After Quinn did another round of forcing the teethworms to the surface, they killed the rest of them with no problem. The only issue was that there were far less this time, about 5 total, and Quinn couldn’t sense any more in the cactus area.

"We should move out, this area is tapped," Erin said.

The group agreed, and traveled to other parts of the desert. However, when they tried to search for other hunting spots, they found that they were already being used by other students. They went to an oasis thinking that no one had claimed it just yet, but then a blonde girl with green and pink pigtails jumped out of nowhere, and began flinging around teethworms with some plant roots. Because she had a level 6 ability, they decided not to mess with her.

Frustrated that they spent precious time just walking around, Erin decided that they should head back. The others agreed since they did spend a lot of energy being out in the bright sunlight.

Unbeknownst to them, a group had watched them closely, and there was a boy with a scared chin that had noticed Peter traveling among them.

"I’m surprised they hadn’t kicked him out for the stunt he did," Earl chuckled to himself, "Or should I say... the stunt I made him do."

"Are we sure we can do this?" A short girl with light purple hair replied, "They have a level 3 and a level 5 on their team."

"Don’t forget that they also have two level 1s, and a level 2 telekinesis user, Amy," Earl replied, "It’ll be easy pickings."

—

Once the group headed back to the shelter, they arrived at a specific military building, one that was built into a square-like shape. While it had offices and rooms for other tasks, the front reception room was where the students would drop off their crystals for the week.

Their group had collected a total of 20 basic tier beast crystals, which wasn’t nothing, but Erin knew they could’ve gotten more. Looking behind the man running the reception, she could see that there was a digital screen listing their rankings, and the team in first place had 30 crystals.

The screen updated, and Erin’s group was placed above the middle, in 4th place. Their total was 20, meanwhile most of the first years hadn’t turned in a single crystal yet, but Erin didn’t care about that.

’If only we went to the red areas...’ Erin thought to herself.

Others would’ve avoided it because they might’ve deemed it too dangerous, but they had good fighters on their team, and going there would’ve meant they didn’t have to deal with competition.

"Hey, Erin, look," Quinn whispered with a tone of urgency as he pointed at who was listed in second place.

Looking at the placement, Erin saw a name that she had seen once before. This person had managed to accumulate 24 points, and all she knew of this person was their powerful technology skills.

Logan Green.

Erin, Layla, and Quinn gave each other a quick glance. Quinn had known of Logan Green’s involvement with Erin’s watch as he saw Erin’s system screen, and Layla knew because she told her. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

The mystery of this Logan Green person continued to elude them, but unless this person introduced themselves to them, or Erin used the inspect skill on the right person, they had no other way to find out who he was.

"So, what’s got you guys all so worried?" Fex said as he placed an arm on Quinn’s shoulder, "Is this ’Logan’ guy anyone special?"

Quinn carefully took off Fex’s shoulder, "We don’t know him."

Fex raised an eyebrow, but Quinn genuinely didn’t seem to know who he was. In the vampire’s mind, they were probably just worried about their grade since they had to compete with other students.

The man behind the reception desk told them where they could go to rest, and they promptly followed his instructions. He led them to a 2 story building near the edge of the shelter, which was especially made for students during expeditions such as this one.

Picking out a room, the group made it to their temporary dorms, and found that it was actually quite spacious. Similar to the dorms back at military base 2, there was a shared kitchen, and living room, but they all each had their own bedrooms.

With the cost of living on shelters being cheaper, it meant they invested more into the dorms here.

Before they went to sleep for the day... or night in earth time, Erin conducted a team meeting at the dining room table.

"Alright, I’ll be the first to say this," Erin began, "But we need to find a better spot to hunt. We have to come out as one of the top teams during this assessment, and we can only do that if we can harvest as many beasts as possible. We will fix this when we go to the red zone tomorrow."

Peter opened his mouth, but quickly closed it.

"Speak up," Erin commanded, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Well its just..." Peter began, glancing towards Quinn instinctively for help, but he didn’t know if he had the courage to explain himself.

"Look, we have some of the strongest people on our team," Quinn reassured as he placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder, "If something happens, then we can defend ourselves."

Peter tried to smile back at Quinn. He knew that Quinn and Erin were both strong, but Peter couldn’t help but feel an insurmountable amount of dread get clogged in his throat.

Even though it was still technically day time on Caladi, they were going by earth’s day time schedule for their sleep. They all each went to their respective beds, and quickly fell asleep, except for Peter.

He laid awake in bed, thinking about how dangerous it was to go to the red zone. Even if he had strong friends who were willing to help him out, he knew that wasn’t always enough to save someone’s life.

Eventually, Peter’s thoughts led him to get some shut eye, and he began drifting to the past...

—

Running through a small house, a short Peter was chasing his older sister, Emily.

The two siblings didn’t look too far off from one another, which made sense given their similar ages. They both had straight black hair that went to their chin, a splash of freckles around their nose, and the same black monolid eyes. The major difference between the two was that Emily didn’t need to wear glasses, and had a few inches in height over him.

She was running carefully to make sure not to bump into anything precious. Peter, however, was too caught up in his joy, and accidentally bumped into a table, causing a cup near the edge to fall.

*CRASH!*

The two immediately stopped their game of tag and stared at the shattered pieces. Their parents were away, working at their shop like usual, and weren’t home yet. Peter started to cry, he knew how important it was to make things last, and feared the punishment for such a careless mistake. He should’ve reigned in his happiness.

Emily bent her knees slightly, and shushed his sobbing. He could see her straight black hair frame her face as clear as day. Her eyes were so kind, kinder than his own.

"Peter, shh, don’t cry. I’ll clean this up, and if mom and dad find out then tell them that I did it. Just promise to be more careful next time, okay?" Emily carefully whispered to him, "It’s just a cup."

He choked back a sob. That cup had been in the house for as long as he had been alive, or so Peter believed so given that he was 8 at the time. Their family didn’t go shopping for new dishes very often, if ever. To him in that moment, it might as well have been the end of the world.

Peter nodded, and Emily hugged him. He ran to his room and waited for her to return. The two shared a bedroom after all.

After a bit, she returned and sat next to him on the bed. Peter leaned on the bed, placing his head on her lap. As he did, Emily held his head. He felt guilty for not being able to help her, but they were just children.

"Okay, maybe we shouldn’t have played tag." Emily nervously laughed it off. "Let’s do something else."

"... Like what?"

"like..." She took out her phone and opened up poutube. "Cat videos!"

Peter shot up, smiling. This felt special because he didn’t have a phone himself. Only Emily did because she was often at home taking care of him, and it was meant to be emergencies only.

For the rest of the night until their parents came home, Peter and Emily watched whatever silly video they came across. A calm, beautiful memory.

—

Waking up to a wet pillow case, and a clenched throat, Peter wiped his eyes. Emily was always taking care of him, despite only being 10 at the time. Even as she became a teenager, she was meant to take care of the family. She was always taking care of everyone, but no one took care of her. Now that she’s gone, who’s supposed to take care of his parents now?