Transmigrated as a Ghost

'That one will do.'

Finding his target Marcus floated down towards one of the guards that was just in the middle of being relived.

From what Marcus had observed this guy seemed to be the highest-ranking member that was keeping watch, and his level was fairly high at thirty-six.

Unfortunately, while he was strong from an average person's perspective Marcus was over twenty levels higher and possessed the man without any resistance.

'Been a while since I last did this.' Marcus thought as he got used to moving a flesh and blood body.

It felt completely different than his normal form that did not have anything like blood or organs, or even the need to breath.

Luckily, since Marcus' mind was human to begin with, the instinctual feel for a human body came back fairly quickly.

After doing some stretches and test movements with the man's body, he was confident in his ability to manipulate his current puppet.

'They really carved this place out.' He thought seeing the intricate hallways and rooms that had been made in this stone pillar.

Currently he was on the top level where the man had been patrolling, and other than the outer wall being thick enough to repel most attacks, the inside was cleared away, leaving only the minimum amount of stone necessary for supporting the structure.

'Some people are coming from those stairs.'

With his life sense skill going, Marcus detected three presences coming up to the floor that he was currently on.

At first, he almost had the instinct to try and hide since he was an infiltrator, but he quickly remembered he was possessing the body of one of the soldiers.

Staying confident he walked by them and politely nodded his head towards the two women and one young guy coming up the stairs.

He also discreetly appraised them. Finding that the young man's level was just twenty, while the younger girl with brown hair tied up in a bun was level twenty-five, and the woman that seemed to be in her earlier thirties with long blonde hair was surprisingly at level forty.

"Oh, where is your normal greeting Enzo? It is a bit rude to simply walk by your superior with simply a nod." The blond-haired woman said.

Mentally kicking himself, Marcus thought he should have more closely watched how these people interacted. They were military unit, so of course they had structure and customs he was not aware of. But well, at least he did learn the name of the man he was possessing.

Still, he stayed adaptable and turned around with a fake smile on his face.

"Sorry, I just got off and am a bit tired. Please excuse my rudeness." Marcus said.

The blonde woman gave him quite the smile when he turned around to face her, and she did not actually seem that bothered.

"I see, yes, you did just finish watch, so it makes sense. How about you go and get some food in the mess and rest for a bit in your quarters. Just don't forget the meeting we have scheduled in two hours."

Once he had given an assurance that he would be at this meeting, Marcus headed down the stairs and continued scouting around the interior of the base.

Before he started taking them down, he wanted to thoroughly investigate what he could.

From what he had gotten out of the other soldiers he had integrated; he knew that there were quite a few high-ranking officers here that they did not know the level of.

Looking around, Marcus decided to try and find the mess as suggested, since he figured that it might be a good place to pick up some information.

'Not here.'

'Nope.'

'This is a bathroom.'

'Oh! Not what I was looking for, but this is still a good find.'

Going though a bunch of rooms he finally found something that was not just a useless room.

Inside were dozens of crates and stored in each of them were plenty of magic cores.

With everything in this room, they could keep a fort going for a couple weeks at least.

'None of them seem to be from beasts or monsters above level forty or off especially high grade, and most are definitely from creatures below level thirty.' Marcus found after going through a few crates.

Then when he had finished looking them over, he opened his item box and began emptying out as many as he could.

There was no point in these cores being destroyed in the likely battle that was going to ensue once he had finished gathering information and planning his method of attack

Plus, it would weaken any response they could make if they suddenly found themselves unable to power their magic devices.

'That is probably the most I can take without rousing immediate suspicion.' Marcus thought when he was done.

He had left just enough crates to block off the ones he had empties so that if someone came to grab any they would not find it completely empty.

Next, he made his way around and discreetly sabotaged all of the mana cannons in the pillar he was currently in.

Using his skills as a forge master, he added a new formation on the cannon so that it would create a barrier around the exit and explode when fired.

Truly it was quite the diabolic idea, as unless they inspected the inside of the cannons very carefully, they would never find the traps he had laid.

'Now that was quite the detour from my original goal. Where is that mess hall?' Marcus thought as he wiped the sweat off the brow of the man he was possessing.

With his scouting out of the first pillar finished and not having found his current target, he crossed over one of the bridges and began his search anew.

As he left the first pillar, he found that the next had quite a few more people in it which made it hard for him to stealthily go around into every room.

However, it did give him another opportunity to learn the customs of the soldiers, and he watched how they reacted when they passed by each other.

'I see, they typically give a quick salute and address anyone of a higher rank. For the same rank a curt nod or no acknowledgment seems to be the norm.'

When he was done observing how these soldiers interacted, he made sure to come around corner towards two people he assumed were lower ranking than the guy he was possessing since their levels were only in the mid-twenties.

Fortunately, his assumption was on point, and they gave him the normal salute and said, "Lieutenant" as he passed by.

'Good, now I know this guy's rank. I suppose that it must be denoted by this badge he has on his clothes.' Marcus surmised.

Quickly enough by passing a few more people he found out all the ranks of the soldiers here up to captain which was one above the man he was possessing.

'The captains all seem to be around level forty. Higher than the ones I normally see in Borealia's army which were in the thirties. Still, I have not come across any of their top dogs yet. Hopefully I can find out some more in the mess. Now where it is?'