Chapter 237 - "Special branch of..."

Timothy was tossed away by that weird explosion, tens of meters away, and it was needless to say that he was separated from his friends. It was difficult to locate them too, because his friends were likely cushioned somewhere between one of the many, big clouds in the vicinity, thus making them impossible to spot!

The explosion also caught the attention of the hundreds of ghosts within a one kilometer wide radius, which was a problem on its own because not only did it attract hundreds of random, rogue ghosts, but it likely caught the attention of that huge, red ghost crab as well! Two-and-two added up to four, and it was equally as easy to figure out that he, and the team were in trouble!

“What a bad fucking time to get separated!” He complained, “I could’ve replicated the Cloud Converter ability for them! It would be a shame if they were sent back home before they could harvest a few more thousand phantomized mana points!”

TImothy shot at rogue ghosts in the meantime, and was hoping to not shoot any of his multi-colored friends during the process. His best plan was to move around as quickly as he could, until he found his friends! Neither of them were in danger, per se, as their souls couldn’t be obliterated no matter what any random ghost tossed against them, they couldn't be killed, but he just didn’t want his friends to fail today.

[+409 phantomized mana points]

[+91 phantomized mana points]

[+344 phantomized mana points]

[+200 phantomized mana points]

The points he gained flashed at the corner of his vision, and the amounts tended to be almost random, because one cloud was more harvestable than the other. He put his Cloud Converter ability to use through every beating second, but some clouds were simply too impure to harvest, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise how the numbers danced around frequently. It wasn’t that he was at a loss here, as the ability was almost inexpensive to use, so he was doing fine, point-wise, and he was destined to experience another flash upgrade soon!

Timothy shot down seventeen ghosts ever since that explosion erupted, and from the looks of it, he was going to have to shoot down a lot more of them, because they were all over the place! The ghosts certainly noticed that there was plenty of mana for them to grab, so he had to stay focused, so as to not be randomly overwhelmed by them.

Although he didn’t have any wings as a ghost, he still beamed through the clouds like a WW2 Warplane, except he was far more effective at shooting at things. He had plenty of experience in that matter, and eventually he hit a check-point, that being the fact that he found Ortana!

“There you are! I almost shot at you!” He said, and was happy that he was able to recognize the green features of her soul. “We have to make every second count here, so cover me, I have something for you!”

Ortana had little idea regarding what he meant, but she cooperated. She has learned to trust Timothy, and was confident with the tricks that he could bring to the table!

In two minutes or so, he created an entire replica of the Cloud Converter ability, and then allowed Ortana to absorb it! He was pretty quick with it now, because he had memorized the inner patterns of this ability.

“You’ll get a lot more mana with the Cloud Converter ability, so use it for as long as you can!” He guided her.

Timothy had another flash upgrade seconds after, he was at level six, so the odds were truly stacking to his favor! He started feeling more and more powerful in this form.

Together, they blasted through the mess they were in, and shot down fifty more ghosts, collectively. With most ghosts being significantly weaker in comparison, the defensive/offensive front that the two of them put up, was nothing short of expected!

Eventually they found Gustav as well, and being the battle mage he was, he had been able to hold his own all of this time! Timothy replicated the Cloud Converter ability for him as well, and at the perfect time too, because Gustav had depleted most of his mana pool while fighting these ghosts, and this wasn’t a surprise because most odds were stacked against him! Being at level three in terms of mana quality, it was evident that he needed the extra mana the most, and thankfully, it didn’t take him long for him to catch up with points due to those very odds that had been stacked against him up until a moment ago!

As a team of three, the damage they managed to deal afterwards, quickly overwhelmed the countless ghosts around them! The three of them were sharpshooters, they had plenty of experience in the physical world, and it reflected up here too, so it didn't take long for them to collectively shoot down two-hundred more ghosts! At this rate, they would've caught the attention of the divines, it wasn’t surprising, but it didn't exactly pan out like that, no.

An entity snuck up to them instead, and then called for their attention. “Hey, hello! You guys aren't really dead, right?”

Timothy turned around in a blink of an eye, and almost shot the entity, but then the other shouted out. “Ah! Don't shoot me, I'm not a ghost! I'm not a ghost!”

The two sides communicated telepathically, of course, as they didn't have mouths to speak, but one could still scream through their raw thoughts, so Timothy believed that he was truly talking to another soul. He was fascinated!

“You’re not Arvena, or Skendus…? No, you’re red, can't be them.” Tim spoke to the other soul, “What are you doing up here? Did you use the Explorative Soul ability as well?”

“No, I'm practicing the special branch of…” The other soul tried to speak, but his words were cut short, they were interrupted.

A giant, ugly red claw struck the team down, including the soul of the lady that Timothy was talking to, and given that they had a low ‘health bar’ in this form, they were quickly slammed down from the sky! Their souls withstood too much damage, and therefore, sought their original vessels to heal themselves, a.k.a their original bodies! The crab got the best out of them, their explorative episode was officially over.