The Ghost System - Chapter 9

[Alert! New Quest: Defeat the 3 attackers]

[Reward: Unlock System Teacher]

‘It seems like we are in sync for the first time.’ Rhys grinned as a punch came flying at his face.

[Agreed…]

Rhys stayed completely still, seemingly unbothered by the attacker’s fist that was only a few inches away from his jaw. The attacker thought nothing of it, he assumed Rhys was so scared that he was frozen in place, so the attacker swung his fist with as much power as he could muster, aiming to knock out some of Rhys’s teeth with the first blow.

“AAARGHHHH!”

The attacker screamed in agony as his fist went straight through Rhys’s face and hit the thick stone wall of the alleyway behind Rhys’s head with a disturbing crunch. Although he had a strengthening ability, it was not at the level of being able to punch through stone walls.

The attacker immediately fell to the floor, shrieking in pain and clutching his broken fist. Blood spewed out of the gashes on his knuckles while some of his fingers were bent at disturbing angles.

[Spiritual body used +5 Exp]

Rhys was not a fighter. During school, he had always tried his best to avoid conflict because without an ability he knew any fights were pointless. He would inevitably end up as the loser, on the ground with blood and bruises covering his body. However, sometimes not fighting was not an option and Rhys would be forced at the very least to defend himself. Since he was weaker and slower than most other people his age, he knew the importance of timing and observation. Strike any opponent at the right time at the right spot, and they would go down.

Rhys wasted no time, he lunged forward and swung his boot at the opponent’s face. Rhys’s boot made hard contact with the guy’s jaw. Blood sprayed out of his mouth followed by a few teeth. He fell to the street floor, completely knocked out. Rhys was quite surprised that his kick had been strong enough to knock the other guy out from just one blow, he could only sum this up as his strength stat going up. The Ghost system was having a very real effect on his body, just like in a game.

“You freaking idiot!” Sampson screamed furiously at his unconscious friend from the end of the alley. “How did you miss him? You were right fucking in front of him?”

Rhys smiled knowing that Sampson had not figured out Rhys’s ability yet. Sampson must have assumed that Rhys had dodged the punch causing his friend to miss Rhys and punch the wall behind him instead. It was a logical assumption for Sampson to make since he still believed Rhys to be coreless. Sampson’s misinterpretation of the situation was good for Rhys because it meant that he still had the element of surprise on his side.

‘Aura detection’

The next guy was already in front of Rhys. His fists raised like a boxer, with a sturdy stance to back up his attacks. And Rhys noted the warm yellowish aura around his body.

[Aura detection used + 5 Exp]

[Occupation: Attacker]

[Aura: Strengthening(weak)]

The attacker threw a fury of short powerful punches at Rhys. Out of necessity, Rhys continued to keep his spiritual body skill on so he would not get pummelled by the punches, if he got hit from a punch by a person with a strengthening ability, it would be lights out immediately for him. However, Rhys wanted to keep up the farce of having no ability until his attacker gave him an opening. Thus Rhys pretended that he was dodging the punches by randomly waving his upper body from side to side like a penguin, while in reality, his skill was allowing the swift punches to pass right through him.

[16/20 Hp]

The attacker quickly got frustrated that he was not landing any hits and decided to lunge at Rhys for his next attack. Rhys smiled as the new attacker’s front foot left the ground because that was what Rhys had been waiting for. As soon as the attacker jumped forward to try and tackle him, Rhys used his skill to run straight through the guy and get behind him.

The attacker was completely stricken by what he had seen, the person he was trying to hit moved directly through him like he was some kind of apparition. Before the guy could regain his balance and spin around, Rhys released the skill and punched his fist as hard as he could into the back of the guy’s neck. Attacker number 2 let out a pained yelp before falling on top of Attacker number 1, unconscious.

Rhys triumphantly gazed down at the two bodies with his Aura detection and noticed something interesting in their respective auras. In the places they were injured: the first guy’s hand and face, and the second guy’s neck, their aura in those places were noticeably thinner and less bright. Like the injured body parts were not capable of holding onto the body’s aura.

