Chapter 155: Ghost Story Hunter (5)

Ahinal stood in an abandoned building's playground. It was part of the school that hadn’t been used for a very long time. The ground was cracked and green vegetation grew wildly, eating everything on its path.

Cold wind brushed Ahinal’s cheek. Even though the sun was still hanging in the sky, only a little light illuminated her surroundings. It was because dark clouds covered the sky above.

hee hee hee…

ah… ah… ah…

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…

Ahinal forcefully clenched her trembling hands. All around her, she could hear the cry of ghosts. It was not only one or two, there were a lot of them.

From inside the old building, she could see a pale ghost with a long neck staring at her with its white eyes. And from the tree standing at the border of the playground, a giant ghost's face was hanging from a tree upside down glaring at her. In addition to those two, dozens of other ghosts were watching Ahinal closely, but they did not come closer to her.

Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

Feeling ominous energy seeping into the sky, Ahinal raised her head.

The world slowly turned blood red, and it felt as if ‘another world’ existed beyond the sky. Ahinal thought that the other world was probably hell. A place where many evil spirits live.

"Ah…."

Ahinal trembled. The clouds began to part and the sky itself cracked. The place she thought as hell showed itself. From the inside, dozens, hundreds, thousands or maybe tens of thousands of red hands stretched out as if desperately trying to enter this world.

‘If those things come out….'

Ahinal, who had become several shades paler, forcibly closed her mouth. And then, through the crevices in the red sky, a figure dressed in a blood-red cloak and uniform appeared. With his flickering white eyes, the figure stared at Ahinal with a bored expression.

Looking at the figure above, Ahinal trembled once again. Her instinct told her to run, and if she can’t, to faint. However, she didn’t follow her instincts. She knew that once she fainted, her life would be forfeited.

‘Don’t be afraid, Ahinal! You can win!’

Ahinal raised her hand to the sky, then, a fire blazed around the playground. The fire created something like a fire wall circling around the edge of the playground.

Then, Ahinal lit the red candle she had prepared beforehand. And it drew a cross before turning once again diagonally, dividing the circle into eight equal parts.

When the figure's interest towards her piqued, Ahinal opened her mouth.

“Yoo Seodam! I know your identity.”

“….”

She could see Yoo Seodam’s face harden.

“A pure white sword, black hair and white eyes. Given that you are strangely highly knowledgeable in magic, I speculated that you were a scholar in the past. You didn’t say it, but I know that you are interested in women, it is evident by how you have attracted a female professor…" 

At that point, a vein popped on Yoo Seodam's forehead, but Ahinal couldn’t see it because Yoo Seodam was far away in the sky.

“So…. your true identity is ‘The wandering ghost of Arakho'!”

As soon as Ahinal finished her speech, the fire soared, creating a strange pattern in the air. Perhaps it wasn’t created by mana but a mysterious power called ‘spirit power'. A power that could only be obtained through a god or a soul. It was treated as a very rare power in any world.

The earth trembled, and the flames grew wilder and more violent. With every second that passed, the red flames slithered towards the sky,  challenging the red sky above.

When Ahinal saw that Yoo Seodam was not moving, she thought that she had fully restricted Yoo Seodam, so she chanted the sealing spell.

“Arakho, Arakho. Please take your ghost with you.”

A red flame rose and struck Yoo Seodam's head. But it didn’t seem that it hurt Yoo Seodam much, so Ahinal continued to chant the spell.

“Arakho, Arakho. Please take your ghost with you!”

Every time the spell was recited, red flames attacked Yoo Seodam as if it was trying to swallow him. But, Yoo Seodam still didn't move a single step from where he was floating. He just stared at Ahinal with an expressionless face.

“Arakho, Arakho…!”

“…can you stop now?”

“Ah!”

When Yoo Seodam waved his hand, a wind blew violently. It put off all the fire, including the one on the candle.

Ahinal fell to her buttock. She turned extremely pale. Her whole body was trembling. When she looked at Yoo Seodam, he was laughing viciously just like a demon king.

Slowly, Yoo seodam descended.

“Ah, ah, ah…!”

Ahinal crawled on her knees as a last ditch effort to run away. But suddenly, she felt something grabbing her ankle.

"Ah!!!"

When she turned back to see what had grabbed her, she saw a white face sticking from the ground, biting on her ankle.

“Ahhhhhhhhh!!”

She filled her fist with spiritual power and struck the ghost as hard as she could. The ghost's face split in half and evaporated. But that wasn't the end. A ghost with an inverted limb in an upside-down posture, a female student ghost that pounded the ground with her head and a ghost without anything below her waist who kept shouting ‘give me your leg.' They were all approaching her.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!”

Even though Ahinal was afraid, she was still certain that she could win against them. After all, they were nothing but ghosts. She could easily beat them with her spiritual power as well as the method that was written in the diary.

However, unfortunately for her, before she could do it, Yoo Seodam landed in front of her.

“The wandering ghost of Arakho?"

Yoo Seodam asked. The corner of his lips were curved upwards.

"You are wrong."

At that moment, there was only one thought left in Ahinal's head.

It’s all over.

There was nothing she could do when she couldn’t even figure out the identity of the ghost.

* * *

[You’ve successfully hunted a level 150 Protagonist.]

I was looking at the ground when that message was announced. Ahinal's body was missing. Probably, if there really was a place called the underworld, her body was taken there. After all, if ghosts were real, who said the underworld couldn’t be real?

