Erin was currently in the main training hall. It reminded her of the game Power Fighters with how it was a large room with chairs off to the side for people to watch. At one point there would have been quite the spectacles being displayed here.

The fighting arena itself was a wide deep hole in the ground, like a coliseum of old. To get down, she would need to jump down to the floor. The whole place felt a bit cold, maybe because it was an area that was meant to be filled but instead It looked incredibly empty, not a single prop in sight.

While she was looking through the massive training center, Erin was thinking about what the blonde guy in the video had told her.

’If you want to live a life of freedom as I did, then get stronger, create a force of your own, and fight back,’ Erin mentally quoted.

It was something she was very familiar with and in a lot of ways was a statement that she agreed with. The only way she could live freely meant the Dalki had to be stopped, and the only way she could stop the Dalki was to get stronger, but the unfamiliar thing was for her to create a force to fight back. Who could she even trust with becoming a vampire? And did the force even have to be vampires to begin with?

Erin was strong, but she didn’t know how well she could fare against a Dalki. The thought of trying to fight against their devastating power sent a shiver through her body and that was just the ones she had seen images and videos of. Who knew the strength of those that they hadn’t seen yet, or how much stronger they had gotten since the last war. Even if she did get strong enough to beat the Dalki, she couldn’t be everywhere. This was an entire race they were going up against. She would be busy fighting forever, alone and that was no way to win a war.

That then led back to her thoughts about the blood ritual skill. Could it really be used to turn people into vampires? Layla did mention that they lived a long time, and Erin was able to tell that she had grown stronger as a result of becoming a vampire.

For the longest time, Erin wondered why people didn’t always want to get stronger, but today’s experiences led her to question that idea. If you got too strong then who would stop you from being a monster?

Speaking of strength, Erin rolled up her sleeve and flexed her arm. Before, she was only barely toned, but now? Her muscles were visibly tensing as she moved her arm. What else had changed?

Leaving the training center, she found a bathroom with a mirror, and looked at herself.

Despite looking like she had gone through a shredder, Erin was now more beautiful than ever before. Her face was more symmetrical, her hair softer, her eyelashes had thickened, and now it looked like she never had a single blemish on her skin. For anyone else, this would’ve been great news, but for Erin, she frowned.

"Great, now boys will never leave me alone. I bet the girls are going to start bothering me too," Erin bitterly mumbled.

"That isn’t the only thing that changed when you became a vampire. Would you like to learn more about your vampire evolution?" a disembodied voice spoke.

Her eyes widened, and looked around frantically.

"Who said that!?" Erin said, a little startled. There had been too many surprises today.

The voice didn’t speak again, so Erin was beginning to think— no, hoped she was imagining it. She placed a hand on her forehead and sighed.

’What did that man say again? Something about an AI helping me out?’ She was beginning to fear that with the man’s very annoyingly cheerful voice that he was actually—

"You heard right. I am meant to help you learn more about the system," the voice said again.

Dread filled Erin’s entire body, far more than when she had seen the deathbat appear. Had the system read her mind?

’... System, can you tell me if there’s a way to mute your voice?’ Erin thought, remembering that she was capable of muting Quinn’s chat messages.

"Nope, there isn’t a way to turn my voice off. Now that might be considered rude as my voice is all I have to interact with in the world."

Erin placed both of her hands on her forehead and tightly closed her eyes, leaning against a wall. Her body slid down, and started to grab her hair.

"I’m never getting peace and quiet again in my head, am I?" Erin muttered.

She sat there for a few moments, then getting up, she sighed.

"Go on, tell me more about the blood ritual," she forcefully whispered before leaving the bathroom. It was currently the only genuine question she had at the moment.

"The blood ritual? Sure, it’s a ritual in which you feed your own blood to a human, and their body undergoes a transformation from human to vampire. Although, I should tell you that unless you start the ritual, if a human drinks your blood, they will not be turned. Pretty handy right?"

"Uh huh, yep," Erin quietly muttered as she was searching through the training center much more intensely. She lifted an obnoxiously large crate full of gym equipment to the side, only to find nothing.

"The outcome of a turning does vary. Most turn into vampires, but a few might turn into undead, or even something much rarer like magical subclasses. It varies depending on the situation, and their personality. Sometimes heritage can play into it."

Erin opened a small door that revealed a cramped janitor closet, but it held no portal. Disappointed, she slammed it shut.

"If you were wondering what your... friend, Layla would turn into, then it is unlikely that she would turn into an undead, unless she were close to death. She may even turn into a magic subclass. You shouldn’t worry about her becoming a succubus though, she doesn’t seem like the type."

Not only was the voice weirdly emphasizing the word friend, but the way he was bringing up a ’succubus’ made Erin flustered. She didn’t know what a ’succubus’ was, but it felt... a little dirty in a way.

"Shut up! I didn’t ask!" She shouted, turning around.

Instead of yelling at the AI voice, she ended up yelling at Fex standing in the doorway. He held his hands up defensively.

"I just wanted to tell you that I did my part," Fex said, "What’s got your face all red?"

Erin’s patience was being tested, and she shook her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts.

"Nothing, why do you care so much anyways?" Erin huffed as she crossed her arms. She really didn’t want him to know why she was getting flustered.

Fex shrugged before speaking, "Well... I searched my hallway, but I didn’t find anything that looked like a portal. However..."

Sliding his clean hand over his now smoothened slicked back hair, Fex was looking pleased with himself, "I did at least find a sink and comb. It’s not hair gel, but it still gets the job done."

Erin squinted her eyes at Fex, and tightened her mouth. How was she saved by this idiot?

"Doesn’t look like you found a portal, otherwise I’m sure you would’ve told me something by now," Fex said as he looked over Erin’s shoulder, "How about we take a break and just chat for a bit?"

Erin sighed, before checking her system. The mysterious AI voice wasn’t speaking at the moment, and she saw a few messages from Quinn. She had been a bit too preoccupied with everything that she wasn’t able to respond immediately.

{Quinn} Are you back to normal?

{Quinn} I saw there were notifications that you turned into a crazed bloodsucker, and I got worried for you.

{Quinn} Leo said he was on his way to rescue you. If you’re having trouble finding blood then just hold on until you see him.

{Erin} I’m fine. I found Fex and he gave me blood from his flask.

{Erin} He wants to ask me a few things right now.

Erin did want to continue searching around the dome for a portal out, but seeing as Leo was already on his way to help, there was time to rest.

Walking over to a chair and leaning back on it, Erin nodded, "Go on ahead, It’s not like we have anything else to do."

Fex grabbed his own chair, then sat down opposite of Erin.

"Alright, so if you don’t mind, I have to ask something that’s been bothering me for a while..." Fex began tapping his fingers together, thinking that what he was about to say might be seen as insensitive, "...Why are you such a strange vampire?"