The first thing James saw when he woke up was an unfamiliar wooden ceiling, lit by the orange glow of sunset filtering in through a half-open window.
He tried to sit up on the edge of the bed.
Bad idea.
Because the moment he moved, a sharp pain shot through his entire body.
"Ugh... why do I feel like a truck ran me over?" James complained, hunching in on himself.
It was then that he looked down and noticed it.
A good portion of his body was covered in bandages.
His torso was wrapped almost entirely, his left arm was bandaged from elbow to shoulder, and more bandages were spread across his whole body.
James was about to get up when the translucent screen materialized in front of him again.
[Secondary Quest Completed]
[Name: Starting Off on the Right Foot]
[Result: Success.]
[You have eliminated all the goblins attacking the village.]
[Delivering reward for completed mission...]
[Reward assigned: ██████████]
"I hope all that suffering was worth something," he said, letting out a sigh and claiming the reward.
The screen glowed more intensely, and above his open right palm something began to take shape.
It was a long sword with a black, sharp blade, traced by bright red lines.
The hilt was wrapped in dark leather, and the pommel had a small gem embedded in it the same color as the veins.
And it weighed considerably less than it appeared at first glance.
"So a sword..." James murmured, rotating his wrist to look at it from different angles. "I wonder how good it is."
And as if it had heard him, the screen changed once more, this time to show the sword’s stats.
[Sword: Soul Reaver]
[Rank: SSS]
[Description: Belonged to the First Demon Lord, founder of the lineage. Forged with the soul of afallen god.]
[Skills:]
[Endless Hunger: each enemy killed grants a small chance of regenerating a % of the bearer’s vitality.]
[Soul Harvest: each being killed with the Soul Reaver has their soul absorbed by the blade. Accumulated souls temporarily reinforce the bearer’s attributes.]
[Void Edge: the blade ignores the target’s defense and armor, cutting directly through what lies beneath.]
[Slave Legion: allows the summoning of beings whose souls have been harvested to serve the bearer.]
[Demon King’s Flesh: the Soul Reaver cannot be damaged or destroyed by any known means.]
With each line he read, James’s eyes opened a little wider.
"SSS Rank?" he said in disbelief, a half smile spreading across his face. "Nice...."
But then he realized the description wasn’t finished yet.
[Note: The power of the Soul Reaver scales with its bearer’s attributes. If these are insufficient, the weapon will not be able to deploy its full potential.]
[Bearer’s current attributes: insufficient.]
[Available skills: Void Edge (limited version).]
[Locked skills: Endless Hunger, Soul Harvest, Slave Legion, Demon King’s Flesh.]
James’s smile vanished as quickly as it had appeared.
"I knew it was too good to be true," he said, completely resigned. "In other words I have a sports car and no license to drive it..."
After a sigh loaded with disappointment, he decided to leave testing it for another time and put the sword away.
All it took was thinking it and the Soul Reaver dissolved into a handful of particles and disappeared.
Then he got to his feet and waited a few seconds for both the dizziness and the pain to subside.
When he felt he could stand without swaying, he walked slowly to the mirror in a corner of the room.
"Well, would you look at what we have here..." he said in surprise, bringing a hand to his face.
The guy looking back at him from the mirror wasn’t exactly him.
And yet, he could still recognize himself in those features.
Only now it was... better.
In every way.
It was as if someone had taken his old self and bothered to polish every flaw, one by one, until it was perfect.
James moved a little closer to the mirror and tilted his head from side to side, inspecting himself shamelessly.
And looking more closely, he discovered the changes didn’t end there.
He was now much taller than before.
And even covered by bandages, it was obvious his body was completely different.
Those well-defined muscles had nothing to do with the thin, neglected physique he remembered.
But among all those changes, there was one thing that remained exactly the same.
His hair.
Still the same black it had always been, messy and unruly, as if that small detail had refused to disappear to remind him who he really was.
However, what surprised him most was that despite being a demon, he still looked like an ordinary human being.
"Okay, I’ll admit it..." he said, flashing a half smile. "Maybe I did come out winning with all of this after all."
Then he stroked his chin with a thoughtful expression, as if arriving at a profound conclusion.
"If I’d known that dying meant waking up in this body, I would have died much earli—"
James didn’t get to finish the sentence, because right at that moment the bedroom door opened.
And there, standing in the doorway, was she.
The beautiful woman with light brown hair and blue eyes that he had saved before passing out.
Seeing him awake and standing in front of the mirror, a warm smile appeared on her face.
"Hey there, sweetheart," she said softly. "I’m really glad to see you’re feeling better."