Chapter 1 - Spirit Friends (2)

Sizzle sizzle.

After multiple trial and errors, Jade finally succeeded in his hunt and began grilling the rabbit inside the cave.

He had lived a normal life in his original world making it difficult for him to clean the rabbit. However, this was something he would now have to do often, so he clumsily got rid of the rabbit's head and its innards.

"I never really thought I'd be eating something like this…."

Oil leaked out from the rabbit as it continued to cook over the fire, yet Jade did not focus on it as he stared out into the emptiness.

It had almost been a full day since he opened his eyes, yet it was such a hard reality to take in.

He really wanted to know how this came to be.

Knock knock.

As if to comfort the perplexed Jade, Sylph flew up and lightly tapped him on his shoulder. She was likely telling him that he wasn't alone.

Unfortunately, this action did not comfort Jade at all.

Rustle.

Something else appeared instead.

A lizard wrapped in flames crawled out from the bonfire.

"Ahh!"

The sudden appearance of the lizard shocked the perplexed Jade and made him feel very displeased.

Not showing any reaction to Jade and Sylph, the fire lizard approached Jade with an innocent expression.

As it did, it rubbed its head against Jade's leg in a friendly manner.

Even though its body was currently on fire, Jade didn't feel any form of heat coming from the little creature.

In fact, he felt very comfortable.

Smack!

The lizard's affection did not last long, because Sylph appeared out of nowhere and kicked its side - sending the creature flying.

The lizard looked around in confusion.

"Are they not on the same level?"

Even though it wasn't part of the original Jade's memories, Jade (current owner) read many web novels from his world and was immediately able to identify this lizard that looked very similar to the Salamander.

Only, both spirits were of the same level, yet the Salamander strangely appeared to be lower than Sylph. Personality wise, it should be more aggressive.

Flap flap!

While Jade was preoccupied with his thoughts, Sylph quickly flew towards him and stopped directly in front of his face.

"Eh yah?"

Shake shake!

Sylph formed the words with her tiny mouth and fiercely shook her head.

It was as if she was saying that it absolutely wasn't true.

And then, she suddenly stopped shaking her head and formed the two words with her mouth again.

"No matter how I look at it, it looks like 'Eh yah" to me but I don't know what that is. Seeing as how we're able to communicate, it means she understands the human language."

Nod nod!

Sylph clapped as she nodded her head, and then slowly formed the two words with her mouth again.

Of course, no matter how many times she did that, there wasn't even a squeak coming from her mouth.

"Contract? Oh, you want me to form a contract?"

Sylph brightly smiled.

She was happy that Jade finally understood what she was trying to say, and she wasn't the only one.

It was the same for the Salamander that was laying close by, with his stomach against the ground.

It got super excited when Jade spoke the words "contract".

"That's right. You guys are usually able to stay with someone once a contract is formed huh? Plus, you can be of benefit to them…But, how do I form a contract with you guys?"

Jade was stuck at an impa.s.se.

He knew he had a rare infinity with spirits, as it could be seen with how Sylph and Salamander appeared in front of him out of nowhere. But he had no idea how he was supposed to form the contract.

It was the same for the original Jade.

Smooch!

"Huh?"

At that moment, Sylph immediately approached Jade and kissed him on his cheek.

Through this, he was able to feel a connection form between himself and Sylph, and at the same time felt something forming within his body.

"Is this mana?'

It was the feeling of mana that the original Jade wanted to feel, but never got to feel.

It wasn't a lot, but it was a start. He would now be able to build upon this frame, because he now knew what mana felt like.

Shwirik! Shwiririk!

The way they formed their contract felt childish, but it was the truth that a contract was formed.

He could feel it through his senses, even though he didn't learn how.

Noticing this, Salamander walked towards Jade again and rubbed its head against his leg.

However, there were even more surprises that were waiting to happen.

Bbyororong.

Rustle.

As the canteen lid burst open, a lower level Undine appeared and at the same time, an old dwarf looking Gnome rose from the ground near Jade.

