Chapter 10 - I Ain't Afraid Of No Ghosts

"Keep your eyes open, there are more ghosts around," The blonde girl said.She seemed very protective of the dark-haired freshman behind her. Was he crying?It was odd since he was a front-row fighter, and she was a back-row mage, but the ghosts could say some mean things. Not everyone got used to bullies like Jake."What's your business with the President?" Sophie asked when the area seemed clear."I'll tell it to her. You'll take me there anyway, right?" This had the girl roll her eyes."Fine, have it your way." She groaned, waving her wand to Jake to turn around. "Nobody could enter a barrier without the caster's permission anyway."Jake didn't know about that but took a few steps forward."What's with the eyepatch?" Colin sniffed, peeking out from behind her guardian, making Jake groan within."It's one of the things I'll have to talk about with your President, okay?" He abused his bluff skill as much as he could. He wanted to spend more points on that, once the time was right."She's in the old gym, so you either wait or fight your way in," the girl claimed.Her voice tinged with a smirk, and Jake wanted to turn around, but couldn't. More ghosts showed up.And he was about to open his character sheet to check for changes.Now he was paranoid, scanning the courtyard, knife tight in his fist."I'm kind of in a hurry," Jake claimed, as two more Mean Spirits came closer screaming.One burst from his stab and the other from the girl's spell.They were weaker than expected but would have been invisible without the nametags.As the name implied, their voice was the most noticeable, hurling insults at them."You'll never get a girlfriend," one claimed. Too bad, Jake was in a rush to his date with Rebecca.Thanks to his interface, he was fine fighting his way through them."What are these anyway?" He asked, noticing the frost building up on his blade."Mean Spirits," the girl stated the obvious. "The condensed negative emotions and stress of former students. We have to clear them from time to time." That made sense."I had no idea the council was doing this in the background. Is each of you like this?" Jake was curious."What do you mean?" Colin asked, his voice shaky.He must have been new to this, but Jake wasn't one to talk."Well, like having superpowers." It was a new layer of existence he had been unaware of for eighteen years. How deep did the rabbit hole go?"I wish." Sophie let out a tired laugh. "We try to recruit every unaffiliated User from school, but we only got the five of us." Jake analyzed her every word. User? Affiliation? Five?He had many questions but focused on the speeding ghosts instead. He saw her once during a morning assembly but nothing indicated her magic powers until now."Wait, you said you're from Class 3 E?" She sounded surprised. "I thought we only had that crazy bitch there. Are you a transfer student?"Crazy bitch? Did she mean Rebecca?"No. But it's complicated." Jake stretched his low charisma score to its limits to seem cool and mysterious. The truth was, he had no idea what was going on."Ugly motherfuckers. I hope you die." Another ambush distracted his guards, and he lost six more FP to that insult but bagged some extra Exp.The attacks became more frequent closer to the main entrance.That's where he saw the first level 2 version, but the tooltip was comforting.[Mean Spirit (Regular Ghost, Level 2) Hostile, but it's much weaker than you.]The descriptions were more useful, so he was eager to go first. Closing in to attack, he stabbed, but the thing didn't go down. Colin smacked it too, and Sophie finished it with her magic."Phew, I'm out." She leaned against the wall, wiping sweat off her forehead.Dave told him that wizards were useless on lower levels. She ran out of mana in ten minutes.Jake was also tired from PE class and all the running, but a knife won't run out, ever."Want to take a break?" He asked with a grin, even though the interface still said the girl was stronger than him. According to his nerd friend, he wasn't even a combat-oriented character."I'll stay here to meditate for the next thirty minutes," Sophie surprised him. "Colin will stay behind to protect me, but feel free to continue if you can handle them."Jake gulped. He took a peek through the door, seeing half a dozen ghosts swirl near the hall's ceiling, all level 2 or 3. He gulped again, then imagined the cute redhead waiting for him."I ain't afraid of no ghosts." He steeled his resolve and marched inside.That was a huge mistake."Ugly. Dumbass. Die." Once he set foot in the hall, the Mean Spirits charged, way faster than the ones he encountered outside. He only scraped one, but heaps of pain jolted his body.[HP: 18/20 FP: 30/52]Losing HP for the first time was something he would remember for a while. His FPs had increased since his level-up, but almost half was gone.He didn't care about the random insults, but the cold winded his lungs. His only refuge was that he took one out by bracing his knife during the attack.The spirits came around for a second pass, and he jumped behind a thick column. These things could phase through walls but slowed down enough that he could get a stab at them.The Level 3 ghost caused another deep wound though. His HP went down to 15, and each one lost meant, that twice as many FPs were gone with it."Are you going to cry?" The taunting wouldn't stop. Pushing through the pain with sheer willpower, he vanished one more of them before they got too far.The ghosts changed their tactics. Instead of a tight formation, they've split up to harass him from different angles. The pain and exhaustion slowed him down too much to adapt."Idiot. Chunibyo. Cringe" He took hit after hit. They were merciless, taking advantage of his blind spot, zigzagging around. If only he had a way to predict their movements."Fuck, I am an idiot." Jake slammed his forehead, then ripped his eyepatch off. It was still disorienting, but the effect wasn't as bad as he remembered. Was it because he leveled up?He spun around, closing his right eye, and waited until a ghost rammed into him. He didn't feel anything. "One, two, three, four, five." Then he stabbed into the air.[Critical Hit! You've caused -14 HP damage. (Piercing Damage, Magic Damage, Doubled from your enemy using Charge.) You have vanished a Mean Spirit.]The other two could no longer take advantage of their numbers. It took him two slashes and a stab to pop the level 2 ghost, and the level 3 ran into his blade where he expected it.He collapsed with half his HP gone and only two FP left. Not even the warm feeling of leveling up could ease his pain. It didn't recharge his lost health or stamina."Why can't this be one of those games," he panted. That's when a dozen more ghosts flooded through the second-floor windows. "Are you fucking kidding me?"