Minutes passed by as Enyo struggled to stay conscious.
The pain was seemingly unbearable! He couldn't take it anymore.
Luckily for him it only seemed to last for a few more excruciating minutes.
Finally, the pain began to subside. He weakly sat on his knees as he continued to clutch his chest seemingly traumatized by the experience.
'That was worse than the entire hour of trying to survive in that cursed place!'
Although there was a plus side to this. He realized that his body suddenly felt much stronger and a lot lighter. It seemed as if he had somehow gained some weight, albeit he still looked a little sickly, but he now looked much better than he did before.
He even felt better! There also seemed to be a type of power that permeated from his chest like a small flame that had been lit.
'Was this the power of igniting one's soul?'
Finally, he seemed to calm his breathing completely. He took this chance to slowly get back onto his two feet in this unknown place and clear his mind of these curious thoughts.
The only source of light currently stemmed from the system messages that still blazed in front of him like a red beacon of light.
He focused on them and read the new messages that had showed up whilst he was still struggling to recover.
"Your soul has been Ignited."
"You have entered the spark stage."
"You have fully unlocked the systems user interface."
"You will now receive your rewards."
Looking at the notifications he got from the system the frown that sat on his face seemed to instantaneously change into an ecstatic grin.
"Finally, the rewards are mine." He said joyously.
He couldn't help but think of how much money he'd be making in future. He was now a spark! Anyone that had ignited their souls could find easy employment in the any industry they wished.
All sparks seemed to be considered high ranking personnel in their cities. Although not all of them were loaded with money that had quite a decent amount of it at the very least. On top of that, a city contracted all the sparks it could for certain missions in the other plane and for duties that needed to be completed in the actual real world.
Finally, it seemed Enyo's prayers had been answered. He would finally be able to make something of himself. Whilst also making the maximum amount of money possible of course. Outside of the city walls where he lived for most of his life, he didn't have many opportunities to make money.
He pretty much did anything he could to provide himself with some food, he couldn't even shower often! He previously used random lakes or dirty rivers that surrounded the perimeter of his recent home.
Shaking his head and focusing on the task currently at hand, he looked back towards the red writing that seemed almost transparent in front of his eyes.
"First reward you will receive is the powered that was stored in the system after recent kills."
"Would you like to receive? (Yes / No)"
Only thinking of the word 'yes' in his mind caused his chest to fill up with even more power than he had recently acquired. Only this time it didn't cause him any pain at all. Instead, it felt like a warmth entering his very soul.
As this continued for a few seconds he felt almost as if he could feel the changes occurring in his body. He was becoming stronger at a quick pace.
Finally, the warmth subsided, he looked back up at the system message satisfied with the changes it made to his body. Now multiple new messaged appeared.
"You have received two new soul cards."
"You have received one new soul ability."
"Wait only two?" He called out into the darkness in confusion.
He had previously thought that people received a soul card once they ignited but it seems that he was wrong.
"True it doesn't make too much sense to receive a soul card from the system since you're supposedly meant to acquire them through killing corrupted creatures and most people had an extremely slim chance of even killing a singular creature in their first visit.
It seemed that Enyo had gotten quite the head start when it came to power and his current number of soul cards.
Then suddenly another message was displayed.
"You have acquired a sacred gem from the scaled serpent lair."
"Would you like to consume it? (Yes / No)
Without a single moment of hesitation Enyo replied. 'Yes' he called out in his own mind.
"Sacred gem has been consumed."
"You have gained a mediocre immunity to toxin."
"What the hell? I didn't even know sacred gems existed. They can give you certain buffs?
It seemed so.
Finally, the last message was displayed.
"Soul ability (Hands of the void) has been acquired."
Once he finished reading the last message a new type of screen popped up in his face. This was the user interface he had just unlocked.
[ Soul Power | Soul Abilities | Soul Cards | Gems | Quests ]
Looking at this new screen being displayed Enyo opened the soul abilities section quickly.
"Soul Abilities"
"Hands of the void"
[This ability allows the user to use the strength their unique hands possess to open a doorway into the void. This ability grows stronger with your soul power and is capable of evolving.]
Looking at the writing, Enyo was momentarily stunned.
'What is opening a doorway to the void supposed to mean?'
As he tried to figure out the mysterious meaning hidden behind his ability description, he was sucked back to reality by the new notification that appeared in his face.
"Ignition of soul has been completed. You will now be transported back to your world."
As those words resounded into his mind, he felt a pulling force surround his lanky body as he suddenly disappeared.
Opening his eyes once again, Enyo felt a little sick from all the forceful travelling he had been doing. As his eyes began to readjust to such a bright setting a young man's face seemed to block most of his vision.
"What the hell are you doing in this area kid?" The man said, a little confused as to why someone would just appear in the river.
The man was quite shocked when he had witnessed it. He had pulled Enyo from the water quickly and sat him on the side of the riverbank, waiting for him to come too.
Now that Enyo came to his senses, he realized he was completely drenched from head to toe. Cursing his luck, he looked at the young man who was talking to him and scrutinized him. This young man was decent looking and was wearing a red blazer that seemed to be a type of officer's uniform, only Enyo could feel a certain power radiating from the man.
It seemed he was a spark too.
"Hey, can you even hear me?" The young man called out.
"Yes, I can. Sorry, what was it that you were saying earlier?"
"I said what are you doing here? Why'd you just appear in the middle of the river? There was a gate that opened here very recently, we only just managed to clean up all the corrupted so there might still be certain dangers. Also why do you give off the aura of a spark?"
Looking the young man dead in his eyes, Enyo shrugged.
"I don't know."
"I just asked you three questions and you didn't answer a single one!" The man replied, he was quite flabbergasted by the seemingly carefree attitude of this sickly-looking teenager.
'What the hell is wrong with him?'