The next morning, the group was awakened once again at 8 by the same trumpeting noise as before.
As Quinn rose out of bed, the first thing he noticed was a System message appearing, stating that he had received 5 Exp from completing his Daily Quest for spending 8 hours out of the sun.
However, the next message he received sent a cold dread through him like a death knell.
[10 hours have passed. You have lost 10 HP. HP: 5/15 Your hunger grows. Your HP will continue to decrease by 1 HP every hour until blood is consumed. ]
Although Quinn has lost two-thirds of his HP, he didn't feel like he was hurt, or dying.
Additionally, it didn't feel like how he felt when he was in the sunlight, either. Honestly, the closest thing he could compare it to was a starving animal in the wild, constantly on high alert, looking for its next meal.
Vorden turned to Quinn, and looked at him, his face full of concern.
"Hey, Quinn, are you alright, man?" Vorden asked.
Tsukuru got up out of bed and blinked his eyes a few times, trying to get the sleep out of his eyes.
When he looked over, and saw the look on Quinn's face, he grimaced.
'Damn it!' He muttered bitterly.
Quinn however immediately jumped out of bed.
Vorden jumped in surprise, not expecting Quinn to move like that so early in the morning.
"Yeah, I just…" He muttered. "I'm fine."
He darted off towards the bathroom to take his shower.
Vorden and Peter exchanged worried glances.
When Quinn got out, he was fully dressed in his military uniform, and he rushed out the door, making a beeline for the canteen.
Quinn grit his teeth, as he tried to bear through the pain.
Everything that had happened so far had been a huge miscalculation on Quinn's part. Although the System had warned him that he would lose 1 HP every hour, he didn't think his body would react like this.
In fact, Quinn had only planned to sleep for five hours, that way he would have around a day and a half to figure out how to deal with this.
Quinn started to calculate how much time he had left.
Breakfast was mandatory, and lasted from 8 to 9. Then, their classes would last till noon. Their break was merely to get from class to lunch.
In other words, for the next four hours, Quinn was required to be somewhere in the school.
Of course, there was always the option of skipping, but this wasn't a normal school. The military would hunt him down, and hand-deliver him to Sergeant Shizuka's "punishment chamber" if he acted up, and if the fearful look that Del and Tsukuru had was any indication, that was the absolute last thing Quinn wanted to go through.
But then again, would that even matter if he was about to die?
As Quinn entered the canteen, he took in deep breaths, desperately trying to get the hang of his newly-highened senses due to his evolution.
He was able to hear the conversations from the other side of the room, and could even hear the pots clanging in the kitchen as if they were right next to him.
It was at that point that Riley had entered the canteen. He had none of the bruises and injuries Tsukuru and Quinn had inflicted last night, making Tsukuru believe that Shizuka must have taken him to the doctor's office upon her return last night.
Nonetheless, he looked like he was in an absolutely terrible mood after the experience.
And as soon as he saw Quinn in the line, he recognized him instantly.
'He's that piece of Level 1 trash who was hanging around with the kid with the daggers!' Riley thought, irritated, as he remembered back to yesterday when he tried to extort credits from the three in front of the door. Quinn had been standing behind Tsukuru, directly to his right.
He looked at Quinn's black, curly hair, and his eyes narrowed.
'Wait a second…' Riley thought, as the memories of last night came back to him. 'That masked kid…'
He remembered the kid in the halloween mask kicking him in the side, and had then punched him in the face. TWICE. That boy had black, curly hair, as well.
Riley grit his teeth in pure rage. There couldn't be TWO Level 1 kids with black, curly hair who hung around with the kid with the daggers. It had to be the same kid!
"YOU!" Riley yelled, as he stomped past the Level 1s in line until he was face-to-face with Quinn.
"Bet you think you're some real tough shit, don't you, punk?!" Riley growled, getting in Quinn's face.
Just like yesterday, their close proximity allowed Quinn to hear Riley's heartbeat. He could sense the blood flowing through his body.
Instantly, something took over Quinn's body, and he lunged at Riley like a wild animal.
It was around that time that Tsukuru, Vorden, and Peter made their way into the canteen.
Vorden turned to Tsukuru.
"Man, Quinn sure seemed to be in a rush to get out of the room this morning." He said, looking at Tsukuru. "You think he's alright?" He asked.
Tsukuru was about to answer, when all three of them heard a loud crash.
