C10: Transformation
Three days passed by and here I stand at the midnight hour of the beginning of the fourth day.
Haunting sounds echo through my walls. The blue light gracing the bottom of my door flickers. It's fading out. There are only hours left till dawn.
The lights of the torches always die before the sun reaches the lodgings.
I've woken up so early at this late hour for a reason.
Shirtless, I stay seated in my bed. I have just woken up. My eyes need time to get accustomed to the gloominess of the room.
Stretching my arm, I stand up.
"System. Open up my status window."
<Opening your status window…>
Name: Silver Frostheart
Age: 304 years old
Race: Elf
Stats: <Level 68>
Health: 90/100 [Lvl 38]
Stealth: 80/100 [Lvl 31]
Strength: 90/100 [Lvl 40]
Mana: 10/100 [Lvl 40]
Vitality: 10/100 [Lvl 30]
Agility: 10/100 [Lvl 31]
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Titles: The Frost Elf of the North, The Pale Trickster
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Skills: [Wind Mount: Lvl 20], [Frost Blast: Lvl 30], [Mana Domain: Lvl 15], [Ice Slide: Lvl 10], [Frost Storm: Lvl 20], etc.
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Inventory [Lvl 10]
Cloak of Synthia
Blade of Hurricane etc.
"Hm, system. Add the two stealth stat points I have to my stealth level and upgrade it."
[Upgrading…]
[Your stealth level is now 32!]
"Add the wolf soul to upgrade the Cloak of Synthia to the next level."
[Upgrading…]
[Your Cloak of Synthia is now Lvl 22!]
"Hm, good. I can be a little more stealthy now."
I stand up from the bed and close the status window with a blink of my eyes.
'Now, to change my face.'
Yesterday, I slid a leather bag that contained a certain potion under my bed. I crouch down and grab it. Inside the bag, the glass bottles clash against each other.
I slide my hand inside it and grab the two bottles.
[Hair Coloring Potion: Lvl 2] The tag floats above the potion in my hand. The other one inside the bag reads [Eye coloring potion: Lvl 5].
These are essential for me.
I can't reveal my real face to the Princess. I have 99 more Princesses to bed and revealing my face to every one of them would only make it a disaster.
"Hm, both of these go here," I murmur to myself, taking the two glass bottles and pouring them into a bigger flask. Just as the two liquids drip into the flask, the potion changes its colors to a vibrant purple, illuminating the entire room.
I smile, taking the flask into my hand.
Brewing potions have always been fun for me. It's only natural for a wizard to enjoy the classic brewing sessions. It's the first thing we learn as wizards.
I push a wooden cork into the mouth of the flask to seal the potion within it.
As the liquids mix together, the flask heats up. The potion turns into an even lighter purple now, its luminance increasing slightly more.
"Finally, done," I whisper to myself, standing up.
I spent yesterday searching for the materials for these potions in the city. Gladly, I found all the ingredients needed by the end of the day. Now, I just have to bathe in the water mixed with these potions.
In the middle of my room is a wooden tub. I filled it with ice a few hours before I slept and added a fire potion to it so that it'll melt. It has melted entirely now.
I dip my hand in the water, and a spine-chilling cold envelops my skin. It's as cold as the waters of the North. But, I'm not scared of the cold. My skin is accustomed to such temperatures.
I take the flask in my hand and remove the cork from it.
Splosh!
I neatly pour it into the spine-chilling cold water, and the transparent water glows with a luminescent purple. Suddenly, the colors of the water shift. Once into black, then into crimson and back to purple once again. In the darkness of the room, the only thing that keeps the room alight is these ever-changing colors.
"Now, time to transform."
I slip my feet into the wooden tub and gradually immerse myself in the cold water. I sink deep into the tub as my head sinks beneath the water.
[Changing appearance… now.]
[Your eyes are now a red color for the next 20 days!]
[Your hair is now black for the next 20 days!]
I immerse myself in the water for a few more moments, feeling this potion burning into my skin. It reminds me of the olden days in the North, training on the fragile ice, breaking it, and falling into the ice-cold water.
Nostalgic. I feel nostalgic.
Splashing the water off the wooden tub, I sit up in the tub.
"Ha…." I exhale and take in deep breaths. I tumble out of the tub, butt-naked. Walking across the room, I finally arrive in front of the mirror.
My eyes are gleaming crimson. My hair; an eerie dark. I can only grin upon seeing this.
"I'm changed. Damn, I might just stick with this," I chuckle, brushing up the wet hair with my hand. Water drips onto the floor from my body. The cold is unbearable.
I wipe my body from the sheets of the bed. Then, I pull up my pants and slide into my shirt. Nelly's outside the lodgings today, tied to a pole. He's waiting to take off for the Woods where a thousand fell.
I grab the Cloak of Synthia from the hook on the wall, and then the wooden mask I've brought from a blind wood carver the other day.
Why did I choose a blind guy?
Because he'll never know I bought it from him. He'll never know that it is me unless the whole town is seized and the guards make the carver feel all the faces of the citizens from the palm of his hand, just like he did when he measured the size of my face.
I strap the wooden mask onto my face and draw up my hood.
'Today is the day. A date with a princess, huh? Can't say I have ever tried this before – but I've met many girls in my life. This girl can't be too different from the rest of the world,' I think to myself, climbing onto my window sill.
A cold breeze graces my cloak.
The city is dead, if not for a few drunks who walk aimlessly in the night streets. Before anyone sees me, I close my windows and leap off into the street.
Nelly neighs upon seeing me.
"Shhh," I shush her, untying the rope fixed to the pole. The lady at the counter comes to the exit to greet me.
"Oh, I've kept an eye on your horse long enough?" She asks me, gazing at me with those dead eyes of hers.
"Yep. Thanks, Cindy," I reply, throwing her two silver coins.
"Thank you, elf. Remember, if you ever want to get bad in bed, you just need to throw me four silver coins."
I mount the horse, grabbing its straps.
"If I ever want to die, I'll come to you, Cindy. You can do me like Jack the Reaper then," I grin.
"Bye-bye, sexy elf," she smirks back.
Cindy goes back inside the inn, moving through those doors in her white dress like a ghost. Shaking my head, I tap Nelly's stomach twice with my foot, ordering her to move.
As the skies shift colors from the midnight dark to the purple of the dawn, we take off to the woods where a thousand fell.