The first rays of sunlight brought with the laughter of children playing nearby and the scent of nauseating manure through my open window. It was the sort of thing that made someone like me who wasn't really into mornings get up immediately. Really, this new world was all sorts of messed up.

My eyes squinted up at the whitewashed room of mine. Apparently, no matter how many places we checked, the houses and rooms would be occupied by someone's brother, uncle, children, dog, cat and whatever thing they could possibly store there. I knew immediately that even if there was a free place to stay no one would be willing to give up their space for me. Even if the village renowned Exorcist followed along to make sure.

Really, the random villager's completely absurd behavior stunned me. After spending most of my previous afternoon interacting with Minamoto, I had completely forgotten about the fact that I was looked at with barely concealed fear or disgust because I was a foreigner.

In the end, I was housed by one of Minamoto's servants. There really wasn't any complaint in that accommodation, but it threw me for a loop when I found out that the village's resident Exorcist, a man who commanded the soldiers who threw me in my lovable cell, was Minamoto's servant.

"Apparently, he's a rather impressive guy, huh…" I mumbled, getting out of bed with a jaw-cracking yawn. Seriously, how people even get up at this hour without being some kind of crazy was beyond me.

My room was rather barebones. The dirt floor took up most of the room with only a portion near my bed and what I assumed was a dresser having something similar to a hardwood flooring. On the topic of my bed. It was seriously uncomfortable, too. I could chalk that up to coming from a world with comforters, mattresses and whatever modern-day magic they put in them, but the bed I was given was similar to a very puffy sleeping bag. Of course, I was lucky to even get a bed on such a short notice, so I guess complaining is asking for too much.

I sighed. My situation was hopelessly bleak. I was in a foreign world surrounded by people who distrusted and straight up despised foreigners.

Shuffling towards my dresser, I felt the rough, wooden floor scraping against my feet. I hoped I didn't get splinters as I found myself in front of a mirror. They were not as rare as I thought they would be, but better, more reflective mirrors were something that only very rich families could afford. The one in front of me could just barely serve the purpose of a mirror. It reflected a wavy approximation of my body, and some parts of it didn't even reflect my image correctly.

Still, I could at least make out messy, blonde hair matted with grease and whatever grime I got on it yesterday. Two blue eyes looked back at me in a way that I could only describe as a dead fish, and what I was convinced was still baby fat stuck to my cheeks, hiding most of my jawline. Spots of acne dotted its face, but they were not enough to call it a 'Pizza face.'

My eyes trailed down the body as well. Honestly, I don't think I was out of shape, but I certainly wasn't winning any awards for my physical prowess, nor was I sporting a body like some Greek god. It was… conservatively skinny, to put it lightly. A mix of lanky muscles and fat on my waist with little in the way of defined muscle mass if I was going to be more honest.

"Even in another world… I still haven't changed." I sported a wry smile on my face, trying not to look at the fact that the mirror distorted it into something like a maniacal grin. Then, I slumped over the dresser, pulling open a compartment that housed my ruined clothes from yesterday. They were definitely not going to be worn again. Too much damage, and even if I did, they would only cement the fact that I didn't belong here. A feeling that I was already too comfortable with.

I clicked my tongue, feeling a wave of anger come over me. "Damnit, why the hell do I have to feel sorry for myself now? I can learn magic, travel the damn world, whatever the hell I want. Who cares what other people think?"

Squatting down to the floor, I felt the thick white cloth that substituted as a shirt stretch against the wound on my back. Minamoto had given me some kind of ointment for it to heal, but I hadn't expected it to be so quick. That man was honestly too kind…

I was distracting myself, I reasoned. But…

"There's nothing wrong with that, right?"

"So *huff* can you *huff* tell me why I am doing this?" I spat out between breaths. Thinking that I wouldn't have to run right after getting chased by one of the most terrifying creatures I had ever seen was something that I felt would be safe to bet one. At least, I thought I wouldn't have to run anytime soon.

