Potions for healing and mana regeneration, check. Anti-ghost cloak, check. Lamp-trap for ghosts, check. Ectoplasmic oil, check. Yovan was whistling happily as he was inspecting his equipment. Everything seemed in order, except that his stock of potions was getting dangerously low. He made a mental note to replenish it after this quest. Still, it shouldn't really matter, he had all the tools necessary to deal with the ghost.
Ghosts were created when the soul of a dying person would take a fragment of the body preventing it to move on. Usually, this happened when a person died a violent death, so the soul in shock tried to fervently hold on to its body. This fragment, called ectoplasm, was the only corporeal part of the ghost, and usually, it was not visible to the naked eye, leading many people to incorrectly assume that ghosts don't have any physical part. The easiest way to defeat a ghost would be to destroy its ectoplasm. But if Yovan thought there was some value to the ghost, he could imprison it and sell it afterward. So he prepared a lamp as well.
The farm was huge. On one side were endless fields of wheat and barley, while segregated by a fence were herds of cows, horses, unicorns, and sheep. The barn was tucked in near the grazing grounds, somewhat removed from the living quarters that were near the fields. The farm was still very close to the city. Smoke was rising from the rooftops, and some explosions could still be heard. They were probably still fighting the demon. Well, everyone has his own thing to do in this world, and Yovan was focusing on his. The barn was somewhat wide, but it was incredibly long. Hopefully, the ghost wasn't too shy or it would take forever to find it.
Yovan pulled out a bag of salt that he imbued with magic repellent. Since he wasn't expecting the building to be this huge, he would have had to make a very thin line of salt around it. It should still be enough to keep a simple ghost inside or at least notify him if something crosses. After he finished with the preparations, he finally opened the door. There were a lot of windows but there were still a lot of dark places inside where he couldn't see. He considered for a second to call out to the ghost, to save time but decided against it. He should be careful. He snuck to one of the darker corners and surveyed the scene. There were stalls for the animals and a separate sheepfold. On the upper level, there were bales of hay. It would be so annoying if the ghost was hiding there.
He cast an invisibility and subtlety spell on himself, lowering his senses as well in the process but increasing his chances of seeing the ghost first. Moving in covert steps, he looked in every direction as he went through the barn. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, nor could he sense any magical creature around. Reaching the end of the barn was worryingly uneventful. He needed to drop his camouflage spells. They were great for safety, but since they muffled the space around the caster, they distorted his vision as well. If he still couldn't find the ghost he will have to dive through the hay. Spending potions on cuts from dried grass wasn't something that excited him. He opened a couple of stalls and found just some hay and cow dung. At least, there should be some magical residue somewhere, but he couldn't find anything. Maybe Drashko was imagining things? He certainly didn't look the type who pulled practical jokes on people.
On the eve of his patience, in the middle of the barn, in a bucket of water, Yovan saw two white orbs looking at him. He approached it, measuring his every step while resting his hand on the hilt of his sword. Two white orbs slowly rose from the bucket. The ghost was the size of a human head, its body was a mist-like, semi-transparent, white gas, while its white orbs turned out to be its eyes. Yovan moved slowly, trying not to make any sudden moves and antagonize the ghost.
"Hey, little fella. Aren't you a strange one."
The ghost shimmered for a few seconds then turned around and flew away from Yovan, disappearing in the stalls. Yovan sighed and started opening the stalls one by one, still hoping he could finish this quickly. He finally found the ghost in one of the stalls hiding in the hay. The fact that he couldn't in any way sense it was very annoying. He tried approaching it again, but the ghost again tried to fly away. This time Yovan quickly cast a spell, creating a strong light in his palm, hoping that ghost would dissuade the ghost from fleeing. He smiled as the ghost looked absolutely mesmerized by the blinding light. It moved from one side to the other, moving in closer and backing away in fast moves from the light.
"That's it, buddy, no need to be afraid. I'll just do some checks. You won't feel a thing."
Yovan quickly cast a spell to determine where the ghost's ectoplasm was. He released a small beam of magical energy that should pass through the ghost and reflect where they encounter magical parts. But nothing happened. The beam just passed through the ghost as if it was a fully gaseous being. His face twitched at the unexpected result. How is he going to destroy this ghost if it doesn't have an ectoplasm? Or maybe it was so minuscule that Yovan just couldn't detect it? This could be an issue. Suddenly Yovan's face brightened with delight. Ghost without an ectoplasm was unheard of, it is bound to earn him quite a fortune if he could capture it. Maybe even Lord N00bpwn3r would be interested in something like this. He took his lamp from his belt and opened it. Then he prepared another spell, arcane prison, which could trap and hold a weak magical creature for five minutes. Just enough so that he could put it into the lamp. Just as the prison began to form around the ghost, it woke from its hypnosis visibly upset and flew away as fast as it could.
