Farrel opened his eyes, refusing to see more of what had happened to the kid.
He had seen enough, and he knew what had happened.
With the boy's hand still in his, Farrel muttered another chant before the boy's appearance started returning to what it was before he used his spell.
The wounds on the boy's feet started to close up, the countless cuts on his chest and back disappeared, and the tear on his clothes closed up as the boy's appearance returned to what it looked like the first time he saw the ghost boy.
However, the lost, dead eyes of the boy didn't disappear yet even though his body had returned back to normal.
"I'm sorry."
Muttering another chant and holding the boy's head gently, Farrel channeled his energy, slowly returning the color of the boy's eyes.
Farrel had dealt with similar cases before back in his world.
But no matter how many times he had seen it, Farrel could never get used to it. The same as what was happening now.
Knowing what happened to the boy, and all the similar cases he had dealt with before, the only thing that Farrel wanted to do was to make sure those dirty pigs pay for what they did.
Farrel might have not been able to hear any voices yet when he saw the boy's past due to his current lacking ability, but Farrel had seen the face of the person that he needed to make his life miserable, worse than death.
'How many hexes should I send to that bastard…'
Out of reflex, Farrel reached deep inside his body, the darkest, strongest part of himself where dozens of ghosts made it their home and strengthened him.
He could send any random ghost to make hexes, but the ghosts that had been living inside him were the strongest ones that he had met in all his travels and journey to become the strongest shaman.
Even a few of the weakest ones were enough to make his target puke nails every day and suck their life energy until they died wetting their bed, unable to move a single muscle as they become a vegetable.
He would spare no mercy to the person who had done such a thing.
Farrel didn't care if his body was weakened if he did it, but he planned to send at least 30 ghosts to that single person, killing him in the most grotesque way possible.
Be it nails, insects, rotting organs, nightmares, or sleep paralysis, he would give them all to the man.
However, when he reached inside his heart, the place where the ghosts resided, Farrel found out that there was nothing in there.
There was a very tiny amount of energy, one that he just used to cast spells on the boy, but there wasn't a single ghost inside him.
'How-'
Farrel then snapped outside of his consciousness and took a good look at his current body.
A frail, weak body that couldn't be compared to even a fraction of his real body, that was what he got right now.
All the strength that he had accumulated in his past life was nowhere to be seen. He was basically a clean slate.
He was basically a ghostless shaman now.
'I don't know what happened to me or where the hell I am, but I damn know well what I will be doing for now…'
"Hey kid, you said that you wanted my help with something before? What is it?"
Hearing Farrel's voice entering his ears, and with the help of the spell that Farrel used to calm his mind, the kid was finally able to form proper sentences.
"I… I want to scare people…to-"
Without waiting for the boy to finish, Farrel cut him off.
"Say no more. I will gladly help you do it. Be it scaring them to death or making their lives worse than death, I will make your wish come true."
The boy seemed to have something to say, but Farrel spoke first.
"But before all that, the most important thing that I need to do now."
Looking at his stained hands from eating all the berries and feeling the abyss in his stomach was nowhere near being filled, Farrel continued speaking,
"Can you please lead me to other places with more berries? And that fruit you had back then also looked delicious… I need more food…"
Seeing and Feeling Farrel's determination, and knowing that he might actually be able to help him, the ghost boy didn't say anything else and hurriedly led Farrel to more berry spots for him to fill his stomach.
And when Farrel finally got enough strength from eating more berries than the amount he had eaten in a whole year in his past life, Farrel asked the ghost boy, Joy to lead him to one of the trees where he could find the red ripe fruit that he had seen in Joy's memory.
"So this is the tree?"
Farrel stood in front of a 15 meters tall tree, a height that he couldn't simply ignore.
With his current body, he could easily break his bones or straight up become a ghost if he ever fell from that height.
"Yes, there are a few ripe fruits up there." Joy came flying down from above after checking the branches of the tree.
"Can you climb it, sir? Or do you want me to call you brother? You don't seem that old."
"Me? Not old? Child, you can even call me uncle with the difference between our ages."
Farrel wasn't that old, but for a kid that didn't even have a single body hair, his 30-year-old self would find it weird to be called brother by a literal child.
"No, you look like older kids I've seen in the village."
