Who's talking? And why do I feel like I've heard this voice before? Akash's eyes were still closed, and he wasn't sure if the words he was hearing were real or just a hallucination.

  The voice called him David, which was his name back on Earth. It couldn't be a person from the manor trying to mess with him, but the other possibilities were even more far-fetched.

  "You're saying the relaxation ritual brought me to this world," Akash mumbled in a small voice. He was inside his room and the door was closed, but people would think him crazy if they heard him talking to himself, "And we should start with introductions, shouldn't we?"

  "It doesn't matter who I am. What matter is that I am," the childish voice spoke again in a confident tone, "And as long as I am, I'll try to help you. As for the ritual, it wouldn't be wrong to say that it's the cause of you being transmigrated from Earth to Rievlend, but that's close enough to the truth."

  "You see, I'm not fond of cryptic messages and mysterious figures of speech," Akash whispered, not understanding much of the other speaker's words. "I've practiced the relaxation ritual for peace of mind; no one told me that it would send me to another world. I've also been told that meditation is good for mana control, but getting crazy like my mother and hallucinating weird voices isn't something that I'd be a fan of."

  Akash was skeptical. His mother had an official psychosis diagnosis back on Earth, so it was likely his previous body was genetically prone to mental breakdowns. However, he was in a new body completely, so he wasn't sure how things were translated.

  "You're a pain in the ass," the childish voice sighed and spoke in a disappointed tone, "You get sent to another world, you see floating screens in front of your eyes, and you get hit by a fireball, yet you'd rather believe my voice is a hallucination instead of something real?"

  "No offense, but my previous family had a history of imagining things that weren't there, so I might just be on the verge of death and imagining this life as Akash as an attempt to cope!" Akash's eyes were still closed; it was dark around him from his perspective. The owner of the voice didn't do anything to show himself aside from talking, so the teenage boy acted carefully.

  "Hahaha! Now that's a healthy mind you have there!" The voice was amused, "In any case, there's still a chance that I'm real, no matter how minuscule, right? You'd better take this seriously, I even said that I'd help you."

  "You're not wrong, but how can you help? And what can I give you in exchange for your help?" In Akash's previous life on Earth, he learned that there was no free lunch ever.

  "I can make you the best version of yourself, if you follow my instructions and advice," The voice resumed its offer, "What I need is kind of embarrassing, but I'm sure you have a lot of it, don't worry!"

  Oh no, is this one of those weird demons that I hear about in movies? The ones that ask for the blood of virgins or something like that? Akash's heart dropped, and he could feel the sweat forming on his forehead.

  "If you ask for the blood of innocents or the bodily fluids of virgins, then I'm outta here," Akash affirmed.

  "No, no!" Suddenly, a small figure appeared in the void. Akash's eyes were closed, but he could see a humanoid figure in front of him. It was gray all over, and no taller than four feet. "I want a conversation partner. It's lonely for someone like me, so I'd appreciate it if you talked to me from time to time. Maybe I'll ask for additional favors in the future, but you can refuse them whenever you want."

  "That's it? You just need attention?"

  "For now, yes. That's why I said it's embarrassing," the small humanoid figure covered the front area of its head with its hands, as if embarrassed. "Besides, attention is the most valuable asset of all, you humans just don't know how important it is yet."

  "I mean, people seek popularity and attention all the time, but I didn't expect a demon to want to have conversations with a human."

  "I'm not a demon, but whatever," the small grayish figure sighed, "To demonstrate my good will, I'll assist you through the remainder of this meditation session. You'll see the boons for yourself."

  "Let's see what you got, I have nothing to lose anyway,"

  "First of all, I'm sure you can see specks of white light around you, right? The fact that you hear my voice means that you can see them quite well."

  "I couldn't see them when I started this session, but they're getting clearer and clearer. I believe I can even track their movement if I try hard enough."

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  "Tracking their movement isn't enough for the goals you're pursuing; you need to be able to control them."

  "How do I do that?"

  "For a couple of minutes, empty your mind of thoughts, completely. Then, imagine a third arm coming out of your forehead, and extending forwards. After that, grab as many specks of white light as you can then pull them back to your body through your forehead."

  "Roger that."

  After getting those instructions, Akash decided to give them a try. Meeting this stranger creature was a weird experience, but the last couple of days were nothing short of extraordinary.

  Bit by bit, he could feel the imaginary arm extending longer and longer, till it could reach the specks of light. Time didn't exist for him in this void, so he wasn't aware of how much time had passed.

  After a while, he succeeded in pulling the first speck of light, then the second, then the third.

