The Ghost System - Chapter 23

[Aura detection used: dead body]

[Congratulations! 3rd experience of the main quest completed]

[Main quest: Familiarisation with death]

[3/10 death experiences completed]

[New Unique experience:

• killing someone ]

[Rewards: Calculating Rewards..]

Rhys watched as one of the medical staff held a life scanner to what was left of the guy’s neck. Unlike when the device was used on gramps, the results were immediate. The black cross appeared on the display of the device and the medical team stopped what they were doing. To them, there was no point in fussing over spilt milk the boy was obviously dead so there was no point in wasting resources over him anymore. They opened up a blue portal around his body that quickly exported him somewhere, probably a morgue on campus, or if he had a family that cared for him his body would be sent back to them.

[The user took a human life by accident and therefore the user cannot be awarded the full set of awards. The user must kill someone with full intent in order to unlock all the rewards.]

[Rewards:

+ 100 Exp

+ 3 statistic points ]

All the medical staff who had been working on the strengthener packed up their equipment and moved onto the barrier creator who also got burned in the flame tunnel. His groaning and crying showed that he was still very much alive so the medical staff got to work on healing his burns.

A few of the staff then approached Rhys. “Please show us your wounds.”

Rhys offered them his blood soaked hand because it was the only place he had released his skill while he was in the fire. If he was injured his hand was the only place he could think of. One of the healers pulled out a spray bottle from his bag. He gently sprayed the bloody area with cold water to slowly reveal Rhys’s fingers. The two healers in front of him glanced at each other before looking back at Rhys.

“Is this all?” They looked at the tips of Rhys’s fingers that were only slightly singed. They were red and swollen from the heat, marks that would just barely be categorised as first degree burns. Rhys nodded in reply, waiting for them to heal him and then leave.

They stared at each other with furrowed eyebrows before letting their green auras seep into Rhys’s fingers. They wondered how he could have so few burns with such little severity. As soon as they saw the huge flames coming from that particular match pit, the medical team had lined up outside waiting to heal trainees when their match finished. They had all sighed loudly when they saw three of the trainees practically get swallowed up by the flames, the team knew they would be spending a lot of energy on healing the students. They had seen Rhys be engulfed by flames, and yet his fingers were the only parts of his body that were burned…? They assumed that he must have some type of fire effective barrier ability.

As soon as his hand looked better they set off to go and help the other injured people.

“I’m glad you’re okay. Sampson and I got a fright when that guy lunged at you.” Nim murmured from behind Rhys. He was a little startled to hear her voice, but then felt a little comforted by her unassuming presence. She had big brown eyes and a really calming demeanour, even for a healer. Even though she was pretty much useless during the matches, it was somewhat nice having her around.

He wanted to say something to her. He wanted to explain to her that he didn’t meant to kill that guy. But the words wouldn’t come out of his mouth, because he knew that deep down he was more excited by the rewards he had received than feeling guilty for the murder he had just committed.

[‘Yes Rhys, that’s the spirit. It was only an accident anyway, there is no reason to be brooding all day. Instead focus on these exciting new statistics!’] This was the first time that the teacher had sounded even remotely happy.

[Congratulations!]

[You have levelled up!]

[Name: Rhys Anson]

[Race: Enlightened Human]

[Level 4]

[Exp: 103/400]

[HP: 25/40]

<Statistics>

[Intelligence: 13]

[Strength: 8]

[Agility: 7]

[Stamina: 6]

[Spirituality: 8]

He was finally at level 4 and thanks to his rewards and the Experience he had gained in the previous match, he was starting off with a great amount of Exp. His health however was really low after using his spiritual body skill continuously in Sampson’s flames. The healers had only healed his fingers but had not replenished him completely. He needed plants as soon as possible but from a look around the gym there were none.

[Congratulations!]

[A skill has levelled up]

<Skills>

[Spiritual Body Lv 4 >>> Lv 5]

[Reminder: Skill spiritual body evolves every 5 levels]

[Skill ‘Spiritual body’ has evolved to the skill ‘Spectre Form’]

[Spectre Form lv 5:

The User’s body has upgraded from the spiritual level to the spectral level. Once the user applies this skill, the user’s body will hold the power of a spectre. Spectres are metaphysical beings whose bodies are the result of spiritual energy and mental capability.]

