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***
Error - impossible to move into a goblin.
Error - unable to move into goblin.
Error - unable to move into goblin.
Error - unable to move to goblin.
And a dozen of these messages... yeah... fucked up! Just... fucked up... And most importantly... I'm stuck in my armour! Bitch! What kind of armour they gave me! I'm not a ghost anymore... well, a ghost, but I can't get out of the armour!!!! Sukkkk!!! And the girls are crying! And I can't do anything! Fuck! I can't even open the evolutionary branch!
The skill - I am a goblin has been consumed by a soul.
W-what? What do you mean, absorbed by a soul?! Where's my respawn?! Where the hell did they take it! I'm now... Ah... okay, the hell with it... I seem to be alive... well, spiritually... and then we'll figure out what's what. Of course, it's a pity to lose immortality, but I've lived as a mortal before, and now nothing has changed much. Let's hear what the girls are saying first!
...
Eh! Don't take me to heaven! I'm quite comfortable here! I hope they don't start burning me... do they?
...
Girls, don't shout at each other, that's not why I saved you and tried to bring you closer together. And anyway! Worry about Vivi! She's gonna go back to her old self! Aah! She's a doll! She's just mumbling mumbling mumbling mumbling mumbling mumbling. Fuck! I didn't even ask her why she called me Master! I'm sorry, Vivi. I've been a bad master.
...
My will... Elvina... once again you're playing your chivalry games... or what is it? Eh, well, your idea of raising Hira is pretty good... really, you're a naive girl yourself! You'll be played for a fool! Your flower didn't bloom for someone to steal! It belongs to me! Elvina! I... hope that you, though it sounds very selfish... don't fall in love and keep yourself!
...
Where are you taking me? Stop! Don't bury me! Oh, what a relief! Where! You better bury me! Don't put me in a cave! Aquinas! I didn't expect this from you! Couldn't you do better? Damn it, Elvina, why are you helping her? Faaaaakkkkkkkkkkk!!!
...
The girls are gone... eh, and I didn't even get to see Hiro - poor girl... she seems to love me, and I just died. I'm a bad person... but am I human? Heh-heh, definitely not. But I was once a man... Eh, well, it's time to do something. I don't want to wait for them to come for me, and for that, let's try mana... inject it into my body! I can't think of anything better, all right. There's still plenty of time, I'll have all my intu traits in that time....
...
That's a long time. How long have I been down? I don't want to fuck up in the dark. It's one thing to have my body eating mana, too bad I can't see what's happening to it now...
...
Attempt number I don't know... it's been a week already... Hehe. Mana is already spent completely... eh... and it's not even possible to pump a skill this way... On the minicart, Elvina has already gone very far... eh.....
...
New skill - Undead!
New skill - Darkness Magic!
New skill - Empathy!
Skill - Two-handed Swordsmanship - evolves into Fencing 1.
Until resurrection 30:56...
30:55...
Ooh... that's... at least something useful... and more importantly, now I'm alive again? - I rejoiced, only my head was immediately flooded with new information. Surprisingly, it didn't hurt, although judging by the flow - the information was extensive and sudden.
It was not enough to lose my head from the flow of downloaded information. And the timer... let it tick... I'll have time to check myself.
'Character window.'
Name - Arien.
Race - Dullahan
Class - Soul Eater
Level - 1
Experience - 111/5000
Mana - 565/790
Strength - 24
Dexterity - 24
Endurance - ∞
Intelligence - 79
Spirit - 17
Character Points - 0
Skills: 'Undead-1', "Assessment-3", "Omnivore-7", "Stealth-7", "Hunter-6", "Regeneration-4", "Mana Control II-2", "Body Enhancement-5", "Small Mana Regeneration Core-2", "Earth Magic-1", "Healing Magic-1", "Poison Resistance-5", "Disease Resistance-5", 'Pain Resistance-3', "Astral Eyes-1", "Soul Eater-1", "Beast Instinct-3", "Acute Sniff-6", "Jerk-5", "Fencing-1", "Blacksmith-1", "Master's Mark-1", "Magic Sight-4", "Harem-2", "Scavenger-2", "Crushing Weapon-1", "Darkness Magic-1", "Empathy-1".
