Ch 54:- Evolution of a Ghoul
After speaking with Quinn and resolving the issue, Rayne went to the Manga store to visit one last time before resigning from his position as staff. He then returned to his room and immediately began assembling a portal. He wanted to create a checkpoint at the vampire planet so he could teleport there instantly without the help of his portal. After assembling it, he entered a virtually simulated code for the vampire planet that would teleport him to the same coordinates previously used by the vampire. After entering the code, he activated the portal. As he was about to step through, he began to contemplate whether he should enter or not. He was going to spy on them, and there could be strong vampires on their side or good sensors that could detect him. He shook his head and entered the portal, appearing just outside a large settlement. He immediately retreated to the jungle at his speed, hiding behind some bushes. At that moment, one of the guards looked in his direction, pointing. He retreated another hundred steps, then jumped onto a tree branch and activated the portal, teleporting him instantly back to his dorm room.
"How did that guy detect me? I made sure to lower my presence to the bare minimum possible," Rayne thought. To take his mind off the matter, he assembled a rifle. After a while, it was fully completed, and he went to the scroll in his room to teleport to Planet Pioletic for testing purposes. After finishing his testing on a couple of insect-like beasts, he decided to etch it with Power enchantment and the scope with Precision. After finishing, he went and explored a little bit more, testing it on some beast before returning to his room and sleeping for the night.
Several days passed by with Rayne barely interacting with Quinn's group. Most of the time, he was invested in his own research. One evening after class, he discovered something new: VR. Although he wasn't that interested, he gave it a try. Sure enough, it wasn't that interesting; all it was about was 1v1 fights between people.
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Time skip-Day 8 after Peter Transition as a Ghoul.
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On the 8th day after Peter had become a ghoul, Quinn invited Rayne to be there when the evolution process happened. As he entered the VIP room whose address was given to him by Quinn, he noticed that Vorden, Quinn, and Fex were already there, along with a short boy who he could only suspect was Logan. As he entered, he noticed that Peter was eating a human limb savagely. After completing it, he heard a loud groan from Peter's direction.
"Peter, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Vorden said, with a worried expression. He was shaking Peter, who had fallen and was lying on the ground. Peter was clutching his belly with both hands, feeling like a fire was spreading out from that point all over his body.
"Guys! Give him some space!" Quinn said. "He's evolving! I don't know what he'll turn into or what's going to happen to him next."
All of them stepped back to give Peter some space. Logan turned his spider-bots into a cannon attached to his arm and aimed it at Peter. He hadn't covered his whole body this time, but just enough to create the cannon. Logan looked at the others with a determined look on his face.
"I'm not taking any chances," Logan said. "There are too many things left in this world that I still need to discover and investigate."
Vorden agreed with Logan and thought his actions were very reasonable. He was relieved that Logan had something to point at Peter because his healing ability wouldn't be of any help if things went wrong during the evolution. The groans coming from Peter grew louder, and he started to shake all over. He had never experienced this much pain before; it felt like something was trying to break all the bones in his body. As they nervously watched Peter, they started to see visible changes in his body. His skin began to shrink, tighten and turn white all over. He didn't look sick or weak; the scene reminded Vorden of what Quinn had looked like before his evolution into a full vampire. It appeared that Peter's body hadn't lost any body mass, but it looked like he was shriveling up and dehydrated.
As Rayne saw the transition, his eyes widened suspecting that Peter was evolving into a Windigo. Still, he calmed himself when he noticed that the smell was nothing like one, and his observation skill showed that he was turning into something different. At the same time, something was worrying Peter a lot more right now. His heartbeat was starting to slow down, and with the pain on top of this, he thought he might be dying. However, even though his heart wasn't beating anymore, he could still feel everything, and it didn't feel like he was dead at all. Then, finally, his heartbeat stopped entirely, and at the same time, so did the pain.
"A wight, is it fair enough? At least it is not a Wendigo," Rayne thought as he looked at Peter's race.
As Peter stood up from the floor, his face looked more sunken in than before, and his skin was slightly paler. Immediately, Peter grabbed his chest for some reason and held it there for a while, yet he felt nothing, not a single beat.
"Damn, even though he is undead and looks much dead, he looks handsome," Rayne thought.
"Tell us your name, age, and where you are!" Logan shouted. He had to make sure that Peter was alright in the head.
"I don't answer to you," Peter snapped. "I will only answer to one," he said, pointing at Quinn.
Quinn then repeated the question.
"Peter Chuck, 16, and we are inside Logan's room, sir."
Satisfied with the answers, Logan put his hand down but made sure not to take the mechanical weapon.
"Is everything okay? Do we still need to feed him human flesh?" Vorden asked.
"It's alright, Peter. You are no longer a ghoul; you're now something known as a Wight," Quinn replied.
After explaining everything to Peter, he finally understood why his heart had stopped beating. He was an undead creature, no longer alive.
"Can I die, sir?" Peter asked.
Quinn found it strange that Peter kept referring to him as "sir," but could only assume it had something to do with his class change. It seemed to also cause a slight personality change in Peter as well.
"Well, you're already dead. There is no longer any need for you to eat human flesh, and your unnatural healing abilities will heal you most of the time. But if you do get hurt and use too much energy, you will once again have to eat human flesh, although there is no longer any requirement for it to be fresh," Quinn explained.
