Nicole's lack of response to Nathan's words still worried him, but he could only believe that it was due to their low level. The guide did say it was possible to bring the dead back then again did Nicole even count as a dead person with her being here now with him? It was a question Nathan had no answer too. Resting against the corpse of the wolf. Nathan started to sort out his rewards.
After accepting the feat rewards a pure white sword resembling a fang of a wolf materialized in front of him together with a small vial with sticky red liquid in it.
| Wolf-bone sword |
| A blade made out of a complete skeleton of a wolf through alchemy. |
| Damage: 30 |
| Ability: Damaged against beasts increased by 15% |
| Wolf-blood elixir |
| Elixir made out of the blood essence of an alpha wolf.
| Consuming the elixir grants: Minor night vision and smell enchantment. |
| 10% chance to cause a mutation after consumption. |
Before opening his status screen Nathan invested his two skill points into shared power.
| Shared power | 4/5 |
| You and the spirit can share part of each other's power. |
| +40% of each other's base stats. |
| Name: Nathan Bandon |
| Level: 3 |
| Class: Spiritualist |
| Status: Haunted |
| Strength: 10(5) |
| Vitality: 12(7) |
| Agility: 10(5) |
| Sense: 12 (10) |
| Magic power: 8(3) |
| Mana: 3 |
| Attribute points: 4 |
Seeing the massive increase in his stats came as a great surprise to Nathan. At first, he couldn't understand how Nicole was giving him so much power. But by using his base stats and the 40% bonus he got from shared power he managed to pinpoint that Nicole had to have between 13-14 points for stats that received a bonus of 5. As he couldn't see her status screen himself this made no sense to him. Unless her stats were different than his own. Yet the more he thought about it the more sense it made to him. How would a spirit use stats like agility, strength, vitality? Or could her class if she had one increased her stats massively? Nathan could only speculate without any proof in his theories until he could access her status screen as well.
This unexpected boost to his stats enabled him to change his approach for his stat investment.
| Soul slash | Level 1 |
| Send out a slash of spirit mana damaging the soul |
| Damage: 100% |
| Range 5 meters |
| Cost: 1 Mana |
The skill ignored the physical defense completely only being hindered by the mana that flowed inside one's body naturally unless they had other means of defending against magical attacks.
After obtaining his class Nathan had also naturally learned how to use the skill itself. Now that his stats were almost doubled by Nicole he had the leisure to not worry about his physical stats letting him invest his attribute points towards the development of his only attack skill. Splitting the 4 attribute points he had Nathan raised his mana to 5 and magic power to 10 with Nicole's boosts. In the end, the spiritualist class wasn't technically a melee class. So even if he invested all his attribute points into his physical power it wouldn't be nearly as effective as it would for a class designed around it. While other classes had the ability to raise their stats through the skill tree the spiritualist didn't have that option. Instead, they benefited from the power of their companion. Overall Nathan's class could be counted as one of the rarest classes out there due to the requirements it had for acquiring it and with its rareness came the uniqueness it held as well.
Holding the glass vial with the sticky red liquid in his hand Nathan contemplated whether he should take the risk of consuming it. The odds of the mutation happening were low while the benefits seemed equally low as well. Removing the vials cover the most potent stench of blood oozing out from the small vial overwhelming all his senses. The liquid smoothly flowed out of the glass vial as Nathan took a swig of it. After entering his body a sensation of heat began to radiate from his eyes and nose that quickly grew to a blaze forcing Nathan to scream out in pain as he began to roll around on the ground clutching his face.
In the process of receiving the enchantment, he had lost the track of time completely. Sprawled on the forest ground covered in sweat out of breath. The feeling of intense heat had disappeared only to be replaced by intense itchiness that was slowly fading away as well.
"There really should have been a warning about that!" After going through that suffering Nathan slowly began to notice the change it had brought. The shadowy parts of the forest had become noticeably brighter as well as the increase to his ability to pick up scents and track them. Nathan was forced to take his time and adjust to the changes unlike trough attribute points or skills that just seemed to come naturally.