The most well-known spirits with the four affinities had now appeared.

Seeing this, Jade muttered to himself.

"….Was I always this talented? But, why here? No, I guess I should be happy that it happened in this kind of place."

Like how Salamander first was, Undine and Gnome strangely both showed affection towards Jade.

Undine had a similar fairy like look as Sylph as she shyly approached Jade, while Gnome smiled in a kind way and tapped him in the leg.

As the two new spirits appeared, Salamander's show of affection grew stronger as it flipped over and showed its belly to Jade.

"Oh, come on."

Looking more like an animal than a spirit, Jade stared at Salamander and its actions.

However, on the other side, Jade felt more confident.

Even if they were lower level spirits, Jade was alone in this continent of Arpedia so all four spirits were important existences to him.

Even today, Jade avoided all altercation with monsters and animals with the help of Sylph.

"Do you guys want to form a contract with me too?"

With Jade's question, the eyes of the three spirits s.h.i.+ned brightly.

Jade smiled and held his hand out.

He now knew they didn't have to kiss to form a contract. A simple touch was all that was necessary, as long as the touch was filled with the will of both parties.

Before long, a connection was formed between the spirits and his soul.

"Mm! The consumption of mana is quite big. No, I wonder if this is normal."

The amount of mana consumed for each spirit was the same as Sylph, but because he had formed a contract with the three spirits together, he suddenly grew dizzy.

It was the aftershock of forming contracts back to back.

He was used to this feeling, but it was somewhat tolerable, because the shock wasn't going directly to his head.

"This could be a form of training too."

Seeing Jade suddenly stumble, the four spirits showed worried expressions.

Especially Sylph, she stared at the three spirits in a strict manner.

Feeling the pressure from the cold stare, the three spirits flinched.

"This shouldn't be normal right? Forming a contract with spirits with all four of the affinities."

As the three spirits comfortably began to take their place around Jade, Sylph lay floating in the air, nodding to Jade's question.

It was as if she was answering back to Jade.

"Hmmm."

Jade meaningfully watched Sylph, and the more he watched her, the more he felt that she was different from the other spirits. However, he did not ask a single question regarding it.

"Let's first eat dinner."

He began to eat his dinner as it was temporarily placed on hold with the appearance of the new spirits. However, unknown if it was with the help of Salamander or not but the rabbit wasn't the slightest bit burnt – even though a significant amount of time had pa.s.sed.

It was cooked perfectly.

"……It's so good. Maybe it's because of how hungry I am."

There wasn't any other seasoning done besides a little bit of salt.

Jade wanted to use his seasons sparingly as he didn't have much of it, but the rabbit really did taste delicious.

"I would share with you guys too if you were able to eat."

He felt bad that he was the only one eating as he stared at the four spirits. However, even with those words, the four spirits just smiled brightly as if saying they were completely fine.

–

Having finished his first dinner since coming to this world, Jade informally created an arrow with the branches he brought back with him.

He used a multi-use dagger to awkwardly create his arrow shaft.

It was an informal arrow without a tip, but Jade used it to practice.

He knew that using the bow and arrow was essential moving forward with his journey, so he needed to make a training arrow.

Seu geuk, seu geuk.

He also used the rabbit's tendons to create a slingshot. His surroundings were filled with rocks, so he wanted to be able to utilize everything he could as he needed to.

"I must do everything I can, since I first need to find a way to go back to my own world. If there's a way to bring me here, I'm sure there's a way to send me back."

This was reality.

He had never had such a vivid dream before, and his five senses were also telling him that it wasn't a dream.

Everything in front of him was real.

Pook! Pook!

Although small, Jade used the solidly made arrow to practice his bow skills.

As he did, the gathered spirits seemed to show interest in his actions - especially Sylph. She could be seen dancing every time he shot the arrow.

Ting!

"Huh?"

Jade furrowed his brows together. Even watching Sylph ride the arrow midair and dance excitedly didn't break his concentration.

