Name: Meridin Zlodar.

Class: Nonstandard

Skills:

1) Summoning 10/10

Unlocks a special skill. Allows the summoning of creatures to aid the caster. Training time will be six weeks.

2) Mana Manipulation 5/10

One of the must-have skills of every magician. With its help one can sense and use the mana of the universe for his own purposes.

Training time: three weeks.

3) Absorbs life and magical energy from both living and dead opponents. 1/10

Unlocks a special necromantic ability. Vital and magical energy absorbed from newly dead opponents is far easier to absorb.

Training time: three days.

4) Merging with shadows and Light Manipulation 1/10

Unlocks a special ability. Training time: three days.

5) Meditation and Mysticism. 1/10

Unlocks a special ability. Training time: three days.

Starting Equipment.

1) Standard starter survival kit. Includes special super light but sturdy rope, two knives, small ax, clothing, tent, sleeping bag, large and very comfortable backpack, food and water in special magical disposable containers with reduced weight and volume. I had thirty servings of food and water each. A cooking kit and a small amount of salt and spices.

2) A crossbow, 50 crossbow bolts and tools for repair and maintenance. The bolts were pretty well made and could be used several times.

3) A book "The Key of Solomon" for beginners. It contains many techniques for summoning and controlling monsters. This was one of my most important purchases. Ordinary summoners didn't have a powerful book like this.

4) Extended Summoner Kit for beginners. Contains various candles, chalks, scrolls and inks.

5) A book describing various edible foods, common herbs and poisons. I was hoping it would help me in finding wild foods once I ran out of rations.

6) Book of the Beginner Alchemist. There were quite a few alchemical items in the shop. They were mostly samples and I couldn't unravel their secrets. However, their large quantity indicated that alchemy was going to be very important in the future of the game. As far as I understood, alchemy allowed different substances to be mixed, transferring the energies of various herbs and minerals, and also some of their unique alchemical properties. Alchemy also studies numerous different runes and magical formations.

7) Starter kit of common alchemical tools.

I wanted to start my alchemy studies early, but that wasn't going to be one of my priorities. Or so I hoped.

All this cost me a lot of points, and the gear barely fitted in my backpack. Don't even ask me where I kept my crossbow and arrows. Turns out there are skills you can only learn after you unlock them, and ones that anyone can learn. For example anyone could learn alchemy, but one had to unlock the special ability to absorb life and magical energy.

Most of my points and time training were invested in my summoning skills and mana manipulation. With the points that were left over, I just unlocked a few, in my opinion, good skills. I wasn't going to get much practice time for them, but I could always practice on my own in the future. My conversations with the tower spirit had revealed some interesting strategies involving my skill build and I was happy about my choices. Also, for better or for worse, most participants didn't have my skill count, focusing only on one or two things.

Two of my skills, that of absorbing energies from my opponents and that of Meditation and Mysticism were very important for my future development as a mage and summoner. I was hoping that the fact that I only had one point of training time invested in them would be enough to give me an idea of how to proceed with their development.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

With the few points I had left, I picked up the skill for "Merging with shadows and Light Manipulation". From the various pieces of information I had on it, I knew it was a rather difficult skill to perfect, requiring rather large amounts of mana and extremely precise mana control, but its potential for development was quite high.

The Book of Solomon has cost me close to seventy percent of my budget for items. The crossbow turned out to be a pretty cheap investment and I think it was a pretty good weapon. Those purchases left me without money for a shield and armor or extra food or some of the more special items. Like a small lamp that could glow for years, or a blanket that gave extra warmth or cold depending on the weather. My only regret was that I didn't have enough points for some shield and/or long spear.

***

Over three million people have disappeared from the face of the Earth. Simultaneously with the appearance of the towers, this was the main news that occupied humanity and the media. Numerous experts were gathered, and the armies of the various countries hastened to surround each tower. Scientists began to perform a number of experiments, basically trying to communicate or force entry into the towers. For now, however, their attempts remained completely fruitless.

