My first idea was to create a skill by solidifying space beneath my steps so that any kind of environment wouldn't be a problem.

To do that I need to use my mana to manipulate the spatial fabric to solidify under my feet which would be slow if I have to do it every time. If it was converted into a skill then the system would take care of that extra work after the first time just like it does with all my skills now but I don't have empty skill slots to add it as a skill.

It would be so much easier than instead of manipulating spatial fabric every time I need to use a space-related spell if I can manipulate the space itself.

I don't even know if that's possible.

The only other way I can think of is to coat my legs with enough mana to take care of the problem. That's a brutish method, I know but I don't have any other ideas.

Just like how I'm trying to coat myself with space mana to isolate my mana fluctuations, I coat only my legs with it to see if I can walk freely on ice.

That failed spectacularly and I have a bloody nose to prove that.

But why?

May I should try refining my control over it?

Wasn't that how it works in those ninja shows I saw?

Normally I try to keep very thin and maintain a smooth mana flow so that there wouldn't be any mana fluctuations but I don't need to care about that now. I need to control my mana at my feet in such a way that I don't slip and fall again when I try to walk on ice.

But what is that way?

Hmm.

Let me try forming a solid layer of it under my sole and see how it goes.

That was a partial success.

I was able to walk on ice but couldn't maintain such fine control.

Next, instead of just the sole, I tried forming it in the shape of shoes. Maybe this image is easier for me as it was a little easier to maintain when compared to before but it requires more mana and it will take a lot of time and practice to get used to it.

If I can get by until I get a class then I can unlock that space steps skill and use it.

Now that I at least have an option to use in these kinds of conditions, I move on to the next section.

The next two sections each have an elite skeleton similar to the ice mage.

The only difference being their element, one thunder and another lava. Their spells although looked different, most of their uses were similar to ice mage ones.

As there wasn't anything new to learn, I killed them quickly.

As for loot, other than their mana cores I did found another item in the thunder mage's section. The lava mage's section was totally burnt down by his lava, I didn't find anything useful in that.

As for the item.

Environmental Cloak

Grade : Rare

Type : Clothing

A cloak that was made to protect its wearer.

The cloak is dark blue in color and is huge, it should be easily able to cover me from top to bottom and there is also a hood for my head.

As this is a Rare grade item, I can't see all the details of the cloak. I don't know how long I've to wait until Appraisal skill can get more details.

I try to equip it and just like the clothes from before, it fits exactly to my size.

As soon as I equip the cloak, I could feel the temperature of my body cooling down to what I feel comfortable with. Must be one of its functions but I don't plan on experimenting with the cloak to find if it has any other functions.

This floor is clear of its inhabitants and I have enough time to through the next floor but I'm beat, I'll go through it tomorrow. I'll go back and rest for today.

After reaching the Summoning Temple, I see a clean floor and partially cleaned walls, unlike the dirty place it was before. It's been almost four months since I was summoned here.

After cleaning the floor on the first day, I started cleaning the walls during my stay. But as the walls are too high, I could only clean them until where I can reach them.

I look around and see that the set of Durable Clothes I used in my experiments hasn't been fully repaired yet.

As I have four sets of these clothes, I used a set for experimentation.

From the time the first magic item was found, I wanted to know how these items were able to resist the passage of time. And from what I can think of, some kind of enchantment was the only thing that made sense.

But all the magic items I found until now are useful to me in one way or another. I can't use them to verify my theory.

What if my theory is wrong and the item is damaged?

But after I found four sets of the same item, I felt like using one for the sake of curiosity isn't wrong.

That's why it ended up like that.

In order to verify my theory, first I made a small cut on the trouser using the Multi-Tool and observed it to see if the damage can be repaired.

And if it does, how much time would it require?

It took more than an hour to repair that small cut.

I made a similar cut next, but I infused my mana and willed it to repair it instead of absorbing it from the surroundings. It did work and the time required was around ten minutes.

It looks like there won't be an instance of immediately repairing the set as long as I infuse the required mana into it. Maybe that option will be present in the higher grade clothing.

