The Huri Family, though seemingly a normal rich family to others outside, was far from one. After all, the reason so many ghosts haunted their manor was due to all of the vengeful souls that had accumulated from their years of sinning.

One of the ghosts was previously a normal human before he got fooled into dealing with a giant rat infestation in the family manor and used as a sacrifice for some ritualistic magic to prolong their life.

Now, he haunts this house’s halls, seeking out the ones who took his life and stuff them into the fiery pits of hell.

“Huh?” The ghost stared at the fat ghost wandering the hallway he usually patrolled, unable to believe his eyes. What was that insane dumpy?

The humanoid ghost spurred on with his spectral urges, approached its brethren.

“Hey there.” Initiated the ghost. “I haven’t seen you around here, you new?”

The ghost turned around, and damn, they were gorgeous. “Yeah, just your usual vengeful ghost seeking revenge.”

The ghost chuckled and introduced himself, “The name’s Nick, a previous adventurer who got sacrificed for some life extension ritual.”

“Berry, a maid who also got sacrificed for some unknown ritual.” She flashed a ghastly smile, causing Nick to feel his spectral heart flutter.

“Say Nick, do you know where the Huri family is?” Berry asked kindly.

“Sigh.” Nick shook his head. “Nope. I’ve been haunting the house with my pals for days now, and I still don’t see no signs of them.”

“Well, that’s sad.” Berry approached Nick, much to his surprise.

“Yeah, it’s sad…” The humanoid ghost mustered an inhumane will to control his ghostly eyes from peeking downwards. He must resist!

Plak!

A sound akin to stabbing bedsheets echoed in the empty hallway, and Nick looked down at his chest, bewildered by the blade that had stabbed him from nowhere. The illusion glitched for a moment, and Nick saw the truth.

Berry was no ghost and was instead a human and a bear cuddled together on top of a magical carpet. Covering them was a layer of illusionary lights, transforming once more into the fabulous, plump Berry, the beautiful ghost lady.

“I… I’ve been fooled…” Nick collapsed into spectral wisps, was exorcised, and granted the rights to the afterlife.

Berry, now all alone, quietly left the hallway in search of other ghosts.

“So… This was a trap,” Braun whispered to his trusty companion.

“Ror…” Bear pointed at the ground with his paw.

“You think they’re hiding underground?” Braun rubbed his chin. “Some of the other ghosts did say they were also tasked to exterminate the ghost problem. They probably came from other towns nearby.”

“I think the Huri family is exploiting their ghost infestation to get more sacrificial lambs. Once the adventurers are either overwhelmed by the ghost or weakened, they would launch an attack at them and the cycle continues.” The young adventurer was quite sure of his hypothesis. He could easily see through the ploy at play here and was prepared to bring justice.

“Ror.” Bear wondered how they were going to exploit this situation to its fullest.

“It’s simple.” Braun drove the magical carpet around the halls. “We’ll just have to play along, and double-cross those bastards once they double-cross us!”

“Ror… Ror!” The bear appeared apprehensive at first, before finally agreeing with the plan. He readied his brass knuckles, for a fight was about to commence.

…

The door to the manor was blasted open with a gust of wind, alarming the ghosts haunting the manor. Their ghostly apparitions swarmed to the entrance, and from a far distance, Braun tossed a tiny metallic sphere forward.

Numerous runes shone on the metallic sphere just as the ghosts gathered into one spot. They swiftly recognized the runes as holy attacks that could easily exorcise them and tried to run away, but it was too late.

Exploding into a burst of light, the ghosts were blinded and zapped out of existence. The abundant holy energy infused into the ball swarmed outwards, exorcising the vengeful spirits. Their bodies crumpled into dust, dissipating with the winds.

“GO TO THE AFTERLIFE, YOU DAMN VENGEFUL FOOLS!” Braun rushed in, sword in one hand and a glowing green stone in the other which rippled with energy, transforming into a durable shield of magic.

“ROR!” Bear ran on all fours at the same pace as his blood brother, empowered by the immense strength of his robotic draconian lineage. His brass knuckles shimmered, becoming light projections of boxing gloves with sharp spikes.

