“Whoa there, young pup! Didn’t reckon I'd have an audience! Looks like I scared the britches off ya—just makin’ my grand entrance!" The Spectral Cowboy's voice echoed through the cavern, his hands raised in surrender. “Ain’t here to cause no trouble. Just figured you might be in need of a hand, seein’ as you’re lookin’ a mite lost.”

Buck stood frozen, like a deer in headlights. It shouldn’t have been too surprising that the ghost could speak, but hearing such a normal voice come out of the grotesque malformity really threw him for a loop. He had grown so accustomed to the true silence of the caverns as well. He stood there, staring forward like some mute child. The ghost blinked, his glowing eyes narrowing in confusion.

“Hey Bev,” the cowboy said, tilting his head as if listening to someone Buck couldn’t hear. “Got another question for you: what in the Sam Hill is standin’ in front of me? Ah, I see, I see. So he should be able to talk, huh? Well, ain’t that a kick in the teeth. Reckon the ol’ Tutorial must’ve knocked him sideways too.” The ghost paused, then turned to Buck, his voice softening.

“Alright, young pup, I get it. My appearance ain’t exactly what you’d call welcomin’. Took me a spell to get used to it too—especially this here arm hole.” He lifted his arm casually, revealing a ghastly wound that you could practically see through. “But I don’t want no trouble; I’m just stumbling through this damn cave looking for some jackass named Blackwood. You seen him?”

“What the hell?” Buck’s mind raced, “Why was this ghost looking for him?”

It gave Buck pause. He wasn’t special, and absolutely no one could know he had been sucked down into the Sinks. What was it the ghost had said? It dawned on him: he had mentioned Bev. Of course. This must be something the damned AI had prepared for him. Was it trying to help or was this some new challenge to complete?

Buck took a deep breath, trying to formulate a plan to deal with this new apparition. “Uh, yeah…I think you're probably looking for me. Did you, uh, get the same prompt to select a name?”

The ghost’s face went through a whirlwind of emotions—surprise, suspicion, then something almost like relief. His hand, which Buck just now noticed was hovering near his six-shooters, slowly lowered. Wait. Had the ghost really been about to draw on him? Would ghost bullets even harm him?

“Well, I’ll be,”the ghost said, “That clears things up right quick. You see, Bev has gone and given me some godforsaken thing called a [Quest]. My job’s to get you to take a dip in that pool of water over yonder. Not that it looks like you’ll mind—you look like you’ve been rollin’ around in a pigsty. What happened, young pup? You lose a fight with a mudslide, or did you just come down with a case of the backdoor trots?”

“Oh, and you can call me William Wight. Once we get to know each other, I might even let you call me Billy. Now giddy-on-up and follow me if you don’t mind.” With that, William turned and sauntered off through the forest of towering stalagmites. His ghostly form casting an eerie blue glow on the jagged rock formations.

Huh. William Wight? Buck’s mind reeled. Was this the same William Wight whose grave he’d seen outside? The one buried in that crumbling cemetery? Buck stood as still as a corpse, his mind racing a mile a minute. If so, did that mean Ash and his pet AI really had actually raised someone from the dead? And William seemed to be able to speak directly to Bev. Why couldn’t he do that? However, as Buck watched the spectral form of William Wight mozy forward through the maze of stalagmites, he realized he had never tried.

Tentatively, he cleared his throat.

“Bev?”

[Yes, Peasant. Do you have a question?]

The voice boomed in his skull, rattling his teeth and making his brain feel like it was being pureed in a blender. Jesus Christ, that was going to take some time to get used to.

“What the hell is going on? Why does this ghost seem to know who I am?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

[That is Peasant William Wight, I have given him a Quest to assist you.]

“A Quest?” Buck muttered under his breath, this was getting out of hand. Buck was still nursing the aches and bruises from his last near-death experience in the tunnels, which was distracting, to say the least. Now he had to contend with an AI sending ghosts on fetch quests?

“A quest to assist me?” Buck said aloud, his voice tinged with disbelief. “Why would you do that?”

