As the old farmer predicted, the rain really continued to fall until late in the evening. At that point, it was pointless for Li Wei to resume his travel. While he was relatively close to the city and there were few monsters nearby; it was already dark which meant that it was the prime time for bandits to roam near the city.
Stuck in the farmer's house the whole afternoon, Li Wei tried to make the best use of his time. In addition to working on his Gliding Steps and trying to understand the technique from a theoretical point of view, Li Wei spent a good amount of time with the old farmer.
The old farmer spent the entire afternoon smoking his pipe under his veranda. He was delighted to see Li Wei join him and narrated the stories and legends of the land. The latter naturally carefully listened to the old man's stories; this sort of conversations was the best way for players to obtain quests.
Unfortunately, he did not receive any notifications. However, the conversation was not completely useless; there was one particular story that kept Li Wei's attention: The Ghost Farmer.
According to the old man, long ago, when he was still just a child, an old couple decided to settle down in the area to become farmers. At the time, they attracted everyone's attention since they clearly had significant backgrounds. No one really interacted with them and the couple did not make the first step either.
Time went by with the couple leading an isolated life and eventually, the old lady passed away. When that happened, the nearby farmers all went there to show their support and help the old man surpass that difficult period but to their surprise, the old man was very protective of his territory. He became extremely hostile, wildly cursed and denied anyone access to his farm.
The farmers tried several times to help him but the old man was very stubborn as if hiding something inside his farm. Seeing his reaction, the nearby farmers decided to ignore the old man. They genuinely wanted to help but were only met with such behavior.
Things went quiet for a while until suddenly, on one night, a massive explosion was heard at the old man's farm. All the buildings and the nearby fields were set on fire and the worst part was that the fire could not be extinguished by water.
The farmers were all alarmed and fought against the fire for the whole night. But it was in vain, the fire continued to spread until the next morning when the city's guards arrived and took care of it. Such a big fire caused a lot of damage to the local harvest which could have had severe consequences on the economy of the county.
Investigations were carried out and it was found that the explosion was man-made. It was an attack from the Heretics; a group of worshipers of an evil god. The guards spent days investigating the scene and it was concluded that the Heretics attacked the old man to take back some form of treasure.
But the story did not end there. Things calmed down after the incident but just one week after the guards left, the nearby farmers all saw the ghost of the old man, aimlessly roaming on his previous land. Everyone was terrified and called the guards but the ghost never appeared in the presence of the guards.
As soon as they left, the ghost would reappear but would stay in his territory and till now, the ghost still wanders endlessly on his land every night. The ghost would only appear at night if no strong individual that might be a threat to him was nearby, but it would never leave its land. The guards decided to dismiss this case since as long as no one went to the haunted farm, everything would be fine.
It was said that the Ghost Farmer was protecting some dark secrets; many adventurers would come to try their luck but if they were too strong, then the ghost would not appear but if they were weak, the ghost would simply slay them with his scythe.
It was even said that the Heretics came back several times with their young apprentices to try to get back the treasure but they never succeeded.
Hearing that, Li Wei could not help but be interested in this Ghost Farmer. It was an opportunity to make a good use of his stay at the farm tonight since the haunted farm was not very far.
...
Time went by and it was already midnight. The old farmer and his son were already asleep and only the old granny was still awake. She quietly opened the door for Li Wei and wished him the best of luck. It was normal for her to stay awake very late during the night. In the recent years, insomnia would strike her every night.
"Be careful young man. It is good to be courageous and curious... But don't let that get to your head. Countless youngsters like you perished under the scythe," said the granny.
"Do not worry about that granny, I will be very careful and come back in one piece!" answered Li Wei as he silently left the farm.
It was no longer raining, but the land was wet, making it harder for Li Wei to walk around. The granny was kind enough to point out the direction of the haunted farm. It was at about 30 minutes’ walk.
The night was silent. All Li Wei could see was the endless fields of wheat dancing with the wind. Fortunately, the sky was clear of clouds, allowing the moon to illuminate the entire field.
