I smile in joy as clearly this is probably the normal path since it already has a title for it, and it can be enhanced since the beginner title is there. Slowly he is beginning to think and develop without the help of the books of the tower making it harder for people to know what he can do, by becoming unique he can prevent people from plotting against me using the knowledge of known weaknesses.
I enter into the ring and begin to cut through the goblins once more, I have only just begun in my energy weaving but know it will most likely be vital for my future.
I see the way my attacks produce energy and wonder if it is possible to make a trap using the energy strings made during the weaving process, but I won't have anything to attack it to like when forging. He contemplates how to fix that when he remember that the assassin goblin is completely untraceable except when moving and wonders how that is as by all means it should be clear due to the energy build up in it's body, he has focused so much on finding it he has ignored the question of how is it even hiding the energy in the first place.
He gets to the assassin goblin and begins to focus not on the goblin but the surrounding and notices that there is a very thing layer of mana in the area, like a small thin coating of mist completely invisible and if not searched for is nearly indistinguishable do to the low amount of mana but clear in the mana empty place like here if you look for it.
He has been missing this for such a long time because he stuck to the little things he has and can do, he has let himself be the basis of what is possible while ignoring other possibility.
He senses the spikes of heat and movement through the energy but ignores them in exchange for sensing the energy flow around him trying to find where it is coming from like finding a water source, there with a swing I cut directly into the things chest killing it and clearing the 17th wave for the first time.
I lay down in joy and the step out of the ring as I am exhausted from the detection, it takes a lot of focus and using ones mind to find the source when a ding knocks me from my celebration.
- your beginner energy detection has advanced to apprentice level
I figure that the assassin goblin doesn't show until the tenth floor as it is to hard for low level people to deal with, even from the fifth floor anything above the second evolution in the goblins aren't seen often as they aren't something most can deal with making it rare for anyone to in depth study such things. Of course one is present on all floors above the first floor but running into one is simply bad luck rather then something people seek out.
Although he can't read that far in the tower history book he is able to gain the information thanks to his ability to use the market ten levels above his current one.
He knows most people that meet the third evolution and live are those able to run away or bought the emergency teleportation scrolls available from 2nd floor onwards, although they cost a fortune if one is worried then they buy them as soon as they can for the sake of survival.
I begin to forge once more and slowly but surely I make the eleventh nail, although not full grade it is not sub standard and so when he sales the eleven he makes ten extra coins then he spent for the metal a small profit but proof of his hard work.
The next thing he wishes to make is a knife, although far from fancy he wants to make something he himself will use.
So he takes a bar of iron and begins the process written in the books for beginners, he knows he will not succeed already as he messes up one of the hits and it is angled off but he wants to continue anyway.
He makes a slightly crooked and off knife without a handle, it is not something anyone would but for any purpose and he realizes he needs to wood work to complete such thing. Looks like a new crafting thing is put on the list but none of the dwarven books are on any good wood working, so he looks around and finds in the tower history it says elves are the best when messing with wood.
5.000 coins for an elven language book and the one for woodwork is 6.000, truly an expensive choice already but he was going to learn elvish anyway may as well do it for a good reason.
He buys the items needed for the wood work like bending posts and wood chisel set but he can't begin until he fully properly understands what is written in the book, he will study the language until he has a decent hand in it before he begins to try and translating it.
Once more he adds yet another thing into his training but now makes sure to spend at least one day just weaving and stitching in order to relax, bit by bit time passes and he decides it is time to go onto the 18th wave.
He stands in the ring slightly tired from all the fighting even if he has most of them down to a routine it doesn't make the energy come back once used, finally the 18th wave shows up and it is a black mage goblin with black skin and gray nails and eyes capable of infecting people with tainted energy.
I have no trouble with him as the tainted energy he produces isn't enough to overwhelm my resistance, a single slice of my sabre and his head comes off with little problem.
Sighing in disappointment I had thought this battle would teach me new things like the 17th wave but no if anything for me this was the easiest wave since the normal goblins, I go onto the next wave hopping it would teach me things but it was to a black mage and a goblin warrior making it easy enough as all he does is kill the goblin warrior by overwhelming it then deal with the black goblin like a normal one.
Wave 20 is the last one and should be all three against me, a much more interesting fight and one usually only done on the tenth floor.
I decide to deal with the assassin first and so when the other two show up in the ring I ignore them in order to track the flow of energy but soon realize that the black mage goblin interferes in this process due to the energy it produces, I feel the displacement of heat energy behind me and throw myself to the right missing being cut by the assassin goblin.
Fine first thing get rid of the black goblin, I charge it and then duck the swing of the warrior goblin while keeping out my senses for the assassin goblin.
One swoop and a head flies as it attempts to use it's tainted energy to slow me but instead prevents the other goblins from being able to help it, I turn around and strike with all my might into the warrior goblin cutting through the axe it wielded and it's chest leading to it's death.
I duck and roll as the assassin goblin realizes I am now at the advantage, I am able to sense the location of the energy flow now that the two other goblins aren't interfering in the energy.
With this I have passed the 20th wave and decide this is far enough for now as I am nearly out of mana and am tired from the constant combat, I leave the ring and return back to once more study the elven language and once I finish with that I begin to forge the basic knife even if it will lack a proper handle if made correctly.
I finish with the blade and finally it came out fine, far from perfect but enough to sell as a basic knife for everyday usage, the only thing needed is a handle Which I intend to make myself for this.
