Transmigrated as a Ghost

""Marcus!""

The instant Marcus disappeared, both Mrazivý and Lilia shouted out in distress. One moment he had been standing next to them, and the next he was gone.

Frantically the two of them looked around for any sign of him, and when they could not find him, they looked ready to rush off and indiscriminately search the entire area.

"Stop, both of you!" Blitz called out to prevent them from running around aimlessly. "Marcus is still alive and unharmed. I can sense his general location through the magic that connects us. I'll lead the way to him so that we can rescue him. Not that he will likely need our help in the first place."

Hearing Blitz's words helped to calm Mrazivý and Lilia down. They had let panic get the best of them, but objectively, Marcus could handle himself. Out of all of them, he was probably the most difficult to kill after all.

There was also the fact that their group freaking out was causing fear to spread through the caravan. Their party was by far the strongest protectors, and if they lost their cool, naturally everyone else was going to as well.

Still, when another person, this time one of the members of the caravan disappeared without warning, it set off a chain of unrest.

"Alaric, is there anything you can do?" Lilia asked hastily.

"I'm already trying, but whatever this thing is, it's not using normal magic. It's either a unique skill or race ability that it's using to warp people away."

Alaric was attempting to prevent anyone else from being whisked away by the forest's reaper by using a unique skill called Magic Disruption, but he was having little success. If it had been using normal space magic, he would have been able to stop it, but he was only slowing down the thin strands of mana that were appearing at random and taking people.

"Let me try as well."

Stepping up, Miguel amassed a great deal of mana and cast the tier eight sacred magic spell Undefiled Sanctuary.

He wasn't able to cover the entirety of the caravan with his spell, but so far people had only been taken from a small area, so he focused his magic there.

Within the spell's effective range violence was impossible and a calming effect came over everyone that was inside of it. Nevertheless, it was still unknown if it would be capable of preventing the forest's reaper from warping people away.

"Okay, Miguel, Alaric, Inten, and Eirwen, you four stay and protect the caravan. The rest of us are going after Marcus and this so called "reaper". Blitz, lead the way." Mrazivý said, taking command now that she had calmed down.

Having decided on their course of action, Mrazivý, Lilia, Blitz, Aurelia, and Zareen, chased after Marcus. They may have been heading directly towards an entity said to have killed every force that attempted to hunt it down in the past, but they showed not a hint of fear.

…

Unable to resist the pull of mana that had hooked into him, Marcus found himself being teleported away from the rest of his party.

When his vision finally returned to him, he noticed that he was inside of a cylindrical space that was faintly glowing orange.

Yet, before he could get his bearings, his body was rapidly tossed around and caught up in a force of pure mana.

'What the hell is going on?!' Marcus thought as he was rapidly spun around a vortex within the cylindrical space he found himself in.

The mana pushing him around soon began cutting into him despite his incredibly tough form and the gray mist-like essence that made up his form began leaking out.

Watching his escaping essence, Marcus saw it being sucked downward and being absorbed by some sort of large bulb.

However, his essence wasn't the only thing being drawn in, the two brigands and the horse that had been taken before him had several cuts all over their bodies, and their blood was being sucked out of them.

'This thing is pretty strong whatever it is, but if it is not using any spiritual energy, it can't hold me.'

Marcus immediately went intangible the moment he realized he could easily escape so long as he did not have a physical form.

Once he was fully a ghost again, the swirling mana lost its hold on him, and he came to a compete stop within what he assumed was the stomach of the creature that had attacked the caravan.

No longer being violently swirled around, Marcus was able to assess the situation he was in.

'So, it's a level eighty-five plant type monster called a Cauldron Bloom.' Marcus thought as he used his creature appraisal skill on the monster that had eaten him.

Unfortunately, he was not able to get any more information that its name and level since it was higher level than him, but that was enough for him to realize how dangerous this Cauldron Bloom was.

He did not know exactly what sort of powers it had, but being able to forcefully transport other entities directly into its stomach was a fearsome ability.

His time to leisurely assess the situation did not last long, though. Just a second after he appraised the Cauldron Bloom, another person suddenly appeared inside of it.

Except, unlike the horse and brigands who Marcus did not feel the need to protect, this individual was someone he recognized as part of the caravan. He had been hired as a guard, so he could not just sit back and let them die from having all of their blood drained.

'This is going to be annoying.' Marcus thought as he floated over to the young man that had just bene caught in the Cauldron Bloom's vortex.

Without hesitation, he threw up his mana barrier around the man in an attempt to protect him.

Yet, the powerful storm within the Cauldron Bloom's stomach quickly began to rip apart the mana barrier.

Marcus next cast a few defensive spells, but they too became unstable within the torrent of mana. The Cauldron Bloom appeared to have some sort of power to distort any sort of mana related skills used within its stomach.

Becoming frustrated, Marcus ran through his available options. He could easily escape on his own, but protecting the man from the caravan was proving to be quite difficult. If another person or two showed up, he would really have his hands full.

'Thankfully, I'm not going to have to do this alone.'

Even from within the Cauldron Bloom's stomach, Marcus could feel the connection with his beast, companions, and could tell that both Blitz and Roxene were closing in on him. In just a few seconds he would have all of the help that he needed.