Dew

Suddenly it felt like fire was ripping apart my face and the black hear under my eye began burning before expanding with a rush of thick and tangible black smoke. That same smoke conformed about my face like a triangular stage mask with a rounded point for a chin. Then the eyes formed and I could see, once again in a strangely panoramic view that also contained myself.

Whereas Melpomene's mask was white with empty black features, my mask flowing smoky mask was black with empty white frown and saddened eyes. However, the heart on this mask was solid like Melpomene's but white like the other features of my mask.

[All stats raised by 20 for: The Duration]

Even the sword I pointed forward now drizzled smoke outward in wavering lines in every direction. "Even if you could kill me in this form, I would only come back," I warn the spirit who was taking up a lowered stance in defensive preparation to either lunge or retreat. "Again and again, this Traveler will just find his way right back to you. And when he's done with you, he'll just go find a new batch of Cordycep Animatum to evolve himself with all over again."

"I believe in the gods, not Travelers," Dew states simply, lunging forward with a downward slash of his sword arm. His arm met my sword for all of a fraction of a second before passing through, revealing where his confidence came from. However, my sword responded to ghost blade with a Geist blade.

Surprised by this turn of events as his arm was thrown back away from me, Dew retreats several steps back before racing around me in a circle while floating and lowering himself in his search for an easy opening. Pretending to rush to one side for a thrust, I wait for Dew to make a move from the opposite side. "360 Geist!" I call out, spending no small amount of the mana I had replenished to release a sudden flurry of eleven swirling ghost blades.

A black health bar suddenly appeared over Dew's head as my combo counter appeared and rose to three before he was finally shoved clear of the recently enhanced Geists. "Thought it would be that simple, did you?" I ask with a smile in my voice as I rush forward to abuse my combo counter, having taken fifteen-percent of the ghost's… health with only three Geists.

The ghost tried to meet me with a committed thrust of its arm and body, but with my currently increased stats it was only too simple to sidestep into a spin around him "360 Geist!" My combo counter reached seven before Dew was once again tossed aside by my compounding ghostly knockbacks. As well, his health was now much closer to half.

However, why would fighting a ghost remain so simple?

Instead of continuing to fight me on the ground, Dew soon rose up about fifteen feet into the air before slashing his sword through the air.

[Learned Skill: Spirit Slash]

[+25XP]

[Spirit Slash Uninitiated: After witnessing a new use for what you have termed Spiritually Magnetic Pulses, you can now replicate the attack. For 5MP per (10)ft of distance, you can land an armor-ignorant cutting attack worth (50)% true damage]

The first blurred crescent of cutting energy came as a surprise that almost took a little off the top. Of my neck. However, a Spirit Slash of its own spread out from my sword as a ghostly version of Midnight Hauntings slashed out with an arm of its own that stretched out from MY shoulder.

Both crescents clashed in the air and the one cast by Geist quickly dissipated but not long afterward so did Dew's. "I see… not only do you possess the Cordyceps, you have also possessed yourself with some poor spirit. Do you know no shame? Had it been me it would be one thing, but to enthrall a spirit without the ability to understand or resist… shame on you and your house."

"Did you just talk shit about my Delai family?" I ask in mock surprise and offense. "Listen here, you right proper twat, you can think and say what you like about me but the moment anything about m'lady leaves your mouth as anything but a compliment is the moment you fucked up.

"Secondly, you ignorantly assuming bore," I continue even as he casts another Spirit Slash that I meet in the air with two of my own. "Geist inhabits my sword of their own choice! They were a classless adventurer just like me who died in the line of duty trying to save m'lady. When I got there and found them, it was too late, but they still remained in their rapier and dirk when I reforged them and here you have my sword."

Continuing to exchange slashes with the ghost as I naturally generate one every two seconds, I suddenly wish I had decided to make more potions BEFORE summoning spirits to deplete my mana to use potions for. However, as long as I kept talking the ghost almost seemed honor-bound to respect the unwritten rules of dialogue. Of course, he still threw a slash every now and then but only one every few seconds.

