Elementals, Fairies, and the Forest Spirit Race are three completely different concepts.
The Elementals, ranked third, are life.
Meanwhile, the Fairies and the Forest Spirit Race are ranked seventh and below, belonging to the category of biological creatures.
In essence, those from the sixth rank, the Flugel, and above can no longer be called biological creatures.
They are energy or concepts with a will; there is no clear boundary between their'soul' and their 'vessel' (physical body).
The 'lower races' below the seventh rank are 'biological creatures' with physical bodies that reproduce through normal means. The soul concentration between the two is vastly different, which is why the races called 'life' consider themselves superior to the 'biological' races.
And it is indeed the case; most fundamentally, for beings of the sixth rank and above, life is eternal.
Within 'life', the top three ranks have life forms that differ greatly from the latter three.
The first rank is the Old Deus, which are essentially the manifestation of concepts; the difference in strength among them is also very large.
However, the weaker gods have basically all died out over the long course of time, leaving only a few powerful gods still in existence.
The second-ranked Fantasy Species are worlds unto themselves.
Almost every Fantasy Species is a unique Other World, with internal laws that have already transcended the world.
But compared to other forms of life, although the Elementals are ranked third, they themselves are a part of what constitutes the world—that is, they are products of the world's laws.
The planet's corridors and the corridors of life are all composed of the Elementals.
In other words, the essence of the Elementals is the materialization of energy.
Although the Elementals are the third rank, because they are a component of the world, ordinary Elementals have no ability to resist.
They are even captured by the Ex-Machina to be used as fuel; the corpses of the Elementals left after being burned away are Black Ash.
This means that the Elementals are capable of producing Spiritia energy on their own!
Although they possess intelligence, the intelligence of ordinary spirits is very weak.
The difficulty of capturing them is not high; as long as a sufficient number is gathered, it will be enough for Rias to study a new system.
After all, there are many Pantheons in this world, but very few things that can truly be called 'change'.
To truly want to become stronger, one still needs to rely on systems from Other Worlds.
This is also a matter of luck.
Rias thought to herself.
"No problem, I can catch plenty of those things just by waving my hand~"
Jibril said, then raised her hand.
Countless lights gathered in her hand, growing more and more numerous.
Because spirits are everywhere in this world, even though they are classified as life, they are easily overlooked.
Once one is truly aware of them, capturing them is not difficult.
Especially for a high-ranking race like the Flugel, which can be called the most perfect creation, this sort of thing is as simple as breathing.
In fact, every time they release an attack, a huge number of surrounding spirits die.
"And then, pack them up~"
Jibril took out a transparent bottle and put the captured spirits inside.
Countless spirits condensed together, releasing light like fireflies.
"This should be enough."
Having gathered enough spirits for an ordinary member of the Flugel to release a single Heavenly Strike, Jibril sent the bottle to Rias as a red envelope.
As for the possibility of being cheated?
As long as that person named Rias wasn't stupid, she wouldn't do that.
Moreover, to her, these things were insignificant~
Spirits were something she could get just by lifting a finger, and knowledge was just a copy; she herself suffered no loss at all.
But the consequences of deceiving her would be very serious~
"Although I can't collect the head of a life form from a Other World, gaining knowledge is also good."
Jibril smiled very happily, soaring through the air to vent her excitement.
Jibril: "How is it?"
"I've received it."
Rias: "This device is not bad; it even has a function to extract spirit energy. How thoughtful."
"Hehe~"
Jibril smiled bashfully and then spoke: "So, what about the knowledge on your end?"
"Coming~"
Rias skimmed through them and was surprised to find they were all good grimoires. She then used magic to copy the books she had read in the library, opened a sub-space, took out a Mana Crystal, and sent it to Jibril.
Rias: "Mana Crystals, like spirit energy, can only be condensed by true 'life'. Since we don't have the Elementals here, I can only give you Mana Crystals, which are a non-renewable resource over there. If you want to study them, figure out the method of energy conversion yourself."
In the original story, there was no such thing as Mana Crystals; Rias had three sources for them.
One was through fusion of her own magic power, resulting in condensed Destruction Crystals.
The second was through a special device that attracted mana from the atmosphere, which Rias then manually fused into Mana Crystals.
The third was from the power furnace of Agreas, the floating island in the Underworld, which could form energy crystals.
The King pieces, which can amplify magic power by dozens or even hundreds of times, use high-quality crystals extracted from such crystalline bodies in a similar way.
So, these Mana Crystals contained a significant amount of mana, equivalent to the total magic power of a High-class Devil; they just couldn't be regenerated.
"Understood!!!"
Jibril flipped through the books in her hand and couldn't help but let out an excited shout.
"Oh oh oh, completely unknown characters, unknown energy!!"
"Is this the knowledge of a Other World!!"
"As expected, it's real, real, real!!"
"Wonderful!!"
Jibril was extremely happy~
Rias: "@Jibril, let's continue the exchange of knowledge."
The first trade was a condition to establish trust; only after that could they freely trade all their knowledge.
"Okay!"
Jibril's spirits lifted, and she flapped her wings to fly toward the home of the Flugel, Avant Heim.
Avant Heim is the capital of the Flugel and is also a Fantasy Species.
Jibril's knowledge was all stored there, so she needed to head back.
Her flight speed was fast, but she generally moved using spatial transfer.
She could transfer anywhere within her line of sight, and even outside her line of sight to places she had been before.
She could move a distance of 4527.21km in 0.023 seconds, so it didn't take long for Jibril to return to her room.
After copying all the knowledge, Jibril opened the red envelope function and sent it to Rias.
"..."
"It's too much."
Rias: "I need to organize this."
Jibril: "Please hurry, I can't wait to start my research."
"Mm."
Giving a response, Rias focused her attention on the books.
Because the Chat Group's translation function could automatically translate languages and also translate the grimoires through scanning, it was much more convenient for Rias to organize them.
After all, there were languages not only from the Flugel but also from various other races.
There were probably tens of thousands of books; organizing them would take at least two or three days, and the same applied to sending back the corresponding grimoires.
However, a simple check was no problem, and with Rias's cognitive abilities, she quickly discovered a rather troublesome point.
"The languages and contents of the books are chaotic, without a complete system."
Rias murmured to herself.
Some techniques that were as simple as breathing for the Flugel were very difficult for Rias to perform, especially since the systems were different.
"@Jibril, do you have a complete magical system?"
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