Crack.
The sharp sound of an egg breaking echoed through the Pokémon Breeding Room, immediately drawing the attention of Lena and their parents, who had just entered. Dropping everything, they rushed to Arthur's side, eager to witness the birth of a new Pokémon.
"What kind of Pokémon is it, bro?" Lena asked, her eyes fixed on the eerie-looking egg with curiosity.
Arthur had mentioned Ghost-types before, and Lena had a hunch this might be one of them.
But what kind of ghost?
"You'll see soon enough," Arthur replied with a knowing smile.
"Hmph, acting all mysterious," she rolled her eyes, giving his shoulder a playful nudge before turning back to watch.
It didn't take long. The egg began to glow faintly, cracks spreading like lightning across its shell, until a small, ghostly figure emerged. The others instinctively stepped back, giving the newborn space to imprint on Arthur.
"Mi~" it let out a soft, almost ethereal cry.
"Hello, Misdreavus. Nice to meet you," Arthur said warmly, raising a hand in greeting. But his smile faltered as a strange sensation washed over him.
So this is what it feels like to be fed on fear? he thought, as the Ghost-type absorbed the lingering dread he'd felt about the hatching process going wrong. The more fear it took in, the livelier it seemed to become.
Arthur shivered. It was like the temperature had dropped below freezing—an invisible chill crept down his spine, leaving him feeling unnerved, as though trapped in a half-remembered nightmare.
This was his doing. He had programmed this instinct into Misdreavus, the ability to feed on fear.
Just like the abstract concept of "Friendship" evolution, he hadn't known how it would manifest in reality—until now.
Pushing aside the lingering chill, Arthur turned his attention back to his second Pokémon and began a thorough check-up. The newly hatched Misdreavus could barely levitate, its body still weak, lying curled inside the incubator full of mucus.
Misdreavus was a small, ghostly Pokémon with a wispy, shadowy body that looks delicate and light, almost like it could drift away. Though it appeared slightly weak right now from the recent hatching, its large, glowing red eyes shine with lively mischief and sharp curiosity.
Once he was sure it was in stable condition, Arthur pulled out his Pokédex and scanned it.
---
[Misdreavus]
[Types: Ghost]
[Ability: Levitate]
[Level: 1]
[Misdreavus, whether wild or owned by a Trainer, are nocturnal spirits known for their mischievous nature. They delight in startling humans and other Pokémon purely for their own amusement—often with sudden jump-scares or eerie, wailing screeches that echo through the night. Their antics can escalate to tugging or even biting at a person's hair, all in the name of fun. When a prank lands just right, they can't resist flashing a smug, gloating grin. The red gemstone-like orbs around their neck serve a more sinister purpose: they absorb the fear of their victims, feeding on it as a vital source of energy.]
[Base stats: -Redacted- (Total: 435)]
[Moves: Confusion, Growl, Destiny Bond, Memento, -empty-, -empty-, -empty-, -empty-, -empty-]
---
As Arthur scanned the moveset, his eyelid twitched.
Good news: my Misdreavus got two Egg Moves...
Bad news: both of them are practically suicidal...
Both are useless!
Okay, maybe not useless—but still... What kind of luck saddled him with two high-risk moves that made him question the sanity of using them? Sure, he had programmed them to only knock Pokémon out—not cause any real harm—but even so, these weren't the kind of attacks you tossed out casually.
It wasn't that he thought they'd actually kill a Pokémon…
It was that he wasn't sure they wouldn't.
Simply put, he was afraid to put them to the test.
Sigh… I'll have to eventually, he thought, scratching his head with a weary hand. But first, I'll need Misdreavus's consent.
Pokémon were living beings, after all. They had survival instincts. If those instincts flared up during the test, warning it that something was seriously wrong—that the move might do more than make Pokémon faint—then that would be all the confirmation he needed.
And then there was another complication: he'd have to see how these moves interacted with the native creatures of this world, including humans.
Watching the adorable Misdreavus glance around, eyes wide with curiosity, he was reminded of the challenges he'd faced while developing the templates for both Gastly and Misdreavus.
Ghost-types.
Creating templates for them had been a nightmare.
In some ways, defining a Ghost-type was even harder than designing a Legendary Pokémon. With Legendaries, at least there were rules—patterns to follow, information to reference, lore that gave shape to their existence.
Ghosts?
