I Got Transferred in the Middle of a Mountain. In Retaliation, I Chose Amenity over Strength.

I peered into the water basin with a cup of coffee on one hand.

The archer jumped out of the tree shade, putting some distance between her and the man as he clutched his stomach while rolling on the ground. The black spirit returned to the man, who was barely alive but suffering in extreme pain as he tumbled after being stabbed by the archer. It needed to return inside him, because a spirit that had obtained a vessel (body) once would no longer be able to hold on to its power outside it.

Hmm, so how do we beat up a black spirit? I’ve been forming a contract with them since the beginning ‘till now, so now that I think about it, I don’t know any other method aside from this.

If I’m not mistaken, we can defeat them by using Spirit Weapons, but what’s the plan if they’re already possessing a human?

(…..)

Archer pulled the bowstring taut as she aimed towards the man. Wait a sec, are you planning to kill that guy that had become the vessel for the spirit? Well, I also slay the monsters possessed by black spirits, and they can also be defeated using ordinary weapons, so I’m pretty sure Dean and the rest of the guys can bring it down.

Hmm? Will she aim at the spirit when it escapes into a nearby monster because it felt threatened and — Whoa, she SHOT HIM!

It’s the first time I saw a person die in front of my eyes. The lives of the people are almost worth nothing in this world, so I already knew that violence is part of the folks’ daily life here, and that their living circumstances are extremely precarious with high chances of dying.

Knowing is one thing, witnessing it is another. My heart was pounding and ringing loudly in my ears as my temples throb. I can’t tear my eyes off the water basin but I still tried my best to calm down.

People normally can’t see or touch spirits, but it’s a different story altogether once they possessed another living thing. If you inflict a wound on the vessel, you also injure the spirit itself. It’s possible to defeat spirits that haven’t possessed anything yet, then blast them off to oblivion using magic.

Hey, Archer! You have that Spirit Weapon, right! Why didn’t you attack the spirit when it was outside that man!?

I’m fuming with indignation, when another man suddenly came into view, probably drawn by the noise. He rushed towards the fallen man as soon as he laid his eyes on him. It looks like they knew each other, maybe comrade adventurers who joined the expedition together, even? He’s shouting something while clutching the other guy.

The black spirit entered the newcomer guy. It actually looked weakened, but the new vessel didn’t repel it, so the transfer was smooth.

Archer lowered her bow. The possessed guy’s body started to gesture with huge movements, seemingly agitated as he spoke to her. Archer calmly responds, staring straight at the man that’s censuring her all the while.

Oh, so she can’t see the spirits, huh. It’s easy to tell if something or someone has been possessed completely by the tell-tale black marks around the eyes, but if the possession is incomplete, then it’ll be difficult to discern, just like in this situation. In the case of the guy who died, he had been almost completely possessed, but the newcomer guy now was different. Half of the spirit is sticking out of his chest.

Moreover, the ability to see spirits varies. There are some who can see the colored auras, some who can only see spirits with a specific attribute, and some who can only see spirits that are deeply attached to them. There are others who can see spirits when they’re relatively strong, and there are some who are the opposite, seeing only the weak ones. I wonder which of the other two Gold-ranks can see the spirits? Ah, but the difficulty level of perceiving a spirit already within its human vessel must be high….well, they should have isolated the possessed person right off the bat if they could see, right. How about this half-in half-out situation of the spirit, can they see it?

Hmmm. I don’t have any plans of bearing the responsibility of solving everything, I’m not a saint, after all, but I’m aware that it’s a situation that I can easily solve.

Alright, time for disguise.

I prepared a robe with a huge hood, cowboy boots with high heels, that’s all.

「Shadow spirits and light spirits, I guess? Can you guys darken the shadow falling on my face, so that other people can’t see it? 」

I donned the robe and pulled the hood low over my eyes before calling out to the spirits. My reflection in the mirror showed a guy with indiscernible face, as if a strong light deepened the shadow casted by the hood…actually, it’s not ‘as if‘, there’s really a bright light overhead and it looked like I’m under a spotlight, so I adjusted it for a bit.

The robe’s hem touched the floor despite me wearing these high-heeled boots. Okay, great, it must look like I’m four inches taller than Ash now. Ah, no, I want to look a little bit taller than this.

「Can you guys carry me so I’m around 10cm above the ground? 」

My body gently floated up, but I’m still stable. Yeah, no need to tell me, I know I don’t need these boots anymore.

「Ah, please help me secure my hood so it won’t fall back, and the robe too so that they can’t see my feet underneath the robe — ah, hey, don’t hang on the hood, please, anything but that. 」

I adjusted the minute details, since I already achieved the look I’ve been aiming for.

Alright, now I’m a tall guy covered in a black robe with this. Well, taking all things into consideration, I don’t look like anything more than a suspicious guy, but maybe that’s just my imagination, so let’s ignore it.

I 【 Teleport 】 to an open place near the camping site. Shall I try to go there unnoticed? Nah, I guess it’s fine even if they spot me right away.

I can hear the uproar at the site as I draw closer.

「 Excuse me. You all seem to be busy, so sorry for the intrusion. 」

「 !? 」

「 Who are you!? 」

Hm, even if I say I’m Jean, nobody will understand aside from Ash and the other guys. If I introduced myself by my rank, then ‘I’m a Copper ranked Adventurer’ is it?

Still, why are you all guys wearing the same color of clothes, how can I differentiate you? Why don’t you all learn from Chris! Ah, no, it’s fine, I already found my target.

「 No need to bother, I have business with the thing inside this man’s body. 」

I finally spotted the guy, so I grabbed the head of the spirit sticking out of his chest, and forcibly pulled it out.

Eh, why did it feel like my fingers slipped through inside the man’s chest just now…? He doesn’t seem wounded, so I guess it’s fine. It must be me imagining things.

「 Dark Spirit!? 」

The prairie dog pointed its sword towards me — oh, I mean, the Gold-ranked giant did.

「 Is he possessed? But this guy here is the one acting abnormally…. 」

The robed woman glanced underneath her feet, and the guy slain by the archer is there.

Ah, he’s alive.

「 【 Heal 】 」

「 Ugh…. 」

The guy recovered, so he’s conscious now.

「 What!? 」

Everyone was dumbstruck as they stared at the guy lying by the woman’s feet.

「 He managed to heal him from that state…What on earth are you? And those spirits — 」

The Gold ranked beauty asked me amidst the roars of shock.

Ahh, as I thought, she can see the spirits, huh. I usually ask the spirits in my destatination to maintain some distance away from me whenever I teleport, but I’m enlisting their help now so I’m letting them freely move. They ended up bustling around me, though! Hah, but the spirits that are helping me fix my robe are still underneath it, you know!

「 That guy over there is the first one to be possessed, but I’m not sure where he picked it up. Be careful. 」

I can sense the agitation among the people surrounding us, so I escaped with 【 Teleport 】 after leaving those words behind.

Ash and the other guys were staring so hard that they almost bore a hole in me, but I requested the spirits to lower my pitch and tone, so I’m pretty sure no one would have been any wiser! Everything’s fine ー probably!

Ah, I’m still gripping the black eagle spirit now.