The first light of the day hit Elise in the eyes. A bare foot was poking her shoulder. She couldn’t understand where she was for a moment. She was lying on the ground filled with wild grass, and the voices of the various animals were all around. After waking up to the rumblings of the ground or thunderstrikes for months, it was a nice experience. It had been months since she last woke up to such an environment. 

She opened her eyes and looked up. The daylight was filling the dense forest she was in. She never thought she could miss the sunlight. Last night, they had come through the Gate they had used previously and came back to the Realm where she was born. 

Her eyes slowly got used to the sunlight, and she saw an unknown man standing on top of her. She immediately backed off with a flip and took a stance to draw her sword if necessary. She was sleeping while hugging her sword in case of these kinds of situations. Her back hit a tree because she backed off a little too much with her first move. Right, the gravity was lower in this realm. 

She looked at the man in front of him and tried to assess the situation, but she recognized him from his strange clothing. It was made of strips of cloth that seemed to be mixed all together randomly, like layers of various-sized rags. Elise saw that strips of cloth moved around and changed forms a couple of times. It was an interesting piece of equipment she wanted to learn more about, but at that moment, she only had one question to ask him. 

“What the hell happened to your beard?” 

The Traveler had a messy beard ever since they were traveling together, and it was like a thing of his. It was giving him a more mature and experienced appearance, but now a man in his mid to late twenties was looking at her. He was the Traveler, Elise knew that, but the sudden environmental change made her mind numb after she woke up. There was no way to mistake his ever-changing, colorful eyes.  

“Good morning to you, too.” 

He had his usual playful smile on his face, but it seemed a little strange to Elise without the beard. She realized she still had her guard up and relaxed. 

“Good morning...” She said, with shame. “And sorry for the extreme reaction. I was just... not expecting it, I guess.” 

“I thought you were afraid of my face for a second. You hurt my feelings, you know.” He said with a dramatic tone and a gesture along with it. “I have an apprentice now; I need to look sharp to be a good example. Come on, let’s have breakfast and be on our way.” 

They were heading back to her home. She was not a fan of it, but the Traveler kept insisting that she needed to resolve her past quarrels if she wanted to travel freely. She was heading back home to start her journey without any regrets. 

After they hunted some of the deserted monsters and had nothing else to do in the past realm, the Traveler caught her by the neck and took a step forward. Before Elise had realized anything, they were in front of the cylindrical-shaped dark stone. The Gate to the Malargo Forest where they came. They traveled months' worth of distance in an instant. 

When they passed the Gate, she hardly stopped herself from hugging the trees and soft ground of the forest. It was good to be back in a familiar environment. She had deeply breathed in the clean air. Even though they were in the deepest parts of it, the Malargo Forest was still much better than that dark and gloomy place. 

Last night, Elise had her best sleep in months. The warm fire the Traveler created acted like a fireplace and kept her safe from the deadly cold of Malargo Forest. After an eventful awakening, they had breakfast and continued their way. It was the best time to ask some questions in her mind. 

“So, you said you just destabilized his core. But, how exactly?” 

Elise was still curious about how the Traveler had defeated the Demon. The last thing she remembered was a machine glowing with Energy, and the Demon in the middle of it. The Traveler said she passed out because of the high Energy density in the area. He blocked most of it for her, but the remaining Energy was still too much for her body to handle. 

They were on their way to the town of Rihona, or at least what remained of it. They were passing through Malargo Forest once again after months. And once again, the forest that was normally full of monsters was empty because of the Traveler. He was leading the way in the dense forest, and Elise was, surprisingly, keeping up with him. 

This terrain had its difficulties, but compared to that rough and rocky realm, it was nothing. She never thought the difference in gravity would affect this much. Now that she had come back to her Realm again, she was as light as a feather. Her movements were more fluid than they had ever been. 

“The power he was trying to control was too much to handle for a normal creature. He sure had a well-trained Energy core, and he was also supporting his Energy flow with his skin enchantments. If I weren't there, he could pull it off with more time. But unfortunately for him, he had to rush it, and the whole process was hanging by a thread already, so I just disturbed it a little.” 

He was explaining everything so casually, but something was off about him since that fight, and he was trying to cover it up. His behaviors were still the same, but his face was giving it away. It was not about the beard as Elise first thought. From time to time, she caught a dark expression on his face. He seemed troubled and engrossed at these times. When he realized it, he was quickly getting himself together. 

