ghost

How far is it?" The green-haired girl flicked her long hair and wiped the sweat off her forehead with one hand while holding onto her staff with the other.

She was Billie, a beginner-rank Lehrling who specialized in controlling plants.

"We should be there soon!" said Joaquin, who was dressed in a red dress.

"We'll be there in about three hours!" Said Locke after thinking for a while with the map in his hand. He was the only one among them who could understand the crude map drawn by the locals.

He held Angelina's hand as they walked through the dense forest.

There used to be a main road here, but it hadn't been cleared for ten years due to the lack of human activity. The trees on both sides of the road had grown and covered the original path.

They had to open up a new path.

On the other side, low-rank Knechts Bob and Chris walked on both sides of the team. The mana in the forest was thin, so monsters would rarely appear here. All they had to do was ensure that there were no ordinary beasts or insects that would attack them.

The carriage was parked outside the forest along with the coachman and the guide.

The female casters had it the hardest in such steep terrain. Angelina's ankle had already been cut twice by the weeds. If it weren't for her shyness, he would've carried her on his back.

Joaquin, on the other hand, was carefree. She walked at the front with a few knights, ignoring the mosquitoes and sawtooth leaves in the forest. There were two bloodstains on the woman's arms. She was accidentally scratched by the branches.

Daenie, Billie, and the last member, Mina brought up the rear. The three of them held onto their staffs and followed closely behind the group.

"It's so nice to have a considerate fiancé." Billie looked at Angelina enviously as he carried her on his back.

"You can look for Chris too," said Mina with a smile, glancing at Chris who was on the left side of the group.

It was no secret that Chris liked Billie in their circle. However, Billie had never felt anything for this man who was trying to please her.

"Him? Forget it! " Billie shook her head. She preferred responsible men. Although Chris was a noble knight, he was elegant and gentlemanly, but he didn't suit her taste.

Walking all the way until noon, an abandoned manor finally appeared in front of them.

"We're here!" Joaquin leaned against a tree and panted. High-intensity exercise was too painful for Magicians like her, especially female Magicians like her.

He put Angelina down and scanned the scene in front of him.

Broken stone pillars, ruins, and dust.

"Let's go in and have a look!" Joaquin took the lead.

Joaquin was confident that fire magic was only second to light magic when it came to killing spirits.

Locke and the rest followed closely behind. The three knights protected the five casters in the middle.

"We should be the most luxurious team," Chris said with a smile. Other teams had more knights than magicians, but their team was the opposite.

.

Although they knew that this mission was relatively easy, no one took it lightly.

Walking into the manor, a gust of chilly wind blew. The sun was still shining brightly outside, but the temperature inside Meng Qi Manor was ridiculously low.

"Be careful." Joaquin's face cleared up a little. To be able to create such a high temperature contrast, the two Specters seemed to be stronger than she had imagined.

.

Everyone moved to the interior of the villa.

"Let's go!" The sound of a twig breaking caught Locke's attention. He turned around and saw that Bob had accidentally stepped on it.

It wasn't a large manor. Standing in the middle of the ruins, they could see the boundaries of the manor.

There were only about ten damaged houses in the surroundings. The rest had been eroded by sand and time.

"Search them one by one!" At this time, splitting up to search was the stupidest choice. Moving in a group was the safest decision.

Pushing open a broken door covered in cobwebs, Locke walked in first.

He held a longsword in one hand and raised his arm slightly to protect his head with a shield.

There was only a bed and a few chairs in the room. There were no other miscellaneous items. Some glass shards were scattered on the ground.

A faint, creaking sound could be heard.

Angelina and Daenie each held a crystal ball and started searching from both sides of the room. Joaquin raised her wand and a faint blush appeared on the tip of the wand.

The tip of the spear shot out, ready to cast a spell.

When Angelina and Daenie were done searching, the crystal ball didn't show anything.

Angelina shook her head at them and they slowly left the room.

The crystal ball was rented from Princeton Imperial Academy's caster faculty. It was expensive and one of its uses was to scan for magical fluctuations in the vicinity.

It was extremely effective in finding ethereal creatures like ghosts.

Since there weren't any strange magical fluctuations, it meant that the room was' clean '.

"Let's go to the next room," said Joaquin as she put away the spell in her wand.

As the others left the room, Locke noticed a strange colour on one of the walls of the room. He walked closer and saw that it looked like a sheepskin.

It was a piece of parchment.

"Clatter", it was lifted up. There was nothing behind the wall.

Locke opened the parchment and the dust on the wall fell to the ground.

It wasn't a parchment, but an oil painting. Locke had seen it many times in Perseverance Academy's teaching building.

There were many portraits of predecessors, and all of them were at least Knights.

Due to the age and lack of cleaning, the pattern on the oil painting wasn't obvious. It was a painting of a green hillside under the setting sun.

A little red person was sitting on the hillside, looking at the sun in the distance.

Although the drawing wasn't clear, Locke could tell that it was a little girl.

"Locke? Come here! "Joaquin urged from outside the door.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! " Locke put down the worn-out oil painting. The reason why he was attracted to it was that the sunset looked very similar to the scenery at the back of the mountain where he used to go with Locke Senior when he was young.

He opened another dust-covered wooden door. Other than the dust and cobwebs, there was not a single shadow in sight.

"Let's go to the next room!" said Joaquin with narrowed eyes.

There were only two rooms left.

Locke walked in front, and Angelina followed closely behind him.

Chris and Bob, who held the myst orb in their hands, walked to the left and right.

They gently pushed the door open and a cold aura that was different from the other rooms wafted in. Although he had never seen what a ghost looked like, Locke's skin tensed up and he tightened his grip on his longsword.

The moment the light from the outside shone into the house, a scream was heard, accompanied by a feeling of dizziness.

Two grey shadows rushed towards them from above at an extremely fast speed.

Joaquin, a low-rank Lehrling, was the first to react. She had great mental power. "Hmph, the Banshee's Howl?" Joaquin snorted and raised her wand, conjuring a fist-sized fireball.

Locke was the second to react. Due to his years on the battlefield, he was extremely quick to react to sudden attacks. After Joaquin, he brandished his longsword and rushed towards the shadows in front of him.

Ghosts could only resist physical damage, but he wasn't sure if they could withstand his Falconim. Locke activated the impetus vortex in his abdomen, sending strands of impetus through his blood and meridians to his palms.

The difference between mid-rank Knechts and low-rank Knechts was that the impetus in their bodies could be temporarily separated from their bodies. Unlike high-rank Knechts, mid-rank Knechts could only attach a small amount of impetus to their weapons or armour.

However, this was enough. Not only would a weapon enhanced by impetus have a qualitative leap in sharpness, but it could also pose a threat to energy bodies.

Faced with Locke's attack and Joaquin's fireball, the two ghosts circled above the room and rushed towards the people behind them.

Joaquin and Locke couldn't just sit back and watch. They instantly released a fireball. Under the guidance of Joaquin's powerful mental power, it drew an arc in the room and hit the corner of the ghost on the left.

Amidst the painful screeches, the speed of the Specter that was struck decreased significantly.

Seeing this, Locke raised his sword and rushed towards the injured spirit.

Just as Locke raised his longsword and approached, the ghost on the right suddenly stopped rushing towards the people behind them. Instead, it turned around and rushed towards Locke, as if it wanted to stop him from hurting its companion.

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