Evolution - requirement - level 30.
Settings.
Fuck... there are seven of you... I mean - dullahans! I'm undead! Dead undead, and I can't get my dick up again! All my hard work is for nothing! - I mentally howled.
Wait, a dullahan is a priori half-dead undead... or is he? Isn't he? Then my dick should be working too! Gotta check it out.
'Evaluation!'
*"Score a success.
-35MP
Dullahan is a half-dead undead.
A headless spirit knight.
A disembodied soul in a half-dead body. Not afraid of sunlight, but the magic of light, life and fire - negatively affects your health. The body works partially.
Ooh, the body works, it's like a mountain fell from my shoulders. But my race has changed, I'm a headless horseman? Will I have a horse? Though... I don't think so, I'm a 'headless knight'... and I could use a horse right now. But what I don't have, I don't have. It's worth a shot to take my head off and see what happens.
Well, that's okay. I'm more concerned with darkness magic, and the downloadable information on it... or rather, the downloadable information of some spell templates! Finally, I won't have to poke around randomly! True... there are only three templates, but what a lot of templates!
The cloak of darkness is a sort of defence against light and fire magic. It covers my entire body in a dark haze, and it's also very good at camouflaging in the dark! It consumes a hundred mana per cast, and another unit of mana per second to maintain the spell. Defence properties... well, a rookie mage's fire fireball definitely won't kill me, and neither will healing magic. But stone spike already passes me by, as well as water... in general - blocks light and fire, but sucks otherwise, at the first level of 'darkness magic', of course.
Aura of Terror - kind of like... dichlorophos against mosquitoes, scares you or something. Scares away insects, but with humanoids, the same goblins - not anymore. But does not eat mana and works in passive mode with the ability to switch on and off.
And the most delicious ... Blade of Darkness - a blob of dangerous darkness magic is collected in the sword of the knight, with the following use: launch into the enemy 'blade of darkness' - as you hit, so it will fly - the damage is weak - will leave a small scratch on the leather armour, but to frighten the enemy or shock him you can: one blow spends [10] mana in cd 5 seconds. 'Or make it transparent with self-repair mode', almost invisible to the eyes of everyone else, be it a mage or an archer and there will be no need to sharpen it, clean it from grease and blood - the blade will just absorb it all! True on a sunny day invisibility does not work, but this is not the most important property of the template. The main thing is the ability to give the blade life! To give it a soul is purely speaking, but to do this you will have to put a fair amount of living, while you will have to 'always' maintain the spell in it, and if you do not feed it with mana, all the gained progress will come off immediately as if it had never happened. I don't know what the 'living blade' is, but I can guess.
It eats not so much mana, just a hundred mana a day - 24 hours a day, and you can put a little more mana into it [150], and instead of 24 hours, it will be 36 hours. Also, the sword can be recharged indefinitely as long as I have mana and don't have to worry about losing progress, but in order to recharge it, I have to be in physical contact with it, i.e. hold it in my hand or fasten it to my belt. If I lose it or have it stolen, I'll know where my sword is, and it'll show up on the minicard as long as it has mana, of course. The radius, alas, I don't know, but I don't think it's small.
That's the kind of templates... headless knight - dullahan at the first level of 'darkness magic'. Quite useful skills... even though I'm a mage, in essence... well as a mage - self-taught.
Also my mana, it's become unusable to the living. I mean, my healing magic now harms more than heals... of course, I did not kill by touch, but... it can be weakened, but the weakening will be insignificant. Although... the blade with the support of the blade of darkness can work as a conductor of mana, and with each wound or scratch inflicted, you can weaken the enemy little by little. Only in this way, it's more likely that I would weaken and fall without strength than my opponent would fall with exhaustion of his strength.
