The morning, five days later.
A young boy, obviously sweating and out of breath is leaning against the wooden wall with closed eyes, seemingly lost in thought. The torture he went through the last couple of days is finally over.
Treyton opened his eyes and inspected his body. It looks like nothing has changed but he immediately noticed the drastic changes his body went through. His heart, still beating strongly, now felt vastly different from before.
After the transformation, he now can feel the heart inside his body, or better said the essence, pulsating in a regular rhythm.
The modified heart, which contains the soul and essence, is able to create essence on its own, filling up the lost energy every time it is used. However, this process is slow and depends on the soul's strength, which is why Treyton's current heart is still in the infant stage of development. Only training can increase its power and further strengthen itself, making it a tough process. Nevertheless, this is indispensable for humans in order to defend themselves and to stay alive.
However, the transformation of his heart didn't bother him for now. He hasn't eaten properly during the last couple of days and cutting sleep took a huge toll on him.
Treyton got up and went to the dining hall, hearing his best friend Caleb calling him from afar.
"Yo Trey, you're still alive? I haven't seen you for almost three weeks. Don't tell me you failed."
"I didn't, it just took longer than expected."
"Okay, yes, but it even took me only around eleven days and my essence is not that common. What kind of essence do you have, anyway?"
"Space-type."
"...Sorry?", asked Caleb while looking up, still holding his breakfast sandwich in his right hand.
"It's space."
"Hey pal, you know what that means, right?"
"I don't, enlighten me, Cal."
"Seriously? I heard how difficult handling space-type essence is. It is hell. Do you even have the aptitude for that? How did you even get such a fruit in the first place? Trey, are you out of your mind?"
"It's not that bad. The potential can't be overlooked and I should have a talent for space-essence, otherwise, my father wouldn't have left it behind for me."
"You'll spit blood, for real.", answered Caleb while shaking his head. It sounded just way too crazy but thinking about Treyton, whose talent for fighting is far better than him, it might just work. He always surprises him by doing unimaginable things for his age. Even though they are both ten years old and the two strongest fighters in the orphanage, the difference in skill between Treyton and Caleb is big.
After all, of all one-on-one fights between him and Treyton, he only won eight of them and they have been fighting on every weekend for almost three years.
"Hey Cal, teach me on how to use my essence."
"You're serious? I modified my heart about two months ago, I don't even know really myself how it works, much less teach it to someone else."
"Two months and you got nothing to show? Embarrassing!!", replied Treyton with a short snort.
"Okay, okay, shut up! Here, look." The next moment, small electrical sparks flashed over Caleb's hand in a glowing blue color.
"WOW...make it bigger.", said Treyton with a smile.
"I can't. This is all I can do for now.", answered Caleb with an indifferent expression looking like he didn't care for the small show, however, a small fire of pride burnt in his eyes as he looked back at Treyton.
Hearing his friend's short rejection, Treyton immediately dropped his shoulders while making a disgusted face.
"Haaa...It's no use."
"GET LOST!", screamed Caleb, running away into the direction of his room, leaving behind a disappointed Treyton.
"Hmmm, this guy is so easy to handle, what a shame."
While walking to the backyard, Treyton seriously thought about what doing about his training in the future. He used to run for an hour every day, following a full-body workout but now he has to train his essence, as well.
To advance in his supernatural abilities he needs a strong body to make further modifications possible, as well as handling the rising amount of essence in his body. To assure that, he will keep up his physical training in the morning and essence training in the afternoon and evening.
In the backyard of the oprhanage, Treyton saw the familiar sparring circles on the dirt field. He, however, went further to a big grassfield and got ready for his training.
He planned to practice controlling his essence and his newly-gained space-powers but this quickly turned out to be a huge miscalculation of him. He couldn't control it at all. The essence won't even come out of his heart.
Treyton felt terrible.
This is like having a bag of cookies, without the strength to rip it open. A disaster.
It took him a couple of minutes to calm down and he thought back to what Caleb said.
-Well, of course it can't be that easy. I guess I have to train a lot to make it big, huh.-
After shortly encouraging himself, he went back to his practice.
-Alright, I will aim for eight hours of training today, not a second less-