Ghost And The Writer

The table of contents was set up in a rather confusing manner being separated into spectral coefficients (whatever that means), which Mandy would probably understand had she read the intro. Mandy had other plans - she flipped to the back and found an index. Ghost was there and so was an undead dryad. A small smile settled on her lips as she first flipped over to the first mention of 'Ghost'.

Yet as Mandy started reading her smile soon faded, being replaced with a despairing look. For one, she now had no question whatsoever why everyone cast wary looks at her.

As she had heard before, to become a ghost you needed to give up your own life, so most ghosts were a result of a suicide. If their will was feeble and rather than hating life they just completely gave up on it, then they turned into wandering spirits not bound to anyplace in particular - due to that weakness they were picked off by other astrals and eaten. Being so feeble they often even didn't remind of humans anymore - being something like white cartoonish blobs. The book described these as harmless and even had some methods for capturing - either as feed for other astrals or as materials for alchemy.

If a ghost retained their human form, then that almost always implied that they had an agenda - they either hated life to a point of wishing to take revenge on life itself or had some insane reason to take their own life, often to torment others with their death and by causing paranormal activity afterward.

Mandy looked up from the page and thought a bit on her own agenda. She certainly didn't want to disappear, but... did it make sense that she wanted to live on to read more books? No use thinking on it, she continued reading.

Apparently, In very rare cases ghosts are formed when a person, who is sacrificing their life for some other reason, is fully aware that their actions will lead to their own death, but these cases are so rare they are negligible, and - in most cases, they give up on life as a side-effect and thus don't form a complete astral body either. In case of taking the bullet for someone else - people who care for others more than for themselves are too thoughtless to consider their own mortality. Their body moves 'by itself' so to say, so they die without this awareness and thus no ghost forms.

It seemed like the author considered people like that idiots. Mandy somewhat agreed even if she was among those idiots.

Also, according to the author - some crafty ghosts, especially the first type, that hate life itself, learn to hide their dying marks and pretend to be victims of fate or use humans with ill d.e.s.i.r.es to ascend to being gods of calamity. If a ghost without any apparent wounds freely walks around, then 99 out of 100 times they are already on the path towards being a god of calamity. The author suggests for anyone below silver rank to flee upon spotting one of this type.

A wry smile appeared on Mandy's face. Was this author at fault for the wary looks cast at her? Probably not, but Mandy couldn't help but feel iffy. Mandy didn't exactly know what a God of Calamity was and it wasn't explained in this chapter, but from the context, it sounded like something bad.

Mandy sighed and continued reading.

Base abilities for human shape ghosts are telekinesis, ability to disregard gravity, possession and dream interference. Ghosts have a natural aptitude for dark element magic, which they often pick up on their own with the passing of time, so it's important to clear them away as soon as possible. Their base abilities also start out weak but grow stronger. A ghost older than a decade often possesses enough telekinetic force to hold down an enhanced human or even an untral.

Mandy made another wry smile at this line as that's exactly what she had done to Ian.

The following pages described various atrocities older ghosts do as a warning to readers - example, pin humans down till they pass out from exhaustion, then torment them in their dreams, at times force their astral bodies out, consume them, steal their bodies, go out and commit homicide, then kill the host body to escape, rinse and repeat. Or an even more horrid example, haunt a human they like and hurt everyone around them till the haunted human commits suicide and then consume the soul as it comes out. In any example, the ghost ends up ascending to a god of calamity status eventually and, if left unchecked, often ends up causing a war or worse. Souls are, apparently, very tasty to ghosts and give an instant power-up, so ghosts commonly engage in cannibalizing and rarely form relationsh.i.p.s among themselves - thus, there is no known ghost community.

Mandy had a feeling that if there was a ghost community there was no way they would be openly found, especially by this author, otherwise, it would be destroyed as soon as it was found.

"Of course, while it is far from being an optimal solution towards attaining immortality, there have been those from seeing side who became ghosts to continue their research, yet those cases almost always lead to living/possessed objects forming. Most well-known being 'Solomon's key' and 'Madelaine's cookbook'. Those two ended up taking their own life with the purpose of gathering contract formations of demons in case of Solomon's key or gourmet recipes in case of Madelaine's cookbook. Both have become living books, as is often the case for ghosts with a researching spirit.

