Liam and Alice finally reached the haunted house, and they were surprised. "What haunted house? This is a whole mansion!" Alice gasped, seeing the huge building ahead of her. It was even bigger than the house Liam rented.
The massive garden had been swallowed by the overgrowing grass and vines, letting off a faint whiff of magic. They could see the entrance from afar, a large wooden porch that had started rotting as bugs crawled out of the cracks.
"This place…"Liam mumbled. "Let's ask around first. We are outside the city walls, but there are still people living close to this house. They'll know something for sure, let's ask and try our luck." He turned and started walking toward the nearest farm.
This place is bad. He started thinking. I can tell with a single look, that the mansion is indeed cursed, it's not a trick or a ghost stuck inside, someone went through the troubles of cursing this place to oblivion. If we as much as walked into the garden without preparation, we'd die.
Alice looked at his back, and then back at the mansion and a smile crossed her face. "Got it." Was it his gut feeling? He's more talented than I thought. Worries and fear swelled from the depths of her heart.
Through her glowing blue eyes, she could see the faint specs of light dancing among the grass. Something immense has taken residence here. This place has a powerful curse cast upon it. Shadows from the depth of oblivion are crawling around. It's best to abandon the quest, I'll use the time of us asking around to convince him to drop the quest without getting us killed or looking suspicious.
She then stopped walking and turned back to the mansion. Wait, what am I thinking? The magic around the house, it's sad, crying…whatever has taken root inside, it's only trying to protect itself.
This world has several races living in it. Humans, elves, dwarves, and halflings. Those are called the intelligent mortals, the people of the world. But besides them, there are countless intelligent beasts, monsters, and even demons.
Alice could tell. To her eyes, it was as clear as the sun in the sky. She looked up, but the sky had clouded. A humanoid soul, one that had been tortured here. It just had a lot of magic in life, but now, that soul has finally achieved something after death.
I can't tell what it is exactly, but I know it's stronger than me now. It's probably far more dangerous than the demon we faced in the dungeon.
"Alice! What are you doing standing there…hurry!" Liam called her from afar. I should drag her by my side. The one inside the house isn't angry, but she's afraid. He thought.
To think a spirit would get born there, this place isn't normal. When a soul remains in the world for a long time, it usually slowly disappears into nothingness. But those with an extreme talent for magic could do something; they can try to condense the mana latent in the air to create a semi-physical body for themselves and evolve into spirits.
Spirits are known for having an almost infinite supply of mana as they can directly use the one available in the air and ground. They also exert domination over the area they reside in, which means if we walked into the garden of that house we wouldn't be able to cast magic unless the spirit allowed us. There are several ways to deal with spirits, but none seems practical now, I rather not get wounded for some gold.
Alice reached Liam and they kept walking. "What are you going to ask for?"
"I'm looking for anyone who knows this house or who owned it before." Liam smiled. Yeah, preferably someone old who witnessed it himself.
After several minutes they reached the first house, and Liam walked toward the front gate and called, "Is someone here? I want to ask about something."
A kid stared at him from the window and quickly after that a man in his forties came out with a cane in his hand. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"No harm. The guild sent us to investigate the house uphill; we wanted to ask if you know anything about it." Liam replied.
"That cursed place? I don't… It's been abandoned since I was but a little boy. The only thing I remember is a vague old memory of people flocking uphill, all wearing black." The man shook his head.
"Probably a funeral, someone died there?" Alice noted, looking at Liam. "People die all the time. It's not that strange to have a funeral. If someone died and had a funeral, I would be surprised if they stayed as a ghost and haunted a house. Like, we gave you a proper send-off so get off this world." Liam giggled.
"I don't know. If it was a funeral, this boy is right. Death is natural and sad, but something that happens every year. This world would be overrun with ghosts if they just spawned whenever someone dies." The man shook his face, "That memory is as much as my memory can serve, I was probably just four or five years old at the time."
"I see. Thank you, old man." Liam smiled. To make a ghost spawn, you'll have to make sure someone hates your guts, kill him, desecrate the corpse, and torture his loved one in the same spot, over his corpse. Even this only gives you a fifty-fifty chance to spawn a ghost.
"I'm not old!" The man growled, taking a deep breath. "Stay away from that house. That's my advice."
"Well, you look like it." With a grin, Liam and Alice left and the man sighed. "I hope they don't die like the other adventurers."
As the man looked toward the house, he could still remember the laughter he could hear each night coming from there. Not a single person had made it out of the house as far as he could remember, and the last adventurer to wander into the house was last year. I want to tell them to steer off the house, but it's their job… the guild should've warned them about this place. He smiled, "What am I thinking about? I already told them to stay away."
The reason Liam wanted to take the haunted house quest wasn't just for the money, it was to rank up. When a quest has failed to be completed several times, its value increases for the guild's merits. Simply, for each time a quest was failed by a different party, you get the merit of a quest. To this day, Jakory's haunted house quest has failed eleven times, and all the adventurers never returned. This means one thing, succeeding in this quest would allow them to finally rank up.
Liam and Alice reached the next house to ask questions, but the moment the people there heard the house's name, they kicked them out and started throwing stones at them. Liam was ready to start throwing hands, but Alice stopped him.
"Why did you stop me?" Liam asked, sitting around the campfire with Alice.
"Why wouldn't I? We're adventurers, much stronger than normal citizens. We'll end up harming them." She growled.
"We're trying to solve the mystery of that house. I'm sure those folks knew something, they wouldn't get that enraged if it wasn't the case." He smiled, "We can take one of them hostage and the rest would talk. You said it, they aren't powerful, and it would be easy."
"We aren't kidnapping anyone." Alice sighed, "Why do you think like this?"
"We're saving more people by dealing with the house. Who cares about some old people that are going to die anyway? They won't even live to see the house inhabited by people after we solve its mystery." He smiled.
"It doesn't matter! What if you were the old guy? Do you want someone to come and kill you for others' benefit?" She yelled at him.
"If I was getting that old and frail, they are welcome. I'd rather die young in a blaze of flames rather than live to that age." He looked at her with a serious face. "But…to be honest, I have a bad feeling about that house. We need to get rid of it as soon as possible."
Alice's face shifted from angry to worried, "I think we're better leaving." He can indeed sense the danger ahead; Liam is talented. If we only had someone like him in the old war. But that house isn't something we can deal with now. I could sense my aura disappearing the moment it crossed the garden's border.
"How about we look for some help? We need an expert wizard to help us." She said.
"A wizard, you're right. He would help indeed. If he could cast a barrier to protect us inside, we'll be able to start investigating the place." Liam smiled. But, do I tell her it's a spirit? It would be far better to hire a spirit master, but those are too rare to find, and they'll cost too much.
Alice stared at him. Sorry, but we have to drop this quest. I too want to help the people around here, but even my barrier magic would struggle to hold what's inside that house.
"So, we'll retreat for tonight and come back tomorrow." Liam stood.