Healing After Sweeping Spirits with an Almighty Skill - Chapter 50
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 50
50. ???? Spirit Fortress
The moment the film ended, the spirits unleashed a barrage of questions.
[What is that? Why did the tree suddenly become human? Is that what creation means?]
“Well, that was because of the power of love….”
[Did the protagonist’s curse break? His hair was white at the end though—didn’t it break?]
“I’m not entirely sure myself, but I think it did break….”
[Oh? Oh-oh-oh?]
“What are you saying? Pung Ho-gi! Translate for me!”
The film we’d watched was rated for all audiences. It had a simple story meant for children to understand, but it seemed the spirits, unaccustomed to the human world, found much of it difficult and confusing.
‘I really should show them films more often.’
As I entertained that thought and answered the spirits’ questions, I heard singing from somewhere.
[La-la-la-la~ La-la-la-la~.]
At first, I thought the song was coming from the film’s end credits—it was the main theme we’d just heard.
But as more voices layered in one by one, I couldn’t help but notice.
[La-la-la-la~ La-da-da-dan~.]
The Sylphs were singing together.
“…….”
[…….]
Everyone had fallen silent, their ears turned toward the Sylphs’ song.
[Hum-hum-hmm~ Hmm-hmm-hmm-hmm~.]
It wasn’t a grand composition. Just simple humming—no virtuosic skill, no elaborate technique. Merely a gentle hum.
Yet there was something in that song that drew everyone in.
Like birdsong heard by chance deep in a forest.
Like a lullaby felt through a mother’s chest as she holds you close.
It was a melody that stirred in me a bittersweet nostalgia I had never known before.
‘Wind spirits, then.’
I closed my eyes slowly and leaned back against the sofa.
It felt as though I could drift to sleep simply by remembering this song.
* * *
[As of this hour, I am withdrawing my support for Jeong Ryong.]
From today onward, Jeong Ryong and I are no longer in a support relationship—we are now one unified body.
Any attack on Jeong Ryong will be considered an attack on me, and I will track and eliminate the perpetrator across all of hell if necessary.
Oh, Jeong Ryong, my light. My master. My driving force. My Magic Stone…!
─ What now. What’s with this sudden commotion?
└ Spirit Special Zone inventory drops today.
└ Oh, that level-up event the Magic Tower Guild members have?
└ Yeah, that’s it.
─ Doesn’t that basically mean Jeong Ryong should join the Magic Tower Guild?
└ Nah, the Magic Tower is part of Jeong Ryong’s guild.
└ New Magic Tower branch established inside the Spirit Special Zone lol
[Jeong Ryong is a god and the spirits are his avatars!]
Jeong Ryong is a god and the spirits are his avatars! Jeong Ryong is a god and the spirits are his avatars! Jeong Ryong is a god and the spirits are his avatars! Jeong Ryong is a god and the spirits are his avatars! Jeong Ryong is a god and the spirits are his avatars!
─ Ugh, stop spamming already.
└ My skill level went up, so I’m happy~.
─ Though I gotta admit, I’m a little jealous. Where can I find a way to boost my skills like that with a snap?
└ Snap? Did he just say snap?
└ To those of us mages who’ve suffered so long, and now he says snap?
└ Your guild name. Now. This is urgent.
─ The Magic Tower bastards all scratched by that snap sound lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
[Behold the Magic Tower guys scratched by the snap sound.]
(YouTube link)
Your master’s interview video just dropped, so go watch that instead.
─ Info posts about the master deserve upvotes!
─ Look at how few comments there are lol lol lol Everyone’s watching the video?
‘Huh? That video’s already up?’
I was browsing the community while having breakfast, looking for fresh information, when I clicked a link in one of the posts. It led to a video on the channel of the famous YouTuber Hunter Hunter.
– A laundromat with people lining up from dawn yesterday in Boru? – I went to check it out and discovered the shocking true identity of the laundromat owner!
The lengthy title was unmistakably yesterday’s interview footage.
For something that happened just over twelve hours ago to already be uploaded as a video—it was clear that being a YouTuber was a profession only the diligent could truly manage.
I was hesitating whether to click on the link when someone asked me a question.
“What are you looking at?”
It was Pung Ho-gi.
I shrugged and set down my phone.
“Just some trivial gossip.”
I turned my attention to the breakfast table.
All the Gnomes and Undines were seated shoulder to shoulder, eating together.
“Oh! Ooh!”
“Could you pass me the jam? Here!”
“Oh no! We’re out of grape juice!”
“I have to tell the butler about it!”
The table was nothing short of a battleground.
Spirits squeezed onto a table barely able to accommodate over fifty people, eating however they could manage.
It was routine for them to smear food on each other or spill it everywhere, and occasionally some of them would tumble right off the edge of the table.
It was almost miraculous that no fights broke out during meals.
Splash!
“Ack!”
I fished out an Undine who’d slipped and fallen into my cereal bowl with a spoon, thinking to myself.
‘I really need to overhaul the dining arrangement.’
It seemed I’d need to have a word with the Undine butler about it.
