"So, what's your name kid?" Sigil asked as they rode the cab.

"Joseph"

"Joseph? That's a nice name. So tell me, Joseph. What were you doing near a witch and a vengeful spirit?"

Sigil started his interrogation. 

The whole situation felt a little off to Sigil. Why would a Chakra Level Witch lie in his report? What was the spherical object? And why would this Eugene leave a protection spell on this town? 

No witch is good enough to exhaust their magic to protect the humans from supernatural contingencies.

"I…-that night, I was captured by the spirit. It was Mr Daniel's ghost. My mother once told me that Mr Daniel died because of a child's prank. This was the reason his spirit targeted kids like me. After the bodies of three victims were discovered, the police asked for a witch's help."

Sigil nodded as he understood most of the situation.

"So, the corpse of this Daniel guy was cremated according to the standards, right?"

Sigil asked for the sake of confirmation.

"Yes! Every person of this town gets their bodies cremated after their death."

Joseph nodded his head.

"Kiddo, we reached your destination." The cab driver spoke out.

"Thanks. Keep the change." 

Sigil paid the driver and got off together with Joseph.

They were standing in front of a Graveyard.

Even though the bodies of the dead get cremated, the family of the said person usually place a tombstone for the person.

Joseph led Sigil towards the tombstone of Daniel. Since it was daytime, the graveyard barely looked sinister. Instead, the place looked extremely lively.

"Here." Joseph pointed at an old tombstone with fungus attached to it. The condition of the tombstone was extremely bad. Evidently, no one visited or cleaned this guy's resting place.

"Hmm? Let's see." Sigil took out a handkerchief and wiped the front of the tombstone.

"Here lies Daniel McGee, may his soul rest in peace." 

Sigil read aloud.

Beneath the writings was a circle with a pentagon etched inside it. A small dot had been carved at the centre of the strange circle.

"A sealing spell." 

Sigil's mind flashed countless thoughts as he felt even weirder.

"Thank you, Joseph. You should go back." Sigil handed some money to the kid since it would take him some time.

After booking a cab for the kid, Sigil immediately returned to the tombstone.

"That's strange, this isn't just a sealing spell." Sigil clicked the image of the spell and sent it to someone. He then dialed a number on his mobile phone.

"Hey, Beth. It's me. Yeah! Listen, I have sent you an image of a spell. Can you check the library and find a match? Yeah! thanks."

Bethany Grey, one of the young geniuses of the Grey Family with four gates unlocked in such a young age. She was also a spell master. Alicia and Bethany are the only girls from the younger generation of the family treated with respect belonging to a Chakra Stage Witch. 

"Hey, Alicia. I'm at the city graveyard. Pick me up after you check on every victim's family. Yeah! Alright, bye."

He contacted Alicia after that and walked towards the nearest security building of the graveyard to get some tools.

***

Meanwhile, Alicia also interrogated the family of the victims and some witnesses.

"So you mean that Miss Aria was strictly professional and did not perform any other entertainment activities outside her payroll, yes?" Alicia asked the husband of the last victim.

"Yes! Even though she used to work in a strip club, I supported her unconditionally and our marriage was really healthy. She did not hide anything from me and I knew her routine." The victim's husband's condition was really terrible.

"So, did you notice anything strange in her behaviour or any unusual feeling the day of the accident?"

Alicia narrowed her eyes.

"No, not that I can think of. One thing though, she wanted to leave the club after what happened to Sophie." The man spoke out.

"What do you mean?" 

She immediately picked up the conversation and asked her question.

"Well, there just before all the deaths took place, an employee going by the name of Trisha had disappeared strangely. No feetbody has been found yet."

Alicia raised her eyebrow at the information.

"Thank you for your time."

Alicia stood up and went away.

Before she drove away, she dialed a number on her mobile phone.

"Hey, Sigil! Still at the graveyard? Yeah! Checked on all the victim's family. Coming to pick you up."

***

"Thanks!" 

Sigil hung up as he continued digging the empty grave of Daniel.

Thuk

The shovel suddenly hit a solid plate, causing Sigil to smile lightly.

"Mr Chang, can you pass me that mattock?" Sigil shouted at the security guard on duty.

"Sure thing, kid!" The kind looking Asian American passed him the pitch black mattock.

"Honestly, I have opened five of my inner gates and I still don't get why you witches are so much into digging graves."

Mr Chang chuckled a little as he bent and watched Sigil using the mattock to break open the stone platform.

"You don't know the half of it."

Sigil also chuckled.

Bang

Bang

He kept using the mattock to beat at the stoney platform.

"Hmm? Kid, want me to give a hand?"

Sigil had already dug seven feet deep and six feet wide. Mr Chang could easily fit in the hole and give him a hand.

