After realizing that his plans had an obvious but fatal flaw, Imogyeran decided on getting his revenue out of two separate business opportunities.

First came the hunting: Imogyeran camped the outer edge of the closest patch of forest he could find(around 2 hours north of the marketplace when walking by foot) and hunted down any stray creatures crossing his path using ‘Donmir’ in the process. The creatures hunted were then roughly separated into skin, meat and bones and each part was separately sold to the quickest available bidder for some small change of money.

This method lasted exactly one and a half days before he gave up doing it. The demerits of hunting far outweighed their merits:

Hunting too far within the forest while using a spiritual being is prone to draw in crowds of carnivorous monsters, which would most likely eat him in a heartbeat. As an immediate side effect of staying at the outer edges the efficiency of hunting drastically drops. Both the quality and quantity are not very good and the food can’t be eaten by Imogyeran, since he doesn’t know how to make it edible. Lastly the effort is way too high to be hunting regularly, which is why Imogyeran quit doing it in the middle of the second day.

The one to suggest his second method of action was the trickster-spirit ‘Mabo’, a regular acquaintance and friend of Imogyeran as well as a spirit of trickery and bewitchment.

‘Mabo’ once was used by the not so famous actor and politician Mambo Jambo, who died 10 years ago in the Dondonpan region close to Estican borders.

Especially during his younger ages, Mr. Jambo had aspired to be an actor on stage in the most renowned theaters of countries all across the place. But reality sadly seemed to be looking different from his dreams. In reality, the young man was unable to find any place to accept his performance due to a lack of skills, qualifications and background.

Instead, the young and aspiring actor decided to build up his skill and qualifications on the streets by doing street performances for the passing strangers to witness.

Eventually one thing lead to another and eventually he got married and had to quit doing even that to care for his family as he ended up becoming a mediocre politic figure in the Dondonpan high-society.

Regardless of the eventual ending of this tragedy, ‘Mabo’ recommended Imogyeran to do him alike, maybe out of a silent hope that this kid might be able to write the proper climactic sequel to the book, that had stopped its serialization before it could get to its peak.

Not caring for the wicked spirits intentions, Imogyeran was curious about the act of street performances and decided to give it a try:

He set up camp in a relatively free space close to the main business-road of Carcera. With the help of his spirits, the boy built a rough podium for him to stand on top of and a small bowl-like jar, in which the passerby people could throw in their money.

Some people already became curious about what this boy was doing in the middle of the day and a small crowd had already formed around his stand before he even started his show.

There were even 2 pieces of Raka, the smallest Estican currency, already inside the donation bowl.

Then came the time to start the show. Since Imog still had no idea on how to start a show, ‘Mabo’ was able to convince the naive and gullible boy to do something reckless.

At a glances moment the boy standing on top of the improvised stone podium started quaking like a leave in the wind before abruptly stopping. Then he started talking in a loud and audible voice for everyone watching and beyond to listen to.

<>

He snapped with his fingers before the familiar blue blob appeared in front of him forming into a disgruntled ‘Donmir’ looking annoyedly into his direction.

<>

Not surprising, this was not the real Imogyeran Ashenwald talking to the now admittedly interested audience. The person talking here was the wicked spirit ‘Mabo’ using Imogyeran as the medium of his trickery.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

As previously mentioned, Imogyeran establishes contacts with any spirits apart from the ones swearing loyalty to him via the rite of knowledge. This rite opens up his inner consciousness and uses ‘Donmir’ as a filtering medium to communicate with the spirits, one of them in this case being ‘Mabo’.

However, what he is currently experiencing is a side effect of trying to hold a conversation with a spirit while letting his guard down. In other words:

‘Mabo’ abused the connection that Imogyeran opened for communication as a doorway into Imogyeran himself and took possession of that kid’s body.

‘Donmir’ obviously knew what was going on and was visibly upset. Any more than this and he would have started grinding his now visible teeth against each other and taken defensive action against the spirit intruding into his master’s mind but he didn’t do so.

