I follow Samuel down to the confusing room and see him taking out one book after another from the book case, all of them at least as thick as my Forearm and as big as my head. There are easily twenty of these books pilled on the table when he finishes, he then grabs a metal ball the size of a basket ball.
"You will read these books, this metal ball is a mental practice control device if you get through one layer the next is more compact and has thinner and more complicated veins each layer, it's layers will come off when you complete it you will practice using this while studying the books to get used to high grade multi-tasking. The ball can only be used when studying these books as you have to send a small amount of mental energy into the books to open them which activates the opening lock for the ball. If either your studies or mental energy manipulation falls under acceptable levels the lessons will stop as I will view you as not ready." He says.
Nodding my head in acceptance of this I go to the only empty desk in the room and begin my first practice slash study session. I only have three hours left before sleep time and I want to get a head start while I am able to give my all still.
"Head back to your room to do that, you are each given separate rooms to allow practicing things you want, don't take up my limited space here." He shoos me out and I return to my room with a small mountain of books and a metal ball the size of a basketball. Spreading the books out on my bed and holding the metal ball in my arms on my lap I begin practice.
It is much harder than all my other practices until this point, it is near impossible to study the book and control my energy at the same time as mental energy has a certain aid in retaining information easier but using it while studying makes it have a near backwards affect making it near impossible to remember what I last read.
I spend 5 hours that night barely getting 5% through the first level and only 10 pages of a several thousand page book.
I spend the rest of the week coming back from the classes and immediately studying while practicing but by the time the next Sunday rolled around I am only 100 pages in and barely 20% of my way through the first layer.
Walking into the classroom at 4 o'clock that morning I prepare to be made to give up learning it until a later date as even the easiest assignment was simply almost impossible to me and there is almost no way I can pass any test he may have for me. I barely got passed the basic introduction and beginning of basic materials involved for a newcomer.
Seeing me walk in with a blank face he gets up and grabs a group of papers and sits them down along with a different metal ball.
Sitting myself down in front of them Samuel explains what to do.
"Like with studying you are to use your mental energy while also answering the questions on this paper, the end result for both will be combined to base the score and see if you will continue this class. You have until 9 O'clock to finish."
And so in silence I spent the next Five hours going over all the questions as slowly as possible while working my way through the metal ball.
I Know far more then I thought I would as it is a test made for only the first chapter most likely, while I can only get through 15% of this different ball on the first try. I know this is only the first test but it makes me feel a little less bad about how horrible I am going to do and how I will no longer be able to continue.
I see him come over and take both the ball and the paper to grade, only ten minutes he comes back with the paper.
"You will be continuing your studies it seems, most people try and cheat the studying part by studying and doing the metal ball separately but they fail to realize that responding with complex information while using mental energy is just as difficult as when you try and study while using it. Most fail because they try and cheat it or don't put in the effort. The base requirement for you at D-level is 10% for the mental ball and 20% for the written test on the first chapter." He smiles at me then continues.
"You got 15% on the mental ball and 30% on the written test over achieving in both, from this point forward you will continue studying until you can begin working as an apprentice here, you have as long as you need to complete the tutorial and I am sure you won't leave until you are in a stable position for this craftsmanship."
I feel myself relax as I realize I succeeded, I had no intention of slowing down my practice despite being ahead though so as to get the most from as little time a possible.
"You will be unable to take the books or ball out when you leave the tower so that will be your break day from this, all other times you are to keep up the practice if you keep up this pace by the end of a year in here you may be able to start helping me."
And so I spend the next 2 weeks in consistent studying and heavy work with no breaks in between.
With the first month passed we all leave the tower, it is afternoon the next day when we leave, meaning we had missed the morning classes but most of those who came out were either exhausted or slightly injured so no physical fitness class is likely to occur.
I see Thomas standing in front of the wait line for the return tram so I head to him, I can see his questioning look as the eyebags under my eyes are proof of my lack of proper sleep.
