“Hmm. So your brain isn’t entirely muscle after all,” the Fragment muttered.

“Or is it because you aren’t particularly hungry? Yes, that could be it. No one else has survived nine days on their first visit without going hungry.”

“How long did Grandfather survive on his first visit?”

“Julius Alastor first entered the Floor of Asceticism at seventeen. He survived three days.”

“Oh...”

“His lifeline never snapped, but hunger drove him back to the room.”

Excellent swordsmanship alone was not enough to sustain a long stay in the Mudflats. Unless they had opened their upper energy center and stepped into the Ultimate Realm, humans needed food and water to live.

“So I can receive rewards other than meals?”

“You can.”

The Fragment gave a slight nod, then propped his chin on his hand and watched Kyle with interest.

“You killed and ate quite a lot of residue over those nine days. You should be able to receive most things as a reward.”

“Where do the rewards come from? Are things inside the Sword Tower summoned here?”

“No. They are ‘created’ on the Floor of Asceticism.”

The Fragment smiled.

“Miraculously. You could call it an actual miracle, in fact.”

“Created... huh. Then do things made here disappear when you go outside?”

“No, they don’t. Just what are you planning to ask for, brat?”

The Fragment’s eyes gleamed. He was curious what that utterly bizarre child intended to request.

“Hmm...”

Kyle pinched his shirt and lifted it. Black slime clung to the fabric, which reeked of rot.

“I could get a bath as a reward, too, then?”

“Of course... you could. Brat, did you ask me all that just to request something so trivial?”

The Fragment’s brows furrowed, the interest fading from his eyes. Bizarre though he was, was the boy still just an eleven-year-old child after all? Just as disappointment began to set in, Kyle grinned.

“After the bath, I’d like some clothes.”

“Clothes...? Yes, clothes. You can receive those, too.”

“Shoes, too?”

“What exactly do you want to ask for?”

The Fragment impatiently pressed him for an answer. Only then did Kyle plop down on the floor with a grin.

“It’s inconvenient not being able to move around at high tide.”

“...!”

“I understand that the waves are dangerous. The hand beyond the horizon isn’t just dangerous—it’s something I shouldn’t get involved with at all. The eye beneath the black sea feels much the same.”

“You know that... and you still want to move around at high tide?”

The Fragment asked in disbelief, but Kyle’s smile never faltered.

“I just have to avoid looking that eyeball in the eye, don’t I?”

“...”

“Oh, I know it’s easier said than done. When its gaze comes my way... my whole body freezes. And strangely, no matter how hard I try to look elsewhere... even if I tense my neck muscles, my head starts creaking around to meet its eye.”

He spoke from experience, having tested all of that.

“What are you planning to do at high tide?”

“What else? Hunt.”

“Hunt...?”

“There’s absolutely no way I could kill that giant eyeball right now! But I think I could put up a fight against the monsters swimming in the sea.”

“That’s absurd.”

The Fragment shook his head, his expression stern.

“Those beings are on an entirely different level from the residue in the Mudflats. The residue was discarded without ever being born, but the monsters swimming in the sea are byproducts that successfully came into being.”

“‘Byproducts’ doesn’t sound particularly flattering. Hearing that actually makes me think I have more of a chance.”

“You ignorant fool...!”

“If I try and it doesn’t work, then that’s that. From what I can tell, even if I die fighting those... byproducts, was it? My lifeline will just snap and bring me back to the room. Am I wrong?”

He had become certain of that on intuition alone? Even more dumbfounded, the Fragment glared at Kyle. That bizarre human child’s intuition far surpassed anything he had imagined.

“As you say, if the byproducts kill you, the lifeline’s protection will return you to this room. But the byproducts and the black sea aren’t the reason you must avoid the water. If you meet the eye of the abyss, your soul—your very existence—will be sucked down to the bottom, powerless to resist.”

“Then what happens?”