  He grew confident of his control of the imaginary arm, and his perception of the white lights improved more and more.

  Then, it hit him. A wave of exhaustion permeated through his whole body, and he felt a dull pain all over his body, especially his head.

  "This is about as much as your current vessel can handle now," the childish voice spoke, but the words weren't as crisp as before. "We'll meet again."

  "Wait! You're the one who brought me to this world, right?" Akash didn't know that the grayish figure would disappear so fast: "Take me back to Earth, I need to save my mother!"

  "The one who needed saving was you, and I granted your wish already," the voice grew fainter, "You'd better go to sleep, it's already past midnight..."

  Then, the pain got so bad suddenly that Akash had to open his eyes, ending his meditation session.

  What met him was a floating screen that included some text.

  My magic stat improved by one point; that's more than ten percent of improvement in a single session...

  The childish voice was right. He could help Akash, and the latter needed all the resources he could get.

  The exercise of using the imaginary arm to grab the specks of light was quite useful, and probably the biggest reason for the increase in his stats, so he decided to trust the grayish figure for now.

  He needed all the help he could find, and even a deal with the devil would be lucrative for someone as desperate as he was to improve his situation.

  I believe that creature got the answers I need, but for now, I have to sleep. Meditation is sooo tiring...

  With that, he let himself fall on the bed and slept on his side for the rest of the night.

  It was peaceful, and he dreamt of the times when his father and brother were still alive, and they'd go to the beach together.

  He enjoyed the dream until the loud knocking on his door woke him up.

  “Who’s there?” Akash spoke with a deep voice as he rose from the bed, while brushing both of his eyes.

  “It’s me, young master,” he recognized the voice to be Lilian’s, the snarky pink-haired maid, “I’m here to deliver your monthly stipend.”

  That’s perfect, just in time! I was already thinking about making sense of my financial situation. He thought, then sped up his pace towards the door.

  As he opened the door, he saw the maid's figure. She was holding a small pouch between her arms, the size of a small melon.

  “You look more disheveled than ever,” she noted, with a hint of a smile under her lips.

  “Why does that matter to you? You’re a maid to this disheveled guy, so you’d better accept it sooner or later,” Akash’s eyes shone brightly as he looked at the money pouch, unable to concentrate on anything else. “Scram, Lillian! I have a busy day ahead of me.”

  He shooed her away, closing the door in her face.

  She wasn’t the usual maid assigned to dealing with Akash, but after the latter had an ‘incident’ with his previous maid, a change had to be made.

  I wonder how such an unkempt boy can trick all those maids. She thought as she took her leave.

  Meanwhile, Akash was salivating over the coins that fell from the pouch as he flipped it over on his bed.

  That’s a lot of gold and silver! His eyes were wide open. There’s no copper though…

  He wasn’t sure of the exchange rate in this town, or even anywhere in the kingdom. The previous Akash wasn’t the type of guy to care about such frivolities, opting to put all his expenses on his father’s tab.

  “That’s probably the reason why he got banned from the majority of stores in this town,” he mumbled, “And I must take responsibility for that! How can I even improve this piece of shit’s reputation?”

  He had to become financially free and preferably leave this town. It was easier to write a good text on a new leaf than on an old, damaged one.

  Coincidentally, there was a large empty chest in the corner of his luxurious room, so he hid his coins inside. It was likely the place where the old Akash hid his valuables, but it was empty by the time David arrived.

  After receiving his allowance, a weight lifted from his shoulders. Now he had enough capital to avoid the near-impossible task of securing a loan. Given his reputation, most merchants wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole.

  He had many business ideas, depending on what the market needed, but convincing merchants to take a risk on him was bound to be the hardest feat to achieve.

  He sighed and paced around the room. Overthinking wasn’t helping him, so he decided to fill his time with whatever activity he could. He took off his sleeping clothes and put on his leathery clothes which were meant for training, and he put his long hair in a ponytail.

  Meditation was his best way of passing the uneventful morning, so that’s what he did.

  After about ten rounds of doing the invisible hand exercise, trying to grab the white specks of light and control them, he got an idea.

  Maybe I can try incorporating what I just learned from this exercise with Airball?

  He opened his eyes and looked ahead of him. There was an unopened window in his direction, but it was more than twenty feet away from him. His room was that large.

  He concentrated on feeling the air around him and tried to grab the white specks of light. Perceiving them with his eyes open wasn’t an easy task, but he could do it barely.

  “Airball.” He muttered

  And as soon as the words came out of his mouth, a loud, deafening boom echoed through the room, and Akash fell on the floor with a thud, hitting his head.