Tarini hurriedly unfastened the leather straps, and Reyn stepped down from the runic table. He stretched, working out his stiff muscles. He had lain motionless for over an hour, and his body had gone rigid.
The soul transformation ritual had gone easier than he expected—the music player had proven surprisingly effective at suppressing the pain. He had immersed himself in the music, listening to over a dozen songs. Only the last ten minutes had been truly agonizing, though still bearable. For most of the time, he had felt only mild discomfort that never reached actual pain. The mental protection scroll had gone unused—fifty gold shields wasted.
The whole process had been less grueling than yesterday's soul trial. If Reyn hadn't known he was still in the midst of the ritual, he might have thought he was about to fall asleep.
Of course, from the outside, it looked like a display of incredible willpower.
Viola and Tarini, seeing how easily Reyn rose, how he shook out his arms and legs, noticing not a drop of sweat on him, changed expressions sharply. Both looked at him as if he were the rarest treasure they couldn't help but want to touch.
Reyn, snapping out of his thoughts, felt their gazes and froze with a slight chill.
"Ladies, what's wrong?" he asked.
"Reyn, you did it!"
Viola, in a rare lapse, lost some composure. Excitement swirled in her lake-blue eyes.
"Perfect Soul Transformation!" she exclaimed, her voice trembling with amazement. "Goddess! Reyn, your ritual… it reached perfection!"
"Yes, it's a miracle!" Tarini echoed, still thrilled. She still couldn't believe Reyn had really endured it.
Reyn nodded and smiled:
"I know. Thank you, ladies, for your help."
Viola, still unable to hide her astonishment, shook her head:
"My help was minimal. It was all your own talent. Goddess, Perfect Soul Transformation…" Her words, laced with envy, came out a bit haltingly.
Reyn realized he had underestimated the impression his Perfect Soul Transformation would make on others. If word got out, it could bring serious trouble, perhaps even threaten his life.
After a moment's thought, he said seriously:
"Ladies, I hope you'll keep this secret."
Viola immediately understood his concerns. The smile faded from her face, and in a stern tone, she assured him:
"You can count on it, Lord Reyn. Once we leave this room, neither I nor Tarini will breathe a word about your soul transformation. It's our responsibility as representatives of the Violet House."
Tarini nodded in agreement.
"Thank you," Reyn put on his jacket. "I'm a bit tired and would like to rest. Do you mind?"
"Of course, it's your right," Viola left the room with Tarini, closing the door behind them.
The room, specially prepared for post-ritual rest, had a sofa and a tea table. Reyn approached the sofa, sat down, and began assessing the changes from the transformation.
"The main change—the phone rebooted!"
The very moment the ritual ended and his soul transformed, a flash appeared before his eyes, and the familiar phone interface vanished. Before he could react, he saw the long-forgotten loading screen.
This time, the loading took longer than when it first appeared in this world.
For now, Reyn had lost all the functions his mutated phone provided: Soul Eye, Voice of All Things, gyroscope—all these abilities were gone. Over the past half-month, he had grown so accustomed to the phone that he used its features almost constantly. Now, deprived of them, he felt strangely off, as if he had lost his sight and hearing, reduced to a weakened state that sparked inexplicable panic.
Fortunately, this was temporary.
Reyn calmed himself, mentally noting: future soul transformation rituals would likely reboot the phone again, marking his most vulnerable moments.
After ten minutes of patient waiting, the familiar phone interface finally returned, unfolding before his eyes.
Reyn immediately noticed the first change: the battery dropped from 100% to 10%, just ten bars left—almost like when he first arrived in this world. But there was a difference: he felt no physical weakness; on the contrary, he felt stronger and healthier than before.
He randomly activated a function to drain the battery a bit and observe. Soon, he roughly understood.
"After the soul transformation, the maximum battery capacity increased too."
"These ten bars now equal the previous 100%. So the max capacity grew tenfold. Battery is my soul power, so this ritual multiplied my soul power ten times!"
Reyn was pleasantly surprised—Perfect Soul Transformation was indeed incredibly powerful.
Before the ritual, his soul power was already high, surpassing most ordinary people, though naturally below a Superhuman's. But after the tenfold boost, it far exceeded a first-level Superhuman!
