My Vampire System: Erin's Awakening

The weekend had come, and Quinn slept in that morning. There was no school today, and he planned on getting every wink of sleep he could get. When waking up from the glaring sun's rays through the window, he noticed that he had gotten a few notifications during the night.

[Erin has gained 5+ EXP for drinking 2 liters of water]

[140/200 EXP]

[Erin has gained 5+ EXP for avoiding sunlight for 8 hours]

[145/200 EXP]

Blinking himself awake, he was trying to get himself conscious.

Examining the notifications in his messages, he was considering apologizing to Erin, or at least going easier on her. It was probably better to ease her into the whole situation about the discrimination low levels faced. What surprised him however was that Erin made the first move.

{Erin} Hey, Quinn.

{Erin} Are you awake?

{Erin} Well, when you do wake up, let me know.

{Erin} I… I want to make it up to you, and I noticed that your glasses are broken.

{Erin} The least I could do is help you get another pair. 

{Erin} You can't exactly fight off your opponents if you can't see.

Quinn sat up more upright in bed, and looked around for Peter. He seemed to be fast asleep, learning about the earth ability must've taken a lot out of him. As Quinn got changed into his school uniform since he didn't have very many clothes, he noticed Peter sleepily waking up, sitting upright in his bed but eyes still closed.

"Morning," Quinn said, "Want me to get us breakfast?"

Peter groggily looked in the direction of his roommates voice, slowly nodding his head before dropping back down into his pillow. 

Quinn stifled a small giggle at the sight before getting himself ready to go out.

He was a little worried for Peter, but given that it was the weekend, and the bullying usually lightens up at this point, Quinn thought it was fine to leave him alone later. 

{Quinn} I'm up.

{Quinn} But I'll be stopping by the convenience store first.

{Erin} Good, we can meet up there.

[Erin is being hit by direct sunlight. All stats will be halved]

"She's outside so quickly?" he whispered to himself, as he left his dorm room.

—

Erin was wearing a long white floral dress along with a large sunhat. This was her casual outfit that hoped would provide two benefits to her. She was thinking that with her hat giving her shade, she'd be able to avoid the sun, but instead she was just sweating buckets. Thankfully, her dress was very light and allowed for air flow, which helped cool her down. Erin was going to need to test out the limits of her sun weakness soon, and potentially ask if that annoying teenager had some sort of solution to this.

She stood outside of the nearest convenience store, looking around for Quinn. She had to remind herself that since he was a weak human, and didn't have the resources to train himself, that it'd only make sense that she'd have to wait for him. 

She wasn't the only kid outside the convenience store, as a few students would also visit to grab snacks. Erin had her hands held behind her back to cover her watch. She was taking Quinn's words seriously, just in case they were true.

Getting annoyed by the sun sweating her down, Erin decided to enter the store. She usually didn't go to corner stores like these since she had the money to get food ordered to her as she worked out.

[You are no longer being affected by sunlight]

[All stats have returned to normal]

Erin let out a sigh of relief as she was finally able to relax. As she looked through the aisles, she grabbed a few snacks that she liked, and purchased them. As she left the convenience store, sticking to the shade, she took a bite out of a chocolate bar. Chewing on it, and swallowing, she wondered if she just had a bad batch due to the fact that it was very plain. Grabbing another snack, a twinkie, she ate it only to get the same flavor of eating paper.

"What? Are you kidding me?" Erin complained.

Erin wondered why her food suddenly tasted so bland now, and could only conclude it was related to her going from human to halfling.

"Stupid vampire bullshit," Erin cursed under her breath, "Why does Layla like them so much?"

Erin continued eating her snacks, albeit more slowly due to the lack of flavor. It still helped with hunger, but she was disappointed by the drawbacks of getting stronger as a vampire.

In the distance, she squinted her eyes, and spotted Quinn running over. He seemed to be frantically looking around, trying to find someone.

"Erin!" Quinn called out.

"I'm over here!" Erin waved her arms, which caught Quinn's attention.

He followed her voice, and the two stood infront of each other. Quinn was squinting looking at the girl in front of him. 

"You're Erin, right?" Quinn asked, just to be sure.

"Of course I am, idi—" Erin paused her insult, and cleared her throat, "...Well, like I said earlier, I'm getting you another pair of glasses."

Quinn didn't look too amused with Erin's almost-insult, but he did promise to get Peter breakfast first before going off with her.

They did just that, Quinn got some microwavable meals for himself and Peter at the convenience store, which Erin offered to pay for. He declined since he didn't want to be in debt to her after she was already getting him new glasses, and he knew those weren't cheap. The two of them dropped by Quinn's dorm room, and he called out to Peter, who only just got to brushing his teeth. They gave him the food and Peter began digging in. 

"Aren't you going to stay and eat?" Peter asked.

"No, I got plans," Quinn replied, "While I'm here, you're not planning on going anywhere, are you?"

Peter seemed a little off put by that question, but he knew what Quinn meant.

"I'm not."

"Well, don't leave without bringing someone with you."

"What about Fex?" Peter questioned.

Quinn wasn't sure if he could trust Fex, but again, he didn't seem to do anything nefarious to either him or Peter. 

"I'm sure he's fine to bring," Quinn finally said.

Satisfied with his conversation, Quinn grabbed his plastic bowl of microwaved spaghetti, and left the dorm, meeting Erin outside the door.

"This is just a caution that us low levels do," Quinn gave Erin a side eye.

They left the school for the local mall, and Quinn ate as he walked. Due to the fact that Erin was in sunlight, she was slower, and Quinn was able to keep up with her. As they entered the mall, they went straight for the glasses section since malls always seem to just have one of those.

