I guess when it comes down to it, I loved the weirdness of Shamanism. Now, it freaked me out a bit at first, sure, but I still enjoyed it deep down. It was sexy, terrifying and gratifying. I was helping people; I was practically a doctor… Closer to a Witch Doctor though.
Of course, it wasn’t exactly a quick decision. I did need to weigh the pros and cons a bit, but in the end, it was my special skill. That one thing that made me different than ‘normal’ people. No, there were actually a lot of abilities that gave me advantages. However, none of that mattered; the point was that I didn’t need much convincing before I chose to head over to “Gentle Di’s Shamanic Services” again.
In the right pocket of my black robe was that crimson cockroach Elemental, while I decided to leave the mysterious obsidian rock at home. I told Mei to keep it safe and that it was potentially a rare treasure, so she placed it into a special jewelry box that she had someone deliver to our room.
When I arrived at the clinic, there were already six people in the waiting area. There were no appointments, so pretty much anyone could just walk in to be seen by a ‘Shaman’. I didn’t even need to do an examination, because a single glance was enough to tell that there was something seriously wrong with each person.
However, for the sake of professionalism, I went over to the counter and told Pegleg Joe “Tell the first person on the list that I’ll see them now.”
As I entered the office, I heard him yelling “Hua Jun! You can see the Shaman now!” Five seconds later, the door opened and a six-foot tall man walked inside. He was wearing a guard uniform, which was basically just blue-scaled armor.
When he saw that I was a little kid, he frowned and complained “Where’s your master? I heard that Gentle Di had returned… My problem isn’t something that a child can handle.”
I looked into his glowing crimson eyes and felt that his aura was only a little stronger than my own. Then I grumbled “For fuck’s sake, just sit your ass down and tell me what you’re here for! If I can’t fix your problem, it ain’t like I’ll still make you pay me!”
He frowned, but followed my instructions anyway. Hua Jun explained “It all started a year ago… I had just gotten out of a rough marriage with an abusive bitch! Ah, anyway, every now and then I would feel a warm and fluffy sensation on my body. I thought I was hallucinating or maybe remembering back to my childhood… You see, I had a kitten and was going to train him to become a powerful Beast, but he got sick and died. However, the sensation became more extreme as time went on. A few months ago, I started having trouble breathing, but when I went to see a general doctor… She told me that I needed therapy. My therapist said that it was only anxiety and prescribed some medicine to help me calm down-”
I cut him off, “Stop! Enough! There’s a goddamn cat ghost sleeping on your head! Do you want me to take it off or kill it? I don’t know any sealing techniques, but I can probably rip the bastard off if you want.”
“Wait, does it have black fur and a blue crescent moon symbol on its forehead?” He tried to touch or grab the frisky feline with his gauntlet-covered hands, but they just passed straight through its transparent body.
Since he was sitting in the chair, his head was within my reach, so I quickly had Xiaotong lightly zap the cat. It made a loud “Meow~!” noise and lunged at my face. I easily caught it in my hands, even though it was constantly struggling to break free of my grasp.
“No, this one is orange and has black tiger stripes! It might be the Spirit of that cat though, who the fuck knows? Ghosts don’t necessarily look like their original bodies… Like, my Companion Spirit was originally a young girl when she died and now she’s a demonic floating skull.” The fucker was hissing and clawing at me, but it was only a Rank-G Spirit Cat. While it was technically a physical type, it still wasn’t powerful enough to be used in combat.
What made Spirits so dangerous was the fact that very few people could actually see or interact with them. Even a Rankless apparition could parasitize an Expert and quickly grow into something monstrous. A possessed weapon could feed off the lifeforce of anyone who was killed using it, yet one day, it could potentially murder its own wielder in order to consume them.
There was also another thing… Not all Shamans, Exorcists and Necromancers were even able to see Spirits. That depended on Innate Talent and the difference in cultivation, or special ocular techniques. When I was only an Apprentice, I wouldn’t even be able to slightly sense an Immortal if they didn’t want me to, no matter how great my talent was. Of course, they probably wouldn’t be afraid of me finding them regardless.
