Early in the morning, they left their hotel after settling the bill, and headed straight for the tutorial. They arrived at the location two hours later. What they faced was a pretty big tower, probably ten stories high, Lucas estimated. That was definitely the tower John had mentioned. They could see it from pretty far away too, and its architecture stood out among the other buildings, being round and going pretty far up in the sky, despite only having ten floors. Confirming it was the place they was looking for, they didn’t hesitate and walked inside.
A counter and two receptionists were waiting for them as soon as they entered. The hall seemed small at first glance, but Lucas didn’t dwell on it too much.
“Welcome to the Tower! Did you come here to do the Ten Floor Challenge or the tutorial?” a thirty-year-old man, with a pretty remarkable moustache, greeted them. Lucas remembered John mentioning that the tower also hosted a challenge, but he had almost forgotten.
“The tutorial,” Aysha answered for them.
“Very well,” the man replied. “Come with me, please,” he said and left the counter, leaving the other receptionist alone while he led them through a door on the right side of the building.
They passed through an elevator hall that looked more like an airport hall due to its size. It had quite a few people there, which Lucas guessed were waiting to participate in the challenge, all in line in front of an elevator door. Almost all of them were talking very excitedly with each other, making it seem that the challenge was the main event of the Tower and not the tutorial.
All of them are carrying weapons, Lucas realized, which further stirred his curiosity about that challenge. However, the man guiding them didn’t stop and went straight through the passage on the other end, which turned out was a staircase that lead downwards.
After two flights of stairs, on the underground, they saw a massive room filled with what looked like photo booths. Lucas had no idea what to expect from this tutorial since he hadn’t heard much about it from John except that it existed, but that was not something he could have imagined. They paused to take it in, but seconds later they realized that the receptionist hadn’t stopped and quickly followed him.
After going through a few rows of booths, Lucas had already grasped the concept. There were people inside them, sitting still with helmets on. At least it looked like helmets, but he imagined it was some sort of virtual reality device since they weren’t moving. The man finally stopped at two empty booths and turned to them.
“The tutorial is pretty simple. You’ll go into that booth and place the neural device on your head. Doing that will activate the simulacrum reality, where a teacher will walk you through the classes and teach you the basics if you desire. When you are ready to pick your class, all you need to do is say that you want to leave. When you leave the tutorial, the System will present you with your choices. Any questions?”
It seemed pretty straightforward, so they both entered their booths straight away, and the man left. Lucas placed his neural device on his head and felt a jolt run through his body. A second later, he found himself in a huge gymnasium. The feeling was no different from him actually being there, which was a bit disturbing even if he was prepared for it.
There was an elderly man in front of him who looked a lot like one of those kung fu masters you see in movies. He was wearing a black and white robe, with long white hair tied up in a bun. His white beard reached his chest, with his eyebrows seeming like an extension of it somehow. He seemed to be in a trance and didn’t move or say anything.
Lucas looked around and saw a variety of weapons spread across the wall behind him. He turned to look at the old man again.
“Hi…”
“This is the tutorial, and I’ll be your teacher,” the man said suddenly. “There are four main classes that most people receive when they start their journey in the multiverse. They are: Light Warrior, Heavy Warrior, Archer, and Mage. There is also a possibility of a variant class appearing in your class selection, but it is a very rare occurrence, so we will only be covering the four main ones.”
He finished his speech and remained silent for some time. Lucas was about to say something when the man started again.
“Which class do you want to learn about?” he asked, and added, “Keep in mind that my time is valuable.”
Lucas wanted to ask what was an NPC in such a hurry for, but something told him not to provoke that old man.
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“I want to learn about the Mage and Light Warrior classes only,” Lucas replied.
Lucas had thought about it on the way here, and he believed those were the classes that suited him best. He would need a high Toughness if he wanted to follow the Heavy Warrior class, and that just wasn’t something he could focus on. With the exchange rate being 1-3 to every point in Toughness, he could never imagine himself wasting so many points there, only to be average in the end.
No, it would be better to pick a class that better suited his talents, and on that front, he had two options. The first was Mage, due to his death aura and the possibility of reaching the Necromancer class later on, and the second was the Light Warrior, which matched the way he had been fighting so far, relying heavily on his Agility.
