White hand on your shoulder

"Okay, let's check whether this bear can give us something. I wonder if this bear is actually a mutated animal or just a tough, regular bear," Yang Zhang commented as he crouched near the bear's head.

The skull had been crushed and created a big hole that oozed the bear's brain, proof that Lt. Spicy Wing was actually strong and useful!

"Wow, great job, Spicy Wing. I guess I have to raise your rank from Second Lieutenant to First Lieutenant Spicy Wing!"

"CHIRP!? CHIRP! CHIRPP!!"

Lt. Spicy Wing jumped around happily. It finally got its original rank back after the grave mistake when fighting against Katarang.

Yang Zhang still didn't understand why the little chick looked very happy with that kind of rank. But each of his pets had their own personality, so he didn't mind much.

He observed the oozing brain, hoping a Mana bead would come out from the bear's brain. However, he wasn't sure if an animal with the ability had a Mana bead in its brain just like a human.

But when he saw nothing from the oozing brain, he decided to use a stick he found nearby to start scraping the brain.

After a minute of scraping, he found nothing inside.

"So it's just a regular black bear that happens to be a tough one, bummer…." Yang Zhang sighed, full of disappointment. He was even more disappointed because he didn't bring any knife. He could've at least skinned this bear, used the bear fur for winter use, and ate the meat for tonight.

But since he didn't bring a knife, he couldn't do anything to this bear.

He looked at his pets and knew none of them couldn't possibly cut this bear.

"Aish, I only have Electric-type, Fire-Fighting type, and a Grass-type. It would be great to find a steel type, seriously," Yang Zhang said. "But how do you actually get a steel type, though?"

Of course, he could've obtained a few types that were readily available in nature, such as fire, water, grass, and flying type.

But few other specific types were too difficult or downright unobtainable, such as psychic, ghost, dragon, or fairy type.

Since Yang Zhang couldn't use this bear's meat or skin because of no tool to do it, he decided to just drag the bear in front of the cave to act as a deterrent, so no other wild animals would approach the cave once they saw the bear sleeping in front.

Yang Zhang looked up and saw the sun had set and many dangerous animals would come soon.

So he quickly collected as many dry branches as possible and then set up a bonfire in front of the cave entrance, just right behind the bear, to warm them all.

Once the night came, Yang Zhang and his pets huddled together, and Chestnut started squeaking.

"Squeak, squeak?"

"Hm? Do you want me to tell stories? Like… horror campfire story?"

"Squeak!"

"Chirp!"

"Vii…"

Little Ivy was scared of ghost stories, but she was also curious. So Little Ivy hid inside Yang Zhang's sleeve with only her eyes peeking.

Yang Zhang was bored, and he couldn't sleep anyway, so he made up a corny ghost story and cleared his throat to start the story;

— Here is a story of four friends who went on a camp in the middle of the forest. The group consists of three boys and 1 girl. Two boys said that they have to go and pee, so there are only two people on the campfire, a girl and a boy."

'Do you believe in ghosts?' The girl suddenly asked out of the blue.

The boy, acting brave, shook his head fervently and said, 'I don't believe in any ghost! They are just stories made by the adults to scare us! Even if there is one, I will just slap his face with a hammer!'

The girl smiled mysteriously, which creeped out the boy. Because they had just met the girl who said she camped alone, that's why they asked her to join in.

'Are you sure? Because I see a white hand on your shoulder,' the girl said as she pointed at the boy's left shoulder.

The boy looked at his left shoulder and found nothing. He paused for a second because he was getting scared.

'Ahahaha… nice trick—' the boy looked towards the girl again, but he saw nobody sitting in front of him. The girl was gone, poof into thin air.

He looked to his left and right, trying to find the girl because there was no way she could leave so quickly. But then, he heard a voice right above his head.

'I'm up here.'

The boy froze on the spot. His heart was beating loudly. His face paled, but he collected his courage to look up and—

"BOO!" Yang Zhang shouted out loud.

"SQUEAK!"

"CHIRP! CHIRP!"

"VIIII!"

"Hahaha! Are you guys scared now?" Yang Zhang laughed out loud. All he wanted to do was scare his pets, and it worked.

Chestnut, Spicy Wing, and Little Ivy suddenly scattered to distance themselves from Yang Zhang.

"Hey, you guys, return to me now. I'm just messing around with you."

"Vii! Vii!"

"Huh? There is a white hand on my shoulder?"

"Vii!"

Suddenly, Yang Zhang felt a cold wind around him and felt a cold hand touch his left shoulder.

Yang Zhang's breath stiffened. He had no courage to look over his left shoulder. But he could feel the cold breath on his nape.

Before he could react even further, the cold hand released his shoulder and dashed to the front.

Yang Zhang could only see a white mist that went inside the dead bear's body and—

The bear, who had been dead for hours, suddenly got up with shining white eyes. It grunted and breathed white mist from its nose. The bear stood in front of Yang Zhang and roared angrily, "GROARRR!"

Yang Zhang, who had been scared to his bone, couldn't hold it anymore, his eyes rolled up, and he fainted.