Lurking in The Shadows

[The Host has gained his first follower. You are now able to freely command {Isara Raven} until the day you die]

'W-What?'

'I can do that?'

[Answer: A god needs to have a set of loyal followers, but since the Ghost God is a special case, he has the ability to force people to be completely loyal to him]

'But I told him that I was the God of Divine Retribution, does that not matter?'

[Answer: Like I said, the Ghost God is a special case. Sometimes it's necessary to deceive people to gain their trust.]

'Right.. I guess there are not many people in this world that would willingly want to follow someone known as the most terrifying being in existence..'

'Wait.. but why didn't you tell me that I could do something like that before? Is this some new skill I unlocked?'

[Answer: This ability is a part of the system itself, not one of your skills. As to why I didn't tell you before, it's due to my knowledge being too limited. Thanks to the host growing stronger I have unlocked a little bit more information]

'Okay, how does it even work though? Can I make anyone into my follower? How much can I control them?'

[Answer: The Host cannot make anyone into his follower, the subject has to be the one to make that decision. You can tell them to do anything and they are forced to comply, otherwise their soul would instantly perish]

'Yikes, that's worse than being a slave… anyways, is there anything else that a follower can do?'

[Answer: When one of your followers causes someone to feel fear, you gain benefits, like Mana and Species Upgrade progression]

'Ohh, that's pretty useful. I should probably try to get some new followers soon then..

After thinking about it for a little bit, I decided to test this new follower commanding ability out.

But there was one problem..

'Where the hell did he go??'

After I returned to the clearing, Isara was nowhere to be seen

Also, somehow the bandits had also disappeared, which was probably related to Isara as well.

'Tch! If I would've known about this ability beforehand I would've stayed with him wherever he went.'

I got a little irritated about the unlucky timing of the system's notification, but decided that there was no point crying about it now.

Due to the disappearance of Isara and the bandits, I was lost once again.

'What should I do now?'

I wondered as I floated around in a circle.

'Should I try to get new followers? That's probably not that smart right now though.'

Since I was very weak at the moment, trying to gain new followers would be too risky. Especially if I wanted to get strong followers, that could earn me more mana.

Isara was a special case, since my life was already in danger at the time of meeting him. There was no point in purposefully putting my life in danger like that again.

I came to the conclusion that the first thing I should do is grow my individual strength and there were only 3 ways I could do that right now.

Firstly, I could use my Ghost God's Possession skill to steal skills from others, but there were 2 flaws to this. It was extremely dangerous and for some reason I have trouble finding monsters in this forest.

Secondly, I could absorb Mana Cores to increase my Max. HP. This would also be quite difficult due to the same reason as I mentioned before, the lack of monsters.

Thirdly, the classic method of scaring the crap out of someone. Again, this would be quite viable, if I actually found someone to spook.

I quickly realized that the biggest problem I currently had was the lack of life around me, so I decided to ask the system about that.

'System, why can't I find anyone in this forest, even though you said that there were usually a lot of creatures here?'

[Answer: Oops! It looks like The Host still has his Ghost Aura enabled, I will be turning it off now]

'...'

'Seriously.. It almost feels like this system is making a joke out of me.. Anyways, what is Ghost Aura?'

I managed to keep my calm and ask the system.

[Answer: Ghost Aura is another part of the system, that constantly releases dark aura into the surroundings, scaring off weaker monsters and alerting stronger ones of a strong presence nearby]

'...So this was the reason I haven't found anything even after a whole day of floating around. Does that mean that even Isara using his Life Detection skill was due to this, even though that situation somehow worked out in my favor in the end.'

'Sigh! I won't even ask you why you didn't tell me this all before'

Knowing that the system would just blame it on my weakness, I decided to stop prying any further.

A few moments after the system turned the Ghost Aura off, I heard a rustling noise coming from behind me.

I turned my spirit body around quickly, expecting to finally see some kind of living being, but I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

'That's strange? I swear I heard something? I bet Isara's Life Detection skill would've come in handy right now.'

I cautiously floated towards the direction of where the sound came from, trying to find the source.

As I moved further and further away from my initial position, I heard something again..

A rustle followed by a quiet hiss, this time the noise was louder and more distinct.

I quickened my floating pace, determined to find out who or what was making the noise.

I searched high and low, scanning the trees and bushes.

I searched every nook and cranny in a kilometer radius, but found nothing that could have made a sound like that.

Just as I was about to give up the search I noticed something out of the corner of my eye.

It was a small fly.

'Finally! Something alive, but I don't think a fly is able to make those sounds I heard?'

After observing the fly for a little bit, I came to a conclusion that the small bug could indeed not make those rustling and hissing noises, so that still meant that there was something else here.

'This is getting a little bit creepy now…I hope it's not a ghost or anything.. Wait, aren't I a ghost myself?'

A lot of possibilities came to my mind for what the noise could've been, from simple wind to ancient beings. The long search was clearly taking a toll on me.

'Sigh! I don't even know why I am so obsessed with this…'

I was about to give up finding the source of the mysterious noise and decided to take a last look at the small fly I came across.

'I wonder if this little guy even has a mana core?'

[Answer: Negative]

'Sigh!'

Just as I was about to turn around and leave..

SNAP!

Suddenly, out of thin air, something sprung out from behind me, flicked out its tongue and devoured the small fly that was just flying in front of me.

After it caught its prey, it instantly disappeared again, like it was never there in the first place.

'...What.. just happened?'

I was completely taken aback. To think that this creature was standing in the shadows all this time and I had no idea.

This all happened in just a split second, but I managed to mark down where the strange creature disappeared.

'Oof, let's hope this works!'

'Inspect'

=== {INSPECT} ===

Type: Moon Chameleon

Health: 100/100

Mana: 65/100

Tier: Silver (3)

Skills: [A+] Camouflage

=== {INSPECT} ===

'It's a chameleon! That makes so much sense.'

I thought while looking at the mystery creature's stats.

'That camouflage skill looks really tempting..'

Even though it would not increase my combat power that much, it would come in handy in my life's purpose of scaring people.

'Inspect'

Before doing anything else though, I decided to inspect the skill.

=== {INSPECT} ===

Name: Camouflage

Type: Espionage

Tier: A+

Mana Cost: 5 MP per 1 Hour

Description: A skill mainly used by different types of Chameleons to blend in with their surroundings. Upon activation, the caster can choose to make their body take on any texture in the world.

=== {INSPECT} ===

'Holy crap, this is even better than I first thought.'

After learning about the usefulness of the skill, I thought about what to do next.

'I should definitely steal it, right?'

This was the most logical action, but I was still a little bit hesitant.

'What if Bob Strong appears out of nowhere and shoots me in the face again?'

'No, that shouldn't happen, since I would be perfectly camouflaged.'

After thinking it through, I finally decided that I had to take some risks to get stronger, so..

'System, cast Ghost God's Possession on that chameleon.'

[Activating (SSS+) Ghost God's Possession on (Moon Chameleon)]

[Calculating Mana Cost…]

[Mana Cost is 1350, the host has sufficient Mana]

[Possessing the body of (Moon Chameleon) with a success chance of 100%]

'Here we go again!'