The moment I stepped out of the Guild Hall, the wind felt different.
Crisper. Lighter.
Not because something in the air had changed — but because I had. The card in my hand felt like more than proof of registration. It was a seal. A contract with this world.
I was no longer just Kael. I was Ghost.
People were going about there days, I draped invisibility cloak over myself and moved through them unnoticed like mist.
The cloak helped. But even without it, I'd learned how to be invisible. Ghost wasn't just a codename. It was a principle. An identity I could wear like armor.
---
[Xyrus Academy – Dorm Room]
I returned in the afternoon unbothered by the classes that I missed. My dorm room was exactly as I left it — cluttered, casual, anonymous.
The perfect cover.
I shrugged off the tactical gear and placed it neatly in my hidden inventory. One tap and it was gone.
Neat! This function of inventory is a f*cking cheat.
Jörmi uncoiled and darted across the bed, hissing with what I could only interpret as triumph.
"Yeah, we did good," I said, tossing him a strip of dried meat. He caught it mid-air. I grinned.
A quick shower. Change into uniform. Mask emotions. Return to being Kael, the quiet student with decent grades and zero friends.
---
[Xyrus Academy – Classroom]
"Morning, Kael," one of the more talkative students said with a yawn as I entered.
I nodded.
Another student whispered, "He's weirdly calm all the time. Think he's just shy or hiding something?"
I ignored it. Gamer's Mind kept the irritation locked behind a glass wall. Unassuming Presence did the rest — letting their eyes slide off me the moment someone else entered the room.
Perfect.
Lectures dragged. Mana theory. Spell formulae. History of the great elf-human war. I took notes, pretended to listen, even asked a question once just to stay consistent.
But my mind was elsewhere.
B-Rank.
Not A. Not that I minded. If anything, it was better. A-Rank would've drawn too much attention. B was the sweet spot — respected, independent, but not a spectacle.
I could operate without too many questions.
For now. I have somewhere else to be.
---
[Evening – Beast Glades]
Hah... I didn't think I would come here this soon.
Now you are probably wondering, kael why are you in the beast glades. To answer your question, I got batcave from the gacha and I am in need of a secret base. And what's better location for it other than beast glades.
So, here I am setting up a secret base in a fantasy world. I took out the batcave card from my inventory and it asked me where I would like it to be placed.
I placed it near the Dire Tomb dungeon, because you know less people and less noticeable. It's entrance was rather small barely able to fit a healthy human.
I will probably close this entrance in the near future. Until then this will have to do .
The Batcave — or rather, the underground chamber the Gacha had created and seamlessly linked its exit to a dead-end alley in the Xyrus city — was everything I needed.
Customizable, secure, and silent.
Currently, it held:
A basic training area.
A weapons rack for the Desert Eagle, Yoriichi's katana, and a few kunai and all the weapons that I had.
A workbench.
A monitor linked to the Nokia via some absurd Gacha logic that let me browse limited internet network in the batcave that was specifically made for it. Enough for documentation, logs, and tactical planning.
And a wall.
A large, blank wall .
Maybe I should decorate it with something.
[Later – Academy Courtyard, Nighttime]
I walked beneath the moonlight, cloak draped casually over one shoulder. I wasn't using the invisibility yet. Just enjoying the quiet.
A couple passed by, giggling. A professor muttered to himself while levitating books in a clumsy bubble of mana.
I watched them — then looked up at the stars.
Somewhere out there, bigger things were moving. In five years, the cannon would start.
Dicathen would burn.
But not if I could help it.
Not if Ghost stood between the flames and the people.
---
[The Next Morning]
The sun finally rose.
I stood on the Academy rooftop, sipping tea, watching the golden light touch the city's edges.
My mask was off. My cloak loose.
Just Kael, again. For now.
But beneath the surface, Ghost never slept.
And as the Gacha timer reset in the corner of my vision, flickering gently like a heartbeat, I smiled.
Next month's pull is coming.
Maybe I should skip it and roll 20 rolls together. That way the probability of me getting something good will be higher...I think.
But first it's time for some missions.
[Guild Hall – Mission Board]
The wooden board creaked softly as I approached, the worn parchment pinned neatly in rows.
B-rank missions. A steady flow of contracts waiting for someone to take them.
Perfect.
I scanned the list with casual interest — escort runs, beast hunts, investigation requests.
Nothing flashy, nothing drawing too much attention.
Just what I wanted.
A quiet foothold.
I settled on a mission near Elshire Forest — a scouting run to investigate recent disappearances of hunters in the area.
