61 Grinding

As Quinn walked up to the strength machine, all he wanted to do was punch the machine as hard as he could. He wanted to shut up the arrogant Erin who felt like she was better than everyone else. Why did she choose to act like this? Simply because she had a better ability than others?

Because her family was well off enough to buy her a strong ability book? but Quinn couldn't reveal himself hear, especially in front of the others. They all had seen him on the test day and they all knew Quinn still didn't have an ability apart from Layla.

He looked at the machine and started to wonder, If he performed Hammer strike using all his strength would the number rise up. Surely the number would be above his sixteen strength.

He readied his fist and redid his footwork. The gauntlets were equipped on his hands and Quinn let his fist out. He tried controlling the power output hoping to achieve a similar score to the other two.

*Bang

His fist collided with the large drum-like machine and the numbers slowly started to rise.

8..9... and then finally the number had stopped at 10.

Quinn estimated if his current strength with the gloves was sixteen then he needed to use half his strength when hitting the machine to get an eight. But such macro-level control was nearly impossible to get right and he had managed to go slightly over.

"Hey man, didn't you get stronger!" Vorden said surprised, "I thought you got a five on the test last time, you been working out or something?"

Quinn started to laugh trying to come up with something.

"Actually, it was thanks to that game you showed me." Quinn replied "I met someone who really helped and showed me how to activate the beast weapons strength properly. I worked hard hoping I wouldn't be useless for you guys. When I threw that beast ball that time back in the assembly hall, I realised how useful it would be if I learnt how to activate the best weapon."

This was a lie. But Quin felt like it was quite convincing.

"Didn't the second years say you needed to treat it like activating your ability though, I thought you didn't have one?"

"Apparently that isn't a requirement but just to help you visualize activating your beast weapons," Quinn replied back.

Sweat was starting to run down his face, all he could do know was hope the others would buy it.

"Well a score of ten isn't that impressive, the only reason we are talking about it is because you're a level one," Erin said.

For once Quinn was happy Erin's smugness had drawn the attention away from him.

"Is this okay then?" Layla asked.

"Yes." Erin replied, "I still wish to join your team, I believe even with the extra luggage we have on board, with me and Vorden we can come out as the top team during this assessment."

After testing everyone's strength the group decided to discuss a few things. Such as formation and what to do. Although the discussions didn't last for long. If they were to travel as a group Layla would stay at the back for support and Erin and Vorden would be at the front.

Usually, the physical damage dealers would be at the front of the squad while elemental users in the middle. But in this scenario, Quinn and Peter were considered so weak, that they were placed in the centre for protection.

Erin felt like it was quite useless to practice anything else after finding out how weak the other two abilities were, so the groups meeting had ended early and she decided to go off on her own to train somewhere.

"Well if combat classes have been cancelled for the day is there anything you wanted to do?" Vorden asked.

"Actually, I was planning to head to the VR capsules," Quinn replied, "I've been trying out a bunch of abilities so I can decide what ability to pick in the future."

Suddenly Vorden started to shiver.

"You can go ahead," Vorden said, "I know I showed you how to play the other day but to be honest I'm sick and tired of that game. I played it so much growing up and all."

With Quinn heading off to the VR room that left Peter and Vorden all on their own.

"Hey so do you want to practice a bit more with your ability, I know you're saving up so you can buy a few more skill books. Maybe we can get you to a level 2 before heading off into the portal."

Peter looked around the room at the other students before giving an answer.

"Sure that sounds like a good idea," Peter replied.

But Peter's strange actions didn't go unnoticed and Vorden had a feeling it had something to do with those students he went to hang around with a few days ago.

****

Quinn had finally arrived at the VR centre. He paid his ten credits for an hour and got into his Pod as usual.

At the moment it was the easiest way for Quinn to level up and get stronger. He decided while inside the capsule he would split his session into two halves.

For the first 30 minutes, he would spend it facing against level ones. On average it took him around five minutes to defeat an opponent in the level one stage.

Gaining 25 experience points for each opponent he defeated would allow him to gain around 150 experience points. Then for the second half of the session, he would use it searching for quick matches battling against opponents of all different strengths.

This would improve his fighting IQ out in the world.

Quinn entered the game and started his first match with his plan. He did the usual avoiding the enemies strikes and dealing with his opponent with either the strength of his two fists or by using a barrage of Blood swipes.

That's when Nate noticed that the ID Blood evolver was online. Nate was still interested in this person and decided to check him out. As long as they were in your friends list you were able to spectate their matches.

Nate then was suddenly transported into the arena and began to Watch Quinn's matches one by one.

And all that he witnessed was Quinn defeating weak level ones in a matter of minutes. But it was strange, for someone as strong as him just what on earth was he doing? When Nate thought of him, he never imagined Quinn to be the type of person to bully the weak.

"Let the grinding begin," Quinn said as he took down his next opponent.

< 170/800 exp >

****

Mass release day, remember to vote for another one next week.

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