On our eighty-seventh day in the maze, I was continuing with my morning routine when Amelia approached me with some interesting news.
A ghost...
He said he hadn't been able to find anything when he checked, but since there were quite a few witnesses, we couldn't ignore the reports either.
Amelia told me that, excluding her, all the other members of the security team had seen a ghost at least once during their guard, so I summoned them all for a brief meeting.
«I felt a chill and turned to look in that direction, and something with white hair stared back at me.».
Starting with Mihail Lectus, the man who had been part of the palace's investigation department, I heard everyone's ghostly testimonies, but surprisingly, it seemed like everyone had seen a different one.
«What I saw was a beast-type monster with protruding fangs...»
«Mine was a little different... He was a man who seemed to wear rags. His eyes were completely black and he cried tears of blood staring at me.»
«The thing I saw looked like a slime. It oozed onto the ground as if it had melted on top of him, and slowly crawled towards me in the darkness. But when I rubbed my eyes, it disappeared. Honestly, I thought I had hallucinated him because of fatigue».
Each of them had seen very different things. However, there was a similarity between all of them: the moment they took their eyes off them, even for just a moment, the ghosts disappeared without a trace.
«Did all this happen yesterday?»
«No, everyone saw them on different days. Lectus alerted me after his guard last night, so I asked around and found that everyone except me saw something similar at least once.»
I see. In that case...
As I scratched my chin thoughtfully, I heard a screech next to me.
Crunch, crunch, crash!
When I turned to look, I realized that the sound was coming from Ainar's jaw. Barbarians used to gnash their teeth when they were afraid.
«A ff-ghost... Isn't it dangerous...?».
Now that she thought about it, Ainar had been terrified of things like that since she had known her. No, really, most of the barbarians were the same. They had an instinctive aversion to spirit-type monsters, and some of them even feared them outright, like her.
At one point, I was fascinated by this trait and asked Raven about it, and she gave me this explanation: it's in the blood of barbarians.
In other words, they may have had information about a natural predator immune to physical attacks encoded in their own genes. Considering that barbarians were so dependent on their instincts, he said that could be the reason the trait was seen in so many different people.
Well, that didn't matter now.
«This is suspicious», I muttered to myself.
«Hmm? Fish?» Ainar looked around, sniffing. «Fish like meat...?»
Was his desire for meat stronger than his fear of ghosts?
I would never understand it, but I decided to let it go. Anyway, that's not what I meant by fish.
The meat is good too... but there were some things out there that were even tastier than the meat.
And what I was smelling was one of those things.
Un hidden element.
Any self-respecting Dungeon and Stone player has a gut instinct for these things, so when I heard about these ghosts, I smelled it right away.
Trago.
The sweet and honeyed aroma of a hidden element. And a strong smell.
***
In this world, the hidden elements were called the Gabrielius Achievements. As someone who had found quite a few hidden items over the years, I immediately got to work. What I needed now was information, a lot of information that I could consolidate into tangible data.
«...Time?»
«It was around one in the morning».
«I was on the first watch... so it was around eleven at night.»
When I asked the people who had seen the ghost, they all said they had seen it between eleven at night and three in the morning.
Was it just a coincidence?
Not even remotely.
So the ghost of the library appeared between eleven and three in the morning.
«There! There. He looked at me from there».
«I saw mine on the shelf...»
«I saw one on the stairs that lead outside».
And the location seemed random.
Hmm, I guess it's not so much that it's random as that it has free reach of the entire library.
«Sir, do you think that ghost could be an achievement of Gabrielius?». Erwen asked, her face full of curiosity as I began my thorough investigation. She wasn't the only one either.
«Yes, for now».
The eyes of all the adventurers around us began to shine.
«¡Un logro de Gabrielius!»
«¡Es true!»
The members of the Armin Adventurer Group, who were professionals in searching for hidden items, and the members of the Hektz Clan lit up excitedly.
What adventurer could hold back at a time like this?
«So... If we find that ghost, can we get the treasure? I've heard that everyone who finds an achievement ends up rich». Even Ainar, who was afraid of ghosts, revealed a little of his true feelings.
Although that didn't mean that everyone was consumed by greed.
