One-Eyed Monster

”Vajra? What the hell is that.”

”Doesn’t matter what the hell it is, if that thing catches you, you’re gonna end up as minced meat.” Nonoa felt this Igor was just like an idiot, knew nothing about anything. Looks like a jinx is a jinx—did he seriously come here without doing any prep at all?

”Then how do we shake it off!” Igor asked. He felt that this Vajra looked huge, but it should have a weak point.

”You can’t shake it off, you can only beat it!”

”How are we supposed to beat it!” Igor kept going, asking nonstop.

”Build up Energy, then chop it down!” Nonoa was actually quite patient.

Igor was really confused. He had no concept of anything, didn’t know what this Border Realm was, and had no clue what the Energy Nonoa talked about was. He was completely in the dark.

Here, the only thing Igor could do was run and keep running—he hadn’t stopped for a second.

After they’d run lap after lap, Nonoa suddenly stopped, then bent his legs again and made the motion of drawing a sword.

Seeing that, Igor snapped out of that dead-silent mood from before, and even got a little excited, because Nonoa was about to go all out!

But before Igor’s excitement could even get going, Nonoa suddenly put away his stance and took off running again.

”What! What kind of operation is that!” Igor chased after him, asking, ”You just posing to scare people?!”

”Bullshit, I tested it, and I realized I can’t cut it at all. That’s a Vajra!”

”What the hell is a Vajra!” Back to this question again. What Igor couldn’t figure out was exactly this. It felt like he couldn’t understand a single thing Nonoa said, and if he couldn’t understand, there was no way to keep communicating, and if they couldn’t communicate, he had no way to understand what kind of place this Border Realm actually was.

”Anyway, that thing’s a pain to deal with. Just run!”

This time Nonoa ran even faster. Igor stuck close behind him, and suddenly noticed that Nonoa’s hair didn’t seem as white as it was a moment ago!

When he’d cut through the flames the second time, Nonoa’s hair had been pure white, that kind of white like deep-winter snow, making people feel a chill down their spine. But now, Nonoa’s hair didn’t look quite that white anymore. A lot of black was slowly appearing, and his hair was turning salt-and-pepper.

”What’s going on with your hair!” Igor stayed right on Nonoa’s heels. He’d more or less figured it out now: if he wanted to understand this strange place, he had to keep his eyes on Nonoa. Anyway, wherever Nonoa went, he’d go. Otherwise he’d just be running around like a headless chicken with no sense of direction.

”I used too much of the power I’d built up, so my hair turned white.” Nonoa didn’t hide it—he had no reason to, since Igor basically couldn’t understand anyway.

”And what is Energy?” Igor could only keep asking again and again.

”Energy is Energy! The Energy you rely on to survive!” Nonoa got a bit worked up, even a little frantic and exasperated.

”Can I have Energy?” Igor asked.

”Your Energy is practically overflowing! I wish it was mine!” Nonoa snapped.

Igor now understood why Nonoa was so agitated: turns out the Energy in his body was making Nonoa jealous.

”Then how am I supposed to release this Energy!”

”You walking disaster… Looks like you really did stumble into the Border Realm by accident. Fine, guess I’m the unlucky one here.” Nonoa said.

”Save the complaining for later. Let’s deal with this big guy first!” At this moment Igor actually turned decisive, as if he had become the master of this place.

This attitude surprised Nonoa a bit. He hadn’t expected this jinx to not be a total fool—he’d actually pieced together the survival rules of the Border Realm in fragments.

Igor wasn’t stupid of course. From Nonoa’s grumbling, he’d heard that Energy was something very important. Those two sword strikes Nonoa used to cut the flames also gave him a bit of a clue. He might not understand this Border Realm very well, but he now knew that when you run into danger in the Border Realm, you need to use Energy to resolve it, and that this Energy wasn’t something you could have just because you wanted it. Once it’s used up, you probably have to build it up again…

Even though he didn’t know if his guess was right, Igor still decided to do it with a ”let’s just try” mindset.

”So how exactly do I release Energy?” Igor asked again.

”What weapon do you usually use?” Nonoa asked.

”Huh?” Igor didn’t get it. He’d hardly ever used any weapons. He wasn’t a Fighter, so what weapon would he use!

”Don’t tell me you’re not a Warrior? You dare come to the Border Realm if you’re not a Warrior?”

”No, I’m not a Fighter. I… am an Adventurer.” Igor hesitated before he spoke. He understood what Nonoa meant by Warrior: a branch of Fighters who specialize in Physique Technique and weapons.

”Fine, then just think of a weapon that feels right in your hand. Only with a weapon can you release the Energy in your body.”

”Uh…” Igor thought for a moment. ”I’ll use a sword too, then!”

”You—” Nonoa didn’t even know what to say. ”Whatever, sword it is.”

”And then? Okay, I’m using a sword.” Igor said it very casually.

”Do you even know how to use a sword?” Nonoa had no idea how to keep this conversation going. Igor seemed to think whatever popped into his head just worked!

”Sure, just be fast!”

”…” Nonoa made no comment. To be fair, Quick Slash was indeed one style of sword attack.

Igor hadn’t really used a sword much. He’d only watched some Fighters use swords. At Yonder Travel Academy, there had once been a Fighter instructor who had noticed his talent and given him some pointers, but Igor’s lack of interest left that Fighter teacher bitterly disappointed, feeling like all his effort had been wasted. He’d taught him quite a bit, but Igor only remembered one thing: when using a sword, you had to be fast.

”So what do I do next to release my own Energy?”

”Fine, I’ll teach you your first lesson in the Border Realm: releasing Energy.” Nonoa was a bit helpless. Running into someone like Igor, there was no way not to be. ”You know Inner World Spell, right? Use your own method to manifest a sword!”

Following Nonoa’s instructions, Igor spread out his Spirit Power and manifested a sword.

The sword immediately appeared in Igor’s hand.

”Good. First step: feel the Energy. You need to feel the Energy flowing in your body right now. Only if you can feel it can you release it. Otherwise everything else is just for nothing.” Nonoa slowed his pace and spoke, enunciating each word.

”I can feel power all over my body. My whole body feels hot. Is that… from running too much and sweating?”

”Your associations are something else. For you to get here, you should at least know this isn’t your real body. Where would the sweat come from?”

Igor nodded. True enough, his real body was in Dean Hoffman’s basement; what was here was just another aspect of his consciousness.