Dismissing the transcendent memory from his hand, June looked at Barga's body one last time before slowly walking away.
He didn't have to get rid of the dead Awakened body manually himself, due to their proximity to the wilderness of the Dream Realm; it would attract certain Nightmare Creatures to do it for him.
June was still processing what Barga had told him before he died, about the Soul Dust and how the Pandavar clan is keeping a close eye on its smuggling throughout the Dream Realm.
Soul Dust, otherwise known as 'Shard Dust', is a highly illegal substance created by mixing soul shards with a variety of other drugs from the Dark Times.
Initially, it was created by scientists of the first generation, sometime after the Nightmare Spell first emerged, with the purpose of helping Awakened's to saturate their Soul Core faster. Through means of either injection, oral or nostril.
At the start, the drug did have high success rate but was quickly outlawed after discoveries of 'unwanted' side effects, due to the nature of how the drug was created; While it's true that it does help Awakened's to fill out their soul core at a faster rate, it also increases their dopamine, oxytocin and serotonin levels to a dangerous amount after few repeated usages.
Due to this, the drug is highly addictive, and withdrawal symptoms are extremely severe due to its involvement with the Soul Core. Thus, it was quickly outlawed, being classified as an illegal, dangerous and highly addictive recreational drug by the government shortly after its creation.
With a sigh, June slowly turned around and headed back in the direction of where he was staying, in Bastion.
The information he had received only created more questions than answers. Why are the Pandavar so interested in the drug?
'And how did they get their disgusting hands on it? I remember vividly that Grandfather said the recipe for it was lost and destroyed decades ago. Did someone manage to rediscover the original formula? Or there was a sample lying hidden somewhere that they managed to reverse engineer it?'
It seems that there are still many mysteries for him to discover and solve. Although normally he wouldn't think about it much, as someone who once worked for the Government, it piqued June's interest.
'Ah, thinking about this is going to be a headache.'
June shook his head in annoyance, as his mind then drifted to other information that Barga had said.
'I guess it will be more efficient to deal with the next person on the list, Awakened Worf. I haven't heard much of him before, but judging from his role as an enforcer, he should have a more combat-oriented Aspect.'
With a deep breath, he looked up at the stars residing over Bastion. It seemed like the night stretched far ahead, until the stars faded.
After a few moments of walking in silence, still pondering over the information that he had just extracted from Awakened Barga, June suddenly halted. He could hear the sound of bushes rustling, somewhere not too far from his current whereabouts.
June's body tensed up, summoning the [Sleeping Malice] once again, his eyes glanced over to the direction of the sound.
'It's coming from the northwest direction.'
His eyes narrowed before calling out the approaching figure in a calm and nonchalant demeanour.
"I assume that you're the Awakened Enforcer by the name of Worf."
From the darkness, June could see a man of a stocky stature slowly appearing in his vision.
Although he couldn't see him in the darkness, June could tell that the man was decently tall and his face ended in a heavy, unkempt mane that seemed to swallow his neck entirely.
'That wiry, messy beard on his face seemed to have declared independence from a razor, a long time ago.'
June thought to himself briefly, before hearing the man in front of him speak:
"I didn't expect to get caught on this fast. It seemed that Barga really had told you everything."
Worf paused for a second before resuming.
"Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, whether he dies or not. But I do have to get rid of you."
The large man stared at June before a violent gust of wind spiralled around the enforcer, forming a large vortex and swallowed him from sight.
'A transformation Aspect?'
Seeing this, June jumped backwards in alarm, distancing himself from the Pandavar Enforcer. Although he couldn't see much in the dark, he could see that the outline of Worf is getting larger, with 2 branch-like horns protruding from the man's head.
It took a few more seconds for the winds to subside. The Awakened now truly look monstrous, no different from a Nightmare Creature from a gate that would appear in the Waking World.
He stood over 2.7 meters tall, his limbs, full of fur, were grossly disproportionate to his body, with long razor-like claws coming out from his fingers. Intriguingly, the man now has a snout while wearing the skull of a deceased animal.
A second later, the monstrosity bolted over at June, attempting to land a critical blow towards the Corsair. Thankfully, due to his dormant ability, he had managed to block the blow with his sword right before it landed.
It's undeniable that Worf transformed state strength, is truly outstanding. Even though he had blocked the blow with his sword, the force was still enough to catapult him into the air.
Thankfully, he managed to activate his awakened ability in time to slow down his trajectory, before bouncing off a tree and landing on his feet.
'What the hell?'
The power coming from the enforcer had caught him off guard. June had known that people with a transformation aspect tend to pack a stronger punch on average for their class.... But that power wasn't normal.
It was way stronger than it should be.
Deactivating his awakened ability, he slowly looked up at the towering monster before him. Worf stared at him with a look of disdain and arrogance. If he were still in human form, there would have been a big smirk carved from cheek to cheek.
June sighed before gripping his sword handle tightly and resuming an offensive battle posture.
While Worf's strength was indeed out normal, it was still a step away from what a master could dish out. Besides that, unlike the power, his speed, besides being augmented by his transformation, wasn't anything special compared to others with the same type of aspect. The only reason why Worf managed to land such a close blow to him was that he had decided to block the attack, rather than dodging it.
'It won't happen again.'