Jyno woke me up. I had been sleeping for a week apparently. I felt tired and sluggish as if this body wasn’t my own. I was wondering how long I have.

I got up but left my body behind.

“This is a weird sight…” I waited till I got pulled back into my body.

Right, no time to waste, how is the spirit guardian doing?

“Worried.”

I mean with blackouts.

“Not much change luckily.”

What about the information about spirits?

“It’s all in the living room.”

Jyno was right. There was a mountain of books and documents in the living room. I went into ‘Library Mode’ and started reading.

“This is also an impressive sight. The others must see this” Jyno disappeared and I kept reading. A lot was in elvish but I could get the gist of most. A lot of fairy tales and stories. Some info about the spirit contracts.

None of these are deepening my understanding of spirits. They gave me a lot of junk! I made a shadow clone and had it look for the book spirit.

I had found something. The usual about them living in the spirit world but what caught my eye was that not all races are made equal and that most races will forget a spirit when it dies.

With a spirit dying, it means that it will get forcefully sent back to the spirit world. This is not the case if the spirit chooses to return. Races that do remember the spirit after ‘dying’ are, elves, gods, dragons, other spirits, devils and demons and tailed beasts it also named other races but I wasn’t familiar with those. Are they also responsible for the wellbeing of our dimension?

I wonder if that applies to me. I won't get sent to the spirit world if I die so do humans forget about me or am I an exception?

The power spot is a location that is intimately connected to either the planet or the spirit world. Spirits draw their power from it. Without a power spot or a contract, the spirits will run out of spirit energy and get forced back into the spirit world. This would count as ‘Dying’

Spirits have a safety mechanic that forcefully sends them back to their power spot when they run low to prevent this. This is all what this document says. Why is all this information fragmented? I have the feeling that the details around contracts and power spots are very important in creating Ichor Pneuma.

Ichor Pneuma basically has to be the substitute for the power spot or contract. I need to know what those 2 have in common.

I had to filter through a lot of junk. I had made a junk pile which was quite large by now.

Oh, this is the first time I see your ‘Library Mode’ how is the research going?

Quite shit, it’s not going fast enough and half of these documents are stories or fairy tales. I threw 9 more books to the useless pile.

“What have you found so far?” Elliana looked tired.

Oh, how did the hunting event go?

“I won! Raishin came in 4th!”

He is sulking at the moment, he believed he should have at least taken the 2nd spot.

Well, he was competing against elves. I’m surprised he even made it that high up. Congratulations. So far, I found nothing extremely important. I need to find more about how power spots work and what they are and what their similarity is to contracts.

Jyno and his group of elves came in.

Hey guys I’m not an attraction go do your elf things! I’m busy!

I chucked 9 more books to the ‘junk’ pile.

“Do you always read like that?”

No only when I need to get a lot of information in my head in a short time, now scram!

The elves used my house as a social meeting place again and I ignored their chatter and questions. I had cleared out the whole stack of books at the end of the next day and had found nothing else important.

Stupid mango stealing elders, they didn’t give me everything!

Elliana looked up from a book that I had thrown on the ‘junk’ pile. “How do you know?”

Some information was fragmented but I never found the rest of it and I read everything.

Jyno shook his head. “I still can’t believe you read all this in such short of a time. I’m struggling on reading 1 book per day.”

Racial perk, you should take a break. I’m not going anywhere, where is Inna by the way?

“I have no idea. She got 3rd in the hunting event; she was happy to get that far but I haven’t seen her ever since.”

I have a question. My clone went to look for a spirit in the shape of a book. Have you seen him?

“Sorry I’m not a spirit mage…”

Right… I forgot. I will have my clone look better then.

My clone asked other spirits but they couldn’t explain what I asked for or they didn’t know. None had seen the book spirit in a while. Even the ones he used to hang around with. They said he suddenly disappeared but that also other spirits have been disappearing suddenly.

What is going on? One spirit even popped out of existence while my clone was talking to her. Well, she didn’t pop out of existence I assume she returned to the spirit world. But so abrupt? And why?

