Chapter 14: Gifts from granpa

Already familiar with the way the gates worked, Mack turned his back to the gate and saw a large green field in front of him, Some trees and small plants but mostly green grass, and close to him, the already expected signboard and one unexpected small cube.

Mack walked closer to the signboard and begun reading the runes.

"The path you chose will be filled with blood. This gate shall ensure that the blood is not yours nor from your loved ones, but from your enemies."

Mack pondered over the words on the signboard and thought it must be another kind of training.

[You know what to do with the cube already, the rest will be self-explanatory once you pass that hill]

Mack looked in the distance and could see that there was indeed a small hill a few miles ahead and behind that hill only clouds and nothing more.

'Maybe some kind of valley is beyond that hill?' Thought Mack, while shifting his gaze to the cube.

He walked to the cube and raised his bloody right hand, and after a few seconds, a small box came out of it.

...

Fourteen long minutes later, Mack was looking at several metallic boxes on the ground. Every time Mack retrieved one box of the cube another one would appear and just like that, Mack saw himself looking like a christmas tree, surrounded by boxes.

"Ok let's see what we have here," Mack said, grabbing one box.

Mack opened the small box, pulling the lead in the indicated engravings, and to his surprise, what he found inside the box was a pair of boots.

Metallic black boots.

He grabbed them and he could feel the boots were made of some kind of alien metal that looked like the same as the box but more rough to the touch.

The black color was not some shining black with a metallic luster, but more like an opaque and unreflective black. It was as if the light itself could not touch the boots. Yet, they were as cold as metal could be.

Mack raised the boots and felt almost no weight.

Looking more closely at the boots, a message appeared in Mack's vision

(Durak Special Forces Boots, rare grade, made by Cube Inc.)

(Modified Design: Small gravity cancelation engine added)

"Some fancy boots indeed. I wonder how this gravity cancelation stuff works" Mack said, already putting the new boots and throwing his old ones to the side.

When he put the boots on, they shrank a bit to fit Mack's feet.

"Really? Alien stuff is the best."

After stomping his feet a bit to feel the new boots and appearing very satisfied with the grip and malleability, Mack grabbed the next box close to him.

"A swimsuit?" Mack asked himself, raising the thing inside the box.

(Durak special forces battle suit, rare grade, made by Cube Inc)

"Am I going to receive a complete package from those Durak's?"

[Yes, you will. The Duraks have the most advanced technology known to this date, and this suit is capable of shock absorption to a certain degree, and also has self-repairing capabilities.]

"You are very talkative today. Why the sudden change?" Mack asked, already used to this non-responsive Arcane.

[I only follow my protocols. If what you ask do not affect the objective of each gate, I will gladly help you]

"I see. Gladly. Yeap. Such a big soul."

[...]

Mack removed his new boots, then removed all his clothes and put on the Durak battle suit.

He stretched a bit and felt nothing wrong. It was very comfortable to use.

Looking from a distance, one could easily mistake Mack for a surfer. It really looked like a swimming suit. It completely covered Mack from the base of his chin to the arms, body, and legs. Even his fingers were covered. Not a single line or drawing could be seen on the suit. It was completely black. The only unprotected place was his head. The suit covered everything else, even his neck.

"Don't tell that I will need to remove this every time I need to pee?"

[If you touch your neck, you will be able to spot small buttons on the right side. It allows you to use several functions of the suit]

"How do these things work? I mean they use a battery? They can't simply repair themselves using nothing. Right?"

[You are correct. They can't. They use the heat produced by your body to work. All the items in those boxes also came with self-repairing ability. It's hard to explain, but they use a replication matrix similar to the cubes. If the suit is not completely destroyed and the core area, the neck, is intact, it will repair itself using your heat as energy and converting the free essence in the environment to the material used in the suit.]

"That's quite cool. I guess there are not any clothes company anymore on the Duraks planet"

[...]

"Ok, let's open all those boxes. It seems is time for a visual upgrade hahahah"

[If I may advise. Don't rely too much on them. After all, their designs are from thousands of years ago in Earth time. They are for sure obsolete. Remember that my creator designed me and the tower before his death. Thousands of years ago.]

"I see. Thanks for the reminder. I guess tools are only tools in the end. One must rely primarily on himself to achieve anything."

Said Mack, grabbing one of his two guns at the side.

Then he pointed at his own feet.

~bang~

"But it feels nice to be bulletproof." Mack said, seeing that no damage was done to the suit after shooting at his own foot.

Mack put the guns away and opened another box, and to his surprise, he saw a strange device, it looked like a piece of cloth but was moving by itself. It was very small and looked more like some rag, an alive rag.

(Argonian cape, Unique rank)

"Ohhh, this was the first item I didn't see 'made by Cube Inc' on them"

[Indeed. This is a unique item. If can be called as such, and the cubes have no way to replicate them]

"I read it's a cape, but how do I use it?"

