Chapter 1246 – The Concept of Death

“Then I guess I shouldn’t disappoint,” Casper answered with a smile as he began walking towards the in-construction Grand Labyrinth. His steps were slow and steady at first, but after a couple, a familiar dark energy began emanating from his body right as he disappeared.

He reappeared in the distance, having used some kind of movement skill. Once there, he crouched down and touched his hands to the ground while speaking, and after a solid minute, he got up again, threw Jake a glance, and used his movement skill yet again.

Jake had already activated his Unseen Hunter skill by now, so while Casper could still see him due to already being aware of his presence, the B-grade Casper was about to engage wouldn’t be able to.

He watched with interest as the Risen picked out his target and raised his hand to summon a large black wooden stake, which emanated curse energy. Jake didn’t question that Casper still used wooden stakes, as hey, if it worked, it worked.

Casper took aim at one of the Construction Golems that was more isolated than the others, and without further ado, he released his attack. It flew straight for the B-grade robot, which only managed to react at the very last moment before getting hit.

He’s got a stealth attack skill… yet he didn’t bother with a powerful opening strike, Jake noted. He didn’t believe this was because Casper didn’t have any better way to start the fight, so he guessed this was part of the Risen showing off what he was capable of.

The wooden stake slammed into the golem, smashing it into the ground as the stake exploded into splinters that embedded themselves in the metal body of the B-grade. They didn’t actually penetrate the metal exterior, but simply phased into it as if they had, making Jake guess that these splinters weren’t physical in nature, but closer to fragments of pure curse energy.

This initial opening attack didn’t seem to have done much damage, though, as the golem was quickly back on its feet and located Casper. Without any hesitation, it sprang towards the Risen with impressive speed from what looked like spring-loaded legs.

At the same time, its arms also transformed into weapons. Well, more construction tools, really. The right hand turned into a spinning drill while the left became a pickaxe, both tools perfectly capable of also serving as weapons, though Jake did question how these two were useful when constructing a labyrinth well.

Not wanting to waste mental energy in thinking about stuff like that, Jake kept watching as the golem approached Casper. As it flew towards him, the Risen summoned black stakes around him and shot them towards the B-grade, landing several, though it looked like they didn’t do much besides embedding more of these black splinters.

Casper quickly began retreating as his foe got closer, continuing his barrage of attacks that did little to slow down his foe. Being a golem made of metal, this construction worker surely had a high level of toughness, despite being a bottom-tier B-grade, leading Jake to question whether Casper was struggling to do any meaningful damage. He also wondered exactly how the Risen would overcome the fact that curses tended not to work very well on things like golems and elementals.

Fortunately, he would get his answer soon, as Casper retreated straight back to where he’d spent a minute setting something up earlier. The golem naturally continued simply to chase after him, even shooting a few laser beams on the way to try to stop its foe, though it was clear that the construction golem had little going for it when it came to ranged combat.

When it went above where Casper had made preparations before, the Risen finally made him move. He stopped and placed his palms on the ground, and just then, a magic circle lit up under the B-grade.

A restrictive force stopped its movements as Casper’s body exploded with an odd turquoise energy, and behind him, a projection of a female ghost appeared. The magic circle also took on the same color as the energy Casper and Lyra released before it started funneling into the golem, which had its flight stopped in its tracks, as if suspended in zero-gravity.

All the small splinters absorbed the ghostly energy and began glowing, before suddenly, all at once, they all explosively grew into full stakes. In an instant, the Construction Golem turned into what looked like a very failed attempt at the Sword Box magic trick, where someone had forgotten the box and switched the swords for wooden stakes.

However, upon closer inspection, Jake realized these stakes weren’t physical. They were ethereal and had a ghostly aura, making Jake frown as he began to think the attack hadn’t proven as effective as he first thought. Perhaps he was right, but what happened next let him know that this was most certainly still a bad time for the B-grade.

The golem tried to move, but as it tried to reach forward, its arm instead distorted weirdly before folding at a one-eighty angle, breaking it in the process. The same happened with its leg as the body of the golem warped and broke, its limbs twisting and distorting as Casper controlled the magic circle.

Unfortunately for the Risen, he wasn’t capable of finishing the B-grade that easily, as it erupted with energy as its feet transformed into what looked like thrusters that then proceeded to shoot out fire down into the magic circle, exploding it.

Casper looked more annoyed than perturbed as he quickly raised his hands before putting them down again… only for a second magic circle to appear, this one shooting up a ghastly light before equally ghostly chains shot up to wrap around the golem.

The golem tried to escape as it increased the output of its thrusters, and as it did, the chains started breaking one by one, but Casper had evidently only tried to slow it down temporarily anyway, buying him time to make a follow-up attack. Or, more accurately, for Lyra to make a follow-up attack.

His locket began glowing again as the full body of his ghost girlfriend appeared. She emerged from Casper’s body after floating behind it before and shot towards the golem. As she did so, Jake also finally saw what kind of monster Casper was harboring, and her aura was enough to make Jake frown slightly.

Stronger than I expected, he noted, and upon using Identify, he realized how she could appear so strong.

[Blightwraith – lvl 349]

It seemed that Casper was holding Lyra back and not the other way around. Seeing her at this high level did confuse Jake, though, as he’d assumed there would be some restriction limiting her level to Casper’s own or something similar, but evidently, that wasn’t the case.

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Then again, Jake admittedly had no idea how the bond between Casper and Lyra worked or how it was even possible. He knew that Lyra essentially counted as a guardian of Casper, meaning she didn’t register as her own individual when it came to things like dungeons or system events.

In that vein, it was reminiscent of beast masters or certain other classes that could have a limited number of creatures under their control. A tamed beast naturally still had its own Truesoul and existed as an independent creature for the most part, but this kind of existence always came with severe restrictions.

Progress would be tied to the master in the relationship, and perhaps most importantly, should the master die, so would all creatures tied to them. That’s also why targeting the summoners or beast masters themselves tended to be the best strategy when taking them down.

Of course, there were also those who didn’t form that kind of bond with their companions. Those with relationships closer to the one between Jake and Sylphie, where they simply worked together and, over time, developed skills that worked in concert with one another. Thinking about it, this seemed to be the kind of Path Hawkie and Mystie had chosen to go down.