《The Simple Adventure of Thaddeus Poundsworth》


 A Simple Day for Thaddeus "Bennie" Poundsworth

    It was a day like other and then it was also not a day like any other. The morning had gone exactly as he was used to, shower, work, reading, lunch. Everything as it should be. Then the afternoon turned into such strange chaos that anything normal felt like another lifetime.


    See, Bennie had walked out of the office, on his way to the corner deli, for his favourite lunch. It was a simple thing, a tuna mayo sandwich, with a side of chips. Maybe a soda to wash it all down. Simple, easy, fun to do. This is what Bennie liked. Simple things that required little to no thought.


    So when he entered the deli and found himself face to face with what his brain could only accept as a Dragon the simplicity of the day was gone. Rapidly replaced with confusion, frustration, and a slight pang of longing for a simple lunch.


    He stumbled backwards and hit his heel against the street as the stumbling took him further back. This tripped him and he fell backwards, with a heavy thud that only those over 20 can understand, he hit the tarmac. Except, it¡¯s not tarmac. His hand felt sand, soft sand, and the street he through he was stumbling back to, was just a patch of dirt.


    The dragon, monster, thing, that stood in the doorway of the Deli breathed a sigh. Almost like it expected something else from him, and his calm stumbling was the preferred answer. It somehow moved through the doorway, except as Bennie looked the doorway, the entire wall, no, the building faded to let the creature through.


    And now that he can see the entire thing, it is definitely what Bennie knew as a Dragon. And not the things people refer to as a drake. No, this thing has four legs, two massive wings, and scales that glittered every colour of the rainbow as the sun shone down on it. Bennie knew dragons, he had played games, in his simple manner, he loved games.


    The ones where he collected monsters, had to level them, and fight with them against others are his favourite. After all, they are extremely simple, repetitive some say, but for Bennie he knew what they were about and knew never to expect more from them.


    So the Dragon in front of him was not a classification that he wondered about. He knew it, clear as day, it is a Dragon. And now it started moving towards him, where he was still absent mindedly trying to figure out with his left hand where the tarmac had gone. Picking up handfuls of sand and letting it fall back down.


    ¡°Older than I would have wanted, but you will do.¡± The Dragon grumbled, the sound of its voice making everything shake in Bennie. It now stood in front of him, towering so far above him that he doubted he could ever forget the sight of such a large creature.


    It sniffed and with a ripple of its body it bent its neck down towards Bennie, or rather, bent further so that its head was the only thing Bennie could see in his vision. ¡°Human, I am not a creature, I am a Dragon. You will do well to remember that.¡± It said.


    Bennie felt his blood run cold, clearly the Dragon could read his thoughts. With an amused snort, the Dragon focused one of its eyes on Bennie, the pupil dilating then narrowing as it took in all of him. ¡°You will have to do; all the others die when brought here.¡±


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    Before Bennie could even respond the Dragon opened its mouth and breathed what looked like fire over him. He tried shouting only to find his entire body locked, as if gravity itself became a block of ice, keeping him locked where he is.


    The breathe came out and hit Bennie in the face first, somehow shaping itself even as the Dragon let out a low rumbling roar. Instantly every part of his body shouted pain and then nothingness, he could not feel where his skin ended, and the fire began.


    He passed out. But even as he lost consciousness, Bennie saw a screen pop up.


    You know, the screens every game on earth has and all those people in Mangas always talk about. One that had his name, his stats, and of course the amount of skills he had.


    All flashed, showing him that he had nothing but his own name. His levels, stats, and skills all stood at 1. Somehow that annoyed him, he liked being simple, but this felt like an insult.


    But, even has he fell into unconsciousness he saw a new thing get added to his status.


    Touched By The Great Dragon


    Then everything faded into blissful nothingness. Hopefully when he awoke there¡¯d be nothing but the simple routine of his daily life again.


    Awakening


    Unfortunately, as he started waking up again, he felt the sand still in his left hand. Which meant that nothing simple happened. Instead what he remembered or hoped was a dream turned out to be a reality.


    Opening his eyes he enjoyed the stars dancing above him, framed by trees that seemed impossibly high. As he stared he didn¡¯t recognize a single constellation, instead they all seemed oddly shaped, and he swore there were purple, green, and even what looked like entire nebulae.


    What finally forced him to sit up and take a deep breath was the sudden appearance of three sets of moons. With the largest one having rings around it.


    He was definitely no longer home. Looking in front of him he expected to find the Dragon laughing at him, instead that was gone too. He was sitting in a clearing, in a forest, a forest with massive trees in it.


    Whatever happened to Bennie it was simple. It was extremely complicated.


    And he swore he saw a status screen.


    As soon as he thought about it, the thing popped back open.


