After seven days inside the pitch-black space.

Mack was seated in his meditation position as usual but still could not feel the surrounding Essence.

Seven days went by since he came here with not a slight signal of improvements.

He himself didn’t know how much time passed. He was without a cellphone, watch, or anything that could help to measure time. The only thing Mack had with him was a patient’s gown that barely covered his body.

Even if he had anything, he doubted he would be able to see. Mack never went to a place so dark as this, and he was sure that was some kind of spell.

If at least he had food and water he would not be so worried. Actually, now.. Mack was so hungry that he was seeing things in the dark already. Not the door. But a flying burger.

“Dammm I’m already hallucinating. This is way harder than I thought”

Mack was in a complete isolation state. On Earth, this same environment, would be used for tortures. Food deprivation, light deprivation, sound deprivation, and confinement. After all, if he moved he would be dead. This was the most common way of torture on Earth and could easily make the strongest man break in a matter of days.

He left behind sleep deprivation torture only to go to the full-package kind of deprivation torture. If the last one could kill him in months, this one could kill him in less than a month.

In these seven days, Mack barely slept. A human mind is a tricky one. Knowing he had a goal in mind and with no way to account for the passing of time, his mind didn’t let him sleep for long. The same way someone would jump from the bed when realizing he was late for school or work.

But Mack now knew why he was suffering and had a motivation for doing so. He didn’t just want the pain to go. He wanted to achieve a goal. He wanted to gain more knowledge and power. This was the only way for him to stop running for the rest of his life.

And in this world, nothing comes free. There ain’t no free meals.

And Mack knew this very well. He and his family have paid an enormous price, just to have a chance, a slim chance, of inheriting whatever is in here.

When Mack was teleported or moved to this place, he was not in his best conditions either; he had been through a light coma, only receiving IV saline. He was weak when coming here, with nothing in his stomach.

Seven days of agonizing starvation, seven days without light, seven days without water, seven days without a sound.

He tried to ask a few more questions to the book, but no response came after the first day.

A hellish test, it’s not surprising the book called this place Hel or Tower of Chaos or whatever.

“Focus Mack. Focus. Stop thinking useless stuff.”

Said Mack to himself, realizing he was lost in thoughts thinking of different subjects one after another.

~Sigh~

“When will be my life peaceful and full of wine and girls and some delicious hamburger? Did I eat an entire village in my previous life? Was I some glutton?”

“Ahhhhhhhh even a candy and I would be happy.”

“It’s just a shitty day after another. One after another. One after another. How can someone have so much bad luck?”

“I guess I’m just not good with this Essence stuff.”

Said Mack, putting his hand in the stomach. The pain was like something burning inside him. An Excruciating pain. So strong that Mack felt dizzy for the first time in those seven days.

By luck or not, he was seated on the floor, otherwise, his test may be ended abruptly. Because in the next second he passed out. Falling to his left side while seated.

No sound was produced by his fall. be it because of Mack being so weak or because of him falling to his side while seated. No one will ever know. But as well … no one cared about this either.

After a few hours.

Mack woke up but was not really like waking in the morning of a sunny day. Here was all pitch black. He was still dizzy because of malnutrition, worst, no nutrition at all. He felt light-headed, like someone drunk. Just like a permanently drunk person would be.

“Ahhh im? where?”

” ahhhh the book. the book was beautiful.”

” what is name? Girl!”

And just like a drunk person, he spat out whatever’s crossed his mind.

In a state of half-conscious and half-hallucinating.

He tried to stand up, only to fall back on his butt again.

“Ouch!”

The acute pain brought his senses back, and he felt a little more rational.

“Did I pass out? How many days have this going on?”

He hoped to have a response from the book, but not a single word came.

“Let’s try again. I guess this would be my last chance. If I fail now I bet the next time I pass out I will not come back.”

But with his senses returning, the pain in his stomach came back.

It was like a sun burning in his solar plexus.

Mack avoided thinking and gritted his teeth.

He tried to not think. only breathe. This way, he would not feel the pain.

He entered the position of the meditation technique and forced himself to forget the pain.

Alas, the pain was way too strong.

He was feeling like he was going to pass out again. His head became numb. He felt dizzy again.

Then remembering when he felt on his butt, Mack put his dried lips between his teeth and bit. Almost no blood came out. But the pain avoided him from passing out.

He continued to force his mind to be awake while breathing using the technique.

Numbness, searing pain in the stomach, dry mouth, eyes burning with no moisture to keep them lubricated, and the bites on the lips.

One torture after the other.

Mack forced himself to the limit of his mental strength to not surrender to the simple and easy path of just sleep forever.

Twenty-five hours later, and the same suffering cycle kept going.

Unknown to Mack. amidst his suffering pain and dizziness moments, he unconditionally recited the phrases in the book like a mantra.

He didn’t think that both were related, but reciting the phrases in the book made his mind more stable.

For some people, the pain was the best type of meditation. Constant and always ongoing pain was a method many religions used on Earth to meditate. It removed the rational behavior, leaving one with only his instincts of resisting. More close to his natural self. More naked, and more sensible to the slight changes, that even a hair in his own body could be felt growing.

But Mack was ignorant of all that. He only focused in stay conscious. Because he knew if he lost this last strand of his mind, he would be dead, and just like lightning would strike to anticipate the rain, Mack heard something.

-Tack-

Something was snapping inside him.

Like the sound of a bone breaking, it happened again.

-Tack-

And again.

-Tack-

-Tack-

When he heard the same sound for the ninth time, it finally stopped.

Mack opened his eyes. And it was like seeing for the first time, and the first thing he saw, just a few meters in front of him, was a giant door.

Above this door, a sign with runic symbols that were very familiar to Mack.

He looked at the sign and could not avoid saying aloud.

“Fuck! I’m fucked! Damm! I’m fucked! fuck! fuck! fuck!”

#Abandon hope all ye who enter here#

Because in the sign, the words engraved did not seem to show that the door was leading to a treasure, food, wine, or girls.

[Congratulations on achieving the minimum requirements to enter the Tower of Chaos]

Mack was lost for words. He felt like all went for nothing.

“Just one hell after the other”