The Pokemon Tower was truly teeming with ghost-type Pokemon. Even though there were only two ghost-type species at most in Kanto-Johto, their sheer number inside the tower easily made up for it.
Countless Gastly drifted between lanterns and pillars in slow, uneven patterns. Their round bodies were inflating and deflating with every move they made. At the same time, another presence could also be felt around. However, they were smaller and quieter. Its faint outline was also not round, but something that had long strands of hair that moved even when the air did not.
They were Misdreavus.
They did not gather in one place. Instead, they appeared and disappeared across different floors, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs, and sometimes clustering near corners where the lantern light grew weaker.
Ludwig and his party had moved through the floors without rushing. He did not chase them, he let them come into view on their own, just like what they had done at the river earlier. Of course, after seeing so many Gastly, some of them stood out immediately.
They were those who had quite a chunk of mana inside their gaseous body of them. Moreover, instead of scattering through their mist, the energy inside them gathered near the core and returned in a slow cycle.
It was by no means extraordinary. But the stability was significant enough to make a difference after seeing so many of them around.
One of them had followed him for nearly half a floor. It stayed at a safe distance, maybe curious, maybe trying to find an opening to prank them, drifting behind one lantern to the next.
Even though he quite liked what it did with the mana it had, Ludwig still didn't catch it. The reason? It still couldn't compare to the amount of Mana Claire's Abra had.
As they traversed through the tower for some more, the Gastly finally disappeared from their trail. Probably had lost interest due to how Ludwig and the others was not paying attention to it.
After that Gastly, others tried in different ways.
A few approached directly, their mist stretching forward as if testing his reaction. Some circled above him, lowering themselves little by little until they reached eye level. One had even passed through him briefly, its cold presence brushing across his shoulder before reforming behind him.
But none of them was interesting enough for Ludwig to grab his Poke Ball.
As they climbed another set of stairs, Rimuru finally opened his mouth. Probably he had finally come to a boiling point after holding back for so long.
"Hey, Lud. We have met so many Gastly until now. Not one caught your fancy yet?"
Ludwig halted his steps mid-stride. He then looked back at the slime in human form that had a shiny Dratini on his neck.
"Some have. But not enough for me to catch them." He answered honestly.
Rimuru just hummed at his answer. But now Claire stepped up.
"You are still looking at them with your method?" She asked.
"Yeah." Ludwig nodded.
"Maybe share what you are looking for in them with us?" Claire suggested.
Ludwig mulled over it for a second. The baseline he used to look for his Gastly was her Abra. In other words, it could be interpreted as she potentially had the weakest Pokemon among them.
Judging by how she indulged her Pokemon quite a bit through the day, she was already in love with it. So just like any other, when love was in the equation, a lot of people could act unlike their usual selves.
As he thought so, he felt like slapping himself in the face.
The one he was talking about was Claire. He didn't know if it was anyone else, but Claire certainly wouldn't do something like that.
Well, maybe she would. But that was on the premise she once again evolved.
At that point, Ludwig decided to just tell her.
"I use your Abra's mana as the standard. If you have checked on it, your Abra had less mana than Rimuru's Dratini. So yeah, I looked for Gastly that had at least the same amount of mana as your Abra."
Claire hummed before looking at the small Pokemon that walked beside her with its eyes still shut.
"I see. Good method you use there. But Lud, you see…"
Claire fished her Pokedex from the depths of her pocket. She then turned it on and brought it close to Ludwig.
When he looked at the Pokedex, the entry it showed was the final evolution of Gastly, one of his all-time favourite Pokemon, Gengar.
"It's described that Gengar likes to hide in someone's shadow. Moreover, it also said Gengar is connected to another dimension, as it could store items on its belly. Looking at it, maybe you can try to lure Gastly, who already has sensitivity to that part of Gengar, with your power?"