While technically ghosts have the potential to ascend to become any kind of diety, due to the grotesque nature of their formation and them almost always being normies, their ascension happens by chance and almost always leads to a hazardous situation. The few known exceptions of a benevolent deity appearing include harvest moon princess, a royalty who committed suicide to escape an arranged marriage, yet continued to use her agricultural knowledge after death, sneakily editing doc.u.ments at night and leaving written suggestions for better managing the lands, and Hillary Garold--"

Mandy tilted her head. Eh? August's mom?

"-- who ascended to become a muse of creative arts due to continually encouraging an aspiring writer, her son, who currently writes under a pen-name of August Gold."

Eh...

Mandy flipped to the start of the book to check the date of publishing only to find that it was originally released in 17th century and last updated in the start of this very year and... all by the same person? Longevity sure wasn't... special, was it? And was there maybe some magical method to edit already published books, considering how aged this book appeared? Also, did August know he was a part of this book?

Mandy flipped over many more pages of detailed examples (most of them horrid), getting the idea that no ghost stayed a ghost for too long - they either perished or ascended to become something else. She also figured out why August said she would need Elemental Magic section next. It was implied that ascending towards something both enhanced your learning of particular kinds of magic, but also limited your ability to learn anything that doesn't fall in line with the type of thing you had become. As a ghost, Mandy had a perfect aptitude for dark attribute spells, if she was to learn using magic at all, now was the best time to.

It was a bit of a pity she only had an aptitude towards dark attribute, though - reading all the examples of ghosts using various abilities in horrid ways gave a feeling that most dark attribute abilities had a horrid undertone by default.

***

Meanwhile, after a long while of wandering, Sarah finally caught a glimpse of August and hid behind a shelf. Consciously she knew that there was no way August would spot her while in the middle of writing, but it just didn't feel safe to appear in plain sight.

Gerald had noticed Sarah drawing back, so he stopped walking as well.

The miscellaneous section was a perfect place to hide. It was spatially expanded even more than other sections in the library as it was a collection of a millenia worth of magic student course projects and graduation theses. In formal terms it was a treasure trove of fresh ideas and unconventional research, in practical terms it was a huge garbage dumpster. The very few magicians, exorcists, wizards, alchemists and the like who actually had a researching bone in them later went on to write books on the very same subjects and thus their papers got removed from this section due to transforming into proper books. In the end, this section was a 'treasure trove' of research like - 'the difference between using left or right troll toenail while brewing smell inducing concoctions', or 'efficiency of demon summoning using different animal genders'.

Yet, like any other section, it had furniture for enjoying literature and making notes. August was making use of a sofa surrounded by a bunch of shorter shelves with scrolls in them. You wouldn't spot him unless you approached from a particular angle, this too had been a reason why it took Sarah and Gerald so long to find August.

Now that August had been found, they could proceed with the plan.

In two weeks it would be August's and Sarah's twenty fifth birthdays, of course, August would forget all about it and skip it if things went like usual, so he needed to be lured to the party location. August had some beef with paladins, so there was no way he would suspect that a paladin would be luring him to a secret party location.

"So, start by pretending to be pissed about those cursed guys," Sarah said to Gerald. (August had cursed the paladins who came after him.)

"Okay," Gerald said with a casual air.

"August will probably tell that those guys were idiots and deserved what was coming for them," Sarah guessed. That would be the most August thing to say.

"He wouldn't be wrong," Gerald admitted with a smile.

A point in Gerald's favor. He actually used his head unlike the last guy, which was surprising considering that the previous one was filthy rich. Turned out one could be rich and stupid at the same time, that fact had blown Sarah's mind.

"So, next you need to say that one of them was your lover and that she dumped you to become a nun due to the trauma of that curse," Sarah said. Seemed a bit literature like as a plot, but should work.

Gerald nodded at that.

"And you will only forgive August if he helps you pick up chicks in a club," Sarah completed the story, feeling pretty good about it.

But Gerald laughed. "That makes no sense, there's no way I need anyone's help to--"

"Okay, then tell him he needs to go on a date with you in that club," Sarah said with a dead look. Even if Gerald's face was a good point, his absolute confidence in it was annoying.

Gerald looked away."Okay, I will ask him to go pick up chicks."

