[You have gained FLAME OF DESIRE].
Mark was suddenly pulled into the darkness he first woke up from. But he was not paying any attention to his surrounding because the voice he thought was an illusion was real. He had no idea what it was or what it wanted but he understood one thing it said, he had evolved from an EMBER to a WILDFIRE. Now he thought about it he was in the center of the flame, and he didn't burn despite standing in it, after all what kind of fire burns itself. And the flame had followed him wherever he went around the forest and spread. The sound of crackling he had heard from the beginning, that intensified over time while he was busy trying to see his surroundings, the colossal trees that dwarfed him as though he was an ant looking at a titan. He was the flame, the fire that was burning the forest.
It took Mark some time to notice that there was a source of light in this darkness now. That thought distracted him for a bit, and he welcomed it. There he saw a small glowing reddish-orange EMBER burning at what it looked like a center to him. Mark looked at it from a distance and wanted to get a closer look. He was immediately pulled towards the EMBER. The EMBER intensified by the second, growing bigger and hotter. Mark remembered the last thing the voice had said, he had gained the FLAME OF DESIRE.
'This must be it,' he thought.
There he noticed a mark on the EMBER that was shaped like an "H" that was encircled in a smaller circle that was again encircled in a bigger circle and between the two circle there were three threads that interwove between each other forming a circle and forming a symbol that looked like the HAGALAZ RUNE. Upon closer look it's exactly the HAGALAZ RUNE.
His attention was again brought to the EMBER that was growing by the second, becoming more visible. He focused all of his attention on it forgetting all else. Then, thin threads sprang from the EMBER and interwove themselves into a red flaming screen.
[Name: Mark Pascall]
[Evolution stage: WILDFIRE]
[Maximum temperature: 970 °C ]
[Energy point: 27]
[Energy gained: 2/second]
[Energy consumed: 1/second]
[types of flames: none]
[Skills: ENERGY EYE]
'This is my information, or at least for the current me?' Mark tried to frown, 'how did it even know my name? What is this thing?'
Since he couldn't figure out what it was Mark looked at all the information that was displayed on it before him and tried to understand what they meant one by one.
'Evolution stage must mean my current state since the voice said I have evolved to it, maybe the voice also came from this thing. Then there is the energy point and it keep increasing by 1 every second so it must be connected with the other two. Energy gained must be the energy I gained by burning the grass and now the trees and energy consumed must be the energy I spend when the fire burns. And since the gain is greater, I have a net gain of 1 energy per second. But how did this thing quantified energy? Is that even possible? Then again I am currently a fucking fire. The maximum temperature must be the highest I can achieve, that is hot, really hot. I can literally melt a silver,' his emotions were all over the place as he didn't know what to think of this, whether to be happy he was alive or despair at the fact that he is a fire, never to be human again.
[You have gained Spontaneous Combustion.]
The voice came again and immediately the screen changed
[Skills: ENERGY EYE, Spontaneous Combustion]
'The voice did real come from this. Where did it come from? Is it a compensation for the wrong reincarnation or is there something else behind it?' Mark didn't fully trust this thing that knew everything about him, something about it felt wrong. Mark focused on the weaving for Spontaneous Combustion and a new screen interwove itself in-front of him
[Spontaneous Combustion: Increase your range and temperature depending on the energy spent.]
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It was a simple explanation of what the skill could do. The second screen unweave itself and Mark was back to staring at the first screen. He then focused on the weave of ENERGY EYE.
[ENERGY EYE: The most basic usage of SOURCE ENERGY and a 3rd DIMENSIONAL EYE. It's the 1st stage of the EYE OF OMNIPRESENT. It will help you see your surroundings in all direction and with far more detail in both the physical and spiritual. Helps you see far into the distance with clear and great detail depending on your own power.]
That surprised Mark, he saw words he didn't understand or couldn't grasp like source energy or 3rd dimensional eye and words he knew but not expect to be real like eye of omnipresent. The source energy must what he felt when he concentrated to his surrounding. Yet he couldn't feel it now, he felt some in the ember, he felt could use some part of it but he couldn't use it all, it's like something was blocking it. Mark felt he could use the source energy to manipulate and create fire. Maybe it's because he is a fire or maybe there was something else to it. And 3rd dimensional eye must mean he could only see 3rd dimensional space.
'Does that mean there are more dimensions?'
His heart started to beat faster or it would have if he had any. The revelation that there might be more dimension was shocking to say the least but the most important question was how many there were and what they represent for Mark's future. Maybe he could find way back to earth or way to becoming human again in those higher dimensions. At the thought of earth Mark wanted to cry, remembering his family. Threads that formed the screen unweave themselves and interwove into forming a picture of a happy family of four. A woman who appeared to be in her mid-40 with a golden-blond hair, with the left half resting on her chest and the right half at her back and at the tip of her hair was a curl. Her eyes were blue but had a warmth to them with her red lips smiling faintly. Her left hand resting on a shoulder of a 10 year old girl that was smiling brightly with her teeth shown, her blond hair was in a piggy-tail, and her brown eyes had the innocence of a child. And her right hand was on the shoulder of a 20 year old boy with his black hair cut in a Pompadour style, his eyes blue like the woman with a faint smile. There was a man in his late-40 standing on the right side of her and above the boy. The man had a black hair, brown eyes like the little girl, his left hand was wrapped around the woman's shoulder and his left hand was on the boy's shoulder which reached his chest.
Mark wanted to cry even more seeing his family portrait but no tear could come out of him.
'I wish I could say goodbye properly. I'm sorry, Dad, for not being there for your birthday next week. I know how much it meant to you, and I hate that I won't be there to celebrate it with you. I'm sorry, Mom, for all the trouble I caused, all the pain and heartache. I was a handful, and I regret all the mischief that led to so much stress for you. Sis, I'm sorry I won't be around to see you grow up. I won't be there to protect you from the boys who might come around, or to tease your first crush. I won't be there for your first boyfriend or your wedding, or to hold your baby in my arms one day. It hurts knowing I won't be part of those moments. I'm so deeply sorry. I wish things could be different. I wish I could be there with you, sharing in your joys and supporting you through everything. I hope you can forgive me, and know that my love for you hasn't changed, no matter where I am. You'll always be in my heart.'
He continued to stare at the portrait for a very long time. He then dispersed the portrait and brought back the 1st screen. And there were some changes.
[Maximum temperature: 1000 °C ]
[Energy point: 1043]
After he reviewed the content over and over again he closed the screen. And the darkness was filled with light again until it was banished.
Mark looked around at his surrounding, the trees were in blazing with fire, some were already burnt and turned to ash, some had turned black, the ground was gray and black with the ashes and burnt woods. The forest was bigger than he first thought, and he only burned a very small part of it. It stretched very far in all direction and there were some kind of mist the deeper you went into the forest. Mark was on the outer region of the forest. His fire spread more by the second and more energy was being consumed but the more he burned the more he felt something in the environments SOURCE ENERGY stir. Sooner or later his energy consumption would be the same or more than the energy gained if he continued like this. So, he had to learn to control his fire.
Mark spent a few minutes to learn to control his fire because he had experience with learning the energy eye. He turned himself into a small ember and moved out of the black grounds and went into the most outer part of the outer region of the forest by jumping from one tree to another and extinguishing the fire on the previous tree. It took him a couple of hours before he found a spot with a bunch of branches and leaves scattered on the ground with the sunlight and wind being blocked by the tall trees. He then settled down there.
As Mark was getting comfortable, he saw a wolf with a slick black fur and yellow eyes staring at him intensely.