Some in the 10th family, seeing Quinn learn the ability of the punishers, did not receive it very well, but they respected the decision and went along with it. Things had changed so much that they were unsure about things.
As the three young vampires were standing there, the second in command of the Punishers named Fisher, walked up. "I will be your instructor for the next two years. Be prepared. This is going to be hard and it's going to be grueling. We need to make sure that all three of you are at full strength. Now, your abilities are not going to be the top notch. That's what the military school will be for. I'm here to train you to be the best vampires you can be."
"Alright, you 3 go out hunting and get as many creatures as you can. But you will have to do this during the daytime, and that ring is limited to 12 hours. Make sure you are back here before night time. You're not ready to fight those creatures."
Quinn spent several hours fighting his way through creatures with a pair of basic-tier gauntlets. Suddenly, he heard a ding and saw words appear in front of him, hovering in front of his eyes.
[You have reached level 1.]
The sound becomes quite familiar as the various notifications come through displaying gained XP, lost and gained HP, stat increases as well as unlocked skills and tutorials.. The next several days of hunting creatures prove to be difficult.
A week has gone by. The boys have gotten strong enough. Finally ready for the night, barely managed to hit level 5, Quinn actually had more stuff available to him. Now that they were strong enough, the instructor gathered them all up. As the three of them were sent off together that night to fight off the horde. They began encountering dog-like creatures, a group of tier 2 creatures. All three of them became worried about seeing such a sight. They've only encountered tier 2 once in a while, one at a time, not a whole group of them. As soon as one lunged, Quinn threw out blood swipes and used his new shadow control skill to block attacks.
They are desperately fighting the horde off. As the boys fought for their lives, trying to stop the beasts from killing them, heavily wounded and struggling to hold off the horde. As time went by, all three of them managed to finish the rest of the creatures off. They were quite injured and headed back for a much-needed break. Almost light out. They spent most of the night trying to fight this one group. Quinn looked up the messages.
[You have reached level 8.]
He gained 3 whole levels from fighting all the beasts. Quinn was quite happy with himself, even if he had help with the horde of monsters. The three got back to the base and took some time to heal up. The sun was rising over the horizon. Exhausted. This was just the second nighttime adventure. As the three woke back up, the time was approaching. They began preparing their bags, ready to go out and fight again; hoping for better luck this time…
As they entered the dark, a massive creature jumped down and landed in front of them. An advanced-tier Creature. They knew they were in trouble. All three of them weren't willing to struggle against such a strong creature, not even together. They ran as fast as they could, dodging the attacks. As rock and debris were scattered up into the air, the creature kept stomping and slashing, trying to hunt them down.
All three of them managed to get away, giving the creature the slip. As the three started heading into the desert part of the planet, they noticed strange rocks. Quinn immediately inspects the rocks, trying to figure out what's up with them.
[Inspect: Death Bat, Advanced-tier beast]
He informed the other two that it was a death bat. They both looked at each other. At that moment, Quinn said, "We need to kill it now; that would be a great honor for us to kill it."
All three of them surrounded the rock and got ready to attack. The rock began to shudder, unfolding itself. There, the death bat stood before them. It screeched thrice with its powerful voice in short bursts.
After spending the next week fighting death bats and hunting them down, each one of them had over 10 death bat crystals. The three of them spent the next whole year hunting, trying to get as strong as possible, learning almost all the basic blood skills in the process. Quinn received a long awaited system message.
[Congratulation, you have reached level 10]
[Evolution process has begun!]
Just then Quinn's heart started pounding harder than before, his veins all around his body started to show as the blood rushed through. Quinn could feel every little part of his body but it wasn't a nice feeling. It felt like his blood was made of spikes and as it went through and around his body, he could feel it tearing everything apart.
The pain had finally stopped and Quinn really did need a few minutes to get a hang of everything. For the system was revealing so much new information to him in one go.
[Congratulations evolution was Successful, you are now a Vampire!]
[Level 10]
[Race: Vampire]
[0/100 EXP]
[HP 60/60]
[Strength: 15]
[Agility: 15]
[Stamina: 15]
[Charm: 5]
[Blood Family bonus: 0]
Just looking at his status screen alone, so much had changed. Quinn had yet to put his extra stat point but it seemed like two more options were added to the stats screen. The first one being the Charm stat and the second being a blood family bonus. Although with no explanation Quinn was clueless to what these two things did.
