Advancing to "Spirit Medium"

Fors was someone Aster had saved not long after arriving in this world.

At the time, she and her friend Xio Derecha had been chased through some ruins by a large number of ghosts. Aster, who had also been searching the ruins for materials for the Grave Digger potion formula, happened to drive the ghosts away and save them.

As payment, Aster asked Fors for one of the teleportation stones on her bracelet. At the same time, she had to do a small favor for him.

Xio had always seemed rather distant toward Aster, while Fors was more easygoing.

"Phew, that was easier than I thought..." Beside the bedroom wall of the apartment, overlapping phantoms formed Fors's figure.

Fors was a Sequence 9 Apprentice with the Beyonder Ability "Door Opening," so she was used to traveling home in a straight line, walking straight through any obstacles she encountered.

"And he even paid the fare. It'd be best not to have anything to do with that guy again... The way Aster looks at me always feels strange. He gives me a really dangerous feeling..." Having repaid the favor she owed Aster, Fors felt much more relaxed. Then she suddenly realized that Xio was not home.

"Did she go out? Or did she run into trouble again?" Fors sprawled across the sofa and thought for a while. In the end, she decided to rest first. If Xio had not returned by ten that night, Fors would go out and ask around the areas where Xio often conducted "arbitrations."

Without much disguise, Aster went to the station and bought a ticket to Tingen. He then returned to the inn he had rented in Pritz Harbor, disguised himself again, and bought another ticket to Backlund from a ticket scalper.

Aster was not naturally cautious. Disguising himself when traveling was merely a habit from his days as a player.

Back then, Aster had only been a Sequence 9 Sailor. After completing a mission to clear out a gang, he returned to the Player Guild base without concealing anything. As a result, the Beyonder behind the gang tracked him down, causing several players to die once and the base mission to fail.

From then on, Aster made sure to take the most basic precautions every time he traveled, even if it cost him extra money.

At five in the morning, after getting plenty of rest, Aster woke early. He took off the "Witch's Kiss" gloves and the silver chain pendant around his neck, setting them aside. Before him lay portions of Beyonder materials.

He was ready to advance to "Spirit Medium."

More potion brewing... What a hassle. Good thing I've brewed the Grave Digger potion once, so I have some experience... It'd be great if it were as simple as it was in the game...

Aster grumbled inwardly as he placed the various materials into a crude container. In the game, it had not been this troublesome at all. Potion brewing had its own system interface; one only needed to drag the potion materials from the inventory in order to obtain a finished potion directly.

Five grams of human bone ash, three Night-Scented Grass leaves, six strands of Whispering Sheep wool, one hundred milliliters of white peach juice... After preparing the base liquid, Aster tossed in Carlock's eyeball and a Whispering Sheep horn.

Without a sound, they melted into the liquid. The potion turned a strange deep blue, gleaming with a metallic luster.

"I'm guessing this won't taste good... Bottoms up." Aster gave the liquid, which looked as though it had been contaminated by heavy metals, a disgusted glance before raising the cup and drinking it without hesitation.

"That tastes awful... I should have advanced successfully." After drinking the potion, Aster licked his lips and, as expected, saw a large number of messages automatically pop up on his character interface:

[Detected that you have consumed the Spirit Medium potion]

[Consumer profession detected: Grave Digger]

[Advancement conditions detected: No other profession acquired, role-playing value full, spirituality value full, health value full]

[Advancement conditions met]

[Success rate for this advancement: 100%]

[You have obtained the new profession "Spirit Medium." Level cap unlocked to Level 30]

[Daily mission: Grave Digger has been refreshed to daily mission: Spirit Medium]

[You have obtained the profession mission: Spirit Guide]

"Phew, finally done." Aster stretched his body, feeling refreshed. For the native NPCs in the game, advancement was dangerous and required careful treatment. The slightest mistake could make them lose control during advancement and mutate into Monsters. But players with a panel like Aster were different. As long as they maxed out their experience and consumed the potion with full health and full mana, they could advance directly. For example, Aster had simply gulped down a potion and become a Spirit Medium without any reaction at all—no whispers interfering with him, no painful transformation, and no risks to bear.

This is the confidence the Game Panel gives me.jpg

Opening his character panel, Aster found that the data had not changed much. There were merely some additional skills belonging to a Spirit Medium.

[Spirit Contract - Lv. 1]: Can form contracts with spirit bodies or undead creatures.

[Spirit Channeling - Lv. 1]: Can directly communicate with spirit bodies or undead creatures.