[Peasant Blackwood has a special role to play in the coming weeks. Peasant Blackwood must be strong to face what is coming. Please follow Peasant William Wight or I Will Need To Take Offensive Measures]

Buck’s body shuddered with each word, shaking him to his very core. He was under no illusions that, with a thought, Bev could end his very existence. With a grimace, he took a few hesitant steps forward, following the ghost of William Wight through the labyrinth of stalagmites. The eerie blue light from William’s corpse the only reprieve from the suffocating darkness. As he pushed forward he found himself slogging through deepening pools of water. Each one containing the unnaturally smooth stone bottom. At least he was finally cleaning himself off a bit.

As he grew closer and closer to whatever awaited him at the center of this cavern, he couldn’t help but wonder what the hell he was doing: following some ghost because an AI named Bev had chosen him to fill some mysterious role. Well, if every movie he had seen about AI had taught him anything, it was that he should not piss it off; that never ended well.

The sound of rushing water disrupted his train of thought as he passed the final stalagmite, and found himself in awe of the sights before him.

There, in the center of the massive cavern were the ruins of the Rise of the Popo Agie River. The old overlook that he had fed fish from all those years ago during his childhood. The wooden frame sat askew, half in the water, half out. Strangely enough, it looked as if the overlook had been in the water for years; the wood had become waterlogged, beginning to warp and rot. Slimy tendrils of green and yellow fungus crawled across the structure, giving it the appearance of some eldritch creature rising from the depths.

However, the water itself was crystal clear, swirling around a glowing orifice from which it appeared the water was rising. As he gazed at this slow moving whirlpool, he noticed an otherworldly glow radiating from deep within. The light pulsed rhythmically, casting a pattern that seemed to beckon him closer. It was mesmerizing, almost hypnotic, but Buck wasn’t going to fall for some siren's call.

There was no way in hell he was going to get into this water, clearly, something had happened. It looked like something out of a horror movie—probably radioactive, or cursed, or both.

And then there was the bigger issue: this wasn’t where the Rise was supposed to be. It was supposed to be above ground. Had the mountains he had been exploring for the last day grown? Shifted? If so, the outside world might be completely unrecognizable.

This was not good news. While a part of him knew that something was wrong, this solidified it. These were no ordinary caves; the world he found himself in had clearly been mutated by Bev and that boy. Yet, nothing proved this more than the spectral Cowboy in front of him. Buck hadn’t noticed that he had continued walking when they reached the water. Now, William stood delicately on the water’s surface, little ripples cascading out from where his boots touched the surface

The ghost turned and grinned at Buck, his glowing eyes piercing through the darkness. “Ah good, I’m glad you chose to follow. Bev reckoned you would, but after seein’ the state you were in, I couldn’t help but worry. Now hurry up, jump on in.”

Buck stared at the water, a sense of dread creeping up his spine. “Tell me again about this quest of yours.”

“Like I said, Bev has assigned me a [Quest].” William said matter of factly, “Seems you’ve been chosen to rule this here Kingdom, and it is my job to make sure you get there.”

“You're telling me if I get in this pool, I will become a king? What is this, King Arthur and the Holy Grail? Am I gonna pull a sword out of this thing?”

Buck peered down in the pristine turquoise water. There was no way he was going to take a bath in some magic pool just because a random ghost and a sentient AI told him to. Jesus, that was a weird statement. Even weirder was the ghastly figure staring back at him. Seeing his reflection for the first time truly cemented how messed up the last few days had been. Every inch of his body was covered in scars, thick, white lines that raised off his skin like some twisted armor. His hair and beard were patchy, thanks to all the times he’d scraped through tight tunnels. He looked like he’d been through a war—and lost.

As Buck stared at his reflection, William spoke up again.

“I was told you might say some peculiar things, but this may take the cake. That boy Ash should’ve explained this in the Tutorial. Weren’t you listenin’? Each Kingdom’s gotta have a Ruler before we can enter the Games. If we do not enter the Games, we will be consumed as energy to feed the Root Source. Now, here we go!”

Before Buck could react, William’s hands took a solid, icy form. With a sudden yank, the ghost pulled Buck toward the water. For a split second, Buck hung in the air, his reflection staring back at him as the swirling pool rushed up to meet him.