“You!” Sampson growled from a ways behind Rhys. “You’re not supposed to have an ability.”

Rhys stared blankly back at Sampson. Sampson was not any taller than Rhys, but he was much more muscular and had good instincts which had only been sharpened after growing up in this district. Somewhere along the line of harsh District 12 life, Sampson had grown cruel and hateful and was continuously searching for ways to prove how much better he was than others. Beating up people who looked at him the wrong way and crushing the spirits of those he perceived as happier than him became his greatest pleasures in life. In spite of the tough badass reputation Sampson had created for himself at their high school, Rhys only ever saw Sampson as someone who was deeply insecure and constantly trying to reassure himself by hurting others.

“And yet I have one.”

Sampson had seen Rhys’s ability this time for sure, so there was no need for Rhys to hide it from him.

“Whatever!” Sampson hissed. “It’s nothing special anyway, those guys were just idiots to fall for your cheap pranks.” Sampson spat out angrily growing more agitated by the second at the confident look on Rhys’s face.

Rhys could only chuckle at Sampson’s familiar antics.

“You must be an idiot then.” Rhys retorted.

“What did you just say to me?” Sampson’s eyes were suddenly set alight by indignation and fury.

“You also fell for it in the beginning, so by your logic that makes you an idiot too.” That carefree smile that Sampson hated so much returned to Rhys’s face in full force.

‘Aura detection’ he summoned the skill in his head.

[Name: Sampson Welsh]

[Occupation: Bully/attacker]

[Aura: Fire manipulator (not as weak as the other opponents but still weak)]

Rhys frowned at the weird description the system gave him. He would need to question the system about its Aura evaluation standards later.

“You think you’re such hot shit because you got an ability, huh? So what if you can pass through people, that crap is no good in a real fight.” Sampson’s chest was falling and rising violently as the unchecked anger was spilling out of him after Rhys had mocked him.

“I’ll show you what a real ability is.” Sampson reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small lighter. Feeling his trusty old red lighter in his hands, he calmed down a bit and was able to regain more control over himself. Above anything, feeling like he was weak drove him insane, and hearing weak people like Rhys insult him had the same effect, but thankfully holding his lighter in his hand always made him feel better.

Sampson held up his lighter, pointing its tip towards Rhys. He was already imagining how Rhys would beg for mercy once he used his core ability.

“You’re dead Rhys.” Sampson’s thumb slid over the spark wheel and ignited the small flame. Instantly the entire alley was engulfed in a raging jet-like flame. The searing flames charred the brick walls of both sides of the allies and instantly burnt the weeds that had been growing if of the gravel ground. The roaring fire ate at the two unconscious bodies lying behind Rhys as well.

[15/20 HP]

[Continued use of skill: Spiritual Body +15 Exp]

[User will lose 1 HP for every second the skill is continuously used]

The flames raged all around Rhys but he and the clothes he was wearing remained unharmed. Although the fire did not hurt him, he was still feeling intense heat that made him want to dive into a cold bath. Without a doubt, he knew that this skill was weak to fire, nevertheless, it still worked so he needed to put aside his discomfort and fight. He was actually pretty surprised at how good Sampson had gotten at controlling his ability. The last time Rhys had seen Sampson in a fight was a few months ago, but his power back then was nowhere near this level. Even though Sampson was unbearable, he was talented and hardworking, Rhys had to give him that.

The only challenge in this fight was that Rhys had fifteen seconds to defeat Sampson before his HP ran out.

[14/20 HP]

Without a second to spare, Rhys charged forward into the powerful fire jet that Sampson was manipulating out of the lighter. All the while Sampson grinned excitedly, he was anticipating seeing Rhys charred like coal.