As for the remaining bonuses, most were reflected in increased levels for existing skills. For example, [Spirit Communication - Lv. 2], originally from Grave Digger, had been overwritten by [Spirit Channeling - Lv. 1], while [Necromantic Lore] and [Eye of Death] had both risen by one level.

To Aster, the most valuable among them was undoubtedly the skill [Spirit Contract].

Only after obtaining [Spirit Contract] did the combat system of a Death Pathway Beyonder begin to take shape. It was one of the prerequisites for the core ability of Spirit Guide. Its effect was to form contracts with various undead and spirit creatures, allowing the user to command them.

In the game, this ability amounted to catching pets, though it was limited to the undead category and required the target's consent.

Starting from Sequence 7, Death Pathway Beyonders could rely on this ability to become Pokémon master trainers... Aster narrowed his eyes as Spirit Vision silently activated.

Like NPCs, players also needed to set a cue action for activating Spirit Vision. Some set it to snapping their fingers, while others used subtler movements to activate Spirit Vision or other vision-type skills. But Aster was different.

He could freely turn Spirit Vision on and off with only his thoughts, without needing any assisting movement. This was not an ability granted by the player panel, but something born from Aster's own uniqueness.

However, Aster rarely used Spirit Vision. Its accuracy was not particularly high, and he could see undead creatures and resentful spirits even without using it.

The view from Spirit Vision differed from the view of [Eye of Death]. The inn room reflected in Aster's eyes became increasingly vivid in color, its lines faintly distorted.

Should I try making a contract? Aster could not wait to test his new ability.

He had never played an alternate character on the Death Pathway. Although he had encountered many Death Pathway players in PvP and seen them use their abilities, that was still different from using them himself.

Besides, this place was actually much safer than Tingen City... Some time ago, the Loen Kingdom's ironclad warship had launched, and security here had been strengthened considerably. Most Beyonders had gone quiet, leaving only a small number of poorly informed ordinary gangs still active...

Aster rummaged through his suitcase for ritual materials such as candles and spices, then quickly began arranging them.

The first thing he wanted to contract was a messenger!

Messengers were mostly Spirit World creatures skilled at Spirit World Traversal. With a messenger, it would be much more convenient for him to contact others in the future. Moreover, not every Pathway could possess a messenger. The Death Pathway, skilled at forming contracts and communicating with Spirit World creatures, was undoubtedly the Pathway with the lowest threshold for obtaining one.

This had even sparked a boom in selling messengers during the early stages of the game. Because players had an enormous demand for messengers, many Death Pathway players repeatedly attempted rituals or even entered the Spirit World physically, capturing large numbers of Spirit World creatures suitable to serve as messengers. They used their own abilities to suppress the creatures, forcibly signed contracts with them, and then resold them to other players who found it difficult to obtain messengers.

However, doing so also carried hidden dangers. If the player taking over the messenger had too low a standing and could not suppress it, the messenger could easily rebel.

But Aster had never encountered such a situation. After all, he had once been a Storm Pathway player known for his violence and suppression of those beneath him. By the time he reached Level 50, that messenger had completely stopped showing any disobedience.

Although the mass-produced messenger Aster had used in the game had been quite useful, he did not intend to summon that kind of Spirit World creature now.

In his previous life, Aster had once encountered a terrifyingly powerful Death Pathway professional player in a PvP arena. The core undead under that player's control had been contracted when he was at Sequence 7!

Now, that undead sealed away somewhere should not have been contracted yet. This is my chance!

"I! In my name, I summon:"

"Traveler wandering the upper realm,"

"Singer who proclaims death,"

"Despairing one on the verge of fading away."

The candle flame abruptly contracted into green before turning pale.

A strange long snake slowly emerged from the candle flame... No, it was not a snake, but a grotesquely elongated bird.

The translucent spirit bird was covered in festering wounds. White bones and rotting innards showed beneath its pale feathers. It stared fixedly at Aster with bronze-colored eyes.

Under its gaze, Aster felt every hair on his body stand on end, and he began regretting summoning the bird.

Damn it, I really underestimated this... I still don't know enough about this Spirit World creature... No, that guy never told me what he went through when summoning it either! This pressure... Is it a superior existence of the Death Pathway? I can barely move my body... Aster felt his breathing grow weaker and weaker, his knees slowly bending before the bird.

"What do you want?"

Perhaps a few seconds had passed, or perhaps several hours. Just as Aster felt that he could no longer hold on and was about to collapse to his knees, the strange bird finally spoke in Dragonese. The pressure on him eased considerably.

"Your Excellency, would you be willing to become my messenger and help me deliver messages?"

Feeling the sweat on his back, Aster's tone became much more respectful.