Chapter 10

I sat on the ground surrounded by failed bows and basic arrow heads from my attempts to make my self a bow for practice as learning a long range fighting combat style to match with my close range one will prove the best for balance in the future but I find balancing the arrows and making a strong enough bow to withstand me tricky, I need to use more advance wood for such a thing but am not yet at that level so I have been practicing making normal bows and different handles for knives.

I have found my favorite pattern to inscribe is a double helix shape with branching designs of whichever mana type the blade is made for, the double helix reconnects in a mobius strip style making it hard to say where the begging or end was.

I know it may be a give away but the design represents me and the insignia has already been carved into my fire knife that I have decided to keep as it is my first mana type blade, which simply means using the mana type the blade matches will make a more powerful attack and require less mana to do basic attacks.

My normal first dagger also has the design carved on it but I intend to only use this insignia on mana type weapons from this point on, I now need to make another dagger for sale but I have yet to decide what mana type to give it.

On the market only those from floor five and up have even seen such a blade and the price for one is considered outrageous as the worst one like my blade would be costs around 100,000 coins and can't even be purchased here in the tutorial using the tower shop.

I will make plenty of money with the blade once it sells but that is the catch, if it sells as if you are going to use a blade that costs that much should be the best quality and grade the money can buy and that means from a reputable seller.

I only have nails being sold on my record and anyone who sees such drastic difference in the types of things sold will be hesitant to buy it but making normal blades is no longer enough to practice with to advance myself with, I can feel the headache already then I remember the auction is also available not just the player shops.

Although I may make less money then usual for such a blade it isn't like I can make a loss with such a weapon seeing as I only spent 100 coins on the iron ore before processing it all this way one my own.

I decide to put the minimum price at 50,000 for the knife and state it is an experimental blade for me, I begin to work on the blade now that the selling means has been set and decide that a fire blade is probably for the best as it is the one I have experience in.

I forge it and fit the ipe wood handle making the construction cost of this dagger 200 coins for the pieces of iron and wood, now I engrave my insignia at the root of the blade just before the handle and send it to the auction for my first attempt at selling a self made weapon. I think of how I need to learn to make more weapons then just a knife and so use the normal iron to practice though not the mana type blade making process as I need to feel the length and balance of the blade I want to make before doing such a thing.

My first sword is a parang sword or essentially an old style machete, it is a one sided blade that is easy for beginning users and forgers starting out as it doesn't need to be as balanced as some of the other swords.

I begin the process knowing it can take days or weeks to forge a proper full blade like this but my mana and increased stamina means the normal breaks people would have needed to make are less needed for me, I work hard the next week and finally my first blade comes out but it isn't balanced well enough end even with grinding it the blade doesn't get quiet sharp enough do to him making it to thick on the bladed edge side.

I make another go and another slowly feeling out the size, shape, and balance needed for this sword and if this is a beginner level sword to make then the others will be truly tricky, I am unsure how many tries I go through but all I know is that my iron storage is significantly less then when I started.

I look at the blade that is finally properly balanced and shaped with a sharp edge and once he fits the handle it is complete, he finally made the most basic sword after a unknown amount of time.

He has only stepped away from forging to eat and sleep since the start and can honestly say it was tiring but now he will make two more and once he is certain he has it down will begin the creation of the mana type blade, a fire parang should sell well enough as it is a survival blade though not for to much more then the base price due to most choosing better weapons for proper combat.

I decide to relax for today and begin weaving some fabric for my self but weather my constant forging of a blade while weaving my normal magic has become instinct at this point, I do so with the fabric and soon I hear a ding from the tower for an accomplishment.

- You have achieved beginner enchanting weaver title earned, {Grandmothers favorite}

Apparently I have achieved yet another creation means with mana through sheer instinct when messing with my mana, seriously I am not ready to focus on a new one and so decide to shelf this one for now.

My nice hobby time has been interrupted and so I decide to sleep and return to my forging once I awake.

Once I am up and cleaned myself using as basin and water to the best I can here I then begin to forge another parang sword, I forge two of them in two weeks and sell both keeping the first one for myself though I don't put my insignia on them as they aren't mana type swords.

I go through my iron bars and see which ones are the best material and have the most compatibility with me, then I do the same with the wood pieces I bought for this project.

