Orion's eyes snapped open. He was out of breath, and his body was covered in sweat.
"Woah...." He muttered in a low tone.
That was... intense. The energy from the Runix Core had flowed right into his body at once from his contact with its latent potential; it had been swallowed whole and consumed by Orion's soul.
He felt spent, but... his body was so full of vigor.
He almost didn't mind the crumbling pieces of the very expensive stone falling from his fingers into the pavement.
"Ok... now to assess what I know."
One of the Runix Cores had been destroyed, but that wasn't so terrible; after all, he did gain some insight into how this worked.
In this last attempt, Orion's failure was clear, Care. Turns out his soul was... more potent than he had anticipated. Or maybe... the Runix Cores were just more delicate and frail than he had imagined.
The moment Orion carelessly interacted with the Runix Core, it surged like an unstoppable torrent inside his Soul Tendril, inevitably collapsing itself from the energy.
But from that surge, Orion was unable to absorb the energy. If there was a way to exemplify, it was like drinking water—if one drank it slowly, one would be able to drink until you were full, but if it was thrown in one's face, the water would scatter around and only the most measly amount would reach one's mouth.
It wasn't so complicated, but the question was what to do now. In theory, he had 2 whole chances of igniting his Spark, but in practice, it was only one, because the next Runix Core, Orion, had already determined, would only serve as another test drive.
He had to make the most out of these three. Or maybe... none of these would be a true chance. One had given him a great understanding of how the process worked, but it clearly wasn't enough to initiate the procedure of igniting his Spark. So maybe, instead of wasting two attempts at igniting something he didn't even know how to ignite, it would be wiser to use the two for experimenting with the process. That way, maybe in the fourth or fifth Runix Core he obtained, he would be able to ignite his Spark flawlessly.
Basically, this was a question of chances. Orion was pretty confident that with a few more feels of the thing, he could successfully ignite it in the fifth—no, sixth—Runix Core, but... he didn't have those chances.
He had three, and he had just used one up; there were only two attempts now.
If he wasted these two and went out without any kind of Divine power... could he even survive? Was he skilled enough in combat to gather more Runix Cores from monsters in the Wilderness...?
No, he wasn't.
Give in to the desperation of now and attempt the ignition of his Spark?
Or bet on the certainty of an improbable future?
"...Damn it all!" Orion closed his eyes again and grabbed the second Runix Core.
He really wished he could take the long, certain run, but what the old man said at the entrance was true. Orion was scrawny! He was weak! He was unskilled!
There wasn't any question about it at all! He needed some kind of weapon to survive out there in the world. Actual equipment helped, but in a world in collapse, only actual power guaranteed survival!
Inside his Mindscape, Orion concentrated on his soul and felt the warmth emanating nearby.
He extended his Soul Tendril slowly, with more concentration. He tried to make it thinner and move more slowly, but his Soul Tendril started dissipating in the air before it reached the warmth of the Runix Core.
"Calm... calm... I can do it..." He retrieved his Tendril and tried to consolidate it, asserting control. The Tendril slowly stopped trembling, and it progressively stopped dissipating on its own.
With another sigh of relief, Orion moved the Tendril closer once more, lightly, gently. When the Tendril eventually touched the warm ball of light, the eternal darkness inside that darkroom started to retreat.
In the real world, as the energy inside the Runix Core flowed inside Orion, his body started to sweat, and his skin turned a tint redder. But he held firm, putting any and all restraints of his body to the back of his mind.
Orion absorbed that warm feeling, digesting its latent energy and taking it in as part of himself. There wasn't any conscious effort from his part in this; his Soul, his essence, in contact with the latent potential of the stone, assimilated it of its own volition, like it was its nature.
The darkness inside the Darkroom, too, started to dim, starting to show a beautiful picture.
Behind the veil of darkness opened up the view of an infinite plane of shallow, crystalline water, which reflected perfectly the beautiful open sky above, filled with fluffy white clouds with golden linings, and the entire place seemed to radiate with a bright, comforting light.
With a vision of that place, Orion was... stunned. It was majestic, but not in an intimidating way. The infinite space with a wide open sky full of clouds seemed to be so... liberating!
Orion couldn't put words to the feeling he felt... he was sure there was a word for it, there should be a way to describe him, but... words escaped him. But for sure, it was like he... belonged there.
It was a wondrous experience... until eventually, the Runix Core in Orion's hand cracked, and with it, all the visions of resplendor.
Orion snapped back to reality, feeling the second Runix Core crumble to dust in his hands. Staring at the sparkling dust of a once beautiful crystal, Orion's mind went back 3 months, remembering how hard it was to gather his 40th Credit. Back then, he legitimately cried with happiness; more than halfway to his goal, there was no way not to celebrate it in some manner. Shame he didn't celebrate it— all he did was hold the pouch full of his 40 coins to his chest as he slept, and dreamed of the possibilities he could have become a Radiant.
And that dream was now closer than ever before!
He tried to catch his breath; Orion wiped his forehead with his sleeve. Once again, absorbing the Runix Crystal seemed to have consequences on the body. His body was wet with sweat, and it ran down his spine and dropped to the floor.
But... weirdly, the sweat expelled by his body in the process of absorbing the crystals had no smell, and it didn't feel sticky to the touch. It was more like he had expelled water from his body, but it was certainly still sweat, judging by the salt he had tasted from the few bits that had entered his mouth.
Curious, but not important for now.
Orion turned to the last remaining Runix Core.