62 Chapter 62 : : Ghost Bead

The Poison Crypt, second floor.

Kale used his knife to dig out the hole he closed yesterday, eventually his knife touched something hard, he used his hands to remove the soil and took out the round core.

The core was not the same as before, it looked like it was buried here for more than a month, the square paper around it had half turned into soil, its outer surface had cracks all over it, the core's surface looked like rotter tree bark, a pungent smell was coming out of it.

Kale was slightly surprised, the change was bigger than what he expected, everyone knew about the dungeon's digestive properties, a dungeon with a core is like a living creature that would absorb the dead bodies in it to progress. Although the core was bound to fall in this condition as a part of the ritual even if the dungeon did nothing but it was faster than expected.

Kale lightly squished it and the dried bark that was barely holding on broke, its outer layer shattered and started to fall off, once all the debris part was removed, a red pearl with the size of half the original core appeared in his hands.

The pearl was pure red with the surface being smooth as glass, it gave a cold feeling on touch, the pearl looked like it was made of frozen blood, the only attention-catching thing on it was a small tattoo made of darker red lines, the tattoo was outlining a woman's face, the face had no eyes or nose, it was just her long hairs and shape of the face that showed that it was a woman.

Kale inhaled deeply, he tightly held the pearl in his hand and concentrated. Suddenly, the temperature of the pill dropped further, a vague figure of a woman came out of the pearl, the size of the figure continued to increase until she was big as a normal human.

The woman looked harmless at first but then her aura changed all of a sudden, she conjured a frightening aura and disposition to herself, her long hair started to flutter around her, her blood-red eyes were emitting dense killing intent, long sharp nails capable of ripping of flesh grew out of her fingers.

She screamed at Kale, there was no sound, instead, a gust of cold air swirled around Kale, a normal person might get scared by a situation like this but he was completely unfazed.

"A ghost with such distinct features? Interesting, the ingredients I used were almost all low in quality but a Tier 3 Practitioners soul makes a difference, Hmm... Her own will and emotions also played a role, after all, a normal ghost would be scared under my presence, even though I am so weak, it is mostly physically," Kale muttered to himself.

Normally, a normal person cannot see a being like her, but Kale was different. When a person starts to walk on the path of WitchCraft, unseen changes take place in their spirituality.

You can't keep your hands clean when you play with mud, it was the same with them, as they practice their art, WitchCraft Practitioners goes through several trials, most lose themselves on the way, while some pass and gain strength, being able to see supernatural things can be considered the result of passing the first trial.

Kale had started practising WitchCraft the second he made the first contract to enslave the rabbits, and once he successfully made the ghost bead, he had already reached a level where he could see her.

He looked at her and his eyes grew cold, he tightened his grip on the red pearl and muttered two words under his breath. Out of nowhere, the woman's appearance turned back to her previous self, her expression turned extremely pale, she quickly retreated back, increasing her distance from Kale to several meters.

The «Ghost Bead» was refined from his blood, he was the last person the ghost itself could attack.

Normally, even a single soul in thousands is not capable of becoming a ghost, even if they do, they are so weak that they will perish on their own but WitchCraft Practitioners all have their own tricks.

As for what are Ghosts? It can be taken as the souls that are neither destroyed nor ascended after leaving their vessel but are left in this world due to their lingering regrets in their lifetime. They develop some consciousness and devour the souls around them to continue existing in the real world and don't perish.

The concept of Ghosts was not so unbelievable in the world of Kazeer and here, the former had Yin Martial Artist while the latter had Necromancers capable of seeing them.

'It's the Lowest-Rank «Ghost Bead» but the quality is top tier, it should work against mortals and some weak-willed Tier 2 Practitioners, I am only going to use her as a scout for now anyway, she seems to have some potential so maybe later I can promote her to Ghost Soldier, Ghost Official, then Ghost General and so on,' Kale thought, he willed and the ghostly woman was sucked into the ghost bead again.

The pearl in his hand trembled before stabilizing.

'The hatred for revenge is deeply rooted in her, as I thought, it was probably that man who used her as cannon fodder to escape, if it was in the past then I would need to fulfil her last wish to take full control over her, which is likely killing him for revenge, but neither I am a rookie nor can I afford to kill him with my current strength,' Kale concluded as he headed back the way he came.

Dale had a rich background, the gear he was wearing told all about it, Kale had the skill but with his limited knowledge in the world of practitioners he couldn't defeat a Tier 3 Overgeared alone, mush less doing it silently.

Kale looked at the red pearl that was trembling at short intervals and sighed "If I got the opportunity in the future you will have your chance for revenge," Once he said that, the pearl stopped trembling and stabilized.

He could do it using force but it was better to use words, as it would save efforts and time, as for Dale, he really doesn't care about killing one or two for it if he had the chance.

***

Kale came out of the dungeon and met up with Kallus and Vaella.

The team packed up their remaining stuff and waited till a carriage arrived to leave some adventurers.

The carriage stopped and three people wearing brown cloaks with hoods and an animal mask each came out of it.

