CHAPTER 51: CHECKING THE NEW FRUITS

Deklan paid for the repair of his physical body in full and merged with it.

Naturally, the change was evident.

From the moment he merged back with his flesh, his muted and dull senses returned to normal.

Deklan looked down at his own hands and clenched them a couple of times, seemingly testing his motor control, but that wasn’t the only thing he had in mind. Other than that, he also came to notice something that he had missed the first time he had no physical body.

"I knew this already," He thought aloud. "The Dual Existence skill allowed me to have two forms, and it shifted depending on the time of day. Human form by day, and ghost form by night. One gave me a boost in intelligence, while the other gave me a boost in physical strength."

"And when I lost my physical body, I automatically went to the ghost form. But the strength it provided diminished."

Earlier, when he was hunting the wolves, he could feel it.

His strength compared to when he was at night was a lot weaker.

It might not cause him to have trouble hunting down the wolves, but it did make the hunt last longer than it should have.

"Seems like retaining a physical body is paramount even though I have two lives."

"And I think it’s time for me to train in using that skill properly."

Once he decided on what to do, Deklan headed back to home sweet home.

It was still sunny when he arrived back at his small hut, after checking on Marsha and making sure that she had no complications. He stared at the hut and its land before a sigh escaped his mouth, "Damn, it looked a lot shabbier with the sun out."

Deklan shook his head and went straight to the backyard.

His intention was obvious.

Just as he expected, he found a few fruits lingering around near the Ward.

Even though he had been neglecting the hut and staying in the hamlet, there are no fruits missing.

How can there be anything missing, though? Deklan had already learned from his mistakes.

Every single time he was about to sleep, he didn’t forget to put Pumple in Prison.

It hits the fondness hard, but Deklan wasn’t worried since he knew how to increase Pumple’s fondness.

All he needed to do was play with Pumple and it’d recharge the fondness.

Other than noticing that the fruits were still intact, Deklan also saw another tombstone near the Ward.

He didn’t need to ask the system to know that it was where the Riven-Mouthed Maiden was kept.

Since his Ghost Residents slot has risen to two, another tombstone appeared.

Upon putting away the Lv. 2 Mana Apples, a Hot Blue Chilli, and also a Spell Amp Berry, there were surprisingly two fruits left on the muddy ground. Both were fruits that Deklan had never seen before, but they should be fruits from capturing the Riven-Mouthed Maiden.

Deklan took the first one and checked what it was.

...

[Supernatural Black Berry]

Rank: B

Description: A rare fruit filled with a peculiar nectar capable of sharpening the senses to an uncanny degree. Its skin was black as charcoal, yet despite its ominous appearance, the flesh was impossibly soft and sweeter than any berry ever tasted.

...

"Oh, this is really good..." Deklan nodded in pleasant surprise.

Considering that it was a fruit from a silver-rank Alpha Ghost, he had high expectations, and this wasn’t bad at all. As the system stated, both his perception—and mental stats might not increase along with his rank.

Maybe there will be a rank that’ll substantially increase both stats, but it’s certainly not the noob ranks.

He was still at the bottom of the barrel with slightly high combat power.

So, this berry is going to be really useful.

"She did sense me when I made sure to try and not get caught, so she has incredible perception," Deklan muttered, recalling what happened yesterday when he encountered the Riven-Mouthed woman—for the first time. "Now, what about the second one? It’s the first time a Ghost gave me two fruits."

Deklan grabbed the second one.

It’s shaped like an orange, but black, and sizzling with swaying shadow that looks like black flames.

...

[Shadow Orange]

Rank: B

Description: Add a shadow property to skills, spells, or even weapons. Can be reproduced through the Ward.

...

Deklan noted that the description was rather simple.

It was also vague, similar to the Ghost Conqueror skill’s description the first time he saw them.

Adding a shadow property, Deklan doesn’t know what that means exactly.

But what caught his attention the most was the latter part of the description, which caused him to frown and blink his eyes a couple of times. "Am I tweaking...?" He rubbed his eyes and tried to read the description again, "No, I’m not."

Just as the system stated, capturing Ghosts would give him special fruits.

He thought special fruits meant it was a one-time thing, but this one can be reproduced infinitely.

"It’s my first time catching a silver-rank Ghost, so maybe it was exclusive to them?" Deklan tapped his chin a couple of times, contemplating, but he decided to try this fruit out later. "For now, I want to see the Riven-Mouthed Maiden. But man, Riven-Mouthed Maiden is a mouthful. Let’s give her a nickname, but what would be a good nickname?"

"Maybe Sasaki? That’s a good name for a Ghost like her," Deklan nodded. "Then it’s decided."

