Crystals scattered on the ground as another Portal was destroyed, the Treant Monster Spawner gone. This was the fourth Portal of the day for Teresa and her party, who had all been catching up well enough. It had been two days since the council meeting, which had now been occurring on a daily basis. Teresa was invited to show up, and she did once more to make sure they were actually being productive. All that had been discussed were what buildings should be made of, how many holes Simon needed to dig, and the first drafts of a name for the settlement had been discussed.

Preston had vetoed any name that had the word "new," in it, with the special exemption being if he thought it was funny. For example, New Eden, New Seattle, New Lisbon, and New Tokyo had all been shot down immediately. There had only been two exceptions to this rule. New New York and Newer Zealand had both been fine according to Preston, but had been shot down by everyone else.

Ultimately, they didn't decide on a name yet. Everyone was still just calling it a settlement or camp or some other similar word, naming the place had led to more disagreements than anything else. Teresa personally thought that naming it after a pre-System city would be in poor taste due to a whole variety of reasons ranging from those cities being gone to the fact that most people in the camp were from different countries. Apparently, Canadians made up the largest demographic in the settlement, though not by much. They still only accounted for about 10% of the population, next up were Australians, then Nigerians, then Thai, then weirdly enough Luxembourgers, followed by Americans. US Americans, anyways. Not like people from the two continents of North and South America.

Outside of that, Teresa and her party had been hunting monsters whenever they got the chance for the last two days. As a result, everybody had reached level 15 and unlocked a new class. Preston had been given three options exactly like Jake had been offered.

Class: Magic Light Swordsman (F+)

The blade is an extension of your body, its edge an avatar of your will. You use your weapon to ensure your enemies do not remain whole, and you use magic to gain an advantage over your opponent. Focus on hand to hand combat, quick movement, and Buffing Magic.

+1 Strength, +1 Endurance, +3 Agility, +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 Unallocated per level.

Class: Precision Striker (F+)

There are many ways to kill an opponent, any but the most efficient are excessive. Strike only when necessary, seek out critical damage and choose your moment for the perfect attack. Use skills to set up high damage precision attacks.

+1 Strength, +1 Endurance, +3 Agility, +1 Intelligence, +1 Perception, +1 Unallocated per level.

Class: Advanced Light Warrior (F)

You have found your path early and follow it accordingly. Remain dedicated to your craft, master your swordsmanship and footwork. May your blade strike first, and may it strike true.

+2 Strength, +1 Endurance, +3 Agility, +1 Unallocated per level.

After some discussion with the rest of the party, he had chosen Magic Light Swordsman. It was the class most likely to eventually award <Familial Duty> due to its involvement with magic, although that was admittedly unlikely. Additionally, while Precision Striker would be really nice against singular powerful opponents, it also seemed like it involved either a lot of setup or a lot of waiting for the perfect moment. They were a four person party, they couldn't wait around for a perfect moment during battles against multiple opponents.

At least, that was the reasoning. Both options had been pretty useful, ignoring Advanced Light Warrior as it was the worst of the bunch. Shortly after, Sarah had also gotten her own class change.

Class: Sniper (F)

The beauty of a ranged weapon presents itself with distance. Deliver death from afar, pick your target and eliminate them without giving them the chance to get close.

+1 Strength, +2 Agility, +3 Perception per level, +1 Unallocated per level.

Class: Tempest Ranger (F+)

The bow is your instrument, and the arrow is your song as it dances along the wind to the melody of the Tempest Ranger. You fire your weapon with your body and you guide the attack with your Soul. Focus on air-based Elemental Magic and Archery.

+1 Strength, +2 Agility, +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +2 Perception, +1 Unallocated per level.

Class: Advanced Ranger (F)

You have found your path early and follow it accordingly. Remain dedicated to your craft, master your archery and aim. May your bow pull strong, and may your arrow strike true.

+1 Strength, +2 Agility, +3 Perception, +1 Unallocated per level.

Sarah had gone with the Tempest Ranger class. It was her only F+ rated class, though she did consider taking Sniper for a bit. Having a heavy hitter who could do singular, powerful attacks would be really nice, but it wasn't what the party was after. They all wanted <Familial Duty>. It didn't matter who got it, so long as somebody did. Of course, Madeline had it, but they couldn't expect her to travel through monster infested forests with an infant.