    Revealing the exact information he had read earlier, with only two new things added. The first was the title he had seen appear before he passed out, and a new skill he didn¡¯t know came from where.


    The skill did however seem rather mundane. Advanced Appraisal. Lv. 1.


    So, unsure of what to do, he looked at the nearest tree and said ¡°Appraise¡±


    With a soft clink a new window opened, revealing all the tree¡¯s information.


    Normal Pine Tree.


    Experienced gained. 1.


    Frowning at the readout he looked at a blade of grass in front of him and did another appraisal.


    This time it just read blade of grass, 0.5 experience gained.


    His status did have a progress bar, reading that he would need another 98.5 experience points to reach level 2.


    Bennie felt the simplicity of levelling up comfortable slotting into place with everything else he likes to do. A world where he could level up seemed rather simple in a strange kind of way.


    With another thought going through his head, he decided to try and focus the skill. Looking at the clearing around him, it was only filled with grass, circled almost perfectly by the trees of the forest around him.


    ¡°Appraise, grass field.¡±


    The clinking sound quickly became a chorus of sounds as each blade of grass in front of him was appraised. This had the effect of deafening Bennie for a split second, as each blade of grass in the clearing got appraised.


    Before he could even process what was happening several other notifications popped up. And he felt a splitting headache rush through his head. As he passed out again he was able to read one distinct notification above the rest.


    Congratulations! You have appraised 4 square meters of grass planes. Experience decreases with each level.


    You have gained 394580 exp.


    Level 14 reached.


    Experience Requirements Will Adapt Once A Sleep Cycle Has Been Completed.


    And with that strange message, Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth passed out for the second time that day.


    *****


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 Chapter 2/Day 2

    He woke up what had to have been several hours later, a splitting headache told him that his head, indeed, ached.


    With a grunt he lifted himself up from the position he had fallen in when he had received that strange message. It was still there, it now had an extra one that informed him that his experience had been adjusted, thanks to his levelling.


    So, with a sigh he crossed his legs, started rubbing his eyes, and seriously thought about what he would have to do next. After several minutes of this, he surmised that rubbing his eyes would not make any of the problems go away.


    Instead, he looked around, blinking away the spots that applying so much pressure caused. He saw the same clearing, the grass swayed quietly, and he heard animals in the woods around him scurry about.


    From his very uninformed view, nothing had come up to him, no predator at night tried to bite him and he could see no disturbances to his clearing. Looking to the sky he saw some clouds rolling around, an orange hue tinted with yellow, had him make the guess.


    It was definitely morning.


    Sitting up he looked at the messages in front of him again.


    He had reached level 14, the only skill that went up was Appraisal, and his statistical points as the message said, had been increased. He didn¡¯t see any way to choose where the points went.


    Instead, he simply got a message ¡°Your patron chooses for you, grow at ease, grow in strength, don¡¯t bother trying to be a boring piece of cheese¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s just¡­annoying. What does that mean, I don¡¯t get to choose?¡±


    There were no messages popping up to his question.


    Looking at the grass moving in a slight breeze he appraised the field again.


    Annoyingly it seemed the skill was on to his grand scheme.


    A field of grass. Experience gained 0.1.


    Please appraise more complicated items to increase experience gain.


    Alternatively, use traditional means of experience gain.


    The first thought that went through his head was simple, Fantastic. The second thought was combined with the third, fourth, and slew of expletives. He could imagine that traditional experience gain would be something annoying, like killing something or worse, having to learn things.


    His line of thought kept growing and changing when a rumble that shook his entire being caught his focus.


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    With his stomach aching he got up on his feet, and started looking for anything to eat. His appraise skill would hopefully be able to show him if something is edible. At the edge of the clearing there were some bushes growing. On them he saw what he assumed are nuts or berries.


    ¡°Appraise¡±


    Forest nut.


    Common nut that grows in forests. Inedible for humans.


    1 Experience Gained.


    He sighed and started moving into the gloom of the forest.


    As he went he appraised new things he saw, only gaining one experience point for his trouble. He didn¡¯t know if level 14 was high or not, he hoped it was. At the same time, there wasn¡¯t a single fruit or berry in this forest that he could actually eat.


    Instead, everything popped up as inedible.


    That was, until he accidentally appraised something unexpected.


    Hidden Squirrel


    A squirrel that lives its life on one tree, the size of a large hare this squirrel spends its day hunting small insects and eating the bounty from nearby bushes and its bonded tree. Can be processed.


    20 Experience Gained


    He stopped and stared at the tree he was looking at. There was nothing different on it than any of the other trees around him. Yet when he appraised again he got the same readout.


    So, he went closer to the tree and nearly ran away screaming when a piece of bark on the tree suddenly opened to reveal to black eyes that were staring at him. He took a step back and the squirrel followed him.


    He took another step back and head the crack of a branch as he did so.


