"W-wait, just two days?! Isn't that time a bit too short! And hell, even the dungeon difficulty is set to rise!"
Yurei despaired as he kept reviewing the information in his head.
"N-no, calm down, me. It's alright... I can just take control of a powerful Goblin Warrior and then hunt the rest... Yeah... I just have to do that."
Taking a "deep breath", he calmed his mind down. Afterwards, his gaze focused on the corpses on the ground.
"I already drained their mana cores... These corpses are useless to me."
He sighed as he looked at Bayek's headless body as well as the two females in the room.
"Wait... What if..."
A crazy idea went through his head as he looked at two mostly intact bodies. Then he hovered towards them before slowly descending into the archer girl's body.
Silence took over the place as the spirit disappeared into the body.
A second passed.
Two... Then three seconds. Yet there was no change to the scenery.
Suddenly, the girl, who was supposed to be dead, sprung up. Her body moved erratically as limbs trembled.
The dead body took one step forward awkwardly. From the white eyes and hanging mouth, one could immediately notice that the girl wasn't in control of her body.
Then...
The pupils returned to the eyes and the jaw closed with a snap. The hands which were limply hanging by the sides slowly moved towards the chest and touched the wound there.
The trembling of the body stopped.
[Warning. The body you have possessed is dead. Possession will hasten the decomposition rate. As the decomposition rate rises, the stats and the appearance of the body will deteriorate.]
[Current decomposition rate: 30%]
[The stats of the body have been decreased by 30% due to the rot of the muscle.]
[Congratulations, the body has gone up a rank due to {Possession}'s effects.]
[Current Stats:
Name: Lily (Yurei)
Class: Undead Archer
Body Type: Undead (Zombie)
Rank: S (Original: A)
Level: N/A
HP: 10,000
MP: 1000
ATK: 3000 / STA: 1000 / DEF: 1000 (magical), 1000 (physical) / DEX: 1000 / STR: 700
Unique Skills: 6
Acquired Skills: 0
Rank skills: 12
]
"So S-rankers get six unique skills and twelve rank skills? No, I don't think I can judge the strength of S-rankers just from this. The stats have been dropped too so it wouldn't be a good comparison."
Words came out of the corpse's mouth. The voice was the same as Lily's... Yet the manner of speaking was different.
Yurei tried to smile using Lily's mouth and after trying for a bit, successfully did so.
"And it seems that the system only sends me notifications when another ego isn't present inside the body... So does that mean the owner of the body will be able to hear the notifications if I got them while possessing a body?"
Yurei quickly formed a hypothesis. However, the next moment, he shook his head.
"I can think about that later. I don't have time right now... I'll need to finish the quest soon."
The timer was ticking by and the clock was approaching zero.
"I can't waste this life either. Let's get this over with."
Pumping himself up, the ghost in a young girl's corpse turned towards the empty boss room and left for the fourth floor.
--------------------------------
"Gob! Gob! Gob!"
A few goblins screeched as three arrows pierced their peers.
"And... That... Makes... A thousand."
A girl's voice echoed through the jungle as she held her bow with trembling hands.
"Gob! Gob!"
A fireball suddenly hit the girl and exploded.
"Gob!"
The goblin shaman rejoiced as it saw its enemy getting covered in smoke.
But the next moment, an arrow pierced its forehead and killed it instantly.
"Hah... The bow is really helpful in cases like this..."
From the smoke, Lily's unharmed body covered with a shimmering white barrier stepped out.
"But this body won't last for long..."
Lily, or Yurei, muttered as he took down several more goblins. Parts of the girl's body were already rotting away. His speed had decreased tremendously, and his Hunter rating had fallen to C.
All of the stats were affected... If the elven bow he had gotten from killing Lily hadn't been there, he would have died by now.
"Even so..."
[...
Clear Conditions: Kill Goblin Warriors (1000/1000), Goblin Archers (450/500), Goblin Shamans (17/20) and the Goblin Lord (0/1) on Floor Four.
