I Know the Secret to Surpass Level 100

Chapter 375: Ghost of Shyako

Viper sat in the living room, eyes wide and body shaking as he stared into oblivion. The others were surrounding him while Elliot tried to talk to him.

"He's still unresponsive," Elliot whispered to Lance.

"What happened to him?" Lance asked, clicking his tongue in angst. "He suddenly screamed and there was a lingering poison seething in the air that felt like it suffocated me."

"Same here," Connor joined their whispered conversation. "My intoxication was purified for some reason, and I suddenly became sober."

"Flo?" Elliot called for the girl. "Come here for a moment."

They walked to the side of the window, with Elliot asking her, "Were there times that Viper was like this?"

Florencia thought for a moment. She scrunched her forehead, trying to pinpoint a memory where Viper acted like this, but failed. "No. I have never seen him act like this before."

Christina walked over to them, "But there are times that he's sort of immune to poison or hallucinations."

"He's not immune," Florencia clarified. "But he's tolerant to them. It would take three four more dose for Viper to be poisoned. Maybe that could help?"

Elliot smiled, "Yeah. It does. Thank you."

Sayu came to the room not long after. She brought with her a healer and a bard to lull the boy into sleep. After the two finished, Sayu walked to Elliot who was still by the window, "Could you tell me what happened?"

"We were drinking," Elliot starred. "The ones who were left were me and him, but it didn't take long for me to get drunk. I slept and a few moments later, Viper was screaming. I tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't calm down. He was shaking. As if he saw something horrifying or did something terrible."

Sayu sighed, "I see. That is unfortunate and I am truly sorry this happened in our castle."

"No," Elliot shook his hands to disagree. "It wasn't your fault. Maybe something just triggered him. But we don't know why, so please don't apologise."

"Okay," Sayu smiled. "I would like for you to go back to sleep, but since it's almost dusk anyway, I shall just bring you your breakfast."

"Thank you, Sayu," Elliot smiled. The woman returned the smile and bowed, walking out of the room and leaving the group inside.

A few minutes later, Sayu brought them their breakfast. She had four people with her who were all carrying trays filled with food. "Please, enjoy your meal."

Once again, the woman left and the silence in the room filled all the space inside. No one knew what to say or do. Viper was sleeping, but his body was still shaking and their attention were all glued to him.

Elliot massaged his temples, attempting to calm himself, "How did this happen? Yesterday, he told me we have the same dreams. Maybe it was all connected or something."

"Dream? What dream?" Ed asked. He was the first one to touch the food, shrugging when everyone was looking at him in disbelief. "What? You want to waste food? Because I don't."

With a sigh, Elliot forced himself to walk and distribute the food while telling them their dreams. Their friends were attentive as he spoke. They were listening to him purposively, and was then that he knew that they're all in the same page. They wanted to solve the mystery on what happened to Viper.

"So, basically we have the same dream," Ed said nonchalantly.

Elliot looked at him and scoffed. "Why didn't you say anything before?"

Ed rolled his eyes, "As if anyone had asked me for anything. I thought it was just a dream because I was new to this place. Happens to me every night too."

"I only had it in my first night," Elliot said. "What could this mean?"

Lance was about to say anything but Elliot stopped him, "Lance, this is not a simple coincidence anymore. There is something wrong with this place."

"You're all too serious," Lance chuckled. He took the pen and paper out again and wrote on it, showing them the words. "We're being listened to, have you forgotten?"

Elliot immediately covered his mouth with his hands. He scoffed after he realized he was too late, the words had escaped his lips. He took the pen and paper and wrote below it, "What do we do now? How do we cover this up?"

Lance spoke as he wrote on the paper, "This is just like what Ed said. You're all just new to this place. If you're curious about something, the air pressure here is different. Along with that is the gravity, the place, the people. You're all overthinking things. Maybe Viper just misses his grandmother."

Lance showed the paper, "We cannot ask anyone or else we might get accused and cause trouble."

"Maybe you're right, Lance," Hope muttered. "Let's just wait for Viper to wake up and then we can ask him."

"What do we do?" Connor wrote.

"Yes, that is right," Lance took the pen and paper back to his pockets. "We can't go out today, but all we can do is wait for Viper to wake up."

It took them a couple of hours before Vipers eyes fluttered open. His body stopped shaking and his mind had calmed down.

"He's awake!" Florencia screamed. She kneeled in front of the sofa where Viper slept and touched the boy's forehead. "Vi, are you awake?"

Viper looked at him blankly. He blinked a couple of times before shaking his head, "Who are you?"

This made Florencia gasp. "Vi, it's me! Florencia, your best friend."

"I don't think" Viper paused. He sat up and looked in front of him, gasping after seeing several people around him. "Who are all of you?! Where is my grandmother?!"

"Viper, I'm here," Elliot walked forward. "Calm down. I'm here. It's me, Elliot."

Viper shook his head, "I don't know who you are. I don't know any of you."

"Oh, my lord," Christina seethed. "He lost his memories. What do we do?"

"Smack his head so we can get it back," Ed suggested, earning him a smack in the back of the head from Connor.

"Now I hope you get yours back," Connor scoffed. "His homesickness is worse than we thought."

"I'm no expert with these things, but this is concerning. This isn't just homesickness anymore. There is something wrong with this place and I don't care if they hear me or not anymore," Ed grunted. "I had enough!"

"Ed," Lance warned. "What are you saying?"

"Lance, I'm sick and tired of getting this dreams," Ed said. "Do you know how scary it is to be in a place that's abandone and for it to shake and then see the emperor in his bones? That's annoying as hell."

"Calm down, Ed," Lance tried to hold his friend down. "You need to calm down and"

"No!" Ed yelled. He brandished his sword. "I had enough."

"Ed!" Elliot yelled. "Return that. You don't know what you're doing."

Ed paused he looked at his sword and ran to window that overlooked the city. "Oh, lord Almighty above the heavens."

"What's wrong?" Connor walked to him. "Do you see something?"

"Can't you see that?" Ed asked, pointing at the city. "The city is dark. There's no people around. Just like in my dreams!"

"That's because it's midnight," Connor smacked his other friend on the back of his head again. "You made me worried for nothing."

"Oh," Ed relaxed his shoulders for a moment. He narrowed his eyes and shook his head again. "No, there's really something wrong."

"Everyone, just calm down first," Elliot said. "Stop causing a ruckus, Ed. We should tend to Viper for now."

"No, Elliot," Ed said. "He got in the middle of the room and raised his sword. "I have to solve this."

"What are you doing?" Lance yelled. "We, put your sword down."

"Nullify!" Ed was a second away from swinging his sword when the door opened, revealing Sayu who had a the emperor behind her.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Emperor Yamato yelled. "You boy, why are you raising your sword?!"

"I-I" Ed stuttered. "Sir, there's something wrong with this castle and I need to nullify it with my magic."

Sayu suddenly appeared in front of Ed and slammed her knee on his stomach. The boy fainted and slowly lose his grip from his sword, letting it go while Sayu caught his body.

"It seems like the Ghost if Shyako had visited you," Sayu said. "I consider you as lucky, but unfortunate. It seems like it's stronger than ever this year. Maybe because you're from afar that it's like this."

"Is it true?" Emperor Yamato asked. "Sayu, can you confirm?"

"The Ghost of Shyako?" Elliot asked. "What is that?"

Sayu dropped Ed's body and sighed, "A ghost that had been haunting this castle every year for centuries. I'm so sorry that you were its victim this year."

"Tell me all about it," Elliot stepped forward. "And please help us. Viper needs help?"

"Come to this room at midnight tonight," Sayu instructed. "We shall hunt a ghost."