    The two black dots narrowed and then it jumped. Heading in a straight arc towards him. Without thinking, without knowing even why, he punched with his left hand.


    Now, this is the part where you expect Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth to miraculously kill a simple squirrel with one hit.


    Reader, that is not this story. I would recommend going almost anywhere else for that.


    You see, instead, something altogether different and not what he would have expected happened.


    His fist went out, curving cleanly through the air, he had no idea he could do this, he had never tried hitting anything.


    And when it hit the squirrel he swore he would never try again, at least not without a metal glove that was heavily padded.


    First it was a sharp pain, then followed by a distinctly dull pain as it felt like he had just hit a solid wall. The squirrel¡¯s mad jump towards him, legs open, mouth ready to bite into what he hoped was only his arm, did get interrupted.


    Not only that, he had managed to completely confuse it too. As it went entirely off course with a sharp yell that could only come from a rodent the size of his chest flying through the air can make. He yelped and immediately cradled his hand.


    He couldn¡¯t move it and before his eyes it started turning all different colours of green and purple. Hearing a crunch and then a gurgle he turned to look at the squirrel. It had hit another tree, now it was spasming on the ground, its head crushed not by the force of his own fist, but the force of its head suddenly hitting a tree.


    ¡°Appraise¡±


    Dead Hidden Squirrel


    A dead hidden squirrel, crushed by its own force when hitting a tree.


    Can be processed?Yes/No?


    ¡°Yes?¡±


    Processing¡­


    He didn¡¯t know what had just happened or what was going to happen, but at least he had killed something?


    Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth didn¡¯t know anything about gutting or killing animals. But at least he had killed one, right?

 Day 3/Chapter 3

    The squirrel did die, and as Thaddeus looked at it, he saw the system slowly but surely start processing everything. First, the skin popped off and folded itself into a neat pile, which he thought was extremely strange, but then again, he had been having a few strange days lately.


    The next thing that happened was the squirrel being sliced open by invisible knives as the blood drained from a now open neck. It was all squeamish, and Thaddeus would have thrown up if his stomach hadn¡¯t been empty. As it was, the process started to speed up after a few minutes. The squirrel was soon lying on its skin, having been completely butchered.


    There was a pile of offal to one side that he decided to ignore. Instead, he picked up the body; it was smaller than he thought it would be.


    ¡°Well, I guess I have to make a fire now, " he said to the meat in his hands. It would help fill his empty stomach, and the thought of where it came from would have to pass.


    Another problem was the skin lying on the grass. Logically, he knew that leather could be made from it, but how he would do that was beyond him.


    At this moment, the system popped a message to him.


    Processing complete.


    Store extra material in subspace?


    Yes/No


    Bewildered again by whatever happened to him in this strange world, he selected yes.


    Hidden Squirrel Skin successfully stored.


    Subspace inventory full.


    Scoffing in annoyance, he returned to the clearing he had passed out in. Collecting small pieces of wood as he went. Despite everything, he had watched enough videos online to know that he would have to spit the body over a fire to cook it properly.


    He also knew that eating it raw, even a little bit, would make him extremely sick, so he used two of the sticks he had found to spear the meat and stick the wood into the ground.


    He hoped no flies would see his hanging meat as the prime spot to lay eggs.


    The next part would take him a few hours, and as he started getting everything ready, he saw the sun beginning to set.


    Starting a fire without tools was easy in theory, but it could be a complete headache in practice.


    Three hours later, after darkness had fully set, Thaddeus was still sitting in a dark clearing with broken twigs, leaves, and large wood piles.


    He had tried rubbing, spinning, and smashing out of pure frustration to get something to make some heat.


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    But now he was staring at the pile he had hoped would be fire by now with utter frustration.


    So, he decided to try something foolish but saw no reason not to. Since he had seen a dragon already, he might as well try something absurd.


    Closing his eyes, he put his hand on the pile of leaves, imagining a fire bursting out of his hand into the pile.


    At first he felt stupid.


    Then he felt insane when nothing happened.


    But just as he was bout to stop, he saw a pop-up from the system.


    Basic Magic.


    Firestarter learned.


    Just like that, he felt something cold run through his arms, and then, the unmistakable feeling of fire in his hands leapt into the pile of leaves. They quickly started burning, and a small fire lit up. His momentary shock at what had just happened was quickly replaced with panic as the tiny flames promptly ate up the leaves.


    He piled small sticks onto the leaves and started nursing his small fire into life. Soon, he was happy to find it was becoming bigger, with some smoke from the larger pieces and hissing as they were not entirely dry.


    He sat back and marvelled at his small fire, enjoying its heat. He had done the most essential things for survival: He had killed something and started a fire.


    Now, all that was left was to find water, not that he cared. He was not all that thirsty, which he thought should be strange, but he quickly dismissed it.


