Rei woke up at 4 a.m., feeling refreshed.
He had gathered 1000 Phantom Energy yesterday, which was also his limit. He couldn't surpass 1000 Phantom energy even if he killed more ferocious beasts.
'Now then, it's time to complete the quest.'
Since everyone was still sleeping, Rei closed his eyes and smiled in anticipation as he used his Quirk.
'Reach For Shadows.'
Soon, darkness spread out of him before his consciousness entered Phantom Realm, arriving right in front of the injured Venerous Fate Crow with his phantom physique.
The moment he laid his eyes on it and basked in its presence, the feeling of sympathy started oozing out of him like before.
He wanted to speak with the crow, but it had its eyes shut.
'I'll just give it the phantom energy.'
Walking forward, he put his hand on the crow's head and poured his phantom energy into the crow.
But all of it was sucked instantly as if the crow took the initiative to take it.
'Thank you.'
Rei was astonished to hear a mellow and weak voice in his head, unable to determine if it was feminine or manly.
The crow slowly opened its eyes, showing those mysterious deep purple and golden irises as Rei was mesmerized by them again.
Fearing he would get kicked out of the phantom realm anytime as he spent all of his phantom energy, Rei quickly asked, "Who are you? Why do I feel this way when I see you?"
"Is this your power, or do I have some kind of ties with you?"
Upon hearing his questions, a particular emotion became more evident in the crow's complicated eyes, but Rei couldn't read it.
Immediately afterward, the crow oozed out a mystical golden light that bordered its body before it promptly vanished.
On the other hand, the phantom realm also kicked out Rei as his consciousness returned to his physical body.
[Congratulations, dear Exceed. You have completed the quest, gaining 1x Rune Forge from Exceed Shrine.]
[You have a mail.]
'Rune Forge?'
Rei soon noticed a small hammer icon at the top left of his Exceed Rune above his name.
But he opened the mail first as he felt it was likely from the Fate Crow, and indeed, the mail was titled [A letter from the Verenous Fate Crow].
[I am grateful for thine to help, dear. Here is the promised boon. Tread it wisely.]
Below the text was a symbol of a black circle with dark purple and gold patterns, akin to a magic circle.
When Rei focused on it, the magic circle vanished, and Rei felt a splitting headache.
The sudden headache threw Rei off but disappeared in a few seconds.
"Urghh..." Shaking his head, he focused back on his Exceed Rune, only for his eyes to widen as he got something entirely new.
An Aspect!
***
Name: Rei Sereno.
Soul Name: —
Rank: Exeedier.
Aspect: Phantom Mausoleum.
Exceed Tree: Awakened.
First Seal: Phantom Seer.
***
But it was greyed out, and there appeared some progress bar on the Aspect when he focused on it.
[Phantom Mausoleum (0%/100%)]
-> Kill phantoms in the phantom realm until the progress reaches 100%.
'Interesting.'
The name was intriguing.
'Alright. We'll stay one more day here and leave tomorrow morning.' Rei decided.
He could get 1000 Phantom Energy again that way, and Alice could also get her 3rd obedient spirit since she only got one more yesterday evening, totaling two in her Soul Slate.
Next, he checked the Rune Forge.
[You can use Rune Forge to remove a taint of your Seals, upgrade a Quirk or a characteristic, or remove a seal entirely if you want a new one from your previous options. Note: This Rune Forge only works for Inferior Seals]
'This thing is valuable.'
Rei could use it on his taint, but he refrained. He already knew what he had to do to remove his taint. The task was both easy and hard, as he had to kill ten common-rank phantom creatures, five uncommon-rank phantom creatures, and one rare-rank phantom creature.
He planned to do this after gathering 1000 phantom energy, hoping to kill two birds with one stone by activating his Aspect and removing his Taint in one trip to the phantom realm.
…
Since everyone was still sleeping, Rei went out alone after showering.
He hunted for an hour before he got a call from Lia.
