The hidden rewards are always worth finding if you have the time. Only a fool would pass up extra rewards.

Davies - Head of Climber Academy

Turns out broken bones suck.

If I had broken my arm before the Tower it would have taken at least a month to heal to the point I was now. And that was paying for a doctor to set the bone, bind it, and keep a close eye on it. Now I had a convenient timer that started counting down the moment my HP was maxed out.

Turns out even when your HP is max, you still get pain from a broken arm. Better yet, I was by myself so there was no one to help me splint or bind it. I tried to make a sling but gave up after cutting the animal hides caused more pain than it would be worth.

There was no point in going to the next floor until my arm healed so I spent the time looking for the hidden reward. I knew hundreds of places other climbers had found hidden rewards but none really seemed to apply to the current flood.

Could there be a false wall? Sure but this area was so large with too much mountain wall to search. While there was no time limit on this floor I did not want to spend a year eating crappy jerky just to search all of the mountain walls.

Maybe an odd bunch of trees that would point to the reward? Nope. I spent a few very painful minutes climbing the largest tree I could find to see that all the trees looked roughly the same.

Maybe it was hidden in the beginning where I might have overlooked it? Nope, a whole day wasted walking back to the starting area to find nothing.

Obviously it would be in the tent behind the boss? Nope the tent had a straw mattress. Hidden in the straw mattress? Nope only straw. The tent material was thin and did not have a chance to hide anything and I could easily walk around it to check all sides.

After I woke up on the third day after I defeated the boss I decided to kill time by digging up the floor of the tent.

Why? Was there some subtle detail that I had found that indicated something would be buried in the tent? No, I was just bored and frustrated and wanted to take my frustration out on something. The only logic in choosing to attack the flood was that maybe the reward was tied to the boss and the only place he could easily hide something was the floor of his tent.

After 10 minutes of randomly swinging my ax-sword into the ground I hit something hard. Digging in the dirt with my good hand I soon found a smooth rock about the side of a dinner plate. Frustrated, I grabbed a corner of the rock and pulled it up, ready to throw it as far as I could when I realized that the rock was purposely covering a small hole. Reaching in the hole I found an odd book.

Congratulations you have found the hidden treasure: Cultivation manual.

It had a paper cover that was bright yellow with a black box that contained the title, “Body and Mana Cultivation for Dummies”.

It was the weirdest book I had ever seen. Under the title it read:

Learn to strengthen your body and mana channels to level even faster!

I flipped over the book and read the back:

Strengthen your body and mana channels in the most effective way.

With great strength comes greater experience point requirements. Body and mana cultivation strengthens your body to not only gain bonus stat points but also making future levels easier to obtain.

Body and mana cultivation will let you capture your true potential.

While I had no idea what cultivation was. No one in the academy had ever mentioned it and to the best of my knowledge this was completely new information. No climber had ever reported learning any information about cultivation. I was likely the only climber to learn about cultivation. Well the only climber still alive at least.

Sitting down I began to read. My arm finished healing as I read, but I had no motivation to move on to the next floor. I finished the book sometime late in the day, just before the sunlight left for the night.

I wanted to move to the next floor. I knew there were 99 floors remaining. If I kept the same pace of floor a month, I would be in the Tower for eight to nine years. Most Easy Difficulty climbers finished in four months, and the successful Medium Difficulty climbers finished around six months.

But cultivation changed everything. Everyone knew that the experience point requirements double with every level but no one knew why. I had learned the secret.

Turns out that the experience points were really energy that physically entered the cells of the body. The cells can only hold so much of the energy easily. Once the cell was ‘full’ it could still have additional energy forced into it, but it took exponentially more effort.

It was like putting wool in a bag. It was easy to fill a bag with loose cotton. If you pressed down the cotton you could then put in double the amount with more effort. If the bag could take the strain, you could probably press even more cotton into the already full bag, but you would spend even more effect for each additional amount. It was the same with the body and the energy from experience points.

Cultivation changed that by strengthening the cells to hold more energy. Additionally it enhanced the mana channels in the body to move more energy.

Cultivation has breakthroughs roughly every five levels that would strengthen the body and provide additional stats. If I used the cultivation techniques continuously I would be able to not only get stats for the breakthroughs but it would strengthen my body easier and drastically lower the experience point requirements for future levels. Reviewing the charts in the book, I would be level 26 instead of 13 if I had started cultivating when I first entered this flood. While I couldn't change the past, I could start cultivating now.

Cultivation was simple in concept but complex in nature. For the first 20 levels it was just learning to sense my mana and learning how to circulate the mana through the pathways that were already in my body. Once I got the hang of circulating my mana, the book said I just had to do it until I achieve a breakthrough. According to the book, the beginnings of sensing and circulating mana were relatively easy.