From the body shape and size, the one in lead was a girl, she was wearing a white fox mask similar to the one used in carnivals, the one on right was a tall man who wore a monkey mask, the one on her left was a young woman, she wore a cat mask, she seemed older than her.

The leading girl looked at Kale, their eyes met for a second before she walked past him and headed towards the dungeon.

Kale subconsciously touched the surface of his mask, he felt slightly strange, it was almost like she saw his face through the mask.

'I need a better mask, at least a magic tool that has some resistance against investigative spells if nothing else,' He thought then walked into the carriage.

***

A while later...

The Poison Crypt, second floor.

The two girls and the man covered in brown cloak ahead just finished fighting a group of Spitting Siders led by a Spitting Spider Queen, corpses of spiders were littered all around covering the ground, but the trio didn't even remove their cloak, having not even scratches on it whatsoever, this alone showed that there was at least one Gold Rank adventurer among them.

The leading girl removed her fox mask and inhaled freely, her exquisite facial features were on display, she had tanned dark skin similar to dark elves, it was smooth and glossy, she had a young appearance but her eyes showed the vicissitude of life.

Furthermore, the most surprising thing being she was the same girl that was wanted by the secret forces of the Brilliant Sky Kingdom. She was, after all, a Hero summoned through Second Generation Hero Summoning!

The girl extended her hand, tiny specks of light came out from the dead bodies of the spiders around and were sucked into her body.

The duo around her couldn't see those specks of light but they could feel the change in her aura, she had become stronger.

"Your ability makes me jealous," The other woman said as she removed her mask, she also had dark elf like skin, her pointy ears stated that she had genuine dark elven blood flowing through her veins but her red eyes told a whole different story, she was dhampir, a rare hybrid between a noble vampire and a dark elf.

A child between human and noble vampire is also called dhampir, in a way, races like elves are seen as variant human races so they use the same word to define them.

She waved her hand in the air and a change occurred, a stream of red fog came out of all the corpses, the corpses shrank and dried at a visible rate, the woman opened her mouth, all the red fog turned into a whirlpool and went into her mouth, it was like there was a black hole in her stomach that won't get filled no matter how much she ate, she didn't stop till all the fog was sucked in by her mouth.

If someone saw this, they would freak out, the ability she used was without a doubt belonged to Blood Magic.

Blood Magic and Death Magic are some of the few types of magic that were forbidden to learn, as their progress mostly led to the suffering of others.

All three of these magic could provide an immense increase in battle power but the means to do it were unorthodox, because of that, whenever a practitioner practising them was discovered, they would become wanted within 24 hours and will be hunted till death.

Dhampirs have a young appearance similar to dark elves but they have a strong growth rate and fewer weaknesses making them the target of jealousy and discriminations.

Vampire are already hated due to their thirst for blood, but dhampirs have it worse and coupled with her using Blood Magic, it had long crossed the bottom line, if the news of her walking freely outside goes out then there was no doubt that it would shake the masses.

"Like you are the one to talk, I will leave it to you, clear her mess," The leading girl said as she looked at the man standing quietly all along.

The woman giggled at her words.

The man nodded then snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, all the corpses littering around sunk in the ground leaving no traces of Blood Magic being used here.

"We are already here, what are we going to do next? Follow the advice of that person and stay low key to hide from forces of Brilliant Sky Kingdom or move on?" The main asked in an emotionless tone.

"That person helped us escape but didn't reveal anything about the organisation or himself whatsoever, it only means that they see us as useful pawns but doesn't want to reveal their own existence in any way. We are not obligated to follow his orders, we will travel and stabilize our status with different identities, as high profile adventurers, it will also help us grow stronger," The leading girl said, she thought for a moment before adding "Once we are strong enough, even if the forces of Brilliant Sky Kingdom found our traces they won't act irrationally to keep their reputation, after all, whether it's you or me, our existence can change their political structure if known to the public,"

The man nodded and no longer commented.

From the presence alone, both the woman with a cat mask and the man wearing a monkey mask was far stronger than the leading girl but they were treating her at equal status, and were even giving weight to her words, it was a sight that wasn't usually seen in the world of practitioners.

***

At evening.

Carran Town, Adventurer's Guild.

Kale walked out of the guild with the duo.

"See you around," Kale said then left their company.

Kallus seemed like he wanted to say something but didn't speak in the end.

"If you want him to join, just ask," Vaella said while observing her expression.

Kallus shook his head "He might not reject but he won't accept either,"

Kale didn't reveal his face during the whole mission and even after submitting the mission, he didn't inquire anything about them, it was more than enough for Kallus to guess that he had no interest in joining their team. If he still asked, Kale might just delay saying he needs time to think, but in reality, it would only be Kale giving some face to him.

On the other side, Kale arrived at the market after walking for a while.

He raised his head to look at the wooden plaque hanging outside a shop, there was a symbol of two hammers crossing each other on it, the words 'Heart Of Steel' was written below the symbol.