Shiro continued to look at Quinn, not asking him the question he had deep down. It was as if he was intimated by who this person was after finding out who he was. For Quinn though, seeing he was debating internally on what to do, it wasn't a good sign.
"Let me ask you a question." Quinn finally said. "Do you want to join the Cursed faction, or are you only interested in joining because you want the power that Sil mentioned?"
At this point and time, although Shiro was interested in the Cursed faction, he still couldn't get out of his head that his life would be better to join either the Earthborn or the Graylash family, he just didn't know enough about the Cursed, and ultimately he knew he was doing it for the ability, and it was an ability he really didn't know about.
He was just taking Sil's word that it was an ability that was stronger than the Graylash. The sudden opportunity that was now in front of him was tempting.
He wasn't the only one that was internally debating. Honestly, even though Sam had suggested trying to teach humans the shadow ability to further help increase his soul weapon, Quinn wasn't sure it was a good idea for one reason. The ability 'Shadow Link'. It was a worry that was always on the back of Quinn's mind, that the shadow users could travel to one another at any point and time.
In this case, there was one thing that Quinn did learn that was important when deciding on who to teach the shadow more than anything. Loyalty, someone like Arthur was able to even take others with him, so if Quinn ever made another 'enemy' that knew the shadow ability, if they weren't loyal in the future it could cause a problem.
With the vampires that had been turned, at least there was a connection that would make them loyal on a surface level.
Looking at Shiro and based on the fact that he hadn't answered quite just yet, it seemed like he was yet to make a full decision.
"I'm sorry for wasting your time." Shiro bowed, with his face almost red as if he was embarrassed and then began to walk out of the room.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtSoon after, Sil went to see Peter along with Chucky, and Quinn requested the paperwork to allow the two of them to be transferred to another class.
'Those guys are a worry but they should be okay.' Quinn thought, but still had Shiro on his mind.
Thinking about whether Shiro did eventually make the request to learn the ability, Quinn had some questions of his own. The Blade ability that had been explained by Vorden at the start of his first year at military school, had the ability to copy the MC cells of humans. At the time, when Quinn had learnt the shadow ability, Vorden was unable to copy his ability due to the vampire's body structure being slightly different to humans.
This was why, even though an ability like Peter's, which was able to be learnt by both vampires and humans, Vorden and Sil had both been unable to copy the ability that belonged to Peter.
Just because Vorden was unable to copy the shadow ability from Quinn, didn't mean that it was impossible for humans to learn, but there were a few things that did make him think this. It was when Quinn had discovered the ability book itself.
Learning the ability, it stated that one had to be blooded, or rather the system stated that, but the system although mostly right, wasn't always right. There were always ways to bypass things, especially with an ability like Vincent's.
In the first palace, it wasn't clear why certain abilities were able to be learnt by humans, and some by vampires while others both. It was clear more research needed to be put into this, but it just never happened due to humans not knowing about this, and vampires not caring.
'Maybe I could be the researcher on this subject, with your help, of course.' Quinn said, talking to Vincent.
'And I suppose Shiro will be your test subject? Careful with what lines you are treading on.' Vincent warned sternly.
Another reason, why Quinn doubted one could learn the shadow, was because the ability book was discovered locked up on its own, and Quinn had assumed at the time, it was due to them not being able to find a person that was able to learn the ability.
'Was that really the case though? Maybe they were attacked at the time when they had just discovered the book, or maybe it was at a higher level than the person was capable of learning?"
Thinking about this, Quinn wondered if he was to teach Shrio, would it be best to teach it himself like he did so with the others from the Cursed faction. Although they were able to learn the ability, it was learnt at an incredibly slow pace.
'Vincent, if there was one book found there, then shouldn't there be others, and are there lower level shadow books?' Quinn asked.
'I'm afraid you are asking the wrong person Quinn. The Punishers were always treated as a separate family; what they did was down to them. To be honest, the other families haven't even created books for their abilities. There might be one book in secret in their possession in case the family dies out, but there wouldn't be multiple copies. Perhaps when Arthur was going into his slumber he had decided to do this, or it was a request made by someone else.'
It was too bad that Quinn, now with Arthur being against him, was unable to ask the person directly.
However, it did mean there were chances that there were other shadow books out there, and they would have the proper cultivation techniques and methods to teach one the ability. Even if he couldn't use it to teach Shiro if he decided to, he could use it to improve the others in the Cursed faction.
Now the question was, where would the possible shadow books be? In Quinn's mind there were three places most likely for this. The first one would be where he had found the shadow book in the first place. When he first had arrived at the planet the place was far too dangerous for him, now though he was a completely different person.
No intermediate beast and rats were going to stop him from looking at the place all over.
'However, the military did already search that place quite thoroughly, with Paul.'
The other option was where Arthur was first found. After all, the Punishers had been relocated to that planet. After Arthur decided to go into eternal slumber, it made sense for one to perhaps create books for the future. Arthur, having spent so much time with the shadow ability, would have liked to pass on the knowledge that he had learnt to those underneath him.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmMaybe he even felt the same way as Quinn and wished to teach it to all the vampires that had left with him.
'Thinking about going back there is a little worrying though.' Quinn thought. 'There is a chance that Arthur could still be there, and I remember there was meant to be a human settlement there.'
The more Quinn thought of Arthur's past actions, he just couldn't think of him as a bad guy. Ever since waking up all he had done was help Quinn and help humans. It hurt him inside to know something had changed in him.
'Well, I guess that leaves one more place. The fourteenth castle.'
The castle that originally belonged to the Punishers and was still standing in the vampire world.
It didn't take long for Quinn to take action, there weren't too many important matters in the school. He enjoyed his time here, but he still trusted Helen and Peter to deal with whatever mess came at them.
'Well maybe not Peter, but he would at least inform me.' Quinn thought.
Quinn had decided to contact the tenth castle directly, and in doing so he had gotten in contact with Paul. He had made his request clear, that he wanted to briefly return to the vampire world for a short time, in order for him to search the fourteenth castle.
Although, he thought that he might be able to do this without much trouble anyway. He didn't want to waltz in unannounced, especially since it was something to do with the shadow users. He was sure Bryce and the others might be on high alert after his little warning message.
Surprisingly, it didn't take long for them to get an answer back either. The request had been accepted. Quinn could go back to the vampire world in order to search the fourteenth castle. However, there was one restriction that was placed.
While he was to search the castle, Bryce wanted someone to attend with him.
"So what's your answer Quinn? If you want, I could ask that I go to your place, you don't have to come back here." Paul said over the call.
"No it's okay. I don't think it will be a problem and I have nothing to hide anyway." Quinn replied. "I would like to search for it myself. I'm sure there might be some things that will need my ability, and I can handle Kazz, don't worry."
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