"Don't you remember when I summoned you and the other spirits?" I persist as if trying to plead my character. "I could have fed all of you to the spirit in my sword as I make them stronger and, one day, coherent! Instead, I checked first. I made sure none of the spirits were coherent and when I found you I asked you if you needed help or closure. What kind of man do you take me for simply because I possess a power you do not?"

Instead of insulting and berating the ghost, questioning and stirring its logic seemed to have a much better effect because he actually seemed to stop and think. However, he still slashed out and argued, "How is it you found the lodge? How is it you happen to be an alchemist knowledgeable enough to use cold to weaken the parasites and then transmute them? Now that you ask me these questions about you, answer mine. Why is it all so convenient?"

Leaping forward into a 360 Edge and Spirit Slash that unleashed a spinning circle of cutting spiritual mana through the air. This time, it was Dew's responding slash that broke first before mine dissipated only a foot or two away from him. I had proven some of my strength with that attack and he retreated a few yards back through the air.

"If I wanted to, I could have used all my mana to end you in that attack," I warn the ghost. "But, I don't want to kill you. Again. I'm not that kind of person. And the only reason it's convenient is because that's the only way you will let yourself see it! I'm not even a powerful alchemist, my level is thirty and all of my alchemy skills are under twenty. I just happen to know most traveling diseases struggle to function in the cold. Everything dies by fire or ice unless it's made of fire or ice!"

Shaking his head, Dew unleashed a Spirit Slash with more substance than anything either of us had yet to make, streaking through the air and three of my own slashes before passing through my body for twenty-percent of my health. However, mine was not the only health bar to take a hit. A second smaller bar appeared below mine and emptied out.

It was Geist's.

"You say these things like I am simply supposed to believe you without question," Dew states in an almost irritable fashion. "No matter what, you are a threat and my honor as a Righteous paladin will not let me rest until that threat- ah, you finally understand," he says as if in relief as I sheathed Midnight Hauntings.

Once the sword was sheathed, the second health bar appeared above the sheathed weapon and slowly started refilling now that it was removed from combat. "No, I'm not giving up," I inform the ghost as I draw a Gilded Elder Bokuto from from an empty satchel pocket on my belt. "That last attack turned out to be able to hurt my companion. I don't mind risking my life, but not someone else. Also, when my paladin found out about the parasites he was pissed that he could not have any for himself. He's Righteous alignment, just like you."

"His god does not compel him to kill you?" Dew asks uncertainly. "I fail to recognize such a god as Righteous."

[It was about at this moment when Dew realized something important. He just fucked up]

Thunder rumbled and the sky suddenly darkened with dense black clouds. Every boom of thunder that lacked a preceding flash of lightning shook the world with a mana not unlike the spiritual energy we were attack with. However, this mana was vastly richer and far more infinite in its power as both Dew and I were oppressed to our hands and knees on the ground.

Then, a single tiny black bolt of lightning streaked down from the sky and struck Dew in the back of his head with a thunderous boom of sound and energy the cratered the ground around us without ever moving our bodies from the ground. Despite this devastating power, though, Dew was left with exactly one percent of his health. Then the sky quietly cleared.

"I repeat, think or say what you like about me but don't dare to disrespect my people," I say as I shakily but defiantly climbed to my feet as the ghost's entire existence flickered transparently. "You were nothing but a man in life and now you're not even that, who are you to claim to recognize even the shadow of divinity? Now, I will give you a choice. You may follow me and my people to ensure that I do not misuse my powers instead of simply trying to kill me like an idiot. Or, you can die. Again."

"If I said no?" Dew asks defiantly while slowly pushing himself up to his feet and extending his hand into another blade. This one, though, was little more than a broad dagger. "I still have my honor."

"Then follow my paladin," I reply calmly, pocketing the Gilded Elder Bokuto with a shrug. "All of my familiar slots are filled up, anyway. Follow my paladin and teach him about the honor and dignity of a paladin. The gods only know he needs it. We're a strange group but we don't discriminate and we're all good people in our own ways."

