After crossing eleven kilometers on the river, Aeron saw it pass through one more forest-like hilly area and jumped away from the river.
His spirit energy was low, so he had to recover. After climbing on a tree again, he used a Veil to hide himself and sat cross-legged.
[That's right. If you want to recover your spirit energy and curse energy faster, sit in meditation and absorb it from the atmosphere.]
Inside Aeron's source region, both wisps were small. The white-gold wisp was way smaller, since Aeron only had 48 spirit energy left.
As Aeron meditated and gradually recovered his spirit energy and curse energy, he suddenly felt a strange sensation.
His consciousness was observing his source region, so he readily found the reason for this strangeness.
'This…'
[Specialism. It's finally happening.]
Aeron watched as his curse source flared up, and formed multiple glowing dark purple wisps around it.
They changed their shape and intensity, turning into symbols with intentions.
'I can strangely read them,' Aeron said and felt weird at the meaning of those words.
[What does it say?]
'You can't read?'
[I can see, but can't read. It's only for you, borne out of your personality, past, experience, and such characteristic factors.]
'Hmm…It says—' Aeron paused for a second before he continued.
'Here in my heart,
dark and warm.
I offer you,
a peaceful realm.'
[Interesting. I haven't seen many specialism effects, so this one is new to me. Most of the time, people directly experience the effect of their specialism.]
However, Aeron couldn't hear her thoughts because he was precisely experiencing the workings of his Specialism. His consciousness was no longer active.
Lapis also realized that soon and turned silent. 'Here in my heart, dark and warm. I offer you, a peaceful realm…What does this do?'
Lapis fell into thought.
Suddenly, she felt a surge of curse and spirit power in Aeron's source region.
The mystical symbols vanished. Inside his source region, a dreamy black heart appeared with a glowing red border around it.
It pulsed slowly, and every time it pulsed, Aeron recovered some of his spirit and curse energy.
Lapis was confused. 'Aeron? Can you hear me?'
Aeron was still experiencing his Specialism, but he was not conscious. He didn't know what was happening except that he was in a peaceful and warm dream, recalling his last moments with his parents before the accident.
The mystical heart that manifested in his source region glowed. A dreamy red string appeared that horizontally wrapped around the heart before both ends of the string stretched to the left and right.
One connected to his Curse power source, the dark purple wisp. Another connected to his spirit power source, the white gold wisp.
At that moment, Aeron regained consciousness with a gasp of strong breath, and his eyes shot open.
[Aeron, what happened?]
Before Aeron could reply, Phantom Spark issued a notification.
[You have awakened Warm Heart of Darkness.]
[Warm Heart of Darkness]
|_Proficiency: 1%
|_Level: 1
|_ Trait(s): Twilight Soul, Fear Ruler.
'Interesting,' Aeron looked at this new strange, but comfortable power he was feeling.
His senses had some changes as he could hear, see, and feel something more than before.
[What's happening? I share your senses, but it's not fully compatible now.]
Lapis frowned as she could see and feel waves of something strange around him. 'It looks like I'll have to fix the binding I have to his soul.'
Aeron chuckled, and instead of explaining her himself, he opened the details of those traits for Lapis. 'Take a look.'
-[Trait]: Twilight Soul
-[Rank]: Beyond Divinity.
Lapis was dumbfounded as she looked at the rank.
[T-This...I've never seen something of this rank. This is not right...]
'Beyond Divinity, eh? Sounds cool. Though I've always believed I was above any divinity, heh.'
Aeron chuckled.
Lapis rolled her eyes and continued to read.
-[Trait Description]: You have transcended beyond the nature of curse and spirit. You are a master of your own, bound by no broken rules of the cosmos.
__[Effect]: Freely covert your curse and spirit power to one another, turn spirit energy into curse energy, and vice-versa.
[W-w-w-what?!]
Lapis's eyes widened in pure shock. If she had a physical heart, it would beat so widely that she would spew blood.
It was utterly unthinkable to see someone freely able to convert their spirit power into curse power and vice-versa!
[This is crazy!]
'Calm down, miss Fox. It's not that strange,' Aeron causally said, not knowing how the world works for others on a grand scale and moved to the next trait.
-[Trait]: Fear Ruler
-[Rank]: Broken Divinity.
'Broken Divinity?' Aeron tilted his head, his eyes curious.
[There's no longer any Divinity intact in the cosmos, be it negative, positive, or mixed divinities, so this rank that used to be Divine…changed into Broken Divinity.]
Lapis was not that shocked despite this Trait also being crazy, but it was one rank lower than the Twilight Soul trait.
-[Trait Description]: You feel exhilaration in terror, and fear is nothing more than a source of thrill for you.
-[Effect 1]: You can sense fear in the atmosphere, trails of fear, fear of others, and absorb it to recover your Spirit and Curse energy.
-[Effect 2]: For your own fear, you can shape it, project it, or use it to strengthen anything. The potency depends on your level of fear.
'Eh? Why did I get two effects in this trait even though this one is lower ranked?' Aeron was confused.
[It happens. Some traits have multiple effects. This depends on a person's character-related factors as I told you.]
'I see,' Aeron nodded and got up on the branch before stretching his arms. 'Well, I recovered my Spirit energy and curse energy to full, so it's time to continue.'
[12 kilometers until we reach the Fourth Sanctuary city. You can get back on the river, but jump off it after five kilometers.]
'Why?'
Lapis wryly smiled.
[This river will go into a secure area of the Fourth Sanctuary city where assigned Phantom Hunters will be killing Haunts, catching Fish, and other things from the river for resources and food. If you go there, someone might mistake you for a Haunt and attack you.]
Aeron laughed, 'Gotcha.'
As he was about to jump off the tree to make another tree trunk boat, Aeron suddenly felt several trails of strong fear and turned his head to the west.
The giant tornado and Lady Shear's scissors were no more there at the center of the forest, but Aeron felt something approaching him. The fear trails came from multiple directions as if some Haunts were running away from it.
It was his instinct, but it was borne out of trait [Fear Ruler], and that's why he could sense the source of those fear trails. 'What is it that's giving them this fear?'
Aeron's eyes glinted and a sense of excitement started budding in him.
'Something is coming, and I can't run from it,' Aeron said to Lapis and took out his Blood Ripped Spear.
He fortified his spear and body as he readied himself for combat, his eyes glinting and a smile spreading on his face.
[You can't run?]
Lapis frowned and thought. 'There's a damn river, and whatever's coming is not in range yet.'
[Aeron, you just used 170 spirit energy and 1930 curse energy total on those two Fortify uses. What is it that's coming?]
Lapis felt anxious.
[I cannot utilize your [Fear Ruler]'s effect to sense whatever you are sensing. Tell me clearly, please.]
'Relax.'