Onward to the next abandoned store!
It was impossible not to notice that it must have once been an optician's shop.
Had I carelessly wandered ahead, I would've crushed even more of the already shattered, colorful eyeglass frames, blending them into the broken shelves littering the floor.
Not to mention the blindingly white fluorescent lights lying shattered everywhere, hinting at a seriously high damages bill.
Taking my own advice for once, I lit up the small former salesroom with my phone flashlight and saw nothing but scattered rainbow reflections and crumpled papers marked in big bold letters: "Purchase Agreement."
In the back, a break room was labeled with a sign on the wall, so naturally, I headed there next.
The retreat for the former employees was decorated with a large dining table in the center, where toppled coffee mugs and stained napkins lay scattered.
Past a small anthracite-colored kitchenette, I spotted another door labeled: "Storage Room."
And that one gave me an immediate sense of dread.
Everyone knew how it went in horror movies something terrifying always fell out of suspicious storage rooms once you opened them.
Honestly, I'd rather have stumbled into a dumb scandal than deal with this.
It certainly didn't help that Mio darted straight past me, planting himself firmly in front of the pristine white door, nose pressed tightly against the lock, sniffing loudly and impatiently whimpering.
Yeah.
Of course, it had to be this door.
With trembling legs, I approached my agitated companion, hesitantly placed my hand on the doorknob... and hesitated.
Did I really have to do this?!
Suspiciously, I shot a glance at my imaginary buddy, who meanwhile stepped to the side and finally pushed the door open. Fully expecting something large to fly at me, I squeezed my eyes shut and heard Mio march past me into the storage room.
So calm, in fact, that it made me suspicious enough to open my eyes again.
And I saw... nothing.
No skeleton, no terrifying figure, no cursed spirit.
Why on earth did the hellhound want to come in here so badly?
There was nothing here except the typical contents of a storage room: a silver shelf stocked with various cleaning supplies, cloths, soap containers, and hygiene products illuminated by my phone's flashlight.
Yet Mio came to an abrupt stop in front of one of the brooms and sat down on the cold floor.
With furrowed brows, I watched him sniff at the broomstick and scratch it with his paw.
It had to be some kind of hint.
So I focused my attention on the broomstick and concentrated.
But I couldn't detect anything at least, not at first.
Either my vision was playing tricks on me, or I was just imagining that the broomstick started to shimmer like mist swirling faintly.
But when I began to see violet smoke-like patterns, I realized that the little furball was pointing me toward some cursed residues.
"Oh yes!" I whispered under my breath, cheering. "Thanks, Mio."
My inner joy surged for a brief moment as I patted my hellhound.
A small victory for me as a young sorcerer even if I did get a lot of help with it.
I couldn't tell how old these curse traces were, but judging by their intensity...
"The curse must have been here recently," I mused, trying to locate more residue – but without success.
"Alright. Let's keep moving. We should pick up the pace and sweep through the stores faster," I shifted my muttering now towards Mio. "At least as long as no noises are heard or that ball goblin shows up. I just want to get this over with."
Another wag of the tail as if the little furball could actually understand me.
With my Shikigami leading the way, we turned our backs on the optician and moved on to the next devastated shops, checking out the ones that were still accessible.
To my regret or maybe my relief everything went smoothly and without incidents.
Of course, there were a few jump scares here and there I was, after all, practically destined to be easily startled but there was no clear trace of the cursed spirit.
At least not on Level 0.