Chapter 9: Chapter 9— Untainted Nascent Core and Nascent Space

After an unknown amount of time, Laden suddenly felt himself slowly regaining consciousness, but he still felt his soul was shaken by that experience.

"How did the monkey attract such an enemy?" Laden wondered with his still-fuzzy consciousness.

But as time grew, things grew clearer until Laden could finally open his eyes to see the familiar room’s ceiling.

"I was killed again, and now I am back, and this time I don’t even know how I died," he thought in horror.

"Let me go, stupid human." Laden suddenly heard a familiar arrogant voice inside his head.

"Is that monkey? why can I hear it in my head?" Laden thought in shock.

"I said let me go and let me return to the Spirit World," the monkey said again now in a more commanding tone.

"Let you go? Why would I do that? and didn’t you voluntarily become my Summon?" Laden asked.

"It is confirmed now; you are too gullible, human. Do you think this monkey, a primordial Spirit will voluntarily become someone’s summon?"

Hearing the monkey’s words, Laden couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

"Primordial Spirit indeed."

"What did you plan to do then, by making a contract with me?" Laden asked with a strange face.

"Do you think this monkey is dumb, had I known you had such an untainted Nascent Core I wouldn’t have attempted it at all."

From the lesson he had about a day ago, Laden knew that Nascent Cores are what allowed Summoners to make contracts with their summons, but he was still confused by the untainted part.

"What do you mean, untainted?" Laden asked in confusion.

"Do you think you are the first one to try to make me their summon since I woke not long ago?"

"About three people have tried, but their Nascent Space can’t hold; I keep getting out," the monkey said with deep pride laced in his voice.

Now Laden finally understood what the monkey had been planning very clearly.

"It made a contract so it could escape, and when my Nascent Space can’t hold on, he would just escape and return to the spirit world. Hahahaha, now he is stuck," Laden thought excitedly.

Though he wasn’t sure what a Nascent Space was, Laden had a guess. He imagined it in his mind as an area around the Nascent core where Summons can stay.

Despite the monkey’s half-baked explanation, something still confuses Laden, as he still didn’t understand why the monkey said his Nascent Core was untainted.

"I said let me out, you gullible human," the monkey shouted again, snapping Laden out of his thoughts.

"Why would I do that," Laden responded with an equally domineering tone.

"If you have the ability, get out yourself."

After the loud shout from Laden, the room went silent; the only sound that could be heard was the sound of Laden breathing.

"From what I see, you seem to be in some big trouble, and I don’t think you are capable of handling it anytime soon."

"If that weird eye came again, what would happen?" Laden asked.

"Shut up when you don’t know what’s going on, human; that pesky stuff only noticed me because a bit of true power came out. " The monkey shouted.

"Let’s say you are right; let’s say it is only because your true power came out does that mean you don’t plan on doing anything about it?"

"You plan to hide forever like a vermin."

"I said shut the hell up," it suddenly shouted, producing a pressure that immediately made Laden’s chest tighten.

"I bow to no one and nothing; I never planned to run forever. Hell, I am not even running; I am preparing."

"I am only trying to protect you, dumb boy, by leaving you."

"The longer I am tied to you by a summons, the more trouble you are in and the deeper the grave you are digging for yourself."

"You don’t know how powerful what you were up against is, do you think you are safe by leaving the spirit world?"

The last words the monkey said suddenly made Laden realize that he had subconsciously considered the danger of the spirit world incapable of affecting him if he stayed out of it.

"Our enemies are dangerous, alright. I have gotten that, but you can’t just tell me to let you go and fight them yourself."

"Instead, why not let us do it together? I am not sure about this, but I think summons grow stronger with a Summoner right,"

"Or else why would summons agree to a contract then?" Laden said.

"That’s true, summons do grow stronger with a summoner, and that’s only thanks to the Nascent Core."

"The Nascent core produces a special type of Spirit Energy that can’t be found in the spirit world, and it amplifies spirit beasts’ growth by a lot," Monkey said.

"But I don’t know if that will help me in any way as a Primordial Spirit," arrogance laced his words.

"But again, your Nascent Core is almost completely untainted, so it shouldn’t be that bad since it can even accommodate this master."

Laden couldn’t stop rolling his eyes as he listened to the slightly narcissistic words of the monkey.

"And if you think about it, we make a really good team," Laden finally said.

"Good team my ass; you only snuck out to steal some fruit, and even that you couldn’t do right. I was stabbed in the stomach by those disgusting roots because of you."

"But we did get the fruit, and I got a summon, so a win is a win."

"I am not your summoner; we are just temporarily collaborating," the monkey replied curtly.

"Yes, yes, just temporarily collaborating," Laden agreed.

"Ohhhh wait, now that reminds me, where’s the second fruit?" Laden suddenly asked.

He was holding onto it the last time he could remember before he was killed in the Spirit World.

"So I can’t take things out of the spirit world," he said disappointedly.

"It’s here dummy," the monkey said, stopping Laden from thinking far.

"That’s great then; we will deal with that later. Now that we are temporarily collaborating, there’s something I need your help with," Laden asked.

"There’s a particular snake I will be needing your help beating up."

"Ohhh really? I guess this collaboration won’t be as boring as I thought then; I love beating things up," the monkey replied in a weirdly excited tone.