For a warrior who has fought most of his life, it is a burden when there isn’t anything to battle. When the war is over, and he has to go home, it’s where he loses a part of himself. When there is no reason to fight, no reason to get stronger. There is a chance the warrior might become a hollow shell of who he was in the war, or before the war even fought.

Never the same.

That… or he tries to find something else to satisfy his hunger, either a hobby to put all his energy in, or more, until he finds one fit for him.

But until then.

‘It feels like I have been doing sidequests for a while.’ Aether frowned, wiping the flour from his hands.

His fishing session had been successful, and he had to say… at the end of the day, he did enjoy it, but with how much it took, he wanted to try some other hobbies, and that was what he had been doing for some time now.

To the point he reached cooking.

Though, while this might have maybe caught him, and maybe it would have been the one he chose… he was bad. Really bad at cooking, to the point that everything he made was somehow disgusting.

‘What the heck is going on? I’m sure I wasn’t this bad before. Is it because I have strayed a lot from cooking? Can something like that even happen? Sure, I haven’t cooked in a while, but it’s not like I used to cook or bake that much before, and it never tasted this bad.”‘

It also didn’t help that he was getting bad looks from the chefs around him. They were probably going to kick him out really soon.

‘Better leave myself, I don’t want to cause a commotion.’

As he left, Aether could see the others around him sigh in relief. He knew he was bad, but was that reaction really needed? Like it was really disrespectful…

“Aether, is that you?”

‘Hm?’ Turning his head around, the hollow warrior noticed that King was walking up to him.

To think that a King could be this laidback, but at the same time, this was a giant civilization, the chances of someone sneaking in and trying to assassinate him were low; he wasn’t even sure he could do it… the killing part, he had confidence he could sneak around in the night.

But at the same time, what was being overconfident help him with until now? It has only caused bad things.

“Your majesty, what do I have the honor?” Aether said, with a small smirk on his face, as he bowed slightly.

“Oh its nothing special, I was only strolling around, and I happened to notice you. Hope you have been training hard. I don’t know your methods, but they must be incredible since you declined the training of my knight.”

Aether chuckled, trying not to show that he was a bit embarrassed.

“Don’t worry, I have been training my hardest… in the kitchen.”

…

“What?”

…

“I have to go, see you later, your majesty.” And before the King could process what had happened, he had already left the scene, as if nothing had happened.

The King sighed. “What an interesting and yet strange boy he is. He’s a Will-less, yet he’s so different from anything I’ve seen. It’s as if he isn’t from this world.”

…

…

Aether strolled around the town, watching as leaves fell around him and birds passed without a care in the world.

‘What now?’ That was the question that kept coming back to him, and that he couldn’t answer. He was bored, and while he could spar with Voidpiecer, he had already done that today, and that damn blade won’t want to spar again just because he is bored.

And he already tried most things to do in this place. He has even worked in many places in the forest. He was a librarian, which was fun, because it was like reliving his childhood, but as someone who helped others pick the best books.

But… he got fired because he kept reading books on the job.

“Old habits come back, I guess, especially when you’ve got nothing else to do.”

He worked as a waiter, but got fired because he kept spilling everything. It was stranger, for someone who thought he was good with balance, that he couldn’t balance that tray at all.

He even worked as a guide for other beast-human merchants passing through, or tourists from other smaller villages, of course, of beast humans.

But I think you could get why he got fired this time.

He was also stuck when it came to Eden; there was nothing in this place that gave him a challenge, and so he could improve his awareness.

It was as if he were in a stone box with nothing but a ball to throw at the wall.

The only thing that was remotely fun was speaking to shadows, which… just goes to show how desperate the position he was in was.

When speaking to Lost became the most enjoyable thing, it was bad, really bad.

Aether sighed, walking to the home he was appointed by the King… really, the only thing he could think to do was go to sleep; he didn’t have anything else to do today, so why not just skip the day entirely?

‘When is this so-called war going to start already? Are these orcs going to attack or not?!’

…

Yet as he went inside his home, there was a Lost sleeping inside his bed.

“You have to be kidding me…” He stomped his way to the bed and tried pushing the Lost off, but just passed through its body and fell.

‘Oh yeah… I forgot.’

But the impact woke up the shadow.

“Geez, you really are noisy.”

Aether gritted his teeth. “You should know that this is my home, so leave… and take your friends with you!” He said, the other seven Lost that were hiding in the room stepped out of the shadows.

“Why do you have to be such a buzz kill?”

Aether clenched his fists. He really didn’t want to deal with this.

“Out now!”

The shadow groaned as it slowly got out of the bed.

“Fine… we will leave… but only if you catch us.”

And before he could object, the Lost ran away from him. Aethers sighed as he dashed forward, trying to grab one of the shadows, but just when he was about to touch them, his hand went through their bodies. And every time this happened, the Lost would just him around.

This was embarrassing, really embarrassing.

It was annoying, the Lost were giving their bodies a form just when he couldn’t touch them, but they could.

It was annoying, but because they were formless and highly adaptable, they could change from having a form, and not having one, really fast, to the fraction of a second…

‘Wait…’

Aether dashed forward, watching as his hand passed through their bodies once more… but this time, he also watched their soul. Watching how it changed each time they gained a form.

When they were formless, their soul and essences were all bottled up in one place, similar to how the queen had her soul. But when they gained a form, the essence of their soul started to pass through their bodies.

But was that how they gained a form? If so, why did the queen have a form when he also had her soul compact… was it because she still had a core with working essence?

It… made sense. The core is one of the things that gives something a form. It’s why things like rocks still exist; they have cores, and while they don’t have essence, they have souls. They have a form. But for a Reader with both, even if you condense the soul, you still have Affinity to power the core.

But shadows, who relied on soul essence, when they condensed their soul, they made it so there was nothing flowing through their body, their core couldn’t give their body a form.

…

But could he also do the same thing?

He had a good grasp of his soul essence because of Eden, but the essence from his Affinity was another case… but at the same time, they followed the same principle, heck, the Affinity is the one that is easier to find and see… so would it be that hard?

Aether took a deep breath.

As he dashed forward at a shadow, and like before, his hand passed through, but this time, as the shadow was about to push him around.

…

He guided his soul and affinity to one place, draining his threads… and this time.

The hand of the shadow passed through him, catching it of guards and making them fall to the ground, just like he did many times, and allowing him to touch it.

…

“That… worked?”

[You have gained a new skill {Erosion }]

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