Deklan combed his long hair back and looked around.
Blood trickled down his mouth and forehead, but he was smiling.
Not the normal smile, but a disturbing smile as he unconsciously activated his Eerie Smile skill.
If earlier he looked like a proper overbearing noble, he now looked like an overbearing outlaw who fought for the sake of the thrill. Even the Pale Draggles stopped laughing and stepped away, almost as if they could feel the change that happened in Deklan.
"I'm not the one to be bullied," He announced, cackling lightly. "If anything, I'm the one who bullies!"
Deklan laughed, giving his spear a sharp swing to fling off the water clinging to its length.
He was consumed by the boiling feeling inside.
But then, he quickly covered his mouth.
"Ah, fuck…" Deklan stabbed the spear into the ground beside him and folded his arms. His ridiculous smile disappeared. "I got carried away again, that's not good. People say breaking a bad habit is extremely hard to do—but coming back to it is the complete opposite. I have to be careful. Hmm, hmm…. I have to be careful."
Regardless of how badly he wanted to come home, he couldn't come home as a different person.
Paul would beat him up if he returned to how he once was—a troublemaker.
"That aside," Deklan pulled out his spear and opened his eyes again. "I'm starting to get the gist of it."
Being beaten up is not something Deklan was expecting from coming here.
But since he got in this situation anyway, beaten to a pulp by this unknown Ghost that he couldn't even see, he decided to focus on finding out how this Ghost operates. Fortunately, this Ghost has no weapon, so he can take a few hits.
Deklan was cracking the confusion status effect.
No matter how fast the Ghost was, he was sure it wasn't faster than how fast his eyes could move.
Following that logic, he should've been able to at least see it before the attack came.
It's not like the Ghost was invisible, too.
Aside from him and this unknown Ghost, there were observers around—the Pale Daggles.
Deklan could see that their eyes were following something that only he couldn't see, or rather, it was always in his blind spot. He was more certain that it was the confusion status effect. Not invisibility, and also not because of its quickness.
And since he now knows what question needs to be answered, finding the answer became easier.
He started noticing things that aren't obvious earlier.
Subtle and unassuming things that added up to make the answer he wanted.
Deklan focused on the humming as it started from that, the Ghost's Minor Presence, Night Melody.
He noticed that whenever he reacted, it would always be wrong.
Living beings, be it humans or wild animals, would always enter a heightened state of senses whenever their lives were threatened. Every time a threat appeared, their survival instincts would also go beyond the limit, into overdrive.
Becoming more attuned to the surroundings and capable of reacting to even the smallest sign of threat.
In this case, it was the Ghost's humming.
Deklan's body reacted on its own whenever he heard the humming approach.
His instincts sensed danger and made him attack.
But it was the false alarm the Ghost was using to trick him.
And whenever the humming went away, like the Ghost was leaving, his body that was full of adrenaline, used that fleeting moment to relax a little, tricked into thinking that it was perfectly safe for at least a moment. His baser instincts assumed the threat had gone away, or at least, a few seconds away.
But in truth, that was when the danger was nearest.
In that fleeting lapse of vigilance, the Ghost struck.
Deklan's lips curled into a smirk as he finally cracked the confusion status effect.
He needed to be beaten up first, unfortunately, but he cracked it in the end.
It was a confusion that was aimed at his baser instincts.
But now that he knew about it, the confusion status effect's effectiveness became negligible.
In fact, he could even use it to his own advantage against this damn Ghost.
Deklan heard the humming get further away.
And then, the air trembled slightly.
In a burst of motion, Deklan pivoted his feet.
He lowered his center of gravity and cleaved his spear to his behind.
Clang!
A loud clang—He hit something!
Deklan couldn't help but smile widely as he managed to land his first strike on the dark phantom.
Not letting up, he wanted to continue, but the dark phantom leaped away.
Once again, the Ghost disappeared into the woods while continuing the beautiful humming.
As it went further away, the Ghost dove low, anticipating Deklan to make another swing to his behind, with her hands flared—sharp fingernails ready to strike. But at the last moment, Deklan's head suddenly turned sharply and looked at her directly in the eyes.
"I can find you now…"
Deklan swung again, this time faster, harder, and more precise.
But the Ghost was quick enough to lean back, avoiding the tip of the spear by an inch.
She wanted to retreat again, but she didn't anticipate Deklan's next move.
Bam!
Deklan shoulder charged the dark phantom hard, knocking it off balance.
Even though it felt like hitting a rock, his strength is not that low during the night that he'd be hurting from something like this. And before the dark phantom could recover properly, she let out a shrill cry— as something stabbed through her chest.
A spear.
She gazed ahead at Deklan, thinking that this was an opportunity.
Though she was impaled, Deklan has no weapon anymore.
