Chapter 322: The Perfect Disguise

"[Goblin] Grab the strand of human hair from that vial, and gently place it atop the gemstone in the ring." With a broad, warm smile, Aiden calmly instructed this fidgeting, shy servant of his.

Still flabbergasted by all that was going on and her mind in a chaotic mess due to the fact that she received a ring, a piece of precious jewelry from her adored Young Master, Galina had to take almost a full minute before her mind could register the words. 

Embarrassed by her shameful display, her green skintone turned into a bright shade of pink at her cheeks, her eyes were watery with all the gathered shame-filled tears continued convergence.

Eventually, she gave a weak nod, showing that she understood the commands, and plopped the cork off the crystal vial, throwing it far away to the ground. Overturning the vial, she watched as the thin, fiery red strand of mane slowly flew out of the vial.

Instead of grabbing it, she placed her ring-wielding finger below the hair's descent and watched with an expectant gaze as it made contact with the black, ominous-looking onyx gem.

As soon as it did a faint buzzing sound could be heard as the onyx crystal's surface began to wobble going against all common knowledge. It felt like that its smooth, solid surface wasn't solid at all, but as if it was made out of some liquid substance. Slowly, but surely, the strand of hair was sucked into the bead's core, causing the previously dull, dark surface to emit a faint colorless hue. 

Another few moments later, the hue slowly receded, whilst the color changed from black to a darker but still much more vibrant blueish color. At the same time at the ring on both sides the same runic symbol appeared.

Galina looked wondrously at what had gone on in front of her eyes, whilst Aiden looked puzzled. His mind was focused, trying to understand each and every minute detail, but he couldn't. Instead, after a brief moment of daze, he turned to look at his silver-haired friend, Drake, who donned his earlier, victorious, haughty expression over his face.

This time, however, he didn't waste much time on enjoying the moment, he swiftly explained.

"The color and the sign on the ring symbolizes that you now have a charge stored inside it. One charge or an illusion can usually be used at most 5 times before the stored material inside will be completely used up. I… I don't understand it fully but usually, after the 4th or at most the 5th usage, the color will return to the previously seen black and the text on the ring will vanish." He explained, pointing at the golden ring on Galina's finger.

"Once it is gone, you will need to feed the gem new material for it to function."

As if just remembered something, Drake's face changed into one of worry as he hurriedly added, with a slightly apologetic tone.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Once you activate the ring, the girl will feel a small prick. The ring will take some of its wielder's blood. I'm not sure about the details but it should be a requirement for its magic to work. It's nothing serious, just make sure to be aware."

Aiden nodded, turning to look at his servant who was still deep in her own little world, looking at the beautiful gift, not bothered, not caring about anything. 

Sighing about the sight, Aiden turned towards her system's guide hoping to get a bit more detail out of her.

Before he even had the chance to formulate a question in his mind, Enya already began her explanation.

'[The reason the magic of the ring fades after 5 usages is due to usage of the mana. The low-tiered, unrefined version of this energy, this mana that these people use is corrosive by nature. Basically, the flowing energy that the user itself injects into the gemstone corrodes the source essence. The more energy the user uses, the faster it is used up.]' She calmly stated, giving only a momentary pause before continuing.

'[If you were to use your own [Soul Power], which is a much higher-quality source of energy, you would be able to use the same illusion hundreds of times more. Unfortunately for you, Galina hasn't been able to unlock her own pool of that energy yet, so she will have to rely on Mana. Luckily even with that, she should be okay for around 20 usages, as her own mana is already slightly refined thanks to your involvement.]'

Changing the subject, she continued before Aiden could interject.

'[As for the other question you wanted to ask, the ring needs life essence from its user to be able to create a perfectly matching new form. It's nothing more, you don't need to think too deeply about it.]'

In the end, Aiden didn't even need to ask anything, he received his answers without doing so. Thinking about it for a bit more, he transferred all the information he received from both Drake and Enya to Galina using the mental connection they shared, also stating to not reveal the truth to anybody and let Drake think she only has 5 usages.

While it seemed like a lot, the entire mental conversation with Enya, then Galina barely took two minutes. All the while Aiden looked to be deeply in thought, so Drake didn't bother him at all and waited for his friend to come back himself.

"Alright…" Eventually, looking as if he came to a decision, Aiden spoke. "5 would be more than enough. I still want to see the end result… soo…"

Turning to Galina, he smiled and nodded which she immediately understood. Closing her eyes, she guided the flow of her mana towards her ring finger, transferring a sliver of it into the onyx bead at its top.

As soon as she did, she felt a sharp prick, several tiny needles piercing into her skin, causing slight discomfort. A bright blueish glow emitted from the gem, forming a frosty, nontransparent layer of energy around the startled girl.

The energy grew at lightning speeds, swallowing up the girl in a few moments' time, creating something vaguely resembling a bubble, or an egg of sorts.

The surface continued to violently wobble, sending ripples all around. The ripples didn't seem to settle, instead, they grew in intensity as the seconds went on. 

Half a minute of time had passed, before the protective bubble began to finally fade out, evaporating in the air. As they did, they released their pent-up, stored energy, forming a cloud made out of their blinding light, giving another layer of cover to the host emerging from inside.

In a few extra moments later, as the surroundings slowly returned to normal, and the light show gradually faded, what appeared before Drake and Aiden's eyes were not the sight of the evolved goblin, but a 1:1 match to the fiery-red haired, unruly princess, Scarlet.

Drake had to repeat the mantra 'She is not my sister, she is not my sister…' in his mind, not to jump at him with worry.

Her height, her body frame, the color of her skin, eyes, hair… all of the defining characteristics that made Galina look like… well, Galina has changed, matching the owner of the supplied strand of hair. 

However, that wasn't the end of the mind-blowing changes that the godly ring of power has made. As Galina's lips parted and asked a question, both herself and Aiden were stunned. Her voice was not hers but it was matching Scarlet's!

"[Goblin] Young Master… What do you think… Do I look… acceptable?… Will I be able to get into the town without issues?"

Although surprised and shocked due to the change of her own voice, she was also as worried about the whole transformation. Would she be able to follow her master along looking like this? Will she be able to slip past the human guards? She was really hoping, wishing for it to work, she didn't want to leave. She wanted to stay by his side.

Looking at her new form, Aiden was delighted. This ring, that Drake has just thrown at them, was truly powerful! 

So much so, that he was fairly certain that Drake himself wasn't aware of the true value of what he had just given away so carelessly.

He couldn't help but smile and look at Galina with a hazy look. He was deep in thought already thinking about the future where this artifact could be incredibly valuable. With this, he could have her other servants get into these restricted areas like the human city with ease. 

Once they would all learn to use their Primal Cores properly and feed their [Soul Power] instead of mana to the gemstone… they could keep up their forms for days… The illusion was so perfect, that no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find any fault.

With a contented smile, he looked into Galina's worried eyes and answered.

"[Goblin] Yes… This is perfect my dear."