    The squirrel cooked rather easily, and after 30 minutes of turning it and trying to angle every corner to be slightly charred, he risked eating some of it.


    To his delight, Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth found that the cooked squirrel tasted quite nice. It was a bit tough because of the way it was cooked, but otherwise, it was perfectly fine.


    He stoked the fire a few more times after eating as much of the squirrel as he could, then unsuccessfully tried to store the rest, and then went to sleep.


    The second day had ended rather uneventfully if you didn¡¯t consider learning the most basic magics, killing squirrels, and cooking them as necessary as eventful.


    <hr>


    The morning of the third day, found Thaddeus up early and walking through the forest, trying not to be seen by anything around him. He knew that even a squirrel was tough enough to pose a problem.


    Over the night, he had healed some, and the system told him his health had returned to full. Now, all he had to do was hopefully find something other than a clearing to sleep in. He went from tree to tree through the forest, heading in what he hoped was a northerly direction.


    Several moons in the sky and two suns that rose in opposing directions meant he could not tell directions.


    So he kept going, hoping that he wasn¡¯t walking in circles.


    He did this for most of the day, fortunately not seeing any animals or probably being so loud that any animals he would have seen ran away before he noticed them.


    He tried appraising several things as he went, receiving experience each time, but never enough to level up. The more trees, plants, and grass he appraised, the more the system seemed unwilling to give him more experience.


    This was partly why he wanted to find more animals, appraise them, and gain experience from them.


    It was with a running thought about how he should try just sitting down and waiting for animals to walk past that he did not see the big wooden fence he walked into until it was too late.


    He stumbled backwards and looked up, unsure what he expected to see.


    What he did see, though, made no sense. A sign was at the top of the fence, which stood about 10 feet high.


    To his eyes, it read: Begone, we have failed.


    Which made little to no sense, as the fence, or rather, wooden wall, seemed proud.


    So he chose a direction, right, because it felt right, and hoped to find a gate. Whatever was inside the wall was very large; it took Thaddeus twenty minutes of walking to reach what he would call a side gate¡ªa small one, barely taller than him.


    It was clearly in disrepair, but it did have metal hinges. Even if they were so rusted, the gateway was hanging on by a metallic thread.


    Pushing slightly against it, the door fell in with a loud clang and clatter that seemed unnaturally loud. Thaddeus suddenly felt like he should not have tried going in.


    Taking a deep breath, he looked through the open doorway and used appraise.


    Ruined Mansion of the Lost.


    Current occupant: 1


    Status: Ruinous

 Chapter 4/Day 4

    Inside the wooden fence that stood well above him he saw the last thing he honestly expected. To explain that he has to describe what he did expect. Which was a small village or maybe even a few small houses that looked rough around the edge. Normal things one would expect in a world filled with murderous squirrels and dragons.


    Instead, what he found was a massive garden that had clearly once been carefully manicured and taken care of. Even now, the cobblestone pathways seems able to control the wild greenery that was everywhere. And wild would be the only way to describe the plants that were everywhere. He saw trees covered in crawling flowers and vines.


    But what truly stunned him was the building everything led up to, the cobblestone pathway that he was standing at the start of now led to this building. It towered above everything else inside the fence. Not even the trees seemed able to grow as tall as it. Indeed, the building demanded that every plant bow in its majesty.


    And majestic it was. At a glance Thaddeus could see that it had at least five floors to it. He would have to go closer to see  if there were more, possibly basements and even an attic. The walls were tall and apart from what looked like a few cracks in the paint, they stood resolutely. They had once been pure white, but now reflected the midday sun in a yellowish red.


    Each floor had several windows, and on one side Thaddeus could see that the wall of the mansion had windows from top to bottom. The doorways was not flush with the ground either, instead, several steps rose to meet it, and rising would be needed indeed. The doorway had two large dark doors in it. Each somehow gleamed even from the distance Thaddeus stood.


    Measuring how long it would take him to walk to the mansion, he realised that it would probably take 20 minutes of walking. Which was shocking, because even so far away the place looked impossibly large. Looking at the overgrown garden, he made a silent prayer that whoever the Lost had been, that they did at least plant some types of fruits or vegetables.


    He started walking down the cobblestone path and to his trepidation, he found that it wasn¡¯t as untouched by the plants as he had first thoughts. Instead, he felt how the stones were loose as roots slowly started growing beneath them. Unfettered by whatever people used to stop plants from growing where they weren¡¯t wanted.


    He appraised some of the plants as he went and got notifications of rather mundane sounding trees and flowers. Even to his ears, everything sounded like what he would expect someone with a garden to have growing in it. He got bored of doing this after a few minutes and instead focused on the building in front of him. He would appraise it too, but only once he got closer, so he could focus on specific parts.