[Do you want to give the Riven-Mouthed Maiden the nickname ’Sasaki’?]

"Yep."

[Are you sure?]

"Yeep." Deklan affirmed. "Also, summon Sasaki for me."

[Notice: Failed to summon Sasaki.]

"Huh? What? Why...?" Deklan was taken aback by the notification as he wasn’t expecting this at all.

He already caught Sasaki, so he should be able to summon it.

"What’s going on, system?"

[Sasaki requires a lot of mana to be summoned, host. Currently, you cannot summon her for even a second with a Lv. 10 Ward. In order to summon her and retain her manifestation for a good moment, it is advised to raise the Ward to Lv. 20.]

"Right... I forgot about that," Deklan sighed.

Managing to capture Sasaki was pure luck on his part.

He’d only managed to coax her because of the Eerie Smile skill he luckily got from Pumple: without it, he wouldn’t be able to capture a Ghost as strong as her. Not only one, but they were separated by a large gap of two major ranks.

Not to mention, he was even struggling to retain Pumple for fifteen minutes.

And Pumple was merely an iron-rank Ghost, the same rank as him.

So, he should’ve expected this and not gotten his hopes up.

"How much would it cost for me to increase the Ward to level 20?"

[It will cost 1,200 Spooky Dollars to level up the Ward to level 20.]

"And to increase it to level 15?"

[It will cost 300 Spooky Dollars.]

"Fine, then increase it to level 15 first. I’m going to find the rest of the money later."

[Congratulations, the Ward level has been increased to 15!]

[Toughness Berry has been unlocked and added to the Dimensional Fruit pool.]

...

[Ward — Ancient Dimensional Tree]

Level: 15

Class: Sprout

Ghost Residents: 2 / 2

Prison: 0 / 1

Income: 100 Spooky Dollars / Day

Current Spooky Dollars: 402

Fruit Bearing: 14 hours and 13 minutes.

...

A mash brown berry fell from the Ward.

Deklan caught it in time and noted that it was the Toughness Berry that had been unlocked.

Sitting in his inventory right now was the Black Durian, which could inflict debuffs, the Spell Amp Berry that strengthened the potency of the next skill he used, and now the Toughness Berry that increases his stamina for a short duration of time.

He became more positive about hunting the remaining traits with these fruits in hand.

Only bronze-rank Ghosts have a Paranormal Heart, so he needed all the advantages he could get.

"Sigh..." Deklan placed his hands on his waist and looked at the tombstone where Sasaki was. "I was planning to question her about the other Alpha Ghost in the Null Zone across from the Shadowed Town, but this happened."

Now that it has come to this, Deklan has no choice but to scout the other Null Zone.

All he knew about the other side was that it was related to fire; the explosions made that one thing clear.

"In any case, let’s prepare."

Deklan didn’t lament long for what the ideal situation would be.

He knew that anything ideal is rare, and most of the time, people needed to face reality straight on.

And though he was young, he at least had already learned that.

Later that night.

Deklan was sitting cross-legged on the bed—eyes closed and senses focused inwardly.

For the past few hours or so, he had been sitting in absolute silence, meditating while trying to feel each contour of his own body. He wanted to train—to use the Dual Existence skill, and since he was already familiar with how both forms felt, he decided to take a step further.

But first, he decided to recall how it felt once again to make sure he was in tune with the skill.

Muscles, tendons, bones, blood—everything.

Deklan tried to feel it all.

While the sun was still up, he concentrated on the nuances of his human form. But once night fell, he paid even closer attention, noting every subtle shift that came with the change from day to night. Since the Dual Existence was categorized—as a skill rather than a trait by the system, he was convinced that with enough proficiency, he would eventually be able to shift between forms at will.

Now, Deklan was digesting every step his human form needed to take until it turned into the ghost form.

And surprisingly enough, it wasn’t hard to understand.

Beings in the tangible dimension and Ghosts, though how different they might be in appearance, have only one distinctive difference. Mana. While beings could regulate mana, Ghosts are made entirely of mana.

So, in order to turn into them, all Deklan needed to do was change the composition of his flesh to mana.

However, it was easier said than done.

Deklan opened his eyes as a flicker of mana sparked within his eyes.

"Maybe shifting manually between forms is harder than I thought, but I reckoned partial shift would be a lot easier," He thought as a smile crossed his lips; the idea came precisely because he tried to crack this skill. "Ghosts are stronger physically, so why not try partially reconstructing my skin first for starters?"

A human with a Ghost-like skin, that sounded nice.

Deklan might not have had as strong skin when he was in his complete Ghost form.

But even so, if he succeeded in this, his combat prowess during the day would certainly rise.

And that’s going to be a great start.