"Good," Sarah nodded "Get him to go to that club and you can follow me around for a month afterward."

***

Okay, enough despairing over how horrid ghosts usually were. Mandy flipped to find an entry on undead dryads, that would probably be worse. Which shouldn't feel comforting, but it did. It didn't sit well with her to ruin August's reputation with her presence, although could his reputation get any worse considering he had dated a man-eating spider monster. Perhaps this worry was beside the point.

The entry was short -

"Undead dryads offer a glimpse towards how dryads might have formed, as, while being dryads, they retain some of their living memories, rather than having none and sharing memories with a forest.

According to one undead dryad, it was kidnapped as a child by another dryad and was left wandering in a fae path network for a long time, somehow becoming a dryad in the process. This very same undead dryad went on to kill four dryads before being exterminated by a party of a platinum rank mage, exorcist, witch, and a bishop rank paladin. Half the party perished in the process, yet surviving members contributed the most detailed record of undead dryad abilities thus far. Read 'File 32' in Undead Dryad Records in Advanced section for further elaboration."

***

"So this is where you were," Gerald said, looking down on the sofa. He was winging it, thinking back on the few gangster movies he had seen. In fact, he used the same line as one mafioso character.

August frowned. "Do I know you?"

Lucky. August responded exactly how the victim(?) had in the movie. But that said, the victim wasn't exactly a victim, but a lady who had poisoned some mafiosos before. Now that August was looking at him, Gerald could compare August with Sarah - if he didn't have to put on this play he might have chuckled at the rumor he had heard about them and how accurate it was. August was the beautiful twin, while Sarah was the handsome one.

"We've never met, but that curse you cast on my comrades was nasty," Gerald said, smirking. In the movie it had been 'poison'.

August's pupils shrunk and his eyes glimpsed at the man's hands.

Hm? He figured it out just like the lady in the movie. But to look at his hands... to think he had studied up paladin rings... hm, hm, perhaps this plan wasn't a good idea... if August did know how paladin rings worked, then wouldn't he guess his rank with this?

August froze for a mere moment, but as if that pause had been a mere illusion, he leaned back on the sofa, faking confidence. "Will you be taking revenge in a neutral zone like this?" August asked.

It didn't take an expert to see that August was afraid. Actually, he was afraid to a surprising level - if August was a platinum rank exorcist, he shouldn't have much trouble dealing with a single bishop class paladin, not to mention August was THAT exorcist who even used curses, alchemy and what have you. No sane paladin would mess with him... wait, wasn't he pretending to mess with him now? Who wouldn't get frightened if an insane bishop class paladin went after you?

Gerald aimed to glance back to find Sarah and call this off. This was turning into something far worse than mere spooking, but a familiar scent reached his nose. He sniffed at the air. A very delicious, yet dangerous smell came from August. It was a smell he knew well. The same smell as that woman. 32.

August tilted his head seeing the paladin spacing out at his question, his eyes were very cautious.

"...Undead dryad?" Gerald mumbled, surprised.

August hid his trembling hands by crossing his arms, one of his hands reaching towards his inner pocket where his hidden suitcase was.

"What are you talking about?" August asked, his voice cold, yet a nervous tint could not be hidden.

The corners of Gerald's lips turned up. When he was afraid, he smiled, that was a habit so strongly etched into his body that there was no thought accompanying it. To think Sarah's family had someone like this in it. Now he wanted to marry into it even more. "There's no way I would mistake this scent."

The ring on Gerald's hand started tingling, letting out faint sparks in response to his fear. Dryads were something that had the worst chemistry with those who had sacred protection.

The sparkling ring was the trigger.

No matter how you looked at it, there was no one who could blame August for getting the wrong idea in a situation like that. A crazy paladin with a revenge issue discovering an undead dryad outside of a forest and smiling like a madman, there was only one thing that could happen.

First a bright white web spread in all directions, blinding Gerald momentarily. Pure reflexes saved his life by making him jump back at that moment. His ring dispersed forming a shiny white sword in his hand.

When an isolation barrier forms, the space in the middle distorts, if you don't get away before it sets, you get frozen for a second - a second is enough to get killed. One of Gerald's teammates was killed in a moment like this.

