“Huff”


    Following the orange-red mes of the torch Lumina threw down, the fire spread rapidly like a writhing fire snake along the alchemical fire oil she had previously spilled.


    This fire oil was clearly enhanced with additives.


    The mes spread at an abnormal speed. Fortunately, Lumina had thrown the torch from far away. If she were closer, she might not have had time to run with that ignition speed.


    In the blink of an eye, the two alleys in front of her were engulfed in bright mes. Under the flickering fires, the shadows of obstacles stretched long, but Lumina could also hear faint explosions, like something crying out as it was ignited by the mes.


    This made her eyes widen as she grabbed her hunting rifle again.


    The earlier Astral Wolf attack reminded her of her true advantage, she might be better suited to shooting from a distance rather than closebat fighting, though it was a pity about the elven sword arts she had just acquired. She wondered if there was a job that could bnce ranged and closebat abilities?


    “Awoo”


    A shrill howl interrupted Lumina’s imagination. She immediately aimed her rifle at the mes and saw the formless shades of despair spawned from the burning smoke, struggling to escape the raging fire as if fleeing.But they didn’t get far before a lead bullet from Lumina shattered their forms into ck ashes, swallowed again by the zing fire.


    “Effective!”


    Lumina watched as the Astral shadows in the alley were consumed by the spreading mes, leaving only pale gray ash in their wake.


    It seemed Lord Murphy’s n had a sessful foundation. All they needed to do was douse the entire outer city ruins with this alchemical fire oil, then set it aze for total victory.


    She nced at the “Burn Test” quest now showing asplete on her yer interface, shouldered her rifle, humming a tune as she carried the strange bones she had collected from the Astral Wolves, heading back to the defense line to turn in the quest to Lady Tris.


    Lord Murphy wasn’t around, she didn’t know where he had gone.


    “Hmm, the quality of this Astral Wolf Pte Bone is not bad. Seems you’ve had quite the lucky find, little girl.”


    Lady Tris maintained her signature half-drunken posture, sitting by the alchemy table. After examining the special material Lumina handed over, she nodded in satisfaction and asked:


    “Is there anything you want? I can trade you the secrets of spirit magic for these materials.”


    Lady Tris looked both alluring and kindly at the moment, but in reality her heart was delighted.


    The crystals of raging Astral spirit energy contained in the remains of these Astral creatures were considered rare materials in other spirit circles. But now she only needed to offer a bit of basic spirit knowledge to easily obtain them from these adorable little warriors.


    As her little Murphy had said, after getting familiar with the way these little warriors operated, she really was growing fonder of these eternally energetic, fearless, insightful but easily satisfied little cuties.


    Their courage clearly needed to be directed in more reasonable ways, like obtaining fine wines or rare and expensive materials for her.


    Lumina had previously known she could exchange rare drop materials with Lady Tris for manuals on spirit skills. But as a solo yer who didn’t raid instances, she hadn’t expected to have this opportunity. Hearing Tris’ inquiry now, she felt a bit lost.


    After a moment’s thought, she carefully asked:


    “Do you have any books on elven-style spirit magic here?”


    “Elves?”


    With the Computation Bead’s precise trantion, Tris understood Lumina’s intent, but frowned and said:


    “Why would you be interested in those conservative, exclusionary people? They are not kind characters. The war between the Castilia elves and the Sanghai people 300 years ago at the ‘Bridge of Heaven’ shocked the continent, that was our first realization of the immense power held by those reclusive Avalon nature-worshippers.


    Little girl, you should be more cautious.


    What I mean is, stay away from those dangerous things.”


    But seeing Lumina’s unchanged expression, Lady Tris knew her warning had fallen on deaf ears.


    Recalling that little Murphy had asked her to secretly look after this bold but careful girl, Tris pondered for a moment before retrieving a scroll and elegantly beginning to write.


    Nearly five minutester, the scroll was rolled up and handed to Lumina.


    “This is an elven spell from my memory, but you won’t be able to use it for now.”


