Stunned, Lana looked at him. The others had not been brought in on what was going on as she didn't want to alarm them. Then something struck her.
"Duff, how are you still a level 1? Did you reject the ability book?"
He nodded.
"Do you get beat up a lot?
"I used to," he replied.
"You got protection."
He nodded.
"In exchange for what?" she asked.
"I'm not allowed to talk about it," he said while fidgeting.
"What kind of ability do you want?"
He looked her in the eyes to see if she was being serious or asking out of curiosity.
She returned his gaze. "Well?"
"Some kind of support. Like a buff, maybe a debuff."
"Let's go to the library."
Duff looked scared.
"I cannot travel with a level 1. If you are to join us, then you need to actually join us."
They went to the library to see what kind of support abilities were out there. She knew healing which would actually be great to have in combat. Hers was too slow to use in such a fast-paced environment. They got to the library and sat down once again to do some shopping. They found several options. Lana was sticking to level three at the moment. Given his talent with killing plants, she wasn't sure he'd be able to go very high on the MC scale.
They settled on an ability that allowed attribute swaps. The ability user designated an opponent and a party member. An example would be the beast has strength of 15 and the party member has a strength of 8. Those numbers would swap and the party member would get stronger, the beast weaker. This ability worked on all attributes as well as healing and MC if it applied. At level 3, the most that could be taken for MC and Healing was 15 points per use. It went up 5 points per level of the user.
She took the code to the machine to get the book. As she handed it over to Duff, "You learn this ability before the outing if you can. As of now, you are out of the Agriculture Club. You are to join the Beast Weapons Club. Am I clear?"
He gulped knowing he was about to be in big trouble but the teacher placed him with the group. He had to play ball. Could they protect him from the monster? He didn't know but there was something special about this person or the monster would not be acting the way they were toward her. He simply nodded and took the book. They got his room number, 2201, in case they wanted to check up on him and sent him there to begin studying.
Lana smirked as he walked away. "I just gave him a week to learn a level 3 ability. Do you think he can do it?"
"We'll know in a week, won't we!" replied Alto.
**********
A few hours later, while Lana was picking up the deluxe edition of the "field kitchen," there was a meeting going on without any watchful eyes. On the roof of the first-year dorm building, a certain teleporting student was meeting with a certain level 1 student.
"I saw you get grouped with that girl. Where did you go after leaving the Hall?"
"She took me to the library to buy me an ability." He couldn't lie about it because he had already started reading the book. Eventually the number on the watch would change.
Pucket looked shocked, "She bought you an ability? Where did she get the money to do that? Wait. She is doing those commercials. They must be paying her quite well…"
"It was only a level 3 so it didn't cost that much."
Pucket nodded, thinking. "Any luck on getting good footage?"
Duff gulped hard. "I was able to get footage of her writing but the footage is always blurry for some reason. It's not focusing. Plus, I had to agree to leave Agriculture Club and start Beast Weapons starting tomorrow as part of her group. If I had refused, they would have been suspicious as to why I refused to listen to the leader, especially one who was so nice as to give me an ability."
"What ability did she buy you?"
"It's a buff ability. It's not very powerful but will help the team."
Pucket nodded. "sounds good. Being in their group, you should have more opportunities to get closer. Make it happen and get that footage." Pucket then teleported to the ground as though he had never been three floors up on the roof only a moment before. He then walked into the park as though he was heading to the store before curfew. Duff assumed he was going to be up to more mischief.
*****************
While Lana was getting instructions on all the new features and being blown way by the genius of Logan Green, Dobin and the rest were returning from the store and Pucket had found a new victim. He was getting highly frustrated with his lack of progress and all the things that were impeding him that he could do nothing about. Suddenly, in Logan's room, the trees sent her the grid once more and she could see that same big red X and a small green dot moving along with it.
She was confused. She moved to the window to see if she could see anything but it was already dark. She could see the green dots of her friends returning as well. This time the trees were nice enough to provide names for them over their dots having gotten to know such information over the past months. The red X stopped in the area of the sentient trees she created a few months earlier. She still had no idea what to do about that. She noticed two more red dots had come from different directions and stopped in the same spot. The trees then showed her exactly what was happening. She started screaming but Logan quickly reminded her he had neighbors and asked her what was going on. She quickly described the situation then called Dobin.
"Dobin! I need your help. Don't ask questions. Just run! Remember that spot with that girl a few months ago? Go there. Quickly." She had tears streaming down her eyes as she watched Pucket doing what he was doing while his friends held her down and she screamed from the pain.
"RUN Dobin!" she screamed again as she couldn't bear what she was seeing.
When Dobin had gotten there, the roots had elevated around the scene to prevent anyone else from getting there and the two boys who held her down were in the air, held by roots. Pucket was no where to be seen.
"Grab the girl!"
"What girl???"
"Just a second." She told the tree to move the roots so Dobin could get her and it did.
"I see her. What the HELL!!!"
"Just grab her and RUN! Get her to Dr. Hayley." Lana could barely talk now as she was so distraught. Dobin did as his sister bid him and ran with the girl. He was glad for the training of Power Fighter. It had increased his stamina and strength to be able to run while holding an unconscious girl. Lana, however, was transfixed by the horror show she was witnessing. The trees were angry. She could feel it with every fiber of her being. They shredded these two boys just as they had done before. This time they seemed to relish the act, taking their time. They covered the mouths of the boys so they couldn't scream and left everything vital until last so the punishment would last as long as possible. Lana didn't know what was scarier. The power they had or the emotions they emitted when acting in this way. When the forest returned to the peace it was before, she turned around with her eyes closed, sat on the floor with her back against the window and cried with a baffled Logan and Peter staring at her. Peter had decided he liked helping Logan so he came up quite frequently. She still didn't know him well but she saw him more frequently due to the time he spent with Logan.
Neither male in the room had any clue about emotions so the idea of one of them hugging her to make her feel better was foreign to them. Peter was now an undead though she did not know that. She knew his colors changed to be more like Quinn's but they weren't the same. He had been turned by Quinn and this was the final result. His job was now to obey his Master. He was beginning to think staying in Logan's room was an adventure. He got to help Logan with his inventions, go to the vending machines and get Logan a sandwich as needed and now he got to see a girl go completely crazy for no reason.