Not wanting to stay any longer, Rayne exited the room and returned to his own. Once there, he became engrossed in making talismans and finding ways to increase his charm stats. Getting frustrated, Rayne mistakenly poured all the free 10 stats that he had gained into his charm stats. After realizing what he had done, he began to get angry before making his way towards the scroll. This time he teleported to Planet Caladi to blow off some steam, donning his traditional hunter attire along with a blade that looked impractical. It had saw teeth on one end and was called the Saw Cleaver. After arriving, he went on a rampage, killing any beast that crossed his path. Thankfully, it was nighttime, so none noticed him although those who saw him were truly horrified. A man drenched in beast blood did not look good to many people.
Meanwhile, with others, Vorden spoke up, "I have a question. How did you figure out what we were up to?" Vorden was certain he had covered all their tracks with Fex, and the last thing he wanted was to get caught. Yet, they did. If Fex had found out, it meant that others could find out too.
Logan walked over to Peter, who turned his head and gave him a dead-eye stare. Quinn immediately intervened, "Peter, stop that!" It was almost instinctual for Quinn to do so, as if he were telling off a bad dog growling at another person. Logan had removed the listening device from Peter's wristwatch and made a few adjustments using his glove before handing it back to Peter to put on. He had also removed the implanted heartbeat sensor and noticed that it hadn't indicated a signal in a while. If he had found out too late, the guards would have rushed over. Although he didn't know why, he could only assume it had something to do with the evolution. He decided to make a fake signal, so it would indicate that Peter was alive.
Peter had become a lot less talkative, and at the same time, he didn't seem as timid as before. It was causing a strange atmosphere in the room. "Peter, why don't you come over by me," Quinn said, noticing how everyone was feeling. Peter walked over to where Quinn was, constantly looking around the room, as if he were watching out for any dangers.
"I planted a listening device into Peter's wristwatch when you asked me to make adjustments. I felt like you were hiding something, so this was the best course of action," Logan explained.
Hearing this news, Quinn felt like he had no right to be upset with Logan. Logan had helped him more than ever, even though Quinn still hadn't told him everything. "It's okay, Logan. Are we still friends?" Quinn asked.
"We're friends?" Logan replied with an odd look on his face.
"Of course. Friends help each other out, and you've helped me more than ever," Quinn explained.
"Well, if that's the case, this seems to be a one-way friendship since you haven't helped out with anything at all yet," Logan replied, sounding rude. However, Logan had always been honest like this and didn't really understand human feelings.
As the three were leaving the room, Quinn stopped by the door and pointed at the briefcase he had looked at before with Logan. "You're right," Quinn said. "I really haven't helped you when you helped me so much. You know that briefcase from before? Well, my system says it was made by Richard Eno." With that piece of information, Logan's thoughts were confirmed, and he knew it.
"You are my friend, Quinn!" Logan shouted as the door shut.
The biggest worry looming over their heads had finally disappeared, but that didn't mean they were completely in the clear. While Vorden and Peter had decided to go back to their rooms, Quinn decided he would visit the girls and update them on the situation.
They knew what they were planning to do today. Although Layla was happy to help, Erin didn't want to be anywhere near Fex, and Vorden strongly agreed. So Layla and Erin agreed to stay out of it for the most part and allowed the others to help Peter out.
Boys weren't allowed in girls' dorm rooms, and although they usually weren't very strict on this rule, it was currently nighttime, and it would be curfew time. So Quinn was worried if anyone were to see him. After a knock on the door, he spoke through the door to confirm it was him, and the three of them then went for a walk down the hallway while Quinn explained everything that happened. "No more, and there is no need to get involved with that Fex kid again? Good," Erin said.
After hearing everything that happened, it seemed like they were able to solve Peter's problem with ease, and thanks to the dark marketplace, if another ghoul was created, they would be able to solve the problem a lot easier.
'Should I experiment with myself first before telling the others?' Layla thought. 'Just maybe…if I get strong enough, I can break free.'
Still, after Quinn had told them everything, Layla could tell that something else was on his mind. "What's wrong? Is there another problem?" she asked.
Quinn then proceeded to tell them the situation with Duke. They desperately wanted Peter to learn the level four earth ability by the end of the week during break time. Whenever Peter was alone for a moment, it was almost annoying, even during the martial class, which he had recently started to notice. The major problem was that Peter didn't have an earth ability, and he was too involved to cut ties.
"Wait, did you say the end of this week, this Sunday?" Layla asked.
"Yeah, that's what Peter told us," Quinn replied.
"Yeah, that's what Peter told us," Quinn replied.
Layla was visibly shaken after hearing this news, but she forced her facial expression to remain neutral. The message she had received from one of the Pure agents was that Truedream would be coming at the end of the week on the same day they wanted Peter to learn the ability. If the others found out Truedream was coming, they wouldn't find it a big deal as he had close ties to the military and often visited the military base. But Layla knew the truth.
One of Pure group's biggest targets was Truedream; he was the whole reason why the military was able to keep such a strong grip on everyone. The reason why he was coming, of course, was to take students' abilities from them to add them to his own men. And Peter had been selected as one of the targets.
After finishing their talk, the group decided to leave each other and head for their rooms for the night. When Quinn opened the door, he was surprised to see Vorden rushing over to him.
"Quinn, thank heavens you're back!" Vorden said. "Peter has become a weirdo. He's just standing above his head and won't listen to anything I say. I was trying to relax and listen to some music, but I can't with him just standing there staring. What the hell happened to him?"
Quinn started to laugh nervously; it looked like Peter had changed more than he thought. "Peter, you can rest. Why don't you lie on the bed?"
Peter did as he was asked, but when lying on the bed, they noticed he didn't close his eyes.
Seeing this made Quinn a little upset, the old fragile scared Peter had completely disappeared and was no longer there. Even though Quinn had saved him, had he really it seemed like Peter was now an entirely different person and he didn't even know who he was looking at anymore.