When the two entered the room, they saw Vorden helping Peter train with his Earth Ability, which seemed to be a common occurrence whenever they returned to the dorm.
"I finally did it!" Peter said happily.
Tsukuru looked and saw that Peter was currently holding a round, solid lump of mud in his hand.
From Shizuka, he knew that this was the most bare-bones version of the Earth Ability.
It was what everyone started with, as mud was more malleable than rigid rock and earth, making it easier to shape.
As Peter moved his hands, Quinn and Tsukuru watched as Peter was able to change the shape of the mud, changing it from a ball into a long staff.
Peter then turned it into a ball again.
"The only problem is that as a Level 1 Ability user, you'll have to keep some mud on you at all times." Vorden replied.
Suddenly, Tsukuru had an idea.
He activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference filled the room, and everyone turned to him.
There was the typical flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding an oval-shaped leather pouch.
It had loops around its length, allowing a person's belt to be fed through it, like the "gun holsters" of the old world before the "lethal weapons ban" decades ago.
"Try this." Tsukuru said, walking over to Peter, and handing him the pouch.
Peter took it with a grateful smile.
He took off his belt, and fed it through the pouch, he then fed his belt back through the loops on his pants, fastening the pouch to his hip.
He then dumped the mud ball into the pouch.
The mud filled the pouch to the top, and Peter snapped the pouch shut.
"Thanks!" He replied. Vorden smiled and turned towards the two.
"Quinn! Tsukuru!" He said, smiling. "You're back! Have fun?"
Thinking back to the events in the forest, both Tsukuru and Quinn scratched the back of their necks, nervously, both looking away.
"Err…" Quinn muttered.
"Well…" Tsukuru replied. Peter smiled.
"Vorden said you got a girlfriend." He piped up.
Instantly, both Tsukuru and Quinn snapped forward to look at him.
"What?!" Quinn asked, incredulous.
Tsukuru glanced away.
"Well, he's not wrong…" Tsukuru muttered.
Quinn whirled around on him, and gave him an annoyed look.
Tsukuru glanced over at him out of the corner of his eye.
"I mean, you and that Layla girl have gotten pretty chummy."
Hearing his words, Quinn calmed down…slightly.
"Oh, her." Quinn replied, before turning back to Peter. "No, we're just friends."
Honestly, Quinn didn't know exactly what the relationship between him and Layla even was.
He wouldn't exactly call them friends, and they definitely weren't lovers.
Layla had done anything Quinn had asked her.
It was almost like they were master and servant.
But Quinn definitely wasn't going to tell Peter that.
It would give him the wrong idea.
"We're…aquantiences." Quinn finally replied. "I was talking to her about how she got her weapon, and we were discussing which Combat Classes I should take since I won't be in the Elemental Class with you and Vorden."
Peter's face brightened up.
"So you finally decided which class you're going to take?" He asked.
Quinn nodded.
"Yep." He replied. "I'm gonna take the Beast Weapons Class."
Tsukuru put his hand on his chin, as if he was thinking about something.
"You know what, that's not a bad idea." He muttered, causing the three to turn to him. "I do use daggers in my fighting style."
He turned to Quinn, a smile on his face.
"I think I'll join you, Quinn."
Vorden smiled.
"Then, it's decided." He said, causing the others to turn to him. "Me and Peter will take the Elemental Class, and you two will take the Beast Weapon Class."
They all nodded in agreement.
A short while later…
Night had fallen over the forest located on Military Base 2.
A group of three soldiers could be seen walking aimlessly through the woods.
The lead soldier had a strange, circular device in his hand.
"Yeah, this is exactly what I want to be doing at this hour." The lead soldier grumbled, as he looked down at the device in his hand.
The device had a blue screen that showed a light-blue grid outline covering its surface.
In the center of the screen was a white, upwards triangle.
Three white dots could be seen at the far north, east, and west locations on the screen.
"Tracking down kids who got themselves lost in the woods. Damn kids."
One of the other soldiers turned to him.
"Sir, the emergency beacon was sent out." He replied. "They're most likely dead."
The head soldier's face remained unchanged.
"Whatever." He muttered.
The group continued walking, the lead soldier using the device to chart his path.
As they moved, the white triangle moved closer towards the first white dot, the one on the far north on the screen, revealing it to be some sort of tracker.
"There." He muttered, as the triangle was just about overlapping the dot.
"The first one should be right about-"
There was an audible crack.
The man looked down, and noticed that he had just stepped on something.
It was one of the wristwatches the base gave to all the students.
The screen was now cracked.
It also now had vertical lines of varying colors, and ink splotches all over the screen.
"Here." He muttered, looking down at it.
He kneeled down, and picked up the now-damaged watch.
"Well, the watch is here." He muttered, looking down at it. "Now where's the damn body it's supposed to be attached to?"
The group followed the tracker to each of the other two locations.
The result was the same, a watch with no body in sight.
The leader soldier brought his watch up to his face, and activated a com link.
"General Nathan, we have a situation." He replied into the screen.
Roughly ten minutes later, a group of seven individuals had gathered in the base's meeting room.
These individuals were General Nathan, General Duke, Sergeant Faye, Sergeant Shizuka, Sergeant Leo, and Sergeant Dillon.
Head General Paul was currently off-base, so someone else had to take charge of the meeting.
Due to this being a matter involving the first-years, Sergeant Faye and Sergeant Leo elected General Nathan for that role, despite General Duke's protests.
Nathan reached into his pockets and placed the three watches on the table in front of him in a straight line, the broken watch in the middle.
Nathan let out a sigh, before he began.
"Alright, roughly an hour ago, the emergency beacon was sent out from the watches of three students, located deep in the forest connected to the park." He replied.
Duke glanced at him.
"Names?" He asked in an uncaring tone.
Nathan looked at a tablet in his hands. It listed all the first-year students.
While most of the names were green, three among the list were red.
This was a list showing how many of the first-year students were accounted for, with the green names on the list all currently located in their assigned dorms.
"Riley Blake, Derek Krenshaw, and Damian Williams." Nathan read. "All Level 2.5 Ability Users. All no significant backing."
Hearing this, Duke let out an annoyed snort.
"You woke me up for three nobodies doing a vanishing act?" He asked in a disgruntled tone. "Who cares what happened to them?"
Leo turned over to Duke, and his eyes narrowed.
"They're still students." He muttered in a low tone.
Soon, Shizuka spoke up.
"Oh, THOSE three." She muttered, her hand under her chin, her appearing in a look of deep annoyance.
Nathan turned to her.
"You're familiar with these three?" He asked, eyebrow raised in a look of confusion.
Shizuka snorted in annoyance.
"Hardly." She muttered. "I've been getting complaints from numerous Low Levels that those three have been stealing credits from the other students."
Her response made Nathan, Faye, Duke, and Dillon all roll their eyes, as if this was a common occurrence.
And in a way, it was.
This kind of thing happened every year.
At every base.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's a good thing they're gone."
Leo's head snapped over to Shizuka.
'It's NEVER a 'good thing' when people die.' He thought bitterly.
Nathan let out a deep sigh. He waved his hands dismissively.
"Send a platoon to sweep the forest." He muttered. "If they don't find anything by morning, we'll just mark them as 'killed in action' during the first portal outing."
Duke and Dillon nodded in agreement.
With that everyone left, the meeting now complete.
As Leo walked back to his room, his mind was filled with deep contemplation.
It was too late tonight to go searching the forest himself.
The Combat Classes started tomorrow, and he was the designated teacher of the Beast Weapons Class.
But once the day's classes were over, he was going to scour that forest personally.
Despite being blind, his Ability arguably gave him a better sight than anybody here.