The Government

Tapping his finger on the desk while making plans, Pro then recalled that he got some new information from Jack's soul. Opening the system library, Pro pulled up the memories of Jack.

[Name] Jack Sperro

[Gender] Male

[Life Details] Jack Sperro was born on ...

Pro skimmed his eyes over the details of Jack's life as it was basically summarized by the story that Jack told before his death. Pro's finally lit up when he saw the information regarding the government in Jack's memory.

Jack belonged to a group of mystics that can be considered to belong in the camp of order. They are the ones on the 'bright' side, recognized by the government to be 'good' and willing to follow orders.

Most of the mystics belonging in this group will be supported by the government and will serve in the state-controlled Mystery Investigation Department of their respective city. These departments will dispense missions and will reward mystic contribution points that can be used to exchange for mystic knowledge, items, and even authority from the government.

On top of this department, there is a country-controlled Department of Mystery that regulates and enforces control over these departments. Jack only knows that the Department of Mystery has its own official mystic army, but as for what other trump cards it has, Jack is unsure.

Every country has its own mystery department hidden behind the scene, and beyond the control of the country, Jack has heard rumors of a unknown, ancient organization that regulates and maintains the balance of these mystic departments.

However, the only thing known about that organization is that it has powerful members that only comes to provide support for world ending disasters. As for evil cultists and other issues, they will not intervene.

Reading this, Pro slammed his face on the table as he muttered, "Uwuu, just when I thought evil cultists were all I had to deal with, a powerful government pops up. Heck, that evil cultist's memories that I read last time must be faulty or he must have been brainwashed to believe that cultists are stronger than the government. The government literally has an army of mystics. Even worst, there's a mysterious organization on top of the government. The cultists would have no chance in stirring up big sh*t. No wonder they can only hide. Glad I haven't provoked the government big time as of yet."

Continuing to read the information, Pro came upon some details regarding the pathways controlled by this country's government. They include Holy Soldier, Hunter, Craftsman, and Magician. Of course, there may be other special pathways hidden by the government. Also, different countries also control their own unique pathways, but Jack didn't have information as he didn't come into conflict with anyone from another country.

Jack has the clearest details about his own Magician pathway. As a Magician, their spiritual strength and dexterity is usually double of that of humans. Magicians are able to perform a variety of magic tricks they had already mastered as a normal human, but Magicians enhances the power of these tricks with their own spiritual power. This causes even a simple fire breathing trick to turn into a fireball that can cause heavy damage.

However, in addition to their weak bodies, Magicians still require props in order to perform their magic. Fortunately, when advancing into a Magician, a mystic apprentice will gain a special small, personal space to store their props. As for where this space is actually opened, it is still a mystery to most as it has to do with the mysterious magic network!

In order to advance into a Magician, one must sacrifice materials through a ritual to a intangible magic network. However, not everyone can sense this magic network, and a mystic apprentice successfully advances into a Magician only if they can establish a connection with this magic network. Besides gaining a personal storage space, it also establishes the foundation for become a real mage!

After strengthening their spiritual power enough, another sacrificial ritual to the magic network will allow a Magician to advance to an Acolyte. As an Acolyte, they will begin to gain permission to use access the level one spells on the magic network! These spells aren't like the magician tricks that require props, but real magic that can be cast with a single thought!

These spells include uncanny techniques such as summoning mist and small critters in addition to destructive spells such as fireball. There are also a multitude of other spells to choose from, and there is still more being developed over time.

Beyond these level one spells, there are even higher levels of spells that a mystic could gain access to by growing on this Magician pathway. The strongest mystic of this pathway that Jack had a memory of was a level 3 mystic, a Mage. Jack remembers that the Mage was able to summon fireballs as large as houses and control objects like telekinesis. Jack was also told that there was even more terrifying spells beyond that, but Jack had no idea what they were.

As for the other pathways, Jack didn't have as much details, but a more general description of them. The one he had the most details on was the Hunter pathway that he had gathered details on for Beatrice.

The Hunter is a pathway that relies on external weapons. A hunter can choose to use bows, but most switch to guns in the modern age. The power of a Hunter comes from their weapon along with their proficiency of the weapon. So, a mystic apprentice who is proficient with range weapons is more suitable for the Hunter pathway.

Hunters gain higher dexterity and speed on advancement. Also, they also gain the auxiliary power to buff their projectiles with stronger penetration force! Not only that, the scariest point about Hunters is that they can fire projectiles in a curved path! Hunters are the most proficient in dealing with enemies with a physical body, which includes other humans.

Going up the Hunter pathway, Jack actually knew it branches out. One could choose to walk the path of an assassin, which Jack didn't have much information about. As for the other path, it is named Sheriff. Sheriffs is a stronger version of hunter, and mystics of this rank gain the power of bullet time! With this power, it makes it renders most gunners without bullet time obsolete in a gunfight.

It was this that attracted Beatrice as she was a fan of a certain movie, The M*trix. Of course, she also has a sense of justice and wants to be like a certain sheriff with a sniper from a video game called Leag*e of L*gends.

On the opposing side of the Hunter is the Holy Soldier. Holy Soldiers specialize in melee fights, and they can bless themselves with a multitude of physical power such as strength, defense, and speed. Walking this path is like walking the path of a buff shield as higher levels of this rank grants greater power in defense.

However, unlike Hunters who focus on dealing with physical life forms, Holy Soldiers focuses more on dealing with evil life forms such as evil spirits, undead, and corrupted life forms. The Holy Soldier pathway comes with a lot of purification spells, such as holy smite and holy light, that can't do much to living life forms, but can be very harmful to the dead.

