After resting for three hours Mack already felt less sore in the legs but he didn’t risk running again. Because he knew he probably won’t make it to the next safe zone, if existed a next one.

So he chose a risky strategy instead.

He knew that every time he took a step outside the safe spot the gravity would increase. But once he came to the safe zone, it was like it would reset to the beginning.

So instead of dumbly running while betting his life. He thought over the matter of this test and all the tests before, and all of them taught something along with the test. He was guessing the goal of this one was to have control over the body using his will. Be it to make it stronger or faster.

Thinking over all this, Mack came with a plan. A more safe one, at least..

He would use this safe zone as a training ground.

He still didn’t have a single clue about using this ‘Will’ thing. But he was determined to learn even if was just a little.

“But how?”

Said Mack, pondering the best way to do it.

And after a few minutes, he walked off the safe zone and felt the gravity. He then started to walk in a small circle in front of the safe zone, to increase the gravity slowly while also being close to the safe zone.

After a few minutes, he reached his limits and felt the pressure stifling him. It was hard even to breathe.

Then the humming mantra-like music came out of his mouth.

But this time instead of just humming and thinking of nothing or just doing nothing. He closed his eyes and focused on his legs. Just like a football player would do before kicking a ball in a stadium.

He focused on the pain he was feeling in his legs, In how the muscles were contracted, In how his leg bent a bit to support the pressure.

He opened his eyes. He knew there was Essence around him because he could see when opening them. Even in this tunnel, devoid of light, he could see clearly.

But if he could see, why could not he feel and use it?

Then. Like lightning, an idea popped into his mind.

What if what was increasing was not the gravity?

“Ohhh my, how I did not see this before! It’s not gravity force. Its Essence concentration!”

“I’m actually feeling it in my body right now.”

Mack needed to admit his ancestor was batshit crazy, but was a genius. How could someone teach another person without teaching him? This way. Exactly this same fucking way.

“Crazy. But a genius. That guy must have been a monster.”

After this realization, Mack closed his eyes again and focused on feeling the pressure in his body. It was not like he had a mountain over his shoulders but more like every single part of his body became heavier.

“If every single part of my body can become heavier, then every single cell can contain more Essence.”

Thinking about this, Mack moved two steps and went inside the safe zone again.

The pressure of the Essence concentration was gone.

He sat on the floor and put only his arm outside the safe zone. And hit hard on the floor. And the pressure came again but only affected his arm outside the safe zone.

He focused on his arm trying to feel any differences and even after several minutes in this same position he could not figure out anything.

~sigh~

“And here was I thinking that just dumbly running would solve everything”

His ancestor was truly a cruel one. To put riddles inside riddles. What a crazy bastard.

Mack thought about asking the book for some tips but knew that while doing a test she could not help. At best, she would just ignore him. At the worst, she would make him suffer even more.

“What should I do?”

“The book phases are supposed to strengthen my mind and will.”

“The tattoos are some kind of spell or keys that connect me to this place and the book girl”

“The breathing technique I only used to break the nine gates in my body that locked Essence inside me and converted the outside Essence in mine.”

“What am I missing?”

Mack pondered over and over and over. He thought about being able to see in the dark and how this was subconsciously done by him.

He thought about the nanorobots in his eyes and how easy was. They are probably connected to his brain somehow. That’s the only conclusion he came to.

‘My own cells and everything else in my body is also connected to my brain’

“But is always like my subconscious is controlling what I do. Like ….”

“Like boxing…. in the first day, everyone sucks because his body is not used to do such movements and can’t recognize or do what the brain asks. So….. we do over and over again until our body can do what our brain asks…. creating what they call as muscle memory ….”

Mack pondered but still could not pinpoint how to do it. It’s not like just dumbly staying saturated with Essence would solve.

He needed to get or stronger, or faster, or cancel the influence of the Essence around him.

Thinking of this, Mack looked at the line drawn on the floor that separated the safe zone from the rest.

~paf~

He slapped the floor right in the middle of the line. Half of his hand inside the line and half outside.

He raised his hand and put only one finger very slowly outside the line and touched the floor.

“Shit. What am I supposed to do? Become the Hulk or learn how to fly? Is that it?”

Said Mack, seeing the pressure returning when he touched the ground with the softest touch possible. There was no way to trick the floor.

He hoped it was easy as just dumbly running. But, alas, his ancestor was a cruel one. A genius in how to make other people suffer.

The Sloth Gate of Hel floor was not only a metaphor for physical laziness but also for the laziness of one thinking. But Mack was ignorant of this and only followed his extremely inquisitive nature.