Mack saw the top of the cube. And there was a finger-sized hole there.

The thing is….. Cube material was super hard!

[That’s because the material is special and is reinforced with Essence. Just like …]

“Just like this blast from the rune circuit!!!”

[Yes]

“I should probably name it different. It’s not a blast. It’s more like a sniper shot”

“Yeap I think I will call it ‘shot runespell’ for now.”

“Or should I call it Makankosappo? Nahhh that would be offending my few good memories while watching animes with father….”

Mack started to remember his childhood, and the image of his father came to mind.

‘Dammed mages! I will make them pay for killing my father. I bet it was them’

Suddenly all the good humor that Mack was having those few hours, because some things were working his way, was ruined when he remembered all that the mages took from him. By force.

He was sure it was them. It was the only possible explanation.

But how they are on Earth without no one noticing? Mack had no clue about that.

~sigh~

“So much to do….. And I’m not even ready for that yet….”

Mack lowered his head and looked at the rune circuit.

It was time to practice another rune circuit until he felt confident enough to carve in his own flesh.

The prices he had to pay to gain power…

Would be returned a thousandfold to the mages.

Remembering the mage’s atrocities, Mack’s gaze fell on his sword and a crazy idea popped in his head.

“A sword forged with thousands of warlocks lives…..”

“Capable of negating most of the will of all things….”

“And a runespell capable of making a hole in a cube.”

“And me ….. A huge Essence battery. Do you follow me, Arcane?”

[Yes. I think is possible. But is extremely risky]

“Hmm. But it will not work as it is now….”

[Indeed. You will need to alter it a lot and will only be able to test once is fully carved on your body]

“Hmm”

Mack’s gaze became serious.

That could be a game-changer for him…..

But only if it worked.

Should he go ‘all in’? Mack had doubts. It was not an easy matter to decide. One mistake and he would explode himself.

“Let’s think of that later…. I will first check the area circuit.”

Mack moved to the other circuit. He would ponder better if he should risk his like on that bet.

With a more calm mind.

Mack started the same ritual as before, dropping blood on the lines of the circuit.

And a few minutes later he touched the circuit with his left thumb.

~zummmmm~

Mack could hear a faint buzzing sound around him.

It looked like the circuit worked the way he devised and also produced some kind of sound due to air friction.

Mack felt the heavy pressure over his body and a smile bloomed on his face.

It worked.

Mack removed his finger, and the pressure started to decrease bit by bit.

One minute later, all came back to normal.

Essence tends to occupy all available space.

Only if Mack’s body cells had not so much ‘space’ inside…. he would already be following the traditional warlock path.

Mack activated the rune circuit on the ground again, and the pressure fell over his body again.

Just… for Mack was not much at all.

“It’s not as heavy as I was expecting.”

[Of course not. Your body has a lot of Essence inside and your muscles and bones changed because of that. It’s not a simple math reduction. Your body constitution changed. Is more like a multiplication.]

“Like 2×40?”

Said Mack, remembering the numbers he saw on his health monitor device.

[Correct]

“I see. That’s why the pressure for me is nothing as I was expecting.”

[But for a common person from Earth…]

“Yes, I know. They would probably become a pool of blood and flesh”

Mack looked at the ground around him and the ground became flatter than before.

Just like a gravitational field from movies.

“I think I will name it as Gravity Runespell”

[Actually, this is called as ‘Forcefield’ by mages]

“Forcefield? Ok, I will use it. Seems to fit well.”

“Forcefield Runespell is it then”

“I think is done. Time to test it.”

Said Mack grabbing his dagger.

But once mack grabbed the dagger he was not sure in which finger to put this circuit. He needed a place that he could use during battle without stopping.

Mack closed his left hand, making a fist, and saw where the thumb naturally touched.

He punched the air a few time to see if felt natural and looked at his hand again, the thumb touched the middle part of his middle finger and the middle part of his index finger.

‘Thank god I thought before designing them, otherwise I would be activating a flash bang every time I punched someone without the gloves covering my hand’

Mack brows furrowed. He wanted to be able to punch while using this runespell.

Or he changed the way he punched, or he had to think of other way.

The problem was that the legs of the compression circuit ended at the tip of his fingers. The same legs responsible for activating and connecting the compression rune.

~sigh~

“Back to the drawing board”

Mack walked a few meters and went back to where he drew all the runes.

Mack looked around on the ground and searched for a rune. A very specific one.

It was a switch rune. The three attack runespells Mack devised were ones that needed him to constantly keep his thumb pressed on them for it to work. The moment he removed his thumb it would stop working.

What Mack was devising now was a tap to activate and tap to deactivate kind of circuit for this gravity runespell.

This way he would be free to do other things while the forcefield was active.

A few minutes later….

“Found it.”

And not a second later Mack started to draw a new circuit on the ground.

It was the same circuit as before with a minor change, but Mack had to test it. There is no way he would risk his life because of laziness.

~drip~

~drip~

The now familiar sound of blood dripping on the ground happened again, and the circuit runes shined in red not long after.

A new circuit was tested with success and Mack was ready to carve that circuit on his own flesh.