A couple of hours later, I felt Anise squirming to get out of my arms which also woke me up. Opening my eyes, I saw her hurrying to stand up with a small blush. She adverted her eyes and said:
"Sorry for waking you up."
I also stood up and stretched, pretending I didn't notice her blush. She looked in the direction of the village and said: "Let's see what the situation is in the village. Some of the corpses must have already flowed here."
I agreed and we both walked towards the village, only to see an actual pile of corpses being burned right outside it. We looked at each other for a moment and walked up to an old woman nearby.
"Excuse me, what's with all these corpses?" I asked.
"They started flowing down from the mountains. We gathered and burned them to prevent beasts from coming down from the mountains to feed on them."
I thanked the old woman and we walked closer to the burning pile. I noticed that Anise started whispering what looked like a prayer and I stayed silent besides her, waiting for her to finish. Once she was done, she turned towards me and asked: "Do you want to go and check the cave?"
I thought for a second and asked back: "How about I go to take a look and you stay here to wait for me?"
She shook her head: "I'm going as well."
"Alright, we'll go together. Let's follow the trail of bodies towards the cave and burn any we find on the way. I don't want to bring more trouble to the villagers here."
She agreed and we started heading up the mountain by following the trail of bodies and burning each we found on the way. There were mostly human bodies with some harpies mixed in between. While we were walking, a thought came to me and I asked Ai:
'Ai, what level am I now?'
As soon as I finished my question, my status appeared on my vision"
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 18;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 497/7 000;
Health Points: 140/140;
Mana Points 152/160;
Level: 11;
Vitality: 14;
Strength: 16;
Dexterity : 14;
Intelligence: 16;
Resistance: 13;
3 free stat point
———
System Points: 100;
Spirit: 1000 (750);
]
'So I leveled up twice, that's quite good.'
[You shared some of the experience with Anise. The humans gave an average of 11 points of experience per kill and the harpies gave 30. You also killed a high level harpy that awarded you 100 exp points.]
'I see, but shouldn't my spirit be above 1000?'
[Every 1000 points in spirit, your soul will evolve. To successfully evolve, one needs to meet a certain requirement.]
'Requirement? What does that mean?'
[You need to kill someone with a stronger soul than yours.]
'And where would I find someone like that?'
[There should be a few beings on this world that match the criteria but I don't know where they are.]
'Senna, any idea?' I asked the my other companion. Whenever Ai failed to find a solution, Senna would usually have one.
[*To be honest, I even doubt there is one in this world. You can only hope to get lucky on such a low level world.*]
'Can you tell me what this evolution does?'
[*It will basically strengthen your soul's in a qualitative way. Think as your soul as a glass that can be filled with spirit. Once you fill the glass, to continue to gather more you will need a bigger glass. That is where the evolution comes in, it will make you able to store more spirit. To do this, you will need to kill someone with a stronger soul and use his soul to shape yours. It's not as simple as I made it sound but it should help you understand.*]
'Yes, it's easier to understand this way. Can you tell me more about what spirit actually is? I never got around to ask about it.'
[*Is the main type of energy used in the multiverse, just like mana in this world. Spirit is the building block of the multiverse. Mana is also a form of spirit, although a more diluted one. That is why you can substitute mana with spirit inside your soul space to practice your spells.*]
'Then, why can't I just use spirit instead of mana?'
[*Because the world will reject and expel you. You are only able to stay in this world for so long because you have an avatar made according to the rules of this world. Once you start using spirit for anything, the world will expel you.*]
'But, if this world uses mana instead of spirit, can I really find someone with a stronger soul than me?'
[*The mana here is in itself a form of spirit, although it's a much weaker form. The chances are very small but I suppose there could exist one.*]
'How will I know if I find one?'
[*The soul race can feel the power of someone's soul. If you somehow stumble upon someone, we'll let you know.*]
Since I had no other option, I chose to just focus on increasing my level for now. As I spoke with Ai and Senna, we finally reached the cave. After we entered the ruins, we burned the few bodies that were not carried outside by the stream and started looking around. I was mainly searching for information about the teleportation device that separated me and Anna. Sadly, even after searching the entire place twice over we didn't find anything of use and started heading back out.
Seeing my dejected expression, Anise said: "I'm sorry, Ethan. Seems like there's nothing here."
I nodded and replied: "At least I now have one less ruin to check. I can only keep trying. Let's just return to the city and finish the quest."
