Jean resigned himself to his fate and absorbed the two Essences. The next few moments consumed his mind with possibilities and worry as his body subtly shined blue.

You have triggered a racial evolution. Your Translate racial ability has evolved into Aura Adept. You may gain an aura ability per essence. Your essence abilities are more likely to be related to your aura.

Absorbed two out of four essences. 50% towards Iron Rank.

Essence ability awakened. Wellspring of purity. This is an aura ability. You have the passive ability to produce cleansing magic tied with your natural recovery attribute. You radiate a cleansing effect from your aura. Your aura is fused with purity. You are immune to disease and unholy afflictions of your rank.

Melanoma cleansed. Undeath infection cleansed.

_______

Essence of Discord absorbed. Essence of discord merged with spirit attribute. Absorb four awakening stones to complete evolving spirit attribute.

Absorbed three out of four essences. 75% towards Iron Rank.

Essence ability awakened. Fields of discord. This is an aura ability. Your aura causes very minor resonating force damage to those within your aura. The feeling of this effect causes irritability. Your aura naturally has more range.

When Jean absorbed the Bone Essence he felt a tingle throughout his bones. This time wasn’t nearly as pleasant. As if Jean was standing near the sun, he felt his whole body and the area around him burn with light.

Jean clenched his whole body and fell into a fetal position. Though his eyes were clamped shut, he saw everything around him within about 40 yards. He felt the bugs crawling in the tall grass. He sensed that birds were living inside the thickest trees around him. He sensed the roots of the trees wrapping around a bolder 30 feet down.

The pain and the flushing heat ebbed away. The world around him felt peaceful again, though bugs, birds, and an ash squirrel were scurrying away from him, likely because of his new aura ability, Fields of Discord. The quiet of the forest felt lonelier than it had just a moment before.

What was that about Melanoma being cleansed, and undeath infection being cleansed? Did I have cancer when I came here? I was infected with Undeath! It must’ve been from the claws…or the scratches in the dead fields. I was an idiot to even go in there.

Something interrupted his thoughts. After sitting back up, leaning against his tree, streams of milky-white light, then shimmering whiteness, and static fog gathered in front of his eyes forming a clear sphere with black dots blinking in and out of existence inside the orb. Tilting his head Jean poked the strange essence that formed before his eyes.

Would you like to absorb Confluence Essence of Terrors?

Jean was more hesitant with this Essence than with the discord essence, after getting an aura of fear. Jean was afraid that it was going to be hard enough to make friends, see his family, or even have a dog with that ability. What if this essence of terrors makes people around me get nightmares or something?

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Thinking, Jean looked around, remembering the clearing full of thousands of dead bodies.

What would I have done if that mass came at me? I might be able to stab one of them… only one. At least now maybe I can make them afraid and leave me alone.

Motivated by fear and exhaustion said the word with resignation.

“Yes”

Essence of Terrors absorbed. Essence of Terrors merged with speed attribute. Absorb four awakening stones to complete evolving spirit attribute.

Absorbed all four essences. Iron Rank Achieved. You can now be sustained with spirit coins.

Essence ability awakened. Soul Eater. This is a transforming ability. You cannot absorb awakening stones. You do not have a limit for essence abilities. You can create soul stones by devouring a soul. You can only be sustained by eating souls.

You have triggered a race evolution. Your Outworlder race has changed to Eater of worlds. You have lost your racial ability translate. You have gained the racial ability soul ripper. You can now see and touch souls with your aura and body. You have gained the racial ability Sociopath. You are no longer burdened by the feelings of others. You have gained the ability life eater. You can now progress your essence abilities by killing and devouring sentient beings.

Title achieved. The First World Eater. Effect: you may sense souls with your aura sense. Your aura range is increased.

Jean felt his throat ripping as he screamed, “I WILL EAT YOU!!!!”

Jean felt the changes to his body and mind happening faster than he could imagine, with only one sane thought in his mind: what have I done?

You have met the requirements to trigger Repent. Now activating Repent.

Jean sat leaning against the tree with the orb in front of him. Calmness and resignation immediately turned to tears streaming from his face. Sobbing Jean had flashes of intrusive thoughts of his desire for ripping into everyone he had ever known to eat their bodies and souls. Regret filled Jean’s whole being. He wept and tried to silence his thoughts for hours until he didn’t have any tears left.

________

Thirty miles away Gabe flew through the air while riding his long staff like a RipStik feeling the air along his bald head. Gabe was patrolling the area, knowing that silver and gold rank monsters could appear at any time, but Gabe was carefree as he sailed through the sky. He had recently achieved gold rank in his Telekinetic Staff ability and was enthralled with his newfound ability to ride the staff like it was a flying artifice. His speed made him like a jet in white and yellow robes.

Faster, Faster, Faster!

Boom! With another push of speed and without the worry of running into anything, Gabe broke the sound barrier. His eyes were watery with joy as he soared over the Xing’an Larch forests. While Gabe was having the time of his life “patrolling” he felt an extremely unusual aura filled with fear, regret, and sorrow. Realizing that a kind heart was edging into suicidal territory, Gabe whipped his staff around slamming it to a stop. He toppled off his ride and plummeted to the ground.

________

Jean was curled up against his tree with eyes puffy. Shock and trauma weren’t words that Jean would have thought fitting for him. He just understood how evil he was and how close he was to becoming a true abomination. He struggled with the knowledge that he chose to pick up the Discord Essence and then the Terrors Essence. Knowing that he was choosing a path to bring pain and fear to others just to keep himself safe. It might be best if he died. Then he would never hurt anyone, ever.

Essence of discord. Seriously Jean? Seriously? You chose to absorb that? What would Ma say? “You’ve created enough discord with your brothers” fresh tears fell down his face as his regrets swayed to longing for his family. Pa would’ve stopped me from even walking around the dead bodies. He has always been about “being at the right place at the right time with the right mind.” I'm definitely not in the right place or the right…

THUD. Right in front of Jean something fell from really high into the soft ground, splashing mud and grass everywhere. Jean’s whole body got coated. Frantically wiping at his eyes, he looked up and saw… One Punch Man? He was a bald very unassuming guy, wearing a Shaolin version of a yellow V-neck and white cargo shorts. He wasn’t wearing shoes, and his head glistened in the light of midday. Full of confusion, seeing his outfit almost matched his own, only one question came out of Jean’s mouth.

“How are you clean?”