72. Heartless

Mack pondered over the realization that came with that.

"In my case, it must be because my body evolved. If my heart beat only 12 times a minute, then this means I could easily live for like 200 years?"

[It's hard to tell, because you became a hybrid species, but by my estimations you will for sure outlive any Earthling to this date]

"I see..."

Mack stopped pondering about his long life ahead. There was no need to think so much ahead when he was not sure if he could live for another year. The trials tested everything he had.

Mack also noticed the tests focused a lot on emotions, like the last one about his regrets.

"Thinking of emotions....."

Mack remembered how he outburst when in rage in the last gate and the effects of that and an idea came to mind.

"Emotions usually change the beat of the heart.... maybe...."

Mack touched his two palms and activated his domain runespell.

And just like magic, the snow stopped falling and stood there floating in the air.

Mack closed his eyes and could feel all the essence that permeated everything around him. In this case, only snow.

Still with closed eyes, he raised his hands as if he was an orchestra conductor, and the snow all around him listened to his command.

All around Mack, snow raised and in a mile diameter they stacked and formed a dome covering Mack in a few dozens meters.

Mack opened his eyes, and saw his new iglu, but seeing 'the ground', his complexion changed and he kicked the ground with the back of his foot as if stomping some ant. One second later, the flat surface of a mirror like floor could be seen.

Mack walked a few steps and as he expected, it was not slippy. Essence can change everything.

"Now this freezing wind will not bother me in the task ahead."

Said Mack, removing all his clothes and exposing his fully naked body covered in very thin tattoos that looked like scars. Because those thin lines had a very feeble red glow on them.

His arms were full of tattoos, and some lines extended to his legs and torso.

The head was devoid of any tattoos, because Mack didn't trust himself too much when carving runes in his body.

Mack changed almost every circuit he had on his body over the three years. And now, all of them had a core at his chest. That was where he moved the compression runes.

Mack took a dagger from his clothes and started drawing another rune over his chest.

Mack had a very boring problem when using runespells. He needed to activate them manually.

But a few seconds ago, he had an amazing idea.

Why not sync his runespells to his heartbeat?

The more intense a fight gets, or anxious or frustrated or enraged, the more his heart will beat.

Mack moved the dagger over his body, leaving a trail of blood, and connected the rune that counted his heartbeats with the core runespell at the center of his chest that connected to all other runespells.

'Now, how do I activate them? Or should I activate only that one?'

Mack had two problems. He needed to manually activate all runespell he wanted to use, and he had a fixed interval of around one second. It may seem good in words, but the more intense a fight gets and the more high level the skills of his enemies, the more limited he becomes.

'That was the major problem fighting that archmage'.

'One activation per beat means if things get intense I might do a double activation at the same time if I sync the one in my finger with the new one here.'

Mack pondered over the matter, but which runespell to activate was the problem.

'Its not like I can activate the fire one at each beat.'

"Imagine me walking in a street on Earth and burning everything around me at each step I take, hahhahahah"

[That would be fun to see]

"When did you become so heartless?]

[I learned from the best]

"Not me for sure. Mine is beating very hard.]

[...]

"Lets see.... Maybe the scan runespell?"

[Sounds like a good idea]

"Yeap, that's it. That will help me to always monitor my surroundings and in an intense fight I will be able to pinpoint all enemy positions without even looking at them or moving"

With a clear view ahead, Mack proceeded to carve his own skin again.

Mack had plenty of space in his body to carve hundred more runes. He connected his entire body, but his legs, for example, didn't have any runes yet apart from the single lines that came from the core.

Mack did this to further develop his arsenal of runespells.

With the connected runes now, Mack had to test if everything would work.

He looked to his left pulse where an analog counter showed two seven big dots and 2 smaller ones together. It was the only way for him to create something akin to a watch with a display. It was the best of his ability on runes.

"72"

Mack waited a few seconds, and it changed to 73. At the same time, the rune at his chest blinked, and he felt something akin to an itch all over his body. He was used to it already, it was the way the scan runespell worked.

Less than a second later, Mack received the feedback.

Nothing.

Just as he expected, after all, he was alone here.

Mack created this runespell similar to how his vision could see in the dark and how his domain runespell worked.

He emitted a weak pulse of Essence that wished to rule all essence around him. If some of it was owned. It would bounce back. Similar to a sonar.

"Well. it seems it's working. Now the hard part is to connect to that other one. But how? What if the domain is active when it trigger? What if I have a bad dream and suddenly wake up with an entire city burnt to ashes?"

[It's indeed dangerous. Especially if you have the domain runespell active. It would drain you out, fail to activate, and you will become more weak than a snowman. One slash and your head would roll]

Mack knew it more than anyone. His second fight against that archmage forced him to understand the limitations of his domain runespell.