The Phantoms

It didn't take long for us to get to Keldo Forest. It was about the same distance to Qilian City as Lidya Forest on the north side - around 10 kilometers - but unlike this afternoon, we were all practically running there instead of walking, which saved a lot of time. The citizens in the city, however, were sure disturbed by all the commotion we made.

Still, we didn't have the leisure to slowly walk our way over to Keldo Forest, otherwise those same citizens will be dead by tomorrow morning.

When we arrived, we were immediately greeted by two people wearing hoods. I tried using 'Inspect' on them to test whether they were players or natives of this reality plane, and it turned out to be the latter.

"Guildmaster Feng!" one of them cried. She was a young woman who appeared to be twenty or so.

The young man with glasses who had announced this quest to us earlier placed a hand on his shoulder. "Calm down. What is the current situation?"

Hm… Guildmaster, huh? So he's the leader of the Hunter's Guild, is that it? As a whole, or just this branch? Probably just this branch.

"The other scouts… they have not returned," the girl said, now calming down a little thanks to Guildmaster Feng. "It is safe to assume that Brother Heng here and I… are the only ones remaining."

Guildmaster Feng sighed. "I suspected as much. I should not have given you the orders to send them in to investigate."

"I-It's not your fault, Guildmast-"

"However. Their lives will not be sacrificed in vain."

Then, turning to us, he continued with burning anger in his eyes.

"Everyone, onwards! The force field is right up ahead! Do not split up just yet, follow behind me!"

The crowd cheered in response, and together, we stormed forward, the two remaining scouts joining us. Hina-nee and I looked at each other and decided to discretely sneak away here. After making sure no one was paying attention to us, we quietly broke away from the crowd and headed into the trees to our left.

Once we were a safe distance away, we stopped tip-toeing and just walked normally towards the force field. The reason I wanted to break away here was this defensive measure Qilian City had set up - it seemed pretty interesting; I wanted to investigate it to see how it worked.

We spotted the force field soon after - it wasn't exactly hard to miss. It was basically a massive translucent light blue wall that extended upwards for as high as the eye could see. Since it was nighttime, close to 9 PM, the force field was practically like a beacon of light. Hina-nee and I went up to it, but as we got closer, we saw them. The Phantoms.

According to the public event description, that's what they were called, anyway - and for a good reason, too. They certainly looked like Phantoms, if nothing else. With their white, ghastly bodies and distorted faces, they looked like something straight out of a horror film. But this was no movie. Their skeleton-like claws scraped at the force field, slowly damaging and destroying it. Now that I looked closer, I could see various scratch marks on the force field's surface. At this rate, it wouldn't hold for much longer.

This was certainly interesting, though. When Hina-nee and I had set off for the Lidya Forest earlier today to kill the snowolf pack, we never encountered such a force field. I doubted it was because the field was only on the south end of the city, but…

What if… it only reacted to Monsters and Magic Beasts? That would certainly make sense. If so, I would need to get my hands on this technology somehow, if possible. This concept could allow for some pretty insane traps to be forged - ones that would only trigger for Magic Beasts and Monsters. Undoubtedly, this force field has some sort of sensor in it that could enabled them to do this, but… whether or not I could obtain that sensor was a different problem altogether.

Of course, right now, we had different matters to be worrying about. As if on cue, we heard several explosions go off to our right, on the main path. It seemed that the fight over there had already begun. There was also the faint sound of footsteps coming in our direction, as Guildmaster Feng probably ordered the rest of the Hunters to split up from there for maximum efficiency.

I looked to Hina-nee and we both nodded. Without even needing to tell the other what to do, we both dashed away into the cover of the forest to observe further. The reason for this was so that the people coming over right now wouldn't discover that we were already here. Otherwise, they would obviously be suspicious.

There were three people who came over in total - less than I expected. I thought I had heard more footsteps, but they must've broken away as well to cover all of the forest.

The trio began firing hidden arts at the Phantoms on the other side of the wall, one of them using Pyromancy, one using Cryomancy, and one using Luxomancy. I tried using 'Inspect' on them, but it didn't work even though I was within range. It seemed that these three were all NPCs - or rather, natives of this reality plane.

