Sitting with a goblin tied up he slowly controlled his mana around his body in the instinctual cycle he felt when he first felt it, he was curious why each of the attributes work and felt if he could figure out even a little bit his concept of using his mind the base for his energy will become easier but no matter what he couldn't seem to really tell where the difference between him and the goblin on the ground came from.
Nothing about how the energy felt was different and with the goblin fighting his energy he couldn't properly inspect it's energy pathways, and once dead it's energy became completely tainted.
So all he can do is try his thoughts with himself as the basis and so far nothing can work as he tried to control the energy to fuse with certain elements and it couldn't, so he thought it may be the energy he used is innately different so tried to see if he can't manipulate the goblins own energy to do it but found that although he can slightly manipulate the things mana he can't make it really leave it's body so that is out for now.
Each attempt was crossed off making him look through all the books he has been able to get to try and figure out how it worked but nothing really stood out as it was all the most basic thing so he scraped this thought train for after he merging as he should have better control by that point.
Leaving him once more stuck at his problem of not being able to merge mana with it, and now his one lead was dead in the dust.
He continued to kill waves and study his books as the days passed, he soon lost track of time as though no time was passing without him even realizing. He looked at the new book he had bought using the coins from his killing the cheapest dwarven book that explained their personal type of cultivation that used the energy from within stones and metals to increase the purity of their mana and give their mana unique attributes based on the stone like adamantium is extremely good at shields and Mithril is for those that use both magic and physical attacks like a mana swordsman.
Despite sounding similar it is very different then the one the tower gives out as it gives a far wider controllable mana growth style, they can even know their unique attribute to an extent because of it.
I wonder how different the other cultivation styles for humans are as it is clear just a small alteration of where the energy is from lets one alter the outcome so their must be other aspects that also affect it, reading the book on the basics of cultivation he noticed it did go on about making sure the item used is compatible like using water steel for a fire person is ill advised so although some freedom is gained it still restricts based on ones innate talent like ours.
I look to the books on dwarven specialty and see a basic forging book, looking through all he is able to buy he finds a basic anvil with basic hammer along with some low grade unprocessed iron, he had all the basics if you add the mana forge that is is only big enough for a dagger like the rest of the items I can buy for forging.
I can only do the most basic of basic but that is all I need as anything more is beyond me anyway, so I look to the price for all the items, 10.000 coins for the three items excluding the iron piece.
It took a year to make around 3500 coins if he wants to learn this while here he needed to spend nearly ten years just for the basic items excluding the 5000 coins for the book itself, I look at the second floor description saying everything is cheaper on these early floors and decide if I am going to do this then I will go all in, he will get what he needs here on the tutorial floor.
So he looks through the books he may want in the future and decides that the first book he is going to get now is a basic sabre martial arts for fighting using ones mana along with a weapon.
The price for the book is 2000 so he returns to his exercises while spending his breaks looking through all the new items he can buy, it's clear that the more titles and stronger you are the more privilege's given no matter the floor number as long as you can gain recognition you will have access to more things then even those on higher floors.
From food to clothes, weapons, armors, books, even miscellaneous things like planters or stitching can be bought now in the tutorial when in reality all basic life style things could only begin to be purchasable on the first floor and even then only the most basic and useless ones not ones like blacksmithing and leatherworking he can do with the things available it is clear he was considered to have done well in the eyes of the tower.
Fighting in the rink once more he gets to the fifteenth wave which had two speed goblins, two strength goblins, and two mage goblins but the one to stand out the most among those that just spawned was the smaller then average one riding the back of one of the strength type ones.
He recognized the type of goblin it was solely due to the warning given with it and that is to not look at it's size as it is a rare necromancer goblin, that makes it so no matter if you kill them or seriously injure them they will continue to fight as it will keep them in fighting shape whether that be making it so a detached arm still works or simply controlling their bodies if you wish to win you must kill it first before any of the rest.
Usually assassins or archers deal with it but alone he can only look at it from afar unable to so much as scratch it, with his wave killing method he can kill 38 goblins by the time he reaches this wave making far more points then he would by stepping out and stepping back in due to the thirty minute wait after each failure or exit.
Each day he made 38 coins at least and so now was quickly racking in the coins he needed to buy some of the things he wants, like that martial arts book.
He reads everything he has again and again making sure he missed nothing even the dwarven language book has been read through twice despite it's thickness, he buys the martial arts book with little fanfare and begins to move through the motions without using his mana as the book warned using mana without knowing the moves well enough can mean permanent injury and although he didn't need to worry doesn't mean he wants to experience unnecessary pain.
