Training! Pt.2

"...yeah," Mors answered, as a great sigh escaped him.

Giggling, Alice started walking towards the bedroom and said, "follow me!"

Curious, Mors decided to follow her until they arrived in the food closet. With a smile on her blood-deprived face, she opened the door.

With the light entering the closet, Mors found Spir just hovering there.

"Wait, you were supposed to be in the other room!" Mors frustratedly stated.

"And I was, for a bit, I was actually in the corner farthest away from the door." Replied Spir.

Thinking for a moment, Mors asked in curiosity, "then how did you enter the other room? Wait, stupid question. You did it when I opened the curtains, didn't you?"

"Ah, so you are learning! Good! But slightly incorrect… I entered the other room while you were looking through cabinets."

"Really?" Mors questioned, then wondering to himself, 'am I that oblivious?'

To which he felt something in his insides slightly moved before returning to normal. Could the other ghost really not hear his thoughts? He will have to test.

Bringing him out of his curious and troubling discovery, Spir said, "To be honest, you are pretty average… also the reason I told you that I would be in the other room to show you how others feel when they are 'done' searching a room. "

With a sigh, Spir continued, "Most just leave and return to their post, so they don't get yelled at or fired. They usually only got a minute or two before they have to leave, disregarding special cases."

"Such as," Mors asked inquisitively.

"Oh, you know, sometimes more curious folk stick around longer just to look around. Sometimes if it's a guard leader, they will deviate for longer. But they usually all just go back blaming their eyes or ears."

With a pause, Spir let it sink in before continuing, "you always have to interpret their next move. If you don't, you will get caught."

Taking mental notes, Mors realized that it made sense. No one wanted to be fired if the job was good and easy. Just standing around for a bit watching around you seems like a pretty relaxed job. A bonus of it is the high pay.

Sighing, Mors realized that he got played. Spir knew his next moves even before he realized them. With an even deeper sigh, Mors asked to the vibrating ghost, "What's next?"

"Well, first, I am going to get out of this wall. Go to the table and set it up," then, turning his head to Alice, he said, "thanks for your help!"

"Anything to help me survive. I will help out as much as I can… to you and the person who got helped me see my brother again," replied Alice with a weakened smile.

After Spir disappeared into the wall, Mors quickly asked Alice, while Spir wasn't looking, "when did he set up the furniture?"

Alice's laughter rippled in the air before she related what had happened. Apparently, while Mors was hiding, Spir quietly asked Alice to do things as much as she could silently. She wasn't exactly proud of how far she moved the table, but it worked out in the end.

With that, Mors figured out that Spir probably knew where Mors would hide. He was so confident that Mors would hide in the bedroom area that he asked Alice to move things around for him.

And what's worse is that Mors didn't notice when he was moving to find a new hiding spot.

So taking his slightly fascinated and slightly depressed body to the table again, he quickly flipped it in front of Spir's watchful eyes. Then grabbing a chair, Mors quickly sat down, looking directly at Spir. Waiting for more.

He already found out that he was in front of a master, might as well through away any of his pride and just learn.

What was humiliation? It was just people who were too prideful to accept they weren't the best and get a reality check by someone else.

Seeing such curious eyes from Mors, as if he wanted to pull out all of Spir's secrets, Spir laughed. With a competitive smile hidden behind his mask, he started to do a small explanation on predicting people.

…

With an hour whisked away in explanation, Mors started to feel more confident in his hiding skills.

Apparently, people are dumb.

Clarification: people are predictable.

Extra clarification: People get bored and do dumb stuff repeatedly to curve their boredom.

Most don't even recognize it since they believe themselves to be smart… but when you are a tired guard, done with looking at nothing, daydreaming to keep yourself from the brinks of sanity, anything interesting and new captures your main interest.

Or maybe you are a fresh new guard that doesn't want to be yelled at, and you hear a noise. By the book, you check it out and alert the sleepy others. Eventually, it pulls everyone away from what they need to focus on.

If you get caught, simply find a space where the guards can't see you and throw something down your old path of travel.

Boom, the guard follows the newest thing usually, and you can move to a better hiding spot.

"Sometimes people don't follow these patterns, so you have to leave yourself a bit of space for a backup plan," continued Spir after listing off ways people act in some situations.

Mors felt himself become something like a sponge, absorbing all of the stories from the mouth of Spir. But that was the end, as Spir asked, "now I know it seems easy… and you might think people are dumb. But these are stories of mistakes people can make. It doesn't exactly come true in reality."

Looking over to Alice, who by now was also at the table, "Some people who know their flaws, or have experience with thieves and assassins, might not make these mistakes… Like Alice, since she just listened to the explanation too. So, for now, why don't you two play a few games of hide-and-seek?"

Hearing that Spir wouldn't be the one being the seeker made Mors feel more confident in his hiding skills.

But after a second of thought, Mors quickly considered Alice's condition. With how dangerous it is for her right now, Mors quickly said, "Don't over-exert yourself."

With a light nod, Alice said, "don't worry, your first."

With that, under the instruction of Spir, the objects in the room were once again moved, making new hiding spots and secret corners.

After that, the duo spent the next 3 hours playing hide and seek. Thankfully, Spir interjected between each match to narrate some places they could improve.

After that, Afiero came out and stopped Alice from continuing for concerns that they would put too much strain on her body.

It was around 2 in the afternoon, so the duo ate a fruit lunch consisting of Minoth berries and Avanias.

With most other fruits, you would need other foods to be healthy, but long ago, it was found that if you ate both Minoth berries and Avanias, you wouldn't need to really eat meat.

Though they aren't exactly the tastiest, they were cheap. They are planted all over the place, and you can usually find them everywhere.

After the duo ate, Alice sighed as she decided to recover with some sleep. Speed walking around everywhere for 3 hours isn't exactly the best resting condition for a sick person, so just sleeping and laying in bed seemed like the best choice to stay alive.

With a stand, Mors quickly stretched and waited for a ghost to come out.

Because they totally would.

And they did. As Afiero quickly traveled to the bedroom to look over Alice, Spir came out with excited glowing red eyes.

"Now then, with Alice taking a break, let's start another important part of hiding. How you move," began Spir before fully diving into how to best walk in hiding situations.

So when you know someone is close, and you don't want them to notice you, you actually really need to look around at your surroundings.

You don't want to accidentally trip or step on some sticks.

You want to be close to the ground with squats. Spir even went into how your steps should be like.

"Go slow and steady. With all your muscles ready to stop at any moment. We don't have exactly enough time to teach you a step technique, so this is the best we can do." Noted Spir.

Hearing 'step technique' piqued Mors's interest as he quickly asked, "what's a step technique?"