    As he drew closer he saw actual damage to the building, what he had thought was a strange shape to one corner was actually the roof caving in. And the windows had cracks spreading through almost all of them. The doors that looked gleaming from a distance were swollen at the bottoms where water had clearly flowed down the stairway. All in all, it looked like any of the picture he used to see of abandoned mansions that were impossibly far away from any type of civilisation. After what was only 15 minutes of walking, with some stumbling he arrived in front of the mansion.


    The cobblestone here was more untouched as the sheer size of the area meant roots would struggle to reach. It was clearly meant for things to park, now he didn¡¯t know if cars or carriages would park here. The mansion looked like it had been built with some advanced techniques. But at the same time, all Thaddeus had ever built in his life was a stack of cards. That also happened to fall over the moment he thought it was stable.


    Taking a deep breath he looked at the mansion again and used appraise, imagining his skill focusing only on the building. With a soft clink and then two sounds of notifications going off he got some good news and some very disturbing news.


    The first was a level notifications.


    Congratulations! Your skill, Appraise, has levelled up.


    Closing that basic notification he saw that his readout now gave more information, which is where the disturbing news came from.


    Mansion of the Lost.


    Current occupants: 2


    Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth


    Alice Mourning (deceased)


    Why the system thought someone that was dead counted as an occupant immediately rang alarm bells in his head. But he was also unwilling to go back to the clearing he had started in. This was important, because he knew he would have to find a place to spend the night, and who could say not to a mansion? Even a ruined one.


    So with some trepidation he swallowed his fear and went up the few sets of stairs to the door. Not really knowing what to do, he knocked using the simple brass knockers that hung on one of them. The banging against the door was loud and thunderous, seemingly silencing everything else that could make a sound.


    To his surprise the door moved with each knock, slowly opening in front of him, even as he expected the bottom to scrape against the floor. Careful not to rush anything, he poked his head through the doorway, announcing himself.


    ¡°Thaddeus Poundsworth, if possible, I would like to spend the night. I ask permission from anything that may live in here.¡±


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    He felt stupid and then he felt his face flush as he heard his own voice echoing in the silence of the mansion. There was nothing alive in there, he knew this, just one girl that was dead. He resolved himself and went in. There was still no response, he pushed the door open all the way to get more light and air flowing in.


    The inside was remarkably clean, he was standing in a foyer, with a fireplace to one side. There was no furniture and he decided to go explore the next morning. For now, he went back out and started scrounging for any wood he could find. The fireplace was ash free, but he would change that, and hopefully not set the entire building alight.


    At least he could sleep that night without fear of some other animal sneaking up on him.


    The man entered the yard without any manners, he stared at her plants, seeming to stop every now and then to examine one. He had knocked on the front gate and the gate had given in to his touch. She didn¡¯t think that anyone lived this far away from humans but here he was.


    She kept an eye on him from one of the attic windows as he walked closer to the mansion. To her mansion. He would probably try to pilfer something, like all the others that used to appear here so long ago. To her surprise he stopped just outside, looking intensely at the mansion. After a few minutes of examining her home, he walked up the stairs.


    She was ready to completely bar him and force the doors locked. When he did something that she hadn¡¯t seen someone do in what felt like forever. He knocked.


    Three times he knocked, and as was custom, without even thinking about it, she let the door open for him. What confused her even more and stayed her hand completely was when he poked his head in and announced himself. The man seemed to have good manners, even though she knew the mansion must look completely abandoned.


    He went into the foyer, once of the places she liked to keep clean because the roof didn¡¯t leak and the windows while cracked kept the cold out. He surveyed everything for a few minutes and then turned around, walking back out and into the wild gardens. She never went outside the mansion, so she tried to follow him as he went and started picking up twigs, then branches, then other dead tree limbs she thought would be too large.


    The man made a pile just outside the doors, using the stairs as a way to sort everything. He was going to make a fire in her mansion and she felt her blood boil, or whatever flowed through her now. She was about to try and chase him away when he started packing the fireplace with wood.


    First small pieces here or there, then larger ones on top. After a few second of concentration she saw a small flame light up and start the fire. She could not remember how long it had been, but there was a fire in her house, slowly warming up the centre, making it more welcoming.


    The man was strange, he didn¡¯t even peek into any of the other rooms. He simply sat and stared at the fire until the suns set. And then he went to grab a few more logs and piled them next to her fireplace. He also closed the door and even attempted to push out some of the twigs and sand he had stomped onto her clean marbled floors.


    As darkness overtook the gardens, and the last light faded from the attic she kept an eye on him. He simply stared at the fire until it became late, stoking it every now and then. Finally, at what she recognized as the apex of the second moon, he simply curled up where he was and fell asleep on the hard ground.


