Reincarnated Hero System

"…Luckily they noticed the signs early and were able to defend."

He muttered to himself after listening to the reports from the ambient spirits who were playing 'Ring around the Rosie' around his head whilst petting the head of a particularly fluffy flame spirit.

'Is it clinging to me 'cus of Mesarthim?'

The thought came to his mind for a moment but he didn't consider it too important, instead, he asked the spirits to help the adventurers and soldiers of Shelde and Lastham to fend off the monsters.

"Try to make them flee in the direction of the mountains, okay?"

[OKAY!!]

[Flee, Flee, Flee!!]

[But I don't wanna fight monsters.]

[Me too.]

[Can we eat the monsters?]

[Dude, chill. He said just chase them away.]

Evan chuckled lightly upon hearing the spirit's conversation, before pulling out a few Ethereal Essence Orbs from his inventory and tossing one each to the Spirits he had asked for help.

| Ethereal Essence Orb;

Type: Naturally Occurring Treasure

A small orb containing pure ethereal essence. When held or absorbed by spirits, it nourishes their essence, unlocking hidden potential and enabling them to reach new levels of power.

Also carries the potential to upgrade a spirit's rank. |

"Here, Have some of these too."

| Luminescent Spirit Crystal;

Type: Naturally Occurring Treasure

A shimmering crystal imbued with ancient enchantments, it emits a radiant glow that temporarily empowers nearby spirits, boosting their aura, resilience, or elemental affinity. |

The spirits all went silent upon seeing the items that Evan casually tossed out to them. Even his own contracted spirits were spectacularly dumbfounded at this sight.

Silence pervaded the entire area as the spirits alternated their gazes between Evan and the basket of items he just pulled out of his inventory until one of them finally asked.

[Can we make a contract?]

It was that question to snapped Kayla out of her shock and made her spring into action, she activated her body transformation skill and transformed into Silverwing before chasing away the other spirits trying to go after her master while Evan and Eliza watched and laughed.

Kuro silently used his shadows to pick up one of each before retreating into Eliza's shadow while Milena internally questioned if it was even legal to have this many spirit treasures.

Eventually, Evan got Kayla to calm down by stuffing an essence orb in her mouth, inadvertently preventing the Spirit from telling him that she actually didn't need such an item due to her special circumstances.

He then distributed the rest to the other ambient spirits who happily accepted it before racing over to where the adventurers and soldiers fighting against the forest's inhabitants were.

Looking at them fly away happily, Evan only gave a wry smile before opening up his inventory and pulling out a few strength-enhancing artifacts.

Each of them was something that either raised his stats temporarily or gave him elemental or physical damage bonuses and breaches.

Sadly, most of them were single-use items.

"The spirits would be able to use more of their power since I gave them those treasures in exchange."

[Oh, a temporary exchange contract.

But why don't we just go help them ourselves too?]

[Yeah. And why are you pulling out all these strange ancient-looking artifacts?]

Milena and Kayla asked the questions that Eliza and Kuro had in mind ever since they saw Evan equipping these artifacts, enough to reach the limit of how many he could equip before it became detrimental to him.

He even passed a few to Eliza and the Spirits silently and told them to put them on very quickly, which they did despite their numerous questions.

"Why thoug-???!!!!"

Just as Eliza was about to ask 'why' once more, a sudden jolt coursed through her body, silencing her voice mid-sentence.

Instincts sharp as a blade pierced through her consciousness, and cold sweat dripped down her back, an unmistakable warning from the depths of her being.

A chill, colder than the deepest winters, snaked its way up her spine, raising goosebumps on her flesh while the hairs on her arms stood on end.

Simultaneously, the heads of all five of them turned to the sky, just in time to barely catch the sight of three streaks of light, flashing from the sky and towards the ground.

***BOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!

A thunderous roar rang out upon impact, and the meter-thick ice that Evan had created using his Harbinger of Ice skill shattered like glass, sending shockwaves rippling through the icy floors for kilometres around.

Clouds of dust, smoke and scattered debris erupted into the air, engulfing the surroundings in a shroud of obscurity.

Even so, Eliza could make out three faint shadows from behind the obscuring veil.

|⚠⚠⚠|

|Reincarnated Hero System has detected a 'MAJOR' threat to Hosts Life. |

|Estimated chances of Victory in direct combat: Less than 10% |

Those three notifications appeared in Evan's field of view as the haze cleared up, unveiling the appearances of the three new entrants.

First was a man clad in dark-themed armour, with short neck length ash coloured hair, a fair skin tone, red irises and ash cross-shaped pupils.

The aura of power emanating from his was suffocating as if it could crush anyone who dared to challenge him.

Next was a tall grey-skinned humanoid, holding a large battle axe over his shoulder while exuding an aura of pure savagery.

Last, but definitely not least, was the man who was crouched down on the ground between them.

Two jagged horns jutting out from the sides of his head, a muscular toned body that was visible even under his clothes and a pair of yellow reptilian slit eyes that locked onto Evan's group.

Strangely enough, they could not feel even the slightest energy fluctuation from him, as if he was a completely normal person, a weak Bronze-level existence who had not yet embarked on the path of Levelling up.

However, if his muscular body wasn't enough for one to figure it out, the pressure his mere gaze placed on the group should be enough to inform one he was clearly NOT 'weak'.

As for his allegiance? The fact that he had a brooch with the Insignia of a 'Hand' holding up the 'World' in its palm that had the number '1' at the back was enough of an answer.

Time seemed to slow, the hearts of Evan's group pounding in their chests like the beats of a war drum.

The two groups remained silent as they stared at each other, but numerous thoughts were running through their minds at this instant.

'What the fuck happened here?'

The yellow eyed dragonkin man scanned the entire area with his aura as he questioned internally, the state of the battle appearing as a shock to both him and the other two.

[This doesn't make any sense. Did they defeat the entire squad in an instant? A squad containing fifty elite grandmasters?]

'Impossible.

Including the spirits nearby, they don't have the power to defeat that many grandmasters in the time it takes me to blink.'

He replied to his contractor's question while keeping his gaze trained on Evan in particular for any sudden moves. At the same time, a portion of his mind was analysing the residual auras left in the area.

'I only blinked after Lord First connected, but when my eyes opened up, the entire squad was dead.

From what I can see and sense, a battle indeed occurred here, and it definitely did not end in an instant.

In that case, what on Aidos happened? How did I not notice the battle occurring? How could an entire battle involving over a hundred grandmasters pass while I felt no time had passed at all?

Is there someone else here helping him? But I can't sense anyone. Or Is that third party that much stronger that they can hide from my senses?'

So many questions were running through the man's head, especially the thought of an extra third-party intervening, but before he could begin rationalizing them, he noticed magic power movements and turned his gaze slightly, noticing Eliza who was rousing her energy to activate her skill.

In that same second, three lines of thought went through his head.

'That girl, the priestess.

The intel we have on her power level was wrong. I can vaguely tell she's close to level 400. And the residual aura of life energy in the surroundings shows she played no small part in the earlier battle.

Assuming all her abilities we know of are scaled up to the grandmaster level, then she should be eliminated first.'

And the moment he thought that, his figure silently disappeared.

A beat later, the sound of his movement rang out.

**BOOOM!

The world in his view blurred into streaks of motion as he surged forward, instantly accelerating to surpass the bounds of sound itself.

The wind whistled past his ears and the ground beneath him became a mere blur as he covered the over hundred metres of distance in-between him and Eliza in the blink of an eye.

His aura surged and gathered in his clenched fist, pulsating with lethal intent.

It was a strike meant to obliterate, to end her existence in one swift blow.