The Place Where Everything Begins

Chapter 32 - First Reward

*Creaks*

*Bam!*

As the sound echoed behind him, Jeremy turned his head to see the door he had just passed through a moment ago.

Unsurprisingly, the said 'door' was now nowhere to be seen...

Upon seeing that behind him was now a dead end made of grey-dark rocks, the same wall as in the clearing, Jeremy turned his head back to his front.

Only to see that it was utterly dark ahead of him...

*Fwoosh*

*Fwoosh*

*Fwoosh*

Suddenly, the magical torches stuck at the left and right wall lit up uncannily by themselves, causing their orange-yellow light to illuminate inside the small space.

Afterward, a transparent interface popped up in front of Jeremy's face,

...

? Easy Trial ?

? Objective: Find an exit ?

...

It was exactly the same one as in his past life, so he dismissed it with a single thought.

Right now, Jeremy could finally see clearly that there was a long passageway with a width of around 5 meters while its length extended to the far end of his 'normal' sight.

Some junctions were situated on the left and right side randomly along the way; even at the end of the passageway, it was divided into two intersections of left and right sides.

After seeing the sight in front of him, Jeremy closed his two abyss-like blue eyes to 'feel' the fluctuation in space, 'Hmmm... It seems like this place is in a different dimension created specifically for people to undertake a trial...' He thought comprehensively to himself.

If it were not for his monstrous level of space affinity, he wouldn't feel it at all because the fluctuation was so subtle that it almost could not be felt.

'It was hard to even for me to create a different dimension with this low level of space instability.'

Nodding his head in understanding and admiration, Jeremy opened his eyes, then raised his right-hand index finger into his front.

*Mumble...*

With some hand movements and an obscure incantation finished after some 20 seconds, Jeremy thought inwardly, 'Mana Wave Detection - Exploration'.

Then an invisible wave comprised of the purest mana being launched into his front.

It continued on until it was met with a left junction, then the mana wave was divided into two portions. One portion went to the left corner to explore that side, another portion continued in its original path.

Whenever the mana wave encountered a junction, the occurrence would keep repeating the same way, on and on, by dividing itself into many portions. Until the mana input of the spell almost depleted, it finally recoiled back into Jeremy's direction to relay the information.

Afterward, a clear image of several passageways being interconnected with one another was manifested within Jeremy's head.

It was clearly a labyrinth at first glance...

Smiling to himself in satisfaction, Jeremy thought, 'Even though the spell consumes more than 10% of my mana, it is still worth it, and it is very worthy of being called a tier 1 spell. Hmm... I have now grasped roughly around 500 meters of distance from me due to the spell. As for the spent mana, it will replenished back in no time anyway, because the mana here is very abunda... What..? SHIT!!!'

Jeremy's casual thought was promptly interrupted by a sudden finding that his mana within the three dantians didn't get replenished back after being used.

'How can this be...' Jeremy could only think to himself in disbelief.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Jeremy sat down right there, prepared to enter his meditating state.

Two minutes later, Jeremy entered stage 10 of meditation, tranquility and equanimity.

This time, he used more than double the amount of time to enter this stage because his mind was in disarray from the sudden realization of being unable to refill his mana tanks.

After he successfully entered stage 10 of meditation, he found out that the quality of mana particles within this separated dimension that he was currently staying in was several times lower than the quality of mana on Earth.

'No... the quality of mana here is actually the same as on Ortus... That means, even if I finish the tutorial and am teleported onto Ortus, I still cannot replenish my own mana huh... This is bad.'

Jeremy frowned deeply after realizing that he was in quite a dire predicament.

After all, how could he continue to cast the spell if he couldn't refill his mana?

As a result of the vast difference of mana's quality inside his dantians and outside atmosphere, he couldn't replenish his mana for the time being.

Right now, his amount of mana remained around 85% from casting the three spells earlier.

*Sigh*

'At last, do I really have to activate that title?'

When Jeremy had thought about the title, he opened his Status Window to view its content once again.

...

Name: Jeremy Caesar Lakota

Race: Human (Le'Liac - Low-Rank Organism)

Class: Journeyman Mage (Peak - Substage 4 of Class 1 Mage)

Title: Mage of Origin (Rank 10 - Inactive), Prodigy Mage (Rank 8 - Inactive), First Mage (Rank 5 - Inactive), NEET (Rank 0 - Inactive)

Affinity:

- Fire (Common): 45.2%

- Darkness (Uncommon): 34.8%

- Space (Rare): 89.9%

- Divinity (Unique): 0.1%

Talent: Prodigy of Magic

Trait: Objective

Achievement:

1. For you, who is the fastest of your own kind to shed a mortal skin and become the first person to tread in a long and arduous path of truth-seeking. The system shall grant you the title of 'First Mage'.

2. For you, who was born a Prodigy. For you, who is destined to be standing at the very top of the universe's food chain. The system shall grant you the title of 'Prodigy Mage'.

3. For you, who achieves the impossible. For you, who defies the universe's rules. For you, who had reached the first substage of a Class 1 Mage within a mana-less world. For eternity, this attainment can never be duplicated by anyone; even the Gods feel helpless with its plausibility. It is thus considered an achievement that shall be chronicled at the highest level of Akashic Records forevermore. The universe itself shall grant you the title of 'Mage of Origin'.

Mission:

- Tutorial Mission: Survive I

...

Every existing title within the universe starting from Rank 3 onwards would be accompanied by a special 'gift' after it was activated by its owner.

Sometimes, the 'gift' would be manifested in the form of affinity that might boost the already-existing affinity to be higher than it originally was, or another completely different affinity might even be added up into the Status Window as a result of that title.

