Encounters are a way for monsters to be able to defend themselves against humans. Monsters usually can't harm humans directly due to their physical bodies protecting their soul. Instead, monsters will trigger an encounter and draw out the human's soul in order to be able to fight back. In an encounter, humans are able to perform small acts of magic that they normally wouldn't be able to due to the encounter triggering a temporary strengthening of the connection between the human and their soul. They can use these to check a monster's stats (name, description, attack, defense, and sometimes hp), learn more information about the monster in general, and spare the monster. They can also use this small amount of magic to attempt to flee the encounter, though depending on the strength of the monster's magic, this may not be possible unless the monster willingly lets them escape. Monsters can't draw each other into an encounter due to the fact that a monster's soul can't be outside of their body.