Finding a comfortable position, I closed my eyes and tried to feel my mana.

***

Six day. It took six fucking days to not only find but also learn how to manipulate the movement of mana in my body. This was supposed to be easy. Sure most people who did had a teacher who could use a spell or two to guide them in sensing their mana flow. Clearly the book had underrated the difficulty of learning it on your own.

Now that the hard part of locating and learning how to circulate my mana was over, I would just circulate my mana until my body achieved a breakthrough.

According to the book the first possible breakthrough was when reaching level 5 and was considered the middle stage of mortal cultivation. The next breakthrough, late stage, occurred at level 10. With any luck I will blow through these two stages in the next day and be prepared to move to the next floor.

***

Congratulations! You have reached middle stage mortal cultivation. +1 to all stats.

It took a little over 2 days. I would complain except I felt so damn good.

Whenever I leveled I felt physically stronger like I could achieve anything. But it was just potential.

Breaking through the next stage of cultivation, I felt an overwhelming sense of achievement, greater than any that I have ever had. The rush of placing first in Climbers Academy or getting Joanne to agree to go on a date with me was a small candle compared to the raging bonfire that I felt from the breakthrough. Unfortunately, the rush ended almost as quickly as it started and a minute after the breakthrough I felt like myself again.

What was another two days if I could feel that sense of accomplishment again? I ate some jerky and stretched my body as I prepared to cultivate once again. While stretching I noticed an odd sensation. At first I thought it was the slight increase to my stats, but as I walked around I realized that wasn’t it.

I walked over to the book and opened to the section describing the benefits of cultivation. Skimming the chapter I arrived at the point that addressed what I was feeling.

With mana and body cultivation, the cultivator is able to have a greater connection to his body. As cultivation advances so does this connection up to the point that the cultivator is able to control his body on a cellular level.

This was it. It was as if I was walking around with my body half asleep and now it was fully awake. I had a better sense of how my body could move and its limits. Deciding to test my new mind-body connection, I ran over to a tree and found that I was able to scale it easier. Hopping down from the tree, I picked up my sword-ax and started moving through basic techniques. Each movement seemed easier and more graceful than before.

I didn’t want to waste more time but I knew I would be a fool to not push for the second breakthrough. Now that I had the hang of it, it should only take me another day or two.

***

Congratulations! You have reached late stage mortal cultivation. +1 to all stats.

I was a little off. It ended up taking me four days instead of two to achieve the cultivation breakthrough but it was definitely worth it. I just sat still, enjoying the post breakthrough elation and sense of accomplishment.

Once the sense of elation faded I pulled up my stats.

Name: Miki Meadows

Age: 29

Race: Human - Earth

Cultivation: Mortal - Late Stage

Level: 13

Exp: 0/250 to next level

HP: 195/195 HP Regen 1.63/min

Stamina: 213/213 Stamina Regen 1.77/min

MP: 133/133 MP Regen 1.10/min

Strength: 29

Agility: 32

Endurance: 33

Intelligence: 33

Wisdom: 23

Luck: 45

While additional stats from the breakthroughs were nice, the real improvement was the huge reduction in experience needed. I had lost the experience I had gained towards level 14 when I had each of my breakthroughs but the reduction from 16,000 to 250 experience needed for the next level more than made up for it.

I had spent a total of 45 days on this floor and I was more than ready to move to a new floor. While I was concerned by the amount of time I would spend on climbing the Tower, I had a greater concern. I desperately wanted to eat something other than jerky.

Before the Tower I had eaten jerky numerous times. Everyone knew that if made and stored properly jerky could last years. Any butcher could preserve meat. The best ones often added additional seasoning that would flavor the meat and make it more palatable. The orcs clearly did not have a quality butcher make this jerky and instead went for an overabundance of salt to ensure the meat wouldn't go rancid. Since my only source of water was the ever abundant snow, I was constantly walking around with a mouthful of snow.

With any luck the next floor would have some better food and maybe a canteen or something else that I could use to store water. I wouldn’t be picky. I would be happy with just a cup and some bread. Besides some decent food, some equipment would be nice.

In the Academy they always mentioned how equipment would make or break a climb. My makeshift robe was nothing more than basic covering and protection against the cold. The sword-axes that the orcs used were crude weapons that I could probably make if I spent half a day working as a blacksmith. Really the sword-axes were little more than a hunk of metal beat into shape that could hold an edge. With basic leather armor and a real sword I could really put my skills to use.

I walked over to the portal that had appeared half a month ago and stepped through.

Floor 1 complete!

Rewards: 500 exp.

Level up! You are Level 14, +1 to all stats