CH 96

Chapter 96: The Deepening Darkness (2)

“Huh…”

Magredo, who had followed me, sighed at the carnage in the gambling hall.

The gambling hall was neatly organized but I knew what kind of organization they were from the game. Criminal organizations like this were quite common.

They allowed warlocks and blood mages to grow in power in safety. It was a vicious cycle.

The bystanders paid a modest sum of money and were escorted from the gambling hall. They were easy to control with my Order badge.

I told them to stay away from gambling, but I’m not sure they listened.

Any money that was left in the gambling hall or in the vault was put into my subspace pocket. Calling the Order to return it would be a good idea, but I had no way of contacting them yet.

It’s not often that I can get this much money out of them.

“…But have you had any run-ins with me?”

Magredo asked as he glanced at the bodies of the gang members.

Sierra looked curious as well but I had an answer for that.

There was a big one he’d pulled off years ago.

“Ah, that was once in the Empire…”

“…You mean the casino. I don’t remember it well.”

“Haha, it was a big deal.”

I agreed.

‘How could anyone think of scamming a casino of that magnitude…?’

I couldn’t figure it out.

I walked out of Magredo and the gambling hall and judging by the moon in the sky, it was now dawn.

Magredo breathes in the chill of dawn as he exits the gambling house. He looked like a man who had just made a dramatic escape from prison.

‘Dramatic in its own way.’

Magredo’s mouth opens as he looks up at the sky.

“Yes, it is. You said you wanted to learn the art of sealing, but is there any need for you to learn it?”

“I’ve heard that there is no end to learning.”

“Phew, you’re greedy, but I don’t mind. I have a house nearby, so why don’t we talk some more there?”

“Okay.”

I replied, flashing him a bright smile.

Well, it was going the way I was used to seeing in the game.

If I wanted Magredo to teach me Elemental Sealing, I’d have to rescue him from prison.

It wasn’t a difficult process since the criminal organization in the gambling hall wasn’t very high level.

Magredo had been captured because he was too weak to take them all on.

He had been robbed of his spirits by a higher ranking necromancer, and he had a long list of complications and enemies.

I traveled with Magredo to his home.

He didn’t seem surprised that I followed him, even though I had a blindfold on. I guess he assumed I must have some kind of special power, since I was able to take down a gambling ring in one fell swoop.

That’s how I learned the art of spirit sealing from Magredo.

…As it turned out, Magredo was a good teacher, even though he wasn’t much of an elementalist.

Fresh out of prison, he eagerly taught me the art of elemental sealing, steeped in his own theories.

We started with the basic theory of spirits and moved on to a discussion of why spirit sealing is worthwhile.

Elemental Sealing, unlike normal elemental arts, is not dependent on elemental affinity.

Magredo examined my body and gave me an unflattering compliment about my poor Elemental Affinity, saying that it was a good body to learn Elemental Sealing.

He also told me that my lack of sight wouldn’t be a problem as long as I could sense the aura of the summoned spirits.

Unlike spirit sealing, which involves using spirits as minions, spirit sealing involves sealing a part of the spirit into your body so that you can harness its power directly.

The benefits of this are indescribable.

Essentially, the higher your affinity with the spirits, the better you could manipulate them.

In layman’s terms, a high affinity means that spirits are more likely to listen to you.

The question is how to increase this affinity.

But there was no way to intentionally increase your affinity since elemental affinity was an innate ability.

‘Actually, it’s not that there’s no way, but…’

In general, anyway.

Magredo had low Elemental Affinity, as evidenced by the fact that he was practicing the bizarre elemental art of Elemental Sealing.

This frustration led him to seek out a long-lost elemental art, Elemental Sealing.

By reciting the “true name” of a summoned spirit, he forcibly seals the spirit’s power into his body.

This allows you to harness the full power of the spirit, regardless of affinity.

The process itself was fairly easy and straightforward. That’s why I was able to master the skill so quickly.

However, the need to recite the true name was a big problem. How could a mere mortal, who was only a few years old compared to the spirits, possibly learn their true names?

Magredo could only scour the ancient texts on spirits.

No wonder he had so many old and worn books in his house. But even after a lifetime of study, Magredo had only learned the true names of a few mid-level spirits and a few low-level spirits.

If only he could find out their true names he would be able to wield, in Magredo’s words, “immense power out of all proportion.”

Sealing a being with the alien aura of a spirit into a human body was tricky enough so there were downsides too.

A spirit that was meant to live in the Elemental Realm would need to drain the mana of the elementalist to maintain its form in the human realm, but sealing a spirit doesn’t drain mana, it drains the body, or life force but not lifespan.

In the first place, Magredo was an old man who was supposed to be living a long life in this dangerous world.

It was just that his health was being eroded, and he needed to take potions to stay alive. As soon as he got home, Magredo downed three bottles of cheap health potions.

I knew this from the game but since I had the bracelet, it didn’t matter.

The only question is when I’m going to give it back to Raina.

After teaching me a few more things about sealing, Magredo told me he had virtually nothing more to teach me.

He has no intention of teaching me the true names of the spirits he has spent a lifetime discovering.

When I asked if he knew how to summon spirits, he said he knew how to summon them.

Of course, I don’t know how to summon spirits, but I don’t think I’ll get any good spirits through summoning since my affinity is terrible… I didn’t need to learn summoning because I had a whistle.

It was enough since all of this was just a matter of adding a skill to the status window.

Listening to Magredo’s chatter, who hadn’t had someone to talk to in a long time, I wasn’t able to leave his house until after the moon had set.

