Adam could only blankly stare for a moment. Never had he expected to encounter a spirit here. Perhaps the valley was the home of this spirit! “Uh, is this valley your home? Sorry for intruding, but I need to use a place like this to purify my body. I will leave as soon as I am done, can you allow me to stay?”

It was the spirits turn to be surprised. “You can actually hear me!? I didn't think it would actually work! Hmm... you don't seem to be a normal abomination. Regardless, you still are one and I don't want to have anything to do with your war whatsoever. Get out!”

There was the mention of that war again! Adam started to hurriedly speak: “What? No! I have no idea what war this is that I keep hearing about, but I have nothing to do with it! I just got trapped inside the plane of death for a few years and came back! I don't want anything to with a war between spirits, ghouls, or whatever!”

The spirit skeptically said: “And I am just supposed to believe you?”

“Look at me! I might be some sort of abomination, but I am definitely NOT a ghoul! My soul is not corrupted and the corruption in my body is deeply suppressed! I am far closer to 'human' than 'ghoul', why would I join any war as a ghoul?”

Adam was desperately pleading to the spirit. Adam was only able to find this valley due to some luck. There was no guarantee that he would have discovered the odd wind if he had not been outside of the inn that one night. To have to leave and press his luck to find another place full of spirit essence... there was no telling how long that could take! If his luck had completely run dry, it could even take decades!

The spirit was silent for a moment. That moment almost seemed like an eternity to Adam. Then, the spirit said: “If I just let you stay here willy nilly, what will I get out of it? Just a fat load of death essence hanging around my valley, that's what! You need to compensate for your time here. Amuse me!”

This sudden turn around was a little too fast for Adam. “What?”

“You heard me, amuse me! If you can amuse me I will let you stay, if you can't I will make sure your life is living hell for as long as you stay in my valley!”

“Uh...”

Adam was at a loss as to how to amuse a spirit. Just what would amuse it? Adam didn't know enough about the spirit to be certain about anything, but he had to try something! The first thing that came to mind was his flute! The best form of amusement Adam could give was most certainly the music he played on his flute. The spirit intently watched as Adam pulled his flute from the pack he was carrying and put it to his lips. Adam wasn't entirely sure if the spirit enjoyed music or what type of music it might enjoy the most, but he knew he had to make it special! Adam had immediately decided to find a way to add spirit essence into the song as he played. Before he could do any of that, though, he had to figure out which song he was going to play. In the middle of deciding what tune to play, a breeze blew through the valley. It stirred all the wind essence in the air and Adam could hear the wind essence swirling about! It inspired hims to start a new song from scratch! A song about the wind, wouldn't that amuse a wind spirit?

Just as Adam would incorporate the sounds he heard from the forest's various animals and insects when he played his flute on the road, Adam incorporated the sound of the wind essence into his song. Not only did he include the sounds of the wind essence in the valley, he also added in melodies that reflected his wind formation! The song started out with the light lilting sounds of a gentle breeze through a fine spring day and slowly became more intense as he slowly brought a storm through his song. As he played and did his up most to utilize the wind formation into his song, the wind essence a few meters around Adam was also effect by his song! During the gentle parts of his song, the wind essence stirred slowly and calmly. If one was in the area, they would feel a relaxing atmosphere coming from the vary air itself! As Adam played the stormy parts of the song, the stirring wind essence became crisper and gave off a cold and sharp feeling. After the storm, calm permeated the air as Adam's song slowly faded away.

Adam had not been paying attention to how the spirit was reacting to his song, nor the effects his song had on the wind essence, since he needed all his concentration to play the song. As he looked up from his flute, the spirit gave Adam the feeling that it was basking in the last sounds of his song. The spirit seemed to shake itself back to its senses and said: “That was grea- I mean, that was rather acceptable! You may stay a short time in my valley. I will come to you again when I feel that you need to amuse me more in order to stay longer!”

After that, the spirit zipped away further into the valley. Adam could only stare as the spirit went on its way, thinking: “What an eccentric fellow.”

