"Now that's a rude thing to say," Arthur waved his lightning rod in the carpenter's direction. "Do you want this or not?"

"I do..." The carpenter said grimly. "I just didn't think you would get it so early... damn favoritism. Disgusting." The doll said with abhorrence.

"Done?"

"No. Revolting. Repulsive. Sickening. Disgusting."

"You already said that, come on. I'm helping you here. Do you want the rod or not?" Arthur said with hurt feelings.

"Give it here," The doll stretched out its woody hand, the charcoal fingers looking like a hook that tried to snatch the branch. Arthur was quick to dodge, and the carpenter glared at him.

"To, to, to," Arthur waved his finger as he clicked his tongue under the hateful eyes of the doll. "Upfront payments only!"

"You want me to help your friend now?" The carpenter shook his head. "It would take a lot of..."

"That's why you can deposit~," Arthur said while playing around with the rod. "By answering a question of mine."

"Fine," The carpenter sighed. "What do you want to know?"

"Well, first of all, your name," Arthur said as he presented the rod to the carpenter, who looked shocked. It looked at Arthur, then the rod, then at Arthur again.

"My... name?" The spirit muttered with confusion. "Why, for the love of heaven, do you want to know that?"

"Because there will be a lot of trading between us from now on," Arthur shrugged. "It's annoying not to know your name."

"I lost my name long ago," The puppet's teeth gnashed against each other. It retracted its hand and turned toward its workbench. It began carving out another one of its tiny houses, silently working as Arthur stared at it.

"It should be a small price to pay for this rod," Arthur said with confusion, and the carpenter stopped moving.

"A small price, huh?" It nodded slowly. "Despite being different from other humans and despite wielding this abnormal spirituality, you are no different, in the end."

Arthur went silent.

"I'm sorry for devaluing your name like that," Arthur walked toward the workbench and placed down the branch on it. "This is an apology," Arthur said and walked to leave the workshop.

"Aren't you afraid that I'm guilt-tripping you?" The carpenter asked. "It is idiotic to act on emotions."

"I follow the same mindset," Arthur halted his steps. "However, ever since I entered the Spirits Realm, I felt free of doubts and cynicism. Whether you are manipulating me or not says something about you, not about me."

Arthur walked out of the workshop after finishing his words. The branch was easy to obtain, and he was sure that the carpenter would need more of it, so this can be a gesture of friendship.

As he reached the street outside, Arthur came across another doll making its way toward the workshop. The puppet stopped a few steps away, looking at him silently.

"My name is Adrian." The carpenter's voice came out of the doll before it resumed walking into the workshop. Arthur looked at the lonely building, wondering about the purpose of the wood spirit Adrian.

***

Like a bullet zooming through the air, the ethereal white figure slammed into the walls of the hall. Li bolted to the ground under the effect of gravity as Arthur yawned. The gravity spirit returned to the throne and sat down.

The spirit spread its arm, palms facing up as if it was praying to some unknown deity. The black sword floated above them like a crescent moon.

Arthur looked at his senior rise up with instability. His outline wavered like a flame, having no definite form. Adrian walked toward him and tapped Li's body with a cane.

Li's form wavered again, growing more agitated. He let out a pained groan as he fell to his knees. The gravity looked like a giant mountain that wanted to crush him into nothingness.

"If you want to master gravity, then you have to suffer beneath it," Adrian said like a wise sage. "The only way to make the world yours is by reaching the brink of vanishing and coming back. You need to steal a part of it in that process."

Arthur wanted to say the process looked too brutal and savage, but he didn't want to break Li's concertation. The ancient man nodded and sat cross-legged on the ground, suffering the might of gravity.

The energy that made up Li's body started to dissipate, and reassimilate, and then repeat. Arthur turned to look at the cane that Adrian used to strike Li's spiritual body. It was the same branch that he gave to the spirit.

As Li desperately tried to keep his existence from vanishing, Arthur walked toward the carpenter and stood beside him. The spirit didn't attack them as long as they kept their distance.

"What happens if he vanishes?"

"He vanishes."

"That was a helpful explanation." Arthur mocked. "Would he reincarnate?"

"Such a concept is fantastical," Adrian turned toward Arthur with disdain. "The chances of it happening are as good as zero."

"What if someone used a large amount of spiritual energy?" He knew he was suspicious, but Arthur tried to mask it with a calm attitude.

"Uh," Adrian paused. "Theoretically, if someone can separate the consciences of a spirit or a living being using an astronomical amount of spiritual energy, then they can allow them to reincarnate."

"I don't like that 'theoretically' and that tone," Arthur said with a sense of unease. Adrian simply shrugged, its cloak creating folds as it rippled.

"The only being capable of such a feat is that liar," Adrian said before it turned toward Li, whose outline began to reform. "And even then, it might not succeed."

Li stood up and stared at his hands. His body glowed brighter than earlier. As he was about to walk toward the gravity spirit again, Adrian's cane blocked his path.

"If you go again, you will break down into nothing but spiritual energy. You need to give your energy some time to stabilize." The carpenter advised, and Arthur nodded in agreement.

Despite looking reluctant to do so, Li retreated and left the hall again. The man and spirit followed after him until he reached his meditation spot, where he didn't move at all.

As they walked side by side, Arthur kept stealing glances at the can that Adrian used. Even though the spirit used to support itself, Arthur felt like it was doing it to change the land somehow.

"Is that branch special?"

Adrian seemed to have the mind of ignoring him, but Arthur was sure that it would answer questions as long as they weren't related to him or of no particular importance.

"That tree is no normal tree," Adrian said as it waved the cane.

"I never expected to find a normal tree in the Spirits Realm," Arthur nodded in understanding. "But how could it disturb a seeker's spiritual body?"

"When the First Seeker gave the Sovereign his ability to feel, it is said that the latter shed tears over the suffering of the outlander,"

Adrian told the story that sounded like a legend with such a matter-of-fact tone that Arthur felt like the carpenter saw the incident himself.

"The tears, which held the power of both beings, fell in the Spirits Realm and the Physical World. They gave birth to countless beings of miraculous nature. One of them is this tree, and it can disturb the boundaries between things, and even between worlds."

"The boundaries between worlds?" Arthur raised a brow. Wasn't this what he needed: to open a pathway between Alka and Earth? However, he also needed to mind the gap in time between the two worlds.

"I can see you are drooling even as a spiritual body," Adrian snickered for the first time since Arthur met him. "Don't get too excited. I said 'disturb' not 'remove' for a reason."

"Oh," Arthur was disappointed. "So, you just poked Li with this because you wanted to disturb the boundaries between his body and the rest of the Spirits Realm?"

"You are quick on the uptake; I might even take you as my disciple," Adrian said conceitedly. "That's indeed what I did, and your friend survived that even after getting beaten by Joryo,"

"...you named the spirit?" Arthur was speechless. "I thought names were given by contractors, not by other spirits."

"..." Adrian was silent before it began complaining. "Anyone would get bored if they stayed here for a couple of years. Joryo is like my friend, but he's not talkative."

Arthur was amused as he watched the spirit act like itself for the first time. Its words made Arthur realize something: the current Li was rather talkative, future Li was not. Joryo might have brought this sharp change in personality.

"Giving names to things isn't a big deal," Adrian explained. "You humans name your pets, even though they can't talk. Some people even name fictional beings. So, why couldn't I?"

As Arthur watched the spirit talk nonstop like a broken dam, a single thought overtook his mind: what were spirits?