[Drip a few drops of blood. The Argonian cape can also be called as a symbiotic life form. It's a biotechnical item. Even my creator had only one of such]

"So... Nobody got at this gate before?"

[Dozens entered this gate, but all died in this tower, and with their deaths, the cape was recalled]

"I see.... Just drop some blood?"

[Yes, and it will belong to you until you die]

Mack still had some dried blood on his hand, so he touched the neck until he found the button to free his hand from the suit. After a few attempts, the suit retracted itself and freed his hand. Then he touched the rag, and just like a hungry beast, the rag, that kept moving like it had some wind around it, expanded and enveloped Mack's hand and sucked all the dried blood.

[Keep feeding it]

"By feed, u mean.... geez what is this? Is it some vampire stuff?"

The cape kept sucking Mack's blood like it had an insatiable craving for blood and after a few minutes and seeing no change, Mack felt inpatient.

'Is this thing going to suck all the blood in my body?'

[No, it will not]

"Oh, I almost forgot you could read my mind"

"So.... Should I leave it there? Just... sucking my blood?"

[It must be strong enough already. Remove it from your hand and do a small and thin cut on the back of your neck. Just a little above where the suit ends]

Mack could guess why. So he didn't even bat an eye and a few seconds later he had the rag stuck at the back of his neck, sucking his blood.

[This is a very special item and like I said, it's a biotech life form. The Argonian cape has a parasitism relationship with his host and will act as if it is a new leg or hand for you]

"And what this cape does?"

[It has three modes. Sleep, Alive and Active. Urge with your mind for the cape to be 'Alive' and test the other modes the same way]

'Cape Alive'

~floosh~

The little rag behind Mack's neck expanded and transformed into a long and dark cape. The cape was dark as night itself and enveloped Mack's neck while also forming a hood around his head.

In his back, the cape kept lively dancing in the wind, even with no wind at all.

The cape looked like some alive shadow but full of holes and ragged borders, floating and dancing in the non-existent wind.

Mack put his hand on the neck and felt nothing to the touch. It looked like it was some illusion.

Mack felt as if he was some spawn from hell with this cape.

He extended his hand to touch, but again, no sense of touch at all. His hand passed through the cape and back again, as if it was some optic illusion, but he could still hear the faint and almost inaudible sound of the cape fluttering in the wind.

[The cape is in another dimension. The only link to this dimension of us is the small part that touches the back of your neck]

"So it's indeed an illusion?"

[Yes and no. It's a very special biotech life form that lives between dimensions]

"So what's the use of this apart from looking cool?"

[...]

"Don't give me this guilt silence. None?"

[...]

"Geez..."

Mack could not believe it. All this high-tech just to look cool?

~sigh~

'Well, let's see... Cape Active'

~vuush~

Mack heard a small noise and looked behind himself but could not see the cape anymore.

"Don't tell me .... no use again?" Mack said aloud, but for some reason, it felt odd.

[Look at your hands]

Mack looked at his own hands but saw nothing.

In more appropriate words, he didn't see his own hands anymore. He looked down at his body and could not see his body either.

The cape made him invisible, even to himself.

"...and I can't hear my voice. Now I know what was odd when I talked before."

[Correct]

"It's weird to talk and don't hear feedback. That must be the same feeling as deaf people. It's so hard."

'Why I'm even talking if I don't hear anything? Such a moron... Cape Sleep'

~voosh~

The cape disappeared, and Mack felt better. It was strange to not see or hear himself.

"It's a very agonizing feeling, but is indeed a fucking exceptional cape"

[It not actually made you invisible but more like it tries to move you between dimensions at a very high frequency]

"So that's why the weird feeling I was having"

[Do not try to fight while in this state, and do not try anything way too complex either. It may disarrange your body and kill you]

"So this thing is more for sneak operations or run than to try to confuse the enemy in a fight. Got that."

[Yes. Please bear that in mind or else you will become so disfigured that not even your enemies will recognize you anymore. That, if you keep living]

"There is a threshold I must avoid?"

[Slowly walking is good. Run is not. Don't jump. Don't fight. Don't grab anything. The ideal and more safe way to use it is to stay still while in active mode]

"Gotcha!"

'Cape Alive'

~fluushh~

"Dammed aliens. The cape is indeed cool" Mack said, while looking at how cool was the cape fluttering like it was alive.

He wished to have a mirror to see how he looked now, but then his gaze fell on another box. He still had more gifts from grandpa.

Mack opened the other box and saw a mask. The mask was made to cover only the part of the nose and mouth and extended back to the ears covering both of them.

Mack took the mask and put on and felt like he could not breath nor hear anymore. Then, after a few seconds, all came back to normal again.

[This mask has shock absorption, auto repair, a translation device and air purification. It's already pre-configured to your world standards too]

"That will be helpful. I think..." Mack said, but this time his voice came out a little more rough and robotic. He also noticed that the surrounding sounds became louder and he could hear a little better than before.