Braun swung his blade and Bear punched with all his might, trampling down the ghosts that continuously rushed toward the commotion at the entrance. The power of magic and bear power allowed the two adventurers to rush deep into the haunted manor, hunting down ghosts without fail.

One fearsome ghost rushed at Braun, its form a dark spectral blur. Its claws were sharp and could cut through steel like butter; a Rare Class ghost, Braun recognized in an instant.

He gritted his teeth and mustered the full power of a fake magic swordsman. Magical energies coursed through his enchanted blade, infusing it with holy power, which is especially effective against ghosts.

The ghost shrieked loudly and soon arrived at where Braun stood.

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Ghostly partitions and exorcised ghosts surrounded the fearless adventurer, his blade raised and shield glowing with power. Holy light suffused from his sword, and he taunted, “En garde!”

The two collided at extreme speeds; crimson-red claws crashed against a holy blade.

“Urk.” His foot dug deep into the wooden floor, and he almost lost his balance, but Braun quickly adjusted his position. The strength of a dragon ran deep through his bones, and he, a mere Conman, contested the strength of the fearsome specter.

As he fought against the crimson ghost, a dark purple ghost that had inhabited a hollow armor rushed in from the right. Bear glanced at the approaching Possessed Armor, his golden gloves transforming into projections of two fearsome paws many times the size of his hands.

“Ror!” he activated the enchantment on his brass knuckles, infusing his golden paws with holy light.

The Possessed Knight raised its axe and swung downwards.

Bear pounced forward and contested the axe with his paws.

It was a fearsome war; conman against crimson ghost; bear against axe-wielding knight.

Braun slid his blade across the crimson claws and aimed it right at the ghost’s body.

Bear used his free paw, and with great familiarity with his magical brass knuckles, transformed his illusionary golden bear paw into the shape of a pointy cylinder. With a roar, he slammed the golden cylinder against the armored ghost and aimed it right at its abdomen.

Sparks scattered as the armored knight was pushed back by Bear’s attack, and lost its balance. A bright golden aura formed around Bear’s body, enhancing his attributes by a degree.

Rushing on all fours, he spun in midair and dealt a devastating kick at the armor’s abdomen, hitting the same area over and over again.

The ghost’s defense finally broke as the armor was split into two. It lost control over its legs and became a floating torso as dark purple miasma flowed from its bottom.

Braun gritted his teeth and forced his way through. The strength of a dragon surged from his muscles, and his blade reached the crimson ghost. It hurriedly tried to dodge, causing it to miss the glowing ball of light that had formed behind it.

Holy Spear! Braun had prepared plenty before coming to this manor and had bought plenty of spells from local establishments and even from the church in town. With holy spells, exorcising ghosts is far easier than ever before.

The holy spear plunged into the crimson ghost’s body, causing it to shriek aloud in pain. Braun didn’t miss this opportunity and swung his holy-infused blade, cutting the ghost in two.

“Double Strike!” His whole body glowed yellow as he activated another one of his skills; the skill double strike was a hard-to-learn skill that is accessible to almost all combat-based classes, and Braun, the genius, prodigy, and previous generalist and jack of all trades, managed to learn this skill without a problem.

Even as a fake, he had his merits.

Moving at unnatural speeds, his blade reached the ghost in the blink of an eye. Its holy glow bathed the crimson miasma with the purity of the divine, and soon, the crimson ghost bellowed its last wail before moving onto the afterlife.

Braun nearly collapsed to the ground from exhaustion but held on. Green light suffused from the stone in his hand, transferring some of the green shield’s energy into his body to patch him up.

As he glanced to the other end of the corridor, he saw Bear raise both of his arms to the sky. The two golden projections became one, transforming into a large sphere of light.

Its gravity bent inwards and the sphere became as heavy as numerous boulders but was wielded as light as feathers.

Bang!

The armored knight was smashed into the ground, the purple miasma dissipating with the winds. Gasping for his breath, Bear deactivated his enchanted brass knuckles and panted. He grabbed a stamina potion from his storage ring, chugged it down, and tossed the bottle away.

“Ror!” He shouted, glancing at Braun.

