Mixed Blessing System

After releasing the spectres, Lothur saw the creatures leave their docile state and suddenly become nervous and aggressive again.

As this happened, Blood and Smoke became noticeably more satisfied and attacked them again, this time with much more ferocity concerning their food.

Aside from the ability to devour souls, these two creatures only had physical attributes. But even though they had no other means to deal with their opponents, it wasn't necessary. With a speed that only level 22 beasts would have, these two were several times faster than those 10 enemies that only had mental attributes.

However, even though the spectres were based on mental attributes, they didn't give them any advantage against Blood and Smoke. Because they were made from the essence of the Ancestral Folk members and the powers of Lothur, these creatures were as strong mentally as they were physically.

Not only that, but their innate ability protected them from mental attacks!

When one of these spectres tried to attack Blood while this one was sucking the soul of a stronger spectre, the other simply passed through the cat's body without hitting him.

"Huh! Do you think you can possess me?" Blood looked at the creature with disdain and finished "sucking" the existence of a level 21 spectre.

Meanwhile, Smoke had already absorbed the powers of his first target and moved when he saw some spectres trying to escape.

He smiled and opened his mouth wide, letting it expand for a moment before biting down on the three trying to escape.

If a spectre attacked them, it would pass through their bodies as if they were nothing. But if one of those creatures bit or even swallowed one of the spectres, those souls wouldn't be able to escape from inside those bodies!

The moment he swallowed three of these terrifying creatures, Smoke felt them struggling in his mouth, but he didn't care. He just swallowed them, compressed the size of their souls, and sent them into his stomach.

Their special ability was quite amazing. It worked both inside and outside their body. Even though they didn't actually have to devour their enemies to absorb their souls, they could do so whenever they wanted.

Given the hunter nature of these two creatures, they were very fond of using their hunting abilities and then swallowing their prey!

Seeing that half of this group of spectres had fallen before these two kittens, the people of Lothur's group watched them closely.

Cykad and the junior of his tribe were the most impressed when they saw how effective these cats were against the spectres.

It was true that Blood and Smoke were stronger than the spectres, as they were one level above the strongest of those beings. However, ordinary beasts, or even beings of many other races at the same level, would have a hard time dealing with spectres.

Some wouldn't even be able to eliminate these creatures!

But Blood and Smoke seemed to have been created to oppose the spectres of this world. They were like the archenemies of these cursed beings!

"They are born spectre hunters." The junior of the dinosaur tribe said in a low voice, attracting the attention of Lothur and Cykad as the women there watched the last three spectres being attacked.

"Lothur, what are you going to do with those two? Letting them fight the spectres might be the best thing for everyone." Cykad commented.

Lothur replied. "Yes, that seems to be the case. I think I'll send them on that mission, but for now, I want them to stay with us. 

I want to know exactly how they grow up, and more importantly, I can't let them deal with the spectres alone. Despite their fantastic abilities, they can't control their opponents' minds and get on their own the information I want. 

So I won't let them go. If I do, we might run the risk of them eliminating the spectres that could help me."

"That makes sense. But even on our side, I think they'll be able to do much against the spectres." Cykad commented, agreeing with Lothur.

He was sure that many spectres around the continent had no direct relation to the Castle of Shadow and that they wouldn't hunt those creatures down because of their low level. So even keeping Blood and Smoke on their side for the time being didn't mean they wouldn't be used to deal with the spectral threat.

Once Lothur went to Demon Island, he could leave one or both of them on the continent to hunt and kill spectres of whatever level.

Through these two, the continent could be saved from the spectral threat!

Lothur didn't need these two to deal with spectres. So when they found the home of the strongest spectres, they could split up without any problems.

At the thought of this, Cykad couldn't help but cheer anxiously, imagining that the living beings of Concordia still stood a chance against the demonic threat.

He didn't know how far ahead the demons' plans were. Still, he did know that his group had ways of disrupting or even preventing these demonic plans from coming to fruition!

So he watched Blood and Smoke finish eliminating their enemies, both cats going belly-up as they returned to Lothur.

Seeing the situation of his creations, Lothur asked. "How are you? Can you handle another hunt? Or do you need time to digest these spectres?"

Blood replied. "I think we can go after one of the three groups of spectres the enemies had given the creator. There are still a few hours before your bloodline ability can be used again, and we'll digest these spectres while we move towards one of these groups."

Cykad heard that and suggested it. "We should do that, Lothur. From now on, we'll hunt spectres whenever you can't use your bloodline, and when you can, we'll go back to hunting demons. That way, we can move forward with our plans."

"OK. Let's go after the group of spectres closest to us, then." Lothur said, preparing his group to leave and continue their hunt.

Before they left, Cykad sent that junior back to the investigative work he had been doing previously. Meanwhile, Lothur watched the two kittens, curious to see how much they would improve from the five spectres they had each devoured.

He looked at their statuses.

[Name: Blood]

[Soul Cultivation: level 22]

[Body Cultivation: level 22] 

[STR: 4,029] [CON: 4,101] [DEX: 4,035] [AGI: 4,051] 

[INT: 1,499] [PER: 5,556] [WIL: 2,599] [SOU: 2,692]

...

[Name: Smoke]

[Soul Cultivation: level 22]

[Body Cultivation: level 22] 

[STR: 4,030] [CON: 4,099] [DEX: 4,034] [AGI: 4,055] 

[INT: 1,499] [PER: 5,556] [WIL: 2,599] [SOU: 2,728]

As his creations, Blood and Smoke had practically identical attributes, with small differences related to the souls of the members of the Ancestral Folk they had absorbed.

But as they were yet to digest that day's meal and had only devoured those individuals, they were still very similar to how Lothur had created them at the beginning of level 22.

Before, Lothur hadn't paid any attention to their status, but now he wanted to see what difference digesting the spectres would make to these cats!