I already have several practice handles made for this sword but now I need to make the handle with it, I intend to make a bunch of intertwined figure eights all over the handle, the handle will be a figure eight that is quashed together to make a proper grip place.

I begin to slowly forge the iron into the desired length and then width in the spots needed, Bit by bit the sword takes shape and two weeks later my first mana type sword is finished with a bright red blade and red tint wood with figure eight patterns all over it in honor of the fire type it is and hoping it will increase the efficiency of it.

I engrave the insignia on butt of the blade before the handle and decide it is best I sell now before I am tempted to pick of machete combat to use it myself, sighing I put it up for auction as intended and leave for the ring to wait out the buying time.

I make it to the 22nd wave once more then take another rest as I am tried from all this work, I weave fabric and like last time make some enchanted fabric with my purity mana. I found that purity fabric allows one to gain a certain resistance to tainted mana and if one did it with other elements they can get fire resistance or water breathing if done on the right piece of clothing.

I know that there are many hidden areas in the tower that require one to enter tainted areas to do and so doing this type of thing only seems right, the fabric is easy and done in my free time to relax so it isn't meant for a lot of money.

I finish up with my first blade but now is the time to begin practicing with different forging items like axes and arrows, he intend to begin crafting basic weapons as he sell the mana dagger so as to make many different types of mana type weapons.

He is unsure how much time passes but he saves up money to buy more pattern books from the elves as well as sell the ever growing and varying mana type weapons like the wind rapier he recently made as a test for himself or the earth arrow made with all his mana due to his incompatibility with the element, having made arming swords, axes, daggers, dual edged swords, and arrows he knows that the mana type weapons work best with certain types of weapons.

Fire is semi universal as it sticks decently with all weapons though some better then others like the axe and double edge sword, while wind only really works with thinner things like a rapier or dagger.

Slowly he has flushed out what takes what type of mana best and what type of weapons suit certain mana type but for his own mana type he has come to realize none of the more conventional weapons work even decently with wielding the energy, the only one he has made with almost decent work is a small round hand shield made with wood and some iron padding.

I look for any weapons being sold that are round and find in the very back of the weapons catalogue a chakram stood out as a round weapon that could match my talent potentially but no matter where I look or search only the basic chakram fighting style exist for 4000 coins and the means of forging the weapon isn't in the basic weapons book.

I buy the basic chakram weapon from the tower store for 10 coins, on the cheap side for a decent tower bought weapon but probably only because no one uses such a weapon.

I cut myself several times when testing the grip and usage of the weapon in the first wave while going through the different moves and since the weapon is predominantly a throw weapon it counts as a mid length combat weapon, I discover that although the handle gives a good grip in the middle it is difficult to actually wield it due to the blade facing my arm restricting my movements even more.

I cut out the middle handle piece and find the hold much easier but the martial arts for chakram require one to grip the center piece, I look at the chakram and decide.

I will make this my weapon as the flow of my energy just using it normally much less with a proper martial arts is equal to when I use my sabre arts, so I look through all the different things in the store from fighting styles with and without weapons along with a few dancing styles that use a hoop of some kind or another.

I spend 20,000 coins buying basic combat without a weapon books along with dancing books, from ballet to Indian stomach dancing all of them will go into making me able to make a type of fighting style fit for my mana type.

I first start with the basic combat martial arts for no weapons so as to get a feel for how certain things cause the mana to flow and discover it is more the way ones body moves that causes it then anything as many of the universal styles I bought have some type of circles like turning or when you kick, while the sabre art has a arch attack that I prefer to attack with due to it having the best attack effect.

Circles, from the way I move to the weapons I use that is why it works and I decide I will buy other martial arts for fire and if it also has a figure eight then it is clear how this needs to be made.

I buy the cheapest fire martial arts and after studying am confused as there is no move that makes a proper figure eight but as I go through the moves I realize that on the ground I move in a figure eight, whether it is the weapon, the attack, or even in your movement pattern when you fight all need to represent the shape of your mana type.

I look to belly dancers as the bases as they move in small tight circles with their movements while ballerinas have many spins and twists, ironically boxers also move in circular fashion as a form of indominable defense on all sides.

I find certain aspects from each one and try them separately but now the problem is fitting them together and making it smooth as although I can do the boxer one easily I am far from nimble and flexible enough for the ballet and belly dancing, I need to first master these dances before even thinking of integrating anything.

