When Quinn arrived back in his dorm room, he was surprised to see that neither Vorden or Peter seemed to be there.
"It's nearly curfew time, I wonder what they're doing out so late?"
It was a shame because Quinn was hoping to either ask Peter or Vorden what exactly happened between them and Layla but with it getting late and Quinn low on energy, he decided to get some sleep ahead of the others.
As soon as his body had hit the bed, he was out in an instant, he didn't even change his clothes and he just laid there on top of it like an old drunk man.
A few moments later and Peter was the first to arrive back in the dorm room.
He slowly entered the room and didn't even acknowledge the fact that Quinn had returned. He walked slowly over to his bed and placed the quilt over his head, slightly shaking.
Then soon after Vorden had arrived. He could see a bulge wrapped underneath the sheets on Peter's bed, and then Vorden noticed that Quinn was sleeping.
As Vorden looked at Quinn's peaceful face he smiled.
"Looks like you were fine," Vorden whispered to himself. "I'm sorry."
Each one of them was dealing with their own problems, yet not one of them knew of the others. With a lot on their mind and no one to share it with, they had to sleep with their demons that night.
As Quinn woke up he was greeted with his usual morning message.
<135/400 Exp>
Quinn was satisfied with his growth in strength. However, he couldn't say the same about his levelling speed. He was currently only level three and had two skills he could use. Unlike other abilities where they gave you control of something, Quinn's skills were a one-action type thing. If Quinn wanted to be on an even playing field with the higher-level ability users then Quinn would need more skills.
After fighting with Loop yesterday Quinn realised he needed a few things. The first was he needed to get better at fighting. Although his skills had been fine with defeating low levels so far, he couldn't say the same when it came to opponents who knew how to fight.
It was only because of Quinn's blood bank yesterday that he was able to win the fight and fight recklessly. This meant he needed to learn some hand-to-hand combat skills. The second thing was he couldn't go out fighting students every day.
Yesterday was a close call and he still didn't know if Loop knew it was him or not who attacked. If he wanted to keep this a secret, he would have to limit his activity at night. Or get strong enough so he didn't have to rely on the gauntlets which were a dead giveaway.
That left him with a new goal. When checking out the system Quinn remembered that there was a shop function that would only open at level 10. This was now Quinn's new target, he had no idea what the shop would detail but so far the system hadn't let him down.
When Vorden woke up he acted like his usual self as he always had done in front of Quinn.
"Hey did you get a good sleep?" Vorden asked, "When I came in yesterday you were completely knocked out."
"Yeah, I was pretty worn out yesterday after combat classes."
"I heard you got in an accident, is everything okay?" Vorden asked.
"As you can see, I have made a complete recovery you don't need to worry about me."
"Hey, seriously though, Quinn if you're getting bullied or hurt just tell me. I know we said not to help each other out so the second-year students wouldn't get involved but I can handle them don't worry."
Quinn smiled back at Vorden. He couldn't understand what Layla was so worried about. The Vorden in front of him now was the Vorden Quinn grew to like. Sure, he seemed to have his problems and lash out at times but who didn't?
Not wanting to ruin the nice atmosphere between the two of them, Quinn decided that he would ask Peter once the two of them were alone what happened. Besides if he asked Vorden there was the chance he would get a one-sided view of the events.
As Peter woke up Vorden greeted him too, but Peter only said very few words back. Now even Peter was acting strangely Quinn thought.
"Is everything okay Peter?" Quinn asked.
"Huh, Yeah I'm fine," Peter replied as he got dressed into a new uniform, a little bit spaced out.
The three of them then started to head to the canteen and as they were walking through the hallways. Quinn had spotted someone who he didn't want to see first thing in the morning, it was Loop.
But as the two of them locked eyes, Loop instantly started to break out into a sweat and his hands were shaking uncontrollably. When the two walked by each other, Loop stopped and called out to Quinn.
"Hey, is it okay to talk to you, in private?" Loop asked.
Quinn immediately started to look around to see if there were any of Loop's friends nearby. If Loop was calling out to him it was most likely because he had figured out that Quinn was the one who had attacked him and Fei.
Quinn had put this into his calculations that they might group up to attack him but he didn't think something would happen so soon. However, when he looked around there was no site of Brandon or even Fei nearby.
With multiple students surrounding them, Quinn felt like it was unlikely that Loop would try anything here, and even if he did, he could at least defend himself without reviling his skills.
"Hey is everything okay?" Vorden said in a stern voice not breaking eye contact with Loop.
"Yeah it's fine Vorden, you two go ahead I'll catch up with you in a bit."
As Vorden and Peter walked away, Vorden couldn't help himself, he kept staring back at where Quinn was.
The two of them then walked off to a nearby classroom just down the hallway to the canteen. It was breakfast time so classes hadn't started yet and the classrooms were empty. Of course, Quinn made sure to stay by the door just in case Loop started to attack. That way he could run out into the hall where the rest of the students were.
Loop stood there nervous and fidgeting, it seemed like he was struggling to get his words out, until he finally spoke.
"I'm sorry about yesterday," Loop said as he bowed. "I know we hurt you in training and you were probably coming back at us for revenge but please forgive me."
Quinn was speechless, this was unexpected and he didn't have a clue what was going on.
"I promise I won't tell anyone about your secret, please whatever you do just let me live. I won't bother you again and no one will ever know anything happened."
Although Quinn had his suspicions that this was all an act. It seemed like Loop was genuine, either that or he was the best actor in the world. But what Quinn didn't understand was what on earth had happened to get Loop to act like this.
"Thanks for keeping my secret, besides I don't really have a grudge against you. Although your friends were the ones to act on me, you didn't do anything. You were just trying to help your friends." Quinn said.
"Thank you, thank you for sparing me," Loop said. "I promise if you need anything, I will help you, I just don't want what happened to Brandon happening to me."
"Brandon?" Quinn said confused, "What happened to Brandon?"