Pragna is quite disappointed. He came out of the volcano and checked again and again. Not a trace of any gorilla! His tactic seemed to have worked very well, but now he did not have anymore test subjects.
I think its time to leave this place. But before i do i want to lvl up my lower meditation and cold flames.
With those thoughts he went back to the lava lake. Then for next few days he only did things three things. Meditate,chop the fire fruit trees and eat the roots. Leveling up the lower mediation became much harder, after practicing it for two days he was able to level it up to 2. Every time he remembered that enlightenment moment he had and how fast he leveled his skills he felt really depressed. On other hand he was able to lvl up the cold flames up to 5. But from there no matter what how many roots he ate it did not increase. Like this his peaceful days of practicing continued for 11 days.
But unknowingly he made great progress in rock carving, lower earth affinity and stone gorilla physique. Rock carving went up to 7, while lower earth affinity 6. But the one surprised him most was stone gorilla physique. After finishing of the entire meat of gorilla he leveled it to 10. After leveling it to 10 he got this notification.
You reached the maximum lvl of stone gorilla physique. For further progress your body will start changing into stone gorilla. Do you want it? yes/no
Without a second thought he said, "no."
You chose no. Further progress in this skill is permanently halted .
Pragna is quite amused by how this skill progressed. This is the one interesting thing happened to him in the last few days.
On a particularly lazy evening he did not feel like doing anything. As he was watching the lava lake his mind started drifting towards random thoughts. He started thinking about leveling up system.
Even though leveling up increases health, mana and one random stat permanently, what truly increases your strength is titles and skills. There are four ways to gain them. One you are inherently born with them. Two eating rare ingredients. Three analysis and understanding. Four mind numbing practice.
Then his mind drifted to fire fruit trees. This tree always surprised him to no end. It actually grows in extreme hot temperatures.It grows up in a place where no normal beings can survive. A destructive force like lava is actually facilitating growth of trees. As a matter of fact what about himself! To him any flame based items are nourishing. Its like fire has its own constructive side. Take his cold fire skill for example, Water and fire based elements cannot co -exist, but somehow by combination of inherent nature of this two cold flames is created. It is like they trying to exist in harmony.
because of your unique perspective and experiences you noticed spiritual side of the elements. You have gained title fire shaman. you have gained title harmony expert. You can learn fusion skills with fire as main base
Before he could react he got this
Error! Fire shaman is a sub-classes compared to the hidden class offered by fire itself title. Trying to update it.
Pragna felt mild throbbing pain inside him! It only got strong for every second. He drank the fire fruit syrup, but it did not work
Error! soul shackles have been placed on your soul.
He could not handle the pain anymore! He ran to the lava and jumped into it hoping it will work.
Your soul is trying to break the shackles
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Nothing is working! He remembered the pain he suffered through before he came to this world.
Your soul is returning to the original status. Your soul returned back to Burning soul!
Your burning soul broke the shackles! trying to update...
Your title is not compatible with this system! Error!
Hidden functions of fire itself are activated! your soul has been removed from elder gods system. Updating
Updating finished! you are integrated into PRIMORDIAL SYSTEM
immediately after that notification popped up, the pain disappeared, but pragna lost his consciousness. His body started sinking to the bottom of the lava lake, like his body is being attracted by the higher heat source in it.
Pragna is having a dream. Something he stopped having after he came to this world. He is far away from a light source. He started drifting towards it, as he got closer to it, light got brighter and also hot. He also started hearing some sounds from it. At beginning the sounds were not coherent enough. But as he got to a certain distance he suddenly stopped moving. He remembered what are those sounds. Those are screams! Pure screams cried out in unbelievable agony!
How can he ever forget those screams! It is him! That light source is himself in the past!
He is watching himself from a 3rd perspective. This continued for a very long time. Watching himself burn yet not die is quite agonizing to Pragna. After long time as he was this scene unfold he heard a voice,
"What do you want?", Pragna was expecting to hear that red ball's feminine voice and was expecting the scenery to change to grass field. But none of that happened instead he heard a archaic, ancient voice.
I don't remember this.
Then he understood. This is the part of his missing memories! he suddenly became more interested in finding out what happened next.
"what do you want?", again that archaic voice asked.
The answer that his past self gave completely flabbergasted him.
Between a scream and shout an answer came from the light source,"i want true freedom!"
If his past self asked for relief of pain that would have made at least a little bit of sense. But true freedom?
Even the voice was surprised,"do you not want relief from this pain? what about power? what about riches and happiness?"
His past self answered, "none of those mean anything without true freedom. But if i have true freedom everyone one of them will follow me."
Pragna is dumbstruck as he watched this! why would his past self ask for this kind of wish.Before he could make heads are tails of it he started hearing loud laughter.
He heard the laughter of child, laughter of a man, laughter of a woman, then screams of animals. It is the most chaotic and scariest sound he ever heard. But something is telling him that all of this made by only one entity!
Suddenly laughter stopped.
Then he heard this,"In this world the only beings that are truly free to go where they want are elemental lords, for a mortal soul you have quite a lofty ambition. Even in this much pain you did not forget your wish. hmmmm! this flames quite suit you. Why don't you become fire itself. "