25 minutes later, Li Wei finally saw a change in the landscape. The soil there was unused. It could have been the insufficient lighting but to Li Wei, it seemed that the soil was completely black. There was a clear demarcation warning people about the haunted territory.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
In the distance, Li Wei could see the ruins of some buildings. "These must have been the house, the barn, the stables..."
He silently crouched between the growing wheat. Just in front of him was the territory of the Ghost Farmer. He was just there to observe and if the opportunity presented itself, he would try to gain some benefits. But still, no one ever came that close to observe. He did not know if the Ghost Farmer would chase him since he was just at the boundary of the territory. But more importantly, he did not even know if he was considered too strong causing the Ghost Farmer to not appear.
Not even 5 minutes after his arrival, Li Wei finally saw what he came for. Emerging from the ruins of the house, a gloomy silhouette rose up. It was surrounded by a ghastly white aura which was constantly swirling around the body.
The body itself did not look in good shape; it was like a decomposing corpse. The white aura particularly made the corpse look gloomier.
Seeing the Ghost Farmer, Li Wei immediately backed off a few meters, he did not want to attract its attention too much and the Ghost Farmer was extremely visible due to the white glow.
The latter turned its head to look at Li Wei but it did not move from the ruins.
"Scary! Especially those empty eye sockets!" said Li Wei to himself.
Walking about 10 meters back, Li Wei frowned as he noticed that the Ghost Farmer was level 15. But more importantly, as he saw the level, he also received a notification.
[System prompt: You have encountered the boss monster Ghost Farmer. Be careful! It is a Ghost-type monster]
"It is a level 15 boss! And a ghost type at that... Such bad luck."
Ghost-type monsters were a class of monsters just like beasts were another type of monsters. While Beast-type monsters were usually present in the wild, Ghost-type were rarer; they were more commonly seen in deserted ancient battlefield or graves.
The special thing about Ghost-type monsters was that they all had the inherent trait: 50% reduced physical damage! That was the bane of all physical classes like warriors especially if they did not use enchanted weapons.
However, to compensate for that, they had another inherent trait: 25% Bonus damage from Light, Fire and Thunder type magic. It was clear that they were a type of monster especially suited to be hunted by mages.
Li Wei was very clear about it. It was very common in the other games he played and he also confirmed that when he had a look at the book at the library which recorded the different creatures that could be found.
The Ghost Farmer was not recorded in it, but a lot of information was available about the different types of monsters.
Li Wei crouched down between the wheat and calmly observed the Ghost Farmer.
The latter did not seem to notice Li Wei and only stood out and started to walk out of the ruins.
Suddenly, Li Wei heard loud steps coming from the other side of the haunted farm. The Ghost farmer also noticed the footsteps and immediately turned to look at the newcomer.
"Finally! He took longer to come out this time! Let's hurry up and finish him!"
"It looks like the shackles of weakness can really hide our aura and make us appear weaker! Even that ghost did not notice!"
From his point of view, Li Wei saw two cloaked figures openly approach the Ghost Farmer. Unfortunately, he could not see their face or weapon. The black cloaks were completely hiding their identity but hearing their conversation, he already understood that these two were more powerful than they looked, probably even stronger than the Ghost Farmer.
Worried about getting noticed, Li Wei tried to lower his body as much as possible. But he still stayed in a position where he could see the Ghost Farmer take out his long scythe.
"Kill kill kill"
The Ghost Farmer started whispering as he noticed the appearance of the two individuals.
"Kill!"
Suddenly, the Ghost Farmer charged at the two cloaked figures. The decomposing corpse was not even touching the ground as it was moving.
"Tsssk! Pathetic! [Molten Shield]!"
As the leading cloaked figure spoke, bright red flames rose from below his feet and condensed into a sphere around the two.
"Kill!!!" At the same time, the Ghost Farmer violently slashed his scythe at the two figures but surprisingly, the blade of the scythe could not even penetrate the flames surrounding the two figures.
