Mack walked to the small hill. When reaching the top he saw an immense field in front of the hill. One that the eye could not reach its end.

With his cape in his back fluttering in the air and his new warlock clothes, Mack looked like a warrior coming for a battle.

And indeed, a battle was waiting for him.

A battle to the death.

Because in this immense field, warlocks and mages were fighting. Mack could recognize the now familiar clothes of the warlocks. And the other side could only be the mages.

Mack was at the back of the battle on the warlock side.. And in those few seconds while looking at the grand battle scene he already saw several spells and magic effects running amuck through the small skirmishes on the battlefield.

A ball of flame killing several warlocks. A warlock stabbing a mage with a small sword and another warlock raising his hand and turning in to a pulp of flesh and bones dozens of mages at same time. With no grand and flourish effects at all. The warlock pointed his hand at the mage’s direction and they become a bloody mass of disfigured corpses.

Mack felt astonished by the later one. It looked like he killed those mages with no effort at all.

“So strong. Is this what a true warlock is capable of?”

[That and much more]

“Correct me if I’m wrong. Is this is a recreation of a battle when my ancestor planet was invaded?”

[Yes]

“As I expected, and my guess is this is not only a holographic projection like in the previous gate. The spells, they are really damaging the ground.”

[Correct. Those are similar to real spells and the damage dealt is almost the same too. This battle is being replayed by a very advanced magic circle, inscribed on the top of this room]

Mack looked up but could see nothing, only the sun shining behind the clouds.

“So this is a room”

[Correct. Just like the others gates before this]

“But what is the goal? I’m sure you don’t expect me to win this battle with my meager strength.”

[…]

“You must be kidding with me. Do you saw that warlock there? If he can’t win this battle what can I do?”

[The rules of this gate are as follow]

[All mages should be killed in less than a hundred days]

[If all the mages are not killed by the 100th day, the battle will restart from the beginning]

[This will happen until you achieve the goal or you are dead]

[These are the rules of the Gate of Pride]

Mack could not believe what he heard. How could he change this clearly losing battle? And in a hundred days kill all mages. He was not sure if he could kill even one. And there were several hundred thousand of them.

~sigh~

“And here was I, thinking on adventures. Maybe save a princess or kill a few dragons. Tsc.”

Mack completely lost his will to fight.

Fight a lost battle? Why? He could not understand. And even if he wanted to fight… What could he do? Sure, the sword was cool and all, but he would never have the chance to even get close to a mage before being burned alive, or worst.

“I bet no one passed this trial. Right?”

[Correct]

“Of course not. Who could turn a battle like this?”

Said Mack siting on the hill and looking at the fights in the distance.

He was not stupid to throw himself head on in a battle like this.

[There was one. This battle is a memory replay of your ancestor’s first battle ever]

“So you are saying that my ancestor won this?”

[Not exactly won. He was the sole survivor of this battle]

[He didn’t knew at the time. But this was the last battle fought and he being the only warlock alive in this battle made possible for him to escape the planet. If were hundreds of warlocks, the mages would pursuit them. But only one small mage ship leaving the planet was an unsuspicious move]

“But he was a true warlock with training and this sword and all… ohhh no, this sword was made after the battle. He didn’t have this sword! How did? Did he forged himself the sword? How he won?”

[No. The Mage Association forged this sword. He stole this sword several years later]

“So how did he survive? He must have been extremely lucky or extremely strong.”

[Neither. According to his memories, he was far weaker than you are now when he entered this battle]

“How is that even possible?”

Mack simply could not believe in this.

[That is for you to discover. I’m not allowed to tell you]

Mack fell into thoughts and pondered over why his ancestor would do a trial like this.

“I doubt he would put a scene like this just for me to play hide and seek with mages. He would not taint his memories with such low test”

“Can I talk to those warlocks fighting? Or take a ship and run to somewhere?”

[No, you can’t. They are not real peoples. They are Light Constructs generated by the magic circle on top of this room. You can’t also move them. They follow certain pre-configured rules only enough to recreate this battle]

“So they are just like puppets in a puppeteer show? What happens if I somehow appear in front of a mage? Will they attack me or follow what happened in the battle, ignoring me?”

[They will attack you. Because for those Light Constructs, you are labeled as an enemy. They have basic intelligence. But only at the level required for this battle to be simulated]

“So they act like those NPCs from games.”

[…]

“How can you know so much about Earth and dont know what video games are?”

[I only have records from what the host does. Starting at the moment when the runes are engraved on the body]

“I see. As soon as we leave this tower we gonna play some games.”

[…]

“And I will give you a book about how to interact with humans.”

[…]

With the awkward silence, Mack knew for sure that the book girl could not differentiate a joke from a normal sentence.

Alas, he had much bigger problems right now. What to do when leaving the tower was the last of his concerns right now.

First, he had to live another day. A Hundred days would be good too.