However, she stopped mid-track as she was surprised to see Deklan's spear was still beside him.
She blinked and looked down, only to realize the spear stabbing her was glowing white.
It wasn't a physical weapon—the Ghost Conqueror skill.
"Now that I look at you… No wonder you were hiding from me," Deklan mused in amusement, finally seeing the Ghost that had been bullying him ruthlessly earlier. "With a face like that, I, too, would hide in the shadows for the rest of my life."
…
[Pale Night Lady — Alpha Ghost]
Rank: 1-star Bronze
Potential: D
Rarity: ★★
——
Statistics
Strength: F- (↑)
Agility: D+
Endurance: E
Intelligence: E- (↑)
Perception: D-
Mental: D
…
Deklan read through the stats panel and nodded his head.
As expected, the Pale Night Lady is a bronze-rank Ghost with a D-grade potential.
It's two grades below Pumple, and her rarity was also not that high.
Stats-wise, the Pale Night Lady is not that much stronger than him, which was as expected, since even though its strike was devastating, it didn't kill Deklan outright. But what captured Deklan's attention the most was the arrow beside her strength and intelligence stats.
System, what's up with that?
[The Pale Night Lady is inside a perfectly normal Null Zone, so her stats are increased accordingly.]
Ah… so that's why.
Before him was the Pale Night Lady, a Ghost that took the form of a lady in a black dress.
She was a good foot taller than Deklan, at least 7 feet tall, with pale white eyes, and with a bloodied face that was completely disfigured, like someone or something had melted half of her face. Under her, Deklan noticed a drop of black liquid dropping to the ground from her dress.
It was alive, writhed, and morphed itself into another Pale Draggle.
Deklan was taken aback when he saw this.
"Fuck, that's gross…" Deklan gagged as what he was seeing right now was even more disturbing than seeing corpses. "No wonder there are so many Pale Draggles around here, you're birthing them all! And that fast, too? How did you have that much strength, woman?"
Understanding that Deklan had insulted her and her babies, the Pale Night Lady screamed.
It was a high-pitched, astral scream that of a banshee.
Deklan covered his ears, but the Pale Night Lady used that moment to float back into the woods.
She liked ambush tactics, not head-on confrontation.
But Deklan didn't care—he got a better idea to lure her out.
[Notice: Ghost Conqueror skill has been used on the Pale Night Lady!]
[Capturing in process…]
[Estimated time: 1 minute.]
Deklan read the notifications and raised a brow as he walked nonchalantly along the riverbank.
"Capturing? Do I even have a slot to make her a Ghost Resident?" He questioned.
[No. She will be imprisoned.]
"Imprisoned? Yeah—even the prison has standards for both power and beauty. Pumple is a pass since he's unique and also cute, but this Pale Night Lady? No chance. She's both ugly and weak. System, cancel the Ghost Conqueror skill."
[Cancelling the capturing process…]
"Oh, on second thought…"
[Cancel or not, stupid host. Make up your mind.]
"I am making up my mind! Before cancelling, what are her traits and skills?"
Naturally, Deklan was hoping that he could obtain an offensive skill from her if there was one, so he could imprison her, get the skill he wanted, and then let her go. Based on how the system operated, he was quite sure that there was a function to release the captured or imprisoned Ghosts.
[Initiate scan?]
"Oh? There's a function like that?"
[It can only be done if the host managed to land the Ghost Conqueror skill.]
"In that case, scan and see what her powers are."
[Scanning…]
Deklan waited patiently.
He wasn't worried since there was no sign of the Pale Night Lady around him.
Even the humming stopped.
She was probably still hiding somewhere while trying to take the spear out.
And since there was still no sign of her, it was clear that her efforts were in vain.
In half a minute, the scanning was finally completed—the time it took to finish was half that of the time it took to capture it. Deklan mentally counted that inside his head so that he could make rough calculations inside his head in future battles.
[Scanning complete!]
[No traits and skills are detected.]
"Huh? She's birthing those things. Shouldn't that be counted as a skill?"
[Host, do you really want that skill…?]
"O-Oyy! Does that mean you're hiding the skill because you assumed I don't want it?!"
[Something like that.]
"Who gave you the right?!" Deklan pointed at the panel, spewing curses at the system. He must look crazy from others' perspectives for shouting at the air. "How do you know I don't want that? I might be curious how it felt to be pregnant!"
[Are you really curious?]
"Fuck, no! I'm just saying," Deklan rolled his eyes. "Ah, damn it... Whatever! Capture that Ghost. I forgot that I'll get a special fruit from capturing Ghosts."
[Capture can't be processed!]
[The Pale Night Lady has broken free from the Ghost Conqueror skill.]
"I didn't expect that, but I'm prepared for that," Deklan smirked. "Let's use them."
He stared at the Pale Draggles running away from him like rabbits.