So...what to do here?

With some guts and elbow grease, we managed to get to the rooftops of the Halloween District without being spotted. Looking at the populace below, it seems this place can also be called the "Skeleton District". No ghosts or zombies to be seen. There are just bones here!

"Tch. And here I hoped for a Jack-o-Lantern-like something in addition to the Lesser Lich." - Garami

"Don't be greedy. Be VERY greedy and ask for a vampire as well!" - Mira

"Is that your way of life?" - Garami

"Nope. It's my code of chivalry~!" - Mira

Yeah, she will end up as an evil black knight. King Arthur wouldn't let her come a mile close to the Round Table.

But back to business. We need to find that Lich, Lesser or not. I hope it's not the "not". That would kill us. Then we need that Soul Jar thing. Or vice versa. I'm flexible on that part.

Hmm, if the skellies here work for the (hopefully Lesser) Lich, then messing with them will get the boss moving. And am I detecting something from that giant mansion over there? Must be the new [Treasure Radar] at work. It even tells me the stuff in there is undeadly...and it has to be the Soul Jars then. Yeah, now that I've identified the source of the signal, the Radar is giving me info that confirms my suspicion. It's the Jars. Wow, this skill sure is effective.

"Hey, about that mansion-" - Garami

"It has the Jars in it. I just noticed it myself." - Mira

Right, she also got the Radar from the Orbs. As I said: super-duper effective.

"Okay, we need a distraction here. Mira, you can either take a Half Gold or a date. Just get the job done." - Garami

"So, I either have to risk my life over a simple date, or risk my life over 5.000 Sols, is that correct?" - Mira

"Pretty much, yes." - Garami

"I'll take the date. Come and get it, boneheads!" - Mira

And down she goes, with an orchestra of broken ribs and limbs making background music to her mayhem. And I thought for sure that she would take the money! Either one of those skills she got brainwashed her or Filyn did. ...Who am I kidding? It has to be Filyn.

Anywho, I got the distraction I needed. Time to infiltrate!

---

One infiltration later:

I'm in! And...very disappointed. Where is all the undead magic stuff?! The traps? The deadly dangers? Not even a pitfall! Ugh, this place's security stinks. No fun at all...

The disappointment aside, this place is empty! Okay, that's part of the reason why I'm so down the dumps, but this is too weird. Mira's distraction maneuver shouldn't have been THAT effective, could it?

Let's take a better look at this place. If there are some hidden passageways in a mansion, they are either in the cellars or the studies. And I am NOT going down into the basements! We are already in a Halloween-inspired undead wonderland! I know my horror movies. You're not making a victim outta me, Lesser Lich!

That, and I'm right beside the study now. Plus the [Treasure Radar] is beeping so loudly to it. Treasures!!

I opened up the door to the study, carefully, and saw...a gigantic chest. Not Mira's, but a treasure chest! That's...oddly disturbing. Shouldn't there be a boss or something in situations like these? [Detect Traps] and [Evil Eye of Dark Sight] tells me there are no traps here. Nothing on the [Detect Monster] radar either. ...Again, what a disappointment.

Now, what did that lockpicking guide say about stupidly-large treasure chests? Just don't let some ghost creep up behind me while I'm working-

"Whooooo~." - ???

"GYAAAAAA!!!" - Garami

GHOST! GHOST!! ENEMY! FRIENDLY FIRE!! ...Say what now?

"Relax. It is just me!" said the "ghost", aka Bloom who suddenly decided to play the jerk.

"Oh, of course. I knew that." - Garami

"Uhu. Do you mind getting down from the roof now?" - Bloom

"The roof?! I mean, the roof! Yeah, sure. Just have to be done checking out if [Sticky Limbs] still works as I remember." - Garami

"Yeah, sure." - Bloom

She is never gonna let me live this down, is she?

"More importantly, why are you here? Did you finish your search?" - Garami

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Yes, I did. But can we take this conversation later? A Zone Boss may appear at any moment." - Bloom

A what-boss? Whatever. It's true that staying around here isn't the smartest course of action. Let's get the loot and flee.

The treasure chest isn't booby-trapped, so let's open this sucker already! Its contents are a freaky-looking jar with a skull for its cap. This is the Soul Jar, alright.

"...Master? Are you planning on evolving into a Lich? Because I am not sure if I can stay around you if you decide to do that..." - Bloom

"I am not! But this thing could be handy for upgrading my clothes." - Garami

"You mean, you are planning on making a necromancy-suited mode for your [Nightmare Demon's Armor]?" - Bloom

"In short, yes. Now, fetch me a Lich that will look good with this Jar." - Garami

"AND HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?! I can find one for you if that is okay." - Bloom

"Good girl." - Garami

Bloom, connected to my perception-type skills, located the Lesser Lich standing outside the mansion, right below a window nearby. I looked out the window..., uh-oh.

Mira got captured. Or rather, she's surrounded by Skellies. For some reason, Iron is with her, the two of them watching each other's back. The undead hasn't noticed her, but I can see Filyn sitting on the roof of one of the other buildings, having a bird's eye view of the situation.

From the looks of the scattered pieces of bones spread all over the place, Mira must have made a mess out of the Lesser Lich's forces, forcing it to take its best forces out from the mansion to face her. No wonder the building was so quiet. Everything was going on outside! ...I have to spend more than a Half Gold on that date, don't I?

