Chapter 270 Obtaining a blood crystal
Leo didn’t need to ask the students twice. They both quickly followed Leo closely behind as the three of them ran out of the town and into the tunnel, not once looking back, but his strange actions were starting to make Quinn think.
It was a first for him, the first time he had ever seen his teacher running away from a confrontation. Up to this point in his eyes, his teacher had always been someone that seemed unreachable. A force too strong to even begin to imagine the real strength of. Even when facing the Dalki, he had never acted like this.
Whatever it was that was frightening him or making him act like this, it had to be strong. But if something was that powerful down here, then why hadn’t Quinn or the others come across it. After thinking about all the possibilities of what could’ve happened, one thing was stuck in his mind.
’No, it can’t be, we looked around the whole tower.’ The tower they had just left form was known as a vampire’s tomb. And judging by the sight of the building and what was left behind, it was a powerful one.
’Didn’t you say a vampire would need the blood of one of its family members? It’s impossible for it to wake up, right?’ Quinn asked the system, but it had chosen to remain silent.
"Answer me!" Quinn snapped in his mind. This time he was insistent and wanted an answer.
"Sorry." The system replied. "I was just thinking about the possibilities, but perhaps there was a chance we really did wake it up."
"But how?" Quinn replied.
"The only thing I can think of is the blood crystal from before. Remember how I said a blood crystal was quite rare, well that’s because a blood crystal is harvested from a vampires body itself. Just like how the beasts contain a crystal inside their bodies, vampires do too.
"Creating weapons form these things became a taboo. It was a practice that quickly became outlawed. The blood crystals themselves weren’t illegal, but intentionally harvesting one form a body was. Of course, we don’t entirely know what is inside the blood crystal, but when using it as a raw material to create a weapon, the first part of the process is melting the crystal down.
"At just the right temperature, the crystal will start to melt and turn into a blood like substance. I’m afraid thier is a chance, that when you inserted the crystal into the podium, it might have started that process and woken up whatever vampire was deep in its sleep."
"Why didn’t you say something earlier than?", Quinn complained.
"I thought the same as you at the time. That the crystal would be used to help you get the weapon. You see when a vampire goes into eternal slumber, it does so out of its own choice. In a way, it is a vampire saying it is done with the current world and is moving on.
"However, their bodies are usually kept at their family, base or castle. This way if they ever needed to call on those desperately in times of need, they could do. When I saw that there were no vampires in this area or even any inside the tower. I assumed that the vampire must have chosen to pass on.
"Some tombs often set trials for their family members, with traps and tasks. Once these were completed, they would pass on their treasures to the next generation. I thought that this person was just doing the same."
The three of them had finally left the town. They had gone through one of the tunnels into an open area with several different pathways. The look on Leo’s face looked a lot better. Once he had travelled through the tunnel, he could no longer sense the strang force that well.
This was because of his ability, it was strong, but he could only see the area he was in. As soon as he entered the town, his view had widened, and he could see anything. There was one thing that was troubling him greatly, though.
The aura that he had sensed was the same colour as both Quinn and Fex. Still, Leo didn’t want to take any chances finding out whether this person was friendly or not. Just because they had the same aura as the two students didn’t mean they were close.
It was easy for Leo to select the path back, as he remembered well which direction he had entered from, and he started to lead the two students out. Finally, they were about to leave the strange city and everything that had been found behind.
While travelling through the tunnel, it started to slightly tilt upward with no end in sight, and they were unsure how long it would take them to get out. While travelling together, Quinn was still trying to digest everything he had been told earlier. About the blood crystals and now he had a few strange questions on his mind.
"If a family member is unable to kill its own member, how would someone obtain a blood crystal in the first place?" Quinn asked.
"That is an excellent question. Even though Vampires and subspecies are unable to go against their creator, that still doesn’t mean they are unable to break the rules. Just like with every family, they had their fair share of trouble makers.
"One could always ask another family to do the job for them, but it would leave a sour taste in the mouth and would often cause grudges between friends and such if this was to happen. As such a special group was created, one outside the thirteen families. These were called the punishers.
"Their duty was strictly to uphold the vampire laws that were created by the 13 vampire leaders and the king. They were separated from the others. They didn’t make friends with any of the thirteen and didn’t interact with them other than to bring down harsh punishments."
"These punishers, they must have been quite strong then, if they had to force these vampire families to follow the laws," Quinn said.
"Yes, very strong..." When the system spoke these words, he seemed to drift off a little.
"Are they still around?" Quinn asked, noticing the system acting strangely when speaking about them.
"Unfortunately, that is for you to find out at another time."
Quinn had tried pressing further as he did before. If the system gave in once, maybe it could give in again and tell him more information, but he was unsuccessful. The vampire world seemed complicated and strange, it also seemed to have a very long history that he knew nothing about.
The system tried to reassure Quinn that it was unlikely the blood crystal had woken up the vampire from its slumber. Some of the events just didn’t make sense. Why hand over a blood crystal to a beast if they planned to wake up at a later time? Were they just leaving everything to chance?
Although what the system had said seemed possible, Quinn had a strange feeling that they had woken up the vampire. He knew Leo wasn’t acting that way for no reason. This time rather than wanting to find out about it, Quinn just wanted to get away from this place as soon as possible.
Finally, the end of the tunnel could be seen, and daylight was shining through. Both Quinn and Fex never thought they would be happy to see the sun, but they truly were.
As they both stepped outside, they lifted their arms up, covering their eyes from the sensitivity but also had a huge smile on their face.
Quinn seemed even happier then Fex as he started to jump up and down on the spot.
"Are you that happy to be free?" Leo asked. Hearing the sound of Quinn jumping up and down.
Embarrassed and a face flushed with red cheeks, Quinn replied.
"Yeah, it’s just nice to see the sun again."
The reason why Quinn was more overjoyed than usual was because for the first time in a while, when stepping into the sun, he didn’t feel sick. He didn’t feel groggy or weak, and there was no system message.
The ring had worked, and now Quinn could live the life he once had without any restrictions.
The two boys continued to follow Leo back through the jungle. There were many beasts still in the jungle, but thanks to Leo’s ability, they were able to avoid all of them and select the safest path heading back to the shelter. Eventually, they had arrived where all the remaining students were. They were staying out the shelter in the large open space on the ground, getting taken care of by the other military staff.
"Quinn!" Layla shouted as she got up and started running towards him. As soon as she reached him, she gave a big old bear hug, squeezing him tightly. "I thought you might have died."
"I told you, you had nothing to worry about,"Vorden said, walking closely behind Layla. As she let Quinn go, Vorden proceeded to give Quinn a fist bump and also a pat on the shoulder.
Looking around Quinn was also happy to see that everyone in their team was alive and it looked like Peter was okay, when his eyes met up with Logan’s, a big thumbs up was given in his direction.
"We need to do something about Cia later," Vorden whispered as they both noticed she was continually looking in their group’s direction. Refusing to join them and staying close to the other students.
"Alright, everyone!" A soldier shouted. "It’s time to gather up, your sergeant Leo has an important announcement to make,"
All the students had gathered in the open field on the shelter, the rest of the soldiers carried on doing what they were doing but they seemed to be busier than ever before. A Lot more then when the students had first come here as if they were in a rush for something.
When looking around, there were many students who were no longer with them, that had either died from the strange plants and underneath in the underground tunnels. Or from the advanced tier beast from before.
The look on the students’ faces were horrified, and some of them didn’t even know how to feel.
Stood at the front of them all was both Leo and Fay. Leo walked forward first.
"Everyone listen carefully for we have some important news to tell you all."