Mixed Blessing System

After some time, night had fallen, and darkness had reached the part of Concordia where Lothur's party was.

They had moved cautiously to the place where the spectre encounter would take place and was already standing near where the 5th-stage spectre would meet its 4th-stage subordinates.

But knowing that their target would be checking the area for its men, the people in Lothur's group were not exactly at that location but somewhere in the distance from where they could quickly reach the spectre on sight.

Thus, the group hid near a concave piece of beach, bordered by two small hills at the ends of that strip of beach, with black rocks covering the end of the hill that was in contact with the sea and trees covering the upper part.

Everyone there was hiding their auras while camouflaged among the trees, watching for the place where the meeting would take place, the strip of beach in this desert area.

As they did this in absolute silence, with most of them occasionally looking at the sides of the forest behind the beach, ignoring the sea, Smoke suddenly saw a white glow coming from the sea.

"Creator." He called out in a low voice, drawing the attention of everyone in the group to him.

When they saw the small, gray-furred cat pointing to the sea, everyone's expression changed as they saw the spectre they had been expecting coming from the sea.

"That..."

"Coming from the sea? How?" Cykad asked, curious as to what such a creature could be doing in the sea.

There were only a few islands around Concordia. What's more, most of them were far from the coast and difficult to reach.

As for the ones near the coast, none of them were close to this area, so Cykad was naturally curious as to where this creature came from.

'What does that mean?' He wondered as Lothur watched the creature with only mental attributes.

'Level 22. Well, at that level, we'll be able to fight it easily.' He thought as he took a closer look at the hostile-looking spectre, but not so ugly compared to lower-level creatures of this type.

Seeing it slow down as it reached the beach where no one was waiting for it, Lothur's group saw the moment to act, and everyone there moved simultaneously.

As Lothur's women moved around the side of the man, Cykad and the two kittens moved more slowly, allowing the strongest members of the group to act first.

Lothur manipulated the space, and before the spectre even realized it had been trapped, young Ritter appeared a few feet behind the creature.

"You..." The level 22 spectre turned and saw Lothur, immediately sensing that this was no ordinary human. 

Even though it couldn't sense Lothur's level, the way this person had distorted space was too refined for an ordinary being.

This was definitely a Sage of a higher rank than his own.

Knowing that only its men were supposed to know where it would be tonight, it quickly realized that this group killed the 4th-stage spectres it would meet there that night.

"You acted against my men, huh? Well? What do you want?" It asked, seeing that it was surrounded, noting that it wouldn't be easy to escape and that some of those in Lothur's group looked quite dangerous.

Looking at the two cats of the same level as it, the spectre was curious why such a strong group was there for it when everyone on the continent was searching for the human-demon hybrid.

But before it could express its thoughts, it saw Lothur smile and then noticed a hand grabbing its back, coming from a crack in the space.

"No!" 

That was all it could say as its eyes widened at the sight of that hand, covered in black flames, touching its back.

In the next second, it would wriggle significantly, making horrible sounds that would have reached tens of kilometers from this location if it weren't for the sound barriers Lothur's group had created.

Dealing with a level 22 spectre was much more difficult than dealing with level 20 and 21 creatures, like most targets Lothur had dealt with over the past few days. Still, after 15 seconds of fighting, the creature lost to the young Ritter, no match for the being that had attacked him.

"Master!"

Seeing the high-level spectre kneel before Lothur, the two small cats smiled in anticipation of devouring the being that alone could provide them with the value of an entire group of 4th-stage spectres.

As the others in the group watched the spectre with dread, Lothur asked. "Answer me. Where is the Castle of Shadows?"

"Answering the master, the Castle of Shadows is located on a small island in the Dark Sea, 280 kilometers east and 69 kilometers south of where we are now." He replied promptly, causing the people in the group to open their eyes in surprise as they realized that this group was actually based in the sea.

'This... Dark Sea? Isn't that the sea where thick fog covers hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of sea? Is there an island there?' Cykad was surprised.

The Dark Sea was located off the east coast of Concordia. It was famous for its special characteristics, which made it very dangerous and mysterious.

Several parties had accidentally entered the place and never returned. But as one might expect, adventurers searching for answers had also tried their luck there. Unfortunately for these adventurers, the few who returned alive were never the same, having lost their minds.

Thus, the Dark Sea remained a mystery to the continent's powers and a part of the sea to be avoided at all costs.

Knowing the history of this sea area, Cykad wasn't surprised that the spectres were in control of it.

Come to think of it, that dark and dangerous place was a perfect home for these creatures!

Lothur smiled as he finally heard a satisfactory answer and asked. "What are your powers like?"

"To answer the lord, we are few but not weak. The lord of the castle is currently a Sage at the 4th Catastrophe. He is the strongest and the only one at that level.

Besides him, we have 10 elders at the 3rd Catastrophe, 24 elders at the 2nd, and 49 elders at the 1st Catastrophe. There are no lower-level beings in our house."

Gulp!

Blood heard this and couldn't help but swallow her saliva, opening her mouth slightly as she couldn't help but drool.

"All that?" Elke murmured, feeling that this was a bit more than they could handle now.

...