Night came and went once again over the base.
It was currently Thursday.
Tomorrow would be the Portal Outing expedition for the first-years.
The students on the base were all rudely woken up by the trumpeting alarm blaring through the dormitory.
As Quinn woke up, a System message popped up in front of him.
[Daily Quest 2 has been completed. 5 Exp received. Exp: 790/800]
Seeing the System message, Quinn smiled.
He was just about at Level 4.
Once he completed his other Daily Quest in the canteen, he'd only need a single fight in the VR Pod to Level Up.
The group all got up, showered and dressed, and headed down to the canteen.
As they ate breakfast, Tsukuru noticed that Peter seemed…especially on edge today.
Seeing it, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
He had a bad feeling.
Just like the bad feeling he had gotten when he saw those second-years corralling students into the assembly hall last Friday.
After breakfast, they headed off to Del's Homeroom class, and then finally off to their combat classes like normal.
However, just as Tsukuru and Quinn were about to head off from the Beast Weapons Hall to the VR Room, both of their watches began beeping erratically.
Instantly, the two stopped in their tracks.
Tsukuru and Quinn exchanged confused looks.
Eventually, Quinn brought his finger to his wristwatch's screen, revealing that the "beeping" had been a message.
When he did, his eyes widened.
It was a message from Peter.
Although, "message" wasn't the right word.
This was a distress call.
"Peter's been hurt in the training area of the west wing!" Quinn replied, before darting off. "C'mon, let's go!"
Tsukuru immediately ran after Quinn.
As they ran, Tsukuru narrowed his eyes.
A memory of a warning that Shizuka had given him on his first day came flashing though his mind.
"Listen, Tsu-Tsu, under no circumstances are you to ever go to the training room on the east wing." Her voice said in an authoritative tone.
"Why not?" Tsukuru heard his own voice in his memory.
"It's also used as a storage room for Portals either not in use, or too DANGEROUS to be used. We don't want any of you accidentally wandering into a dangerous planet before you're ready, so the room is completely off-limits to first-years."
Tsukuru grit his teeth.
'If that's true, then why is Peter in there?!'
As they headed down the hall, they saw Vorden appear from around the corner.
Instantly, all three of them widened their eyes, and came to a complete stop.
"You get Peter's message, too?" Quinn asked.
Vorden's eyes narrowed.
"Yeah, that's why I'm here." Vorden replied, snapping his neck towards the training room. "I knew those 'friends' of his were bad news!"
Vorden then snapped his head back to the other two.
"You two, stay behind me!" He replied. "I can deal with this myself!"
Quinn grit his teeth.
"No way, he's my friend, too!" Quinn retorted back. "I'm gonna kick those guys asses, if it's the last thing I do!"
Vorden clenched his teeth.
He could see that he wasn't going to be able to convince Quinn.
And judging from the tense expression on Tsukuru's face, he wouldn't be able to convince him, either.
In the end, the three of them decided to run together, and they eventually ended up at the training center.
Vorden burst open the doors, and looked around.
The room was massive, and had several oval-shaped metal teleporters lining the walls.
Each portal's interior was filled with a swirling energy, designated the danger level of the planet they led to.
Vorden could see nine Portals in total.
As they continued walking in, they saw Peter on the ground in front of the Teleporters.
He looked badly injured, and looked as if he couldn't move.
Before Tsukuru could act, he saw Quinn and Vorden rush forward towards Peter.
"Peter!" Quinn yelled out, as they reached him. "Are you alright?!"
Looking down at him, Quinn could see that his body was covered in bruises and scratches.
"What happened?!" Vorden snarled. "Was it those first-years you've been hanging out with?!"
Peter nodded his head.
"Yeah, they got me pretty bad." Peter replied. "They just left. I don't know if they're gonna come back."
Vorden grit his teeth in anger.
"Alright, let's get you out of here." He replied.
As the two picked up Peter, Quinn had a strange feeling.
Even though Peter's clothes were badly torn, Peter didn't seem to be in that bad of shape.
He should have been able to walk on his own.
Even his bruises didn't look normal.
In fact, they almost looked as if they were drawn on.
Instantly, Quinn activated his Inspect Skill.
[Name: Peter Chuck
Race: Human
HP: 8/8
Ability: Earth Element
Ability Level: 1 ]
Quinn's eyes widened in surprise.
"Vorden, it's a trap!" He yelled.
However, before Vorden could react, Peter broke free from his grip.
He reached out and pushed both Quinn and Vorden as hard as he could.
While the push wasn't strong, and hadn't even made Vorden budge an inch, it was enough to cause Quinn to stumble back slightly.
As Quinn tumbled back, his backpack, which he had been wearing by only it's right strap, began to slip off of his right shoulder.
The bag fell to the floor, making a light "thump".
A few feet away, Tsukuru's eyes widened, as he saw Quinn begin to fall backwards towards the Portal.
"Quinn!" He yelled, as he began to rush forward, his arm outstretched to grab his arm to stop him.
However, Quinn's body fully fell backwards through the Portal just as Tsukuru reached him, Tsukuru grabbing nothing but air.
"NO!" Tsukuru yelled.
Meanwhile, in front of the Portal, Vorden's eyes had widened to the point that his pupils were pinpricks.
Instantly, he snapped his head at Peter.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" He roared.
The Portal Quinn had fell through…was a Red Portal.
***
Last night, while Peter's roommates had been sleeping, Peter had snuck out of his room.
He had been called out in the dead of the night by Earl and his group, sending him a message on his watch.
"It looks like those fools still trust you and you were able to get on their team, huh?" Earl said with amusement.
He glanced down at his watch.
"Oh, and it looks like you're late." He replied, an evil smirk on his face.
Instantly, two of Earl's friends rushed towards Peter, and grabbed him.
One held Peter's right arm behind his back, while the other forced him to outstretch his left towards Earl.
"You're three minutes late." Earl said, as he gripped Peter's index finger. "That means I'm breaking three of your fingers."
Peter tried to pull his arm back, but Earl's friend held it in place.
"I had to make sure I wasn't followed, like you told me to!" Peter protested.
Earl sighed.
"Fine, fine." He muttered, almost annoyed. "I'll be generous." He pushed down on Peter's finger, snapping it.
Peter grit his teeth, holding in his scream of pain.
Even though he wanted to scream out, he knew that the consequences would be even worseif someone heard him.
Earl's friends all glanced away, unable to watch.
Although they were helping Earl, even they feared him.
It was normal for someone to be able to hurt or break someone's bones so easily, but Earl could do it repeatedly as if it were nothing.
"There." Earl snarled, taking his hand away. "Now you know what happens if you're late again."
The first-year with the healing Ability, Jerry, came over and started to heal Peter's finger.
Even as he healed him, Jerry could feel Peter's body shaking.
However, Earl had long sincebrokenJerry.
He looked down at Peter with half-dead eyes.
"Sorry." He muttered in a half-assed apology. "This is just the way things are in this world."
Since all he had was a healing Ability, Jerry had no combat abilities, and thus, had no choice but to follow those stronger than him.
Otherwise, he'd be in the same situation as Peter.
Earl then looked down at Peter, contempt in his face.
It was then that footsteps could be heard behind Earl.
"That's enough, Earl." A voice replied.
Slowly and shakily, Peter looked up.
And as he did, he saw an older student approaching Earl from behind.
Seeing him, an intense fear filled Peter.
Peter had seen this student before on multiple occasions.
It was the same second-year students who had been behind the incident in the assembly hall.
Mono Black.
Slowly, Mono walked up, and approached the still-restrained Peter.
"I can take things from here."