"Basic Pyromancy Art - Flame Lotus!"

"Basic Cryomancy Art - Ice Skewer!"

"Intermediate Luxomancy Art - Thunder Pummel."

A few seconds later, several bolts of lightning struck down on the Phantoms closest to the force field in front of us, as a beautiful, conflagrated, highly-explosive flower along with a skewer made of ice shot out of the other two Mages' hands, striking the Phantoms that did not get vaporized by the lightning strikes. However, tons more immediately moved in to fill their dead comrades' space, continuing to claw away at the force field.

Intemediate art… huh. It seems this guy had some skills. He was also a lot more calm and collected than the other two, and looks to be older - maybe in his twenties. However, the three were all wearing poor clothes - perhaps they were living in poverty, which was why they took the risk to come out here for the reward?

Deciding it was about time to come out, Hina-nee and I stepped out from behind the tree and joined in the fight.

I raised out my hand and pointed it at the Phantoms. "Basic Geomancy Art - Geotorrent."

Two seconds later, a stalagmite of rock shot out of the ground, impaling several Phantoms all at once. They vanished into thin air shortly after dying, turning into black shards of light, and XP for me. This process, however, could not be seen by the NPCs, just like the holograms. To them, the body would've just appeared to vanish into thin air.

This time, no more Phantoms came to replace them.

"Damn, I didn't get to get the evidence, ah…" I cursed.

"Worry not," the Mage who had cast an Intermediate art said. "The card will automatically capture kills - given that you've used it manually before. Have you?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I didn't know that though. Thanks."

"No problem," he replied, then turned to face the front again. My stalagmite had disappeared.

"What's the plan now?" I asked them. I wanted to become friends with this guy since he could probably teach me the intermediate Luxomancy art he used earlier, Thunder Pummel.

"We go for the leader, obviously. Was friend not listening when Guildmaster Feng gave us instructions?"

"Uh…" I scratched my cheek awkwardly. "I'm afraid not, sorry. Could you explain it to me?"

The man sighed, as if exasperated, but eventually nodded. "Guildmaster Feng said that these Phantoms are being controlled by someone, or rather, something - their leader."

"Ah, and I'm guessing there's a huge price on the leader's head?" I conjectured.

"Indeed. If this friend does not mind… would you help the three of us out? You do not seem like a bad person who will hog all the rewards to yourself, so…"

I smirked. This was perfect.

"Sure. But on one condition."

"If it is the reward money you are wondering about, worry not, we will all get a equal share-"

I hurriedly shook my head. "Nah. I'm not talking about that. In fact, you can take all the money. There's just one thing I want…"

"A-All the money? This… what is your condition? If it is something I can provide, I will definitely do so."

"The intermediate hidden art you cast earlier. I want you to teach it to me."

"… Is that all?"

I nodded and smiled. "That's all."

"This… in that case, I will teach you all the intermediate arts I know," the man said after some hesitation. "If I only teach you one, this Ming will not be able to sleep easy."

Ming… now where I have heard that name before?

I snickered. "As I thought, you're a good man."

"This friend… you were testing me?"

"Yeah. There's no way you only know one single intermediate art, from how easily you cast that art earlier. In fact, if you had just said you would teach me that art and that was it, I would've refused to work with you. So, congratulations - you passed the test."

"I see… ah, right, I have not introduced myself yet, have I?"

"You mentioned 'Ming', but…" I laughed awkwardly.

"My apologies for my rudeness. My name is Ming Hong. These two are my little brother and little sister, Ming Kang and Ming An.

"Hi!" the two greeted cheerily.

"And this friend…?" Ming Hong continued, asking for how to address me.

"You can call me Kaze," I replied. Despite my Japanese name, Ming Hong seemed to comprehend it.

"Brother Kaze, I see. And this lady beside you…?"

"I'm Sakura," Hina-nee said, politely giving only her last name.

"Alright. Then, Brother Kaze, Lady Sakura, let us set out," Ming Hong proposed. "The Phantoms near our area have been cleared out, so we can venture out in search of the leader."

We nodded in agreement. "Let's go."