Blood Queen Reborn

To find out that vampires didn’t live on earth came as a shock to both Erin and Layla. It brought up the question of how exactly they managed to live without humans, since from their personal experience, they clearly did need them to survive. Then there was the scary thought that the vampires on a different planet had their own personal farm of humans.

The system was interested as well, it had its own questions about how they managed to figure this out.

"They were working on a blood substitute back when I was created, but I never knew if they ever finished it or not," the system quietly spoke.

Erin thought the system’s response was confusing. Why would a system AI suddenly express interest in the history of vampires?

"Again, I could’ve destroyed it, but Logan did seem to suspect that there was something strange with us. You probably shouldn’t turn anyone else for a while," Fex said, "If he has to change the watch number of a 4th person, then I might need to change his memories, which I really don’t want to do. He seems like a nice guy."

Erin hummed in response. One of the things she tried to avoid was keep so many secrets amongst her allies, but currently she was in a web of them, getting tangled amongst who knows what.

The pathway they were walking on started to taper, transitioning from packed dirt to thick roots and bushes. The class had to slow down to be more careful of where they stepped.

One unlucky student had tripped on a spiky vine, and cried out, "A beast! A beast has wrapped around my leg!"

His friends immediately took out their weapons, only to find him crying over a simple plant. One of them with a sword cut him free and he stood up, embarrassed.

"Sorry, false alarm. It was just a vine," the student said, and the others around him shot dirty glares.

"Is that Hubert?" Layla asked, tilting her head.

Erin shrugged. She was the last person who would know the answer.

Glancing around, Del took off his shield and slammed it down, "This should be a good spot."

It was a wide open area that didn’t have as many trees or other foliage as the rest of the jungle, allowing them greater visibility.

Del gave them all the basic run down of what to do on this planet. They would receive 5 points for every new plant scanned, and 20 points for every new beast scanned. If they encountered any advanced tiers or above, to come back to him and let him know. Although Del seemed to have quietly said that last part. He activated their scanners, and they all heard a ding from it, knowing that it was on.

With that done, the students began to delve into the jungle, running to get the most amount of points possible.

"Hey guys, I’m going to talk to some of the other classmates real quick," Vorden said, "I think it’ll do us good if I have a large variety of abilities copied."

He gave them a thumbs up and ran off.

While they were alone, it allowed the group to discuss how they were going to deal with Layla’s hunger. She was going to be fine for 3 days so long as she wasn’t injured, but expecting not to get hurt on an orange portal planet meant you were too optimistic to live.

"There’s also the question about blood. How are you two going to find something to drink here?" Quinn wondered.

"Erin has been visiting me every few days for blood this past week, and I’m good looking enough to make sure no one knows I drained them," Fex flashed his flask, looking proud of himself, "Actually, maybe I should open up a restaurant with how much you guys depend on me for food. I’ll call it... Fex Feeds."

From what Erin could tell, Fex had collected the blood of someone she had already drunken from in his flask. It was a little annoying that she couldn’t get another stat point, and while she could’ve gotten unique blood herself, there were already enough eyes on her after getting sent to the dungeon.

’I would’ve sent Layla to Hayley’s again, but being around all of those injured humans might as well be like sending her to a restaurant, and telling her not to eat anything,’ Erin thought.

"When the situation arises, and Layla gets hungry, what are we going to do?" Quinn asked.

"Well, we are on an orange portal planet, if someone disappears, no one would notice, right?" Fex casually suggested.

"No!" Layla shut down, clearly disturbed, "Let’s just focus on getting through this expedition as fast as possible. We have time, we can figure this out later."

Fex shrugged, "If you say so."

Vorden had returned from wherever it was he went, and he smiled at the group, "I managed to get us quite the useful selection of abilities."

He noticed when he came back that the others were clearly talking about something that they didn’t want him to hear. It was a little saddening to be left out like this, but he couldn’t fully blame them. He wasn’t exactly being fully truthful to them either.

"Sorry if I acted badly to you guys recently," Vorden said, "The thing is, I don’t have any friends. I’m sure you guys are aware that I joined the school late. I’ve been taught by my family not to trust others."

Quinn nodded, understanding where Vorden was coming from. Even if he did act a little weird at times, he didn’t seem to be a bad person, and had his own struggles to deal with.

Fex affirmed, "Yeah you can join, just try to keep up."

Layla, however, couldn’t explain it, but she didn’t like Vorden very much. Maybe it was the way he had hurt Erin back in Leo’s class, or some other distant feeling like he had insulted her in a different timeline. Either way, she eyed him suspiciously.

"Now, with that out of the way, I’ll tell you about the abilities I’ve copied," Vorden said, "I copied Quinn’s earth ability, a regeneration ability, and lastly an ice ability."

With that, Erin’s eyes widened. Did she hear that right? An ice ability?

"I know that the ice ability sounds strong, but the person I copied it from was only a level 2," he noted, "Now then, how about we scan some beasts?"

If Vorden had an ice ability copied, then there was a chance, somehow and someway, where she could use his help to fake her old ability, and convince the school that it had ’returned.’

The problem was... How was she going to explain it to him? And if she did, would he even help?