"Ah, come on! Don't make this difficult. If we don't get you out of here, the next person who comes here might not be as merciful as me."
He bolted after the frightened ghost until it disappeared into the barn wall. Yovan waited a few moments only to have his patience rewarded with the returning ghost. It jumped around like a drunk who was disoriented by a loud noise.
"You thought you could escape me forever? Well, bad luck for you it seems."
Radiant bars of light appeared all around the ghost. Yovan had enough of playing with the ghost and forced the spell as fast as he could. The ghost bounced off the arcane prison, its gaseous form proving unable to move through the bars. It jumped in all directions searching for a way out, but the prison held its structure, not moving an inch. Yovan started collapsing the prison. When it reached the third of its size, everything inside it was filled with white mist. He brought the lamp closer to the prison trying to push the ghost inside. Sweat started forming on his forehead, the heat of the prison being the main culprit. The ghost was half inside the lamp when it started cracking.
"What kind of ghost are you? Just go inside already?"
For such a small thing it proved very hard to compress it. Which was unusual because the gas of the ghost doesn't take much space. It was like pushing rope through the head of a needle, the lamp expanded and white blob bubbling everywhere around. Finally, Yovan sighed a deep breath of relief. The ghost was inside and he couldn't hear any movement. Everything was perfectly calm. He wiped his forehead. It's done. Seven silver coins plus a dozen more for a unique ghost. He could even afford to get choosy with a prostitute now. One with blue hair seemed about right this time. A crack broke his thoughts and then his lamp. A powerful heatwave emanated from it, throwing him away, crashing him into a pillar. The smell of singed hair flowed in his nose. He rushed to his feet, not succumbing to surprise onslaught. In front of him, a crimson hand was popping out of the lamp. It was in flames but didn't seem to be hurt by it.
It wasn't a damn ghost, it was an anchor. Yovan slapped his head, then cast invisibility on himself. From the lamp emerged a fiery visage of a demon. It had two hoofed legs, a well-built, muscular body, and a serpentine head. It only had one bat-like wing, the other seemed severed in half. Its whole body was full of wounds and it was bleeding profusely as green liquid dripped down its body. It was a higher demon. Yovan swallowed what remained of his spit and tried to slowly back away. Hopefully, his invisibility would hide him. Demon fixated on him and made a harrowing roar. It wasn't working. He ran for the exit. Panic giving his legs a mind of their own. Behind him, a towering sound was getting closer. He ran out of the barn as he felt hot air bursting from behind. He jumped to the side, tumbling, breaking, while the embodiment of fire and hate flew just past him. The demon stopped, turned towards Yovan, and started casting a spell. Not having enough time to evade, Yovan conjured a shield to defend himself. A rain of acid flew towards him, splashing onto the shield. The demon was too powerful. Acid drops melted the shield and hit his left arm. He grabbed it instinctively, only to feel the acid burning through his glove into his palm. He fell to his knees, holding the land with his hands, as he felt the demons spell poisoning his bloodstream. The temperature rose, his heightened senses foreboding death. He pushed himself away, falling on his back, just in time to see the demon's clawed hand slashing the air where he used to be. The demon snapped with its tongue, then walked up towards Yovan. Raising its hand high, determined not to miss again.
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
A large shield manifested itself in front of the demon's swing. Annoyed at getting denied again, the demon clawed repeatedly at the interloping object. But the shield stood. Never to let the shield stand alone, a man tackled the demon from the side. It was Myrkoh. He couldn't knock down the demon, but he managed to push it away from Yovan. The shield disappeared in front of Yovan and materialized on Myrkoh's left arm. He proceeded to bash the demon with it. Yovan was overwhelmed. The shock was still holding him down. Soon after, cleric and elementalist showed up. Cleric issued a prayer and a colossal fist appeared above the demon. It smashed on it, shaking the ground, and snuffing out its flames. A second later Lina appeared behind the screeching demon. She slammed her two daggers in the demon's back, lacerating it open. Finally, the elementalist's lightning pierced through the opening Lina created and fried the demon from the inside. The demon stumbled. Overwhelmed, it fell to the ground. Its body burst into black flames, consuming its body until only charred remains were left.
"Were you badly hurt?"
Yovan blinked at the question. He looked twice around him before settling his eyesight on the warrior above him.
"Are you okay?" Myrkoh repeated.
"Sure, I just need a moment to collect myself."
"It seems you joined the fight against the demon after all.", said the elementalist.
"Huh?"
"I apologize, we haven't actually introduced ourselves. I guess you already know Myrkoh's name. Our lovely cleric over there is Zoritza. And I am Welimir. That was the higher demon that was ravaging the city, remember from yesterday when we met. You were lucky we managed to track it in time."
