“So, boy, what’s your plan now?” The old man asked as he leisurely reclined on the chair.

Theo on the other hand felt horrible. Not only had he cleaned out most of the meat on the table, he felt even hungrier than at the start of the meal, not to mention that he now had to socialize, which wasn’t one of his strengths, to say the least.

“U-Uh, I don’t want to bother you any further, so I can leave right now if you want. I also want to thank you again for saving my life, although I don’t have anything with me currently, if there’s anything that I can do to help, I am more than willing to.” Although the man looked and acted like a barbarian, he still saved his life, even if Theo wasn’t in control of it at the time, so he felt obligated to do something.

What met his statement, however, was only boisterous laughter.

“Hahahahaha… Kid, you’re funny ya know. You almost died at the edge of the forest. Now, tell me the ingenious plan that will allow ya to get out from its center in one piece, ahhahaaha…”

“Grandfather, stop it.” Said Vanessa as she glared at him.

Then she looked at Theo and continued. “This place is located in the center of the forest, so the journey back will be rough or straight-up impossible without adequate strength.” Although he gathered that from what the old man said, he appreciated taht she put it in a more polite way.

“Oh…” Theo didn’t know how to reply to that, but thankfully he didn’t have to as the old man continued.

“Tell ya what kid, you can come with me when I go run some errands in a nearby city, could be in a couple of weeks, or even a month or two, depends on my mood. But you sleep on the couch, cuz I ain’t givin you my room no more, ya’ll also help around the house, deal?”

“Yea… ok.” Theo agreed as he didn’t really have much of a choice in the matter. At least not until he could protect himself.

“Ugh… I need some booze, sleep well cuz I’m ganna work you to the bone tomorrow, hahhaah…” With that, he stood up and went to who knows where.

“Although my grandfather is rough around the edges, he is a good man, so you don’t have to worry. By the way, how old are you?” Vanessa asked to fill the awkward silence created when the old man left.

“Uhmm…” That was a good question, one that he didn’t know, so he quickly accessed his inner library and replied. “…16.”

Vanessa gave him a look over with a confused face. “Really?” She asked with clear suspicion, which was justified, as even before the transformation Theo’s vampiric body looked more mature than his age would imply.

“Umh… y-yea.” Theo couldn’t help but be nervous, even though logic would dictate otherwise. The sweet fragrance coming from Vanessa also didn’t let him collect himself or keep a calm mind, especially now that he felt starved.

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“Are you okay? I saw you yesterday and your condition didn’t look too good.”

“Y-yea, I-I’m fine.” While avoiding Vanessa's gaze, Theo started to get restless and decided to do what he did whenever he didn’t know something.

‘El, what’s going on with me?’ He asked in his head.

‘You’re just very bad at conversing with people, it will probably get better with practice.’

‘Not that! Why do I feel so hungry?’ He didn’t know if Eileen was teasing him, but he wasn’t in a joking mood at the moment.

‘Ohhhh, that. Well, the previous transformation awakened the physique that was lying dormant in this vessel, these are just the side effects.’ At that moment Theo started to wonder if physiques and constitution were even worth the trouble, a thought that would send anyone without one into pure rage.

“Are you sure? You look a little out of it.” Said Vanessa to the distracted Theo.

“N-No, really, I’m fine.” The sentence sounded like it was forcefully squeezed out of his stomach, which did nothing to convince Vanessa.

‘How do I make it stop?’ The hunger started to turn into pain and although Theo could handle it, he had to fix it eventually, the sooner the better.

“I want to get some fresh air, is the outside, you know… safe?” It would appear that the situation distracted his mind enough to at least stop the stuttering.

“Of course, just make sure to stay in a kilometer radius, the ward's effects weaken after that point.”

“Thank you!” As Theo hurriedly stood up and headed towards the door located to his back, Vanessa's sight followed him with a hint of worry. He didn’t even bother to ask about the ward, the thing that is supposed to guarantee his safety.

Heading outside, he was met with a small clearing that continued into a zone of sparse small trees and finally into a full-fledged forest. The sun already hid behind the tree canopy, with only sparse rays of light visible, which didn’t impede Theo’s vampire vision.

Not caring about his destination, he just headed straight as Eileen answered his previous question.

‘The physique you awakened is called ‘Dusk Ghoul’s metabolism physique’, ghouls are closely related to vampires and similar in many ways, with the…’

‘You can continue the history lesson later, just tell me the way to stop it first.’ The hunger or rather pain started to increase. Theo was honestly fed up with it all, just when he thought he could have somewhat of a normal life, something had to disturb it.

‘Well, I was just about to get to that, hmph. Anyways, as I was saying, since it’s a special variant of a ghoul’s physique, there are two ways to fix your problem, one is the universal one and the other specific to this physique in particular.’

“Grrr” Something akin to a low growl subconsciously escaped Theo’s mouth.

‘Calm down, I’m getting to it. So, the most common way to fix your problem is to do what ghouls do, and that is to ingest fresh meat, preferably humanoid, but any other will do too. The other way is specific to dusk ghouls and a little more complicated, so I think you should focus your attention on the first option.’ Eileen quickly explained as she noticed that Theo’s condition drastically decreased his attention span.

‘Where the fuck am I supposed to find fresh meat?’ Theo said, leaning against the trunk of a thick tree and painting.

‘I mean this is a forest…’

‘Yes, a very dangerous one!’ Theo retorted.

‘I know you don’t feel well, but you don’t have to take it out on me.’ Said Eileen with I slight pout.

‘…Sorry, I just feel like I’m going crazy’ It wasn’t just the pain that bothered him, it was the urge that made him want to bite everything in sight, which made Theo feel like he wasn’t fully in control of his own body.

‘Look, I’m sure we can figure something out, how long can you last?’ Eileen's tone softened as she tried to calm him down.

‘I have no clue, I never experienced anything like this before.’

‘Ok, ok. I know this forest is supposed to be dangerous, but you’ve received a bunch of stuff from the system, so with all of that, I’m sure we can find a solution.’

“Grrrr” Another growl left his lips. ‘Fine.’