Erin was taken back to the real world, sitting inside of the gaming pod. It had been terrible luck that she ran out of play ti. Since she didn’t actually own these pods, she could only rent them out.
’Damn, I really wanted the EXP from defeating Hardsteely,’ Erin thought, ’Could I have won faster if I still had my ice ability?’
Erin actually wasn’t sure if she would have won or not, but that fight did tell her sothing very important, and it was that she needed more types of attacks at her disposal. If being turned into a vampire gave her the blood swipe skill, then surely there had to be more things she could unlock.
Erin sighed, ’The blood swipe on the sword is fine and all, but I need to know more...’
A notification sound was heard, and Erin quickly checked her system screen, and saw several videos she could watch under a tutorials tab.
When opening the first video she saw, Erin began seeing a platinum blonde man with a face that held soft yet rugged features. It gave off the impression that he was a kind and protective person. He wore a dojo outfit and his long hair was tied back. However, what was the most noticeable feature of the man was his piercing red eyes.
Perhaps if she cared about appearance then Erin would’ve appreciated this man’s beauty more, but she was far more interested in what he had to say.
He started speaking in a cheerful voice.
"Hello, and welco to hand to hand combat classes for beginners," The blonde man said, "I don’t know how much ti has passed but if you have co across this video, that ans you’re one of us, and I hope that the information that is being provided isn’t useless in your day and age."
"I will cover two sets of basic moves, and it’s up to you to learn them and figure out how to use them in fights. If you forget, feel free to open up your system at any ti and watch the video again."
Erin paused the video for now as she didn’t want to spend any more ti just in the gaming pods than she had already.
After leaving the gaming pod, she sat on a bench in the VR room, and continued watching the video.
"The first move is mainly a defensive move; I call it Flash Step. To perform this, if the system has been set up correctly, you will need at least 15 points of agility."
The blonde haired man then crouched down and moved to another corner of the room in an instant, creating an afterimage of himself.
"Now this skill uses up a lot of stamina so even if you have enough agility points to perform this skill, be careful not to wear yourself out. I would only use it when avoiding a fatal blow or going in for an attack. Please also make note that although the move is fast and hard to be seen by the naked eye, at most it can only move you the distance of five ters."
’Couldn’t you have shown this sooner?’ Erin thought to herself. If she had this move when fighting earlier then she would’ve definitely won.
However, sothing did confuse her slightly. If the move required her to have at least 15 points of agility, then why even bother ntioning it if those were the stats she started with? The man did say that the system might’ve not been set up correctly, or that she had sohow ssed with its stats because she wasn’t ant to have opened the book. Either way, she was going to need to practice.
"The next skill I will show you is the Hamr Strike."
The man got into a fighting pose, this ti lifting his foot and slamming it onto the ground while at the sa ti pulling back his left hand and throwing out his right. It was done in one smooth motion, even so much as causing the air to slightly move.
Erin thought it was an impressive feat.
"Cool right?" The man said, smiling.
After being told it was cool, Erin imdiately began thinking it wasn’t. The man’s voice was a little grating with how annoyingly cheerful it sounded, and so part of her wanted to do the opposite of what he said. Thankfully, it was only within the video itself, which she could live with.
"For this skill, you will need at least 15 strength as well. That is all for today, when you are ready, the next set of hand-to-hand combat classes will be unlocked for you. If you want a slowed down and more detailed version of these videos, they will be saved in your system. Good luck my friend, and I wish you all the best."
Erin was slightly disappointed that she could only really use one of the skills ntioned. Flash Step seed very useful, but not the Hamr Strike. That seed more like Quinn’s style with his gauntlets.
Still, there was the question of who that strange man was. If she had to take a guess, he’s soone from Quinn’s side of the family from a long ti ago. The book did co from him after all.
Wanting to test out the moves for herself, Erin went to one of the many gyms on campus, one were there were a few people inside. She rewatched the video, specifically, examining the flash step move. There were in fact detailed instructions on how the skill worked as well as slowed down footage with detailed comntary.
After watching the video for it carefully, Erin got on one of the mats and crouched down, preparing herself.
Then, she dashed forward, but because it was the first ti she had done the flash step, she tripped, and fell on her face.
A few students nearby imdiately turned their attentions towards her.
"Wait, did the ice queen just hit hit the ground?" A student whispered out loud.
Getting up, Erin glared in their direction, causing them to shrink and run off. The other students got the hint, and decided to mind their business.
Erin continued to practice the move as much as she could, but it took a lot of energy just like the man in the video had said. After attempting it three tis, she collapsed onto the floor, and had to take a break.
She continued to do this a couple more tis, practicing her skill more and more, until the sun set, and she had to return back to her dorms.
—
Later that night, Quinn had just gotten into bed when he saw a new tab on his system screen labeled ’Tutorial.’
’When did that get there?’ Quinn thought, but he selected it.
Looking into it, he saw the sa video clips Erin had unlocked about the strangely beautiful blonde man.
As far as he knew about his part of the system, Quinn didn’t have a tab dedicated to describing his stats, so he wasn’t sure if he was capable of doing the hamr strike, or even the flash step. Still, he really wanted to try it out anyways. Quinn carefully watched the videos, morizing their movents, and rereading the comntary on them, eventually falling asleep.
—
That morning, Erin was thinking about her ability number. It still listed a number one on it, and thoughts about how she was running on borrowed ti began to run through her mind. She had yet to find anything that would help, and it’s not like she knew how to do sothing specific about it.
’They might think I’m from Pure if I don’t have an ability,’ Erin thought, ’Could I survive on the run from the military?’
If push ca to shove, then it might have to be sothing she needed to do. However, it didn’t exactly sound very inviting to her, though. If she was constantly hiding from the military, she would never have the ti to accomplish her one true goal in life.
Leaving her dorm room, and heading over to the cafeteria, she t up with Quinn and Layla who were eating together.
"Hey," Layla greeted her roommate.
Holding a plate of the school’s typical lunch, Erin sat down, and began pecking at the at. For so reason, it was the only food item that she could taste the flavor to.
"Anyways, as I was saying, after our experints with testing Erin’s weaknesses, I found out that sotis vampires get called ’night demons.’ I was thinking that maybe that was the reason why she’s only affected by sunlight and nothing else to do with vampires, because she’s actually a demon."
"Sure," Erin replied after taking in a bite of her breakfast ham, "But don’t demons have horns?"
"True, maybe the other weaknesses of vampires ca from misunderstandings over the years," Layla speculated.
’In what situation would a vampire get confused for being weak to garlic?’ Erin thought, still thinking about throwing a garlic clove at Fex.
Quinn grimaced at both Layla’s and Erin’s openness, "Shouldn’t we be a bit more private about this? What if soone hears us? Like Fex?"
"Why are you so worried about humans finding out about vampires?" Erin stated, "You’re over thinking this."
Quinn sighed, "I’m just trying to stay safe about all of this. What if—"
"What if what?" Erin interrupted, "You’re getting caught up on sothing that we don’t even know is going to happen, when I’m on borrowed ti about this."
Erin then lifted her arm and showed her watch to Quinn and Layla, which caused him to quickly shove Erin’s hand down.
"Don’t reveal yourself—!" Quinn whisper yelled, and nervously looked around in case anyone saw, "Don’t make yourself anymore of a target!"
Erin took in a deep breath, "... That Mono guy knows about , Quinn. It’s only a matter of ti before they find out."
Layla looked nervously between the two. She checked her watch before lying, "We should head to class, we’re going to be late!"
Erin and Quinn glanced at each other from the corner of their eyes, before they grabbed their things and headed to class.
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