Marcus’s helmet lay beside him on the ground as his hand lightly swept over the wolf's fur as he took in the wolf's battered appearance. Thirteen of the wolves ribs were broken, as well as the wolf's front right leg and paw. On top of this, wood chunks were scattered all throughout the wolf's pelt and was quite likely the reason for the small pool of blood underneath the wolf. It was no wonder why the wolf had died, not very many creatures could take such a beating and live to tell the tale. Shaking his head with a sad sigh, Marcus’s eyes swept over the wolf once more before his eyes arrived at the wolf's head. Marcus’s eyes widened in surprise as a hint of both sorrow and joy entered his eyes.

“It's still alive.”

Both Erin and Allain were taken back at this as they looked at the wolf's battered body.

“What kind of wolf is it? If it was any regular wolf it would already be dead, but for it to survive this long it must be some kind of monster”

Erin said as he looked calculatingly over at the wolf. Making a decision, Erins ears flicked on top of his head as he pulled his bow forward before drawing an arrow and laying it on top of the string of his bow. Pulling the arrow back, Erin took aim before Marcus’s voice stopped him.

“What are you doing Erin?”

Marcus said as he turned to stare at the fox boy.

“It’s obvious from the wounds that the monster won’t last very much longer, it's better to not drag out the inevitable and just finish this quickly so that we can start setting up camp.”

“That would be a very bad idea”

Both Marcus and Erin turned to stare at Allaine as she spoke.

“Why?” Erin asked while keeping his arrow pointed at the wolf.

“Use your eyes, if we kill this wolf, we are sentencing ourselves to death.”

With a confused look on his face, Erin turned back towards the wolf before his eyes widened in surprise and terror as he beheld the scene that he had not noticed before thanks to his attention being completely on the wolf.

Erin's face was turned in an expression of absolute terror as he lay witness to the unbelievable amount of spirits before his eyes.

Gulping down in fear, Erin turned his head as his eyes took in the scene before him. In front of him hundreds upon hundreds of spirits floating everywhere as well as coming from as far as the eye could see. The spirits consisted of three different colors, blue, green, and brown and red. They were appearing from the ground, coming from the grass and river, as well as falling down from the sky. Only to stop right beside the wolf's body.

Stricken with fear, Erin slowly bent down before placing both his bow and the bag with his arrows on the ground. Beside him Marcus did the same as Allaine jumped down from her perch on top of the tree branch to position her weapons on the ground as well. Erin and Allains bodies were sweating as they wondered what was going on. Unlike them, Marcus’s face was tense as he continued to observe the area while trying to figure out what was going on. If it wasn’t obvious from the ghostly flames, the forest that they were currently in was a popular place for undead and as such no kind of natural spirit should have even come close to this place. And yet, there were hundreds upon hundred of spirits, gathering deep inside of the very forest that they should be avoiding.

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“Allaine, what are they saying?”

Erin spoke softly but loud enough for Allaines elven ears to pick up his words. Elves were very sensitive to spirits and in some rare cases, developed the ability to hear and understand spirits. Allaine was one of these rare cases.

“The- their asking us to heal the wolf……” Allaine replied.

“Why would they be asking us to heal a monster? Spirits loathe monsters, it doesn’t make any sense.” Said Erin

“How should I know, i’m not some kind of spirit expert” replied Allain

“Fine, I would rather not anger these spirits, hey Marcus, do you have a healing potion I can borrow?”

Looking over at Erin, Marcus reached inside of his armor before pulling out a clear glass bottle filled almost to the top with green liquid. Marcus handed the bottle to Erin as Aaron reached over to grab the bottle from Marcus. Turning towards the wolf's body, Erin took a step forward as the spirits surrounding the wolf spread out to create a path for Erin. Uncorking the bottle, Erin slowly approached the wolf's body before pouring the liquid over the wolf's body. The wolf's body glowed momentarily as about one third of the wolf cuts started to heal as they pushed out any wood chips that were lodged into the wolf's body.

There were a few popping sounds coming from the wolf's chest and legs as a few bones worked to mend themselves as much as the potion allowed. After the potion wore off, the green aura surrounding the wolf faded as some of the wolf's injuries finished healing. Looking at the wolf, it was clear that the potion helped a bit but that the wolf was still in dire need of some medical attention.

The spirits once again started to surround the wolf as Erin hurriedly backed away. Coming over to stand beside Allain, Erin looked over before asking

“Do you know why the spirits are surrounding the wolf's body, as an elf you should have some idea why this is happening right?”

“It is because I asked them to”

A voice interrupted Erin as a large shadowy figure appeared from inside of the tree that Allaine had previously been perched on. The figure looked as if it was untangling itself from the tree as strings of shadow hung onto its figure before breaking off and flowing back into the tree. As the last shadow-like appendage broke off a green light surrounded the figure as a powerful aura swept through the area. This time even Marcus’s face showed fear as the powerful being stood in front of them. There weren't very many kinds of spirits that could give off such an aura, and unfortunately, Marcus knew just what kind of spirit this was. From the non-humanoid body but the clear show of intelligence, there was only one rank of spirit that matched what Marcus was seeing, a Greater Spirit.

Marcus and his team were a C-rank adventuring party. Marcus himself was a B rank while Erin and Allaine were both C-ranks. Although not as strong as B or A rank parties, there were still very few monsters or beings that would actually pose a threat to his team, or Marcus himself. Greater spirits were one of these beings as it would take at least an adventurer party of four B-rank adventurers to take down one Greater spirit.

Spirits ranks are as follows.

Simple- F rank, Lesser- E rank, Common- D rank, Great- C rank, Greater- B rank , Grand- A rank, and supreme- S rank.

Although not A-rank, Great spirits could still easily defeat a single B-rank alone, and as such, Marcus knew that he would be unable to defeat this spirit.

“You don’t have to worry, I have no intention of harming any of you and would rather that you stand up so that I may have a proper conversation. From your auras it is obvious that the human is the stronger one amongst you three, may I presume you to be the leader?”

No longer feeling apprehensive about the spirit's motives, Marcus slowly stood up before looking at the spirit and nodding his head. The reason why Marcus was no longer apprehensive is because, since spirits are so closely related to nature, they are unable to lie, and as such, when the spirit clearly stated that he had no intention of harming any of them, it put him at ease.

“Now, let’s talk business” the spirit said, taking Marcus out of his thoughts.

Looking at the spirit Marcus felt that he was not going to like where the conversation was going.