Anise agreed and we just started going straight towards Cloven City while ridding on Zephyr. On the way back we encountered two more groups of bandits and Anise let me deal with them as per our earlier agreement.
We walked to the adventurer guild and made our way to the counter. After turning in the quest and the slightly altered memory crystal, we each received twenty gold and made our way towards the quest board. After looking through some quests, Anise pointed towards a rank D+ and said: "This looks good and it's not really that far."
Curious, I looked at said quest:
//Cleansing of the dead//
//The town of Dramen has been overrun by undead. We need adventurers to hunt down the undead and remove the source of their appearance.//
//Party containing a light magician is recommended//
//Reward 50 gold coins//
I raised an eyebrow at the big reward and said: "What's with the reward?"
"Undead are only weak against light magic and are really hard to deal with by anyone else. They will also help you level up a lot faster since their levels are usually really high."
"Then, why is it only ranked as a D+ quest? And now that I think about it, what's with the + in the rank?"
"It's ranked so low because undead are too slow. If you have a light magician and are careful not to be surrounded, the quest is not that bad. These quests are usually handled by the academy, but with the war and everything going on, we probably don't have enough light magicians here so they posted the quest to the adventurer guild. I also went on a mission to clear a plague of undead once. It wasn't the size of an entire town but it was still quite easy to deal with."
"Let's take it then. I can also use light magic."
She nodded and we went to register the quest. After that, Anise went to speak to her father for a bit, probably informing about Mount Kally and the new quest, before we went towards the town of Dramen straight away.
It took us two hours of riding west at full speed before we reached a big town covered completely in fog.
[*Be careful. There should be a necromancer here.*]
Senna's words startled me as I asked: "Necromancer? They have those as well in this world?'
[*Necromancy is just magic of the dark element. As long as dark magic exists, necromancers should also be a thing.*]
Nodding, I looked towards Anise and asked: "So, what do we do now?". Since she had some experience in dealing with undead, I decided to ask for her opinion first.
"You said you know light magic. What spells can you use?"
"I just practiced a basic spell to illuminate my surroundings, but I should have no problem creating other spells."
"Being a wizard sure is handy." She sighed and continued: "Attacking them with any form of light magic will remove their ability to revive, so you can make a spell based on that."
After thinking for a while, Senna's words sounded in my head again:
[*Just change your mana's affinity to light and use it to cover your spear. The physical combined with light damage should work wonders and the consumption of mana should not be that high.*]
I grabbed my spear from my back and did just as Senna told me to. Soon, the entire spear was covered in a thin layer of bright light, looking like a holy weapon.
Anise looked at my spear for a moment and said: "That's good. Give me a moment.". After that, she lifted her hands up in the air and started chanting a pretty long spell. After she was done, the entire fog was blown away by a gust of wind, making seeing the situation in the town a lot easier.
My jaw almost fell to the ground when I saw the amount of zombies and skeletons walking aimlessly inside. There were even animal undead, their numbers definitely in the thousands. I looked at Anise and asked her:
"Are you sure about this? There are a lot of undead."
"See the speed they are walking around at? That is as fast as they can go."
I nodded reluctantly and said: "Be careful, there might be a dark magician inside as well."
She looked at me weirdly and asked: "Why do you think a dark magician might be inside?"
I couldn't really say that Senna told me, so I answered: "Someone must have created them, no? As far as I know, only dark magicians can do that."
She shook her head and said: "Not really. Most undead plagues are created through rituals."
"I see. Please be careful anyway."
"All right. We should split up since I'll be using quite large attacks. Once you feel your mana reserves getting low, retreat straight away."
I nodded and Anise went to attack from another side. Once she was gone, I could see bright flashes of light appearing from her side.
"Damn, this way there will be none left for me to kill." I mumbled as I charged wielding my spear straight inside the horde of undead.
As my spear connected with the first skeleton, I saw the dark aura covering his bones disappear as the hit from the spear crushed the bones around it's head completely. Seeing that it was quite easy and effective, I started using wider range attacks, hoping to kill as many as possible. After killing a hundred or so undead, Ai's voice sounded inside my head.
[Ethan, you have level up.]
Startled, I stopped attacking and retreated a few steps to check my status.
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 18;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 49/10 000;
Health Points: 150/150;
Mana Points 45/170;
Level: 12;
Vitality: 15;
Strength: 17;
Dexterity : 15;
Intelligence: 17;
Resistance: 14;
4 free stat point
———
System Points: 100;
Spirit: 1000 (750);
]
'This is the best grinding spot ever. How much experience do I get for a kill?'