Both Sarah and Preston had gone with a class Teresa had been offered herself. Between the two of them, they both initially felt like they could have gone either way in their final decisions. Really, the possibility of being able to use magic was just too great to pass up.

"That makes four today, you guys are actually catching up pretty quick." Teresa said as everyone caught their breath. She was still just monitoring, and she rarely needed to step in. She healed everybody after battles and took out monsters that were well above her party's paygrade, but otherwise there hadn't been any notable incidents. Everybody's level had reached the 20s now, though they still had a ways to go. Teresa may have been staying with a low level party, but she hadn't been slacking off either. Whenever they crossed a high level Portal, it had become Teresa's time to shine.

Status:

Name: Teresa

Race: Human (Earth)

Level: 40 (F) (15%)

Class: Jack Of All Trades lv 5 (F+) (129%)

HP: (674/674)

Stamina: (674/674)

Mana: (1104/1104)

Strength: 46

Fortitude: 46

Endurance: 46

Vitality: 46

Agility: 49

Intelligence: 77

Wisdom: 72

Perception: 56

Unallocated Points: 0

<Skills> {

<Translate: lv 7 (15%)>

<Mana Control: lv 14 (9%)>

<Healing Touch: lv 12 (28%)>

<Facilitated Restoration: lv 14 (3%)

<Identify: lv 10 (46%)>

<Totem Of Life: lv 0 (29%)>

<Magic Wellspring: lv 12 (44%)>

<Embers: lv 14 (9%)>

<Dash: lv 11 (15%)>

<Intuitive Aim: lv 5 (2%)>

<Purify: lv 5 (99%)>

<Inventory: lv 14 (54%)>

<Appraise: lv 12 (69%)>

<Sturdy Outer Shell: lv 7 (37%)>

}

<Titles> {

<System Newcomer>

<Tutorial: Power Hungry>

<Tutorial: Full Completionist>

<Tutorial: Level Pioneer>

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

<Slayer 1>

<Tutorial: Boss Killer>

}

"Yeah right, maybe in a few stats but I don't think we're ever catching up in total stats." Preston said, looking over his own status. In total, Teresa had 438 points invested, Jake had 204, Preston 215, and Sarah 199. However, despite Teresa being significantly ahead in total points, she was not first place in everything. "I am a lot faster than you though, I got that 99 Agility! Give me one more level and I'm hitting the triple digits."

Preston was fast. Insanely fast. Teresa herself could run at the speed of a small aircraft taking off without using <Dash>, and with it she was more comparable to a larger commercial flight taking off the runway. Preston, on the other hand, was almost twice as fast as her. He was like a speedy glass cannon, able to do a lot of damage but extremely vulnerable to any hits at all. He only had 6 Fortitude, which was still completely human. If he tripped while going max speed, he would be dead. As a result, everybody had been strongly pressuring him into increasing his Fortitude with his free points from now on.

"Yeah, but if someone tosses a pebble in front of you while you're running then you're dead." Jake replied. "I'm pretty sure I'm bulletproof now, I have 69 Fortitude."

"Heh, funny number." Preston snorted.

"I'm at 64 Perception, so at least all of us are beating you in something." Sarah said, looking over her own status screen now that the battle was over.

"Just give it a bit, my weaker stats are all catching up." Teresa said, smiling. "Eventually, I'll be getting 16 points per level, and I have a 15% bonus to all of my stats. Once that comes around I'll be unstoppable."

"Damn, I wish I beat the Tutorial." Preston said, shaking his head. "Instead I got dropped from the sky by a damn Wyvern-Fish."

"Well, did you consider, I don't know, moving out of the way?" Teresa teased. "Mr Speedy here with 99 Agility got picked up by a glorified fish, what's next? Are you gonna slip on some ice and sprain an ankle?"

"It was a tough fish man, let me tell you." Preston said, still smiling. "Though next time, I'll try to not get grabbed. I think getting grabbed is my ultimate weakness right now."

"That's a lame ultimate weakness." Jake said, gladly taking the opportunity to tease his friend. "Getting grabbed, ice, glue, quicksand, water maybe? How fast can you swim?"

"No clue, but I'm pretty sure under the right circumstances water is a weakness to all of us so that one doesn't count." Preston retorted. "I don't think I'm faster than a bullet yet though, how fast are bullets?"

"I don't know but we're not wasting ammo to find out." Teresa answered. She still had the handgun from the bandits in her <Inventory> with five bullets left. She also had a Tutorial sword now, so she didn't have to keep relying on the knife anymore. About time if you asked her, even if that knife was super sharp. "I do want to head back soon, <Totem Of Life> is finally off cooldown and I want to test some things with it."