“You probably die. I don’t know exactly. It’s never happened to me, and no one dragged down like that has ever returned.”

“Then I’ll just dodge it and avoid eye contact.”

“You ignorant fool, can’t you just say you won’t—”

“Come to think of it...”

Kyle grinned and raised both hands.

“I don’t actually need your permission. The Sword Tower gives the rewards, not you, right?”

“Wai—”

“Give me equipment that lets me move around on the black sea.”

The moment he spoke, a black, translucent light enveloped his hands.

THUD.

Something dropped out of thin air. The Fragment, who had sprung to his feet and was about to rush toward Kyle, froze.

“...?”

Kyle tilted his head at the object on the floor. It was a long black cord. When he picked it up, the cord rippled briefly and emitted a faint glow.

“What’s this?”

“Ha... hahaha!”

The Fragment clutched his stomach and burst out laughing.

“A single shoelace for killing hundreds of bits of residue! Hahaha! I suppose it makes sense. Residue is only residue, after all.”

“Oh, this is a shoelace?”

Frowning, Kyle grasped the shoelace with both hands and stretched it. Smooth to the touch, it lengthened as far as he pulled, then shrank when he brought his hands together again.

“What a shame, brat. You won’t be doing the hunting you wanted.”

“Nine days of hard work for one shoelace... Hmm.”

“Forget your foolish ideas and stick to killing and eating the residue in the Mudflats. If you insist on a special reward, why not ask for a proper sword... or a swordsmanship manual?”

“I already have a sword picked out, and the grand library is full of swordsmanship manuals.”

“The manuals House Alastor has collected don’t encompass every sword art in the world.”

“Hmm.”

Kyle raised his hands again and tried asking for a meal this time. A loaf of bread as hard as a club fell down, identical to the one he had received on his first day.

[“The food... our food...”]

Jorm, who had been expecting a feast, sounded close to tears. The Fragment clutched his stomach and laughed again. Kyle tore off little pieces of bread and put them in his mouth. It tasted awful, but far more like actual food than the residue he had been stuffing down for the past nine days.

After chewing for a while, Kyle abruptly stood, opened the door, and went outside.

He returned about an hour later, having hunted the monsters near the door. Plopping down inside the room again, he raised both hands.

“Food, a bath, and new clothes.”

Even his simultaneous requests were granted as rewards. First, a small bathtub appeared before him. Though no pipes connected to it, warm water gushed out when he turned the faucet.

A neatly folded set of clothes lay beside the tub. Curiously, they were identical in style to the clothes Kyle had worn when he first entered.

[“Food!”]

A short distance away sat a large plate bearing a steaming steak. The rewards he could receive had taken the forms he requested.

“Still no intention of giving up?”

Seated in his chair again, the Fragment regarded Kyle with weary exasperation.

“If byproducts are a level above residue, then naturally they’ll give better rewards, won’t they?”

Kyle chewed a roughly cut piece of steak. Sharing the taste, Jorm let out a squeal of happiness.

“They’ll strengthen my body more, too. They’ll be stronger than the residue, and more fun to fight.”

“Why are you in such a hurry at your age?”

“Being young doesn’t mean I can just laze around. That would be a waste of time.”

“Are you really eleven?”

“Some eleven-year-olds are like this.”

The enormous steak vanished into his stomach in no time. Kyle started undressing to get into the bath, then paused and turned to the Fragment.

“Um, pardon my asking, but what’s your gender?”

“The sight of a naked human body stirs no emotion in me.”

“No, I’m asking because I’d feel embarrassed.”

“There’s no need. Do you feel embarrassed undressing in front of the sun?”

Well, if he said so. Kyle stripped off his clothes and stepped into the tub. First he turned on the hot water and scrubbed himself thoroughly. Then he plugged the drain and turned on the hot water again.

Watching Kyle leisurely enjoy his bath, the Fragment let out a short sigh.

“... Get a pair of shoes and a cloak.”

