Transmigrated as a Ghost

With Lorana leaving herself open and defenseless towards him, Marcus took the time to finally use his appraisal skill.

Before he tried to possess her and see if she too was infected by a pseudo soul fragment, he wanted to check her status out to make sure that he was not about to run into a trap.

Unfortunately, as she was royalty, she had a powerful magic tool on her that blocked the appraisal skill just like Mrazivý did.

Yet while Marcus grimaced momentarily and expected her to become wary after noticing his failed appraisal attempt, she instead apologized and took the magic necklace protecting her off.

"I am sorry that I failed to realize that this item might impede your ability to help me. Please feel free to appraise my status now."

Mentally sighing, Marcus could not believe how trusting she was simply because he was a spirit but went ahead and appraised her.

'Looks like she is level sixty-eight and a high elf as she said she is. Her stats and skills are pretty good, but she is not even close to as strong as Alaric even though he is at a lower level. Though, I suppose it is not fair to compare her to someone that completed a special dungeon. Oh, and that is how she found me. Looks like high elves receive a race ability called spirit sense.' Marcus thought as he looked over her status.

Now that his creature appraisal skill had reached level eight, he could receive detailed information so long as the individual was not a higher level than him.

Once he had finished checking her status and was sure that she did not have an ability that could potentially harm him, he returned to his ghost form and activated his possession.

At first her soul offered a reflexive resistance despite Lorana's assertion that she would not fight back, but she eventually allowed herself to be taken over.

Searching through her soul Marcus found the pseudo soul fragment attached to her and confirmed that she was indeed infected.

'I promised her I would try to remove it and while her trust in me is not as great as Mrazivý's I should be able to remove it without any lingering damage. Thankfully she is a pretty high level, otherwise my forceful removal could kill her.' Marcus thought as he gripped the pseudo soul fragment.

Then with a forceful tug he ripped it free from her soul.

Immediately she began fighting him again as her very being felt that it was under attack, but she was unable to push Marcus out and simply gave him a bit of trouble.

Luckily with the pseudo soul fragment in hand he left her body and started using his spirit heal to repair the damage to her soul.

"I really did a number on her soul." Marcus mumbled as he healed her.

Not only was her soul significantly weaker than Mrazivý's but the pseudo soul fragment attached to her was far more integrated into her soul, having presumably been there for some time.

Nevertheless, while the damage was not insignificant it was not beyond what Marcus could heal.

In just around five minutes she had regained consciousness, though her entire body hurt from the shock her soul had taken.

"I am sorry that removing the malady caused you so much distress, but I have not yet found a way to remove it other than tearing it from the soul it has attached itself to." Marcus said as he helped Lorana up and into a chair.

It took her a few more minutes of receiving his healing before she was back up to full strength.

"Can you use spiritual energy to see ethereal beings?" Marcus asked once the color had returned to Lorana's face.

"Yes, I can. All members of the Yeszorwyn royal family are taught how to wield their spiritual energy."

Swiftly she channeled her spiritual energy into her eyes and looked at the pseudo soul fragment he still had grasped in between his index finger and thumb.

Immediately she recoiled seeing it since she knew that it had been attached to her soul for a fairly long time.

"If I might ask, when were you assigned to this post?" Marcus said, wanting to get an approximation on how long ago the pseudo soul fragment attached to her.

"It will be four years in three months. Yeszorwyn has a strong connection to the adventurers guild and I have been chosen to act as a representative while also being a guild master. I was assigned here because it is considered among the safest guilds. Except I was in more danger than I could have anticipated." Lorana said while grimacing at the pseudo soul fragment Marcus was holding.

"Got it, so you were likely infected some time not long after taking up the position. It certainly integrates itself well into someone's soul." Marcus said, recalling how well the pseudo soul fragment had attached itself.

Having acquired a bit more knowledge Marcus flooded the surveillance device with spiritual energy until it was about to burst.

Just before it was destroyed it let out a signal that he could tell was still heading in the same relative direction.

Yet the angle was certainly quite a bit different and now that his position on the island was different, he found that the orientation of the signal had changed.

This told him that wherever it was going was fairly close. If it was far away, then there would not have been such a drastic change in the direction the signal was heading simply by moving to another side of the island.

'There is no doubt now. Wherever the mastermind is collecting this information is within the boundary of the resort.' Marcus thought, looking towards where he felt the signal heading.

He still only got a general direction but knowing that it was not traveling hundreds of miles away was certainly helpful.

Still, this left him with a terrible sense of foreboding as they were much closer to danger than he had originally anticipated.

'At least I determined that the adventurers guild is likely not involved. It is still possible though that certain members might be so it will be best if I do not involve them as a whole. Lorana should be fine to collaborate with though. She was infected so it is very unlikely she is involved. Plus, her devotion to spirits makes her easy to exploit.' Marcus thought as he planned his next move.

He had now accomplished what he set out to in the first place and had all but confirmed that the adventurers guild was not involved.

If they had been, no matter how much Mrazivý wanted to continue the investigation, they would have had to stop.

'Now what should I do with Lorana?'

Having gotten what he wanted Marcus was at a bit of a loss as what to do with the resort's guild master.

He had followed along with the narrative that had presented itself, but he really was not sure how she could help.

In the end Marcus decided to give her work that he imagined would end up being fruitless and then never show up in front of her again.

"Lorana, now that I have extracted the pseudo soul fragment from you, there is a very important job I need you to do. Please look through the guild's records as far back as they exist and find out all you can about the formation of this resort. It is possible that whoever created it to begin with is involved."

"Understood, I can do that easily enough. But what will you do in the meantime?"

"There are other threads that I will follow. I will come back in two days, and you can deliver your findings to me then." Marcus said before moving to leave.

But before he could, Lorana stopped him.

"Would you mind telling me your name before you go?" she said with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Sure, that is no problem, my name is Bryvim." Marcus said, lying like it was second nature.

Smiling, Lorana thanked him before he reverted to his ghost form and phased through the door.

Once he was out of the room Marcus let out a sigh of relief and floated out of the building before using the dark portal he had set up to return to the bathroom.

Immediately he dismissed his iron golem and left to find that one of the adventurers that he had left with Mrazivý was just entering.

"We were starting to get worried, so I came to check on you. Sorry, it must have been rough, but it is good to see you made it through." The man said as he glanced towards the stall Marcus had just left with a pitying look.

"Yeah, it happens to the best of us. Still, it is behind me now." Marcus said while clenching his fists tightly.

He was certain that Mrazivý was likely to use this as fuel to tease him for several years to come.