“Ah, of course, though I can’t do it for free. One hour of privacy is 100 credits.”

“Haah, alright, fine.” Mark accepted the transfer request, and the surroundings grew blurry and muted.

“Alright… Uhh,” Mark scratched the back of his head, considering how to pose his question, but eventually decided to be blunt about it. “Why is this so easy?”

The elf’s brows rose.

“Easy? How do you mean?”

“I got two Insights and a Concept when we all appeared in the square, and last night I did the same. It shouldn’t be that easy, right? I don’t know why, but I get the feeling that something is off.”

The elf’s eyes widened, and he muttered something Mark couldn’t hear.

“Ah! I see. I can understand the confusion, and you are correct; it usually isn’t that easy. There can be many explanations, but the most likely is that your affinity for your Truth is very high. Looking through my logs, I can also see that you have received some significant boons, so the System may consider you a potential talent to nurture.”

“What does that mean? A potential talent to nurture?”

“Well, the System is mysterious in many ways, as we still haven’t learned its purpose, but the leading theory is that it wants to create powerful individuals. For what cause, we don’t know,” the elf spoke as he looked down on a crystal slate. “As for nurturing you. It will grant you opportunities and rewards but also far greater challenges. The true challenges won’t appear in this Tutorial, but once you are back in the real world, the System will give you harder tasks.”

“So, even the True Challenge difficulty wouldn’t be considered a proper challenge?”

“Well, yes, and no. They are designed to push you forward. You usually have to push yourself past your limits, gain Insight, or accomplish something new to prevail.”

Mark took some time to let that sink in, but the elf spoke up before he could ask something else.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you much more due to certain restrictions, but I can give you one hint; don’t ignore your Insights. They may provide further benefits.”

The privacy barrier dropped immediately after the elf finished, and Mark noticed the other people had already left.

The elves behind the desks all looked down on their slates, seemingly ignoring him, so Mark left the building.

I can gain more from the Insights I’ve already gained, huh?

Mark walked over to the mission crystal and immediately picked another True Challenge.

The world shifted around him, and he saw an endless, black space, and he was floating in an orb of energy, which was floating in space.

[Escape]

Mark shook his surprise at not getting a combat challenge and started thinking about how to escape.

His fist slammed into the orb, but it didn’t budge; he only hurt his fist.

He tried using his new Insights and Concept, and small cracks appeared in space around him, but the barrier held firm, and blinking out didn’t work either. No energy he sent out could pierce the barrier.

Hours passed without any progress, and Mark was starting to despair.

He leaned on the barrier and tried to push himself through. He infused his body with energy, hoping to make himself stronger, but it only caused wounds to open up on his arms,

“FUCK!” he shouted, filling his hands with spatial energy, and slammed his palms into the orb.

Ripples appeared on the orb, spreading from the point of impact, and Mark’s eyes widened. He saw sigils or runes in the waves, which resonated with him. He didn’t understand them but knew they were related to his magic.

He repeated the process, filling his palms with unshaped spatial mana, and pushed it into the shimmering wall.

This kept up for hours, and he was progressing, but something was wrong. Mark felt he was weakening like he was being drained somehow.

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Eleven hours had passed before he made a breakthrough. He was barely hanging on, his breathing was strained, and his hands were shaking, and Mark knew he didn’t have long. He’d spent hours inspecting the runes and felt he understood some of them.

He took a deep breath and started channeling the remainder of his energies.

He focused and shaped his mana into a series of runes that he believed dealt with keeping the barrier whole but changed them slightly.

He had learned that the runes in the orb changed if he attacked it, while he could see them like they were adapting to the damage he dealt, and that is what he now tried to take advantage of.

His runes would hopefully force a gap in the orb, which he could use to escape.

He felt his reserves drop precipitously, but he held on, and just as the dizziness set in, the runes were finished.

A ring of runes surrounded his right hand as he lay his palm on the barrier. He felt a pulse go through the orb, and a large hole appeared. Mark wasted no time and leaped through.

