I immediately tried to throw her off of me, but she had a surprisingly strong grip on my arm. It was much stronger than I would have expected from a little girl. I wanted to let Roel know I was fine, but my voice cracked when I tried to call out. Actually, even if I could, it probably wouldn't have been a good idea. Who knew how Roel would react.
Even though she looked like a child, she definitely wasn't human, so I didn't hold back. I slammed it against the wall. A huge crash sounded and the wall crumbled, but the thing still hadn't let go. It didn't even seem to notice.
"Wh-what are you? Why are you doing this?"
It let out an eerie sound in reply. It sounded like its vocal cords had been smashed and its voice was coming from some hole in its head, but I think it said, "Let's play."
We clearly weren't going to be able to talk this out. Well, this is exactly what we were commissioned to do from the start anyway. I felt bad because of how human it looked, but I was going to have to eliminate it. My sword was still in my room, but at least I still had my left hand free. Magic should be effective against ghost-type monsters.
[ Ryua cast Lightning Bolt! ]
There was a flash and a moment later thunder sounded. I could tell it was a direct hit. It was so close to me that I ended up taking damage from it too, but I couldn't help that. At least it had gotten it off of me.
[ Ryua received 3,100 damage! HP 37,363/40,463 ]
[ Spirit of a Little Girl received no damage! HP ???/??? ]
"... plaaa ...."
It's head rocked back and forth out of sync with its swaying body. It was a movement that could only be made by something without any bones. Continuing that unsettling movement, it slowly drew closer and closer to me. From the noises coming up behind me, it sounded like Roel was approaching quickly.
"Wh-wh-what…" Roel had arrived, completely frightened, with no idea what was going on.
I wasn't going to let that thing lay a hand on Roel. I quickly closed the distance and landed a direct punch to its face. It started to fly through the air, but it suddenly stopped and began its weird movements again.
[ Spirit of a Little Girl received no damage! HP ???/??? ]
No matter what I did, it seemed like no attack would stop it or keep it from doing that creepy movement. It was my first time against something like this, so I had no idea what would work. Would it even make a difference whether I had my sword or not? Plus, if I somehow accidentally set off that additional effect…
"Lesss plaaayooo."
Was it saying it was just toying with me? I definitely hadn't expected to see something like this outside the Caverns. Could everything there only have been the start to what was really on the outside? It's been a long time since I felt this sense of hopelessness, but strangely I was enjoying it.
"Ryua, that girl doesn't seem like she's about to attack."
Its arms were stretching out towards us. I jumped in front of Roel to shield her, but she didn't seem to be afraid anymore.
"Girl… not our… enemy…."
I hadn't noticed Torepo standing behind us.
Roel walked up to the spirit and gave it a hug. "I'm sorry."
As Roel spoke those words, the little girl stopped moving. Tears began to spill out from its empty eye sockets, then suddenly it disappeared from in between Roel's arms. I didn't understand what just happened, but remained alert just in case.
"Roel, what was that just now?"
"I'm not sure, but that girl isn't evil. I just had a feeling."
"This… way…" Torepo was pointing at a man standing there with blood dripping from his head. He wasn't as pure white as the little girl had been, and he had a number of visible wounds. What drew my attention was the blood dripping from his empty eye sockets. The male spirit didn't walk and instead floated down the stairs. Torepo went after him, so Roel and I followed.
The spirit made its way to the living room and through the bath area, stopping in front of the wall that covered the path to the basement. It had been replaced with some kind of clear barrier. The spirit went up and touched it with a finger, then he became more and more transparent as though it was pulling him inside.
"This is…"
Once the man had disappeared, it turned back into the wall from before. There was no doubt where we had to go, so I walked up to the wall and got rid of it with a kick.
"Down…" Torepo began walking down the stairs into the darkness.
What was the spirit trying to tell us? That spirit wasn't evil, but were there other spirits down there that were? There was no way to know, so we followed Torepo down the stairs.
"This door doesn't look like it's locked," I said
Torepo tried the door and it opened slowly with the loud sound of scraping metal. Inside it was pitch black.
[ Torepo cast Light! ]
A light appeared on Torepo's palm.
"Must… search… dungeon…"
I thought calling this a dungeon was a little extreme, but then Torepo's light lit up some more of the room. We were in a long hallway made of stone. It seemed too extravagant to be just a basement. Francoise was bound to be pretty mad at us, but what if she had missed something down here?
We started walking down the passage and before long something was floating towards us from the other end.
[ A Mortal Ghost as appeared! HP 332 ]
This was a ghost-type monster with bones covering it from its head down to its chest like armor, but was missing everything else from the waist down. It was big enough to completely stop us from passing by, and suddenly attacked.
[ Mortal Ghost cast Darkness! ]
A dark mist spread throughout the area, covering all of us. Roel and Torepo, taken by surprise, didn't prepare a counter in time and took the hit.
[ Roel received 32 damage! HP 31/63 ]
[ Torepo received 22 damage! HP 74/96 ]
[ Ryua received no damage! HP 37,363/40,463 ]
I wasn't able to protect Roel in time. The attack also reminded me of the damage I caused myself earlier that still hadn't been healed. Torepo was quickly chanting a counterattack.
[ Torepo cast Blaze Shot! ]
A mass of flames crashed into the Mortal Ghost. It let out a roar as it burst into flames, but before long they dispersed and it was still floating there, seemingly unharmed.
[ Mortal Ghost received 82 damage! HP 250/332 ]
As if to taunt us, it rattled its bones and gestured to come and try again.
"Strong… despite… weakness… fire…"
I didn't really think Torepo's magic was very effective, but she drew back to start her chanting over again. Roel was casting a heal to cure Torepo's wounds. The Mortal Ghost raised both its hands above its head and moved to attack Torepo. It probably would have hit, but I had already struck it.
It was kind of gross, but I landed a direct shot to its head, which burst into pieces as I followed up with a kick to its rib cage. I thought the bones were going to scatter all over the place, but instead they started to slowly disappear until they were completely gone.
[ Ryua attacks! Mortal Ghost received 3,879 damage! ]
[ Mortal Ghost has been defeated! HP 0/332 ]
"Finally, a normal monster," I said.
I felt relieved. While I couldn't see Torepo's whole expression because of her clothes, her eyes were wide. She was mid-cast, but had stopped to stand there and stare at me. Since I had forgotten my sword, all I could do was unarmed attacks. I had thought of going to get it, but I was afraid of losing that ghost we were following. And because of that little girl, I had actually started to feel kind of uneasy alone.
"Ryua… what… are you?..."
I had no idea how to answer that so I just ignored it. What was I? What kind of a question was that? Though, I guess since I didn't have any living relatives left, I could be whatever I wanted. But I was just happy to go on adventures along with Roel. Looking at her, I smiled as I watched her stare at where the ghost was, blinking repeatedly.
"If another one of those shows up it's going to be a real pain," I said, even though it wasn't entirely true. "Let's keep going."
I wondered if Torepo would actually believe me if I told her what happened to me in the Caverns, but I decided she probably wouldn't. More importantly though, I wasn't able to do anything to that little girl before, so if something else like her appeared I wasn't sure what I would do.
It seemed like there was no end to the number of things I didn't understand about the outside world. All I wanted was to get this commission done and learn whatever we could from it. I decided not to worry too much about what I didn't know, and focus on whatever was next.