Through his phase of adjusting Nathan had managed to pick up an odd sent. The wind had carried a potent stench of decay and rot. There was something else mixed in with it as well. Something that felt odd yet familiar he couldn’t pinpoint what exactly it was but it was enough to pique his interest. Setting it as his next target in the tutorial.
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The Elixir had also restored a portion of blood he had lost while his cut-up shirt made a crude bandage on his arms as his vitality worked on fixing his injuries.
While traveling through the forest following the stench of decay a few random beasts had tried to attack him, netting him an easy hundred experience. The closer he got to the stench of decay and rot the foliage around the forest became more sparse to the point everything around him had clear signs of lacking vitality. The trees looked dry and on the verge of death while having almost no beasts in the nearby area around the forest. In the distance, a stone temple stood surrounded by death. As Nathan began to examine the clearing around the temple, he could spot four weapons sprawled on the ground in the distance.
"Those are spirits right?"
All around the temple were disfigured monsters as they aimlessly wandered in the surroundings of the temple. This was the first time Nathan had seen another spirit that wasn't Nicole. Their body portions didn't match their bodies while some even had more limbs than regular humans. Some of them looked more transparent than others while some of them kept constantly switching between being transparent and solid for Nathan. A spirit with disproportionate arms that were way too huge for its body had approached especially close to the tree Nathan was hiding behind. It aimlessly wandered around dragging its arms on the ground leaving trails in the grey sand-like ground that surrounded the temple. It had entered the minimal range for Nathanas’ soul slash. Not wasting the opportunity Nathan released his soul slash as it. The transparent blade cut the spirit’s body into half before it realized what had happened as its body disappeared into thin air. This was the power of a class made for dealing with spirits.
| Level 2 wandering spirit has been slain |
| +20(-50%) Experience |
The death of the spirit had caused a chain reaction as every single spirit wandering around the temple had stopped their aimless wandering. Their bodies began to twist and turn as they began to focus their gaze towards Nathan creating an invisible pressure on him. Almost at the same time, they had set their gaze on him. They began to rush at him simultaneously as well. The thought of facing over a hundred spirits didn’t even cross his mind as Nathan spirited away. The spirits ignored every obstacle in their way as they chased Nathan, simply passing through the trees or even using them as a way to boost their speed in the pursuit.
It was simply impossible for him to dodge and escape every attack the spirits did, but this is where Nicole had come in with her claws intercepting the attacks of the spirits as she defended him.
After running for a couple of minutes Nathan noticed the attacks from spirits had stopped as he turned around to see them slowly walking back towards the temple.
"Why did they stop pursuing me?" Nathan was puzzled by this sudden discovery.
"Could they not leave a certain area around the temple?" That seemed like the only logical explanation to him as he examined them going back to the temple after suddenly stopping. Just before this, their attacks had only increased in intensity as more spirits had been able to cover the distance between them. He needed to test out his theory and he had just the tools he needed for it.
"Nicole moves as far as you can from me." He had never tested the limits of the distance they could be apart from each other. She began to float away from Nathan until she reached about 30 meters away from him. With every step he moved towards her she could move that distance forward it worked the same way backward as well. If Nicole was bound to him then the spirits around the temple must have been bound to the temple instead or something inside it.
"Come back!" Now Nathan had gained a better understanding of spirits. A plan had begun to manifest in his mind for a way to deal with those spirits.
As soon as his mana had returned to full the plan was put in motion as Nathan once again entered the temple grounds. Aggroing the spirits once again by killing one of them just as before they began to rush at him. Only this time they weren't nearly as spread out as before as a wave of spirits began to rush at him. Nathan began to release one soul slash after another before sprinting away once again. This reckless and simple plan of tining their numbers was only possible due to Nicole defending him against any attacks from the chasing spirits.
Just like before the spirits had reached the invisible border unable to move any further away from the temple. Only this time lingering longer on the border before returning.
