Going back to the day of the hero summoning, Aeon Kingdom.
"Kio… please take care of Miyu…"
"Yea… I promise, and I will definitely find the Revival Stone as soon as I can."
...
Shortly after Riko passed away, something strange happened to her. Her line of sight kept rising higher and higher, as if she was flying.
"What's going on? Am I going to heaven?"
Questions filled her mind as she was currently floating a few meters above her body. Kio and Miyu were currently crying as they hugged her physical body.
"Kio! Miyu! I'm over here!"
"Sob…"
"Can't you two hear me???"
Riko discovered that she was able to move around while she was in the air, so she flew over and floated in front of them.
"Hello???"
Unfortunately, nobody was able to see or hear her.
"Kio??"
Riko tried to tap his shoulder, however, her finger went through his body without making any contact.
"Hiyaaah! What's going on?!?!"
Riko freaked out as she didn't have any idea of what's happening to her. She desperately wanted somebody to answer her questions as she began to panic.
"Kio, please help me…"
Yet, to her dismay, her plea ended up falling on deaf ears as tears continued to trail down her eyes.
While she was freaking out, she noticed Kio and his group running away from their location, so she decided to follow after them.
She was relieved that she at least had the freedom to move wherever she wanted, but she didn't want to stray too far away from Kio's group because she didn't know how to find them again if they separated.
When she saw Kaori being summoned to this world as well, she was relieved to see her unharmed. Riko wanted to comfort Kaori and Miyu after what happened to their parents, but she wasn't able to talk or touch them in this form.
As the days went on, many emotions filled her mind as she could only observe them. Sadness at Miyu's grief, happiness at Kaori and Kio's reconciliation, and anger at Ren's shamelessness. She was also upset at Saotome for trying to take advantage of Kio's kindness by bringing up her sob story.
However, she felt immense jealousy when she saw how intimate Kio was with Luna, especially when they shared a futon at night. She wanted to tell him not to cheat on her, but as she remembered that she was already dead, she felt a sharp pain in her heart and started to cry.
"Sob… Kio, don't leave me…"
Eventually, as more time went by, she started to accept the fact that Kio would get together with Luna. She had also heard the talk between Dan and Kio, where Dan mentioned that polygamy was pretty normal in this world.
The scene where Luna used her skill to protect Kio from Ren had moved her feelings, causing her view of Luna to change.
"Kio… as long as you still love me, I don't mind if you have another girl. Just please don't ever forget about me..."
After Kio's group had separated from Ren, she was also listening to Kio teaching Kaori and Miyu how to use their skills. She decided to check out her own skills, so she used [Inspect] on herself.
Name: Riko (Deceased)
Age: 20
Level: 10
Class: Spiritualist
Skills: [Inspect Lvl 1], [Universal Language Translation Lvl --], [Minimap Lvl --], [Spirit Form Lvl 1], [Spiritual Influence Lvl 1], [Spiritual Recovery Lvl 1]
Skill Points: 9
***
Seeing her skills for the first time, she decided to inspect them.
[Spirit Form] - Allows the user to separate their spirit from their physical body. Limited to 10 minutes a day. If the user's physical body dies, the user will automatically eject into their spirit body permanently.
[Spiritual Influence] - Allows the user to convey messages to a target through their subconsciousness. Duration of the message is limited by the user's spiritual capability.
[Spiritual Recovery] - Passively recovers the mental and spiritual fatigue of an area around the user. Recovery is limited by the user's spiritual capability.
***
When she saw her skills, she finally figured out why this is happening to her. It was due to the [Spirit Form] skill, which caused her spirit body to come out when she died.
She didn't want to think too deeply about the consequences of losing her physical body, since she had faith in Kio finding a Revival Jewel in the future.
At first, Riko had unknowingly used her [Spiritual Influence] skill to speak to Kio while he was dreaming. However, since it was at level 1 and her spiritual powers were weak, the connection was erratic and ended abruptly.
