After the incident that levelled most of the city of Anvi the Fire irons was well and truly screwed, not only had they lost their king, they had also lost the king of the Black oni's that came running to 'help' them, as for the WInd spirits? They seemed to have turned bandits and attacked everybody that set foot in the now seemingly cursed former Fire iron lands, Mike was pleased with his smooth progress as he neared around a 1/4th of the experience he needed to level up to level 9, Julie only lagged after a bit as they both consumed the experience fruits that Beel made out of the people they captured alive, currently, Beel was teaching Mike and Julie about mana
"---So when you kill a person or creature you absorb some of its accumulated mana, or experience"
"Then how does the level up work?"
"The crystal ball simply activates the ambient mana in your body once it has reached a certain capacity and strengthens your body"