The Ghost System - Chapter 30

“W-what are you?”

Rhys’s heart squeezed tightly in his chest, he felt his panic rising and all he could do to keep calm was quietly clench his fists. Archie was staring at him with equals parts horror and bafflement, a look that would only be justified if Archie somehow knew the truth about Rhys.

“What do you mean?” Rhys tilted his head and managed to fake a confused innocent expression.

What did Archie feel when he bumped into Rhys that left him in such a state? Rhys could only compare this to the time he had seen his own aura in the bathroom mirror and froze from the shock. But Archie’s ability was Sense Enhancement. Depending on the person who infused with such a core, their hearing, touch, taste, smell, sight or a combination of the five improved. There was no way Archie’s power would be able to expose him in any way, right?

“There’s something…” Archie struggled to find the words. “It’s like you’re…” He scrunched his forehead up as he stared up at Rhys. “The feeling I got from you, it’s like the feeling I get from dead people. It’s like you’re a ghost or something.”

Rhys’s heart was hammering against his chest at this point. The moment he heard the word ‘ghost’ from Archie he felt like was going to have a seizure. He was only just managing to keep his face straight.

[‘Perhaps you should silence him.’]

Rhys forced himself to chuckle. “Well, I know I can be a little gloomy, but don’t you think it’s kind of unfair to compare me to a dead person?”

Rhys tried to make a joke out of this so that the others wouldn’t think too deeply about Archie’s words. The last thing he needed was them all suspecting him.

Thankfully Professor Killian laughed lightly at Rhys’s joke. The Professor reached down and offered his hand to Archie to help him stand up again.

“Archie, would you mind explaining your ability to the others? It might help lift the confusion a bit.” The Professor slipped off his glasses and tucked them into his coat pocket.

“Hey guys, I’m Archie as you already know.” He sheepishly scratched his neck, probably embarrassed that they saw him in his dinosaur boxers a few minutes ago.

“A few years ago I infused with a Sense Enhancement core, sadly none of my conventional senses improved…”

Rhys frowned at the phrase ‘conventional senses’. There are only five sense period. Was he implying that there are unconventional senses?

“For a while I thought that the core dealer just sold my parents a fake core or something, but I changed my mind when I realised I gained a new sense.”

“A new sense?” Connor sounded more than a little skeptical.

“Yeah, it was like my intuition improved. Like no one has been able to beat me at a game of cards since I’ve infused. Like I’ll seriously crush you if we play Rock Paper Scissors or any kind of guessing game really.” A big smile lit up his goofy face and he spoke with more confidence.

“Not just that either, I get certain feelings when I touch people. Not only people, random stuff too. Not like a temperature feeling, but an actual impression. It makes me good at guessing what cores people have infused with. I don’t really know how to say this but, it’s like the Senses Enhancement core gave me a sixth sense.”

[Name: Archie]

[Aura: Senses Enhancement (weak)]

Rhys remembered that the teacher told him to look harder. He had the skill to see people’s aura’s, and he was very grateful for it, but now he needed more. He couldn’t find himself in a situation like this again where someone could learn about him without his knowledge. Rhys strained his eyes scanning over Archie’s aura, he had been working this skill all day by constantly looking at peoples’ auras because he wanted the skill to level up. Now he needed it to level up.

“I sensed something different when I touched you.” Archie refocused on Rhys. “The impression you gave was cold and dark. Really scary. Like you’re hollow, it made me think of a ghost.”

Rhys forced himself to hold his manufactured expression. Everyone was watching him, the Professor, Connor, Aria and Archie were all staring at him as if waiting for him to explain, something he couldn’t do.

“That’s very interesting.” The Professor came to the rescue. “So far you’ve had success in identifying people’s powers, perhaps Rhys gave such an impression because his core is not from Earth.”

Rhys’s eyes shot to the Professor, while everyone else’s eyes shot to Rhys.

“How do you know that?” This was probably the third time Rhys was shaken up in the past few minutes. “Your information can’t be blocked from the person who is doing research on you. Of course I read the general’s report on you.”

Rhys had not thought about that scary old general he met in the hospital in a while. What was the old man doing giving out his information to other people?

“You’re core isn’t from Earth?” Aria’s light brown eyes peered you at Rhys curiously.

“That actually explains why I’ve never heard about your ability.” She mused to herself.

“What exactly is your ability?” Archie stepped closer to Rhys, his gaze was fixed on the person who gave him such an unusual impression.

“Uh.” Rhys was grateful that the mood had lightened. “I’m calling it intangibility.” He repeated the words he told Joel, Nim and Sampson a few hours ago. Rhys demonstrated by moving his hand through his head.

