Mark sat on the couch of his house, trying to use his cultivation method. He’d read the book several times, the part available to him, but still found it extremely challenging.
The energies moved sluggishly and resisted his every attempt to manipulate, but he slowly improved.
So far, he had no chance to introduce his understanding of space, or void, into it, as that would be far too hard.
Speaking of void, Mark struggled with figuring out why he got void. His insights were into distance, and movement, based on how he was transported in the clearing, and likely had been guided by his desire to teleport. But to Mark, the void was emptiness. It was the void between stars and planets, the nothingness of space, but apparently, that wasn’t true, or at least not entirely.
His control fell apart as his thoughts drifted, but he wasn’t discouraged. He had made some progress, and coming up with some theory about the progress of his Truth would likely be necessary for his future.
He kept it up for several hours, and by the end of his session, he was sweating, and his body was sore from strain, but he’d made significant progress. He felt he might be able to introduce his truth into the mix.
According to the method, he would eventually be able to keep it up constantly, but that was some time away.
He lay down to relax for a while before he tried something else. Mastering the cultivation method was one goal, but he had to get some experience using his skills.
He only had one skill; Mana Shaping. Mark moved to his backyard and used the small strip of land outside the empty space as his training area.
Activating the skill was as easy as focusing on it, but using it was different.
Activating it made it possible for him to manipulate mana, which he expelled from his body. He felt he could control it without the skill, but it made it far easier like the skills guided him.
He could mold the raw mana as he wished and soon enough learned to condense it. He compacted the mana into a ball that hovered above his hand.
It took a while, but he eventually realized how to launch it.
He got the impression that it wouldn’t do much, but he kept it up. Training like this was a bit boring, but the excitement of using magic was still very fresh, so he powered through the boredom.
Eventually, he managed to shape the ball into a spike and then into a sharp bolt, or short spear, of mana, which actually made it dig into the ground.
He felt he’d used around half of his total mana by now, and wanted to get in some practice infusing it with void, so he focused on his concept.
It was bizarre but also intuitive. He hadn’t been able to sense anything like it before, but now, he could feel his health, stamina, mana, and conceptual energy, as he’d decided to call it.
He could feel his energy reservoirs and reach for them, which is how he drew out the conceptual energy of the void and infused it with the mana he was shaping.
He watched the near-translucent mana turn invisible and gain an ominous aura but kept going. He did as he had been doing and quickly compressed the mana into a dense ball, which turned out to be a mistake.
It turned out that infusing the mana with void energy increased the cost of shaping it immensely. Enough that he almost passed out.
He barely managed to cut the flow of mana before he blacked out, which interrupted the use of Mana Shaping and caused the orb of void to collapse. He was pulled forward as the sphere imploded, and due to the wave of dizziness he felt from overdrawing his mana, he could not resist.
He stumbled forward before faceplanting on the ground, mere inches from the edge.
It took several minutes before he could get back to his feet, but he quickly stumbled back to his sitting room and collapsed on the couch.
Void costs a lot of mana, huh? Fuck, how am I going to do anything with it? I need to figure something out.
He also had to find a way to safely cancel a spell, as that was dangerous.
The cost of that little experiment also dug home how costly it would be to use the void to bridge that gap to his cultivation platform.
He did theorize that improving his skill with the cultivation method, and infusing void energy into it, would make it easier, as the book said it’d increase his affinity with the energy. Still, he would also ponder on the concept itself, as his own understanding of it should improve the efficiency while using it.
That was the purpose of his cultivation area, as it inundated the area with the energy in question, while the mat and likely the pillars would draw it to him. It might have more functions, but that was all he’d gleaned from the cultivation method book.
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He relaxed on the couch while he recovered his mana, but it took several hours, and the sun was setting before he felt like he could continue. Rather than push through the night, he listened to his body and retreated to his bed.
It had been a long time since he slept on something pleasant, like a bed, and he was asleep before he fully settled in it.
***
He woke up at dawn, but not on his own accord, but from the message that appeared.
[Mission list will be released in five hours. Return to the main square to select one. Vendors will open for business in eight hours.]
So, he could select a mission in five hours, and he wanted to make some progress before that and choose a mission based on how far he got.
Rather than go to his sitting room, he sat down on the grass bordering his cultivation platform, hoping to use some of the void energy while cultivating.
