Since it was the first day of school, all of the classes had only been introductions about their ribbons, levels, and different abilities they could learn at the library.
After encountering the three students, Gene and Erie returned to the training grounds, pushing themselves harder. By the time they finished, Erie felt an unusual hunger—more potent than before.
Later, as they ate in the cafeteria, Erie couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. No matter how much he ate, his energy never fully returned. Even after Jake's intense sparring session, his body felt drained.
During their dinner, Jake and Erie sat under the tree alone; they couldn't find Jake. They only saw Alex, who seemed to be hanging out with the silver ribbons.
"Hey, do you think Jake is alright after that encounter with the third-years?" Gene asked; he was a little worried about Jake.
While Erie was relaxing, he scanned the courtyard and cafeteria. He noticed that the orphans sat on one side and the students from the beachside city sat on the other. He noticed the slight change the school was forming, but he didn't see Jake through the scan.
"I strongly feel that Jake is more potent than we both realize. So I wouldn't worry about Him at all." Erie had to remind Gene how Jake was.
The two continued to relax and speak about their life growing up, and after a while, they decided to head back to their house. Surprisingly, they saw Jake sitting at the table with all the lights off.
When they closed the door and turned the lights on to greet him, Jake turned his head and stared at Erie and Gene. "I'm sorry for getting you too in trouble."
Gene looked at Jake. "did you just speak?"
Gene ignored Jake and continued to talk. "People like that need to be taught a lesson." When Jake stood up, they noticed Jake's eyes were dark red.
"I thought your eyes were green?" Gen asked
"Don't worry about my eyes." Jake closed his eyes, and they turned back green. "My eyes change colors sometimes when I need to handle something important." He then closed his eyes again, and they went from green to emerald.
A notification flashed before Erie while Gene and Jake were chatting.
'Energy level low.'
"Jake!" energy finally called out. "So why do you follow me so much?" Just then, another Jake walked through the room's door, and the one sitting on the chair faded away slowly.
Erie was used to that by now, and he seemed to do this move a lot; Erie just put it off as an ability; he noticed he could be in two places at once and cause one to vanish.
But after this, Jake disappeared, and the other seemed silent.
Erie shook his head, but he was happy that Jake was okay; he then walked up to Erie and transferred currency to Erie. He gave him five coins. "Fiove coins, I can't take this!" erie said a lot erie shook his head and pointed toward the door.
"I think he wants you to leave and go to the market, bro," Gene said outside. Erie's stomach began to rumble even louder; he was still hungry. "Why am I still hungry!" he thought out loud.
Gene finally pushed Erie towards the door. "Hey, Jake gave you some currency for food; go eat, bro."
Erie left Jake and Gene alone, and he rushed to the story next to the training grounds. The story was outside the facility next to the outer gates of the school.
The outer gates had a massive wall with a sign that displayed "Great City of Beachside" running across the screen. The only way to get in and out was to scan the watch at the security post, showing that you were a student, worker, or teacher. Once Erie passed the gate, he still had another 3 minutes of walking, and he began to run; the more Erie ran, the more he noticed the sun was setting, and the sun finally fell.
'sun fall'
'energy reserves active.'
Erie knew the sun had fallen and he was low on energy, so he dismissed the message, thinking the system had a self-timer.
"I'm a lot faster than before," Erie thought. He had covered over two miles in about seven minutes. He realized he had changed, even after keeping up with a bike on his way to the academy. This was just a reminder of the system upgrade I had given him.
'Low energy, 49 percent'
"I know! already! sheesh!"
Once Erie finally arrived at the market, he grabbed a few pieces of meat and Grain; the story had no snacks. But this food was good enough for him. He finally spotted him. A large grin plastered eries face. "Stacy Harris." Marie thought to himself. Erie hid behind the shelf, trying to avoid Stacy; he waited behind the shelf and waited for him to finish shopping.
"you made a mistake traveling alone, Stacy. I guess I can complete one of my quests after all!."
Erie walked around the store, tracking Stacy, and noticed a boy, Clava, hanging from one of the shelves. It was black with orange stripes on it. Clava left only his eyes and mouth open.
Erie waited for Stacy to leave the store altogether. He had more than enough currency, so he used it to purchase the food and the mask.
Erie had been so focused on watching Stacy that he never noticed that he took the balaclava out of someone's hands and then cut in front of her in line.
"This boy is rude! And I need to teach him a lesson!" she thought. She decided to follow Erie outside the store, but she noticed he was gone.
"I need to hang out by the gates to catch some F-ranked stragglers for some currency in ruining low again."
Stacy began to walk down the path, eating the fruit snacks he bought from the market; he then pulled up his currency to see how many coins beach some coins he had. "only six left; I need to have 5 to pay the general that would only leave me with one coin.'
Erie watched Stacy from a distance as he crept closer from tree to tree. The last tree stopped half a mile before the gates, and this last stretch was climbed steeply like a hill. So, from the angle they were in, nobody would see a fight if it were to happen.
Lilly finally found Erie, and she trailed close behind him. She noticed he was hiding behind trees, following someone. "I never thought he was the type to spy on people. Is he a spy?" she thought.
Before Lilly could approach, she saw Erie bouncing lightly on his toes, adjusting the mask over his face. He exhaled sharply, shaking his head—as if psyching himself up for what was about to come.