[Probability returns to normal.]

[The power of the episode disappears. The power of ‘great ghost story’ in your body has scattered.]

It's really funny. I won in a really funny way.

To be honest, the ‘great ghost story' abilities were nothing special. 

When I was designing a great ghost story a while back, a message came to my mind.

[You have become a great ghost story! But because your skill is too low, the effect of the skill has been halved!]

[You have acquired the skill ‘Slightly Blow The Wind!]

[You have acquired the skill ‘Slightly Show an Eerie Atmosphere’]

[You have acquired the skill ‘Aren't You Scared Even After This? Ghost Sound Imitation’.]

[You have acquired the skill ‘Creating a Scary Hallucination’]

[You have acquired the skill ‘Fly Like a Ghost’]

In front of Ahinal several minutes ago, I used all sorts of tricks and forms to pretend to be strong, but it was all a front. Hell opened up in the sky? Of course, it's a hallucination. How can I open such a thing?

To be honest, before facing Ahinal, I had wondered if I could win with this kind of garbage skill. Thankfully, she fell into my illusion skill and struggled to fight me.

You don’t know how much my heart shuddered when Ahinal said ‘I know your identity'. For a second, I thought she realized that I was not a ghost but a dimensional traveler.

Had Ahinal successfully controlled her mind and faced me with her pure power, I would probably have struggled quite a bit. Of course, in the end, thanks to the ghosts that had gathered around the playground because of the power of the great ghost story, I would not have lost anything even if we had a head-on confrontation.

“Whoa.”

I unknowingly let out that sound as I saw the sky return to its original colour. The sun's rays glared wildly. However, instead of being overbearing, it was calming. When the ‘great ghost story' powers disappeared from Yoo Seodam, all the dark clouds had also vanished, leaving white clouds adorning the blue sky. Perhaps, the ability to summon dark clouds itself was a kind of passive ability of a great ghost story.

"Professor!"

I looked at the direction of the voice. It was Aracelli. She was gliding through the air as she rushed towards me.

As she landed in front of me, she quickly looked around worriedly.

“I felt a tremendous ghostly energy from here…”

"I know."

“It was very wicked… Probably it was the worst energy I ever felt in this world…"

“….”

But, that’s my energy…

“By the way, where is that ghost?”

“I got rid of it… Ahinal as well.”

"Ah…."

Aracelli nodded knowingly. Probably, she also felt that the ‘probability’ that surrounded the world has gone.

While Aracelli was still nodding, I picked up the diary that Ahinal had left behind. I brushed the dust off its cover and opened it. Then finally, I could see the ghost stories that were written inside of it.

"That's…."

“From now on, we will use this.”

"Is that so?"

There were still many ghosts left in this world. Perhaps, I wouldn’t be able to absorb the ghost’s ability just because I held the diary… But still, I wanted to hunt them. It wasn't because he felt the need to, rather,

“Aracelli. Come with me, let’s seal some ghosts.”

I wanted to do it because of Aracelli. Because I know how much she prized her time with me.

Now, I just need a little bit more time before I tell her about all of my worries, receive some counseling, and find an answer.

“Shall we go?”

"Yeah!"

The moment both of us turned towards the direction of my dorm,

"Uh?"

I felt someone approaching me.

Then I saw her, not far from where I stood. From the figure clad in all-black, I knew that the other person was a female. Her hands were somewhat clasped together, and her face was hidden behind a veil. However, for some reason I could tell that she was smiling.

"Who are you?"

“It’s been a while, Yoo Seodam. I felt the aura of a great ghost story and came to see it, but, did you already kill it?”

“….?”

Did I know her? I don’t know.

"Oh, I see. You may be hearing my voice for the first time… Nice to meet you, my name is Malea.”

Malea? Don’t tell me, that Malea? The principal of this school?

‘Her voice is younger than I expected…'

Aracelli looked at me as if worried about something. I shook my head because she wore an expression of ‘Should I kill her?’ on her face.

"Yes. Nice to meet you, Principal. The case here has been sorted out……”

“That’s not it.”

Principal Malea interrupted me with a somewhat bewildered tone.

“It’s Malea, Seodam-nim.”

“Uh, I know. Aren’t you the principal of this school?”

“Don’t you remember me?”

“What?”

“Didn't you help me in the tutorial? I still haven't forgotten about that time… Wait…. Don’t tell me, you…”

She strode towards me. It was a perfect gait without any sign of movement on her body, just like a ghost. It had a mysterious feeling that was different from Seol Jungyeon's dark sky footwork.

As she walked closer to me, Malea looked me in the eye. She then smiled as if she was bewildered.

“I barely met you… But, you don't know me yet."

“….”

What is the best response I should give here?

"Sorry. My life is rather complicated.”

"I see… It’s fine."

Then, Malea smiled broadly. Her face was still hidden behind the veil, but I could see that her red lips were arcing through her veil. Then, Malea rummaged through her sleeve and took out a diary.

‘Come to think of it, wasn’t this ghost diary also written by Malea?’

“Take this.”

"Huh?"

The diary she handed over was quite old, but unlike the ghost diary, it had an easy to read character on its cover.

When I tried to open it, Malea stopped me.

“Not now, but later.”

And then, as I was bewildered, Malea blankly looked at me for some time as if she found it fun to look at my ignorant face.

And then, she disappeared like a ghost.

"What??"

I still couldn't understand her.