Starting from the bottom was never a pleasant feeling.
One would always need to be wary of the opponent, avoiding the bad habits of being careless.
Back in his heyday, when all his way of thinking was still twisted and backward, there was a time when he had felt something like this. Starting from the bottom. It happened back in his first day of becoming a high school student.
He realized the seniors were all naturally stronger than he simply because they were older.
And the difference was stark.
Deklan got into a fight with some of them due to menial things—girls, the right to use the field during lunch break, and he needed to constantly overestimate his opponents, so that he could keep his guard up.
It was a habit he carried to this world.
But being able to capture Pumple, killing three people, and now, being invulnerable to Ghosts at the iron-rank, he got careless. Even before Deklan looked at what was looming behind him, he could already tell that the Ghost was not normal.
"Yeah… I'm fucked."
A bead of cold sweat trickled down his neck as the Pale Draggles laughed at him.
Deklan slowly turned around, and he saw it.
From the woods, walking from one tree to another with deliberate steps, was a dark phantom.
He couldn't see it properly as it vanished behind another tree.
Then, Deklan heard the sound of humming.
It was beautiful, melodic, the kind of humming that soothed the heart.
Like a mother who was humming her baby to sleep.
In most circumstances, such a beautiful humming would be pleasant to hear, but in this situation, where Deklan was surrounded by the night, nature, and Ghosts, the humming became eerie instead. Not to mention, it wasn't as simple as Deklan thought.
"Krggh!"
Deklan grabbed his head with his other hand as his mind suddenly felt like it was being torn apart.
He looked at the bridge's floor, pupils trembling, "What the fuck is this?"
[Minor Presence: Night Melody has affected the host!]
[Sanity has been decreased by 20 points.]
[Perception has been reduced.]
[Status Effect Applied: Headache.]
[Status Effect Applied: Confusion]
"Minor Presence?" Deklan stared at the notifications with gritted teeth.
As a Ghost expert himself, he now realized how truly identical the Ghosts in this world were to those from his previous world. He hadn't realized how true the bitch's words were until this moment. Every single thing about the Ghosts here is the same.
And the only stark difference was that the Ghosts here had actual powers.
Ghosts in general needed energy to manifest in the real world.
For various reasons, when a Ghost wanted to chase people away or even inflict malicious intent, it could do it through varying methods. And the simplest and energy-minuscule method to do that was through showing 'signs' of them.
Some Ghosts made the light flicker.
Some moved things.
And like this Ghost he was dealing with, some make noises.
But unlike in his previous world, these Ghosts' signs that are referred to as Minor Presence in this world carry genuine power. "Is it a bronze rank Ghost? It must be." Deklan looked left and right, searching for where the Ghost was. "Where is it?"
Swish!
"There?!" Deklan snapped to the right, eyes sharpening to focus.
He was wrong.
It wasn't the Ghost he was looking for, but rather, another Pale Draggle that appeared out of nowhere.
"Behind me!"
Deklan pivoted around, spear ready to strike when the humming switched to his back.
And then he saw it, the dark phantom moving slowly from behind a tree to another tree.
Ignoring the Pale Draggles that couldn't threaten him whatsoever, Deklan rushed at that tree, increasing his speed with the Breeze Affinity. He leaped over the bushes and drew the spear back, "Come out and fight me like a man!"
Clank!
Deklan swung hard, but his spear struck the tree.
No sign of the Ghost anywhere.
"Shit…" Deklan fell to one knee, gritting his teeth hard as he glared at the Pale Draggles around him who were still laughing at him, finding his perilous situation funny. "My perception is lowered, and I'm also suffering from headache and confusion. I can tell my perception is lowered since I can't sense the Pale Draggles that are further away now. Headache is also straightforward, but confusion? I don't feel anything."
Even though the system notified him that he was suffering from confusion, he didn't feel it.
Deklan could only reference this status effect to the games he played in the past.
Confusion should cause his attack to miss, but how does it apply in a real-world scenario like this?
It doesn't make sense.
Swish!
[Spirit Talisman is activated!]
[Headache has been cured.]
Deklan rose to his feet again as the headache melted away, and he could now focus better.
"It was the right call to wear this Spirit Talisman."
He held the talisman around his neck, patting his past self on the back for taking the initiative.
But that only made his situation a little bit better, not handle it.
Swish!
"Hmm? Another Pale Drag—heurghk?!"
Deklan's eyes widened when a brutal force struck him from behind.
It was a hand, or at least shaped like a hand, but the impact it could generate was so much that he was flung forward. Deklan screeched across the ground and stopped the moment the ground changed from dirt to wood floors.
