Faye's eyes narrowed.
'This way, I can watch over the Talen boy and make sure that he doesn't expose anything he SHOULDN'T,' she thought.
Although most of the members of Tsukuru's and Quinn's group knew about Vampires, Erin Heyley and that "Peter" boy did not.
And Faye wanted to make sure it stayed that way.
Paul gave Sergeant Faye a hard look.
He then glanced over at Sergeant Shizuka.
Shizuka merely shrugged her shoulders, an uncaring smile on her face, that told the Head-General that she really didn't mind.
He turned back to Sergeant Faye.
"Very well, Sergeant Faye," he replied. "Please make your way to the assembly hall."
Sergeant Faye nodded.
"Yes, Head-General," she said with a salute.
The others watched as Sergeant Faye made her way out of the room.
Paul turned to the others, his eyes narrowing as he looked at General Duke.
"I'm serious, General Duke," he warned. "If I come back to find your Second-Year Students causing trouble again, General Nathan won't be the only General with his paycheck docked."
General Duke's eyes widened in fear.
If there was one thing that he cared about more than power, it was money.
"Y-Yes, sir," he replied, stammering slightly.
Paul nodded, and grabbed the metal box.
With it in hand, he made his way towards the active Portal.
The group of five all watched as Head-General Paul walked through the Vortex and disappeared.
As his form fully vanished, the Portal powered off.
***
Back in Del's classroom, the screen of Tsukuru's wristwatch returned to its "Stand-By Mode", the large number "4" being visible in the center.
Vorden put his finger under his chin.
"Hey, you think that maybe we should get ourselves some Beast Gear?" he asked.
Him having to fight off those Basic-Tier Rattleclaws with a shabby Earth Dagger was still fresh in his mind, despite the whole thing having been almost a whole week ago.
Layla tilted her head.
"You mean, like at the school's 'Student Market'?" she asked. "Isn't that…only open on the weekends?"
Vorden let out an amused snort.
"Given the fact that they all gave us the day off to train for the upcoming Portal Outing, I'm sure that they've also let themset up the Student Market one day early."
Hearing Vorden's earlier statement, Tsukuru's eyes widened in realization.
"Oh!" he replied, causing the others to turn to him. "That reminds me."
He held his hand out over the desk, and activated his Ability.
The sound of electronic interference filled the room, and three groups of pixelsbegan to appear on the desk.
All three clustered together into the same shape; a chestpiece that reached down to the elbows on either side.
There were three sequential flashes of light.
Once they faded, three identical copies of Tsukuru's Intermediate-Tier Cave Spider Chestpiecescould be seen on the desk.
Tsukuru turned to the others.
"Vorden, Layla, Erin," he replied, looking at each person as he said their name. "These are for you."
Layla looked down at the three chestpieces.
"Aren't these that chestpiece that you were wearing the other day?" she asked.
Erin's eyes hardened, as she looked down at the chestpieces with an analytical eye. The chestpiece was dark-gray in color, and was segmented into two pieces, one covering the upper body, and the other covering the lower stomach.
Thinking about it for a moment, Erin came to the conclusion that this actually offered better flexibility than standard chestpieces, allowing the wearer to easily flex forward and backwards.
'That's actually pretty smart designing, all things considered,' Erin thought.
The group watched as Erin took off her intermediate-Tier Gauntlets, and placed them down on the table.
A small, metallic "clink" was heard.
She reached out and grabbed the chestpiece that was closest to her and lifted it up above her shoulders.
Erin slid her arms through the sleeves, and lowered the chestpiece down until it was covering her entire chest.
Erin held her arms out in front of her, and looked down at herself.
Her entire upper torso from her neck down to her waistwas covered by the chestpiece, and she was covered down to her thighs by the chestpiece's faulds.
The chestpiece also had sleeves that covered her arms down to her elbows, meaning that the only spots exposed on her body were her head, neck, and hands up to her forearms.
As Erin looked down at herself, she also felt a wave of Beast Energy surge through her.
She felt just as strong as she did when wearing her Intermediate-Tier Gauntlets.
"I feel this chestpiece boosting my physical strength," Erin noted, as she reached for her gauntlets on the table, and put them back on.