One person was not. And she was the only one who approached me and expressed her concern.
«Yandel, I think it would be dangerous to assume that this is positive..»
It was Amelia Rainwales, my companion through time itself.
«Dangerous?»
«Yeah. I think you're being unusually optimistic about all of this».
Ah, I could understand what he meant. Truth be told, when I first heard about this ghost, it occurred to me that maybe it was some kind of fly on the wall sent here by someone and that we had only ended up noticing by chance.
The village chief, for example.
After all, on the first day of our return to Library Island, the captain of the Silver Lion Clan used Emergency Evasion against us.
Blindly treating the existence of this ghost as a good thing was by no means smart. Even if it wasn't connected to the boss, there was no guarantee it would be «good» for us at all.
«Emily, I understand what you're trying to say. But I'm being pretty cautious, so don't worry».
«...If you say so. Understood.»
«Yeah. Thanks for talking to me.»
My gut was still telling me that this ghost was connected to a hidden element, but I decided to heed Amelia's warning and be a little more cautious. It was always better to be prepared for the worst case scenario.
And by nightfall... I will know what scenario we are facing.
After coming to that conclusion, I got to work and spent the day summoning and killing monsters. We rested only what was necessary, but unfortunately, today we did not achieve anything good.
Just a rank four essence that we can't even use...
Normally, something like that would have been considered valuable enough to put on a magic vial, but now we were at a point where we couldn't be satisfied with small victories like this.
Tsk.
The biggest shame was that we were lucky enough to find and kill two other Bellarios, but neither dropped an essence. Still, at our current rate, I'm sure I'd get one before I left the basement. The higher we got on the shelves, the more books we could get.
In any case, what do I do with the last remaining essence slot?
It had two empty essence spaces. One of them was reserved for Bellarios' essence, and since I planned to use a Hipramajent essence to replace my Orc Hero essence later, that one didn't count.
I took my time reflecting on what my ultimate essence should be.
Actually, the last slot wouldn't be full for long. I felt that having the maximum number of essences could help me in my fight against the village chief, but it wasn't like I could get any of my final essences right now. Unless another eighth-floor Rift Keeper like Milayel showed up here again, no matter what he picked up, he would have to delete it in a few months.
...I will keep it in mind when new essences fall. It's not that you need to make a decision right away.
It would have been a different matter if I hadn't gotten the Aegis Wall, but since I now had my final shield, facing the village chief didn't seem like such a worrying prospect to me. I stopped thinking about that.
Tick, tock.
The day was over and we started camping in the library, as usual.
[23:00]
Night had arrived. Normally, at eleven at night, everyone except our squad's security team was sleeping and recharging, but there were a lot more people awake tonight.
«An achievement of the Great Sage...»
«Do you think it really is?»
«Even if it's not, I'm curious. It could be a clue to help us get out of this place.»
The other adventurers were awake and talking like school kids excited about a field trip the next day.
Hey, go to sleep.
«Stop talking and close your eyes! It may not appear if too many people are awake».
Then I scolded those who were still awake, and the library quickly calmed down. Oh right, that just meant they had stopped talking. They were far from silent.
Roncaban!
Honk, shoo, honk.
Dozens of adventurers snored at different volumes.
«Everyone seems to be asleep».
«So what are you going to do now?»
«There is only one thing to do. Look around you and try to find it».
After checking that everyone was sleeping, I grabbed Amelia and Versyl and patrolled the area.
«So... do we have to continue doing this until three in the morning?». Versyl asked after an hour of wandering around without finding anything. But I didn't get the feeling that he was asking because he had some problem with being trapped on patrol. «How have you been these days, Mr. Yandel?».
Instead, it was just that he was getting bored of walking silently. Since I thought the same, I accepted his attempt at a talk.
What do you mean by «these days»? asked.
«In general. Others are curious too».
«Why are you curious?».
Versyl looked at Amelia, who was patrolling alone a short distance away, before whispering: «So who is it?».
«A little more context, please».
«Gosh... you know what I'm talking about».
Well, that was true. I wasn't completely confused.
I smiled satisfied and answered: «Nobody».
«That? Really? I don't know about the others, but I thought you were dating Miss Raines».
«No way. We are just comrades».