Not only that, at higher levels of the Holy Soldier pathway, Jack learned that they could form holy boundaries that are large enough to protect cities! It was because of these boundaries that most cities stay relatively safe; however, these boundaries can block the evil lifeforms from leaving and entering, but it can't block what is already inside nor can it stop evil cultists from passing through.

Also, maintaining these large barriers are energy consuming so it usually is in a sleep state. During this state, evil life forms are blocked from entering, but are not trapped from escaping. One more life form escaped means one less problem to deal with. As for whether some other city have to deal with the escaped spirit, the mystics of other cities will only say, "Not our problem!"

Finally, there is the Craftsman pathway. This pathway is more focused on support as Craftsman are literally the bread and butter of the industry. With the increased dexterity, Craftsman can craft gadgets and weapons that can be used to deal with the mysterious side. Of course, as Craftsman is only a level one mystic, the gadgets and weapons they can craft are still limited to the mortal side.

However, what makes a Craftsman stand out is that they can create blank level one talismans! These blank level one talismans can be infused with the power of other level one mystics, and then it can be activated and used by anyone, including mystic apprentices!

Mystics who walk the Craftsman pathway are known for being rich due to the sales of these talismans, especially the high levels of this pathway because as a Craftsman's rank goes up, the talismans they make can hold stronger powers! Of course, the talismans aren't omnipotent and can't hold every single power. Only compatible powers such as spells, blessings, and curses can be infused into talismans.

Not only that, the gadgets and weapons they craft begin to have mystic powers as well! These gadgets and weapons are then known as mystic artifacts as they all have special effects or can be used to deal with certain mysterious beings. An example of this would be Beatrice's gun which is blessed with holy power that can harm evil spirits to an extent. Otherwise, how could normal bullets blow holes in a blood spirit.

Anyone that walks this pathway can hear the 'Ka Ching' coming in, under the condition that they survive because the early stages of this pathway are much weaker than other pathways and more expensive as well.

Seeing the Craftsman pathway, Pro's eyes couldn't help but light up, "If I can walk this path, I can create a bunch of artifacts that I can absorb into my domain and gain a bunch of abilities! But ... too bad Jack doesn't have the pathway recipe and it would be too difficult for me to get any materials to craft things while being trapped in this building."

After enhancing his knowledge with the new info, Pro then checked the requirements for an upgrade to the next level.

[To upgrade host level, the following requirements must be met.]

[Requirements] Domain size of at least 10 small rooms, 5 medium room, 5000 life points

Pro's rubbed his eyes as he stared at the requirements. His brain ran the calculations and then he couldn't help but cry, "I thought I was rich, but my savings are worth sh*t when compared to the total amount needed! I need to assimilate 3 more apartment rooms and that alone will be at least another 4200 points! Ahhhh!"

After taking deep breathes to calm himself down, "Fortunately, I have knocked out a chunk with the savings, but it seems that I will need to hunt the friendly guardians on this floor. After all, they are no longer needed since no blood spirit is going to invade this floor anymore ... except me."

Pro got up and then strolled towards apartment 446 as he thought, "I know I can only expand towards the hallway on my side. If I am correct, the room on the other side of apartment 446 should be apartment 448. Since I already took out the evil spirit from this apartment early on, it should be open wide to by expansion!"

Ignoring the charred surroundings, Pro walked into the kitchen of apartment 446 and peeked through the wall. As expected, on the other side was an apartment room. This time, the kitchen was opposite of the apartment front door, which led to the living room. The entrance to the kitchen was next to the bathroom door which was now at the corner to the upper right relative to the front door. The bedroom door was to the lower right on the same wall.

According to the evil spirit's memories, Pro expected to see spiders or webs here, but to his surprise, there was nothing except dusty furnishing. There was also a table with plates of rotten food sitting on it in the living room.

Seeing that the coast was clear, Pro cautiously stepped in to explore the surrounding. To Pro's surprise, no new lingering spirits moved into this apartment so it was completely empty.

"Should I expand?" Pro muttered to himself before he decided to check which apartment room that apartment 448 connected to.

Trying to expand through the kitchen and bedroom walls triggered an error as it was empty air outside! Then, peeking through the front door wall, Pro blankly stared at the hallway.

Pro could only sigh in frustration as he floated back to his domain, "Dang it, although this expansion is ready made for me, if I choose to do so, my expansion will completely stop until I can expand into the hallway."

Pro plopped down on his bed as he began to make calculations, "The hallway costs 5000 points, but it can count as 3 medium rooms. This is more expensive than the cost of 3 apartment rooms combined, but I will need to expand to the hallway regardless if I want to have enough rooms to upgrade my level! A medium room can also count as 3 small rooms, so if I expand through the hallway, I need one more apartment room plus 1 small room to level up."

After staring at his points that were halfway to 5k, Pro then firmly decided, "Let's go with the hallway first! It will definitely open up much more expansion opportunities to me so I have more choices to choose from. Maybe I will be able to find a special room!"

After this decision, Pro recovered a bit before he got ready to head out to scout his neighbors, "It's about time these neighbors of mine vacate this floor. Although we could live in harmony, it also increases the risk of my lovely, innocent leeks who come for me to farm. So, you could all only go, it's definitely not for the points."

Pro snickered evilly to himself as he set his eyes on room 445 directly across from him, "Guardians of this floor? Get ready to become Guardians of the Galaxhit!"