Most cultivators can go days with limited rest so to come out this tired means an extreme lack of sleep and energy in ones body. I have not experience a need to sleep this bad due to not sleeping at all since inside the slime caves, as Lucien has always made sure I rested and took my health seriously.
I get on the train with Thomas and return to our rooms to promptly collapse on my bed and sleep, the past month has been nothing but work and no more than 2 hours asleep at night while doing high intensity mental energy use everyday.
I had truly gotten the most out of my month in the tower, shoring up my biggest weakness of lacking in obscure information.
Waking up early the next morning I go to classes and find that it is easier to study then before, not to say I was dumb before on the contrary I was more intelligent due to my high mental energy but now it was like even if I took a nap I could say word for word what the teacher had told us and answer the questions despite only having seen an example once.
I had increased my ability to retain information to an extraordinary level.
Realizing I don't need to pay to much attention I decide to doze off through the rest of my classes until lunch rolled around.
Once we go to the gymnasium we see the teacher and wait for the rest to show up, once everyone is here the teacher begins to talk. "Every other day is when you will be in the tower while you will also be required to remain passing grade in both physical aspects as well as in theory classes if either slip you will lose your ability to enter the tower, you will be tested once a week for theory classes and once every 3 months for physical."
With that said we begin to work out, the tutorial floor is all about energy control so making it so your body is stuck still while your mind runs faster is fine but from the 1st floor to tenth floor some emphasizes is also place on physique so it goes from one month to a day to a week a day and from tenth floor on it is one to one as both is needed in large amounts the further you go.
So although no ones physical strength has increase there is at treadmill and obstacle course is clear to see as less injuries and mess was on each of them, most people only stay a month on the tutorial floor at our school as that is when the first advancement test takes place so all those able to enter will be guaranteed to pass.
But I will remain until I get all that I can out of the tutorial stage before heading, months to refine your energy control with no aging is a massive advantage if used correctly.
And so the next 6 days are spent going to classes one day and spending a month in the tutorial stage the next day, I am finally able to begin helping Samuel sort out items in preparation for his forging as I am now half way through the first book and have enough basics to know what goes with what.
Energy forging is an imperative part of machine making, advance blacksmithing, even alchemy needs items made using it as some of there tools need certain elements attached to them to have proper affect.
It is an imperative part of many advanced creation techniques and has high requirements for even the smallest things as you need to use your mental energy to meld together completely different items while categorizing large amount of information so as to see every little shift or change to make the melding as perfect as possible.
Each item has slight differences and if you don't take that into account it could blow up in your face, it is why you need to be able to multitask both learning and energy control as you need to both control energy and study the items reaction at the same time.
I am still not even ready for the easiest forging of a fire ingot that requires you to forge a still hot freshly pressed iron ingot before combining it with a highly compatible Fire energy crystal.
It is a high compatibility item but I have yet to get all the way through the first layer of the metal ball while completing the tests so am not yet good enough for it, but I am getting ever closer by the sixth month mark I should be able to make my first attempt.
It will take me an entire month to perform that one attempt so it will be slow crawling if I mess it up.
And so another four days in the world passed, another 2 months in the tower. I am ready to begin my first energy forge attempt of a fire ingot and cannot deny my excitement at this, some others have also begun to try and join but can't even pass the starting line.
I fail the first attempt.
A total of 24 days outside since I first began the tutorial and a year in there I succeed in making my first fire ingot.
Two months world time into my stay on the tutorial floor and I have made two more fire ingot and three earth ingots after perfecting the fire ingot. I am now to advance in my academy theory classes and have heard all the teachers tell me to try and skip forward but I would rather finish off this semester then test out as I want to leave the tutorial floor before spending an entire week testing myself if I can go forward a grade so I consistently decline.
After 6 months in our world time and 90 months or 7.5 years in the tutorial section and I have finally been promoted from newbie to official low level craftsmen, most don't get it until they are thirty-five but I am getting it at seventeen.
The first semester is over and I plan to leave the tutorial next time I enter, it is time to test myself and see how far I can skip grades now.