Chapter 7: Trait

Watching the woman and child enter the house, Wade closed the door behind them.  

Inside the hat, the little ghost stared fiercely at the corpse.  

“Go ahead.” Wade’s finger gently touched the little creature’s forehead.  

The little ghost floated out and began extracting the pirate’s soul.  

Including the two near the wooden cabin, these were the eighth pirate Wade had killed.  

He dropped the sword that had become somewhat dull and picked up another sword from the snow.  

This sword was better—its blade gleamed coldly, with minimal wear, and it was coated with maintenance oil.  

For it to be in such good condition, either its owner cared for it dearly or rarely used it. Judging by the fact that its original owner had discarded it in the snow, Wade leaned toward the latter.  

Wade tested the weight; it felt just right in his hand.  

It was a fine sword, only held by the wrong person.  

Wade took the double-edged straight sword and then searched the pirate’s body again.  

Another bag of oil. He noticed each pirate seemed to carry a bag of oil at their waist.  

Fuel for their torches—did they need so much oil?  

He was puzzled but couldn’t draw a conclusion, so he made a mental note and continued forward, arriving at a corner.  

He quietly observed the illuminated area. Approaching, he confirmed that five pirates guarded the cellar entrance, while three others were downstairs using axes and large hammers to smash the door.  

It was easy to understand why eight pirates gathered here. This household was wealthy, with four houses enclosed, alongside sheep pens and warehouses.  

Next to the sheep pen was the cellar entrance, located under a wooden plank of a warehouse. The warehouse door had been broken open, revealing winter hay prepared for the sheep inside.  

A pirate sat on the hay, yawning listlessly while holding a crossbow pointed down the stairs.  

Wade pondered how to handle them. Charging head-on would be one against eight, clearly a bad choice.  

If a big commotion broke out, the surviving pirates would immediately rush to reinforce.  

A typical Viking pirate group had about forty to fifty men. Wade had only killed eight at the outskirts.  

Conservatively, thirty to forty pirates were still alive, plus the pirate leader—a tall warrior wielding a longsword. Facing him directly, Wade felt his chances were slim. He preferred to leverage the skeleton’s innate advantages and assassinate them one by one.  

“If only these pirates would hear the sound of coins dropping and then go alone to some dark, deserted bush.”  

Wade fondly recalled a big bald man with a number stamped on the back of his head. That bald man possessed an incredible ability: if he dropped a simple coin somewhere, whether it was a mob boss monopolizing illegal business or a ruthless warlord in a chaotic region, they would be drawn by the obviously abnormal sound, order their subordinates, “I’ll check it out,” and then go alone to pick up the seemingly ordinary coin in a blind spot of their vision.  

Wade, also bald, had no such ability. There were so many unfair things in this world.  

Still, despite that, Wade thought of another way to lure the pirates out.  

He looked at his shoulder blade, where the little ghost curled up and peeked out her head.  

Though they had only been together for less than a night, they could already be called tacit “partners.”  

After feeding the little ghost the souls of eight pirates, Wade had established a deeper bond with her. Feeding always made the other party favor you.  

Wade tried to convey some of his ideas to the little ghost. It wasn’t exactly telepathy, but they could communicate and receive feedback.  

One thing was clear: the little ghost harbored an obsession with these Viking pirates. She selectively devoured souls. Along the way, they had encountered deceased villagers, but she didn’t extract their souls, only targeting the pirates.  

It seemed most of the book’s content was accurate. Phantoms did not retain the living’s free will or thoughts; the little ghost only possessed a vague consciousness.  

Because those pirates invaded the village, destroyed her home, and shot arrows at her, she hated those villains even in death.  

That hatred remained in her soul, shaping her current form. Killing pirates was her inner desire.  

Wade decided it was time to give the little ghost a name. He didn’t know her real name and couldn’t keep calling her “little ghost” forever.  

“Let’s call you Mia.”  

He called the name in his mind, and the naive consciousness lifted her head, looking into his eyes.  

“Mia, next, we need to take out the pirates over there.” Wade continued to convey his plan. “For that, I need your help.”  

It seemed Mia didn’t quite understand what a “name” was, maybe she still had memories of her previous name, but that didn’t matter. The important thing was that when Wade transmitted the thought of “killing pirates,” she immediately became eager and even floated forward.  

She was completely different from the timid, trembling appearance at the start. After Wade killed eight pirates, she gradually became more active.  

Kids were like that: once comfortable, they became increasingly wild.  

If Wade hadn’t called her back, she would have flown off just now.  

As a semi-transparent spirit, Mia was inconspicuous under the night, easily overlooked without close attention. But there were eight pairs of eyes over there. If she startled the pirates early, waking those lazily confident pirates, it wouldn’t be good.  

Luckily, Wade pulled Mia back.  

This confirmed Wade’s thoughts once again: he could, to some extent, issue commands to Mia.  

That deep connection allowed him to reliably direct her actions.  

Wade knew very little about what a phantom could truly do, but from what had happened, several things were clear.  

First, Mia had the ability to extract souls.  

Naturally, only those with strong soul power would become phantoms after death, but Mia could forcibly gather the souls of those lacking sufficient power, making them form and be extracted.  

Judging by reality, she could only extract the souls of the dead. It was said that powerful undead could drain life from the living. Perhaps one day, Mia could grow to that level.  

But so far, she didn’t seem to have the ability to kill a living person; whether she could even harm them was unknown.  

How to kill those eight pirates separately would rely on Mia’s second ability, or rather, her special trait.  

Wade discovered her trait. In many ghost legends, phantoms could not be touched directly; they ignored blades and swords, and only magic, divine arts, or “combat skills” could affect them.  

According to Wade’s on-site investigation, that didn’t seem entirely true.  

When Mia moved in and out of the hat, Wade could clearly feel the hat’s slight vibrations.  

Skeletons were especially sensitive to vibrations. Wade had no ears and no “hearing” sense, but he could perceive subtle vibrations. If someone tried to approach him from behind, he would detect their movements as soon as they lifted their foot.  

He used this vibration sense as an alternative form of “hearing,” since sound itself was vibration transmitted through a medium.  

This sharp sense told Wade one thing: Mia had a physical form.  

And the most important point:  

Wade looked beneath Mia. She floated midair, swimming like a little fish in water, freely moving forward, backward, up, and down.  

Yes, Mia could fly—silently, without leaving footprints, not like a bird flapping wings.  

Wade pulled a cloth bag from the hoodie pocket, filled with silver coins he had scavenged from pirate corpses.  

He released the bag. The coins inside fell but seemed tethered by an invisible string, suddenly stopping midair.  

Mia hugged the bag and lifted it back into Wade’s hand.  

Wade stroked Mia’s forehead, holding the bag of silver coins as he looked toward the sheep pen.  

Though he lacked the superpower of another big bald man, having a stealthy little ghost who came and went at will was quite rare.  

…