Chapter 21: Sleeping Beauty.

The next morning, George gathered the village kids to the plaza.

With the cold morning dew touching their soft skin, the children huddled next to the fire.

They stretched their small hands toward the warmth. With their red-tipped noses and pink cheeks awash with the orange light from the blaze, thirteen children surrounded the fire crackling in the round stone pit at the center of the village plaza.

Early that morning, George knocked on their respective doors and told them the news of Mikael's departure. As George was the oldest kid in the neighborhood, all the children treated him like their leader while their parents thought of him as a responsible elder-brother figure for their sons and daughters.

They also knew that George protected their children when they were abducted, hence, they trusted that whatever George did, it would be for the good of the younger generation.

Although it was a strange sight to see them tamed as if waiting for someone—in contrast to their usual unruly behavior-- the adults just left them to their business.

"Will Mister really leave?" one of the younger girls asked with watery eyes.

"Yes. So, be sure to send him off with a smile." The second-eldest replied with a strained voice, obviously holding back tears.

"Hey! Don't talk like Mister is going to die!" A snot-faced boy shouted back.

"Huh? But Mister is already dead, remember?" one of them stated as a matter of fact.

"Ah… right…" and all of them hung their heads in sadness.

Meanwhile, Mikael was also preparing his heartfelt speech inside the white world and at 7 o'clock, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "HEY YOU LAZY ASS PRINCE! WAKE UP!!!"

"Wh-What!?" Deon woke up to the sound thundering inside his head.

"If you want to sleep, do it on the bed inside the Medium and let me take over your body." Mikael impatiently crossed his arms as he forced the drowsy prince out of his body.

"Uhh… but Sir Mikael, you can only use the integration skill for 14 minutes at most. Don't you need all 14 minutes to say goodbye?" Deon rubbed his eyes to chase his sleep away.

Last night, Mikael gave Deon a lecture on all his current skills, explaining their durations, limits, and MP costs. He figured that the two of them needed to synchronize their skills to optimize their effects.

'We need to take advantage of the integration skill. Since the MP cost decreases when utilizing partial integration, this will be our main skill. This way, we can use our individual skills at the same time.' He reasoned, pointing to the writings on the white electronic tablet that he summoned to the Medium.

Thankfully, Deon was a diligent student. He asked questions whenever he had them and eagerly listened to Mikael's advice.

Now that Deon was using what he learned to argue with him, Mikael had mixed feelings of pride and annoyance.

"Right… then get your royal ass off the bed and go to the plaza!" Mikael shouted, like a dragon spewing fire in a tantrum.

"Ack!" Deon covered his ears to block the noise, but it was useless as the uproar was inside his head, "Sir! Please don't scream or else I'll mute you!"

After regaining some peace of mind—Literally—Deon got up from bed and donned his expensive black mantle lined with gray wolf fur.

He faced the mirror attached to the wall and combed his dark brown hair.

Deon internally sighed. He wondered how nice it would be to look like Mikael. To have his sharp pale-green eyes instead of his round, dull brown eyes and to have his chiseled face that exuded both masculinity and grace instead of his round face that slightly jiggles because of cheek fat.

'No, I'm still 15… when puberty hits me, maybe I'll look attractive as well.' He thought optimistically.

"Whoa… Clothes really do make the man, huh? You look like a prince when you're dressed like that." Mikael admired from inside the aquamarine stud. His ceaseless chattering was slowly becoming common noise inside Deon's brain.

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"Sir, I don't just look LIKE a prince. I AM a prince." Deon countered as he walked to the bedroom door and grasped its bronze handle, pulling it open.

Not wanting Mikael's farewell party to be spoiled by his guard, Deon tiptoed across Sir Edmund's room that was located right beside the stairs. He was careful not to make a sound as he went down and exited the inn.

"Haaaah…" Deon's breath fogged in the fresh morning air, "Ugh! It's so cold…"

His teeth chattering and his knuckles white, Deon hurriedly made his way to the Plaza.

"Oh! There they are!" Mikael excitedly pointed to the pit's direction, "Quick! Give me your body!"

"Okay. Okay. Geez. You're so impatient, Sir." Deon answered.

To use the Integration skill, the player currently occupying the host has to express his consent. This means that whoever was inside the Medium cannot forcefully take over the host. Also, after depleting his mana pool represented by the MP stat, Mikael would be automatically evicted from the body whether he liked it or not.

The moment that Deon learned of this, he finally relaxed. As it has only been a day since he met Mikael, it would not be strange to say that he still has his reservations about their unplanned contract. He initially feared that Mikael might take his body whenever he pleased but with this skill, that wouldn't be possible.

<Active skill: Full integration Lvl. max is activated.>

The now-familiar tugging sensation gripped the two souls from their midsections and simultaneously pulled them out of their respective positions: Deon from his body and Mikael from the Medium.

Like volleyball players switching at the start of a set, Mikael entered the court while Deon warmed the bench.

After the switch, Mikael's soul settled awkwardly on Deon's body.

Ping!

<System Notification: Player Mikael Lee is now released from the "Sealed" State.>

Ping!

<System Notification: Percent Assimilation with Co-player Deon Hensworth has increased to 15%>

'Assimilation, huh?' Mikael thought as he tried to move his fingers. Clenching and unclenching them to get a feel of his new body, but even after a few attempts, the discomfort persisted. Due to their different physiques, integrating with Deon felt like wearing the wrong size of clothes.

Add to the body's feeble strength, Mikael felt so weak that he wondered whether Deon really was a spearman.

"Hey! Are you sure you are a student of the spearmanship department? Your body feels like it'll easily get blown away by the wind." Mikael asked his partner who was now resting comfortably on the warm bed inside the Medium.

At Deon's silence, Mikael chuckled, 'He really is the male counterpart of sleeping beauty…'

--Chapter End—

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Stat Description:

Percent Assimilation: the physical and emotional assimilation of two entities bound by the universal contract.

30 % accounts for the physical assimilation while the other 70 % accounts for the emotional aspect. To reach the perfect assimilation, the two entities must achieve 'One body, One mind'

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