Chapter 39

The Disciple

The town we are in, aptly named Crossroads, is apparently not doing too well.

“The roaming guards I saw make it a point of contention to lock up anyone they come across. Still I am going to need you to go across the streets to get some of my supplies from the Apothecary shop. I will warn you, they will make you do an entrance exam, if you aren’t already.” Kiran, my new healing instructor for the week explains.

Thinking about this comment, I realize I might have been off on my assumptions of the people and why they were staring at me. At the time I thought it was because I might be going through a weird bloodline evolution, but apparently at least part of their staring was due to the fact that they likely wanted to warn me about the dangers of this city in some way.

“I have a standing in all four guilds.” I explain.

“Good. I will warn you, that there is an alleged fifth guild that exists somewhere in this city. I urge you to stay away from them at all costs.”

“A fifth guild?” I ask, knowing full well that he is likely referring to the Thieves Guild, a guild I am more than in good standing with.

“Yes, they are said to run this city from the shadows, that the tyrant mayor himself is all but a puppet for that shady organization, and that they are the reason this town is so dangerous.” Instructor Kiran explains.

I nod.

“So, repeat everything you need to get for me, and why?” Kiran asks, trying to make sure I paid attention to his lecture.

“We need Refined Bonemeal Paste from a lizard creature, due to the cranial fracture. The internal swelling of the brain will need an Anti-Coagulant. Due to blood loss, we will need a Lactated Electrolyte Injection due to hypovolemia. I will likely need to create all three, then test them together to ensure that the toxicity level doesn’t rise above 75, ideally I would want that as low as possible, which will be based on how well I can create each potion.” I say, reciting the three different items needed to be created.

I found it very odd that the game actually introduced toxicity ratings into this world. Basically, this is the game’s system for telling if a concoction of pills won’t mix well together. You know, that whole this works fine by itself and with most others, except when added to ‘X’ substance. Meaning the easiest to make of each will likely lead to death of Zero. I already have it in mind that I will need to make at least medium tier potions and elixirs to help Zero.

Why did we go for elixirs, rather than healing medicine? Well healing spells can only fix so much in the game, when it comes to brain damage and other forms of injury, the Apothecary guild is required, especially if there is brain swelling. The logic is that by healing Zero’s brain now, we would be forcing the brain to stay at its enlarged state. So, in order to treat Zero properly, we will first need to reduce the swelling, then we can cast true healing spells. Also we don’t want to fix the bones, as that might make it harder for the swelling to go down. Ultimately, it was all up to these next few steps.

“Very good. It seems I was not wrong in taking you on as an apprentice, now here take this.” Kiran says, as he pulls out a large satchel. The minute he hands it over I am met with a system prompt.

Quest Update: The Healer’s Apprentice: You have been tasked with retrieving three different elixirs needed to heal your friend. Your Instructor has given you a satchel of rare ingredients that you can use to either make or barter for the potions needed.

There we go, so there will likely be someone at the Apothecary Guild who will have a mixture of potions needed to save Zero. Judging by the weight of the bag, I can tell that there are a lot of supplies, likely enough to get me to easily be able to master the basics of the Alchemy skill. I already have Medical Healing, and Herbalism maxed out as far as skills go, meaning Alchemy should be fairly easy to learn and pick up. Right now, my biggest distraction for that is that I don’t have any recipes. But looking in the bag, I see a book.

Grabbing the book, I pull it out and am able to read it at once.

Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy.

Seeing the book, my jaw drops.

“Yes, that is my old book. I figured you could use it, as you are beginning to follow in my footsteps.” Kiran says.

“This is yours?” I ask.

“Was, and yes. I think you are the perfect person to have it.”

“What? Why?”

“I’ve seen plenty of people over the years. Especially those of our kind. I never thought I would meet another person so against killing, but here you are, and I can see that you even put me to shame.” Kiran says.

At that I realize a few things. First, he is not just an elf, but a dark elf. Second, he like me has taken on the pacifist life, something most people of this world, let alone Dark Elves don’t adhere to.

Hearing that, I feel a faint connection to him, in a way I never thought possible.

“Sorry, I didn’t even realize.” I say, as I feel sort of shocked by the confession.

“You can’t recognize one of your own kind?” He asks.

I shake my head, and then remove my EGGs, so that my odd eyes appear.

“OHHH!” Kiran says, then quickly glances around and “you must never reveal your true nature. Especially not here.”

Hearing the sudden tension in his voice I nod and put my EGGs back over my eyes.

Once my eyes are covered again, he relaxes slightly, but then still has a slightly tense demeanor while looking at me.

“So, you are Shade Touched?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

“Was, well I am trying to purge myself of it.”

“To purge yourself, of the Darkness’ blessing?” He asks.

I am sad to say that I can’t quite pick out how he feels based on the range of emotion he displayed in that one sentence.

