The Body

The gentle breeze of wind hitting my naked body made me feel a bit cold; I could feel the hairs on my body stand on end. The sun's rays, though, had the opposite effect, comforting me and making wherever they touched more warm.

With a yawn, I opened my eyes and struggled to get up; my muscles were all sore, and that's when I noticed something strange.

Similar to what I did when I was in the cave, I decided to use the Sixth Sense to get a view of my body, and what I saw left me speechless. In the past, I wasn't a very handsome guy, but now it was different.

The body that the mysterious knight had given me was simply beautiful. My face slightly resembled his, but I didn't have a beard, and my hair was white. My eyebrows and eyes had extremely dark black strands that resembled makeup, and my eyes were deep blue, like the depths of the sea during a full moon.

Some would even say I was a bit feminine now, but the contrast with the extremely defined and muscular body was significant. Every part was excessively sensual and appealing even in the erogenous zones of the body. I suppose the world forced me to be charismatic due to my nature.

Still, I intended to bring the knight back to life. It just occurred to me that I hadn't even asked his name. But that didn't matter now because I had to fulfill my part of the deal.

<<The Man of Sin: Complete>>

<<Rewards: The First Sin updated, new sub-skill Snake Form, can turn into a snake at will.< p>

Choose an epic or minor skill to evolve:>>

I'll go with Poison for now. It could have been more useful in the previous fight, and now that I'm human, I have more mobility to use it.

<<Basic Skill: Poison>>

<<Evolving >>

<<Assassin upgraded, new sub-skill Poison, deadly poison.>>

To be honest, I was kind of hoping it would become a different epic skill than the ones I have, but it'll do for now.

<<The Slave Trader>>

<<Kill James III>>

<<Time 7 limit: days>>

<<Rewards: A new skill.>>

Hey! You're not the one giving me the new skill, and what's with this time limit?

<<"This 7 mission seems to have a time limit, sir. Apparently, if you don't kill the prince within days, contract will become invalid.">>

What? I didn't agree to that, Artemis! I could lose all my skills, you know!

<<"Stay calm, sir. The Voice of God recognizes that you already have what is necessary to kill the prince in question. Honestly, as a last resort, invading castle with rituals wouldn't be difficult. Besides, would still Antichrist even if lost skills.">>

It's not quite like that; my life would become significantly harder.

But anyway, there's not much to do now, right? Let's go, Sixth Sense, where should I go?

My question was somewhat stupid, as the Sixth Sense indicated that I should go the opposite way the knight walked, but there was just the small problem that I was completely naked.

Looking to where the knight had died, there was no body or armor anymore; the chainmail itself disappeared, but there was still a gambeson that looked more like a coat. I was used to wearing one when I was a cop, but it was much more technological than that.

After dressing, it looked like I was wearing a dress. The modern ones were much prettier than that. With my long hair, feminine appearance, and wearing that, I was afraid some lunatic would grab my butt.

I just remembered that we seemed to be in the Middle Ages judging by the clothes and technology of the knight. That was slightly scary. I wonder what it would be like to take the previous owner of this body to a rave in my world; I believe he would be frightened. However, more frightening than the cultural shock were the customs and the difference in how advanced the society here was. Hunger was extremely common from what I remember from history books.

Better get that out of my head and head towards the kingdom, even though my feet were bare and without calluses at the moment, almost a princess's feet.

...

The journey was quite long, luckily due to the feast I had with the rats before and the amount of water I drank in the cave, I didn't need supplies at the moment. However, it would be only a matter of time before I got hungry. Luckily, I could already see the kingdom in the distance.

Thinking properly, I hadn't even checked the so-called Snake Form. Poison should just be a stronger poison now that it's epic, but Snake Form was a legendary ability so it should do more than just revert me to my past form.

Looking at my hand, I tried to transform each of my fingers into a snake. Then, in an almost instant response, each one turned into a snake and lengthened; I could control each one, and their eyes allowed me to see as well.

Frightened, I tried to undo the transformation while still walking, which happened without much difficulty. Then I remembered some anime I had watched in my previous life, and I thought maybe I could launch snakes.