    Only then did she brave getting closer, to study him. He looked rough around the edges, like he had been living in the forest and he didn¡¯t quite know how to keep himself fed or even clean. His chin was sharp underneath a thin layer of stubble, his beard and hair were the same light brown colour, flecked with spots of white hairs. Not quite grey, but almost there.


    Even curled up she saw that he was tall with broad shoulders. The man that had entered her mansion for the first time in over a thousand years let out a grumbled and rolled onto his back. With an unceremonious announcement, he let out a loud fart followed by a deep snore.


    She immediately jumped back and felt her head hit the far side of the wall from the man. She didn¡¯t know what to do. Be angry at his lack of manners. Or be perplexed that someone had entered her mansion and felt comfortable enough to fall into a deep sleep.


    She spent the rest of the night watching him from a distance. Unable to decide what she would do if he tried to take her things like all those others had.


    He woke up just after the first sun rose in the sky, shining through one of the windows with pinpoint accuracy onto his eyes. At some point in the night he could have sworn he felt someone close by but as he looked around the doors were still closed and there was nothing amiss.


    He checked the fireplace and was pleased that the ash had all stayed inside, no mess for him to clean up immediately. Seemingly the smoke had also escaped cleanly and since he didn¡¯t see a raging torrent of fire around him, the chimney clearly worked fine too.


    Going outside he sat at the top stair and watched the morning progress. He had to admit, that even with the wildness of the garden, he enjoyed the view immensely. The place would probably have looked amazing at one point, but even now, the flowers growing wildly definitely had a certain charm to it. What¡¯s more, from the mansion the wooden fence, that he would probably call a wall, was barely visible. Even the gate he had used to enter seemed like nothing more than a pinprick in the distance.


    He was eating the last of the squirrel, unsure if it would have gone rotten if he waited longer. After the entire front of the mansion was being hit by sunlight, he went back in. Standing in the foyer he did another Appraisal. Only to receive the same information.


    Appraising the floor he learned that it was made out of hardened marble. He didn¡¯t quite understand that, how one would harden marble was beyond him. So he looked at the stairs and the two open doorways on each of his side. With two smaller doors that were closed beneath the stairs. It looked almost like one of those regal palace paintings he used to see.


    Why someone would need a place this large was also beyond him, so many things were just beyond what he understood. So, still feeling rather foolish, but needing to use his voice he said in his best impersonation of a booming voice.


    ¡°I will be exploring the mansion, I shall try to leave only footprints and take nothing unless permitted.¡±


    Again, he heard his voice echoing what must have been a few dozen empty hallways and then he snorted at himself. Choosing left this time, because he knew the big windows were on that side of the building. He hummed a tune as he started walking.


    The doorway led to a hallway that stretched out rather ominously, lined with closed doors on either side. As he walked the gloom became thicker, and he observed that there were paintings on the wall. It was just too dark for him to see more than that, he could make out what they were there and not much else.


    After a few minutes of walking, he reached a closed door at the end of the hallway. It would probably have been smarter to just go to each door individually, but he decided fuck it, and just went to the very end. The one where the treasure would always be.


    He knocked on the door, for a reason he still could not figure out, and then opened it.


    He immediately felt every muscle in his body tighten and his eyes felt like they would fall out of their sockets. The room was large, clearly meant to be used as a ballroom or entertaining space. The walls on one side were lined with tables and chairs, all remarkably clean. The windows, while cracked didn¡¯t leak a drop of water.


    None of this is what made his blood run cold.


    No, in the middle of the room, looking at him quizzically, was a girl. With long, brownish blond hair that floated ethereally around her. She was dressed in a dark blue dress that wasn¡¯t tight, but it did reveal her figure. She had piercing purple eyes that bore into him. Her eyelashes were long and well kept, complimenting the rest of her face. She was awe inspiringly beautiful in a way he would never be able to fully explain to another man.


    All of this on its own would have made him have a heart attack. But the thing that rooted him to the spot while simultaneously making him want to shout, run, scream in terror, just do something. Were two distinct facts.


    He could see almost cleanly through her and she was floating almost one meter above the ground, her bare feet dangling lazily.


    Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth met a ghost on his fourth day in a world where squirrels killed men and dragons laughed when you tripped.


    Still, at least she looked at him quizzically instead of the rage ghosts usually have in stories.

 Day 5 / Chapter 5

    His mind started racing. He knew instinctively what he was looking at, but he still could not really believe it. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only a few seconds, he felt blood rush to his face, and he managed to stutter something out.


    ¡°Excuse¡­uh..sorry..uh..bye!¡±


    The last word came out as he retreated from the room, unwilling to face whatever this would be. As the gloom in the hallway took over his eyes again, he felt a bit braver and started running, turning his back to the ghost. It probably wasn¡¯t brilliant, but bright things were meant for those who didn¡¯t panic.


