The Mystical Apple

It had already been hours since Altair have undergone the torturous training to achieve strength. In a physical sense he already died 52 times in just one training session, however due to the healing pillars that circulated the training grounds he was instantly healed whenever he is at death's door.

He have endured a tremendous amount of crushing pain on every part of his body now, and yet he did not feel an improvement in his ability to tolerate physical pain of extreme levels.

The night befell on the underworld, the transluscence of the lake's trees and insects brightened up everything in its vicinity. The water became transluscent blue on the surface, lit up by the aquatic microorganisms that inhabit the lake. Still silence remained in the cold night.

It was only interrupted by the constant clamors of pain that Altair produced.

"Fuck...Ha...Ha..." breathing heavily in anguish Altair lay down on the floor suffering a shattered ribcage and one damaged lung.

Then the pain was again taken away by the pillars that shone when it heals him. His breathing became normal, his ribcage recovered.

Without even breaking a sweat Oculo signalled to stop the training.

"That much should be enough."

Altair who was still laying down on the rocky ground catching his breath could only remain laying down the rocky surface.

The icy mist thickened in the air and the temperature significantly dropped, freezing Altair's body in a needlelike pain.

"Take a bath and rest, tomorrow is another day of training. Good night." Oculo reminded Altair and went inside the shelter first.

Laying on the cold rocky surface Altair could only close his eyes and inhale the icy air that froze his nose when he breathed.

"This sucks." he can only utter, cold smoke coming out from his mouth.

"Ah come to think of it, I wasn't able to eat anything during the training, fuck this guy for this regime, so absurd. So much pain, and not even one meal was provided?! He crossed the line." he added.

Altair then leaned his body backwards and acrobatically stood up. Wiping the dirt off his skin and back he took a look at the giant healing pillars that were connected by the steel chains that were now frozen for a long time and remained unmelted.

"Convenient..really convenient..I wonder how Oculo was able to gather materials to build these giant pillars with his own hands."

The giant pillars which remained unperturbed for many centuries reflected the dim moonlight and the variety of transluscence in the lake into each of its jewels, which created astronomical patterns on each different jewels that were on the top of each of it. Even from down below Altair could see the cosmic patterns and took his time to gaze all over it. One can only wonder how a mortal such as Oculo is capable of building something like that. Or was it really built by him? The pillars complexities were so detailed that if you took a closer look at it you could definitely say that a mortal could not have woven such patterns on a stone, the fluidity and elegance of each symbols present on the pillars were intricate and simply sublime. Not to mention where could the magical jewels have come from. Altair did not want to pry further into it considering that he is now physically worn out, he did not want to be even more exhausted both mentally and physically again.

Altair just wanted to take a bite off any edible food he could see with his eyes. There are none however.

"AAAAA I AM HUNGRY GODDAMIT!"

With his stomach rumbling his facial expression changed.

"So hungry, so hungry." he can only utter hungrily as he returned to the lake shelter barefoot.

Opening the door gently he entered the house, immediately looking for any food available.

There in the dining table, a set of fruits carefully arranged. Bananas, grapes, oranges, peaches, melons, mangoes and a peculiar apple standing on top of the fixed fruits were present in it.

The fruits looked normal and was very similar to Earth's, with the exception of the apple that radiated a strange energy, but in his hunger Altair could not tell the difference.

He then immediately went for the table and munched greedily on each of the fruits starting from the banana. He was slowly working his way up, stuffing himself up with the fruits that tasted bland, however Altair was just too hungry to care and ate every single last one of the fruits greedily. Only the apple was left as Altair took the last piece of the bitter peach and put it on his mouth. With his hunger still unsatiated he looked at the last remaining piece of fruit, the apple.

The strange emanating aura of the apple intensified when Altair took a hold of the fruit. As he was grasping the bizarre piece of apple in his hand it felt like it was becoming one with his body, it didn't feel like he was holding something at all. He gulped, hesitating to eat it.

'Damn...I really feel like I should not be eating you but...I am too hungry to care, what happens happens so screw it.'

He then bit on the apple, slowly but surely devouring every remaining chunk of the fruit. The juices of the bizarre fruit moistened his parched throat, and the fruit put an end to his unsatiated hunger, leaving Altair with a satisfied smile clear in his face.

'Ahaaa I ate Oculo's fruits, I am sure he will be pissed off. Talk about hitting two birds with one stone am right?' he deviously thought.

After he have finished eating however, he starts noticing that everything suddenly became more complex, incomprehensible and more apparently brighter. It looked like the skies have finally opened up the gates of heaven to bask the lifeless lands in its incandescent radiance but Altair knew better, this was something even more different, something even more complex.

Suddenly he felt a tremor in his soul that caused a forced flow of energy to traverse and circulate in his body like an endless river. In a shock Altair remained still in his position and then in an explosion he was able to witness his mind being fragmented into countless shards of memory and knowledge, he felt a new important piece being added into it like a jigzaw puzzle getting one step closer to completion as the fragmented pieces became one again.

[Ability Unlocked: Mystic Insight]