One fall, pain, and humiliation as I try the stretches described for beginners in the books and find I have never used as many muscles before in my life, every part is in pain in one way or another and that is just the stretches for such things.

By the first practice is over my respect for those willing to go through these tortures just to dance nicely increase a hundred fold as if I didn't need this for my own fighting style I would stop right here and now, I fall asleep exhausted from the mental and physical strain for the first time in a while since I entered this tower.

Waking I get up and go fight goblins till the 22nd wave the practice forging a chakram, the circle shape is completely wrong and it is to thick to be thrown while it's sharpness is worse then a dull kitchen knife.

When I need a break from forging I do the stretches meant for the dances and hate my choices even more then I already do but my mind is set and I will see this through, slowly after a period of time I am uncertain how long the stretches become easier and I can touch my head to my knees after all that practice while the ability to control my abdomen and limbs have slowly increased from the different postures required for the stretching.

Ballet although not forced on the toes does allow better and wider movement if done so while the belly dancing is good for micro body control and moving ones body in circular motions.

I slowly learn the basics and after a point in time I get a ding.

-You have achieved beginner ballet

I guess that isn't considered an achievement, sighing in frustration I sit down for a break on my muscles that due to the unique training have changed slightly to be more condensed muscle rather then show muscle, although far from bulky due to mountain climbing I was not a thin figure but the ballet and belly dancing have caused my muscles to take on a almost overly defined but still good looking style while still remaining not overly sized like many other type of work outs cause.

I can see the definition in all his lower muscles increasing and with his long time as a mountain climber his body is well proportioned in well defined but not overly sized muscles from his legs and abdomen, to his arms and pecs.

He begins his practice with belly dancing and another ding comes.

-You have achieved beginner belly dancing

I am only a beginner and if I wish to make a unique fully integrated style using them he needs to almost have mastered them, he decides that although he isn't able to make a combat arts yet he can begin trying to integrate the chakrams with his dancing to get used to using them in this context.

My days pass in a blur with me unable to tell how fast or slow time is truly passing as I remain unchanged despite having spent a while within this tutorial, I wonder if another announcement on how long I have been here will come.

I finally make my first chakram that I feel better about, it has no embellishments, just a round piece of metal with a hollow center and no handles. I decide that I need several of these chakram for when I throw them and so produce nearly thirty of them during this period of time, bit by bit all my hard work is coming together to make something completely unique and powerful for me.

I buy another book on samurai sword and in it they describe folding metal to make an extremely sharp weapon that can be extremely thin by swords standards and when I think of the chakram this though fits with the concept of them, I begin to study the art of making a proper katana.

Extreme heat and folding things again and again until it is folded ten times makin 1024 folds, each of those folds is a miniature circle a part of the whole circle.

I am unsure how long this process took but it was by far my longest and most arduous creation process yet as although he can't tell time here he can feel when his body gets fatigued and based on how often it happened it took at least two to three times the normal length to make this one chakram then for any of his other creations.

I use it when practicing my dances and even on some of the early goblins have been killed by me practicing my throwing it at them, it is without doubt deadly and highly receptive to my purity mana.

I look to my status and grin in joy as I know I am far beyond what most could achieve in the first ten floor much less the tutorial.

Status-

Strength-40

Speed-10

Agility-15

Intelligence-30

Regeneration-40

Detection-30

Health-40

Mana-200

-your mana type is purifying, beginning tainted energy resistance, apprentice energy detection, apprentice energy manipulation, apprentice blacksmith, beginning<Unknown > cultivation, apprentice sabre martial arts, mana manipulation fire type, mana manipulation water type, mana manipulation wind type, mana manipulation earth type, apprentice energy manipulation ,beginner enchanting weaver, beginner ballet, beginner belly dancing

I have come so far in just a short period of time and yet many things have finally advanced to the apprentice level, he knows reaching apprentice level is normal level for most professions in his original world and journeymen the next stage would be the masters of their arts.

I have in this place reached the same level many people spend their entire lives at, an achievement even if the tower doesn't see it as such.

I lay down and simply think of how far I have come inside this tutorial but think of my parents who supported me, are they alive, what did they think when their only son never made it back from the grocery run, did they assume he died on some street and eaten by the monsters?

But he won't leave this floor not for any reason then he doesn't feel like he has gained all he can from the tutorial yet, so he will remain even with this wish inside him.