The two boys had finished their combat classes for the day and decided that they would head to the VR room together. Fex was casually standing outside in the sun, and Quinn could see it didn’t affect him at all.

While Quinn had to prepare his trusty umbrella, and opened it up before stepping into the sun. It was a strange action, but not so strange that it attracted the attention of others. Earth had gotten hotter over the years and there were quite a few people who wished to protect their skin with the use of UV umbrellas, and on a hot day like today, no one would bat an eye at what Quinn was doing.

Seeing this Fex looked oddly at Quinn, he had only seen a vampire use such things in really old books, he couldn’t help but giggle at the thought that Quinn looked like an old man.

“What are you doing with that old thing?” Fex asked. “Don’t you have a ring?” He lifted his hand showing the small ring he was wearing, Quinn was now close enough to see that it really did look like the one in his shop. Using his inspect skill it confirmed the fact that it was indeed the very same ring.

Quinn didn’t know how to reply to Fex, the system had informed him that these rings were the bare basics for vampires, and it seemed like if he didn’t to come up with something, it would reveal him even sooner.

But while Quinn was trying to come up with a lie to tell him, Fex was the one who once again came up with his own explanation.

“Oh, I see now…” Fex said. “You really are one of those vampires raised here on earth aren’t you? Trained to blend in and report back. I guess that’s why you didn’t go through the formal initiation, and why you don’t have one of these.”

When Fex said those words something had caught his attention. The fact that Fex had said: “one of the vampires on earth”. Did this mean vampires came from another planet? Were vampires some sort of alien too?

“System do you have an explanation for this, are vampires aliens?” Quinn asked.

“I’m afraid I’m just as confused as you are, as far as I know, vampires have always existed on earth, alongside humans. I’m afraid I don’t know how much time has passed since your family has been in possession of the book, so a lot could have changed since then.” The system replied.

Looking at Fex, it seemed he was showing off his ring quite proudly, and that’s when Quinn remembered the requirements to get the ring. It was to kill 10 Death bats, an advanced type of beast. This brought back memories for Quinn on how hard it was for him to defeat an intermediate beast. He couldn’t even imagine how hard it would be to defeat and kill an advanced tier beast or the many higher classes above them.

“Was the initiation hard?” Quinn asked.

Fex started to laugh nervously at this question. “Was it hard? Of course it was hard! Yet I was one of the youngest vampires to ever complete it.” As he said this he raised his chest up a bit to make himself look a little bigger.

The vampire continued, “You see the initiation is getting the materials for the ring itself. A young vampire must go out and slay ten Death bats. Once you earn this ring you are no longer required to go through regular school training with all the rest, but it seems I just jumped from one training school into another.” Fex finished, a little depressed.

Quinn didn’t know why, but he could tell that Fex was slightly nervous when answering his question. What helped Quinn to notices this was that Fex was the type whose feelings and emotions were easy to read, he was like an open book, every emotion he had was displayed on his face.

However, this conversation reminded Quinn about how he had to be cautious around Fex. Although the two of them seemed to be on friendly terms, he still couldn’t trust him, and he didn’t know what his goal here at the school was.

The fact that he managed to kill ten advanced tier beasts, was a big reminder of the difference between their two strengths, even if Quinn had a way of getting stronger, he wasn’t on the same level as Fex yet.

As they continued to walk to the VR centre, Fex looked at his ring and felt a little guilty. He had lied to Quinn just now. He hadn’t earned the ring like he said he did. Fex had hoped to become one of the youngest vampires to ever complete the initiation.

He had gone out and travelled and fought against the death bat, but after a gruesome fight, and a near death experience with the first one, Fex only barely managed to come out on top. He thought with him being the top of his class he was ready, but it had turned out that wasn’t the case.

He felt embarrassed, because before he had left his school classes, he had told everyone how easy it would be for him to achieve such a task. If they were to find out he only managed to defeat one before giving up, he would become a laughing stock.

So to make sure he wouldn’t get laughed at, he went on the market place and hired some travellers to hunt the beasts for him. This was working out for him, and he almost had enough crystals for the ring, but the last traveller that accepted the contract never replied back.

In the end, it was all thanks to Blood Evolver who placed the crystal he needed on the market place, so that he was finally able to craft the ring.

They had eventually arrived at the VR room, and it was a sight that Fex had never seen before, although he wasn’t that amazed because it just looked like a room full of sleeping capsules. Judging by his reaction, Quinn could tell Fex had no idea what these were.

“Don’t worry, I was confused when I came here for the first time as well. Just follow me and I’ll let you know about the basics.” Quinn said.

They went to the counter and Quinn paid for both of them to play in the capsules for a few hours. Quinn still had plenty of money left from the crystals he had sold earlier. On top of that he also still had nine crystals from the last outing which hadn’t been used to create the suit that he could sell.

“Hey I have my own money you know, you didn’t have to pay for me?” Fex said, displaying his golden card.

“Don’t worry,” Quinn said gritting his teeth not realizing his mistake. If he knew Fex had money he wouldn’t have paid for him, he wasn’t some charity worker, and right now he wanted to save up every credit he had. It was only with the goal of finding out more about vampires that Quinn was being so nice to him.

He didn’t think vampires would have much money, after all, how would they obtain it when they were hiding all the time. Instead, it looked like Fex was some spoiled rich kid, the way he was waving the gold card around like that.

Unlike Vorden who also had a gold card but didn’t have much money in it to begin with.

Quinn proceeded to show Fex how to operate the machine, and gave him a little explanation of how the game worked. He then took note of Fex’s capsule number so it would be easier for him to add him to his friend’s list.

They both got into the pods and logged into the game. Fex whole mind was then transported to the large empty white lobby space. “Wow what is this?” Fex said. “Was I teleported somewhere? No it can’t be it feels a little strange, from what Quinn said, only my mind is being used to control this. Wow this is amazing I wonder why the other vampires don’t use this.”

Just as Fex was in deep thought thinking about it he had received a friend request.

[User ID: Blood Evolver would like to add you.]

****

Mass release tonight, remember to vote for another one!

Want another mass release? Then remember to vote with your power stones below. The goal in the author’s note.