Blood Queen Reborn

"Cia wait!" Peter shouted as he tried running after the girl.

His sneakers hit the wooden bridges in an attempt to reach her, but despite his best efforts, he found himself panting heavily in an attempt to catch his breath.

Taking advantage of the fact that Peter still didn’t have new glasses, Cia passed by a group of villagers. She’d blended in naturally with her unassuming appearance. When watching him from afar, Cia saw Peter glancing around, squinting, and unable to spot her.

’Good, I was able to lose him,’ she thought, then left for her room.

Heading to one of the tree houses, Cia checked beneath her bed. Then, she took out her spare boots, and peeked into them. The crimson veritas was still there, waiting for her.

’But how long will it last?’ Cia thought to herself.

It was a foreign fruit from another planet, so the typical 4 day life cycle of most earth foods wasn’t something she could expect the plant to follow. Then, there was the potency. Would it diminish over time?

’And how am I going to get this somewhere where it’ll be refrigerated...’

That was the only thing she could think of to keep the shelf life long enough to be able to use it in a safe environment... Or boot life at this rate.

A bit further away, Fex kept watch of Cia on top of a tree, using the leaves to stay hidden. He wondered why she was so desperate to lose Peter just to look inside of her shoes. It was certainly strange behavior.

Then he saw Cia take out a bright red fruit from her boot, although it was a little crushed with some juices leaking out.

"Ew..." Fex whispered, "I thought humans didn’t like the taste of feet."

Even if he was desperate, Fex wouldn’t drink blood from a foot.

Next, Cia placed the fruit back into her boot, and shoved it under her bed. Then she left, and looked around for a particular person. Fex continued his watch, and saw that Cia had walked up to a man in uniform.

"Can I get into contact with one of the Sergeants?" Cia cautiously asked, "When I was lost, I wasn’t fully truthful about everything I saw."

The military man nodded, and gestured for her to follow him.

Fex’s eyes narrowed, "Now just what is she up to?"

—

Back in the shadow space, both Erin and Layla were amazed by the amount of shadow skills Arthur had displayed that day. First, there was the strange area they were in, and second was the skill that slowed down Erin’s senses. Lastly, there was a skill Erin was only told about, which was the shadow clone Quinn saw.

"You are definitely showing improvements of your fighting style," Arthur noted, "It’s good to have options in your style so you can best match them with your weapon’s active skills, but you are also limited by the amount of MC you have."

Thinking about it, the paleneedle rapier was best used for her more reflexive fighting style due to its healing capabilities. When low on health, dodging was something she’d need to do anyways.

Still, Erin slightly grouched, "The only way I can get more MC is to level up, but where exactly am I going to get a 7th level book?"

Arthur paused, a contemplative look on his face, then he spoke with a seriousness to his tone.

"Let me give you a small history lesson... There is a reason why the Punishers even have that name. It was due to a certain skill that could revoke the shadow of any vampire, halfling to lord, and was reserved to the worst of the worst," Arthur began, "No matter if the vampire was under the shade, wearing a ring, or under moonlight, they would experience the pain that came with being under the sun. Using this skill would permanently inflict a condition with no cure."

"This skill is called Shadow Eater, and by consuming another vampire’s shadow, you add it to your own."

Both Erin and Layla blinked at this information. It was a powerful skill, one with devastating consequences.

The skill sounded familiar, so Erin looked into the system, and opened the tab that listed her shadow skills. There, she scrolled down and saw the same skill Arthur was talking about.

[Shadow eater]

[Costs 50 skill points]

’50 skill points to unlock?’ Erin thought to herself, ’It takes such a long time to level up my shadow skills, I won’t be able to unlock it for a long time.’

Then she turned to Layla, and rethought the idea.

’Well, if I teach her the shadow, then we’ll both use the shadow a lot. That’ll make it so I can level up my skills more often.’

"Now then, I am sure you two shouldn’t stick around here for long. People might go looking for you if another pair of students go missing," Arthur joked, "Again, if you ever need me, just flash your shadow, and I’ll be there."

"Wait!" Layla called out, "We’ll meet again tomorrow, right? I really want to learn the shadow ability."

Arthur nodded with a smile, "So long as you’re here, we’ll meet again for a dual lesson."

He opened his palm, and the shadow around them disappeared, putting them back where they last were. The Likmorn didn’t travel with them, although that was to be expected as having a king tier beast walk around in the open would garner a lot of attention.

Next, Arthur’s body enveloped in shadow and disappeared, no doubt having his own matters to attend to.

’Oh yeah, what happened to that one quest about defeating the Likmorn?’ Erin thought, and checked her system screen.

The quest for defeating the Likmorn was still available, but the detail about receiving the treasures inside of the tower was now locked.

Erin frowned, there was a missed opportunity for a good reward.

[Warning: Your Kilton blood sword has run out of blood!]

But then again... She did receive a nice lovely sword as a reward.

"Come on Layla, let’s head back," Erin said.

Layla nodded, and they returned back to the shelter. By leaping high onto a bridge with a lack of witnesses, it was like as if they never left.

However, strangely, even though it was night time, they noticed several men in uniform running by, and heading towards a larger tree house a fair distance away.

"What’s going on? Did we miss something important?" Layla whispered.

Just then, a boy dropped in from above, and he stood up in front of the two girls.

"There you two are! I was getting worried that they might just leave without you," Fex said.

"Who?" Layla tilted her head.

"Not who, what," Fex corrected, "I think this time they’re actually going to do it for real."

"Do what?!" Erin repeated.

"There’s a rumored dalki threat on this planet, and we might get sent back to military base 2 because of it."