Unknown to him nearly half a year has passed already since his one year anniversary but time has become less and less relevant to him as he fights and purchases everything he can to learn and absorb.
Like before his days pass with him putting his martial arts without energy into practical use so as to see how useful it will really be, while also reading through things again, trying to merge his mind and mana, and eating the tainted meat even though he has more then enough coins to consume something else he simply sees no reason to change his food intake now that he is accustomed to it.
Slowly his coins accumulate and he finally built up the monetary needed for his purchase of the book as he needed that before any of the other things, buying it with a hurry he opens it to see what it entails and it is similar to what he has heard for his worlds blacksmithing just with more in depth details of how to do it and the needs for it.
He reads it again and again when not practicing or earning coins as he looks for a bucket of water to also purchase to douse the item in, it cost 10 coins for a large basin of water and he buys it so as to have plenty for his future endeavor's.
Read, fight, eat, sleep, repeats again and again without any sense of time or how things are moving he buys the start of his blacksmithing endeavor one by one until all is the required things are there the only missing piece is the iron ore that is 100 coins though he just spent all but 10 on buying the anvil, it is fine as he will get it back soon anyway.
So his first attempt at crafting begins with him heating the mini forge using his mana as the fuel, the pongs in his left hand holds the iron ore that needs to be made into a iron bar before it can be crafted.
Slowly he pounds on it shaping it as the book indicate but soon finds trouble as it over heats one time and breaks in half, he knows he is to new to forging to attempt to fix such mistake and so will buy another iron ore piece once he has another hundred coins, this time he doesn't heat it enough and hits it while it is weaken causing it to break again.
One failure after another as he gets a feel for when is to hot or not hot enough in the forge, when is to long in the forge and when is not long enough. Bit by bit he shapes it into something looking like an iron bar though the shape is off and the color slightly duller then normal it is far better then his first attempts and with one success he can look to the book and see why it came out wrong and how to fix it.
The book claims it means the piece of iron had some rust already present and the forger failed to spot so the iron came out that way, he will have to look at all piece he buys so as not to make such mistake again.
The next piece is like that and the next until he had four pieces and all have signs of rust already present meaning he needs a way to remove rust as if he tries to only use piece the tower gives he probably will only use few if any pieces purchased, so he looks and finds electricity and water can act as a rust remover so he gives it a shot.
Looking for an item that produces electricity soon proved fruitless making it so he had to step back from this thought process and look at other options when something caught his eye, having someone purify the iron made the mana in it slightly more active and could deal with the rust but usually only high grade purifiers can sense and manipulate the energy of metals and stone for this to work.
But he didn't have electricity so he settled for attempting this instead, he took one of the metal ores and began to meditate while holding it but had little luck with sensing it but didn't deter him as he simply needed to get used to it.
So a new thing was added to his schedule of sitting and trying to sense the ore he had bought.
One day after another as once more time goes by and his coin count rises without him purchasing anything new while he works on the current project, he finally senses a small change when he holds the four pieces all at once as they naturally seem to try both to repel and mend together at the same time though the change is slight he has felt the difference and so feels more confident on doing so again.
He finally senses the metal after what is nearly 7 months of trying though he is unaware of just how long he has spent on this single attempt he is already nearing the 5 year mark with little change having truly taken place since the first year mark though his stats have risen especially the intelligence one that has almost reached ten.
He finally goes for an attempt at purifying the metal on the day before his fifth year end and meets great success as on his first go his energy knew what to do all on it's own once it could connect with the metal, though others trouble probably came from the connection part as it is clear most would need to sense a already nearly impossible to sense mana while surrounded by mana of similar type like finding a specific piece of hay in a haystack.
When he does succeed however a ding is heard as he gets another notification from the tower, he smiles as it means he probably will have access to even more things now.
-You are the first person to accomplish mana tracing before advancing as a proper cultivator you have set a new precedent, you have been awarded the title {Precedent setter}, this title will allow you to purchase things pertaining to what you set a precedent in at a cheaper price while also allowing early access to the ten floor's above yours trading panel.
-You are the first of your race to obtain mana tracing so are given the title {Pioneer II}
He was shocked as before none of the titles gave such description like with precedent setter not even his new title so clearly it was a massive deal in some way though he is unsure if that is a good thing or bad thing for him as he is clearly risking to much attention while still only a tutorial person he can only hope it isn't to big and move on to what he has been wanting to do since he got that forging book.
