Alwin perched on the man's back, his tush snugly nestling into the curve it had created. Alwin closed his eyes, focusing on everything and anything, hoping that something would happen. He could hear the sound of his breath, the way his tongue sat uncomfortably in his mouth, and even the saliva pooling that he had to make a conscious effort to swallow down. Nothing was happening and the pressure was mounting up. Maybe he should have paid attention in class. It's not like this was the first time Alwin had this thought, it's just that he never learnt his lesson.

Then he heard a voice, almost like a tired sigh, "Try to focus on the man's core. When you find it, bring it under your control then absorb it."

Was that Cor? Was he having a divine moment? Was this the start of his journey in becoming a prophet? Strangely enough, the God that had come in and started guiding him sounded like Uchronia. That couldn't have been a coincidence. Right?

Find the man's core. Got it. Alwin squeezed his eyes even tighter, trying to feel out the man's core. He could feel his own core, that was simple enough, but finding the guy's core was a tad more difficult. Operating on autopilot, Alwin accidentally entered his own core, that usual whirlpool of mana spinning round and round greeted him. Clicking his tongue, Alwin exited his core and began sniffing out the man's.

As he delved deeper into his search, Alwin found himself floating in what felt like an endless void, his mindscape stretching into infinity. Within this dark expanse, two lights gleamed. The nearest one blazed like a mini sun, warm and familiar—that was his. The other one flickered in the distance like a beacon. Alwin would bet money on that being the man's. The only problem was that he had zero money on hand. He did however have an inexhaustible supply of stupidity and recklessness so that would have to do.

Alwin took a deep breath and moved his core toward the other source of light. It was less like running and more like floating in the general direction of the light. The closer he got, the more the light grew, until it hovered before him, a glowing marble no bigger than his own core. Time to absorb it!

Alwin inched closer, floating his core forward until they both touched. A flash of light went off blinding him for a moment. When Alwin regained his sight, he found himself staring at the same man that he had just killed, except more golden in color and a lot more translucent.

"Lousy crappy monster army dog. Get lost! I ain't letting you absorb my essence without a fight!" shouted the golden man.

His core rolled forward smashing into Alwin's own core. It hurt… a lot. It felt like someone was smashing his soul, not like he had ever experienced it before, but this was his closest guess.

"Just die already you stinky human," retorted Alwin.

Alwin hoisted his core high, then brought it crashing down onto the man's core. A loud cracking noise reverberated around the void.

"Agh, that hurts, you slimy piece of scum," winced the man.

With another thunderous smash, the man was silenced, vanishing into the void. There was only one light source left—Alwin's. A rush of energy came flowing into him, as his core grew by a minuscule amount, barely noticeable but definitely there. The other core shrank rapidly, dwindling down to the size of a small grain of sand before flickering out of existence without so much as a whimper.

A small ping caused his eyes to shoot open. He was back in the physical realm with a message greeting him.

Human Essence Absorbed.

"You okay?" asked Uchronia.

"I think so."

"Good, let's keep going before Gus here gets any good ideas about you know..." She made a chomping motion and tilted her head over to Gus.

Watching Gus devour plates of food in the cafeteria, including the plates themselves, was already a messy sight. The last thing Alwin wanted was to watch him gorge himself on a human corpse.

"Let's go," Uchronia nodded.

Gus joined Alwin in the march onwards, as they continued into the forest. Alwin sighed. It was back to staring at nature and waiting for something—anything—to break the monotony. The sun hung high in the sky, as the canopy of leaves provided some reprieve from the unbearable heat. Phyll was probably having a field day basking in the sunlight.

Something rustled within the bushes to Alwin's left, snapping him to attention. A leaf much larger than any of the surrounding foliage stuck out. Alwin and Gus exchanged glances, then turned to Uchronia waiting for her orders. There goes the last of the independence that Alwin thought he possessed. Uchronia looked at Gus and tilted her head in the direction of the bush. Following orders, Gus not so stealthily hopped over to the bush. His hops were heavy, with no finesse whatsoever, and definitely not quiet.

Uchronia slapped her face with her tail, already regretting her decision. Gus parted the bush to reveal a trembling monster. She was quaking in fear, the moment her hiding spot had been revealed she let out a high-pitched squeal and scrambled forwards, only to stumble and landed face first on the ground.

That leaf was actually a tail. It belonged to a species of monster that Alwin had grown very accustomed to much to his dismay, it was a Leafling. Why was there a random Leafling out here in the middle of the woods? Maybe she's one of the residents of the forest that Lin mentioned.

"Don't hurt me. Please!" she cried.

The girl was shaking like it was in the middle of winter and she was caught with no clothes. If only she had her eyes on them, then she could tell that they meant no harm, but too bad they were covered by her tail. Even if her eyes were tail-free, there came the problem that she wasn't even facing them, unless there was a face on her back. The poor thing was stuck staring at the ground, if she could burrow her head into the dirt she probably would've.

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"Hey, look. It's okay. We're not here to hurt you," said Uchronia as gently as she could muster.

Which was surprisingly gentle. Why couldn't she talk like that to him and Gus? Maybe next time he'd employ the same strategy, shaking and facing away from her, but he'd need something to cover his eyes, and sprouting a tail didn't seem that feasible. Unless, of course, that tantalizing evolution of his was willing to help. Either that or he could scour the library for a Spirit Tail technique or even try to come up with one himself.

Uchronia hopped over to face the trembling monster. Using her own tail she unwrapped the girl's, revealing the girl's greenish plant-like skin and red, wet eyes.

"You're-you're-you're not a human?" she asked.

