Night came and passed over the Military Base, and soon, Wednesday morning had arrived. The trumpeting alarm blared through each and every room of the Student Dormitory.
Tsukuru, Quinn, and Vorden all groaned as they woke up, rising up in their beds.
A System message appeared in front of both Tsukuru and Quinn.
[Daily Quest 2 completed. 5 Exp received. Exp: 45/100]
[Daily Quest 3 completed. 5 XP received. XP: 215/8000]
Just like yesterday, Peter was the first one out of the room.
The three of them then proceeded to shower and get dressed.
As usual, Tsukuru was the first one out. And like usual, he had anotherstrange shirt on.
It was yet anotherblack shirt. However, rather than having a square image in the center of the shirt, it just had an image printed on the front of the shirt in white. Up near the collar of the shirt were two white twenty-sided dicespaced out from one another with the "20" side in the front. Between the two dice was a rather strange logo.
It was two large, uppercase "D"'s with a peculiar symbol between them. It was a serpentine dragon breathing fire. The dragon's body was snaked and curved, resembling an "&" symbol, with the dragon's breath forming the end.
Underneath, it had a vertical line of six, three-letter words, all written in remarkably large, bulky font. Going down, they were "STR", "DEX", "CON", "INT", "WIS", and "CHA", in that order.
Directly to the right of each of the words, there was a line of text written in a significantly smaller font.
Next to "STR", it read "is being able to crush a tomato". Next to "DEX", it read "is being able to dodge a tomato". Next to "CON" it read "is being able to eat a bad tomato". Next to "INT", it read "is knowing that a tomato is a fruit". Next to "WIS", it read "is knowing not to put a tomato in a fruit salad". And finally, next to "CHA", it read "is being able to sell a tomato-based fruit salad".
Vorden just stared at the shirt for a moment.
"I…" he replied, before letting out a sigh. "I give up."
The three of them, plus Starrk, then headed down to the canteen.
Just like yesterday, Tsukuru, Vorden, and his Summons ate the sweet and sour chicken-filled rice balls, Quinn ate his raw wagyu steak bites.
As they ate, Sergeant Faye had her eyes locked on their table from her spot next to Shizuka near the back of the canteen.
As she watched Quinn chow down on the meat, her eye was twitching.
"That's it!" Sergeant Faye said abruptly, causing Shizuka to jump.
She began storming off.
"Wait, where are yougoing?" Shizuka asked.
"To get some food!" Sergeant Faye shot back, looking back at her.
"Shouldn't you be heading that way, then?" Shizuka asked, genuinely confused as she pointed towards the food line, whereas Faye was heading towards the "Level 1" section.
Back at their table, the three boys were talking amongst themselves.
Suddenly, Vorden's and Starrk's eyes narrowed. Instantly, they stiffened their posture.
Quinn seemed to tense up as well.
Tsukuru raised an eyebrow in confusion until he saw a purple dot directly behind him in his System's "Minimap". A moment later, he saw a slender shadow overcast him.
"Student Hikiko," Sergeant Faye replied.
Quinn, Vorden, and Starrk all tensed.
"Give me some of that food you gave Student Talen," she replied.
An awkward pause filled the table, as Quinn and Vorden exchanged looks.
Tsukuru let out an amused snort.
"Yeah, sure," he replied.
He activated his Ability, causing the sound of electronic interference to fill the table, and pixels to begin forming in his hands.
The pixels clustered together into the form of a large square, the size of a plate. Filling the interior of the square was a pile of chunks of multiple shapes.
There was a bright flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding a square made of some form of translucent plastic. Filling the square was the same bite-sized meat chunks that were on Quinn's plate.
Tsukuru held out the square to Sergeant Faye, who started eating.
As soon as the first piece touched Faye's tongue, her eyes widened.
'This might be the best meat I've ever had,' she thought in genuine amazement.
As Sergeant Faye chowed down, the three students exchanged looks.