“What was that power? How did he get his hands on it?” Every time the Traveler explained something about Energy, more and more questions popped into her head. That topic was a bottomless pit.  

“I didn’t have time to take a closer look, but it felt like raw Energy. The one that was all over the place in the whole realm.” He raised his right hand in front of Elise while they were walking. Energy started to condense in his palm. he was doing it slowly for her to catch on. 

“Usually, the Energy doesn’t remain raw for long. It changes the characteristics of its surroundings or changes itself based on them.” The condensed Energy in his palm started to change shape and color rapidly. “Most of those characteristics are already categorized and being closely examined by researchers, but that’s an advanced topic; even I don’t know the exact depth of it.” 

“So, how was there so much of it in that realm?” Elise was watching the demonstration closely. A topic that he didn’t even know thoroughly, hah. That was a first. She could see the change, but was also trying to feel it with Energy. It was not easy to tell the difference. Yes, they were different, but how exactly? 

“There is only one way to encounter raw Energy. It has to leak from the space between realms.” He dismissed the Energy in his hand. “First, I thought it was because of the incompletion of the realm; it isn't that rare to happen. But when we got closer to that machine, I understood the cause.” 

Space between realms? Every explanation led to another question. She needed to write some of them down at this point. 

“He either opened a Gate of his own or used an already manifested Gate to draw and store raw Energy. In that unstable realm, it shouldn’t be that hard.” 

“Wait! Can anyone just open a Gate like that?” 

“Of course not. It requires a tremendous amount of Energy to open, and much more to maintain.” He stopped walking and pointed out a location in front of them. “Watch carefully.” 

The Energy started to condense once again in front of them, but it was not like the other examples. It was way too complicated for her. There was no change visually, but she could feel it. She felt like the sun was in front of her, without the heat or light. 

Then suddenly, the space in front of them got distorted towards the center. It was a strange experience. She could see the other side, but the air was wrinkled like a piece of cloth. The Energy was rushing out from the center of it. 

“This is just a simple crack, made by me. Thankfully, this Realm has a lot of cracks already. I had told you about before, the Blessings and such.” The Traveler continued his lecture. “Can you feel the raw Energy, and how it immediately converts to different varieties of itself?” 

Elise focused on doing as he said, but as soon as she opened her mind to it, a raging headache followed her attempt. She did not expect it to be this chaotic. The Energy was gushing out and colliding wildly with the surroundings, exploding and transforming. She could not keep up with it.  

Her focus shattered into pieces. It was too much for her. She unintentionally closed her eyes to not look at it, but it had nothing to do with sight. She couldn’t gather her focus back to resist the chaotic senses that were rushing into her mind. She almost gave up, but before that, her senses faded and then disappeared. 

Elise opened her eyes. She was holding her head with two hands. The Traveler was standing in front of her, and there was no trace of the space distortion. She needed to catch her breath first, but she also had questions. 

“Why was it so different than the other Realm? You said that was raw Energy, too.”  

The Traveler looked back at the place where the distorted space was. “The Realm we visited was also a materialized space, like all the other realms. So, the Energy had already adapted to that space. Yes, it was still raw and wild, but the Energy tends to resonate with its surroundings. 

“This one just now came from a place that has not materialized. It is hard to explain and is harder to understand without feeling it personally, but you aren’t even close to being ready yet.” 

He looked at her face and saw her unsatisfied look, then he added. “The Energy tried to materialize, but the material also tried to be Energized. That is why all that chaos happened. Is this enough explanation for you?” His voice was filled with sarcasm in that last sentence. 

Elise was eager to learn more, but decided not to push it and answered him with a nod. She was beginning to figure out the Traveler’s behaviors and gestures. When he decided on something, insisting had no use. There was still so much to learn, and it was drawing her in more as she went deeper. 

“You look fine enough, let’s keep going. We are close.” He turned back and started to walk. “Don’t let it bother you; everything has a time. You barely get to grasp of the first steps of distributing Energy within your body. External Arts like these are way above that.” He increased his walking speed when he was done with the speech. 

That was how he was. If you took your time to work harder, you could overcome everything. Giving up was not an option. She rushed to keep up with him, still eager to learn more.