Many high-level meetings took place and many parties decided to coordinate their efforts and share their results from the tower's investigation. International research units were set up and armies were put on high alert. People began stocking up on food supplies, and not surprisingly the stocks of toilet paper manufacturers skyrocketed. The German government suggested wearing paper masks, just in case.

Many religious leaders were quick to take advantage of the situation, and a few well-known philosophers decided to take opposite positions disagreeing violently, maligning each other in the popular press. Their video blogs gathered millions of subscribers in just a week, giving them fame, beyond their wildest dreams.

In general everything was normal. Except for the abnormals. They got a chance to express their myriad of controversial opinions and for once, people were giving them the attention they thought they deserved.

Shortly after, the two million people who had not accepted the challenge to explore the towers returned and revealed what they had learned there. Then the world began to talk about the fate of these one million "players" or "adventurers" on whom the fate of humanity would depend.

***

"Hello, participant, you're the first non-standard summoning related class I have seen so far." my instructor said. "My name is Nathan and I will be your summoning instructor. You have six whole weeks to practice your skills. Since this is a magic class, you must first learn to sense mana. Normally, this takes years, but we have prepared a special method to speed up this process hundreds of times. Still, it's up to you how fast you can succeed. Follow me."

I hurried to follow the instructor and soon we found ourselves in a clearing where a large circle was painted with many geometric shapes and intersecting lines, runes and strange symbols. Various candles burned with a pale mystical light in several locations in the magical formation, and a thick mist loomed three meters above the formation.

I looked at the formation and tried to imprint it in my memory. After all, it was the first time I had seen a working magic formation and I hoped to learn some of its secrets. The various geometric shapes and lines seemed to have some strange meaning. They somehow flowed into each other, and the runes and glyphs inscribed around them seemed exactly in place. Or at least that's what they looked like to me.

"Nathan, will it be possible for us Earthlings to make such formations in the foreseeable future?"

"I can't answer that question directly, but I'll try anyway. As far as I know, despite the almost complete lack of mana in your world, you have still invented various magical symbols, pentagrams, diagrams and seals and so on. Their effects have been quite weak, again, because of the almost complete lack of mana in your world."

The formation you see here is a continuation of what your ancient forefathers had started. Just as your "modern" technologies are descendants of what the natural philosophers started over 2000 years ago.

But if you do well in the game, your world will be rewarded with large amounts of mana. So using magic tools like this formation will be a near certainty. Exactly how far you get is up to you. “

Nathan added with a smile, "Maybe once I see how well you master the knowledge here, I can better answer your question."

He then briefed me for several hours on my upcoming contact with the mana and the workings of the formation, and finally took me to the center of the magical formation. When he came out of it, he made several quick magical hand gestures. The mist slowly descended and enveloped the magical apparitions. Visibility decreased and I finally couldn't see more than a meter in front of me.

"Close your eyes and begin to meditate as I instructed, then try to feel the mana around you." came Nathan's voice coming from all directions. "The mana in this formation is extremely pure and still, fresh and ready for absorption. Reach over and touch it, then slowly guide it to your skin. When enough mana touches your aura, the formation will activate and help you begin to control it."

I slowly closed my eyes and sat cross-legged on the ground. My persistence to meditate in the tower spirit hall, despite the lack of mana there, was now showing its results.

For example, I knew how to cross my legs and take a cool meditation pose. I could even stand like that for about 20-30 minutes! But unfortunately the current experience had nothing to do with that.

I really started to feel something different. It was as if a new sense I've always had slowly began to awaken. Nathan had explained to me that this incredible achievement was thanks to the complex formation I was in, and most importantly the towers themselves. They were incredibly sophisticated technology and their capabilities were amazing.

The resources that were spent on these procedures for all one million players were astronomical in scale, but the investors were galactic in nature.