Once we got down to the treasury it was even more apparent that we had hit the jackpot. The place was wall to wall with impressive looking stuff, though granted based on Impact a not insignificant portion of the treasures were just mortal crap. Still, I pulled the backpack with the spatial box off my back, ready to grab as much as we could carry. Callie looked just as starstruck by all the loot as I was, to the point where she was almost bouncing with glee. When she saw me pull out the bag she grinned. "Isn't that thing the coolest?"

It was. The idea of having a spatial container of our own was amazing. Granted it was kind of bulky, but with the backpack it was basically just a spatial bag with an annoying shape. "Definitely. I've been wanting a spatial container since I heard about them, sucks the small ones are so expensive. Even this thing is worth more than I've ever even seen in my life, not to mention a ring or necklace. I wonder what rank we'll be before we have enough to be able to afford to outfit everyone with one of those things?"

Callie just shrugged. "Depends on the planet I think. I hear they're easier to get on larger scale worlds. On a D rank world they would be easier to get I assume. Given the gravity on one of those though we would barely be able to walk around. F ranks and higher on those planets from what I've heard. The damn things are like ten times the size of a normal planetary body and it massively increases the gravitational pull. Still, great places to shop at least. Now, go get the Bone Goblet and Corpse Eating Grass while I try to figure out if the rest of this is useful or worth anything. And for the revenants sake-"

I rolled my eyes. "Don't touch anything directly. Yes dear, I know. We've been looting everything that isn't tied down since we got here. Also some things that were tied down. And the ties they used to secure them. Man, we might have a kleptomania problem. This would be really concerning people if we weren't robbing dead people." I paused. "I'm going to try not to think to hard about that last sentence actually. Getting the materials for the list." I shook off that train of thought and headed over to the pedestals with the things we needed.

Ignoring the giggles from my girlfriend as I blatantly ignored the red flag that was essentially becoming grave robbers, I headed to the Bone Goblet first. The pedestal the goblet was on was a column rising up from a massive pile of gold coins. The dark stone ended in a flat platform atop the stone, clutched on all sides by skeletal fingers from four different carved skeletal hands. The goblet sat unassumingly on the flat surface, just waiting to be grabbed, and I could see why Callie felt the need to warn me. It was pretty tempting to just snatch the thing up and toss it in the bag.

Since I was pretty sure that was a bad idea even if there was no security or anything (the whole picture just screamed cursed object) I opened the bag and the box inside and set it down next to the column before pulling a rock from my pocket and chucking the stone at the goblet, knocking it over and directly into the waiting bag. I silently thanked my past self for seeing that cool rounded pebble in a creek bed and deciding to pick it up and considered going to find it before deciding it was a lost cause and moving on to the pot of grass.

It struck me that trying to steal a pot of grass from a ghost castle was something I legitimately never considered I would ever be doing and I had to grin a bit. My life really had gotten weird. I slapped the box down over the pot directly without touching it this time since there hadn't been a problem with the goblet, and sure enough, no response. I refastened the backpack and slung it back over my shoulder, heading over to where Callie was standing next to yet another platform, staring down at a small dark object.

As I drew closed I was able to see it better, and I realized it was a vial of dark liquid. The vial was capped with bronze on either end and sealed with dark red wax. Callie was gazing at it seriously, clearly caught up in whatever the substance was. I stopped next to her. "Is that some kind of magic potion or poison? Maybe the Lichs one weakness or something?Because whatever is in the looks important." My bet was on some kind of super powerful blood potion that would make the drinker jump up twenty points or something.

Callie stared for a minute before jumping a bit as if she hadn't noticed me. "What? Oh no that's blood. Just the normal kind you take from a person. It's not valuable to us at all. The vial it's in however...it's called a life puppet flask. You pour the blood of someone G rank or lower into it and you can force them to rise when they sleep and follow your orders." She shook her head with a grimace. "Necromancers. Still, might be useful to have around, if only to make sure no one else gets their hands on it. I think the Cult has had quite enough mind control tricks."

I nodded and scooped it into the pack without touching it. "So, anything a little less creepy in here? I know its a ghost castle but does everything have to be all morbid and dark? Like ghosts can't own things unless they look like they belong to a disaffected poet in a frilly shirt? Ooooh skull cane!" Callie rolled her eyes at me as I bolted over to a new pedestal, staring down in fascination at the awesome looking dark wood cane with the silver ruby eyed skull for a head. It had intricate carvings up and down the length. I turned to her as she came over. "What does this one do?"

