"...Why are you such a strange vampire?"

Erin’s face grew insulted, and she nearly got up.

"What are you trying to say?" Erin spat out.

Fex quickly held his hands up in a sign of peace, waving them, "No! That’s not what I meant at all! What I really should’ve asked is... who your turner is."

With a scrutinizing gaze, she was trying to figure out what this meant.

{Erin} Quinn, Fex is asking about my ’turner,’ what does that mean?

Suddenly, the AI system voice began to speak with an undertone of superiority, "If you want to learn more about vampires, then you can ask me. That is my purpose after all."

{Quinn} Is it someone who... Turns things? Like valves?

"I might as well explain, since he doesn’t seem to know," The system audibly made a sound like it was clearing its throat, "A turner is the term used for the person who has turned a human into a vampire. You are special in that you don’t have a turner, but if you were to make someone into a vampire, you would become their turner. Now, a vampire’s turner is very important as subclasses like—"

"Er... Okay," Fex was feeling a little awkward just watching Erin stare at him, so he decided to ask a different question, "Maybe your turner didn’t tell you what that is. What about your family? Do you know who you are under? Or what their last name is?"

Erin grimaced. She was being thrown questions she didn’t know the answers to.

"I suggest you don’t tell him the truth. Even though he has saved your life, it’s best to exercise caution," the system said.

{Quinn} You’re hearing that voice, right?

{Erin} Now Fex is asking about what family I’m under. What should I say?

{Quinn} Is this the same as the big four? Should you say you work under the Sunshields? Or the Bree?

"Vampire families are a very different thing compared to human families, especially since there have always been 13 vampire families. Because you weren’t turned by one of the 13 vampire families, you should stay silent," The system then added, "Just in case he has to report to a vampire knight, or someone higher."

There was so much secrecy about her circumstances, and Erin could understand it to some extent. It would be hard to explain to anyone how she has a vampire system, but now the system wanted her to stay silent about everything.

Still, she had to say something, and with a dead serious face, Erin said, "I’m from the fruit bats family."

Fex stared at her in disbelief, then started laughing and slapping his knee.

"HA! good one!" He cried with tears in his eyes.

Erin internally cringed. She vaguely recalled Layla mentioning that vampires have a connection to bats, and she hoped there was some sort of vampire family with a similar enough title.

Fex’s laughter died out, "Okay, okay, but seriously— you’ve done a lot for me, and if you need me to keep your ability a secret, or if you need help with anything, then feel free to ask. I mean it," He then added a wink as he held up his ring, "So long as you keep this a secret, of course."

Erin raised an eyebrow.

’Keeping my ability secret? Is he talking about how I lost my ice ability? Or is there something special about the shadow ability? It really doesn’t seem that special other than the fact that it can store stuff and block attacks,’ Erin thought.

Either way, there was a question she had for Fex.

She got up from her chair, and walked closer to the young vampire, "Why are you not affected by the sun?"

Fex looked at her in confusion at first, until he continued to put the pieces together.

"Ohhhh!" he placed a hand on his chin staring straight at her, "I think I figured it out now! The reason why you don’t seem to know what turners are, don’t even have the basic vampire gear, and are a recently turned vampire, is because your turner must’ve abandoned you!"

He stared at her, partially excited to have pieced it together, and Erin gave a scrutinizing gaze in return.

"I suggest you stick with his theory for now," the system spoke, "I don’t believe that he is likely to be a threat to you, but it’s best to exercise caution."

Erin shook her head, not really caring about the details, "Sure, whatever, just tell me how you’re fine in the sun."

Fex held up his hand which had a ring on it, "I suppose you wouldn’t know what my ring does then. There was a reason why I had to... well..." He coughed as he said his next word, "pay someone to get the crystals for me before I arrived here, and it’s because it allows me to stay in sunlight for up to 3 hours before it needs to recharge."

"If you want to make one of your own, then you’d need to get 10 deathbat crystals, but y’know," Fex shrugged with a bit of an awkward smile.

Erin’s eyes widened. It had completely slipped her mind to grab the crystal from the deathbat beast. Immediately, she began thinking up ways to sneak back to its corpse to harvest it, turning towards the direction she last saw it.

’It was near the area at the parking garage, and it was about a 10 minute walk from there to here, but with the sounds of the building collapsing, beasts were bound to have come to the area by now. However, I’m basically at full health, and with Fex nearby...’

"Let’s go back," Erin decided.

"What? No way," Fex protested, "I’ll admit, my time at the school has been boring as all can be, and I did just promise to help you with whatever you ask for, but I’m spent, and we don’t have a lot of blood left in my flask. You kinda drank all of it."

"I’m not going to get another chance like this to make my own ring," Erin replied.

Fex put a hand on his forehead, "I know, but shouldn’t we see if there’s a portal to leave this planet first? Y’know, see if it’s even worth it to risk our lives to make a ring?"

Erin sighed. Fex did have a point that they would be risking a lot to head to get the crystal, and they might not even get the chance to leave with it.

"Fine, but if we can’t find the portal here, then let’s head back," Erin replied.

Fex nodded before heading out of the training center, "I was thinking the same thing."

While thinking about the topic of leaving the planet, Erin looked at her watch. It listed a 1, and for some reason it didn’t list a 6 despite her learning the level 6 shadow ability. She had questions as to why this was the case, and Quinn didn’t know why she had lost her ability when she absorbed his book, meaning she was left to ask the system voice.

{Erin} System, do you know why my ability number didn’t change?

"I believe it is the result of you being a vampire. Take Fex for example. Remember the start of the school year? The boy has powerful control over his puppeteer ability, and they were about to record his ability as a level 7, but his watch displayed a 1. It’s likely these watches were made to measure the MC of humans, not vampire MC as the two are different on the account that they have different cell structures."

Then, the system added, "When you first came across this book, and underwent the change to become a vampire, it changes your whole body, giving you new cells and replacing your old ones. It’s likely that is why you lost your ice ability."

Erin frowned. She was really hoping that from learning the shadow ability book, her watch would display the number 6, and she could pretend that she just became a level 6 ice user. It wouldn’t even be that much of a stretch to say she somehow gained a level while fighting for her life and had some sort of epiphany. Quinn managed to do it once going from a level 1 to a level 2.

If anyone from the military came to question her, she wouldn’t be able to explain why she suddenly went from a powerful 5 to a weak 1 while also gaining a completely new ability.

Then again, Erin could just tell the truth about vampires to the military, she didn’t quite get why there was so much secrecy around their existence. Why would they hide themselves if they were so strong?

"There is a reason why vampires went into hiding, Erin," The system’s voice sternly told her, "Just because vampires are strong doesn’t mean that they can’t be outnumbered by humans. Think about the number of humans you have met, and compare it to the number of vampires you have met. If vampires were to reveal themselves to humanity, then how well do you think humans will take it when they find out they feast on their blood?"

’I would REALLY appreciate it if you didn’t read my thoughts,’ Erin forcefully said in her mind as hard as possible.

"Apologies, but I had to make my point clear. It’s too much of a risk for you."

’Yeah yeah, I get it,’ Erin audibly groaned in her mind, ’The military would probably try to figure out my secret by dissecting my body or something.’

Holding the wrist that held her watch, Erin pressed against the screen hard enough to crack it. Then, she took it off, now that its internal security lock was broken, and tossed it to the ground.

’There, that way they can’t see what level I’m at.’