That kid has been blasting through the limits of his soul like its just a normal thing to do. First, he pushed through the barrier of his psyche, improving his base abilities. Then he prevented that glow from coming out of his body. Then he somehow suppressed the natural mana that should be released from his body, making it impossible for me to track him. Then he pushed through his psyche AGAIN and became faster than me.

What kind of fucking monster is he. It’s completely unreasonable. This shit should take decades. As I thought this I just stood still, looking kind of dumbstruck. The emotions I’m feeling are things I haven’t felt in forever.

I’m angry about failing to complete my task, as much as I hate it, and about being bested by some human brat from that desolate wasteland called Eardh.

But I’m also immensely excited that something so interesting has happened. I feel… motivated.

Motivated to get stronger again, just like my heydays.

Back when I was a warrior and sought strength when I was alive.

Back when I wanted to become the strongest and defeat the gods.

Before I became the servant of those same gods.

This blasted kid is making me feel all these unreasonable things but… IM FUCKING LOVING IT!

I take out the watch in my robe, holding it in my palm I turn it over to see the back. Just like my scythe, this watch is a divine artifact, so it releases its own light glow.

Running my bony fingers over the edges of the watch I find the grooves I’m looking for. Pressing the grooves, the back of the watch opens. Inside are three small buttons set up in a triangle formation. One of them is pressed down already, the top one, and is releasing a low glow from its grooves.

Moving my finger to the bottom right button I press it. The top button unpressed itself and the glow fades whilst the new button replaces it. I close the back and hold the watch out in front of me again, letting it recalibrate. This time each of the arrows move together, pointing in the same direction. Placing the watch back inside my robe I begin running in the direction the arrows guided.

*****

HOLY SHIT IM SO FAST!

I’m absolutely sending it as I sprint at top speed across the solid grey ground. My hypothesis was definitely correct. After pushing the mind-numbing pain to the absolute limits for what might have been days’?’ it suddenly went away. It was like a pushed through a wall and the path behind it was totally clear. My strength, speed, stamina all went up and I even got better control of my glow thing.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I’ve decided to call my glow thing [Spark]. Now that might seem like an unusual name for an ability that lets me light up like a Christmas tree, however, I have a good reason for it. After pushing through to what I am going to call ‘the third soul level’ my [Spark] upgraded. I can now not only light myself up but also anything around me within about a metre radius in any way I want.

Sure, that might not be very useful, but it did tell me something interesting. Improving my soul improves my weird abilities. And if it can improve my weird abilities, it could also give me new ones!

Imagine that! All I have to do is run around until I feel like I’m going to die, then a little more and BOOM! Permanent soul upgrade and new abilities to boot!

At least that’s what I thought. Problem is, I ran around for literal days to reach level 3. Level 2 took maybe a few hours. How long is level 4 going to take? A week? A month of constant running? Surely not right…

Right…

Not to mention that I haven’t seen Death in ages. Not that I’m complaining but I am a little surprised.

After I first ran from him he followed me constantly until he caught up with me. I get that it’s harder to find me now that I have [Spark] under control, and I’m faster than him now but did he really just give up?

Something’s off.

He knows something that I don’t.

But what could it be?

Should I…?

Hunt him down myself?

Wouldn’t that be funny. A human… hunting death…

As I thought this, I chuckled to myself. What a ridiculous idea that is. It’s not like I can find him anyway. Surely, he has a way to navigate this place. He’ll come find me himself once he’s ready. I’m sure of it. He wouldn’t just leave me here, would he?

Would he…?

Enough about that. Back to my training montage. So level 4 is starting to look a bit unreasonable. Sure, I think I could do it. Running around for a week or longer for a permanent upgrade isn’t that bad.

So what if my entire being becomes so fatigued and in pain for entire days, eternally getting worse until I finally reach the threshold to level up?

But what about level 5? Level 6? 7? 8? How long would it take to reach those levels? Of course, time is kind of relative here so I’m not actually sure how long I’ve spent here let alone how long it took to level up.

Is that why it feels like it’s taking so long? Because of the weird way time works here. Death said that we move faster here which makes everything else look frozen in comparison. Could that be the key?

Let’s say that if one month here is equal to one second out there then… it only takes a second to break through multiple levels? That doesn’t seem right.

Maybe there are other ways to push through levels? Running in the real world obviously doesn’t upgrade my soul. If it did, I would already be level 1000 or something.

If that is the case, then maybe it’s not my running around that improves my soul and abilities. Maybe its just the act of using my soul that does it. Perhaps I can upgrade my soul by doing different things at the same time. Like running and flickering [Spark] in different ways at the same time. I know it’s not much, but I’ve got to try something. It would majorly suck if I had to start running forever just for one upgrade. I guess [Spark] is the key to everything.

[SPARK] POWER!!!