A new day was dawning. They both fell asleep in the forest clearing after the fight. Well, the wisp went into a state of tranquility, while Yuki snored away. They both only recovered the next morning.

Yuki held his half destroyed clothes thinking “Mom is going to kill me.”

“Your clothes are ugly. I wouldn’t bat an eye over losing them.”

“What was that thing anyway?” he asked, ignoring the spiteful tease. “A slime?”

“A fairy slime. Much more dangerous. Theirs is level ten so they can cast minor sound and visual illusions to lure their victims into a trap.”

Yuki was standing shirtless, sulking over his destroyed tracksuit, while Aria was tending to his wound. The wound could have been much more serious if the teeth went a bit deeper. “I made the mistake of underestimating the enemy and also letting Yuki fall into the trap. I can’t allow this to happen again.”

“Fairy slimes are fairly rare these days, and people don’t often fall for their tricks.”

“So, why didn’t you warn me about the danger?" Yuki asked, preparing the pouting tirade.

“Oh, n-no, I didn’t know. I was deceived as well! L-like I said, they are r-rare these days and I wasn’t expecting it.” Aria stammered nervously, formulating a clumsy lie. “G-good thing is you are level five now! All’s well that ends well. Ha-ha.”

Yuki’s attention was successfully redirected, much to Aria’s relief.

“Wow, four levels! Not bad. That fight was a piece of cake, I will level up in no time.” Yuki’s boasting would make Aria’s ears bleed if she had them. “

"But, how are you able to tell my level and know my skills? Can you summon some kind of a status window or an inventory screen? Can I do that as well?” he sounded like an excited little boy pestering his parents with endless questions about why an orange is orange when volor orange is already orange.

“Inventory what? What are you talking about? No, nevermind, I’ll just assume you spoke about some nonsense associated with your world. Skills that come with certain levels are common knowledge in this world. Though they vary from species to species and between races, in general they are not a secret. Same goes for levels, specially monsters'. There are some legendary creatures whose levels are only speculated about, but these cases are rare. As for humanoid races, there are special devices that can measure it. The results can sometimes change people's lives. A peasant can become a knight and the other way around. Your level, however, is inscribed on your body.”

“Huh?” Yuki started searching his body, looking for a number.

“The inner side of your upper right arm.”

Yuki raised his right arm and indeed it was there. Under his reeking armpit, there was a black dot followed by four nicely stylized dashes.

“Each level will earn you a dash building into a crown around your arm. Try not to show that thing for now. We should avoid exposing to everyone that you are a summoned soulmate. It will garner too much unwanted attention.”

“And how do you suppose we avoid that?” indifferently asked Yuki, pulling the lower part of his tracksuit left and right. "I'll be so bold to asume I'm not wearing the latest fashion around here."

“We’ll figure out something along the way."

Not convinced, Yuki shrugged his shoulders in resignation. He was too worked up over his progress to be bothered with other problems.

“By the way, what was that weird magic you used on my body? It made me feel invincible.”

“That was mending.” Yuki recalled her screaming something of the sort while he was swimming inside the slime. “It’s not my magic, it’s our magic. All soulmates have the ability to invoke mending. It’s usually a powerful spell, one of a kind, but it can turn out to be something quite random. It’s usually best to test it in a safe environment, when no one’s around. We didn’t have that luxury, but it turned out fine, more or less.”

This came as a surprise to Yuki. For the first time since coming to this world, he felt...special. This feeling added to his overall excitement. His eyes glittered with the light of thousands of fireflies. His jaw dropped a bit opening his mouth just enough to give him the look of a nitwit. Mending. A powerful spell. Unique. A mighty hero. He was daydreaming, occasionally letting out an incoherent giggle. Just as his mouth was ready to start drooling, Aria zapped his shoulder wound.

“Ouch!” Yuki jumped away from the electrified wisp, returning to reality.

“Sorry, my concentration slipped. Come here, I need to finish healing the wound.”

“You have a foul temper, you know that, right?” Yuki said rubbing the near healed wound.

“And you have a look of an idiot. Now come here, let’s finish this and leave this stupid forest.” Nitwit reluctantly brought back the shoulder to the wisp, deciding to stay vigilant for the remainder of the healing session.

