Upon hearing what he spoke, everyone in the bar took on a more serious expression.
"I wonder what his essence is? Is he strong enough to beat Lina?", a woman at one of the tables asked her colleagues.
"You're crazy. It's not like there's anyone in this town who could beat Lina.", a man next to her replied.
"Well, there is one person who could."
"Hmm, that's true, but it's not like there's a possibility of them fighting."
Everyone at the table nodded, agreeing with what the man said.
...
Raja's surroundings continued to blur until, after a while, on his side, two people identical to him appeared.
Seeing that, Balkan said, "Essence of the Mirage."
"Is it strong?" asked Gen.
"Depends on what stage he is in.", replied Balkan.
"Aren't you worried? Your daughter might be in danger.", spoke Gen, looking at Balkan.
Hearing this, Balkan looked at Lina and then turned his gaze back to Gen with a serious expression. After staring at each other for a few seconds, the two couldn't stand it and started laughing.
"HAHAHAHA! Gen, you are hilarious. If you're so worried, why don't you go over and help her? Maybe she will fall in love with you and kiss you, HAHAHAHAHAHA!", said Balkan laughing non-stop.
Gen laughed back and said, "Even if I wanted to do that, it's not like someone with no essence like me can help her."
"Don't say that. Why don't you go and try? Maybe you'll get lucky and awaken the essence of love, HAHAHAHAHAHA.", said Balkan.
"Like it's that simple to awaken an essence.", said Gen.
"For someone who doesn't have one, you seem to know a lot about it.", said Balkan, looking at Gen with a questioning look.
Gen glanced at him quickly, then back in Lina's direction, and said, "Let's pay attention to them. It's about to start."
Balkan continued to stare at him for a while and then looked back in Lina's direction as he let out a sigh and said, "That's right."
What is Essence? Many people wonder this after seeing one for the first time. Some think they are gifts given by some god to specific individuals; others believe it is some evolution that has occurred over time and limits their relationships to other people who also have it, but the reality is that essence is nothing more than what the name itself already says. Everything has an essence, objects, emotions, phenomena, and even certain concepts such as time and space.
What leads a person to awaken an essence is an accumulation of knowledge about it or a shock related to it. A person going through a moment of immense happiness may better understand what happiness itself is and thus awaken its essence. The same can happen with its opposite, anger.
When walking through the desert, a person can awaken various essences, such as the essence of the sand when walking for a long time, the essence of heat during the day, the essence of cold at night, or, after a long and tiring trip, she may come across an oasis and come to understand this refuge better. Still, it may be that when she gets to the oasis, she will discover that what she was seeing was nothing more than a mirage, and this will bring her another kind of understanding.
Essences constantly surround everyone, and at any moment, through effort or luck, one can awaken them. The moment a person awakens an essence is known as Enlightenment. This name refers to the fact that when you awaken an essence, it is as if a curtain that was preventing you from seeing something was removed, or light was turned on, and now, suddenly, you can see something new, which, although it is new, has always been there.
Essences are divided into subtypes based on their origins. The most well-known are: Animal, Vegetal, Emotional, Physical, Conjoint, and Conceptual.
The Animal-type essences are understood from animals, the Plant-type essences are understood from plants, the Emotional-type essences are understood from emotions, and the Physical-type essences are understood from objects, for example, swords. These are the most common types of essences.
On the other hand, the Conjoint type is understood as something that, in its true essence, is a set of essences, such as an oasis, which has within it the essences of plants, sand, water, and several others.
However, it is not because they have several essences within themselves that the people who understand this type of essence understand all these essences, but rather that they understand all these essences interacting with each other.
For example, suppose two people of the same level have the essence of water, and the other has the essence of the oasis. In that case, the person who has the essence of water has a greater understanding of it since the person who has the essence of the oasis does not understand water itself but rather its interactions with other essences.
On the other hand, the Conceptual essences are concepts such as Time, Space, Karma, Equilibrium, Life, Death, Light, and Darkness. This type of essence is the most difficult to understand and is considered by many to exist only in theory since it is extremely difficult to find people who have such an essence.
A person is not limited to one essence. In theory, it is possible to understand all of them. Still, the understanding of any essence is highly dependent on luck or extreme dedication to an essence, and so it is very rare to find people who have more than one essence.
As for the levels of the essence, there are three that are commonly known, and they are the Body level, the External level, and the Material level.
The essences at the Body level adopt their characteristics in the body of the user. For example, a person with an Animal essence can gain the speed of the animal from its essence, a Plant essence can generate mutations in the body, generating thorns, and an object essence makes the person have a better affinity with the object, thus using it in a better way.
The essences on the External level generate an invisible area, called a core, around the bearer, which improves the use of the essence within it.
The essences at the Material level allow you to generate your essence inside your core. For example, generating water, creating a sword, and generating plants. In the case of the Animal type, the person can transform into the animal in question or a hybrid of it.
After the Material level comes the level of Influence, but we won't talk about it at the moment.
...
After generating two clones, Raja spoke to Lina with a tone of debauchery, "So, are you ready to give up drinking, my love?"
Lina was surprised by the situation, but after hearing what Raja said, she took on a serious expression and said, "Of course not. I told you, this is my drink. And you better give it back to me because I am starting to lose my patience."
Hearing this, Raja became furious and said, "It's a pity you are so beautiful, but since you are so stupid as not to understand the difference between the two of us, you are not worth the effort."
Lina took on a disdainful expression and said, "I think it's YOU who doesn't understand the difference, but enough talk. You can come along, and I'll show you the difference between us."