Due to the fact that it's been years since Quinn got his prescription, it expired. Thankfully there was an eye doctor there that was able to help him with a new prescription. While checking what level of vision he had, elsewhere in the military staff room, a bulky man was examining something on his computer…

—

Duke, the large muscular man, and head of the second years, was checking on the school's records in his office. The place had a few medals decorated on the walls, and a couple of stacks of paper littered about. The lighting was low as the windows had its curtains partially drawn, only allowing so much light to come through.

What Duke was looking into were the ability levels of the students as a particular world leader was meant to be visiting soon. 

He scrolled through the list of students, going from highest to lowest, he noticed that a specific student's number wasn't listed on the higher end like last time he checked. Duke had taken note of this student due to the rarity of the ability, and when he looked into her background, she lacked the family backing that most high levels had. Intrigued by this recent change, Duke searched up her name directly.

[Search: Erin Heyley]

When he spotted her number as a level 1, he almost did a double take in shock. 

'Did she fake her ability number? No, the records state that she used an ice ability in the test before officially joining the school,' Duke thought, 'Is she a part of pure and forged her records? How would she have shown an ice ability?'

Duke was thinking about it, but he only was left with questions. It was all too suspicious, and he almost considered telling the other staff members about the student. Instead, he decided to examine another person who had no family backing, and was a recent level 1 earth user.

'I might as well kill two birds with one stone.'

—

As Quinn and Erin looked through the frames, he was finding it a little difficult to pick one out. There was just something about purchasing glasses frames that was so stressful especially since he was basically picking out what his personality would be for the next 5 years.

"What about these?" Erin pointed out some cat's eye shaped green glasses frames.

"What do you take me for? A librarian?" Quinn commented.

"They're pretty sturdy." Erin then lightly smacked the glasses on her hands a few times before putting them back.

Quinn rolled his eyes, "At least you care about practicality."

Erin bit her tongue at that snide comment, "It's just what matters most."

They continued looking through the frames, trying out a few. Erin even put on hot pink heart shaped glasses, which got the both of them to laugh at the silly sight. Eventually, Erin spotted a pair that she held up to compare to Quinn's face.

It was square shaped, and thick around the edges, but due to the light blue color, it didn't stand out too much.

"What about these?" Erin handed them to Quinn, and he put them on.

Quinn looked over to the mirror, and examined himself. He unfortunately had acne, and his face was a little asymmetrical, along with a goofy smile that made it so he didn't see himself as attractive. Not only that, but with his curly hair and his old glasses, he just looked like a poor nerd. 

He didn't know what was up, perhaps it was from the fact that the glasses he was wearing didn't fit his prescription just yet so everything looked blurry, but with his new frames, and newfound confidence, he didn't look as bad as before.

"...is it alright?" Erin hesitantly asked.

"It's perfect."

Erin paid for the glasses, which when Quinn saw the price, he winced at the sight of it. Erin didn't give it any mind, reminding him of their two very different economic levels.

They weren't ready to be immediately worn just yet, as they needed new glass parts that fit Quinn's eyesight before shipping it to him. Thankfully due to advancements in technology, such things shouldn't take too long and they'd be ready either later that day or morning the next.

They left the mall, and walked out into the sunlight. It wasn't as bright as it was that morning now that time passed, but Erin looked visibly bothered by it.

[Erin is being hit by direct sunlight. All stats will be halved]

"Ugh… stupid sunlight," Erin muttered.

They walked back to the military school, but something was bothering Quinn while they were at the mall.

"Hey, Erin."

"Ugh, what?" Erin groaned, sweating buckets.

"Are you just trying to make yourself feel better?"

Erin stopped walking, and Quinn knew he hit the nail on the coffin.

"Can't I just treat you to a gift?" Erin muttered.

"Look, I know you feel bad since you didn't even notice the struggles that we go through, and I don't want to seem ungrateful, I really do appreciate what you've done for me, but this won't solve the problem."

"What do you mean?" 

Quinn sighed, "Getting new glasses helps, but it's not going to be enough. It's just showing favoritism towards one person, meanwhile there's a ton of us low levels that'll never get the chance to get the attention of a nice high level, or at least someone with money."

"What are you trying to get at?"

He paused, figuring out the best way to word everything, "What I'm trying to say is… we need change. A change in the horribly strict system we're in. Something that'll allow the low levels the freedom to grow, and not punished for existing."

Erin didn't say anything, taking everything in. The walk back continued to stay awkward with the silence between the two. However, before they were about to enter the school, they spotted a student picking on another, Erin could easily see that the bully was a level 3 picking on a level 2. The level 2 user was on the floor, desperately trying to cover his watch with his body, meanwhile the level 3 was kicking him.

CHANGE

"This is what I'm talking about," Quinn muttered before turning to look at Erin, "Now what are you going to do about it?"

Erin saw the scene in front of her, and the fact that it was clearly a one sided fight did not seem fair in her eyes at all. She used her inspect skill on the level 3, then looked at her own experience level.

Quinn looked disappointed with the sight, but he just sighed with how little he could do about the matter. In normal circumstances, he might've attempted to fight the level 3, but he could barely see. Erin on the other hand, was considering something, and dragged Quinn behind a bush.

[145/200 EXP]

She just needed 55 more experience before she could level up, and judging by the quest she just saw, it would be well worth it.

{Erin} I think with the two of us, we could defeat that guy.

Quinn's eyes perked up as he saw the same system message that Erin was pointing out.

[Defeat Nill Bye]

[Ability: Acid Spray]

[Reward: 70 EXP]

[Blood type: B+]

[For fighting with your soul linked partner, additional rewards may be given]

{Erin} And if we win, I'll be level 3.