[12/20 Hp]

In two seconds, Rhys was in front of the huge jet of flames, where Sampson was holding the lighter in his hands. His head and arms stuck out of the raging flames making him look like some strange bodiless creature. Sampson stared in horror at the sight in front of him, he had seen that Rhys could move through his friends like he was made of nothing, but he had not even dreamed of Rhys being able to get past his fire.

[11/20 HP]

In one succinct movement, Rhys did the opposite of what he had done in the military hospital when he had first used his ability. He focused on his hand, but this time released the skill only in his right hand allowing it to become a solid again. Rhys smacked the lighter out of Sampson’s hand, knocking it to the floor and consequently stopping the fire jet that Sampson had been manipulating from the lighter’s small flame. The alleyway no longer resembled the tail of a jet, but the two side walls were charred black from the fire, and Sampson’s two friends were badly burned with smoke rising from their motionless bodies.

[10/20 HP]

Sampson looked forward in a daze at Rhys. Rhys’s blue eyes never used to look this calm and controlled, they used to look anxious and frightened just like the rest of the weaklings at school. Even more alarming than Rhys’s attitude, was the fact that Rhys was completely unharmed by the massive fire jet Sampson had created. The weird hospital pyjamas he was wearing weren’t even a little burnt.

Sampson suddenly had a flashback to primary school when Rhys was excitedly jumping up and down and waving to the old man who always came to fetch him at the gate after school ended. They hugged warmly and then left hand in hand while Sampson sat there waiting for his mother’s newest boyfriend to pick him up. Sampson knew that his stepdad would not come, but he always sat there on the curb waiting until everybody had left. He secretly hoped that one of his classmates would see him sitting there all alone and would invite him over to their house, but none ever did.

That was his life, the invisible unwanted baggage his mother brought with her every time she moved into a new man’s house. The only affection he ever received was when his mother fussed to make sure he looked presentable to meet her newest boyfriend. He remained a depressed unhappy child, watching enviously as Rhys’s grandfather came to pick Rhys up every day from primary school. However, a few years later, Sampson’s mother had managed to bag a wealthier District 18 based businessman for the entire year and had managed to get that boyfriend to buy Sampson a high-quality fire manipulation core.

Sampson still remembered the looks of admiration on everyone’s face when the teacher had him announce his core ability to his entire class. Suddenly everyone noticed him, he was suddenly having people hang around him and praise him and willingly do stuff for him. Suddenly the kid whose grandpa came to pick him up from school every day became a nobody because he did not have a core. Sampson had something that Rhys did not have.

Power. Power and strength were the answers to all of Sampson’s problems. People remembered who you were when you were strong, they noticed you and were nice to you when you were powerful. Being weak was disgusting, anyone who willing lived like that was trash and did not deserve to walk around with smiles on their faces. As more and more people infused with cores, Sampson worked harder than anyone to polish his control of his ability, weaponise it and grow his strength. He had worked so hard and been so determined, and yet there Rhys stood ahead of him again. There he stood completely fine after Sampson had hit him with his most powerful attack. Sampson knew he did not have any more energy to use his ability again, so he had been completely defeated by a person he considered trash.

“You-” Before Sampson could say anything, Rhys lunged forward and put all his weight behind punching Sampson as hard as he could in the face. Blood splattered out from Sampson’s mouth and nose while his head was left spinning from the hard impact. While stumbling backwards Sampson tripped over some loose gravel and fell to the ground with a grunt. His face hurt just as much as his pride, and now that his energy had been depleted he no longer had the will to fight.

[Strength +1]

Rhys winced at the pain in his fist and stared at Sampson’s blood on his knuckles. Although his body felt tired and sluggish now that he was at 10/20 HP, his heart felt light and the taste of victory was overwhelmingly pleasant.

Ever since his classmates had gotten abilities, he had never once been the last one standing. As he looked down at Sampson he remembered how he had looked after being beaten up. Bruised eyes and bloody noses became so familiar to him that they were practically part of his school uniform. So many nameless faceless bullies who just beat up those weaker than them for the hell of it. In particular, he remembered the times Sampson had beaten him. Since Sampson was a sadistic bastard and had a fire ability, he always made sure to leave burn marks on Rhys, enough so that Gramps insisted on wasting precious money for Rhys to be healed.

