Quinn stared at the screen in front of him.
In the video, there stood a single, tall man, with long, blonde hair, standing in a large, empty room.
On his hands, he wore a set of gauntlets, but they looked more impressive than Quinn's.
The man's beauty was unmatched, something that Quinn had never thought about a boy before.
The man also had piercing, red eyes.
"Hello, and welcome to 'hand-to-hand combat classes for beginners'." The man said in a cheery voice. "I don't know how much time has passed since recording this, but if you are watching this video, that means that you are one of us. And hopefully, the information being provided isn't useless in your day and age."
As Quinn listened to the man speak, he couldn't help but wonder exactly who he was.
But one thing was for sure, this man was a Vampire.
As Quinn diligently watched the blonde man in the video, he noticed several things that he had read about in the fantasy novels in the school's library that pointed to him being a Vampire.
Ghastly pale skin, beautiful looks, and finally, glowing, red eyes.
Not only that, but the man had stated that Quinn was "one of them".
If Quinn was right in his understanding of the meaning behind those words, the man was stating that he was a Vampire.
However, the man had also said some…strange things, as well.
The fact that the man didn't know how much time had passed.
Did this mean that the video was made a long time ago?
And if it was, was the man in the video even still ALIVE?
But for now, Quinn had to put all his mounting questions to the back-burner, as there was virtually nothing Quinn could do to confirm them.
The video continued to play, and the man began to speak again.
"To whomever this video happens to be shown to, I will now demonstrate a set of basic Skills that you should be able to perform at your level. Our kind and our abilities work best when we use a weapon that covers our hands."
The man then proceeded to get into a fighting stance.
"In this video, I will be covering two sets of basic moves, and it's up to you to figure out how best to use them." The man smiled.
"Don't forget, you can always watch these videos again by accessing the "Tutorials" tab within your System's UI. Now, the first move is a defensive, movement skill that I call 'Flash Step'. To perform this move, if the System has been set up properly, you will need at least 15 points in Agility."
Quinn smiled hearing this.
That meant it wasn't something he had to worry about as his base Agility without any equipment was 15.
The man then proceeded to perform the Flash Step.
He crouched down, and moved to another corner of the room in an instant.
At the same time, an after-image of him was left behind at his previous location.
The man turned back so he was facing the viewer of the video.
Or in this case, Quinn.
"Now, this skill uses up a lot of Stamina, so even if you have enough Agility points to use it, be careful not to wear yourself out. Personally, I would only use it to avoid a fatal blow, or for going in for an attack. Also, please note that although the move is fast and hard to be seen by the naked eye, at most it can only move you a distance of up to five meters."
Watching the demonstration, Quinn realized straight away how useful something like this would be to have.
In his last fight against Loop, he could have avoided several blows at the last second using it.
"The next move I will be showing you is the Hammer Strike." The man replied, getting into another fighting stance.
This time, he lifted his left foot, and slammed it onto the ground.
At the same time, he pulled back his left hand, before thrusting it forward.
Quinn heard something like the sound of a gunshot, and the air in front of the man's hand that he had thrust forward had slightly moved.
The man turned back to the viewer again.
"Cool, right?" He asked. "To perform this move, you will need at least 15 points in Strength. That is all for today. When you are ready, the next set of hand-to-hand combat combat classes will automatically 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 the best."
With that, the video ended, the System screen vanishing.
As Quinn opened his System, he noticed that, just like the man had said, a new System tab labeled "Tutorials" was now available.
In it, there was a set of two videos available, one for each of the two moves the man had shown.
When watching the videos, Quinn noticed that the man was correct.
Each video contained a slowed-down version of the shown move, and there was even a detailed commentary on how the skill would work, and what you needed to do.
Quinn couldn't help but think about who the man was.
The way he spoke clearly indicated that he knew about the System.
Did this mean that he was the creator of the strange book Quinn's parents had given him?
It was hard for Quinn to remember meeting anyone like the man in the video.
Plus, he didn't even remember what his parent's faces looked like that well.
Whatever the case, Quinn was happy that the System was finally starting to help him more.
It felt like the System had been giving him a hard time, giving him Quests to drink blood, and giving him drawbacks, like halving his stats while in direct sunlight.
