Healing After Sweeping Spirits with an Almighty Skill - Chapter 51

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 51
51. Release the Spirits
┼ LV. ? Expansion Condition (2/3)
└ Residents’ Happiness (471/500)
└ Residents’ Fierce Support (1/1)
└ Spirit Awareness Improvement Stage 2 (1/1)
What’s the easiest way to find happiness?
Everyone has their own answer, but personally, I think it comes down to this.
‘Eating delicious food, spending time with people you love, having fun.’
As for me, a homebody, I wouldn’t know, but according to Jeong Jin, traveling is supposedly one of the better ways to do it.
Do you know what these four things have in common?
They all require money.
“Today marks the Spirit Castle’s first-ever excursion.”
I spoke to the hundred spirits gleaming with excitement before me.
“I’ll give you plenty of spending money, so don’t hesitate to buy or eat whatever you want while we’re out. Just no cutting in line or making a fuss, understood?”
[Yes! Yes!]
[Ohhhhh!]
[This is going to be so fun!]
The spirits’ eyes sparkled with pure delight.
It couldn’t be helped. Where we stood now was the human nest itself—the Waystation.
“If anything dangerous happens, call out to me loudly in your hearts. All right then, regroup here in two hours—dismissed!”
[Wooooo!]
[Let’s goooo!]
[Sylph! Give me a ride too!]
The spirits scattered excitedly into the Arcade.
The spirits’ first outing to the human realm, and their first shopping spree had begun.
* * *
Spirits are invisible to human eyes unless they’re inside the Spirit Special District or near me. So how were they supposed to shop?
The answer was clothing.
[Hehehehe!]
[Wearing this, I look just like a human!]
[A human spirit!]
I’d dressed the spirits in Windbreakers printed from the workshop’s 3D printer—simple coats made only of mana plastic, not spirit fabric enhanced by Noum’s touch.
Around their necks hung Name Badges that read “Spirit Present Here.”
What if unrelated people saw ghosts and got startled? What if they panicked?
‘I’ve already coordinated with the Tower Management Bureau to handle that.’
Signs reading “Limited Event Today: Waystation with Spirits” stood throughout the Arcade—the fruit of that coordination.
Last night, I’d submitted a request through the Tower Management Bureau to the Waystation’s owner, the Grand Lord. I asked if they could cooperate so people wouldn’t be alarmed by the spirits visiting.
‘To be honest, I’d submitted it expecting a refusal.’
Since the spirits appeared as monsters in the tower, I’d figured it was a half-hearted attempt—yet the Grand Lord accepted without hesitation.
Perhaps this was how the kindness I’d shown the Sacred Guild came back around. There really is something to living righteously.
One way or another, that’s how it is.
Today, the Waystation belongs to the spirits.
[Woooow! It’s huge!]
[Let’s go over there! Over there!]
[I smell something sweet!]
The undines, visiting the Waystation for the first time, squeaked with glee and began bouncing around, exploring with unbridled enthusiasm.
Their legs were so short that even a full day of walking would barely cover the central district, let alone the entire Waystation.
[Let’s go that way! There’s a listening room over there!]
[A listening room? What’s that?]
[A listening room!]
[What is it, though?]
[An audio showroom!]
[You’re not explaining it!]
[A listening room!]
[Punghogi, this conversation isn’t going anywhere.]
The sylphs flew toward the music listening room, centered around Punghogi.
[Ooh.]
[Oh?]
[Oooooh…!]
The Noum clustered onto the marble floor all at once. They seemed quite taken with the marble that ran through the center of the Arcade.
The Salamanders?
They chose to remain in the Spirit Castle. Though the Pig Salamander was somewhat exceptional, the Salamanders in general had strong territorial instincts.
I concentrated on Spirit Detection, the power granted by the Spirit Tower, carefully tracking where the spirits scattered. If any danger or problem arose, I needed to move instantly.
“It’s a spirit!”
“Wow! It looks exactly like what I saw on YouTube!”
The spirits near me became visible, drawing the crowd’s attention.
[Hello to you all!]
[Oh!]
The spirits greeted each other warmly and drifted toward the places that interested them.
As they moved away from me, their forms turned transparent again, only their hoods floating in the air. The spirits’ materialization range was roughly twenty meters from me.
Jeong Jin and I took a seat at a café near the gate. I watched him unfold his laptop with the ease of habit, about to dive into video editing, and asked him a question.
“Hey. Do you think reinforcement evolution would be better, or evolution reinforcement?”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
I explained to Jeong Jin the two choices laid out before the Spirit Domain. He listened seriously before answering.
“It’s ambiguous. We don’t know how the system will apply it.”
“Right. That’s the problem.”
“If the reinforced state carries over into evolution, it’d be better to reinforce first. But if not, the base state after evolution would naturally carry more weight in the reinforcement calculation anyway.”
He had a point.
In the end, both the choice and its consequences fell entirely on me.
Lost in thought, I took a sip of strawberry lemonade and gazed out the window at the bustling street. Among the crowds of people coming and going, I spotted several spirits.
Whirr.
A few Sylphs were happily chasing after a toy electric car modeled after a luxury automobile.
* * *
The Arcade, the Waystation’s shopping district, was built around the gate.
Since the gate exceeded five meters in width, the area near it was the only place in the Waystation where a three-story shopping complex had been established.
The café where Jeong Ryong sat was that very three-story establishment.
