One-Eyed Monster

At the moment the Stone Monster fell, Kadi's admiration for Igor increased even more.

No, it had actually increased so significantly that he almost prostrated himself on the ground in admiration for Igor.

They had overcome another obstacle. This journey had indeed been fraught with challenges.

Igor shook his head. Dust from the Stone Monster's collapse seemed to have settled in his hair and ears, forcing him to shake it out.

Kadi's emotions had not yet settled, his mind filled with many thoughts. Beyond his deep admiration for Igor, many of his own past experiences also came to mind. Back on Guru Mountain, he had never encountered so many strange events. He couldn't understand why the places he had lived were slowly becoming unfamiliar...

Why had familiar places become strange? Kadi racked his brains but couldn't figure it out.

He glanced at Igor. His expression was relaxed; whether a place was familiar or strange made no difference to him.

"This Stone Monster was quite difficult to deal with. I don't know why it decided to disguise itself as a house and squat over there," Igor said, dusting himself off after shaking the particles from his hair.

"Perhaps it morphed into a house to attract fools like me," Kadi sighed. He realized he was sometimes too impulsive and lacked comprehensive thinking.

But he couldn't be blamed; using his brain had always been a weak point for him.

Thankfully, he had Igor by his side; otherwise, the Stone Monster would have crushed him into a pulp long ago.

After the Stone Monster smashed itself to pieces, stones scattered everywhere. At first, they rolled about ceaselessly on the ground, but now they had come to a standstill, indistinguishable from Dead Objects.

After dusting himself off, Igor bent down to examine the fallen stone fragments.

These fragments looked quite ordinary, their color no different from regular stones. Igor picked up a piece and weighed it, finding no difference in its weight either. So, he unleashed his Spirit Power to sense if there were any remnants of Spirit Power in the stone.

Spirit Sensing was a meticulous task that could take a long time. Igor wasn't in a hurry. He had experienced this process before when making Rain Crystal Stones with Hustace at the Yonder Travel Academy. The process was akin to swimming, where one could feel the water pressure enveloping the whole body—a full and profound sensation.

Kadi quietly watched Igor perform Spirit Sensing, not uttering a word. There's so much I need to learn from Igor, he thought, and I can't rush it. For now, I just need to wait here quietly. After all, interrupting someone, especially Igor when he's concentrating, would really spoil things. I'm not that reckless; I wouldn't do something so foolish.

Night gradually fell, yet Igor remained motionless at the edge of the swamp, letting the evening breeze caress his face.

Soon, the moon had climbed halfway up the mountainside. However, daylight lingered, reluctant to fully depart from the earth. Thus, the selfless, silvery moonlight was not yet visible; only a white, incomplete sphere could be seen hanging in the sky.

Igor felt warmth spread throughout his body, like sipping a hot drink on a winter day. This warmth also swept away the hunger in his stomach. His entire body felt invigorated, brimming with power.

This sensation was quite familiar.

Igor had experienced it before. When he made Rain Crystal Stones and when he had come into contact with Lightning, he had felt the same.

This sensation was Spirit Power Feedback, which indicated that these stones contained Spirit Power.

Items containing Spirit Power are generally considered Living Entities. People on the Yowein Continent were accustomed to calling them Living Beings. However, the Spirit Power in ordinary stones is pitifully small compared to that in animals or trees. But the Spirit Power Igor sensed at this moment was not much less than that of an ordinary person.

Either these stones had been infused with Spirit Power, or someone controlled them with a special technique. Otherwise, they couldn't possibly give this kind of feedback, Igor thought.

Igor didn't believe tales of stones gaining sentience and becoming spirits. Stones are just stones, he mused. At most, some might be special. People might discover some internal principle within them, infuse them with Spirit Power, and turn them into Puppets. There's no other possibility.

However, this was not what astonished Igor. What shocked him was something else.

Igor had felt this kind of Spirit Power Feedback before, and more than once. The first time he felt this sensation was when he made the Rain Crystal Stones. But the second time—the last time he had this sensation—was actually two days ago!

Yes, two days ago!

Yet, Igor distinctly remembered that his memory of two days ago was a blank. That two-day period had slipped away from him, and he still had no idea what had happened.

"I think I have been here before!" Igor looked up and said to the puzzled Kadi.

"What!" Kadi exclaimed, slightly taken aback. I thought Igor wasn't really concerned about whether a place was familiar or strange, he mused.

Igor wasn't one to feel out of place in unfamiliar surroundings; he aspired to be an Adventurer, and Adventurers yearned for unfamiliar environments. The stranger it was, the more excited they became.

In contrast, Igor was somewhat at a loss when faced with a relatively familiar environment.

To be precise, he wasn't at a loss, but rather unsure how to face it. If he had been to a place before, he should be familiar with it and able to handle unexpected events more easily than he had just now.

This meant that for Igor, losing memories of a familiar place was a terrifying prospect.

"But I can't recall anything specific, yet I feel like I've been here before," Igor said, a little confused. He felt certain he had been here, but his mind drew a blank on the actual memories.

"How could you possibly have been here before!" Kadi exclaimed, naturally disbelieving. How is that possible? Back on Guru Mountain, I never heard of anyone who could cross the Moonflow Stream, let alone reach the White Swamp beyond it.

At this thought, Kadi felt a surge of pride. If I tell Kevin about this later, he'll definitely be green with envy...

"I'm not sure, but I do have this feeling. And it came to me two days ago, during the two days we lost," Igor clarified.

The more Kadi heard, the more confused he became. He simply couldn't understand what was happening. Igor was bringing up that lost time again, which only made Kadi's head spin more.

How did that lost time come up again? What a mess! Just when I was starting to forget that complicated business, he brings it up again. This won't let me have any peace!

Besides, what does that have to do with our current situation anyway?

Kadi was utterly discombobulated. He hated using his brain, but Igor always unintentionally made him rack it. If he didn't try to think, he couldn't keep up with Igor's pace or understand his words, leaving him to just gape at Igor—which was what Kadi did most of the time anyway. The same thing was happening now.

The moonlight stealthily emerged, and familiar songs echoed from the other side of the White Swamp...