Now having the spirit's permission to stay, Adam prepared to stay for a length of time. He brought some fallen branches together to make a small lean-to shelter under a tree and set some traps around to catch small game. After Adam was done with those preparations, he started the work of purifying his body. Just like he had done in the plane of death, Adam used the wind formation to do this. However, this time he was gathering as much of the vast amounts of wind essence around him as he could and put it into his formation to force into the bones of his body! The wind essence that Adam collected was denser and more pure than if he had done it back at Hessler. With this purity, he could use it to force out the death essence that had become packed into his bones, which had made them just as equally dense and pure as the wind essence in the valley.

For an entire hour, Adam worked on purifying the death essence from his body. Unfortunately, it was rather slow going. With the death essence so deep into his bones, Adam had to force the wind essence through the bones. He had to do it with enough force to displace the death essence, but if he put too much force into it he could completely shatter the bone instead! Adam could only work a little bit at a time. With such a slow progress, Adam was unsure of how long it would actually take to purify his body...

A few days passed and the spirit had yet to come back to Adam, demanding for more amusement. Adam wasn't certain just how long it would be until the spirit came back to him for that. He had occasionally seen the spirit, though. It was flitting about the valley while stirring up the wind essence. It gave off the feeling of a child playing! Every now and then, the stirred wind essence created a small breeze that had that odd feeling Adam had initially sensed back in the village. This breeze was full of concentrated spirit essence and was artificially created by a spirit! It was in no way a natural breeze, which was why Adam had felt it was so odd.

A few weeks passed with no problems for Adam. The purification was still extremely slow, but there was still progress. On one particular day, Adam was busy purifying himself when the spirit came over and hovered right next to Adam! Adam was still in the middle of his purification and the spirit hadn't said anything, so Adam kept on going. Unfortunately, the spirit started flitting this way and that over Adam, as though it was examining him. This was both very distracting and interrupted the flow of wind essence he was trying to gather for the wind formation. Adam finally stopped and asked: “Did you want something?”

The spirit finally stopped moving and gave of the feeling of looking at Adam with curiosity. “How did you learn to communicate like spirits do? I have seen some of your so called 'spiritualists' and how they enslave the little ones with their accursed symbols! You, however, are different! You direct the little ones like spirits do!”

Adam was once again left at a loss by this spirit. “Uh, I am not sure what you mean by 'little ones'. I can hear you and other spirits because my path is unorthodox and is reliant on sounds, like music.”

“Path, shmath, who cares about whatever that is! I can't believe you can communicate with spirits, yet you don't know the most basic things about us! Here, the magnanimous I will teach you a little!”

The spirit seemed to gather an amount of wind essence before Adam. “Here, you can hear them can't you? These are the little ones! Or, at least, that's what I call them.”

“Oh, you mean spirit essence? Yeah, I can hear them.”

“Spirit essence? While I suppose that is kinda correct, but it is still wrong! What do you think this 'spirit essence' is?”

Adam smartly replied: “It is the life force of spirits that has spilled over from their planes. It forms everything in this world.”

“Still kind of correct. What do you think this 'life force' really is though? Eh, I will just cut to the chase, they are tiny spirits!”

“Wha...” Adam was too shocked to even fully form the word 'what?' Was this spirit simply insane, or was it speaking the truth? If spirit essence was truly tiny spirits, this could entirely change the way the world of spiritualists viewed everything!

“Yup, your whole world is made of tiny spirits! Even your body is! The little ones are too small, though, so they don't actually have any intelligence. They can only follow their base instincts. Those spiritualists use their accursed symbols to take advantage of this and enslave the little ones! We larger spirits are made from an agglomeration of smaller spirits and form our own intelligence! Ain't I neat!?”

