“Really?” Liu called out. “Doesn’t that basically mean we can completely ignore all danger to us?” He asked.

“Exactly.” Zellin responded with a nod of his head.

The group’s teachers could only shake their heads from afar.

The walk through the city was quite peaceful, with most people ignoring them. Some people would occasionally raise an eyebrow at the goblin following their group, but most couldn’t care less.

The group leisurely walked out of the city and onto the road, walking for several hours, occasionally passing other parties who chose to ignore them. During the night, these seemingly harmless travelers would eventually turn into vicious criminals when the people grew sparse and the eyes on the road became few. Unlike Zellin and his friends, most people didn’t have the luxury of being guarded by high level characters such as the group’s teachers, so they would have to plan their trips carefully, returning to the city as night fell.

The Hide skill, was a common skill book, available to most who wished to remain elusive to the laws of the world, which provided limited information of someone's level and stats or on the deaths of people, depending on the strength of the people who were supposed to be notified. The Hide skill’s usefulness, likewise, depended on the user’s level, but it was more than useful in getting rid of average kids of Zellin’s level and reputation.

The group wasn’t in any hurry, as the knowledge of being guarded has ironically lowered their guard. Having to travel back in the night has suddenly grown to be a much more relaxing event to the group.

When they arrived on the hill where the Unfortunate Child Church stood, they saw that there were several groups spread out on the very wide graveyard surrounding the hill. This graveyard spread out several kilometers and many groups could be seen fighting low-leveled ghosts.

Zellin began to leisurely walk down the hill, towards the graveyard. “Let’s get on with this.” He said, as if this was a menial chore that he was forced to do.

As the group walked by the numerous graves, they saw that the graves had no names engraved onto the tombstones. These children were found dead by the World Moderators, who hadn’t bothered to engrave a name onto their tombstones. They were purely there to be experience points for the living.

Most of the families of these children, given the choice, wouldn’t have buried their children here, in a place for people to level.

“What’s going on?” Zellin asked, confused. “How come no ghosts are coming out?”

“Most of these ghosts are simply confused, not inherently wrathful. We have to provoke them somehow.” Loki explained. “But may I make a suggestion?” Loki asked. Zellin nodded, signaling for him to go on. “Many ghosts never experience a true death. For whatever reason, after losing their connection with their bodies, their damaged spirits linger, waiting for something they won't have the opportunity to receive. So I suggest we purify them.” Loki said, looking to Zellin for approval.

“And how do you suggest we do that?” Liu asked.

“With fire.” Loki replied.

“I say we do it.” Reyal said, stating his opinion. “No one deserves to live in that wretched state. I have flame enchantments ready to go.”

“How are we going to provoke the ghosts?” Liu asked plainly.

Zellin looked around, waiting for someone to bring up a better idea before sharing his. After a moment no one said anything, so Zellin spoke his mind. “We could, literally, piss them off…” He says quietly.

Reyal turned to look at Zellin, disappointment in his eyes. “Dude…” Was all he said.

“What?” Zellin responded with lifted hands and shrugged shoulders, as if he didn’t do anything wrong. “Do you have a better idea? Isn’t the point to provoke them?”

“I’ll do it.” Sasha responded, immediately receiving a loud, “No!”

“No wants to see that. Seriously, Sasha, have some respect for yourself.” Zellin responded with disdain.

After a moment of debate, the group forced Liu to do it. No one else wanted the burden of the act weighing down their karma.

Liu didn’t mind much and peed freely. After a moment, two apparitions appeared out of two graves, forcing Liu to finish up and retreat quickly. Zellin shook his head as he silently thought, did he have to pee on two graves?

They had emptiness where their eyes and mouths should be, looking rather gloomy. Their bodies faded into nothingness at their waists, and their hands extended into sharp claws. The almost translucent, green-glowing apparitions let out loud shrieks, extending their hands out threateningly, and displaying the might of Level 8 Ghosts.

“Reyal.” Zellin called out, signaling the flame enchantments, while he called out Rocky and his own fire enchantment spirit. Their already ready weapons all lit up, a flame encompassing them with an intense heat. The flame enchantment spirit fused with Rocky's body, similarly encompassing his body with flames, making him look like a hellhound.

“Don’t let them pass through you! Always be ready to defend with your weapons; they won’t be able to pass through them.” Loki called out.

Liu charged at one ghost while Rocky charged at the other. Liu and Rocky both leaped in the air; Rocky lunged in with his sharp, burning fangs, and Liu brandished his new Level 8 50 kg Claymore, activating the skill Guard Break as he neared the ghost. He relaxed his hands and let the intense weight of the claymore come crashing down onto the ghost, before skillfully ending the skill and regaining control of the sword.

Though the claymore was about as tall as Liu, he had always worked hard to increase his strength despite his scrawniness, and was able to wield the heavy claymore relatively easily. As for the immense weight increase as a result of the skill Guard Break, it was simply a matter of balance and control, which Liu had been adjusting to for a long time.

The ghost that Liu attacked screeched as the burning sword hacked into its apparition, causing a mild headache and a loud ringing sound in Liu’s ears. The ghost swept out with its long arms as Liu landed on the ground, ripping its claws into Liu’s face. The wound didn’t bleed, turning black where the claw bit into Liu’s face.

Not good, Liu thought urgently, struggling to regain his balance and flee. The ghost immediately swept out with its other arm, but was blocked by Coral’s swift figure and burning daggers, giving Liu enough time to back away.

Rocky was simply savage, allowing himself to take a beating as he clawed and bit into the ghost. Zellin took advantage of this situation by freely making use of his Stab Dismemberment skill; not bothering to control the swift stabs, and simply allowing the flaming spear tip to stab without restriction as Zellin doubted he could actually dismember a ghost.

