He gave them torches.
“Go straight down the corridor and the stairs.
“Turn left from the first corner, go straight and take the third right. You’ll find the janitor’s room there.
“He will explain the mission details to you.”
They took the torches and entered the building.
“Do you remember the location?” Jack asked. “Because I don’t.”
“Follow me.”
It was their first time in Aurelia block.
Neo had to circle around the corridors a few times despite remembering the location.
“You sure you remember the location? We can still return and ask the guard again.”
“…Shut up.”
In the end, it took them twenty minutes to find the janitor’s room.
A dim light flickered above the door.
Neo knocked.
A noise, as if something fell, came from inside the room.
The door opened, and a man with hollowed cheek and large dark circles beneath his eyes revealed himself.
“We’ve accepted the mission.”
Neo revealed the documents.
The janitor showed no reaction.
He stepped out of the room and walked into another direction.
“…?”
“I think he wants us to follow him,” Jack said.
They climbed the stairs and reached the fourth floor.
The janitor stopped before the women washroom.
“It comes here. No fixed time of arrival and you can’t see it,” he spoke with a ghastly voice and left.
“Huh? Wait, where are you going?” Jack asked.
The janitor did not return.
Jack was left exasperated.
“That’s all information we have for the mission? Wow.”
Neo stepped into the washroom.
He scanned the area.
Ghosts were an invisible entity.
One needed elemental vision with Death affinity to see them.
“Paimon can you help me locate the ghosts?”
“No.”
He expected the answer, but it still disappointed him.
‘Guess we need to do it the hard way.’
Neo turned around only to see Jack still outside the washroom doors.
“Why aren’t you coming in?”
“Can I do that? I’m a man and it’s women washroom.”
“…”
Neo gave him an unamused stare.
“Jack, we don’t have time for jokes.”
“I wasn’t joking though.”
Jack stepped inside with an embarrassed expression.
The two waited for the ghost to appear.
Nothing happened after two hours.
“Is this even working? Besides, how will we deal with something we can’t see?”
“We’ll use our Death affinity to dodge the ghost’s attacks and counter it.”
“…Doesn’t that mean we have no plan?”
Neo looked away.
It would’ve been easy task if he had elemental vision.
However, one needed to reach Adept mastery in an element for it.
“We are wasting too much time.
“…I’ll try to lure out the ghost. Please protect me and deal with it when it arrives,” Jack said.
He sat crossed leg on the ground and closed his eyes.
His lips moved while he chanted multiple spells.
‘Parallel Spell Casting.
‘That’s a technique barely any students from our batch can use.’
‘I don’t know if I should call him coward or stupid for choosing 1700s rank with that ability.’
Neo shook his head.
He waited for Jack’s Magic Spell to work.
A sweet scent spread out from Jack.
The smell was an illusion only dead souls or those with affinity for Death could smell.
“Necromancy. It’s that wretched ability,” Paimon suddenly spoke.
Her voice was cold and emotionless.
Neo noticed her disapproval for Necromancy.
“Why are you upset?” He whispered.
“I’m not upset. It’s just that the Necromancy is a forbidden branch of Death element. It’s… disgusting.”
He couldn’t understand her words.
Devouring others was fine, but Necromancy wasn’t?
“I know what you are thinking and you are wrong.
“Devouring is another form of death. It’s the End.
“Necromancy, however, is an act against Death itself.
“It strips the dead of their autonomy and makes them mere tools for Necromancers. Those disgusting mages corrupts both life and death for their personal gain.
“Tell me am I wrong to hate such repulsive acts?”
“There is no need to think about Necromancy in this situation though. Jack is simply luring out the ghosts.”
Neo answered her calmly.
He made sure to keep his voice low lest Jack heard him.
Before long, Neo’s senses rang.
…!
He ducked and rolled into Jack’s direction.
Deep scratch marks appeared on the wall where Neo stood moments ago.
He grabbed Jack.
“Wake up! The ghost is here!”
Jack’s eyes were unfocused and he continued chanting the Spell.
“This damned guy! He is completely out of it! Set up a defense Spell at least!”
Suddenly, Neo felt a heavy presence of Death.
He used Ocean’s Embrace only for the Spell to provide paper-thin defense.
“Fuck…”
Blood poured out from the gashes on Neo’s back.
He protected Jack, but it cost him.
“This damned ghost can use Aura of Death?”
Aura of Death could inflict wounds that were hard to heal and ignore the opponent’s defense to a certain degree.
With his low mastery of Ocean’s Embrace, it might as well not exist for Neo.
Unfortunately, Neo found this just now.
He held Jack in a princess carry and retreated when suddenly his senses warned him of another attack from behind.
‘I can sense one in front of me and another at my rear.’
‘There are two ghosts!’
He jumped to the side.
His expression worsened.
There could be multiple ghosts.
Not just two.
They could be hiding in the washroom stalls.
‘I can’t risk it here.’
‘I’ll be emptied out after attacking once. If they dodge it, I’m done for.’
Neo had to change locations.
He ran to the window and jumped out.
While he was in the air, his senses warned him of another attack.
He had no way to dodge and took the attack head on.
Deep wounds appeared on his shoulder.
Neo barely managed to land on his feet. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
As soon as he landed, his senses warned him of five presences surrounding him.
Neo looked at the window. He didn’t sense any other ghost up there.
“Thanks for following me out.”
He dropped Jack and held Obitus.