Ludwig thought about Claire's suggestion for a moment. Indeed, if Gengar truly had a connection to another dimension, looking for Gastly that could already feel the connection would be another way to judge whether it was talented or not.
It could be said that the method Claire suggested was a higher tier of judging. Even so, he still felt the current amount of mana was the one he should focus on. Why? Because that connection with another dimension was something he could nurture in them.
Still, maybe he also had to try to mix the method.
"Let's try." Ludwig nodded. "I hope we are not wrong and make hundreds of Gastly come at us."
Rimuru and Claire chuckled at his words. But he could see Looker and Oak went slightly paler at the mention.
The break didn't last long.
Ludwig resumed walking, though his pace slowed slightly as his attention shifted. Up to this point, he had only observed. Using his Mana-sight whenever a Gastly drifted into his sight.
But now, he would take a more proactive approach.
He let a small portion of mana move. Not strong enough to shake the building and scared half of the inhabitants of the ecosystem, but subtle enough to make only those who could feel it drift closer to him.
They continued to walk after that. Some more Gastly drifted into him, but it was easy to tell that they were not coming due to his mana but because of curiosity.
Only after they climbed two more floors did the routine finally break, and the change announced itself not through numbers, but through absence. No Gastly drifted around them. The idle circulation of Gastly between lanterns and pillars gave way to a quieter stretch of hallway where even the air seemed to settle differently, as if something had claimed the space not by force but by presence alone.
Ludwig felt it before he saw it. In the middle of the empty hall, something was sitting quietly. Eating the spatial mana that he emitted.
Ludwig slowed as his eyes finally gazed into where he felt the presence was sitting.
At first, nothing appeared. Only shadow layered over stone, the faint outline of a pillar, and the dim flicker of light that failed to fully claim the corner. But then, the shadow moved. And from it, a Gastly appeared.
But unlike the others he had seen before, this one didn't drift. Instead, it moved with a clear intention.
When it finally opened its eyes, its eyes didn't even drift. It just quickly settled on Ludwig, like it already knew he was the one who had the mana it had feasted on.
Even so, the Gastly did not advance. But it did not yield the ground either. Its body remained gathered rather than dispersed, the mist around its body folding into itself in a controlled rhythm that mirrored the way it had been consuming the spatial mana Ludwig had let seep into the environment.
Ludwig could see the amount of mana the Gastly had now. Compared to Claire's Abra, it won by miles. But that's not everything. It was apparent that the round Pokemon was able to control it better than the Abra or maybe even the Dratini.
That fact, plus how it could already sense spatial mana, was enough of a factor for him to choose.
And now came the hard part.
Ludwig let out a hot breath for a moment before he closed the gap between them. Not through a nor a run. He simply slipped into the void behind reality and appeared just beside the Pokemon.
"Yo!" Ludwig spoke.
Its wide white eyes became wider as it realized Ludwig had stood beside it in an instant. But then, the round body vanished before reappearing a few meters behind where it originally stood.
"Oh?" Ludwig mused.
What it had done was no mere mimicry. He wasn't sure whether Gastly had that kind of power originally. But whatever the Gastly in front of him did, it was close to his own teleportation.
Now, he wanted it more than ever.
Ludwig teleported again, but now he landed just behind it.
"You got some moves, huh? But can you beat me?"
The Gastly spun so fast he swore he could hear the air around it explode. And again, it vanished. However, unlike earlier, it only reappeared for a second before vanishing again.
Ludwig saw through what it did in an instant. It was trying to gain ground against them.
Unfortunately for it, it was still too green to challenge him.
Still, Ludwig did not rush after it immediately.
He stayed where he was for a fraction longer than necessary, watching the way the Gastly's presence flickered through space rather than moved across it. The reappearance lasted only a moment before it slipped again, the distortion it left behind thinner than before, the transition not as clean as its first attempt.
So that was how it used it.
It was not a step but a skip.
Once he saw through the mechanics, Ludwig moved.