As I did another lap around a small lake, I realized I hadn't thought out just what Minamoto was going to teach me. He had said that he would teach me Life Energy, but what he meant was that he would teach me how to survive. That included the physical conditioning required to run away from literally everything with a pulse in this land.

"Your body stat is definitely below F, so this is necessary." Minamoto spoke from the middle of the lake. He wasn't doing anything, but what I saw was still as impressive as ever. A small, green plant that looked like seaweed had reached up from the bottom of the lake and was supporting the man's bodyweight and shifting to support him whenever he took another step so that his shoes wouldn't be wet. Honestly, I'd rather learn that than ruin my newest, uncomfortable shirt with my sweat. "And no, this technique cannot be taught."

He chuckled as I made a face. "You can read *huff* minds? Is this Life Energy, too?"

"Of course not. It is just a common question when someone sees my technique. Even if I did want to teach my technique to others, I have already used the talisman that contained the technique. Asking to learn it is just like asking me to die."

I winced. Of everyone I knew in this world, Minamoto was at the top of my list of people I didn't want to die. "Sorry…"

On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Oni was firmly the top spot of those who I wanted a violent death for. He ruined my favorite shirt, so this was personal. Not that I would personally enact that vengeance. I would safely watch from a distance if I could follow along with whatever force Minamoto had called to be put together.

"Now, continue running. It has been proven that the most optimal way to improve stats is with a technique to support them, but we have neither the resources nor authority to give you one. We'll just have to stick to the basics." Minamoto said, adjusting his position on the lake as he took out a small booklet from his baggy sleeves. "I believe I promised to teach you about Life Energy, so listen up."

"Then, can I-"

He cut me off. "Don't stop running." Apparently I was making a face again because he chuckled a bit. Minamoto seemed so nice, but who knew he had a sadistic streak. "I know what you're thinking. This is for your own good. I'll test you on what I said later, so try to keep up with what I say."

"Great!" He started to speak as if I would complain at any moment. I mean, I would. Just not out loud. "First off, Life Energy is shown in your [status] menu. Life Rank translates to how much Life Energy you have, and the quality of it. What that means is rather complicated to explain fully. However, you can look at it this way. The difference between a rank G and a rank F may only be one stage, but a rank F's Life Energy is almost three or four times as potent as a rank G. This basically boils down to how many skills, techniques, Shikigami or Tsukumogami they can activate without rest. And the differences only get wider as you go up in rank. This is why it's much easier raising early ranks, but near impossible the higher you get."

My legs felt like jelly as I kept running. I was getting exhausted beyond what my body normally could take, but listening to Minamoto was a way to distract myself from my body giving out slowly. This was all very informative. In gaming terms, I would be around the level of a newbie while every rank was basically several level-ups in one. It was a bit vague to say it like that, but I got a little excited at the prospect of growing powerful enough to fly or something. I mean, even Minamoto could walk on water or something similar.

As if seeing through my dreams of flight, the old man chuckled. I swear, he might have said he didn't have some mind reading ability, but I knew he was lying. There's no way I am that easy to read.

"Now, that explains the basics of what Life Energy is." He stepped towards the shore, standing right next to the water's edge as the seaweed-like plant coiled back into the depths of the lake. "As this is mainly a crash course over the basics, I will tell you a way to use Life Energy through what some might consider an extreme measure."

I was busy catching my breath, feeling my sides clench as a cramp set in. Still, I mustered the energy to send a glare Minamoto's way. "That *huff* doesn't sound very safe."

"Don't worry, I won't make a mistake like some others. Worst case, I'll have to heal a couple organs, but that's not too hard." He said, waving his hand in dismissal.

A couple organs?! "Suddenly, I am feeling *huff* that Life Energy isn't worth it?"

"Don't be a baby, Mister David. We haven't even started, so you don't even know."

