Clearing The House

As the spirit's box shattered like glass, a powerful wave of magic exploded outward and sent Liam flying back. He hit the house's wall and got stuck there, barely able to move. He has regeneration, but a heavy impact like this was hard to recover from in a very short time.

The shadow spirit released Melany and Alice from her binding and they lunged at Liam. "What was that for?!" Alice growled.

"Wait!" Melany shouted at her with a worried face. "Look at the spirit first." She jumped in and hugged Alice by the hips, holding her in place.

"Let go." Alice glared back at her and Melany could feel an overwhelming stream of mana gushing out of Alice's body, like a powerful current, she got jolted back.

Alice gasped. "Why did you touch me?" She didn't expect Melany to grab her like that and didn't limit the mana she was feeding into [Bugendai Sozo] Unlike Asura who had an enlightenment level of mana control, she had a whole sea.

At that moment Alice saw the spirit slowly disintegrating into ash, its form shifting back into a ghost before disappearing completely. "Wait…She just…passed out?"

"Destroying a spirit is usually the best way to relieve them from their pain. I know that, and I know Liam knew it as well." Melany barely managed to stand. "There was a magic circle inside the house, he had already found it. The spirit would've been completely destroyed if we destroyed that."

"Then why didn't you just? End it there?" Alice gasped.

"I don't know what he was thinking. But the spirit was crying, she didn't want to die. I believe Liam chose to free her because of that." She walked toward her. "She reverted into a ghost and is at peace. Let her take her time before going to the afterlife. I'm sure she has people to visit."

"You told him this?" Alice started running toward Liam with Melany.

"No, he must've figured it out by exploring the house. He came from the magic circle direction so I'm certain he was at it before that." Melany and Alice finally reached Liam, finding him bleeding on an old bed riddled with bugs.

"HYAAAAAAAAA!" Alice cried, "Wake up! Idiot!" She rushed and snatched him out of the bed and pulled a mana potion, shoving it down his throat.

"Use a healing potion first. I've seen shock injuries like this before. It's like standing near an explosion, a mana potion won't help." Melany gasped.

"Those are expensive, and this idiot." She started slapping him. "Wake up! And get your regeneration going."

Liam barely opened his eyes, exhausted, sleepy, and in pain. "Damn it, this hurt." [Self-Regeneration] started kicking in and he began healing.

"Here another potion, drink it." She gave him a second one. One healing potion costs almost four times as a mana potion due to how demand works. Everyone needs healing potions while only casters look for mana potions, making them generally cheaper.

It also comes to the ingredients. The common mana potions, which are the cheapest ones, require cockatrice's breasts meat, a chicken-like monster that is hard to obtain. While stamina potions require mint, and mana potions need lavender. Those two can be farmed easily.

That is why people still search for and learn healing spells since they are objectively cheaper than potions, which are left as a last resort.

Liam barely managed to stand, that last attack sucked all of his mana. Damn, I need to train this body more, just getting physically stronger won't be enough. "Let's head down, this is the second floor, right?" He looked around.

"How can you tell?" Melany stared at him. That wasn't even a question; she was just wondering why he would even want to know that.

"This is an old wooden building, you can tell by the noise when you walk." He replied and started making his way toward the door. "Come, follow me. There is a lab that I want to loot."

"You aren't going to steal, are you?" Alice glared at him.

"It's the lab where the spirit was killed the first time. She was the daughter of this family; she got stuck in a spell that her father made while he was out. Her death was a freak accident, but that destroyed the whole family." He waved his hand, "I'm taking my payment for helping her. This and the quest are different things."

The two followed him.

"You aren't taking anything. That's stealing; I don't care how you mask it." Alice said, walking beside him with a sharp glare.

"If the parents died, that mean the spirit inherited the whole house, she was their only daughter. I did free her. That was much harder than simply killing her, wasn't it." He glared at Alice.

"So the spirit hired you to free her?" Melany stared at him with a tilted head. "Is that even possible?"

"What happened had happened. You two aren't stopping me from getting my pay." He stared at Alice with a tired face.

"Fine, I believe you." She sighed, and then looked at him with a smug face and giggled. "With how you act, I find it hard to believe you'll ignore the easy way and decide to free the spirit instead if there wasn't anything in it for you."

"I'm happy you understand." Liam replied with a sarcastic tone, he didn't enjoy Alice policing him around that much. Her power is dependable, but her personality is too strict for him to stomach at times.

The three of them reached the half-destroyed land door and Liam stared at it, "Well, this looks bad. I hope nothing got destroyed inside." He walked in and the two followed him. The magic circle in the ground had already faded and Liam made his way straight to the desk where the stack of papers and books were located.

"Spellbooks?" Alice stared above Liam's shoulder. "What are they for?"

"It's nothing impressive. Just some utility magic." He replied.

Alice grabbed him by the shoulder, tightening her grip. "Since when spatial and information magic was simple utility spells?"

Liam gasped, he didn't expect her to be that knowledgeable about magic. He did see her frequently visiting the guild's magic library, but for her to be able to recognize magic at a single glance. Her talent is horrifying to the point he couldn't believe someone like her was wasting her life in the streets instead of being a mage somewhere.

"But they are incomplete. It'll take some work to get them working." She put her hand on the papers. "Spatial magic is power, and amazing. But I wouldn't say the same for information magic." She glared at him. "That's like looking at people naked. I can't allow you to learn that."

"That magic would be a crucial point in battles. Knowing enemies' stats is an advantage that shouldn't be passed." Liam said with a stern face, glaring at her eyes. He knew he'd get in his way, and he'd do anything to make sure he learned that magic.

"I understand the advantage, but it's immoral to look at people's stats without their consent. It's the same as looking at them naked. I can't allow that." Alice glared back at him, and the two started emitting magic.

Melany saw them and started panicking, those two were exchanging glares with Liam's eyes glowing red and Alice's eyes glowing blue. She felt like standing beside two monsters about to fight, the tension kept rising to a terrifying level. At any moment, they could start throwing hands and spells at each other.

Melany threw herself between them. "Stop it! Don't fight." She shouted, "How about both of you learn it? Won't that help a lot?"

The two of them glared at her.