Ding! Congratulations, you have snuffed out the unlife of ‘Sentinel Ghost of Threewells by Darkwood’ Level 1! Bonus Exp was granted for ending a monster above your level!

I sniffled and held Bonesy close as I watched the ghost fade away. It was the third ghost I’d killed, the third that had responded to my friendly request with nothing but murder and meanness.

I had moved towards the main street of Threewells, or at least the street that bisected the town from one wall to the next. I tried to keep low and go slow, only poking my head up to peek into windows and try to spot any more ghosts. So far, I had been lucky.

The first few homes were normal enough, with little dining rooms and fireplaces and some quaint furniture. No plates on the tables or signs that people had left in a hurry, so whatever struck the town must have come with some warning.

The fourth house in the row was way larger, with thick double doors and a third floor under its peaked roof. A rusty sign out front hinted that it was a shop of some sort, but the sign was unreadable except for the design that was either a chimney or a well. Probably a well.

I stood up on tippy toes to see into the big window at the front, then dipped down when I caught sight of not one, but two ghosts floating around lazily within. “Oh no,” I whispered. “Bonesy, what do I do?”

“Rrrr.”

I was climbing back up to take another peek when a ghastly hand tore out of the wall and grabbed my face. Icy coldness seeped into me before I jerked my head back, but the grip was too strong.

Desperate for leverage, I put a foot against the wall and kicked off, tearing myself free of the ghost's grasp, but not without the burning hot sensation of three cuts across my face. I wanted to scream, but that would just make things worse.

I picked Bonesy from where it had rolled and spun to face my attackers.

The second ghost was coming out of the wall slowly, but the first, the one with the bloody hand, was almost out already. Moving through things slowed them down, which meant that this was my chance.

Bonesy swished through the first ghost with a gleeful ‘Rreee,’ then, after I had caught my balance again, I swiped the bone-topped staff through once more.

The ghost was looking worse for wear, but the attacks had taken time, and now it was joined by its brother. A glance around revealed a third ghost floating towards me from across the street.

I could have stood my ground and fought, but even with one ghost nearly re-dead I didn’t like my odds. I aimed for the nearest alleyway and ran.

If my sense of direction wasn’t completely off, it led to a spot near the hole in the wall where I had found Bonesy. I stumbled into the backyard of the large building and, after a glance to make sure it was ghostless, spun around.

The three ghosts were lined up now, all of them floating towards me with murder in their eyes.

I licked my lips and tasted the blood from my cheek. My cheek that the ghost’s hand had failed to pass through. I was magic.

Or magical enough that they couldn’t phase through me. Or they could unphase their hands for the purposes of chopping innocent teenagers up into bite-sized pieces.

I wasn’t going to test anything.

The first ghost arrived and was greeted with a smack from Bonesy. The ghost, already injured earlier, broke apart in a fine mist. Its brother ghosts didn’t seem to mind all that much, or maybe they were even angrier, but only had one angry facial expression to work with and couldn’t display their heightened rage.

I didn’t know and didn’t care. Bonesy swooshed through the next ghost, first down, then up, then down again. The ghost caught the haft, wood smacking into its hand a couple of feet above its translucent head.

I stared.

The ghost stared.

Bonesy stared at the wall.

With a crunch, the ghost crushed my spear, rendering it down to mere splinters where it had caught it. Then gravity did its thing and dragged Bonesy down through its ghostly body, killing it on the spot.

“Rrar,” Bonesy said, rejoicing in its victory.

“W-well done!” I said before the last ghost moved over Bonesy and completely blocked my path to my only weapons. “Ah, can we... negotiate? Please?”

The ghost didn’t care.

I could have run, but that would have meant abandoning Bonesy and also I wasn’t sure if the backyard had an exit or not, not unless I snuck back into the wall, then up to the second floor, then down the side of the tower again.

It was a bad idea. The ghost could cut me off at any moment.

Instead, I brought my haversack around, the one holding my showerhead, and held it out in front of me. “I’m sorry!” I shouted as I charged at the ghost.

As slow moving as it was, the ghost didn’t have time to so much as twitch before I rammed into him.

Cold. So very cold, but also wispy, like standing in front of an air conditioner with nothing on but an oversized t-shirt.

I shot through the ghost, suddenly meeting no resistance. Took two tumbling steps and tripped over Bonesy to land on the ground with a splat. Fortunately, I had my trusty haversack to break my fall. The sack that currently held the very sharp, very pointy showerhead glyph.

“Owie,” I whined. Turning around, I looked up in time to see the final ghost fade away into a cloud of whitish dust. “Oh, thank the stars,” I said.

Ding! Congratulations, you have caused three (3) enemies (‘Sentinel Ghost of Threewells by Darkwood’ Level 1! x3) to give up the ghost! Bonus Exp was granted for killing three (3) monsters above your level!