"Hey, Sergeant Faye," Tsukuru replied in a conversational tone. "You remember how you said the families were split into two groups?"
Sergeant Faye looked down at him while she kept eating.
"Yeah?" she asked between bites. "What about it?"
Tsukuru's eyes narrowed.
"So which group would you say your family falls into?" he asked.
Faye stopped eating for a second as she thought about this.
"Well, I don't know that much about them," Faye admitted. "But given the fact that my leader stopped the others from killing me, I'd say we're in the former."
Tsukuru and Quinn let out a collective internal sigh of relief. At least this didn't necessarily mean that Sergeant Faye was an enemy.
Vorden put his finger under his chin.
"So they're a part of the 'Guardian Faction', then," he replied.
Instantly, Sergeant Faye snapped her head towards Vorden.
She had been enjoying the food so much that she had forgotten that someone who, as far as she knew, was unaware of the Vampire's existence was also at this table.
Her face quickly morphed into a look of hostility, and she took on an aggressive stance.
"Wait, wait!" Quinn replied, waving his hands frantically, seeing her reaction. "It's okay! He knows too!"
While Quinn had intended for this to calm Sergeant Faye down, it only seemed to make her more hostile.
"Just how many people have you told of our existence?" Faye asked in a low tone.
"It's just three," Tsukuru replied, causing Sergeant Faye to turn to him. "It's just me, Vorden, and Layla."
He then glanced away.
"Although he's only really told Vorden and me," he replied. "Layla kind of figured it out on her own. Apparently, she's a Vampire groupie."
Hearing this, Sergeant Faye calmed down slightly.
She let out a long sigh.
"Well, try to keep it that way," she replied, shooting Quinn a death glare. "And you."
Quinn felt his heart jump.
"Try to keep your fangs to yourself," she replied, as she began walking away. "We don't need any more students showing up looking like a snake bit them."
Faye had said this last part under her breath so that only Quinn could hear her.
The three watched as Sergeant Faye walked away. Once she was out of sight, they all let out a collective sigh.
"She seems a bit more…intense since the last time we saw her," Vorden replied.
"It's probably from being turned," Quinn muttered.
He thought back to how, after he had evolved into a full Vampire, killing Ian hadn't really made him feel as bad about it as he should have. It was almost like he had grown detached from his Human sense of morality.
Sergeant Faye finally returned to Shizuka's side.
As she did, Shizuka looked over at her and gave her a mildly annoyed look.
"Cheapskate," Shizuka muttered.
"What?" Faye asked, her mouth still full.
"Taking advantage of poor little Tsu-Tsu like that when you could have just bought something from the line," Shizuka replied, shaking her head in disappointment.
Sergeant Faye sighed internally.
It wasn't as if she could just tell Shizuka that she couldn't eat the food on the line. Shizuka was unaware that Faye was a Vampire.
The breakfast period came and went.
Once Tsukuru was done eating, he took out his new book again and continued reading it until the bell was heard.
Then, the group headed off for their classes.
After the morning classes were over, the group separated into their individual combat classes. Vorden headed towards the Elemental class, and the others headed to the Beast Weapons Hall.
With every day that passed by, Tsukuru found himself earning less and less XP from fights, as it was getting harder for him to find opponents of Ability Level 3 or higher. Today, he managed to take down nine people, and he had only received XP from two of them.
Tsukuru looked at the System message that had appeared as he took down his last opponent of the class, which, coincidentally, had been the second Level 3, with a look of annoyance and impatience.
[50 XP received. XP: 315/8000]
'Man,' Tsukuru thought. 'It's gonna take forever for me to Level Up!'
Once the class was over, Quinn, Layla, Tsukuru, and Erin split off into their usual groups. With Erin and Layla heading off to who-knows-where, and Quinn and Tsukuru, with Starrk trailing behind them, heading off towards the Student Dormitory so Quinn could use Logan's Private VR Pod to practice using his Shadow Ability.