“U-uh, hello?” Theo stuttered as the man’s aura surprised him a little.
“You should be a little more enthusiastic when greeting your savior, little brat, young ones really gave no respect for their elders anymore.” The old man said in a gruff voice.
“Oh, I’m sorry, thank you for saving me.” Although the man surprised him, Theo wasn’t ungrateful and even felt touched for receiving honest help for what felt like the first time in his life.
“Realex boy, I’m just busting your balls. Glad to see you’re okay, I have to say that you look totally different now that you had time to rest, I ain't sure if it's just my old eyes failing me or if it’s just the benefit of youth.” The inquisitive tone in which the last part of the sentence was said in clearly flew over Theo’s head. I guess even an overpowered system can’t give someone social experience.
“Sir, what happened?” Even though Theo could guess, for the sake of clearing up the situation he still decided to ask. The fact that he didn’t know how to continue the conversation also contributed to that decision.
“First of all, stop with the ‘sir’, you can just gall me gramps or anything else that doesn’t sound so stuck up for that matter. As for what happened? Well, your stupid ass decided it was a good idea to set up a camp in the Trival wolf territory, you’re lucky that I needed a couple of new wolf pelts at the time, or you would’ve been repurposed as tree fertilizer.” Theo didn’t know how to feel while being lectured by a man that looked like an old barbarian, even though it wasn’t truly him that committed that blunder, the old man’s words, or maybe his tone of speech still made him feel like he did something wrong.
“Forget about that brat, I came to check on you since I figured that that earthquake might have woken you up. How are ya feelin?”
“I think I am okay; it doesn't hurt anywhere.” As soon as he said that he remembered that he still felt some pain before the whole constitution fiasco happened and claiming that he was fine might be a little suspicious.
“I guess that’s vampire blood for ya. Dinner is ready, if you feel like eating feel free to join. Although you aint getting any blood, meat still works right?” Being provided with a convenient excuse, the tension he was feeling quickly dissipated.
Although vampires couldn’t go on forever without blood, that didn’t mean that they couldn’t eat anything else. While most vampires hated vegetables, they ate meat on a regular basis. Blood did have strengthening and healing effects on vampires and they would feel weak if they went without it for a prolonged period of time, but overconsumption could also lead to problems such as addiction.
“Thank you, I will be right there. But, sir, what about clothes?” Theo was currently in a bed wrapped in bandages and besides underwear he was only covered with bedsheets.
“It’s gramps, and you can probably find something in that closet over there.”
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With that, he left the room and closed the door behind him.
‘Um, Theo. Be careful, although I can only rely on your senses, that man is not as simple as he seems.’
‘Noted. Did you finish researching about the constitutions?’ Although Eileen warned him, Theo didn’t worry about it too much. Even if that man was some shady individual, he still saved him, and Theo owed him for that.
‘Oh… yea.’ She replied in a weird tone.
‘Ok, I don’t think we have enough time now so it will have to wait for later.’ Eileen wanted to ask him why he even bothered to bring it up then, but she refrained.
Theo got up from the bed and took a look at the tight underwear that bothered him ever since his body changed, what he noticed though was that it wasn’t the underwear that was the problem, but rather the package inside of it that overloaded the underwear’s capacity. When Theo took a quick peak inside, he noticed it contained a weapon that should probably be labeled as unsafe for use.
Not knowing how to deal with that and too embarrassed to ask Eileen about it he made his way towards the old closet. When he opened it, he inspected its contents, but it appeared to strangely lack any variety. The closet was full of pants and belts, yes, only pants and belts, but Theos thought process stopped as soon as he spotted the reflection in the mirror attached to the inside of the closet.
The face reflected on the mirror possessed pitch-black hair, blood-red eyes, and slightly pointed ears. Even though it resembled the face he was used to, it was superior in every single way and hard to find any fault in.
‘Eileen, what’s going on?’ Theo asked in bewilderment.
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean what happened to my face?’
‘Oh that. In the process of gaining those constitutions your body reshaped itself to better accommodate them, their influence also passively affects your body, so some change is inevitable. As for why your face changed, even a constitution that has nothing to do with appearance will qualitatively improve one’s body in every way, enhancement in looks is just a part of it, not to even mention the physiques you gained.’
‘But aren’t I in trouble then, how am I supposed to explain such a sudden change in appearance?’ Theo started to panic once again.
‘I think you should be okay for now. That man met you yesterday for the first time and in a half-dead state no less. Even if you became better looking, taller, and a little more muscular, it's easy to disregard it if he only saw you in an unconscious state last time.’ Eileen tried to appease his worry.
‘Even if you forget about the old man, what am I supposed to do when I return back to the family?’
‘The changes of height and the gained muscle aren’t hard to explain since this is a magical world and just ingesting some concoction could achieve the same. As for the appearance, although you do look a lot more appealing by humanoid standards, the changes in the face itself aren’t that great, so there is no way somebody wouldn’t recognize you. You can just play dumb and let them make their own conclusions.
Although that didn’t really feel like a solution or a long-term plan, he had no other choice.
‘What about the other realms, will constitutions still influence my body in the same way, or was this a one-time occurrence?’
‘What kind of strange question is that? They are a part of you now, so yes, the same thing will happen in every realm.’
‘But won’t that make integrating myself into the life of the previous me a lot more difficult?’
‘Why do you even have to integrate yourself into the life of your vessel?’ Eileen asked.
‘I guess you do have a point, I’ll worry about that when the time comes, I think it would be better if I concern myself about my outfit first.’
It would appear that the old man didn’t like wearing anything other than pants, as even when Theo searched the whole closet, he couldn’t find any other article of clothing except belts and a couple of gloves. Giving up, he picked one of the less worn-out pants and put on his shoes that were waiting for him at the foot of the bed.