Between Marie♥ and Thagomizer monopolizing the ghosts, I barely get any candy for myself. My boosted damage won’t do a damn thing if I can’t actually trigger any fights! Argh!

Sometimes a group run can hurt more than it helps.

Яagnarok, you idiot! Are you seriously lamenting the strategic impracticality of tower climbing with two cute girls?! I don’t know what’s come over me. Or maybe I know too well. I’ve always been a low-tier student. I’m not about to let my libido of all things keep me from the Reaper’s Scythe.

“Did you also encounter the Ghost of Halloween Past when you came to school today?” Marie♥ asks suddenly.

“You bet,” I answer.

“Naturally,” Thagomizer says. “It was as scripted as the cutscene where she told us to expect more trials inside the tower. Honestly, I don’t like events that add puzzles, even if it was impossible to fail the first one.”

My eyebrows shoot up. Thagomizer talking shit about the system? Say it ain’t so!

At least you can plan your climb for X floors at Y candies per floor times Z hours of stamina. You can’t plan for the time it takes you to solve a puzzle,” she continues. “So I’m not looking forward to the other ghosts.”

“Do you think we’ll have to fight them?” Marie♥ wonders aloud.

“If we fail? Maybe.” Thagomizer hums as she thinks. “But they’re probably designed to let us pass as long as we meet certain criteria.”

It’s my turn to ask a question. “And what do you think they meant about purifying the evil spirits?”

“Marie♥ already did it with the Black Shuck,” Thagomizer says. “So we’ll find out soon.”

I don’t know how much of this is her actually knowing what’s going on and how much of it is her assuming with a bold face.

The eleventh floor of the haunted school, the usual classroom decorations give way to the interior of a library. As with every floor, we’re allowed to simply continue up to the next, but soft whimsical music plays softly, indicating a narrative change. Maybe even a boss battle.

We make our way through the library. I wonder if grabbing a book will quick-teleport us to another floor, or if perhaps there’s an item hidden in one them. There are too many to search individually. Could there be a clue somewhere?

It’s not my fault for having an overactive imagination. I used to dream of getting snatched away to another world when I visited the library as a child. Whether it was sci-fi or fantasy or even aliens, I loved it all. But life is exciting now. Life is full of events and content! There’s nothing more a boy could want, except for the latest cool new item to be released.

“Quit daydreaming,” Thagomizer says, poking my forehead and rousing me from my daydreams. “Or we’ll move on without you.”

She chugs a stamina potion and takes off across the room, not stopping to take a look at any of the books. I still think that’s the wrong idea. If you don’t take some time to enjoy the scenery, what’s the point in participating in the first place?

Although I do begin to follow her, Marie♥ and I both wander slowly with our hands reverently touching the spines of the library’s many specimens. Like I’m stuck in a dream, I can’t seem to read the words on the covers. Did you know that? When you’re dreaming, you supposedly can’t read anything. The letters and symbols swirl before my eyes, making me dizzy, forcing me to look away.

Okay. So maybe the books aren’t a secret or a trap after all.

“Яagnarok... Do you remember your favorite book?” Marie♥ asks me. “Because I know I used to love reading, but now I...”

With a sinking feeling in my gut, I realize that I don’t. Every isekai light novel, every action comic, every giant robot story is still in the back of my mind somewhere, I know it! But I can’t remember their names. I used to do something else after school, too, sitting down in front of the—

“Quiet!” a voice calls out. “Quiet in the library!”

A female ghost in a smart office-casual suit and a pair of glasses materializes in front of us, holding a stack of real, tangible books. She drops all but one of them on the librarian’s desk.

“I’m sorry!” Marie♥ whispers.

She’s such a good person. I think I really do love her.

—Isn’t that a little sudden?

Denver growls at the ghost librarian and Bruce alights from my shoulder to start circling around her. I get it! She’s this floor’s boss monster. She doesn’t look like a monster. At least, she doesn’t look monstrous? Oh, whatever.

This is my chance to get a ton of candy! I pull out my whip and step into her threat radius. Thagomizer doubles back to join us.

She strikes a dramatic pose, wielding her book like a grimoire, summoning a blast of raw energy from its pages and tossing it at me with an outstretched hand. I dodge the icy blast. My whip might let me attack from a distance, but I’m hesitant to do anything. Something the Ghost of Halloween Past had said sticks with me. Purify the renegade spirits who wander the halls.

How do we purify someone who’s trying to kill us?!

Thagomizer has taken out her silver bullets and loads them into a gun, one by one. She shoots! The bullet whizzes past the librarian’s head, catching a few hairs. Another burrows into the librarian’s shoulder.

With a shout, the ghost fires off another energy blast. It knocks the gun right out of Thagomizer’s hands.

I have to think fast! I doubt the nearby water fountain will contain holy water, and none of us have any sort of priestly outfits to play a game of pretend-exorcism.

But maybe that’s it. Become children again. We have to play pretend! Halloween is all about putting on costumes and becoming something new, right? So if we act out and act up, surely...!

Determined to make this plan work, I grab a book from the shelf and open it up. The pages are gibberish, just like the covers had been. I won’t let that stop me. I bullshit an incantation: “O Holy Haunted Night! Bring forth the light of purification into this dark place!”

And sure enough, a small orb appears over the open pages, glowing brighter and brighter as I concentrate.

With a shout, I whip my hand forward. The light follows its trajectory, slamming into the librarian’s stomach! Her eyes grow wide and her entire body begins to glow softly from the point of impact.

“Thagomizer, try it!” I yell. “We have to learn to make believe!”

She looks puzzled, but nonetheless stops trying to retrieve her gun. “You’d better be right about this.”

The ghost’s eyes glow red and she seems to shake off the purification ray. She breaks into a run and charges at me.

“O light of purification!” Marie♥’s voice calls out from behind me. She’s picked up on it, too, holding a book of her own. “May this spirit find peace! Яagnarok, out of the way!”

I jump aside just in time.

“Pew!” Thagomizer says, making a gun with her hands. “Pew pew!”

Marie♥’s blast hits from the front! The glow returns, intensifying as each spirit-bullet from Thagomizer’s fingers hit the librarian’s body. She becomes too bright to look at, until the glow disperses like someone turned off a light switch. The background music changes, becoming more light-hearted and angelic.

“Ahhh, that’s much better!” the librarian says, stretching. “Nice job, young ones.”

Her suit is immaculate, without a trace of the bullet wounds. There’s something distinctly peaceful about her now.

Thagomizer retrieves her gun and looks almost disappointed that the combat encounter has ended. The weapon disappears into her inventory.

“Thank you! I am the Ghost of Halloween Present,” the librarian explains. “You have demonstrated faith in the pure, playful spirit of Halloween, and in doing so, you have freed me from the spell that bound me. There are many floors left before you’ll reach my other sister, but know that my library is a safe haven to you now. You can always climb down and rest here, or use this grimoire to summon me any time you need a hand. My blessings be upon all of you.”

I feel the thump of a book being dropped into my inventory. A key item! How cool is that? And a steady stream of candy follows. Yes!

“Thank you!” Marie♥ cheers as the ghost slowly fades away.

So not all purified ghosts become familiars, but all of them are still relevant to the story enough to help out? I don’t pretend to understand the nature of the event; I’m just happy she’s on our side. Two of the three ghosts have been conquered and we still have twenty five floors left to climb.