What's a ghost?
His approach to Pokémon typing involved inputting a premade type chart into each Pokémon's data. That way, their typings and moves would interact just like they did in the Pokémon world. For example, Fighting-types being effective against Normal-types—it was basic Pokémon logic.
But what about the other creatures in this world? Would the native beings of Ocasia—whatever counted as their version of "Normal-type"—be weak to a Pokémon's Fighting-type attacks?
Arthur had no idea whether any of Ocasia's monsters fell into the same category as a Pokémon's Normal-type, especially since all of them possessed inherent mana and magic.
Applying Pokémon logic to this world's ecology felt like forcing puzzle pieces into the wrong places. Sure, a massive rat-like monster would probably go flying if struck by something like Force Palm, maybe even get knocked out in a single hit—but that didn't necessarily mean it had a Fighting-type weakness.
So, what's considered a Ghost-type in Ocasia?
Rosalia had told him about monsters like zombies and ghouls. Arthur had gone back and forth on whether those should be considered Ghost-types or Dark-types. In the end, Dark-type made more sense—they were physical, aggressive, and more horror than haunting.
Then there were Liches—high-ranking undead with clear physical form. Ghost-type or Dark-type? He leaned toward Ghost, but that raised another question. If a Lich counted as a Ghost-type, then in Pokémon logic, it shouldn't be vulnerable to physical attacks… and yet, Liches clearly could be physically harmed in this world.
In the Pokémon system he'd built, the reason Normal and Fighting-type moves couldn't affect Ghost-types was because he had programmed the type chart that way. Nothing innate about Ghost-types made them intangible.
What would happen if someone in this world used a purely physical, non-elemental attack on Ghost-type Pokémon?
Would the blow just phase through it? Or would it actually connect like punching a Lich?
The image popped into his head—someone landing a clean ordinary punch right on Gengar's smug, grinning face. The thought was so absurd, he nearly laughed aloud.
Other than the Lich, there was a rare creature called Wraith in the Cursed Lands, but no one really knew what they were or where they came from—least of all him, who had never seen one in person. He had no reference point to work with.
Technically, Arthur could program intangibility into the Ghost-type gene—but there were too many variables to account for. The reason the system worked for Pokémon was simple: he had built that system. It was a closed, consistent framework.
Ocasia, on the other hand, had a far more complex and chaotic magical ecosystem. Elemental attacks here were too vast and varied to categorize cleanly under Pokémon logic.
Even so, he remained determined to ensure that Ghost-types were immune to Ocasia's non-Elemental and physical attacks.
His first idea for fixing the issue was straightforward—give Ghost-types the ability to turn intangible at will.
It made sense. That was standard for Ghost-types across almost every Pokémon world—why should Ocasia's be any different?
But then came the next problem.
If Ghost-types could become intangible at will, they'd be able to avoid even super-effective physical attacks like Iron Head. And according to core Pokémon mechanics, that shouldn't happen. Type effectiveness was meant to override evasive traits like that. Allowing full intangibility would essentially grant Ghost-types immunity to nearly every physical move—regardless of whether it was super effective or not.
So, he reworked the intangibility, integrating it into the Ghost-typing itself—as part of the type's behavior and logic, allowing super-effective moves to bypass intangibility.
But even that wasn't the end of the problem.
In Ocasia, full intangibility had wider implications. If a Ghost-type could phase through matter, that meant it could also slip past enchanted weapons or even spells cast by Mages. And since Ocasia's native magic system wasn't integrated into the Pokémon typing framework, those attacks would have no way to "recognize" or bypass the intangibility advantage.
That would make Ghost-types virtually unstoppable in Ocasia—
—in theory.
If full intangibility were possible for him to create, would he still be a weak Zero Ring Mage?
Worse still, having that kind of power would probably make people fear Ghost-types even more than they feared the undead or cursed creatures from the Cursed Lands. It would make them seem like untouchable beings, immune to the rules of the world.
In the end, Arthur reworked the entire thing and settled on a compromise.
He designed Ghost-types to have a kind of fake intangibility—partially intangible, with their bodies anchored in an alternate space that followed them wherever they went.
To implement this, he built their intangibility using the foundation of Ocasia's native magic system. But unlike standard spells, which had strict limitations, this effect would be intrinsic to the Ghost-types Pokémon's nature. For them, it wasn't an ability—it was a passive state of being. No enery drained. No cooldown. Just part of who they were.
