The Ghost System - Chapter 13

Rhys and Otis reached the main office and found that it was empty. They were the only two students there besides the three military personnel conducting the room assignments.

“Name?” The soldier behind the desk asked bleakly.

“Rhys Anson.”

“Put both of your hands on the desk.” She instructed soullessly.

Rhys did what he was told and watched as his handprints were scanned by the blue light. The machine turned green when his identity had been verified.

“Welcome to the Military collegiate program, MCP if you will.” The stone faced woman finally looked up from her desk and stared at Rhys. To his right Rhys could hear a similar interaction going on between Otis and the administrator in front of him there.

“You have been assigned to the Glowry residence hall, fourth floor, room thirteen.” She slapped a brown paper parcel onto the desk and slid it towards Rhys. “Inside this you’ll find a map and a set of complimentary nutrient and food pills. As well as your new ID tablet and entry cards.”

The woman got up from her seat and reached for something hidden behind the desk. She hauled a familiar black duffle bag and steel safe box onto the desk, they were none other than Rhys’s belongings that he had put through the portal during registration. Rhys was particularly anxious to get his hands back on the steel safe because it contained his precious gold card.

“You can take your belongings to your dorm and settle in,” She returned to her seat and stared bleakly up at Rhys again. “Then feel free to explore the campus grounds over the next few days while the rest of the first years are still enrolling. Dinning times and other essential information is in the parcel I gave you.”

“Welcome, and I hope you have a great first year.” She yawned out the lines she had memorised and probably said a hundred times that day.

Rhys took hold of his bag and tucked the brown parcel under his arm.

“Wow, I’m really doing this.” Rhys murmured as he looked down at everything he owned in his two hands.

Everything he knew was gone so all he had now where the things in his hands and the strange alien core in his head. This was the start of a new life for Rhys, he just hoped that he was starting out in the right place. Seeing as his spiritual body was not perfect and he would not be able to maintain the spiritual shift for very long period of time, evading the military would have been near impossible for him. When he thought about his decision to enrol in the college that way it made sense, but after witnessing an initiation test that literally wiped out a quarter of its incoming students, Rhys was seriously questioning the goal behind the military college. Would they really disregard human life like that? Rhys sincerely doubted that the military would let so many possible future soldiers go to waste. He suspected that the base was planning on using some very high tech medical equipment or an extremely skilled healer to help save the severely electrocuted students, and Gunn’s knee. If he was wrong though, this college was even more extreme than he realised. He would have to keep his eyes out for an escape route.

“Is that all you brought with you?” Otis inquired from behind Rhys.

Rhys turned around to see that Otis’s arms were packed with multiple bulging duffle bags as well as a humungous suitcase on the floor in front of him.

“Yeah, but is this really all yours?” Rhys frowned at the mountain of stuff Otis was carrying. Even before all Rhys’s belongings were burnt in the fire, he was pretty sure he never had as much stuff as Otis was carrying with him now.

“Yes of course. This is just the basic stuff I got according to my older brother’s recommendations.” Otis nodded vigorously, completely sure that Rhys was the nonsensical one and not him.

“Well let’s go!” Otis’s eyes twinkled. He lifted all his stuff off the floor and still managed to grab hold of his suitcase and began moving before abruptly coming to a halt.

“Wait which dorm are you in?”

“Oh, the lady said that I’m in Glowry.”

“Glowry…” Otis looked stumped at Rhys’s words. “I kind of remember my brother saying something about Glowry, but I didn’t think it was a dorm… Shoot, where was it?”

Rhys frowned wondering why Otis who seemed to know everything about the Military college was struggling with recalling information about the Glowry dorm.

“Anyway, all the dorms are in more or less the same place, so we’ll probably find it on the way to my dorm.”

Rhys did not like the idea of wondering around the campus for hours trying to find his dorm, so instead of that he put his bags down and carefully opened the brown paper bag he had been given, the one the lady had said a map would be inside. Rhys easily found the thin paper map and examined it. Rhys’s eyes were immediately drawn to the neat red cross on the map that marked the Glowry building.

Rhys checked the route and saw that it was in the opposite direction to the way Otis had been heading.

“Apparently I have to go this way.” Rhys pointed down the opposite end of hallway.

“Oh, really?” Otis’s expression suddenly saddened which caused Rhys to feel guilty for some reason. Otis continued to stare at Rhys with big watery eyes and raised expectant eyebrows until Rhys found himself blurting out words he regretted as soon as they left his lips.

“Um, maybe we could meet up at one of the dinning halls later…”

“Definitely. I’ll contact you over the tablet.” The crestfallen expression abruptly disappeared from Otis’s face as he grinned happily.

“Ok, I’ll see you later Rhys.”

Rhys watched as Otis and his almighty luggage darted down the hallway to the exit. They only had a casual exchange but Rhys could not remember the last time he had been so friendly with someone other than Gramps.

