The Place Where Everything Begins

Inside the tutorial chamber...

*Scribble*

*Scribble*

Suddenly, the faint scribbling noises resounded out...

It appeared that the sounds originated from the chamber's corner where a black tent was situated.

The corner was obviously the same favorite corner where a certain someone liked to pitch his tent.

At this moment, Jeremy was in the said black tent while sitting on a soft cushion and scribbling on a brown animal leather the size of approximately 50x50 centimeters.

Surprisingly, Jeremy inscribed on the leather by using both hands' index fingers simultaneously while the tips of the two fingers were now shining with a light-blue glow.

It appeared that Jeremy was currently up to something again...

Right now, if someone took a closer look at the brown leather, they would see the thing Jeremy was inscribing happened to be something very similar to a diagram...

The diagram in which Jeremy used to draw when he enchanted the Forsaken Branch in his house basement.

At that time, Jeremy had only inscribed one big diagram on the leather doormat comprised of many big and small complex lines and curves to create the diagram's body.

However, this time, the layout was quite different from the last time, as there were more than five small 'diagrams' with not-so-complex lines and curves connected to one another like five small hubs.

From a single glance, one might be able to tell that it was clearly different and distinct from the diagram Jeremy had inscribed before.

Actually, the two were indeed different 'things' as Jeremy was currently inscribing five small arrays instead of one big diagram.

At this moment, after his fingers' each stroke were flicked on the animal leather, the arrays seemed to become more and more complete...

*Scribble*

*Scribble*

Jeremy continued inscribing the magical arrays on the animal leather with his total concentration...

At this time, it appeared that the newly acquired skill [Focus] had also come to play as Jeremy could focus on the inscribing process even better and easier than before.

Jeremy knew all too well that he could draw an even better diagram than when he created the staff back on Earth.

Just like that, the inscribing session proceeded up until some minutes later...

Currently, Jeremy suddenly flicked his two index fingers as he drew the last stroke and put the finishing touch to the arrays by smoothly moving both fingers towards one another. As a result, the five arrays finally became whole and connected flawlessly.

'Done... Array 1-157...'

Jeremy thought inwardly while retracting his hands from the animal leather.

Simultaneously, the faint lines on the animal skin inscribed by the purest mana in existence suddenly lit up in bright light.

The whole tent's interior got brightened up with the sudden white light from the inscriptions on the brown leather continually, making it appear like someone had just turned on a light bulb inside the tent.

Simultaneously, Jeremy also scrutinized the white glowing lines and patterns on the leather, which were composed by using various array inscription techniques, mana techniques, mind power, and highly concentrated focus to create.

'The arrays could easily become one of the masterpieces of all low-rank arrays on Ortus...' Jeremy thought appreciatingly while nodding his head slightly in satisfaction.

Upon observing the arrays for some more time, Jeremy finally felt assured that nothing had gone wrong with the inscribing process.

Right now, he had already finished setting up the overall layout, and the next step was to fill in the corresponding mana runes and elemental runes inside the five arrays according to the process and sequence of the Spell Array 1-157.

That's right, Jeremy was creating something called Spell Array 1-157...

After a few seconds had passed, the lighting lines and curves on the animal leather finally dimmed down a little.

*Sigh*

At the same time, Jeremy also sighed a bit after seeing the first step was finally done with no hiccup occurring in the process.

Then he thought inwardly,

'I should have collected more mana fluid from those trees...'

Upon thinking so in a depressed manner, Jeremy shook his head slightly as he had already spent all the collected mana in the bottles on many occasions, causing him to have none left right now.

Well, two of the most significant occasions were that he used the mana fluid to enchant and create the Forsaken Branch, whereas another one was when Jeremy used the remaining mana fluid in the bottle to break through to the peak substage of Journeyman Mage.

Unfortunately, Jeremy didn't know beforehand that he wouldn't be able to replenish mana after coming into the tutorial, as within his mind was that he could gather mana anytime he wanted.

However, who would have known that such a thing would happen...