Mack didn't delay too much and picked another box to open. Inside, he found five belts. One for the waist and four others. Mack guessed the others were for his legs or arms, since they were smaller.

Mack removed the belts and put them aside for the moment. Belts were nothing much compared to the stuff he saw until now.

He opened the next box and found four daggers inside. The daggers were very plain, like any other he saw on earth. He guessed the materials were different, but daggers were daggers. Nothing much.

Mack put the daggers close to the belts and left them there. There was one small belt for each dagger. He would put them later.

Opening the next box, Mack saw a sword. A very elegant one. It was plain black and didn't reflect light. Different from the daggers that looked like made from silver.

Mack felt curious and inspected the sword.

(Mage Slayer, Legendary Rank)

"Mage slayer? I thought I was going to learn how to manipulate essence. Why I would need a sword in a spell fight?" Mack shook his head and continued, "You know there is a saying on Earth..... Don't bring knives to a gunfight."

[Indeed. But the path of a warlock differs from the mages. It's harder and very specific. You will learn about that in the next trials, and this sword is a very special one.]

"Why is that?"

[Like the name said. This sword was specifically made to slay mages. How do you think mages fight?]

"I never saw one, so I can't say."

[In a mage fight, there are two types of fight. The quick ones, where one is caught unguarded, and the fights who last until one of them run-outs of essence]

[There are two important aspects in a mage fight. The damage output and their defense. Normally, their defense is done using essence shields or similar spells, and this sword was specially designed to counter that. You remember when I said that everything has essence?]

"Yes, I remember that, of course. Don't tell me. Does this sword have no essence? How is that even possible?"

[Wrong. Everything has Essence. The difference is that the Essence in this sword was made by forging the blood of thousands and thousands of Warlocks]

"Those children from the last gate?" Mack could not believe someone would do something so inhuman like that.

[Not only them, but the entire population of warlocks that lived on that planet. To create this single sword]

"Why would mages create something that could kill them?"

[To kill other mages, of course. There is not such a thing as mages versus warlocks. Warlocks, even at their peak of civilization, were so tiny in numbers compared to the mages that they could barely be expressed in over 0.1% of the entire mages alive at that time]

"I see. It never was a battle. It was more like they were hunting a rare and special prey."

[Mages fear the potential of warlocks, but they also crave for their blood. It's a very special blood, and they use it to create weapons like this sword]

Mack looked again at the sword and could see that the sword was not exactly black, but more like a deep red. Someone could only tell the difference if looking for a long time at the blade.

"A very special blood. My blood. What so special about it?"

[You will learn if you live the next trials]

"Always mysterious... You said the word 'Warlock' several times already. Was that the name of my ancestor race? My race?"

[Not exactly. Your ancestor lineage and race name were forgotten in history, and from several Aeons ago until this date, they are called warlocks. The original meaning of the word warlock is someone who is a pariah, an outcast, to the mage's civilization.]

"I should expect that would be something like that. No one would call a pig as 'a human' if you eat it for dinner every time, even if it talked the same language."

~sigh~

"How does this sword works?"

[It neutralizes spells or wills to a certain degree. The will of the sword is to cut and is stronger than most spells created by normal mages. Remember what I said to you already? Will is the secret to manipulate Essence.]

"I see. Unfortunately, I never used a sword before." Mack said, putting the sword close to the other belts and opening the last box.

[This. Is not required for you to use, and also doesn't give you any advantages, but was my creator's hope that anyone that left the tower would use it]

Mack looked at what was inside and it was some kind of kilt and a long shirt with large pants. All black, but with runes engraved on the borders. The clothes had a medieval design but looked modern at the same time.

[These are the typical clothes for a warlock back in the time they invaded your ancestor planet. The only modification he made in the design was to make it able of self-repairing]

Mack took the clothes and put them on. The slim figure of someone using a swimsuit now was replaced by one of a medieval warrior. He still had the Durak battle armor below the clothes, because the battle suit offered protection. But now, he somehow felt proud of himself for using those warlock clothes. It was like a piece of himself was missing until he put them.

Mack grabbed the belts and daggers and put them under the clothes, two of them on the right leg, one in the left leg, and one in his left arm.

He grabbed the sword and put it over his shoulder while holding the hilt, and for the first Mack felt like his life had really changed from what he knew.

He was in a mysterious place, using alien clothes and holding a sword, but somehow he felt like this was right for him, as if he was born to this. It was like he himself was craving for this but he never knew.

Anticipation was what Mack felt right now. Anticipation for the unknown and adventurous days ahead. He didn't know how his future would be, but he was sure that the outcome would only depend on himself, and Mack was ready.

Ready for wherever comes in front of him.

"It will be my honor." Mack said, turning his back and walking toward the small hill where the next trial would begin.