Gerald did not know if August was aware of the lag, but if he was, then this was one heck of a surprise attack. Having a chance to go against an undead dryad was both exciting and scaring Gerald to no end, making him forget the details, including his own act at the beginning of their encounter. It had been a miracle to survive against 32, would there be another miracle?

As the isolation barrier set, first spreading out like a spiderweb on the ceiling, and surrounding a section of dozens of bookshelves (and Sarah who was hiding behind one), it turned pale white, like a cloudy sky above them.

Gerald barely regained his sight only to wish he wouldn't be seeing this. There was a white foggy orb surrounding the place where August had just been. The sole ability unique to undead dryads - aether charged fog. Before it spreads, it packs an explosive punch, especially towards those with sacred or tainted protection. Gerald had been done in by it once. Paralysis for close to two minutes. Enough time to get killed. Gerald used every little bit of power he had in his legs to not get caught in it.

Even worse, August had already prepared for a scenario where the paladin would get away...

Black ink spread around, covering the ground and bookshelves. Gerald pushed his sword into the floor in front of him, pushing himself up. The ink layer on the ground was cut and shriveled. Had he stepped on it, he would have been bound in a place like a sitting duck.

Gerald knew something would be coming, but he was not prepared for what came next.

His sight was stolen away again, but not by light, but by an explosion of green foliage sprouting up from the ground. He was surrounded by frantic sounds of all sorts - the sound of wings flapping, hooves hitting the ground, leaves rustling, paws scuttling away. He barely avoided being dragged up by a tree shooting up.

The new growth turned into high trees and the charged fog dispersed among the trees distorting his sense of distance. Now that the fog had dispersed, it was a beautiful, organic thing - small lights flickered within, sending faint sparks over it, but despite its beauty Gerald knew that it was the most frightening thing - as long as he was in this fog, there was nowhere he could hide and If it was within a forest August could appear anywhere and disappear without trace. Gerald felt his blood pumping, 32 had never been this frightening. To think they could even cause forests to appear like this...

Gerald relaxed his stance, feeling a grin settling on his face in response to his growing sense of fear, his fingers tightening around the sword hilt.

All he could do was wait and trust his instincts.

***

Mandy flipped a page.

"Undead dryads are named 'undead' as rather than having absolute light element aptitude how dryads usually do their alignment is at least half-dark. It is unknown how undead dryads gain this dark attribute or if gaining it is a part of the transitioning process from another form of creature. Due to their dark alignment on top of having all base dryad abilities, they are the only being capable of killing a dryad within a forest. Yet, other than a few historical and one recent case, it is believed that undead dryads tend to avoid dryads rather than engage them in a battle.

Undead dryads are believed to prefer dwelling in dead zones or cursed forests. It is believed that most cursed forests found on the continent have formed due to an undead dryad settling there, however, there are no records of anyone directly meeting or talking with a settled undead dryad. Their presence can be confirmed only via the presence of charged fog. A particular kind of fog that has both life and death attribute infused in it - due to its clashing nature - there are frequent aether discharges within it, appearing like flickering lights. This fog has the property of adding life to undead creatures while within it, so many undead spend time in it to have offspring. It is lately believed to also be a sensing organ for the undead dryad.

As with regular dryads, it is impossible to find one in a forest if it doesn't d.e.s.i.r.e to show itself and destroying the forest leads to the same forest regrowing without the dryad showing itself in the process. While undead dryads are highest level threats, in a settled state they are impossible to exterminate, thus they are left alone."

Mandy crossed her arms as she closed the book. Too many 'it is believed' for her liking. Basically, no one knew anything for sure. Even if the advanced section had more information on it, she doubted that this book would have so many 'it is believed' if there was some solid information found elsewhere. The so-called 'File 32' would have some anecdotal evidence and description of one rabid undead dryad, but who knows how much it tells about other dryads. It certainly did not look like August was out to get other dryads.

Mandy had no idea what a cursed forest or a dead zone was, but the impression she got was far less sinister than what she now had about ghosts. Ghosts were like devils who actively interfere with humans and cause bad things to happen, while Undead dryad felt more like a ... evil bear or a sleeping dragon.

A more troubling detail, though - 'retain some of their original memory'. Some. Not all. Was that true for August as well? How many memories did he lose? Mandy was curious, but it was a hard thing to ask. Mandy floated down from the shelf and put the book back in place.