[Congratulations, you levelled up!]

[Name: Rhys Anson]

[Race: Human(transitioning)]

[Level 3]

[5/300 Exp]

[10/30 Hp]

Rhys felt great satisfaction as the notifications popped up into his vision. In a way, it kind of added to his sense of accomplishment.

Looking at the first set of notifications he could see that the EXP required to advance to a new level had gotten greater again. He would have to work harder to reach level 4. However, he was pleased to find that his HP had risen as well. This meant he would be able to use his skills for longer.

[Intelligence: 10]

[Strength: 8]

[Agility: 7]

[Stamina: 5]

[Spirituality: 6]

[Skills]

[Spiritual Body Lvl 3]

[Aura detection Lvl 3]

[Energy/Aura absorption Lvl 2]

Rhys was happy to see that all his skills had gone up by one point as well.

[Aura manipulation unlocks at lvl 5]

[Telepathy unlocks at Spirituality LVL 10]

[Possession unlocks at Spirituality is at LVL 20]

[Dimension Locked]

[All other skills locked]

[Shop unlocks at Lvl 5]

Rhys made his new goal to unlock level 5 because at level 5 he would be able to gain the ‘Aura manipulation’ skill which he knew to be a combat skill, not to mention he would be able to buy stuff from the shop.

[Congratulations! Quest complete

You have defeated the three attackers.

Reward: Teaching mode initialising…]

Rhys sighed into the chilly night, watching as his hot breath puffed up like a smoke cloud in front of him.

“Teaching mode…” He whispered as he read the notification. This could possibly be a tool to help him learn more about whatever the hell he was transitioning into.

Honestly, he would have preferred to unlock a new skill. Something more geared towards combat. As much as he was enjoying his new abilities, and although he managed to beat the Sampson trio pretty easily, he knew his skills were really not meant for fighting.

‘Spiritual body’ was the only ability that gave him an advantage during a fight. And he knew he was smart enough to utilise it well, but this skill was limited to him and the small area surrounding his body. It gave him the perfect defence that made him pretty much untouchable to his attackers, however, he realised that elemental attacks were something that his skill was weak to. He had already felt the heat while using his skill in the midst of a fire attack, he could hypothesise the same would be true for other elemental abilities, which was a problem since the second most common core abilities were elemental abilities.

Rhys stretched out his limbs and looked back to the two guys who had attacked him first, Sampson’s friends. Could they really have been Sampson’s friends if he had willingly burnt them to a crisp with his fire attack?

‘Aura Detection’ he summoned his skill and stared at the two bodies. They no longer had their yellow auras so without a doubt they were dead.

[Aura detection used +10 Exp]

[2 dead bodies]

The system only confirmed what he already knew.

Once again Rhys felt acute anxiety as his golden card suddenly popped into his head. Rhys immediately felt the front pocket of his hospital pyjamas and was once again relieved to find his gold card still safely tucked away there.

Just as Rhys was about to exit the charred alleyway and make his way to the military college recruitment point, an unfamiliar voice sounded in his head.

[‘Well done student, your application of the beginner skills was impressive. It seems that despite your weak race, you are somewhat compatible with the ghost system.’]

Rhys froze for a moment at the deep slightly-hoarse sounding voice in his head. He was puzzled as to why the system suddenly changed its speech setup without his command. However, the lightbulb suddenly flickered on in his head and he understood what was going on.

“This must be the teaching mode.”

[‘You are correct’] The system chuckled darkly as if amused by Rhys.

Rhys was accustomed to very realistic AI interfaces since the huge leaps in technology that happened after the invasions, however, wasn’t this system on another level? This particular voice had a human speech capability that was so realistic it really felt like a real person was in his head.

“You’re called the teaching mode, so does that mean you’ll be teaching me about the transition I’m going through?” Rhys unconsciously asked this question out loud because it really did feel like he was talking to another person.

