Inside the training room, Aeron stood silently with his eyes closed.
A second later, he put his right palm over his second palm before slowly stretching both of them apart as a redwood long bow materialized with intricate flaming orange patterns.
Grabbing the bow's asymmetrical grip with his left hand, Aeron pulled the silky white string as a flaming arrow started materializing. Aeron turned 100 of his spirit energy into flame, used Emission to project it, and manipulated it into the shape of an arrow.
'Condense.'
He then condensed the flaming arrow, manipulating it to give it a proper arrow shape while infusing curse energy to Enchant it. The arrow became slick and crystalized red, containing explosive flame power.
He pulled the string and continued pulling until both ends of the bows were only 2 inches apart and only a tiny tip of the arrow was past the bow's handle.
Aeron had built this bow by using Conjure to create a wood that was flexible to the utmost like a rubber, but still held power. The bowstring was also made of rubber silk, a material he imagined and conjured using spirit energy.
The flaming arrow was something common, but Aeron liked Bow as a weapon because of its potential. He could create various types of arrows for different purposes. But for starter, he created this Exploding Arrow of Flame attribute.
*Ting…swoosh!*
The arrow shot forward while tearing the sound barrier and creating a loud boom that was superimposed by another explosion of the arrow exploding on the wall.
[Not bad. You get a D+ with that. You're close.]
'Still From Do to D+ and not C? Alright,' Aeron snorted.
Lapis chuckled.
[Also, it's time I tell you one of the main aspects that makes Phantom Hunter's abilities powerful disregarding its rank. This thing is so common that no one would mention it and every single Phantom Hunter uses it, but its use requires secrecy. I kept it a secret because I didn't want to tell you about it earlier in case you use it recklessly and land yourself in danger.]
Aeron was surprised. 'What is it?'
[It's the basic power of Curse, the expression of restriction. Cursed Oath.]
'Sounds interesting.'
[Interesting and dangerous. Cursed Oath works in a simple manner. You can take an Oath with conditions that restrict yourself for a certain amount of time or permanently. As long as you follow your oath, you can get a boost in curse power depending on the Oath.]
[If the cursed oath you set puts you closer to danger, you get more 'set' power boost. For instance, imagine that you are in combat with an enemy that's as strong as you.]
'Alright. I imagined it.'
[During the fight, you put a cursed oath that you wouldn't use your right hand for 30 minutes and in exchange, you want your melee attacks to get power boost. As long as you don't use your right hand after taking the cursed oath, you will get the power boost on your melee attacks according to the cursed oath.]
[The more your oath puts you in danger and closer to your death, the more 'set' power you will get. However…]
Lapis narrowed her eyes, her voice turning ominous.
[If you break that oath and use your right hand by mistake, expect to receive just enough dire consequences that will likely cost you your life, especially during battles.]
Aeron's eyes glinted. 'Cursed Oath. Sounds like a handy power to use.'
[You also make predefined consequences based Cursed Oaths. For example, you can say that you will only attack the enemy's chest area, and doing that will increase your damage and reduce push impact to minimum. But if you mistakenly hit other parts of the enemy, you will receive two times the damage you inflicted on that part to yourself while the enemy will remain harmless.]
[The more restrictions and dire consequences you put for yourself when taking a cursed oath, the more 'set' power and effect boost you will get.]
'This cursed oath is getting more and more interesting,' Aeron grinned and pulled his bow's string once again. 'Let's do this.'
'So how do I make a cursed oath?'
[Simple. Use curse energy and write down your oath in your source region. Just as you write consequence, you can also add an extra effect if you succeed in maintain the oath.]
[Of course, the effect can be mystic and reality bending, but will be contained within the limit according to your personal overall power by the curse law of 'Danger for Reward' even if you make it absurd, so better make your effect carefully. If your extra effect can be accepted as it is, the general 'set' power and effect boost you get by maintaining your oath will be stronger.]
'Gotcha.'
Aeron focused and kept his flame arrow pulled, but didn't release it. In his source region, he started writing the oath.
< I will always use my bow when attacking enemies in a loop order of three precise steps. >
However, Aeron suddenly stopped as he got an idea.
'What if i restrict it to this particular Phantom Ability instead of bows in general? Yep, this is good.'
[You need a name for this Phantom Ability you created.] Lapis smiled and said.
'Hmm…that's it. I got the name. Also, might as well modify the ability a bit to make it suitable to my oath,' Aeron nodded with a grin. 'This is better.'
Lapis chuckled. [Yep. You got it. Glad I didn't have to tell you that.]
Aeron internally rolled his eyes in response.
'Let's start.'
He kept his bow conjured and pulled an arrow for two seconds before he dispersed the ability and used it again.
He pulled a FlameArrow and released it.
*Boom*
He pulled another one and released it.
*Booom*
'Last.'
*Boooom*
'And it's name is…Flamehunt Rambe.'
Aeron quickly wrote his cursed oath bound to the ability while a notification of Phantom Spark rang.
[Congratulations. You have created a C-rank Phantom Ability—Flamehunt Rambe.]
When he finished the oath, another notification rang.
[Flamehunt Rambe has become Oath Bound.]
'Haha, this is looking nice,' Aeron looked at the Phantom Ability panel with shining eyes.
Lapis smiled while nodding.
[Flamehunt Rambe]—Cursed Oath Bound.
|_Rank: C
|_Type: Offense — Offense Rank: C+ to B
|_Description: Conjures a strong elastic redwood long bow/short bow with a set of three arrows.
_Aspects:
|_Bow: Conjure — 325 spirit energy cost.
|_FlameArrow: Emission, Transmute — 100 spirit energy + ??? Curse energy.
|_Enchant Boost: 100% to the FlameArrows.
[This cursed oath is pretty good for your first one.]
Lapis nodded as she read the oath.