Swallow!

Vicente felt the icy essence go down his throat and into his stomach. As soon as it reached his insides, the pill melted, releasing all of its medicinal power into his stomach.

Almost immediately, a negative vibration spread through his body, something that would cause any other magician of the Light Path to suddenly change and express maddening pain.

But Vicente expressed none of that. On the contrary, he remained still while something in his consciousness space absorbed the healing power of the pill, leaving no residue.

Vicente felt an incredible sensation in his body, as if he had suddenly drunk ice-cold water after being thirsty for a long time.

He opened his mouth and let out a soft sigh, feeling a part of himself grow stronger as he turned his attention inward.

Looking into the space of his consciousness, he saw his second gem absorbing 70% of the pill's medicinal power while the rest went into the cocoon where Torne slept.

Torne's cocoon shook, and cracks appeared around it, along with a purple glow coming from inside the cocoon.

Ten seconds after Vicente swallowed the pill, Torne's cocoon exploded, releasing this ghost from its comatose state after several months since the battle that led to its previous state.

'Master...' Torne murmured in Vicente's mind, still quite weakened, showing the magical power of only a level 5 Acolyte.

'Old Torne, it's good to have you back.' Vicente laughed as he stood with his eyes closed, looking into himself. 'A lot has happened in the meantime. Luckily, I managed to wake you up.'

Torne remembered how he had fallen asleep before and understood that his master had probably survived that challenge and several others.

His senses were improving, and he more or less realized where Vicente was and quickly put aside his many questions.

'Thank you for helping me wake up, master. It looks like you've found a very interesting place for us.' Torne said as he took in Vicente's surroundings.

'Yes, I heard about this place during my trip to the Chutha Dynasty. Fortunately, I found a pill that helped me awaken you. But you still have a long way to go before you regain all your powers.' Vicente told him.

Torne could feel it only too well. 'Don't worry. I only recovered a little because I was unconscious. If I had been conscious, I would have absorbed all the power of this pill and returned to almost my previous level.

But because I was unconscious, your second magical form absorbed most of the pill's healing power.' Torne looked at Vicente's second Magic Gem.

'His affinity for darkness is so high that anything negative that enters his body will be consumed by it. Luckily, I have a contract with the master, and I got a small part of that resource.'

'Really? Won't that be a problem?' Asked Vicente.

'Not at all. Your magical form is supreme, so it can absorb anything negative that enters your body. But because it is supreme, it won't fight over small crumbs. As soon as I control the mana of the following resource the master ingests, I'll be able to absorb it all.

Of course, this won't work with a high-level resource, but items of 4th grade or lower are mere crumbs for your second magical form, master.'

Hearing all this from Torne, Vicente was relieved. 'Then, we'll find more resources to bring you back to normal. This place we're in has a lot of interesting things.'

'Yes, I'm sensing some compatible resources nearby.' Torne commented. 'But what do you want to do with these ghosts? I can help you to control or destroy them, master.'

'You really can?' Vicente was surprised. 'They have more power than you at the moment, old Torne.

'It's not that simple, master. Although my mana is weakened, I understand magic differently than these beings. Besides, my powers are connected to yours. As long as you lend me some of your power, I can expose the power of even a High-level Mage, even though I'm currently at level 5.'

Vicente smiled as he opened his eyes and looked toward the 3rd stage ghosts in his path. 'Then dominate them all. Before I came to this place, I wounded a 4th stage ghost who must be their leader. I don't think that thing will be able to get them out of our control in the short term.'

With Vicente's command and permission to use his mana, Torne left his master's body and appeared before the terrified ghosts.

"Shit!"

"There was a ghost in him! That's why he survived!"

The strongest ghosts shouted as they realized the problem, knowing that Torne could easily deal with them by using his own powers together with Vicente's.

They tried to flee the area, but Torne, with Vicente's help, was too much for them.

Within moments, all the ghosts in the area fell to their knees on the ground while glowing lines of mana connected their heads to Torne's skeletal hands.

If Vicente had tried this alone, he would have had great difficulty in suppressing these ghosts. But Torne was a ghost himself, and all he needed was more mana and understanding on his side to deal with beings of his race.

Torne had been initially a Sky Sovereign when he became a ghost a long time ago, and Vicente's mana was much more robust than that of the strongest ghost in the area.

That was enough for him to carry out his master's orders quickly.

'They will obey all your orders now, master.' Torne said as he returned to Vicente's mind space.

'Perfect. We'll send them to watch our surroundings while we look for another resource compatible with you, old Torne.'

With that, Vicente left this place, temporarily leaving aside the underground city he had discovered, to head towards the other resources he and Torne had already sensed near them on the surface of The Skull City.

As they moved, Torne took the opportunity to catch up on everything that had happened since he had fallen into a coma and gradually learned about Vicente's experiences over the past few months.

...

While Vicente was working with Torne after a while without the help of his ghost, Layla and the woman she had joined earlier arrived at the place they were going to.

The grey-haired woman had led the way to where she and her two companions had gotten into trouble two days ago when they had been surrounded by High-level Mages of the three types of monsters of this city.

They hadn't had any trouble getting to this place because, for some reason, many of the monsters that would normally hinder people like them had disappeared.

Layla could imagine who was behind this, but the woman next to her ignored this reality and looked in the direction of where she thought her companions had died.

She said to the grey-haired woman beside her. "They should be behind this door." She pointed with one of her fingers. "When I left this place, they were caught in an enemy trap and surrounded by monsters."

Layla narrowed her eyes as she tried to scan her surroundings. "Let's see what we can find." She took the lead.