Adam could only stare at the spirit. It was hard enough wrapping his head around the foreign concept of spirit essence actually being tiny spirits! Put on top of that this spirit who acts foolishly even as it explains the concept and Adam was truly uncertain whether to believe it or not. Something in its words seemed to ring true, though. If spirit essence was made of tiny spirits and were what Adam had always been able to hear, it makes sense that he is able to directly hear larger spirits without them directly trying to communicate with him. At the same time, didn't the spirit say that Adam was communicating with the little ones like larger spirits do? Adam had never been able to control his spirit essence to create formation symbols. Through song, he had somehow been able to create a formation, but it did not rely on mystic formula or symbols like other formations do! If the spirit could clearly explain to him how he was communicating with the spirits, maybe Adam could gain even more control over them and even use a vast array of formations like a normal spiritualist!

“Can you explain to me more about how spirits communicate? I have been lost on this ever since I first started hearing the spirits!”

The spirit seemed to stare at Adam for a moment and then said: “Amuse me.”

“Eh?”

“I have already been very magnanimous and answered a few questions to you for free. Amuse me, and I will answer your questions again!”

“This childish spirit!” Adam raged in his head. He took a deep breath and said: “Okay, first let me calm down a little. What you had said was a little shocking. I will play a song for you in a minute.”

It appeared that the spirit had started to lounge lazily as it said: “M'kay, make it a good one then.”

Adam could only once again sigh inwardly at this spirit. Adam played a light lilting song that spoke of a childish wind at play. The model for this song was the spirit, of course. Unfortunately, Adam couldn't vent some of his frustrations and portray the childish wind as stupid or incoherent as that would have been a forceful change to the song that would make it sound bad. After the song was done, the spirit seemed to stretch from relaxation and said: “Ah, that was a pleasant song. Now, to your question!... what was it again?”

Barely managing to keep a calm countenance, Adam once again asked for the spirit's help.

“Oh, that should be easy. Um, you kind of use your soul I think you call it? Anyway, for spirits we use our entire being but for you it should be your soul. Watch, and be amazed!”

The spirit seemed to be making a dramatic pose as it suddenly said: “You folks, go over there!”

A small amount of wind essence swirled through the air as it suddenly changed from its natural movement and followed the spirit's command. Adam did his best to ignore what the spirit had said and was trying to concentrate on what it was doing. While Adam could sense a small change in the spirit, there wasn't anything definite that could help!

The spirit looked rather proud as it floated before Adam. “Did you see?”

“...not really.”

“What!? Do you even have, what do you call them?... Eyes! That's it, do you you even have eyes!?... uh, this is kind of awkward, but you can see right? You have that blind fold on, but it seemed to me that you were be able to see things just fine.”

“In a manner of speaking, yes I can see. It's just that whatever you were doing was too small for me to tell what was going on! Is there any way to make it more obvious?”

“Ugh, fine. Sheesh, it's like teaching a child! Are you properly watching? I will only do this once more!”

The spirit began to enlarge as it once again posed. The spirit then said: “You folks, back to where you were!”

The wind essence that had been moved before, moved back to their original place. Adam once again ignored what the spirit was saying. The spirit was true to its word as it was far more obvious in what it was doing this time! It had made itself larger so Adam could more easily see as it vibrated! The vibration of the spirit created sound. The sound was similar to the sounds that the wind essence would make and was directed to a group to make them change direction! Adam began to quickly process all of this and came to a conclusion. The vibration the spirit gave was like an instrument or a voice. Through vibration, it creates sound! This sound was so similar to the wind essence, that it seemed exactly the same! This sound guided the wind essence from what it was originally doing to do something else! If the sounds that Adam could hear from spirit essence was their voices and you could replicate their voice to talk to them, couldn't you potentially command them? It might not be quite as simple as this, but it was surely the basic of what was going on! It truly was the spirit simply saying: “You folks, go over there!” But in a manner that the wind essence could understand and obey!

As to how Adam might replicate this, he would have to figure out on his own. The spirit had already told him that he would have to use his soul like how the spirit used its body. If Adam could use his soul to send out sounds in just the same manner, would the wind essence follow his command? Was everything really as simple as that? The only way to find out, was to try it himself!

