Chapter 134: Finger Licking Good
"Finger food?" Layla’s eyes lit up, "You mean, you got me fries?"
At that, Fex paused, and he wasn’t quite fully sure how to explain it in a way where the real contents were kept secret.
"Uh, no I mean finger food," Fex emphasized.
Layla’s face dropped. If it was what she thought it was...
He took out the box and handed it to Erin, "We should probably head into my dorm room before she eats this."
Grabbing the box, Erin was about to pry the lid open, when Fex slammed his hand on top.
"What are you doing?!" He harshly whispered, "You’re making us look like shady business men!"
"Why’d you hand it to me if you didn’t want me to look at it!" Erin forcefully whispered back.
"To keep my—" Fex began, before waving his hands, "Forget it. Let’s just go."
The trio left that part of the hall, and into Fex’s dorm room. He had given the box to Erin initially so his hands were free for the finger print sensor, but he realized he only needed one hand for that.
Once they stepped inside, it was the first time Layla and Erin had been here. It looked exactly like the girl’s dorm room, except the beds were on the opposite side of the wall, and there were glasses cleaning cloths on the night stands.
Locking the door, Fex grabbed the box out of Erin’s arms, and opened it on the kitchen counter.
"I knew the situation was a little tense, so we couldn’t have prepared some human meat beforehand but... I managed to snag something," Fex spoke with a smirk.
Reaching inside of the box, he mimicked the sound of someone opening a chest in a video game, then slowly took out a pallid hand.
He looked pleased with himself, but Layla was disgusted with both him, and herself. She had to swallow down her spit as the scent of raw human meat wafted into her sensitive nose, its delicious, rich flavors making her drool. It was taking every ounce of will power not to leap, and bite the hand in Fex’s possession.
"Are you trying to get us caught?!" Erin yelled.
"If you keep up your yelling, then we might—" Fex began.
Layla audibly gulped, then interrupted him, "Did you cut someone’s hand off? You can’t just do that—! That’s— That’s awful! I don’t want to live knowing that you cut someone’s hand off for me."
"Wait, you guys think—?" Fex glanced back at the hand, then to Layla, "No, let me explain— You guys didn’t know this, but back when I first arrived here, I was attacked by someone with a regeneration ability, and I knew this because their wounds kept healing whenever I cut into them. I learned later that those with the ability could regenerate lost limbs, so I decided to take my revenge today."
"And this person didn’t think it was strange that you kept their hand?" Erin crossed her arms.
"Well you see," Fex tapped the side of his head as his eyes glowed red, "I made sure he forgot I took it."
All they had was Fex’s word on the situation, but all things considered, the situation could’ve been a lot worse.
"Honestly, this is the best situation for Layla to get a taste of human meat, but be warned that once she eats this, animal meat will not be as effective in keeping her full," The system advised.
That response gave Erin mixed feelings about this. Layla was going to need human meat at some point, but they couldn’t get a reliable source of it.
Meanwhile, Layla was thinking about the ethics of it, ’Well, if it was sourced from a bad person who regenerated his hand, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I took a nibble.’
"No way," Erin coldly stated, "I promised that Layla wouldn’t eat human meat. She can get by on animal meat."
"What?!" Layla blurted out, as drool spilled over her lip.
"What do you mean ’what’? Didn’t you not want to eat another human?" Erin shot back.
Quickly wiping her mouth, Layla stood between Erin and Fex, "I’m going to need to do this at some point, I can already tell that animal meat isn’t going to be enough."
Not waiting for Erin to stop her, Layla snatched the hand off of Fex, and shoved it into her mouth. Without chewing, Layla swallowed the whole limb in one go.
As she ate, Erin saw a brand new notification screen appear in her vision.
[1/7 Human flesh eaten]
[Feed your ghoul, Layla, seven different types of human flesh]
[Reward: family member evolution]
Once she was done, Layla stared in shock by what she had done. To think that she would actually willingly eat a human so quickly was startling.
’Am I becoming a monster? Was Erin right?’ Layla worried.
Before she could think about it further, the door to the dorm opened, and Quinn quickly entered the room.
"Is Peter here?" Quinn swiftly asked.
Fex shrugged, "I only just got here, but I’ll say no for now."
When Quinn got the same notification that Erin did, he was initially worried that something might’ve happened for Layla to eat a live person, but when he saw that she looked fine, and was with Erin and Fex, he let out a sigh of relief.
’I wonder what it was that they were able to get her to eat,’ Quinn wondered.
Looking at Quinn, Layla noticed that she didn’t have any ideas about biting his head off. In fact, when she first ate animal meat, it felt like she wasn’t actually full, like how one would get after filling up on junk food. Now, she felt genuinely satiated.
"Don’t worry about Layla, she was able to eat something," Fex began, "I’ll tell you more later."
A few moments after Quinn entered, Peter entered the room.
"Oh— Um, hi guys," Peter awkwardly greeted. He wasn’t expecting to see everyone surrounding the two girls in his dorm room, and to look at him so suddenly when he arrived.
Wanting to drop the attention, he went to a corner where the desk was, and tried to focus on his studies.
Dusting off his hands, Fex leaned on the side of the fridge, "Well, if that’s everything you needed from me, then you two should probably head back. Curfew is soon."
Glancing at their watches, they found that he was right. It was nearly 10 pm, but there was enough time for Erin to ask one last question.
"There is something I need to know. What abilities do we have access to that Layla can learn?"
Placing a hand on his chin, Fex began to think about it, "Hmm, well she could learn a few like poison, telekinesis, or transformation, but honestly, I recommend that she wait until she evolves."
"What do you mean, "when I evolve"? I’m just going to be a stronger ghoul, right? Why would I need to wait?" Layla questioned.
"Not exactly, you see, you’re thinking about yourself like a vampire. Those guys have a set path. Meanwhile, ghouls can evolve into a ton of different things, each one with their own skills," Fex explained. "If you evolved into a wight and chose something like poison, then sure, it’d help in a fight, but it wouldn’t really compliment your ability to reanimate the dead as lesser wights, whereas if you learned my string ability, you’d be able to do everything I can but also have puppets on hand at all times."
"Wights are a potential evolution of the ghoul subclass. Like Fex said, a special trait of theirs is that they can bring corpses back to life in a way. Think of it as a form of necromancy, where the lesser wights they make follow simple commands, and can fight by the wight’s side," The system educated.
Layla nodded as she listened to Fex, taking it in. There was the chance that she could relearn telekinesis ability, but also the chance to learn something new. No doubt, when she eventually evolved, she would need to figure out the best ability that would best fit with her bow, and new subclass skills.
’Or maybe I shouldn’t learn any ability,’ Layla contemplated, ’Pure might not take it kindly if I did.’
