"Hey, I know who this ghost is...used to be." - Garami

While the floating tophat was staring us down, I told Mira what I had discovered.

"For real? Who?" - Mira

"Just look at the cards. They're grouped into poker hands. Plus the dice attack from before resulted in snake eyes." - Garami

"I know that much! This guy has been constantly harassing my gambling abilities with these tricks! Stop working me up! My anger is already running at full force here!" - Mira

Eh? That is the reason why Mira found the hat "irritating"?

"No, that's not what it means...I think. It's prolly the hat, or rather the ghost possessing the hat who has such bad luck with gambling that these occurrences happened." - Garami

Listening to me, the hat started to glow red while fumes came out from the top. I think I struck a nerve there.

"So this guy's the ghost of the worst gambler in history or something?" - Mira

"I'd bet my wallet on that. And it's someone we both know. A person who used to live in this region, who is infamous for their bad luck and obsession with gambling..." - Garami

"...! No way! You don't mean-!" - Mira

"That's the guy. Deadroll Jim! We know that's you!" - Garami

I shouted the name of Velantas' most infamous gambler, which caused the hat to start shouting using the hole as a mouth.

"SHUT UUUUUPPP! THOSE DICE WERE LOADED, THEY HAD TO BE!! I WAS NOT IN THE WRONG!! I WAS WINNING BACK THERE! I WON, I WON, IWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWONIWON, I ****ING WON!!!" - Hat

"Y-yikes. He's not a ghost, but a bonafide vengeful spirit!" - Garami

"I better be careful not to end up like that..." - Mira

Deadroll Jim's ghost(?) kept on shouting like a madman while making giant dice appear around him before launching them with whatever poltergeist telekinesis he may possess. However, yet again, none of the dice ever came close to hitting us.

"*Meooooow~* (Foolish people will never be worth anything more than my food openers)." - Milo

The very thing this vengeful spirits wished for, a luck bringer, is what is causing his gambling-related attacks to completely fail. Mwa-hahaha! But risking everything on pure luck would make me no better than that guy. While it MAY work, this guy got a horrible aim to compliment his luck, this is a matter of pride. Let's take him down a notch.

And I will make this clear beforehand, this is NOT because I'm pissed off by this guy being the potential mastermind. No, sire! .........I'M GONNA SEND THIS GHOST BACK TO HELL!!

I pushed Milo's cage onto Mira before running ahead, scythe in hand and ready to do some ghost-busting. The tophat fired a giant die at me (he sure wants me to "die"..., sorry for the bad pun), but I don't wanna play his game. I used a Combat Art, "Parry", from the new skill [Parry] that I had bought while splurging on new skills to act as fodders for the Nightmare items' ability materials.

It, and the 2nd Combat Arts skill you don't need a specific Warrior class to obtain, [Guard], are defense-focused Combat Arts, not exactly something that is my forte, but it's better to have some defense in situations where I can't dodge stuff. The fight with that lizard on top of the shrine roof is just one out of many examples I can think of.

"Parry" is simply a bonus to dexterity when trying to fend off an attack, but it helped. The die was sent out of the park as I hit it with the blunt side of my scythe. I bet I couldn't have done that on my own. I'm glad Mira convinced me to take those two skills. Even if her Spartan training course back at the Union did get a little wild there at the end... I can't say anything more in fear of someone under 18 years may overhear me.

"NONONONONONONONONONONONONONOOOO!!" - Hat

I kept on playing baseball with the dice thrown by the hat as I moved closer to him, but the guy started to get more ballistic the closer I got. Sorry, but no dice, buddy! (Again, sorry for the bad puns. They're like a disease!)

The hat started floating higher into the air while spewing a rain of playing cards to cover his track. I rotated the scythe in my hand like a baton, covering it with [Aura of Darkness] while doing so, to create an improvised darkness force shield to block all those razor-sharp edges. Papercuts are the least of my problems if those things get me.

I kept on fending off cards, dice, and even a roulette table, but I'm not getting any closer to sending this ghost back to five feet under. It is good training for those new Combat Skills I mentioned, plus [Aura of Darkness]. But it's time I stopped messing around.

I stopped using my scythe as a defensive weapon and started evading the attacks on my own. Meanwhile, I twisted the scythe in my hand and it turned into a dagger with a really wicked blade. I didn't even need to twist it while in scythe form, but you know. Theatrics.

Whirling a thread around the dagger's guard while dodging the incoming rush of fixed gambling goods (I know those dice are loaded, I felt it when I parried them! How is this guy even getting snake eyes with them all the time!?) and started twirling it around in the air like a swing before throwing it at the tophat when I saw an opening in the rain of failed winning chances.

The dagger flew toward the tophat, but right before it hit, a barricade of gigantic cards appeared in front of the hat to block the attack. I figured it would use that trick. It's "fantasy gambling combat strategies 101".

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA-*Stab*-AAaaaaaahhh..." - Hat

Using my web chord as a medium, I poured mana into the dagger, kicking in its special effect. By using the abilities of the Hashamander I had trapped in the Kigal-Note, sacrificing my own [Darkness Dagger] skill (it never got much to do after I obtained [Darkness Bullet] anyway), and using the scales of the other Hashamander we killed plus a Darkness attribute material I bought from Armveil's place, I had unlocked the first new form of my Nightmare Demon Scythe.

Name: Nightmare Demon's Dagger [Weapon - Scythe] Rarity: Ex Quality: S+ Durability: --- Owner: Garami Stats: STR: +25 MAG: +25 DEX: +70 Effects: Immortal Nightmare Item cannot be destroyed. Any potential damage to this item from outside forces will slightly recover the wearer's MP. Nightmare Blade Enhances damage with magic-type properties and status ailments. Consume MP to enhance the above effect even further. Nightmare Growth: [Dark Dagger Infiltration]

Okay, "Dagger", then. The new ability, "Dark Dagger Infiltration" has these effects:

Transforms the weapon into its dagger form. Stabbed targets can be attacked with additional daggers generated from attribute-based energies. Additional daggers can bypass armor and barricades to a certain degree.