“Now, where was I. Apparently, our Mending is quite true to its name. It usually requires soulmates to be in physical contact, but we’ve actually joined our bodies into one. That sensation, however, was awkward and I hope we can avoid it for the time being. At least until you get a bit stronger. At level five, you should be able to cast some minor spells and kill weaker creatures.”

“But wouldn’t mending speed up our progress. Isn’t that what you want?”

“True, but right now it is far too exhausting for me to merge with you. You’re weak.” the words stung the mighty dimwit, but he couldn’t deny them. “Also the sensation of joining bodies feels weird and overly intimate.” Yuki couldn’t dispute her arguments but also didn’t want to. He realized yesterday after the fight, much too late, that he was dealing with a girl. He was raised to be kind to them, a bothersome habit instilled in him by his mother. So as much as he felt powerful during the spell, he didn’t want Aria to bear the burden. She was a lady, after all. Might not look all that lady-like right now, but nonetheless.

“Fair enough. I’ll get stronger the old-fashioned way. Blood and sweat. Your healing spell will come in handy if you can manage to keep your focus.” Being kind to this particular girl was challenging at times.

After the healing session and a few more quarrels, Yuki realized he hasn’t eaten in over a day. More precisely, his growling stomach reminded him of that.

“Right, I forgot you have to eat as well.” said the wisp, sounding like eating is the single most annoying thing to ever exist on any plane of existence. “Come, let’s continue the journey, there’s plenty of nuts and berries along the way.” Although their relationship seemed to have regressed with the endless quarreling, they felt much better in each other’s company, both too stubborn to admit it.

Rest of the journey through the forest went smoothly, except for one incident where Yuki ate a poisonous berry, while Aria was scouting the path ahead. The berries’ juice wasn’t deadly but gave the boy an unremitting, itchy rash all over his private parts.

____________________

Leaving the enchanted forest was somewhat anticlimactic for Yuki. There was no magical border separating it from the land around, no monsters guarding the path, no strange voices trying to lure you back in. Not only that, as they approached its borders the forest started losing its magical beauty. Right now it looked like any other normal forest. If he wasn’t so stumped with everything, Yuki would be disappointed.

A wooden sign stood on the edge of the forest catching Yuki's attention. It said - Cursed forest, Entrance prohibited. Forest dangers include: getting eaten, eating something and dying, getting your souls sucked into abyss, getting torn apart just for fun .

Simple and effective. Some dangers listed on the sign Yuki experienced, and some of them he didn’t even want to imagine.

Aria, floating beside him, was unusually silent. She lacked the ability to show emotions, so Yuki decided to take her lack of speaking as an expression of concern.

When she finally spoke her voice was serious, lacking her usual sarcasm.

“That sword. It didn’t react to my magic yesterday. I tried casting a spell on it, but nothing happened. I’ve never heard of a weapon resistant to magic.”

Yuki raised the sword, searching for a clue as to why that happened. It still looked like a rusty piece of junk to him.

“You are not omniscient. Might have missed a class or two about rusty swords too dull for magic.” Despite the tight grip, Yuki somehow managed to drop the sword which landed flat on his face.

“A sword like that would definitely be famous in this world. Here everything revolves around magic. Power structures, politics, wars, relationships. Every social interaction is determined by magic, or rather the height of magic affinity. If ever there existed a weapon that could resist the effects of magic, that would...”

“Stop right there.” a stern voice yelled in their direction. Yuki turned to face it. Two men dressed like city guards, carrying halberds were approaching them. Aria quickly hid inside Yuki’s pocket, praying to the spirit of the holy light that they didn’t notice her. The boy was left to fend for himself. This was his first encounter with non-wisp people of this world and it wasn’t going particulalrly well.

“Just do as they say.” he heard Aria whispering from his pocket.

“This place is strictly forbidden.” the guard with the stern voice pointed the halberd towards Yuki. ”Your transgression is punishable by law. Lower your weapon and come with us peacefully.”

Yuki’s face grew ever so pale as the guards came closer. He dropped the sword and raised his hands above the head.

Great.