«Heh... Is that so?». Versyl said, her tone hinting that she didn't believe me before offering another name. «So what about Miss Karlstein? I've noticed that the time you spend together has increased a lot lately.»
«Not at all». It's just that things between us were finally getting less awkward. That's why lately the time we spent talking had increased. Most were trivial conversations, such as about the taste of food and his insistence that he should eat more vegetables.
«Everyone has been watching very closely, I guess. She is the only ex of the famous Lord Baron, after all».
Huh. After spending so much time in the maze, it seemed like everyone was entertained by even the most insignificant things.
At first I liked a little talk to help get through our patrol car, but I didn't want to talk about such a tense topic, so I ended things there. «Let's calm down. Everyone is still sleeping». Tomorrow we also had to work hard, so we had to let our precious combatants rest as much as possible.
There was great silence. But what...? Why don't you say anything? Are you angry because I told you to shut up?
«...Sr. Sandal».
I turned to Versyl and saw that he was no longer behind me, but had stopped a few meters away. When he spoke, he barely moved his lips, almost like a ventriloquist. «There», he whispered. «There». He looked at me from the front, his eyes barely moving to the side to show me the direction. I, for one, kept my body just as still and only moved my eyes to look.
«Right?», he stammered. «H-that's the ghost the night guard was talking about».
«Hmm, I'm not too sure, but I guess it's worth checking».
«...It's quite scary. No one mentioned it would look so scary».
I couldn't help but tilt my head at those words.
Does it look terrifying...?
It seemed like Versyl and I were seeing two completely different things.
How interesting.
All I saw was a little mouse.
***
The mysterious creature that lived in the library appeared between eleven at night and three in the morning, and everyone who looked at it saw something different. Although it was an enigma in many ways, capturing it was not particularly difficult.
[You have cast the Eye of the Storm. By the authority of the transcendental body, the potential inherent in this ability is now unlocked].
He flew straight towards me with a grappling attack.
¿Squeak? ¡S-Squeak!
It was so small that I could hold it in one hand without even using the gigantization.
Squeak! Screech! Screech!
As the mouse writhed in my hand, screeching frantically, it began to become transparent. I almost fell in surprise.
[Versyl Gowland has cast the Materialization curse spell.]
However, thanks to Versyl's mental quickness, the mouse's body returned to normal.
«What was that sound...?» Amelia ran over, alerted by the commotion, before frowning at me. «Yandel, what do you have in your hand?».
«Well, what do you think?».
«...It's something that seems very soft and disgusting».
«¿And serio? ¿Y tú, Versyl?»
«He's a man covered in grime... He looks suspiciously like someone I know».
«Someone you know...?»
«You wouldn't know him.»
Hmm, or veo...
¡S-Squeak! ¡Squeak! ¡Squeak!
I looked at the thing in my hand again. No matter how I looked at it, it was a normal mouse. Or, well, if I had to describe it, I'd say it looked a lot like a hamster standing on two legs. The only difference was that it was quite large compared to a land hamster. This thing made a normal hamster look like a dwarf in comparison.
¡Squeak! ¡Squeak! ¡Chillido!
It was also a little nice how he tried, but I brushed my thoughts aside. We had things to do.
«For now, we must wake up ... Oh, everyone. »
It seemed like most of the group had woken up from the noise and were now looking in my direction.
«...Is that the ghost?»
«It's as scary as they said.»
«If I only saw that thing in the middle of the night, I would have had a heart attack...»
Ignoring their various reactions, I headed to the center of the library with the mouse-hamster in my hand.
Touch.
Next, I placed the mouse over the altar on which we had been placing the summoning books.
«...I guess it's not here».
Unfortunately, the altar did not react at all.
¡Squ-Squeak! ¡Squeak! ¡Squeeeak!
That meant I had two options left.
One: simply kill him.
Two: cast distortion magic on him and kill him.
Which option should I try?
Since we only had one ghost to work with, this was an important decision.
¡Squeak! ¡Squeak! ¡Squeeeak!
I let my thoughts wander as I began to tie the mouse to the altar like the lab rat it was.
«(Evil creature! Let me go now! Let me go!)»
But then, the mouse began to speak.