248 Chapter 208 Part 4

Arnold was currently walking through the forest while looking down at his arm, no the manifested transparent arm that's above his own.

·       Battle Spirit (SS)

He received a demigod's Battle Spirit—a being of unfathomable power.

Was it like giving away junk to Gederick? Did he not see the worth this spirit holds?

"Gergois." Arnold said the name of his armor while only imagining the gauntlet.

Only the gauntlet manifested as he had desired. But not around his arm, it manifested around the Battle Spirit.

Battle Spirits—while one of the strongest spirits in the game—have a very low defensive stat but an insanely high health pool that fits its raw power. They're prone to die first if an enemy player focuses all their attention on it instead of fighting its wielder.

It's important to mention that Battle Spirits are immune to most magic spells. Dark magic spells are lethal but elemental spells have little to no effect on them.

Most of the time the Battle Spirit is much more powerful than the wielder.

Why, might you ask?

It's a manifestation of potential, not current power level. If condition are met, even a level 1 warrior can bind his soul to the Spirit Realm and obtain a Battle Spirit that has the same level of strength that he would have at level 100.

As mentioned before, not everyone's potential is the same, thus not everyone's Battle Spirit will be at the same level of strength once summoned.

Endgame Arnold and Luke's Battle Spirits would've been equal in power to demigods and demon lords in the game given their high ceilings (it's speculated that their potential is endless but it's obviously impossible to determine whether that's true or not) and the fact that they are two of the strongest characters in the game.

It's unknown why their Battle Spirits were never shown in the game. It's speculated that both of them were rejected from the Spirit Realm for unknown reasons. Some say manifesting a spirit on the level of a demigod disrupts the normalcy of the realm and robs the realm of spirit energy, thereby killing most of the spirits. If done in the base game, one would then have to wait many in-game days until every player on the server can use any form of spirit summoning again. This would be a nightmare for players with Elven and Druid characters focused on elemental magic.

Until he's sure he can bind his soul to the Spirit Realm, it's best if he doesn't conclude anything yet.

Arnold came to a stop in front of Yorm's house as he recalled everything he'd heard about Battle Spirits.

Summoned spirits can only wield magic items: magic weapons and armor. Turns out Gergois is one such magic item.

This allows Arnold to use the spirit while in his magic armor which makes up for the spirit's weak physical defence. 

Of course, Arnold will be left defenceless but he was planning on making more magic armor in the future anyway. That's exactly why he told Lunaria to build a blacksmith shop in his city.

Arnold spoke to the spirit:

"Can you hear me?" he wasn't expecting an answer.

It then made a "thumbs-up" sign.

"I'm your master now."

It made a fist and shook it, probably to protest against him.

"Can you… use Aether?"

Battle Spirits are able to use Ki and Aura depending on what kind of energy their master is capable of using. There's no doubt they should be able to use Aether and Divinity as well.

The saliva pooled in his throat as he awaited an answer expectantly. 

"—Ah, you're back."

At Yorm's words, Arnold looked up. He hurriedly told the armor and spirit to go away.

He didn't notice the Battle Spirit's "thumbs-up" before it disappeared a second after his command.

"Y-Yeah, it took a while to retrieve the artifact." Arnold scratched his head.

Yorm narrowed her eyes.

"I might not have Gederick's strong sense of smell but even I can smell the perfume on you. Your hair is a little messy as well." She ruffled his hair then patted it down after using a water ball spell to dampen it.

Arnold smiled wryly and just let her do as she wished.

'Hm?'

He noticed her getup.

She was wearing some sort of bikini armor. It was dark red and maroon, signature defensive equipment colors for valkyries which means that this was a gift from the Valkyrie tribe, most likely the High Valkyrie herself given the quality. This wild armor contrasted the gentle woman that one might see Yorm as. 

Valkyries dye their armor in colors resembling blood and have been doing so for hundreds of years. The reason is unclear. Maybe it's some kind of custom related to fighting.

Her gigantic War Axe that she casually carries around, which was twice as tall as Arnold, made the image he had of her fighting in his head, even worse.

He couldn't imagine such a woman cleaving through her enemies like a butcher with animal carcasses.

Yorm stepped back after fixing Arnold's messy appearance.

"Mhm, now you look presentable."

"Why would I need to look presentable…?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Yorm glanced back at the house, "Did the meeting with Gederick go well…?"

"I suppose you could say that… We weren't at each other's throats but he said that he'd like a rematch."

Yorm's smile vanished, "It seems old habits die hard. He was never the kind of person who liked coning to a draw or losing to his opponents."

"So… a sore loser?"

Yorm chuckled and nodded.

"It was even worse during his campaigns as a commander. He had this glaring hatred for every person he lost to during those days and would train himself to surpass them and fight them again. During those days he'd come complain to me about who he lost to and accuse the people of cheating or some other ridiculous claim. He never admitted he was weak."

"He surpassed all the people he lost to…?"

If he picked brawls with other demigods then Arnold could see him surpassing them but did he fight gods as well? A demigod surpassing a god in strength isn't impossible. Most of the gods aren't even fighters.

"Well, not everyone. There's this one woman he lost to many years ago whose name he's never shared with me. It changed him. Even though the two have only met once in a duel, he considers her a friend. It's not the kind of friend you're thinking of. It's the kind of friendship of people duelling to kill each other. Alas, this friendship is one-sided. It's honestly something I'll never understand," she sighed, "He used to push himself to surpass every warrior who beat him in combat but this woman was an exception. He had accepted that he would always lose no matter what but I've never heard him say he'll give up."

His ego was probably shattered.

How strong is this mysterious woman, thought Arnold.

