Mack looked at the giant door and could not believe the size of that thing. It was monstrously giant, with no building around, just a giant door.
Looking down, Mack could see a pit with no end surrounding the door, with only one bridge traversing.
The door had the same style as the bridge, both ancient-looking, made of metal and full of carvings.
Mack looked around to see where he was and saw that there was nothing.
He was in a completely empty space, only him, the pit, the bridge, and the door. Behind him, the barren land stretched all the way to the horizon until he could not see anymore.
Not a single sign of life in sight.
Mack was extremely weak, but for some reason, he was not that bad as earlier. The moment he heard the noises inside him, he felt refreshed for a few moments, but was still extremely weak.
His mind was a bit more clear, but the body was not in a good state.
Mack still could not understand how this Essence worked or what he could expect from this place or what exactly was his ancestor and what he had in mind when creating this place. But first things first. He was starving. He desperately needed something to eat.
"Where is the food? You said I could eat when passed this test."
[I never said that]
"What? I clearly remember that."
[I have perpetual memory. You can't trick me with this shameless act of yours.]
"Ok, and how am I supposed to continue? If I don't eat, I will not even be able to reach that dammed door, let alone passing the next test."
[I also never told you would not be able to eat.]
"So? what I do now? Am I supposed to try catching some worms? I don't even see a dammed tree in this place! Also... How am I supposed to see all around me now? Wasn't this place full of traps?"
[I also never said that there were traps here]
"Are you kidding me? Is that some 'God joke' or something?"
~sigh~
"I don't even have the energy to be angry"
[Enter the Tower and there will be food and water, clothes, and more.]
"Why do I feel like I'm being tricked into entering there?" Mack asked, feeling a bit suspicious about the generosity of the voice in his head.
[There is no trick, but there is no coming back either.]
"What do you mean? I can go back to Earth now?" Mack asked, furrowing his brows.
[Yes, the same way you came, you can go back]
"But?"
[There are no buts. The knowledge you have right now is minimal, and Earth has a low concentration of Essence. You will live a normal life, just like before. It's your choice.]
Hearing that, Mack felt it was a double trick. His guts told him he truly could not go back, and something was weird with just entering the tower too, but thinking again, why would he want to go back? He was hunted by Interpol, had no safe place to stay, and here, at least he could grow stronger learning all those magical stuff.
[Have you made your mind?]
Mack gave a long sigh while dropping his head a bit and said, "Yes, I will enter the tower."
[Good choice]
Mack still felt that something was weird, but even so, he dragged his own dying body to traverse the bridge in front of him.
Arriving at the door, Mack could not avoid but looking at the engravings all around the door, runes and more runes covered the door, and for some reason, Mack felt like they had a deep meaning.
"This is not a normal door, right? It dosn't seems like I will be able to just push it open."
[Your are correct, this is an old way of teleportation. Touch the door and you will be teleported inside the Tower.]
Mack took a few steps and came closer to the door, then touched it with his hand... but felt nothing.
"I don't think it worked. Is this thing out of battery?" Mack asked, unconsciously turning his head back like he was talking to someone behind him. But to his surprise, when he turned his head, he didn't see the bridge nor the barren land from the planet he was before.
Mack saw a room with a dim light, and in the middle of that room, a metallic cube.
Mack turned his head back to the door and understood what happened. He was not teleported like in the movies he saw. He literally was teleported in the same position he was before touching the door, while looking at it.
Mack retrieved his hand from the door and started walking toward the metallic cube in the middle of the room.
"What's this?" Mack asked, seeing that the box was full of runes too.
[This is all you can have before the next trial.]
Mack looked at the box the size of a man and felt relieved. At least the box seemed to have a lot of things inside.
Mack raised his right hand to touch the box, just to feel the nice engravings on the box, but to his surprise, the moment he touched the box, it hummed in a low-frequency sound, barely audible.
Mack retracted his hand, not sure if it was safe or what to do.
Probably an instinctive movement.
[Just wait a few seconds, it's ancient technology,] Said the Arcane Legacy, noticing the insecurity of Mack.
A few seconds later, the box stopped humming and became completely red.
[Now you can use, but before that, let me advise you...]
[This box came from a peculiar dimension and has a few functions built-in, It has a universal translator, an Essence convertor, an Essence Storage System, and a Genetic Manufacturing Machine, along with a basic intelligent system, all in one.]
[In other words... This tool can create items using Essence, but be warned. His battery has a limit as also the catalog of things it can create, and the velocity in which it gathers Essence is so slow that will take probably a hundred years in your world time to recharge 1%]
"So this thing is like a 3D printing machine from Earth? How it can understand me? How do I use it? I just need to say what I want?"
[No, you need to touch and say 'start' and a menu in your language will show up on the side that you touched, then just choose what you want.]
Mack reached the box and did as told, and not even a second later he could see a list of categories that spanned several pages. He didn't even care about the other categories he was starving and chose food.
A list with innumerable pages appeared, and he saw many words that he didn't know or he never heard before, like an 'Aabeia Amakut', but he also saw a search bar on the top of the box and just like a smartphone on earth, the moment he touched it, a keyboard appeared. Alas, the layout of the keyboard was way different from the ones on earth.
After a long one minute of typing the word, 'burger' he clicked the button by the side and a list of several types of hamburgers showed.
And again, not the kind of hamburger Mack was expecting.
'Abarliot Hamburger. doesn't seem to be from Earth'
~sigh~
"Can I eat anything that shows up here? I mean, will not I die from some alien ingredients?"
[All items available were selected by the creator himself to be safe for human consumption or use.]
'or use....' thought Mack, remembering the several categories available on the previous screen, but alas, he was hungry as hell and could not wait anymore to eat something.
Dispersing his curiosity, Mack clicked on the first hamburger on the list, and a screen with an hourglass rotating showed up.
"Well, I guess an hourglass is a universal symbol."
"Will this take long?"
[Depends on the item. Food normally takes more time because of the genetic complexity in each ingredient, but is extremely cheap, since all needed is to replicate DNA and simple biologic materials]
"I need to know how long. Not a scientific explanation of how it works. Oh, never mind is ready." Mack said while already taking the burger from a cubic hole that appeared in the box.