Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

‘They saw me!’

Seiji was quite surprised about this.

He had been watching these two individuals for quite a while without them noticing. Seiji thus assumed that he was an unnoticeable presence here.

He never expected that the robe-wearing girl would suddenly notice him, followed by the armored boy seeing him as well.

“Who… are you?”

Seiji was about to answer this question.

But, before he could say anything, his vision darkened and his consciousness went hazy once again… He then saw everything clear up around him as his consciousness instantly returned.

Once again, he was in the previous Forest Palace. The environment was the same as the last time.

Shika and Hisashi were now by his side, proving that this was indeed Kazuko’s Domain.

Hisashi was looking all around this mystical dimension that he had entered for the first time. It was obvious that he was rather nervous.

Shika had a calm expression.

‘Judging by how they seem, neither of them saw what I did just now,’ Seiji thought to himself.

Was it all just a hallucination?

‘If I’m the only one who saw a hallucination, I should have been standing here in a daze. That should have gotten Shika and Hisashi’s attention.’

Since they didn’t say that anything was wrong with him, that meant they had all just entered the Domain together so they didn’t notice anything wrong.

In that case, that was no hallucination. At the very least, it couldn’t possibly be an ordinary hallucination.

What exactly was what he saw, then? A scene from another world? Were Spirit Worlds actually other worlds? Or were Spirit Worlds the projections of other worlds?

Seiji thought about his own experience traveling through Soul World. He felt that this was quite similar but also different—he wasn’t experiencing someone else’s life. Instead, this time he was an observer.

But was he really only an observer there?

“Demons are coming,” Kazuko’s voice sounded.

Black mist appeared and speedily formed into three black wolves.

He decided to think about this later and focus on the battle first.

Hisashi gathered electricity on his hand and shot out an arc of thunder. He accurately hit the first black wolf that rushed over!

The black wolf immediately stopped while pouncing in midair and crashed onto the ground, with dark-red mist escaping from its body.

Shika unsheathed her sword and killed the second, while Seiji then slew the third wolf.

These two wolves also transformed into mist. Part of the mist floated towards Hisashi and was absorbed into his body!

As Seiji expected, defeating and devouring spiritual creatures was indeed the basic method by which the Awakened could strengthen themselves.

Hisashi shot more thunder at the first black wolf that collapsed on the ground. Every time it struggled to get up, it immediately stopped moving again whenever electricity hit it… perhaps it had entered a type of paralysis status. The way its movements jerked seemed almost comical.

After receiving the fourth thunder attack, this pitiful spiritual monster’s structure finally collapsed as it completely vaporized into mist.

“Go over to that mist,” Seiji told Hisashi.

Hisashi did as was asked and swiftly walked up to the mist. Hist body immediately absorbed most of the mist.

“How do you feel?”

“I feel as if something within me became slightly more solid.”

“Try to absorb more mist from now on… evidently, your ability to absorb the mist is limited by physical distance, so pay attention yourself,” Seiji informed him.

Hisashi nodded.

Additional black wolves started appearing.

Seiji and Shika dealt with them easily.

Hisashi fought carefully from behind Seiji and Shika. He used thunder as a ranged attack and smashed his thunder-enchanted shield into any wolves that got close to him.

Any black wolves that approached him would be instantly electrified and paralyzed by his thunder magic. It was no trouble for Hisashi to deal with one wolf in close combat range at a time.

To use a game analogy, two high-level players were helping a novice thunder mage player who also knew a shield bash attack to level up.

After Hisashi absorbed a large amount of mist, he felt something deep within him beginning to heat up. He mentioned that he felt his strength obviously increasing.

Back when he was practicing in his mafia group’s dojo, he would begin to feel fatigue after releasing seven or eight bolts of thunder. But now, he wasn’t tired even after sending out countless thunderbolts. In fact, he felt like it was becoming easier and easier to use his ability!

Hisashi felt that it was really nice.