Rhys picked up his stuff and began his walk to his dorm, on the way he made sure to scan the three soldiers behind the desk.

[Aura: Strengthening (Strong)]

[Aura: Strengthening (Strong)]

[Aura: Strengthening (Strong)]

Rhys was startled that all three soldiers where ranked as strong but as he thought about it again, it made sense. Of course the soldiers working at the program had to be stronger than the actual students, they might have even graduated from the program themselves and gotten stronger over the four years. But then again, the guy with electrokinesis was a freshman and he was already rated as very strong by the system, what the hell kind of monster would he be when he graduated?

With the map in front of him, Rhys ventured out into the chilly night and walked the suspiciously long path around the campus to get to the Glowry dorm. Despite the late hour, the campus was really well lit because the glass buildings were all lined with white or neon lights.

Rhys passed by a massive gymnasium as well as a glass tower-like library that stretched high into the air. As soon as Rhys got a chance he would be heading to the library. Rhys paused for a moment as the path he was following was leading him into a forest.

He checked the map once again and sighed. This was the correct way, no matter how dodgy it looked. The only thing lighting up the dark forest was an old solar torch that had literally been duct taped to the trees. Rhys could not help but feel that he had been assigned to the trash dorm that nobody cared about.

Rhys knew that his senses was very poor, so if someone was out there in the dark they could easily attack him.

‘Aura detection’

Instantly the dark forest was lit up in bright shades of green auras as he could see the energy of the trees and bushes and strange foliage of the forest. It was much safer to keep moving with his skill on because he would be able to see a new aura coming into play much faster than he would notice someone running at him in the dark.

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

[Aura detection used + 2 Exp]

It frustrated Rhys to no end that he was now only receiving 2 experience points per plant because of his level up. Even worse than that, if he had used the skill on the same type of plant before, he would not get EXP.

“I could level up so much faster without all these restrictions you know.” Rhys grunted.

[‘And I could live a much better life without all the sass you give me, you know.’] the teacher snorted in Rhys’s head.

Ahead of him, Rhys finally saw the outline of a building. Unlike the rest of the modern buildings that were lined with glass and metal, this building looked to be pre-invasion in its style. In textbooks Rhys had seen pictures of huge limestone or quarry rock buildings in New York that looked just like the one in front of him.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, Rhys pushed through the huge metal doors and found himself in a giant lobby, well lit with retro lamps and a crackling fire. The floors were made of marble and Rhys was shocked to see actual wooden pillars along the walls. There were some leather couches and chairs clustered around the fire but to Rhys’s dismay there was no front desk. Only a sign that said ‘Rooms’ and pointed to an elevator.

Rhys got into the elevator with wide eyes because he had never seen one before. Restaurants and other buildings usually used portals to get between separate floors. People really only used stairs in their homes, so elevators were pretty much extinct.

Rhys pressed the button and smiled as he felt the metal box moving upwards to the fourth floor. When the doors opened again he wrangled his way out of the elevator with his bags and headed down the hall looking for room number thirteen.

Although the building was large, he barely heard any noises. He had expected to hear new roommates chatting and laughing from underneath the doors, but he heard nothing at all. There weren’t even very many lights on.

Rhys blinked in surprise when he saw warm yellow light spilling out from under the door of his room. He definitely had a roommate.

With bated breath, Rhys pressed his hand against the scanner and watched as it ran his finger prints. The scanner dinged in agreement with him which caused mechanisms within the door to crank and creak. Rhys cautiously pushed open the door to find that nobody was inside, the lights were all on but nobody was there.

Rhys stood there for a moment and scanned over room 13 in shock because it was much nicer than he thought it would be. He was floored by how spacious and clean and homely it looked. It was more of a two person suite than just a dorm room. Room 13 had a living room with a leather couch, carpet and wooden table that were situated under a large window that looked out into the forest. The living room was adjoined by two bedrooms which each had their own desk and chair combo, a closet and a bed.

Rhys saw that someone had already claimed one of the two bedrooms by placing a small bag on the bed. Rhys chuckled as he thought about Otis with his mountain of luggage. Now he had proof that Otis was the weird one and not him because even Rhys’s roommate packed light and only brought one duffle bag with him.

Seeing as his roommate was not here, Rhys theorised that he must have gone to eat dinner or something and just placed his bag their. Rhys quickly went to the other room and put his bags down. Just as he was about to unpack his belongings into the closet, he heard the door opening. Rhys walked back to the living room to say hello to his new roommate but he stopped short when he saw the blonde hair and striped tattoos on the nape of his roommate’s neck.

‘Aura Detection’ Rhys grimaced knowing who it was already.

[Name: unknown]

[Aura: Electrokinesis (very strong)]

Rhys stared at the guy who he had seen electrocute an entire room of incoming students and for the umpteenth time cursed his shitty luck.