He settled down, closed his eyes, and focused his mind inwards. He seized control of his internal energies and followed the method as he started pushing it around. It required him to push it faster in some areas while restraining the flow elsewhere, and he was supposed to make it circle certain areas. How he was supposed to be able to do all this unconsciously was beyond him, but he focused on practicing it.
He quickly realized that meditating here was far better than inside the house, as spatial energies were abundant in the area. The energies weren’t guided, or funneled to him, which reduced his efficiency, but he was still knocked out of his focused state several times before he adapted.
The spatial energies felt eerie within him like they were warping his pathways, and the shock and fear broke his concentration.
When he finally managed to keep his focus and maintain the method, he felt he improved by leaps and bounds as the hours passed.
He had noticed a few messages along the way, but they didn’t feel the same as the direct one he got that morning, so he ignored them in favor of maintaining his meditation, but he finally felt that message from the System and opened his eyes.
[Cultivation Method Harmony has reached 10%.]
[Cultivation Method Harmony has reached 20%.]
[Level up! You have reached level 2. 5 stat points awarded.]
[Cultivation Method Harmony has reached 30%.]
[Level up! You have reached level 3. 5 stat points awarded.]
[Level up! You have reached level 4. 5 stat points awarded.]
[Level up! You have reached level 5. 5 stat points awarded.]
[Mission list will unlock in ten minutes. Please make your way to the main square.
Mark stood up, feeling the tremor in his legs as he wiped the sweat from his brow. It was incredibly tiring, but it got easier as his Harmony increased. He was a bit surprised that he gained levels by doing this, as the method had said it was priming him for leveling, but he figured it might just be something about the purity of the energies or something.
He opened his status to look at his progress.
He had 20 free points, which he could allocate to his stats, and he thought about where to place them as he left his house.
He needed more mana, which meant Intelligence and Wisdom, according to the knowledge granted by the System, but he didn’t think 20 points would let him use Void magic enough to get by, which meant he needed something else.
He had little faith in the pure mana, as it was pretty weak, and if he wanted to use another element, he needed to gain some understanding of them, and he didn’t think he’d have time for that. He didn’t really want another element either, as the cultivation method implied that it would be bad if he mixed the energies.
His cultivation method was purely about spatial magic and the concepts connected to it.
But, after thinking for a while, he realized that his stat line was absurd. His bonuses were great, and his physical stats were far higher than they should be. Rather than pushing them up, he reconsidered and put half in Intelligence and half in Wisdom. Intelligence increased his total mana and how easy it was to concentrate his energies, while Wisdom increased his regeneration and efficiency. Wisdom would let him use less mana while manipulating the void energies, but he also needed the pure mental strength to mold and hold them.
Name: Mark Johnson
Race: Human(G)
Level: 5
Stats:
Strength: 35
Dexterity: 55
Endurance: 72
Intelligence: 81
Wisdom: 55
Free Points: 0
Truths:
* Space
* Void: +15 Dexterity, +25 Endurance, +20 Intelligence. +5% Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence.
* Movement
* Distance
Skills:
Mana Shaping
He got the impression that his body had started to adapt to his increased stats while he rested, and the meditation probably helped in that since he could feel his body working better. His movements were filled with far more strength than before, and he felt impossibly graceful compared to earlier.
He started jumping around, and doing some cartwheels, ignoring the people around him, who had also left their houses.
He had to admit it felt great, and he couldn’t wait to level up further, but before he could fantasize too long, he reached the square.
A bunch of blue-white crystals lined the outskirts of the square, but Mark’s attention was drawn to the stage as the elf reappeared.
“May I have your attention, please!” she said, still in her soft, far-reaching voice. “Today is the proper start of the Tutorial. After I am finished here, the crystals will activate, and you may choose a mission. Like the Introduction Trial, the missions will be temporally adjusted.”
That last sentence drew several “aah!”’s from the crowd, as most realized why they all appeared here simultaneously. The System had changed the flow of time, or something, within the corridor.
“While you can choose not to accept a mission, that is not advisable. The System does not look kindly to those who won’t seize an opportunity,” the elf continued. “Fear not, though, as not all missions require combat! There are missions tailored toward non-combat professions, though there will always be some risk, some danger, or challenge involved. If you choose not to take on a mission for four days, you will be removed from the Tutorial and left to your own devices on your planet, which is now experiencing significant growth. Monsters are being infused with power and potential, so I can assure you, it is far more dangerous, with far fewer rewards.”
Mutterings spread throughout the square as people despaired at being forced to take a mission, becoming hopeful at the non-combat options and fearful of what was happening on Earth.