Chapter 171: Spirits "The beast you killed today isn’t technically a ’beast’ in the standard sense. It’s a spirit, a different kind of existence. Spirits are more powerful than beasts of equivalent rank and level. They possess intelligence approaching or matching human-level, and can command lesser beasts and weaker spirits beneath their ranks." Moon and Yara listened attentively as Selene elaborated. Yara’s expression was that of pure wonder, she had never heard of spirits or second sanctuary, hearing it made her eyes glitter at the world existing outside this place. "In the Second Sanctuary, the primary existential threats to human Evolvers aren’t predominantly normal beasts anymore—they’re spirits. Second Sanctuary spirits have various complex ranking systems and territorial hierarchies. Powerful spirits can control literally hundreds or perhaps even thousands of subordinate beasts or lower-ranking spirits within their domains. What makes them dangerous isn’t just their intelligence or ability to command armies of weaker creatures..." She paused for emphasis. "It’s their powerful resurrection." Moon’s eyes widened with alarm. "They can resurrect like humans do? Using the life system?" Selene immediately shook her head, before explaining, "No, they can resurrect far better than humans, actually. While we awakeners must expend lives to respawn, and every death inflicts debilitating debuffs that weaken us temporarily... spirits resurrect using their avatars, which are typically hidden extremely well and heavily protected within the shelters they were born in." She gestured toward the erupting mountain meaningfully. "I believe the entity we killed today was some kind of pseudo-spirit or proto-spirit variant. It was much weaker than true Second Sanctuary spirits and apparently didn’t possess the resurrection ability that mature spirits develop. My theory is that this particular spirit was one of the rare entities spontaneously born in the First Sanctuary under optimal environmental conditions, probably from long exposure to concentrated fire essence in that volcano. It was likely attempting to naturally ascend to the Second Sanctuary when you interrupted that process by killing it." "So you’re saying the mountain’s catastrophic eruption occurred specifically because we killed the spirit?" Selene nodded with certainty. "Yes, exactly. That mountain had given birth to its own spirit entity over countless years. The Magma Queen was the mountain’s living heart and regulating consciousness. When you destroyed the spirit, you effectively killed the mountain itself, removing the very thing that had been maintaining stability. The eruption is the mountain’s death throes, so to speak." Moon processed this disturbing information. "You mentioned spirits in the Second Sanctuary maintain shelters that protect their avatar. Do those shelters also collapse or destabilize when you successfully kill the spirit or destroy its avatar?" Selene shook her head with a more nuanced response. "It depends, the spirits in the second sanctuary are different. Honestly...Don’t concern yourself excessively with Second Sanctuary spirits right now. You still have your tasks to complete." She waved her hand dismissively. ♢♢♢♢ For the next few days following their dramatic from the erupting Tagul Mountain, Moon dedicated his time entirely to improving the proficiency of the newly acquired Elemental Body skill he’d copied from Selene. It required two days of hard work to finally complete that ambitious goal. Moon had to expose his own skin to concentrated doses of the elements of earth, water, and wind—the three classical elements he hadn’t yet fully tempered his body against. Fire resistance had already been pushed to its limits during the Magma Queen battle. Thankfully, Yara proved to be a good guide by leading Moon to battle various elemental beasts inhabiting different regions of the island. She guided him to water-affiliated creatures near coastal areas, earth-element beasts dwelling in rocky terrain, and wind-aspected predators inhabiting the higher elevations. This exposure to diverse elemental attacks made his progression considerably easier and more efficient than simply using his own magic to damage himself repeatedly would have been. The constant training and killing of these beasts had earned him five a-rank cores of beasts which he was excited to sell alongside the core and body of the Crab King. Unfortunately, the mountain spirit left no body to sell. It was a pity, but he wasn’t able to do anything regarding that. Simultaneously during this training period, Selene was hunting level twenty-five beasts across the island to progress her own class evolution task of killing one hundred such creatures. Finally, after two days of working hard, the notification Moon had been anticipating appeared. [Elemental Body] [Rank: Epic] [Level: MAX] [Details: Your body has been tempered by the four elements: water, fire, earth, and wind. You gain exceptionally strong affinity with all four elements, granting significantly superior control and power. +100% Elemental Control. +100% Resistance to the four elements.] [...] Staring at the first notification among several that appeared before him, Moon’s eyes widened with pure disbelief. He had confidently assumed that once his comprehension of the skill reached completion, he would finally be able to invest the lives he had been accumulating to evolve the ability from Epic rank to the mysterious Legendary rank, the tier he needed to complete one of his three evolution task requirements. That assumption was the primary reason Moon had been deliberately avoiding direct confrontation with the Heretic forces who were no where to be seen. His plan had been straightforward: gain the Elemental Body skill, evolve it successfully to Legendary rank, then slaughter the Heretics alongside their guardian beast to progress two of his hardest tasks. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮 But that plan appeared to be nothing but wishful thinking on his part. The skill’s level was already displaying as MAX from the very moment he’d successfully comprehended it. Unlike his previous skill acquisition attempts—where he’d copied Rare-rank abilities like Explosive Flame at level one and then evolved them to Epic rank through massive life expenditure practice—this particular skill had manifested in his skill set already at its absolute maximum possible development level within its current rank. Moon literally couldn’t evolve the skill any further through normal progression. The advancement path appeared completely closed and inaccessible. ’Is this limitation occurring specifically because the skill has already been evolved once before by Selene from Rare to Epic rank, and the system’s underlying rules won’t allow duplicate evolution attempts on the same ability?’ Moon wondered with mounting concern. ’Or is there some other fundamental mechanical reason I’m completely failing to understand due to insufficient knowledge about how the Classless path actually functions?’ Unfortunately, the ambitious dream of gaining the first legendary skill had been brutally shut down almost immediately, leaving Moon deeply uncertain and worried about how he would possibly complete such an impossibly difficult evolution task requirement. ’If Selene’s prior evolution of this skill from Rare to Epic fundamentally prevents me from evolving it again. Does that mean I specifically need to find and copy a skill directly from someone who was either born with or naturally received an Epic-rank skill from their very first class awakening? Someone who hasn’t personally evolved it themselves yet through the normal progression system?’ The thought was troublesome, it was almost impossible to find a person born with an epic skill. Had someone been born with an epic skill, they would have evolved it to legendary rank and the news of it would have spread. Not even the strongest humans were known to possess such skills. Otherwise, he or Selene would’ve known. Moon shook the thoughts away as his eyes landed on the next notification