That got me a glare. "I'm not an encyclopedia Shane, I can't just tell you what every random artifact does and where it came from. Just because I did some research doesn't mean I'm a convenient source of info for every time we come across something useful. It's a cane covered with weird symbols. Just put it in the box and move on, we don't have time for this." That was a fair criticism, I just shrugged and stowed the thing away. She was probably right anyway, I needed to start reading up on this stuff myself instead of expecting her to do it every time.

The rest of the columns we didn't bother with talking about, we just shoved everything into the box. We still avoided touching anything of course, but Callie was right about not having much time. The pedestals were all covered with some weird stuff. An hourglass, a glass box with a hand in it, a dagger, a red crystal butterfly, a rose made of black rock, a pair of gaudy emerald earrings, and a small wooden hammer like a judge would use. We stuffed everything inside, a bit bummed there was no other herbs to take and then grabbed a couple of H rank weapons from the gold piles until the box was full.

I expected it to get heavier when we put all that stuff in, but in the end nothing happened. Probably for the best because I wasn't entirely sure I could have managed to keep the bag from breaking under any more weight. While I had the Might to carry all that stuff, having to hold it in my arms would have really screwed with our exit plan. Once we were packed up we headed to the column and back up to the balcony. "Ok, we're down to twenty one things on the list right? Anything else we can score in this place or are we good to go?"

Callie just shook her head. "No, we can leave. I officially want to get the hell out of here. Now that there's no treasure left to take this place is starting to get creepy." Which was fair. I wasn't a huge fan of the decor either. The blue flames of the torches were flickering eerily across the dark stone, and knowing there were literal ghosts around didn't help. It wasn't scary or anything, but it was consistently unsettling and honestly it was starting to make me a little queasy. We made it back down to the entry room easily enough, taking the door to the catwalk and then heading back down the column to the secret door in the back corner of the room.

We had to sneak out of the room to avoid the Dullahans standing guard, but we made it to the hallway easily enough from the back corner. Once we were outside we looked around slowly to confirm our exit and started our trek out. The sneaking was slow and boring, but it saved us from having to engage the enemy, so we weren't complaining. I drew close to Callie. "Ok, we should try to rush it a bit. Even if they didn't see us go in there's no way someone won't go in there eventually. It's obvious that things were taken, so don't want to be around when they notice."

She nodded solemnly and we picked up the pace, still moving slow enough to be stealthy but completely unwilling to go at less that the fastest speed possible. It was thirty minutes later and three quarters of the way back to when we came in when we heard a series of rattling bangs coming down the hall. I was about to use Seek Hidden, but it became unnecessary when the lumbering forms of four massive Dullahans came barreling around the corner, followed by a veritable parade of ghosts.

The paused at the entrance to the hallway and I froze in place. "I'm pretty sure this answers the whole 'can the Dullahans see us question. Run!" I grabbed Callie's hand and we broke stealth, taking off full speed down the hall. Full speed for us was...fast. I expected to lose them quick, but those Dullahans were pretty stacked in Might, and despite their huge size they moved pretty fucking quickly, not to mention the ghosts who could pass through walls and were hot on their tails. I looked at Callie's eyes, relieved to see she still had the green glow of life energy. They couldn't see us, but they could follow the Dullahans that could.

We used the turns to our advantage, and I activated Afterburner exploding out with power to keep up with my girlfriend so she didn't have to wait up for me. Finally we made it back up to the roof, where a ghostly wail had tipped off the gargoyles, who were even now turning to stare at us menacingly. As we approached the wall I screamed. "Do you trust me?" This next part wasn't exactly optimal but I at least wanted to make sure she had some warning. "Because this is going to be pretty crazy."

Her eyes widened. "Yes of course, but Shane, you were supposed to lower us down with the rope before we jumped. Even with the reduced falling speed the impact of the landing might break our legs!" I didn't have time to respond as I grabbed her and swept her up into a princess carry, activating Leaf in the Wind as I hurled myself off the edge of the castle and into open air. Callie screamed and clung to me as I activated the skill, pushing it to cover us both. I wasn't worried though as we started to plummet, albeit at a reduced rate. I had a plan.