9 What system?

After Quinn had finished unpacking, he was free to do what he wanted for the rest of the day. It was still noon so he had plenty of time to explore the academy.

Quinn ended up sharing his room with two people and to his surprise, he knew both of them, Vorden and Peter. There were three single beds in the room, each spread out from one another evenly, but other than that, the room was pretty empty.

There was just a single desk and a cupboard for each person to use by the side of their bed.

Students were expected to spend most of their time studying or practicing their skills as there was no time for pleasure. That was why the rooms were designed for efficiency.

"What do you guys want to do then?" Vorden asked the others.

"I'm still unpacking, but you two don't have to wait for me. Feel free to go out and explore," Peter replied meekly.

Peter had opened up a little to the two of them. At first, he was completely shy and hardly uttered a word, unless specifically asked, but slowly, he seemed to be coming out of his shell especially around Quinn. Peter most likely felt comfortable around Quinn knowing that they were both level 1 ability users.

"I was thinking of heading to the library," Quinn said, "That will probably be too boring for you."

"Boring? Please, I can make anything fun, besides I haven't read a book in..." Vorden paused for a while. "I can't even remember the last time I read a book."

The three of them laughed before Vorden and Quinn agreed to head to the library together. When they arrived, they found that the first floor was surprisingly bustling with students. Quinn noticed that there were multiple round desks spread out where students were sitting and in the middle of the desk was a glowing orb.

"Ahh, you're probably wondering what that orb thing is in the middle, aren't you?" Vorden asked, "It looks like they don't have them at public schools. If you touch the orb, then it allows you to create an isolated space. Inside, only those people who have been invited can hear each other. This way people are able to chat as much as they want without disturbing others."

"Wow," Quinn was quite surprised at how far technology had evolved.

Quinn and Vorden chose a table that had two other people sitting on one. Just as Vorden had explained, Quinn could see the two talking but couldn't hear a word. According to Voren the orb had a limited range and could only cover the surrounding tables, though.

Quinn searched around the first floor of the library and picked up as many books as he could about abilities. Most of them listing and describing the most common abilities. Vorden wasn't too bothered and decided to just select a random fiction book to read.

The two sat at their tables while Quinn started to flicker away. After skimming through several books he had been unable to find a single one that sounded like his ability.

Vorden had kept a close eye on Quinn and had noticed the type of books he had been picking out.

"What's with all the books, are you looking for something in particular?"

Quinn thought about it for a while before giving Vorden an answer. Given his own ability, he should be quite knowledgeable about abilities.

"I was trying to decide what ability to get since I've turned down the school's offer."

"Oh right, I nearly forgot about that already. To be honest, I thought you might have been one of those Pure members who hate abilities. Turns out you just didn't want to become a dog to the military." Vorden said with a big grin on his face, "Well is there anything specific you're looking for?"

"Not really. Although I've found something very interesting in one of those books. Have you ever heard of an ability that is weaker in sunlight?"

Vorden suddenly started to laugh out loud.

"What are you, crazy? I've never heard of something like that. Abilities are something our bodies learn. Sure some people have limits and can't adapt to stronger abilities or can do less than others but for one to get weaker because of the sun? Are you sure, you have not accidentally grabbed a fantasy book about vampires?"

Quinn felt a little embarrassed by Vorden's reaction. Of course, he understood this reaction was pretty normal. Would he have reacted any differently if someone had asked him about an ability making one grow stronger depending on how full the moon was?

Unfortunately, the reality was that as long as Quinn stayed in direct sunlight all of his stats would weaken by half. He continued to look around the library to see if there was anything else he could find. Eventually, he had gone through every single one of the books detailing abilities. Quinn then considered trying his chances by going a floor above where there were some second-year students.

'Maybe there's something up there, but I can't imagine what the academy would do to me for breaking the rules, especially on the first day. I might already be on their radar for refusing their Earth ability book, no reason to make them any more suspicious,' Quinn thought.

As Quinn continued to walk around the library, he considered what Vorden had said. Perhaps he really should venture into the fiction section and see if he might be lucky. What's the worst thing that could happen?

A book titled 'The Truth about Vampires' immediately caught his interest. Quinn took out the book and gave it a quick look. Despite abilities being widely accepted, there was not a single person who had come out claiming to be a vampire.

Quinn couldn't help but sate his curiosity, so he started to read the book. After reading and skimming through the book, Quinn found most of it to be useless. A lot of the things that vampires did, didn't relate to him at all. Vampires were required to drink human blood. Some could transform themselves into bats and cast illusions, while others were incredibly skilled with the sword and hypnosis, but Quinn had none of those things.

The only thing he could relate to, was getting weakened by the sun. Eventually, Quinn decided to close the book and call it a day. It didn't seem like he was going to find anything from the first floor of the library.

As soon as Quinn closed the book though, he heard a familiar sound and the pop up appeared at the corner of his eyes again.

[You have gained more knowledge about the system]

[10 Exp received]

[15/100 Exp]

"What?" Quinn blurted out.