The panic I felt at her claims lasted about a second. I wasn't a deranged exorcist taken over by the cursed weapon.

I hadn't even unsheathed the sword once since I got it. "I know how your ability works. It moves into the body of the person you kiss and forces healing."

"Tch, that's what sucks about having a student like you," Ellen crossed her arms and frowned. She didn't seem pleased at all.

"If you can put your Ord inside my body, and not sense whether I'm possessed. Then you would be one incompetent exorcist.” Since I came here, I planned to test how my ability worked when I used the demonic sword in the Perfect Me state. Also, if any mistake happened, Ellen could easily deal with it without harming me.

"What about the creepy fish? I can feel him creepily staring at me through the box," she pointed at my backpack.

"He's my partner and my right-hand man. One day he will grow to become a dragon," I smiled. I couldn't wait until he became a dragon. After that, my life will be smooth sailing.

Ellen raised a questioning brow and looked at me like I was crazy. Then she sighed and asked.

"What abilities does he have?"

"Some kind of water control. Though it's weak, and Carpy can only shoot out water bullets," I saw no reason to lie to her. She had that weird demon of hers buried underground to detect any lies. Thankfully, I knew the specifics of the demon’s abilities.

"Unlike humans, a demon's abilities don't come with limitations. They can grow strong naturally by mastering their powers. Though they can't create their abilities, they're born with them," Ellen explained as a smile widened. She was probably scheming something. “Of course, most demons don’t bother training them. Unlike humans, they can deal with problems by throwing their power around.”

Ellen was a Beast Master and the best teacher on this side of the world. I was going to learn a lot from her.

"Have you trained your familiar's abilities?" She inquired. The smile on her face grew to unnatural proportions.

“No,” I hadn’t had the time to do that. Usually, Carpy ate high-class demon meat, and I sent him more Ord when I had the energy to spare. “That’s why I’m here.”

"Well, control will be something both of you will need to train," she hummed, then her face brightened. "There's a river nearby, and you can train there."

Ugh, she's scheming something. I didn't buy that innocent look on her face for even a second.

She might be an excellent teacher, but deep inside, her nature was that of a schemer. She's just looking for her next laugh. Also, being in the mountains without human contact would make anyone strange.

"Though you should rest-"

I ignored whatever she was about to say next. Rest? Why the hell would I do that?

What does rest even mean?

Relaxing? How? By sleeping? But I'm not sleepy. There was no internet in this world. Good TV was nonexistent, the CGI was too bad, and the movies were boring.

Why would I do any of that when I could experiment with magical powers?!

The river she was referring to was at the foot of the mountain. The water that ran through was so clear I could easily see the bottom of the river.

I took out Carpy and gently put the little (not so little) guy in the water.

He looked at me and started swimming in circles. He was still a dumb little fish, but one day he will awaken and get average human intelligence. So I wasn't going to treat him poorly just because he was a little stupid.

"Okay, Carpy, now you just need to control the water. Move it around a bit," I didn't know how much he understood. But I tried sending some Ord through our link to make him sense my intentions and what I wanted him to do.

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He didn't seem to react at first. But as he swam in a circle, a small whirlpool formed all the way to the bottom of the river.

It was beautiful.

"Are you done playing around?" Ellen's voice interrupted us. She had a stern look in her eyes.

I probably pissed Ellen off. That was good. She was too smart when calm and would probably read me like an open book if left to her peaceful self all the time.

Despite how she had acted until now, Ellen was a genius. As I had discovered with Bets and Paris, geniuses weren't people I should mess around with. If I showed them one thing, they learned two. "Sorry, I got too excited. How can I make this up to you?"

So I was going to be over 110% nice to her.

She seemed reluctant about something before finally sighing and saying. "Don't worry about it. I advise you to teach the fish to pull a small drop of water and move it around. Start small at first. That should be easier to learn how to control its inner energy."

After saying that, she walked away, raising no fuss. Was she expecting some kind of argument? Was she that bored?

"Okay, Carpy, time to learn some water control," I instructed my little friend.

He stared at me with its empty fish eyes, and then a tiny water bubble formed above him. The water bubble was about the size of a fist.

The joy that spurted from me was like that of a proud older sibling, just like when a younger brother gets first place in an exam.

Of course, an older sibling would probably growl and say: Yeah, no wonder you got first place when all your classmates are shit.

But deep down, we were proud and bragged to everyone about it. "Good, Carpy. Now let's continue our training."

Also, it seemed like Carpy had some intelligence. I don't know what level, but he understood my instructions.

…

Two days passed in the blink of an eye.

My Ord control was already quite good, and I made a little progress. As a Master, there wasn't much to improve. I mostly trained physically, so Perfect Me would have more to work with.

Carpy was the opposite of me. He had water balls the size of basketballs floating above the river.

Was he a genius? A fish genius? That sounded like the lead-up to a terrible joke.

That was when an idea suddenly hit me like a bowling ball. "Wait! Carpy! Can you stay in one of your water bubbles while following me around?!"

He tilted his head and then released all the water balls. Then a bigger one formed around him, and he slowly floated out of the river, swimming in his sphere of water.

"Yes! There's no need to always carry you in my backpack!" I clenched my fist.

This was amazing! If Carpy could master his water control at a higher level, he could travel in a water ball while shooting out water bullets.

Birds chirped peacefully, and animals moved about without worry. It had been a while since I stopped and just took in nature.

The tranquil moment got interrupted. Birds flew off, and animals scattered away. It was as if the forest itself seemed to grow nervous.

Something was approaching.

I remembered the lesson Mr Fort had taught me. Animals had better senses than humans, and when they ran away, it was a sign of something dangerous getting closer.

"Carpy, seems like we have a visitor," I warned my friend, and he immediately let go of his water ball and sank into the river.

Good, he knew what to do in a situation like this. Whoever the enemy was, having a hidden card wasn't bad.

With the nearby river, Carpy could use all the water he needed. We were in an advantageous position.

After some time, I felt the scorching heat of the sun on my skin. I tried not to break my concentration and observe everything before my eyes—any slight movements, anything that stood out.

Since the week-long cooldown of Perfect Me wasn't up yet, I had to fight on my own terms.

Not long after, a man in red samurai armor came out.

Calling him a man might be too much, as he had gray skin and rotting eyes. He was a zombie.

The zombie stared at me for an uncomfortably long time before finally saying. "Take out your sword, young man. I won't fight an unarmed opponent."

What?

I was confused for a second. It was strange to see a demon with a sense of honor. Was he trying to trick me? "Why won't you fight me like this?"

Whatever the reason, I knew when there was an opportunity to buy time. Ellen should already be running here.

"Because fighting a man without a sword dishonors my clan and me," the man pointed his katana at me. "I know what needs to be done to end my existence. But it must be done honorably."

After saying that, he released his demon energy, which caused the insects on the ground to stop moving. Some caterpillars on the trees curled up and stopped moving.

The forest seemed to awaken; animals ran away and insects writhed in pain.