AWAKENED IN ANOTHER WORLD AS AN HIGH ELF

Chapter 4: Stranger In Another World

Ethan couldn't believe what he was seeing.

This wasn't a normal human body. This Logan person was something else entirely. And Ethan was inside him.

There were dozens of additional entries, and some of them were abilities Ethan didn't even understand. He was so focused on the floating blue panel that he almost forgot the four people standing around him.

Then he felt something touch his shoulder.

Ethan flinched and immediately looked away from the panel.

The first woman was standing beside him, and she was staring at him with concern.

“What's wrong with you this morning, Logan?” she asked quietly. “Are you feeling sick?”

Ethan stared at her.

The moment his eyes settled on her face, the blue panel changed. The information about Logan disappeared, and a new profile began loading.

[TARGET DETECTED.]

[IDENTITY: LYRA NIGHTSHADE]

[RACE: WITCH]

[AGE: 126]

Ethan nearly stopped breathing.

One hundred and twenty-six?

She looked twenty-five… maybe twenty-six. But not over a century old.

The system continued displaying information.

[MAGICAL RANK: ARCHMAGE]

[MANA RESERVE: EXTREMELY HIGH]

[MAGICAL CONTROL: 98%]

[INTELLIGENCE: EXCEPTIONAL]

Then came her abilities.

[ABILITIES:]

[Advanced Elemental Magic, Healing Magic, Barrier Creation, Illusion Magic, Teleportation, Curse Manipulation, Potion Creation, Magical Detection, Mind Resistance, Rune Manipulation, Spirit Communication, Advanced Spellcraft]

Ethan's eyes moved rapidly down the panel. Then another section appeared.

[RELATIONSHIP WITH HOST BODY OWNER: LOGAN VARELLO]

[CLOSENESS: 97%]

[RELATIONSHIP: CHILDHOOD COMPANION / CLOSEST FRIEND / TRUSTED PARTNER]

Then another line appeared, and Ethan's eyes widened even further.

[HIDDEN EMOTIONAL STATUS DETECTED.]

[SUBJECT HAS BEEN IN LOVE WITH LOGAN VARELLO FOR 8 YEARS.]

Ethan slowly looked at the woman.

Lyra, the beautiful witch. She was staring directly into his eyes, and she looked genuinely worried.

Ethan looked back at the panel.

[SUBJECT HAS NOT CONFESSED HER FEELINGS.]

[PRIMARY REASON: FEAR OF REJECTION.]

Ethan’s mind struggled to process everything he had just learned. A witch was standing in front of him, one hundred and twenty-six years old, and somehow, even more unbelievably, she was in love with the man whose body he was now occupying. 

“Logan?”

The pale man’s voice pulled Ethan’s attention away from the witch.

Ethan turned toward him, and the moment his eyes settled on the stranger, the blue System panel floating in his vision flickered and changed. New lines of information appeared across its surface as though the System had identified something it considered important.

[TARGET DETECTED.]

Ethan stared at the message, his confusion deepening as another set of details began loading beneath it.

[IDENTITY: ADRIAN VELMONT]

[RACE: VAMPIRE]

Ethan froze.

His eyes moved back to the pale man standing a short distance away. The unnaturally pale skin, the cold and almost lifeless appearance, and the strange intensity in his eyes suddenly made sense in a way Ethan desperately wished they did not.

“What the fuck...” he whispered, barely able to believe what he was seeing.

He had seen vampires in movies, read about them in books, and heard countless ridiculous stories about creatures that drank blood and lived forever. None of those things had ever felt real because they belonged to fiction, the kind of fantasy people enjoyed precisely because it could never happen in the real world.

But Adrian Velmont was standing right in front of him.

The information continued appearing.

[AGE: 312]

[APPARENT AGE: 29]

[VAMPIRE BLOODLINE: ANCIENT]

[CURRENT RANK: BLOOD LORD]

[PHYSICAL STRENGTH: EXTREME]

[SPEED: EXTREME]

[REFLEXES: EXTREME]

[REGENERATION: EXTREME]

[MAGICAL CAPACITY: HIGH]

Ethan swallowed as more abilities appeared.

[ABILITIES:]

[Supernatural Strength, Supernatural Speed, Rapid Regeneration, Blood Manipulation, Enhanced Hearing, Enhanced Smell, Night Vision, Hypnotic Gaze, Vampiric Transformation, Immortal Physiology, Blood Sensing, Shadow Movement, High-Level Swordsmanship]

Ethan slowly lowered his eyes.

[RELATIONSHIP WITH LOGAN VARELLO]

[CLOSENESS: 89%]

[RELATIONSHIP: CLOSE FRIEND / HEIST PARTNER / BROTHER-LIKE BOND]

Heist partner?

That word immediately caught his attention.

He looked at Adrian and saw the vampire frowning.

“Logan, what's going on with you?” Adrian asked. “Why aren't you saying anything?”

Ethan opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

He couldn’t believe he was staring at a vampire. A fucking vampire. And the vampire apparently considered the owner of this body his brother.

An irritated groan suddenly came from the other side of the room, pulling Ethan’s attention away from the pale man.

The brown-haired woman stood with her arms folded across her chest, her expression becoming increasingly impatient as she stared at him.

Unlike the witch, she did not seem interested in giving him time to understand what was happening.

“We’re running out of time, Logan,” she said sharply, her patience clearly wearing thin. “Get the fuck out of bed and get dressed.”

Ethan turned toward her, still trying to understand who she was, and the moment his eyes settled on her, the System panel in front of his vision flickered again.

[TARGET DETECTED.]

Another set of information appeared beneath the notification.

