276 A Clue
This one was different and had a face, but its face was half rotted away with an eye falling out of its socket. It was less than an inch from my face. My nose was almost touching the spot where its nose should have been. It looked at me with both eyes, even the one that was dangling down and was just standing there. Even I did not move. I was finding this situation strange.
Hailey, who was behind me, seemed to not even be breathing, but I did not have time to turn to look at her. At such close proximity, it was either me or the wraith. One of us was going to get hurt at this time, and it seemed to be whoever was the quickest, that is, if it even planned to attack.
Luckily I had my sword already in my hand. I did not plan to let it strike first, so I quickly and swiftly swung my sword up in an arc, slicing it diagonally. It didn’t even flinch or move as the sword sliced through it. It just began to disappear into particles of light. Once it had completely disappeared, I let out a sigh of relief and turned to Hailey, who seemed frozen stiff. “Hailey!”
“Ah! Huh!? Where is the ghost!?” Hailey came back to her senses and began quickly looking left and right, front and back. I am starting to think I should have brought someone else.
“It’s dead. I killed it. Or at least I think I did. It seemed too easy. That may have actually been a ghost…” I was unsure since I did not take the time to use Appraisal on it. It could have been a wraith, a weak one, or it could have been just a ghost. I am unsure.
“Of course, it was a ghost. It was scary and transparent looking and disgusting and….” Hailey kept mumbling her thoughts out loud, but I ignored her. I was thinking about how my sword easily cut through it, and it turned into balls of light. Makes me wonder if it was even really dead.
When we reached the basement, I soon found out my answer. Because just as I was about to take a step off the last step the same thing happened again and it was the same entity as before. As for Hailey, I think she fainted.
This time I did not try to kill it but used Appraisal.
[Apparition: Henry Tolbell]
No other information, but I guess an apparition was different from a normal ghost? “You are Henry TolBell?” I asked.
The apparition suddenly floated backward and turned around, and pointed towards the darkness of the room. “Is there something there?” I asked. But the apparition did nothing. It just stood there and continued pointing towards the darkness.
I sighed and turned towards Hailey, who seemed to have truly fainted. Her eyes were rolled up into the back of her head. I raised my hand and let a bit of lightning fly through the air. <strong>”AZabaabaganababa!” </strong>
Hailey’s whole body twitched from the shock I had just given her, and stood there looking all over the place in confusion. When she spotted the apparition again, she almost fainted once more, but this time I slapped her. “Will you cut it out!? How am I supposed to take you into dungeons if you can not keep your act together!?”
If she continued like this, she was just asking to die. I know people had fears, but ghosts and the like were just a different kind of monster. Hailey lowered her head and slapped her cheeks before raising it again. She looked at me with eyes filled with determination which were the same eyes she had back in the other dungeon. Seeing this made me feel relieved. “I am okay,” she said.
I nodded and waved for her to follow. I made a few balls of light to light up the room. As I did, the apparition disappeared, and what was revealed with an empty room. Nothing here except dust and cobwebs. I looked around and walked towards the spot the apparition had been pointing. But it was nothing but a solid stone wall.
“Hmmm… is it because of the light?” I was unsure, but since the apparition disappeared after I used a light spell, maybe the thing it was pointing at also disappeared. With a wave of my hand, I got rid of all light sources except one but dimmed it enough to only give the room minimal light. When I did this, a scene filled my eyes. It was this house we were in, from what I could tell. But what shocked me the most about what I was seeing was the image of the man that had just walked into the house. It was none other than my father!
I did not dare to look away. I watched as my father walked through the upper floors of the house, finding nothing. He then climbed down the stairs and completely ignored the apparition that appeared. He looked around the basement for a few minutes before scratching his head and leaving. But what I did not get was that it seemed more like he was searching for something specific. Not like he was searching for any old treasure. But what was he searching for and why?
The scene only began repeating itself after my father walked out of the house. I watched it quite a few times, but the more I watched it, the fishier things seemed. I turned and looked at the apparition and smiled. “Henry Tolbell, thank you.”
At these words, the apparition gave a slight nod before disappearing. It was as if he had only stayed to give me this clue. But it was at least a clue. My father did come through this way, but now things seemed more confusing than ever. I guess I can only progress further into the dungeon in hopes of figuring it out. What the truth may be, I do not know. For all, I know, he could really have been looking for treasure, but for me, it seemed like that was not it.
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