]
"... I am almost done with the quest. I still have one more day... Hopefully the body will last until then."
Yurei sighed and touched the wound on the chest. He couldn't help but feel disgusted by his own actions.
"I really didn't want to use her body... But I can't just go die now... Please, bear with it a while longer... I'll let you rest in peace soon."
He muttered to himself before walking forward.
He still had a few enemies to kill.
--------------------------------
"You have to believe me! Please!"
The young warrior shouted as he grabbed the hand of the priest tending to him. The latter made an uncomfortable expression before shaking his head.
"No matter how I think about it, it's absurd. A spirit taking over your body? A dead person returning as a ghost with intact sanity? The dungeon's second floor turning into an entirely new world... ? All these seem like fool's rumblings."
The elderly man replied with scorn.
"I feel like you killed your fellow Hunters in a fit of madness before running away. Isn't that what happened?"
"N-no! How can I kill them?! I loved all of them! They were my family!"
The young warrior, Drake, yelled as tears fell out of his eyes.
"Perhaps you did it unknowingly."
The priest didn't budge at all. He seemed to be irritated at Drake's constant pleading, so he tried to force a confession out of him.
But just as he was about to use his spell...
"That's enough, my lord. We'll handle it from there."
A strong voice forced him to stop.
"Ah... Guildmaster Rio. I wasn't expecting you to be here."
The priest said with an awkward smile before standing up. He felt angry at the young warrior and the guild master... Yet he kept calm.
"Currently the position of the church is weak inside the country... I can't make an enemy out of the Hunter's Guild right now... But once we dominate the continent again..."
A vicious glint flashed in his eyes before bowing lightly.
"I'll be taking my leave now. Thank you."
"May the goddess protect you."
"... You!"
The priest's head snapped towards the man. The guild master just smiled and gestured at the exit, not acknowledging the anger of the holy man.
"You'll pay for your heresy, you fool! God will punish you!"
"We'll see about that. Though... If you don't leave the guild premises in the next few minutes, I don't know about God, but I will make sure to punish you in his stead."
"... You'll pay for today."
Hissing that, the priest left the room. Rio sighed and turned towards Drake, who was keeping quiet up until now.
"You were saying something about a dead man returning? Care to explain?"
"Y-yes, Guild Master! You see..."
Drake started explaining what had happened to him and his party. He explained how they suddenly found themselves in a different dungeon suddenly and how he was possessed by a spirit belonging to a dead Hunter.
He detailed how the spirit used his body to kill his party members and then left him on the first floor.
"... And that's what happened."
Drake finished his explanation and wiped his tears. He had been crying this whole time, remembering what had he done.
"I see... And that Hunter... Are you sure it was Axel Martinz?"
"Yes, at least he told me as such."
"This is troublesome... I'll need to gather the staff."
Rio murmured before standing up. Drake tried to follow him, but the young man was pushed back to the bed.
"Rest here. We'll take care of it."
"You... Do you trust me, Guild Master?"
Drake asked in disbelief. He knew what he had done... And he knew that he deserved to die for his actions.
If Rio reported him to the guards, he'd be captured and executed for murder.
But Drake was prepared for that. If his death meant the erasure of that cursed spirit... Then he was willing to accept his fate.
Yet Rio showed no signs of disbelieving him or notifying the guards.
"Of course I do. After all, you didn't lie."
"How... How do you know that I was telling the truth?"
"Well... My class comes with a few perks to help with that, you see. Well, it doesn't matter. I have no intentions of blaming you or accusing you. Rest easy and let us avenge your comrades."
"I want to go with you too!"
Drake shook his head and tried to sit up again, but Rio's cold and blunt words pushed him back.
"As you are now, you'll only be a burden. Rest, gather strength and then join us. Don't be a fool."
Saying that, the guild master left the room, leaving the grieving warrior behind.