Gone. Everything was gone. All 60 credits he worked months to get had been completely spent...
Orion couldn't remember another day in his life when he felt so disheartened before.
" Uhuuu, my heart, my poor heart, why must I suffer this much?! That was an entire year of my life!" He cried by himself as he sat in the corner of the small base of operations.
Orion slapped himself out of the depression.
No, this was already quite good! He planned to spend the credits today anyway, and it went MUCH better than he had expected. In truth, he was also planning on using the Credits to buy himself a weapon, since he came there completely unprepared, but they turned out to be free!!
There were a few Radiant weapons in the Shop of the Base of operations, but they were all over 60 Credits.
Thinking about it, what great luck that the weapons were free! Or he might have had to go completely unarmed.
"Or maybe it wasn't luck. Credits are Rare after all, not all Mundanes have enough to buy a Relic, hm, should have thought of that before, haha!" Orion scratched the back of his neck
Then, he turned his attention to the most important matter.
Right before Orion sat 3 Crystals with ever-shifting colors, but they remained red for the majority of the time.
"All Poor quality Cores... Hah, I half expected to have a Fortuitous Encounter... I guess those only happen in the fantasies, huh? Why are High Quality Runix Cores so rare anyway?! There are so many horrors beyond comprehension around the world, one would expect them to be a bit more common!!" Orion complained
But whatever! There was no time to be sad; if anything, he should be jumping in happiness!!
This was his great plan before leaving for the expedition! 3 whole Runix Cores, 3 chances to ignite his Divine Spark before even leaving for the expedition!
In this little expedition, Orion had 3 Main objectives. First, Ignite his Divine Spark, second, Battle monsters and gain more experience in the battlefield, Third, Show his capabilities.
This was the part where he was expecting to awaken his Divine Spark.
Before leaving for an expedition, the Thirsting Agony always set up a little shop in the settlements they visited. This was a way for them to collect funds, and a great way to give assistance to participating Crews!
Orion wasn't sure, since he had never heard anything about it, but he was half expecting, since they sold equipment and tools, that they would also be selling Runix Cores!
"Thinking about it, isn't it a greater Fortune that they were actually selling the Cores?"
Or... it would be, because the Cores would only show any kind of TRUE value if he managed to Ignite his Spark. Maybe even, if he turned out to be lucky, he could use one of them to feed his Divine Spark and assist even more in his expedition!
But if he failed.... that would just be almost a year's worth of work WASTED!!
"NO!!! Let's not think about that!! Positive thoughts, positive thoughts!!"
But... was it even possible to have positive thoughts in a moment like this? Seeing your work, almost an entire year of full of hardships, thinking that it could all just disappear...
"...At least I'll gain experience, so I can improve my chances of Igniting it when I get my hands on some more..."
Yes, that was it! There wasn't really anything negative about absorbing these cores.
Orion slowly grabbed one of the crystals and closed his eyes. In this past year, he spent working for Radiants, he never missed a chance to inquire about this igniting process.
"To ignite your Spark from Runix Cores? It's easy peasy! Imagine yourself in a dark forest- Ah, wait, I think you never went to a forest, huh? Hmm, just imagine you're in a really dark, dark room, and start to think how cold and lonely it would be inside there, try to replicate it in your head."
Orion recalled what one of the Radiants he had befriended described it. He had spent a year perfecting it, so right now, he could materialize the room in his head with ease.
Orion felt the ground below him disappear, and the noises in the street slowly fade.
Even the feeling of the breeze hitting his skin started to subside until there was nothing.
"Then ya need to forget about the feelings in your body, clothes in the skin, the hair in your forehead... the heat from your own body too!"
And so he did, he found himself in a dark, empty room, his clothes disappeared, his hair faded into nothing, and he felt very.... Very cold....
"Now your limbs too, start from the fingertips, then from the toes, and go up, until nothing from your body remains and only your eyes are there"
After weeks of repeating this cycle, this part came easily for Orion, too, but in the beginning, he had struggled to do this.
""Don't feel your limbs." How stupid is that! Those are my limbs, I grew up with those, how can I know how to NOT feel them?!"
But after doing it once, he understood, actually, at this stage, all this little process made sense to him. All this... was so he could feel his soul!
People don't usually feel the presence of their soul inside their bodies, since it's always been there, so you just don't take notice of it; it's like how your eyes don't register your nose in your vision, although it's always there. So one must get rid of the distractions so they can notice the soul that's sitting in the middle of your body.
"Guh! That's so frustrating, there are just too many stimuli! I keep losing hold of my soul!!" Orion struggled for a few minutes. It had been a few days since he had done this, so he was having a hard time removing the feelings from his body, but eventually he did. he didn't have PERFECT grab on it, but it was enough.
But that was the easiest part, what came now.... wasn't, though, because he had never done it before!!
"And in that cold, dark emptiness... You have to find warmth."
Orion looked around and... found nothing. He opened his eyes and stared at the Runix Core.
"Still there!" he closed his eyes and repeated the process.
Soon he found himself back in the dark, empty room....
Nothing....
Maybe it was a problem with concentration, he tried to feel even more detached from his body, and it was having progress!! Slowly, he lost complete touch with his physical body; only his soul remained.
It was a weird, a weird sensation, it was... Liberating, there was no weight to his body, no feeling in his head, the wind, the heat, everything had disappeared... But he still felt... His presence! he felt like he was still somewhere in the space he stood, like a perpetual, never-ending comfort that he... existed...
And with that understanding, he... felt something, closeby, another... Existence.
It was quite far, so he imagined himself reaching it, but when trying that, he moved his arm in real life, completely breaking the immersion.
"OH C'MON!!" He complained. Orion then closed his eyes again and tried to immerse himself once more.
Quicker than before, Orion reached the state of Complete Imersion he was in before
Again, he felt the other presence. He wanted to reach it, but this time he went through another route.
His Soul started to stir, vibrating in place. Then, a tendril stretched from its place, it vibrated and trembled, unstable, weak, but slowly, it reached the unknown presence, and when it did, the darkness was illuminated.
He saw flashes of light spread inside the Dark room, revealing hints of its true nature. He couldn't make sense of the flashes, though, because he was busy.
Because he had done it. He felt... Warmth!!!
Or at least, until the Runix Core he was holding crumbled in the real world