48 Ghost Farmer (1/2)

As the old farmer predicted, the rain really continued to fall until late in the evening. At that point, it was pointless for Li Wei to resume his travel. While he was relatively close to the city and there were few monsters nearby; it was already dark which meant that it was the prime time for bandits to roam near the city.

Stuck in the farmer's house the whole afternoon, Li Wei tried to make the best use of his time. In addition to working on his Gliding Steps and trying to understand the technique from a theoretical point of view, Li Wei spent a good amount of time with the old farmer.

The farmer spent the entire afternoon smoking his pipe under his veranda. He was delighted to see Li Wei join him and narrated the stories and legends of the land. The latter naturally carefully listened to the old man's stories; this sort of conversations was the best way for players to obtain quests.

Unfortunately, he did not receive any notifications. However, the conversation was not completely useless; there was one particular story that kept Li Wei's attention: the Ghost Farmer.

According to the old man, long ago, when he was still just a child, an old couple decided to settle down in the area to become farmers. At the time, they attracted everyone's attention since they clearly had significant backgrounds and so, no one really interacted with them and the couple did not respond either.

Time went by with the couple leading an isolated life and eventually, the old lady passed away. When that happened, the nearby farmers all went there to show their support and help the old man surpass that difficult period but to their surprise, the old man was very protective of his territory, he became extremely hostile, wildly cursed and denied anyone access to his farm.

The farmers tried several times to help him but the old man was very stubborn as if hiding something inside his farm. Seeing his reaction, the nearby farmers decided to ignore the old man, they genuinely wanted to help but were only met with such behavior.

Things went quiet for a while until suddenly, on one night, a massive explosion was heard at the old man's farm. All the buildings and the nearby fields were set on fire and the worst part was that the fire could not be extinguished by water.

The farmers were all alarmed and fought against the fire for the whole night. But it was in vain, the fire continued to spread until the next morning when the city's guards arrived and took care of it. Such a big fire caused a lot of damage to the local harvest which could have had severe consequences on the economy of the county.

Investigations were carried out and it was found that the explosion was man-made; it was an attack from the Heretics; a group of worshipers of an evil god. The guards spent days investigating the scene and it was concluded that the Heretics attacked the old man to take back some form of treasure.

But the story did not end there. Things calmed down after the incident but just one week after the guards left, the nearby farmers all saw the ghost of the old man, aimlessly roaming on his previous land. Everyone was terrified and called the guards but the ghost never appeared in the presence of the guards.

As soon as they left, the ghost would reappear but would stay in his territory and till now, the ghost still wanders endlessly on his land every night. The ghost would only appear at night if no strong individual that might be a threat to him was nearby but it would never leave its land. So the guards decided to dismiss this case since as long as no one went to the haunted farm, everything would be fine.

It was said that the Ghost Farmer was protecting some dark secrets; many adventurers would come to try their luck but if they were too strong, then the ghost would not appear but if they were weak, the ghost would simply slay them with his scythe.

It was even said that the Heretics came back several times with their young apprentices to try to get back the treasure but they never succeeded.

Hearing that, Li Wei could not help but be interested in this Ghost Farmer, it was an opportunity to make a good use of his stay at the farm tonight since the haunted farm was not very far.

...

Time went by and it was already midnight, the old farmer and his son were already asleep and only the old granny was still awake. She quietly opened the door for Li Wei and wished him the best of luck; it was normal for her to stay awake very late during the night, in recent years insomnia would strike her every night.

”Be careful young man, it is good to be courageous and curious... But don't let that get to your head, countless youngsters like you perished under the scythe,” said the granny.

”Do not worry about that granny, I will be very careful and come back in one piece!” answered Li Wei as he silently left the farm.

It was no longer raining, but the land was wet, making it harder for Li Wei to walk around. The granny was kind enough to point out the direction of the haunted farm, it was at about 30 minutes walk.

The night was silent, all Li Wei could see was the endless fields of wheat dancing with the wind. Fortunately, the sky was clear of clouds after the heavy rainfall of the afternoon, allowing the moon to illuminate the entire field.

25 minutes later, Li Wei finally saw a change in the landscape. The soil there was unused, it could have been the insufficient lighting but to Li Wei, it seemed that the soil was completely black. There was a clear demarcation warning people about the haunted territory.

In the distance, Li Wei could see the ruins of some buildings, ”these must be the house, the barn, the stables...”

He silently sat between the growing wheat, just in front of him was the territory of the Ghost Farmer. He was just there to observe and if the opportunity presented itself, he would try to gain some benefits. But still, no one ever came that close to observe, he did not know if the Ghost Farmer would chase him since he was just at the boundary of the territory. But more importantly, he did not even know if he was considered too strong causing the Ghost Farmer to not appear.

Not even 5 minutes after his arrival, Li Wei finally saw what he came for. Emerging from the ruins of the house, a gloomy silhouette rose up; it was surrounded by a ghastly white aura which was constantly swirling around the body.

The body itself did not look in good shape; it was like a decomposing corpse. The white aura particularly made the corpse look more gloomy.

Seeing the Ghost Farmer, Li Wei immediately backed off a few meters, he did not want to attract its attention too much and the Ghost Farmer was extremely visible due to the white glow.

The latter turned its head to look at Li Wei but it did not move from the ruins.

”Scary! Especially those empty eye sockets!” said Li Wei too himself.

Walking about 10 meters back, Li Wei frowned as he noticed that the Ghost Farmer was level 15. But more importantly, as he saw the level, he also received a notification.

[System prompt: you have encountered the boss monster Ghost Farmer, be careful! It is a Ghost-type monster]

”It is a level 15 boss! And a ghost type at that... Such bad luck.”

Ghost-type monsters were a class of monsters just like beasts were a type of monsters. While Beast-type were usually present in the wild, Ghost-type were rarer, they were more commonly seen in deserted ancient battlefield or graves.

The special thing about Ghost-type monsters was that they all had the inherent trait: 50% reduced physical damage! That was the bane of all physical classes like warriors especially if they did not use enchanted weapons.

However, to compensate for that, they had another inherent trait: 25% Bonus damage from Light, Fire and Thunder type magic. It was clear that they were a type of monster especially suited to be hunted by mages.

It was something Li Wei was very clear about, it was a common thing in the other games he played and he also confirmed that when he had a look at the book at the library which recorded the different creatures that could be found.

The Ghost Farmer was not recorded in it but a lot of information was available about the different types of monsters.

Li Wei crouched down between the wheat and calmly observed the Ghost Farmer.

The latter did not seem to notice Li Wei and only stood out and started to walk out of the ruins.

Suddenly Li Wei heard loud steps coming from the other side of the haunted farm. The Ghost farmer also noticed the footsteps and immediately turned to look at the newcomer.