However, he had just heard a strange sound coming from the dirt wall he was practicing on. This made him stare in confusion.

Rustle.

As he approached the wall, Gnome cleared the dirt away from the area where Jade was shooting his arrow.

This consumed some mana, but it surprisingly wasn't much.

However, he still went to check. There were so many things he didn't know, so he decided to check even the smallest of things to remember them.

"It's a rusty sword. It looks really old."

The area Gnome cleared away showed a fragment of a rusty sword.

Half of which was gone, so the only thing left of the sword was its handle and a fragment of the metal still hanging onto it.

A little further past the sword was a partially decayed hand.

"I guess he died here."

Looking at the placement of the fingers, the owner of the hand must have died holding onto the sword. However, Jade did not show any feelings as he continued to stare.

He believed there was a reason behind every death.

Instead, he carefully picked the sword up with a twinkle in his eye.

"Mm!"

As soon as his hand touched the handle of the sword, a ma.s.sive amount of memories and emotions rushed into his body.

But Jade was able to keep his sanity through the wave of emotions because it wasn't something that was uncommon in his original world.

He also strangely felt that his mind became mentally stronger

"An Imperial Knight eh."

Everything happened in an instant, but there were many things Jade was able to see and feel.

His eyes shone brightly as he felt that he could get what he wanted through fate.

"One more time."

If this was back in his original world, Jade would have felt a huge migraine every time he went through this process, but this time it was different.

He wasn't sure if it was because of mana or if it's because of the dimensional s.h.i.+ft, but the pain wasn't as bad as it used to be.

Not only that, but he felt that he could look at the memories whenever he wanted to.

Pa aatttttt!!

The will of the sword continued to playback the memories it contained.

Most of the memories were useless, but there were some parts that Jade currently needed.

"Keuk!'

Unlike the internet, Jade couldn't pick out the information that he needed and instead had to receive everything. So, the rebound of the process came back as pain.

The longer he used his ability, the more it felt like his head would break as the pressure continued to grow. However, Jade continued to put up with it.

Compared to how the pain used to feel, he was now able to move about and keep his sanity through the process.

Rustle.

At that moment, a surprising thing happened.

The mana that was spread throughout his body began to gather towards his head, and as it did, his migraine began to subside.

'Is this one of the uses of mana? Or is because I have a special body?'

Jade couldn't figure out the reason, but the important thing was that it helped his pain subside.

There was no reason why he shouldn't take advantage of this, since it didn't consume his vitality.

'Perhaps we had to use our willpower and vitality in the other world, because we didn't have mana at our disposal.'

It was just a speculation that popped into his head, but Jade immediately threw it out.

What was important right now was to grasp the memory that he wanted.

Ever since he formed a contract with his four spirits, there was nothing more important than to raise his mana.

'Here it is.'

The pain in his head was still there, but the level of pain was much lower than when he first started.

That's why Jade was able to pull out the memory that he was searching for.

It was the Imperial Knight's mana technique.

Even if he formed contracts with spirits, he wasn't a wizard, so he was still able to build his body strength. And, that's exactly what he was going to fully utilize.

'Even if I have these spirits, the one who can save my life is myself. I need to become stronger.'

Of course, there was a limit to how strong his body could get but he wasn't planning on getting discouraged.

He was going to do everything he could to the extent that he could, which is why he continued to pull out the rest of the memories that were engraved into the broken sword.

Jade felt lucky to have found this broken sword and to have still had the mana technique intact.

The Imperial Knight must have been very affectionate towards his sword, because his memories were completely vivid.

'It's perfect since it's an elementary level technique that can be used until I get something better. Or, it can also be combined with the Imperial Knight's intermediate, advanced, and perfect mana techniques.'

Just because someone knows the technique doesn't mean they'll be able to learn it, but it wouldn't hurt to still have them memorized.

Jade continued to brood about the future.

During that time, the four spirits gathered near Jade and surrounded him as if to protect him.

Completed - Spirit Friends (2)