I squinted at the old man's smiling face. We had only known each other for a day, but he was so easy going that it was a rather nice breath of fresh air. However, I doubt a simple day of meeting would allow for someone to rearrange my organs just because they asked.

No, no, let's not make this weird. On one hand, we have magic. On the other, possible multiple organ failure.

"So, how do we do this?"

Minamoto smiled as if he knew what I was going to choose, and then pulled out the same white branch that he pulled out yesterday when I was getting questioned. I was going to question him when he reached forwards and, faster than I could react, tapped the tip of the branch to my forehead.

Instantly, I felt like I was falling into a large pond. Vertigo overrode my senses, and all I could tell was that I was surrounded by some sort of liquid. My sight and senses never really returned, staying somewhere between blurry and nonexistent. I really should have been panicking, but for some reason, I was calm. In fact, I felt almost comfortable in this sense-deprivation pond of water.

I was content to just sit down and feel the water brush against my skin for a minute. Then, I noticed something out of place. There was no way of seeing just what it was, but it was like something intrinsic. I just knew that whatever was there was not supposed to be there. Like feeling a pebble in your shoe.

Immediately, I set off to remove the source of the irritation. My feet plodded through the water, and almost instantly I could tell that something was wrong. With every step, I could feel a line of heat spread out from my chest. There was something there. Something in my chest that the heat was flowing through. Walking further only made the heat travel further down that weird channel, and somehow I knew that the path I was currently on didn't go straight to the odd intrusion.

I backtracked, feeling the heat run along the pathway. Then, I tried a different way. Another channel had the heat pass through it, but that one was wrong, too. However, I could tell there were more 'pathways' that connected to this one. There were too many to accurately figure out, and the longer I took to get to whatever was in the pond the more I felt a sense of crisis encroach on my back. A shiver passed through my mind as I remembered Minamoto's words.

The phrase organ failure passed through my head as I tried to puzzle out what I needed to do. Obviously, wherever I was had to be some sort of test or way to show how Life Energy worked. The heat that passed through those odd channels must be Life Energy, and those channels were like veins and arteries that the energy flowed through. Then, did the pond represent my Life Energy? Was the intrusion part of the test or something else?

"Either way, it has to go." I stated grimly. The problem was how I would go about doing just that. Randomly looking around was just asking to mess up, but simply waiting and doing nothing was just as bad.

The sense I got from the channels was that they were massive in proportion to how far I walked. It would take me days to map out the entire structure, so I needed a way to just check every path all at once.

"I'm looking at this wrong." I said to myself, trying to get my thoughts in order. I pulled up my memories about how Life Energy first felt when I walked around. It had only flowed into me whenever I actually did something that I considered physical, such as walking around. "Life Energy is manipulating the energy of my own life… Life Energy connects to Shikigami to fuel and control them…is that what he said? Then, what if I originally am not connected to my own Life Energy? Is it just there in the background? How does that even work?"

It was a crazy suggestion, but the building pressure in my chest was beginning to become more apparent to ignore such an idea in lieu of letting a potential danger continue. I sat back down into the pond, feeling the cool water brush against my skin. Okay, all I needed was to somehow flood all the channels in my body.

For a moment, I felt dumb to even think that such an idea could work, but suddenly, it happened. One moment, I was thinking hard on the idea of letting the pond water flood into those channels that I mapped out earlier. Next, I felt a rush of warmth spread out from the channels I had already found. Instantly, I could feel all the small, vein-like channels swell with Life Energy, and wash over the intrusion.

I got the brief image of a massive, smiling tree before I was staring up at the sky. The warmth of Life Energy was still flooding through the channels as my body practically vibrated with energy. I felt like I could run another couple miles or make the Oni from yesterday explode with one punch. Of course, that was just a passing thought. There was no way I could actually do it.

[Amatsu Mikaboshi has his eyes on you]

Jumping up to my feet, I ignored the increasingly ominous message before focusing on the fact that my body felt so much lighter than it should have. Experimentally, I threw a couple jabs into the air. I had no clue on boxing, but my fists made barely audible whistles as they traveled through the air.

