Zoe buried her face in her hands as she sat in the bathroom stall. she thought as she remembered the drive that seemed to come from the deaths of her own minded to jump for the few drops of blood she had seen.

  She leaned back in the seat, letting out a sigh. The sound of the stall next to her's toilet flushing snapped her out of it as she realized

  She forced herself up and headed out. As she walked back to class, she saw a number of students walking out of the gym. She leaned on the wall while waiting.

  "I can't believe he did not give us time to change!" She heard one girl say.

  "I know my chest hurts like hell, and my uniform is gross and sweaty!" the black-haired girl said.

  Zoe looked down thought

  A voice called out to her a moment later, "Oh, there you are!"

  Zoe turned her head and saw Ivan walking out of the class door and up to her. "Sorry about running off like that." She said as she saw the end of the flood of students, she quickly headed into the gym. Ivan followed behind.

  "Oh, that is no problem, the class was basically over. So what's your next class anyway?" Ivan asked the following right behind her.

  "Not sure I need to check my schedule," Zoe said, grabbing her bag, which sat alongside the wall. "So what was that all about?"

  Ivan smiled as Zoe asked, "I never thought you would ask. So Valda, the sword saint's daughter, apparently got heated during her fight and used mana! I could not believe it when I heard it, but the teacher said it. So it must be true. Anyway, Nero, the guy she was fighting, managed to stop it with one hand!"

  Zoe stared at Ivan's face as she let Ivan's ramblings sink in. Then it hit her, Her eyes seemed to spackle as she forgot about all her worry's for a moment. "That's amazing. I did not know you could use mana without awakening." Zoe said, doing her best to keep a straight face.

  "Neither did I, but she did it!" Ivan stopped, his eyes locked on the clock overhead, "Oh, sorry, I have to get to my next class. See you later!" He gave a short wave before running off.

  Zoe thought as she looked at her schedule and headed off to her next class.

  An hour later, Zoe stepped out of the ‘Intro to tower and dungeon raiding’ class. She stretched her arms as she felt like her brain was about to be mush. For the whole of class time, the teacher had gone on and on about different formations and team composition. She thought as she walked out of the main building onto the plaza of the campus.

  As she stepped outside, she felt her whole body heat up, and her stomach started to twist. She moved as quickly as she could heading for her dorm room. As soon as she stepped into the room, she collapsed onto her bed. The relief was palpable on her face as she melted into her bed, feeling the cool air from the AC.

  After a few minutes she rolled over and thought, She pulled out her phone to try to think of a way when she saw a notification from her bank app. "10,000 credits?" She stared at her phone blankly for a moment at the amount of money that this body's father had sent her,

  She quickly opened her phone and looked up what she could get with that. After a moment of reading, she let out a sigh. she thought, looking at what she could buy.

  Her eyes glanced back down to the phone and she let out a sigh, She opened the messaging app and just stared at it for a while unsure of what to say.

  She quickly typed something out and did not look at the phone as she hit send. Looking back at it, she had sent "Thank you, Dad!" It felt not quite right, but it was better than nothing.

  She froze for a moment,

  She grabbed her phone and looked up if there was anywhere that sold animal blood. After scrolling for a bit she sat up, she looked at the ad alongside the web page that read 'Need monster blood for a spell! Come on down to Witch's Nose magic shop!' Luna tapped on the ad and was taken to a website that looked like it was from the 90's with massive colorful text and Comic Sans font.

  Zoe joked to herself as she got out of bed and looked in her wardrobe. It was pretty basic with mostly school uniforms, some things that would be good for sleeping in, and near the back she found a simple shirt and some pants.

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  She said as she looked in the mirror at the change of her clouts. She grabbed the cloak, tossed it in her bag, then headed out.

  Once she was a few blocks away from the school she pulled the cloak over her face and walked between the alleyways. It was quite the only sound she could hear was that of her own footsteps. Most of the light came from her phone, navigating her to the Witch's Nose.

  She turned a corner and looked down the dingy alley, taking a few steps down it. She turned and shoved her phone in her bag and pulled on her hood, hoping it would cover more of her face. She pushed the simple door open wide and stepped inside.

  The shop was small, the definition of a hole in the wall store. The walls were covered with sheaves that were covered in strange eyes, bones, ears, and other monster parts.

  "Hello, welcome to the Witch's nose where everything smells foul but works great," a customer service voice called out. Zoe turned to see a man who looked to be around 30 or so with a pair of large, round glasses.

  "What are you looking for today?" The man asked, leaning forward with a simple smile that did not reach his eyes.

  "I'm looking to buy monster blood." Zoe tried her best to sound confident.

  The man clapped his hands together. "Really! What kind?" He stepped back and pulled off a clipboard, setting it on the counter in front of him.