“Yes, I had a chance to awaken it, by consuming Zero, and I refused.” I say, placing a gentle hand on Zero who is now passed out on the doctor’s table.

At that he nods his head a few times, as if coming to a decision, then finally he states, “very well then. I cannot say that I have ever heard of someone purposefully denying their bloodline like that, but I commend you all the same for it. With this, I am more than happy to have taken you on as my disciple. This is why I will make this deal with you, if you make it to become my Apprentice, I will help you with you clear your bloodline.”

Quest Update: Curse of the Shade Touched Bloodline: You have found someone who is both a healer and an Apothecary who has offered to take you in and help you remove the curse of your bloodline.

I pause, seeing the message, and then realize something. “Wait, do you not find me repulsive?” I ask, remembering the prompt of my bloodline. The same one that states that all elves will find me repulsive.

“I did at first, but I saw the way you cared for Zero. Just the dirt on you two shows that you two came quite a long distance together. Anyone willing to do that for someone else couldn’t be terrible. Also, I swore I would never turn away someone earnestly seeking aide. Then I offered the chance to cure Zero if you helped, and you readily agreed to help. How could I turn down such a pupil, despite what my personal convictions were telling me. Though it is for that very reason that I must urge you to be careful while going about the town. I figured you would have been able to notice, but this is a town run by the dark elves.” Kiran states.

At that I pause, and wonder if it was my understanding that the guards were dark elves that caused me to break character and teleport to the entrance to the Mage’s guild. Pausing, I think to myself, but then come up with a plan.

“In that case, can I borrow a set of clothes?” I ask.

“I am sorry, I gladly would share with you, but I do not have anything in your size.”

I shake my head, “no, your clothes.”

“My clothes? Well…I…” He pauses as he looks at me. “Is this some type of joke?”

“Hardly. I can even pay.” I say, holding out one of my gold coins.

As much as it pains me to do this, I know the clothes are more important than keeping money on hand.

“I have an old pair of healer’s clothes that I was meaning to get rid of. They aren’t fancy or anything.” He offers.

Translation, they are just clothes to wear, and are not meant for fighting in, meaning they don’t offer any stats, or enhancements, and will be torn apart by taking any damage. Fortunately for me, I deplore taking damage.

“That is fine.” I say, still holding out the gold coin.

At that the doctor pauses for a moment, but then nods his head. “Fine then.”

He takes the gold coin, then walks over to a closet at the end of his office and pulls out a well worn set of clothes off the floor. Yep, they are going to smell like sweaty doctor, so awesome, still this is what I need for this quest, so I will take it.

“Thank you. Now do you have a place where I can change?” I ask.

“They aren’t going to fit you.” Kiran says, as he takes me to a side door and gestures for me to go inside.

“Thank you,” I say as I enter the room.

Once inside he closes the door for privacy, giving me the chance to choose which of my elven possible choices I have for my Spiritual Doppelganger. Honestly, I don’t quite know which one will be best. I think the clothes are unisex enough that I could go as a male or female. Right off the bat, I remove a few choices, most notably Octavia, as she is a light skinned elf of some kind. I figure going as her will cause some form of friction in a town ruled by dark elves. I also forgo the Ms. Umbra mother form, as she is supposedly like me in that she has the same dead eyes saying she is Shade Touched. Just going from one Shade Touched, to another seems like it would be in bad taste. This leaves me with the nine other choices. I decide against Tobias, again just going as him will feel weird. Not that going as anyone wouldn’t feel weird, but I don’t know if now is the correct time to go as a male for the first time. For the first part, my Acting skill is only so good and will likely not be able to help me understand the mannerisms of males.

Finally after a few seconds I take on Sabrina, the girl who really brought the book club to life for me. The woman who made it so I could complete my odd quest of helping people so easily. Focusing on her, I draw her image to my mind, and am about to force my body to change again, but I stop myself.

Realizing my past mistakes, I quickly remove any and all outer garments that are not soul bound to me. Then I begin channeling the form of Sabrina into my body.

Creak-pop.

Instantly I feel my bones begin to crunch and elongate.

I have a feeling that this would be exceptionally painful without my Regeneration merit, as it is, it is only mildly debilitating. The entire process takes minutes, but under that form of white hot burning pain, it feels more like hours. Finally, after a long agonizing few minutes, the transformation is nearly complete.

I know I still need to be in a secluded space and cannot expect to do this transformation in any type of expedient manner.

Whoosh.

Kiran opens the door to find me panting wildly on the ground.

“I uh…” he says, as he looks embarrassed for a moment, then shuts the door behind him. “I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

Then I see him going I collapse to the ground as exhaustion takes me. My stamina is at zero, again, these are all things that will likely improve with time, but for now the process is painfully slow, and just painful all together.

