After defeating many thousands of ghosts, bigger ones appeared from the forest.
They were at least 10 meters tall, not as big as the trees, but they made the fort and walls feel trivial. They looked like large plants, but with arms and legs.
(There's a lot of ghosts that look like trees or rocks.)
They looked different from the types of monsters in the Demon King's Army.
[Name] None
[Age] 282
[Species] Mandoradrake
[Strength] 6480
[Mana] 0
[Spiritual Power] 1240
[Attack] 5500
[Endurance] 5320
[Agility] 2600
[Intelligence] 2780
[Luck] 0
[Attack Element] Wood
[Endurance Element] Wood
Allen checked their stats with Kuwatoro's Special Skill [Appraiser Eyes].
"Cecile and Formar, keep the plant ghosts still. They're weak to fire."
"Okay, Flame Lance."
Cecile used her favorite Fire Magic Level 2 spell, sending multiple fire spears at the ghosts.
"Hmph!"
The ghosts were staggered, which gave Formar time to fire explosive arrows at their heads.
(Hmhm, so the dragonkin use Spiritual Power to activate their Skills.)
Allen could see everything with Kuwatoro's Thousand-mile Eyes. The dragonkin were using their bows to attack the ghosts, and with time their Spiritual Power was going down.
Spiritual Power replenished after 6 hours though.
Even during that violent fight, Allen was still gathering all sorts of information.
(I can use up to 4 Eyes Skills from Kuwatoro at the same time.)
He was also checking Kuwatoro's Skills. Kuwatoro had 4 eyes, one for each Eyes Skill.
Awakened Skills like [Floating Wings] also required Spirit Bead Points.
[Kuwatoro's Skills]
-Appraiser Eyes, Pursuing Eyes, and Thousand-mile Eyes could only have 4 instances
-At most 4 entities could be Appraised simultaneously
-If Pursuing Eyes was used on 4 targets, Kuwatoro could not use more Eyes Skills
-The Awakened Skill [Phoenix Wings] requires 5 Sacred Bead Points
Allen continued giving out orders to his party, while the Dragon A summons behind took care of anything else. That way they easily fought against the tens of thousands of ghosts.
"They're defeating the ghosts like they're nothing…"
"How are their arrows doing so much damage?"
The Bird F summon left in the fort transmitted the wardens' voices.
(This is different from the dungeons. Their bodies stay even after they're defeated.)
Allen noticed something about these new enemies. The monsters of the human world would vanish in particles of light when defeated, but the ghosts remained.
He would need to tear them apart if he wanted to retrieve Spirit Stones.
As he thought about that, a larger ghost came out of the forest.
'...'
It continued moving towards them silently.
"An Angel Rank golem is here!!"
"But why? They should be further inside the swarm…"
The dragonkin sounded confused seeing it.
[Name] None
[Age] 282
[Species] Giant Stone
[Strength] 12080
[Mana] 0
[Spiritual Power] 2420
[Attack] 9800
[Endurance] 14300
[Agility] 7600
[Intelligence] 11300
[Luck] 0
[Attack Element] Earth
[Endurance Element] Earth, Fire, Physical Resistance
An enormous humanoid golem stepped out, making the trees tremble. It was far stronger than all the previous ghosts, so all 3 parties focused fire on it, defeating it soon after.
"Allen, it seems they've stopped now. Was that all of them?"
"Yeah, that should be the last one near the fort."
Allen told them it was over after they defeated nearly 5000 ghosts.
"Ohh!! I've gained so many Levels!!"
'Gyau!!'
Kurena and Haku's Level had been reset to 1, but now they felt their power returning.
"Kurena, I want to see a Spirit Stone. Could you open this stone ghost's chest?"
Allen told her to open the place where the Spirit Stone was.
"Okay!!"
Kurena quickly climbed on the remains, chipping away at the stone with her greatsword.
Eventually she grabbed something and ran down to Allen.
"Ohhh, so this is a Spirit Stone."
Kurena brought the Spirit Stone. It was the size of a fist and looked like a shiny and translucent crystal. Helmios and Galara also came to look at it.
"So are we done?"
"Yes. The fight is over here."
Allen told them how they would need to go deep into the forest to find more ghosts.
So he told them to go gather the Spirit Stones from all the defeated ghosts.
Some time later Abigayle came to them.
"Thank you very much for your assistance. I'm sorry we doubted you could handle so many…"
All the wardens bowed to them in gratitude too, for them surviving was a miracle.
"It's fine, I'm just glad there were no casualties. So you fight ghosts everyday?"
"Something like that. It's the duty given to us dragonkin."
Abigayle mentioned the duty given to them. The patriarch had also mentioned that the night before. Tens of thousands of years ago some dragonkin crossed the Gate of Judgement, and came to live in the divine realm, where they had to live under the rules of divine people.
"Hmmm… I see."
(Hm? It seems Formar is thinking of something.)
Formar had been born into a family with a long history of being the high elves' bodyguards.
Many of his relatives had guarded the queen as well, and he was tasked with protecting Sophie.
He was likely the only one in Allen's Party who had no direct interest in the divine realm or defeating the Demon King. In a way he could relate with Abigayle's duty.
(At least we got to defeat a lot of them. Ghosts also have Ranks, like Angel or Demigod.)