Eh... such a beginner's set of dullahan is quite amusing... It remains to test undead skills, empathy and swordsmanship.
'Assessment'
*Assessment is a success
-35MP
Undead-1(34%)
You are no longer a goblin.
Infinite Stamina: your stamina is increased - your stamina regeneration is increased. Low Emotion: you are weak to emotion. Mental Resistance: you cannot be subdued by Necromancy magic. High resistance to pain. Immortal Flesh: you do not age. Semi-living undead: you can taste food, feel mild pain, and other weak positive emotions. Complete resistance to disease, you do not need to breathe to live. Requires mana to keep yourself alive: mana regeneration is reduced. Body produces no waste products.
Hmm, how am I supposed to level him up? Eh, so many questions and still no answers. Okay, let's look at the last 'evolved skill'.
'Evaluation.'
*"Assessment - Success.
-35MP
...
Racial: Darkness Magic 1.
Manipulation of darkness mana.
Spell Templates: 'Shroud of Darkness', "Aura of Terror", "Blade of Darkness".
...
Empathy-1(0%)
As befits a headless knight, you can sense strong humanoid emotions directed at you or others, but with a faint echo.
Passive ability... well... I don't know, haven't tried the skill in action yet, but it will definitely be useful in the future, especially when I level it up. Considering some of the books I've read in the past, will also help me with girls....
Fencing-1(0%)
You skipped the first path and gained a fencing skill as a headless knight - be proud!
...
The knowledge that appeared in my head shocked me.
Um, how, I mean, were all of my opponents just... beginners? Even Elvina, with her sword skill, was only a beginner! Eh-that's... shocking... I mean, if I met a person with the 'Swordsmanship-1' skill, and fought him one-on-one, I wouldn't just defeat him, and I might even lose with my level five skill....
Fuck... of course, if Elvina and I were paired against him, we'd win, I'm sure of it. But... shit, it's like I've been playing in a sandbox this whole time....
It's discouraging... I shudder to imagine what kind of swordsmanship skill the Goblin Killer has!' Now... the urge to do him a favour has somehow disappeared... but, it's still... half a month away from canon, I'm sure of that, and with my stamina I can run on my own two feet to the mountain fortress! Plus a slight delay for possible goblin cave clearings.....
Also... I'm wondering - is my sexual stamina also... now infinite? If so... the girls will just be moaning wandless dolls... hehehehehe, - if I could smile, my lips would definitely be curved in a lustful grin right now.
And then there's my looks! Skill said I wasn't a goblin anymore, didn't he? I'll have to find out what I look like! - I got excited, almost crying, and looked at the countdown timer.
11:23...
11:22...
Fuck... ten more minutes... and what am I supposed to do with that time? That's right, girls... what do I do now, or rather - what do I do! They're gone - disappeared into obscurity. Only Elvina is now displayed in the arse end of the world, in a foggy place. And continues to move further away from me and the town we were going to go to later... Harem... still works, but I'm not getting any experience, not for a week now. If on the first day there were still some crumbs, now it's zero. Even pumped up to level two, it wouldn't show them on the minicart, just added one slot...
'Ten minutes later' - I mentally said to myself, well, why? There was nothing to do anyway. And with the girls... I decided to do nothing for now. Of course, I would try to find out about my elven girls, but first I had to get to the town we were going to. Maybe I'll find out where they're going, but only the approximate route. It's just a matter of luck. But I'm going to find my little Elvina, thanks to the map I know her approximate path.
0:33...
There is still a little bit left... Eh, and time goes so slowly, as if seconds have become minutes.
0:24...
As if I wouldn't die on the way, but the armour is still on me, and yes - it's what kept me from shifting into a goblin... as it turns out... the armour had a very nasty thing on it.
'Soul Trap' - it's hard to tell from the name, but it's the reason I'm here now. That's both bad and good - I didn't lose my stuff and my ring, and the second thing is immortality, I don't have it now. Except for my half-dead appearance. Whereas before I could die of blood loss, now I can't. If I get my leg or arm chopped off or split into two halves, I can reattach the limb back or regenerate, but it takes a week and a lot of mana.
