Chapter 132: Level 4 Bluff
Leaving the second year building, Peter made his way to where that large boy said to meet up at. For the second time that day, he was going to meet with a far powerful person and listen to their every word.
Stepping into a secluded spot, Peter found himself in an alleyway with tall plain walls surrounding him. It meant there was no other exit other than the way he came.
Before Peter could think twice about sticking around, he heard the footsteps of a large boy enter the alleyway. Instantly, he braced himself.
"Say, I never thought I’d see the day Earl Hampton would get his hands off of you," The boy spoke with a faux casualness to it.
Glancing at his watch, it stated the number 3, and, for a very brief moment, Peter thought about fighting back. He remained silent, as he was worried whatever he might say would tick off the large boy.
"Silent type huh? Good, I hate it when my play things speak up," The boy coldly stated, "Just so you know, the name’s Dan, and that’s the only name you’ll be answering to now that Earl is dead."
Peter’s head perked up, "He’s dead?"
"Shut it! What did I just say about speaking?!" Dan commanded.
Instantly, Peter slammed his jaw shut, and stiffened his body. He feared that even breathing wrong around Dan meant punishment.
"Now then, let’s break you in," Dan commented, as a darkness cast over his eyes.
Dan took a few steps closer to Peter, and he stepped back until hitting a wall. Even with Earl gone, there was always going to be a new guy to replace him. Fighting back was a losing game.
Lifting him up by the collar, Peter shut his eyes, and turned his head away, bracing for the worse.
"HEY! Stupid face!"
It was a strangely familiar voice, one that Peter had heard earlier that day. Both he and Dan turned towards the source of the sound, only to see a short girl with purple hair point at the larger boy angrily.
"Leave him alone!" Cia yelled, then she held her hands out, summoning a light blue translucent spear.
"Or what?" Dan threatened, twisting his body towards Cia, "This doesn’t concern you, pipsqueak."
The shorter girl chuckled, then began spinning her spear with a level of dextrious expertise that gave the impression that she wasn’t afraid of a fight.
"I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but I am a level 4," Cia assured, holding up her watch.
Realizing what she was doing, Peter began to fear for her well being. Here she was, risking her skin for a guy she barely knew, against a guy twice her size. Not only that, but she was doing it all on a bluff alone. Cia had no combat ability, only a support one.
Gritting his teeth, Peter stared at Cia, silently pleading for her to get away.
Dropping the shorter boy, Dan slowly walked up to Cia, then spat on the ground in front of her.
"You’re lucky I don’t like hitting cute girls."
He left, leaving both Cia and Peter to let out a collective sigh of relief.
"I can’t believe that worked," Cia carefully smiled, then ran over to Peter’s side, "Are you okay? You’re not hurt or anything?"
As Cia placed her hands on him, Peter lightly pushed them away, "What did you do that for? You could’ve gotten hurt! I don’t want you to get roped up in this."
"Well, what was I supposed to do? Let you get wrapped up in Duke’s business?" Cia retorted.
Still, it wasn’t just Duke that had Peter worried. People like Dan were the kind of people to not take kindly to having their scapegoat taken by another person. Then Peter realized something.
"Wait, how did you get past the perimeter? First years aren’t supposed to be here," he worried.
Cia smirked, placing a hand on her hip, "I have my ways, now let’s get out of here before that guy comes back with his buddies."
"Uh— Right," Peter said, then ran out of the alleyway with Cia.
—
Inside Logan’s room, Erin had attempted to practice her shadow skills more, but she was finding it a little difficult to do so in the stuffed room. Despite having more bedroom space, the short boy was a bit of a hoarder with stuff littering the floor. She could’ve gone to the hallways, and trained there, but some instinct in her mind didn’t want to let Layla out of her sight.
After using the basic shadow control, and shadow equip using the remains of her rattaclaw chest piece, Erin had managed to level up one of her skills.
[Shadow equip has leveled up]
[Shadow equip is now Lv 2]
Satisfied, Erin decided to spend the rest of the time here leveling up one of her system skills, inspect, and use it on all of the junk laying around.
Picking up a multi-colored spherical object that looked to be made out of gears, Erin used the skill only to find it was a toy.
[Inspect]
[Gear Ball]
[A plastic combination toy made to be scrambled, then solved by twisting and sorting each segment by color coordination]
[Creator: Logan Green]
Not caring for the object, she tossed it to the side, and inspected the other things there, only to find out that they either gave a line of question marks, gave basic descriptions of what they were, or say the creator was Logan Green.
Right as she was about to inspect a black square-shaped device, the gaming pod device’s door opened up, and Layla stepped outside of it a little woozy.
"Are all VR games like this?" Layla commented, "I feel a little motion sick."
As if on command, Layla’s stomach growled, and her face grew red in embarrassment.
’He better not have heard that,’ she worried, but when she noticed Logan’s sleeping body on his bed, she let out a small sigh of relief.
"Does your motion sickness give you a fever too?" Erin replied in a monotone voice, noting Layla’s red face.
"Ghouls don’t typically get sick, so I would believe not," the system added.
Shaking her head, Layla forced a smile, "We should head back, and get something for me to eat. Just in case."
Erin nodded, "First, what did you think about the shadow ability?"
Tilting her head slightly, Layla thought about it, "Well, it’s certainly useful, but I do slightly miss using telekinesis on my arrows. It’s been very good for reloading, and better aim, but at the same time, my current bow already helps with accuracy."
"If she wants to, she could relearn the telekinesis ability," The system informed, "There are certain abilities that only vampires can learn, and at the same time, there are abilities that only humans can learn. However, there are also abilities that are in the middle, somewhere in between, where there is overlap between the two species."
It was a crucial bit of information, one that Erin wished she knew sooner, but it meant that if she told Layla, she would have to chose between two types of abilities.
"If you are still unsure, you could ask Fex for a list of abilities that are compatible with both humans and vampires, and that would give Layla the most amount of options," The system added.
’And why can’t you do that?’ Erin shot back.
"If you recall, Fex did have a plan to help Layla with the hunger problem," The system reminded, "I thought it would be easier if you went to him for answers on both."
Erin slightly groaned in frustration, but he was right. She did need to go to Fex about his plan to get Layla fed.
Grabbing Layla’s hand, Erin prepared to head outside, "Before we head back to the dorm, let’s visit Fex."
