449 Up The Arid Mountains, A Way to Power Up Our Little Friends (1/2)

Day 93 - ▮▮:▮▮ ▮▮ - Arid Mountains, Spirit Dimension

The soil, the trees, the grass, and even the small rivers around the area described how the place was not suitable for habitation.

At each step, the surface of the soil would turn into a clump of fine dust. In the slightest touch, the leaves and stems of the dried grass and plants would snap and fall to the ground. A push enough to make a regular human make a step back was enough to uproot a large tree and break its trunk.

From a close observation, they all concluded a reason for this to happen. It was very likely that the nutrients and water in the area were somehow drained out. The most concrete evidence that proved that were the rivers that did not have a single drop of water left. All that remained were the river bed, dried up mud, and all the dried up rocks in the vicinity of the river.

It made them look at the sun, thinking that the heat coming from the sun caused it. However, the heat of the sunlight could barely be felt as the temperature around them was rather cold.

The temperature was even getting colder as they went up the mountain.

While traveling, it was not hard to get the attention of the now infected creatures in the area. It was because with the trees and plants did not have many leaves left at all, there was barely anything they could hide into. Furthermore, the steps Chaflar and Gifre made, although not too loud, would topple dried trees from time to time, causing more noise than necessary. After all, there were no pathways for giants up the mountain or even for humans. They would demolish everything blocking their path, whether they wanted it or not.

Luckily, while there were nowhere to hide from the enemies, it was the same for them. Incoming attackers were easy to spot and were dealt with before they could do any harm.

The most annoying things, though, were the magical infected.

Small infected Sylphs were hard to hit from a distance and were too agile. After two to three missed shots from their crossbow, one could already be flying on their faces trying to bite a nip of their flesh off. Although it was hard to say if the bites from their small mouths could really infect others, Mark's team would not dare try it even once.

There were also a few infected Duende's running around the dried grass and bushes. It would have been hard to find them if the area still the same lush forested mountain. However, now that almost everything was dyed with a brown or gray color, their differently colored clothes stood out.

The Duendes and Sylphs were not the most common, but there were surely a lot of them lurking around. Some animals, insects, and birds looked similar to their Mortal World counterparts. The differences though varied. Like swallows with gold-colored wings and tails, four-horned ladybugs, or wild saber-toothed cats.

As for Mark, he was fine. As long as within a radius, he could extinguish the black flames he caused as it was partly made of miasma. He could not use the normal flames he got from Ignis, though.

Even though the Spirit Dimension was mostly depicted similarly to a paradise, it was not always the case. Even without the Demons and Evil Spirits that constantly fought with the Elementals and Good Spirits, their world had its fair share of dangers.

Most places of their world was an untouched land. The main reason being the population of the Spirit Races was not comparable to humans. In exchange for their long lives, the chance of a husband and wife of a race to have children was too small. The time they spent in before becoming an adult and being able to procreate was also too long.

Even a thousand or more years passed, these races would not be able to occupy the whole Spirit Dimension, which was the same size as Earth.

And because of that, animals and insects, especially the dangerous ones, managed to thrive. And now, most of them seemed to have turned into infected.

Mark could still see a few birds flying at the sky, which looked normal. Unfortunately, all of them were being chased by their infected families and friends.

As for the encounters with these infected races, Mark realized he could not absorb the ability of a race in one go, and at times, get nothing at all. The best example was the Infected Sylphs. Even though Mark and the team already killed quite a number since they arrived, Mark was not able to store their ability to control the wind. It was the same for the Berberoka and the Duende.

What Mark found out, however, was that he could use the [Psycrystal] to absorb the magical energy of the infected races they encountered after killing them. And thus, he mostly ended up with three-millimeter bead sized crystals with different colors depending on what race it was taken from.

From the Sylphs, it was green, brown for the beads that came from Duendes. As for the Berberoka, he got nothing but an oddly sized [Mental Crystal]. I was more than half smaller than a regular marble but a bit bigger than the colored crystals.

”These crystals look cute, doesn' it?”

Mark said as he showed the twenty-five bead-sized crystals of assorted colors on his palm to Mei and the little girls.

”Yes, these looked cute and pretty.”

Mei replied while the little girls also looked.

”Gege, what can you do with these?”

Mei asked. She knew about the [Physical Crystals] and [Mental Crystals]. These bead-sized crystals were, surely, different from the two.

And Mark's answer to that...

”I don't know.”

He shrugged and looked at Iola.

Knowing what his eyes meant, Iola shook her head too. After all, even though she had memories of Keeper, even Keeper never encountered something like this.

That was when an idea popped into his mind.

”Aephelia, Iola, Malaya. Come here for a bit.”

Mark called for the two and a half sylphs who were hanging around on Chaflar's head. Malaya was quite confused as to why she was called. As for both Amihan and Aephelia, they immediately flew over without asking. Because of that, Malaya could only follow.

The three arrived, hovering in front of Mark.

”You three, try absorbing these.”

Mark said as he handed each of them a green bead crystal.

The three carefully grabbed the crystals in confusion. Aside from Aephelia, the two did not understand what Mark meant by absorbing. When Amihan and Malaya touched the crystals, however, they shivered.

”This...”

Amihan made another look at Mark and finally grabbed the crystal off his hand. Sure enough, she finally understood what Mark meant by absorbing.

”This is pure magical energy our race had, isn't it?”

Malaya asked Amihan as she picked up hers. Her expression surely depicted excitement.

Amihan and Malaya landed in front of Mark and relaxed their bodies. The two closed their eyes. Their wings released a bit of a greenish glow. The crystals on their hands burst into glowing dust, that was absorbed by their bodies. Their bodies were coated with a green glow. The glow lasted a few seconds before vanishing.

When they opened their eyes, the two looked refreshed and comfortable.

”That felt good.”