"What are you doing here Meridin!!!" the disappointed voice of Nathan greeted me. "I thought you were better than that!"
"I, I..." my voice was shaking and I didn't know what to say.
"You got the maximum training in summoning. Until you get more mana, you won't be able to summon stronger creatures! You should have chosen to improve one of your other skills!"
I looked at Nathan uncomprehendingly. "So he wasn't talking about my other choice, which I didn't make?"
"As for the bonus the others could get... What was it?" I asked apprehensively. "Did I miss a lot by not choosing it?"
"Oh that thing? Who can say. Bonuses of that sort are usually random. Let's not waste any more time. You'll have time to think about it after you get out of here. Since this is a special reward, you have five whole weeks to improve your skills. But since you don't meet the criteria for advancement, you won't be able to go through the special procedures provided for more advanced skills. Time spent here will not affect your time in the tutorial. For you, five weeks will have passed, and for the outside world, less than a second. And now, since we're not following a standard plan for your advancement, I'll just take you to the library."
Nathan led me through the woods and I soon found myself in another cave that housed a huge room filled with books.
"As this is a special training session in the coming weeks you will have access to the first level of the library. You have a few days to choose what you want to train. Then we'll start your training. Also, from here on out, all training, with a few exceptions, are optional. That is, you can choose not to listen to my instructions, or even opt out of them altogether. There is even the option to spend the remainder of the time in one of the special recreation areas."
"Yeah sure, who not, like I would spend my precious training time in some recreation place," I thought to myself sarcastically.
"I'll check out the books first, thanks." I replied.
Nathan then left me alone. Before he left, he waved his hand, and in one corner of the cave appeared a bed, a huge table piled with food and drinks, a large desk, chairs, and a small meditation area. I glanced at the table and noticed the aromatic coffee at one end. But then I noticed the herbal tea from Nathan's gardens.
"Thank you." I said quietly and moved over to the tea.
The combination of herbs in the tea had a very calming effect and helped greatly with concentration. The first part of the special mix helped my body to cleanse the different arteries and neural paths in my brain, similarly to a good rest or a short meditation, and the second part balanced the energies in my body, allowing me to concentrate on my work without any worries.
After about 10 minutes of rest, I sipped my remaining tea and headed for the books. I took one and started reading. It was a book written by a mage summoner in another, not particularly developed world, in which he described his experiences as a summoner and an Imperial Court official. Something of a biography. I put it down and picked up a second book, shortly followed by a third, fourth and fifth. I spent over an hour flipping through various books. I wanted to find out what this library had to offer.
Gradually all my worries left me and I concentrated deeply on my work. One by one I took out various books and tried to compile a mental catalog of the books in the cave. Sometimes I spend 10 minutes with a book, sometimes more. My enthusiasm did not diminish with time and I continued my work late into the night, stopping only for a brief snack here and there.
I quickly found out that summoners used their mana to not only summon creatures, but to improve their potency. Even though the amount of mana I had wasn't large, and my control wasn't the best, I started summoning creatures and doing various analysis experiments with them.
In addition, many of the books talked about different magical seals that could be used to enhance summoned creatures. Most of them required special materials and huge amounts of mana and perfect mana control to prepare and place, but some of the books contained simpler ones suitable for beginners.
I was constantly taking notes, both on the various enhancement techniques, seals and so on, and anything else interesting I came across in the books. For example, I found many interesting strategies and tricks for using creatures, as well as strange magic formations and summoning techniques that were not in Solomon's book.
Also, I found out that our situation in the tutorial was very beneficial. We had access to a very mana rich environment allowing me to summon strong creatures like my bear. Not all of the authors had such luck in their worlds.
The time passed imperceptibly and when Nathan showed up later on the second day I explained my plan to him.
"I'm thinking of staying longer at the library. I'll try to learn simple magic seals to enhance my summoned creatures and then I'll study the paths other summoners have taken and determine the techniques I like."
"Are you sure?" asked Nathan as he gave me a quizzical look.
"Yeah, totally. Besides, as you said it yourself, my strength is still insufficient to go through the special training to advance my summoning skills. "
"That's right," my instructor agreed, "but that doesn't mean your skills are perfect. For example, if we focus on your training during our remaining time, we can greatly improve your synchronicity with summoned creatures, as well as your control over them."
"That..is a really good idea, I will definitely set aside time to improve my control over the creatures. But I am sure I'll accumulate a lot of currency units quickly and be able to afford more training time with you. For now though, I want to learn as much as I can about the theories here."
"Okay, whenever you have questions you can look me up in my garden."
After those words, Nathan recommended a couple of books to me and shortly before he left he asked:
"Why do you need power, Meridin?"
"I.. I'm not sure I have a reason." I replied as I lowered my head slightly. "And I don't think I have any special 'need' for power."
"And why are you working so hard to get it?"
"I don't think I have a specific answer to that. Aren't all of us looking for power?"
