70 Dokkaebi

There were five great elements– earth, water, fire, wind, and aether. All the other elements that were not these five elements were called hybrid elements. The hybrid elements were obtained by fusing the elemental affinities of two or more great elements.

Rankers who had an elemental affinity with only one or two great elements without any hybrid elemental affinity were most common among the lot. Those with hybrid affinity were considered rare.

The rankers who had hybrid affinity could make use of the elements their hybrid element is made of, a huge advantage over someone with only great elemental affinities. However, it was difficult for hybrid element rankers to rank up.

Each elemental affinity had its advantages and disadvantages of course. No elemental affinity or elemental nature could be considered superior to the rest.

It all depends on the ranker and how they wanted to carve their path with the elemental affinities and nature they had. A ranker with a seemingly mediocre element or nature would be able to win over those who had been supposedly blessed with exceptional elemental affinity and nature. That is if the former had chosen their class and their path right.

The nature of the elemental affinities defined how the elements would ideally manifest in rankers. Two rankers having the same elemental affinities but different elemental natures would be compatible with two separate schools of spells. Thus, they would walk on totally different ranking journeys than each other even when they had the same elemental affinity.

Eren’s lightning was a hybrid element. It was derived from the great elements of wind, water, and fire. Thus, he could technically master the spells of the great elements as he progressed further.

Apart from the ranking status, there was also another parameter of the ranker’s talent. That was elemental attainment. However, the majority of Rank 1 entities did not put much focus on their way of using elements because it didn’t create any bottleneck for them.

***

The spatial fire affinity. Something that allows the ranker to effectively use a group of spells meant for pyroportation.

Reece had a very unique hybrid element. It was derived from ether and fire. The green flames she manifested while with Eren also spoke about her elemental nature which was different from normal natures associated with the element of fire.

Her green flames not only burned the bodies of her opponents but also destroyed their life essence. She could then refine the essence and use it to heal her injuries.

If she made full use of her spatial fire, she could send her weapon into one flame that she had manifested around her. The thrown weapon would come out of the other flame that was located at a different place.

Pyportation also had other uses. And with sufficient mastery and her raking progressions, she could spatially travel through her flames herself. However, as a Meta ranker that only belonged to a two-star guild, she had her limits in terms of her elemental attainment and the ranking resources she could get her hands on.

In response to the city administration’s orders, Reece’s team was sent on a mission to purge a group of traffickers. The group was comprised of Rank 1 dokkaebi who lived in Gilaahan with their natal bodies.

Dokkaebi were also called goblins by most rankers because of how similar they looked. However, these entities referred to themselves as dokkaebi.

Gilaahan was home to many races, which would be registered as monsters by humans. Yet, they had their own culture here. These races had been accepted as the citizens of almost all of the independent city-states and kingdoms. Some races even had entire kingdoms for themselves were other races also lived.

And yet, Dokkaebi usually had a somewhat negative reputation attached to them. They dealt with illegal slaves and trafficking rackets. The local authorities of the region would dispatch city guard forces to deal with any mess caused by them if the matter was serious. However, most kingdoms usually employed adventurers to purge such groups if they found them to be active and emboldened.

The city of Ludan was no different.

Miranda’s team had found the dokkaebi gang that they were supposed to purge and successfully boxed them in using the arrays. The goblins began their fight for survival without caring about their unranked, mortal hostages.

Reece was tasked with dealing with a Rank 1 caliber goblin that had wood element affinity. The young girl had displayed her mastery over spells and overwhelmed him immediately. However, she was hesitant to land a finishing blow.

Reece steel her heart when she saw that the goblin was running towards a bunch of human and elf hostages standing in the distance away from the mayhem. She used her spell to generate a green flame in the direction the goblin was running to. She then coated her throwing dagger in her green flames before throwing it in the same direction, which would have injured the escaping goblin’s back.

Reece’s green-flame coated dagger vanished when she activated her pyroportation-related spell, emerging out of the flame that was in front of the goblin.

Things happened in quick succession after that. By this point, the goblin had come to understand how Reece’s spells worked. He anticipated the incoming attack and cast his spell.

The escaping goblin managed to pull a small human girl out of the hostage bunch with his vine spell used as a lasso. He then used her as a shield for the incoming weapon.

Two desperate cries were heard at this point. One was from the girl’s mother. The other was from a ranker who had just come to realize the reality of life.

Reece watched in horror as her dagger claimed an innocent life.

Despite her shock and trauma, she had tried to prevent the goblin from escaping or claiming any more lives. However, the isolation array’s effects ran dry by this point. And he managed to get away.

Reece wouldn’t have been mentally affected to this extent by the mission’s outcome had the perpetrator not escaped. She would have had someone to blame in that case. However, the dokkaebi successfully managing to flee the scene made her subconsciously think that it was all her fault.

Miranda, Stan, and the rest tried to console Reece. Despite all his flaws, Stan liked Reece and his feelings toward her were genuine. He had tried to make her realize that seeing the death of someone was part of being a ranker. And in response, all he got from her were a few nods at his statements.

Stan’s intention to kill Eren was also his way of showing Reece that death was as common as it could get. It wasn’t just restricted to the world of Gilaahan.

However, from that mission onwards, Reece refused to come to purging missions like these. Gradually she pulled away from the active on-field missions and focused more on the guild’s administrative work.

Miranda also tried to make Reece understand that the latter had exceptional potential as a ranker because of her unique elemental affinity. And all she heard from him was that he needed some time.

Thanks to her connections, Rumi had also come to know what had happened to Reece during her mission. However, she had decided to let her daughter figure it out for herself. The process of finding their own way and their own path makes for better rankers after all.

The incident happened a few months ago. This was the first time in a while that Reece had come out to complete a mission like this.