"Good enough," I muttered.
---
[Elshire Forest – 2 Hours Later]
The trees loomed tall and crooked. Fog coiled around the forest floor like smoke, thick enough to hide footsteps. Visibility was barely ten meters.
It was quiet — too quiet.
I knelt beside the splintered remains of a wooden spear. Half-buried in mud. Blood — dark and dried — spattered nearby leaves.
Jörmi slithered ahead, tongue flicking the air.
I stopped at a patch of broken ground. Deep drag marks. Scorch patterns. Mana residue — faint, but chaotic.
I focused through Observation Haki.
The world sharpened. Shapes flickered through the mist — echoes of motion, recent battle.
Four soldiers. One larger figure. Movement erratic. Something had dragged them off — quickly.
A low growl echoed from deeper in the fog.
I stood, armour glinting as I pulled out Yoriichi's blade from the inventory.
Let's see what took them.
---
[Deeper in Elshire]
A clearing opened.
Five bodies. Or what was left of them.
Armor torn. Eyes wide in death. No mana cores — drained clean. But I felt... nothing, Gamer's mind kept me calm but this thought still unsettled me. I was just a normal guy in my past life. But in this life I am insanely strong and don't feel anything seeing these bodies in this state.
This is not the time for introspection.
Focus.
And above them, crouched on a branch, was the thing responsible.
A corrupted beast. Pale and skeletal, with too many joints in its limbs and mana threads dancing across its skin like static.
It hissed.
I let my mana rise — just a flicker to get its attention.
Its head snapped toward me. Too late.
I moved.
One step. Two.
The distance vanished.
It lunged—
My blade moved faster.
Shing!
One clean slash — its torso split cleanly in two.
It dropped, twitching — spasming as corrupted mana leaked from the wound.
I stepped back, watching it dissolve into ash-like mist. Whatever magic had made it... wasn't natural.
This wasn't just a beast.
It was being controlled.
A possibility began to form in my mind.
No, its too early for them to be moving. But if 'they' really are the reason behind this, then this really got a whole lot complicated.
---
[Back at the Guild Hall – Later That Night]
Kaspian Bladeheart read through my report, his gloved fingers tapping rhythmically against the desk.
I stood in the shadowed corner of his office — voice modulated, presence subdued.
He read every word. Slowly. Carefully.
"You handled it cleanly," he said at last, setting the parchment down. "Minimal disruption, confirmed kills, timely return. Professional."
"Thank you," I replied, tone even. "It was a straightforward mission."
Not quite a lie.
Kaspian nodded once, then leaned forward. "Nothing unusual about the beasts?"
I paused.
"Some minor mana anomalies, but nothing outside expected mutation patterns," I said. "Forest environment likely distorted them over time."
He studied me, quiet.
Kaspian slid the reward across the table, but his gaze stayed sharp.
"Good work, Ghost. We'll mark this as completed, but I want you on standby."
I nodded, stepping back as he dismissed me with a wave.
No need to raise flags.
Not yet.
Not when I didn't know who was watching.
---
[Later – Ghost's Batcave]
I dropped the reward into my inventory, kicked off my boots, and let the tactical armour fall.
Jörmi curled into his coiled nest near the far wall. The Batcave was still bare — but secure. I'd reinforced the walls with mana, added seals to prevent scrying.
I should name it something else. But what, I am not good with names.
I sat cross-legged in the center.
"Character Sheet," I whispered.
[Spider-Man: 57%]
[Accelerator: 65%]
Accelerator is taking his sweet time but spider man should be complete in this week.
A grin crept up my face.
Soon.
---
[Meanwhile – Unknown Location]
A man of he could be called one, in violet robes studied a broken cage. Symbols scorched and burnt. A beast's remains dissolved in a shallow dish of mana-repelling acid.
"The test subject failed," a voice said behind him.
"No," the man replied. "It succeeded. Someone strong enough to kill a corrupted beast without being seen? We just found a rat in Xyrus."
He turned, eyes gleaming with cold detachment.
"Send a whisper to our spies in Dicathen."
"About what?"
He smiled,coldly.
"Tell them to find out the one who did this."
----------------------------
CHAPTER END.
A.N.
Your boy is getting famous, not in a good way ;)
Tell me how was the chapter and give name suggestions for the batcave. I was thinking 'GhostCave' isn't it a cool name. What do you think?
Anyways, thanks for your support. When I started this story I didn't think it would become this big.
So...
Thank You.