"Urgh..."
Lake released a pained breath as he sat up from the bed. His head was still spinning, and his mories felt fuzzy.
Looking around, he quickly noticed that his clothes were missing, leaving him even more confused than when he woke up.
Clutching at his head, he frowned as he tried to recall what happened.
’I agreed to the integration process, then after that...’
’What happened after that..?’
As Lake’s head slowly started to clear up, he was about to open the system interface, feeling that he might find the answers there. But before he could even summon the interface, he heard the door to his room open with a small click.
His head was still spinning, and his senses blurred, so he didn’t notice them approaching until they had already entered the room.
Focusing his senses, he could hear several people speaking in a slightly hushed tone.
"Should we really be barging in so openly?" A worried voice sounded out. "Can’t we just use the wristband thingy..?"
"I already tried ssaging him a few minutes ago. For so reason, the ssage isn’t sending on his end, so he might not have a signal," This ti, a colder but more refined voice spoke up, answering the first person’s question, "And besides, this is Bramble’s room too."
"Don’t worry too much about it, Sylph. As Lady Kate said, this is also my room, so just consider it as inviting you into it."
Hearing Bramble’s words, Sylph still seed worried but wasn’t walking any further behind them.
"But what if he’s doing sothing, uh-uhm, private?"
"Co on, Sylph, I’m sure whatever that bastard is doing, it can’t possibly be... that bad..."
As the four people walked into the bedroom, Lake’s gaze landed on them, and theirs on him.
Kate was leading the group and was the first to see Lake in all his glory. Her mouth had opened slightly as she was montarily lost in a daze.
Bramble’s eyes had hollowed out as he stared blankly at Lake’s exposed body. His mind seed to have stopped working for a mont, but eventually, he turned around with a slight sigh as he rubbed his stained eyes.
Iris was talking as she walked in, only to see Lake on the bed. Her face turned pale as a disgusted expression appeared on her face. She hurriedly turned around just like her brother, but unlike Bramble, who maintained so calm, she looked as if she wanted to vomit as she continued to rub her eyes, trying to erase the sight from her mories.
Sylph, on the other hand, seed to have been the least affected among the group, and instead kept her gaze curiously trailed on Lake’s body, even going a step further looking him over from head to toe.
He could tell that she was looking at him with completely innocent eyes, probably just curious about his body, but if it was anyone else, they probably would’ve felt extrely uncomfortable due to her piercing gaze.
Lake’s head had mostly cleared up at this point and was able to calmly respond to the group of classmates that barged into his room.
"Are you not going to turn around?"
Hearing his calm tone as if he wasn’t completely naked in front of them, Kate couldn’t help but sigh as she turned around. She also grabbed Sylph, who was still trying to observe every nook and cranny of his body, and forcefully flipped her around.
"Not that I want to know, but why are you naked, Lake?" Kate asked as she tried to clear her mind of the scene that had already burned itself into her mory.
"Hm, would you believe if I said I don’t know?"
"That would just make more concerned! Anyways, hurry up and get dressed already!"
Noticing Kate’s growing anger, Lake shook his head slightly before finally glancing at the system notifications that had accumulated during the integration process. As he skimd through them, trying to piece together what had happened to his clothes, he eventually found a ssage that explained the situation.
[Due to the Host’s body going through certain changes, the Host’s clothes and other possessions have been stored away in the system inventory to prevent their destruction. The Host is advised to remove them and any other item of notable value before the System update begins, as all functions of the system will go offline during this process.]
[Ti remaining till update: 4 minutes, 45 seconds...]
Seeing that the clock was ticking, Lake got off his bed before summoning his clothes from the system inventory.
As the clothes appeared in front of him, they strangely began to levitate on their own as they quickly sorted themselves onto Lake’s body.
’This...’ Lake’s eyes widened montarily at the sight but quickly realized that he was the cause of the current phenonon.
’I’m using magic subconsciously...’
He didn’t know when, but from the mont the clothes had appeared, he had already waved his hand and caused the clothes to levitate around him as he quickly got dressed.
By the ti he had realized what had happened, his clothes and equipnt that were stored away in his system inventory had already been fully equipped.
He wasn’t sure if him doing this was a result of the integration process or not, but for now, he decided to focus on the people who had their backs facing him.
"You can turn around now."
Hearing Lake’s words, Kate cautiously glanced around her shoulder before confirming that Lake was actually dressed. With a sigh, she released her grip on Sylph and turned around with a slight frown.
Sylph swiftly turned around upon being released from Kate’s grasp but was imdiately disappointed when she saw Lake was fully dressed.
As for Bramble and Iris, both of them turned around at almost the sa ti, both of their eyes slightly red from rubbing them so intensely.
"Why the hell were you naked..? I feel like my eyes need to be burned in sacred fire after being shown such a sight!" Iris was the first to growl out at Lake.
"Stop complaining, you’re the ones that rushed in here without first checking if I was changing or not." Lake replied passively, causing Iris to shut up as she turned away dejectedly. "Enough about , why are you all here?"
"Your the one who we should be asking that. Didn’t you ssage to et up half an hour ago? Yet here you are lying on your bed doing god knows what." Kate’s eyelids twitched, but she eventually sighed, "Anyways, I’d rather not rember what just happened, so can we just hurry up and go?"
"Agreed. I would prefer to occupy my mind with sothing else than stay here contemplating my life." Bramble spoke, his eyes having a dead look in them as if he was really questioning his existence.
’Was seeing naked really such a scaring experience? I always thought that my body was perfect and my appearance handso. Maybe I was mistaken..?’
As Lake questioned whether he had a wrong impression of humanity’s beauty standards, he quickly negated that thought.
’No, my past experiences clearly proved that most people thought of as good looking. That ans the problem is with everyone who reacted so negatively...’
Feeling that he might be thinking too deeply about this strange topic, he shook his head, "Fine. I guess it was my fault for being late. Let’s just go."
As Lake spoke, he already walked past everyone, heading outside of the cramped room. Everyone else followed after him, with Kate walking slowly behind.
Her head was lowered and eyes vacant, but she quickly seed to regain her senses as she released a sigh. Earlier, she had been rather distracted after gaining a piece of news from her father, but now she just felt exhausted.
’Let’s just not think about it...’
In the end, she decided to clear her mind of everything and followed behind everyone. She’ll eventually have to talk to Lake about the matter, but for now it wasn’t her priority.
****
Outside the room, Lake, who had taken the lead, walked down the hallway as he made his way outside.
Since no one was initiating any conversation with him, he took the chance to open the system interface as he walked.
’Let’s see what changes this integration process has brought about...’
[Integration Process has been successfully completed.]
[Integrated Role - Mage (Low Tier).]
[Due to the effects of Integration, the Mage (Low Tier) Role has been removed from the system interface.]
[All skills have been integrated into the Host’s existence and will remain a part of the host’s skill set until death.]
[As an additional effect of the Integration of the Mage (Low Tier) Role, host stats and body have been modified to fit his current state. Internal organs have also been modified, and the Host’s Mana Heart has been fully optimized into his internal structure.]
[Due to the side effects of Integration, the Host’s personality has been altered, gaining the traits of Relentless Curiosity, Open-Mindedness, Innovation, and Love For All Magic.]
Reading the notifications, Lake was imdiately intrigued and wanted to check his status screen to confirm the changes, but before he could open the interface, a new notification popped up, stopping him in his tracks.
[The system update has begun. All system features will be temporarily unavailable to the Host.]
[Remaining ti until system update completes: 14 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes...]
Seeing the final notification, Lake released a sigh. It seems he would have to wait before he could properly confirm the changes.
User Comments
0 comments from readers