room, and were on their way to the student market. It was open yet again as today and tomorrow were free days. It was intended by the teachers for students to get to know their team better before the big event.

Erin and Layla did plan on meeting up with the others in their team later that day, but before they did, they were going to need a few purchases. Layla was already out of specialized arrows, and her current bow was only intermediate tier. Their current gear would be good for a green portal expedition, but not an orange on.

As they were on their way over, Erin opened up the system chat tab.

{Erin} Have you found him yet?

{Quinn} No, I haven’t.

{Quinn} When trying to ask others if they’ve seen him around, all they said that he keeps to himself.

{Quinn} It’s almost like he doesn’t want to be found.

{Erin} That sounds like him.

After the conversation in the library yesterday, Quinn and Erin further discussed the details on how he was meant to spend a lot of time with Vorden. Ideally, he would need to find him before the official meet up. However, if Quinn couldn’t find him, then it would throw a small wrench in their plans. Ultimately recoverable, but harder to do so.

Thankfully, they weren’t going to worry about that.

{Quinn} Nevermind, I see him.

{Quinn} I’ll see you later.

The girls arrived at the student market place, and immediately began their search for new gear.

—

After about 30 minutes of searching, Quinn finally got the bright idea to try messaging Vorden to chat a bit. He was able to get his contact from Erin as the two were apparently sparring buddies after Leo’s class. The idea of fighting someone to only become their friend later was a strange one, and he still wasn’t sure how Erin managed to pull it off.

"You’d think with her personality, she’d make more enemies than friends with that method, and yet, she’s proven me wrong," Quinn muttered.

After a bit of waiting, Quinn finally got a response and they met up outside of the elemental classes.

"Oh hey, Quinn," Vorden said with a wave, "You said you wanted to meet up with me?"

"Yeah, how about we practice our abilities together?" Quinn replied.

For a brief moment, Vorden didn’t look so amused, but just as quickly as it went, his usual smile was back.

"Sure, is there any reason behind it?"

’What was that about?’ Quinn wondered, but thought it just had to do with the fact that Vorden was unpleasantly surprised by another training session today.

"Well, I’m sure with you having the copy ability that you would have a lot of experience with the earth ability, right?" Quinn said, "I’m currently stuck at level 4, and I can’t seem to make a breakthrough to a higher level."

"Woah there, a breakthrough?" Vorden chuckled, "Those are pretty uncommon. You sure you don’t want to just buy another ability book?"

"I could, but I was able to reach level 2 without one. It’s cheaper if I do it again," Quinn replied.

Suddenly, Vorden was impressed, "And you didn’t have a teacher or anything?"

"No...? It’s not that weird, right?"

Vorden stared at the shorter boy, partially astonished. He was turning out to be quite the interesting person.

He nodded, "A little, but not in a bad way. Let’s head inside. I heard the elemental teacher here allows us to enter her class sometimes after school hours."

The two entered the room, which was the first time Quinn had ever seen the inside of the elemental class. The place was quite spacious just like Leo’s was, but instead of weapons on the walls, there were boxes of different kinds of materials lined up together.

At a desk near the front was the teacher wearing a name tag that read "Merah." She was a beautiful lady with coiled light pink hair, and medium brown skin. After flipping a page of a book she was reading, she pointed at a small cup on her desk, and curled her finger. On command, a golf ball sized sphere flew out of the cup, and into her mouth.

"Oh? Did you two need anything?" She said with a smile, placing down her book.

Vorden nodded, and walked over with his hand out, "Hey, my name is Vorden. Can we practice here?"

Merah took the hand, "Sure, what two abilities do you have?"

"Earth, and water."

Merah let go, and immediately commanded water shot out of the small cup next, forming into a ball midair, and split in half before flying over to two specific boxes, opening them.

Quinn was surprised that she was capable of controlling the water ability without moving her hands, or using some other motion. It made him believe that she was a level 8, as elemental users at that point were able to bend their ability using only their mind.

"Remember to put everything back where it came from," She said with a smile, then returned to her reading.

The boys thanked her, then headed over to the two boxes. After initiating physical contact, Vorden began his lesson.

"By the way, you were right in that I’m pretty well versed in using abilities," Vorden said, "I’m sure you noticed with how I touched that lady’s hand that it was to copy her ability. There is a bit of a reason to this."

Vorden lifted his hand as earth came out of the box behind him, and he immediately began shifting it into different kinds of shapes in a matter of seconds. First, a giant vase, then a spiked pillar, and then a large fist.

"The ability I copy is only at the level the person I copied it from, so what I’m doing is everything you’re capable of," Vorden said, "Which also applies to the water ability."

He commanded the earth to crumple into a pile of stones, then bended the earth back in its box. Next, he controlled the water in the same way as Merah did, doing no hand motions, purely using his mind.

It swirled around his head in pretty formations, looking like the intricate detailing a forger would give their weapons.

’I knew he must’ve been experienced with a few abilities here and there, but how did he know how to use a level 8 water ability right off the bat?’ Quinn thought.

"So I won’t be able to directly show you how a level 5 earth ability works, but I can get pretty close," Vorden said, "Now, how exactly did you reach level 2 in the first place? Maybe I can help you out by building off of that."

"It was from sparing with my friend, Erin. She was the one you fought," Quinn cautiously said, "As for how it felt like, it was if I just... suddenly understood how the earth works better."

Vorden did his best to keep his face calm and neutral, but internally, Raten was over Vorden’s shoulder in their shared mind space.

"If you let me take control, I can combine the MC of both the teacher’s and Quinn’s ability," Raten said, "Show him how exactly a level 5 earth ability looks like."

Sitting on the chair, Vorden glared at Raten from the corner of his eyes.

"You already caused enough of a mess last week," Vorden scolded.

Raten rolled his eyes and groaned, "That was because of this stupid chi or whatever that old man called it. We have better control over it now."

Vorden squinted at him.

"... Ugh, fine, I promise not to hurt him. Push me off the chair or whenever, I don’t fucking care," Raten relented.

Back in the outside world, Vorden began speaking again, "Okay, now, before I make this suggestion, just know that I don’t want a repeat of last time, so I promise to be careful. With that being said... how does a light spar sound?"