I swing the knife and decide to keep it as although nothing special it is my first successful weapon forged using only myself and when I make my first handle, it will be my first ever completely self made work with only the basic supplies being gotten from outside the tutorial.
I smile at the small blade with a warmth in my heart, all that work just for this small thing but so worth it in the end I decide that when I make my emblem I will carve it into this knife first.
I sigh and finally decide to take a rest after eating and sit down with my tainted meat chunk for dinner, I eat a piece and suddenly feel a sense of a knife digging into my throat I gasp and cough nearly throwing the meat up in shock but choke it down. This has never happened before and slowly the feeling faded I decide to eat another piece and this one is fine, I am confused on what caused this when I turned to my newly made knife to feel as small taint on it.
I am shocked then think on how the thing died, in the dwarven books it speaks on how most dwarves are vegetarians and often refuse the consumption of any meat.
The knife has small imprints from where I am the one to forge it and so when the energy sensed the knife it reacted almost like a last struggle before fading away, I turn to the piece and eat another slice and although the sensation isn't as severe it is there but I ignore it as the taint produced in such actions don't effect me in any truly negative way.
I eat the piece despite feeling like it is slitting my throat open, I have become a killer and so will live with the consequences it is what I should do.
I finally decide to make some more fabric using wool to calm myself before sleeping, it is best this doesn't haunt me through the night. I spend quiet some time making it but despite this it remains clear and bright in my mind so I decide to meditate, I sense it when in deep meditation another mind or rather a fragment remaining of it.
I use my mana to speed up the energy retaining this fragment and the tainted rabbit shows up in my mind though glitchy and looking like someone tried to piece a broken vase back together with some pieces missing.
I sense it try and attack my mind but it is unable to do anything and is soon subdued fading away leaving only the energy behind in the wake of the events, I am curious why such a thing is only now coming as in theory it should have occurred sooner when he first made a knife but only came when he made a successful one.
He is unsure what the difference was and since no achievement came he figured it isn't something worth much in the tower, he knows taints hold echo's as ghost and necromancers can't exist otherwise but to see it himself was a new experience.
He figures it is an association and connection that caused this to happen now and it is best he knows now then in a bad situation, he wonders if he found one that died to a sabre would it also react this way as he holds attachment to that weapon as well.
But he figures once he is accustomed to it he can prevent the problem from becoming worse thanks to his purification ability and the energy in his mind.
With the memory fragment gone the problems also fade with it but the death sticks even after it fades, I am not able to sleep even now and so I decide to cultivate as I have let that fall in exchange for gaining new knowledge and fighting capabilities I begin to move the energy.
I notice a change now however as the energy seems to have been almost ingrained with a new talent as he feels the mana naturally wrap around his legs in an instinct.
He knows easily what has caused this as the tainted rabbits mana allows it to increase it's bounce and speed and with the memory now integrated the instinct on how to do as such came with it, I smile in both joy and sadness as it means if I consume a creature I can to an extent replicate it's abilities if I have the natural mana possible to do so.
The rabbits ability is neutral and any mana type can do so but spouting fire or controlling water is still beyond my grasp but I feel the difference in the way the rabbits energy wishes to flow.
Tainted rabbits are a naturally inclined to tainted energy as they use it to consume items that would otherwise be to hard for them like steel grass and bronze bark, they are one of the many creatures that purposely induce taint in their area often meaning they are hunted to death once they appear due to the horrific things they do to an environment.
I notice that the energy attempts to slow down as it follows this path, mana of purification speeds mana up due taint talent slows it down and it's means of doing so is using the pathway to cause friction in the mana's path.
Purification is like an endless loop where it can go as much as it wants without stopping but tainted talent is like having hundreds of twist and turns that slow it down until it stops, it is such a juxtaposition to experience the two most extreme sides of the talent scale at once but soon realizes this only happens because of his merged mind energy.
His mind energy let him integrate the instinct and therefore energy flow of the rabbit despite not being able to sense it should he try, it is a means to learn other talents without having it.
I contemplate how far this can truly go and put it out of my mind for now as the only way to know is to do so and I can't do that from within the tutorial, at least not for now and so he finally sleeps after working his steam off in the ring and experiencing the rapid acceleration and deacceleration.
He felt better as he discovered more and more of his unique cultivation and knew that it was possible others also could do as so and simply hid the information forcing people to be stuck with only one thing.
He began his process and finally after a bit of time decided to try making his first handle so he opened the wood working book and found knife handles, I knew it was one of the more basic ones as long as I kept it simple and not complex so began to slowly carve the walnut wood into a basic handle with a purifying mana finish it came out as a basic ordinary knife found in almost any home in his world but he knew it would be something he could never give away.
Smiling in joy he thinks of a sheathe to place it in but that wood mean leather work added to his growing list of things to learn, and the nymphs are the best at dealing with creature remains and a new language as well as book would be added to my already growing information.
I groan as my work load gets bigger and bigger the more I advance and learn, sighing I return to the loom and begin to make a fabric using wool once more, once done I sell the fabric I have made for around 30 coins a roll making me 90 coins.
I decided to focus only on advancing my blacksmithing for now and so decide the next thing to purchase is the apprentice blacksmith guide when I look through the book an elven book catches my eye, the books title is mana patterns in nature and how to use them.
It is meant for the wood and how to bring out the properties of said wood and was 10,000 coins but the thing I want most is the study of different mana and this book was exactly what I wanted so I purchased it using the coins I have gathered over the time.
Opening the book I hoped would help me learn how to truly manipulate my own mana.