"Sounds good to me, we've got guard duty later anyways." Sarah said, collecting her arrows from dead monsters. Teresa's <Inventory> was currently full, but it was getting to the point where they didn't bother collecting Mana Crystals or Monster Cores unless there was something special about them or if they were high level. There were plenty to go around, and nobody had managed to actually find a use for them yet.

They began to head back to camp while Teresa fiddled with her System screens. The entire party was able to run as fast as a car now, so while trips were much quicker than they used to be it was still nice to fidget with something. She was going over her secondary class options, a benefit her class offered that she still hadn't taken advantage of.

Having another class that can change on a monthly basis honestly sounded really nice, even if it just gave low quality skills. It was just that none of them seemed like they could help with <Familial Duty> at all, and would instead take away experience from Jack Of All Trades which just might be able to give Teresa what she needed.

She might take Campfire Cook or Gatherer, those would both be really useful for traveling long distances. The world was massive now, and Teresa had no idea how long it would take to even find another settlement. It was entirely possible that they would simply "miss," a bunch of them, walking right past by only a couple miles.

Teresa needed to think about it more, though she said that about a lot of stuff. She was a pretty indecisive person and she knew it, her pre-System life had been filled with indecision. There were a lot of regrets in that department, but she couldn't change the past. She had a lot of problems back then. Job hopping, trying to save money but never being able to, no hope of retirement, not feeling passionate about anything in particular, severe depression, whatever.

She wasn't trying to throw a pity party for herself in her head, and she wasn't trying to justify any of it. She understood why she had wanted to kill herself, that wasn't where the regret came in. She just hated the idea of giving up, that there was a point in her life where she was ready to throw it all away. There wasn't an easy solution to her pre-System problems, no quick fix or get out of jail free card, the world had felt like shit to her. Killing herself definitely wasn't the solution. Fuck dying, Teresa wanted to make the world a little less shit no matter how hard the world tried to keep her from doing that. She only lost when she gave up, and if Teresa had one regret that stood above the rest it was giving up, a choice she was never going to make again no matter how bad it got.

Damn she needed a therapist.

Within an hour the party made it back to the settlement, which had seen some growth. There weren't exactly cabins or anything yet, but they had outhouses at least. Multiple huts had been constructed out of branches tied together with fibers and covered with tarp to protect against the rain. Teresa's tent was still set up right next to the monolith, and that was where she and her party had been dumping their monster loot. They were going to have to leave a bunch of it behind once they took off, but that was fine. There were plenty of monsters in the world to loot, some low level stuff was disposable.

"I'm gonna dump my <Inventory> off, mess around with <Totem Of Life>, then head over to guard duty if that sounds good." Teresa said. The rest of the party agreed, all going off to take a break and do their own thing before their shift. Teresa hadn't needed to guard the sole prisoner of the camp yet, everybody had felt like that would be in poor taste to make her stand guard near one of the people who had tried to kidnap her. Teresa appreciated it, but eventually decided that she should be able to carry her own weight. She already was, but that whole announcement to the council about leaving gave her imposter syndrome. Besides, for all she knew it could bring some closure, not that she really needed it or anything. She was fine.

Teresa spotted the perfect person nearby to help her with her next experiment.

"Hey William, you mind helping me out with something?" She asked, getting the man's attention.

"Sure, give me a few minutes." He replied, heading off towards a tent. Teresa stood next to the monolith, and for the first time since leaving the Tutorial she activated <Totem Of Life>. She focused on exactly how the spell activated, feeling a completely invisible stream of Mana emit from her body towards a spot on the ground she had specified in her mind. It had a hefty activation cost in terms of Mana, but Teresa's Wisdom had grown enough to support a massive Mana pool that could easily cast the spell.

The Mana caused Environmental Mana to condense into a solid form resembling wood, and a totem began to sprout from the ground. The summoning of the totem used her own Mana like a blueprint, grabbing Environmental Mana and forcing it into a form that the spell commanded. Once the totem grew, the absorption of Environmental Mana did not stop. Instead, it transformed the Mana into Restoration Mana, albeit at a very low quality. Teresa began to study the structure of the totem, trying to learn how it worked until William came back.

