After slurping down Irene's soup, which she said would only last for tonight and tomorrow morning, I sat in front of the tent hours later, finally able to see the landscape beyond the settled dust.
The tent might have been designed to block detection and eliminate the need for night watch duty for small parties, but going to sleep without any precautions after causing such a commotion seed like pushing our luck. Since swinging the holy sword wasn't the sa as fighting a battle, I could probably stay up for one night.
Going into the tent would predictably result in defenseless Irene's physical attack, followed by Grace's cunning smile as she delivered a critical strike to my weak points.
So might call it ungrateful complaining, but honestly, I lacked the confidence to resist being in close quarters with four beautiful won in light clothing.
'I wonder why the wraiths still haven't appeared... Does it feel like the 62nd floor gimmick reset? Will the wraiths reappear when we reach that spot tomorrow?'
The view was not only wide open but the shattered trees allowed sunlight to shine down brightly. No sane beast would attempt a surprise attack in such exposed terrain, so with my back to the firebreak created by the holy sword, I stared into the dim forest and discreetly opened the internet.
Instead of my usual entertainnt streams, I searched for information:
Heek ghost
Heek wraith
Heroes Chronicle ghost appears
Heroes Chronicle undead
Heroes Chronicle exorcism
I figured soone in the vast kingdom must have encountered ghosts before the 62nd floor. With that thought, I entered all sorts of search terms.
Since this virtual reality ga had spread globally across East and West, hints might exist sowhere. During my adventurer days, I'd smashed zombies and other undead heads, but I'd never directly faced wraiths...
I'd confronted all kinds of monsters—ogres, trolls, giant worms, wyverns—but never wraiths, for a very simple reason: Any sensible lord would call priests, not adventurers, when ghosts appeared in their domain.
Unless they were high-level mages who'd entered the rcenary or adventurer field, no one would request a physical fighter like to exorcise ghosts!
≡ Holy✟Log Priest Play Day 112
≡ Inquisitor with a Smashed Head, Fifth One
≡ Sacred Law Research Lab ✞ Lightning Edition
≡ A Physicist's Analysis of the Goddess Religion
≡ Mana vs Holy Power, Who's the Winner?
So I searched through the more niche streams among the ballooning Heroes Chronicle player base—those who'd sequestered themselves in Temples or Magic Towers.
Tonight's all-night companions would be obsessively dedicated gars who locked themselves away in rooms to delve into the scholarly aspects of mana, magic, holy power, and sacred law, ignoring the vast fantasy continent sprawled before them.
From what I'd seen in community humor posts, there were instances of physicists scientifically reimagining fantasy novels like Harry Potter, or dical novels written by actual doctors.
Similarly, scientifically-minded people curious about virtual reality gas would connect to Heroes Chronicle and, regardless of their success as broadcasters, naturally dissect and analyze the fantasy scholarship implented in the virtual reality ga.
—Well hello there! Today's Sacred Law Research Lab covers the highly requested Lightning Edition. You know how people say "deserving of divine punishnt"? That punishnt is usually lightning, right? Getting struck by lightning out of the blue ans you're a great asshole acknowledged by God himself.
—Today's Priest Life, Holy Log Day 112. Last ti, the nuns at the monastery asked if I was interested in wine. dieval monasteries often doubled as breweries, and sohow I'm about to enter the alcohol industry in Heroes Chronicle.
—For those who chose close-combat warriors for physical enhancent, or ranged classes using magic and sacred law. Many of you ask which is superior between holy power and mana? It might be a kind of vs. ga, or perhaps the instinct of efficiency-obsessed gars who can't stand anything less than optimal character developnt.
Unfortunately, regardless of subscriber count, while there were entertaining videos, content about dealing with wraiths or ghosts was hard to find. Given the number of players, such encounters must exist—perhaps people simply didn't broadcast them.
Hmm... among all those players, not one had uploaded a video of dealing with a haunted object at the Temple or Magic Tower?
Maybe I should try searching portal sites instead of video sites.
—Hello! Today I've written a post for neighbors curious about holy power in the currently hot Heroes Chronicle. You've wondered if you can believe in a fantasy god in a virtual reality ga, right? I've pondered this too, but since faith is a matter of heart, enjoying the ga seems fine. That was all about holy power in Heroes Chronicle! I'll be back with more useful information next ti~
No, I'd be better off searching through vlogs.
