As Erie placed his hand on the boy's head, a strange sensation stirred as if his body instinctively knew what to do. Erie put his palm gently on the top of the boy's head, and in that moment, a rush of energy surged through him.
An orange glow illuminated the ground beneath both feet, surprisingly cooling them. Erie felt like water was flowing in and out of his body as the energy filled him slowly from his stomach.
Even when the boy tried to pull back., he couldn't; the circle created below them caused him to freeze momentarily, and finally, Eries's energy refilled.
"Energy level 20 percent."
"Energy level 40 Percent."
"You now have sufficient energy level."
Even though the messages appeared individually, Erie continued to take energy from the boy.
"Life Energy fully restored."
"Users can now absorb sun energy."
"Health points fully restored."
Only after the last message did Erie fully return. Immediately, he took his hand off the boy's head, causing his body to hit the ground.
"What the hell!" Erie looked around and saw the boy lying on the ground. He looked up and saw a girl staring at him; she didn't look shocked, but she looked concerned. "Did I just do this?" The images of what he had done to the boy popped into his mind. "What did I just do!"
"User has absorbed life energy."
"You have gained one agility point."
Erie was curious. He wanted to check his stats, but for now, he needed to deal with the girl in front of him and get the boy out of the library. He didn't know if the girl would cause a scene right now.
Erie looked at the girl, and she was staring at him, but before he could speak, she reached down and checked his head; an orange mark pulsed slightly on him like a heartbeat beat, and the boy seemed to be smiling while sleeping.
"Did you have to take so much from him?" Lilly finally broke the silence and asked Erie. Erie took a step back. He was getting ready to run. "Ugh, don't worry about that right now," Lilly mentioned. She looked at Erie and wanted to snap at him for being so careless. "We need to get him to the clinic. In the end, he will live much longer now.."
Not wasting time, Erie picked the boy up, and surprisingly, the boy was lighter than he expected. Erie started to walk to the clinic, and the girl followed him. He was deep in thought about what had happened.
Apart from trying to convince himself that what happened wasn't real, he wanted to believe that he had fallen asleep and was dreaming. Someone picked him up, and he was now in the hospital, and he just passed out before his health points reached zero.
Erie didn't know if reaching zero was equal to dying, but he wouldn't take that chance after what happened today, especially to this girl he did.
Erie had a few things on his mind. He wondered when he would need to gather more energy and what the effect would be on the person from whom he took energy. He didn't want to end up in the same predicament he had before.
But even before that, he had two problems: the girl behind him and the boy he held. When they got to a quiet area, Erie would have to try to convince her and the boy to keep silent until he figured out how to handle what was happening.
Because if others find out what he was, would he be put to death? The book he read deemed sun warriors to be outlawed over 100 years ago; was it because of this? If so, why did the girl say he would live longer now?
As Lilly and Erie walked through the library, they noticed it was empty. This was strange because the library always had someone inside, and Lilly broke the silence by commenting on the emptiness.
"This is strange; where is everybody?" Lilly was puzzled that it was normal. She continued following Erie and watched him closely; she was curious about him and why he was even here.
"Are you the orphan boy who beat that bald kid in the courtyard?" she asked Erie.
"Yeah, that's me." erie responded, keeping his answers short.
"That was a good fight; I'm Lilly, by the way."
"Ugh... I'm Erie." Erie decided to cut to the chase before exiting the library. "About what happened."
Lilly cut Erie off and dismissed his comment. "You don't have to worry; I won't say anything. We will talk about this in a more private area."
Erie wanted to question this, but he kept walking; as soon as he exited the library, he saw a crowd of people chanting in the courtyard. He saw waves of electric water crackling loudly in the air and breaking apart.
As he walked towards the commotion, he saw a boy with glasses appear in the air, and another boy with blond hair followed. They both disappeared again, and everyone heard a loud "OOOO."
"What's going on?" Erie continued walking through the courtyard, where energy waves blasted through, and he finally spotted someone familiar.
"What is Alex doing there?" Erie couldn't help but stare at Alex, not realizing the dynamic of the fight.
Both Erie and Alex made eye contact, but Erie kept walking. He wanted to get the boy to the clinic as fast as he could. Ignoring the fight, he finally reached the clinic. Inside, there was a female doctor named Liz. She looked young like she was in her mid-twenties. Her curves matched an hourglass, and her thick hair stopped at her shoulder. She wore green contacts and looked stressed out.
Erie could not help but stare at the doctor; she was another level of beauty to him. He appreciated every second of it and took a little longer to speak up. Still, soon, Lilly came in after him and snapped him back from his gaze.
"Liz looked at the boy and Erie. Another one from that fight, huh?" Liz sighed before pointing to a bed in the far corner. There were about 50 beds, and now that the purple-heard boy was there, they were all filled.
Erie placed the boy on the bed, looked around, and saw other doctors treating patients there. He couldn't help but notice that the majority of the students in the clinic wore bronze ribbons and a few silver ribbons.
Liz walked over and placed her hand on the boy's head, and he felt warm. She noticed something pulsing on his head and pulled his hair back to get a good look. "What is this? Is this an ability on him?"
Then Lilly stopped and said, "We don't know; we saw him fall over during the big fight outside, and he had a bronze ribbon, so we decided to bring him here."
Liz placed her hand on the glowing mark, closed her eyes, and her hand began to glow. The mark lit a bright orange, and Liz felt energy pulling from her. She lifted her hand up.
"Is it okay if we stay with him?" Erie finally spoke up.
"Oh, there's no need," Liz responded. He's lucky he's still alive. I can tell he lost a lot of energy because he took it right now when I tried to heal him. I'm sure with some rest, he will be okay."
Lilly bowed. "Thank you, Ms. Liz. I know he is in good care." She then grabbed Erie's arms and pulled him out of the clinic.
Liz smiled. She thought Erie and Lilly were a couple; they seemed to be very close to each other. As Lilly and Erie left the room, he checked his stats.
"Strength 10."
"Agility 18."
"Speed 18."
"Stamina 13."
"So it really gave me an extra agility?"
Erie didn't want to believe that taking someone else's life energy would give him a stat boost, so he put the thought off. He didn't know how the system worked, so he wanted to practice using it more to figure things out.
So far, anything he did that benefited him gained experience points or stat points. He thought about the fight he had, and he felt about the incomplete quest that he still had.
"Defeat Kyle Markenburger'
"Reward: 50 Epernce points."
"additional reward for defeating Kyle in battle."
"If the users defeat Stacy and Kyle Markenburgher in battle, additional reward shall granted."
When Erie and Lilly finally stepped out of the clinic, they returned to the courtyard, only to be met by a massive crowd of students. Explosions of energy filled the air, each wave clashing against another, lighting up the space like a battlefield. Blasts of power were being fired and deflected, creating arcs of sound that echoed off the academy walls.
Erie narrowed his eyes and looked at Lilly. Without speaking, they pushed through the swarm of bodies until they reached the front. That's when Erie saw it.
"Alex."
He was in the center of the chaos, fists flying in all directions. Locked in a fierce stance, he fought desperately against two silver-ribbon opponents. Erie could tell—Alex wasn't just fighting to win. He was fighting to survive.
Then, the system chimed inside Erie's mind.
Quest update: Kyle Markenburger is ganging up on your old comrade.
Quest reminder: Defeat Kyle Markenburger in battle.
New quest reward update: To be announced.