Anyway, since I couldn’t seal the bastard away, I could only try to ‘tame’ it. I just kept lightly zapping it until the vicious critter finally stopped freaking out. Then I set it down in the corner of the room and without a steady stream of Qi, it had to enter hibernation on its own.
Hua Jun was satisfied, so he paid me five contribution points and left. It might not sound like much, but considering that I could eat all the Unranked food I wanted for free, it was actually a lot of money. As a weak guard, that was probably his salary for an entire month of work.
A minute later I heard Joe yell “Li Na! It’s your turn, get in there!” He didn’t seem like the most tactful receptionist. Although, considering that Di was the one who hired him, I wasn’t too surprised.
Two people entered the room at the same time. One was a two-meter tall, super-muscular man who was topless and wearing a silver chain-mail kilt. He glared at me with his glowing golden irises and grumbled “You’re the Shaman? I didn’t come all the way to Hua Jiang Palace to be made a fool out of! Speak child, where is your master?!”
The little girl to his left squeezed his giant hand and murmured “Daddy, don’t be so rude…” She had dark-yellow irises and even though the number on her left hand was only eleven, on her right was a black cross. The girl had long, bright-red curly hair and light-brown skin, similar to the Cockroach Lady from the day before. She wore a golden sleeveless robe and had a crimson mask covering her face. Since the giant dude was still angry, she complained “Big Sis Xiu Ying said that this boy was able to remove her curse, so stop being mean.”
Hearing that, he sighed and muttered “Fine…” Then the kid sat down onto the special chair and started explaining to me what their problem was.
“I’ve been stuck at the peak of the Apprentice Stage for three years now. I meet the physical requirements to advance and I’ve tried to compress my Dantian many times, but no matter what, it feels as if there is some sort of invisible force preventing me from breaking through. The Elders I spoke to all told me that it was merely an inner demon or a mental block… My older brother died just before I started having trouble, so I thought that it may have only been in my mind. I hear his voice sometimes and see visions or dreams of his death. I was there when he failed to break through into the Expert Stage and… Well, I have seen doctors, therapists, the Clan even procured a prayer mat for me to meditate upon. Nothing helped and every day, it becomes even harder to concentrate! Please, you must help me…”
Of course, the entire time she was talking, I wasn’t looking at her or her beefy father. No, I was actually a little nervous, because my enemy this time wasn’t a stupid cat or a bunch of nasty cockroaches. On the ceiling was a creature that managed to freak me out a bit, okay, a lot.
“Levi, I’m scared…” Xiaotong was trembling in my Dantian and I didn’t blame her. I took a deep breath, walked over to one of the drawers and pulled out a random combat knife that had some symbols carved into the handle.
Then I walked over to the giant man and whispered “There’s a really powerful Spirit sucking out the Qi from her body… I’m going to sever the connection, so I need you to stay calm and take your daughter out of the room once that happens. Wish me luck.”
Before he could yell “Wait!” I had already ran over and swung my silver knife through the three-meter long worm-like tongue that was penetrating into Li Na’s navel. The hideous monster on the ceiling immediately began roaring in agony and rage. It looked kind of like a really skinny and naked man with pitch-black skin, except it had unnaturally long arms and fingers. Its feet were more like hands and it had compound eyes, which radiated bright-yellow light.
That slimy tentacle sprayed out crimson blood all over the place, which burn not only my own skin and clothes, but created a few large holes in the little girl’s fancy robe. When it was in such extreme distress, the creepy Spirit didn’t have the ability to hide itself from that big guy anymore.
Without hesitation, the man created a fireball in his right hand and threw it into the disgusting creature. There was a huge explosion and my scalp was even burned slightly, but a magical barrier suddenly appeared and prevent anything from happening to the room. After a few seconds he couldn’t see it anymore, so he asked me “Is it gone?!”
I snickered, telling him “Nice shot! Hahaha~, holy shit, that was awesome! As a Shaman, I’m probably not supposed to exterminate Spirits… But~, well, you saw that thing right? Ugh, it’s better if you try not to think about all the places that bastard’s tongue had probably been…”
Ghostbusters!!! Lol
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