'Crystal? So it's not a core? What's the difference?'
Reed examined the ball-shaped item with curiosity, wondering what made it different from mana cores.
Not seeing any immediately identifiable difference, he put it into his storage.
'Best do some research before selling this, might be something good.'
He walked into the arch, and this time instead of continuing deeper, he chose to return to the exit.
...
With his testing trip to the dungeon complete, he waved off the hawkers calling to him and directly returned to the guild branch in the city.
He walked up to the receptionist, and asked her to exchange his mana cores.
"Hmm? On your first day? Seems like you're quite the powerful one!" She said, while examining the cores.
"11 low grade and 2 normal grade tier 1 cores, quite a haul for a first time. The normal grades are exchanged for 1 silver each, and the low grade at 1 silver for every 3, and as a gift to a newbie, I'll round it up to a total of 6 silver coins!."
She placed the coins on the table, before speaking.
"Say, you don't have a team, do you? Want me to recommend you some?"
Reed silently gazed at her.
'Trying to gain favor with a newbie with potential, while also not losing anything, not a bad idea, not bad at all.'
"Thank you, but that will be all."
He nodded politely, turned, and left.
...
After he had lunch, he went back to the library, located a book that had information on monsters, and started reading.
The book told him about the common monsters, their habits, their weapons, their magic, and their weaknesses.
It spoke of their variants, the way they turned into those variants, and their power.
It spoke of magic-formed creatures, and how they differed from normal beasts.
It also introduced him to the creatures that were manifested from the seven sins.
...
Two hours later, Reed placed down the book and massaged his brow.
'Lot's of information, too little time.'
Making sure that no one was watching, he brought out the water crystal he had obtained from the slime.
"Mana crystals, as opposed to mana cores, do not provide energy, they instead transform pure mana input, into whatever the mana crystal's nature is. To put it simply, you draw mana from mana cores, and you use mana crystals when you want to change mana nature."
"If you input mana into a fire-attributed crystal, than fire will shoot from the other side, into a wind-attributed one, a gust will shoot out, and so on."
Reed admired the crystal in his view.
'So this is basically an infinite water source as long as I have mana? What a useful little thing! Just need to keep some salt with me.'
He was tempted to try it out, but knew that that was a bad idea.
'Water and paper don't like each other. Best to leave that for later.'
He placed it back in storage, that pondered.
'Time to put up a routine.'
'First things first, get familiar with the local culture, walk around, listen to conversations, get to know some people, preferably the well-informed ones.'
'Second, lots and lots of reading. At the very least, I have to read about the creatures and plants of this world, common poisons and medicine, history, and every piece of paper containing information about magic or any supernatural power.'
He rubbed his temples.
'Thirdly, practice. Need to find a suitable training ground, the dungeon will do for now for combat practice, but I will eventually have to find someone to train me properly in every weapon I can get my hands on.'
'Lastly, magic. Improve mana control, and find some way to learn spells and the like.'
He let out a long breath.
'One trip to the dungeon early in the morning, then back, an hour or so of reading, lunch, back to the dungeon, back to the city, some training, reading, dinner, and sleep. I can squeeze in a rest if I need to.'
With this vague routine planned out, Reed decided he needed to find a suitable training spot, and possibly a teacher.
For a teacher, the guild was probably the best spot, but that had a high risk of being outed as a player, so no.
Reed decided to go to a weapon shop to see if they knew anyone who could use multiple different weapons.
...
"I do know somebody like that, what do you want with him?"
A man who looked like he was in his late 50's sat on a chair, looking at Reed who was weighing a throwing axe.
"I'm looking for a teacher." He said, as he placed it back on the table from where he picked it up, as he examined a larger axe.
"I want to be able to use multiple weapons if the need arises. If I have a teacher, they can guide me, and I won't make silly mistakes just because I didn't know how to use something properly."
Reed turned to the man, "I'm sure you know of at least one incident of the kind."
The man nodded, young people with no regard for their lives and too much muscle in their brains were a common sight for adventurers.
"So?" Reed questioned.
"I'll talk to him, see if he'll take you on, but be warned, he won't be cheap."
"I'm not looking for a full-blown master-apprentice style of teaching, I just want someone to correct my mistakes, and spar with me. Once a week will be fine."
He placed two throwing axes on the table, where there were more items Reed had selected.
The man swept his gaze over the selection of weapons, before quoting a price.
"2 gold and 11 silver."
Reed started to reach into his pocket, before a thought struck his mind.
He smiled. "Do you want to see a trick?"
"Hmm?"
"If you can't figure out how it's done, I get them for just the 2 gold, if you can, I'll add another 9 silver, how about it?"
Intrigued the man nodded.
"Sure, let's see what you got."