Oliver had finally figured out the reason behind why he was getting credit for killing beasts he had never even seen.

It was because of a forest fire.

Earlier, while experimenting with his Firecraft attribute, he had started a fire and then, while extracting the Canopy Strider’s fangs, he had used it to further make a makeshift torch.

He had fully intended to extinguish the flames afterward, but in his rush to get out of the forest alive, the thought had completely slipped his mind. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

And as people often said, sometimes all it took was a single spark to burn down an entire forest and it seems that he was about to witness that firsthand.

"Oh, fuck."

Oliver rubbed his forehead and looked into the ground.

"How can I be this careless?"

He sat there for a few moments before taking a deep breath.

"No, no... it’s not all bad."

After all, he was somehow getting free credit for killing Aether Beasts and he had even obtained a completely unknown inheritance from one of them. Thinking about it this way, the situation suddenly seemed a little less terrible.

"In fact." he muttered.

"This is actually a completely original and intuitive beast-hunting technique."

The more he thought about it, the more reasonable it sounded.

"Maybe when I get back home, I should start my own clan and pass down my learnings."

Oliver nodded to himself again and again.

A moment later, however, he sighed and looked up.

"Yeah, maybe not."

It was then that Oliver noticed something strange in the sky, it was already nighttime and so the moon was visible.

The moon of the Spirit Realm was supposed to be violet. That was one of the first things people learned about it back on Earth. No matter which region of the realm one entered, a pale violet moon would always be present in the night sky.

Yet the moon above him wasn’t violet. In fact, there wasn’t just one moon in the sky, but there were four.

One of them looked relatively normal, resembling Earth’s own moon with its pale silver glow.

Another possessed a deep crimson hue that colored the surroundings red.

The third was grey and was strangely detailed despite the immense distance from him. Oliver could somehow make out cracks, and uneven surfaces across it, which should have been impossible to see, and yet they stood out to him as though the moon were much closer than it actually was.

The fourth moon was the strangest of them all.

It was completely black, so black that it almost disappeared into the night sky itself.

Had Oliver not been actively staring upward, he might have missed it entirely. Only a faint purplish glow moving through its surface made it distinguishable from the darkness around it.

But that wasn’t the violet moon he knew about.

The moon described in every textbook and survival course was supposed to be completely violet in color. This one wasn’t. The purple only appeared in scattered glows or streaks, flickering across the black surface.

Oliver frowned as he continued staring upward and for the first time since arriving in this world, a thought occurred to him that he really didn’t like.

’Am I even in the spirit realm?’

The thought felt absurd, if this wasn’t the Spirit Realm, then where exactly was he supposed to be?

Everything else seemed to match, the beasts, the soul cores, the inheritances, the system—all of it pointed toward the Spirit Realm.

Yet the evidence was right in front of him. Or rather, above him.

"Haah...What is even going on in my life?"

He was about to continue thinking when he suddenly heard something rustling nearby.

Oliver immediately became alert and grabbed his spear. The sound was small and light, not the heavy footsteps of the monsters he had encountered before.

A few moments later, a tiny creature emerged from the nearby bushes.

It looked like a squirrel, It’s fur possessed a dark green hue, while its eyes were a striking gold. Around its neck was a ring of golden fur of the same color. Despite being an Aether Beast, it appeared surprisingly harmless and honestly, kind of adorable too.

However, the little creature was clearly injured, as parts of its fur were singed black, and one of its legs seemed hurt. Its movements were sluggish, and every few steps it took were accompanied by a faint wobble.

Looking at it, Oliver immediately understood what had most likely happened, the squirrel had probably been caught in the forest fire.

The forest fire that he had caused.

"Ah."

The realization made him scratch his cheek awkwardly and the tiny beast looked up at him with its golden eyes.

Its face somehow managed to look both exhausted and miserable at the same time. Seeing it like that, even Oliver felt a little guilty, just a little.

After all, setting an entire section of forest on fire had been an accident, but, unfortunately, that distinction probably wasn’t very important to the small creature standing in front of him who was looking at him with a pleading gaze, as if asking for help.

At first, Oliver had thought about putting the little creature out of its misery as it was injured, exhausted, and judging by the burns on its fur, it probably wouldn’t survive very long on its own.

But just as that thought crossed his mind, he suddenly remembered the story attached to the Sigil inheritance.

The beast and the child and their bond that had transcended death itself.

Looking at the tiny squirrel, battered and miserable as it was, he couldn’t help but be reminded of it and so, the desire to kill it faded almost immediately.

Not that there was much reason to do so anyway as the little thing looked incredibly weak and it was probably just a Feral-ranked beast. Even if he killed it, he would likely gain only a single essence shard.

Compared to that...

Wasn’t it better to try using the Sigil?

After all, the inheritance had specifically mentioned binding a living creature that was weaker than him, and judging by the squirrel’s condition, it was definitely weaker than him at the moment.

A slow smile appeared on Oliver’s face.

"Well, little guy..."

He crouched down slightly.

"How would you feel about becoming my first employee?"