Hera watched the specters as they were moving around. They were what she expected of the Naga. People with two arms and a torso but a snake head and a long tail instead of legs. It was just like seeing Darni and the other Naga in Spiral inside the dungeon. There was one big difference, well, two, if she were to count how they were all ghosts. Aside from that, the difference was in their eyes.

When she was talking to Darni, it was clear that the Naga was all there. He would talk, he would laugh, he would be angry. He would act like a living being. But these spectral versions of the Naga were just moving. Their eyes were glazed over and didn't seem to be focused on anything. Some were pacing back and forth very slowly. Others were staring blankly at the wall or in a random direction. It didn't seem as if there was any rhyme or reason to their actions.

They were just existing.

The Empress tried to use [Observe] but it didn't register the specters. Almost as if the skill was saying that there was nothing there. However, that wasn't the case. She was sure of it.

By looking from different angles, the Empress could see that these spectral forms were not harmless. They were not simply illusions that were roaming about. She watched as one of the forms entered a house, pushing the vines away as it walked. She also saw how a different one was staring at a plant for a very long time before snarling and clawing at it. Destroying the plant in the process.

She wasn't really sure why that particular plant angered it so much, but after a moment of thought, she remembered. That was a place that she had touched. She used [Inspect] on the flower and after confirming it was harmless, touched it to bring it closer to her nose. It wasn't a fragrant flower, but it wasn't bad either.

Considering that the Empress and her court had yet to see any cut plants or anything that was destroyed in this village, it made sense that the lingering mana left behind by her was the reason for the sudden outburst of the specter. Or it could be just a coincidence. But Hera wasn't going to take her chances with that.

Oddly enough, this building seemed to be completely void of specters. Even though in theory there were a number of people who lived here when this was an actual city. The Empress sent out Viper and Crimson to the staircase, both of them using [Hidden Frontal Screen] to make sure they were not seen by anyone. The twins confirmed that there was indeed no one inside here. Maybe the building itself had some sort of protection, or there was a reason for why the specters were refusing to get closer.

The Ophidianite continued to look around again through the windows. Taking advantage of the small gaps in the roots of the tree growing from the roof to not be seen. But there was nothing different. She couldn't identify any reason why this particular building would be protected. Nor what was going on outside. That was until one of the Naga walked into the moonlight.

When the specter did that, Hera couldn't help but notice a strange steam coming out of the creature. It wasn't something obvious when they were close together, but now that it was alone, it truly felt as if there was a mist or something surrounding it. Looking at the other groups, the colors matched with the steam, but because they were so many together, about fifty just in this small space hidden from the moonlight, the colors blended together.

Hera focused on that specific mist trying to understand what she was looking at. It didn't seem to be moving as if it was just cold air. Instead, it almost flowed together with the movements that the specters were making. Sometimes even moving first only for the specters to follow. And after a couple of minutes, she realized what she was looking at. That wasn't simply a mist or a strange effect of the specters. That was mana. Mana that was leaking out of those creatures.

Hera had a decent perception of mana. Ever since she started her training in the guild, the grades she gained that were related to mana senses were always high. It was only after getting close to a pool of raw liquid mana that this ability improved significantly thanks to the skill [Mana Vessel]. And then, when she was trying to save Alex from her curse. A curse that was able to survive just by making others knowing of its existence. They had to enter a vision, which they believed to be real, to fight the curse in the past. So, that same belief would be the curse's undoing.

During that vision, Hera used Pool of Styx in a nest of praying mantises. Because of the vision, the system wasn't really there to properly stop her skills once they got to a certain threshold. As a result for a moment, her attributes jump to the tens of thousands. That sudden increase, together with the connection to Sammy. Who was a turtle created by the MAZE, meaning he had a certain degree of access to the more fundamental aspects of the MAZE and the system. Thanks to all that she was able to see the mana particles as clearly as possible.

The effect of her spells, every movement caused by her magic, was all exposed to her in that moment. Once she came out of the vision, she had not gained another skill related to mana sensing. But instead, the Empress's ability to perceive mana had increased exponentially. What was already a decent natural affinity with that sort of thing became something well beyond just that.

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And now, Hera could tell that this was mana. Thanks to her senses, she could tell that these specters were all being controlled by the same type of mana. And that mana was coming from somewhere else. She tried to follow it with her eyes, but it vanished behind the building. The Empress followed along still on the second floor. Using the windows to see where it went, but once that strange mist reached a clump of trees behind the guard tower, it seemed to just blend with the environment and vanish in the northwest direction.

