Years passed by, our jobs never changing. We were kept almost as if we were an open secret. Eventually we became 19 years old if my counting was correct. I eventually learned Ruby’s actual name, it was Ruby, but one night something interesting happened.
We were sleeping in our room when one of the personal maids of the Duke came in asking for Ruby. I never bother to learn their names as they leave about three months after employment. He goes through them like an obese toddler goes through candy, and I don’t care if that’s offensive if it’s true.
“Ruby, don’t go. I don’t have a good feeling about this,” I said in a sleepy drawl.
But the maid interrupted me saying, “Be quiet! This is an order direct from the head of the estate. You have no choice.” Ruby gave me a worried glance before following her.
She didn’t return for the entire night and when she did return she was in distress. A pale face, sweaty body, and glazed over eyes. The smell left a whole bunch of clues as well as to what happened. She was never the same. Any comfort I attempted to give went through one ear and out the other. I don’t think that any words were ever spoken again by her afterwards.
Months passed, Ruby got ‘fired’ and left. Though the rumor mill says otherwise with some chronic disease like their version of influenza, but the disease I think she has is one that won’t leave for about 18 years.
I do feel sorry for her, having such a life placed on her, but this was our fate since we arrived at this mansion. To live depressing lives forced on us by those with power. Plus those that actually got fired never lived to see another day.
Things went back to normal. Or as normal as a day is with work, sleep the night away, work again. I die of overworking at this rate and my cooking wouldn’t have gotten any better. But these things were not to be.
Plague. It swept through the land, killing all in its path. Each member of the staff fell ill and died. It turned the garden area into one large mass grave. The family members died, and I did as well. The nobles got to go to a cemetery.
Eventually years passed. The ground swallowed all of the bodies, hiding the fact that people lie there.
So now here’s a question. How am I still here? Well, that’s another interesting story.
Cassandra rubs her brow. “You aren’t supposed to be here.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Well, I didn’t exactly live the best of a life. Forced to work in and out each day.”
“…I promised that you would live a good life, and now you’re back here. You should’ve used your knowledge to live.” She sighs. “Well, didn’t really have the time, and I would need more knowledge to do anything. Everything is just superficial.” She puts her head in her hands and sits down on a wooden chair that came out of nowhere.
Then a little girl came in out of nowhere. Almost as though she melded through the void. “Hey Cassy, whatcha doin?” Her frilly purple dress shifts the environment around her. Her black and purple hair sways like tentacles. I have no clue who this is.
“Dealing with a wayward soul who seems to have a penchant for dying. Also they aren’t able to change the world I put them in due to time and knowledge constraints.” Cassandra states with another sigh. The girl seems to ponder this.
“Okay. So just unlock the System Store for her. It would solve a ton of problems. Umm, put her back into the world, probably a short time after her death, uh, in a body that can’t die. How’s that?” The girl giggles at the idea. Though honestly, that might work.
“That might work,” Cassandra says. “Are you fine with that?” She asks me. “Sure, plus you two are the gods here.” That gains another giggle from the girl.
“We’re not gods.” Then everything went white.
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I open my eyes. I’m in the main foyer of the mansion I died in. It’s daytime, I believe I died near sundown. Strange. Also, I seem taller than usual. I try walking forward, but don’t move. Why can’t I move?
I look down at my body to see a translucent body. My maid uniform still seems to carry on after my death, how fun. I guess when they said a body that can’t die, they just meant a body that’s already dead.
Hmm? There’s a System Notification.
[ Ruler Notice: Hey! Cassandra here! You’re probably wondering about your new body. Well, you’re a basic spirit now. No special abilities other than a physically impervious body. You can unlock other abilities though, like the ability to see other ghosts. Now, if you look at your status, you see the System Shop skill. This skill has been modified from its original form where it took stats to give knowledge and skills. Obviously that would be detrimental, so I implemented a new system. Spirit Tokens! When you kill creatures you get experience and you get Spirit Tokens as well. The closer a creature is to the soul, the more tokens. These tokens can be exchanged for knowledge from your universe and skills. Now, about your spirit body. It might be weak now, but since you are technically a monster now, you can evolve.
Though I don’t know when you’ll evolve.
