One-Eyed Monster

"Damn it, so it was you causing trouble all along!" Igor's somewhat flagging spirits suddenly revived, his energy returning twelve-fold as a familiar voice resonated from his grasp.

Old resentments resurfaced, and new ones arose. The relationship between Igor and the Spirit Book had reached a common state in life: full of ups and downs, and utterly unpredictable.

Although Kadi found it odd for the Spirit Book to suddenly start speaking, he was clear-headed enough to realize that the upheaval in Ghost Wind Valley was not something ordinary people could cause.

Regardless, a book merely imbued with Spirit Power could not possibly possess the strength of an ordinary person. After all, it was just a tool, albeit a higher-ranking one than most…

Unfortunately, Igor didn't see it that way. On some inexplicable basis, he blamed the book in his arms for everything that was going wrong.

Kadi watched as Igor, filled with wrath, SLAMMED the book onto the ground.

What a simple-minded fellow, Kadi thought. The poor Spirit Book is the victim again.

"Ouch…" The Spirit Book on the ground began to groan. It seemed it had been thrown with considerable force.

"Ouch yourself! You're the source of all this mischief, aren't you? Do you really want me to tear you apart and roast you over a fire?" Igor vented his rage, somehow finding strength despite his earlier hunger and weakness.

"Huh? What nonsense?" The Spirit Book, which had been groaning, instantly recovered its composure. The mention of being torn apart and roasted over a fire made it immediately alert, the pain from hitting the ground quickly forgotten.

"Open your eyes and look at the mess around us!" Igor glared, still angry.

"Please, I'm just a Spirit Book. I don't have eyes."

"As far as I know, a Spirit Book's eyes are its Spirit Sensing after it levels up…" Kadi finally interjected. However, his statement was irrelevant. It neither accelerated nor slowed the situation, merely serving as a note of his presence.

"Stop trying to play dumb and answer my question! Why cause trouble? If you don't, I'm going to start a fire!" Igor rolled up his sleeves, looking as if he really would tear the book apart.

"Master, please, let's talk nicely. I genuinely have no idea…" The Spirit Book caved under Igor's pressure and began to plead.

"I told you, don't play dumb with me."

"I… I really don't know anything!"

"Hmph. So you won't cry until you see the coffin." Igor turned, took out his fire starter, gathered some scattered dry grass and leaves, and with swift, decisive movements, began to build a fire.

"I'll help you…" Kadi, excited at the sight of fire-making, eagerly volunteered his assistance without needing to be asked. When it came to summoning fire—uh, no, making fire—Kadi would never miss out. His zeal for this skill was equal to Igor's enthusiasm for anything new and shiny.

"Master, Master, please! Let's talk calmly. Don't treat me like this. I really don't know anything! Even if you tear me apart and roast me over the fire, I still wouldn't know!" The Spirit Book begged pitifully, its plea sincere, without a smidgen of pretense.

Unfortunately, Igor, at this moment, had a heart of stone, unmoved by any sort of plea.

Even the monster Kadi had forgotten about pity. He was wholly engrossed in blowing on the kindling of the newly built fire, seemingly oblivious to everything else happening around him.

"Master, please, don't do this. I really don't know anything!" The Spirit Book persisted, clinging to its only form of defense: attempting to win sympathy with its nonstop talking.

"Enough with the nonsense. You're just playing ignorant. I see. You're holding a grudge because the last roast wasn't thorough enough. So now, we'll make up for it. I'll make sure you learn your lesson this time!" Igor, with his heart of stone and ruthless methods, was nothing like the simple-minded child he appeared to be.

"Master, please spare me. I really don't know what happened. If I did, I would do everything I could to help you. Really, you have to believe me. I am a loyal Spirit Book. Master, you have to trust me…" The verbose Spirit Book talked incessantly. Oh, wait, it was essentially a chatterbox.

The best way to deal with a chatterbox is to ignore them, and Kadi knew this all too well. He had previously been too enthusiastic, which was why Igor, that chatterbox, had managed to keep him in Ghost Wind Valley for so long.

By now, Kadi understood that one couldn't engage with a chatterbox conventionally. Ignoring them and letting them babble to themselves was best; they would naturally leave you alone once they lost interest.

Of course, this wasn't the main reason Kadi was ignoring the Spirit Book. He was completely enthralled by the flickering flames, leaving no room in his mind for anything else.

"Master, please, just listen to me! Although I don't know where I went wrong, this incident really has little to do with me. Master, you can't falsely accuse a good person like me!" The Spirit Book, to some extent, was shamelessly thick-skinned and had no sense of self-respect.

Why say so? Because this fellow kept insisting it was a good person. An ordinary book, having done nothing, yet loudly proclaiming itself to be a good person—where did its standards even come from?

Igor ignored the book's incessant chatter, watching the flames leap up before him with a WHOOSH. A wave of emotion washed over him, more tangible this time, and after a moment, he voiced it.

"How perfect it would be if I had a rabbit to roast over this fire. It would be a waste of such a great bonfire not to roast some meat."

A glutton's nature can never be changed. Furthermore, being famished, Igor was, to some extent, hoping food would magically fall from the sky.

Especially with such a roaring bonfire—just looking at it was enough to whet one's appetite.

"Yes, yes, roast meat, not me…" The Spirit Book picked up on Igor's words, hoping to curry favor with him, but it was of no use.

Igor still grabbed the Spirit Book and was about to place it on the fire…

"Wait!" At the last moment, the Spirit Book seemed to muster some defiant courage and shouted.

But this shout was equally useless, as Igor still placed it onto the fire.

"Ouch! Okay, okay, you win."

"What have I won?" Igor asked casually.

"Ouch! You… You've won the chance to move on to the next level… Ouch!"

"Congratulations, you've passed the first test, my child."