I stayed up te to read. The herbology book was still at the bottom of my backpack, fotten as I read through a reports illuminated by the flickering light of a dle.

  Report, Seventh of HarvestApprehended drunk bard at Well Inn Good, began a brawl with local musis over ‘the quality of the music.’ Minor property damage evaluated at two sil, three cop. fined in cell ht until sober.-Overseer Hardy

  A bard. Was it Bonesy a long time ago?

  Report, Eight of HarvestMana fluctuatioed by local mages including alchemist. No sighting of the adventuring party sent out to the Dunwich dungeon.-Overseer Hardy

  A dungeon? Those were a thing here?

  Report two, Eight of HarvestLarge mana shifts. Felt them myself. Worried someone might have damaged the dungeon cuard rotation C spotted someone in the forests in green. Imperials? This far out? It could expin the shifts in local mana. Doubled the guards just in case. Sent a scout to the Dunwich Dungeon.-Overseer Hardy

  Things were getting iing, very iing. A dungeon sounded like a pce to visit, and there was a lot of talk here about mana as if it was a thing that was just... in the air. I wondered if the mana here was thick or thin and if I would be able to tell the difference.

  Report, Ninth of HarvestDunwich dungeon was destroyed. The shifts in mana are the ley lines snapping apart. Spoke to the mayor. She doesn’t want to evacuate but we have no choiot with Imperials so close and the mana turning like this. No news of the adventuring team sent out. Still have their bard in a cell. Will release him ter.More imperial sightings. Hopefully they’ll let a group of civilians pass unharmed.-Overseer Hardy

  And that was it. No more reports, just a few bnk pages. So there were ley lines fid Bohe Bard had been part of an adventuring group. That was kind of ! Good on him. Not so good was how he had caused trouble at the Inn. He was just as poorly behaved in life as he was ih.

  Ding! For repeating a Special A a suffit number of times you have unlocked the skill: Archaeology!

  I smiled and blew out the dle, then shifted until sleep took me at long st.

  ***

  I woke up feeling refreshed. Not at my best, and my tummy still rumbled for food that wasn’t honey, but the pall of depression was lifted and I felt my face twisting bato my usual smile. Then I unleashed a bst of ing magic at myself and shivered as mana coursed over my body and clothes. It was like taking a shower but better.

  Standing up, I stretched, ran through an abridged version of my m routine (I’d give all of my silver for a toothbrush and paste) then stepped outside after making sure the coast was clear of ghosts.

  Today was the day I would take on the wraith. But first, I had a church to explore and a sickly sweet breakfast to lick.

  I strolled across the ghost town, spoon in mouth and attention swivelling around to take ihing. Things had ged iwo short days I had been here. There had been grass when I first came out, but it was brown and feeble and kind of sad. Now bushes were sprouting up everywhere and the grass was thid lush and vibrant. The entire world seemed more alive, somehow.

  Was it because there were fewer ghosts?

  I couldn’t believe that level one monsters were that strong. But then again, the ghosts couldn’t be hurt through normal means. Maybe the animals and such were careful and cautious around them--proving once more than the average animal was smarter than little old me.

  The church was a stately building, even with fresh vines climbing up its sides and huge holes poked through its stained gss windows. It looked like the kind of pce that local weddings would be held in, and where a nice old priest would try to help people with their problems and all the old dies would gather to trade the juiciest gossip.

  There was a sense of lost serenity around the building, a sensation that took me a long time to name and would take loo get used to. It would have felt wrong to scream and shout ht.

  I pushed open the front door and slid into the main hall. It was a single rge room with rows of wooden benches all fag a trio of stoars. Dust swirled in the air and the light, most of it p through the mosaidows, coloured the entire room in a spectrum of soft blues and greens and reds.

  “Hello?” I asked as I moved in. Only silence greeted me. I moved through the room, careful to be as quiet and respectful as I could until I was at the altars. They were all different. Did they practie faith with many gods here, or were there many religions housed in one church?

  The first altar had a small stone chalice built into it, with stone grapes and fruit around its base. The sed had a carving of an arm holding an axe engraved atop it and the third had a statue of an archway reag from one side to the other.

  Strange, disparate symbols with meanings I could only guess at. Most buried under a yer of dust. Three quick fshes of magic cleared the altars, leaving them as the only untouched things iire room. A strange diy, maybe.

  I bowed to the three altars and moved on. There was nothing for me here.

  Acc to my map I still had five houses to explore, but I doubted I would find anything incredible there. No, my goal at that moment was to face the wraith and ihe hole. I could return to expl at any time after that.

  The monster was h over the opened pit, twisting and turning and writhing in the air as if it was wracked with pain. Pain that it almost seemed to enjoy. Now that I was closer I could hear its delighted howls, the almost ecstatic moans that it made as jolts of... something coursed through it.

  Whatever the wraith was feeding on came from the hole. Evil mana, maybe? I could only guess.