Good luck, and have fun! ]
Oh dear. Well, a lot of information to unpack there, but I think I’ll start with my status first.
[ Name: Lilian (Natalie Woodhull)
Species: Spirit
Age: 1 day (19 years(24 years))
Level: 1
Experience: 0/10
Spirit Tokens: 0
Titles: N/A
Effects: Normal
Spiritual Matter: 100/100
Magic: 50/50
Mana Regen: 10/hr
Power: 0
Endurance: 0
Intelligence: 180
Wisdom: 156
Agility: N/A
Dexterity: 0
Skills: Alchemy Magic III(Maximum, Base)
Chaos Magic II(Minor, Base)
Computer Engineering(Maximum, Passive)
Eidetic Memory(Passive)
Element Shift Negative(Active)
Element Shift Positive(Active)
Mechanical Engineering(Maximum, Passive)
Order Magic II(Medium, Base)
Spirit Body(Passive)
System Shop(Active) ]
Alright, so, my skills haven’t changed much from my life, except for Spirit Body and System Shop. Though the obvious drop in my stats worries me. A glance at the skill Spirit Body shows that I can go through physical objects and have an immunity to physical attacks. Though I now have a massive weakness to Holy Magic. Now, how am I supposed to gain experience if I literally cannot interact with the world around me?
I take a closer look around, the building actually looks dusty and dirty. Almost as if nothing has been touched in years. I glide through the walls, a new weird thing to do, and see an overgrown garden.
“I may have been gone longer than I thought,” I say with a reverberation. I back up in shock. That’s new. My voice sounds like someone took a recording of my voice, reversed it, added an echo, and then reversed it again. Now the echo leads into my voice.
“Do. Re. Mi. Fa. So. La. Ti. Do.” I go through a basic musical scale to test the sound of my voice. This is pretty cool.
While I’m messing around, a rat runs past me. “Hey!” I shout with a monotone voice. This is actually kind of fun. A small giggle escapes me. Wait, I don’t giggle. Yeah, it kind of sounds more forced than one would think.
I chase the rat and when it eventually stops, I kneel in front of it. “Hello there.” General Kenobi. Alright, jokes aside, the rat doesn’t react to my appearance or voice at all. I don’t think it can perceive me.
I wonder? I place my hand above the rat and charge an Alchemical Magic spell, Element Shift Positive. The rat reacts to the flow of mana, but still can’t see the spell. Now, this spell is interesting, a testimony to my hubris as I had decided to jump my mana affinities straight to Alchemy, jumping chemical magic. Element Shift Positive should be paired with an Periodic Table Element magic, not fusing, so that the spell can focus on shifting that element up the periodic table. However, I never unlocked the chemical elements, so the spell just selects a random element, could be one not included in the rat.
The spell falls over the rat. It looks forward before the light in its eyes dies, and it collapses into dust. I should learn wind magic to clean this up.
[ You have killed a level 1 “Adult Rat” x 1. 3 experience points gained. 1 Spirit Token gained. ]
Alright I have a Spirit Token. The System Shop shows a lot of interesting things. Some books, documents, blueprints, and other forms of information. The skills range from basic physical attacks to skills that can alter space-time, though those are ridiculously expensive. I mean I’m pretty sure that I would have to put that number through scientific notation three times.
I can even rank up, or evolve skills into different paths. But if I want to expand my range of skills, then I need something to attack, and one skill has a tag of ‘DISCOUNT!’ The flashing tag elicits another monotone giggle.
[ Spirit Telekinesis - A skill used by Spiritually attuned beings. It allows the user to expend mental focus on lifting an object, but while it can be used by the living, dead beings will find it much easier to use this skill. ]
[ Ruler Notice: Lillian if you grab this skill it will reveal a curse that’s been placed on you due to your death. ]
The second notice worries me slightly. A curse? If this is going to interfere then I need to know, so I’ll just purchase the skill.
[ Through purchase you have unlocked the skill: Spirit Telekinesis(Minimum, Active) ]
[ Through purchase you have unlocked the skill: Spirit Bound(Passive) ]
[ Spirit Bound - This skill bounds the user to a location. It causes the user to be kept within a range of an area. This can be a place where the user died, but can be expanded using various means, such as objects made by the user can leave the area. ]
Fuck.