Bing Bong! Congratulations, your Cinnamon Bun class has reached level 1!

Stamina +5

Flexibility +5

You have gained: One Class Point

“A what?” I asked. Then a wash of heat running through my entire body distracted me for a moment. It was nice, like being tucked into bed by my mom and getting a warm kiss on the forehead from dad right after.

Still, the sensation faded a moment later and I decided that I had spent enough time staring at the sky as it appeared between two buildings. It was getting darker by the moment. I would need to find shelter soon.

But first...

Class Points: One

Class points are used to upgrade a Class Skill.

“O-kay?” I wasn’t going to waste that on cleaning just yet.

Bonesy was still stuck to a chunk of wood, but the weapon was now more of a mace than a staff or spear. That’s what I got for working with sub-par materials.

I walked through the streets with a bit more confidence. I now knew that I could run through ghosts to dispatch them. Sorta. Anyway, they were now on my level, literally. It didn’t help that I didn’t know how many there were in the town, but that didn’t matter.

I moved over to one of the smaller houses I had seen, one of three next to the big. I peek through the window, miraculously still intact, showing nothing of worth, so I pulled the door open.

The squeal of rusty hinges had me tensing, but nothing showed up to eat me. Instead, I found the inside of the house to be a horrible mess. There was a crate to one side, a bunch of things tossed into it, furniture was laying all over the place and the paint over one wall was discoloured as if a painting had been taken.

Looters, maybe? Or people packing up in a hurry?

The home was simple. Four rooms. A small kitchen, a dining area, and a bedroom along one side. There was even a small bathroom tucked away in a corner. It was all messy, horribly, horribly messy.

But I had a skill for that!

I found an old broom and even a feather duster laying around, as well as some soap in a little pan. The items in the house were in far better condition than those outside. Which wasn’t saying much, really, the place was moldy and dirty and drafty.

Still, I started cleaning and exploring. The blankets for the bed were flung out the back door and into a sort of bin I suspected was for composting, judging by the little garden space out back. Then I patted down the thin mattress and found it... usable, if barely. Then came the dusting and the broom and and the tossing out of trash, all done with a speed and ease that surprised me a little. Maybe that’s what a rank E in Cleaning really meant.

Cleaning

Rank E - 44%

I blinked at the rise in experience. It was getting close, and I still needed some essentials. Like food.

Screwing up my courage, I snuck out of the house and visited the neighbour’s place. It was in a much worse shape, the roof having caved in and obvious water damage ruining the floor. I didn’t do much, merely dusted a little, tossed out some things and searched for anything handy, but other than a fire poker that might have served as a non-anti-ghost weapon there wasn’t much.

The third house is where I struck gold. Or rather, silver.

This home was a bit bigger than the others, with a cellar below and a second bedroom within and a sort of little workshop in the back. The tools were all gone except for some gardening implements that were more rust than anything else.

The interior was still furnished. Chairs and tables and beds that still had sheets over them. The closets and chests hid some moth-eaten clothes and the little pantry next to the kitchen had some lumps that might have been bread at one time.

At the back were three jars, each filled with liquid gold. “Honey!” I squealed as I brought the glass jars closer. The orange-ish stuff within looked hard and it was heavy in my hands, but recognizable still. Some prying and sweating later and the jar opened with a pop. A sniff, then a lick proved it to be just that.

I resealed the jar and went back to searching, almost absentmindedly cleaning as I did so.

Everything that looked edible went onto a freshly wiped table. This place was nice. With few windows from which a monster or ghost could see me and enough stuff that I could pass the night.

Choice made, I got to cleaning, and it’s thanks to that that I found a loose floorboard. By the time I pried it open with a fire poker it was going dark outside, but not so much that I couldn’t marvel at the six pieces of silver I had found.

I was rich! Maybe.

Six silver, a fire poker, three medium-ish sized jars of honey, a jar of vinegar that I suspected was apple cider, three unopened bottles of wine and a block of what I hoped was salt wrapped in waxy paper. Not exactly a feast, but I retrieved a clean-ish spoon and took a few scrapes of honey. It was nice and sweet, but didn’t go so well with the sip of vinegar I tried.

I wasn’t going to starve, which was nice. I just had to make sure to survive the night.

I moved blankets over the windows where curtains once hung and made a nice bed for myself with the nicer bundles of clothes I could find in the middle of the living room. Bonesy kept me company, a thin cloth over his face serving to keep it quiet.

“Good night, Bonesy,” I said.

“Rrr,” the skull replied.

I laid down and thought of my adventure so far. Of discovering a tiny corner of a huge land and of fighting mean ghosts.

The smile wouldn’t keep off my face even as I fell asleep while faint glows appeared and faded beyond the windows of my tiny abode.