Is this ParaNormal?
Elijah dismissed the trial-announcing notification on reflex. A wall of white swept towards him. In the milliseconds the young man had to react, he realised that he wouldn’t be able to dodge. Holding up the Slime core that was still in his hand, he desperately tried to defend.
The attempt was useless. Before the sweeping shadow could touch him, the Slime’s core pixelized, then disappeared in a mist of square particles. The white engulfed Elijah. He braced for the pain he knew was coming. There was no pain. There was no pain? If anything, he only felt a slight cold breeze. Opening his eyes, he was greeted by a notification.
Mana Core: medium grade, has been added to your Inventory.
“I have an Inventory? Wait, why aren’t I dead?” Elijah wondered aloud. It was only then that the young man actually got a chance to look at his surroundings. He was enclosed by a horseshoe of long, rectangular tables bedecked in all the finery a mediaeval banquet required.
A full roasted pig was in the centre, piles of duck legs, mounds of vegetables, and boats filled with gravy surrounded it, creating a shrine to gluttony. None of it looked appealing. Everything was mouldy, covered in dust, and decorated with cobwebs. Elijah’s stomach rumbled despite the food's state. It had been too long since he’d eaten.
The sound drew his attention to the terrible wailing, which filled the gloom. Following his ears, Elijah spun around and found what had attacked him. There, floating in the air beneath a dark chandelier, was a ghostly woman. A massive dress plumed out around her.
No, she wasn’t just ghostly; she was a ghost! Her body was a smoky white with greyish blue undertones. Her eyes gleamed a sinister red. She sang a haunting aria as she spun about in the air, stretched her arms to each side revealing talon-like fingers, and swooped towards him.
It was strange seeing something so clearly human and yet so clearly not. He had spent too long alone; Elijah was slow to react. Using Dodge, he was able to escape the attack. Cups filled with stale wine crashed through the air as he hurtled over one of the dining tables and right into something bony.
Not bony; it was actual human bone. He had failed to notice; the food wasn’t the only thing rotting. The diners had been left to time. As he evaded one horror, he stumbled into another.
Elijah screamed as he untangled himself from the mummified corpse. This was too much! A shiver went down his spine. The wail of the ‘singing’ Ghost chased him from the hall.
He didn’t stop after running through the oaken doors. He didn’t slow as the screaming cry followed him down dank stone corridors. He didn’t cease when he came to yet another door with a grey light streaming from beneath it. He threw it open. Then, and only then, did Elijah finally stop.
He was forced to. There was only a short strip of muddy path in front of him, a single tree, then nothing but a dark navy void. This was a dead end!
Turning around, the sixteen-year-old expected to see the undead monster whose wails still shook his ears, only to realise that there was nothing save the corridor from which he exited. Nothing dogged his every step. The screaming he still heard was his own.
The world went quiet with the clicking sound of a jaw snapping shut. Too quiet. There was no sound whatsoever. It was as if the world had been muted. The great bluish-black void was the culprit; he could just feel it. The sound of his feet squelching in muck had its echo stolen as he spun around, trying to get a handle on himself.
Elijah looked up. He had exited the side of a grand mediaeval castle. He debated going back in, but the grotesque sight of that eyeless… the emptiness was preferable. At least it was not the all-consuming nothingness he was forced to endure between death and life. This place at least emitted an otherworldly light.
Shaken, Elijah slumped down against the tree on the cliff's edge and just sat there, recovering. Some time passed before he realised the Ghost was not going to suddenly appear. He could relax. Once in a better state of mind, he opened his notifications to see what he had missed.
The Trial of Evolution 1: Ghost
You have reached Lv 25 as a Ghost! Welcome to The Trial of Evolution: beat the Evolved Ghost to prove your right to undergo the first Evolution. A better performance in this trial will lead to a more powerful Evolution with stronger monster Skills and Traits.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
So he was right; it was a Ghost. Great! Elijah had always had a fear of the occult. He couldn’t leave for the bathroom at night without repeating, “I surrender, we surrender, I surrender,” under his breath. They were the words the characters in a certain TV show had to say to escape a long-dead mummy.
It helped assuage some of his worries, but nothing could get rid of the constant fear that he would hear, “Who turned out the lights?” Elijah shivered at the thought of that silent library. He reminded himself, “Focus on what’s in front of you.”