[‘Hmm, not exactly. As your teacher it is my job to make sure you reach your maximum potential. That does not necessarily mean that I will give you all the information you want.’] It replied with another taunting chuckle. Rhys felt like if this thing had a face, it would be smirking at him right now.

“The fact that you are willingly holding back information from me does not make you sound very trustworthy.” Rhys retorted, once again feeling frustrated that the system was deceiving him.

[‘Deal with it.’] It snapped back at Rhys.

[‘Well then, let’s commence with the first lesson. Lesson 1, always take advantage of every opportunity. Your main quest is to have 10 unique experiences with death, so go and touch those charred bodies over there.’]

Rhys deadpanned as he remembered that gross quest the system had given him. He cringed as he looked at Sampson’s friends’ burnt bodies in a pile.

With legs made of lead, he begrudgingly walked over to the bodies. With deep disgust written all over his face, he reached out his hand and quickly poked one body with his index finger, before vigorously wiping it against his pant leg.

[Main quest: Familiarisation with death

2/10 death experiences completed!

Unique experience: touching a dead body]

He shivered in disgust, hating himself for complying with the task.

Rhys quickly stood up and was about to dash out of the alley when the deep hoarse voice of the teacher system stopped him.

[‘I just taught you a lesson but you’ve forgotten it already… You’re going to be an annoying student.’] the voice sighed a pained sigh.

[‘You must take advantage of every opportunity to grow strong. So kill Sampson Welsh before he regains his strength.’]

Rhys flinched at the cold indifference in his teacher. Rhys was once again reminded that this system was not his friend, not his fairy godmother but some crazy alien tech.

“No.” Rhys answered bluntly. He was not that type of person. While everything about him was changing, he was at least going to hold onto his personality. He was not some victory crazed sicko who killed defenceless people. Even if said person was as crappy as Sampson.

[‘Hmm? You know killing someone would count as a unique experience with death right? You would be missing out on completing a third of your required experiences.’] Rhys was not persuaded in the slightest. He kept on walking down the alley only to be distracted by the sudden quest popping into view.

[New Quest: Kill Sampson Welsh]

[Reward: Unlock Lvl 5 skill – Aura manipulation]

Rhys froze as the new notification suddenly popped up, followed by the devious voice of the teacher.

[You said you wanted a combat skill, didn’t you? Aura manipulation will allow you to weaponise your aura and fight against others, and all you have to do to get it is kill that half-dead thing over there. Aren’t I a generous teacher?]

Just like that, Rhys could feel his will falter. If he was going to military school, then he definitely wanted to have a combat skill to use. With ‘spiritual body’ he would be able to defend himself and carry out specific attacks, but he would not be able to do much more than that. If multiple elemental users attacked him together, his HP would run out and he might just die.

Rhys looked over at Sampson who was staring blankly up at the sky like he was having a midlife crisis. Sampson had done so many cruel evil things in his seventeen years, maybe killing him wouldn’t be wrong, maybe it would be justice…

Rhys struggled with this for a while before he took in a deep breath and turned away from Sampson. Rhys continue walking down the street.

“No.” He repeated firmly in his head.

[‘You’re a fool.’] The teacher snickered at Rhys’s decision. [‘You are worse than a fool if you give up on such a valuable skill for your useless morality.’]

“You must really think I’m dumb if you think I didn’t realise you’re trying to trick me.” Rhys gritted his teeth while walking away.

[…]

“Aura manipulation is a level five skill for a reason, even if you had unlocked it for me, I probably would not have been able to use it until I reached level 5. Am I right?”

[…] The teacher did not answer.

The teacher’s silence was all Rhys needed to know. The teacher had waved that skill in front of Rhys’s face like it was some precious gift, when in reality, Rhys only would have been able to use it when he got strong enough.

[You are going to be a tough one to mould]

“Agreed.” Rhys laughed out loud at the dejected voice of the Teacher.