[IDENTITY: MIRA VALE]

[RACE: SHAPESHIFTER]

Ethan’s eyes narrowed as he studied the woman in silence.

A shapeshifter.

He was beginning to wonder if anything in this world was normal.

The System continued scanning her, filling the panel with more informationg as Ethan watched.

[AGE: 31]

[SHAPESHIFTING MASTERY: 94%]

[PHYSICAL CONDITION: EXCELLENT]

[COMBAT ABILITY: HIGH]

[CLOSENESS WITH LOGAN VARELLO: 84%]

[RELATIONSHIP: TRUSTED FRIEND / HEIST PARTNER]

Ethan’s expression grew more serious as he read the final lines. A trusted friend and heist partner? That raised more questions than it answered, especially when he still had no idea who Logan Varello was, why he was occupying Logan’s body, or what kind of life this man had been living before he woke up.

Across the room, Mira remained completely unaware of the information appearing in front of him. She simply stared at Ethan with her arms folded, waiting for him to move.

The System continued scanning Mira, and a longer list of information gradually filled the blue panel in Ethan’s vision.

[ABILITIES:]

[Complete Physical Transformation, Voice Mimicry, Facial Replication, Animal Transformation, Monster Transformation, Partial Transformation, Enhanced Healing, Enhanced Reflexes, Body Adaptation, Perfect Physical Disguise, Height and Mass Manipulation]

Ethan read through the list twice, his expression becoming more serious with every ability he saw. Mira could completely change her appearance, copy another person’s voice and face, alter her body into an animal or even a monster, and apparently manipulate both her height and mass. The longer he stared at the panel, the less she looked like an ordinary woman standing impatiently beside his bed.

Then another line appeared beneath the abilities.

[NOTE: SUBJECT HAS SUCCESSFULLY INFILTRATED ROYAL, MILITARY, CRIMINAL, AND MAGICAL ORGANIZATIONS USING HER ABILITY.]

Ethan’s eyebrows slowly rose.

Royal organizations. Military organizations. Criminal organizations. Magical organizations.

He looked at Mira again, this time with a completely different level of caution.

These people were not simply supernatural beings who happened to know each other. They were thieves, and judging by the System’s information, they were very good at what they did.

Mira tapped her foot against the floor, clearly growing tired of waiting for him. “We have less than an hour,” she reminded him, her voice sharp with impatience. “If you plan on staring at us all morning, at least do it while you’re getting dressed.”

Before Ethan could respond, a deep voice came from the foot of the bed.

“She’s right, Logan,” the giant said, his low voice carrying enough weight to make the room feel smaller. “We do not have time to waste.”

Ethan turned toward him, and for the System reacted before he could even blink.

[TARGET DETECTED.]

The panel refreshed, and a new set of information appeared.

[IDENTITY: GRUK]

[RACE: DRAKON]

Ethan stared at the word.

Drakon?

He had never heard of such a species, yet the System displayed the information with the same certainty it had used when identifying the others.

More details appeared beneath it.

[AGE: 47]

[HEIGHT: 7 FEET 4 INCHES]

[PHYSICAL STRENGTH: EXTREME]

[DURABILITY: EXTREME]

[COMBAT POTENTIAL: 97%]

[MAGICAL RESISTANCE: 91%]

Ethan’s eyes moved slowly down the panel until another section appeared.

[ABILITIES:]

[Titanic Strength, Extreme Durability, Enhanced Regeneration, Battle Instinct, Bone Reinforcement, Claw Manifestation, Shockwave Strike, Mana Resistance, Berserker State, Enhanced Senses]

Ethan swallowed as he read through the list.

Titanic strength. Extreme durability. Regeneration. A berserker state.

Then his eyes stopped on one particular ability.

Shockwave Strike.

He looked up at Gruk again, suddenly imagining what kind of force a creature with that much strength could unleash with a single blow.

Apparently, this thing could hit hard enough to create shockwaves.

That was not something Ethan wanted to experience firsthand.

Before he could process that thought, the System displayed another section.

[RELATIONSHIP WITH LOGAN VARELLO]

[CLOSENESS: 92%]

[RELATIONSHIP: CLOSE FRIEND / HEIST PARTNER / COMBAT COMPANION]

Gruk shifted his enormous shoulders and looked down at him. “The ceremony is about to start,” he said, his voice calm but firm. “If we don’t get there soon, we won’t be able to carry out the objective the way we planned.”

Ethan said nothing.

He slowly looked around the room, taking in each of the people standing before him.

Lyra, Adrian, Mira and Gruk.

A witch, a vampire, a shapeshifter, and a Drakon, a species he had never even heard of.

Yet somehow, all four of them were connected to him. Or rather, they were connected to Logan Varello.

Ethan’s gaze lingered on them as the reality of his situation finally began to settle in.

These people were not strangers to the man whose body he was wearing. They knew Logan. They trusted him. They had worked alongside him, fought beside him, and apparently expected him to walk out of this room and join them in some kind of dangerous heist.

But Ethan was not Logan.

He had no idea where Logan had gone, what had happened to him, or why he had awakened inside his body.

He slowly pushed himself upright, the movement causing the blanket to slide down around his waist. His heart was pounding so hard that he could feel every beat against his ribs, yet he remained strangely silent as he stared at his own hands.

This could not be real.

There was no doubt in his mind that he had died.

Yet he was here, alive and breathing, inside the body of an elf, sitting in a strange room while a witch, a vampire, a shapeshifter, and a creature from an unknown race waited for him to get dressed.

Ethan looked at them again, his mind struggling to find some explanation that made sense.

There wasn’t one.

Whatever had happened to him after death had not simply given him a second chance at life.

It had thrown him into an entirely different world.