Beginning

I swung the pickaxe for what felt like the quadrillionth time. It had been a month since I began to swing the pickaxe, and I had mined a considerable distance into the wall. The rock was tough; it took hundreds of swings to crack, and hundreds more to break off chips of stone.

I had grown to appreciate the dedication of a miner; those brave men and women who were capable of doing this day in and day out were true soldiers. I also grew more in awe of the power I would soon be receiving —this rock I could barely break had been destroyed by Alexander's bare body. And not just the surface layer, no, he broke through a considerable amount.

Throughout the mining process, my body had undergone several changes. My relatively weak muscles had toughened to an extreme, and my stamina had grown manyfold.

This was because the changes in my body had to be taken into account. To elaborate, when I equipped the bracelet the first time, my body was forcibly altered, at a genetic level.

What happened, or what I had gathered from the book, was that my body was made to only need food 3 times a day, in Universal Epoch time. It also changed my body's aging to match the Universal Epoch time. I would still die within 80 or so years, as my body hadn't been upgraded, it was just that those years would tick by as Universal Epochian, rather than Earthen.

It made sense to do so, as it would be terrible if you set a meeting for a date, but by the time you arrived the other person had died of old age.

It also made your mentality shift; you would feel as though the Universal Epoch was the normal time, which was helpful so you didn't go insane so easily.

This 'metamorphosis' had been created by one of the more powerful races, who were one of the pioneers in the Universal era.

Anyway, I had been mining for a month, something that for me felt like a month, which meant that on Earth, about 12 years would have passed. Of course, it hadn't because Earth had had its rotation slowed to match the Universal Epoch. This was done for the same reason as the body modification. The people of Earth would have been forcibly given the modification, even if they hadn't received a bracelet. They couldn't have every generation die every 8 months, there were too many months in a year for that to be sustainable.

'I'm close, I can feel it.'

Each day I mined for a total of 60 hours, not continuously, and my body still required only 8 hours of sleep, so I had 31 hours that I used as I saw fit. 

I had chosen to continue learning the Universal Diction, and I had reached a fluent level. Not only was I close to my goal, I had accomplished another one, one I had considered long-term.

---

CLANK- CLANK- 

CLATTER!

CRASH!

A beam of light landed on my eyes, practically blinding me, but I didn't care. The light signified that I had reached my target, and it caused my mining to become frenetic.

I had been too long in the mine, alone with my thoughts. The sooner I got out, the better it would be for my mental health.

As my pickaxe slammed against the wall, the beam of light grew bigger. I took a step back to measure something and saw that the wall was thin enough.

I switched to the sledgehammer in my possession, and, using all my strength, swung. 

THUD! CRACK!

With a dull thud, the hammer hit the rock, causing cracks to appear along its surface. I swung again, and the wall fell apart, covering my whole body in dust, debris, and light.

The exposure to the light caused my eyes to water, and the realization of my goal being achieved caused me to fall on my knees. I looked as though I was receiving a message from a higher being, and honestly, I felt like it too.

The mine had ruined my clothes, caking them in dust, and my body's physical transformation from skinny to bulked ripped them apart. 

I wiped my eyes, careful not to touch them with my bare finger, gently running them along to catch the tears. Dropping the sledgehammer, I began to run toward my goal, but I stopped abruptly, remembering something very important.

'The tattoo!'

I couldn't ruin the chance for a badass tattoo. Alexander's was cool, but mine would have to be cooler.

'Um, dragon... no, phoenix... no, snake across the body. Argh, this is hard.' I had thought that choosing a cool tattoo would be an easy process, but it wasn't, so I took a seat and began to think.

As I was thinking, I took a look at the room in which I was in. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all shiny, golden brick, but there were no lights that would make them shine. Instead, it came from the ball of white-gold light that floated, suspended in midair.

'The cheat.'

My mind wandered again, as the room was not helping me with my decision, and after a few minutes, an idea struck me.

'What if I think about the thing that would suit me best? Like all I do is think, 'a tattoo that suits me best', and let the thing choose for me'

The idea was solid, but there was always the option that what it chose suited me, but I didn't like it.

'Eh, back to the drawing board.'

I sat in the silence of the mine, stewing in my ideas.

In the end, my mind would always drift back to mythology: dragons, phoenixes, and the like. One such idea was Jörmagundr, the World Snake from Norse mythology. I couldn't decide between the three, but then I remembered Alexander —his tattoo had been a mixture of three ideas, but was it possible to get 3 separate tattoos?

"Argh, fuck it!" I yelled, standing up as my voice echoed in the tunnel. The sound was scratchy, as I hadn't used it much in the past 2 months, but it was fine, for I had been drinking and eating enough.

I stretched my well-toned body —a boon from mining— and walked to the sphere of light.

'Dragon on the back, Pheonix on the heart, Jörmagundr on the arm.' I thought to myself, over and over as I reached for the orb. 

I touched it and a burning pain instantly engulfed me. Pain rose from each nerve in my body, and heat came from my heart, my back, and my arm. I tried to ignore the pain, keeping my thoughts focused on the tattoos that I wanted, but it was difficult.

It was a lesser pain than the body metamorphosis, but I had to stay awake the whole time, I think, or the tattoo would go awry. I pushed all unnecessary thoughts from my head, using the willpower I had gained from mining for 2, long, grueling months straight. I had, technically, mined for longer than I had lived, and it took a lot of effort to do so.

I lost track of the time, as seconds seeped into minutes, and minutes blended into the hours that passed before the pain stopped abruptly, and my body collapsed on the floor, my mind drifting into the blackness of unconsciousness.

---

I stirred from my slumber, laying on the floor, drool trickling from my mouth. I looked around, my head a blur, and found myself in a room that was pitch black.

'Oh right, yeah, that happened.' I remembered, as my thoughts became clear. 

Moving my arms up to my chest, I pushed myself off the ground, dusting off the ragged remains of my clothes.

Whilst I was reviewing my memories of what happened, a wandering thought came into my recollection.

'If Alexander lost his powers, how did he survive against the bounty?' This was an obvious detail that had eluded me at the time I was reading, but it had popped up now. 'Eh, probably plot armor.'

I chalked it up to him being the protagonist and left it at that, more focused on the important matters.

'My tattoos!'

Since the room had become enveloped in darkness, I swiftly left to the mine just outside, where the lighting was even just a little bit better.

'Damn, I still can't see them.' The tattoos weren't visible in the abyss of the mineshaft, but I could make out what seemed to be a glowing eye on my left pec and two glowing eyes on my right one. 'Well, it's time to leave.'

I began to jog to the exit, leaving behind the supplies I had brought with me, for it would be annoying to carry them. I found my body to be lighter than a feather, and I attributed it to the mining.

I had been working it out for 24 Earth years straight, daily without fail. I was sure to be at the peak of natural physical health and strength, but I knew I could go higher, farther beyond what I could imagine.

'It all starts now.'