She repeated the action every night, and she eventually figured out that she could speak to him for a little longer every time. However, he rarely responded to her messages.
When Kio and the others made it to the elven village, she was shocked at the sight of Kio shooting people with a gun, even killing one of them in the process. However, since she had a bird's eye view of the event, she knew that he did it in consideration of the group's safety.
Although she would've preferred it if Kio didn't kill somebody so abruptly, she wasn't in a position to rebuke him.
She decided to just observe everything and watch how Kio would change. If he ever turns into a cold-blooded murderer or something evil, she would try to convince him to revert back as soon as she gets revived.
***
On the next day, when she heard Kio and his group get called to the meeting room, she had a premonition that something terrible was about to happen.
She wanted to tell them not to go, but she knew she wouldn't be able to do anything about it, so she just followed along and decided to help them however she could.
"Maybe I can use my skill to help them somehow?"
Although Riko was a bit too optimistic for what's about to come, her intentions were in the right place.
The moment she saw Miyu get teleported away due to a trap, she felt a heavy pain inside of her heart. Her vision turned misty, as the surface of her eyes rippled with tears.
"NOOO!!! Miyu!!!"
Riko pretty much screamed at the same time as Kio, causing a surge of energy to erupt out of her spirit body and rise to the sky.
***
"Oho? What is this energy I'm feeling?"
The surge of energy attracted the attention of somebody inside the Tree of Life. That person flew out of the tree and approached the source of it.
"Oh? I'm surprised to see such a young human girl in this village- Wait, how come she's in her spirit body?!"
A look of disbelief spread over his face as he had never seen such a phenomenon before in his life. Aside from himself, he was acquainted with a few spiritual beings. However, none of them are able to release an energy as pure as Riko's.
"There's no way this is possible… Who is this girl?!"
As soon as Riko's outburst ended, that person flew closer to her and introduced himself.
"Ahem. Excuse me, young girl."
"Hiyaa! Who are you? How can you see me?"
"I apologize for scaring you. My name is Ou'Ki, and I am the spirit of the Tree of Life."
"Eh?! How can a tree have a spirit?"
"Ahaha. No need to be so shocked, girl. After thousands of years, the energy within the Tree of Life gave birth to me. I eventually gained an adequate amount of knowledge as well, after all the time I spent observing the elves."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Riko. But may I ask, why are you looking for me?"
"Oho. I'm surprised you aren't as flustered as I expected you to be, after I revealed who I am."
"Well, I don't know much about this world."
"Hm? What do you mean?"
Unlike Kio, Riko easily told this stranger about who she was and where she came from. This knowledge had roused Ou'Ki's interest, causing him to ask more about the Earth, its technology, as well as its history.
Riko told him as much as she could remember, since she felt like Ou'Ki didn't bear any ill will towards her. Even though it seemed like Riko wasn't cautious as Kio, she had confidence in her ability to discern the intentions of people.
Although she had never met a spirit before, she could tell he didn't harbor any evil intent.
When Ou'Ki heard all the fascinating stories about her former world, he wanted to try going there someday. However, he had no clue if that was even possible, so he settled for the next best alternative.
"Girl, do you mind if I possess your body for a moment?"
"What?! Are you crazy? There is no way I'm going to agree to that!"
"I just want to take a quick peek at your memories."
"NO! That's an invasion of my privacy!"
Ou'Ki wanted to personally inspect Earth from her memory, as well as check the changes in her spiritual body since she wasn't originally from this world. However, since she declined, he could only compromise. He hadn't even considered forcefully absorbing her memories as he was influenced by the good nature of the elves in this village.
If he was surrounded by humans, perhaps he might've gotten tainted by all their ill-intent.
"Ugh... Fine. Then, how about this. Would you like to receive spiritual guidance from me? I would like to see what your spiritual powers will evolve into with proper training."