I looked up, seeing that the world itself had shattered. Thousands of cracks and splits, and a tornado of energy engulfing the universe. In this moment, the tornado swallowed me up, and threw me far away.
It was then, I came into being.
I woke up in a strange and unfamiliar place. Well, I couldn't think of a familiar place so I guess everything was unfamiliar. It was a circular room made of stone bricks. Like I was in a medieval tower. In front of me were two gates. One was in clean pristine condition. Highly guarded with shiny bars blocking me from entering the gate.
The other gate was old and worn down, and was made out of rotting wood. It seemed I could just break it in one punch. However, I felt like I shouldn't. Was that normal?
I just shrugged and turned my attention to the other aspects of this room. I saw some sort of reception desk, and there were chairs and couches to sit on. Like it was a waiting room. How ridiculous. Who would want to wait in here? There was stairs leading up to the the floor above me. I wondered what could be up there,
In the end, curiosity overwhelmed me and I walked up the stairs just to see. It was another floor which was slightly smaller than the one I was just on. Before I entered into the room, there was a huge number labelled "2" right before the entrance.
This probably referred to the floor number.
"Two? Was there a one label back there?" I murmured to myself. Talking to myself seemed to alleviate the loneliness. Where was everyone?
I quickly got back on track and checked out the contents of the 2nd Floor. It was some sort of training room. An amalgamation of training rooms. By training rooms I meant training the mind and body.
There were dummies and swords stacked neatly on the wall, and there was a library that seemed to be cleaned everyday.
I picked up the sword and a strange message appeared before me. It was some sort of 2D window. But with text inside of it.
[Wooden Sword (Common)
Durability: 10/10
Attack: 1 - 3
EXP Multiplier: 1%
Remarks: The standard beginner sword for those in the tutorial. Very low quality. Even the multiplier is very low. This is only slightly more educational than swinging your fists around.]
I must've been transported inside a RPG game. How do I even know what an RPG is? I swung it casually and another message popped up.
[+1 Swordsmanship EXP]
Then I swung again.
[+1 Swordsmanship EXP]
And again.
[+1 Swordsmanship EXP]
[+1 Swordsmanship EXP]
[+1 Swordsmanship EXP]
...
I accidently lost myself in swinging my sword. I only stopped when a different message had popped up.
[Swordsmanship Level: 2 has been obtained]
By that time the sword has broke in half. I didn't see any disposal anywhere, so I just moved it to the side. I looked at the books in the library next. The training grounds soon transitioned into smooth wood planks. It wasn't seamless, mind you.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I picked up a book casually and read the cover.
"Beginner Fire Magic Techniques"
I easily accepted that fire magic existed so I started reading the book.
[+1% Comprehension]
Then that appeared. I wondered what the percentage was counting at.
[Beginner Fire Magic Theory: 1%]
Oh, how convenient. I continued to read the book until I finished it, by then my Beginner Fire Magic Theory was at 56%. It seems I couldn't comprehend the entire book. Either that, or the book was incomplete. So I spent the next... Err, I would say hour, reading this book.
There was no sense of time here. I couldn't tell if an hour had passed, or if it had been a day yet. I simply continued reading. I read and read. However, after my comprehension had hit 89%, it had not moved since. I read the book 20 times in a row after that, and I didn't comprehend a single thing.
So, I put the book back into the shelf and forgot about it. The meter that used to count my comprehension percentage also went away. I wandered the library a bit, before I found stairs that led to the 3rd Floor. So I just went up the stairs and and found myself at the 3rd Floor.
The 3rd Floor was a big open room, that was completely empty. There were no tables, desks, chairs, nothing,
Except, for one thing.
A big timer that floated in the middle of the room.
24:18:59:03
24:18:59:02
24:18:59:01
24:18:58:59
...
I watched the timer go down, and wondered endlessly. What could that timer be for? I couldn't find my answer. I couldn't do anything in this room, so I went back down to the 2nd Floor.
