Gah!!"
Waking up with a jolt, Elara gasped for air, only to find it was much harder than usual.
After calming herself, she relaxed slightly and slowly laid back down on her bed, which was unbelievably comfortable.
She only had about ten seconds to rest before remembering that her shitty mattress back home was nowhere near this comfortable.
Her eyes widened as she looked around, realizing that this place was definitely not her mold-infested apartment.
For the love of the gods, she was sleeping on silk sheets!
"Where the hell am I...? Wait, is that me??" She didn't even recognize the sound of her own voice.
It was so soft and velvety that she thought she might finally be able to achieve her old dream of becoming a famous singer.
Memory Uploading
< Host awakening. >
< Uploading memory files. >
< Mild discomfort may be experienced. >
"Huh?- ARGHHH!!"
As soon as the robotic voice finished speaking, she was assaulted by memories that were completely new yet disturbingly familiar.
The body Elara had been thrown into belonged to a young dark elf named Seraphina Darken.
Her mother, Selene Vael'thir, was a dark elf princess from one of the most powerful houses in the kingdom.
From birth, Seraphina was expected to be a prodigy due to her unique and powerful mana.
However, despite all expectations, she ended up as an invalid at the age of four.
While her magical power was incredibly dense and potent, that was also part of the problem. It was too much for her elven body to handle, slowly corroding her from within.
She couldn't use magic or channel her mana without her body suffering.
To other dark elves, she was considered a disgrace and a failure. For someone of royal lineage, being unable to access their true power was inconceivable.
Her incompetence earned her extremely harsh treatment.
If not for her long ears and the elven markings on her skin, no one would even believe she was one.
Seraphina had only three women who didn't treat her poorly.
Her mother, Selene, loved her deeply, and although she never said it aloud, Seraphina knew she always blamed herself for her daughter's circumstances.
Seraphina also had two wives who had been forced to marry her as punishment by their clans, as they, too, were considered defective. Their families also sought to establish ties with the prestigious and wealthy dark elf family.
While they didn't mistreat her, they weren't intimate either, and their relationship was more like that of acquaintances. More often than she'd like to admit, she avoided them due to the guilt she felt for dragging them into a marriage with someone as useless as her.
A New Beginning
"...Shit..." Seraphina slowly wiped two crystal-clear tears from her face.
When the memories uploaded, she didn't just see them—she lived them.
Every. Single. Second.
When it was over, she was no longer sure whether she was Elara or Seraphina, but that didn't really matter.
What mattered now was that she finally had the opportunity and ability to change her circumstances.
Slowly rising from her luxurious silk sheets on an absurdly large bed, Seraphina walked toward a mirror hanging on the other side of the room.
When she looked into it, she was slightly startled despite somehow already knowing what she would see.
The reflection staring back at her was that of a sickly-looking young woman with waist-length white hair, messy and unkempt.
Strands of her hair fell over her face, combined with dark ebony skin, with a few elven markings glowing on her shoulders and hands.
Peeking through the strands of her white hair, two deep violet eyes stared back at her with intensity.
Standing at only 5'7", she looked more like a frail human than a noble and proud dark elf.
"Haaaa… I really am just skin and bones," she murmured, running her fingers over her visible ribs.
Despite the state of her body, she was ecstatic.
She was a dark elf now!
A noble elf!
Though weak… but still.
When she told the entity she didn't want to be human, she had half-expected them to turn her into some kind of pathetic goblin.
'Although, with this weak body, even a newborn goblin could probably snap me in half.'
"It seems I'll have body problems in every life. Either I have unwanted curves, or I'm so thin you could argue I've never had a full meal in my life."
As she continued examining her new body, a new message from her system sounded in her mind.
Transformation Initiated
< Urgent reminder: The host has not installed "Body of Arcane Transcendence." >
"Oh, is that one of my wishes?"
< Affirmative. >
"Let's do it now, then."
< It is recommended that the host bite down on something, as extreme pain will be experienced. >
Seraphina practically ran to her bed and stuffed the silk sheets into her mouth.
As someone who hated pain, she knew perfectly well that if her system said this would hurt, she had no choice but to believe it.
'I'll have to get used to all this later, but for now, I need to do something about this frail body.'
Seraphina's constitution was so poor she could literally feel how her organs were being corroded.
< Begin body enhancement? >
"Mmf! (Yes!)"
< Initiating installation of "Body of Arcane Transcendence." >
The moment it began, Seraphina felt the most terrible, excruciating pain she had ever imagined.