As for how he made their 'intangible' nature both constant and unlimited, that traced back to a problem he had discovered early on: Pokémon souls didn't fully merge with their bodies.
Ghost-types were a late addition to his creations. When he first created Gastly, it was only after successfully using Harmonite to link Pokémon body and soul that the design truly worked.
Drawing from his research on Poké Balls, Arthur modeled Ghost-types to exist in a state similar to being inside a Poké Ball all the time. This meant their body and mind were connected yet separated by a kind of distance.
That's why Ghost-type Pokémon here were unique—they had their own alternate space moving with them constantly. When they wanted to become intangible, they simply slipped into that alternate space. Yet, they remained visible because this alternate space was created much like a Poké Ball's interior: you could look inside. The key difference was that while a Poké Ball compressed its contents to minimize size, the Ghost-type's alternate space was uncompressed, existing alongside them in full scale.
To prevent their stamina from draining due to maintaining this constant alternate space, Arthur designed the space to be extremely fragile—so fragile that even a slight hit from an elemental attack could instantly shatter it when the Ghost-type activated intangibility.
Because of its fragility, the space was almost powerless on its own, serving mainly to grant immunity against Pokémon's Normal and Fighting-type moves—which couldn't trigger the elemental attack condition—as well as non-elemental attacks native to this world.
Its delicate nature also allowed it to restore itself just as quickly, with only a minimal drain on the Pokémon's stamina.
Additionally, his research on Remnora and Rosalia's Compressed Space—an area existing 'outside' the interior of her tent—helped him refine and perfect this intangible ability for Ghost-type Pokémon.
In conclusion, a Ghost-type's 'intangibility' could be disrupted by anything that altered the fundamental laws of the world—magic, elemental forces, and any moves other than Normal or Fighting types—while ordinary physical attacks wouldn't be able to break them out of their intangible state.
It wasn't true intangibility, but it would have to suffice.
After all, how could he create a real ghost without truly understanding what a ghost was?
Well... after all this thinking, it was still just a theory he hoped would work.
His Misdreavus had only just hatched and wasn't ready for any testing yet.
Also, he certainly wouldn't risk placing any Ghost-type eggs inside Rastor's Safari Zone until he was confident the intangibility functioned as intended.
So, for now, his Misdreavus would be the only Ghost-type Pokémon of Ocasia.
"Wow, it's so cute… Is this really a Ghost-type?" Lena's eyes sparkled, the mental image she'd held of Ghost-types shattering completely.
She'd expected something terrifying—sinister, eerie, maybe even monstrous. Instead, what hatched from the egg looked more like… a floating woman's head.
Wait… a floating woman's head? The realization made her skin crawl just a little. She gave Misdreavus another careful glance, trying to calm herself.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn't quite as creepy as she first thought. In fact, it resembled a chibi version of a woman—a word Arthur had once used while sketching Pokémon in his notebook.
Misdreavus looked more playful than haunting, with large eyes and small red beads, giving it a kind of eerie charm.
For now, no one present felt afraid, so there was no fear for Misdreavus to feed on. Its presence remained neutral, almost gentle.
Arthur observed the scene silently, nodding in approval—then shaking his head a moment later.
What would happen when they did feel fear? When night fell, a chill ran down someone's spine, and Misdreavus reacted on instinct?
As if on cue, Arthur felt a cold tingle ripple through his body. Misdreavus let out a soft, satisfied cry—almost like a tiny burp—as it fed off his unease.
This is… not pleasant, Arthur thought with a stiffed smile, folding his arms. I hope it's controllable after some training.
He didn't mind personally—it was part of Misdreavus's nature, and for him, the sensation was just a minor chill. But he couldn't say the same for others. If Misdreavus started feeding on random fears, Ghost-types could end up with an even worse reputation in the future—and that was the last thing Arthur wanted.
Of course, he could take the easy way out. He could rewrite its nature—make it more positive, more socially acceptable. But doing that would make it less authentic.
"Bro! After a week—let's have your Ghost Pokémon battle my Lapras!" Lena said suddenly, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
Arthur smiled. "It's a tradition at this point, right?"
Everyone was always eager to battle the moment they got a new Pokémon.
"You're on!" Arthur said with a grin, accepting the challenge.