Arin let out a deep breath.
All twenty life-forms vanished at once, dissipating into particles of faint white aura that scattered into the air.
Immediately, Arin felt the rush.
A surge of aura slammed into him like a crashing wave. His knees buckled for a moment, not in pain, but from the sheer volume of power that poured back into him.
"For training purposes, when I left, I left them all existing in my room."
"I may have focused on White-1 more than others, but now that I have unsummoned them all."
"The aura that I used to conjure them came back to me."
"It is like I was given my energy back."
"This means, in the times of heavy battle and when I am feeling too tired from a battle, if I were to unsummon my White-Life Forms, I should be able to regenerate most of my power..."
"This is good information."
He stood still as the aura settled, tingling along his skin like static.
He rubbed his hands together, focused again, and raised his right palm.
With a silent command, all twenty life-forms manifested.
In the space of a single breath, they flickered back into reality, shapes emerging from thin air, one by one, like silent soldiers arriving on command.
"Perfect," Arin muttered.
Then he turned to the duffel bag he had left by a dead tree stump.
He unzipped it, revealing the twenty white sheets and white masks he had purchased before leaving Zaban City.
He did not want to carry it, so he specially purchased these in Zaban City.
"Wear them," he said.
Each one moved toward the bag, picked up its assigned mask and sheet, and began the strange process of dressing itself.
To watch twenty faceless, voiceless constructs cover themselves in blank masks and ghostly white robes was surreal.
Arin watched in amusement as they fumbled with the fabric, some slightly less precise than others.
It wasn't that they were clumsy, but rather, they behaved with mechanical compliance, not human instinct.
Once it was done, he stepped back and looked at them.
"Now that..." he chuckled, "is either the dumbest thing I've done or the most genius."
They looked ridiculous, standing there like cartoon ghosts from a child's imagination.
Because deep down, something about them still felt wrong.
Twenty ghostly figures, perfectly still, faceless, and unnerving in their silence.
"If the white fabrics were black instead of white, they would look pretty similar to aura-life forms of Shachmono Tocino; his ability was called Eleven Black Children."
"He was a weak Nen user, but still, our abilities are pretty similar."
"He used emission and manipulation, and I am using manipulation, specialization, and conjuration."
"If not for the system ability that granted me specialization, I would not be able to do what I am doing right now."
He then turned to look at the twenty White-Life.
"If I saw them walking toward me at night in an alley, I'd feel terrified even if they looked stupid. That blank expression."
He raised a hand again.
"Circle around me."
They moved instantly, walking in wide arcs until he was at the center of a perfect ring.
He felt the wind shift as they moved.
He could tell without even seeing that their synchronization was beyond anything natural.
Arin nodded with satisfaction.
"From now on, you'll all be covered in this garb unless I say otherwise," he ordered.
"After here, we will make them more like suits and regular clothing, so you guys can blend in." He said to them, not caring if they understood or not.
He already knew how useful they'd be not just in battle, but in strategy, intimidation, and fear.
He stretched his shoulders, felt the slight ache from hours of aura manipulation, then sat down cross-legged in the middle of the wetland again.
Tomorrow, he would begin testing their fighting strength.
He'd run simulations, combat drills, and maybe even hunt a few creatures in the Wetlands to see how the life-forms handled pressure.
"I do want to see Frog-In-Waiting and other creatures that lived here."
"Due to my nen, they are not getting close to me but watching me from the distance."
Arin laughed.
A low, genuine laugh
He raised one hand, pointing it toward one of the life-forms.
"You," he said, "walk three steps forward."
Without hesitation, the creature obeyed.
It stepped forward with eerie smoothness—no jerking, no delay, no question.
"Hah, if they were emitted instead of conjured, it would look like they are floating instead of walking."
Arin made a joke to himself and then ordered them to protect him while he lay on the ground.
He placed his bag on his head and tried to sleep. Not much longer, he entered a deep sleep without any problem.