“Ezra, turn on [Mana Perception]! I think I know what’s going on,” Filamenta said.

Ezra hesitated, then nodded. [Mana Perception] kicked in. The world changed to dead black with outlines of blue figures. Unlike normal monsters, the light coming from the Unibbits burned against Ezra’s eyes. Their mana seemed to be like the surface of the sun, shaking, burning, almost on the verge of an explosion. Ezra flipped off his [Mana Perception].

“They’ve been enhanced,” Ezra said. “I… it’s almost like they’re more mana than physical.”

“Like a Spirit Weapon,” Filamenta said. “Unlike a Spirit Weapon, it’s unstable. Did you see how much it was quivering? Those creatures won’t last more than a month.”

“That doesn’t help us now, though.”

Filamenta went silent. Ezra narrowed his eyes and looked over the six enemies. It wouldn’t be long before the next strike, and he didn’t have any extra information…

Or did he?

He flipped on [Mana Perception] and looked closely, even despite the pain in his eyes. He sucked in a breath.

A small, blue core right at the center of their beings. The source of their power? Ezra shut off his sight and looked at them. He had a target.

He jumped forward, stabbing in one quick motion. The enemy dodged to the left and reared its legs back for a strike. Ezra flipped his needle into a reverse grip and stabbed it into the Unibbit’s chest. The needle sank deeply and the Unibbit screeched.

0/300

The monster evaporated in a puff, leaving a single red crystal ball. It was cracked and shining from where the needle had entered it. A moment later, it shattered into a hundred pieces.

“What the hell…?” Ezra said.

That wasn’t normal. A core? The only time he’d seen something similar was with high-level boss monsters—and in that case, it wasn’t a physical core. What was it doing inside the body of a random non-boss monster? That wasn’t natural.

He didn’t have time to think it over much longer, because the other six Unibbits were snarling and staring him down.

“I think you pissed them off,” Filamenta said.

Ezra growled and flipped his needle back into a normal straight grip.

“Yeah, well, I’m feeling pretty pissed off myself right now.”

One of the Unibbits pawed the ground.

A moment later, Ezra jumped toward one of the Unibbits. It tried to dodge, only for [Restrain] to kick in and screw it into the ground. With a quick stab from Ezra, the creature disappeared into ash.

One of the monsters jumped for Ezra, and he threw his arm up to block.

The legs of the monster slammed into his elbow and his skin went ice cold. Pain exploded up his muscles and he jumped back. Sweat built up along his forehead.

[Calm] kicked in. He stared at his arm. It was hanging by his side limply, probably broken. He’d been lucky to have reset [Calm] last night—it would’ve very much sucked if he’d been forced to fight without its help.

Ezra threw out his needle, [Bind] activating in the process. His needle fell into the ground, then came out and wrapped in a circle around Ezra. Ezra focused on the particle, smoke-like properties of dirt and applied it to the air. Instantly, a cloud of dust exploded around him.

He breathed a sigh. He wasn’t certain if it would work. He activated [Mana Perception].

An Unibbit was already jumping toward him—though it was hilariously off-target thanks to the dust cloud. Ezra dodged, then dashed forward and stabbed into the Unibbit. The core shattered and the creature evaporated into dust.

Four left. Ezra rushed toward one that was jumping from side to side. His needle stabbed into the core, and that one exploded into ash. A sudden breeze washed over the area, blowing away the dust. One jumped toward him. [Web Trap] kicked in and the monster was thrown to the ground. With a flick of Ezra’s wrist, his needle flew through the air and pierced into the Unibbit.

The last two shook and began to step away.

“[Restrain]. [Entangle].”

Thread wrapped around both of them. Ezra dealt with them swiftly.

You have leveled up!

Ezra nearly fell over. His arm was still throbbing with pain. When was the last time he’d gotten hit that hard? Probably back with the Skinwalker Deer. He’d noticed that he healed from minor wounds, but what about larger ones like a broken arm? Well, today seemed like a good chance to experiment. He’d sleep on it and see if he’d recover.

He looked over at the areas where the Unibbits had been.

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“I told you to be careful,” Filamenta said. “So did Prise. As usual, you completely ignored us.”

“It worked out for the best.”

“It might not have. You were lucky, Ezra. If you didn’t have [Mana Perception], things would be looking very different right now.”

Filamenta transformed into a spider and hopped onto the ground, then turned around to face him.

“Ezra, you’ve got to stop taking stupid risks,” she said. “It’ll only take one mistake. Just one. And then it’s all over. I can’t have that, given that you’re my wielder.”

Ezra touched his arm, then winced from the pain. He looked at Filamenta from the corner of his eye. “Look, I know what I’m’ doing—“

“No, you don’t.”

She stared up with her tiny, soulless black eyes.

“You don’t know what you’re doing,” she said. “I’m with you all the time Ezra. I can see these things, yet you put on this stupid, foolish act. You refuse to take criticism or listen to people.”

“Is that so?” Ezra said.

Her tone didn’t change in the slightest. “You disgust me. Two-faced bastard.”

Ezra turned his head up and looked down at her. “This, coming from the person who refuses to tell me a single thing about her life?”

“You keep on using that against me, but you don’t care about that, do you?”

Ezra stiffened.

“I can’t talk to you,” she muttered. Her body transformed back into that of a needle. “We’ll continue this another time.”

Ezra was left alone with his own thoughts. He picked Filamenta up and made his way back to the inn.