“What?”

“The shoes will let you walk on water. The cloak will afford your body some protection from the gazes of the abyss and the byproducts. It won’t protect you if you meet their eyes, though.”

“Is there any equipment for going underwater? A diving suit or something?”

“You... lunatic. You’d have to hunt residue for decades to get equipment like that.”

The Fragment heaved another sigh.

“Honestly, I don’t recommend requesting such equipment. It’s ultimately consumable, after all. Use it long enough, and it wears away. Do you understand? You toil away to earn your reward, only for it to vanish with use, forcing you to earn it all over again.”

“So what? If I try it and like it, I can just get another one. Hunting byproducts should be more efficient than hunting residue. Once I get the first one, won’t the next come faster?”

That was optimism taken far too far. The Fragment held his throbbing head and sighed deeply.

“Sometimes failure has lessons to teach us. Nothing I say seems likely to break that damned stubborn streak of yours, so go learn from failure. You’ll only return here if the byproducts kill you, anyway.”

With that, the Fragment returned his attention to developing the cultivation method. Listening to the scratch of the quill against paper, Kyle soaked in the warm water and thought for a moment.

“Hmm.”

Kyle grinned.

* * *

He ate steak, took a bath, changed into fresh clothes, slept soundly on the sofa, and circulated his cultivation method without resistance for the first time in ages.

Unlike the Mudflats, this room was rich in mana. Half a day of cultivation replenished his reserves completely. Once he was in peak condition, Kyle strode toward the door.

“High tide comes in two hours. Since you’re resting anyway, why not stay until tomorrow?”

“I feel like I’ll get stiff if I keep resting here. And I might get even less inclined to leave.”

His answer was nothing but lies. One more day of rest could hardly make him stiff, and comfortable though it was, Kyle found no enjoyment in being shut inside such a boring room.

“Hmm... If that’s what you want.”

The Fragment nodded without much thought. He had repeatedly intervened only because it would be a shame for that prodigy of bizarre talents to die a pointless death. He was not ordinarily inclined to interfere so much with humans.

Back in the Mudflats after a day away, Kyle took a deep breath of the putrid stench. It felt almost welcoming now.

‘Though I doubt I’ll ever get used to it.’

After he had walked a short distance, the residue sprang out to greet him warmly. Kyle answered their friendly greetings with swings of his wooden sword, then chewed and swallowed every last scrap of flesh they left behind.

He spent about two hours roaming the Mudflats and cleaning up the residue before the ground shook.

Far away, the ‘hand’ had begun scooping up the sea. Having survived nine days in the Mudflats, Kyle calmly waited for the bone coral to emerge.

RUMBLE...

The bone coral shot upward. Kyle immediately climbed onto it and waited for the sea to rise.

The gazes in the sky turned toward the horizon, and the black sea settled into stillness. An eye opened and closed in the abyss, while byproducts swam in the shallower waters above it.

Sitting atop the bone coral, Kyle stretched the shoelace. However far he pulled, it neither thinned nor snapped. Once he judged it long enough, he lay flat and crawled to the edge.

[“M-Master?”]

Jorm’s voice was anxious, but Kyle did not answer. He had already decided to do this, and Jorm’s wishes were irrelevant. His master had made up his mind. How dare he object?

At the edge of the bone coral, Kyle tied the shoelace around a piece of bread he had brought from the room and tossed it down. He heard no sound when it hit the sea, but felt a change through the cord in his palm.

He kept lowering the shoelace, gently flicking his wrist as though he were fishing.

Not “as though.” Kyle was, in fact, fishing. Would anything take the bait? His heart fluttering with anticipation, he diligently worked his hand.

How long had he waited?

TAP.

The instant something touched the shoelace, Kyle shortened it. He had no idea what had touched it, but he couldn’t let the creature swallow the cord.

WHIRR!

The extended lace contracted to its original length in an instant. The bread tied to it had turned into a black lump, but the cord itself was unharmed. And then—

WHOOOOSH!

