My name is Mark Olsen, and this is my journal chronicling all my experiences in that damned tower so far.
It all started about 15 years ago. I remember how peaceful life was and how I was just a young, ignorant person living in peace with myself and my loved ones. I recall that back then I practiced Krav Maga, which I'm thankful for—it was one of the most useful things for me in the beginning. But above all, I'm thankful for having studied computer science. Damn, what a great decision.
Now, I'm going to share my memories of those days. I have plenty of time to tell you everything.
When it all started, I was walking through the streets of Vienna. It was daytime and the weather was pleasant. I remember that out of nowhere, the sky turned dark and in the depths of my soul, I felt a terror so profound it was as if all was lost. In that very moment, a screen appeared in front of me that read:
"This is the apocalypse, the end of times. If you wish to survive, come to the Tower of Véurr and fight for your freedom."
Below it were two options: to accept and go, or to not go. I saw that everyone around me was seeing the same window. Some were panicking, while others were clicking on their screens. As for me, I've always been a decisive person, and I immediately chose to accept.
I hadn't even lifted my finger from the accept button when I found myself standing in what looked like a world of lava. Under my feet was a kind of crystal, but I could see desperate currents of lava moving below. Next to me, I saw an endless army of people—there were thousands. I couldn't say how many, but many acted with astonishment or fear, or talked amongst themselves. I focused on the situation.
This seemed like some kind of game. Luckily, I had read some novels that commented on these types of scenarios. Surely we'd have to start killing each other, or we'd be released into some kind of labyrinth. I needed to get a weapon; a sword would be ideal. Many thoughts ran through my mind in an instant until they were silenced by a voice that came from everywhere at once. The voice got straight to the point:
"As you have decided, you are about to enter the tutorial of the Tower of Véurr. In the tutorial, you can develop skills and raise your stats so that once you are in the tower, you can defend yourself. The tutorial has 10 floors; once you complete them, you can begin to climb the tower. If you die here, we will resurrect you, but be aware that we will remove one of your abilities for each time you die."
"Before you begin the tutorial, we will give you a supernatural talent. You will have 10 seconds to think of a talent you want, and the system will try to generate a talent that can adapt to you. If you do not choose a talent in those 10 seconds, you will unfortunately start from scratch."
While this voice spoke, I paid close attention. I had to think of a skill or talent to choose, and the system would give me something accordingly. My mind raced ahead, thinking about spatial control, magic, martial arts, or cultivation. I wanted something more powerful. My thoughts were immediately cut short when the voice finished, and my vision darkened.
I found myself floating in space. The only thing I could see was an hourglass that was rapidly moving and lights that began to shine all around me. The only thing I thought was that I didn't want a static ability but one that could grow and that I could adapt to my needs whenever I wanted. But I couldn't think of one. I wanted control over matter or maybe magic, but all I saw around me were lights of different colors, like fireflies.
The lights had nothing in common with each other. Some were more vibrant or larger, some moved, some had geometric shapes. Which one to choose? Suddenly, I liked one because it changed color—sometimes big, sometimes small, sometimes with a shape and sometimes without. I didn't hesitate and reached for it with my hand.
The voice sounded again: "Congratulations, the tutorial will begin for you in 10 seconds. You can think of 'Status Window' to see your status, and you can also think of 'Storage' where you will find some tools and provisions."
I immediately thought "Status," and this is what I saw:
Name: Mark Olsen Lvl: 0 (0/100)
Attributes: Magic: 10 Strength: 13 Agility: 11 Constitution: 14 Intelligence: 15
Talent: Edit Talent
Skills: Swordmanship Lvl 1, Hand-to-Hand Combat Lvl 2, Programming Lvl 3
The skills and magic caught my attention, but what I really wanted to see was how my talent worked. I liked the name of the talent, but it could be either useless or very useful.
At that moment, my vision changed. It wasn't just my sight; the smell of the jungle, the sensation of rain on my skin, and a cinematic landscape appeared before me. Giant trees rose for hundreds of meters and didn't let light reach the ground. The width of their trunks was 5 to 10 meters, and I felt like I was in a world of giants.
"Floor number 1: Kill at least 10 wild animals. Then you can click the 'Ascend' button in your Status Window to go to the next floor of the tutorial."
The voice sounded in my head again, and before I could process this information, I heard a noise coming from behind the trees. I'm embarrassed to say it, but in that moment I slipped and fell on my backside.
A bit terrified, I quickly got up and thought of my storage. Inside, there was a sword, a shield, an axe, a magic staff, and a spear, along with some portions of bread and water. I grabbed the sword and shield and focused on the noise I had heard, all while looking around for a safe place.
Suddenly, a shadow became visible. It was a kind of dinosaur similar to a velociraptor, covered in green feathers. It approached me in a hostile manner, and I raised my shield in protection.
The beast analyzed me, and seeing that I remained still, it tried to circle me, but I kept my guard up. When its plan didn't work, the beast launched itself at me at full speed, colliding with my shield. The moment it hit me, I thrust my sword into its neck. Still, the blow sent me flying back a few meters, where I fell to the ground.
