I had been a bit too arrogant lately. Not because I was getting full of myself or anything, but because I had assumed I could learn techniques without the technique talisman. I mean, it made sense. Shikigami are basically complex mechanisms where your Life Energy is regulated to create a certain effect. I had thought that so long as I figured out the specifics, I would be swimming in cool moves to just use.

How wrong I had been.

Techniques were an entire different beast. They used Life Energy, yes. They also did the complex twists and turns to create some kind of effect. However, that was where things got weirder. I had found out that little tidbit when I was playing around with my new technique.

Just like skill jades, the technique seemed to form some kind of physical presence in my hands, and so long as I flowed Life Energy through them, I would be able to access the technique. It would automatically send my Life Energy through my body to accomplish whatever the technique did. Except, my Life Energy would soon become something else.

I knew what Life Energy felt like; a warm, almost comforting feeling that spread through my chest to my fingertips. It was like slowly dipping my body in a warm bath. So, while I wouldn't say I knew everything, I at least knew what to expect Life Energy to feel like.

That was why it was such a shock that when I used [Life-Death Soul Weaving], my Life Energy became some odd amalgamation of cold and warm currents. It was disorientating. I had almost not used the technique because it was so bizarre compared to my normal Life Energy.

However, as I puzzled why my Life Energy changed, I came to a startling realization. My conversation with Yasuda one time had touched upon the idea of energy taking different forms. It was how my stats evolved. How killing creatures let you absorb some energy to raise your Life Rank. They were a conversion of Life Energy into something else, something used to achieve different things.

The idea hit me like a ton of bricks. Techniques weren’t just some fancy attack. They were a bridge to create different forms of Life Energy. It was like how electricity could become heat or light. Techniques were something that affected my Life Energy on a fundamental level.

Though, just like my [Mask of Flesh] skill, I had to figure out what it would do by myself. After I realized that I didn’t get stronger or faster while using the different Life Energy, I quickly hit a wall. Once more, I was mentally complaining how these things didn’t come with some manual.

Still, it wasn’t like I was completely helpless. The name of the technique gave me plenty of ideas on how to use the energy, but I just worried that most of those ideas weren’t the most ethical. And I tried to keep my hands clean from anything too much like some kind of supernatural war crime.

Instead, I jumped to a different thing entirely. My Acolyte class was something that was very common in many kingdoms and organizations, meaning that its class advancement conditions were heavily researched. In my odd conversation with Shizuka, she had mentioned that Acolyte classes generally had two conditions: offering a sacrifice to your god and having your god acknowledge you.

Once again, I felt stuck. My god was technically myself, so while I gained some peace of mind, how the hell I could acknowledge myself was beyond me. Honestly, I felt a bit like I shot myself in the foot with my decision, but I wasn’t going to put myself on a platter for people I had no relationship with.

Despite my problems increasing, I felt a bit relieved with all the things that grabbed my attention. I needed to learn how to use my skills, how to use my technique, how to fight in general, how to increase my stats, and now how to advance my class. Just a glance at that list, I already felt a bit tired. However, they were necessary for my last goal of becoming stronger. They were things that I could do with a bit… actually, maybe a lot of hard work.

As for how to get friends. I had Minamoto, and maybe Yasuda. I wasn’t too sure after I had nearly killed that one man and secluded myself in my thoughts. Though, even if I was sure about his friendship, I had no idea on how to actually gain friends. I couldn’t just randomly go up to people and ask to be their friend, and I doubted I wanted to constantly put myself and others in danger in order to forge some friendly bond.

Which left me constantly in a state of figuring out how to approach other people.

I sighed, feeling a little anxious. Another day of travel to cement that I had no idea on how to go about anything. Yet, I didn’t feel too down about it. The sheer amount of things that needed to be done served to offer enough incentive to not think deeply about other problems. The fact that we were underwater was also something I chose to push off till later. I was fairly confident that the Inverse Ocean above wouldn’t flood down anytime soon, so I put that to the last of the problems for later. Though, there was one problem that surmounted the others.

My body stiffened as I was playing around with the converted Life Energy, and I couldn’t help but turn towards the woman who walked over to me. A piece of dried meat and soup was held in her hands as her ruby lips parted.

“Gaijin, you were over here.” Shizuka spoke softly, and I felt my mind drift for a moment before I stamped down on it. “Here, eat. Tell me more about your land.”

I stifled the need to sigh. Shizuka had become more intrigued in me after I had stuttered my way through my stories about stars. Her attention was a concerning one, really. The fact that she was some part of royalty was what gave me the most pause; there was no way of knowing if she had subordinates who might find some trouble with me for just talking to her.

Another was her technique in general. Whatever she was doing had to be automatic; her Life Energy seemed to be constantly converted to some different form of energy to bring about her condition. Something I reasoned had to be done at higher Life Ranks since I had to manually do it for me.