Another time, it might even add one additional talent, which could boost the owner's capability up to the next level.

There was also a trait that might be somehow acquired along with some unique titles; even though it was a rare case, it still occurred sometimes.

Lastly, the owner of a title might get an enhancement on something that most people on Ortus called 'latent attribute' of which was acting as a person's hidden attributes, such as strength, agility, wisdom, etc.

All those things that came along with a title were deemed very hard or might even be too hard to get or enhance by most people.

For a person to acquire a title given by the system, it was as hard as ascending or climbing Mount Everest nakedly.

At the moment, Jeremy was looking intensely at his Rank 10 title, Mage of Origin that was currently staying in an inactivated state.

To be exact, he was looking at the description of the title that stated...

...

Mage of Origin (Rank 10):

Origin of Magic (Talent) - After being activated, you will be able to freely convert any type and quality of mana into any type and quality of mana with a consistent and meaningful ratio according to your desire.

...

After finished viewing the title's description, Jeremy knew all too well that the only way for him to replenish his mana was to activate the title. Moreover, he wouldn't be able to refill his mana inside the dantians or even cultivate it ever again if he didn't activate it.

Still...

'No... it is still not the time yet. If I do that, it would have been my end for real. For now, let's conserve as much mana as possible. And... if there is no other choice then...'

In Jeremy's opinion, he thought that it was still untimely to activate the title. First and foremost, he wouldn't be able to inactivate the title for several days after it was activated.

That meant there would be too many eyewitnesses of his title, of which he didn't like it one bit because it would result in a detrimental consequence after those people on Ortus got wind of his bizarre title.

For the other reason, it was because out there, there existed 'them', the ones who always schemed for hegemony.

That's why Jeremy believed that if he didn't hide his eye-catching titles and his true abilities, he would have to dance on their palms once again in this life.

No matter what, Jeremy needed to tread on a different path to bring humanity to the summit of the universe successfully.

Shaking his head to remove those far-fetched thoughts, Jeremy stood up from the ground and started walking forward with his unwavering eyes and a part of his mind focusing on the passageway ahead.

Meanwhile, another part of his mind was focusing on the half-finished map he had gotten from the Tier 1 spell earlier.

Even though the distance and structure of the labyrinth that the spell had delivered to him was roughly around 500 meters around himself, the actual distance that he had to walk far exceeded that 500 meters several times.

Because he was within a labyrinth...

A labyrinth which was well known for its countless junctions and passageways...

In Jeremy's past life, he had spent more than three days within this deadly labyrinth before he could finally exit this place.

Nevertheless, this time, Jeremy was determined that he would pass it within 3 hours or so.

'Let's do a full exploration on this maze...' Jeremy thought.

...

After walking for a moment, Jeremy suddenly stopped in his tracks because he encountered a left junction.

Then Jeremy turned his head to look at the pathway on his left; he saw that there was a dead-end at around 20 meters away from him.

Meanwhile, on the floor ahead of the said dead-end, an ordinary-looking wooden box with no lock or so-ever on it was situated.

Upon seeing this sight, Jeremy lightly smiled, then looked at the floor around him to see if there was any object there or not.

Not long after, he finally found a rock smaller than his fist-size lying at the edge of the wall on his right side.

Jeremy went to pick it up, then walked up to stop around 3 meters in front of the wooden box. Right after that, he suddenly tossed the rock in his right hand to the front of the box.

Simultaneously, a small hole suddenly opened up silently from the left and right sides of the wall. Afterward, two long objects were being launched from the two holes at the same time.

*Whizzz* *Whizzz*

*Peng!* *Peng!*

The sounds of two launched metal objects flew until they hit against a solid wall from each side, resonating out loudly within the cave-like small space.

Upon seeing that unimpressive spectacle, Jeremy chuckled with a mocking smile while shaking his head lightly.

'A child's trick...' Jeremy thought amusingly while walking unhurriedly to the wooden box in front of him. As for the trap, he was already aware of it from his searching spell. In his past life, he had also met with this same arrow trap. So, he wouldn't fall for it, of course.

As for those holes on the walls, they were actually situated almost parallel, only with a slight distance in front of the wooden box, and their height was around 60 cm above the ground.

They were also hard to spot by one's eyesight. If the person's focus were put entirely on the box in the front, their fate would only be one thing out of the two. First, both arrows had missed the person incredulously. Second, the person's thigh got penetrated by a long arrow, maybe two arrows if unlucky.

For the first outcome, that person must have heaven-defying luck to survive that. As for the second outcome, it had pretty much already sealed the fate of the victim of those arrows because this place was only the starting point out of countless places filled with traps and monsters inside this colossal labyrinth.

It was too hard for a person with an injured thigh to finish this maze, not to mention that if their thighs were shot by the arrows, that person's fate was pretty much carved in stone.

Just like that, when Jeremy reached the box, he squatted down to open it slowly.

*Creaks*

Uninterestingly enough, the wooden box was opened with no suspenseful event whatsoever.

After the box was opened fully, Jeremy saw that the box was empty. However, there was a small rectangular transparent interface suddenly popping up in front of his face.

It said...

[You have received 100 SP]

'Not bad at all for my first reward...'

Jeremy thought to himself casually after seeing his reward from opening a single wooden box.

Afterward, he walked to pick up the two arrows from the trap earlier, and then he kept it inside his right glove filled with only staff, spear, and shield. As a result, within the right glove, there were two additional arrows inside.

'I really wonder how many SP will I be able to get from this place...'

Jeremy thought casually while walking back to the intersection behind him. He then carefreely went to explore another place according to the map generated by his spell that was currently being depicted within his mind.

This time, he decided to conquer everything here...