Ectoplasm.

A small jar of a white-greyish highly viscous liquid has fallen to the forest floor. John picked it up and used Observe.

Ectoplasm

The remains of a ghost, a concentrated mass of magical energy. Can be consumed to restore 10 MP instantly or be used in crafting.

“Nice.” John said. “Whaddaya mean ‘nice’. What is even happening?” John looked at her in confusion, “You mean dropping items is not normal.” “NO!” Rave shouted, “You moron, okay, wait, I need to explain this…Urgh, your powers are weird.” It was amusing to John to see Rave this flustered but he really needed that explanation so he stayed silent.

“So, these Ghost are made from lingering regrets, in other words the mana of the deceased, you understand that?” John nodded. “Great, whenever we defeat those things that mana disperses and just goes back to Gaia to become part of some great flow or whatever. Now think about it: Where does that item come from?”

John locked at the jar at his hands with an aghast expression. “You are trying to say that my ability creates things from nothing.” Rave nodded strongly, an overdramatic motion that showed how weird she found the whole situation. “Gaia just throws stuff at you, you lucky bastard.” She said. “Now show me what ya got.” “You already saw that earlier.” John said more out of habit than anything else. Rave chuckled “Okay, yeah, walked right into that one….Whatevs tell me already.”

“It says it’s Ectoplasm, I can restore mana with it or do some crafting with it.” John explained what Observe had revealed to him. “How much mana?” Rave asked, “10, not that much.” John out the jar into his inventory. “Disappointing.” She sighed and turned back to the mist. “We can always get more.” John suggested. Sure 10 wasn’t that much all things considered but if he could get several of those jars he could keep Possession up for longer. Speaking of Possession his mana was about halfway drained now. He decided to keep it running until his mana depleted, he was being carried here anyway might as well train something on the side.

“Yep.” Rave affirmed and picked her next song. “You coming then? I want to try and reach a level as well.”

And so, the boy and the girl continued killing ghosts. John simply walked after her, staring at her arse without any shame, and picked up whatever dropped. Besides Ectoplasm one of the Ghost also dropped a talisman.

Talisman of lesser Pity

A useless piece of silver. Looks nice though.

‘Probably worth a bit too.’ John thought and put it into his inventory like the rest of the drops. By this point his mana had run out and he was **** to use Possession again later. Sadly no Level for that but for his troubles he got something else, namely another level. By the second time he realized that levelling instantly refilled his mana, in game terms that made sense. With that extra mana he was able to use Possession for a longer time, causing it to level up as well (Nothing spectacular, just another discount on the activation cost).

Rave levelled up to. “Hey, I got Stat points.” Rave said happily. “Wonder if it auto spends them if I quit the group now.” She added with a thoughtful impression. “What are your stats anyway?” John wondered, “Ah, you know, the usual for a petite girl like me.” Rave said and didn’t go further into the topic. ‘Maybe I can check if I level Observe some more?’ John asked himself.

“Question is if I want to skill Intellect or Strength…what do you want to do by the way, I would guess mage by your telekinesis thing.” John blinked in confusion, “Telekinesis?” He asked, Rave rolled her eyes, “The thing you did to make the rocker let the control wand slip.” John made an understanding "Aaah". Yes that certainly could have looked like Telekinesis. Well, effectively it did the same in that particular circumstance but he doubted he could make things hover or something like that.

“No, that was a skill used Possession. I quote unquote became the remote and just wiggled out of his hand.” Rave was taken aback. “Wha- that is weird. How did that feel?” “Sweaty.” John made a grimace as he remembered the hand of the rocker, “Generally though being in two places at the same time is something I grew accustomed too pretty quickly. Guess I have Gamer’s Spirit to thank for that.”

A Ghost appeared from a nearby bush but was quickly eradicated by a flash of light from Rave’s hand. “These things really are no challenge to you are they?” John asked, “Nah, you could say I’m their kryptonite.” Rave shrugged. “I also get to fight them semi regularly.” “Why that?”

“If many lingering regrets gather somewhere they get strong enough to create their own Illusion Barrier. If you don’t take care of it then they focus more and more power and become stronger monsters until they finally cause some kind of disaster in the real world and get destroyed by Gaia.” Rave explained, “What kind of disasters?” John asked, the whole thing sounded pretty dangerous. “In cities they make buildings age faster, take shops out of business by having an aura of bad luck hanging over it. On the land or the sea they can cause some nasty natural disasters like landslides or even tsunami’s. Not a lot of people live on the sea however so that happens pretty rarely.”

“And you fight them out of the good of your heart?” John asked, he had trouble believing that. Rave laughed, “Of course not silly, I beat their faces in because it’s fun. Also Baldy has a crystal that absorbs the energy of these things when they die. The Golden Rose is the local cleaning crew.” That sounded more like what he had expected. “So Moira and her family?” John wanted to be sure. “That’s the one. The whole ‘absorbing the energy of the dead’ deal is part of why she doesn’t particularly like’s us.”

That made sense, to a certain degree. “What does Travolta need that energy for anyway?” “Do you ever stop asking questions?” Rave sounded annoyed by now, “I dunno though. Don’t care either. Let’s just kill more stuff!”

John looked at his watch, “Sure, tomorrow.” Rave blinked then looked at the display of her MP3-Player, “Oh hey it’s late. Yeah, let’s meet after school in the Headquarter.”