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nTwo days after Anna's birthday, Veronica was sitting in her tent, a bit concerned.

nThere was Ervas, Aqua, Jason, and many of their companions, alongside a few of the most talented mages in the Squirrel women tribe.

n

"Very well… so we will be assessing a few things today, won't we?

" asked Ervas.

n

"P-Perhaps you might be accustomed to it by now, my son, but no me… seeing the spirits of the people and animals that have died is… a bit terrifying,

" said Jason.

n

"I never expected Jason to be afraid of dead spirits… but you're not afraid of me?

" asked Veronica.

n

"Ah… well, I am, a bit,

" said Jason.

n

"Aw, come on, we have lived for around half a month together already!

" said Veronica.

nThe meeting that the people gathered in here were assessing was… the spirits of the dead.

nA few days ago, all those that had learned Spirit Magic begun to present the ability to not only see the natural spirits of the attributes, but also those of the dead.

nHowever, none of them attracted as much as… Veronica.

nShe seemed to have kept it a secret until now, but when everyone began to understand that her presence seemed incredibly alluring to them, they wanted to somehow make Veronica stop dragging dead spirits to the tribe.

nThese dead spirits came in all shapes and forms but put it bluntly, they were mere souls covered in their phantom forms that roamed the world.

nAny living being possessed a soul in this world, and when they died having grudges or as the result of other factors, souls would remain on the surface without being dragged naturally by the transmigration cycles put into the world of Kritias.

nThese were Dead Spirits.

nIf they wondered enough through areas with large amounts of Mana, such as the Devil Forest… they would sooner or later become monsters, such as Ghosts.

nBetween the intelligent races of Kritias, those that possessed the 'Spirit Mage

/Spiritualist' Job would be capable of seeing them. However, such people were often uncommon. And only a few talented ones would exist in Elven Kingdoms.

nIn Demon and Beastmen Kingdoms, there were Shamans in various beast-people races, and also a few undead-type demons such as Liches were able to see Dead Spirits naturally.

nVeronica and Ervas remembered that in their previous life, they were able to see the spirits of the dead to an extent. However, the spirits of the dead are often damaged, insane, and sometimes aggressive. Most of the time they would talk incoherencies and many of them had broken minds due to the terrible ways they died.

nSuch Dead Spirits were in the minority, as the other half were often just monsters that could not even talk.

nHowever, it was not until they were able to bond with the Death Attribute Spirit, Hades, that they were capable of making Dead Spirits more useful, and to understand them better.

nBy infusing Death Attribute Mana into the Dead Spirits, their minds would become clearer and many of them would become more coherent.

nThe use of Dead Spirits as spies and information gatherers, which couldn't be seen by most people or monsters was of great aid for Anastacia in her stage of development, as she used them to spy on other nearby Kingdoms to see their status.

nHowever, the power that comes from the Death Attribute Spirit, Hades, is not as powerful and potent as true Death Attribute Magic, born from within the user's inner self.

nAnastacia used all of her spirits as much as she could, and through Hades, she created large armies of Undead that helped in protecting the small tribes and villages that surrounded her domain, but because she didn't have much time to develop her Undead servants, they were not as useful against the army of Humans and the Reincarnated Heroes led by the God of Light and Righteousness…

nAlso, Anastacia never could attract the dead like Veronica now. This particular trait must have been developed through her evolutions and her unique Race.

nAlthough many of the villagers, including Ervas, could see the undead, they didn't realize it until now because Veronica began to be surrounded by hundreds of Dead Spirits like a hive of bees flying around their queen.

n

"The great one!

" said a spirit resembling a man with half of his head missing.

n

"Oh, our lady, our queen!

" said the spirit of a young Squirrel woman, whose appearance seemed to be disfigured, filled with scars and blood.

n

"Please, give us a mission!

" said the spirit of a young boy with a spear wound on his heart.

n

"Gyagya!

" said a goblin spirit.

n

"Hihihihihihi! Everything shall be done as the queen says!

" said the spirit of a young man who seemed to once be a bandit.

n

"Gihihihihi! Yes!