  "Something cheap," Zoe said, stepping forward and looking over the list.

  "In that case, I recommend Goblin. It's rather bad for enchantment but is good, easy to work with, making it good for beginners," he pointed to it on the list.

  She looked it over one more time but goblin seemed to be the cheapest. "I will take it," she said with a sigh.

  "Thank you very much, let me go grab it." The man quickly turned back and walked away for a moment, then returned with a large two-liter bottle that looked like it was made for soda.

  Zoe stared at it for a moment, then looked at her bag and back at it. "Do you sell any smaller sizes?" She asked.

  "Sorry, miss we don't." The said man as he rang it up with a soft beep.

  "Your total is 5,225 credits," he said, sliding the bottle across the counter alongside a card reader.

  She could feel the money draining from her wallet as she tapped her card.

  "Thank you for shopping with us. Come back!" The man said with a wave as Zoe stuffed the bottle into her bag and headed out the door.

  She walked briskly through the back alleys just before she reached the main road. She stopped and removed her cloak. Then she tossed it in her bag, covering the large bottle of blood.

  Then she stepped back out on the main road, which seemed to be just as busy as last night. The chatter of people and the smells of food all filled the air as she walked along.

  Then a voice came from behind. "Zoe! I did not expect to see you out so late," She recognized the voice immediately. Turning back, she saw Ivan walking up to her with a paper bag in his hand.

  "Are you on your way back to the dorms, too? I just popped out to grab dinner," He said, holding out the bag. Inside, of which Zoe could see a bottle of some kind of soda and a precooked meal.

  "Same," Zoe stammered out as her eyes glanced back and forth, "But I don't really know where a good place to grab something would be," she added.

  "Oh, well, there is a convenience store right down the street. If you're looking for something cheap. Otherwise, all the food stalls are good," Ivan said, pointing just a short way down the street. "You want me to show you the way?"

  "Oh, um, that's-" Zoe froze, seeing Ivan's eyes for the first time from under his hair, sparkling green. "Sure," Zoe said with a sigh.

  "Ya!" Ivan's hand shot out, wrapping around Zoe's wrist. The warmth of her cold skin was like stepping into a heated room in winter. Zoe pulled her wrist back before Ivan could even take a step.

  "No, do not grab me." She said, taking a step back, not even realizing she had done it until then.

  Ivan froze wide-eyed, then looked down at the ground, then back up, "Sorry, I won't do it again, I swear." He said, looking regretful.

  "If it does, I will toss you in a river," Zoe said, looking at her own wrist. She quickly hid her hand behind her back. "Well? Lead the way."

  "Oh, ya follow me!" Ivan said, almost bouncing as he turned down the street.

  Zoe walked out of the store with a paper bag in her arm, sitting just above her bag. Inside was a premade pizza slice and a large hot dog with a soda that was called Mr Pop, which seemed to be a name brand in this world.

  "It's a good deal, right!? I mean, only 3.5k credits is cheap." Ivan said, walking alongside Zoe, his face being lit up by the street lamps around them as they moved through all of the food stalls. Most of which list at least 2k for a small bowl of food. "It's more expensive than I expected." She thought out loud.

  "Oh ya you were born outside of the tower, right? I can't imagine what that's like." Ivan said, his eyes looking up at the sky with a slight frown. "Anyway, the cost of food is due to how hard it is to bring items into the tower. If you don't have an awakened with a large spatial storage, it can take a lot of trips. Plus, the cool down for entering and leaving the tower."

  Zoe thought, doing her best not to let her confusion show. She wanted to ask but held back not wanting to even hint at the truth.

  Just then, Zoe broke out of her daze as they reached the front gate. She quickly pulled out her card and showed it to the guard, letting them pass.

  "Guess this is where we split up, well, see you later," Ivan said as he turned to head for the boy's dorm before stopping and turning back. "Want to exchange contact info?" he said, holding out his phone. "Just you know in case."

  Zoe's mind went blank with that thought. After a moment she shook her head "Sure." Zoe read out her number, and Ivan added her, and she did the same.

  "See you later." Zoe gave a short wave and headed back to her dorm room.

  As Zoe stepped into her room, she twisted the lock of the door, hearing the soft click, she let out a breath that she had not realized she was holding in. She set her bags down on her desk. She reached into her bag and pulled out the bottle filled with crimson blood.

  She took a deep breath and looked around, She thought for a moment She twisted the cap off.

  The small was sweet but almost chickeny. Zoe held the bottle up and tilted it down as she felt the slightly cool blood flow past her lips. She set the bottle back down, then swallowed.

  "Holy shit, it's so good! It's like mixing chicken with the sweetness of an apple!" Zoe reached up and wiped the side of her lip with her thumb. Her eyes then glanced back at the bottle, still almost full.