Chapter 95: Overpowered Nightmare Fire
Ignoring the rude God laughing in his head, Night looked closely at the Nightmare Fire Spirit and fell into deep thought...
What exactly can it do? Does it have something special about it?
[Dream] looked at the floating blob and noted, "It is much more of a Nightmare Spirit than a Fire Spirit, actually..."
Night blinked. "There are Nightmare Spirits as well?"
"Yes," [Dream] explained. "In fact, there is a possibility for every Aspect to naturally manifest a spirit under the right conditions. It’s just that whether they are still pure and innocent in nature decides whether they can actually be safely bonded with."
"Take the Spirit Wind of Desolation, for example. If I had not bonded it to The Ghost previously, after some time it might have become a intelligent creature with its own complex thoughts. After which, it would have been impossible to bond with it. It would have just become another sentient being."
"From what I know, Fire Spirits can easily retain their innocence and pure nature much longer, hence why they are incredibly popular among Evolvers. Other types of spirits quickly gain high intelligence and become entirely new sentient species."
"There is also the fact that you would need something like [Soul Fire] for a bond to be meaningful. For other elements, awakening something like this naturally is incredibly rare... so rare that it’s often easier to literally become a God."
"I get it," Night replied. But this brought another pressing question to his mind. "What about the Wind of Desolation? Do I need something like a ’Soul Wind’ to bond with it? I don’t even have the Wind Aspect yet."
"It is not that fundamentally useful right now; we can leave it as something for the future, besides i had been assigned to cealing fan duty," [Dream] chuckled then said.
"For now, you need to master what you already have. You have to start exploring the Refiner profession and also get your physical body strengthened with [Body Modification], then we can finally begin with true Cultivation."
Night frowned, highly unsure. "Is Cultivation necessary?" From what he had heard from Sara, Cultivation took a ridiculously long time.
Just advancing through small realms routinely took years. Whereas if he just went on a carnage for a few years, he might become a Demigod or even a true God in no time via the System.
Cultivation took so long that by the time he became an Immortal, he might be old enough to be called an Old Monster.
[Dream] chuckled. "Hehe, it is important. In this cosmos, anyway."
Night raised his eyebrows at the phrasing. She specifically said ’in this cosmos’? Why?
[Dream] said vaguely, "You will know soon enough..."
Night asked the main question, looking at the Nightmare Fire Spirit that kept staring blankly at him without blinking. "So, should I bond with it or not?"
"Sure, go ahead," [Dream] encouraged. "It gives me a spectral feeling, meaning it is more spiritual than material, which is rare."
"Such spirits develop egos very quickly or are even born with it. Left alone, this one might lose its innocence in no time, making all its potential go to waste. As for its low grade... while it will be expensive, we can easily raise it with enough resources."
Getting the go-ahead, Night looked at the Nightmare Fire Spirit. He slowly raised his hand and touched it; it felt soft, like warm cotton. It didn’t move or dodge away. Instead, he felt it eagerly try to connect with his soul.
[Nightmare Fire Spirit requests a bond.]
[Soul Fire detected.]
[Do you wish to merge the Nightmare Fire Spirit with your Soul Fire?]
[Warning: This action is irreversible.]
[Y / N]
Night glanced over at Death, who was busy inspecting the new Undead Knight.
Suddenly, he heard [Blaze]’s unusually serious voice echo in his mind. "Are you sure you want this specific Spirit Fire?"
Night nodded internally. "It is suitable with my main Aspect." Since he possessed the [Nightmare Domain], anything with the Nightmare Aspect should be inherently suitable for him.
"I just have the Fire Aspect and do not have the Nightmare Aspect like you do," [Blaze] reasoned. "But my techniques are not completely limited to just the Fire Aspect, so it shouldn’t be a problem to teach you. It’s just that... many people search high and low for a Fire Spirit they genuinely like, and they treat the selection with more importance than choosing a wife."
"So much so that many ambitious Evolvers die before they even manage to successfully bond with one."
Night frowned, not entirely understanding. "What exactly are you getting at?"
"Nothing," [Blaze] sighed. "I just wanted to remind you not to be so casual about such important things in the future. While this little one is not bad, it will stay with you for the rest of your life. So you need to choose wisely."
"Not just with this, with absolutely everything in life, you need to be incredibly careful with your choices."
"In real life, there are absolutely no retries like in a game."
Night realized he was getting yet another life lesson from the Primordial God, much like last time.
Night nodded thoughtfully.
But inwardly, he thought that while you needed to be careful with your choices, life didn’t just end with the choice itself. It was what you did after you made the choice that mattered just as much.
Take this goofy Fire Spirit, for example. It was entirely up to him, how he developed it. If he was lousy, then even if he magically got the best Spirit Fire in the cosmos, it would completely go to waste.
Seeing the highly thoughtful look on Night’s face, [Blaze] nodded approvingly in his distant world, as if he had successfully accomplished something profound.