But now, Quinn was starting to feel happy that he had discovered the System.
Just as Quinn was about to start watching the two videos, he heard Tsukuru's voice, breaking his concentration.
"So, what was all that about?" Tsukuru asked, turning his head to look up at Quinn from his sitting position.
At the same time, Layla turned to him, as well, her bow back on her back.
"Yeah, what happened?" Layla asked. "Is everything okay?"
Quinn let out a sigh.
"Yeah." He replied. "Or at least it seems that way for now."
Quinn then proceeded to tell the two about how he had been "interrogated" in the empty room, Tsukuru turning around in his kneeling position so he was facing Quinn.
At first, Layla was even shocked to hear that Brandon had died, but was happy to hear that Quinn was cleared of all suspicion.
Tsukuru and Layla then looked at each other, both sharing looks.
While Layla's looked nervous, Tsukuru's looked…slightly annoyed.
'Raten…You REALLY did it, didn't you?' He thought.
When he made that comment about "plausible deniability in case Brandon turned up DEAD", he meant it as a joke.
But now, he was starting to think that he might have just given Raten the green light.
Tsukuru grit his teeth in annoyance and irritation.
Meanwhile, Layla was thinking about who in their right mind would be crazy enough to KILL ANOTHER STUDENT.
Then, a certain someone came to mind.
"Quinn…" Layla started, causing both Quinn and Tsukuru to turn to her. "You might not like what I'm about to say but…"
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
"Do you plan on pinning every person who winds up dead on Vorden?" He asked, interrupting her, predicting what she was going to say.
Quinn and Layla turned to him.
"For all we know he pissed off some high-Level when they were in a foul mood! Maybe he got high on his own ego after yesterday and did something stupid!"
Quinn then turned to Layla, confused.
"What makes you even think that?" Quinn asked. "Did something happen between Vorden and Brandon?"
Layla narrowed her eyes.
"Don't you find it strange that a Level 5 even approached you in the first place?" She asked. "When he attacked me yesterday, he was screaming about you, Quinn. He seems crazy enough to do something like this!" She insisted.
Upon hearing this, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
"Of course he was screaming about Quinn!" Tsukuru retorted. "He found Quinn's bloody clothes on the floor, with Quinn nowhere in sight! Just because Vorden had a knee-jerk reaction in the heat of the moment, it doesn't mean he's some psycho killer!"
Tsukuru was desperately trying to defend Vorden, but Raten's actions from the previous day wasn't making it easy.
At that point, a System message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
In fact, it was a System message that he had been waiting for ever since his MC bottomed out.
[1 MC restored. MC: 40/40.]
Slowly, Tsukuru got back to his feet.
"Well, it looks like my MC's back up to full." He replied, stretching his arms.
He turned to Layla.
"You want to continue practicing, or do you want to keep pointing fingers?"
Layla let out a long, annoyed sigh.
She reached onto her back, and pulled off her bow.
"You can't keep protecting him forever." Layla muttered, as she aimed her bow loaded with three arrows at her ice pillar.
"That's assuming that he's guilty." Tsukuru retorted, creating a new set of three daggers, and aiming them at his ice pillar.
They both sent their projectiles flying at the same time, each piercing the ice pillars in varying locations.
Tsukuru and Layla continued using the two ice pillars for target practice.
Learning from his mistake, roughly every five minutes, he would take a three minute break to recover a small amount of his MC.
Though this only allowed him to recover 6 MC per rest, it did help slightly.
While Tsukuru and Layla continued to practice using their Telekinesis in conjunction with their preferred weapons, Quinn tried to practice his new skills.
He decided to try the Hammer Strike first, as it appeared to be the more complicated of the two.
However, he couldn't concentrate.
Despite Tsukuru's retorts, he kept finding himself thinking about the words Layla had said.
Right now, there were no suspects to Brandon's death, and Quinn couldn't help but agree that Vorden had acted quite…strangely on multiple locations.
And the last nail in Vorden's coffin was the fact that he hadn't been in the dorm room when Quinn and Tsukuru had arrived last night.
Just what was he doing out so late?