Instantly, their heads all snapped towards the source of the noise, where they saw Quinn pinning Riley down to the floor, Quinn on top of him, holding his arms down.
Seeing this, Tsukuru's eye began to twitch in annoyance.
Instantly, he brought his hands up to his head, like he had a headache.
"Oh, come on!" Tsukuru exclaimed, extending his hands out in front of him. "Are you fucking kidding me?! Really?! Really? Doesn't that fucking asshole have anyone else to annoy?!?"
Hearing the exasperation and frustration in Tsukuru's tone, Vorden narrowed his eyes.
"Is that the guy who attacked you two last night?" He asked in a low tone.
In response, Tsukuru let out a long sigh, and his shoulders slumped.
"Yeah, that's him." He muttered.
Back with Quinn and Riley, Riley thrashed about, trying to get out of Quinn's grasp, his Stone Transformation Ability proving useless in this scenario.
"Get off of me, you crazy animal!" He yelled.
However, it was at that point that Quinn felt something growing in his mouth.
He placed his head a few inches away from Riley's neck, and got ready to take a bite.
As Quinn opened his mouth, Riley saw that Quinn's front two teeth on either side had elongated into fangs.
His eyes widened, and he felt his heart jump.
'A Beast Transformation Ability?!' He thought.
It was at that point that Quinn felt someone grab the back of his collar.
The unknown figure chucked Quinn off of Riley, and across the floor.
"Don't touch one of my boys!" The new figure replied.
Back with the group of Vorden, Peter, and Tsukuru, they had just watched a muscular, bald-headed student walk up behind Quinn, and fling him across the floor in front of him.
This was Dan, the very boy that Riley and his friends had been…collecting…credits for.
"Quinn!" Tsukuru and Vorden yelled, as they saw him slide across the canteen floor.
Tsukuru grit his teeth in anger.
He activated his Ability.
He extended his left arm out to his side. The sound of electronic interference filled the area around the three of them, as three groups of pixels appeared underneath Tsukuru's arm in the air.
The pixels clustered together into the form of daggers, and there was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, there were three copies of Tsukuru's Black Obsidian Daggers in the air under his arm.
Then, before gravity could take them, an aura of glitching pixels enveloped each dagger, causing them to remain suspended in the air.
Seeing it, Vorden's eyes widened in surprise.
'That's new…' He thought.
Back with Riley, he let out a sigh of relief.
"Dan, thank you so much." He sighed, before a wicked grin came across his face. "You're dead now, punk!" Riley sneered, as he turned towards Quinn.
Slowly, Dan began stomping his way towards Quinn, looming over him.
However, it was then that Dan let out a surprised grunt of pain, as he felt three sharp objects imbed themselves in his chest.
Gritting his teeth, he reached his arm back, and wrenched one of them out of his back, and brought it up to his face so he could take a look at it.
His eyes widened, as he realized that what he was holding was a dagger.
'Is this…a Beast Weapon?' He thought in surprise.
It was at that point that Vorden had taken the chance to run up behind Dan while he was distracted.
However, Vorden's face had changed.
His trademark gentle, caring expression was gone, replaced with a look of pure rage and aggression.
Vorden delivered a brutal right hook to the side of Dan's face, knocking him to the side.
Riley's eyes widened.
"Dan!" He yelled.
Dan regained his ground. He grit his teeth in anger, him holding his now-bruised cheek.
However, as he stared back towards the boy he had just pulled off of Riley, he now saw two new boys standing in front of him.
Both of them were blonde, but one was a midget, while the other looked like a bodybuilder.
Vorden glared angrily at Dan.
"Are we gonna have a problem here, jackass?!" Vorden asked in a harsh tone, as both he and Tsukuru held up their wristwatches, showing their Ability Levels.
Tsukuru's Ability Level showed '2.3', so Dan was sure he could take him no problem. But, then he looked at Vorden.
He saw the "fake" Ability Level of 5.
In reality, the only Ability Vorden had access to right now was Peter's Level 1 Earth Ability.
But Dan didn't know that. He gritted his teeth in anger.
His furious gaze snapped from one blonde boy to the next, with Quinn on the floor behind them.
A Level 2 and a Level 5, both protecting a Level 1.
It seemed that Dan was trying to make a decision. Should he withdraw for now, as someone with a higher Ability Level than him had appeared?
Or, should he double down as to not appear weak?