Allen went over the conclusions he reached. He had asked a lot of questions to Merus or the patriarch about ghosts after learning of their existence.
There were no regular monsters here, and no Adventurer's Guild either. Instead the dragonkin wardens were the only ones keeping the ghost swarms at bay.
[Ghost Ranks]
-Ghosts: Soul Eater, Mandoradrake
-Angel Rank Ghosts: Giant Stone
-Great Angel Rank Ghosts
-Demigod Rank Ghosts
Ghosts were roughly equivalent to B Rank and A Rank monsters.
Soul Eaters were B Rank, and Mandoradrakes were A Rank.
The Giant Stone that terrified the wardens so much was S Rank.
"Ohh, it's been a while since such a large ghost has been defeated."
"The patriarch should be able to renew his mansion now."
"Are you dumb? It was them who hunted all these ghosts…"
The dragonkin looked at the defeated ghosts with envy.
"...I'm sorry for that. But yes, this was all you."
Their voices were so loud that Allen and Abigayle could also hear them.
"We'll just take Spirit Stones, feel free to take anything else."
Allen did not need any other materials from the remains.
"A-are you sure?!"
Allen did not need anything else, but Kiel reacted hearing that decision.
"Isn't that a bit too much? The wardens might've helped a bit, but it was mostly us who did everything."
Some wardens had also used their bows against the ghosts, but after seeing the prices of everything in the market Kiel did not feel comfortable leaving everything behind like that.
"I can just tell Merus to pass us some stuff from the human realm if we need."
(The Grimoire is really convenient for stuff like that.)
Merus was constantly putting more Heaven's Blessings into the Grimoire, so he could just as easily send provisions and materials. The Inventory could only open a hole 30 centimeters in diameter, but it had plenty of capacity.
On top of that they could store provisions inside magic bags, and store those inside the Inventory, easily letting him store a large palace's warehouse capacity of items.
Allen was prepared for anything already, so there was no need to buy things in the divine realm.
(Though if there's weapons or magic items that can't be gotten elsewhere it'll be different.)
"I-I see. Well, if Helmios and Admiral Galara are fine with that then…"
Kiel did not insist further. Helmios and Galara had no monetary incentives, so they were fine with it too.
"I see…thank you again."
Abigayle thanked them.
"I'd like to ask for a favor though."
Allen had not done that purely out of kindness though.
"Hm? What is it?"
"I couldn't find any of the Spirit Crystal Stones mentioned by the patriarch."
The patriarch said Spirit Crystal Stones could be obtained from Angel Rank ghosts, but they were not guaranteed. Kurena had not been able to find any in the one they defeated.
(The Giant Stone was barely S Rank, so we probably need to defeat something stronger.)
That was why Allen asked Abigayle to guide them to stronger ghosts.
"A-are you serious?"
"Of course. We need them to accomplish our goal."
"...Okay, I'll go talk with the scouts then."
Abigayle agreed and went to the fort, searching for scouts that were quick on their feet and could help with retrieving materials too.
(And there's one more thing left to do.)
While Abigayle spoke with the scouts, Allen had one more thing he wanted to test.
"Kurena, Cecile, we've gotten a lot of Spiritual Power. Try using your Divine Techniques."
Allen would never go fight more enemies without verifying if they could use them.
"Okay. Divine Technique Activation!"
Kurena tried first, using the activation Skill before she could test [Dragon Aura] and [Combined Dragoon Attack].
(So far so good.)
Allen continued telling them what to test, writing down everything he learned.
The others rested, while Dogora trained her Skills on a Stone D summon.
"Dragon Aura! Ohh, I feel stronger now!!"
'Gyau!!'
Just like Cecile's [Intelligence Boost], [Dragon Aura] made Kurena and Haku stronger.
(So that's it, just a boost. But that's why the Dragon King and Astel were so strong.)
After using it, their Divine Technique Experience also increased.
-Divine Technique Experience
[Dragon Aura] 10'000 / 100'000
He also checked the Grimoire to see how much Spiritual Power she had.
[Spiritual Power and Divine Techniques]
-Spiritual Power's max value is the same as Mana
-Divine Technique Activation costs 1000 Spiritual Power
-Divine Techniques can only be used after using the Skill [Divine Technique Activation]
-Divine Technique Activation lasts for 1 hour
-Dragon Aura costs 10000 Spiritual Power
-Combined Dragoon Attack costs all Spiritual Power
-Dragon Aura at Level 1 adds 10000 Agility and Attack
-The amount of Spiritual Power spent gets added to a Divine Technique's Experience
(I feel like we can obtain as many Spirit Stones as we want too.)
"Allen, the Warden Leader is back. I guess they're ready."
They came just when Allen was done experimenting.
"So Cecile, I think we might be able to fight against Nestiad now."
But just as he said that, Merus' voice came into his mind.
'Stop, don't fight Nestiad no matter what, you can't win that fight.'
Allen and Merus shared their sight and thoughts, so Merus knew what was happening.
"Sorry for the wait."
"Thank you very much for guiding us."
"Hm? Well, you did help us."
Abigayle did not try opposing Allen now. He had seen just how strong they were.
He did mention something about pulsations, but Allen decided they could talk about that while they walked inside the forest.
And so Allen's group headed into the ghost swarm to obtain Spiritual Crystal Stones.