Night then officially accepted the bond with the Nightmare Fire Spirit.
They were instantly pulled toward each other exactly like powerful magnets. The [Soul Fire] resting deep within his soul space flew out and merged with the Nightmare Fire Spirit.
He vividly felt his soul fire and the spirit become entirely one. After combining, his soul fire completely changed to look exactly like the cartoonish ghost. He decided to simply call it ’Nightmare Fire’, as he felt it was the most appropriate name.
The Nightmare Fire was then pulled into him and suddenly blackish-purple flames covered his body like a aura. Inside the dark, swirling fire, you could vividly see tiny, cartoonish ghosts happily swimming around.
If one listened carefully, you could actually hear them speak in squeaky little voices:
"Ghost~ Ghost~"
～～( ꒪ ⌓ ꒪)～～
....
Outside the Dungeon
Blade sat calmly in front of a nearby snowy tree. Sage was playfully swinging from the frosted branches above. In front of them, Sara was anxiously pacing back and forth in worry.
She was worried about Night, who had entered the dungeon.
Suddenly, a swirling blue portal opened and all five of them appeared on the snowy ground.
Sara was immediately overjoyed.
Just as she quickly moved forward to hug Night, she froze entirely in shock. And it wasn’t just her, even Blade tensed up, looking like she was facing the most dangerous opponent of her entire lifetime.
In the end, it was only the clueless Sage who excitedly jumped from the tall tree directly into Night’s open arms.
Night happily hugged Sage, gently rubbing his cheeks against her soft fur. It had not even been half a day and he already missed her.
Looking up, he saw Sara and Blade staring at him with wariness.
Night quickly realized something was up.
While Death was nonchalant as always, Lucy was looking at him with suspicion and he distinctly felt Eve and Lilith acting incredibly stiff and robotic around him.
"What happened?" Night asked, confused.
Sara looked at him in puzzle, her voice trembling slightly. "Did... did something happen to you?"
"Nothing!" Night shrugged. "It was a completely normal dungeon and we got some really cool rewards when we finished it."
Blade gripped the hilt of her sword. "Then why exactly do I feel like my very soul will be burnt to dust when I look directly at you?"
"Ohh, that!" Night said, smacking his own forehead. He casually spread his palm and a small blackish-purple flames danced merrily on his skin, with tiny, cute ghosts playfully dancing within them.
Sara instantly broke out into a cold sweat and Blade’s pupils shrunk down to pinpricks looking at it.
Noticing this terrified reaction, Night quickly and apologetically absorbed the flames back.
Blade then seemed to suddenly think of something. She quickly cut the space directly in front of them and dragged Night through the rift with her.
The others frantically followed.
On the other side, they were still located on the snowy mountain, but standing directly in front of them was a terrifying insect.
It was easily three feet tall, possessing eight jagged legs and sharp mandibles. It looked similar to the Ice Bears and Ice Light Eagles, with ice covering its exoskeleton.
Blade pushed Night directly to the front.
Night froze, staring wide-eyed at the terrifying insect.
His [Beast Instinct] screamed at him that it was at least Level 80. Looking back at Blade with a crying, betrayed face, he asked, "Me?!"
( ꒪ ⌓ ꒪ )
Blade nodded mercilessly. "Use the flames."
Night looked back ahead just as he felt the insect crouch down.
Then, it jumped. Its speed was ridiculous; it reached Night in an instant. In sheer panic, throwing his arms up in desperate defense, Night explosively covered his entire body in Nightmare Fire.
What happened next shocked everyone.
The terrifying insect had instinctively covered its entire body in a thick layer of magical ice the exact moment it saw the fire.
But the second it came into contact with the blackish-purple flames, it burned. Its body melted instantly, like a scoop of ice cream tossed onto a hot frying pan.
Ssssssssh!
It had jumped with such insane momentum that it was impossible for it to change directions after making contact. It didn’t even get the chance to scream.
Night slowly lowered his arms and looked ahead. He saw nothing of the terrifying Level 80+ insect remaining, not even a single speck of dust.
He then received a barrage of System notifications, realizing he had also missed the notifications from the boss monster earlier.
[Ding!]
[You have slain a Lvl 30 Sleepy Panda | +300 EXP]
[Ding!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Lvl. 22]
Level 22: (EXP: 280/23,000)
[Ding!]
[You have slain a Lvl 84 IceHopper | +840 EXP]
Level 22: (EXP: 1120/23,000)
But it was not just that. The second the insect died, he felt a burst of energy flow directly into him.
[Ding!]
[You have received a skill.]
[Ice Armor (Rare) (Lvl. 1)]
[Allows the user to create protective Ice Armor. The defensive power scales with the user’s level.]
Night stared at the it in puzzle.
What just happened?
What’s with this sudden wave of energy flowing into me?
And why didn’t I have to use EV to buy the skill this time...?
(?_?)