So Han Se-ah's Earth 4 also has those annoying thumbs-up guys.
※
I spent a long ti searching internet sites while resisting Grace's playful temptation to co inside the tent and sleep squished together.
Sunlight still shone down on the firebreak created by the holy sword, but seeing Han Se-ah log out and reconnect, I realized night had ended. After a night of scouring video sites, I discovered just one useful thing.
It was a story about a mid-level rcenary wanderer (not a priest or mage) who cleansed a haunted village with a monk undergoing ascetic training.
'I never expected to find wraith information on a channel called "Continental Beer Journey"...'
The broadcast premise was drinking alcohol freely in virtual reality that he couldn't consu in real life due to liver health concerns. The content featured the host buying speciality alcohol from the four regions of the kingdom with his own money.
Without a beautiful woman or even a handso man, just an ordinary pot-bellied middle-aged guy who beca a mid-level rcenary with a sledgehamr he'd handled at construction sites, going from bar to bar—how could it have high view counts? The search term wasn't even "wraith" or "ghost" but "haunted," which I nearly missed.
Still, I did learn one piece of useful information: wraiths don't instantly die when their core is destroyed. Destroying their central point severely weakens them, but they don't die imdiately, which was good to know.
Considering how they hadn't approached all night, it would be extrely annoying if they escaped after we destroyed their core and felt safe. We had enough trouble catching the shadow fang tiger that hid in shadows—how would we catch a fleeing ghost?
"Ughh— Good, morning, Roland."
"Hmmmmm... Nothing happened during the night? Did you really stay up all night?"
"Good morning. Nothing happened, and I just sat and rested, so don't worry. You know I don't even feel fatigue from sothing like this."
Wraiths have a source that could be called a "haunted object," and destroying it doesn't kill them instantly but severely weakens them. How much? Enough that a wraith controlling an entire rural village could be killed by a wooden club wielded by a priest on an ascetic journey.
If it had been just the drunken ramblings of a middle-aged man, it would have been hard to believe, but he seed experienced in broadcasting and had included intermittent interviews with the pilgrim priest, making it credible.
It was more reasonable to trust the testimony of a broadcasting industry veteran than so pale blog thumbs-upper from Earth 4.
"For breakfast, I'll make soup with the remaining ingredients, but unfortunately after that we'll have to make do with jerky and biscuits."
"Well, can't be helped. At least we'll use up the sticky oil and get out quickly."
"When the fire starts, we'll run at full speed, so it shouldn't take two days to get back. In that case, I should carry Irene and Hanna."
After enjoying our last feast in the strangely peaceful deep forest, we faced the reality that until we set the fire and escaped, we'd have to make do with jerky while running non-stop. Neither wraiths nor beast-type monsters appeared, letting us reach our target point faster than expected.
The place where we'd encountered the wraith with over a dozen human-like hands and feet sticking out from under a ragged cloth—or in other words, the spot where Han Se-ah's minimap remained black and unilluminated.
Like our first tent spot, it wasn't a clearing and had no distinctive features, but Grace found traces of our tent based on Han Se-ah's directions from the minimap. What followed was connecting an elongated device resembling a fire extinguisher or vacuum cleaner to the sticky oil barrel and spraying in all directions.
"Irene and Hanna, stay within the shield. Roland, use the holy sword to clear a long path in the direction we ca from."
"Right. Katie and I will head in this direction, spraying widely on both sides as we go."
To avoid any accidents with oil splashing on ourselves, the two most agile people handled the sticky oil while I used the holy sword to create a long escape route. A chaotic path cleared by the holy sword would allow faster running than a path full of massive trees.
After spraying the oil and swinging the holy sword, Han Se-ah took a deep breath in front of the devastated forest. She confidently inhaled despite the harsh petroleum and gasoline stench perating the air.
"Grace can run alone, and I'll carry Irene!"
"...Huh?"
The minor issue was that Katie, who seed to have received so hint from Grace, quickly hoisted Irene onto her back. Not that I minded carrying Han Se-ah, but considering body type and build, it would make more sense for Katie to carry the slightly smaller Han Se-ah.
Grace and Katie snickered, the cara shook, and the chat went wild. Figuring "whatever" and hoisting Han Se-ah up, I heard a "kyaa!" near my ear as her sweet breath brushed against my nape.
The chat caught fire.
So did the deep forest.
Enjoy the chappy!
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