"What do you mean "steal a piece?" How are we even supposed to do that?"

  As I question her she hastily runs her hands all over her robe. She turns to me and pulls out a flask filled with a yellow liquid, from a pocket located at her hip.

  "You see, you can't separate energy with your bare hands, but this liquid here acts as a sort of protective coating. With the coating applied you can separate a piece of the energy without any problems. The composition of this coating is a bit complicated, but the plants used for this mixture are unusually filled with a natural energy similar to the one that a spirit is composed off. When you insert you hand into a spirit the energy in the coating will act as a substitute for the part of the spirit you try to cut off and enables you to remove a part of your desire. Remember that you have to grab the part you want to rip off with your hand and to not open it until later. After all, the spirit in your hand will feed off the energy of the remaining coating and not its own to sustain itself. The spirit will be relatively small in size, so without the coating it would explode in your hand in about ten minutes."

  I get the gist of it. Its almost like my hand will become a spirit itself... But, you know, that whole explode in your hand part, its a little bit of a turn off. If my hand has any sentience it will probably haunt me if I let that happen.

  "Now, show me your hands as if you were begging for money so I can apply the coating."

  I'd be angry, but I did beg for money a few times already. Honestly, it feels like she just assumed I'm a hobo. Yes, I did beg for money, but its impossible to get a job here if you don't have a class. They don't even trust you with manual labor unless you are a peasant.

  When I show her the palms of my hands she pours the liquid over them, all of it in fact. Hey, wait a minute, didn't you say "lets steal a piece?" I know the word 'we' was never spoken, but it sounded like we were both included in this mission. Are you trying to kill me? Is that whats going on? Maybe she can read minds and heard me calling her a bimbo, so shes out for blood now.

  "Do I really have to do this alone?"

  She grins at me.

  "Scared? You know, if you cant do this yourself I don't think I can teach you."

  Damned female. I'm not sure if shes threatening me by saying she wont teach me if I don't do this, or if I'm already a failure if I cant even manage this. Alright, Ill do it. Ill catch me a spirit today, a suicidal spirit that might explode in my hand.

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  I walk a few steps towards the spirit, before turning around again.

  "Actually, before I go, this thing cant attack me, can it? You should already know that I haven't even leveled up yet. If this thing was to do anything it would probably kill me right away."

  "Didn't I already tell you, they don't have any will of their own. They don't fight back, they simply exist and change their position from time to time."

  Alright, I can do this. If its not dangerous, why would I be scared? I'm a boxer, god dammit. I've beaten people with my bare hands! Id be more proud about that if that wasn't how you beat people in general.

  Again I advance towards the spirit. For some reason I try to not step on any branches, even though I know that it wouldn't react to the sound anyways. After climbing over some roots and passing a tree I'm already face to face with it.

  I'm really nervous about this. I mean, don't these things explode? But I will have to trust in this hermit lady, after all shes been doing this a lot longer than me.

  Cautiously I reach my hand into the spirit. The moment I come in contact with it it feels as if multiple spheres are rolling over my hand. Its a weird feeling, but not a scary one. In fact, I almost feel like my hand is merging with it, going with the flow of the energy inside it. I close my open palm and remove my hand.

  Within the enclosed space of my hand I can feel something swirling, although a lot more gently than before. The feeling of spheres rolling over my hand persists, but its sort of relaxing now. Its a lot more soft, as if my hand was enjoying an electronic massage chair.

  I return to Roxanne and she looks pleased. For some reason she gives me a pat on the back.

  "See, that wasn't all that scary now, was it? The scary parts come later."

  Alright, she definitely said that to fuck with me, but I don't mind. You know, today I gained more experience than in my whole life time in this world combined.

  Yes, I'm still worried about the fact that my hand could explode any minute now, but maybe I'd be okay with that. Okay, I wouldn't be okay with that, but it still stands that this is valuable knowledge.

  I mean, if I learn how to make that liquid I could carry handy little bombs around. Calculating the timing for when they will explode will be the real problem. But if I keep a small spirit in a flask filled with this liquid, I could use it like a hand grenade. Theres a lot to be learned here and that's exactly what I need.

  "Now, lets go to my... Well, I guess our home, shall we?"

  Before I even reply she starts walking. What a weird woman.