After sitting down and waiting for his mana to return once again Nathan looked through the system messages.
| Level 1 wandering spirit has been slain x12 |
| +5 (-50%) Experience |
| Level 2 wandering spirit has been slainx4 |
| +20(-50%) Experience |
| Level 3 wandering spirit has been slain |
| +30(-50%) Experience |
| Level up |
Nathan proceeded to invest his skill point into shared power as it reached 5/5. The branching paths from shared power lit up as they unlocked.
| spirit familiar| 0/1 |
| You can make a spirit your familiar, enabling you to view their stats and manage their growth. |
| The spirit must be willing to become familiar with you. |
| Having a familiar disables any gains from having multiple spirits. |
| Shared energy | 0/5 |
| The spirit can transfer their energy towards you |
| 20% efficiency |
"Just one more level up and I will finally be able to learn more about Nicole's situation!" He will be able to understand how 50% of Nicole's stats were giving him +8 to four of his stats. The 2 attribute points he had gained were invested in magical power as it reached 7 but with the help of shared power, the final number was 15. A number he could have only reached by investing all his so far gained attribute points into magic power.
It was time to decimate some spirits! One soul slash split a great chunk of spirits in half as they rushed at Nathan. One soul slash after another split them in half.Only a few of them were able to resist a soul slash together with the lucky few who had only gotten nicked by its power or had their limbs severed. After retreating, Nathan saw the spirits screaming and banging at an invisible wall as they glared at him. They were helpless in front of the duo that countered them so well. A fighter couldn't even hurt them while a mage would never be able to escape their rush. Even with their pitiful awareness, they were filled with deep hate towards the duo.
This was the power of a spiritualist that was only growing stronger with each death of their companions.
| Level 1 wandering spirit has been slain x24 |
| +2.5 (-50%) Experience |
| Level 2 wandering spirit has been slain x13 |
| +10(-50%) Experience |
| Level 3 wandering spirit has been slain x4 |
| +30(-50%) Experience |
| Level 4 wandering spirit has been slain |
| +40(-50%) Experience |
Even after killing 42 spirits, his experience wasn't even halfway towards level 5. Showing the difficulty of leveling up as your level rose. Still, it didn't discourage Nathan one bit because by the end of his spirit slaughter he should be able to reach level 5 and gain access to Nicole's status screen.
Through the constant waiting of his mana to regen, Nathan began to experiment on ways to increase speed his mana could come back. Seeing if it was possible to sense the mana in the air and draw it in. At first, it only came as something vague that might not even be there. But through constant repetition of trying to sense and draw it in while fully focusing on only that, Nathan managed to gain some success in it.
| Meditation | Level 1 |
| Through practice you have learned to achieve mental clarity and an emotionally calm state of mind. |
| While meditating natural mana and health regeneration is increased by 10%. |
He didn't even want to imagine how long it would take to restore his mana if it was 50 instead of 5. By the time it was full once again the sky had become darker as night was approaching. It wasn't bad enough to make him unable to see the ground with his minor night vision helping him but if it got even darker the chances of him tripping as he ran in the forest would greatly increase.
This time the spirits had instantly reacted as soon as Nathan entered their domain as they began to rush at him through the forest from all sides. It didn't take Nathan long to notice this fact as he backed off to the very edge of their domain. Their terrifying howls and screeches almost ruptured Nathans's eardrums as they banged on the invisible barrier. Their terrifying demeanor meant nothing for Nathan as he released a soul slash towards them. Cutting a chunk of the spirits in half but this attack evoked a change in the spirits!
The bounds they once had were seemingly removed as they once again were able to rush towards him. They gave no care to their lives as they mindlessly rushed at him willing to do anything to rip him into pieces. Nathan's soul slash cut through them only being resisted by a few that took two slashes instead of one. The most threatening spirit that was ahead of the rest only went down after taking 3 soul slashes to its body leaving Nathan with only 1 mana.
The spirit's limbs morphed as they attacked Nathan only for them to be shredded by Nicole as he began to retreat once again. Nathan wasn't limited to the use of a sword when it came to his skill as he turned around and waved his hand sending out a transparent slash cutting up the spirits as it traveled 5 meters. The blade just made it more convenient to use.
The spirits had once again hit another invisible barrier after Nathan had run twice as far from the temple then before. The spirits' savage pursuit of them was truly fierce as even with Nickole defending him his back was covered in bruises and slashes. Not daring to stand so close to the invisible barrier again. Nathan retreated deeper into the forest climbing a tree as he began to treat his injuries as night was quickly approaching.