[Average of 50]
Excited, I asked Ai to add all the points into intelligence and went right back to killing undead. After killing around 150 more, my mana started getting low so I retreated back to the spot where I separated from Anise.
Anise was already there, sitting down on the ground with sweat covering her forehead. She smiled at me and asked: "How was it?"
"This is the best quest ever. I'll level up like crazy."
"I told you. Should we go back now?" she replied while chuckling.
I was confused and I asked: "Go back? Why?"
"To level up before hunting again. It would be a waste to just kill them like this."
I was so excited that I forgot people need a catalyst to level up. Thinking for a moment, I asked Ai: 'Can't you help her level up the same way that I do? It will be a shame to waste so much time going back to the city.'
[It's impossible. Since her body is a real one created by the world and not an avatar, only the will of the world can strengthen it.]
Sighing, I told Anise: "I don't know if I mentioned it, but I don't need a catalyst to level up."
"Oh, are you a chosen? All right then, I go, level up and return right after. Be careful while I'm gone and don't do anything risky."
"Don't worry. I'll just sleep to recover my mana."
Seeing Anise leave, I sat down and went straight to sleep. When I woke up, I found Anise laying down and sleeping next to me.
[*She returned a couple of hours ago and went to sleep right next to you, probably to recover her mana as well.*]
I noticed that the fog returned to cover the town so I created a powerful wind to clear the fog again and went back to killing zombies and skeletons. When my mana was finally spent, I managed to level up once more.
When I reached back, Anise had just woken up. She looked at me and asked:
"What level are you now?"
"I just reached 13."
"Already? Damn, I need to increase my speed or you'll leave me in the dust." She replied as she ran past me, heading straight inside the town.
I chuckled and laid down to sleep as well.
The constant killing of undead went on for an entire week, until only a few here and there remained. We both reached level 19 during this week, my leveling speed exceeding hers because of all the trips she had to take back to increase her level. I also added all my free points into intelligence to be able to hunt for longer periods of time.
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 18;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 11 781/35 000;
Health Points: 220/220;
Mana Points 21/350;
Level: 19;
Vitality: 22;
Strength: 25;
Dexterity : 23;
Intelligence: 35;
Resistance: 21;
0 free stat point
———
System Points: 100;
Spirit: 1000 (750);
]
Once we killed the last few remaining undead, we sat down to rest for a while.
"I really need a break after all this. I'm tired of only hearing rattling bones and smelling rotten flesh for an entire week." I said as we sat down.
"Haha, I feel you. But we leveled up quite a few times." She laughed out loud, obviously pleased with her progress, before she looked around and said: "They really did a number on this town. You know, I came here once. It was such a beautiful and peaceful town."
"I can imagine.. Were those undead the people living here?"
She nodded and said: "Yeah. The ones caught alive by the plague turned into zombies while the dead rose up from their graves and became skeletons. A pitiful end.."
"Seeing the cruelty of this world over and over again makes me really miss Earth more and more. We had our fair share of tragedies there, but things of this size were really rare."
"From what you've told me, it does indeed sound like a paradise. I wish I could go and see it for myself one day."
"Hehe.. But you'll have to live your life without being able to use magic."
"I'll give up magic in a heartbeat if it means things like this will stop happening."
I smiled as I agreed and we both sat there in silence for a while. After we felt like we got enough rest, Anise said: "Let's go and seek the place of the ritual. Once we cleanse it, we can go back and complete the quest."
I agreed and we both walked around the town, looking for any place that might resemble a ritual site. After a while, Senna's voice sounded inside my head.
[*There is a huge concentration of dark mana in the ground underneath your feet.*]
I stopped in my tracks and started looking around. Anise noticed my movement and asked: "Did you find something?"
I repeated Senna's words and we both started checking the houses nearby for and underground chamber or something like that.
As I was looking though a run down building, Anise's voice came from outside: "Ethan, I found something!"
Leaving the building I was searching, I went straight to her and found her lifting up a metallic hatch. After helping her out, we both followed the stairs down and arrived inside a room.
The room was not that big in size, but there was a magic circle in the center of and a girl with pale skin was placed straight in the middle of it.
I looked at the girl that seemed to be sleeping peacefully in the middle of the circle and asked Anise: "If all the town people turned into zombies, why is this girl still sleeping here?"
Anise shook her head and started looking at the symbols that composed the magic circle. After a while I heard her mumbling in an astonished voice:
"Incredible."