Inside of one of the training centers, a curly haired boy punched the air with large earth gauntlets the size of chairs. Sweat dripped off of his forehead as he continued to push himself, shadow boxing until his arms gave up, and fell to the strange matted floor.

"I need to get stronger," Quinn whispered to himself, trying to bring himself back on his feet, "I nearly died trying to protect them."

Right now, Quinn was still a level 3 earth ability user but he knew the fastest way to get stronger was to reach level 4. Initially he went to the training center to see if he could push himself without the need of an ability book, but reaching a breakthrough was hard.

’I should’ve expected this. A breakthrough like that is easier when you’re lower leveled, and they’re rare to begin with,’ he contemplated, ’I know Peter has a level 4 book, so I should ask to borrow it.’

Grabbing a towel, Quinn wiped some sweat off of his forehead and arms. Since he wore a simple black tank top today, he could see that his arms had gained a little more muscle definition from last week, making him wonder if he was the kind of person to get muscle easily.

’Is it because I’m working out more regularly now? I also don’t have to worry about getting sent to the hospital as often,’ Quinn wondered, ’The military also gives us food for free, so I’m not worrying about starving anymore.’

After a quick drink, Quinn was heading out of the training center. When he was about to exit out the automatic doors, they suddenly opened, and Quinn nearly bumped into a tall blonde boy. Thankfully, Quinn had practiced his reflexes, so he was able to dodge a full collision.

’Whew, that was a close one, I almost bumped into that level 5,’ Quinn thought.

"Woah, sorry there," The tall blonde boy said, taking out his hand, "I should’ve seen where I was going."

Quinn thought the guy was a little strange for being nice to him. Most high levels were often looking for an excuse to let loose their power on a low level, but he remembered that he was no longer a ’lowly’ level 1 anymore. As he improved his ability level, the social dynamics were undoubtedly going to change.

Quinn hesitantly shook hands with the blonde boy, "Don’t worry about it."

The boy nodded, and the two continued on to their intended paths in opposite directions.

"Lucky, that guy had a level 3 earth ability," A voice inside of the blonde haired boy’s mind said, "Too bad we didn’t have one when we arrived here."

The blonde hair boy outwardly sighed, then sat on one of the benches in the training center.

"Well, of course our ability was going to reset when it did, Raten. It was a miracle we managed to reach the mainland before our abilities reset in those 24 hours," He thought back as he walked through the training center.

He had stumbled across a large drum like device, one with a screen off to the side of it. If he had been here during the first day of school, he would’ve known this was the device used to test out everyone’s strength.

"Oh I remembered seeing one of these before, I think you’re supposed to punch it," Raten casually said.

Vorden internally rolled his eyes, "And what if I break it? I would rather not bring attention to myself."

"Well, look at that guy!" Raten pointed out, as a big burly guy the size of a wardrobe headed up to the drum.

Examining the guy’s physique, he looked to be a little taller than Vorden, but clearly wider as he was far more visibly muscled. This wasn’t to say that Vorden was scrawny, but his physique was leaner in comparison.

The guy swung his arm around, readying himself, and punched the drum with a resounding vibration.

Then, a number on a screen next to Vorden turned on, and he saw it go up to "9".

"Only a 9? Here I thought abilities were meant to make us stronger," Raten scoffed, "Clearly he didn’t use one if he got a number so low."

Recalling a time Vorden had read some books about body building, he did remember that there was something written about the peak of human strength before the use of abilities. Without using beast gear, people were only able to get up to a 10 on these machines. It was something they tested out with a bunch of athletes before the war. Because he only ever read about them, not use them, he didn’t know how the machine worked to begin with.

"I didn’t know you were paying attention to those books at the time," Vorden replied.

Raten shoved Vorden’s face, "How about you mind your own business! what I look at is only for me to know. Now, let me take a crack at it!"

Deciding to let Raten have some time fronting, Vorden walked up to the drum, and stretched his arms, warming up.

"Fine, I’ll let you punch it," Vorden sighed, before getting off the chair.

Excitedly, Raten practically jumped in, and flexed his fingers. He wrapped his hands together, and raised it high above his head, then, he slammed it down, using every ounce of strength he had.

The number on the screen began to rise up, all the way until it reached "20". 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Both Raten and Vorden watched the number in shock. They were expecting a 9, or even a 10 with how much they were training, but to reach a number twice beyond that of a normal human without using an ability wasn’t something they thought was possible.

"Okay, maybe the thing’s broken, or they made it more sensitive to give people here a bigger ego," Raten commented only to Vorden.

"No, that can’t be it," Vorden replied, "I think... You know how grandpa was trying to unlock something within us? What if he was right?"

—

Layla found herself getting dragged by the wrist to the second floor of the boy’s dorm. They pushed past several boys, with the occasional girl, as they continued through the halls. There, Erin was smelling the air, trying to find Fex.

"Where is that annoying sniffing guy? He said he had a plan to help you with your condition," Erin muttered.

"Aren’t you being a sniffer yourself, Erin?" Layla thought out loud.

Erin heard her comment, but decided not to respond to it. Instead, Erin was trying to find Fex’s smell because she was never told where his dorm room was, leaving her to use a less dignified vampiric way to do so.

"Hey there beauties, you’re smelling my musk?" A teenage boy called out to Erin.

Erin stopped, contemplating what tool in her arsenal she should use against this cat caller. However, before she was about to act, Layla felt her teeth grow sharper inside of her mouth, and the delicious idea of biting into the boy’s head became very tempting.

Quickly trying to dismiss the concept, Layla turned away, and covered her face.

’Don’t think that, don’t think that!’ Layla repeated, a personal mantra to try to dispel her thoughts.

"Heh, she’s into me," the teenage boy commented, and his two friends next to him laughed.

"Hey!" Erin called out, walking up to the boy.

"Oh? Hello miss beautiful," the boy swooned.

She stood just two feet in front of him, her face blank. In the blink of an eye, she grabbed the boy by the hair, and slammed it down into her knee, instantly shattering his nose.

Then, before his friends could act, tossed him into the air, and punched his jaw. The force shoved him onto the ground, and he held his mouth, crying in pain.

"Wah was wha wor!?" The boy sobbed, unable to speak properly.

Peeking between her fingers, Layla saw the aftermath, the boy’s friends helping him get up.

"Isn’t this a little too much?" Layla whispered so only Erin would hear.

Erin glanced back to the guy she just kicked, then to Layla, "That’s the only form of ’no’ those people seem to understand."

Murmurs spread through the hallway about what Erin had just done, and the two girls quickly left the vicinity. They were already attracting enough attention as is.

Once they got to the end of the hallway, they arrived at a section that was a little bit more secluded than the rest of the building with the occasional student around.

Just as they were about to continue their search, the scent of a vampire spread to their noses, and they looked around for its source. That was when they heard a voice call out to them. Immediately, the two turned towards the source of the sound, and spotted Fex with a small cooler box under his arm.

"Hey, Erin, Layla! I got us some finger food!" Fex yelled.