I guess I need to be more careful of the repair time as I'm going to be wearing them during fights. That doesn't matter much as I've got three extra pairs. And even if they are going to be damaged, it's infinitely better than the torn-up jersey I used to wear before.

When I reach civilization I should find some way to enchant that jersey with the same type of enchantments as the clothes I'm wearing. Maybe they can be salvaged from their current condition. After all that jersey along with the shoes I'm currently wearing and the jacket I use as a pillow are the only mementos I have of Earth.

But right now I look strange wearing these clothes along with modern-era shoes.

The other experiment was to check its self-cleaning function.

Even though it's been ages and there were layers of dirt settled everywhere, the clothes were clean. It's as if someone washed them just now. So I thought there may be a self-cleaning function embedded in them.

That's why I poured some Eogus fruit juice on it and checked how much time it would take for it to remove the stain by itself and it took over twenty minutes.

The second time I poured some more of the juice and infused my mana into clothes and willed it to clean up the juice marks, it worked, the set was clean again, although it was a bit slow and took around five minutes.

After that, I agonized for a few days to proceed with the next experiment which may completely damage the set.

At last, I decided that I need to know so I damaged the trouser quite extensively and left it to see how many days would it take to be repaired by absorbing mana from the surroundings.

That was almost a week ago and I still don't see any change in it.

It seems there is a limit on the enchantment's strength. I'll wait another week and if it isn't repaired by then, I can confirm that much at least.

Apart from that, I also started hunting all the critters I could find in this ruin and storing them inside.

According to the monster encyclopedia, saturated monster parts are much more valuable than normal meat. And all the critters in this ruin seem to be saturated with illusion mana.

That should fetch me quite a sum of money when I leave this place.

But the space in my storage is shrinking rapidly, already more than half of it is occupied with dead carcasses. I need to reduce my hunting for now.

I did go through the dusty books I found on the third floor of Mage Tower during the month-long training.

There were a total of five books.

Of them, two were copies of the same book I already have. The other three are Magical Crafting : Compendium, Magical Classes : Compendium and Herblore : Basic.

I skimmed through them. I can go through them more thoroughly when there is a need for it, for now skimming is enough.

As their name suggests, the first and second ones are about various magical crafting occupations and magic classes. They also explain how to attain a basic class on each of them. And the last one was a detailed explanation of various Common grade herbs that are found around this continent and their uses.

I do have a lot of daylight for today but I don't plan on exploring so I focused the rest of the day on improving my Space Mana Manipulation skill. After that, I ate some dinner and went through before pitching my new tent in the room in the basement and slept for the day.

Ohh, I did invest another point into my Vitality and raised it to twenty to check the effects it will have on my body by tomorrow.

The next morning I was back in the Mage Tower feeling refreshed after a good night's sleep.

As for the question of whether my body improved due to vitality?

Yes, it did.

I feel a lot healthier and energetic than before. Maybe it's the synergistic effect of both VItality and Endurance but I can easily tell the difference this time.

Back to exploration.

I quickly move through the cleared floors and right now I'm slowly climbing the steps towards the fifth floor. As I enter the fifth floor, I can see two large sections similar to what I found on the last floor.

And rest of the space is occupied by a small library which is suspiciously empty and rotted remains of what should have been couches and tables.

Another library?

Can't they just group them at one place?

I guess they can't. Then this must be the private library for the masters.

As for the library, there is nothing in it, it's just empty. There are no rotten remains of the books that should be found here or any new books for that matter, it seems like some looted this place clean.

If that was the point then why did they leave the main library building and the library of the apprentices below untouched?

That is the reason I'm feeling suspicious, guess I'll find the reason sooner or later.

Coming back to the two sections, similar to what I've done below, I plan to scout them first. I actively Stealth and move quietly towards the first one.

I peek in and see all sorts of strange broken instruments and their broken pieces all over the floor with a black skeleton doing something by the far end table. It's hunched down, fully concentrated on the table, like it's doing something very important.