Between the long sleeves of the chestpiece and the gauntlets, Erin's arms looked to be almost completely covered.
And the fact that the gauntlet's gun-metal gray coloring was very similar to the light-gray coloring of the chestpiece didn't help to differentiate them.
Vorden let out a snort.
"Yeah, well that's pretty standard for Beast Gear Chestpieces," he said, looking away, remembering back to how Ian had his strength enhanced by his chestpiece back on the Red Portal Planet.
Seeing Erin wearing the chestpiece, both Vorden and Layla soon followed.
Just like with Erin, they first took off their gauntlets, and placed them on the table.
Grabbing the chestpiece closest to them, they picked them up and held them over their heads, slipping it on like a shirt.
Soon, all three of them were wearing the chestpiece and the gauntlets.
Vorden then glanced over at Quinn.
"Hey," he replied "What about Quinn?" he asked.
Tsukuru gave Vorden a dismissive wave.
"Oh, I gave him his a few days ago," he replied, before turning towards the black-haired boy. "Quinn, didn't you say that you keep your gear inside your bag?"
Tsukuru put special emphasis on the last part of the sentence, trying to send a secret message to Quinn.
Quinn stared at Tsukuru for a moment in confusion.
Then, his eyes widened in realization.
"Oh!" he replied, Tsukuru's words clicking in his mind. "Right!"
Quinn unzipped his bag and used the darkness inside as a "shadow" to access his "Shadow Space" Skill.
The group watched as, from their perspective, Quinn pulled an identical chestpieceout of the bag.
Placing it on the table, he then reached back into his bag.
This time, he pulled his pair of Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets out of his Shadow Space.
Just like before when he had his Black-Horned Gauntlets, Quinn planned to keep his "Best-Standard" Intermediate-Tier Gauntlets a secret.
Besides, the Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets were technically stronger.
The others watched as Quinn put on the chestpiece and the gauntlets.
Once he was fully equipped, two System messagesappeared in front of Quinn.
[Intermediate-Tier Cave Spider Chestpiece equipped.
+6 Defense, +4 Strength
Strength: 15 [+4]
Defense: 6 ]
[Intermediate-Tier Knight Gauntlets equipped.
+7 Strength, +5 Defense
Strength: 15 [+11]
Defense: 11 ]
Seeing Quinn in the Beast Gear, Erin narrowed her eyes.
"Why don't you just wear that gear at all times, rather than hiding it in your bag?" she asked in confusion.
Tsukuru glanced back at her.
"I dunno," he replied in a passive-aggressive tone. "Maybe because he doesn't want to get mugged?"
Erin looked at Tsukuru, and tiled her head, clearly not understanding what Tsukuru was insinuating.
Tsukuru sighed internally.
'Right,' he reminded himself. 'She's never had to deal with what we Lower-Levels had to put up with.'
Tsukuru's face hardened.
"A Low-Level walking around with High-Level Beast Gear is seen as nothing more than a target by the High-Levels," he replied.
He then jabbed his finger over in Peter's direction.
"Why do you think I never bothered giving Peter any Beast Gear?"
Upon hearing Peter's name, they all suddenly remembered that Peter was still in the room with them.
They all snapped their gazes towards Peter. A few of them, such as Vorden and Layla, were outright glaring at him.
Peter gulped seeing the look, and wanted to fall through the floor.
Tsukuru then looked over at Vorden.
"Either way, now that we've procured our training area, shall we get a move on?" he asked.
Vorden nodded.
"Yeah," he replied, shooting one last glare at Peter. "Let's go."
***
As the group was heading down the halls towards the Assembly Hall, they came to a sudden stop, as they saw a boy frantically moving from one person to the next. In his hand, he had a small green-and-brown pouch with a strange "earth" symbol printed on the side.
However, each person who he talked to, seemed to brush him off at the best, and threaten him at the worst.
"What's going on here?" Vorden asked.
Tsukuru narrowed his eyes, and stepped forward.
The student let out a defeated sigh, as the last student walked off.
"Damn it," he muttered under his breath. "I'm never going to get rid of this thing."
The boy then heard footsteps approaching him from behind.
"Get rid of what thing?"
The boy's eyes widened, as he heard the voice.
Turning around, he had to crane his neck downwards slightly to see Tsukuru.