I picked up another book called 'Beginner Earth Magic Techniques' and read the full book in one sitting. Due to already knowing elemental theory of magic from 'Beginner Fire Magic Techniques', I attained 34% in 'Beginner Earth Magic Theory' on my first try.
However, now that I knew a way to tell time, I went back up to the 3rd Floor just to see how long I was reading for.
24:09:29:44
That was longer than I expected. The book was only 600 pages, how could I have wasted so much time? Whatever, 9 hours is still better than reading for an entire day. I could just read to pass the time until the timer reaches zero.
Instead of picking up the earth book again, I found another interesting book.
"Beginner Fundamentals of Magic"
It seemed every book in this library was 'Beginner' for some reason. Where was some of the advanced stuff? Despite not having advanced books, I was still thankful to have this. I feel like comprehending this book would help a lot with the other theories.
[+1% Comprehension]
[+1% Comprehension]
[+1% Comprehension]
...
I peaked at 98% comprehension. I just needed one last breakthrough. I knew the material that I didn't understand. It had something to do about absorption of mana through the Mana Pond which I couldn't wrap my head around. It never once explained Mana Pond in this book. So I simply looked around the library looking for the word Mana Pond.
I couldn't found an exact book just for it, but I did find some worthy canidates.
"Mana Exercises: Volume 1"
"Mana Shaping Techniques"
"Mana Core, Mana Tree, and Other Reimagining: The Sequel"
For the last one, I couldn't find the prequel. So, I started off with 'Mana Exercises: Volume 1' first. That was a mistake. It wasn't educational in the slightest. Maybe it was, but not in the area I was looking for. It told it's teachings the form of a story book.
Jarl was looking for someone to do Mana Exercises with. He ends up getting 12 woman to do it with him. Their were some obstacles here and there, but the Mana Exercising thing was not what I was expecting.
Next was 'Mana Shaping Techniques' and I quickly speed read through the book. I ended up at 28% comprehension simply because it didn't explain where I could store the mana inside. I was assuming the Mana Pond is where I would store it.
The last book was 'Mana Core, Mana Tree, and Other Reimagining: The Sequel' and a section detailed exactly what I was looking for. The Mana Pond.
Finally, I went back to 'Beginner Fundamentals of Magic' and finished the last 2%!
[New Skill Obtained! Beginner Fundamentals of Magic.]
[Beginner Fundamentals of Magic Lvl. 1 (101%)]
Strange how the percentage was still there. It even went up by 1%.
I just ignored it and went back to "Beginner Fire Magic Theory" and actually managed to get up to 96%. The missing 4% was just out of my reach. I realized that I needed to learn "Beginner Water Magic Theory" because water was the opposing element of fire.
I soon fished it out and got to 99% comprehension. This time, I didn't know what I was missing. So I went back to the fire book and understood the last 4%.
[New Skill Obtained! Beginner Fire Magic]
[Beginner Fire Magic Lvl. 1 (100%)]
[Due to having the skill "Beginner Fire Magic" you learn the skill "Firebolt"]
[Firebolt Lvl. 1]
That was another pleasant surprise. I soon found out that I could summon a bolt of fire and shoot it at my desired target. I completely roasted a dummy with that. Upon doing that though...
[+2% Proficiency]
[Firebolt Lvl. 1 (2%)]
Seeing my future, I couldn't help but get more excited. What could the future hold for me? I wouldn't know. I soon learned the earth book completely.
[New Skill Obtained! Beginner Earth Magic]
[Beginner Earth Magic Lvl. 1 (102%)]
Then yada yada, another skill was obtained.
[Earth Shot Lvl. 1 (3%)]
It generated a bunch of dirt and rocks and shot it at a high speed on my desired target. It was completely blunt damage. I also wanted to learn the water techniques as well.
Just before I left to go learn my water techniques, I checked the 3rd Floor to see how much the timer has progressed.
07:01:39:54
Just one more week...