Popcorn

Mack had no clue what to do, so he just stayed there. Sitting on a hill looking at the battle in the distance. He first needed to figure out the goal of the gate. Otherwise, he would just run in circles, or worst, die.

'Why would he put all this grand battle here for me to revert it? Just because he did it too in the past?' Mack believed that was unlikely that his ancestor wanted him to pass the same thing he passed just because he felt like doing it.

Mack knew from the past trials that his ancestor was wise and ruthless at the same time. A man like him would never do things on a whim. Not when creating all this grand scheme to train someone from his own bloodline.

'What I'm missing? Ok. Let's recapitulate things..."

'First, I received a bunch of gear and a legendary sword when entering this gate. Then..... a bunch of NPCs are killing each other in a historic battle that will last for at least a hundred days'

"...and my ancestor was the sole survivor of this battle."

Mack still could not believe his ancestor was weaker than him when he entered this battle. This was not a battle for shrimps. One wrong step and you are dead.

"The goal for me is not to survive to the end of the battle as my ancestor did. But to slay all mages before the 100th day... If really was something about pride.... he would just set the goal for me to survive too."

Mack thought about the last gates. All the previous trials taught him without actually teaching. Even the previous one. Showing that scene of the children being impaled taught Mack how cruel mages could be.

'Teaching without teaching... Why?'

Mack could not figure out why his ancestor would choose the hardest way to train someone. It would be far easier just telling exactly what to do.

'If his modus operandi is the same as the previous gates, then he is trying to teach me here the same way too'

"How? By jumping in a fireball and getting burnt to ashes? tsk..."

Mack kept looking at the battle in the distance, with his head resting over his hand in a pensive expression and after a few minutes of pondering over the matter...

"I'm such a moron!!!!!!! How could I not see this? It's so obvious!"

"I have broken the nine gates in my body. I can influence essence to some degree because I can see in the dark and use that thing in my eye, but I don't know how to use it actively or any spells. Such a moron!"

"Here I am! Watching an epic battle with the bests teachers in the world performing all kinds of stuff in front of me. For free! The copycat method! Fake it until you make it!"

'Where should I start? Right! The sword! I never used one. I should first try to learn how to use it.'

Having planned the first step, Mack focused his gaze on the battle in search of a man using a sword, but he was too far to see the details in the fights, and if he approached the core areas, he risked being blown away without even seeing how.

'How can I approach the battles without risking my neck?'

"The only survivor! That's the key!"

"Hey Arcane, are you allowed to point me who is my ancestor in this fight?"

[Finally, a smart human. Most just assumed they were playing the role of the ancestor. He is the only light construct completely made in green color]

Mack looked at the battlefield again and searched for some green spot. There were many colors and was hard to locate a single green spot. After searching for half an hour, Mack found what he thought was the correct green spot. It was way too green to be someone using green clothes and was on the warlock side. Most of the warlocks used plain gray or black clothes with only a few using different colors, but even so, the battlefield was so huge that he needed a long time to locate this green spot.

"Found you! If I survive this, I will fucking punch you in the face! I don't care if you are an NPC. I will punch you twice! All those rules and tips. All to confuse us more. Fucking asshole!"

From the top of the hill, Mack screamed, enraged with his ancestor schemes, but no one listened to what Mack said. After all, he was the only living thing on this entire battlefield.

Now, Mack had to survive a hundred days by the side of his infamous ancestor.

And if he wanted to pass the trial...

He needed to kill all mages remaining on the 99th day.

He was not sure how the battle would progress in the next days, but he was sure that his side, the warlock side, was on the losing end right now.

"Dammed! Why give me a cape that turns me invisible if I can't touch anything? If some random guy stumbles on me, I'm doomed!"

Mack thought hard about how to go to that green spot, but the green spot was miles from him. He would need to traverse several skirmishes to reach there.

It was too risky for Mack.

'Night! At least in movies, they stop the frontal assaults by night. Maybe that's my chance.' Mack thought, remembering that this gate, or room, had a sun. If it had a sun. It should have a night, too.

Having decided how to go there, and feeling less pressured and with a lot of free time until night came, for obvious reasons, Mack wished he had popcorn now.

Watch a battle like this for hours and hours until night came without popcorn was a pity, in Mack's opinion. Mack took his backpack from the side. Grabbed an alien fruit and started to slowly eat.

The next 100 days would be super busy ones. He was not sure when or where he would eat. If he ate at all.

~chomp~

The fruit was good and had almost the same flavor as strawberries from Earth, but what Mack really wanted now was some popcorn.