In short, if I stab someone, energy daggers will pierce out from their bodies! The damage isn't as impressive as it sounds, so HP freaks like the gorillas from the beach can withstand the attack. Plus, changing the weapon's type has caused the status boosts it gives me when equipped to lean heavier toward DEX than STR, so the overall damage is lower compared to when I use it in its scythe mode.

But for assassinating people relying on armor or magical walls or barriers? Score! Except that this attack is ****ing MP-demanding. Not as much as Zahhak, but better defenses require more MP. It's not something I can spam on a target until they're mincemeat.

It worked this time though. The tophat ghost fell to the ground with more holes in it than Swiss cheese. Mmm, now I want a cheese sandwich.

Too bad that's only a visual effect. This guy is still...dead. Because he's one of the undead. I mean, he's still "active"! But that burst of damage did lower its HP by a boatload. It's down to around 60% now. It is so wounded that it decided to reveal its ghostly self. A blueish, spectral-like skeleton grew out from the hat's bottom, lacking any legs, but it can float in the air, so it doesn't need any. It's also twice as big as me. Freaky.

Not bad for an attack that's sacrificed a lot of its total attack power. Too bad a new burst will leave me on fumes. Better to save it...

"Change!" - Garami

And leave the rest to Mira.

Mira jumped at the giant ghost skeleton, swinging her sword covered in light. I fell back and guarded the cat cage that Mira had left on the floor while backing her up with Magic Eye effects. The ghost has grown gigantic now, so it's more difficult not seeing him than the other way around.

At the mercy of Mira's swordsmanship, the weakened ghost (due to Weakness and Slowness lowering his strength and speed) was no threat at all. I indulged myself and created some Gloom Skeletons armed with swords and shields to assist Mira. The summoned undead have the same Karma Value as me, so they're getting a 20 LP reduction. Too bad it can't go lower than 5.

Even so, I can still easily make 3 of them and put them in the group of [Control Undead], obtained from Spectermancer reaching a level threshold. Having used the skill for sorting out the weeds before turned out to be a good idea.

The Skeletons are great assists for Mira. She uses them as walls when the ghost tries to slash her with those skeleton-ghost-claws of his. The downside is that the Gloom Skeletons are loaded with Darkness Skills I gave them, including [Aura of Darkness].

How is that bad news? Because Mira is weak to the Darkness attribute! And the Skellies are weak to light in return. They can't work well together if they're too close to each other, so I have to command the undead so they give Mira enough space to work with when she's not using the Skellies as meatshields..., "boneshields"? Whatever.

The ghost cursed his "bad luck" even more loudly as Mira sliced off his HP. He...has a point. But looking at the evidence back at the crate area, I'd say he's deserving this trashing. Those loads of fake passes are prolly reminders that couldn't be passed onto some poor fellows before the gig was busted. And they even used playing card soldiers to hunt down the guys holding the bugged passes.

Thinking back, that secret area in the casino Mira and I broke ourselves into had loads of luck bringing items there too. Was it too also connected to this whole operation!? Yikes... Just how did one ghost amass so many resources? And please let there be some secret goal here that is not just him being sour grapes about his bad gambling luck. No? ...*groan*...

While I was wishing that all my problems from before were more than just the result of a big, literal loser's ridiculous attempt of getting even with the world, I noticed something in the corner of my 3D map. "Something" is getting closer to us. More precisely, they seem to be zeroing in on the ghost. I can't see exactly what it is. Something is causing it to look blurry on the 3D map. Is it a skill's effect?

I took off my magical blindfold to try and get a better view of the mysterious "something". Mira has everything under control even without the Magic Eyes, so..., huh? Nothing?

*SLASH!!*

Did Mira finish..., nope. Mira's not the culprit. She is looking as flabbergast as the skeletons who were assisting her (and probably, me too) at the sorry end of the giant ghost.

The wailing spirit has been split into four with a flawless x-shaped slash. For some reason, purple-black flames remain on the ghost's "wounds".

I couldn't see anything behind the ghost's "corpse", so I tried taking on the blindfold again. And as I suspected, the "blur" is right behind it.

"Keep your guard up!" - Garami

I shouted at Mira and the Gloom Skeletons, encouraging them to stay ready for more combat as we saw the ghost's body dissolve into strange, fume-like energy. Ectoplasm, perhaps?

"Come on. Are you people really struggling so much with a single Giant Vengeful...Ghost..." - ???

As the ghost disappeared, the appearance of the sudden street (forest?) slasher became apparent. They are...? Hmm?? HMMMM???

O-...okay? They seem to be...a black-haired loli? The hair got stripes of gold in it though. For some reason, she is wearing what appears to be an adventurer outfit styled after a military uniform, and she is dual-wielding a pair of katanas with red and blue blades respectively. And as if that's not enough, she has a set of 6 pale-white wings from her back, a thick tail, almost draconic, and a pair of goat-like black horns with golden tips.

A demon loli military twin sword samurai with multiple wings? And she's a beauty as well, despite looking so young. People in a few years are gonna cry tears of happiness when she grows up.

Still, she's dangerous. She just suddenly appeared and decapitated (if you can call it that) a giant undead with ease..., right? For some reason, she froze to the spot after she started stuttering while trash-talking to us. And is it me, or is she looking at me specifically?

"...so..." - ???

So?

"So...SO COOOOOL!!" - ???

Hmmm? ...Okay, she is as young as she looks. And she has good taste. But there's something a little more important that I wish to know: who is she?