* * *
It was later that morning, while I was overseeing the Spirits’ work.
“Ah. A new Spirit has arrived.”
I could sense someone standing before the gates of the Spirit Fortress.
Creak-creak-creak.
The gates opened, revealing a skeletal-thin Undine.
“An Undine!”
“We need to get her to the Water Source right away!”
A Guardian Undine hoisted the newcomer onto her back and hurried to the Water Source with a splash.
Shortly after, the new Undine, now plump and jelly-like in body, was embraced and celebrated by all the other Undines.
“The hundredth Undine!”
“It’s the hundredth Undine!”
Technically she was the twenty-fourth Undine and the hundredth Spirit overall, but the Undines didn’t seem to care much about such distinctions.
While the Spirits shared their joy, I opened my skill window.
┼ LV. 10 Expansion Conditions (3/3)
└ 1. Sledge Field LV. 1 (1/1)
└ 2. Spire LV. 3 (1/1)
└ 3. Spirit (100/100)
Now that the final expansion condition had been met, there was no reason to delay the Spirit Fortress’s expansion.
The Spirit Fortress is expanding to LV. 10.
Rumble-rumble-rumble.
The Undines, who had been clinging to each other, swayed violently at the vibrations of the expanding fortress.
“Whoa!”
Undines tumbling over each other.
Watching their plump cheeks squish together as they landed, it seemed clear that no one was hurt or injured.
Spirit Fortress LV. 10
┼ Completed Construction List
└ Main Hall LV. 3
└ Spirit Forest LV. 2
└ Mine LV. 4
└ Herb Garden LV. 4
└ Water Source LV. 4
└ Nest LV. 3
└ Furnace LV. 3
└ Refinery LV. 3
└ Smithy LV. 2
└ Workshop LV. 3
└ Storage LV. 3
└ Lighthouse LV. 4
└ Spire LV. 3
└ Plaza LV. 2
└ Hot Spring LV. 5
└ Sledding Slope LV. 3
└ Wind Turbine LV. 3
┼ Construction Possible List
┼ LV. ? Expansion Condition (2/3)
└ Residents’ Happiness Level (472/500)
└ Residents’ Ardent Support (1/1)
└ Spirit Awareness Improvement Stage 2 (1/1)
There it was—the question-mark level.
‘The Spirit Special Zone undergoes Evolution once more at the next expansion.’
This would be the second Evolution, following its transformation from Spirit Village to Spirit Fortress.
What’s more, thanks to the steady effort I’d put in, two of the three conditions had already been satisfied.
‘Who am I? The benevolent ruler of Spirits.’
The final condition—the Spirits’ Happiness Level—would surely be simple enough to raise. They were unpretentious children, delighted by the smallest things.
‘What form will the Spirit Fortress take in its next Evolution?’
Since it had evolved from a village into a fortress, perhaps the next stage would be a city. Though calling it a city might feel presumptuous with barely a hundred inhabitants, the Spirit Fortress’s expansion potential was nothing short of extraordinary.
Imagining that rosy future, I opened a second window before my eyes. This one wasn’t a Skill window, but an Enhancement window.
You may attach an adjective of your choosing to the Spirit Special Zone.
I’d purchased the Spirit Special Zone Enhancement Ticket for 10 coins, and as I’d wrestled with how to approach the Enhancement, a film I’d watched last night proved to be the perfect inspiration.
‘Moving.’
A moving Spirit Fortress.
That was the Enhancement form I ultimately decided on.
‘If the Spirit Fortress could move, there’d be far more I could gain than expected.’
If it drifted closer to Boru, the Undines would find it easier to commute to the laundry. Alternatively, I could push deeper into the Tower World and assist the Sylphs’ expeditions.
Beyond that, strategic applications were also within reach.
I could relocate the fortress near a new abandoned mine, expand its territory, and claim fresh mineral deposits—or the moving Spirit Fortress itself, complete with a lighthouse, could become a massive exploration base.
‘And above all else, it would be magnificent.’
I wouldn’t merely be the lord of a fortress—I’d be the lord of a moving fortress.
I pictured it: the Spirit Fortress rumbling forward with tremendous sound, and myself standing atop its highest rampart, gazing down at Boru below.
Happy? Eternal? Radiant? Infinite?
Every one of those adjectives was already captured in a moving fortress.
Enhance as the ‘Moving Spirit Special Zone’?
Yet I didn’t immediately shout yes.
It wasn’t that I was waiting for a better adjective to occur to me. A wholly different dilemma had surfaced instead.
‘Skill Evolution and Skill Enhancement.’
Two tickets now lay in my hands—either one worthy of bowing to and accepting with both palms.
‘Which should I prioritize?’
It was a chicken-or-egg conundrum.
The kind of impossible question that could reduce anyone to an ordinary person in an age where choosing between mother and father would decide your fate.
‘Evolving first and then enhancing, or enhancing first and then evolving.’
Which of the two could ultimately reach the greater height?
“Hmm….”
My greatest dilemma since birth had arrived.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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