Finn opened the 'eyes' of his spirit body and looked around.
He was floating a few heights away from the ground in his blue-energy human shaped body.
Beneath him was the spider and the beheaded Fenrir body. The spider was looking up at him, trying to understand what happened.
Finn's face now had mouths, eyes, and a nose like the usual human. A smile formed on his face as he looked at the 'reaction' of the spider.
In an arcane voice, he mocked, "Have you not seen a ghost before?"
The Spider hissed and threw a thread spike at Finn.
Finn couldn't react on time, but the spike only went through him. Still, he frowned.
'Its attack still affects me when I'm in this state, although to a very small extent.'
Not wanting to take chances, he waved at the Spider, with a devious smile.
"You'll be seeing me soon." He said, flying away from this region.
- - - - -
Two days after arriving in this hostile world, Finn 'died' yet again, forcing him to rethink things.
In his past life, Finn could avoid anything as long as it wasn't affecting the path to his goal, but that was unlikely in this life.
If he doesn't get strong enough to enjoy his life, everything might end up in his path and he'll be weak to protect his path from these things.
It was funny to him. Initially, he was just trying to enjoy the aftermath of eating and rest, but he got hunted. It didn't end there, he merely ended up in a part of the forest to hide, then another monster decided to use him as target practice.
Finn couldn't help but ask: Even outside this forest, is this how things were? The weak are suppressed by the strong, and opportunities to their goals were cut-off for the strong to remain the strong?
He didn't want to find out. Finn would make sure he doesn't find out. Previously, he wanted to grow stronger to work towards a perfect life, but now he would go stronger for this and to protect his "work progress" from being interfered with by anyone.
He wasn't just getting stronger for the end goal anymore—he needed strength to protect the path to it.
Finn muttered, "One should not only have strength to walk the path, but also have strength to protect the path they walk. I need a strength to protect me from those who plans on interrupting the life I desire."
With that in mind, Finn made a new way forward, identifying the opportunities being in his spirit body form granted him.
He needed a new body with a big Mana core that would be enough for him. He could roughly gauge the size of the cores based on the energy within their body. Without the Fenrir's skills, he had to manually activate Mana Sense.
Before setting out on this, Finn had to understand how his current body works.
In his spirit body's form, Finn can get hurt with a mana induced attack, but the damages are greatly reduced. To maintain his spirit body too, Mana from his core were being used, faster than he can replenish his core in his current state.
That was understandable. His true form is that of an evolved ghost, an undead. Naturally, he was not meant to exist in this world.
If he doesn't find a material body on time, he would lose his spirit body, he might leave this plane of existence for another one suited for his kind or worse, he would truly die.
Unlike other ghosts, he no longer had a place he was anchored to, that might have let him sustain his spirit body longer.
It was Finn's second midnight here and he was going to start seeking a body now.
He left the three territories that are further west, planning to look outside those regions.
Using his whole body as a medium to sense Mana was tough, but Finn slowly got the hang of it.
He levitated slightly above the ground, navigating the forest.
On his way some monsters noticed his presence, while others didn't.
Some tried engaging him in contact, but Finn avoided them.
He could turn incorporeal for bits and pass through things, but it also stripped him of his ability to attack physically. He could attack with Mana, unfortunately, that would only reduce his Mana.
Finn found few preys that were suitable bodies for him, yet he didn't make attempts to possess them because he could tell that he couldn't.
After hours of searching, close to dawn, Finn reached an area where he saw some bats creatures. These were the best targets so far.
Determined that he'll be possessing one of them, he patiently waited for them to go back into their caves and sleep, believing that is when it's the best time to attack.
Dawn came, and the bats slept.
Taking the one with sufficient energy, not too strong to overwhelm him and not too weak to be his host.
He entered the bat monster with his spirit body.
Instantly, Finn found himself in the inner world that represented this Bat and its body.
The sky was dark, the moons and stars were covered with thick dark clouds.
On the surface beneath his feet, it was an ocean that was still, showing no sigh of movements and reflecting the darkness of the sky.
In what could be called the center of this inner world, a single tree of a towering height stood, goring from the sea floor. Hanging to one of its branches was a huge bat, 4 meters in height, looking down at the foreign existence that had invaded its body.
With his mere 1.7 meters height, Finn gulped seeing that things wouldn't be as easy as it was with the Fenrir.
Before the Bat left the tree to attack Finn and fight for his body, Finn had a thought…
'Could it be that in this inner world, a person's spirit body reflects their true self? The Fenrir was that small then because it was actually weak and scared in reality? Damn!'
Finn thought back to the inherent skill of Ghosts which he didn't have. The Release skill-Finn guessed- would have instantly helped him leave this body if this went south.
'I guess I have no choice but to win!'
Finn used the slowly reducing Mana he had to increase the size of his spirit body, growing to the size of 6 meters.
In response to this, the Bat released a sonic scream, causing the still ocean to shake, and halting Finn's spirit body growth.
'This is not even starting well!'