Reyn had secretly observed Superhumans often and knew their soul power better than they did. By rough estimate, his current soul power matched a second-level Superhuman, and with meditation practice, the gap would widen further.
And that wasn't all the benefits of Perfect Soul Transformation.
First, huge potential in higher soul power limits. Second, higher meditation efficiency: in the same time, Reyn would gain more soul power and cast more spells. Third, faster soul power recovery.
Any soul power practice gave Reyn advantages over same-level Superhumans with Perfect Soul Transformation.
But for Reyn, most importantly, Perfect Soul Transformation also raised his demonic soul fusion degree!
He had already decided to become a battle mage, and for battle mages, fusion degree was key to power. Each successful demonic soul fusion reduced internal conflict and granted more elements; repeated many times, it could yield astonishing results.
Plus Soul Eye and Viola's high-quality World Tree Seed—with that combo, his fusion degree wouldn't be low.
Suddenly, Reyn felt unshakeable confidence in his future!
Then he checked other phone changes. All functions remained, but some seemed enhanced. Voice of All Things now reached farther; the room was soundproofed, but sound waves penetrated from outside unhindered. Gyroscope perception sharpened—he could control tension in each individual muscle.
Most crucially, Soul Eye had changed too, apparently. View range increased, but Reyn vaguely sensed other unmanifested abilities.
New icons caught his eye.
The first depicted a stack of books. Reyn knew it well—the app from his past life's library where he worked, an online library reader.
He opened the icon hopefully. Indeed, it was his personal library, already loaded with many books for reading.
Reyn browsed them and suddenly slapped his thigh, muttering ruefully:
"What a shame!"
He had already read all these books; they were downloaded offline, so they came with him to Ellunes. Since he had switched phones shortly before…the events, there weren't many in the reader. Some read, some downloaded as admin for testing—barely over five hundred total.
These five hundred-plus books were a real mishmash: references, histories, dictionaries, novels, diaries, memoirs—covering many fields, with only a small part useful. Reyn even spotted a "Five Years of Exams, Three Years of Simulations" collection, which drew only a wry smirk.
"Why not throw in 'Postpartum Care for Sows' while at it?"
His library had millions of volumes, ninety percent online. If he'd known, he'd have downloaded everything offline! Not the whole library, but tens of thousands would've been handy.
Reyn scanned the catalog and just shook his head ruefully.
He moved to the second icon—a black whirlpool, its center bottomless, as if able to swallow anything.
"This icon is unfamiliar."
Reyn couldn't recall any associated app. He tried opening it, and immediately felt a pull in his mind, an inexplicable hunger in his soul—not for food, but something else.
He sensed two items in his jacket pocket—soul stones containing gold-eating ants' demonic souls. Holding them, the hunger intensified.
Reyn quickly exited the state and realized: this icon activated demonic soul fusion. Every soul-transformed human had this ability.
"So new abilities, even those not originally in the phone, show as icons," it dawned on Reyn.
But he couldn't fuse now—first, he needed the World Tree Seed.
Reyn wasn't actually tired; rest was just an excuse. Now that he'd sorted the phone functions, he stood and left the room.
A maid waited at the door. Seeing Reyn, she said:
"Lord Reyn, Lady Viola asked me to tell you she awaits you upstairs. You may go up anytime."
Reyn nodded and followed the maid to the elevator. Reaching the fifth floor, he pushed open the door and entered.
Only Viola was in the room. She sat on the sofa, as if waiting. Seeing Reyn, she rose at once:
"Lord Reyn, please, sit."
"Lady Viola," Reyn sat opposite her.
"Reyn, just call me Viola," she said smiling, personally brewing him tea. The aroma filled the room instantly.
"Alright, Viola," Reyn agreed calmly and smiled back. "You don't need to keep calling me Lord Reyn either."
He sensed Viola's attitude toward him had noticeably shifted from yesterday. She hadn't been unfriendly then—as an All-Soul Mage, she naturally carried some arrogance toward ordinary people. Even her politeness was client-facing, maintaining distance.
But today, post-ritual, that distance vanished. Viola not only saw him as an equal Superhuman but seemed to place him higher, every gesture closing the gap toward friendly closeness.
"Perfect Soul Transformation really shook her."
Reyn smirked smugly and, habitually activating Soul Eye, immediately noticed Viola's soul looked different.