Hunter rose to his feet, checking his body and armor for damage.
"Yeah, I do feel lucky. Well if that's the demon everybody was fighting in the city, it explains why it was so badly hurt. Still, how did you find where it teleported so fast?"
Welimir produced a rather large fragment of the demon's wing.
"We managed to acquire a part of its wing and divined from that the location of its anchor. Other adventurers already cornered the demon, so we surmised that the demon will teleport back to its anchor, so we decided to come here to cut off its escape."
Yovan's head started to pulse as Lina was walking towards them, carrying his broken lamp.
"Yovan, please tell me you didn't try to capture the anchor in your lamp?"
"No."
"What were you thinking, you idiot? You could've killed yourself. Or some other poor guy you would sell the lamp to."
"I didn't notice, okay? It's not that common to find an anchor."
"What did you not notice? That it didn't have ectoplasm? How did you miss that?"
"All right, Lina," Myrkoh interjected, "it was an honest mistake. Leave the poor guy alone."
"Yeah, why can't you just back off once?"
"Because when you present yourself as an arcane hunter and fuck things up, it reflects badly on every one of us. Not to mention that we have insane mages ruling over us. We don't need an incompetent buffoon killing people with his… With his incompetence. Just go back to your father's farm. You'll save a lot of lives that way."
Wow, that did hurt. Yovan stood at this verbal attack. He could at least dodge the demon's attacks. Words once said you could only counter. And Yovan could think of nothing. So he just stood motionless.
"Is it safe now?" Drashko showed his head from the house.
"Yes it's safe, you can come out now," said Welimir.
"What the hell was that? I was watching from the inside. Where is the ghost? How did that demon get here? What happened?"
"It wasn't a ghost in the first place, it was an anchor," answered Lina.
"Anchor? What's an anchor?"
"When a demon is summoned, a part of it needs to be bound. That part is called an anchor. You could think of it as a shadow of a demon's soul. To ordinary people, it looks a lot like a ghost and they often confuse one with the other." Lina shot a quick glance at Yovan. "When this particular demon was defeated, it returned to the place it was bound, its anchor. We followed it here so that we could finish it off."
Drashko scratched his head. This was probably more excitement the old man had in his lifetime. Still, he collected himself and continued confidently.
"So is it over? It's not going to return or something after you go?"
"No," said Welimir, "take a look at that remains. Not even demons can survive that. You can sleep peacefully tonight."
"Hmm, I guess that you should receive the reward then for destroying that thing."
"No need Sir, we were already hunting the demon as part of our contract. And we are already getting paid by the city.", Myrkoh said.
"No. I am a man of my word. I promised seven silver coins if that thing is destroyed and that's how much I owe you. I know this probably is a drop of what city will pay you but-"
"In that case, we will gratefully accept your reward, Sir."
Drashko took a small pouch out of his pocket and gave it to Myrkoh. He accepted it with gratitude, and without opening the pouch put it in his bag.
"Now, you are all invited to my house to rest and get something decent to eat."
"As we are sure of your great hospitality, we would gladly accept, but we really need to return to the city immediately and inform the people that the demon was destroyed.", said Welimir.
"I understand."
Yovan was searching for an opportunity to remove himself, unnoticed if possible. But Myrkoh foiled his plans.
"I do feel sorry for our friend over here. We did accidentally steal his reward. Leaving him empty-handed doesn't feel good."
"Ah, there's no need. Who destroys the monster gets the reward. That's always been the rule." Yovan said and waved his hand.
"Why? He couldn't have possibly defeated the demon and we saved him." Lina said to Myrkoh.
"Even still. Honey, could you heal the man. His wounds seem serious enough."
Zoritza perked up at her cue and tried to approach Yovan.
"No, thank you. I can take care of myself. No need for your sympathy or charity."
Yovan felt he lost all of his dignity, or perhaps he didn't care about it anymore. So he just waddled away from the group. Stopping after a few steps just to say "Goodbye" and then continued, not turning his back anymore.
----------------------------------------
By the time Yovan returned to the pub he was already healed. Unfortunately, that also meant he only had one healing potion left. He didn't have a stamina potion, so exhaustion was starting to pile up with dirt and blood on his body. He checked his wallet. One silver and twenty-eight coppers. He just wanted to go to sleep and send this day away.
"For three nights, that will be one silver and fifteen copper coins."
Yovan looked at the innkeeper, then silently counted the said amount.
"Would you like breakfast as well? It's five coppers."
"No. thank you. I usually skip breakfast."
Yovan fell on the bed face down. He didn't take off his clothes or his boots. He just hugged the pillow as strong as he could and bit his lip. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.