So, punching the air, I tried to transform my arm into a snake and detach it from my body, which followed without results. I mean, the arm turned into a snake and it seemed like it would continue to stretch for a mile if I let it, but I preferred to make it return since it wouldn't detach.

Looking on the bright side, at least that meant I had even more mobility than I thought.

...

Approaching the kingdom, I saw that it was entirely surrounded by real walls and that it was not small at all; quite the contrary, it must have had about 20 miles in diameter looking from the horizon. Although I was bad at math, that would still be a huge kingdom; just getting to the castle in its center would cost me a lot of effort considering if I didn't have rituals.

Its entrance was easy to locate, gates of enormous stature made for the passage of carriages and goods, I imagine. It should be one of many entrances since occasionally I found knights patrolling, even though I had Stealth on to not be noticed.

After all, my appearance was distant enough from the guy who was undoubtedly being sought, yet an experienced observer might analyze that the body I inhabit is the same one that killed the old king.

Finally, I arrived at the gate; strangely, there were no queues to enter the city, and no one else, apart from the watchtowers that I couldn't see because they were too high, not even with the Sixth Sense. There were about 20 guards on the ground, armed with halberds and lightly armored; one with full armor approached me before I got too close.

"Halt! What business do you have in the kingdom?"

Silver Tongue was kind of a passive skill, so I didn't have much to do about using it, but I hoped he wouldn't realize I was indirectly manipulating him.

"Good morning, my dear friend. It's been weeks since I've known what it's like to lie down in a bed, and I would love it if I could take a good bath in an inn as well. Doesn't your kingdom receive merchants?"

He seemed to sympathize with my situation and automatically became calm, just a little startled upon hearing my voice and realizing I was a man.

"Oh, you know... the king was murdered by a group of damned ones, and we haven't found their leader yet. The city has been closed since then. Due to various users of witchcraft, we don't need contact with the outside world to keep the city running indefinitely, so in the meantime, no one leaves, and only guests enter. I can't do much for you, friend."

It was really easy to imagine a kingdom functioning through magic and unlimited resources. However, a commercial hub of this size closing its doors would potentially break the economy of any nearby village or association that depends on the city's operation. James must be pretty pissed off to take such a measure.

"Gosh, man, I'm really tired, even though it doesn't seem like it since the only dirty and battered thing on my body is my clothes. Isn't there anything I can do?"

The soldier took off his helmet a little and held it with his elbow, scratching his head a bit, pondering if he could help me.

"Are you a mage? A priest or something? I ask because despite your clothes, you're in perfect condition. If you can manipulate energies and prove it to me, the orders are for me to give you a bracelet to nullify them, and then you should report to some magical authority within the city to see how you can be useful."

The only thing I knew how to do so far was summon plagues, and the last time I did that, it wasn't pretty. But since I had a legendary ability, I had to try. Maybe if I summoned something harmless just to demonstrate to them.

I reached my hand to the skies behind me and commanded them to give me something that could fly, and then the best thing possible happened. Pigeons are considered pests, and several white pigeons emerged from my body, increasing in number every passing second, beginning to turn into a veritable storm of birds over time. I decided to stop the manifestation before I lost control.

At least they weren't as scary as the flies from before.

"Does this serve?"

I asked casually.

"By Merlin! They all disappeared! I've seen many magic users act, but none did something like this! I suppose that justifies your entry; here, take this."

He handed me a steel bracelet with three stones, a sapphire, a pearl, and a ruby. Each seemed to contain a different type of energy, and Artemis warned me that they were trying to restrict my miracles, rituals, and magic. However, they were epic-level enchantments, far from being able to do anything to me.

<<Do you want to learn the miracle of ritual restriction and restriction?>>

<<Yes >> <<No >>

Well, I imagined that rituals wouldn't be able to dispel miracles, but apparently I was wrong. The answer, however, is obvious.

<<Miracle Restriction obtained>>

<<Ritual Restriction obtained>>

"Friend, I'm sorry to inform you that these bracelets don't work."

I thought to warn him to gain his trust.

"Haha! Nice joke! Go ahead, lad!"

He said, slapping my back and opening the gate for me to pass.