Sitting down with the single iron ore piece he has purified he crafts it slowly and meticulously into an iron bar and although slanted left it is the perfect weight, size, and color brining a ding to his mind once more.
-You have gained beginner blacksmith while still in the tutorial, you are given the title {blacksmith noob}
He could understand that title as to do so you needed to remain in the tutorial for a long time in order to achieve such thing though he is curious if their is more of those first to do achievements and he simply hasn't done something tricky enough or if someone used a skill book to get the skill before he learned it though he doubted they could earn enough to do so they may have gotten lucky somehow and found it.
Either way he got this achievement first so was pleased with what it meant for him, returning to the other iron ores he has he begins to purify them only to collapse due to a lack of mana he isn't even an official cultivator until he merges his mana with a part of him so he lacks the mana needed to dot his continuously like most blacksmiths or purifiers in the tower can.
Waking he has many dings and alerts going off in front of him and he reads them only to freeze at the words said.
-Congratulations you have spent five straight years inside the tower based on tower time while still in the tutorial, you gained the title {Tower workaholic}
-You have reached and broken through the potential of a non cultivator while on the tutorial floor title given {Overachiever}
-You have spent more then 10,000 coins on the tutorial floor achieving the title, {Apprentice big spender}
Although the reward for making it to the fifteenth wave was non-existence he still felt exhilarated at more titles as that meant more things he can buy even without trading with those higher up in the tower, over all able to keep the prices for things cheap like it is for those below the second floor.
I feel a little strange knowing it has apparently been five years inside the tower despite not having felt like it with how busy he has constantly kept himself, well the tower would know best wouldn't it.
Getting up from where he slept he began his combat training with the goblins once more before returning to make more iron bars out of the pieces of ore he has bought using the money he has succeeded in building up while trying to sense the energy within the metal.
Like this he feels relaxed as he feels safe and in control with everything going as one would expect in a closed off environment with no outside interference as he hasn't used the trade option for fear of it showing him on the tutorial floor like it did with others, it told everyone which floor you are on and although you could use and alias e didn't really want anyone to begin murmuring about the person in the tutorial who can trade already.
Besides the tower prices are cheaper and he is focused on blacksmithing which he has everything needed for it from the towers shop, no need to bother as he is busy with his current skill.
So he focuses on what new things he can buy for his current hobby and sees many different level books and on it but the prices for anything above the basic one is at least 10,000 by itself excluding any tools one may need for the more advanced stuff and so it is put on the back burner for him as he instead contemplates buying more martial arts manuals to practice but he hasn't even reached beginner stage with the current one despite spending quite a long time practicing and using it his energy simply isn't enough for him to make proper use of it.
So he decides to focus on advancing into a proper cultivator while stopping everything but the basic needs and one forging practice a day.
Like this he spend hours with a goblin tied up and himself meditating in the rink, although e may not need to be in the ring when he dies to reappear he simply doesn't see a need to test it, no need to take needless gambles with a proper way is right before him like this.
Though he seems like a hypocrite by saying that doing everything to attain as much potential as possible is the sole goal for this floor and so trying to merge his mind and mana is only proper for such thing.
One fail after another until a break through comes but not in the way he expected as it occurred not when he is meditating but rather forging, metals are naturally attracted and appalled due to the minute differences making it so one needs to rapidly heat then cool the pieces to force a bond on them.
The same reason the mana won't merge with his mind is because the mana in my mind is different then the mana in the rest of my body so if I wish to combine it in theory a similar method may work but he can't heat up mana so he needed another way then heat, but he knew basic chemistry and heat is just rapidly increasing the speed of molecules so if he made the mana fast enough it may merge on it's own. A reach but one confirmed by the tower history books on introduction.
[The tower was created by the first primordial's to protect the planet's from the taint as when planet's stall their energy slows to a halt causing them to corrode and die off. By introducing new energy we can restart the planets energy like one would a heart with electricity.]
If energy slowing down was what led to taint, and it is as when creatures die their energy immediately becomes tainted in seconds, then speeding energy up should also be possible.
It is probably even this very concept that purifying talent exist so that means my innate talent is speeding energy up making it viable for others to use, I am in a sense a mini tower that through some means am able to rapidly increase the speed of the energy around me through merely circulating it in myself or circulating my energy in it.
Meaning it is the circulation like how I first thought that determines the talent and strength one has, it is why each persons ability is different because each person circulated energy differently.