"Tsssk! If it was not for the Bishop's orders, I would not even bother using my mana on you! [Flame Whip]"
Immediately, bright red flames appeared in the leading cloaked figure's hands. A second later, the red flames condensed into two long whips, one in each hand. Without hesitation, the cloaked figure mercilessly attacked the Ghost Farmer.
"Kill!"
But the latter did not seem to feel pain as it continued to try to break through the molten shield. However, it was clear that the white aura surrounding its body became dimmer.
Li Wei was observing the fight as a chill went down his spine. Who were these 2 guys who could fight the Ghost Farmer so casually. "I must stay hidden, or they might think that I am here to steal the loot and attack me," thought Li Wei.
Being constantly whipped, the Ghost Farmer was in bad shape. The decomposing flesh now looked completely charred, even the protruding bones looked completely black. Its aura now looked so pale that it looked like a normal undead.
"You are taking so long! It is just a level 15 monster. Hurry up! I want to go back!"
"Help me if you think it is easy, his body was clearly upgraded from the radiations of the Dungeon Core. Have you ever seen such physical strength in a Ghost-Type? He has at least the Strength of a level 25!"
"Fine! But I will be the one to submit the Dungeon Core to the Bishop! [Lightning Spear], [Lightning Spheres]"
"Boom!"
A massive explosion of light occurred as the bright spheres collided with the body of the Ghost Farmer.
Even Li Wei was temporarily blinded despite being relatively far away from the fight. When he was finally able to see the scene, his mind went blank.
The Ghost Farmer seemed to have exploded into several lifeless parts, each limb was now lying on the ground in different directions while the skull was being held by one the cloaked figure.
"Damn sinner! How dare you steal from God? I even had to come all the way to this small city just to retrieve the Dungeon Core. At least you've got what you deserve!"
"Alright, hurry up! We must go. The explosion did not go unnoticed. The guards might be on alert, we should leave this place as soon as possible!"
"Hmmp! Pathetic!" shouted one of the cloaked figures as he kicked the skull away.
"We have completed the mission. Let's go," said the other cloaked figure and at the same time, his silhouette suddenly started to vanish. It was not a [stealth]; the animation was different, but it was something Li Wei saw before; it was the same animation produced by the thief's equipment in the Tower of Heroes.
A few seconds later, the other cloaked figure also started to vanish and soon, the scene became silent as if nothing happened. Only the remains of the Ghost Farmer showed that a fight took place.
"Fiouff! I did not expect to witness such a fight when I came here!" said Li Wei. He was still laying low, not daring to go out in case the cloaked figures were still nearby. The fight really gave him a fright, especially since a level 15 boss was blown away that easily.
Suddenly,
"I knew there was someone there! Little spy, let me teach you some manners!"
"Oh no!" thought Li Wei, he already recognized that voice; it was one of the cloaked figures. Immediately, Li Wei rolled on the ground to try to get up. Behind him, one of the cloaked figures suddenly appeared, pointing a staff towards Li Wei.
"Enough! There is no need to kill him. He was given the opportunity to witness our strength. God is merciful. We should let him go!" shouted the other cloaked figure as he appeared to the side.
"What? How can we let this go! Spying is a crime! I shall cleanse this peasant of..."
"Enough! Don't you remember that the Bishop formally ordered to not look for trouble with the adventurers. We will need to recruit them in the future! So hold your hands! Let's go, we've already lost enough time," declared the cloaked figure as he once again vanished from sight
"Hmmp! I am in a good mood, so I'll let you off peasant! Remember to thank god for his mercy!"
Li Wei wiped his sweat as he saw the other cloaked figure vanish. His heart almost stopped when he heard the cloaked figure said that he would be cleansed. If even a level 15 boss was blasted away that easily, then what about him?
But fortunately, the other cloaked figure seemed to be more reasonable and let him off the hook. Tonight's experience was definitely a bit too extreme for him. Li Wei stood still for a moment, not daring to move. His heart was still beating fast.
As the minutes went by, he slowly calmed himself, "At least, I've got to witness the strength of high-level NPCs," thought Li Wei. He was about to return to the farm when he suddenly thought of something, "Wait a minute, maybe I should check upon the ruins now that the danger is gone!"