Chapter 113: Vampire Subclass
Seeing Layla alive brought Erin a flurry of emotions, the likes of which she struggled to parse through. Joy, fear, relief, sorrow. She walked over to her, pale hands grabbing light olive ones.
"Are you okay?" Erin asked, gripping tightly.
"I... I don’t know," Layla replied, "What am I? Am I... Like you?
Feeling around her wrists, Erin noticed that Layla’s heart beat was there, but slower. Beating once every 3 seconds. Whatever Layla had turned into definitely changed her.
"She’s become a ghoul," the system explained, "But with her being your first blooded member, there is a lot to get into."
"Not exactly, I’ll explain more when we’re somewhere safer," Erin softly spoke.
Erin turned her head towards the dalki’s decapitated head that had rolled close to where they stood. It was pouring green blood, a different color from the typical human red, or the beast black. It made her wonder if drinking it would give her any benefits.
Interrupting her thoughts, Fex leaned in towards her direction, and began whispering something, a sense of urgency in his voice.
"Hey, Erin, just so you know, what you did was illegal."
Before Erin could begin to wonder what Fex was talking about, Peter awkwardly coughed.
"Uh... It’s been legal since the early 2000s," Peter muttered to Fex.
Fex raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know what Peter was referring to, but ultimately decided to stay silent for the time being. He could elaborate further to Erin when they were somewhere more private.
"Have you seen green blood before?" Erin asked Fex, code for if he knew what would happen if he had drunk it.
"No, this is the first time I’m seeing it in person," Fex replied.
Deciding to do a little investigating herself, Erin activated her inspect skill on the head. Given that she didn’t know when she would get a chance like this, she thought it wise to learn more.
[Inspect]
[Dalki: A half-human, half-beast race]
’Half... human?’ Erin thought, perplexed.
As far as humanity was aware, the dalki were aliens that came to invade humans. Not only that, but the system also stated they were also half beast.
Quinn similarly saw the same system message, and wondered about what it meant. Did some humans long ago get trapped in space and eat beast crystals to gain power?
’No, that’s dumb. Humanity only started traveling space when the dalki invaded,’ Quinn thought, but then he looked at the green blood dripping from the head.
Just when he was curious about its effects on a vampire, Erin inspected it.
[Inspect]
[Dalki blood]
[Consuming the blood will have unknown effects on the host]
{Quinn} System, what will happen if Erin drinks it?
{Erin} Be honest. Tell me if it will hurt if I drink it.
"No, it won’t hurt," The system replied bluntly, "but if you were curious enough, you could try it yourself, and we could all learn what it does."
As Quinn was thinking about if it would harm Erin, she went out there and poked the blood with her pinky finger. Holding it up to her nose, Erin thought that it smelled like the refreshing taste of revenge served cold, which was to say... it smelled like mint.
Not waiting for an answer about its effects, she stuck her pinky into her mouth, and took it out.
Instantly, Erin felt a tingly burning sensation in her body, and her energy reinvigorated. No longer was she tired from earlier.
[Level 2 Dalki blood has been consumed]
[A 20 percent increase in all stats. Will last one hour]
Erin’s mouth almost dropped. It improved her stats, but most importantly, she could’ve drunk this blood while fighting the dalki. She felt cheated! If she had known this, then there was no doubt in her mind that she could’ve defeated the dalki then and there.
With how strong this blood could make her, Erin raised her hand, trying to put it into her shadow space just like she did with the ability book, but nothing happened.
"So... What does it taste like?" Fex whispered to Erin as she walked back, stomping her feet.
"Minty," Erin replied coldly, but Fex had no concept of what mint was.
Quinn meanwhile was thinking about the origins of the dalki. The system didn’t seem to know what it would do, and Fex was similarly just as curious about its effects. Fex looked to be young, and the system came from an old book. Did this mean that vampires, both young and old didn’t know about the dalki?
If that were to be the case, then it wouldn’t explain how the system could create beast weapons. Beast weapons only came about as humanity hijacked teleporters from the dalki, allowing them to travel to other planets.
The whole timeline of events didn’t make sense to him, and it was giving him yet another headache. At least it was a headache and not a heart attack.
Leo and the two mech users were done examining the body, not able to find much information about its intentions.
The beast weapons teacher walked up to the group, and pointed to the men behind him, "These two will escort you back to the school. Make sure that all your injuries are dealt with."
"Back to the school?" Erin complained, glancing at the group behind her, "But what about the assessment?"
"It’s canceled. All the students at the shelter have already been sent back to the school, and those still hunting are being brought back as we speak," Leo replied.
Erin wanted to complain, argue that they could still do more, but ultimately, she knew she couldn’t change the school’s mind.
As the group walked off to follow the men, Leo grabbed both Fex’s and Erin’s wrists. She was about to protest, but then he started speaking.
"Looks like you stayed true to your word, you protected them after all," Leo spoke, "You really are on our side."
Erin was a little shocked by Leo’s words. If it had been anyone else, she could’ve been annoyed that someone touched her, but it came from Leo, the war hero himself.
Word had spread that Leo fought against the dalki more fiercely than any other fighter during the first war. It was a fact that Erin could relate to, and knew it meant that Leo simply took the fight against the dalki seriously.
Fex similarly was just as surprised, perhaps even more so. He had almost forgotten about the question Leo had asked him near the start of the school year.
While Leo was proud of Erin and Fex, there was something strange going on with Layla, and it was the fact that her aura now had a purple tint to it. He had Layla part of his class since the beginning of the year, so he knew that she hadn’t always had this aura.
Still, he decided to be wary, just in case.
As they traveled back, Layla shifted a little uncomfortably, patting the area near where she was impaled.
Immediately, Erin ran up to her.
"What’s going on?" Erin asked.
"It’s nothing, I’m just... A little hungry," Layla replied.
Quinn, Fex, and Erin all looked at each other, all with different ideas as to what that would mean.