    He reached the foyer in what felt like record time, only to be faced with the ghost again, this time she was floating in front of the closed door. The door he was sure he had left open to let in more light and air. She still had a quizzical look, her head now slightly bent to the side.


    Bennie, of course, didn¡¯t even wait or stop. Instead he ran straight through the other door, directly opposite the one he had just come through. To his surprise, he heard a slight ¡°oh¡± come from the ghost, which he assumed could be shock. He didn¡¯t ponder this much, as his feet started slamming on the carpeted floor in this hallway.


    It seemed almost similar to the other hallway he had been in, except somehow shorter. He reached the end and slammed through the closed door. He swore he heard something snap as he slammed his full body weight into it.


    However, what he saw inside made him prefer to get the ghost again.


    This room had no large windows. Instead, it was a rather large office space, with grand bookshelves lining every wall. To one side was a dark wood desk filled with paperwork and what looked like dried inkwells. On the side opposite of that were old couches with a dark green colouring.


    All in all, the place would have looked like the perfect desk of some aristocrat, except for one very important detail that marred the entire scene. In between the desk and the couches, which with some thought he realised had to have been pushed back a bit, was what his mind could only recognise as a magical circle.


    As he stammered to stop, nearly tripping over himself, the room lit up with a bright purple light. It blinded him in the gloom of the house, and then he felt a shove in the middle of his back. He fell forward into the middle of the circle, lit up entirely by the magic coursing through him.


    He twisted around and saw the ghost floating behind him, a look of absolute mischief on her face. She no longer had a quizzical look either, just a small one of triumph. He then felt the first pulse.


    Looking at the circle he saw there were words inscribed on the very edges. They were slowly lighting up as well, becoming much easier to see. If he tried, he couldn¡¯t read them, but that was not important right now.


    ¡°What the hell is happening?¡± he asked, looking towards the only thing that could probably answer him.


    She kept her smile and tilted her head to the side, a look of glee slowly coming over her face as a now white light overtook the purple from earlier. The magic circle sprang up and created a wall of light around him, he crawled to the side and tried touching it, only to feel a slight buzzing in his fingers. He could not press through it.


    The buzzing increased and he realised it wasn¡¯t coming from his fingers. Instead, it was a sensation that was rushing through his entire body. He found his feet again and stood up as tall as he could. Looking around him.


    Whatever the words on the edges were, they started spinning in circles around the magic. Something was happening, and he very quickly realised that he was powerless to do anything. He even bent down to try and erase some of the lines crisscrossing the floor beneath him. The same sensation of being blocked greeted his fingers.


    The buzzing became a roar, rattling every bone in his body.


    He looked where the ghost was, but could no longer see outside of the magical circle.


    Then he felt something pop¡ªhe was not sure where¡ªand he passed out, greeted by the sweet bliss of nothingness.


    Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth was having one hell of a day so far.


    The first thing he realised when he woke up, was that he wasn¡¯t dead. Which all things considered to be a good thing.


    The second was that he somehow knew exactly where in the mansion he was. No longer in the study, instead he was on the second floor in the master bedroom. It smelled vaguely of musty dust but a fine scent of flowers was mixed in.


    He groaned.


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Then he removed, with some shock, the bedding on top of him. The blanket felt rich and soft, and to his surprise he wasn¡¯t too hot underneath.


    He kept his eyes closed, refusing to open them in case something or rather a specific someone was still there.


    But as he tried creeping to the edge of the bed he gave in and opened them.


    He was greeted by the ghost sitting on a chair next to him. She smiled in what he hoped was a warm way and waited for him to sit on the edge of the bed. Thankfully, he still wore all of his clothes.


    ¡°What are you?¡± He asked, before he even sat up entirely.


    She looked pleased with herself and then answered, his voice soft on his ears, with a slight accent, what he would call an English accent. ¡°I am a ghost¡±


    He nodded and then stopped, ¡°sorry, but ghosts are those things that haunt people or appear in the corners of pictures.¡±


    She feigned a thinking face and pouted, ¡°What is a picture?¡±


    He didn¡¯t quite know how to answer that, instead he just asked his next question, ¡°What the hell did you do to me?¡±


    At this time, she seemed a bit more conducive to answering. She breathed deeply, before ¡°I needed someone to own the house¡±


    ¡°What does that have to do with me? All I wanted was to explore, then leave.¡± He said, studying her. He swore she looked less incandescent than before.


    At this, she looked away from him, almost as if she felt guilty. ¡°Well, you were my only choice, and my energy was starting to fail.¡±


    Groaning deeply, he felt like this wouldn¡¯t be simple to understand. ¡°What exactly does that mean? You need to explain things adequately.


    And she took a deep breath, ¡°Fine, it¡¯s not like anything can be undone.¡±


    She looked at the man as he woke from his slumber. He had been asleep for an entire day after the contract had been made. She was actually just as shocked as he looked when it happened. Hundreds of others had tried to do the same, but all of them had been rejected.