< Common Applications of this skill >

•Intangibility

•Physical disruption

•Aura extension (dormant)

•Spectral manipulation (dormant)

•Spectral movement (dormant)

•invisibility (dormant) ]

Rhys’s eyes widened as he looked down the list of applications for the evolved skill. Spiritual body only had two different applications but this evolved skill had six applications altogether. Four new ones with the word ‘dormant’ next to them in brackets. It was clear to him that the applications he had not used yet were marked with the word ‘dormant’ while the ones he had mastered, like physical disruption, were listed normally. He eyed the four dormant applications greedily. All this time he had been desperate to get to level 5 to unlock the aura manipulation skill, but this skill was turning out to be pretty amazing by itself.

“Invisibility…” The shame and worry that had been on his face disappeared and his fingers began to tremble with excitement.

‘No way…’ He chuckled softly. ‘This evolved skill is going to let me become invisible?’

[‘It will take practice, but yes’]

Rhys had never been so happy to hear the teacher’s voice. Imagine how effective intangibility and physical disruption would be if nobody could see him. Wouldn’t he practically be, invincible? Wasn’t this too easy?

[‘Do not get ahead of yourself, mastering all that application will take months if not years of practice. And of all of them, invisibility is the hardest to achieve. If you can achieve invisibility in five years from now, I’ll suck up my pride and call you a genius.]

‘Are you serious? Will it really take that long for me to use invisibility?’ Rhys’s face dropped and the bitter reality of the ghost system slapped him in the face. Nothing about this system was easy.

[‘Do not question me, you idiot. And here is another piece of tough news since you have insulted me. This skill won’t level up until you have achieved every single application on the list! Hah! So there.’]

Rhys’s stomach sank as he listened to the echoes of the teacher’s cruel laughter. If invisibility was almost impossible to achieve before five years, then this skill wouldn’t level up until then either.

“Dammit.” He groaned.

“Huh, Rhys you’re shaking! Are you okay?” Nim’s panicked voice broke through his concentration and he saw her looking at him with teary eyes.

Rhys looked down at his hands and confirmed that he was shivering, he frowned as he lifted up his arms and tried to steady them. He took in a deep breath and tried to calm whatever was coming over him, but the shivers only progressed to shaking. Suddenly a strange coldness prickled all over his body and the sensation slowly creeped around inside him, inching closer and closer towards his heart.

“We need some help over here!” Nim frantically cried out as she saw Rhys’s body begin to convulse violently.

To her it looked like he was having a seizure of some kind. She had been so amazed by Rhys’s impossible skill that she had not taken a minute to think about the drawback. Perhaps to use such a skill, a skill that let him stand in raging fire and come out unharmed, there must be a heavy price. Maybe it used up a lot of his energy which lead to him having seizures from the shock. She felt so sorry for him that she was determined to help him herself. She clasped Rhys’s hands in hers and put all her energy into healing him. It wasn’t like she was much use in the matches anyway, this was the least she could to for a teammate that was working hard to get them all a good ranking for the evaluation.

[26/40 Hp]

[27/40 Hp]

[28/40 Hp]

Rhys wasn’t in pain but the strange shaking continued to wrack the through his body. It was like a mix of the sore muscles you get after exerting yourself and a chilly breeze blowing over your body. The longer he felt it, the more he liked the feeling, so much so that he almost broke out into a smile.

‘What’s happening?’ Rhys lost strength in his core and fell backwards onto the gym floor with a thud. Although he had pretty much lost control of his body, he wasn’t concerned. He was content to just wait there and let the shivers do their thing. It was most likely something to do with him levelling up anyways.

[‘This will probably happen every time you level up, the severity will depend on how ready you actually are for your new strength. With a reaction like this, it’s obvious that you are still too weak.’]

Suddenly medical staff appeared in his vision. They were standing over him, collectively seeping their green auras into him. Thanks to them his health stat was recovering swiftly, however his shaking was not dying down yet.