The process finally recedes, and I can feel a slight tingling sensation cover my body, as I assume the pigmentation is fading away. Then rising to my feet, I put on the doctor’s uniform.

Fortunately, it is unisex, well mostly.

The outfit is one that was clearly made for an elf, given how skinny it is. I thought that Sabrina was the skinny enough to pull it off, which she was, except for one noticeable area. The chest area is a bit too tight, causing a slight bulge as Sabrina’s boobs are huge. Maybe it is a species thing, or maybe I am just too used to the slender form of elves. I mean Olivia had a larger chest that I am used to as well, but these are just odd. After years of not having to deal with such a weight, I almost feel my sympathetic back pain kicking in at the sudden weight that I will have to adjust to.

I take a few minutes to move, and fortunately I soon learn how to balance with this new body, but it is just odd. I am glad I don’t need my eyes to see, as I don’t think I could see my feet while standing otherwise. Sorry, getting distracted, I just want to get this all out at once, before I go on a mission.

I also decide to make this part of my new process. Spend a few minutes going around in the new body.

After a moment I am ready. I also swap out my black Mage guild SWAG for my white one that I also earned. I decide to put away the EGGs, but keep my gloves, and Adventurer’s necklace. The Thieves Guild mask is also kept on my neck, but just in its retracted state. Since this is a place run by the Thieves Guild I can’t help but think being able to prove my affinity with them might come in handy.

With my wardrobe change done, I realize I still don’t have shoes. Fortunately as it turns out elves apparently have longer feet than humans, meaning my shoes that were stretched out by going to Octavia’s form earlier are just the right size to house Sabrina’s feet. No wonder humans are so clumsy in this game, they have small feet and are top heavy, anyone would be off balanced with those types of proportions.

Though I do have to admit, this is sort of neat, and I make it a plan to start trying to observe differences between different races. I know I have a dwarf body that I can also try out, but not today. Just going around as Sabrina would be enough.

Now that I have taken a moment, I decide to come up with a personality that would cover Sabrina. I decide to take most from her own personality, and then fill in the rest as needed. She will be fiery, independent, and above all gregarious.

After I come up with her personality that I will portray, I realize something that is quite disturbing. I don’t know if it is bad, or terrifying that I am now talking about myself in third person, or that I am talking about myself in third person as a different personality? Is this what all doppelganger’s do? I assume it is about par for the course, to be honest. As I don’t think many would want to give away their true identity by having the same vocal inflections for each body type they portrayed.

Feeling more confident with myself, and my ability to portray Sabrina, I gather up my things and my satchel. Then exit the room.

As I go out, I see Kiran, who is desperately trying to avoid looking at me at all costs.

“I am so sorry, I just heard you screaming and there was a clattering a popping sound and I… I went to check and saw…” He began, but was speaking at a mile a minute, nerves clearly getting the better of him.

“It’s okay.” I say, my voice sounding a bit huskier than I realized.

At that Kiran turns to look at me, but then pauses. “Wait, is that still you?” He asks, while scanning me with some form of magic.

“It is still you, but you’ve changed.” He says.

Seeing him and the spell he cast, I try to dissect the spell and instantly come up with one possible answer, “Spirit Gaze?”

At that Kiran nods.

Spirit Gaze is an upline evolution of my Spirit Sight spell. I am almost tempted to ask him if he would teach it to me, but realize he is already being too generous with his teachings. Also, I have a feeling that this is likely a lure to diver me away from my true goal of Spirit Healing. I saw him use that on Zero, but Zero’s spirit body needs to recover before we can go further.

Silence.

“Are you ready?” Kiran asks, basically calling me out. This is fine as I can’t help but agree with his assessment, I am just wasting time.

Taking a moment to gather myself, I take in a deep breath, then let it out as I nod and turn towards the door. “I believe so.”

Drring.

The bell sitting over the entrance to the Mage’s Guild gives off a chime as I exit, letting the world know Sabrina-Cass is about to make some waves and some potions.

I make it all of one step down, before I stumble due to being awkwardly top heavy, then correct myself. My hand lurches out to grasp the railing, the only reason I am able to pause myself and regain my balance. Gods, how do humans deal with these things, I think to myself as I grab my chest.

Cough.

At that, I turn my head in the direction of the sound, a reflex created by years of practice, though I already see that I have captured the sight of two of the roaming guards.

“Sorry, I tripped.” I say, trying and failing to pull off the independent Sabrina.

The two guards look like they want to say something, but then just shake their heads and begin to leave, following their route down the main vertical street of this town.

Yep, just as I planned, make them think I am just an awkward clumsy human, this will be too easy, I think to myself as I make my way down the rest of the steps. I don’t trip again, but I do remember to use the handrail. Then walking across the street, I get to the Apothecary door, take in another deep calming breath, then enter.