Mixed Blessing System

In the blink of an eye, Blood and Smoke devoured more than half of the spectres that had appeared in the area as a result of the ritual performed by Lothur.

Lothur had helped them prevent some of these creatures from escaping, but Blood and Smoke were powerful enough to deal with a group of level 20 and 21 spectres.

By the time they acted, the weakest spectres in the area had already increased their levels to become level 20 creatures. The level 20 ones had also improved, and only the level 21 ones were unable to advance, as it was actually more difficult to advance to the 5th stage.

In any case, their killing had been quite clean and quick, as they filled their bellies five minutes after their creator's approval.

The only spectres left alive from this encounter were those with human bodies. Each of them had a role of varying importance in human society and in the spectres' plans, so Lothur kept them alive after turning them into his slaves with his Black Flames.

They didn't know how deep the spectres had already gone into their plans in these two states. But at least they had been able to intervene before something worse happened.

With those individuals under their control, they could now counterattack the spectral and demonic threat in those two states!

As Blood and Smoke lay down to rest after their big meal, Lothur looked at the five individuals kneeling before him and asked.

"Are there others like you in Thasan and Utrary who have not come to this meeting today?"

"There are. Besides us, there are at least ten other bodies possessed by spectres similar to us." The strongest man there, a Prince of Thasan, replied without delay.

A member of the royal family of Utrary agreed. "Some of my allies were probably beyond the reach of your ritual, master."

As they opened their mouths, Cykad and the women of Lothur left their hiding places and came to his side.

"So there are more of these individuals..." Cykad muttered. 

"Will we have to do another ritual like this?" Rebecca asked.

"No. We can simply use these possessed bodies to draw these others to us." Viktoria answered in front of her husband.

And that was what Lothur had in mind. But before he told them what to do, he had a few questions in mind. "What are you doing in Thasan and Utrary?"

"Master, we are currently increasing our influence and laying the groundwork to rule these two states. The Demon Emperor's men shouldn't take long to gather all the singularities. So we're preparing the ground for his resurgence on the continent." Said one of these creatures, confirming the fears of Lothur and his people.

Another possessed body said. "We planned to disrupt the local forces and even use them to sabotage the movements in defense of this continent. If all went well, this would be our command base during the war of domination."

"Oh?"

"That's terrible!"

"They're way ahead of the humans. While the humans are hunting Lothur, they rapidly develop their plans." Viktoria commented in an annoyed tone, seeing the human folly.

The human Sages thought they were using the demons to locate Lothur. But the truth was that they were in the demon trap and in danger of extinction!

With this in mind, Lothur sighed, seeing that he would have a lot of trouble before he could find peace, and gave his orders.

"Very well. When you return to your posts, I want you to act more or less according to the plans of the spectres who ordered you to move to these two states. But whatever happens, you must inform me as soon as possible."

"Okay, master."

"Also, I want you to find or send those possessed bodies to me. That will be your most urgent task." He said seriously before gesturing for those beings to return to where they came from.

They were among the strongest of the previous batch and had improved by between 20% and 40%, which was very good but not so impressive that anyone would have suspected their sudden strengthening.

Lothur wasn't worried about their departure and soon turned his attention to his hunting companions.

"What do we do now?" Elke asked.

"First of all, we must deal with the spectres possessing relevant human bodies in these two states," Lothur replied. "So until we sort that out, we'll have to stick around."

"But that will take a few days or weeks to sort out." Viktoria looked at Cykad. "Do you have any groups of demons under observation by your staff nearby?"

"There's a group in Rablus. We can go back and forth from that group's position there in about 20 days. I believe that one of the groups of spectres we would move against earlier is in the vicinity too." He replied.

Lothur's group currently had 7 locations of 4th stage spectres groups, while they had 9 locations of 4th stage demon groups that didn't have sniffers among their members.

But most of these groups were in the northern region of the continent, from where they would have to travel for days or weeks just to reach these positions.

They didn't want to be far from Thasan and Utrary before resolving the situation in these two states, so the group couldn't go after most of these groups.

"Let's go after these demons and spectres." Lothur said to his group. "After we return and solve the problem in those states, we'll go after the remaining groups that we can attack without attracting too much attention.

Then it'll be time to take a few more risks against the Sages!"

With that said, the group soon left the place, hurrying to get out and return to this location.

...

Ten days later...

[Name: Blood]

[Soul Cultivation: level 22]

[Body Cultivation: level 22] 

[STR: 4,480] [CON: 4,755] [DEX: 4,510] [AGI: 4,650] 

[INT: 1,499] [PER: 5,556] [WIL: 2,999] [SOU: 6,510]

...

[Name: Smoke]

[Soul Cultivation: level 22]

[Body Cultivation: level 22] 

[STR: 4,550] [CON: 4,800] [DEX: 4,600] [AGI: 4,630] 

[INT: 1,499] [PER: 5,556] [WIL: 3,020] [SOU: 6,731]

Having finished eliminating the group of spectres they had followed for two days after dealing with a group of demons three days ago, Lothur looked at the status of his two creations.

Seeing how strong these two were getting, he felt that they would reach level 23 of soul cultivation after they eliminated the 6 groups of spectres and 8 groups of demons they had in mind at the moment.

They would certainly have more opponents in the near future. But those that were already in their plans would be enough for the two felines to advance to level 23, the minimum for them to get involved in the dangers that Lothur planned to get involved in soon.

So, seeing their progress, he was satisfied and said to his group. "Let's head back. Those spectres must already have the location of our targets in Thasan and Utrary!"

With that said, they once again set off, returning to those states to resolve the problematic situation there.