With dried blood all around him, and the Essence saturated to over three thousand times.
Mack woke up.
He felt tired, and with pain all over his body. He could not move. The Essence density was so strong that he barely could move his lungs to breathe.
His blurred vision, from the dried tears that involuntarily escaped during the self-harming session from before, saw the blood on the ground and his brain begun to work again, remembering what he did and why.
Mack tried to move a finger, but the finger barely moved.
He knew it was a risky strategy, but he needed to gamble.
Mack was not a doctor, nor he had advanced knowledge in anything. He didn't even went to school because he and his father were hunted all around the globe, but Mack knew a few things. One of those 'useless things' he knew was that the human body changed all its cells, except for the brain, at an interval of seven years.
In other words, the human body completely changed in a span of seven years.
Mack was gambling his life that if he could speed up his healing while outside of the safe zone, his 'new body cells' would be adapted to the increased essence density. And the best way to trigger the healing process of the body was to cause harm to it. The more harm was done, the more new red cells would be produced by the body.
It was a risky gamble, because Mack could not be sure of this until he tried.
He could go several ways to test this, but all of them would be hard to measure and would take much more time. The time that he didn't have. He barely had food for five more days and he was unsure how much time this gate would take him or if at the end of it he would have any kind of food or a cube to resupply.
Mack woke up not even half-hour after passing out, but even seeing so much blood around him, he knew his body was healing super fast, otherwise he would be dead by now.
'Another shitty day'
Mack was not sure if his strategy would work, because he had no way to know if his body would adapt to the new Essence density or not, but one thing he knew for sure. If he just dumbly ran forward, he would eventually be dead. Sometimes progress is made when you take a step back.
Or in Mack's case, when you tried to kill yourself.
...
After an entire day of laying on the ground, Mack finally could move his fingers again.
The increase in Essence density really made him heal faster, and he already could feel less pressure from the Essence.
What Mack didn't knew was that his cells being replaced in such an environment made him special.... very special.
Mack put his hand on the floor and forced himself to stand up, but this time the Essence felt less pressuring than yesterday.
He was adapting to the environment, and at a fast pace.
Then, like a psychopath, Mack grabbed the knife on the floor and started to stab himself in several parts of his own body, again.
He did avoid vital parts when stabbing himself, but even so, the blood gushed from his arms and skin non-stop, just like a dying pig in a slaughterhouse.
Not even five minutes later, the blood stopped flowing out of his body, and was coagulating while healing. Seeing that, Mack restarted his cutting and stabbing session, every time changing or alternating between places he cut himself.
The only way for him to adapt faster was to have more blood being produced or...
~Tap Tap Tap~
Increasing, even more, the essence density around him.
Mack paced around the bloodied floor. Every step or two, he would cut himself again in some nonvital part of the body.
~Tap Tap~
Every step made on the bloodied floor carried the sound of someone walking in a street after a rainy day. It was really a rainy day, but what was raining was blood, his own blood, and just like this, a long day of torture started.
...
After a few hours of this torturous endeavor,
He guessed that his body should be out of blood if was on Earth but here.... He lost in a day more blood than what a few humans could have in their bodies.
Truly a magical thing.
Essence seemed to help not only in increasing his healing rate but also supplying what his body needed to produce more cells.
"Will I not need to eat anymore?"
Mack could not avoid asking himself this aloud, since this realization made a lot of things easier for him. After all, he had food for only five days.
He initially thought he would be starving by now and extremely exhausted, but for his luck or not, he felt energetic and not a bit hungry.
Coming to this sudden realization, Mack went forward with his plan with even more gusto.
~Tap Tap Slash Tap~
If someone looked at this scene, they would think it was some bizarre cult ritual.
A man, naked, covered in blood, slowly walking and stabbing himself, and behind him a trail of blood.
Mack was not some super human that did not feel pain, but true to be told, he was numb to physical pain already. He suffered so much over the past weeks that this was literally a walk in the park for him.
After a few more hours of this insane and inhuman training, it was time for a break.
Mack was mentally exhausted.
He walked toward the safe zone, not stabbing himself anymore, and by the time his right feet crossed the line drawn on the floor....
~stumble~
Mack flew over almost the entire safe zone and fell face first on the floor. He forgot about the effect caused by deactivating the essence density, but something more was happening because Mack felt stronger somehow.
Inside the safe zone, Mack stood up, and jumped high, and by a small margin, he almost touched the ceiling of the tunnel.
~thud~
Mack fell on the ground, and looked up to the ceiling, "Wow!"
He focused his eyes and shook the dizziness and sleepiness out of his mind. Realization of what happened hit his mind like a hammer. He had become stronger.
"I just can't fucking believe in this. What the hell? Did I become Superman? No way!"
Mack moved his feet, and he vanished and re-appeared six meters from where he was earlier.
Just like a kid with a new toy. Mack started running from side to side. Appearing and disappearing from time to time. Until he finally got used to this new kind of speed and force.
After satisfying his heart, Mack walked normally to the safe zone while trying to control his new strength. This time without stumbling or falling, just like a normal human would do.
After a few minutes of resting and eating, he already felt less mentally exhausted.
"Ok, time to go!"
Mack stood up, put on his clothes and grabbed his backpack, and other things and walked outside the safe zone.
Looking at the endless tunnel ahead, Mack felt anticipation for the first time in weeks.
He was eager for the next tests and what magical things they would bring.
Mack took a step in the toward the darkness in front of him.
"Its time to finish this gate." Said Mack, vanishing from the spot he was earlier, but this time he did not re-appear anymore.
Just a blurred image of a man could be seen moving along the dark tunnel, and if one could see this man's face, they will see that he was smiling.