" laughed a companion of the bandit spirit.

nIt was something similar to how Ervas attracted plants, they willingly came to him and served him in any way he wanted or desired, they would even jump into the scorching fire of a bonfire to serve as fuel if that was what he wanted.

n

"Ah, so annoying… but you're all innocent people it seems, I cannot just break your souls,

" said Veronica.

n

"T-The great one, so benevolent!

"

n

"Please, don't break our souls!

"

n

"Don't end us!

"

n

"We'll do anything to please you!

"

nThe Dead Spirits were not only charmed by Veronica's Abyssal Soul, but their devotion and insane fear for their existences ending by her hand made theme even more loyal to her.

nVeronica wondered if she could do things she could not as Anastacia by having the full cooperation of every Dead Spirit and perhaps a variety of other Undead Monsters if she ever crossed paths with one.

n

"So, there isn't any way for you to tell them to go away?

" asked Ismene.

nIn fact, Veronica was sure that if she were to tell the Dead Spirits to 'get lost', they would actually obey her and never see her again…

nBut Veronica liked their company. The Dead Spirits not only were always with her, but every one of her clones was always accompanied by one of them. Although it had only been a few weeks since she evolved, it had become too common for her to tell everyone to disappear.

nAnd actually, the benefits that they could bring were also endless.

n

"Ismene, be more open-minded… there are a few of your elders watching you right now

" said Veronica.

nIsmene, who has not learned Spirit Magic, stiffened over the idea of having all of the ancient elders of the tribe that has died watching over her.

n

"This young lady is too pretentious!

"

n

"What are these elders doing? Making such a young and inexperienced girl as the new chief?

"

n

"Sigh… We have fallen very low as a tribe! Why are they holding fests for mating? Shouldn't they go and capture men as mating slaves, like we used to do in the old times?!

"

nSome of such dead spirits were so old that they even talked about traditions long forgotten. Veronica and the rest learned from their phantasmal mouths that the Squirrel-kin used to be way more aggressive when there was mating time, seeking men and capturing them as mating slaves… but that tradition was long forgotten and changed into peaceful fests were any male could join without being forced, this also made their relationship with other tribes better, facilitating trading, cultural interchange, and increasing their overall prosperity as a whole.

n

"I think that all of you, including my father, are underestimating the usefulness of Dead Spirits. You should just get used to them, they're not really annoying and are in fact very nice

" said Ervas, although he seemed to not have a charm for the undead, he was developing something similar through his new Spectral Soul.

n

"This boy seems… nice?

"

n

"The void… the void!

"

n

"Such embracing void… that mana?

"

n

"Is it as good as our queen?

"

n

"Not enough, but still, quite fine

"

n

"His mana compensates a lot though

"

nThe spirits had also begun to surround Ervas whenever he was, and as he interacted more and more with Veronica, the dead spirits would become more accustomed to his embracing mana, which Veronica used all the time. Bizarrely, Veronica was unknowingly teaching Ervas how to charm the undead.

n

"What benefits, my son? L-Like being spooky and scaring us? Or not letting me sleep in peace?

" asked Jason while stuttering, he was a large and stoic man, a strong warrior by this point adept to both physical techniques and magic, yet he feared ghosts a lot.

n

"So that's the problem, you can't sleep in peace?

" asked Ervas.

nThe rest of the people present nodded as well…

nIt seems that the whole problem was not that they couldn't accept the Dead Spirits, but they were just being too annoying.

n

"Okay, we get it, we'll tell them to only annoy us instead,

" said Veronica.

n

"Yes, I am fine with it,

" said Ervas.

nThe dead spirits around the two danced happily, nodding to every order they gave to them.

n

"We shall obey the queen and the prince!

"

n

"Yesssssss… We shall not annoy the people anymore! Yesssssss…

"

n

"Only the twooooooooooooooooooooo!

"

n

"For eternity! Gihihihihi!

"

n

"Eternity at their sides, so wonderful! Guhahahaha!

"

n

"Ggyagyaooo!

"

nOver the disgusting and insane expressions of the dead spirits around them, Veronica and Ervas mildly smiled, they had just made hundreds of new valuable friends.

n

"Perhaps we could try out what they are capable of?

" wondered Veronica, having many ideas in how to use dead spirits.

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