“Come, we’re not done yet!” Braun felt his body recuperate and brandished his sword. “We’re still not in the final act yet!”

…

Underneath the Huri Family Manor, a family of three sat around a crystal ball. The scene above them was projected onto it, displaying an exhausted Braun and Bear lying weakly on the ground. Spectral essence and ghostly wails surrounded the two, but no more ghosts fled in.

It seemed the two had succeeded, but they were tired and bleeding. They had exhausted their potion reserves and their trinkets had lost their effects, having used up all of their mana reserves.

“Finally, I thought they would really succeed.” A man in his late thirties heaved a sigh of relief and stood up from his seat, with the two others following suit.

A woman in her late thirties grabbed her staff on the table, an evil grin forming on her face. “We finally have new sacrifices; we’re finally done with the ghost problem. We could resume our sacrifices without a hitch!”

“Hehehe!” A boy in their late teens licked their dagger, a red glow suffusing from their eyes. “Can I be the one to kill them?”

“Yes, my boy.” The man of the house laughed jovially. “You could be the one to initiate the sacrifice today. Soon, we’ll reach Epic Class, and become more formidable than ever before!”

It appeared that the Huri Family was one nasty group, and had regularly sacrificed people to not only grant themselves health and wealth, but also power. By luring in adventurers to their manor periodically, they had gone unnoticed for years and they would soon breach into the realm of epics.

Their individual strength would rival a hundred men, their magic capable of affecting entire towns.

Perhaps they could even reach the realm of legends, and become fearsome champions of inhumane strength. They’ll stand on the same height as dragons, grand wizards, and powerful knights.

Unable to hold back their excitement and their devilish urges, they soon arrived at where the two exhausted adventurers rested. It was a random room they had found, with a bed in the far left corner, a table, a chair, and other random furniture.

The door was burst open, broken from the fight, allowing the three to get a good look on the inside of the room.

A bear lay on the bed, its eyes closed. Braun, the handsome adventurer, played with a potion bottle in one hand and lazily held his sword in the other.

“Huh?” he seemed to notice their presence, his sharp senses pinpointing their location. He looked at them, surprised to see three normal humans.

“W-Who are you?” he said, apprehensive of the three newcomers.

“We’re… We’re the owners of this manor!” the late teen approached cautiously. “Are you the adventurers that accepted our quest?”

“Yes…” Braun lowered his blade upon recognizing their face. “I’m Braun Berry, this is my partner Bear Berry.” He pointed at the bear. “Why are you guys here? Shouldn’t you have evacuated?”

“Evacuated?” The teen approached closer, squinting their red eyes. “Why should we? We’re the ones who caused this whole mess in the first place!”

They lunged in the air, a malevolent red energy coating their dagger.

“And that’s enough evidence!” Braun whipped his sword, its form rapidly changing from blade to gun.

Bang!

Their head splattered into a bloody mist and crashed onto the ground with a soft thud.

“Harry!” A man rushed in, their eyes bloodshot with rage. Satanic red runes formed on their skin, clearly a result of some dubious ritual.

“A Rare Class worm daring to fight against the dashing, heroic, genius artificer?” Braun laughed and pressed his trigger. A beam of holy light blasted through the man’s head, and just like his dear child, he exploded into a bloody mist.

Bear watched from the side and cackled at the sight. Then, as he saw a woman in her late thirties run away through the broken door, Bear decided to deal with that vermin.

Following the method Braun taught him, the light emitted from his brass knuckles became a long, rifle-like object. Peeking through the scope and lying on his back on the bed, the bear licked its lips and pressed the trigger.

Swoosh.

A golden bullet pierced through the woman’s leg, causing her to cry out in pain.

Bear clicked his tongue over his missed shot and pressed the trigger again.

Bwoom.

The bullet this time lodged itself deep into the woman’s nape, piercing through her neck. She collapsed to the ground, unable to breathe, and slowly bled to death.

“Fuck yeah!” Braun praised his beastly brother. “Nice shot!”

“Ror!” Bear grunted in joy.

“Now though…” Braun inspected the corpses around them. “How am I gonna store them?”