I got a bad feeling.

Jyno this is urgent. I need to talk to the guardian spirit!

I got up and jumped to the forest floor and ran into the big tree.

“Again Agnis?!”

You know I don’t have time for this! I need to see the guardian!

“Agnis wait!” Jyno jumped down carrying me.

Oh shit. Did I lose my body again?

Jyno and the elders nodded. Byron approached me.

Stolen novel; please report.

“I will go with you, I’m curious on what is this urgent.”

Byron and i arrived at the spirit but the glows were off.

Spirit, are you awake?

No answer. The glow was gone so she was probably in a blackout.

We waited for 3 hours when the glow returned.

“Oh, I apologize, I hope you didn’t have to wait long.”

A question. How likely is it that something is trying to pull spirits to the spirit world? I saw a spirit pop out of existence and several spirits have been reported missing. This can’t be coincidence!

“That is plausible but why also pull on spirits that have a vessel? The case of contracts is a bit fragile so I’m not surprised that they will get dragged away but I am not sure how we fit in. but if that’s the case then creating a spirit vessel is useless…”

But why is it happening to some spirits and not others? Also, in the end you want to walk between the elves you love so much, right? So, it’s not useless.

“I don’t know why this is happening but if the spirit world is calling us there is nothing we can do.”

There is really nothing we can do? How is it even calling us? Can we block the signal or more importantly, can we harness that energy for something else?

“I don’t know.”

Does this categorize as ‘dying’ for the spirits?

“I don’t know either, however ‘dying’ is associated with running out of spirit energy and getting forced back to the spirit world because of this. Any other reason is not seen as such. We are not getting pulled out because our spirit energy is getting drained. However… this situation is special, I think it counts as dying.”

Hmm, is it like that Dimsha you guys have? I remember that it called spirits over from the spirit world, can I have a look at it?

“Ohh, you are correct. Byron, show him the horn.”

Byron left and returned 20 minutes later with the horn. My dimensional filter revealed that It didn’t look much different than the water producing Dimsha I had found earlier. It looked like a piece of the dimensional fabric. What could even cause an item like this to exist?

Is there a way to activate it without pulling spirits over?

Byron poured some spirit energy into the horn and it seemed like it woke up.

Hmm this is interesting.

“What do you see?”

It is making a funnel through the dimensional fabric; I assume the destination is the spirit world. The funnel hasn’t opened yet so nothing can pass. It also made spirit energy out of thin air and its sending it to both of us.

“I don’t feel anything.”

Me neither but it’s not a lot. I assume the funnel opens and more spirit energy gets created when someone blows on the horn. Now why it needs to be blown three times… that I don’t know.

“What we know is that the third sound of the horn will fully open the connection with the spirit world. At least that’s what the elven legends say.” Byron picked up the horn and put it to his mouth. “The use of this is normally strictly regulated but this is an emergency, please pay attention as I will only blow the horn twice.”

I nodded and opened as many filters as I could bear. Byron blew the horn. The funnel opened and a vast amount of spirit energy was created and rushed into the guardian spirit and me. I also got the feeling that it was calling me. Now that I was closer it was as if something was calling me in the spirit language.

It seems some minor and lesser spirits used the funnel to come over to this side. They also got a boost to their spirit energy but because they were minor and lesser spirits, this was a bigger deal to them. This could cause them to evolve to a higher level. I also saw thin strands or filaments of spirit energy shoot out from them and head toward the crater our battle against the gods had left behind. That place was now a power spot. It looked like spirit energy but it wasn’t. I will call it a spirit tether.

Is this what connects them to their power spot? It disappeared shortly after. I believe it’s still here but this might mean that it’s impossible to sever this connection now. Minor and lesser spirits kept entering the Mainfloor. And every spirit got tethered to what I believe was the nearest power spot. It might also be the most suitable power spot.

Byron blew the horn again. The funnel widened more spirit energy got created and distributed to the spirits present. The tether on every spirit reappeared and got thicker. Some spirits grew another tether that went to a different direction.

Is it possible to have more than one power spot as a spirit?

