After a few hours of meditation in complete darkness, Mack got bored. Super bored. Bored as hell.

“I will take a break. I can’t feel if I improved or not, it’s really frustrating.”

Said Mack, standing up and stretching his sore muscles, but without taking a step forward.

“Why I need to do this here? Could not I do this outside this ‘Tower’ or ‘Hel’?”

[You could. But this was devised by my creator to improve the odds of succeeding, here the Essence concentration is several times more than the world you came from, also, it serves as a measure, if you can succeed before dying of starvation it means you have potential. ]

“Essence. Is it like in the animes or like mana in the games?”

.

[I’m unfamiliar with those terms. And if I was to tell in details, it could take days to explain all the concepts to you]

“Care to explain why am I here? I mean, what was the goal of your creator? And what was his name?”

[You don’t know why are you here? No one in your family explained?]

“No. My father died a few years, while my mother, well, I never knew her, not sure if she is alive or not, my father always avoided talking about her. And I don’t have any other relatives”

[I see…. I will open an exception for you, Human. I’m an Arcane Legacy, meaning, for generations, I was responsible for testing all your family members for a suitable person to inherit the knowledge of your first ancestor, my creator.]

“How do you know that I’m one, like, can’t I just have opened the book and do the tattoos and is it?”

[My creator did not wish his family to tread the same path as him. That’s why he created me with several steps and tests before actually giving any important knowledge….]

[…As for recognizing any of your family. It’s simple. Because your family DNA differs from other humans on any other planets in this dimension]

“So I’m an alien. tsc. Wish I had at least some wings. tsc tsc”

“What would happen if no more people from my family came? I mean, I don’t have a child. The book is hidden, and I doubt there are any other relatives of my father alive. I may be the last one.”

[In that case, it would be a lonely eternity for me.]

“I see.”

“Did my father attempted any test?”

[No. The last one that attempted was centuries ago in your world time. His name was Hew Draper]

“Oh. It was my father’s grandfather. He put my second name in honor of him…..”

“….. I see. What the odds. Both attempting this tests when captured. I once researched about him….and….”

“Right…. they captured him for doing witchcraft, but he disappeared one night before his execution. That makes sense now….. “

[He was indeed a bright man by your world’s standards. Unfortunately, he failed]

“Was he able to see the door?”

[Yes. In a record time, but he failed in the next tests]

“Thanks. I appreciate you talking to me. My family was always a mystery to me and this helps a little…but…”

“… I can’t understand why if someone fails they need to die….. After all, is his family no? The family of this creator of yours? What was his name?”

[He had several names in his life. But was mainly known as ‘Warlock’]

[He did this way to avoid leaking the knowledge to a non-qualified heir, and also to avoid his descendants to be hunted because of this same knowledge]

“It was everything for nothing then because here I am, probably the last one of this cursed family.”

After a few minutes of boring silence while thinking of all the information that he gained about his own family’s past. Mack sat again and started meditating.

He was determined to end this trial. He was probably the last one in his family and only knew his father, but for some reason, the responsibility and the weight of needing to finish this cycle of suffering only seemed bigger.

His family had paid enough. It was time for some payback.

He was not sure who was responsible for all this, but for him, seemed unbelievable that there was no one targeting his family from the shadows. After all, his family has always been hunted some way or another, be it with allegations of witchcraft or terrorism, or robbery.

His father once told him that an uncle of his was killed in his own trailer by a mysterious explosion of gas, but he knew his uncle never cooked. He was a lazy ass and was always eating junk food.

Every day that passed, Mack was more sure of this. There was someone hunting his family for the book. The question was, who?