Once out of Magredo’s house, I made my way to the carriage.

As I expected, I didn’t need much time to get there.

***

I stepped out of the carriage and wandered through a deserted forest.

In the distance, I could see the fence that marked the Academy’s grounds.

[Hmmm…]

Sierra, who was floating in the air, was silently following beside me.

“Is something bothering you?”

I turned to her and asked.

[…The elemental you said you were going to seal, will he recognize my presence?]

…Sierra was confused when I told her I wanted to learn how to seal a spirit, asking what kind of spirit it was.

More precisely, she said, “Why would I need the power of a spirit when I have my own sword skills?”

But when she heard Magredo’s explanation of spirit sealing, she nodded in admiration.

She liked the idea of being able to manipulate spirits instead of being bound to them.

“I don’t know if it would be able to communicate with master. You said you could see the spirits around Magredo, right?”

I scratched my head as I answered Sierra’s question but I wasn’t exactly sure either.

‘Is it possible to interact with them because they are the same spirit, or is it impossible because of the nature of their energy…’

According to Magredo’s explanation, sealing a spirit does not completely eliminate its existence.

It just changes them from a human form to a beastly form that you can’t communicate with.

[Yeah, I guess it’s because they’re lesser spirits. They’re small, and they don’t seem to recognize me.]

Magredo’s spirits didn’t recognize Sierra.

I wondered if the spirits I had sealed in my body might be able to interact with Sierra, who had been ‘attributed’ to me.

Soon, as I strolled through the forest, I realized that this would be a good time to stop.

“I guess we’ll just have to find out now.”

I whispered to Sierra, reaching into my subspace pocket and pulling out a whistle.

[Hmmm…? Why the whistle all of a sudden…?]

Sierra questions my behavior.

I had already explained to her that this was the Spirit King’s whistle.

Considering my behavior and the hidden pieces Sierra often asked me if I am a ‘prophet’.

…I would neither confirm nor deny anything.

I’ve been mysterious since I first met her, and my mystique hasn’t waned.

I’d have to be very close to her to even think about telling her about reincarnation or regression.

Anyway, when I told Magredo that I knew how to summon spirits, she didn’t seem to expect me to use the whistle.

I put my mouth to the whistle but I don’t know what spirits will come out.

‘Attributes that relate to me…?’

Honestly, I hoped it wasn’t the Four Elements since it would overlap with the four elemental families.

Even if it was the Four Elements, at the very least, it would be good to have Lucia’s Wind attribute, which would help me in battle.

Immediately, I blew the whistle loudly.

All that came out of the whistle was the sound of a weak wind but it wasn’t a mistake.

I had blown the right whistle and the sound of the whistle would have resonated loudly in the spirit world, not here.

Sierra tilts her head in response.

[…There are no enemies, and there is no danger, so what are you doing all of a sudden?]

I explained to Sierra, waiting for the spirit to appear.

“There are spirits I know by name.”

Sierra finally realized what I was trying to say.

[Surely……you don’t mean higher spirits will show up?]

“Right.”

As I was talking to Sierra, the forest began to shake.

The sun was rising, but in an instant, the surroundings were filled with fog, obscuring the light.

Soon, a shapeless mass of black energy began to coalesce in front of us.

‘Black…?’

Something was going on here and I could feel a chill in the air.

Soon, the black energy took shape. It was a human form.

In an instant, the spirit was fully formed.

As soon as my eyes caught sight of the dark armor that appeared out of thin air, I knew.

The spirit, it turned out, was clad in a magnificent full-body suit of inky black armor and his red eyes glared at me.

Soon…I hear a scratchy voice.

“Shade of Shadows, I answer the call of the King’s whistle…”

This was a dark elemental, no questions asked.

The Shade speaks, then questions.

“…I see now that you are human. A human calling to me…Strange. How strange.”

“…”

I have no answer for him.

As he said, the dark spirits are the spirits of demons.

The fact that a dark spirit came out when I blew the whistle means that they sensed an aura similar to that of a demon.

…It’s not like he didn’t have a point.

‘Tears of the dead, Spectral Sword…I never thought it would be applied like this…’

I became complacent but most importantly, I didn’t know the true name of the Dark Spirit so I couldn’t use the Spirit Sealing Technique.

“By the way, where is the enemy? I thought I’d see some blood after all these years, but there’s nothing. Did you blow the whistle without knowing what it was?”

Shade questioned again, looking around and beside me, Sierra tilted her head at my silence.

I blew the whistle loudly once more.

“…”

Shade is left speechless by my actions.

It had no effect, of course, but it was a good way to deny reality.

“Hah…”

I put the whistle down and sighed heavily.

What happened next…was something I’d gotten into the habit of doing recently.

I sent out a wave of energy that soon reached Shade. Then, something truly bizarre happened.

Usually, when a person touches the wave, their name or information comes into my head but this had never happened before.

Shade’s ‘true name’ as a spirit was transmitted through my mind.

‘…What?’

I couldn’t figure out why right now but that wasn’t important.

“Was he a fool who didn’t realize the effectiveness of the whistle…? I’ve wasted my time.”

Shade was about to return to the Elemental Realm.

“Wait.”

I halted Shade in his tracks and he turned his head to look at me.

***

The fog had long since dissipated, and the sun was rising, illuminating the forest with its warmth.

[…What shall I name him…? He must have a name, mustn’t he?]

Sierra pondered, looking at the pile of fur sitting on a rock.

“Kerrrrr…”

The black furball looked at Sierra and let out a cute purr. His red eyes were very charming.

“…Shady, how’s Shady?”