Chapter 15 - Aspect
I have heard countless times that the beginning of a Hero’s journey was the hardest.
Not because of monsters, but because of yourself.
Every newly Awakened Hero had to understand their Aspect.
The old saying was that: The Aspect guided the Hero just as much as the Hero guided the Aspect.
Until recently, I always assumed that it was just another one of those poetic sayings of old people.
Now, I wasn’t so sure.
I would often wondered whether an Aspect was connected to the soul.
After all, it wasn’t something you could see or touch.
It wasn’t even purely physical.
It was... you.
Or perhaps, a part of you that had always existed but remained asleep until Awakening.
As the energy from the crystal continued flowing through my body, the dull ache in my ribs slowly disappeared.
And the pain simply faded away.
Then my body shivered.
Goosebumps spread across my skin.
A strange numbness climbed up my spine before exploding through my entire body.
"!!!"
The room disappeared.
Or perhaps, I disappeared from the room.
For a fleeting moment, I felt weightless.
My consciousness expanded beyond my body, drifting through space without direction.
Below me, I could still vaguely see myself sitting cross-legged on the bed.
But that wasn’t what stole my attention.
It was the world itself.
Everything had changed.
The apartment walls no longer looked solid.
Faint currents of light flowed through them like rivers beneath the earth.
The air shimmered with countless colors I’d never seen before.
Colors that simply... didn’t exist.
At least, not for ordinary eyes.
They intertwined, separated, and danced through the room in silent harmony.
It wasn’t merely seeing.
It was experiencing reality from an entirely different perspective.
Every movement carried meaning.
Every color seemed alive.
Every breath I took echoed through an invisible sea surrounding the world.
"Such a beautiful world."
The word escaped my lips instinctively.
Yet even as I admired the sight.
A question slowly surfaced.
’What exactly is my Aspect?’
Every Hero experienced something unique during their first true communion with their Aspect.
Someone with a fire Aspect would feel heat gathering around them.
A sensory Hero might suddenly hear sounds from meters away.
There was always, something.
Some clue or maybe a direction.
But mine? I was floating outside my own body while watching colors that shouldn’t exist.
"How is that supposed to help me in a fight?"
Was I supposed to throw rainbows at people?
That sounded incredibly unique.
The experience continued for what felt like both an instant and an eternity.
Then, everything collapsed.
The strange colors vanished and the invisible currents disappeared.
My consciousness snapped violently back into my body.
"Hah...!"
I gasped for air as if I’d been underwater.
Sweat poured from every inch of my body.
My shirt clung uncomfortably to my skin.
Then a foul smell hit my nose.
"What the hell?"
I looked down.
Thin streams of black, oily impurities seeped from my pores before sticking to my clothes.
The odor was absolutely horrifying.
"Fuck."
I sniffed my sleeve once and Immediately regretted it.
"I have to shower again."
I looked at the shirt with genuine pity.
"And this one’s beyond saving."
With a sigh, I stood up and headed toward the bathroom.
At least one mystery was solved in my case.
Apparently awakening your aspect made you smell like a dead sewer.
The much bigger mystery, however, remained.
I still had absolutely no idea what my Aspect actually did.
***
"Haa..." I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my temples.
"What am I supposed to do with this?"
My Aspect had left my mind in complete disarray.
Even after another shower and changing into fresh clothes, I still couldn’t calm down.
My heart was beating faster than usual.
It was as though my brain had suddenly become too awake.
Everything felt unusually vivid.
"This can’t be normal."
Ever since that strange experience, I couldn’t shake the feeling mastering my aspect would be a pain in the ass.
It wasn’t just that I had seen impossible colors.
For those few moments, I felt like I’d remembered everything.
Not a single life but, both lives.
Countless tiny memories I had long forgotten resurfaced one after another.
The smell of rain from another world.
The first book I’d ever read.
My mother’s voice.
Mira teaching me how to hold a sword.
Thousands of moments, scattered across two different worlds, all felt equally real.
It was, overwhelming.
I let out a slow breath.
"Maybe this is why beginner Heroes are told not to rush."
If everyone’s first communion with their Aspect was this mentally exhausting, I could understand why.
Letting my thoughts continue spiraling wasn’t going to help.
I needed something productive to focus on.
I pulled out a new notebook from my drawer and opened it to a blank page.
If my memories had become clearer, then I should take advantage of them before they faded again.
The pen moved almost instinctively.
Opportunities.
Below the title, I began writing every hidden treasure, inheritance, secret realm, and fortunate encounter I could remember from the novel I read, or perhaps, I am living through.
After only a few minutes, the page was already half full.
Then I stopped.
A problem immediately became obvious.
Not all of these belonged to the same story.
"This is difficult."
There wasn’t just one novel.
Some came from stories about Heroes, others revolved around martial artists and some followed bloodline users.
Some focused on mages, tamers, or people who cultivated entirely different power systems.
That meant, not every opportunity was useful to me.
I crossed out several entries before reorganizing the list as the notebook quickly became far more organized.
My eyes eventually settled on one particular entry.
’A martial inheritance.’
Among everything I remembered, that one tempted me the most.
Unlike Heroes, martial artists dedicated almost every moment to refining instinct, technique, combat through enlightenment.
Heroes, on the other hand, relied far more on their Aspects.
That difference mattered as in the early stages a martial artists is usually stronger than a average hero, unless the hero awakens a special aspect.
And today’s fight and my refreshed memories taught me something.
The greatest threat at the beginning of a story usually wasn’t a monster.
It was another person.
Because monsters followed instinct.
Whereas humans made plans and waited until you were weakest before striking.
Just like the masked men today.
"Speaking of them."
I tapped my pen thoughtfully against the notebook.
Something about that fight had been bothering me.
Then it clicked.
"The tattoo."
When I’d struck the masked man, his collar had shifted for just a moment.
Long enough for me to notice a black tattoo of a jaw.
At the time, I hadn’t paid much attention because that idiot hadn’t even bothered hiding it.
I slowly underlined the words Jaw Tatoo in my notebook.
"An organization."
The possibility made my expression turn serious.
Though individual villains were dangerous.
Organizations were far worse.
Because today’s attack was likely organized and I had now come in contact with that villain.
Even though he was third-grade villain, he would surely have a boss.
For now, I just hope, that those villains do not come knocking on my door.
And, I was proven right.