The Place Where Everything Begins

'Hmm...?'

Jeremy exclaimed lightly within his mind after spotting something peculiar in the 'skill' section. Afterward, he thought ponderingly,

'The [Focus] skill's rank is pretty high... That means it should be influenced by my originally highly focusing mind, causing it to be upgraded along to a greater grade. Well, anything like this is always welcomed anyway. Also, it looks like the [Analyze] skill has ranked up one grade after being used consecutively in the hard trial earlier.'

Jeremy nodded his head approvingly at the two skills' improvement. Then he focused his mind on the window's last section, Tutorial Mission: Survive I.

Before Jeremy could carefully look at the tutorial missions interface, another interface about the rewards suddenly showed up and shielded it...

...

『 You have received 1x★ for completing the mission, 'Survive until only 15 people remain' 』

『 Congratulations. You've earned a qualification to enter into the second stage of the Tutorial 』

『 Would you like to exchange ★ for a teleportation ticket? 』

『 Yes │ No 』

...

'Another freebie...' Jeremy thought momentarily after seeing another black star jumping into his pocket on its own accord.

Afterward, he chose the 'No' option to remain here for some more time...

Well, there were still some precious stars to be earned, so Jeremy would obviously stay here until he got everything done.

At this time, the shielded interface of tutorial missions finally showed up in front of him...

...

『 Tutorial Mission: Survive I 』

⎯ Survive until only 15 people remain (★) (Completed)

⎯ Survive 10 monster hordes (★★)

⎯ Complete 4 missions from the Survival Crystal (★★★) (Completed)

⎯ Find and use a secret teleportation circle (★★★★)

⎯ Kill a no-named foot soldier of Noir Keista (★★★★★)

⎯ ??? (✰)

『 After finishing one of the tutorial missions, you can choose to be teleported into the next stage 』

...

When Jeremy saw that more than four tutorial missions were still left to be accomplished, he fell into deep thought,

'Four more missions, huh... For the second mission, I only need to defeat two more hordes. That's not a big deal. Also, it is surprising that I still haven't passed the fifth mission as I thought it was one of the two no-named Initiate Warrior in the hard trial... Whatever...'

'As for the fourth one, I think I have some idea where it will be situated, so there is no need to be hurried in finding it.'

'As a result, the last two missions... Well, I still have no clue about them at all, but they should be somewhere within the two dark passageways. However, the problem is the energy barriers ahead of the two passageways, preventing anyone from going out but coming in.'

After thinking till this point, Jeremy suddenly felt like his non-existence Mystery Decipherer title was at work once again as he promptly fell into a more thoughtful state than before,

'Oh wait... If I rearrange all the jigsaw pieces together to create one big picture... Then doesn't it mean everything is almost right in place by now?'

'First of all, I've completed every mission in the Crystal by undergoing all three trials designed by the cupid. As a result, there is no more mission in green Crystal...'

'Then unlike the Crystal's missions, all tutorial missions are mostly arranged by the System, which also means they can be completed within this tutorial chamber with no exception...'

'As a result, whether it be 'Survive 10 monster hordes', 'Find and use a secret teleportation circle', 'Kill a no-named foot soldier of Noir Keista', or '???', all of them should also be done within this tutorial chamber the same.'

'However, there is still one unsolved issue, which is the solid barriers currently blocking the two passageways...'

'Hmm...'

'Then if I put in the last jigsaw piece, which happens to be 'the untouched two passageways', into the equation... Doesn't that mean... all mysteries regarding the remaining tutorial missions will be solved then?'

'Hehh... Due to that, it only means one of the two things, isn't it?'

'It is either the two passageways will open up and let me go outside soon, or some big events will happen inside this tutorial chamber eventually...'

'No matter which one is correct, I will ultimately have a chance to complete the remaining four missions arranged by the System very soon.'

'In the end, I'm still too clever, huh...' Jeremy complimented himself with a narcissistic smile like he was the most intelligent person alive.

Upon finishing his long thought, Jeremy walked towards the same old corner that surprisingly had no outlander corpses within the four-meter radius around it.

Then Jeremy brought out a black tent from inside the left glove. Afterward, he pitched the tent there, in front of the corner.

Not long after, Jeremy brought ingredients out one after another from the left's glove space storage.

All ingredients were in vacuum-sealed states, causing them to always look as fresh as new within the time-still storage. The ingredients comprised shrimps, precooked andouille sausages, zucchini, corn on the cob, garlic, butter, seasoning, spice, parsley, lemon, and aluminum foil as a cooking utensil.

After all, Jeremy felt bored after eating beef steak for three consecutive meals already, so he intended to cook something he had learned from the internet before being teleported here called 'shrimp boil foil packets'.

The menu was simple and suitable for people who liked camping in the wild as it was one of the all-time summertime favorites. Furthermore, the whole meal was cooked in aluminum foil, subsequently no dishes were required to be cleaned at the end of the meal.

When every ingredient was prepared, Jeremy brought out the miniature fire stove and started cooking his sumptuous camping meal.

After some minutes, the mouth-watering aromas breezed out within the spacious chamber. Following that were Jeremy's chewing noises and carbonated drink's fizzing sounds.

As always, the former sage enjoyed his life to the fullest, albeit doing it alone...

...

Half an hour later, Jeremy finally finished his meal...

After releasing his full bladder in the green toilet, Jeremy came back inside the tent to take a nap due to feeling a bit tired right now.

Considering that Jeremy had gone into his sea of consciousness to mend the cracks only two hours ago, he couldn't reaccess it just yet as his mind felt somewhat exhausted from maintaining the tenth stage of meditation for almost four hours straight.

So, Jeremy needed to take some rest to revitalize his spent body and weary mind before he could finally repair those cracks again.

After all, sleeping was still the best way to recuperate body and mind for the current Jeremy...

Well, that was always the case before he reached higher classes in the mage pathway. After that, Jeremy would be able to use another method to heal and recover himself.

Soon, rhythmical breathing sounds came drifting out from the zipped black tent at the tutorial chamber's corner...

...

Four hours had passed very quickly...

Jeremy had already woken up and finished keeping everything back inside the left glove for quite some time...

Right now, Jeremy was standing in front of the left passageway with the steel spear no.3 in hand, whereas the Forsaken Branch was now nowhere to be seen as it looked like Jeremy didn't intend to use any spell in the upcoming battle...

'This wave might be a bit tiring, but with the new [Breathing Control] and many skills in my arsenal, it shouldn't be as tiring as when fighting with the three packs of wolves...' Jeremy thought fleetingly while looking at the dark passageway in front of him.

At this time, the countdown timer above the green Crystal had counted to the last five seconds...

...

00:00:00:05...

00:00:00:04...

00:00:00:03...

00:00:00:02...

00:00:00:01...

00:00:00:00...

...

『 Be prepared. The ninth horde of monsters is coming. Good luck. 』

...

When the timer had hit zero, a message from the System also promptly showed up in front of Jeremy.

Upon seeing the notification, Jeremy also prepared himself for the upcoming bloody battle...

Shortly after the notification disappeared, the scary sounds suddenly came out from the two passageways simultaneously...

*Growl* *Growl*

"GRAA!!!"

"Aawoooo!!"

"Gieee..."

"Jiiiieekk!!"

The wolves' deep growling, goblins' high-pitched screaming, and imps' annoyingly small voices resounded out echoingly from inside the two passageways without stopping...

At the same time...

'Let's finish this wave fast...'

Jeremy thought with a calm expression while standing in front of the left passageway, only having a steel spear in hand to fight with the incoming hundreds of outlanders....