[Rei: Come to the place where we stopped yesterday. You can find it, right?]
[Lia: Yes. Also, Alice wants to come with me.]
[Rei: Then bring her along. There are also many flowers and other things for her to use her Quirk in this area. Anyway, Leo should still be sleeping since he must have stayed awake longer.]
[Lia: Alright, we'll contact you once we reach there.]
Soon, the trio met and started roaming in the vast jungle.
Alice used her [Spirit Invocation] Quirk on flowers, plants, and other small things they encountered while Rei and Lia hunted ferocious beasts.
They rarely encountered tough enough ferocious beasts that didn't die in one hit of Rei's sword or Lia's purple fireball, as most of them perished in one attack as long as they walked cautiously to avoid sudden attacks.
After three hours, they found a small pond and decided to rest.
Leo also called shortly after that as he woke up, but he decided to stay on the ship and work with Terrana.
"Terrana, how much does an S-grade enhancement serum cost?" Leo asked as he sat on the captain's seat at the dashboard and started the system and networks.
Terrana stood beside Leo in her projection form and answered, "50k Milky Way credits. This is the lowest price. Anywhere you go, it won't be sold lower than this, only higher."
"Also, it's important to check the quality of the serum. I'll be able to check it, so leave that to me," Terrana added.
"Hmm, we have to find a planet that sells good S-grade physical enhancement serum. You got any idea?" Leo asked.
Terrana's eyes flickered as she showed a planet's locations while zooming in Milky Way Galaxy's map.
"Bushino Space Continent. This big space station is an artificial continent spanning 10,000 kilometers in diameter. It has the biggest white market in this space sector, as you can find everything here that's not illegal. There are also branches of cosmic organizations on it."
"Cool place." Leo nodded before he checked the distance and couldn't help but wryly smile.
"1200 light years away? It's going to take a while to reach there."
Terrana nodded. "But this is also the safest place because of its high security and order. Moreover, it's the best place for newbie Exceeds to progress in the space sector. A den of opportunities that also comes with their own risk."
"But there's no reward without risk in this world of Exceeds," she added.
"Alright, let's fix a route there. We won't stop for anything in the middle except for fuel refilling for our spaceship. Oh, let's estimate fuel cost and time to reach there."
Terrana nodded as she calculated everything shortly.
Leo saw a route getting fixed in the map before Terran also reported the estimations.
"We have a total of 239k Milky Way credits. The fuel cost would be around 24k, and the time to reach there would be 19-21 days with this ship's FTL zone speed."
Leo nodded.
"Good. We'll have enough to get three S-grade serums even after reaching Bushino Space Continent."
"As for the food cost, it's fine if we don't estimate it," he added. The food was relatively inexpensive.
Luxurious food was way more costly, but they just needed their daily fill for now since they needed to be richer to afford high-class food daily.
...
Time passed as the sun fully rose and also started setting.
Rei, Alice, and Lia returned with a haul when the evening arrived, bringing with them a hide of a giant boar filled with all sorts of horns and other organs they deemed valuable of the ferocious beasts they killed.
Rei thought they might either cook them for food or sell them somewhere if they turned out to be of some value.
They also completed their tasks as Alice finally got her 3rd obedient spirit while Rei successfully collected 1000 Phantom energy.
Lia also learned much about combat and controlling her ability as she worked hardest among them, always trying to improve her ability's control and spending her stamina to progress.
She was the most tired and directly fell asleep after entering her room.
"Lia-sis slept without eating. Should I wake her up to eat?" Alice asked with slight concern.
Rei shook his head.
"She already ate a nutrition bar, so it's fine. She can have breakfast tomorrow morning."
Rei and Alice sat at a table while Leo brought readymade food dishes from the oven after heating them.
"Dinner's ready. Pirana Cutlets and Exotic Seasoning meatballs."
Rei chuckled and nodded. "The smell is nice. Let's dig in."