0:11...
Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho! Just a little bit more and I'll rise again!
0:5...
Hmm, once I revive, I'll have to check my head to see if it's detachable....
0:1...
Suddenly I was blinded by a bright flash, my body ached with pain....
- Khe-hke... - air filled my lungs, my body was just burning and heavy, along with my vision floating in different directions. Slowly I started to recover. Here I raised my arm, but the heaviness made it fall back on my chest with a thud. Too heavy...I hope my muscles didn't atrophy because of this? To check, I started kneading my toes and my feet themselves. I didn't even try to move my head, it was nailed to the ground. I was afraid to...
I'm going to lie there a little longer, kneading my body... I need to get some more mana into my body, maybe it'll help....
***
As it happens, I recovered quickly. I felt my energy surge through my body, and my body felt light as a feather. I rose abruptly from my lying position and jerked my head, something crunching....
It was as if my armour had cracked and my helmet had come off... and no - it wasn't a helmet! The helmet I was wearing came off with my head and fell to the ground with a thud, rolling not far from me. Surprisingly, there was no blood.
Fuck... seeing became much harder. Just as I lost my head, I started seeing in grey tone for all 360 degrees, so my head also saw my body, but in colour. The funny thing was... I saw in two spectra! I could see everything in great detail. I saw bugs crawling on the ground in slow motion, just a little bit, but I saw it and I understood it! Also...my head felt like it had been chopped off in an even slice. Where the 'meat and larynx' should have been, there was a flat matte black smoke. (P.A. Gg hasn't been paying attention to hovering particles - mana flows - for a long time.)
With surprise, I hovered, gazing at the new sight.
With my head I could see my whole body! The armour I was wearing had faded, the brightness was gone, the grey-golden hue was gone, instead it was now black, with a slightly golden tint, and the cloak had changed as well: tattered, as if worn, with torn holes. A faint black light burned near my neck, where my head should be. It did not rise up like a flame, but smouldered faintly. I wouldn't have noticed it at all if my head hadn't flown off my neck.
But the second spectrum, the one in grey... seen from where my head used to be... Ugh... it's hard to look with two 'heads' at the same time, I even get confused as to which is which. Well, it doesn't matter. The second thing I noticed was a dim red light coming from the narrow eye sockets of my helmet, there was a small slit, almost invisible and most likely created for beauty, but I could see the dim reddish glow clearly! Even in the grey tone...
Hmm, this could be a problem in the future. I wouldn't want to shine my location with a dim glow coming from my eye sockets, but... I'm the only one who can see it, and I only noticed it when I focused my attention on the strange anomaly.
Information immediately popped into my head...
Aura of horror - when switched on and the head is not in its place, from the eye sockets emanates a dim glow ... Just return the head in place, as the light will stop emanating from the eye sockets, and the skill will work without visual effect ....
Hmm, well, let's check it out....
My body stood up and staggered from side to side like an alcoholic out of habit. My legs were confused and my arms stretched forward as if my body was orientated by tactile touch. Clumsily shuffling my feet, and nearly falling on my back, my body waddled in different directions and took a few steps in my (head) direction. With each step, my body got more and more confident with its legs. Clenching and unclenching my hands, my body was stretching in different directions. The armour was like a part of my body and flexed in time with the movement. Like a second skin, the armour felt like elastic rubber.
A check of the ring, and an ordinary one and a half steel sword appeared in my hands. A sweep of his hand and the sword clashed resoundingly against the wall. *Jink* sparks flew and the sword bounced.
Oh... looking at my body and watching it was really fun... there were definitely a lot of different ideas, but they would have to wait. Right now I'm going to have to learn how to fight without my head, while still holding my own head in my hands. I think it's possible to practice a little bit and at least get used to it....
Definitely... it's better than a goblin body, I don't even regret the lost immortality....