[31/40 Hp]

[32/40 Hp]

[…]

Rhys signed internally as Sampson’s and Joel’s faces popped up into his view as well. He was practically a vegetable, rendered completely useless just staring up at his teammates and the medical staff. Never mind the awkwardness, he would take this precious time to ask the system more questions. A particular question had been at the front of his mind for a while.

‘Is the spectral form skill still weak to fire and electricity?’ He waited for the answer anxiously hoping for good news.

[The skill is weak to humans with electrical abilities whom have the same or greater aura strength than the user. Humans with fire abilities that are ranked with a ‘strong’ or higher can weaken the skill.]

Rhys understood after he read the system reply. An electrokinetic like Connor who was ranked as ‘very strong’ by the system would definitely still have an affect on him. Rhys clenched his fist feeling a little frustrated that Connor was still a weak pint for him.

Sampson however… Rhys looked up at Sampson, who was crouched over staring down at Rhys with an almost worried expression on his face.

[Name: Sampson Welsh]

[Aura: Fire manipulation (average)]

Sampson’s aura was marked as average, and therefore, his flames would no longer be a problem for Rhys. Rhys had a glint in his eye as he stared up at Sampson. Sampson must have noticed the spark in his eyes because Sampson smirked before standing up.

“This freak’s fine. Call me when our next match starts.” With that he slipped his hands into his pockets and jogged out of sight.

Rhys was convulsing less violently now and he could tell that the strange shivers running through his body would soon come to an end, however the medical staff decided they would take him to the infirmary attached to the gym to run some checks on him. While he was being loaded onto the stretcher, he looked at the second reward he had received.

[Rewards:

+ 100 Exp

+ 3 statistic points ]

‘What are statistic points?’ He already had a idea of what they were but he still wanted to confirm it with the system.

[‘They are points you can apply to your stats to increase your abilities, they will have an immediate affect on the user’s body.]

Rhys looked over his stats again.

<Statistics>

[Intelligence: 13]

[Strength: 8]

[Agility: 7]

[Stamina: 6]

[Spirituality: 8]

If the teacher hadn’t gotten angry and blurted out that the spectral form skill would not level up until he mastered all the applications, he would have definitely put all his points into his spirituality. However, there wasn’t much point now if it would not help his only combat-like skill. As tempting as the idea of getting smarter was, putting his stats into intelligence wouldn’t help him out now either. What was important was winning so that he could get a good ranking, at least a B.

‘I want to put all my points into Agility.’ He directed his thoughts at the system confidently.

[Agility 7 (+3)]

[Intelligence: 13]

[Strength: 8]

[Agility: 10]

[Stamina: 6]

[Spirituality: 8]

During the last match when the plan had revolved around Rhys charging at people, he realised how slow he was compared to the others. It took him far too long to get to the other team and had deadly consequences for the strengthener. Since the Spectral form skill was still not a clear combat skill and he still had no long distance attacks, his abilities relied heavily on him getting close to his opponents. People were still so shocked by his ability that they had not realised its greatest flaw. If they could evade Rhys, if they kept a bit of a distance from him then he would not be able to do anything to them. It was only because so many airheads had charged at him that the matches had been going well for him.

Agility was the best choice for the current situation. He needed to be able to get to his opponents quickly or else he would definitely lose.

As he was being carried out on the stretcher, Rhys let out a relieved breath as the shivering finally came to a stop. As they were walking by, the orange barrier beside them shot back down into the ground and Connor’s teammates hobbled out of their match. Connor looked perfectly fine, but his teammates on the other hand looked like shit. Rhys recognised the distinctive burn marks that were caused by electrical burns on his member’s skin. Did Connor electrocute his own teammates?

When he looked further into the match pit, Rhys caught a glimpse of the poison girl laying on the floor of the pit. Her dark purple aura was still around her body but she was looked exhausted, maybe even unconscious. The electrical burns were all over her body as well. She had a great ability but Connor’s ability was an even greater one, her loss proved that. Rhys felt that something was a bit off though, he wasn’t sure why he suddenly felt suspicious but it was a taste he couldn’t get out of his mouth.