"Listen here you little brat, I got enough people, heck, even ghosts, saying I have a baby face, but I have been living for more than three decad-"
'Wait…'
Farrel then glanced at his body.
There were no hairs on his limbs and he also recognized the body that felt rather similar to his old one was actually smaller than his old body.
And after rubbing his whole face, it was absent of any kind of facial hair, not that he had plenty of them in his past life either.
'I've turned younger…?' The thought came into his mind, but it disappeared as soon as it appeared.
'Well, not that it matters.'
"You can just call me Farrel," Farrel said to the floating ghost boy in front of him.
"Okay then, Farrel, can you climb this tree? I don't want you to die before you can help me."
"No problem kid, I know a way."
Farrel then gestured for Joy to come closer and raised his hand.
Seeing Farrel's hand, Joy instinctively shifted backward with a frightened look on his face.
"I don't want to see that again!"
"No dummy, I will never do that again to you unless you are out of line."
"Just give me your hand and don't fight if you feel anything."
Joy wasn't convinced just because Farrel said it, but remembering that Farrel most likely would be able to help him, he was convinced to place his hand on top of Farrel's.
The second their hands touched with each other, Farrel channeled his energy and muttered another chant.
Different from before when the energy invaded Joy's body to bring out his true appearance and his memory, the energy this time instead became a bridge for the two entities.
As the bridge became stronger, Joy felt a new, strange sensation between himself and Farrel.
"Farrel, what is this? What's happening?"
"I just let myself be half-possessed by you. You have heard of ghosts possessing people right?"
"Yes. They said people would go crazy if a ghost was possessing them."
"That would be the case for most ghosts."
"But I don't let you possess me because I want to go crazy."
Farrel then started putting his hands on the thick trunk of the tree.
Of course, he knew how to climb a tree on his own albeit he wasn't very good at it, but wouldn't it be better if someone who had done it more than him helped him do it?
"Joy, I want you to guide my body."
"How do I do it?"
"Just think of climbing the tree just like what you've done when you're still alive."
"O…Okay…"
Following Joy's thought, Farrel's body started to have the urge to move in a certain way on its own.
And instead of fighting it, Farrel followed the urges.
And soon, Farrel climbed the 15 meters tall tree easily as if he had been doing it every day.
When he reached one of the branches that held a ripe fruit, Farrel called out to Joy once more.
"Now, don't be surprised, kid."
Farrel took a bite of the red ripe fruit, the sweet fruit juice flowing into his tongue, and entered his throat.
The sweet refreshing taste spread out all over his mouth and even somehow felt like energizing his whole body.
Farrel closed his eyes, savoring the tasty fruit calmly.
On the other hand, the floating ghost that was just floating silently beside him before suddenly jerked up in joy, almost causing Farrel's body that was connected to him to also jump down from the tree.
"This! So Sweet!!! It's been so long since I've tasted this fruit!" Joy screamed as he flew in circles all around Farrel.
"It's nice to be possessing someone right? You get to taste exactly what they taste and you can feel what they feel, something that ghosts wouldn't be able to do easily anymore."
"Now you get why those people went crazy after a ghost possessed them, don't you? Those poor ghosts were just excited." Farrel said as he continued eating the fruit that was as big as his fist.
"Yep! Can I please possess you all the time?"
Staring at the innocent-looking boy that floated about 13 meters above the ground beside him and had an ethreal body, Farrel stared at him and put on a face.
"Does this face answer your question?"
"Is it a no?"
"Yes."
"B-"
"And before you ask why, no, I won't give any answers. If you insist, then I'll gladly help you have those flashbacks again."
Hearing Farrel's threat, Joy decided to scrap away all the arguments and pleadings that he had come up with and decided to just savor the taste of the fruit that still lingered in his ethereal mouth.
After finishing the fruit, which surprisingly made him feel significantly fuller even though he only ate one, Farrel continued climbing the branches and got himself several more fruits.
He ate them all and the abyss in his stomach finally disappeared.
Farrel then easily climbed back down from the tree, of course, with Joy's help, and started stretching his whole body.
"Farrel, what are you planning to do next? Do you want to get more fruits?"
"No, I'm already quite full," Farrel replied after he was sure that his body was filled with enough energy to function properly.
"Just lead me to the bandits' hideout instead."