"Ohhh," Laden cursed as he looked all around him to see the exact same grotesque-looking Wolves. He counted all he could see, and they all ended up being about 7 wolves.

Though that wasn’t too bad for Laden if he were able to merge with Prime, right now he couldn’t do a single thing as his Spirit energy was exhausted.

"Prime, what do we do?" Laden shouted in his mind.

"Wait, I should be able to do something," Prime said confidently.

With a slight disturbance of the environment, Laden noticed Prime appear beside him.

"So what’s the plan?" Laden asked.

"I am going to scare them away," Prime replied.

Hearing Prime’s response, Laden couldn’t help but shake his head as he lost all hope.

"Hey you ugly little things, how dare you howl at this mighty one? You are dogs that shouldn’t stand before me," Prime shouted arrogantly.

It appeared that the Corrupted Beasts could actually understand Prime since they grew more ferocious and approached even closer while still maintaining formation.

"If you come closer one more time, this one will get angry and release its rage upon you." Prime continued.

"So this is your perfect plan, to enrage them even more," Laden said.

"Shut up, don’t you see it’s working? They are hesitating," Prime said proudly.

His words were done leaving his mind when Laden suddenly saw the pack of wolves rushing straight at him without any sort of fear, only anger.

The wolves lunged at him with so much more force. Laden swallowed a gulp of saliva, and Prime vanished back into the Nascent Space.

The pack arrived all around Laden and put down from multiple angles, pulled, and then there was darkness.

Laden regained consciousness in his room as he felt intense pain coming from all over his body.

"Those bastard wolves—they are going to pay," he thought angrily.

"And you too, Prime, why did you have to enrage them so much?"

But the usually loud Prime remained silent for a while before finally speaking up.

"We really need to stop dying in the Spirit World," Laden suddenly heard Prime say.

"Uhh, what do you mean?" he asked.

"Don’t you feel it? your maximum amount of Spirit Energy has reduced by quite a bit. Now we can only merge for five minutes," Prime said.

"Whattt? I didn’t know dying in the Spirit World caused anything. Why didn’t you say so earlier?" Laden questioned it.

"I wasn’t really sure the last time because the difference was negligible, but this time it is very obvious."

"That’s not good, not good at all. First I was bitten to death by some Corrupted Wolves and now you tell me this."

"How do we fix this, how do we increase the Spirit Energy reserve?" Laden asked, his voice filled with urgency.

"I have told you before, Accustomization."

"Now that we are currently collaborating and I am your summoner, our Spirit reserves are linked."

"Your personal Spirit reserve is so small, we are basically only using mine," Prime ranted.

Laden didn’t try to cut him off; instead, he remained quiet and listened to Prime say all that he had to say.

"Accustomization, uhhh?" We should do that as soon as possible."

"You said two days ago that the perfect method of Accustomization is beast-specific, and yours is battle."

"But we have had two battles together; why didn’t they affect anything?" Laden asked.

"I meant real battles, not these puny ones you are doing."

"Fight Truly strong guys, strong according to your standards though."

"You will not know what killed you in the face of those; I find strong," Prime said Proudly.

"Hmmmm, I guess we should be able to make some progress if I take care of those packs of wolves," Laden said.

"Yes, that would be a very difficult fight, but if you can find a way to, then yes, we should make progress," Prime said.

"Now don’t bother me anymore; I have some things to do," Prime said before vanishing into the Nascent Space.

"Accustomization," Laden muttered as he clenched his fist.

He could remember vividly the helplessness he felt as those corrupted beasts approached him and bit down on him.

"Any life that hampers or kills others not to survive but for the joy of it shouldn’t be left alone," he said with anger.

"I hope they are still there and I am able to return there," he thought seriously.

Laden didn’t waste any more time before he turned around to sleep.

"Tomorrow," he thought as he slowly drifted asleep.

In Laden’s Nascent Space, Prime sat on the ground close to the floating Nascent Core with an extremely annoyed expression on his face.

"Being helpless isn’t a good feeling at all," he said angrily.

"If it weren’t for those guys, I would have shown those bastard wolves some hella trouble," he continued.

"But for now, there’s nothing I can do," he said helplessly.

"I need time; I just need time," he said while resting his back as some unclear memories surfaced in his mind.

"There’s so much I can’t remember," he muttered with his eyes closed.

The next morning came in a flash, and Laden woke up to go meet his parents downstairs. It was a weekend, so he didn’t have to attend classes today.

"I will spend today training on Accustomization," Laden said resolutely.

After eating breakfast with his parents and sharing some fun experiences and a bit of a smile, he quickly returned to his room to begin his plans for the day.

He and Prime spent the whole of the day in a cycle that kept repeating all over.

They would merge, and Laden would start using the combat techniques he knew in his mind to get fully accustomed to them so he could switch between them as fast as possible.

After their spirit energy runs out, Laden would sit on his bed and meditate on the combat techniques until it was time again.

This frenzied cycle repeated itself without end until Night fell and everywhere grew dark.

"I am better than I was yesterday," Laden said affirmatively.

"Now it’s time to go take care of those pesky dogs," Prime shouted too.