    The last person to try was more than 800 years ago, and that person was much stronger than the man on the bed.


    He asked a few random questions until he finally asked the right one. So she began to explain exactly what the contract is.


    Put, the house, or the mansion, as he called it, needed an owner to function correctly. But, no one had succeeded in the thousand or more years that she had lived in it. She remembered a time when people lived in it, without the contract, but that was always a struggle according to those she listened to.


    She herself didn¡¯t know how she became part of the house, but she knew that she could only travel as far as its borders, which, to the man¡¯s shock, did not end at the giant walls. She also had no idea what he meant when he said levels. She had always been a ghost, as stated by the screen that refused to go away.


    After all the normal humans had left, she stayed in the house, trying to keep it clean and protected. But even that could not help forever since things naturally started getting out of hand. Sure, it took hundreds of years, but at one point, the paving outside did not have broken stones, the trees were not wild, and there were fields of plants that grew healthy foods.


    She told him about the humans who appeared. At first, they were simply lost villagers from around the area, but then that changed to travelling merchants. Soon, though, the only humans who seemed to find the place were men with swords and women with staves. They would stay a night in the gardens, but most refused to enter the mansion.


    The few that did, when she was hopeful, would tear through the doorway and shout about looting any valuables. She had initially just fixed things, but then started driving all who came away. She told him that over 500 years ago was the last time she saw any humans, even at the very edges of the property, she could access.


    The only things that roamed the area were wild animals and magical beasts. At this, his face went blank, a look of worry overcoming him. She described how she kept the place as clean as possible, but she could feel some of the energy that kept her and the house alive was starting to fade.


    So she slept most of the time, ensuring no water got into the house. Even when the roof beams cracked and the things started to fail, she was able to make small changes to stop water from getting in. He looked at her with some worry, and she had to admit it was nice to see someone else worry about her and the house.


    She had given up and was ready to fade away with the house when he appeared. At first, she was prepared to chase him away, but then, to her shock, he asked permission to enter the house. Which she duly gave.


    She ensured the chimney let out the smoke, and that the fire stayed warm throughout the night. The following day, when he asked to explore the mansion she was even more shocked. She was sure he knew about her, so she decided to show herself.


    His shocked reaction and then immediate fleeing made her sad, for a reason she was still trying to figure out. She knew, however, that he should not just leave, he may have been able to help her. All she wanted was to ask his help to maybe clean the place up, which was how the house used to receive energy from the humans living in it.


    Instead, he ran down the other hallway, into the study, where the contract magical circle had first appeared. She expected him to see it and run away, as either recognition of it or just the inertness of it overtook him.


    What happened after that was a complete shock and she felt compelled to force him into the circle. She had never seen it lit up before and was even more pleased and surprised when it shone white, creating a contract with him. One of complete ownership.


    The mansion and all of its property now belonged to him.


    To her great amusement, and pleasure, the only thing he said at the end of it all was:¡°Listen, lady, I don¡¯t mind owning the mansion or the property, but you can do whatever you want now.¡±


    She didn¡¯t mention that she could feel her tether had fallen, but she was free to go.


    But she wanted to stay. This man clearly was not expected.


    The lady left him after explaining most of what was happening because he could not just call her a ghost and had forgotten to ask her name. He had only really understood two things: He now owned the mansion, which apparently had a property line that stretched far and away from the wood wall.


    The other was that this place was well over a thousand years old. She had been with it for most of that time, but even then, it had existed before she was a human.


    He pondered this as he sat on the edge of the bed. His bed, he could say. Despite her saying she tried her best, the room was massive, with only low energy. It looked like it was only abandoned a few months ago, not nearly an entire millennium ago.


    He had not asked her about the sign he saw outside. Indeed, that line of thinking had given him a near heart attack. From what he could figure out, there weren¡¯t any humans nearby. The slow change in the humans who used to visit seemed to tell the story of a place that had grown entirely wild.


    If the only humans you see are adventurers with swords and magical staves, you are probably nowhere near any normal villages.


    Thaddeus ¡°Bennie¡± Poundsworth fell back onto his new bed. His feet were dangling off the side, and his head did not even reach halfway across the span of the bed. It was indeed the kind of bed you would only find in mansions.


    He took a deep breath, and with a click, went off somewhere else in the mansion, where only Alice, the now free ghost of the house, could hear, accepted his fate.


    Bennie had always wanted a place of his own. Now it seemed he would be living alone, in a place he wholeheartedly owned, not just with a piece of paper, but with a magical contract made in a different world.


    The responsibilities of that and what it all meant could be discussed later. Right now, all he wanted to do was take another nap.


    And no one was going to stop him from doing that.