The footsteps grew loud.

Then, louder.

Louder and louder, until at last, they came to a stop.

Finn could tell—the four those footsteps had belonged to were standing a mere ten meters away from him. Such excellence was his sense of hearing.

“… Who are you?” A young man demanded. “And what are you doing in here?”

“I… am a Ghost Hunter,” Finn replied. “A freelance Ghost Hunter.”

“Freelance…? Did you… investigate this place on your own?” A female’s voice asked.

Finn shifted his head towards Iris on his back. “Not exactly on my own… but yes.”

“Your companion there… what happened?” The male asked again.

“She has been hit with a headache,” Finn explained. “It was too sudden.”

“That’s the Specters,” the female muttered. “How long have you two been in here for?”

“Longer than you have,” Finn lied. “You too, have been walking for seemingly no end, correct?”

The male leading them nodded. “Yes. Do you know why this is…?”

“… From the moment we stepped into this place, we have fallen into their trap,” Finn said, purposely discussing this topic to avoid the quartet from questioning his identity. “We are trapped within a corridor that links its start and end together with portals, so it makes it seem like it is endless. Take this pebble.”

Finn kicked the tiny piece of stone on the ground over to the four, and the male leading them picked it up.

“What is this for…?”

“If you want to get out of this place, do as I say. Turn around. Throw this pebble forward, and watch where it lands. Don’t throw it too far.”

The quartet was confused and glanced at one another, but did as told. Because Finn was blind, he couldn’t afford to throw the pebble too far. These guys, however, could simply keep their sights on the pebble, increasing the possible range of each toss by a lot.

With that, the group traversed the path in the middle of two patches of forest. Now, however, the quartet weren’t traveling in silence anymore, as they had encountered someone new. They began questioning Finn—out of simple curiosity or suspicion, he did not know.

Either way, Finn was annoyed. He much preferred silence. He was asked a variety of questions like his name, alias, and even asked to show his guild card. He told them his alias was Spade, and Iris was Heart. As for their guild cards, they had lost them.

Of course, losing one’s guild card wasn’t hard to imagine. In this line of work, battles were quite frankly, common. In the heat of a fight, it was easy to lose things—dropping out of one’s pocket, et cetera et cetera. As such, the quartet from the House of Spectra did not question too much, and instead introduced themselves as cooperation will be needed from here on out.

“My alias is Zephyr,” the male knight leading them said. “I use the Windmancer Angelica. How about you?”

“I… use the Stormbringer Angelica,” Finn settled at last, picking one out of his many Angelicas. “Do House of Spectra parties not have a Stormbringer?”

“Nah,” Zephyr replied. “We usually do work out in the wild, away from population. That’s where the Specters usually are, and also why there’s no need to create storms to hide our battles.”

“I see…”

“I am Athena,” the female knight said with a wink—though Finn couldn’t see it. “I’m not actually the goddess of war, but I hope to come close. I use the Sentinel Angelica.”

‘Sentinel…’ Finn thought in his head. ‘That’s a new one.’

Whereas most Angelicas had pretty clear names as to what they did, ‘Sentinel’ was quite vague. Finn found that interesting.

“I’m Giant!” A short boy with quite the young voice said, surprising Finn. “I use the Windigo Angelica!”

“… Excuse me?” Finn muttered aloud. “But…”

He had wanted to say ‘your voice sounds so young’, but that may cause some suspicion. Why didn’t he mention the boy’s appearance instead?

Thankfully, Zephyr was there to explain before he could even finish the sentence.

“I know he looks short, but his alias is not meant to be ironic. The Windigo Angelica allows him to transform into a huge giant—and quite a powerful one at that. Though… it’s not like that comes without consequences. For example, every time he transforms, we need to get him a brand new set of armor, but uh… it’s certainly a useful Angelica to have when facing against Specters, as they love to run away the moment things go south, being the cowards that they are. Riding on his giant form makes it easy to track and chase them down.”

‘So… they are cowards. Understood.’

Slowly, Finn was obtaining valuable information about Specters. Zelestria had already given him a lot of knowledge, but he still needed to learn how to actually combat them. And what better way than to speak with specialists like the House of Spectra?

“U-Um… I’m Aluna,” the final timid girl said. “I use the Healer Angelica…”

The girl trailed off, but it seemed like she wanted to say more, so Finn prompted her to.

“… Is there something you want to ask me?”

“A-Ah, yes!” The girl exclaimed, biting her quivering her bottom lip.

‘Am I that scary?’

“… What is it?”

“U-Um… that is… have you seen a girl recently?”

‘What kind of question is that?’

“She has auburn hair, wears armor just like Athena, and has freckles on her face…”

… I see.

They were referring to the girl who had been horribly killed by that glowing crystal X in the air, as golden as the sun itself. Finn didn’t feel like saying anything about her though, so he just answered with a simple “No.”

“Ah… that’s alright…” She fell silent once more, and so did the rest of the group. They remained silent for the rest of that walk, which made Finn satisfied.

For now, they had to leave this place. That was top priority. Once they did that, they could organize their thoughts, form a proper strategy, then come in again.