I worked on crafting equipment for the next tutorial and separated the red crystal into 3 equal parts using stigma’s magic power. I would use the sharp part for a spear, the wide part for an axe, and the remainder for a fishing line.

The spear, axe, and fishing rod seemed quite simple. I just had to take apart the waiting room’s wooden board, trim it, and fix the crystal pieces onto the tips. I wasn’t sure what to do about the fishing line, but stigma’s magic power had solved it for me. The crystal transformed into a squishy, semisolid substance when I infused it with stigma. After some tinkering, the substance became a long, sturdy fishing line.

“Hmm.”

I looked over the items. They didn’t look too aesthetically pleasing since Dexterity’s proficiency had decreased and I didn’t have aether. Still, they should be better than most mass-produced goods and should serve me well enough for the tutorial. A system window suddenly popped up.

[You have obtained the technique, Lv.1 Crafting.]

“Oh right.”

The tower had a technique system as well.

[Crafting Lv.1] You can easily craft Lv.0 items.

The Tower of Wish functioned like an RPG game. Performing certain actions awarded players with unrealistic bonuses. The crafting technique would allow me to instantly craft items, skipping intermediate steps. It also included a leveling system like most RPGs.

[The second tutorial will begin in 10 minutes.] [You may access the community.]

The system gave me another recommendation as I practiced swinging my spear and axe. The community was one of the tower’s most important systems.

[Tower Community] [Public Forum] [Auction House] [Group Creation] … [Messenger] [Player Profile]

As expected, the community featured several functions. The auction house was self-explanatory and players could form parties with group creation. The player profile resembled a social media page with additional functions.

[Player Profile]

Players could create 2 profile pages, one with their nickname and one anonymously. Each player could fully decorate their profiles and turn it into a shop to sell items or buy and sell information.

I tried clicking on each function.

[Player Profile will be unlocked after the tutorial.] [Auction House will be unlocked after the tutorial.] [Messenger will be unlocked…]

As I thought, only the public forum was currently available.

[Public Forum]

[Am I the first poster?] 

[Wow, this is interesting. Someone comment on this thread! I need to know if anyone else is alive.] 

[Has anyone cleared the tutorial yet?]

Only 3 posts existed so far. It seemed everyone was busy trying to clear the tutorial. I created a post as well.

[Let’s share information.]

The view count went up as soon as I posted and someone commented.

— Extra7? Why are you here? Wait, are you the Extra7 I know?

“How does this guy know me?”

I tilted my head and checked the commenter’s nickname. It was… Nayunjajangman. The Nayun part made me a bit uncomfortable, but the familiar nickname surprised me.

“He’s here too?”

[The second tutorial stage, Way of Survival, will now begin.] [Please get ready.]

I tried to comment, but another system alert popped up. I turned the community off and stood up with all my equipment.

“I’m ready.”

[You will now be transferred to the second tutorial stage.]

“Yes.”

A white light surrounded me after the system alert. I closed my eyes and felt the warmth. It felt strange like I was floating in the air. Tssss. Soon, I landed on a soft surface and opened my eyes.

“I’m here.”

Chwaaa… I could hear the calm waves and a boundless ocean spread across the horizon. I stood on a sandy beach with a dense forest of palm trees behind me. This place appeared to be a tiny uninhabited island.

[Tutorial Goal – Survive for 14 days.] [From the second tutorial, you will be ranked based on your performance and will be rewarded accordingly.]

I simply had to survive in this boundless area for 14 days. However, the performance-based reward would be worth the risks.

[Try viewing your status window.]

Another system alert popped up.

“Status window.”

[Nickname – Extra7] Vitality 43/100 — Magic Power 30/30 — Skill Count [1] Bonus Skill [Random Dice]

My vitality and magic power basically represented my HP and MP. My magic power probably wasn’t 0 because I had lost my magic dysfunction physique. Why did the system want me to see this?

[Vitality is affected not only by damage, but also hunger and fatigue.] [When your vitality reaches 0, Player Extra7 will die. Players who die in the tutorial cannot revive.]

I see, so it wanted to tell me to eat. It must’ve been worried about me, a kind, polite… cough.

“Thank you.”

I answered energetically and looked around. There didn’t seem to be anything edible on land. I would have to forage from the ocean. I had already prepared a fishing rod and axe to fish and build a boat.

Growl—

I started to grow hungry and took out the fishing rod from my inventory. I should prioritize finding food since I could drink the coconuts from the palm trees.

“Let me think…”

I stared at the fishing rod in my hands. I had practiced fishing for this exact purpose before coming into the tower.

“Huup!”

I swung the rod in a big motion. Whish— The line drew an arc and felt more natural than I thought, probably because of Dexterity and Master Sharpshooter.

Plop!

The hook sank into the ocean and time passed in silence. I grew hungrier as the fishing rod remained still. I didn’t use any bait, but the red crystal hook didn’t need any. Sea monsters should smell the scent of magic power.

“Yaawn.”

I continued to wait and firmly believed in my luck. Finally, the water’s surface showed a hint of change after about 30 minutes.

“Ah!”

The fishing line tensed up with something clearly biting it. Whatever it was, it felt incredibly powerful and bent the wooden rod.