    Hearing Lady Tris’ words, Lumina excitedly epted it and activated her yer interface’s item identification. Soon, a simple description appeared:


    Name: Lady Tris’ Magic Manual – Eye of the Wilderness


    Effect: Learn the natural spirit skill ‘Eye of the Wilderness’, summoning a spirit scout owl. This allows the user to control the owl for long-range observation, maintaining this state until spirit energy is depleted and allowing cement of up to three spirit markers in the target area.


    In terrain rich with natural spirit energy, Eye of the Wilderness is enhanced with reduced energy consumption and can support short-range mentalmunication with the target by the user.


    Note!


    The summoned scout owl has【Natural Concealment】and【Spirit Shielding】, making it difficult for enemies to detect.


    Please be aware that this advanced scouting spell can be disrupted byplex spirit environments.


    Requirement: Learning this skill requires Intellect ≥ 12


    Item Description:


    【This spirit spell is a special variant originating from the elven ranger ‘Wilderness Sentinel’ skill. Its greatest advantage, thanks to Lady Tris’ modifications, is a much lower chance of being detected, significantly enhancing the user’s safety.


    But you’d best not inquire in detail where Lady Tris learned this foreign spell, it rtes to a certain experience from her youth.】


    “Intellect 12 to learn it?”


    Lumina nced at her character sheet, her current Intellect stat was maxed at 8. ording to the game’s Power Realm exnations, she would not only need toplete the ck Iron Trial, but also invest precious free attribute points into Intellect after raising her Realm in order to meet the learning requirement.


    But wouldn’t that mess up her nned job progression?


    “Is there anything else troubling you?”


    Seeing the little yer’s worried look, Lady Tris casually asked.


    Lumina ryed her thoughts through the trantion function, she didn’t want to give up her shooting skills or the elven secret sword arts, and also wanted to learn elven spirit magic. Hearing this, Lady Tris showed an exasperated expression.


    What was wrong with this child?


    Had her head been kicked in by an Astral Ox? On the Path of Power, trying to have everything usually resulted in ack of specialization, even great talent couldn’t make up for that mistake!


    But out of respect for little Murphy, she tried to impart some “wisdom of her elders”, suggesting to Lumina:


    “Based on your requests, the most suitable job for you that I can think of is the ‘Bard’.


    Ites from authentic elven heritage, not outstanding in any area, but a ssic jack-of-all-trades. Though human bards are not quite authentic, if you could find someone willing to teach you those skills, you might just get your wish.


    However, child, I advise you not to abandon the path of spirit magic or the ranger.


    Your talents may be more suited for those.”


    “Thank you for your advice, Lady.”


    Lumina felt enlightened. She immediately took out a few bottles of fine wine she had scavenged and gifted them to Tris, who smiled cheerfully. Her impression of this clever and sensible little girl improved further as she offered one more reminder:


    “I recall there is an olddy at the ‘Blood Fang’ tavern in the inner city district who is always full of energy. In her youth, she apparently traveled to the elvennds and also sang a fine song.


    She’s quite likely a bard with a hidden identity, but that was over a hundred years ago.


    If you could find her relics or notes, you might just uncover some clues.”


    Lumina quickly recorded this information on her yer interface. She now truly realized the importance of “affinity” in this game, as this effort in collecting and gifting wines to Tris had not been wasted.


    However, the inner city district…


    That area was still covered by Astral energy, so she estimated the new area wouldn’t open until after the outer city ruins of Kadman City were reimed.


    With a satisfied haul, Lumina left and nned to wander the city again.


    After she departed, Tris sipped her wine and waited until Murphy, along with the Young Lady, Maxim, and Adele, stealthily escorted three horse carriages out of the city.


    “Did you get them?” Tris asked.


    Murphy nodded and patted the carriage next to him, saying, “The three underground cores of the Nocturne spirit grand barrier, retrieved without incident. Check their status.”


    “No need,” Tris wavedzily. “Strategic spirit items of that level only have two states, intact or broken. They aren’t as fragile as you think, as long as they’re not shattered. Now that we have them, are you going to burn the city next?”