As the skeleton is very busy doing whatever it is doing, I have a careful look around the section and can say that this place similar to a chemical laboratory back home, what with all those similar broken instruments and glass tubes lying everywhere.

Even then the skeleton on the far end hasn't moved a single step. Looks like it is fully immersed in whatever he is doing so I moved around a little more to observe the section and yeah this place feels like what a medieval alchemy laboratory should be like in my mind.

That means, that black skeleton should be some kind of alchemy master.

From what I know about alchemy, this particular occupation delves into the making of potions, poisons, pills, bombs, etc.

I was planning on scouting the area first but I don't want to miss such an opportunity for a sneak attack and also I don't want him to make whatever that he is making.

I immediately Blink to the back of the skeleton and attack it with Spatial Slash. But just as the other elite skeletons from before, it was able to sense me and just before the attack made contact with its body and activate its armor and block the attack completely.

As the process for whatever it was making on the table was disturbed, there was a small boom and the apparatus around it fell apart.

The moment my attack was blocked by it, it turned around and threw something round at my foot that burst, and some kind of smoke was released from it.

I instantly blinked back but it was already late, it looks like I was poisoned.

From what I can see from my status, this poison makes me lose five health points per second. I quickly eat an Atulica leaf to help with my health regeneration. But that won't help me if I'm poisoned again.

I need to quickly finish this fight.

First, I inspect it.

Nert, Corrupted Alchemy Master - Lv. 20

Another elite.

His level is lower than the ones below. Looks like he is more of a craftsman than a fighter.

Even then I shouldn't look down on him as his single poison already put my life on the edge. I should consider myself lucky that most of the equipment and materials in here are destroyed. Who knows what he could have produced if he had all the instruments and materials available to him.

As I'm still losing five health per second due to the poison, I immediately Blink next to him and started hacking at him to end this fight quickly.

As I expected, he wasn't much of a combat expert but he does have his armor skill active so it's taking most of the brunt from my attacks.

In the meantime, he attacked me with Corrupted Fire Arrows which I avoided easily and occasionally with the same ball of poison like he did the first time, which I've blinked away from.

The poison's timer wasn't much, it was for ten seconds but as I don't have much health, that is significant enough for me.

As long as I kept my eye on the poison, the fight was rather easy as expected. After quickly killing him, I took some rest and ate some more Atulica leaves to regain my lost health back and then started looting the place.

Other than the mana core from his head, I found a set of alchemy equipment that he was using at the far end table and a lot of glass test tubes.

You have defeated Nert, Corrupted Alchemy Master

Your race has gained a level.

Mortar and Pestle

Grade : Rare - Set

Type : Tool

A tool used in alchemy

Alembic

Grade : Rare - Set

Type : Tool

A tool used in alchemy.

Cauldron

Grade : Rare - Set

Type : Tool

A tool used in alchemy

After inspecting these three different items which have the same pure black color I found that these instruments seemed to belong to some kind of set and a Rare grade one at that.

Should be a valuable item to sell if I don't plan to use it. I store them in my storage for now.

Apart from that, I collect all the broken instrument parts and subsequently store them in my storage.

Killing this elite makes five. That should be enough to gain the class I'm hoping for. But before that, I'll complete exploring this place today.

After that, I move on to the next section.

Name : Janus Arthridge

Race : Human

Level : 8

Bloodline : N / A

Class : N / A

Level : 10

Health : 200 / 200

Stamina : 200 / 200

Mana : 290 / 290

Attributes

Strength : 10

Dexterity : 30

Vitality : 20

Endurance : 20

Resilience : 10

Perception : 30

Intelligence : 10

Control : 10

Wisdom : 29

Willpower : 10

Attribute Points : 11

Skills

Appraisal Lv.2

Stealth Lv.3

Meditation Lv.7

Space Mana Manipulation Lv.8

Blink Lv.1

Spatial Slash Lv.1

Longsword Mastery Lv.7

Corruption Resistance Lv.4

Spatial Storage Lv. 1

Spatial Shield Lv.1

Skill Slots : 0

Perks

Otherworlder

Summoned Being

Polyglot