"Damn it," I said, getting up with a surge of adrenaline and lunging at the dinosaur, activating my Swordmanship skill. At that moment, I felt as if swinging my sword was natural and my mind was certain that the next cut would fatally damage the opponent. Just as I thought, the dinosaur was weak and tried to bite me, but I dodged and made a cut with my sword that severed the wretched animal's neck.
I thought "Status":
Name: Mark Olsen
Lvl: 0 (10/100)
Attributes: Magic: 10 Strength: 13 Agility: 11 Constitution: 13/14 Intelligence: 15
Talent: Edit Talent, Basic Swordmanship
Skills: Swordmanship Lvl 1, Hand-to-Hand Combat Lvl 2, Programming Lvl 3,
Apparently, I needed to face 10 of these dinosaurs to level up. While I was thinking about this, I was pleasantly surprised. A new talent had been generated after using the skill. What did this mean? I clicked on the talent to see if I could find more details, and a window opened.
Basic Swordmanship
The user intuitively learns to use a sword, and each time they use it, their skill level related to the sword grows faster.
The interesting thing was that there was an "Edit" button below, which I immediately pressed.
Basic Swordmanship (two editing points)
The user intuitively learns to use a sword (1pt: experience x2)
Each time the user uses the sword, their skill level related to the sword grows faster (1pt: experience x2)
Alternative benefit to edit (0pt: experience x0)
Apparently, a basic talent had an editing limit. I tried the following edit:
Basic Swordmanship (two editing points)
The user intuitively learns to use a sword (2pt: experience x4)
Each time the user uses the sword, their skill level related to the sword grows faster (0pt: experience x0)
Alternative benefit to edit (0pt: experience x0)
This configuration would surely allow me to learn sword skills four times faster, or advance existing skills more quickly.
Next, I tried to use the "Alternative benefit." It seemed that this benefit was also editable, so I tried the following:
Basic Swordmanship (two editing points)
The user intuitively learns to use a sword (0pt: experience x0)
Each time the user uses the sword, their skill level related to the sword grows faster (0pt: experience x0)
Causes more damage from cuts or stabs (2pt: experience x4)
Alternative benefit to edit (0pt: experience x0)
It seemed to work. I could edit the benefits of a talent and even add another one while editing. I immediately added some other alternative benefits with zero points assigned so I could use them when necessary. The edited talent looked something like this:
Basic Swordmanship (two editing points)
The user intuitively learns to use a sword (4pt: experience x0)
Each time the user uses the sword, their skill level related to the sword grows faster (0pt: experience x0)
Causes more damage from cuts or stabs (0pt: experience x0)
The user can consume mana to boost their attack (0pt: experience x0) The user can detect the opponent's weak points (0pt: experience x0) The user can dodge enemy attacks more easily (0pt: experience x0) Alternative benefit to edit (0pt: experience x0)
With this attack mode, I began to slowly move through the jungle. Minutes later, another one of the dinosaurs appeared, but its disposition was different, and I quickly dealt with the creature in front of me.
After the second conflict, Mark decided to climb the branch of a tree to rest and clear his mind for a while. The first thing he thought was that he should take advantage of the tutorial to create as many skills as possible and level up as much as he could before leaving the tutorial.
He even thought the same thing about the first floor—he wouldn't leave immediately after killing 10 monsters. The plan was to create skills and talents so that the climb up the tower would be faster. The talents he would like to generate would be related to magic, advanced swordplay, elemental control, and more.
And since the magic attribute existed in this world, he decided to investigate it in the tutorial, so he took the staff from his storage. It was a piece of a tree branch that had some carved symbols and a celestial rock embedded in the top.
"Hmm, I think I need some kind of knowledge before using this. Is there any way to learn this in the tutorial?" he said aloud, but he clearly had no information to get started.
Then he got down from the tree and changed the points in Basic Swordmanship to experiment with the option: "The user can detect the opponent's weak points." The idea was to experiment with all his customizations to see how they felt and to be able to employ better battle strategies against other types of enemies.
The third enemy fell with a single blow. Sensing the weak point and attacking precisely there was a great advantage. Apparently, it was a very powerful configuration. The fourth enemy couldn't reach him easily with the agility option, and he easily killed it after playing with it a bit. The fifth died by a sword that glowed with a bluish aura. It was cut down very easily with the mana consumption option.
And so, one by one, Mark killed the first 10 dinosaurs.
Status:
Name: Mark Olsen
Lvl: 1 (0/100)
Attributes: Magic: 11 Strength: 14 Agility: 12 Constitution: 15 Intelligence: 16
Talent: Edit Talent, Basic Swordmanship, Basic Magic Swordmanship
Skills: Swordmanship Lvl 3, Hand-to-Hand Combat Lvl 2, Programming Lvl 3, Evasion Lvl 1, Weakness Perception Lvl 1
In just this first level, I had grown a lot, and best of all, editing the talent facilitated the generation of skills, even a new talent like magical swordmanship. I immediately clicked on this new ability.
Basic Magic Swordmanship (two editing points)
The user intuitively learns to use a sword enhanced by magic (1pt: experience x2)
Each time the user uses magical swordmanship, their skill level related to swordmanship and magic grows faster (1pt: experience x2) Alternative benefit to edit (0pt: experience x0)