Time to put my weight on this case. Speaking of which... Let's go with the "sudden surprise from above" operation. But, argh! I lack the necessary heavy object for this operation! My Storage was getting cluttered by all the stuff I had to bring with me to Tree Sea Isle, so I didn't have the space for any large weights.

TCH! What a waste... Hold on. Instead of a "something", maybe I can drop a "someone"? The Skeletons are too lightweight. Or should I say "bone weight"? As for the Lesser Zombies, I think they're too fragile. It would just end up as a dirty stain on the Lesser Lich's robe. And Bloom is too tiny!

"For some reason, I feel like my safety was disregarded to a whole new unspeakable level." - Bloom

"It's just your imagination. Don't think too much about it." - Garami

In that case, let's go with the Mini Flesh Golem, the F-rank of that golem-blueprints I found in the graveyard. Unlocking it would give me...enough Necro Counters for around 2.5 Gloom Skeletons, but that's a price I'm willing to pay. Mini or not, a golem is still heavy as ****.

After preparing the golem's blueprints, I jumped out the window and stuck to the wall. Literally. The Lesser Lich haven't noticed me yet, so let the golem bombs be dropped. Summon!!

*CRASH!!*

...Wow. That guy must go on a diet. What part of that heavyweight is "mini"!?

The Skeleton guards of the Lesser Lich seem to have...been turned off? Maybe there's some mind-controlling necromancy at work, maybe they're just too dumbfound like everyone else, or maybe it's something else. No matter, I climbed down and dismissed the golem. The Lesser Lich has seen better days, but he's still got around a single-digit percentage of HP left. And into the book you go~.

"Okay, I got it. RETREAT!!" - Garami

I used my webs to sling myself to the rooftops while calling the tactical retreat to the guys still on the ground level. The ghost armor Iron used his shield to force his way through the Skeletons who were still in a daze, with Mira following his trail of bone-crushing destruction.

"Well, that was unsatisfying," said Filyn who joined me as I jumped from roof to roof.

"Better than getting turned to bone dust due to a mob of angry bones." - Garami

No matter the degree of entertainment that "battle" had, we got away with both the Lich and the Jar. And as a bonus, Bloom returned. Let us hear what she has discovered.

---

"One" (honestly) explanation later:

"...Do you mind running that by me one more time?" - Garami

"For the seventh time, we are in a Haunt that used to be a Dungeon! I mean, it still is! It is complicated!!" - Bloom

After we got away from the Skeletons at the Lich Mansion (self-named) and scored a resting place inside an abandoned house, Bloom started to give me the scoop while the rest of them was relaxing.

...And to be honest, I'm as clueless as before I sent her on this supposedly wild goose chase. Let's try to simplify all the information Bloom brought with her:

First, this town used to be a normal town. Except that the castle also worked as a Dungeon!! But that is not so uncommon when it comes to cities like this. Sometimes, villages are constructed around useful Dungeons that provide handy materials, or some other times again, a greedy king decided to upgrade their castle's security by turning it into a Dungeon they can control.

Second, some kinda incident happened here in this city, but we don't know what. Bloom didn't have access to that data.

Third, Tir na Nog appeared. As a Dungeon, I mean. It may have something to do with the second step, but we can't be sure.

Fourth, SOMETHING was decided that turned the Dungeon Tir na Nog, which used to be the Dungeon: [Tir na Nog castle], into a Haunt. Haunts, by the way, are something close to System-approved natural resorts where rare monsters live.

"These second and third steps are the strange ones. Just that a normal town turned into a Haunt won't explain all those Extra Medals or the strangely appearing undead goons..." - Garami

Haunts are after all only protected by the World System. They don't have any treasure boxes filled with rewards! Thinking back, that may have been the case with the Soul Jar as well. What is going on?

"You have a problem?" asked Filyn all of a sudden. She must be feeling bored.

"Just a little riddle I need to solve..." - Garami

"Let me see," said Filyn AFTER she grabbed my worksheet from me. Hey!

"I've solved it! The gods must have collected the Tir na Nog Castle Dungeon as a deposit and turned it into a Chaos Dungeon!" - Filyn

"They WHAT!? They can do that!?" - Garami

"I think so? A whole city ended as an undead-infested hellhole. There would have been some sort of divine punishment for doing that." - Filyn

In that case, there being Extra Medals in the city's districts would make sense. Even if the place was turned into a Haunt afterward, the rewards placed in the Dungeon may remain.

The dome above the island may be another Dungeon function, now that I think about it. As for the reason to turn a Chaos Dungeon into a hybrid between a Dungeon and a Haunt, I have no idea.

That Iron may be a clue to solve that mystery. If the island has enough undead-related aether to create at least a whole village of the undead, maybe a Chaos Dungeon would be a hinder to a natural birth of the undead...? Okay, I noticed how stupid that sounded while I was thinking about it. That can't be right...

Or maybe there was so much aether that just a Chaos Dungeon alone couldn't work it all off? So they split the workload between natural methods in a Haunt and artificial methods through a Chaos Dungeon?

"Hey, are we going already?" - Mira

Break time seems to be over. Let's move. I need some more info about this island's past if I'm to seriously crack this mystery. Hopefully, Iron's village will be a clue to that and not some complicated plot to exterminate us. ...What? You can never be too careful.