Loki and Reyal took every opportunity to send out fireballs towards the ghost Zellin was facing off against. Because Rocky's ability to defend was more limited than Liu and Coral’s, Rocky's opponent was naturally made the main target.

Sasha also contributed by shooting flaming arrows. She had a Heat enchantment spirit, but it wasn't quite a fire enchantment spirit like Zellin's, so she didn’t allow any of her pets to come out.

Though the group’s average level was lower than these ghosts, their teamwork allowed them to slowly whittle down the ghosts’ health. Eventually Zellin’s opponent let out a hopeless screech, the last of its health being consumed by Reyal and Loki’s fireballs. The ghost’s now mostly translucent body became engulfed by flame and disappeared, leaving behind a glob of almost translucent, green-glowing ectoplasm.

With one ghost down, it didn’t take long for the other ghost to join it in the next life as its body also disappeared into nothingness in the midst of a flame.

Reyal quickly gathered the ectoplasm while the others gathered the money. “Hey, check it.” Zellin said, picking up a bronze, rusty ring. “A Level 7 Specter Ring. ‘Distorts one’s image, making one semi-translucent, and allowing one to blend into their surroundings.’ Hmm, you can activate its effect 5 times a day.” Zellin read aloud. “Here, Coral.” He said softly, walking over to Coral and handing her the ring. He still felt quite awkward around Coral, which is why he spoke so softly, but the ring suited her the best, so he instinctively gave it to her.

Coral grabbed the ring and looked at it before a shy look appeared on her face as she misinterpreted the softness in Zellin’s voice. “Zellin, I was actually going to talk to you about this earlier, but… You see, my father’s not quite normal. He’s very… whimsical. That ‘engagement’ the other day doesn’t have to last if I come to him in a few years and explain things clearly. The other day’s event was purely to satisfy a passing thought.” She tried to explain awkwardly. “So you see, I don’t think I can accept this.” She said, holding the ring back up to Zellin.

Zellin was silent for a moment, in shock, slowly processing the information and slowly becoming revitalized. Before long, a wide grin appeared on his face and he began to laugh at his past dilemmas before calming down and letting out a sigh of relief. “Ah, thank you Coral, I needed that. You don’t understand how much I hate the idea of marriage. I truly don’t believe that two people can truly love each other in such a close relationship without a piece of themselves dying in the process. Unfortunately, I love myself and I love freedom. I’d only be miserable in a marriage. Thank you, Coral, truly, thank you.” Zellin said, closing in on Coral and giving her a heartfelt hug.

Reyal smiled wryly at the situation. Dude, aren’t you fated to die alone? He couldn’t help but think.

Zellin released Coral and began to walk back to the church, merrily whistling and taking in this moment of freedom. “Ah, the ring!” Coral called out as she followed behind Zellin. “Keep it,” Zellin replied. “It fits your class the best.”

Back atop the hilltop, Reyal took out some cooking equipment, cracker ingredients, the ectoplasm, and some blood, getting to work on the Ghost Crackers.

The group lounged around for about an hour before Reyal finished. “I’ve made quite a lot, but hopefully we won’t need this much.” Reyal told the group.

Zellin summoned Leggy as they walked into the creaky, old church, to see that Leggy now had a silk sac attached to her abdomen. Zellin simply raised at an eyebrow at this development, wondering how much money he would make from these spider hatchlings. Zellin considered producing his own personal spider army, but his mind wouldn’t be able to handle that many spiders and he wasn’t sure of Leggy’s own ability to control the spiders.

Zellin had Leggy climb up to the ceiling and lay down a spider web trap, which Reyal put some green-glowing crackers onto. Then the group simply sat around and waited. According to Loki, the Ethereal Mice were apparently quite brave due to their very successful, sneaky ways, so the group didn’t bother to hide and simply sat around on the church pews, attempting to seem casual as they engaged in some light conversation while they waited.

Zellin assumed they would have to wait for quite a while, but 15 minutes later they suddenly heard subtle nibbling sounds. Zellin looked over and saw that some crackers were being slowly whittled away, with chunks disappearing to nothingness.

Zellin gave a mental signal to Leggy and the web that was laid down abruptly rose into the air, trapping the creatures inside. Zellin casually walked over and grabbed the web in the air, holding it up to see an empty space in the middle of the web. Zellin heard some nibbling sounds, assuming that the little buggers were trying to bite through. Unfortunately it wasn't able to and the web grew still.

“Playing dead, eh? Well I won’t fall for it.” Zellin said playfully. Zellin suddenly wondered if he could put them in his inventory, when he suddenly remembered that Bo had done the same for his spider prince. Zellin casually followed Bo’s example, putting the web into his inventory. “Well, mission accomplished. Let’s head back.” He said to the group.

“What’s the rush?” Liu replied. “It won’t matter if we stay a little longer. Why don’t we level for a bit?” He suggested.

“Guys,” Coral responded. “I don’t think we should tempt fate here. It’s true that I might be guarded, but that’s no excuse to act reckless. We should go back while there’s still light out.” Coral said, worried.

“Relax, Coral. You’re the princess, what’s the point in worrying? The king wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Besides, we haven’t leveled together ever since we came to Ultimate Super Fighter City. C’mon, it will be like the old days.” Reyal responded.

Coral looked to Zellin, urging him with her eyes to support her, but Zellin simply shrugged. He didn’t really care either way.

In the end, Coral could only follow the group as they continued to hunt.

I have a bad feeling about this, Coral couldn’t help but think to herself, unable to let go of that feeling in the pit of her stomach.