So now he focused not on introducing the mana into his mind but rather circulating the energy as quickly as possible through his entire body again and again to see if pushed how fast it can go, bit by bit as I didn't use any of the energy I am circulating it increases speed bit by bit until it is becoming unstable and I am unable to truly control it just slightly direct it like one would a damn.
Straight at my mind comes this rapid and uncontrollable energy that overcomes the natural mana in my mind, and like two metals meeting the weaker one naturally gives to the more powerful one that is the mana in my veins moving so fast it can't be stopped anymore.
No wonder the books say purity people are easily overwhelmed by the ability as if not careful what is currently occurring is possible whenever we use our ability or just cultivate in peace.
But I feel my mind mana is slowly standing up in certain areas while giving in others like a give and take one sees in metals energy when mixed, although this was a shot in the dark it was now working brilliantly making him wonder why no one had been able to do this before.
Oh well he can only guess that some did but simply didn't want the secret to get out, not like it affects most people due to male purifiers being so rare.
With his merge success he stands up and a ding goes off.
-You have crafted a unique cultivation method while still in the tutorial you are the first to perform this action rewarding the title {One who invents}, this title allows you to make a skill book in the future using your cultivation you are free to teach it to whoever you please but others require your permission or to be named your heir in order to teach it themselves.
-You have become an official cultivator while still in the tutorial you have earned the title {Worrywart}
He looked at the two screens in surprise as clearly one was worth far more then the other in the towers eyes and it didn't hide it at all.
Standing he felt strange as if his body became more sensitive he looked at his status screen for how exactly things changed.
Status-
Strength-15
Speed-2
Agility-5
Intelligence-10
Regeneration-15
Detection-10
Health-15
Mana-100
-your mana type is purifying, beginning tainted energy resistance, beginning energy detection, beginning energy manipulation, beginner blacksmith, beginning
Everything skyrocketed just like that as though no block had been in place for so long, his stats increase was so sudden he didn't expect it so quickly but maybe he should as it is clear those with cultivation and those without have very different positions within tower society. Although the amount of mana hasn't increased it's affect on him was clear as day though he is curious if everyone's increase was as drastic as his or if it was different for every person, he has no way to know for now so ignores this curiosity.
He feels excited as he has finally advanced after so many failures and done so using a new method and merging process, though he is curious how most merge their energy it is said in the book it is unique to each but he doubted that as he can teach his method to others so in theory the same can be done for others.
It is probably a hidden piece in the tower where you need to buy an advanced cultivation book to find out the different merging methods but the only advanced cultivation book he could currently buy is through the auction and it would cost him 100,000 coins for it. Clearly if one wishes to use any special cultivation like an inheritance you need to either get someone to teach you or find one that everyone can use and both have clear short comings.
Being taught requires convincing a very powerful person to teach their method to you and be recognized as heir in order to fully own the method, or find a lost style but in doing this the cultivation is available to all that find the style so if it is copied to many books it is mediocre and even dangerous as others will be able to learn a lot about you based on it.
But his cultivation is self created though maybe others have also made it, it still does not deny he came up with the concept and means by himself and so is given ownership of it, though he wonders if others can also do so if they also invent the same cultivation style. But the towers message indicated it is the first time this cultivation has ever appeared in the tower it is even called unknown cultivation so no other person must have discovered it, curious it means this may be a hidden hint by the tower for the recipient of this reward.
All well he can only observe and watch it to see if this guess is correct, moving on he stands up and kills the goblin still tied up before exiting the ring.
He has freshly advanced and needs to know his current bodies condition before fighting as he could pick up bad habits if he fights so soon after his body advances, so he moves through the basic martial arts for the sabre and when he uses his mana it flows cleanly like water following a well worn river.
Bit by bit small nuances are fixed like the slight off position of his feet or slight jerk his energy has when he jabs out with the sabre, he feels calmed down by the feeling of this rather then strained like he had when using this method before his advancement.
Uncertain of how long he does this he just goes with the ret of his body as it goes through the process again and again till he is nearly out of energy but he only feels calm and serene not tired as he usually would with such little energy.
Sitting down to rest unbeknownst to him a small smile lifts his lips since he first entered the tower in until this point he was in constant worry of not doing enough not knowing enough so was in constant motion but now he felt stable, like he suddenly had more then enough time to sit and rest.
Falling asleep with the smile still present he got the first true proper rest since he came to the tower.