Alwin snorted at the question, Uchronia looked nothing remotely like a human, but they did share a ton of commonalities—eyes, mouth, tongue, the need for food, water, air, etc. His snorts quickly died under the weight of Uchronia's withering glare. When she turned back to the girl, her fierce expression melted into one of gentle concern.

"No. We aren't. I'm another Leafling, just like you."

The girl's breath slowed as the tension melted out of her. She turned around, bringing Alwin and Gus into full view. Her eyes lingered on Gus and he couldn't blame her, between wrestling out that one stuck scrap of food between his teeth and the weird faces he was inevitably making, it was a miracle that Uchronia didn't choose to murder him right then and there.

"Are you okay? Why're you out here?" asked Uchronia.

"I'm—I'm—I'm was," yes, she really said “I'm was," "looking for some Forest Glimmer for Mommy."

"Do you need help?"

"I'm—no—yes—no—maybe, I mean—I don't know."

"How 'bout we come with you and we'll give you a hand?"

The girl stood up and wiped her tears off, though new ones kept leaking out, and gave Uchronia a big hug.

"Thankie you. Mommy said not to talk to strangers, but you strangers have been very nice. Mommy was wrong, maybe that's why she's sick. Mommy also said that humanies were meanie people who would come and kidnap bad children. I think Mommy's wrong too."

Alwin stifled a snort, lest he invoked the wrath of Uchronia again, he could see it in her eyes. And in case it wasn't obvious by now, that little Leafling was, in fact, a little Leafling, age-wise at least. Size wise? She was a bit larger than Uchronia, which meant that she was also a bit larger than Alwin and Gus.

"What's your name?" asked Uchronia.

"My name's Maple and I'm thwee years oldie."

"Okay, Maple. My name's Uchronia, and those two are called Alwin and Gus."

Maple turned to look at them. Gus, for once, wasn't stuffing his face with a muffin. Instead, he forced a smile, before resuming his battles against the food coma that he had invited. Alwin did what he did best, act like a complete buffoon. He smiled at her, and halfway through the smile he decided to roll his eyes round and round. One eye went clockwise, and the other went counter-clockwise, similar to the cartoon characters that ancient humans used to watch for entertainment on their weird boxes—his knowledge of ancient human civilization wasn't exactly the best, but it was good enough. She couldn't help but giggle at him. That made his eye-rolling more valuable than Uchronia's, in his eyes at least.

Uchronia and Maple took the lead while Gus and Alwin trailed behind. The addition of a little toddler into their group was definitely what they needed. One more person to keep an eye out for during a battle with a human. Good thing it wouldn't be his problem.

Alwin had the benefit of being the one in charge of offense, while Gus was in charge of defense. That meant that the responsibility of looking out for one another lay squarely on Gus with the occasional help from Uchronia. Now that may seem a tad bit selfish, shouldn't everyone in the squad be looking out for one another? That was the purpose of a squad after all, better to have someone watch your back than have no one at all.

But this is where Alwin raised his defense! If Alwin got rid of everyone attacking them, then there wouldn't be a need for anyone to defend or keep an eye out for one another, because there would be no one around them to threaten them. The best way to do that was if Alwin focused solely on attacking. Yup! That was his rationalization and he was going to stick with it.

One day he would have the courage to vocalize it to Uchronia and, hopefully, he would be able to voice out his thoughts in a coherent manner, instead of a jumble of 'uhs' and 'ems' that would definitely dominate the conversation. With a bit of luck, his confidence wouldn't wither away as he rambled on, hearing himself for the first time and realizing that maybe he was just an idiot. A selfish one at that.

Right now he would continue rehearsing his big magnificent speech inside his head. Coming up with ways to perfectly counter any one of Uchronia's arguments for when she would immediately call him out. That reminded him, Alwin should come up with a multitude of scenarios of how Uchronia was going to call him out. This was the best use of his time while the two girls scoured the area for some Forest Glimmer, whatever that was.

It was most likely a plant of some kind, either that or some sort of fungus. One that would undoubtedly glimmer when looked upon. Those were the boring options. The more fun option that was brewing in his mind—along with all the various scenarios where he and Uchronia argued about him just focusing on attacking—was that the Forest Glimmer was actually a bunch of glitter sprinkled around the forest.

"I'm foundie one!" Maple cheered.

Alwin stopped thinking. His head jerked forward to look at Maple and Uchronia, and he hopped towards them. Please let it be glitter. Please let it be glitter. Please, please, pretty, pretty please let it be glitter.

There it was, under the shadow of one of the many trees that made up the forest. Or perhaps, if shadows could combine, it was under the shadows of the many trees that made up the forest. It was a flower, much to his disappointment, with soft pale green petals that subtly glowed. Its center was a luminescent white, speckled with small dots that twinkled like stars. Those twinkling dots were the closest thing to glitter, so in a convoluted, totally nonsensical way, one could argue that he was right—the Forest Glimmer was just a bunch of glitter concentrated together instead of being sprinkled about the forest.

"I'm can go backies now! Thankie you!" Maple leapt in joy and gave Uchronia a bone-crushing hug.

"Do you want us to go with you?" asked Uchronia.

"Hmm. Maybies. I'm don't know," mumbled Maple.

"We can bring you back home. Alwin and Gus won't mind."

Just like that, she had decided their fate without even a consult. Not like it would've mattered anyway. Both Alwin and Gus were pretty flexible, if they both had legs he was confident that they could both do the splits without even trying, but it would have been nice if she had asked them first.

It would be cool to see what an ordinary monster home looks like. The only home that Alwin had ever known was the academy and the dorms, and despite how dumb he liked to pretend he was, Alwin was smart enough to know that this arrangement was far from normal. The curiosity was killing him!