Transmigrated as a Ghost

As everyone completed their eleventh-floor trials, they slowly began making progress through the special dungeon.

Some of the floors were tedious, some harrowing, some even occasionally not being all that difficult.

And now Marcus, Mrazivý, and Roxene were finally stepping onto their twentieth floor.

"What do you suppose that thing is?" Mrazivý asked when they appeared from the teleportation circle leading from the nineteenth floor.

In front of them was a huge black sphere that was decorated with some sort of pattern and floating just above the ground.

It was not like anything they had seen up to this point and it did not give off any sort of presence.

"I do not think it is a monster or enemy of some kind. We did just go through quite the battle on the last floor, so I doubt we will have another one. This dungeon does like to keep its challenges varied. But I suppose we should be cautious until we figure out what we are supposed to do." Marcus responded.

After finishing their initial discussion, they carefully moved forward while on the lookout for any sort of trap or ambush.

Plenty of times they had gotten just a bit lax, and the special dungeon had thrown for a loop. So, they knew not to let their guard down until they were certain it was safe.

A thorough search later and all of them were certain that currently there were no traps or hidden area where enemies could be hiding.

"Looks like we will have to inspect that ominous black sphere in the middle. Your up Marcus." Mrazivý said while pushing him on the back towards the object.

In response he sighed but trudged forward.

Whenever they had to investigate something new and potentially dangerous it was his job since he was the most resilient of them.

'I know I can bounce back from just about anything and that is great, but sometimes I wish I was frail so that I would not have to take this position.' Marcus thought as he walked up to the sphere.

For nearly thirty minutes he closely inspected it, but other than a pattern on it that he figured was some type of unknown magical formation, he could not gleam anything from it.

Eventually he deiced to poke it with the tip of his scythe in order to see how it reacted and was caught off guard by what happened.

The instant his scythe touched it a black ring made of some type of magic enveloped him faster than he could react and disappeared within him.

In a panic he began patting himself down and trying to assess if there was any damage, but at first nothing seemed wrong.

Yet it was not long before the effects of the magic that hit him took hold. Like a light being turned off, everything suddenly went dark in Marcus' eyes.

'I can't see!'

Waving his hand in front of his face, he could certainly feel the motion, but any from of vision was gone.

'Did all the lights go out. No that is not possible, I have darkvision. Even in pitch black I can see. This must be something else.'

Calming himself down Marcus began thinking about what was going on rationally, when Mrazivý called out to him.

"Marcus are you oaky? You started flailing about after touching that sphere."

There was definitely concern in her voice, and Marcus turned towards her but could still not see.

"Sorry Mraz, I freak out there a bit. Did you not see the pulse of magic that came off this thing?"

Unfortunately, in response she just shook her head, and while Marcus could hear her hair going back and forth, he could not understand exactly what she was trying to convey.

"Sorry could you give me your answer in words. I seem to be blinded right now."

Hearing this Mrazivý and Roxene began to panic and bombard Marcus with questions.

"Both of you calm down. I do not know exactly what this sphere did to me, but it only took away my sight. I do not seem to be in anymore danger. Give me a few more moments to assess the situation before we do anything else." Marcus said while raising his hands and getting them to relax a bit.

After they settled down, he decided to try something and see if it worked.

'Status.'

For the first time since he was hit with whatever the sphere had done to him, Marcus was once again able to see something.

Even while being blinded the status screen still appeared in front of him. More of a transmission directly into his mind than something seen with the eyes.

'Well, this still works at least. Now what might be the problem.'

Scrolling down he found what he was looking for, and it was as he suspected.

'Status Condition: Cursed (Blinded)'

Reading this from his status Marcus pursed his lips and looked angrily towards the black sphere even if he could not see it.

If they were anywhere else, he would have likely started bombarding it with spells, but he already knew they could not damage anything here unless the dungeon permitted it.

Now knowing the cause of his blindness problem, Marcus relayed this information back to Mrazivý and Roxene. Making sure to warn them that this thing likely would curse them if they touched it.

"Now I am going to see if any of my healing magic spells can get rid of this. I believe that they should, but I have no prior experience with curses."

Starting with the tier five healing magic spell Marcus casted restoration on himself, since it should have been able to dispel low level curses.

Thankfully it worked like a charm and quickly his vison came back to him. The world was no longer just an endless void of black.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he told Mrazivý and Roxene that he could see again.

"Thank goodness. I do not know what I would have done if I had to take care of a blind husband." Mrazivý said jokingly as she gave him a hug.

"Yeah, that would have been a disaster. In that case Roxene would have had to become my seeing eye dog."

Rolling her eyes, Roxene was not thrilled to be pulled into the joke, and instead directed their attention to the matter at hand.

'I think we should not be so jovial about this. That thing still curses us if we touch it, and we are no closer to fining out what it is we need to do to advance.' Roxene said with her telepathy.

Nodding their heads, both Marcus and Mrazivý agreed, and unembraced.

"So, what do you think we should do?" Marcus asked to Roxene.

'Let me try touching it next. See what kind of curse I get hit with.'

Taking the plunge Roxene touched the stone as well, and while only she could see it, she was also hit with a ring of black energy.

A moment later she fell over and began shaking violently.

It was a completely unexpected development and Marcus moved immediately to cast a restoration spell on her.

Luckily this did the trick and the convulsing of her body stopped along with the pained expression on her face.

"What kind of curse was that?" Mrazivý said in a panic.

However, when Roxene got up, she shook her head and said, 'That was not a curse. The thing poisoned me.'

She then growled at it and moved back, not wanting anything more to do with it.

"Here let me touch it again. Perhaps it just hits us with a random attack each time." Marcus said.

He once again poked it with his scythe, and moments later he realized her could not smell anymore.

Surely far less debilitating than before, but still annoying.

A quick use of restoration and the curse was lifted, but it did not get them closer to any answers.

"I got hit with another curse. If it just uses a random attack, then I must be very lucky. Well, if you can call getting hit with two curses lucky."

With the mystery still looming over them, Mrazivý who was the last to not touch the dangerous black.

"Mraz you do not have to do this. I am sure we can figure this out without you taking any risks."

"No, I need to do this. You and Roxene already put yourself in danger to learn what you have. We may finally get some answers if I activate it as well."

With her decision made Marcus offered no more resistance but had his restoration magic ready to go when something happened.

Except what occurred when Mrazivý touched the black sphere was not what either Marcus or Roxene were expecting.

She was neither cursed nor poisoned. Instead, she was completely engulfed in flames.

For a moment Marcus froze up seeing this. He had not anticipated something like this that was so overtly violent compared to what had happened to him and Roxene.

But before either of them could do anything, ice formed around Mrazivý and consumed the flames. And when the ice receded, she appeared fine other than a few burns on her body.

"Damn that hurt! What the hell is this thing!?" She said while glaring at the black sphere.

While she gave it angry looks Marcus moved in and began casting healing magic on her to fix the burns.

"So, is it just random and I just got hit with curses twice in a row?" Marcus asked to no one in particular.

Roxene though after watching what had happened to Mrazivý had an inkling as to what was going on.

"This thing does not hit us with anything random. I believe it is attacking us with things we are weak to."