Uriel didn't answer and kept looking at the young man.
Silence settled between the two of them, filled with Uriel's occasional wheezing and strained groans, as well as the faint, rhythmic sound of gears turning somewhere within the walls of the cell.
It was cold, humid, and the breeze streaming into the room carried no warmth at all.
Enoch sighed again, frustration slipping through his composure.
"If you accept, I'll help you find Arthur and…" He hesitated, then continued more quietly. "…I'll show you where Lilith is. She isn't dead. I'll even—"
"I…accept."
Uriel's answer came much quicker than Enoch expected. For a few moments, he was stunned into silence.
He looked at Uriel, at his condition, at the cell around them, and his jaw clenched as memories of the past surfaced unbidden.
'It won't happen,' he told himself.
'Not this time.'
[The contract has been signed!]
Enoch snapped back to the present. "I'll explain everything later, but for now listen closely and chew on this."
He pushed a strange, glowing silver pill into Uriel's mouth.
"You'll be transported somewhere else in a few minutes. They are going to ask you for a location and a starter pack."
"For the location, you MUST choose the forest, nothing else. And for the starter pack, you MUST choose the arcane disciple starter pack."
"This is primordial not only to your survival, but to my own as well. If you deviate at any point, we're both dead."
He grabbed Uriel's shoulders. "Do you understand?!"
Still struggling to chew the pill, Uriel weakly nodded.
'What a strangely vivid dream,' he thought.
'Really strange.'
Enoch exhaled in relief. "Good. I'll take care of the rest. All you'll have to—"
[Dear inhabitants of Ithuril, change is on the horizon!]
…
Across the entire world, all movement stopped.
Every single human being looked up.
Cars halted. Malls shut down. Planes lost power and crashed as all forms of technology vanished into oblivion.
All humans saw the same thing. All heard the same voice.
In the skies, a gigantic sphere of dark energy manifested, pressing onto their minds like a falling meteor and forcibly pulling their attention toward it.
[Your Chaos Seed has matured and thus, your Seed Awakening Procedure will begin!]
[Prepare to rise and challenge the heavens, prepare to claim the legacy your ancestors have left behind, prepare to conquer!]
[Aether will return to your world and with it, your dormant traits will roar to life!]
[Prepare for change and adapt or be prepared to be left behind, dead or worse.]
The voice thundered directly into their minds, a cold, feminine echo, filled with authority and power, inhuman in its sharpness.
[The Tutorial Dungeon will begin in 0:0:0:50]
Independent of the voice, glowing runes and golden letters appeared before everyone's eyes.
[Weave-System has awakened!]
[Spark is stirring!]
Across the planet and its continents, a change began, one that would forever be remembered.
People started to awaken.
The limits of humanity and mortality vanished, the hierarchy of life breaking apart, never to return.
A strange energy surged from the depths of the planet, rising upward and washing over every living being.
Then, one by one, they vanished.
…
Uriel blinked.
The cell was gone.
He found himself suspended within a vast expanse of darkness, seemingly endless, layered with thick clouds of darker darkness. There was no ground, no sky, no sense of direction.
He floated there, naked, a halo of golden light encasing him and shielding him from the abyss.
For now, he paid it little attention.
BANG!
[You have consumed a Gold Grade Mending Coil Pill!]
It felt as though an explosion detonated in his stomach.
Pain flared, then faded, as his broken and dying body began to mend, slowly, but undeniably.
Power returned in faint surges. His light sandy olive skin regained a trace of color, and his long silver-white mane of hair whipped back in unseen currents.
His deep dark-gold eyes, ringed faintly with sunset orange, regained part of their spark.
He could see.
A strange spectral force swept across his thin, bony physique, skin clinging tightly to bone, burning away years of accumulated grime and filth.
'…'
Though he still looked like a living corpse, sunken cheeks and hollow eyes, at least now he was a clean one.
Clarity returned to his mind, and he rapidly assimilated everything Enoch had told him.
'This isn't a dream.'
The realization brought no joy. He reacted with the same quiet detachment he'd carried for years.
Enoch's words echoed again.
'Lilith… Arthur…'
Uriel sighed and focused on the glowing runes before him.
[Welcome to the Tutorial Dungeon!]
[Ithurial Planet's Tutorial will be the {Peaks of Ash} Diamond Grade Dungeon!]
[The Peaks of Ash dungeon is…]
Uriel glanced at it, then scrolled past without reading.
If Enoch truly was from the future, he'd learn far more from him than from any system description.
And if he wasn't? He'd deal with that when the time came.
'It's quite nice of them to give us information, though.'
He scrolled.
[Choose your starting—]
[You have chosen the Torn Soul Forest Zone!]
The glowing runes vanished.
In their place, nine floating orbs appeared before him, each reflective and platinum-bright.
This time, he read.
[The Tutorial exists to protect natives during the evolution of the seed, but also to act as a platform for their rise into the steps of Ascendance and Godhood.]
'Ascendance and Godhood…'
A faint smile touched his inhuman face.
'At least I wasn't praying into the void.'
That was reassuring.
[To promote growth and heighten every native's chances of survival, a singular Survivor's Ascent Pack will be granted to everyone.]
[There are Nine Types of Ascent Packs!]
[The Ascent Types are: Arcane Disciple Initiate Pack, Surging Warrior Pack, Berserker's Ode Pack, Hunter's Echo Pack, Fire-Keeper's Pugilist Pack, Golden Lord's Ruling Pack, Healing Doctrine Pack, Pathfinder's Road Pack, and Solitary Hoarder's Pack.]
'That's interesting,' he thought. 'It really is structured like a board game, with archetypes and roles. I wonder if it's similar to the virtual games Jorh used to…'
Uriel shook his head and refocused. For some reason, he was having trouble taking any of it seriously.
'The world is ending, or has ended. Focus. You must survive.'
After a few seconds, he looked around.
"Um… could I see the descriptions of these packs? Or what they contain?" he asked out loud, his voice shaky and strained.
He hadn't spoken in years.
"Please?" he added. "Also… am I only allowed to take one pack? Can I have multiple?"
A ripple spread through the darkness.
A tall spectral figure of white flames appeared before him, gigantic and featureless, her flames radiating no heat.
From her head, dark amethyst fire streamed upward in sharp contrast.
Her form rippled, and from her faceless visage, a pair of deep azure pupils opened, staring directly at Uriel.
Overwhelmed by her presence, he took a step back.
He was more awestruck than afraid, something the entity seemed to notice.
[Hello.]
It was the same voice as before, but softer, less cold.
"…hello."
An awkward silence followed as the two observed one another.
The entity regarded Uriel's frail state, wondering how he was even alive, let alone how his mind remained so light, almost jovial, despite it.
Uriel, meanwhile, did his best not to reach out and test whether her flames would burn him.
After a moment, he remembered the urgency of the situation and refocused.
"I was wondering if I could get a bit of an explanation of what's contained within the packs," he said carefully. "Just so I can make the best choice."
"Also, could I—"
[No.]