The moment he passed through, the world shifted, and he found himself back in the square. Relief spread through his mind, and he took a deep breath as messages appeared.

[You have passed the trial, calculating rewards.]

[Cultivation Method expanded.]

[Challenge tier(4)*2000 credits awarded.(8000)]

[Returning to Tutorial Space.]

No new skill, but he had gained a deeper understanding of his Mana Shaping skill, which was likely the point of the trial. He had also improved his Cultivation Method and gained a large chunk of credits.

So far, he’d used raw mana infused with spatial energy and molded it slightly, but he now knew that was the most basic way to use it. He could do much more if he could learn and shape runes with his mana. He could create various effects and basically cast real spells.

He rushed to the bookstore and started looking around.

He found several books on runes, but they were expensive; over 5000 credits each, but he now knew they were worth it.

He still hadn’t finished his book on manipulating mana, but he might be able to make do with that and a book on runes.

He left the store 7000 credits poorer, as he had found a book called Basic and Intermediate Runes.

Not the most creative title, but according to the store vendor, it was a good book for learning the runes.

Returning to his house, he settled down to study, but he was distracted. The square was filled with people, and it looked like they were slowly adapting, but many still looked lost. What made him different? Why was it so easy for him to adjust to this new reality and gain the advancements he had?

He hadn’t been anything special before. He worked at a convenience store, filling shelves while taking some classes. He hoped to get into a decent college but needed the extra classes, as he hadn’t been the best student in high school.

Scraping by and pushing through sleepless nights was the norm, but he was by no means a genius. Countless people had coasted past him in academia, in everything really, so why was he racing ahead now?

He had been here for less than three days, and he had gained four Insights and two Concepts, and he felt like he could gain even more, relatively quickly, if he set his mind to it. Before gaining anything more, he wanted to consolidate a bit and make sense of what he already had before piling more on top.

Which meant he should probably hold off on the runework.

Mark sighed and put the book on a shelf before he headed back to his cultivation area.

For the next several hours, Mark practiced. He didn’t pursue any new Insights but worked on his two Concepts—fabric and Void.

With Void, he found that he could strengthen space around him, though his current Insights didn’t work too well with that. Void was better at tearing holes and bridging distances.

He found he could throw rocks, open a small hole, and make the stone appear at strange angles.

It took a lot of mana, and he couldn’t do much before he ran out, but Mark believed that with practice, he could improve his efficiency.

***

Days passed, and Mark passed the True Challenges. He cultivated and practiced but still refrained from pursuing any new Insights or Concepts.

The missions were demanding but ultimately passable. Mark fought monsters or solved puzzles relying on the Concepts he had gained; all the while, the others started to adapt as well.

Craftsmen had started setting up shop, fighters gained equipment, and after five days had passed since the Tutorial started, quite a few had passed the level ten threshold.

Mark held back, though; he wasn’t sure why. He felt that rushing it would harm him in the long run, so he kept going while staying at level nine.

However, he had found a way to advance from his Cultivation Method. He had to perform a specific meditation.

He had also learned quite a bit about cultivation in general.

His body was filled with energy, or essence, when he fought and defeated monsters. He could circulate his Method and integrate this essence into his pathways, which increased his levels. Certain thresholds required him to do specific things to break through, which he had learned was at level ten, fifty, and hundred. There were probably more, but no one had been able or willing to say.

Outside aid was seen as detrimental, which made him worry, as the System had helped him quite a bit, but he was assured that the System wouldn’t cripple him like that; he had apparently earned any aid from the System, so he didn’t need to worry.

Pushing to level ten required him to circulate and break open specific points on his body, which would let his body draw and expel a larger amount of energy. The level fifty threshold would require him to form something called a node, but he had no idea what that meant, and the level hundred one required him to build a core.

Those were all concerns for the future.

For now, Mark just kept pushing his body forward, trying to grasp anything he could before he made the push ahead.