“Woah, that’s creepy.” Archie took a step backwards in disgust.

“How interesting.” The professor’s face flushed and he pointed to his forehead, wanting Rhys to demonstrate on him. After Rhys stuck his hand through the Professor’s head at least five times, the Professor finally regained his focus.

“I really do have an interesting group to study this year.” He slipped his glasses out of his pocket and placed them back over his eyes.

“A boy with a normal core but an unprecedented ability.” Professor Killian regarded Archie with a smile.

“A boy with a core from another world.” He nodded at Rhys.

“A girl with a core that was modified by the Eugenics labs.” He smiled down at Aria.

“And a boy who never infused with a core to begin with.” He finally locked eyes with Connor who stared back at the Professor unimpressed.

‘Never infused with a core to begin with’ Rhys frowned when he realised what the Professor meant. Connor never infused with a core? But that didn’t make any sense seeing as he had powers.

Rhys suddenly remembered the conversation he overheard a few days ago when he had read books in the basement of the library. That time when he learned about the red files and that he was on the termination list. That guy, one of the guys who had been discussing the files, had called Connor a ‘Tardras’.

Did that have something to do with what the Professor just said? There were so many questions that he didn’t have the answers to.

“Professor.” Connor’s cold tone caught Rhys’s attention. He didn’t look angry or emotional, instead he looked alarmingly murderous as he stared down the Professor.

“I know we might just be lab rats to you, but maybe think again next time you want to give up our personal information so easily.”

The Professor froze for a second and looked taken aback by Connor’s words. he was silent for a moment before his eyes fell to the floor in shame. “I sincerely apologise, students.”

He sheepishly shifted his glasses back up his nose and chuckled nervously. “I got a little bit excited at having such remarkable powers in front of me. You’re right Connor, I shouldn’t have talked about your personal information without your permission.”

“Oh, it’s okay.” Archie was the first and only person to comfort the Professor. Rhys and Aria didn’t care for Connor’s tone but did agree with what he was saying. Rhys and Aria both felt that the Professor had outed them in a way they weren’t comfortable with.

Connor turned around and headed for the door without a word.

“Goodbye, Professor.” Aria headed inside after him. Rhys followed after her leaving a wounded looking Professor outside.

Once Rhys was back inside he quickly headed to the communal bathroom and took a shower. Connor had already barricaded himself in his room so Rhys just settled into their little living area to unpack the package that was left outside the door for him.

Inside he found some textbooks, as well as a class schedule. On the schedule he saw that he had meetings scheduled with Professor Killian on Mondays and Fridays every week. Another interesting thing was the home room class, the first class of each day which was labelled with an ‘A’ symbol. Perhaps it was a class for only A rank students. It would definitely be interesting to meet the other A ranks. If they had abilities he had never seen before he could get EXP from them.

With that, Rhys put down his stuff and went back into his room to put his sneakers on.

[‘Hmm, what’s this? I thought you were going to bed?’]

“Nope.” Rhys left his room, took the elevator to the ground floor and jogged out the building into the forest. He walked far enough away from the building so that no one inside could see him.

“Teacher.” Rhys sucked up his pride and spoke to the system. “Please help me. I want to get stronger, I’ll do whatever you say so just please teach me how to be an inheritor.”

There was silence in his head for a long tension filled while, but the teacher finally spoke.

[‘Very well.’]

Rhys somehow felt that the teacher sounded a little pleased.

[Attention!]

The system pinged to life.

[New Quest:

User must level up the skill ‘Energy Absorption’ by one level.

Time limit: User has until 12 midnight.]

[Reward: None]

[Penalty: Haunting]

Rhys deadpanned when he saw the quest. No rewards, a horrible penalty and a task that seemed impossible. He swore the teacher was a sadist.

“Can I at least get a hint about how I’m supposed to do this?” He huffed feeling regret creep up behind him.

[Hint: Expend all your HP through physical exercise or self harm, then replenish your energy by using the skill Energy absorption on medium sized plants. Then repeat.]

[‘Train with the goal of never having to beg for help ever again.’]

Rhys couldn’t disagree with that sentiment. He charged deeper into the forest running at full speed, with the goal of wearing himself out. He was determined.

*******************************

Far, far away, across the galaxy a young man’s eyes gleamed as he stared at his computer aboard his space glider. The destination was set to Earth, and his mission was simple: Locate. Annihilate and return.

The rewards and notoriety he would get from completing this mission would be grand. Perhaps he would even get himself ranked. He was practically frothing at the mouth thinking just thinking about it.

Although he was the closest to the planet it would take a few months for him to get there, but when he arrived it would be quick work to find it and carry out the mission.