The next morning came to the dorms with the same, trumpeting alarm.
As Quinn opened his eyes, he was greeted with a set of two overlapping System messages.
[Daily Quest 1 has been completed. 5 Exp has been awarded. Exp: 35/400]
[Your hunger grows. Your HP will drop by 1 HP every hour until human blood has been consumed.]
Quinn noted that this particular System message seemed to appear once every two days, meaning that this was the time frame he would need to drink blood on a regular basis.
However, if he took damage, this time frame would be accelerated.
Quinn thought about using his new Blood Bank Skill.
Another System message appeared.
[10 millilitres of blood will be consumed. Would you like to proceed?
[Yes] [No] ]
Quinn thought 'yes', and he felt a sweet taste fill his mouth.
Instantly the hunger in his stomach dissipated, and he no longer felt hungry.
Now all he needed to do was meet up with Layla to fill his Blood Bank up to the max.
After the blood finished going down his throat, another System message appeared.
[Blood Bank: 0/100ml]
For the next week, Combat Classes were a requirement for every student.
This would be the case until the teachers were satisfied to take the students on their first portal outing to hunt Beasts.
As the students of the Beast Weapon Hall entered, they each walked to the wall, and reclaimed their weapons from yesterday.
On the east wall of the room, a disgruntled Brandon, flanked on either side by Fei and Loop.
He grumbled under his breath, as he took a trident off the wall.
It was a weapon close enough to the spear Quinn had broken yesterday for it to be usable.
The only students who hadn't gone towards the weapons on the wall were those who brought their own weapons with them, like Tsukuru, Layla, and Erin.
As soon as Quinn and Tsukuru had entered the room, Tsukuru had simply recreated a new set of the Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Daggers using his Video Creation Skill, them appearing in his hands.
Once the students had gathered, Leo stood at the front to give them further instructions.
"Today's lesson will be sparring once again." Leo explained. "However, this time, we will be doing timed battles. Each of you will pick an opponent, and fight for one minute, before switching to the next opponent. On the battlefield, there will be all kinds of different opponents that will use a wide variety of weapons and abilities. It is important to get you used to as many of these as possible."
Hearing his words, Tsukuru smirked.
"What are we, speed-dating?" He replied under his breath, knowing full well that no one else in the room would get the reference.
The students then immediately began pairing up.
Quinn suddenly looked to his right, and saw that Tsukuru was gone.
Quinn raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Where'd he go?" He asked.
He then heard a sigh next to him.
Looking over, he saw Layla with her hand in her face, as she was pointing in another direction.
As Quinn looked at the direction she was pointing in, he saw Tsukuru walking towards Erin.
Quinn slumped his shoulders.
"Seriously?" Quinn asked, incredulous. "Didn't she just beat him only yesterday?"
Over with Erin, she was being swarmed by a group of five boys, all wanting to fight her. Erin's eye twitched in annoyance.
'How many of these nitwits do I have to beat down before they take a hint?!' She thought in irritation.
Then, looking over, she saw the short boy from yesterday approaching her,
'Oh, thank GOD!' She thought, seeing him approach. 'A distraction!'
As Tsukuru reached her, the group of boys clicked their teeth, and backed away. Erin looked at him with an emotionless face.
"Didn't I just beat you yesterday?" She asked. "Why would today be any different?"
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
"I want a fair fight." He growled.
Erin raised an eyebrow.
Before she could ask what he meant by 'fair fight', she saw him lift his hand.
Pixels began to form in it.
The pixels clustered together into a form that Erin could tell instantly was the shape of a sword.
When the pixels solidified, Tsukuru was holding a sword reminiscent of those used by medieval knights, with various parts of the sword rusted over.
Tsukuru looked at the sword in his hand.
The System's vector appeared in his vision over the sword.
Like usual, a line extended from the left, before going upwards to a square showing an up-close image of the sword.
Text appeared below the square.
[Knight Sword
Basic-Tier Beast Weapon
A Basic-Tier Beast Sword wielded by a Haunted Knight.
+4 Strength ]
Erin looked at the sword in disgust.
"You want me to fight you…using that?" She asked.
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
"Prove to me that your victory yesterday wasn't you just using your Intermediate-Tier sword as a crutch." He muttered.
Hearing his words, Erin's grip on her sword tightened.
His meaning was unmistakable.
He was insinuating that the only reason she won yesterday was because her sword was a higher Tier than the rest of the weapons here.
It was an insult to her years of dedicated training. To all the grueling work she had gone through.
And it was an insult that Erin would not let stand.
In a swift motion, she flung her sword behind her.
It made clinking noises as the metal blade bounced along the floor, before clattering down to the ground.
She reached over, and grabbed the handle of the blade in his hand.
She violently wrenched it out of his grip.
She brought the sword up to her face, and looked at it.
She could feel the Beast Energy coming off of the blade, surging through her, denoting that it was indeed a Beast Weapon, despite its shabby appearance.
'Interesting.' Erin thought. 'I almost feel as strong with THIS sword as I do with my Intermediate-Tier one.'
Erin formed a fighting stance, causing Tsukuru to grin, him taking his own.
"I'm going to make you eat those words, Hikiko."
Erin replied with a steely expression.
Tsukuru smirked.
"Oh?" He asked in an amused tone. "Am I finally worthy of you actually remembering my name?"
Meanwhile, back with Quinn and Layla, Layla smirked.
"Don't worry, Quinn." Layla said with a wink. "I'll let you win the first one."
However, it was then that Layla felt an arm stretch out in front of her, blocking her chest, and separating her from Quinn.
Looking up, she saw Leo standing next to her.
"I'm sorry, young lady." Leo said, apologetically. "But I'm going to have to ask you to sit out of this one."
Layla stood there speechless, before eventually, she took a step back.
Quinn looked forward, as Leo faced him, and pulled out his katana.
He held it in a fighting stance towards Quinn.
"Show me what you got, boy." Leo replied. "And don't hold back."
Without Quinn realizing it himself, the rest of the students weren't really paying attention to their matches.
Even Erin and Tsukuru across the room were now watching Quinn's fight with undivided attention.
Everyone wanted to see the "Blind Swordsman" fight.
But in a corner of the room, three people in particular weren't paying attention to Quinn.
"Look at him!" Brandon snarled. "First he cheats in MY match, and now he's getting special treatment?!"
Loop turned to Brandon, a look of confusion on his face.
"Didn't Leo say he didn't use an Ability?" Loop asked.
Brandon snapped his head towards him.
"Don't be ridiculous!" Brandon complained. "Of course he did! He managed to break a Beast Weapon! Have you ever heard of someone doing that?!" Brandon grit his teeth.
"Maybe if he had a weapon of a higher tier, but all the weapons in this room are of the same tier."
Loop flashed back to yesterday when Tsukuru had shown the chips in his dagger from his and Erin's fight.
Brandon had a point.
The only people here with higher-tier gear were those who brought gear with them, like Erin.
"Yeah, you're right." Fei piped up, completely unaware that Quinn didn't even have an Ability.
"That weakling's probably never won a fight in his life, and when he saw the chance, he decided he had to, even if he had to cheat."
Before the fight had even started, Quinn tried to use his Inspect Skill on Leo.
But for the first time, the Skill hadn't shown him a single detail.
'Does this mean that he's too powerful?' Quinn thought, a confused look on his face. 'Maybe once the Skill levels up it'll be able to show me something?'
Just then, Quinn was broken from his musings, as a System message appeared in front of him.
[A Strong opponent has appeared. Defeat the opponent for an Instant Level-Up reward.]