6 The Tutorial

Daniel appeared in a completely white space as far as the eye could see. He viewed the surrounding hoping to find what he was supposed to do next. Before he could come up with a plan a voice echoed throughout the room. It was the beautiful women's voice from the Tower video.

"Climber, welcome to the Tower. May you achieve your goals and dreams. To access your information think 'Status'."

The voice went silent.

Daniel thought in his mind, 'Status'.

Suddenly, there was a tinge of pain in his mind but it passed quickly. Then a screen appeared in his minds eye that showed his information.

Status:

Name: Daniel Grey

Strength- 1

Agility- 1

Physique- 1

Special Constitution- Error

Special Soul- Error

Innate Talent- Unawakened

Summary- The Species, 'Human' has an average starting statistic of 0.8 in each of the three main body categories. The highest statistic a Human can have before breaking the first limit is 1.0 in each category.

The Strength category measures the bodies force output value.

Agility measures the bodies reaction time to stimuli.

The Physique measures the bodies ability to take damage and heal from injuries.

A Special Constitution can be an inborn trait of the body, or acquired through plenty of ways. The Tower has all known constitutions recorded.

A Special Soul is a rare mutation in the soul. It is always born with the individual and impossible to acquire. The Tower has all known special constitutions recorded.

The Innate Talent is awakened upon entering the Tower. It is the hidden potential in the body brought out by the Tower. Most use this to help guide their path to power.

Daniel read through his Status and was somewhat puzzled by what he saw. First of all, he was surprised by the fact that his body is already at the peak of a normal human. There were many problems with this data. When he was a scientist, he would work out regularly, but he was by no means, 'peak of humanity'. Another issue, was that his current body was still developing. He was only about 13 to 14 years old. Maybe because he was rushing since he appeared in this future world, he never realized how strong he felt. Now that he saw his statistics he did feel great.

The second issue he had were his Special Constitution and his Special Soul. Both were listed as 'Error'. The Tower was supposed to be an entity that spread across the universe, accumulating knowledge from every civilization. But it couldn't read his constitution and soul? It even said in the summary that it knew all recorded Special Constitutions and Special Souls.

Daniel was a bit worried about his status because it did relate to his future success. He calmed himself down, knowing that worrying won't answer any of his questions.

The Tower's voice appeared once more, "Climber, you have seen your Status. It is now time to awaken your Inborn Talent. Prepare yourself, and think 'Begin' when ready."

Daniel could feel his palms start to sweat. This was it, a big moment that could define his path to power. He closed his eyes and calmed his mind and nerves.

'Begin' He thought.

Daniel Suddenly felt a mysterious feeling envelop his body. It felt like he was stepping into a pool of warm water, after he'd been standing in the cold for too long.

When he was enjoying this feeling, he suddenly heard a beeping noise in his head.

[Beep]

[New Energy Source Detected]

[Energy targeting 8th sequence in the gene]

[Does Patient allow energy to continue? or target new sequence?]

Daniel looked at what was happening in his mind with shock. Wasn't this the program he created to control his nanobots?

'Perhaps this is why the Tower could not read my Special Constitution and Special Soul. The nanobots merged with me when passing through time and space.' Thought Daniel.

Drawing him back from his racing mind was the constant blinking of the program. This must be the energy given by the Tower to awaken the Inborn Talent. A few ideas flashed through his mind, as he mentally tasked the program, 'Results of targeting 8th sequence?'

Daniel saw that he could target a different gene sequence, so if he could know what innate talent he would awaken from each sequence, then he'd have a huge advantage.

[Processing Patients Order]

[8th gene sequence would activate, allowing patient to have increase in fire control]

[Awaken 8th Sequence?]

Daniel saw that he would be able to have some sort of control over fire. Perhaps it would be an increase in fire affinity or something. This did not really appeal to Daniel at all. He did not want to limit himself to only one element. Nor would he want his one time Inborn Talent to be so lackluster. If he could be picky, of course he would.

Daniel told the program no, and then had it show the viable alternatives and their results if chosen.

[Processing Patients Order]

[There are 25,000 gene sequences. 10,000 lead to patient's death when activated. 5,000 would cause horrible exterior mutations to occur, impeding everyday life.]

[10,000 viable gene sequence options for patient to choose.]

[Gene sequence 5,176- Space Control]

[Gene sequence 9,320- Great Increase in Strength]

[Gene Sequence 2,001- Become Ice Element]

The list continued on and on, and Daniel knew that he didn't have enough time to read them all.

Daniel had to think about what he wanted his path to look like. He had his Nanobots and his unique soul, which already gave himself a solid path. Daniel's passions were to do scientific research and to push the known boundaries. He wanted to continue these passions in his path to power.

After doing some quick self-reflection he knew that he could eliminate several gene sequences.

'Program delete all Innate Talents unrelated to the improvement of the mind'

Daniel felt that his biggest strength was his intelligence. If he could booster this even further then it would be like adding a hyperdrive engine to a spacecraft. There would be no limit to his achievements.

[Processing Patients Order]

[The mind is the most delicate and complicated organ. Thus, only three gene sequences are viable]

[Gene Sequence 9,991- The brain can overclock to slow down the perception of time]

[Gene Sequence 10- The patient unlocks the telekinesis ability]

Looking at these first two options Daniel felt disappointed. These two did improve upon the brain but not in the area he was looking for. Crossing his fingers, he hoped the third option would work for him.

[Gene Sequence @*$!%- Changes the brain to be able to absorb energy, thus increasing neural activity, intelligence, and develops the brain.]

Daniel gasped in excitement. This was what he was looking for. He asked the program why the sequence number was so strange.

[Gene Sequence is outside the standard 25,000. It is a hidden gene. Probability dictates that it is impossible to awaken this gene without nanobots]

Daniel was ready to awaken his Innate Talent, so he told the Program to start.

The energy that was calmly enveloping him shot into his body. He could feel it seeping into every fiber of his being. When all the energy disappeared into his body, he felt like there was a clicking noise in his body. Almost like the sound of opening a plastic water bottle.

A rush of hot molten fire, rushed into his brain. It felt like his head was put into a microwave. The pain lasted a good few minutes as he screamed out loud. Finally, the pain ended and he was able to open his eyes and pry his hands away that were clutching his head.

Daniel looked around the white space. Although there wasn't much to look at he could tell that his perception of the world was slightly different. His thoughts felt clearer and faster. He realized that his intelligence increased by at least 5%. That may seem like a small amount, but if your IQ was 170 before then it's a pretty solid increase.

[Patients Gene Sequence Activated Successfully]

Seeing the notification from his soul program, Daniel was happy. He took his first step towards his path.

The Tower's voice appeared once again, "Congratulations Climber. You are now ready to partake in the Tutorial. Your goal is to survive 24 hours. Points will be rewarded based upon successful completion. More points can be earned by completing the hidden missions. I wish you luck Climber. May you bring honor to your species."

With that the Tower stopped speaking, and a countdown appeared in the white room. It read 30 seconds.

Daniel quickly secured his back pack and retrieved the sword given to him by Lily. The night before she asked him his preferred cold weapon. She said that the Tower prohibits any hot weapons not created by yourself from entering the tower. So Daniel decided to go with the sword.

With his backpack secured and sword in hand he was ready for anything the Tower could throw at him.

10..

7..

4..

2..

1..

And Daniel was gone.