He could even say that he was having fun… no, he was definitely having fun! This was the joy of becoming stronger.

This was just like playing a video game and obtaining experience to level up a character. However, he was now leveling himself, which was a lot better than playing any video game!

Hisashi started getting rather excited. However, he still wisely remained cautious against the monsters.

‘I won’t be like my idiot older brother…’ he told himself.

“A big one is coming,” Kazuko, who was floating in midair, warned them.

Thick black mist formed into a particularly tremendously big black wolf. It had some green patches of fur on its body, and had a much stronger appearance compared to the ordinary wolves.

Seiji recalled the previous green-scaled and green-clawed giant black eagle that he faced before here… could it be that the green-colored spiritual creatures in the Forest Palace were all strong?

“Hisashi, you need to be careful.” He made sure to warn his teammate who was facing off against a boss monster for the first time.

“I will be.”

Hisashi was both nervous and excited to face such a giant monster which seemed likely to be capable of sending him flying with a single blow.

This was far more stimulating than playing any VR game!

The green-furred black wolf glared at the three of them and slowly opened its mouth.

At this moment, Seiji suddenly saw the robed girl and armored boy from earlier.

Lana and Lloyd! Their figures were rather hazy, but he recognized them.

“I’ll stall it! You need to run!!” Seiji heard Lloyd shouting with a voice filled with resolution. He understood Lloyd’s words clearly despite the fact that Lloyd was speaking a language he didn’t know.

The large black wolf attacked before Lana could react. It spat out a gigantic dark red Mana Bullet!

Lana and Lloyd’s hazy figures disappeared as the gigantic red Mana Bullet flew towards them at high speed!

Seiji didn’t dodge or defend against this spell. He held his sword and cast his own spell…

Reversal technique, Dragon Counterattack!

He blocked and received the gigantic Mana Bullet, whirled his sword and formed the attack into a golden dragon that flew back towards the large black wolf!

*Boom!!*

A golden light covered the wolf in an explosion.

‘It’s not that I wanted to use my ultimate ability right away. It’s your own fault for making it so obvious that you were going to use a strong attack by opening your mouth like that. I would have felt bad for not sending it back at you,’ Seiji commented to himself.

Also, he used his ultimate technique right away because of the two figures he saw from another world.

They were projections, right?

Lloyd and Lana must have met a similar large wolf, and their situation was projected over here where he could see it.

Seiji had no idea why there was such a projection or why he could see it.

It was just that when he saw this scene, he couldn’t help but reflexively want to help them. Plus, the monster made it obvious what type of attack it would use, so he decided to use his ultimate ability.

‘Oops, I forgot to shout out a catchphrase to go along with it… Forget it, I don’t need to shout one every time.’

The green-furred black wolf was seriously injured by the ultimate divine dragon! Large amounts of mist emanated from its body.

Shika went over to give it a few more stabs and finished it off with just a few blows.

Hisashi was under the impression that there would be a fierce battle. He didn’t regain his senses for quite a while until the large wolf finally transformed completely into mist. Only then did he hurry over to absorb the mist.

‘Seiji really is so strong. He can deal with such a boss monster so easily… then why did he tell me such a thing earlier?”

“You need to be careful” about watching him act cool?

‘Actually, I wasn’t trying to act cool. Things just happened like that.’ Well, if Seiji knew what Hisashi was thinking right now, that’s what he would say.

At this moment, he saw Lloyd and Lana’s figures once again!

“What was that just now?” Lloyd was rather confused.

“That person helped us… I think.” Lana said as she looked all around her.

“Who is that person… a ghost?” Lloyd knew what she was looking for. He also looked all around him.

“I don’t think so. I think he’s some other type of existence.”

Lana’s gaze swept over Seiji’s location. She suddenly stopped and turned back to focus carefully on where he stood.

Seiji felt rather strange, being looked at her like this.

“May I ask if you were the one who helped us?” Lana asked politely.