The girl who had just entered had short dark purple hair that covered one of her eyes, deep brown skin, and eyes so dark purple they were practically black. Despite seemingly returning straight from the assembly, she didn’t wear any beast gear.

As she walked over to the kitchen, Peter realized that she was the same height as him, except, maybe an inch shorter.

"Cia!" Layla blurted out, "What uh, what are you doing here so early?"

"Early?" Cia scoffed, before opening the fridge to take out a container of juice, "Why are you asking? Suddenly taking an interest in what I’m doing?"

Peter and Layla glanced at each other for a second. If Quinn and Erin were to show up now with bags of raw meat, then surely that would look weird, right? Peter being here in the first place was already weird.

"Maybe I should leave—" Peter said, getting up, when Layla’s stomach growled again.

"Damn, you didn’t eat anything on the way back?" Cia commented, looking a little shocked, "Not even a food pill?"

Layla gulped, before rambling, "We uh, couldn’t take it with us on the way back, the bag of food pills. It was a whole emergency, and we just wanted to get out of there without the dalki, but we did get our beast gear— but we forgot to bring the food pills—"

As Cia grabbed a cup to pour her juice in, Peter, Layla and Cia’s eyes all fell upon the bag of food pills placed on the kitchen counter top. When they initially brought the boys over, they hastily put the pills there, wanting to get to explaining to Peter about everything first.

She picked it up, and examined it, "Oh, looks like you guys didn’t forget."

"Yeah, haha, right!" Peter smacked his head in mock forgetfulness, "We just completely forgot that we brought those with us! So easy to forget with everything going on."

Peter let out a forced laugh, and Layla took the hint, awkwardly laughing with him.

"You two are a mess, you’re perfect for each other," Cia dryly commented, loudly sipping from her juice.

"We’re not dating!" Layla shouted back.

"Huh," Cia said, then tucked some hair behind her ear, and smirked, "Well if he isn’t taken..."

"Wh— whuh?" Peter’s face grew red from Cia’s words, taken completely by surprise.

Cia tried to cover a wide smile over her face with her hands, but burst out laughing, doubling over, "Oh my gosh, you actually were flustered by that? BAHAHAHA!"

Peter’s face turned bright red again, and he looked away in embarrassment.

’Where are they?!’ Peter thought, as he looked anxiously at his watch, just in case there were any messages. Unfortunately, there were none.

"I need to leave," Peter said as he got up from the bed.

Before he could fully stand up, Layla gripped Peter’s hand tightly, and he looked back to see her rubbing her stomach.

"Uh, maybe you should stay? Just in case," Layla said, putting on a nervous smile.

—

Outside on school grounds, Erin and Quinn were returning to the dorm room with some bags of raw meat. As they walked, there was a thought on Quinn’s mind.

"Erin, is it possible for you to message Layla now that she’s part of your... family?" He wondered.

Right now, there weren’t any students outside as most had decided to return back to their dorms, so Quinn felt like he was able to talk more about the system stuff without prying ears.

"Why can’t you do it?" Erin raised an eyebrow.

"I already tried earlier when you were purchasing everything, but I couldn’t seem to find her name in the chat system," Quinn replied, "I was wondering if you were able to since you were the one to have turned her in the first place."

"I wondered the same thing," The system said, "When this system was made, there was code in it for the user to be able to message each of their blooded family members at will. I thought the code was hidden in a comment, making it inaccessible, but you two were able to talk to each other despite this."

’Comment?’ Quinn thought, ’Actually, how would this system not know about this? I thought it knew everything about the system.’

Closing her eyes, Erin concentrated on the chat tab, and imagined Layla’s face.

{Erin} Layla, are you there?

Outwardly, Quinn frowned. He could tell only he got the message.

"I guess not, but maybe it’s a good thing we can’t all chat to each other."

"Whatever, I’ll just message her on the watches that we’re on our way back," Erin said, lifting her wrist.

That was when she saw there was a small black spider on the very arm her watch was at. Recognizing it, she used her inspect skill on it, and both Quinn and Erin froze when they saw what it was.

[Spider-bot]

[Creator: Logan Green]

"It’s him!" Quinn harshly whispered, "Quick, catch it!"

Erin didn’t need to be told twice as she dropped the bag of meat, and grabbed the spider with her hand, careful not to crush it. Thankfully, with the sun setting, and the fact that they had luckily walked under a tree, there was no direct sunlight on her skin, meaning the spider didn’t have a chance.

Suddenly, there was an audible sound coming from... somewhere.

"Hello, Icequeen. It’s about time we’ve met."

Both Quinn and Erin realized at the same time that the sound had actually come from her hand, right where the spider was trapped.

"Ah, so you two do have a brain," The spider spoke.

The two of them were mentally on high alert with Quinn dropping his own bag of meat, and forming mud gauntlets on his fists. He immediately went behind Erin to cover her back.

{Quinn} I don’t see anyone here, do you?"

{Erin} No, but I smell someone.

Erin sniffed the air, and staring right where there was an empty space on the path, the air shifted around the spot. A small figure wearing mechanical armor revealed itself, having dropped its invisibility. Immediately, Erin took her sword out, and Quinn shot out a few mud bullets at the mechanical being.

[Defeat Logan Green]

[Reward: ???]

[Quest bonus for fighting with your soul linked partner]

The mechanical being had raised its arm, lighting up, before shifting into a shield, blocking every bullet.

While the mechanical being was distracted, Erin flash stepped behind it, and slashed with her sword towards its back. The blade managed to slash into the armor, but as if it were alive, the armor began to form itself around the sword, thereby trapping it.

Erin yanked her sword out regardless, but when she did, she noticed that she had ripped off parts of its armor revealing that there was a human underneath. Not only that, but when she had gotten up close enough, she noticed there was a watch on the person, one with the number "8" on it.