Unfortunately, it was still well beyond her. Her Perception had grown significantly, but feeling inside the totem was like looking at a quantum computer from the future. There were things going on inside that she simply did not understand, and there was too much happening to properly track even with her improved mental stats.

"Hey, what was it you needed help with?" William said, approaching Teresa as she was studying her totem.

"I'm on guard duty today, but I have this spell I rarely use. I was wondering how long it lasts, and I was hoping you could just generally keep an eye on it. If it disappears, just note when in the day that happens. The totem should also be constantly pumping out Restoration Mana, so if anyone needs healing and nobody is available just relax near it. Hell, maybe even bring somebody with diabetes over to try it, see how it works for them." Teresa said.

"Got it, when are you heading out?"

"Right now, figured I'd get there a bit early." Teresa answered.

"Are you sure you're up to it? Nobody will be upset with you if you don't want to do it Teresa, really. Madeline isn't the only one worried about you."

"I'll be fine, I promise." Teresa said, holding up her hands. "You don't have to watch it closely, really it's just a skill I barely use. I'd like to use it more often, but the cooldown is just ridiculous. It's my last level 0 skill, and I feel kinda bad letting it rot in my status screen doing nothing."

"Well, I'm here for you if yah ever need to talk Teresa. Good luck." William said, and with that Teresa started off to where the prisoner was being kept. They still didn't know his name, and he hadn't spoken at all since being captured. From what Teresa heard, just getting the guy to eat and drink was a challenge.

She got there before the rest of her party, and spotted the guards already in place. It was a mix of people Teresa had not actually met herself before, but they seemed relieved to see her.

"Sweet, it's time to go home and go to sleep." One of them said, immediately heading back to camp.

"Hang on, it's just one of them. We gotta wait for the rest!" Another called out, making the eager party member stop.

"It's no big deal, I can handle it for a little while." Teresa said, showing a single excerpt from her status screen.

<Tutorial: Full Completionist>

"Oh shit, I mean uh, yes ma'am." With that, the guards started taking off towards the camp leaving Teresa and the prisoner alone. It was a little risky leaving her alone on guard duty, but she would be fine. If anyone attacked, she would kill them without hesitating. Hesitation was death. Besides, some alone time with the guy might be good, maybe it'd give her closure or something.

Closure from what? Teresa wasn't sure. It was kind of weird standing there, the guy was just laying down in a hastily dug hole that any capable adult could climb out of. Teresa locked eye contact with the man for a moment, and she briefly considered killing the bastard. Shit, nope, don't do that. In that straitjacket he was helpless, unable to move or do anything. Really, she was fine and this was her chance to prove it.

He had no power over her, not really. Teresa held all the cards, though she did want information. She opened her bank account and saw she still had $58,000 stored, meaning she hadn't gotten any from the bandits that had been attacking George's party. Additionally, they didn't have Corrupted Mana Crystals, just regular old Mana Crystals that could be found in a lot of creatures.

This man in the hole definitely knew a lot more than Teresa did, but she wasn't the one who was taken prisoner. It had been close, far closer than Teresa would have liked, but she was still okay. She had replayed that fight in her head multiple times, and she was still upset that she had lost. Had she been a little more bloodthirsty, they wouldn't have stood a chance.

Teresa rubbed her temples, taking a deep breath and sighing. This was why she wanted to be here alone for a minute, before everyone else got here. She wanted to process these emotions without anyone to witness her, was that so much to ask?

Whatever, she was going to be here for a while, and she had even gotten there pretty early. It would be close to half an hour before the rest of her party started to show up, so she had plenty of time to practice her magic. She wondered if Totem Of Life was going to be able to actually do anything for the camp, she really did hope it worked for those with diabetes. She wasn't sure how it worked, but worst case scenario she could just hit them with a good old blast of Facilitated Restoration.

Huh. Something felt fundamentally wrong.

She activated Facilitated Restoration in her left hand, and saw that it was… inefficient. It felt like she was doing most of the heavy lifting herself, like she personally had to draw the matrix that converted regular Mana into Restoration Mana.

Maybe she should try Healing Touch, that was one of the first actual skills she had ever got. She activated it in her right hand and found that, surprisingly, she couldn't maintain two spells at once. What the hell? This was definitely up her alley, what was going on? She should absolutely be able to use Facilitated Restoration and Healing Touch simultaneously, she had done it countless times-

"Hello Teresa." A voice said, coming from the hole. "I've been wanting to talk with you for quite some time now."

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