Hera wanted to go after it. And there was a big part of her that wanted to get out of this tower right now and start chasing the trail of mana. But she was alone. Even if her court was here, there was no one else to give her proper backup. And if this magic was able to create the specters of the Naga, maybe it could even do the same with monsters.

Hera was somewhat confident in fighting ghosts. Or at least, the type of ghost that was considered a monster by the system. And even if her [Observe] was not doing anything with those creatures, they didn't seem threatening enough for Hera to think she couldn't handle them.

However, the number of ghosts was bothering her. The fifty ghosts walking just in this small expanse, most staying in the streets, already felt like a much larger number than what should be here. Especially considering that she saw more of them walking around in other parts of the city. She could see all of those from the windows of the tower, but she didn't have a chance to actually count all of them.

Still, by the looks of things, they were more ghosts here than buildings. As a matter of fact, there were enough ghosts so that each building would house ten, maybe twenty if not even more of them. After all, she couldn't really see the graveyard from here, but there was a good chance that's where most of those specters were located.

If that really was the case and the ghosts that she was seeing were that numerous. Then maybe, they were not just of the last people who died here. Those specters might belong to all the Naga that ever died in this village. And if that theory was correct, and this effect or spell was actually raising every single Naga that ever died here as a specter, what could have happened elsewhere?

What if this was also affecting monsters?

In that case, walking into the forest at night when this ghostly creation was happening would mean that she was going to fight an entire horde of creatures. She would see every single monster that ever died in the forest, all of them moving around and attacking her.

The rest of the court agreed with her worry. And they all decided that this was indeed too risky. There was also a very real possibility that this wasn't something that only happened at night but something that happened on a different time frame. Maybe she would have to stay for a week, maybe a month, a year in this place until all the ghosts vanished.

But for now, the best thing to do was to rest and hope that by morning those specters were gone. If she was to ever find a place with fewer of those beings, then Hera might try something to test the waters. She might try attacking to see their reaction. She could try casting spells to see if they would be affected by it. And she could even try using [Observe] again in hopes of getting more information.

Once the entire court agreed with that decision, Hera went back to her tent and created a reverse soundproof barrier to stop all the moaning that was happening outside. And then, using a spell that helped her sleep, she went back into dreamland. However, that didn't last very long. As her worry was too great to let her rest. The Empress only slept for a few more hours, waking up sometime before sunrise. And despite the insistence of the court, she decided to stay up.

During the hours that Hera slept, Viper had made a discovery. He had watched those specters moving around and noticed that once they got close, the tree roots seemed to suck the energy that was coming from them. This made them recoil almost as if in pain and rush away from the building. Meaning that this particular tree was capable of protecting someone from those specters.

Hera tried to see if she could discover anything else, but this time, they were not as lucky. Everything was the same for the next half an hour until sunrise. The moment the light of the sun started to shine over this village, the specters vanished in a poof of mist and were all scattered away as if blown by a gust of wind.

Hera saw that the mist was roughly going in the same direction, but it wasn't an absolute rule. There were parts of it going south, others north, others west. Even if the larger part of it was heading like she had seen the rest of the mist go, she couldn't be certain due to the sheer quantity that was not following that pattern.

Even then, after the sun came up, Hera and her court waited for about thirty minutes inside the guardhouse. The last thing they wanted was to be careless and end up being attacked by specters that were still around for some reason. But after those thirty minutes, they were unable to see any other of those ghostly Naga.

Believing it to be safe, they slowly walked out of the building, still being very careful when getting close to a place hidden from the sunlight. In some stories, creatures like that would only vanish if they were actually hit by the sun. Like vampires. But it didn't seem to be the case here. Just by appearing, the sun was enough to get rid of all of those ghosts.

Before leaving, they had one more thing. Hera walked downstairs into the jail to see if there were any markings or any signals that the specters were around. After all, she did open the metal door. Maybe the person who died down there also became a ghost and attacked the door since it had her mana on it. But the entire place was exactly as she had left it.

With a frown, the Empress left the building, but not before searching for a piece of the root of the tree that was far down into the ground and cutting a small part of it. She took three pieces that seemed to be far enough away from the guardhouse not to be a problem and not to disturb the entire barrier of protection created by those roots and carried them with her. The plan was to try to make some sort of protection against those specters.

But now, her plans had changed. She would be using this guard tower as her base for a while. And making sure to come back here every night until she found a better place. After marking things on the map, and using an app to keep track of how long it would take her to return there, the Empress climbed on top of Nimbus. It was time to continue their exploration.