He was back at the bridge again.
"Haarhk!" Deklan pushed himself up as he vomited a mouthful of blood.
As he panted heavily, he stared at the blood in his hands.
"My body is strong enough that the Pale Draggles couldn't leave a scratch on me, but this Ghost…" He clenched the blood with his fist, surprised at this turn of events. "It can hurt me with a simple hit? It is certainly a bronze-rank Ghost, and it's connected to these Pale Draggles."
Compared to Rock, this Ghost was leagues above him despite being on the same rank.
It seemed the disparity between Humans and Ghosts isn't exaggerated.
Deklan forced himself to stand straight and readied himself again.
I can't pinpoint its location. It only flickers in and out of sight—and since I can't even sense it properly, that dark phantom must be nothing more—than an illusion of my own mind. Is that what the confusion effect does? Warps my vision and makes me chase illusions?
How do I locate it?
Hearing the laughter in the background, Deklan gritted his teeth.
Other than the humming, the Pale Draggles kept laughing and watching him being tormented.
He wanted to focus on the humming, but it's hard to do.
[Sanity has been decreased by 10 points.]
Deklan saw the notification and gritted his teeth hard—he didn't know what would happen if his sanity dropped to zero, but he didn't want to find out. It's surely not something good. Something that he should actively avoid.
Just then, the humming disappeared and reappeared again.
It was close, like the Ghost was right behind him.
Deklan cleaved at his behind, but he hit nothing but air—the Ghost wasn't there.
He stood up as the humming went further into the distance, almost like the Ghost decided Deklan wasn't someone worth fighting. But at the same time, another hard-hitting force struck his behind—forcing his spine to bend forward.
More blood burst from his mouth as he was thrown forward.
Even so, he held firm on his spear, refusing to let go.
In the moment, Deklan focuses on his senses as he tries to anticipate where the Ghost would appear.
But again and again, he was struck from behind or from his blind spot.
Something was wrong.
Deklan was quite sure that this was because of the confusion status effect, but he didn't know it worked.
He didn't know how the Ghost was fooling him like this.
Meanwhile, hiding a good distance away, and could see the overview of the bridge better, Adrian and Hendrick watched as Deklan was getting beaten around. One moment, he was dominating the entire Ghost population in the area, but now, he was beaten to a pulp.
Each strike he suffered resounded with a hard thump.
One that made Adrian and Hendric flinch as it must've hurt like hell.
It was especially so when Deklan was thrown around from a hit.
"He's doing well earlier…"
"That Ghost is different than the rest, and it must be the source of the problem in the area."
"An Alpha Ghost…? We've never seen her before."
"Most likely, and it's the one who was birthing these long-armed babies."
Adrian stared at the Ghost, who was humming and moving elegantly.
It had taken the shape of a woman draped in a pitch-black dress; her silhouette marked by a faint swell at the belly as if she were with child.
At a glance, Adrian could tell that this Ghost is a bronze rank one.
But the odd part was that somehow, Deklan was looking around aimlessly as if he couldn't see her.
It was odd, but that doesn't matter.
'Keep doing what you're doing, Ghost,' Adrian smiled with lecherous killing intent, his hand twitching to draw his sword. 'Slice and dice him more, but don't kill him. You can leave it to us to do the killing. After all, we're the ones who have been feeding your babies. Repay us for what we're due.'
Adrian watched silently, anticipating the moment he could come out and strike.
Even though Deklan was stronger than he had anticipated, this wouldn't change the outcome.
Once Deklan was hurt enough, Adrian's blade would plunge into his back and kill him.
On the other hand, the battle continues.
Brak!
Deklan was hurled across the river, bouncing on the water's surface until he crashed into the rocks.
He was bruised and hurt, but he still crawled out of the river and rose to his feet.
"Do you know how hard it is for me to change my ways…?" Deklan whispered inwardly, as if he was talking to the Ghost without caring whether it could hear him or not. "I've been a troubled kid from as long as I can remember. I was born with these impulses that pushed me to do things that I know now were not right."
He was completely drenched, and he was in pain.
But he managed to stand up again.
"Suppressing these impulses… It's hard to do. Back then, my body felt incredibly hot, and I needed to bite into a towel so hard that my gums bled, all for the sake of turning my life around. For the sake of helping Paul by showing him that even I can change."
"However, if you kept bullying me like this…"
Deklan combed his wet hair back with his hand; his eyes seemed to change.
Other than the otherworldly glow, there was a tinge of danger behind them.
"I can feel the impulses coming back again, you fucker," His eyes widened. "It's fucking boiling!"