Chapter 552: Leap and Spiritual Constructs

Cliff watched the black slime turn into a stream of water and slip back into Rod's hand, a look of fear crossing his face.

At the same time, he began to grow anxious:

"Was that 【Fire Leap】? No, there's no mana fluctuation within it. Mr. Rod, let's give chase! We can't let these traitorous rebels escape!"

Rod still paid him no mind and looked toward Tally.

The succubus put her hands on her hips and flashed a peace sign, putting on a cute, smug expression.

"Fifteen people, 【Shadow Track】 placed on every one of them. Tally's amazing, right?"

"Chris, you go too. Take them alive if you can; if not, kill them."

"Understood~~~" "Okay."

Tally dragged along the clearly unwilling-to-work banshee Chris as the two of them leapt into the shadows together.

After a faint spiritual ripple, they vanished without a trace.

The witch Dimia gazed at the lingering flames on the ground and could not help but praise:

"Similar to the spell 【Fire Leap】, no casting motion, no mana fluctuation, and no incantation needed. Gone in an instant—truly hard to detect."

Rod nodded.

Good thing Tally was a sharp one; the moment the conversation turned wrong, she had already begun laying down shadow-tracking spells.

"Mr. Rod, Miss Dimia, I must reiterate once more—we are completely unaware of this matter."

Cliff declared his stance yet again, for what must have been the umpteenth time.

Rod let out an involuntary laugh:

"Understood. However, I'd ask Mr. Cliff and Baron Ram to explain the situation. Please also stay a few more days and let us host you properly, so you can experience the local customs."

"Of course, of course! I won't leave until this matter is fully investigated!"

Cliff declared righteously.

But inwardly he was filled with bitterness—what they called hospitality was just house arrest in disguise.

Resistance was not an option.

The feats of a certain forester—slaughtering two giant dragons and repelling an Archduke of the Inferno—were simply too terrifying.

Cliff figured that if he had to die, he'd rather do it with some dignity, at least not get his head bitten off like Bishop Arturo.

Sigh.

He'd have to report this to Baron Ram later.

That acting city lord was a timid woman; afterward, he'd surely have to spend some effort coaxing her.

Exhausting.

Not long after.

Argyle Estate, in one of the guest bedrooms.

The middle-aged Baron Ram weakly and wearily held her head in her hands.

Across from her sat Cliff, pretending to be at ease.

"You mean to say the Holy Fire Sect suddenly erupted, intending to attack Mr. Rod? And just as they were about to flee, Mr. Rod used some unknown spell to conjure a hideous jackal maw that bit Bishop Arturo's head clean off?"

"That's exactly what happened. I never expected the Holy Fire Sect to be this sort of people either."

"That's impossible!"

"Don't worry, I've already negotiated. We just need to stay a few days until the investigation is clear and—"

"Impossible! How could such a dignified, handsome man as Mr. Rod possibly conjure an ugly jackal maw! You must have seen wrong!"

"."

Baron Ram looked out the window.

As if reminiscing about, or gazing at, someone.

Suddenly her cheeks flushed pink and her eyes grew hazy.

"Staying a few days, you say? I was just thinking I'd like to gaze at Mr. Rod's handsome face a little longer. Yes, yes, yes... In the end, only you, Cliff, truly understand my heart—knowing to specially arrange the Holy Fire Sect—"

"No, no, no! I didn't do anything!!! My Lady, you absolutely must not speak nonsense!!"

Cliff waved his hands in panic, hastily denying it.

Damn it! This stupid woman is spouting whatever comes to mind!

He cast a fearful glance around the room, worried there might be some eavesdropping spell.

"... I must remind you, Lady Ram, Mr. Rod has quite a few women, and they're all exotic beauties of other races—he may not have much interest in human women."

He had originally meant to say they were all young, pretty girls, and that a woman in her forties shouldn't be joining in.

But survival was hard; Baron Ram was a fine golden ticket, and Cliff didn't want to cause himself trouble.

However, the baroness did not take his words to heart.

"Servants! Bring out all my most expensive clothes~~"

As she spoke,

she raised a slender hand to her cheek and tilted her gaze upward at a forty-five-degree angle, both wistful and hopeful.

