Erin hadn't told anyone she had a system, not because of any fear that she would be seen as crazy, or strange, but because she didn't want to go through the trouble of explaining it.
In this day and age, video games in the style of what Erin's system is like weren't exactly very common, and while Erin has played video games in the past, that was when she was very young.
Either way, Erin explained it to her since there wasn't much to do as they walked.
"So… you see screen messages? And it tells you things like the stats of beast gear?" Layla asked, quite intrigued.
"And their active skills," Erin finished.
"That's… Incredible! To accurately tell what a beast weapon can do, and how you've been able to grow so fast. It explains a lot," Layla said, "But you said that you got this from bumping into Quinn, right? Do you know who or what made the system?"
"I bet the person who made the system was quite the handsome man," the system chirped.
"Does it matter? I now have an annoying voice in my head," Erin grumbled.
"A… voice? You mean Quinn, right?" Layla asked, remembering that Erin had told her about the two's shared chat messages.
"There's no way Quinn's voice can ever be that annoying," Erin scoffed, crossing her arms.
"So… its a different person?" Layla tilted her head.
Erin turned to glare at Layla, her uncomfortable face revealing just what she thought of this voice.
"That bad, huh?" Layla sighed before closing her eyes, and waving herself with her hands, "Dang, it's really getting hot."
Erin glanced at Layla, then wordlessly shifted her umbrella to provide her with shade.
[Your body is being hit by direct sunlight]
[All stats will be reduced by 70% while in the sunlight]
Noticing the sudden shade, Layla opened her eyes to see Erin sweating as a small part of her was now in sunlight.
"Erin! Are you okay?!" Layla worriedly asked.
"I'm fine," Erin retorted.
Before, Layla had been worried that Erin was too focused on this assessment to even care about her well being, but this small act had shown her that Erin did care, just in her own way. Knowing how she had acted before when exposed to the sun, Layla thought this might've been an apology for earlier.
They were soon upon the red zone as once again there were groups of other students who had arrived. Just as Luke had guessed it, there were fewer teams today than what Erin had saw yesterday, with only two other teams there.
The area was different compared to the rest of the desert with it having these large brown rocks covered in holes that acted as caves. On top of the rocks, and inside of these holes were wingedlizards, which were double the size of teethworms, and had dark grayish brown scales with bright orange wings.
[Inspect]
[Wingedlizards]
[basic tier beast]
The beasts themselves could've looked like a dragon, if it wasn't for their very lizard like head, and their wings not being attached to any arms. The wings looked more suited for gliding than flying as they lacked joints.
Layla and Erin weren't alone as there were a few groups also hunting in that same area, but they were far enough away as to not cause trouble. Erin wanted to see how they hunted the beasts first before doing it herself.
One team had deployed the tactic of attracting the attention of one of the beasts using their ability before luring it to their other team members to be attacked. Seeing how effective it was, Erin and Layla deployed that same strategy.
Layla would float an arrow around one of the winged lizards, annoyingly constantly bumping into its face, then it would follow the arrow hoping to smack it away. The lizard glided off of the rock, away from the other lizards, and to Erin was. This was when she would aggravate it with a few swings of her rapier, then dodged its attacks.
Layla would aid Erin by shooting out a few arrows, distracting it. By using flash step, Erin slid under its belly, closing her umbrella as she did. Then, with a swift motion, stabbed her rapier upwards, and slashed it free from the beast. Beast blood pouring from its fatal wound.
Erin jumped out of the way as the wingedlizard fell to the ground.
[You are now in direct sunlight]
[All stats will be reduced by 70% while in the sunlight]
Opening up the umbrella, Erin's stats returned to normal. She knew where exactly its weak point was as she had remembered Quinn reading over it when they had first arrived, and attacking there was quite effective.
[Basic tier wingedlizard killed]
[+10 EXP]
[First time killing wingedlizard]
[100 bonus EXP granted]
[135/400 EXP]
Despite being able to defeat the beast super quickly, it wasn't fast enough for her.
"Now if only your system mate was here with you, you would've definitely not gotten any bonus EXP for this," the system voice said.
'I thought you said my teammates were holding me back,' Erin pointed out.
"I'm only speaking the truth of the matter, and why should you listen to an AI voice about things not related to the system?" The voice continued to speak smugly.
Layla had hid behind a rock as she supported Erin, but stepped out once the coast was clear. For some reason Erin was standing still over the wingedlizard's body.
"If you want, I can carve out the crystals," Layla suggested.
"Not fast enough…" Erin muttered.
"Huh?"
"Get me three winged lizards here," Erin commanded, with her shadow rising behind her.
—
Hearing a few system pings in his head, Quinn groaned before shuffling himself to sleep more comfortably on the couch. He was sick of waking up to the alarm back at the military base.
'Wait a second…'
Quinn's body shot up, wide awake, and he looked at the system message much more closely.
[Erin has defeated a basic tier beast]
[Erin has gained 10 EXP]
[First time Erin has killed this beast]
[Erin has gained 100 EXP]
"No, no, no! Please tell me that's just an old message—" Quinn worried as he ran to Erin's room.
Almost busting the door off its hinges, Quinn found the room to be empty.
"…Crap!" Quinn muttered under his breath.
Opening up the system chat logs, Quinn immediately began typing.
{Quinn} Erin, where the hell are you!?