Lifting his head up toward the sky, Dew seems to think about it for a while before finally saying, "Your group sounds interesting… I will see for myself what kind of people you are."

Not long after that, Go logged back in while I was hard at work grinding new combinations of plants to make mana replenishing potions. I already had one pot of 'teabags' brewing the basic concoction and I was currently working on preparing the next set of teabags. Dew was sitting beside the fire staring silently into the flames as if divining answers.

Without a face.

"Oh, what the hell is this," Go groans as he walks up and fearlessly pokes at Dew. "I was eating dinner and used the bathroom. That's all! What did you do this time?!"

"Don't look at me," I reply with mock innocence, looking hurriedly down at my work. "That ghost belongs to Papi, I don't know what to tell you besides 'it happened'."

"Shit. Happen," Hermes agrees from where he lounged on his lizard's back, a spot he had been in even while I was fighting. Apparently, Conan's logic about my prank was actually flawed.

"Papi… caught a ghost?" Go asks curiously, looking impressed as he waves his hand in front of the ghost's face. "Not bad… did you summon it for him? Can you do it again?"

"Yes and not here," I reply frankly. "The chances of finding a coherent one? Slimmer than the average female player character's waistline. Oh, and Papi doesn't actually know about it yet so try not to-"

"GOD DAMMIT, LEO," Go suddenly shouts as he realizes I had been screwing around again. "What title did you get this time? What special powers? I bet that's not even a ghost bust the avatar of a god you're trying to pass off as a ghost."

"No, no, I'm no god," Dew says quickly while looking up at the sky, reacting to his surroundings for the first time since he had sat down. "I used to be a paladin and died in holy service, that's all we need to say anymore. I have agreed to follow the friend you all call Papi and help to educate him as a paladin. I know nothing about Cordyceps."

"What does he have to do with your STD?" Go sighs suddenly, walking over to look down at me while I was hard at work draining my bowl into a plate of meats and health syrup.

"His spirit is part of the backstory, but he's a good guy who stopped a giant plague from sweeping the land," I assure him quickly when Go starts frowning. "I would say he's a package deal, or at least my potential for his or a spirit like his was raised by my interaction with the parasites, but I don't know for sure how that works. Ask Conan, he probably knows."

Go did not say anything for a while but then he eventually sat down and said, "You know you can do most of that in your inventory, right?"

"My health potions are only two thirds potions," I say with a shrug. "The other third is fruit juice, but not only does my health potion heal only fifty less than Oleander's it also has a mild detoxification effect. On top of flavor. If I prepare my ingredients in my inventory, do you think it would come out the same?"

"Knowing you, no," he replies with barely a second of pause after my own words. "Since it's you, if you made something in your inventory space it would probably open an interdimensional rift in space-time that somehow brings the game to reality and we'd have a paladin ghost sitting at a campfire in your bedroom. No, close it," he snaps quickly when I start opening my menus.

"No fun," I pout almost like Lana had when I ignored her flirting at the Elder Oak. "Seriously, though, making things by hand is part of the Craftiest benefits. The benefits are only as good as Craftier if I use the inventory or help systems. If you guys did it, there's every possibility you would eventually get the Craftiest upgrade simply because it exists."

"You dad called me," Go says suddenly to change the topic.

"Yeah, I told the others we'd be camping here today," I reply, already knowing what he was getting at. "He already gave me this big pep talk about how I'm top rank for Imperial Reputation and opportunity is knocking. So, I started training my psychic powers and learned a spiritual attack skill from that ghost. Today, We're all going to focus on stuff like kobold and giant spider achievements. You're with me, everyone else can split up into two teams and hunt on their own. Dew will watch the wagons for us."

"His name is-" Go starts to ask.

"His middle name is the only part he remembers," I reply without even bothering to hide my disappointment. "Luckily, Dew will be Papi's ghost. Go get your shit together."

Not long after that Ivana and the other first shift of people to log out started logging back in. however, it was still another two hours before everybody was back together just before noon. Then, everybody was given their teams and assignments before being sent out into the world.

*