“Spirits coexisting with humanity in the Waystation? Tch, what nonsense.”
What that meant was that some people in the same café as Jeong Ryong, but on different floors, had no idea the other existed.
Two Hanyang Guild members stationed here were among them.
“Spirits are still just monsters, no matter how you dress it up. Is there really any good in showing this kind of movement here, in what’s called humanity’s final stronghold?”
Scars marked their faces, and lean muscle corded their arms—unmistakably hunters working the front lines.
They had no idea Jeong Ryong was directly above them.
“People’s guard is dropping, and honestly? What if something like a spirit-obsessed lunatic shows up? Shouldn’t we file a formal complaint about this somewhere?”
Nor did they realize that a materialized spirit was in their immediate vicinity.
[Whimper.]
At the sound of a child’s cry, the two hunters reflexively turned their heads, their eyes landing on an Undine whimpering pitifully.
[Sniffle.]
…
And behind that Undine, there were people glaring at them with murder in their eyes.
[Waaaahhh.]
“I… I suppose we could be wrong about this…”
[WAAAAAHHHHHHH.]
“No! I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
The Undine’s whimper attack was devastatingly effective.
The two hunters fled the café in panic, while the Undine basked in comfort and affection from everyone else, absolutely elated.
Throughout the Waystation, other spirits were having equally delightful times.
[This model seems to have some noise in it?]
[The wiring must not be good quality.]
[So what do we call it? Noise-tainted, lacking in refinement?]
[Let’s go with that.]
The Sylphs who had stopped by the speaker listening room left straightforward feedback on paper, offering the unfiltered perspective of air spirits.
“Lacking in refinement… Ah! I see! Then how is this model in the next room?”
The listening room manager, who had been half-joking with invisible customers just thirty minutes earlier, now had a serious gleam in his eye.
It had been ages since he’d conversed with customers blessed with such discerning ears.
[Hmm. This one’s genuinely decent.]
[But isn’t this one almost too refined? A bit cluttered, maybe?]
[Good for solo pieces, but not so great for symphonies, I’d say?]
[That’s a good assessment. Should I write that down?]
At the same time, the Noum were making productive use of their hours too.
Clang-! Clang-!
The blacksmith district in the Artisan Quarter.
The Noum were in the middle of a group tour there.
[Ohhh…!]
[Ohh…!]
Every time the craftsmen brought their hammers down, the eyes of Supervisor Noum and Tohhogi sparkled. Knowing that Noum was nearby, the members of the Hammer and Anvil Guild gripped their tools with renewed vigor.
‘I need to show the Noum something impressive.’
‘That’s the only way we’ll get to share in their spirit textile technology!’
Beads of sweat traced down the blacksmiths’ muscled arms with an almost luminous sheen.
* * *
Late in the evening, as the sun dipped below the horizon.
By the time I pulled the cart carrying the spirits into the Spirit Castle, they had all fallen asleep. They’d been chattering happily just moments before about how much fun the ride had been, yet they’d dozed off in the blink of an eye.
[Mnyaa….]
[Koooo-.]
[Doloong-.]
Watching the sleeping spirits make all manner of snoring sounds, a smile bloomed across my face without meaning to.
Going to bed three hours earlier than usual was simply the rebound from having spent such a delightful day.
I pushed the cart gently, careful not to wake any of the spirits.
“Hm? Ryong, where are you going?”
“The nest.”
Satisfaction was one thing—my work was another.
I planned to use this opportunity to break the spirits of a bad sleeping habit. How dare they crawl into the Master’s own bed?
I laid each spirit down carefully on the bedding in the nest, and it warmed my heart to see their tiny hands still clutching snacks and toys they’d bought with their pocket money.
Once I’d tucked all the spirits in, I stepped out of the nest and opened my skill window.
┼ LV. ? Expansion Condition (3/3)
└ Residents’ Happiness (500/500)
└ Residents’ Fierce Support (1/1)
└ Spirit Awareness Improvement Stage 2 (1/1)
All the conditions needed to evolve the skill had been fulfilled. Before I decided whether to enhance or evolve first, I wanted to examine the evolution options.
‘Proceed to the next level expansion.’
A new skill window appeared in response to my command.
The conditions are met. Your skill will evolve. Please choose the path your skill shall take.
1. Spirit Island
2. Spirit Tower
3. Spirit Domain
4. Wind Spirit Castle
Once again, fascinating choices materialized before my eyes.
As I sat with the options, rolling the words over in my mind, the notification window expanded and additional descriptions appeared.
1. Spirit Island
A domain untouched by any hand but your own.
2. Spirit Tower
You can expand your territory upward, toward the sky.
3. Spirit Domain
You can expand the Spirit Castle’s territory more widely.
4. Wind Spirit Castle
A fortress specialized in the wind element.
In other words, Spirit Island focused on internal growth, Spirit Tower on vertical growth, and Spirit Domain on horizontal expansion.
As for the fourth option, it was simply what the description said.
‘It’s a shame that if I enhance the mobile Spirit Castle first, I won’t be able to see what choices come after.’
But what mattered wasn’t lamenting what I hadn’t been given—it was making the best of what lay before me now.
I examined the choices available to me as carefully as possible, considered various scenarios, and made my decision.
‘Tomorrow morning. I’ll implement it right away.’
Time to go get a proper taste of dopamine.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————