“…”

I picked up my spear after repeatedly trying to reel it in. It felt like a waste of time as my vitality decreased. Killing it and reeling it in would be the same as reeling it in and killing it. I held the spear and calmly observed the fish underwater. Chweek! I threw with all my strength, which should still be above 2 even though it was 65% sealed. The fish stopped moving and I easily reeled it in.

[You have obtained the technique, Lv1. Fishing.] You have an increased chance of fish biting your hook. [You have spotted a glossy seafish. Its information has been recorded in the player encyclopedia.]

“A sea monster.”

Monster Encyclopedia [Glossy Seafish] [Low rank grade 7] — A sea monster that tastes like a mackerel.

I retrieved the spear from its back and started a campfire. I simply rubbed some wood together. Then I cooked the glossy seafish over it. Tssss. It dripped deliciously as it cooked.

***

Boss cleared the first stage with the hardest difficulty in the blink of an eye. Currently, she sat on a sandy beach in meditation.

“…”

She took several deep breaths and tried to move her shadow into the water. However, the shadows couldn’t stretch far enough because of her 93% stat restriction.

“Huuu.”

She tried over a dozen times, but always failed. In the end, she gave up on fishing with magic power. Growl. 

I’m hungry. I have to eat something. Should I have saved the orange ticket’s emergency food?

She stood up and walked around to forage. Soon, she found a large boulder and hoped to find some crabs underneath.

Boss threw the boulder aside and found a startled hermit crab. She quickly grabbed it.

“…”

Now, she needed to cook it and opened her inventory. She already ate all the food that came with her ticket, but still had the burner and frying pan.

Tak, tak.

She turned on the burner and placed the hermit crab on the pan.

“… Ssp.”

Food. Food. Food. The sun began to set as she mumbled.

***

It had been 18 hours since the second tutorial. Koong, koong, koong. I struck down a tree with my axe. The tree didn’t last long against the red crystal axe with a fire attribute. Kiiik— It fell in just 5 swings.

“That should be enough.”

This was my 30th tree. I used all of them to build a boat. The highest difficulty island had no food and the second tutorial onwards would have a performance-based ranking system. How far I adventured and how many sea monsters I hunted would all contribute to my ranking. Leaving the island was a must.

“Inventory.”

I had filled my inventory with useful materials like bones and sea monster skins. Then I took out an item the system labeled as, red fish’s tough skin.

“Craft.”

It instantly transformed into a string.

[Red fish’s tough skin has been used to make a twine.] [Dexterity has been applied to crafting.] [You have crafted a Lv.1 Tough Twine.]

Using crafting, I could skip intermediate steps like in a real game.

“Whew.”

I picked up my axe and went to the logs. Ssk, ssk. With Dexterity, I began to shave the logs to make a proper sailboat. I needed to make them as smooth as possible. Sssk, sssk. After about an hour of hard work…

[Your efforts have impressed the Yggdrasil leaf.]

I received another system alert.

[Try checking the Yggdrasil leaf.]

“Ah, hold on a bit.”

I immediately set everything down to open my inventory.

[Yggdrasil leaf] — Blessing of Adventure: Your body will grow lighter with this item in your inventory. (Slightly boosts your physical ability.) You may grant minor blessings to items. Blessings will grow stronger the more they relate to adventures.

The Yggdrasil leaf gained a new effect.

“Nice.”

The first effect only gave a slight boost, but it applied to all my physical abilities. The second effect with blessings just seemed good all-around.

“Thank you.”

I closed the inventory and continued working on the boat. Ssk, ssk. I began to cut the logs. Chwaak, chwaak. And tied them together with strings.

“Uuu!”

I finally finished after 3 hours of hard work and felt a bit lightheaded when I stood up to stretch.

“Next up is…”

I began to throw coconuts into my boat for something to drink. One, two, three, four, five… twenty-three. I filled almost half the boat with coconuts.

[Try granting the vehicle a minor blessing.]

“Oh right.”

I almost forgot. Being friendly to the system also benefitted me like this. The Yggdrasil leaf might’ve gained a new effect because I had been so polite. I took out the Yggdrasil leaf and waved it over my sailboat.

[Yggdrasil’s blessing envelopes the sailboat with magic power.] [You will now have a smoother adventure.]

“Status window.”

I wanted to check the sailboat’s stats.

[Lv1. Sturdy Sailboat with Lv.2 Yggdrasil’s blessing] — Lv.1 Sturdy Sailboat: Durability Lv.1, Speed Lv.1, Safety Lv.1 — Lv.2 Yggdrasil’s minor blessing has increased all effects of the Sturdy Sailboat by 1.

“Oh?”

Yggdrasil’s blessing raised an item’s levels? That wasn’t a minor blessing at all!

“Thank you very much.”

I won’t forget this gratitude. Until I conquer this tower, that is.

Now, I prepared to set sail and pushed the sailboat into the water. Then I hopped on with a paddle. A pleasant breeze blew as I paddled forward and the sailboat began to drift away.

My goal for the second tutorial was simple. I would adventure as far out as possible and kill as many sea monsters as I could. It might become dangerous, but that would only increase my ranking.

“Huh?”

I spotted another island after paddling for about 30 minutes. The silhouette of the person on the beach…

“Am I seeing this correctly?”

I narrowed my eyes and focused into the distance. My vision instantly expanded and the island came into view.