This time, he did not aim for where the Gastly was. He aimed for where it would be forced to stabilize. His figure folded into the same unseen layer he had used before, the world flattening for an instant before reforming around him two steps ahead of the Gastly's projected path.
The Gastly reappeared slightly to his right instead, its body tightening as it corrected itself mid-cycle, the outer mist shivering before snapping back into cohesion. It did not flee blindly. It adjusted again, vanishing in a shorter jump, the distance covered smaller, but the recovery quicker.
Ludwig's lips curved slightly.
"Getting the hang of it?"
He shifted again, this time not closing the distance but circling, appearing to the side where the Gastly had just been. The exchange stopped resembling pursuit and began to resemble rhythm, each of them slipping through space in short intervals.
The Gastly's movements grew faster for a few cycles, its reactions sharpening as it tried to predict rather than escape, its core rotation tightening as more of its mana was drawn inward to maintain stability through repeated transitions.
But the strain began to show.
The outer mist around its body no longer held its earlier neat curvature. Each reappearance carried a slight delay before the body fully reformed, the edges lagging behind the core by a fraction longer than before. The alignment it had displayed earlier remained, but it was no longer effortless like breathing.
Ludwig shortened his own movement.
Instead of matching Gastly's pace, he began cutting off its options, appearing not where it was or where it would go, but where it would hesitate. Each shift he made forced the Gastly to adjust again, to spend just a little more of its mana correcting itself rather than moving freely. The difference between them was not speed.
It was efficiency and mana pool.
The Gastly vanished again.
This time the reappearance came lower, closer to the ground, its form compressing harder than before to maintain cohesion. The mist flared outward for a brief moment before being pulled back in, the rotation inside it accelerating just to keep everything from unraveling.
It tried once more. But this time, a shorter jump.
Then another.
However, the distance reduced each time.
Until finally, it stopped.
Ludwig also stopped moving at once.
For a moment, the only motion came from the Gastly itself. Even tough It stayed where it was, and its eyes still fixed on him, the mist still moved slightly.
Ludwig exhaled lightly before stepping forward this time, closing the remaining distance without slipping through space.
"Alright." He chuckled. "That was fun."
This time, the Gastly just watched him.
Ludwig stopped a few steps away, close enough now that he no longer needed mana-sight to read the condition it was in. The structure was still there. The control was still there. But the reserves had simply been spent.
Good.
That meant it had pushed itself.
"That thing you were doing." Ludwig continued, gesturing slightly with his hand, "I don't know whether you could already have done it before meeting me or mimicking mine. But it's clear you are not that proficient yet. At least in my eyes."
The Gastly's mist shifted faintly, the outer layer tightening just a little as if responding to the acknowledgment.
"But you still did it." He tilted his head slightly, studying it. "And that's what matters to me."
Silence fell between them as they looked into each other's eyes. Then, Ludwig broke into a toothy grin.
"How about this. Come with me, be my partner, and I will teach you how to use that ability in grander scale." He started his pitch.
At this point, it might seem unnecessary because of how exhausted it was. But just like Claire and Rimuru said, he was someone who was pretty strict when it came to consent.
So, he gave it a choice. Though the choice was something it couldn't refuse in his opinion.
"I've got food that tastes better than whatever you were stealing from the air just now." He said in a conversational tone. "And I can give you more of that space you like. Not just scraps. The real thing."
The mist around the Gastly shifted again.
"And you know… I learnt that you guys love to scare people to death. Well, I also liked to prank people. Some of them, I leave them on their knees. But some them… Well, they died wondering what just happened."
Ludwig chuckled.
He was not proud of his past. Not when he still killed people like it was a sport, not a responsibility. But if it's a good deal-maker to get someone, he would gladly pull that card from his deck.
"How about it?" Ludwig asked, but now a red and white sphere of technology was perched in his hand.
The Gastly did not answer. But it did not leave either.
And judging from how Claire's Abra reacted when she caught it, that was already a response.
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