Chereads / I'm a Ghost in My Second Chance / Chapter 9 - Does being a Phantom only come with Downsides?!

Chapter 9 - Does being a Phantom only come with Downsides?!

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Secondary Skills : [Echo of God (Dormant)], [Mana Veil]

[Mana Veil: This helps use your Mana to cloak your body or things that are in contact with your body.

Based on how you use it, the effects will differ.]

'A straightforward explanation. I think these are the types of skills where I get more proficiency the more I use it.'

And it isn't limited to only my body, meaning I can use it on objects too. That's cool. I'll have to make do of it.'

After, Finn glanced at the corpse, delighting himself with an idea.

One of the reasons why he chose this particular creature to hunt was to attempt eating it! Compared to every other creature, Finn found this goat more alluring.

Without further ado, Finn walked to the upper part of the corpse, looking at the goat-like legs of the dead creature.

Gathering more mana to form a thick, long veil around a single claw, forming a curved energy dagger with.

At the hack of its leg, he cut it and grabbed that part with his mouth. This was a place with creatures with strength slightly below the crabs. Finn didn't want to spend much time here.

It was already sunset, so he was planning to hide in a place with thick shadows. His mana sense was useful in this case; Creatures with concealment abilities will be detected to a favorable extent.

Finn found a location where the tree crows were tightly interwoven. The darkness and shadows here were thicker, the luminescent grass barely having any effect in lighting this place.

Additionally, littering the floor here and covering the grasses were long darkness absorbing feathers. This was assumed to be from the creature that ruled this territory. 

Going further west, Finn assumed that the areas before reaching the edges of the forest were ruled by three. One taking the west, while others ruled over the south-west and north-west.

The one ruling the west was presumed to be the strongest in this forest as it was closer to the source of the Mana of this area.

Finn found a safe spot for himself and dropped the leg from his mouth.

'Will being a Fenrir make this thing taste better? They would have eaten it raw after all…' He mused, but he wasn't going to attempt that. 

He already had something in mind. 

Using his left claw to stab through it, raising it up, he brought the energy dagger close to it.

This was also a kind of practice for him.

Finn tried attracting the red mana energy - definitely fire element - to his energy dagger.

The effects caused a sudden burst of fire around his claw making Finn startled.

'This came to me easily, compared to Earth Mana! Is this an affinity? Wait, since I'm using the mana of the Fenrir's Core, does that make it its affinity and not mine?'

That train of thought lingered eventually making Finn decide to use his own mana to attract the elemental Mana, checking what his affinity was. The results…

'Fuck! None of these are my affinities! Does being a Phantom - if species mattered in affinities - only come with downsides?! Or maybe it's that damned uniqueness.'

Shaking his head, Finn formed the energy dagger again, attracting the Fire mana to it and causing a controlled fire to appear.

Adding some luminescent grass on it, as seasoning, Finn smoked the Goat leg.

'Finally, meat…'

Finn liked meat. Not eating meat after 2 days was getting to him.

After smoking the leg, he savored the taste, letting the mana he absorbed with it passively find its way to his core.

Right when he decided to call it an early end of the day, Finn felt his fur stand and his body freeze.

For some reason, he could sense a creature all of a sudden. Its hidden presence had suddenly appeared like it was patiently waiting for Finn to finish his meal.

Going against his instincts, Finn forced himself to look in the direction where he felt this presence.

Looking up, towards the direction of where all the branches of the towering tree tangled to form a natural nest. A creature stood majestically, staring down at Finn, with its four crimson eyes.

With his eyes, Finn could vaguely discern the shape of this creature, its onyx black color melded with the darkness above.

It had the shape of an Owl, a big one reaching the height of 3.5 meters. It's four red eyes that exuded wisdom and experience looked down on Finn, like he was a bug. Its body was wrapped with its wings that had black feathers raining down to the ground.

To peer deeper into Finn, it used its abilities. The feathers that fell seemed to grow eyes that were all staring at Finn's body, directly at the secrets he held. 

Mid-air, an ethereal red eyes with a diameter of 2 meter formed, peering deeper to Finn's true existence.

In Finn's life, he hadn't felt this much fear.

Finn looked away, dashing away from this region to escape this monster. As he ran with panic, a loud flapping noise rang in his ear. 

He didn't look back, he dared not, even using his Mana Sense to feel its presence almost crushed his will.

His only hope of leaving was similar to the deer-bird – Finding a creature that'll fight this monster.

He realized that this Onyx Owl was intelligent by his eyes alone, another realization that dawned on him was that it was merely toying with him.

It could catch up to Finn, but it chose not to. It only tailed him, releasing mocking cries.

Finn didn't consider the amount of energy he had, using as much as possible to increase his agility.

He ran non-stop for about 10 minutes, closing in on the north-west part of this forest. 

On his way, he passed by multiple huge insect creatures that quickly met their end in the hands of his mocking chaser.

Soon he knew he had entered a new territory as the Onyx Owl released another loud cry before it halted, still looking at Finn from faraway, causing Finn to continue running.

As his mind cleared, Finn noticed his movements had begun to slow down. But this wasn't because he was tired, something was making it harder for him to move.

Wanting to resolve this on time, Finn strengthened his Mana Sense, quickly identifying the cause of his slowed movements.

With Mana Sense, Finn detected something. Connecting all the surrounding regions around here were thin threads.

Some of them were wrapped around Finn, with more tangling him as he moved. 

Finn muttered inwardly, his breath uneven, 'The Owl used feathers in its territory… Is this…'

The thought was scary, running from one monster to immediately encounter another of similar strength.

Finn panicked. 'I need to get out of here… Fast!'

As he turned to leave here, he saw something enter the area his senses covered with rapid speed.

'No. No. NO!'

Moving to hurriedly escape, the threads only tangled him more, causing his movements to only stiffen more.

Suddenly, something appeared in his view. Its body was connected to a tree with a thread. A white and purple spider stared at him with its 8 eyes, gauging Finn's worth.

After suppressing his fear, readying himself to engage in a battle. Finn felt the thread around him untangle.

He didn't think twice and ran towards the exit of the region, thinking the Spider had let him go.

But that wasn't it, now on top of a tree, the spider was throwing spikes made from thread at Finn.

For some reason, Finn could sense what it thought. 

"Let's see if you can escape before I kill you." is what it was telling him.

Finn felt like a mere chess piece in the hands of these creatures.

It completely went against his idea of wanting a free and self-controlled life.

He hated it.

But he didn't dare challenge this creature. Both his strength and his intelligence was futile in its front. 

He'd survive this, live till another day, and kill these creatures that used him as a toy. These were the thoughts he had as he moved in a zig-zag path to dodge the thread spikes.

With his back legs, Finn released Claw Slashes, sending them upward randomly, cutting the tree branches within reach to block the view of the spider.

That was pointless.

Using its skill over thread and webs, the spider controlled the falling tree branches from where it was and released a loud noise that showed its amusement by the actions of the White Fenrir.

With an aim better than that of a skilled sniper, Finn got shot with a ball of web, sticking his leg to the floor.

The spider moved.

Its huge legs made noises as it swung and jumped from one tree to another.

In intervals, it shot at Finn's remaining legs. All his legs were now glued to the floor. Hopes of escaping vanished in the blink of an eye.

He could only curse at how much he still underestimated these monsters.

He patiently waited for his second death to arrive.

The Spider fell from the top of the trees, directly on the spot where Finn stood.

Using its front leg like a sword, it beheaded the White Fenrir, instantly killing it.

Feeling the pain slowly vanish, Finn felt his spirit body leave the Fenrir. Then it hit him, 'Wait, wasn't I a ghost to begin with?'