The black surface erupted, and something shot up from below.

[“Kyaaaaaah!”]

What leaped all the way to the top of the bone coral was an enormous snake—no, a leech, large enough to swallow a person with ease. Sawlike teeth spun inside its round mouth as it twisted through the air and lunged at Kyle.

“Got you!”

Cheering, Kyle pushed off the ground with both hands and sprang upward.

CRACKLE!

His wooden sword swept toward the leech, wreathed in sword aura.

CLANG!

It didn’t look particularly strong or tough. Yet, astonishingly, Kyle’s sword aura failed to cut it. Instead, the wooden sword bounced off its body.

[“Kigagagak!”]

Its teeth spinning viciously, the leech spewed green liquid. No one needed to tell him not to let it touch him. Kyle concentrated more power into his sword aura, then thrust his wooden sword forward the instant the spray stopped.

THUNK!

The wooden blade plunged into the leech’s mouth. Once it was halfway in, Kyle drove it downward.

SPLURT!

The leech’s mouth and belly split wide open, spilling torrents of green blood.

‘That wasn’t much.’

Perhaps it was because they were only byproducts, after all. Despite the Fragment’s dire warnings, it hadn’t been particularly strong. Or was this one especially weak? Pondering that, Kyle approached the leech lying on the ground with its belly split open.

“...?”

He stopped short. From the leech’s rear extended something like a thick thread, narrower than its body but still substantial, trailing down below the coral.

Come to think of it, the earlier noise had been far too loud for this creature’s leap. The moment that thought struck him, Kyle swung his wooden sword and severed the thread protruding from the leech’s rear.

WHOOOOSH!

Again came the sound of the water erupting. It sounded slightly different from something bursting out of the sea. Something was striking the surface.

That something leaped all the way to the top of the bone coral. If the first leech had been large enough to swallow a person whole, this creature was an anglerfish with gaping jaws large enough to swallow the entire bone coral.

“Wow...”

Having leaped high into the air, it descended toward the coral with its jaws wide open. Kyle looked up in genuine admiration. That mouth was large enough to swallow him along with the coral. There was nowhere to run. Could he cut through its entire body? Not with his mana so sluggish. Admitting that he had been far too ignorant today, Kyle hurled himself toward the leech sprawled nearby.

He intended to eat at least one bite. His sword aura had failed to penetrate it while it was alive and thrashing, but his teeth sank in now, perhaps because it was dead. Working his jaw with all his strength, Kyle bit off exactly one mouthful of leech flesh.

‘Still, perhaps because it’s a byproduct, it tastes better than the residue.’

The instant that thought crossed his mind, the descending anglerfish swallowed Kyle and the bone coral whole.

* * *

“You... you ignorant fool!”

Kyle blinked and sat up.

He was back in the room. His wooden sword was in one hand, the shoelace in the other, and the leech flesh he had been chewing was still in his mouth.

‘Jorm.’

[“Bleurgh... bleeeurgh...”]

Jorm made retching noises. Could spirits vomit? If Jorm did throw up, would the vomit remain in his middle energy center? Pondering those questions, Kyle continued chewing the flesh in his mouth.

“What the hell are you eating?! You—what on earth did you do?!”

Kyle’s body shook violently as he chewed. The Fragment had come over, grabbed his shoulders, and begun shaking him.

“I did a little fishing.”

“F-Fishing? Fishing, you say? You lunatic!”

“I thought it was ingenious, but this won’t work.”

He hadn’t expected to be swallowed in one gulp. The problem was his limited room to maneuver. If only he could run across the sea, he could have dodged those jaws and counterattacked.

“I’ll have to get the shoes first.”

Having chewed and swallowed every bit of the tough flesh, Kyle nodded to himself as he muttered.

“Lunatic! Lunatic!”

The Fragment kept shaking Kyle’s shoulders and squawking.