Her eyes brimmed with the girlish fantasies of a youth thirty years overdue.

"In these few days, I shall appear like a deity in a flash of divine light, then vanish forever, becoming the goddess he can never touch in his life."

"."

Windwall Forest, Bai Yu District.

In the medical treehouse.

The elf Caliste, the witch Dimia, and the dog-people Sharon gathered around to observe the Holy Fire Sect energy Rod had captured with 【Sustained Domain】.

After a round of study.

Lady Kali cast a spell that visualized energy.

To the naked eye, it appeared as a mass of golden light.

"Interesting."

The Young Lady Elf's beautiful eyes sparkled, quite interested.

"It has a specialized dissipation effect on negative energy such as the Plague Domain and Necromancy spells; it is a positive and vigorous energy."

Sharon of the Canine Race wagged her tail, guessing.

Whether intentional or not, it swept back and forth, constantly brushing against Rod's thigh.

Today she wore a pair of somewhat masculine animal-skin shorts, with a layer of black, fine stockings underneath, and on her feet were turned-up, spirited short boots.

To the girls of Rod's past life, this would be considered a death outfit.

But she couldn't help it; her proportions were good, and her legs were long.

Moreover, the slightly loose shorts couldn't hide the rounded, perky peach hips that still supported a full curve.

Rod couldn't resist and stroked along the fur of the tail.

The result was Sharon turning back to glare at him.

She slapped his hand away.

"I initially thought it was some kind of contract magic, like the warlocks of Coral Bay, but warlocks require mana and spirituality as a foundation for casting, which is clearly different."

Dimia seemed to have caught a glimpse of this scene.

Her baby-faced, cute cheeks turned a bit pink, and she awkwardly quickly averted her gaze.

"Whether compared to mana and spirituality, or to etheric spiritual power, its spectrum doesn't match; it is indeed a new type of energy."

Lady Kali hadn't noticed.

She was intently watching that mass of golden energy.

One could very clearly feel her thirst for new knowledge.

"The most interesting part is that it is mixed with different spiritual frequencies, which means this mass of energy was not generated by the person himself, and it possesses the characteristic that 'the more people use this energy, the stronger the effect'."

"So powerful? Wait."

Rod paused for a moment.

A flash of inspiration struck his mind.

Religious sects use

The more people use it, the stronger it gets.

Isn't this just the faith power of priests who worship gods!

But there are no such things as priests in this world!

Moreover, as Mistra, who is about to become a god, is currently in the process of digesting her divine spark, he does not believe anyone else could become a god before her.

He spoke out what he had thought.

Upon hearing this,

Lady Kali fell silent for a moment:

"Gods have never appeared; currently, it is not necessarily true that one can only rely on the 'divine power' you mentioned to replicate it."

"One hundred and twenty years ago, scholars discovered the 'Collective Mental Power Amplification Effect' from dissecting the corpses of the Yigo race, that is, achieving enhanced spell effects through multiple people resonating mentally by studying a single magic together."

Sharon touched her chin:

"I know this, but this mana effect has very large limitations, such as the casters being within five meters of each other, chanting at the same frequency and speed, and the amplification power not being worth the cost, and so on."

"Yes."

Lady Kali nodded. "However, this is a group whose spiritual class does not exceed the Third Tier, and there is not a single mage; how then..."

Gulu gulu—

Suddenly.

Rod's stomach made a strange noise.

The women all looked over.

"It wasn't me."

He raised his right hand.

There, the slime Xiao Hei slowly and unnaturally climbed up, its hand stained into a black glove of fluid metal.

It had swallowed Bishop Arturo's head, and Rod had ordered it to carefully activate the effect of 【Devour Memory】, striving to devour it completely.

Within the 【Mind Link】.

Xiao Hei transmitted feelings of pain and discomfort.

It indicated that there was something else inside Bishop Arturo's head and requested Rod's permission to spit it out.

"Spit it out quickly."

"Ugh—"

Xiao Hei immediately made a vomiting sound.

A mass of black slime was instantly secreted and plopped onto the ground with a splat.

But that was merely a slime mass.

There was not a single thing inside it.

Dimia's expression changed: "This is a mental creation, the same kind of mental creation as on Miss Daphne."

(End of Chapter)