To be honest, even a former sage, Jeremy wasn't aware that his own dantians couldn't attract inferior mana particles because such a bizarre case had never happened before in history.

Still, there was no cry over the spilled milk...

After all, Jeremy had advanced to the very peak of Journeyman Mage, with only one more push, and he would eventually become a True Mage.

So, Jeremy was not feeling regretted in the slightest...

Soon, the bright light had almost died down completely, now only leaving a dimmed light to shine like a reflect clothing when it was shone upon with a dull glow.

Upon seeing so, Jeremy thought momentarily about the following steps,

'The next process is inputting the runes inside the arrays and setting a code to activate the spell... Still... The problem is that I cannot use any elemental energy yet... But that shouldn't be a problem as I've already had the offering anyway...'

'Well... Hopefully, the offering will give me enough time in exchange to write the elemental runes...'

While thinking so, Jeremy promptly turned his head to look at the tiny transparent crystal lying on the ground beside the animal leather.

The crystal was clearly the same one Jeremy retrieved from the spider forsaker's brain.

As for why Jeremy was unable to use any elemental energy, it was simple...

In fact, for a mage to use elemental energies or spells, the mage needed to become a class-1 True Mage first as per a particular condition...

Obviously, the condition was also applied to Jeremy as he couldn't use the elemental spells right now.

Regarding the condition, it was that before a person could use any existing element in the universe, the person had to fuse the elemental energy with a dantian inside the body first and foremost.

So, in Jeremy's case, he was currently a peak Journeyman Mage, which was still one step away from becoming a True Mage, and he clearly didn't fuse his three dantians with any element just yet.

Due to being unable to wield any element right now, Jeremy had to rely on a ritual to cast elemental spells or inscribe elemental runescripts.

'Alright, let's proceed with one of the loathful customs of those prideful mages, the ritual...'

Upon thinking so, Jeremy suddenly thought of something funny and smiled amusingly at the fleeting faces of his subordinates when they saw him practicing ritualism in the mage tower.

It was such a sight to behold, after all...

The prideful sage, Lakota, practiced a loathful ritual...

After they accidentally saw him practicing the ritual, his subordinates had to put their utmost effort into covering things up.

Or else, if the information regarding such nasty conduct of humankind's greatest mage were to be disseminated to the outside world, their reputation might get a heavy hit, and it might even become the darkest blemished history of all mages.

On the contrary, Jeremy didn't think ritualism was a bad thing at all...

Furthermore, the strong could do anything they wanted without caring about the weak's opinions anyway.

Those two were the reasons why Jeremy practiced ritualism so openly in the first place.

All the more, he even had a notion of making ritualism legal and traditional in the mage society at the time,

However, it was such a drag to put himself in the position of having to convince and change other people's faith, so he discarded the thought down the drain in an instant and only practiced it alone by himself.

At this time, Jeremy finally finished reminiscing about one of his amusing pasts as he shook his head slightly to throw away those useless thoughts.

Afterward, Jeremy brought out another brown leather from the left glove...

It looked like he had prepared quite a sum of them before coming here as this one shouldn't be the last animal leather either.

Now, talking about ritualism...

Typically, most rituals comprised four main components: the offeror, receiver, medium, and condition.

However, some rituals could also have fewer or more components according to the related rules, circumstances, and some other factors.

Regarding which one Jeremy was going to do, it was simply a ceremony called 'ritual of exchange and communion'...

The so-called ritual of exchange and communion that Jeremy chose was undoubtedly categorized in a usual ritualistic type incorporated of four constituents like most rituals.

This genre of ritual encompassed forms of sacrifice and offering meant to praise, please, placate, or trade with the 'great' powers of which could be anything that had the 'authority' to comminate with another being in the faraway place.

If Jeremy commenced the ritual this time, it would be considered the second time 'in this life' already that he had done such a thing.

As for the first time, it was clearly when Jeremy created the two space storage gloves he wore on his hands right now. At that time, Jeremy also used ritualism to call forth a 'helping hand' to enchant his gloves.

Currently, after bringing out the animal leather from his glove, Jeremy proceeded with the ritualism without further delay.