Is That A Wisp?

Krune sighed as everyone followed Roben to the testing room. There, they could find many weapons and armors at the Godly Fusion One Star Rank. That was the lowest level of Equipment in the God Realm, so it was also the easiest type of equipment where one could awaken a Spirit. 

Roben then looked at everyone before saying.

"Alright. I believe all of you have studied the files of the Spirit Awakener Guild and have an idea of how to proceed. Nevertheless, I'll still give a small explanation just in case."

"Back then, the first Spirit Awakener, Zale Occon, also the progenitor of our occupation, noticed a peculiarity when his equipment gained a Spirit. Of course, he wasn't a Spirit Aakener by that time."

"It turned out that Spirits have an invisible core that can't be seen by the eye or by the Divine Sense. That core takes form when the right conditions are achieved, and they take on a myriad of shapes. It all depends on the equipment user and the equipment itself. There's no such thing as identical demon beasts or humans in this world. The same could be said for Spirits."

"That being said, Zale began to work on the conditions that gave origin to the invisible core of Spirits. However, the real breakthrough only came after his own equipment's Spirit became intelligent enough to help him. Just like Zap mentioned, it was a lot easier for him to notice when an Equipment was close to awakening a Spirit. That was how Zale and his Equipment Spirit found the right conditions behind a Spirit Awakening."

"In the end, it was also because of the laws of the world. Nothing can escape the laws, and finding the right combination at the right moment could indeed give birth to an Equipment Spirit."

Krune nodded while listening. He found Spirit Awakening to be very similar to the birth of a wisp. The difference was that wisps didn't need equipment for that. They could manifest themselves with nothing more than the Elements and Laws. Together with that, the laws of heaven and earth created a core for themselves.

"However, there are also different factors that can be considered during the awakening of a Spirit. For example, emotions can also help during a Spirit Awakening. However, even though it's countless times rarer, a Spirit can also awaken without the help of a Spirit Awakener. In that case, emotions have little use. In the end, the conditions are different for every piece of equipment. Even that pebble you see on the side of the road could awaken a Spirit."

"The Spirit Awakener's job is to find what conditions are necessary to awaken the Spirit of whatever equipment they get. As to how one could do that, it will depend on each person or demon beast. Use your minds, use your laws, use your emotions, use your environment. I don't care how. Just put it all inside the equipment and try to bring forth life."

That was why it was so hard to find Spirit Awakeners. That's because there was no such thing as a 'correct method' in this profession. The reason a test was necessary was that the Spirit Awakener Guild could use its own ways to at least tell if someone had that specific talent. In that case, Zap would tell if any of the candidates could show even the slightest hint of awakening a Spirit, which the candidates themselves wouldn't be able to tell.

"Senior Roben, for a fully-fledged Spirit Awakener, what's the average success rate of awakening a Spirit? Also, how many times can one try it?"

Roben pondered for a bit before saying.

"Spirit Awakening is very tiring and energy-consuming. Even I can't try more than once every three days or so. As for the success rate, it's pitifully low. In my case, I only awakened 47 Spirits in my 50 years of career. With that, you can get an idea as to why Equipment Spirits are so rare."

Everyone narrowed their eyes after hearing that. Even someone like Roben had this kind of issue, then what about them? Of course, that was another issue since the world had so few Spirit Awakeners.

"Alright, that should be enough for you all. Go ahead and select one of these pieces of equipment. I'm not expecting any of you to succeed. I'll be more than happy if at least one of you can show the slightest hint of a Spirit Awakening. Make sure you don't leave this room when trying to do it so Zap can feel if you get to that point."

Everyone then looked around for the equipment they wanted to use. Because these were the lowest level of equipment, the guild could get as many of them as they wanted. After all, they were very cheap. It also meant that they had almost everything you could think of, may it be weapons or armor.

Sure enough, more than half of the candidates ended up selecting swords. That was the king of weapons and the most used one. It would also be the one to get the most orders if they became Spirit Awakeners. Of course, it was only a little more than half. The rest of the participants selected something else.

Some grabbed spears, others grabbed sabers, a few also selected armors instead of weapons. As one could imagine, Krune picked a shield since that was the piece of equipment that he was most familiar with. Surprisingly though, Krune wasn't the only one to select a shield. There was also another female demon beast who grabbed the same type of equipment as him.

"Oh! You also like shields? Could it be because your cultivation is this low?"

Krune smiled as he nodded.

"You could say that. I've always used shields, so I might as well try to awaken their Spirits."

The girl laughed a little before nodding.

"Well, there's no shame in admitting you're weak. My cultivation is higher than yours, but I'm still considered weak between those of my age, so I kinda understand how you feel. By the way, you can call me Alanda."

Krune laughed as well and shook hands with the girl.

"You can call me Krune. It's good to see that I'm not the only one."

Seeing that everyone had selected their equipment, Roben began to speak.

"Alright. Come forward and start. Zap and I will keep a close eye on you during the process. Good luck."

Krune then took a deep breath as he thought about the conditions that Roben talked about earlier.

'The conditions to awaken a Spirit are different for each person or demon beast. Some of them might give birth to fierce Spirits, while others can awaken gentle ones. The emotions, environment, and everything else can affect the end result and which type of Spirit one will get.'

As he thought about it, Krune's eyes lit up.

'In the end, chaos is the key. Emotions have no use for me. I know better than anyone else that I'm far from being good with other beings' feelings. That being said, let's give up using any emotion for this thing. Instead, pure chaos will give me a much better result. Fortunately, I have been comprehending the Calamity Laws while creating my own Balance Laws. The Calamity Law just so happens to have all the chaos I need.'

With that said, Krune began to focus on the Initial Stage of the Calamity Laws that he had comprehended so far. No, to be more specific, Krune hadn't even reached the Initial Stage of it yet. He knew almost nothing about it. Still, that could also be considered as more chaos.

'Keep the chaos stirring and wait for the right conditions to be born from it. Spirits that awakened on their own used this method to do so. That being said, I can also do the same. The only difference is that those Spirits probably had to wait countless years for the small changes in their surroundings to give them the right opportunity. However, it's different for me. I don't need to wait that long. I can use the Calamity Laws to force those changes to happen nonstop, countless times!'

After some time, a dark cloud appeared around the shield Krune was holding as he concentrated on controlling it. Even though his comprehension of it was lacking, he can still keep its existence. That was more than enough for this project.

Alanda, who was beside Krune, was the first one to notice that.

'What's he doing? I've never seen something like this before.'

Nevertheless, she ignored that and concentrated on her own shield. She didn't have time to care about Krune.

However, Zap and Roben soon noticed Krune as well. Unlike Alanda, they did have the time to pay attention to him.

'Zap, can you tell what he's doing?'

'No... It's so weird. It's as if I can feel everything and nothing at the same time. Just what is that?'

'Is he trying to awaken his Equipment Spirit with that?'

'He should be, right? This is the Spirit Awakener Guild's test, after all.'

'Oh, well. Leave him be. As you know, there's no correct method to awaken a Spirit. If it works for him, then so be it.'

Zap agreed with Roben before they returned their attention to the other candidates as well. Krune wasn't the only one participating, after all.

The guild knew how hard it is to awaken a Spirit, so the test would take an entire day. The candidates only needed to show a hint of success to pass. However, Roben and Zap had little hope of seeing any of them doing that.

However...

'Hmm?'

More than half a day had passed until out of nowhere, Zap's Spirit jolted for a brief moment before he looked in a certain direction. There, he saw a female demon beast holding a shield.

'Oh! Finally, we have someone with the right traits.'