If it was the original Sigil, he would have already mocked Mr Chang for being one stage lower than him.

"Sure, why not? I could use some help."

Sigil smiled as he struck the stoney platform once again.

Soon, Mr Chang appeared with another mattock and joined Sigil.

Bang

Bang

Bang

"Damn, this isn't a normal platform. What the hell is this, boy?" The old security guard couldn't help but feel astonished.

He could be considered one of the strongest, including some police officers. After all, opening the fifth gate is an impressive achievement for someone without any background.

"Of course, it isn't a normal platform. Don't you see that the mark on the tomb isn't just a sealing spell, it's also a nurturing spell?" A sweet voice answered the old man's doubt.

Sigil looked up and found Alicia looking back at him with a strange expression saying- 'You should read more.'

Technically, it wasn't Sigil's fault. He just arrived at this world a week ago.

"You know about that spell?" 

"Yeah! I once saw this on Dad's desk. He wanted to nurture a specter to breakthrough from the fifth point of Throat Chakra to the sixth point of Third Eye Chakra. Well, the treasure to be nurtured depends on the quality of the specter itself but he still hasn't found any specter near the family town."

Alicia spoke out as she remained in deep thoughts.

"Oh… this makes sense." Sigil immediately understood the reason for the durability of the platform. 

Nurturing spell required high-quality materials. The spell doesn't just nurture a treasure or an object with the surrounding magical energy, it also creates a barrier to defend the treasure getting nurtured. If the spell is combined with a sealing spell, the durability of the defence increases even more and even high-level Chakra Experts wouldn't be able to break the defence if they don't know how to reverse the spell.

Sigil sighed and got out of the hole alongside Mr Chang. With his body's condition, he could easily jump at least 12 feets high.

After returning the tools, he and Alicia went back to the hotel. They did not fill the hole as they wanted to return later.

"So, do you know how to reverse the spell?" Sigil asked Alicia as she drove the car.

"We can't reverse it until we know the materials used to set up the spell." Alicia replied nonchalantly.

Vrrr

Suddenly, Sigil's mobile phone rang.

"Hmm? Beth?"

Sigil picked up and greeted Bethany back.

Meanwhile, a blue-haired girl with beauty comparable to Alicia had a pale face. She was sitting in the Grey Family's library with a thick book opened in front of her.

The same nurturing mark could be seen on one of the pages that Sigil encountered.

"Sigil, you have to get out of the city with Alicia. It isn't a four stars case anymore. I am sending you the details of the spell."

Bethany's mind was in a chaos right now. She immediately sent the relevant information to Sigil's mail and immediately moved towards the main estate where John Grey, the family head of the Grey Family lived.

Unknown to her, a shadow was following her. It was Ricardo.

"Should I help those two? Most of the circumstances have already changed. Sigil has already stopped bullying me and many other situations have changed too." Ricardo's thoughts were in a turmoil.

After reincarnating to his past self, he didn't go through the same unfortunate incidents. 

"Well, it's just this one time." He immediately wrote down a few ingredients on his mobile phone and sent to another mail.

The user ID of the mail read as SigilGrey41.

Alongside ingredients, there was another line written.

'Leave in two days.'

Ricardo personally knew the future Necromancer Eugene and his works. Even though he felt conflicted in helping Sigil, he couldn't let a family member die.

***

Sigil immediately received two emails. One from a user id named Beth789 and one anonymous mail.

He skimmed through Bethany's information as his face grew dark. If the information was correct, then that means the family head of the Grey family did not use the spell because of his own choice rather than the inability of finding the treasure to be nurtured.

He then proceeded to read the mail from someone named 'ghridbcnn234'.

It was a list of ingredients alongside a warning note of leaving in two days.

"Alicia, we got some work to do."

He immediately gave her the information from Beth's id but remained quiet about the anonymous id.

They both immediately returned to the hotel to study the files and find some clues regarding the next attack.

***

Yester Pub, 23:30.

A blonde woman walked out of the backdoor of the strip club. Her face looked tired as the job of being a stripper wasn't easy. Not only you have to physically tire your body with such acrobatic moves, but you also get mentally tired by guarding off against some perverts trying to touch your body.

But right now, despite her tiredness, she still walked quickly out of the dark alley.

After reading about all the strange deaths happening in the city, she couldn't feel safe anymore.

Trsh

She suddenly heard a noise as she suddenly stood stiff, too scared to look backwards.

"Haaaa."

Her breath suddenly felt cold and her body shuddered involuntarily. She slowly looked back and her eyes widened. Her light green pupils dilated to the extremes.

"AAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHH"

Chgh.

Only the sound of blood splashing remained.