However, no matter what happened at higher Life Ranks, Shizuka’s presence was a problem in and of itself. She was just too eye-catching. I had no doubt that the more time she interacted with me there might be some admirers who might also screw with me because of her attention.

The problem was that I couldn’t just ignore her, but I also couldn’t afford to get too close to her.

In essence, it didn’t matter if I could resist her influence, she was trouble. There was no safe option of interacting with Shizuka. As such, I carefully narrated different aspects of my world to her, making sure to explain it in a boring way.

“Your home is rather odd. However, universal education is something interesting.” Shizuka mused aloud. “I still don’t understand why they don’t teach more about fighting, but I guess it doesn’t matter too much. The old man at least taught you the basics.” She grinned wide enough to show her sharper teeth. “Though, he was always a shitty teacher. His standards are always above what normal people can handle.”

I pursed my lips, thinking that maybe she was right. Minamoto never really told me how strong I was nor how strong I needed to be. In fact, I got the distinct impression that he probably wouldn’t consider me anything other than weak until I was his equal. Though, I couldn’t really complain about my friend helping me out when I needed it.

I chose to just offer an awkward smile to Shizuka, hoping to drop the subject.

“Right, how is that technique coming along? I can sense your Life Energy being transformed a bit, but not much else. What does it do?” She asked suddenly.

I paused a bit. Shizuka had been very interested in my growth since she had first seen my list, and I half suspected she wanted to groom me into some kind of soldier. Though, her concern for my strength was both nice and worrying. “I… am not sure. I was hoping there would be something in Ikshiizu.”

“Ah right, that hag would definitely have something.” She looked over me like a piece of meat, sending shivers down my spine at the continued attention. “Any other problems?”

“I uh-”

Luckily, it seemed something else took her attention as her gaze snapped over to our left. I followed her eyes, but found nothing. Squinting, I looked further into the horizon. Far off in the distance, I could see slightly distinct trails of smoke rising into the sky. Honestly, if I wasn’t looking for it, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it.

Just like how Minamoto could somehow sense things, Shizuka also had something that let her see far away. I had chalked it up to their skills or techniques, but seeing an example of how far her senses actually were was humbling in a way.

Then, Shizuka looked over at Minamoto, cupping her hands around her mouth. “Hey, Old man! I am gonna take the Gaijin out to kill a couple beasts!”

“What?”

“Come on, there is nothing better for training than real-life battles.” Shizuka didn’t wait for my response, and instead grabbed my arm. Then, the two of us burst into flames.

I panicked a bit only to calm down when the flame didn’t burn me. They were only lukewarm, and they languidly wrapped around me like some kind of flickering blanket. My vision was swathed by red and orange before vertigo sent me to my knees.

Suddenly, I was looking at the ground. My breathing was coming out in gasps as sound reached my ears again. I hadn’t even realized that I couldn’t hear anything until I heard familiar noises enter my ears. Even blindfolded, I could remember similar ones coming from the stitched up souls in my memories.

They were screams for help.

My eyes snapped up to see another burning village. Straw roofed buildings were set ablaze as men, women and children ran away from their attackers in a panicked flurry. For a second, my heart seized, fearing that we had run into Hyakki Yagyo. In a way, it was worse.

Men carrying chipped and worn swords and hatchets were chasing down the villagers, cutting down anyone who was too slow or brave enough to fight back. Immediately, I could tell they weren’t trained. They didn’t have the professionalism of Samurai, nor did their equipment look like they were some well-built force.

Instead, they wore animal pelts and ragged clothes. Stains and dirt covered their clothes and rough skin. Unkempt, greasy hair trailed down some of their heads, and some had chosen to just shave their heads haphazardly, creating patches of uneven, black hair. Yellowed teeth flashed every time they laughed in the carnage as a pit of dread and disgust filled me.

I wasn’t some saint of justice, but just watching people happily kill defenseless villagers was a bit too much to just watch without feeling anything. My gaze traveled to Shizuka who watched everything with a frown. She had brought me out here, and I realized a bit about what she wanted. I couldn’t help but feel apprehensive.

Shizuka calmly raised her hand, and suddenly, I saw the fires around the village change as streams of red gathered together into large orbs of flame that manifested above all the bandit’s heads. Many immediately stopped, but there were some who hadn’t even noticed the phenomenon. Instead, they were the examples.

The second they moved, the ball of fire above them fell and consumed them into a conflagration of fire. For the long seconds before they perished, their screams rang into everyone’s ears as we all watched frozen. No one moved after the third bandit burned to death. Even the villagers stared at Shizuka with unbridled fear.

Yet, the situation didn’t cause a ripple of emotion on Shizuka’s face. She just turned to me with a smile that would make any normal person fall for her. “There, now we have plenty of beasts for you to kill. Hopefully, you can use them to figure out your technique. How do you want to start?”

It took me a minute to try to refuse.