BXBX NOVEL Chapter 18 - A Scurata
After a few hours without any progress, Mack chose to take a pause and rest a bit while eating.
He took an alien dried fruit that looked like a banana but was pink and had some small protuberations. If Mack was not completely sure that this came from the food category from the Cube he would probably think it was some alien sex toy.
Mack took a look at the banana thing for a few seconds and a message in the right corner of his vision appeared.
(Dried Scurata, common grade, made by Cube Inc)
"At least I\'m getting the hang of these nanororobots."
Said Mack, already putting the suspicious food in his mouth.
After a few more minutes of rest, Mack decided to take things step by step. He would focus on small gains. And the first thing for that was to know his limit..
He chose to try and see the exact number of steps he could sustain outside the safe zone.
Having made his mind, he walked of the safe zone and kept walking in circles close to the line drawn on the floor.
"Twenty."
Said Mack, counting the steps.
"Fifty"
...
"Seventy"
...
"One thousand"
Said Mack, already feeling hard to continue. But he needed to know his true limit.
...
"Two thousand twenty-five"
Now Mack already felt sluggish and difficult to even raise his foot.
...
"Two thousand thirty three".
~plop~
Mack fell with his knees on the floor.
And to make everything worst another increase was made when he touched the floor again.
Mack chose to do this close to the safe zone exactly because he could feel safe going to his limit. Worst case, he would drag himself along the floor to the safe zone.
Seeing he could not take anymore, Mack threw his upper body to the right side and fell inside the safe zone, with only his legs remaining outside, but he quickly pulled his legs with his arms. And the area outside the safe zone came to normal again.
Reaching his limit was important to measure his own progression in the days to come.
"What should I do now?"
Mack knew that the Will was the key to everything. But it was a strange thing. It was the same thing as trying to control his heartbeat or the feeling of having an invisible arm. You could touch things, but when you paid attention to it, there was nothing.
"At each step a new test."
Said Mack, remembering what was written on the sign close to the door.
"Maybe the step is not only referring to the literally steps taken. But its referring to the safe zones too?"
~sigh~
Mack looked behind him to the dark and long tunnel that had no end in his view.
"Should really I gamble on that?"
He had no way to know for sure if there was another safe zone. And if had one, he had no way to know if the next safe zone would be close enough for him to reach it.
"Two thousand thirty three steps, if running with large steps that can get me as far as 2 or 3 kilometers at best. This safe zone was like 2 kilometers apart from the door."
"If the next one is like 4 kilometers from here I\'m screwed. Nahh. I\'m dead. As dead as an apple pie thrown from the 10th floor of a building can be."
~sigh~
"I wish I had some real knowledge about this stuff."
It was then that Mack remembered something the book voice said to him.
\'And this is a low-level usage of Will\'
"Right! Let\'s do that. First. Let\'s improve what I can do! I\'m going to use my eyes until they bleed or until I get the information of everything I see instantly."
With that said, Mack opened his backpack and took out everything inside, and grabbed a small fruit that looked like an apple but was orange instead.
And after a few seconds of glaring at the fruit. A message popped in his retina.
(Maskita Ananas, common grade, made by Cube Inc)
Then he took another fruit and did the same.
And another one.
And another one.
Mack was training his Will to be able to instantly communicate with the nanorobots and provide him information about everything he looked at.
If he could achieve this. It means he improved somehow.
TWO DAYS LATER
Mack had no way to know how much time passed because in this tunnel there was no sunlight and the sense of time passing got messed up. But his body asked for sleep and eat and he figured it was approximately two days since he entered this tunnel.
Mack looked at the gun in his hand and the moment he put his eyes on it, a message popped in his retina.
Then he moved his eyes to the side looking at his backpack and another message popped.
He was happy with his progression. In these two days, he got instant recognition of anything he looked at.
But his food was the problem, he had food for only five more days. Water, he chose to drink only 100ml a day, and he had 2 liters at the start. It could last him 18 days if he kept to only 100 ml a day.
Now, achieving the desired result with his nanorobots in the eyes and somehow improving his control over the Will, it was time to move to the second training session.
Time to control the Will over his own body.
Just like a child would learn how to walk step by step. It was time for Mack to take his first step in becoming a True Warlock.
One that would cause changes to all the dimensions known to this date.
One that would be known for all the intelligent species as The Last Warlock alive.
But Mack was still ignorant to all that, and his only concern right now was that he forgot to buy toilet paper from the Cube before entering the tower.
"Dammit. Another shitty day. Literally. How could I forget that! How!?"
Said Mack using a t-shirt in an improvised way that was better to not be described by this poor author.