“Eliminated a third of them already?”

Staring at the now significantly thinned-out swarm of evil spirits before him, Hikigaya Hachiman thoughtfully glanced at his skill panel, noting that his Spirit Flow spell had upgraded from beginner to intermediate level.

It seemed that as proficiency with spells increased, their power naturally grew stronger.

“That’s actually pretty nice…”

With that thought, a faint smile surfaced on Hachiman’s face.

Activating his stealth skill, Hachiman summoned the Demon-Slaying Blade and walked directly into the horde of evil spirits, which had become frenzied due to his previous attack.

“ROAR!”

A red-eyed low-level spirit lunged at him, triggering the rest of the swarm to charge forward with angry howls at the human who dared disturb their rest.

Spiritual energy gathered on his blade as Hachiman swung it repeatedly, slicing through the spirits that came too close.

Now a seasoned exorcist, Hachiman didn’t even need to dodge. He simply stood his ground, acting as a stationary artillery unit, tearing through the swarm with ease.

Thanks to the spirits’ “enthusiastic cooperation,” the number of shadowy figures seen by Takeda Mitsue quickly dropped.

A few minutes later, as Hachiman sliced the last rampaging spirit cleanly in half, silence returned to the alley.

“I-It’s over…”

Relieved by the now empty alley, Takeda Mitsue let out a long breath, though her heart felt a pang of loss.

“It’s over?”

From the very start, Kawasaki Saki, fully aware that she was just an ordinary person, had remained silent and observant on the sidelines.

Upon hearing Takeda’s words, she lifted her gaze to the figure still standing motionless in the alley, sword in hand. Somehow, she had a feeling that it wasn’t really over.

“Wait a second!”

She reached out to stop Takeda Mitsue and Niguredou Yuria, who were about to approach.

“Is something wrong?”

Although Kawasaki Saki was just a regular person, her association with Hachiman made Takeda still treat her with the utmost respect.

“That guy hasn’t put his weapon away.”

Though she and Hachiman only interacted during exorcism missions, Saki felt she knew him well enough.

Given his lazy, can’t-be-bothered attitude, if the job were truly done, he would’ve already stowed the Demon-Slaying Blade away to avoid attention.

But he hadn’t done that. Instead, he was still standing there, as if on guard.

Under such circumstances, Saki would never allow the others to interrupt him.

“He hasn’t put it away…?”

Takeda glanced back at the alley again.

But apart from Hachiman, she saw nothing.

“Maybe I’m just not strong enough…”

Rather than doubt Kawasaki’s words, Takeda assumed that the problem was her own lack of ability—that she couldn’t see the spirit Hachiman was now facing.

“If only I had spiritual sight, I could see everything happening in that alley…”

With a tinge of sadness, Takeda glanced at her disciple, Yuria, then sighed.

Despite a lifetime of training, her lack of spiritual sight had capped her strength. Even her most promising disciple only had partial sight and limited future potential.

“Now that I think about it, wasn’t that girl who came earlier supposed to have full spiritual sight? If I introduced her to the exorcist…”

After witnessing Hachiman’s power, Takeda had already given up hope that he would take interest in training her own disciple.

Maybe the rarity and severity of their selection process was the reason exorcists were so few, yet so powerful.

Outside the alley, each person had their own thoughts.

Inside, Hachiman stared warily at the spirit hovering mid-air, a burlap sack covering its head.

“Why does a single high-grade spirit give me such a strong sense of danger?”

Since meeting Yotsuya Miko, Hachiman had already defeated well over ten spirits of equal or higher rank.

Logically speaking, a mere high-grade spirit shouldn’t pose any threat to him.

Yet his instincts screamed that if he made a move, it would ignite a brutal fight.

“If that’s the case, all the more reason to destroy it…”

Though he was tempted to walk away, a glance back at Kawasaki and the others made him dismiss the thought.

Due to the alley’s eerie silence, he had clearly heard their conversation from earlier.

That old spirit medium couldn’t see the spirit in front of him.

This meant that if he left it alone, and other spiritualists of similar ability passed through here, they’d have no way to detect or defend themselves if this spirit attacked.

“Risking my life for people who might pass through in the future… I really am an idiot.”

Muttering to himself with a bitter smile, Hachiman opened the system store, intending to purchase something useful before alerting the spirit.

Because it was daytime, his rewards for exorcising spirits were halved.

Luckily, the sheer number of evil spirits earlier had netted him almost 3,000 spirit coins. Combined with his existing balance, he now had about 15,000.

“But most of the items that are useful for me now start at five figures…”

Browsing the item list and frowning at his modest balance, Hachiman couldn’t help but smirk bitterly.

He had clearly been living too comfortably lately.

After a few minutes of searching, Hachiman finally found an item that suited his needs.

[Sessho-seki (Fragment)]: All negative effects removed. Once used, the item will fuse with the user’s heart, greatly enhancing physical abilities and self-regeneration.

[Cost: 15,000 spirit coins]

An item that directly boosted his own power—this was the first time Hachiman had encountered something like that.

The note that all negative effects had been removed sealed the deal.

Once he confirmed the purchase, his spirit coin balance dropped back to zero.

At the same time, a crimson stone, smaller than a fingernail, appeared in his palm.

“This is the Sessho-seki?”

Carefully holding the 15,000-coin item between his fingers, Hachiman examined it.

Perhaps because the system had already purified it, the stone appeared ordinary—no different from any random pebble, aside from its pleasant appearance.

“According to the manual, I just need to press it against my chest…”

Opening the instruction panel, Hachiman followed the directions and placed the stone over his heart.

The moment it sensed body heat, the previously solid stone quickly melted into a pool of blood-red fluid and seeped into his body, merging with his heart.

Thump!

His heart throbbed violently.

In that instant, Hachiman felt completely reborn—his entire body surged with newfound strength.

“What incredible vitality…”

Just then, the once-dormant spirit before him began to awaken.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep