Sean stood before his apartment. It was one of the newer apartment complexes with a ground floor that was elevated from the ground that had greenery on top of it. To have actual private space so that outsiders wouldn’t hog all the basketball fields it had and for them to not fill up the playgrounds —it failed spectacularly, as people always managed to find their way in.

It was far too quiet.

Even during the night, at least some people would be still out and about, so the fact that the city was this silent made him uneasy. Sean had a frown on his face. On the way home, he should have run into someone. Was there literally no one? Had other people not returned from the Calibration yet?

There was a dreary feel to the area as if perpetual darkness far too much for the lack of sunlight to justify was floating around. The other shadows were greyish, the original color still known. The area around the apartment complex, on the other hand, seemed to be far darker, the original color of whatever the shadow fell on being overwhelmed by the black.

He felt shivers travel down his spine as he looked at the darkness.

It was just his imagination… right?

But it was still home. No matter how dark, no matter how quiet, it was a path he’d walked far too many times. The electricity was off and the gate that should have been opened with a chip flailed open with no resistance, leading him to the stairway. It seemed to be elongated as if it was longer than before. But it wasn’t. It just looked that way.

Maybe the loneliness was getting to him.

“I’m home,” said Sean as he breathed out after getting at the top of the stairway that led to the ‘ground floor. The apartment complex should be full and there would have been at least ten windows with lights on at any given time under ordinary circumstances —even if it was midnight. Now, there was none.

There were around a dozen apartments in the complex, all of them with six floors. It was an overly ambitious project with all the effort that went into building it, especially in the suburbs, but in a country like Broica, you couldn’t afford to build only houses in the outskirts. Not many could afford it.

Apartments, while expensive to build, would house more people and that meant more profit for less investment. Especially if you built the same design in dozens of construction sites. That was exactly what the company that built the apartment complex did.

His home was at the other edge, as luck would have it, and Sean was forced to walk the stretch of dreary land in his lonesome. Unlike most, he didn’t shout out to ask if anybody was there. They probably were, but he was afraid that he’d end up summoning those mosquitoes. What did they even use to find them? He remembered reading something akin to them using smell, but if they had hearing which he didn’t know about, then he’d be inviting trouble.

It was surprisingly uneventful.

Nothing happened until he reached the door of his apartment. Not his home, but the outside one —the one that would let him enter the building. The electric lock on it was also gone, reminding him of how dependent on electricity they’d gotten. It was obviously gone, as clearly, there should have been street lights filling the streets on his way with light even in the darkest of nights otherwise.

Then a cold shiver ran up his spine and he felt an all too familiar feeling. It was as if someone was watching him from behind. Sean’s head slightly moved as he looked from side to side. It was just paranoia and his slight fear of darkness acting up, he’d thought. But when he looked back to the glass door, his eyes widened.

In the reflection, peeking over his shoulder was the visage of a skull.

Sean’s heart almost jumped out of his chest and everything turned into a monotone grey color. Research had activated itself and filtered out all sound. The world was slow, but so was his body. Everything blurred, letting him lose sight of the shadow. But his heart still beats fast. His peripherals extended ever so slightly and his eyes dilated by the time Research turned it off.

The impact from behind dragged him back to the real world and the effects of Research faded. He was sent tumbling through the glass door, breaking through far too easily. A few shards of the glass stabbed into his hands —the only really exposed part of his body other than his face. Thankfully, his face wasn’t injured.

Sean’s eyes darted to the broken door with magic circles coming out of his fingertips to form a Mana Ball. But there was no one there. Rather, nothing was there.

He sat there, breathing hard. Exhaustion was not an issue, but he was hyperventilating far too much nowadays. Maybe it was a caveat of living in a world where death was peeking right around the corner all the time.

Sean sat there for a minute, pondering on what happened.

Then he heard a door snap open. He pointed his finger at the door but stopped. It was a gag reflex and he felt bile rising from his stomach. The image of the woman she’d blown to smithereens flashed in front of his eyes, reminding him of all that had happened then in vivid detail —it wasn’t a good experience.

It was a human.

Sean didn’t know who he was. When your apartment housed more than twenty families, four on each floor, it was difficult to run into one person more than once, let alone keep track of who lived where. Sean had scantily met the neighbors on his own floor, even.

“You shouldn’t be out during the night,” said the person. It was a man that looked to be in his thirties. The square glasses he wore made him look like an office worker, teacher, or a doctor. The walking image of a stereotype. The man walked up to him and lent him a hand, “Quick, come. The ghost will come in soon.”

“Ghost?” asked Sean as he was pulled up, still breathing heavy, “What kind of monster is that?”

“There’s no time to waste. We have to move, now,” said the man with a sense of urgency and lunged back at the stairway. There were two doors once you entered the outer one. The left one would lead to the elevators, both of them out of commission due to the lack of electricity. The right one, on the other hand, would lead to the stairs.

Sean followed.

The man was quite fast, getting to the second floor within seconds. While Sean had immense Vitality, his Agility was low and he slightly fell behind. The door to one of the flats been left open, and sure enough, it was the man’s. He ran inside and waited for Sean to come in. Not a moment after Sean made his way inside, the door was closed.

There was a thick line of something white covering the area near the doorframe. It was most definitely either salt or sugar, but Sean wagered it was the former. With all its evil warding properties and all.

“What was that thing?” asked Sean. He didn’t need to catch his breath. He wasn’t tired, just scared. The fear had subsided now, “It… pushed me through the door.”

“Doesn’t take a genius to figure that out,” said the man, winded. He breathed slowly and spoke quickly in-between each breath, “I heard the crack. Straight out of the Calibration?”

Sean nodded as he looked around the house. There was an elderly man with a cane sitting on a sofa, hugging a child. It was a girl that looked to be around five or so years old. Maybe four or six. Sean was never good at guessing ages. Especially when it came to kids. He was bad with them.

There was a generous amount of salt poured in front of the windows as well and the thick smell of incense made the place smell like some sort of Buddhist monastery. Not that he’d ever been to one.

“Rule number one, don’t leave your house during the night. Remember that well. And when you get home tomorrow, cover every single entrance to your house with salt,” said the man as he walked back to the sofa. He then took a seat near the other two inside the house, “Since you’ve been gone so long, I’m guessing you can fight. But don’t bother fighting against the ghosts. They can’t be killed.”

“You can trap them,” said the old man. His voice was hoarse and he seemed to be in his seventies, if anything, and had a strong accent, “Catch them in a bo-.”

“We talked about this, dad,” said the younger man, stopping the older man’s explanation, “It’s too dangerous! Those things could kill us easily before we even see them!”

“The boy needs to know,” said the old man in retort, “Even if it is useless knowledge, having them has served me well.”

“I want to hear it,” said Sean. He was a hunter. Even if he hadn’t seen his family yet, it felt like it was his responsibility now. He was the hunter-mage and was praised as such. And surely, it was less deadly than Helthur… right?

“It’s a ghost, for god’s sake!” exclaimed the man, raising both hands slightly. The child was visibly startled, hugging her grandfather. Was it her grandfather? Sean had automatically assumed the man to be her father, which would make the father’s father her grandfather. After being stared at by his father long enough, the man gave in, “Fine. Don’t blame me for whatever happens to you because of father.”

The house was simple, with a sofa opposite the TV. The living room and the kitchen were joined while there were three other rooms. While the furniture and placements were different, the flats were uniform so it didn’t seem too unfamiliar. He took a seat on one of the chairs behind the table of the kitchen part of the house and put his bag on the other.

Sean saw some bread and ham on the table, half-eaten. They were wrapped in a plastic bag so as to not become as hard as rock or spoil. But he didn’t feel like eating. Not after what happened only a few hours ago. It felt as if everything was just… dulled beyond compare.

The only exceptions were the mosquitos biting into him and then being shoved through a glass door by some ghost. Those were extreme enough to be felt at full throttle. Everything else seemed like a dream.

“You can trap those creatures in anything that can be closed off. It must not have cracks. Swing it at them and they will be sucked into it. Before they come out of it, close it,” said the old man, but after a moment, he sighed, “But powerful spirits may be able to break out of it. If it can interact with the physical world, I am afraid there is nothing we can do.”

“Yeah, yeah. It only works on weak spirits but this one is strong,” said the man almost instantly after his father finished, “I’m Oliver. This is my daughter Eve and this is my father-in-law. You can call him… Mr. Ishida. I haven’t thought much of it. You should spend the night here. Going out during the night with the mosquitos and ghosts isn’t a good idea.”

The man was distinctly European and the older man seemed Asian, so that meant that his wife was Japanese? That was the most likely answer.

“Thanks for saving me,” said Sean and stood up. He realized he hadn’t taken his shoes off, but neither had Oliver or the old man, so he supposed it was safe to assume he didn’t need to, “I’ll take you up on that offer. I’m Sean, by the way.”

“Father will help you get settled in for the night. Feel free to eat something if you want to, but we’re low on rations. Life’s rough,” said Oliver with a frown before putting a smile on his face. Then he pulled the child up high with both arms, raising her in the air. She gleefully giggled as they went off to one of the rooms. Sean supposed it was their bedroom, “Well, let’s go back to sleep, you lil’ gremlin.”

The door then snapped closed and Sean was left all alone with the old man.

It was quiet for a few seconds as Sean walked up to the window and looked out. There was no one outside but Sean spotted several creatures made of black smoke flying through the air, leaving a trail of smoke behind as they moved. Their eyes glimmered a crimson color, blatantly visible in the darkness. One of them hovered close to the window Sean stood on, forcing him to prepare his finger for a Mana Ball just in case; but it flew away after staring at the window for a while.

“So you are a legend. I assume it is not an easy title to get,” said Mr. Ishida. Sean frowned slightly and turned back to him. The old man had a small smirk on his face, “This Appraisal skill comes in handy.”

“It just happened,” said Sean and took a seat on the sofa ever so slowly. That quickly evolved to lying on the sofa. It was soft, incomparable to anything he’d been sleeping on for the past few days. Fillmore’s bed was the closest to comfort he’d gotten —that was almost plain wood.

“Many things just happen,” he said, “But what matters is whether it was luck or you that made it happen. Which was it?”

“Both,” said Sean. But after a moment, he changed his mind, “Or maybe it was just luck.”

He looked at the old man and simply willed for Appraisal. The System complied, bringing up a screen that contained his information. This Skill was useful.

Skill ‘Appraisal’ has been activated!

Name: Taro Ishida

Class: Elementalist Lvl 1

Title(s): Practitioner of the Arcane Arts

Mana: 180/180

“You’re a Mage,” said Sean. Mr. Ishida softly nodded his head, “Have you tried magic against them?”

“It is useless,” he answered and summoned a small fire at the tip of his fingers. It was like a match, making the home just a little bit brighter, “Not magic against them, but my magic. This old head of mine learns things far more slowly now. And it is tiring to even do this.”

“I see,” said Sean. He didn’t ask about the Calibration. If it was even remotely close to what he’d experienced, actually completing it was nearly impossible. Maybe everyone had died. Or maybe they were smart enough to quit after the first side quest was complete. Either way, he wasn’t taking his chances.

But Sean remembered something.

What about children?

“What about… Eve? Did she go through a Calibration?” asked Sean, looking at Mr. Ishida, “It’s not the best experience for children.”

“She did not. When I came back, she appeared before me from a blue light with no idea about what had happened,” said Mr. Ishida, “This System has the sense to not throw children into nightmarish worlds, it seems.”

"How do you know about the ghosts?" asked Sean, "And the other people. Are they doing the same thing?"

"No," said Mr. Ishida, "They never enter someone's home, but it brings the girl peace of mind, knowing that she is protected. And I simply... came across one far too long ago."

“I see,” said Sean again. That was all he said. He felt his eyelids grow heavier. It was too comfortable to not sleep. It was warm as well, at least compared to Veidrheim. It was good to be back home, even if he wasn’t truly home. They were nice people. He did not want to press in and ask questions further, lest he be overstaying his welcome.

And with that, he fell asleep.

The fatigue had never truly gone away but was simply delayed the last few days when he was in Veidrheim, so this was a welcome change of pace.