Chapter 17 – Ectoplasm and Loot in general

John picked up the jar. It was filled with a whitish-blue liquid. Turning it in his hands, it moved really slowly, betraying a high viscousity. Observe hopefully would give a little more info.

Ectoplasm

The remains of a ghost, a concentrated mass of magical energy. Can be consumed to restore 10 MP instantly or be used in crafting.

“Nice.” John said.

“Whaddaya mean ‘nice’. What is even happening?”

John looked at her with a raised eyebrow, “You mean dropping items is not normal?” In a world where people could access monsters by creating pocket dimensions everywhere, loot didn’t feel that out of place.

“NO!” Rave shouted, “Ya moron, okay, wait, I need to explain this...” It was amusing to John to see her this flustered. He really needed that explanation though.

“So, these Ghosts are made from lingering regrets, in other words the mana of the deceased, you understand that?” John nodded. “Great, so, when ya Fateweaver people get access to monsters it… I don’t even know how it works exactly. Something about just borrowing the energy for Gaia’s flow, or whatever. Now think about it: Where does that item come from?”

That explanation was a mess and a half, but he gleaned enough of its content to understand what she was getting at. “You are telling me my ability, without any cost on my part, created a magical item out of thin air.”

Rave nodded intensely. “You know how many people would kill for that? Monster drops are rare, Gamer. Usually ya gotta be the first to stumble over a Natural Barrier to get them. Instead, Gaia just throws the stuff at you, lucky bastard.” The insult was delivered in a cheeky tone. “Now show me what ya got.”

“Y-you already s-saw, right?” he stammered. ‘For the love of… just stop it!’ he told himself. ‘Everything I want to say comes out so terribly!’

Rave rolled her eyes, “Okay, walked right into that one… now can ya tell me?”

“It says it’s Ectoplasm, I can restore mana with it or do some crafting with it.” John explained what Observe had revealed to him.

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“How much mana?” Rave asked.

“10… not that much,” John put the jar into his inventory.

“Ya do something so interesting, but it produces something so borin’.” She sighed and turned back to the mist.

“We could keep rolling on the loot table. Or we could just get more,” John suggested. Sure 10 wasn’t that much, but if he could get several of those jars he could keep Possession up for longer. Speaking of Possession his mana was about halfway drained now. He decided to keep it running until his MP depleted. Rave was giving him that much safety. ‘Still haven’t tested the Mana Power Attack,’ he realized. ‘So many things are happening all at once…’

“Alright, let’s keep cutting through these things then,” Rave decided. “I wanna see what happens when I level up.”

And so the techno lover kept killing ghosts and the Gamer kept walking behind her. They both had fun. She because she got to keep fighting, and he because he got to watch her bubble butt jiggle and tense. Staring felt less awkward after what they had done earlier. The only times his eyes left her was when he picked up the additional Loot. There was another Ectoplasm and a talisman.

Talisman of Lesser Pity

A useless piece of silver. Looks nice though.

‘Probably worth a bit too.’ The implications of that were very interesting. If his Innate Ability kept producing things he could sell in the mundane world, then that meant he could make an income. If he could make an income, would he ever need to go back to school? With that exciting possibility in mind, he put the talisman into his inventory as well.

Possession didn’t get another level while they kept going. While the Skill did not, the Skill user did.

Rave had levelled up too. “Hmmm, my Stats went up,” she hummed happily, “but they auto-assigned, that kinda sucks.”

‘So the system doesn’t absolutely apply to her.’ “What are your Stats anyway?” the Gamer wondered.

“Ah, ya know, the usual for a petite girl like me,” Rave said dismissively.

‘Maybe I can check if I level Observe some more?’ John asked himself. He turned to his own Stats instead. He now had 20 points piled up. ‘Why are they called Skillpoints on this anyway? They are not used on the Skills… Well, naming issues aside, stuff is working as intended, I suppose.’

“Kinda wished it gave me more Intellect, or Strength…” Rave mumbled. “What do ya wanna do with your points? Probably some mage stuff to power up your telekinesis?”

John blinked in confusion, “Telekinesis?”

Rave rolled her eyes, “The thing you did to make the rocker let the control wand slip.”

“Ah,” John made an understanding sound. Yes, that certainly could have looked like telekinesis. Well, effectively it did the same in that particular circumstance but he doubted he could make things hover. “No, that was a Skill called Possession. I kind of put a part of my being into the remote and then wiggled out of his hand.”

 “Wha- that is weird… How did that feel?”

“Sweaty.” John made a grimace as he remembered the hand of the rocker. Then he remembered the corpse. The image was like the memory of eating something sour. Unwelcome, but not incapacitating. “Generally though, being in two places is… interesting. Difficult to keep control of both bodies, but getting easier. Guess I have Gamer’s Spirit to thank for that.”

A ghost appeared from a nearby bush but was quickly eradicated by a flash of light from Rave’s hand. “These things really are no challenge to you are they?” John asked.

“Nah, you could say I’m their kryptonite.” Rave shrugged. “I also get to fight them semi-regularly.”

“You do? I thought you couldn’t make Protected Spaces.”

“It’s a moderately sized city. Lots of lingering regrets and other emotions around here, gathering and creating Natural Barriers. Travolta keeps clearing them to get… well, the stuff ya got with a jar and such stuff.” She tossed her hair back. Still, it had not once gotten in her eyes. At this point John was convinced there was magic involved. “Gotta do that anyway, otherwise the monsters keep growing until they burst out of the barrier and cause some kind of disaster.”

“What kind of disasters?” John asked, the whole thing sounded dangerous. “I mean… h-how even…? I’ve never heard of any monster attacks.”

“Duh, Gaia nukes the monsters after they violate her laws, or whatevs. Mundanes see it as little and big misfortunes. Anything between a building aging faster than expected to a hurricane. All depends on the monster that makes it out.”

“Huh… so… you really do something good by taking care of them.”

“More of a side benefit. I beat their faces in because it's fun. Also, Baldy has a crystal that absorbs the energy of these things when they die.” She shrugged. “I ain’t against helping people, but if we don’t get there, the Order will take care of it anyway. They’re the local clean-up crew.”

“That’s Moira and her family, right?” John wanted to be sure.

“That’s the one. The whole ‘absorbing the energy of the dead’ deal is part of why she doesn’t particularly like us.”

That made sense, to a certain degree. “What… does Travolta need that energy for anyway?”

“Do you ever stop asking questions?” Rave sounded annoyed by now, “I dunno though. Don’t care either. Let’s just kill more stuff!”

John looked at his watch, “H-how about we pick this up… tomorrow?” Rave blinked then looked at the display of her MP3-Player. The time seemed to surprise her.

“Eh, sure,” she agreed with a shrug.