***

Sarah couldn't believe her eyes. The joke she had made about spooking August had turned into a reality beyond her expectations.

She was surrounded by a foggy lush green forest, so deep and vivid in color that it bordered with fantasy. The fog was flickering with specks of aether, charge running over it, making it shift and twirl like it was alive. The sight would have been beautiful enough to take her breath away, if not for the awareness that...

Shit! Fixing this will cost a fortune and it was clear as day that she would be the one paying once it comes out that it was a part of her failed scheme.

Sarah kicked off the ground, moving so fast she didn't even leave afterimages, appearing in the middle between August whose hands had become coal black and Gerald, who was holding a glowing sword made of sacred light. With no hesitation, Sarah sacrificed both of her hands to stop a coal black hand from reaching Gerald and the sword from reaching August. She flinched but held on. Her left hand was assaulted by decay, rotting and falling apart, her right - burned like under a laser in contact with the sword.

Gerald gave up instantly, the sword dispersed, turning into a silver ring on his finger, while August's hands regained their natural color, but despite that his eyes stayed on Gerald, alert, cautious, wary.

Sarah let out a breath and her hands started to regenerate. "August, he didn't mean to attack you." Observing from a distance, Sarah could tell that something was going wrong at the point where Gerald's ring started letting out sparks, but she was caught up in a shadow bind before she had a chance to move closer - that had been one heck of a fast succession of attacks.

August's expression grew confused, but he didn't look away from Gerald.

"Yep," Gerald nodded, his face turning neutral. "I wouldn't kill my next wife's little brother."

"...what..." August turned to look at Sarah, his lips parted and eyebrows scrunched, like 'what is this madman saying'.

"That part about wife is questionable, but he's actually adopted in the main Garold family," Sarah said shaking her now almost regenerated hands. They itched like hell in last healing stages. "So, y'know, killing you makes no sense." Capturing for experiments would make some sense, killing - absolutely not.

August rubbed his temple, looking like he had a severe headache. "So, what exactly were you TWO trying to do?" he asked, figuring there was a connection.

"Ah, well, ...spook you, was it?" Gerald shrugged, glancing towards Sarah.

Don't look at me... Sarah would have liked to shout. This was not going in a good direction.

"You told him?" August cast a dangerous look at Sarah.

"No way!" Sarah shook her head frantically. There was no way in hell she would tell others about what August was.

"Then that part about smell..." August's eyes became dead and he looked sideways with an expression akin to 'I don't want to live anymore'.

Smell? Sarah hadn't been close enough to hear their words, August would have noticed her if she had been that close. Wait, had Gerald recognized August as a undead dryad by his smell? How the heck did that work? Didn't August always scent like a teenage girl - soap + shampoo + laundry detergent?

"Yeah, I meant that part!" Gerald smiled, driving in the stake.

A resigned smile appeared on August's lips and his eyes turned dead. His shape disappeared in the fog like it had been an illusion to begin with.

This time it was Sarah's turn to rub her temple, as she sat down on a low tree branch. What used to be a chair, had grown strong roots and turned into a lively tree, but that was one of the least surprising parts. The more shocking was the part where books scattered their pages as the leather binding them turned into animals and pillows burst, birds forming from the feathers within. She hadn't known that August could do this either.

"Isn't he like five times worse than 32?" Gerald asked with a smile, this time it wasn't one born of fear, more like - admiration.

Sarah snorted, starting to laugh. That's what he is saying after getting almost killed? Sarah knew that Gerald was one of the surviving members from the party that defeated a mad undead dryad three years ago, but even in her wildest dreams, she couldn't imagine him recognizing August as one. No one had noticed after all and they had been among pros(including plenty of paladins) since age ten.

Gerald was surprised to see her laugh, but his surprise changed into a warm smile.

"A great brother isn't he?" Sarah asked.

"Would be proud to have one like that," Gerald agreed with a smile.

Sarah shrugged. "Good try," she said. Flattering her family was a smart move, but... "We can continue that topic when you hunt down a dragon for materials or something, reverting this place back to normal will cost at least that much," her eyes were cold as she said that.

Gerald looked away, trying to avoid her gaze.