"How was the ring? I used the last of the star core I had left so its uses had better be worth the materials wasted on it."

"The artifact works as intended. I managed to go back to my world without issues. Also, did you say star core…? The core came from a literal star?"

"Yes. Sometimes stray asteroids and other divine bodies head for my world so I have to fly into space to stop them with my magic. If I use destructive magic then the asteroids blow into smaller pieces which land on my world. Something like this actually happened hundreds of years ago. One of them was a star exhausted of its energy. It had collected the mana and divine energy in the atmosphere throughout these last three centuries."

Hoh, that piqued Arnold's interest.

'If I can utilize the mana inside this artifact then I should be able to use magic as well.'

It will be useful for when he runs out of mana in the future (if he manages to get a magician or sorcerer sub-class that is). If there's more than 10 000 MP inside the core then it should be enough for most high-tier (Eleventh to Fifteenth at least) spells.

"Miss Yorm, would it be alright for me to come back in the future?"

Yorm's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"Why would you want to come back here? I don't know if I'll be here to protect you once the other deities find out you're a demon factor."

Good point, he thought. It would be suicide to go strolling into the divine realm. He'd be putting a target on his back.

Hell, he probably won't even make it past the Valkyries. Not to mention there are several strongholds on the roads that lead straight to the empires in the divine realm.

There were two reasons why he wanted to come back.

One of them was:

"I'd like to pay you back somehow, Miss Yorm," Arnold said resolutely, "Were it not for you," he looked at the ring.

"I would've fought Gederick again and lost my life for real this time."

"Pledging to repay a goddess is a very brazen thing to do," Yorm said with a coy smile as she bent forward to meet his gaze, "But… I feel like you're someone that even I can rely on."

'Hmm, the system didn't highlight an NPC quest in my journal. Yorm must not be ready to share her request with me then. Well, it can wait. Gratitude comes first.'

Arnold bowed to Yorm.

Unlike the forced bow like when he met up with Gederick, this one was genuine.

"Thank you very much for your help and this artifact. I'm leaving soon so I don't know if I—"

Yorm suddenly pulled him into a hug. Her strong arms encircled his lower back and his face sunk into her chest.

"…." He froze since he hadn't expected Yorm to do that.

Yorm chuckled, "I won't be seeing you again any time soon since I need to go to my fortress. A hug won't do much harm, would it?"

"Aha, yeah…"  Arnold put his arms around her too,  "I guess not…"

◇◇◇

Arnold and Yorm parted ways soon after.

He could've initiated Yorm's questline when the system didn't add it to the journal. Maybe he could've told her that he was a player who wants to "help save the realms" to gain her trust and tell her what's to come if they don't cooperate? Yes, that would've been the best way to get her to open up to him and start her questline.

However… he didn't do the above since he already has three main quests waiting to be finished. Adding a fourth quest will only put more pressure on him.

Yorm's questline yields many valuable rewards, like magic weapons, equipment, rare medicinal herbs for special potions from Star Fantasy, etc. While the rewards are tempting, he knew his limits. Focusing on all those quests while handling his real life would be difficult.

The questline's level requirements range from 65 to 70, which he's far from achieving. It could probably take years to reach level 65 unless he actively goes adventuring with his party.

Taking that into account, it's better to wait. If possible, he'd like to finish Yorm's questline before Ladiath invades the divine realm. He doesn't want to get caught up in all that chaos.

It'll be easy to teleport back here using the Virgin's Blood ring.

'I could bring Misteltein along. The system didn't say how many people are restricted from using this ring at a time.'

It'll be much easier to finish the quests with their help. But yet another burden shows itself: he needs to somehow awaken Elora's true potential before he even thinks of bringing her along...

**

Upon entering the house, Arnold noticed how quiet it was. The curtains were closed and only candles were used to light the surroundings.

There was a fragrant smell drifting around the house.

'The recruits are still here, huh.' He could recognize their energy signatures, 'Good, I need to speak to Kellene anyway.' 

With the "World Travel" artifact in his possession, questlines which would've been inaccessible to him previously, have their doors opened to him now. It wasn't a question of how anymore but when.

The only restrictions he ought to face now are the perquisites to starting a questline and the level requirements. With his knowledge from the game, he can travel to most off-world locations with ease.

He could probably also travel to the heart of the World Tree forest to do the Hiisi Elder questline and retrieve the Cardinal. There'd also the Deeper Ground relic tomb that is normally inaccessible to outsiders given how deep it is under ground.

He wants to retrieve Lufulur's main equipment that will boost his mana pool and intelligence stat to the required level to use magic.

Arnold left the kitchen and walked deeper into the house. He could hear some whispers coming from one of the rooms, specifically the one he woke up in yesterday.

All four of them were gathered in that room.

'Why haven't they left yet? Yorm shouldn't need them anymore, right?'

Yorm only needed them to patrol the areas around the Realm Gate to give her some time to relax. Now that she's ready to go back to work, the four recruits aren't needed anymore. Or more like they can be called upon in the future if Yorm deems it necessary.

Before Arnold could open the door, it swung open and Kellene's face popped out.

"Where is that basta—Ahh!?" she almost walked into him. Her expression when she saw his face was akin to a child seeing the bogeyman.

Did he look that bad…?

"O-Oh, you're here." She folded her arms, "Come inside. We've been waiting for you!"

"Why is that?"

"I-Is he here, Kellene?" Arnold could hear Vatria's voice. He looked over Kellene's head and spotted the other three inside the room.

'What the hell is Vatria wearing…'

He thought to himself as he looked at the kimono-like robe she was wearing while blushing profusely.