"Haha, Meridin, you're still young. Does anyone need water without being thirsty? Did we invent bows and arrows without having predators? Take a better look at yourself, my friend. Find what drives you to do what is right."
Nathan's words made me think deeply and I didn't even notice when my instructor left the room. The hot tea I had made was getting cold, but I paid it no mind. "Perhaps the ancient sages are right. Maybe everyone should learn to better understand themselves and achieve inner peace. Maybe that's the only way I can reach the heights of my magic and make the most of the towers' incredible opportunities."
I spent most of my remaining days in the library. I studied the various mysteries of the summoning art and practiced the aspects available to me for which I had the necessary amounts of mana or control. Many possibilities for my future development opened up before me, and I learned from the life experiences of thousands of genius summoners. A bold plan for my future development began to form in my head and I felt the immense potential this place had given me.
Every day we had discussions with Nathan, either about summoning or training or any number of other topics. On several occasions we were visited by the tower spirit, who even had me show what I had learned and how far my manta control extended.
Both he and Nathan often criticized me and shook their heads while I tried to do some of the more complicated exercises these two sadists threw onto me. However, I was happy here and didn't want my time here to end anytime soon.
The "Garden," as I called Nathan's training space, had all sorts of plants and animals. When I wanted a break from the hard work, I played with some of them.
Most of the creatures paid me no mind, but although some avoided me, none of them acted hostile or attacked me.
Sometimes various funny moments would happen, especially when I surprised one of them or they surprised me.
I remember at the end of the first week, Nathan took me to one of the training grounds and had me summon a small creature - kind of like a rat, only with more legs and a very ugly snout.
While we were summoning the creature, he had me pay special attention to some of the diagrams and symbols in the summoning formation, and despite my protests that I already knew the theory, he again explained their meaning in detail.
We then summoned the creature, but changed some of the symbols from earlier. This way he illustrated how they affected the summoning process.
"Also, you can build a variety of magic seals and place them on the summoned creatures. You must then use your mana to activate and control the seals. This way you can make a creature stronger(here the instructor showed me some magic seals) or faster(new seals) or even harden its skin for a moment(other seals) or even improve its injuries regeneration when possible."
Nathan explained to me that there's a whole science on how to enhance the various aspects of summoned creatures, but my lack of mana makes that impossible. I could only power the simplest and most superficial seals, and even that took a huge chunk of my mana. All of this was already known to me, but I listened patiently, and thanks to that I learned something new every now and then.
"With your mana levels, after you summon a creature, you'll need to spend at least that much more time putting a few basic seals onto it to vaguely increase its strength and speed. You'll have to refill them with mana periodically, and that will reduce your ability to use your mana for other things."
"I know there are other ways to improve strength or speed for someone," I said. "Most of the martial classes I met in the tutorial island had practiced such skills. They directly used their mana ..."
"I understand what you're talking about and let me interrupt you right now. Look at this creature." Nathan said and waved his hand at the creature.
This caused the rat's body to become somewhat transparent, and its mana channels to be distinctly and clearly visible. I could see the rat's mana circulating in its body.
"Wow, that's cool!" I said with excitement.
"Now look at this creature." Here Nathan grunted a few hand gestures and a summoning formation appeared on the ground and then another tiny creature materialized in its center. Something like a lizard. Nathan made its body become transparent again. "Do you see the vast differences between the creatures' channels? In order to achieve what your martial classes do, you need to know each of the summoned creatures very well, have a tool to find their individual development and of course know how the anatomy of each creature works. Not to mention that you need very precise mana control. Additionally, if you try to influence creatures directly with your mana, your mana can be snatched away or cause multiple unwanted reactions in the creature's body. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you're too early for such attempts. That's what those magic seals are for. Although they are much more ineffective, they do their job nonetheless.
"How interesting... And can I put similar seals on myself? So can I give myself more power or speed on my own?"
"You can, but there's no particular need. Question these warriors of yours and find out more about their training."
The past weeks, besides my knowledge, have increased the mana in my body. Every day I meditated diligently and drank Master Nathan's teas. I could feel my mana getting stronger and my control slowly progressing.
Eventually, however, the five weeks passed and after one last training session and a long lecture on how to continue my future development, we said our goodbyes and I found myself back on the tutorial island.
"And don't come back until you have increased your mana cultivation!" Were the last words my teacher said.
In this month with Nathan, I have been able to learn a lot about the other classes as well. I figured that as time goes on, martial classes will get better at managing their mana. They will become stronger, faster, and more accurate. My summoning skills gave me an advantage in the beginning, but I would have to work very hard to keep up with the martial classes.
As I reflected on the past few days I started to draw a summoning formation. I wanted to summon my bear, but this time I had to make the formation considerably more complicated in order to include my new seals. As the bear heard my summoning and came from the other planes, tempted by the magic of the ritual, I activated the new seals and they quickly entered its body, improving its speed and strength. After that, I had to do the same with my Imp, and after I successfully increased its characteristics I loaded the body of the miniboss onty my bear and started the long way to the human camp.