When the spirit once again left Adam alone, he started a few experiments of his own. First, he listened to the wind essence and the sounds they made as they moved about. He then brought his flute out and played the same sounds they made back. He chose to use the flute, since it had always seemed to help him with formations in the past. At first, simply replaying the tune was not enough. It wasn't so much the sound of the flute, but more his thoughts mirroring what he was playing on the flute that mattered. He had to put his will into to it in order to impose commands on the wind essence. By concentrating on just a small amount of wind essence and putting his full concentration into directing and commanding them with song, Adam was finally able to freely move wind essence in whatever manner he wanted! He only needed to know what types of sounds the wind essence needed to hear and compose that into a song to fully control them!

This method, Adam noticed, was slightly different from how he had been controlling wind essence before. Normally, he would pull a bunch of wind essence into his soul and subject it to his will and then put it in the wind formation. Instead, he was now trying to stretch his will outside his soul and directly command the wind essence! The latter method was definitely harder. However, it had a greater potential to allow Adam to do whatever he pleased with the wind essence since Adam's ability to use formula and symbols in his soul was virtually zero.

Adam stayed with the spirit for a long time. Every couple of months, he would think about returning to Hessler, if just for a week or two. However, something nagged him about it. He had the feeling that if he left the valley, he wouldn't be able to find it again! Adam didn't know where this feeling came from. Couldn't he just follow the odd wind back here? But... these kinds of feelings that Adam got were almost always correct. Just like the time he had miraculously learned the sword song, or the pull that led him to Silber, or to stay in Hessler where he eventually experienced the fight against the dragon and formed the wind formation. This feeling had to be correct! But as time went by, worry filled his heart. It was this same feeling that had told him that he would never see Helen and Alfred again after he left Hessler. Was it because he needed to stay that he would leave them long enough for them to pass away? Adam could only wipe away some silent tears before throwing himself back into purifying his body.

Over two years had passed since Adam first came to the valley. There was a stream that ran through it so even if he had to live rough, he was still clean. During the winter, he had stumbled across the fact that if he made wind essence rub against itself vigorously, it seemed to give off some heat! By making some wind essence do that around his lean-to house and keeping a fire, the winters were easily passed by.

During the two years, Adam had tried to pry some information about the war from the spirit, but it would have nothing to do with it! It always avoided his questions or outright ran away. Something he was able to answer for Adam was about deviant spirits. Long ago, when Adam first joined the spiritualist class in Hessler, he had been taught about spirit types that were a mix between the various types of spirit essence. It turned out that deviant spirits were unique to this world where multiple types of spirit essence existed side by side. A small amount of spirit essence could agglomerate into a larger clump of spirit essence and still not become a true spirit. When it does this, more than one type of spirit essence could potentially be drawn into that clump and become a deviant spirit type. Humans and any other animal in the world are just agglomerations of all the different types of spirit essence. In this way, human's could actually be considered deviant spirits as they truly have intelligence on par with spirits! Beyond humans, there are 'true' deviant spirits that represent things like lightning that can only be formed in and exist in the world.

Throughout the two years, Adam had constantly been purifying his body and perfecting his control over the new method to control spirit essence. He could not deftly control the wind essence without the aide of his flute and just use his soul alone! All it required was a song in his mind. As for purifying his body, he had reached a wall! Over the course of the two years, one by one his bones would no longer be purified by the wind essence! Starting with the smaller bones and going to the larger bones, it was like there was no more room for any more wind essence to fit in his bones, but there was still plenty of death essence left! Adam was at a loss about this. He had asked the spirit if he knew anything about it, but all he said was: “How am I supposed to know every little thing about your body!? I dunno, maybe you hit a balance point and have to use a different type of spirit to fill your bones?”

Adam felt that this was right. Since a human body is made up of an agglomerations of many different types of spirit essence. To fill his bones with just one type of spirit essence would not be truly 'purifying' his body. It would have to reach a natural balanced state. However... wouldn't that mean he would have to find a place like this valley for each type of spirit essence!? Adam shuddered at the thought.

Considering that there was likely nothing else to gain from staying the valley longer, Adam prepared to go back to Hessler.

[AN: I think I see a few more followers sneaked their way in, thank you so much!]