But what he did understand was that he had gone from a Halfling into a full-fledged Vampire now. Quinn had expected this change might have happened as he continued to level up, he only hoped that it didn't happen so soon.
However, there were even more messages to come from the system.
[Skill: Blood ritual unlocked]
[0/2 Members]
[New skill: Daze]
[ This skill has no cost and can be used on the opponent to stun them between 0.2 seconds and 0.5 seconds at a time. Must have direct eye contact with the opponent. The skill has a chance of failing, depending on the strength of the enemy and on the user's Charm points. The more the skill is used on an opponent the higher chance they have off resisting.]
Two new skills had been unlocked, although there was no description at all for the first one which just left Quinn confused. However, now he knew there was some use for the charm stat.
But the messages didn't stop there.
[Shop has been unlocked]
[New tutorials have been unlocked]
[System level 2 will now activate]
The next year, all three were trained in the more advanced blood-swiping ability, increasing their strength. They gained the upgraded versions of the blood cannon and activated the other blood-related powers. Now that most of their blood powers had reached Level 3, they were now set and ready to go. The year was starting to come to an end. Fex and Quinn's 16th birthday was on the horizon, Nicu having already turned 16.
Sometime after the summer
It's finally the day when the three Vampires were old enough to enter the Academy. Normally, they would be picked up by bus and then eventually transported to the military base. But an exception was made thanks to the punishers and demanded Transported through the training ground. The punisher's training location was considered a red planet, and normally wouldn't be opened up to anyone going through it.
Now that Quinn was a level 12 and a full-on vampire, he was ready to face the challenge of the entry test. 2 military guards were standing next to the portal, ready to escort the boys over to the military training grounds.
The three vampires arrived at the trading ground. They were staying in formation with the rest. There was a blonde boy going around touching people or shaking their hands.
It was rather interesting to see that their actual abilities were registering with their bracelets. Every one of their abilities would normally not show up because they were vampires. Their abilities don't register with human technology. But they were altered since then and added a way to detect vampires' abilities as well, unknown to the military.
They realized that the bracelets allowed the students to be tracked and have their abilities detected in any sort of way, also allowing them to track MC points and other stuff. They were going to have a rough time if they didn't have their ability level recognized.
Being stuck at a level one but with abilities that are higher than level one would be troublesome, but it worked out. Quinn was only a level two ability user, which was a little better than a level one, but he didn't have the best control of his ability yet. He still needed more time to get used to it, with the two years of training focused on vampire training. They began going through the daily school schedule and getting used to the change of pace and environment.
All three of them were sent to different dorm rooms. Quinn was assigned to two other people. One of them, he knew, was the Blade boy, the one touching everyone prior to the assessment. Another was a kid he felt bad for, had no ability, and was given an earth ability to make a difference.
There was quite a bit of planning in advance before even entering the military academy. The three were trained to get themselves a ton of their forces going. They had permission to begin recruiting members into their families. Quinn was informed that he was part of the 10th family, not part of the Punishers. It was rather an interesting situation for him, a person of the 10 family, having the ability of the Punishers was truly baffling. But Quinn learned as much as he could about his ability before school started.
During the assessment, Quinn noticed the Blade boy introduced himself with a smile, calling himself Vorden to everyine he saw. Five students. Were called onto a platform, one at a time, and asked about their ability. Vorden held his hand out to one of them and she refused to take it. He touched her shoulder and she attacked him with her ice ability as a result.
Inside his head:
"What are you doing, you idiot? The Little One said to make friends with the boy! You are making a fool of yourself!"
"Oh shut up, Raten! It's not like you could do any better!"
Quinn watched as a boy spoke to a woman. A man next her her with a hood on his head had a book appear in his hands. He handed the book to the woman who handed it to the boy. The boy, who said his name was peter, took the book and hugged it with a gracious expression on his face.
Next a tall female was called up. Quinn didn't hear her name when Vorden introduced himself but the woman called Layla Munrrow and she went up. The two talked and soon the girl was standing in the circle with Peter.
Next was Quinn heard the woman call "Quinn Talen" and he approached her.