"Calm down now." Minamoto spoke, breaking me from the sudden excitement bubbling from my core. For a second, I saw his image overlapped with a massive, smiling tree. "You're currently running through your Life Energy reserves so fast that you could faint at any moment."

I paused my actions, feeling the warmth spreading through my entire body. There did seem to be less 'stuff' overall now that I actively looked for it. The feeling was akin to someone who had turned off a faucet of warm water that was traveling through a pipe and now the pipe was only half full after emptying some of the water.

"Don't be too discouraged, most people react like that whenever they first learn how to use Life Energy in such a volatile way." Minamoto laughed while he spoke. "However, you surprised me. Most people take far longer to come out from their Spiritual Selves, but it's good because I don't need to fix any organs this time."

I swallowed a bit of fear at his casual mention of bodily harm again. "W-well, it didn't seem too bad. What even happened? Is Life Energy really not connected to us naturally?"

"Oho, you even figured that out? Interesting. You'd be correct. Life Energy is technically the energy of our lives, but that doesn't mean it is entirely our physical bodies that produce it. I don't really keep up with the specifics. However, you can say that Life Energy is collected in the soul; the spiritual side of life. Those little channels you feel don't really physically exist within your body; you won't be able to cut someone up and find them. They mainly serve as a bridge for the Life Energy within your soul to flow into your body. Such a process happens naturally, so when someone uses Life Energy, they are introducing an unnatural action to the whole thing. What you just went through was just a way to let your body and soul realize that your mind can handle Life Energy consciously."

I frowned as Minamoto explained. Body, mind, soul. Those were the stats within my [status], but I hadn't really considered how important they were. I had still been thinking along the lines of min-maxing a game character. The idea that they were all interconnected suddenly became all that more apparent.

"As for the method on what I did." Ignoring my internal thoughts, Minamoto continued with his explanation. "I put some of my Life Energy within those channels of yours."

I looked at the old man with an awkward expression. "Then, does that mean you can treat people like Shikigami? You can control them?"

"In essence, yes, I could do so. However, things like controlling people with your Life Energy is something more difficult than the effort involved." Minamoto explained, drawing a circle in the ground with the branch in his hand. "Imagine this circle is the shape of your Life Energy and channels." Next to the circle he drew a square. "This can represent the shape of my own Life Energy. You can treat it such that each person's Life Energy is special to themselves, and the channels in your body are particularly tuned to them. This makes putting Life Energy within someone's body like shoving a square into a circle. Enough force can probably get it through, but that will most likely damage the person. Not to mention the fact that your body will naturally reject someone else's Life Energy. The body actively trying to get rid of the foreign Life Energy is what causes the most damage during this procedure."

He pointed to the Shikigami around my neck. "That's why the Shikigami you are wearing didn't merge with your skin like mine. Other people's Life Energy is incompatible with yours."

"Then, what was the point of putting your Life Energy in me? Couldn't you just have explained this?"

Minamoto shook his head. "Trust me, it takes normal people months if not years of learning in order to do what you just did in a couple minutes. Between a safe and steady but long way and a dangerous and instantaneous way, which do you think people prefer in a time of peace? No one wants to risk their lives for something that is associated with soldiers, monsters and bandits."

"Ah I, uh guess that makes sense."

"No need," Minamoto said. "Besides I thought it would be fun to see how many organs it took for you to come out of your Spiritual Self should it come to it."

I… didn't know how to take that. Honestly, Minamoto might be more terrifying than the Oni now that I had interacted with him.

"Now, get back to running. I'll test you later."

With a tired sigh, I could only follow my heartless teacher. From what I heard, there was only a week or so before the punitive force arrived. In the meantime, while I ran and listened to Minamoto, I stared at the familiar line of text in the corner of my vision. Now, who the hell was Amatsu Mikaboshi and why can't he mind his own business?