“Alright. Let’s first start with the Mage class then. Mana is something almost every class and being can use; you only need to know how. The mage, however, uses mana manipulation as its primary source of power. The first thing any mage has to do when they start their journey is to learn to feel the mana running inside themselves. Close your eyes.”
Lucas took a moment to realize the old man was talking to him and closed his eyes.
“Now, focus on your body. Mana is like the blood running through your veins. It doesn’t stay in a single place; instead, it flows through your body in a fluid motion.”
Lucas searched for what the old man was talking about. He had done something similar when looking for the death aura in his body, but this time it was different. The death aura, he realized, was something that stood out easily due to its properties; it was death in the middle of a body full of life, so it was relatively easier to find. That was probably the reason he had found the origin of the death aura and not the life aura.
However, this time he had to find something that had been in his body ever since he arrived at the System and never really noticed… or was it there before the System also?
Focusing, Lucas tried to feel his blood running through his veins. If it were before the System, that would’ve been impossible, but now his senses were much more acute, and he started to feel it. After a few minutes of feeling the blood, he felt something else; he wasn’t sure but it seemed like a different and more condensed substance was also running through his body—right next to his veins, or was it inside? It was hard to tell, but that definitely seemed like the thing the old man had mentioned. It was a substance that, once he finally noticed it, became hard to miss. Furthermore, it was definitely different from the rest of the things in his body, and it made him wonder how he had never noticed it before.
He opened his eyes.
“I can feel it,” Lucas answered.
The old man nodded and pointed to the wall behind him. “Pick one of the staves on that wall.”
Lucas complied, choosing a very simple one made of wood with a crystal on top. When he returned to the other, the old man said:
“The staff is a very standard weapon for mages, and they work as a mana channels. A good staff in the hands of a skilled mage will amplify and condense the mana leaving their body, and produce whatever spell the mage is able to create. Of course, mana has many other uses besides casting spells, but I believe it’s a good exercise for anyone trying to learn about the Mage class to cast a simple spell, known as a fireball.”
Immediately, Lucas thought about the old man he had found in the forest. When Lucas stumbled upon his group, the old man had cast that spell, aiming to catch him with his fireball. Had he learned this trick in the tutorial?
“The fireball is believed to be one of the oldest spells in existence due to its simplicity. This spell doesn’t require any prior knowledge or specific skill to be used. All you need to do is focus on the mana in your body, agitate it, and then condense it into the shape of a ball before launching it through your staff. Are you ready to give it a try?”
Hell yeah, I’m ready! Lucas thought, excitement coursing through him. This would be his first-ever spell, and he was eager to begin. However, problems started to appear soon after.
His instructor made the spell sound super simple, but the problem was that he had no idea how he should agitate his mana or anything like that. He had realized that he had much more control over his body now than before the System, thanks to his enhanced perception, but to go from that to controlling his mana was next level. How would he “agitate” something he didn’t even know was there a few seconds ago?
“Hey… sir, I’m not sure how I should agitate my…”
“If you can’t do this simple spell, maybe we should just move along to the Light Warrior class instructions,” the old man interrupted him sharply.
“What? I’m just saying…”
“That you are incapable of doing this simple task,” the old man completed his sentence placidly.
Is he messing with me? Lucas had never felt such a strong urge to punch an elder before, but he calmed down.
“This is not what I’m saying, I just don’t know how I should agitate the mana…”
“That’s easy, watch,” the old man said, and suddenly a fireball left his hand straight towards Lucas, who dove to the ground, barely avoiding getting burned to a crisp.
“What the hell are…” before he could finish cursing the old man, however, another fireball came his way, and he was forced to dodge again.
While he was dodging the fireballs that never stopped coming, Lucas noticed how he did the spell without a weapon. What was his actual level?
“Stop!” Lucas yelled.
“Use this anger to produce your fireball. I’ll give you two minutes. If you can’t make the fireball, I’ll start attacking again, and it will be faster this time.”
Lucas took this threat seriously. He had now realized that even if he wanted to beat the crap out of an annoying senior, he simply wasn’t capable of it. That person in front of him was not simple at all. So he grabbed his staff from the ground and started the process again after taking a deep breath.