At the present moment, that was a System window. What was that about an Inventory? Sure enough, as soon as he had the thought, a new pop-up popped up, showing an inventory screen that one might see in any game. It had five categories he could select, his total encumbrance out of 80 (10 times his strength), and a gauge of how much silver (in lbs) he had, 0. That was just odd, who uses pounds of silver as a currency?
The weapon, armour, consumables, and quest items tabs were empty, but there was something listed under misc. Clicking it, Elijah came face to face with an exact digital replica of the Slimes mana core. Focusing on it, a description window appeared.
Misc:
Item: Mana Core: medium grade
Description: This is a Mana Core. It can be used as a source of mana, to recharge magical tools, to power enchantments, or as a potion ingredient. This Mana Core has come from an Evolved monster and has traces of acidic mana. Its capacity is medium.
Number: 1
Condition (%): 100
Mass (kg): 0.8
Value (lbs): 1.5
He focused on the object, and it appeared in his hand, only to slip right out thanks to his new Trait. It started to roll towards the edge. Elijah tried to will it back into his Inventory, but nothing happened. It was nearly gone forever when the young man was finally able to reach it with a Slimy finger. That was enough; the sphere turned into squares and particleized.
That was close! Elijah wiped the mucusy sweat off his brow and leaned back against the willow. He couldn’t bear to have lost the only thing that acted as proof of his ordeal. If he’d only known about his Inventory sooner, he wouldn’t be naked. He wouldn’t have lost the pen his grandmother had given him, a keepsake from her father.
It sucked, but he wasn’t going to beat himself up over it. In the last Trial he hadn’t exactly had the time to sit, think, and work his way through things.
After nearly an hour of playing about with the System in an attempt to distract himself from the thoughts that ran rampant in his head, Elijah found himself missing the constant action of the Slime Trial.
There wasn’t much more that the System could do. It tracked his glitchy Classes, Traits, and Skills. If he wanted, he could make a progress bar appear that showed how close Cerberus: Slasher was to levelling up, but that was about it. His Slime Class had remained at level 0 since he gained it after getting the Xp from killing the Trial boss.
There were a few cool tricks he could do with the Inventory system. The armour tab showed a 3D model of him, complete with shiny slime, and indicated armour slots, all of which were empty. The weapon tab did a similar thing. He could set a weapon to appear in his left or right hand if he had any.
Eventually, Elijah was unable to sit and stew in his thoughts any longer. Hunger had begun to gnaw at the inside of his gut, a sensation he had become completely unfamiliar with. Since he had come to this place, he had been satiated by the nourishment of death. At least it was warm here, next to a castle island, floating in nothing.
The kid readied himself whilst he stared at the door. He knew that the lead-up was the worst part, so he didn’t think of his fears as he pushed in. Bravery was one thing, stupidity another. Although Elijah had a phobia of all things supernatural, he didn’t try to combat it by launching back into the castle screaming.
His steps were soft, muffled by the strange power that suffused this place. The thick layer of dust that covered the walkways remained undisturbed as he moved. The young man’s head was on an oiled swivel, no squeaks.
His attention shifted quickly between one object and the next. From a tapestry of some long-forgotten war, the lines filled with spearmen, broken by the occasional hero wielding fire or lightning bolts, to a blood-red, sealed vase that gave off a sinister aura that had been put out on display.
Although this castle was long-abandoned, plaster melted off the walls, and the smell of mould stagnated the air; it felt more alive than the empty husks Elijah had visited on school trips. The wear on the carpets, the scuff marks behind doors, and the presence of curtains on the arrow slits - all of it made the place feel lived in.
Or at least, lived in at some point. There was the ever-present feeling of death hanging in the air. Elijah retraced his steps with care. At first, he had not wanted to go anywhere near the horror show that was the great hall, but he had to know, for sure, where the Ghost was.
His suspicions were all but verified as he drew closer to the hall. The faint sound of mournful, off-key singing growing louder told him that she had never left the starting room.
Elijah stood around the corner from the hall for a few minutes to ensure that the monster wasn’t moving. She wasn’t. At least her voice seemed to come from only one direction. He didn’t dare draw close enough to actually see her, for fear that he in turn would be seen.
As he stood there, taking slow, shallow breaths and listening to the ghostly melody, he found that, despite himself, he was intrigued by this paranormal creature.
Had she ever been human? How had she ended up here? Why was she singing?
Quest Unlocked!
Quest: Nimueh’s Revenge
Objective:
- Uncover the reason for the Lady of the Lake’s death.
Rewards:
A better understanding of magic.
Accept Quest? Yes/No
patrons: