…There’s an awful lot of rare spirit beasts out there, huh? This one could even use a spear, and it summoned another rare spirit beast that was a wolf on the verge of becoming a human. How scary. Surprisingly, I managed to complete the path of slaughter in one try and regained control of my body after slaying the beast. I can’t believe this rare beast tried chasing me down, it doesn’t happen often. I’m scrawny and the meat to bone ratio on my body is not worth the effort of hunting me down.

Lan who? The Sixth Prince? Why are you bringing up totally unrelated names? Lan’s a training freak who never leaves his room. He’s in the palace, working hard to become a bodybuilder. This spear contains a weapon spirit? What spear? You mean the one I’m hacking to pieces with mini-DalDal since I’m afraid of more rare spirit beasts being summoned? Oh, look! A spirit seed popped out of the spear! This is the first one I’ve found by myself; I’ve seen quite a few on street vendor stalls in the capital.

I can use it on my dress! …There’s a lot of holes in my dress. Is it still viable? You can only see most of my underwear underneath it…. Maybe I won’t use it on my dress. I can use it on… hold on a second; first order of business, remove all the useless magical rings! I’ll keep the mini-map and fling spells and put away the rings with dismantle, barbeque, steam, stir-fry, boil…, don’t judge my choices! Anyways, that doesn’t leave me many options to bury this seed into. Hmm. I’ll hold onto it for now then.

Now, let’s see what items this rare spirit beast had. If it dressed like a human, it should definitely have some useful stuff! Like that ring. And its clothes. Maybe its underwear too…. I think I’ll take everything on it and appraise them later. Yes, that’s the best course of action. Let’s see…, take this stick and write on the ground…. “No one can capture me. –Snow Flopsy.” There we go. Just in case someone mistakes the beast for an actual person they’ll blame Snow instead.

But I really need to buy new clothes. This dress is way too breezy and risqué now. I’ll start wearing those bones again. It’ll prevent me from being indecent and provide easy access to consumables, win-win! I hope Durandal wakes up soon…. Oh! What if I use the spirit seed to nourish Durandal’s spirit? Would that work? …I’ll ask Liana; where’s my messenger?

While I distanced myself from the crime scene, err, hunting spot, my messenger rang.

Dear Lucia Fluffytail,

I’m sorry, I don’t know much about spirit seeds. They weaken the arrays inside of magical tools, so no respectable mage will employ them. You may have better luck asking a martial artist, but I doubt they would know either. Why are you trying to save an injured spirit? Weapons are meant to be thrown away after they’re broken.

Sincerely,

Liana Noctis

No! Ms. Encyclopedia has failed me. And who are you calling a broken weapon!? Durandal’s just sleeping! I’m going to do it. I believe in Durandal! I grabbed the new spirit seed and pressed it into mini-DalDal’s hilt. There was a bright flash of light, and a second later, the spirit seed popped out and fell to the floor. I guess it won’t work. Darn. Well, if spirit seeds can only be used on non-magical items, then I’ll grow this one in my socks. Magical socks and shoes were the only articles of clothing I couldn’t find in the wilderness town. …Yes, my underwear is magical too. But their functions are for me to know! …Pervert.

Anyways, how do I bury the seed in my sock? I’ll just step on it and see if it works. Oh? It did! A dog’s paw print appeared on both of my socks. I guess it counted a pair as a single item. But I thought armor spirits were supposed to take a long time to grow; could I summon it right away? Let’s try it. “Come out, Mr. or Ms. Spirit!”

…

…

…

Now I feel stupid. I guess it really does have to take time to grow. I wonder what it’ll become. I obtained the seed off a spear that could summon a rare spirit beast after all. Maybe I’ll get a spirit similar to the beast it summoned. Yeah. “It’s still a bit sad I couldn’t feed it to Durandal…”

“So you’re really Durandal’s new owner.”

“Gah!?” I fell over as a wolfman appeared underneath my feet. “You’re the rare spirit beast!”

“…I’m the weapon spirit, Gae Bulg. Throw away all notions of me being a mere spirit beast.” The wolfman frowned and looked around. “Where is my weapon body?”

“Um. You’re a sock spirit now….” I pointed at my socks.

“Huh? Wait. What happened? Where’s Lan?” The wolfman’s hackles bristled as he glared at me. His eyes turned red as he reached behind his back and drew a spear…-shaped sock.

“Lan? Who’s that?” Deny everything! Lan’s in his room in the palace training away like usual! I killed a rare spirit beast that enjoyed impersonating people. Mhm.

“You. Didn’t I stab you through the stomach?”

“Nope.” Ignore the blood on the dress, please.

“What happened to Lan!?” The wolfman dashed forward and grabbed my shoulders. Ah, his hands are soft. He feels like Bouncykins. Are all sock spirits as soft as him?

“Look, Mr. Wolfie, I don’t know who Lan is. This is my first time meeting you.” Lie with a straight face! Durandal would be proud!

“You called me a rare spirit beast!” His claws pressed against my skin. Oh, that’s pretty comfortable. I wonder how nice Durandal’s head pats would feel if he turned into a sock spirit too. “Where. Is. Lan!?”

“Return from whence you came!”

The wolfman’s eyes widened before his body distorted and disappeared into my socks like water spiraling down a drain. Wow. I didn’t think that’d actually work. “I’ll let you out when you learn not to ask totally irrelevant questions.”