Fex walked over to the reception room of the dome, not quite sure where else to look. It was the last place neither of them searched in, but it didn't seem like a human portal could reasonably exist here, so instead, he looked to the computer at the front desk.
He moved the mouse around, then pressed on a power button, and soon enough, the computer screen turned on.
'Ah, so this does work!' Fex thought with a smile.
However, as the computer finished booting up, it revealed that it needed a password.
'Damn, I can't even see if I can play any games…' Fex pouted.
However, that was when he heard something near the entrance of the dome. It sounded like something was actively trying to enter, and memories of the deathbat trying to break into that one underground room flashed in his mind.
"What's the situation?" Erin said as she ran into the room, alert.
"Get behind here, Erin!" Fex urged, motioning her to join him behind the lobby desk.
If Erin wasn't without her sword, she would've taken a defensive stance in the center of the room, but there was strategy in taking cover.
She crouched behind the lobby desk, and the two listened intensely as to who or what was at the door.
"That door is made out of galathrium, if anything is able to get through it, then we would be in for a tough fight," Erin whispered, "We should be ready."
However, instead of hearing some sort of beast trying to break in, what they heard instead was actually a voice. It had said, "And that is why he would beat me in a fight," right before there was a sound of a door falling down onto the ground.
Peeking her head above the desk, she saw an older looking man with a sword, a woman with a beret and silver hair, and another woman with giant scary looking armor.
"You can come on out, even I can tell where you two were hiding," Leo joked.
The two walked out into the center of the lobby, a little embarrassed that their hiding spot seemed so obvious.
"The students!" Hayley beamed as she set down a large machine down onto the floor with a thud, "Now, let me check up on you two. Sit down please."
While Leo and Faye investigated the dome for the portal, Erin and Fex sat on the lobby chairs near the wall. Hayley was inspecting them for injuries, however, as she was looking at Erin, she realized where she had seen her face before.
"I almost didn't recognize you! You're that kid who brought in that brunette girl into my office, right?"
"… Yeah?" Erin reluctantly said.
"I swear, girls your age grow up quick, you're looking more mature already," Hayley said with a smile before it turned somber, "Although I can understand why. It must've been rough trying to survive on this planet. Don't worry, we're here now."
Hayley then began thinking about how the war had been rough on the human race, especially the children. She had been lucky that she grew up in a time where she didn't have to worry about an intergalactic war potentially wiping out humanity. The same couldn't be said about the younger generation. How much of their innocence has been taken away from experiencing loss?
Her thoughts were interrupted as she noticed something on Erin's arm was missing, "Oh? You don't have your watch anymore."
"It broke when I was fighting against a beast," Erin lied, "it managed to bite my wrist, but I was able to break free."
"Hmm, well, when we get back, we're going to get you a new watch."
Erin nervously gulped. Of course they'd replace her old watch with a new one, why didn't she think of that before?
Seeing as they were otherwise fine with no signs of injury or other physical trauma, Hayley handed them both food pills, which Fex had quickly grabbed, but didn't eat. When she questioned why they weren't eating the food pills, Fex's eyes suddenly glowed red, and the nurse's eyes glossed over, entranced by his stare.
"We ate your food pills, and nothing else happened," He commanded, pocketing them away.
His eyes stopped glowing red, and Hayley blinked rapidly, before taking a step back.
"Looks like you're all good," Hayley said with a smile.
'What was that?' Erin thought.
"This is a skill that all vampires are capable of doing. Now that you're a full vampire, you can influence someone's mind to change their memories of a specific moment, or giving them simple commands," The system spoke, "Of course, this is dependent on your charm stat. It is currently at a 10, but you do have 8 spare stat points. Do you want to use your points to improve your charm?"
Erin thought about it. Her stats as they were now were pretty strong, perhaps too strong as Fex had nearly died from trying to save her as a bloodsucker. The charm skill was theoretically useful for being used to daze an opponent, but she didn't know how much.
However, if a vampire could influence someone's memories then perhaps she could influence people at the military base to believe she isn't a level 1.
'I could do it now… but some part of me is telling me not to,' Erin thought. She always had a lot of attention on her due to her looks, she didn't want more.
Instead, she was going to wait to allocate her points. She would see first if 10 points in charm was enough to influence the military generals, and if not then she could use those 8 skill points afterwards.
—
Meanwhile, Faye and Leo were in the training room with the semi underground fighting arena.
"Have you detected anything here?" Faye asked.
Leo used his ability to see if he could locate where the portal was at. His ability allowed him to 'see' through walls, but what he couldn't detect were things hidden behind dense material, like galathrium. Unfortunately, it seemed like if the portal was here, it would be hidden behind such a material.
Leo shook his head, "I can't sense it."
"Let's head back. We can check the computer in the reception room."
They headed back, but as they did, Faye began thinking to herself.
'Its strange how non dangerous this planet was. There's a surprising lack of beasts, this dome is in near perfect condition, and both of the students don't appear to have any wounds. Was our report wrong?'
She was thinking that planet Pioletic might've been classified as a red portal planet too soon as it was one of the first planets that humanity tried to colonize. They likely didn't have the same resources back then that they had now.
Heading back to the reception room, Faye looked to the two students next to each other.
"Now, you two, when we head back, I want a detailed report of what happened. Although we have already heard the other side of the story, we would like to hear yours so it matches up."
She then pointed at Erin, "While we're at it, we can get you a new watch."
Faye walked over to the desk, and saw it was already on. She typed in a special code into the computer, granting her access. Then she clicked on a few things, typed some stuff, before a loud mechanical sound was heard in the arena room.
"You really should've looked in there much deeper," Fex said as he nudged Erin by the elbow.
Erin grumbled. She wasn't in a good mood, and the fact that she could've used her inspect skill on the computer to get out sooner wasn't helping. If she was being taken back to the military base to get a new watch, then it was only a matter of time before they found out. She would have to hope that she had enough charm.
They all headed to the arena room, Hayley taking the smaller portal with her, but instead of the usual plain arena floor, a large portal was lifted from underneath and placed there.
"I brought this whole thing with us for nothing?" Hayley complained, but shook her head dismissing the idea. "No— its fine, better safe than sorry."
They all headed down to the portal, but right as they did, the system decided to speak again.
"I should probably warn you that you'll be affected more in the sun now that you're a full vampire."
Erin's eyes widened.
{Erin} WHAT?!
{Erin} You're hearing this, right Quinn?
{Quinn} Are you going to burn up in the sun now?!
{Erin} I think Layla mentioned that was something that happened to vampires. Why care if they're going to find out that I lost my ability if I'm just going to combust into flames?
"Oh, will you two relax?!" The system said, "Don't worry, the sun won't kill you."
Erin sighed, and she was part way through the portal.
"At least not normally anyways, but the system has done things I haven't expected."