The guardian tree responded. “It is, it isn’t very common though.”

Several spirits here seem to have made a connection with another power spot, 2 of them even have 3 now.

“Hmm, that’s interesting.”

What is even more interesting, you and I also have these tethers. Mine are wrapping around my body and yours are wrapping around the tree. Both of us grew more and thicker tethers. Maybe this will cause us to blackout less.

“That is a great discovery if that’s true. However, I don’t think this is a good permanent solution.”

Well, I might have an idea what is happening. The tethers on you and me seem quite strong but there were several that had snapped. Something might be snapping these tethers to then pull us into the spirit world. So, if we can find a way to prevent that or to regrow these without blowing this horn, we might stand a chance. But this is certainly something that should be important in making Ichor Pneuma.

Byron put the horn down. “I am glad that I could be of use, now excuse me, I need to put a team together to escort all of these spirits to their power spot, it’s quite crowded here…”

Byron was right, this space was crowded with spirits, they all seemed very happy to be on the Mainfloor and to meet a spirit fox and a spirit guardian on their first arrival. I assume it’s like moving to a different country and the first 2 people you meet are celebrities.

Byron escorted the spirits out. Byron, the guardian spirit and I had to endure many instances of ‘thank you’ and ‘pleased to meet you’.

I am unsure how I interact with spirit energy but I feel way better than I did before. Maybe receiving or generating some spirit energy is important for a spirit, me included. It feels as if the pieces are slowly coming together. I focused on myself and slowly but surely the spirit tethers became visible. It is something that requires focus, without focus I can’t see it. Even Elgards eyes has difficulty seeing this. I walked outside between the horde of spirits rushing out and following Byron.

The elves that could see spirits were taken aback by this but I assume they did hear the horn. I did notice that the elves that had spirit contracts had their spirit tied to them by the spirt tether. It seemed to siphon spirit energy and mana. The mana got converted to spirit energy inside the tether. The tether siphoned 10 times as much mana than spirit energy.

Does this mean that a power spot could also be a mana-rich environment and not necessarily a place that has a lot of spirit energy? My focus slipped and the tethers disappeared.

So, making a contract involves tethering a spirit to the spirit mage with these. It will turn the spirit mage into a power spot. I already knew this but realizing this after discovering it is more eye-opening than someone telling you this.

I focused again and the tethers appeared again. A spirit was indulging on bread and its spirit tether became thicker and more efficient. I kept observing and the tether stayed like this for an hour and then went back to normal.

Isn’t this interesting? It doesn’t seem like they eat bread to get this effect but they genuinely like bread. So, the question is. Is it the bread that does it or their favorite food? Personally, I’m neutral toward bread.

I took some bread out of my dimensional pocket, ate it and inspected myself. Nothing happened to my spirit tether. I took out some salmon, fried it and ate it. Also, nothing. Does this not apply to me?

I was about to give up on this idea when Spirit Salmon came to my mind. So far, any 9t I know loves that. It is also a spirit. Kind of, its similar to 9t as in having a physical body as if it was made to be eaten by us. As far as I know it’s the only spirit type that are assholes. They drive away aquatic creatures if their population doesn’t keep getting checked by the 9t. They are probably proliferating because we are nearing extinction.

I don’t have any on me but I am going to guess that this is what’s going to strengthen my spirit tether at least temporarily. I approached a spirit.

I have a question. It’s safe to assume you love bread, right?

it confirmed and even enthusiastically so.

Oh, it’s the best thing ever? Interesting. So, do you know what happens if you don’t eat bread?

The spirit answered but it might have misunderstood my question.

No, I mean besides your mood worsening.

the spirit gave a long list of reasons why bread was teh best and why no bread was the worst.

Hmm, you feel weak, interesting. Thank you.

I gave the helpful spirit some bread. All I need to do is to find out what a power spot is. For this, I need to leave the village. This is going to be a challenge. Asking the spirit guardian is of no use because she is going to say ‘no’. I will have to make my trip worthwhile because they are unlikely to let me go after I pull this stunt. Unless…