Why?

It was because Imogyeran gave ‘Mabo’ a last-minute approval:

Once he realized the spirits intentions, he begrudgingly gave him the temporary permission to take over his body and take control of the situation. Had he not done that, then ‘Mabo’ might have already been extinguished from the face of this world.

‘Mabo’ realized this after taking over but had the owner of this body not been sure of his good intentions, there would have been somebody lurking to immediately wipe him out before he could have even realized the situation. A cold shower ran over the back of the possessed Imogyeran, causing the real him inside his mind to protest in disgust.

[“And that’s when I found out that I could use the spirits in a different way by letting them possess my body. I call this trick ‘Possession’. I know, fitting name. Keep your applause to yourself.”]

[(Sound of insects chirping outside of the shack)]

Anyways, ‘Mabo’ continued holding this show inside of Imogyeran’s body and earned quite a bit of change for Imogyeran to later use. The two main protagonists of his story, ‘Donmir’ and Imogyeran were less than pleased about the guy casually leaking Imog’s most private information to a bunch of random people but they could not argue with the results as the duo earned an amount, that made Imogyeran able not to worry about expenses for food for the next 4 days.

Additionally Imog started developing what is later going to develop into his first hobby: A sense for theatrics and acting.

Imogyeran spent the next month of his life traveling in the direction of Medalia while also studying under ‘Mabo’ on how to become a proper entertainer. His acts became better and better and relied on ‘Mabo’ less and less. Eventually it got to the point, where he would use ‘Donmir’ to throw himself into the air with a water fountain and started doing tricks in the middle of falling to the ground. The spectators loved the shows he was giving them.

On the brown dirt road connecting the different towns and villages, inside a small opening within a smaller forest, in the middle of a well-populated village, on the literal town square. Everywhere he went, the boy attracted attention from those around him by doing the wildest acts he could come up with with that little brain of his.

He did handstands into flips and rolls, he jumped through rings created out of water and started skating on thin and thick layers of ice created solely at his own leisure.

Eventually the young spirit-channeler started commanding the surrounding spirits to flock together and create small orbits of light around his body. He successfully managed to integrate a luminous element into the program of his small little show.

When attracting this much attention, it is no wonder, that Imogyeran would at some point meet people in the same occupation as the current him.

[“Around one month after I started my career as a professional entertainer I met a circus group named the Galatasa-Circus. They had their traveling route go through a village west of Medalia, so I temporarily joined their group as a member.”]

Imogyeran first got attentive of the Galatasa-Circus, when he noticed a girl of his age watching his show from the stands, he had created. Typically, there were quite a few children watching these performances so it should by no means be anything special for her to watch him but Imog noticed something twofold:

Not only was the girl watching him really pretty, she also wore a really exotic and unique outfit.

After finishing his own show, he exchanged greetings with the girl and he would then learn about the Circus’ existence through the mouth of her, Ake-chi Roundelay, one of the performers of Galatasa-Circus.

[“They taught me all kinds of stuff at that place. I learned from a senior how to juggle, balance on top of a small beam and I can even breathe fire like a real monster!”]

The story between Imogyeran and Galatasa-Circus might not be relevant for his trip to Medalia or his situation at that time, they hold a deeply important place inside his newly formed heart.

After traveling with the group for about a month’s worth of time, he parted ways with them. Even though he will always have good memories with that place, Imogyeran never really tied any bonds with anyone except Ake-chi. The other people always were more of a means to an end, so he never truly came to care for them. He did however make it a point to keep tabs on the Circus’ future traveling road for a later meetup with his newly acquainted friend.

After the journey, he was about a week’s worth of distance away from Medalia, so he could take his time in getting there. Imogyeran used the rest of the time allotted to him to train his martial arts and prepared for the day of the tournament to come.

<>, he grumbled while looking up from the ground at the Eye of the Abyss.

Around him, there was a blue aura of a ferocious canine wavering about. Only one week remaining until the tournament started.