  My backpack was left on the doorstep of a nearby home. I took a moment to go over my pn, as simple as it was. I was going to go out and attack the wraith, first with the showerhead-fil I had, then by throwing my magid through it. Then, if it was suffitly distracted, I would use my ing spell on it.

  If things wehat would be enough to clear it out.

  The very first step though, of course, was to talk to it.

  Maybe it was a nice evil wraith? “Insight.”

  An evil wraith, level 2.

  Maybe not. But I wouldn’t hit someone in the back without at least trying to talk first. Anything else would just be wrong.

  I sat bad ate another spoonful of honey as I looked over my many skills.

  NameBroccoli Bunbsp; RaceHuman First Cssamon Bun Age16  Health

  105? Stamina

  115? Mana

  105?  Resilience

  15? Flexibility

  20? Magic

  10?  SkillsRank amon Bun Skills ingC - 14%  General Skills InsightE - 97% Makeshift on ProficyF - 42% ArcheologyF - 15%  I was quite the warrior it seemed. “Soon,” I whispered in the deepest darkest voice I could ma came out squeaky, but it was the thought that ted! “Everyone across all the realms will learn to respect the might of Broccoli the great amon Bun!”

  I might have been able to get Insight up another level, but that didn’t feel necessary, or even helpful in a fight. Makeshift ons would have been a good skill to level, but I wasn’t sure how to do that except to fight some more, and there wasn’t anythio fight that I had seen so far.

  Well, ghosts didn’t generally move very fast. I would try against this one and see how things worked out. Worse case, I was an excellent runner.

  I stepped out into the m sunlight, makeshift fil hanging by my side, mana topped off at max and a determined frown on my face. I walked over to the evil well of evilness until I was only a few dozen paces away. “Hello!” I called out.

  The wraith paused in its weird wriggling and turned.

  My blood ran cold.

  The wraith screamed.

  You have heard the screech of a fearsome creature! Your soul is shaken.

  My breathing hitched and I had a sudden urge to run to the bathroom as the moore through the sky towards me. Its hands stretched and shifted, turning into long, scythe-like cws.

  I snapped out of it just in time to hop backwards and narrowly avoid the first swing. The wraith screamed again, but this time I was a little more ready for it and managed not to pee my skirts. Instead I flung my showerhead fil at the monster and almost fainted when it bounced off its face.

  The wraith flinched back, face leaking the same plumes of dust the ghosts had, though in far smaller quantities.

  It spun around and charged at me again.

  I rolled out of its path, then tossed the magid that merely booped its chest a only the ti of wounds.

  Not enough, not nearly enough.

  I started spinning the fil around and around until it hummed through the air. The wraith came at me again, its orack mind not terribly suited to thinking, it seemed. My fil crashed into its hand, a spark of magic burst from the impact, the wraith screeched, though now in pain rather than anger.

  “I’m sorry,” I said as I lunged closer to it and pressed a hand against its chest. “!”

  My mana dropped, then dropped faster as I poured more and more into the attempt to se the monster. A pated around my hand, slowly growing and spreading across its body. First a few timeters, then a few more in an expanding circle.

  My mana hit zero.

  The world shifted, the ers of my vision going blurry as I stumbled bad fell onto my bum.

  The wraith was twisting and screeg, its one remaining cwed arm trying to push back all of its dusty stuff into the massive tear in its chest. It gave up after a moment and started to move towards the hole. Slower now, much slower than its earlier charge.

  This was my ce, my opportunity to run bad regroup, to figure out a rategy and maybe let my maurn to full.

  I stumbled to my feet and ran after the wraith, for a certain definition of ‘ran.’ My stumbling gait didn’t stop me from spinning my fil again, and when the ghostly moarted to suck at the evil mana it left itself wide open.

  The fil rammed into and through its body, cutting off its lower half to let it float down and turn to so much dust.

  It spun around, the back of its cws raking ay fad chest and sending me flying a few feet. “Ouch,” I said as I nded on my back. I wao stay there for a moment, but huge cws spearing down at me were enough encement that I rolled to the side. Just in time, too, as the talons dug into the ground where I had been.

  Another smack of the fil, weaker this time and from an awkward angle, was enough to push its hands away. My mana was back to one. One mana.

  I spped my hand on its screeg fad fired off my ing spell. It was little more than a short lived burst, but that was enough to make it race backwards and give me some room. I scrambled back, then got to my feet.

  “You are a big, fat meaniehead!” I tauhe monster.

  It kind of just stared at me angrily. I was going to o learaunt skill one of these days, if that was even a thing.

  Another spin of my fil ended with the shower head smag the now weakened wraith again, and again, and again.

  The fight didn’t end in a glorious moment of triumph, but in a stadown, where I delivered blow after blow to ahat was less and less capable of fighting batil, finally...

  Ding! gratutions, you have id ‘The Wraith of Threewells by Darkwood’ Level 2! To rest! Bonus Exp was granted for savaging a monster above your level!