    “Yes,” Murphy nodded. “Over the next two days, the militia at the survivor camps will gradually burn the city district with fire oil, eventually pushing to the Astral Rift to secure the new border. The hard-to-reach areas on the outer ruin edges will be ‘air-dropped’ by the Young Lady and Adele.


    “Only by burning away those shadows can this ce truly belong to us again.


    “Also, the dire situation you prophesied has emerged. ording to my warriors’ scouting in the sewer regions, ghouls and their ‘cousins’ the waterlogged undead have appeared in droves under the ruins.


    “The death spirit energy in Transia isn’t converging, so this rate of transformation is too fast, isn’t it?”


    “Too fast? I think it’s too slow,” Tris snorted, adopting the cold arrogance befitting a Spirit Sovereign.


    “The spirit energy of the physical world is filtered through the Astral Realm. In the face of that primal, raging spirit energy, further ssification is meaningless, they inherently possess shared characteristics across spirit types.


    “The appearance of ghouls is just the first step; more troublesome wraiths await.


    “After burning away the city’s surface Astral shadows, we’ll have to deal with those specters next.


    “But it seems your warriors implemented some rather special management methods at the camp. I overheard them hotly discussing something called a ‘big pot meal’ today.”


    Tris sounded a bit concerned as she knew the little yers’ backgrounds, so she asked, “Are you sure it’s okay to just let them do that?”


    “If it’s a proven effective method, then we have no need to worry,” Murphy said with a nuanced tone to Tris.


    She paused, then realized Murphy meant their warriors might be employing methods from other realms.


    She nodded, not asking further.


    ——


    “Battalion Commander! There’s a problem in Kadman City!”


    A few hours after nightfall, a White Oak scout rushed into Old Finoch’s tent at the Witch Hunters’ temporary camp, loudly telling the Battalion Commander who was carefully polishing his Great Oak Holy de.


    “There are mes rising from the ruins! The glow prates even the astral shadow shroud, allowing us to see it from the observation point. We suspect something happened in the city to set the whole ce aze.


    Perhaps a conflict erupted between that strange vampire and the civilians he’s oppressing?”


    “Hmm?” The old knight, d only in a simple tunic, raised his head in surprise.


    Slinging his sacred Great Oak de across his back, he followed the scout out to a vantage point overlooking Kadman City through a surveying telescope.


    The burning mes stood out starkly in the night.


    But the war-seasoned old knight immediately judged it was not an entire citywide congration. He was quite familiar with such things from his long life of campaigns, not just once, but many times.


    “No! The mes are too small and not intense enough, at most a small district is burning. This is an intentional, nned arson.”


    The old knight lowered his telescope and said gravely:


    “It seems they are using fire against the overflowing Astral shadows, a decent substitute in the absence of professional purifying spirit mages.


    But I never expected vampires to willingly use fire, that truly surprises me.


    I recall the rural folk of this Transia region passing down an ancient tradition of using mes to purify corruption and darkness, right?”


    “Yes, Battalion Commander. Such customs are indeed passed down locally, said to be methods concluded by their ancestors from conflicts with vampires long ago,” replied a scout versed in the local traditions.


    “This approach can’t be wrong, mes are indeed employed in many exorcism rituals. But should we really allow those vampires to reim their city uncontested? Perhaps we should seize the opportunity tounch an attack while they’re vulnerable?


    With the intelligence we currently possess, under your leadership, those vampires can’t possibly stop us!”


    “We shall advance, but not attack,” the old Finoch shook his head solemnly.


    “Those vampires and their blood servants cannot escape from our grasp! The astral rift will close tomorrow, and that is when we will act.


    But remember our mission, Hunters.


    Those scattered vampires and servants are inconsequential, confirming Salrokdar’s death and the Blood Vultures’ destruction is of utmost importance!


    I know those who have survived this war have bloodied their hands, some more than others. But if I find any of you losing control of the destructive urges in your heart, raising des against those survivors, don’t expect any leniency from me!”