----------------------------------------

The next morning, Ezra began his morning as he usually did—with a pseudo-burger. Ezra’s arm had healed—though it was still sore—confirming that he had limited regeneration. Good to know.

The warmth of the sun hit his black jacket. One young man looked out the window at a young lady in the house over. A woman was loading supplies onto wagons.

It wouldn’t be long before he arrived at the burger place. Filamenta was quiet the whole time, staying in her needle form. Ezra adjusted his makeshift eyepatch. He needed to get a real one at some point, just for the sake of comfort.

“I apologize,” a voice murmured.

Ezra pulled out his needle from his pocket and stared at it. Filamenta was silent for a few seconds.

“You’re a pain, Ezra,” she said. “And I disagree with… almost everything about you, but I shouldn’t have personally attacked you. Whatever else, you’re my partner, and I think that means something.”

Ezra shut his eyes. How to approach this? She was honestly apologizing, and Ezra was fed up with the constant back and forth between them. Perhaps it was better to just let sleeping dogs lie—just this once. Besides, she hadn’t been entirely wrong with her comments. He didn’t listen to advice, but he… they didn’t understand. He had to take these risks. He had to, right?

“Forgiven. Let’s move on,” he said.

She transformed back into a spider and crawled up to her usual spot on Ezra’s shoulder.

“You keep asking about my past,” she said.

“Yes. You at least know some of the basics about me, but I know nothing about you.”

Filamenta snorted.

“Do I know the basics?” she said. “I know you’re a human, and I know some of the relationships between you and your… classmates, you called them? But beyond that…”

Ezra shrugged and continued walking. He wouldn’t open up unless she did, which she almost certainly wouldn’t—

“I was human once,” she said.

Ezra stopped in the middle of the road. He blinked slowly.

“What?” he said.

Filamenta chuckled. “No need for such a shocked reaction.”

Ezra’s eyebrows furrowed together. “But… that makes no sense, you were a human?”

“It’s the truth. Not only that, but I was a princess. The future queen of a vast empire.”

He knew that his needle was hiding things, but that was certainly unexpected. A human turning into a spirit? How often did that happen? Was that just something extremely common that he didn’t know anything about?

“I was also considered very beautiful.” Filamenta’s tone turned light. “I would’ve had you wrapped around my finger if I still looked like my old form.”

Ezra rolled his eyes and stuffed his hands into his pocket.

“Yeah, right,” he said.

Filamenta was about to speak when he walked up to the Chulcalf stall and exchanged a quick pair of greetings with the man who ran the stall. Money passed hands and Ezra started chewing on his pseudo-burger with blue lettuce.

“Anyway,” Ezra said in between bites. “How’d you become a spirit?”

She didn’t respond for several moments.

“Filamenta?” he said.

Filamenta twitched on his shoulder, then seemed to curl up.

“Some stories are better left untold,” she said.

Ezra could take a hint. That was all he was getting from her today. He finished up the last of his Chulcalf burger and wiped his hands against his jacket.

“Gods, you’re disgusting,” Filamenta said. “How long has it been since you last washed those clothes?”

Ezra paused.

“A while,” he said.

A spike of irritation shot through Ezra’s brain. It was faint, almost at the edge of his consciousness. He furrowed his eyebrows together. Why would he be irritated?

“Now then, have I earned enough of your goodwill with that?” Filamenta said. “Will you finally start listening to my advice?”

Ezra leaned his head back and looked up at the sky.

“Filamenta, it’s not that I don’t understand the risks. I do,” he said. “But… I can’t afford to slow down. Don’t you get it? We have so many enemies. Idia, Charles, the Demon Lord—how am I supposed to beat them without taking chances?”

“Why are you so obsessed with defeating them?” she said. “I want to see the Demon Lord massacred, don’t get me wrong, but as far as I know, you have no such history with the creature.”

Before he could stop himself, the answer came tumbling from his lips.

“Because he’s the most powerful person here, right?” he said. “So if I kill him, that’ll make me the strongest.”

“And why do you wish to be the strongest?”

Ezra continued walking. The easy answer would be that the Skinwalker encounter had traumatized him or something… but it wouldn’t be the whole answer, so why bother?

“Well,” he said. “Some stories are better left untold.”

Filamenta laughed.

“Fine then,” she said. “Keep your secrets.”

The two of them continued walking until they arrived at the guild door. Ezra opened it up. As soon as he did so, a half-dozen people looked in his direction and stared at him intently. Ezra walked by them. Villscha would want him to go through another round of questioning, which Ezra wasn’t looking forward to. Perhaps he might be able to find a decent quest to occupy himself.

He still needed to get revenge on Villscha, but the question was how? He didn’t know of any weak spots in Villshca’s organization—that wasn’t his specialty anyway. Could he just come in and kill the guy? But that would mean burning all his bridges in the guild. Ezra had worked hard to get up to his current rank, he didn’t want to build a new identity and start from scratch.

Ezra looked over the quests on the quest board. Nothing of note, except for some kind of Giant Lizard extermination thing. Ezra would take it. He grabbed it and walked over to the nearest guild girl’s desk.

After a few moments, she handed it back to him.

“I’m sorry, but you can’t do this quest,” she said. “You’ve been barred, pending the investigation.”

Ezra’s face darkened. Villscha was trying to piss him off, wasn’t he? Well, Ezra could play at that game. Out of the corner of his eye, Ezra spotted someone watching him.

Dumrivil.

Maybe it was about time Ezra got in contact with the man.