Teresa had great news.

The council had been working on forming a skill registry of everyone in the camp, which had its own nuances and rules. Many people had been opposed to this as they considered it an invasion of privacy, so in response the skill registry was completely optional. However, in order to be able to actually view the registry to understand how other skills or even titles might work, you had to contribute yourself. The entire thing was being stored on a phone, so it didn't use up any paper.

With this had come a small number of parents with <Familial Duty>. Out of the 10,786 people in the settlement, 35 of them had registered their <Familial Duty>. Teresa's party had been looking for someone with the skill who would be willing to assist them in their goals, but unfortunately most parents didn't want to go on an adventure through monster infested lands with their children. As a matter of fact, people with <Familial Duty> were unlikely to reach even level 15 within the next month, based on statistics provided by Saylee. They worked almost exclusively within the settlement, and the few who ventured out did not go very far nor did they take any risks.

Many parents had found what they were looking for already, and those with multiple children often found them all within the one settlement. There were a few exceptions to this, in cases where one child was young enough to be put in a settlement and another was old enough to be put through the Tutorial, but <Familial Duty> was already pretty rare and the overlap was not that large. There were three people in this specific situation, and two of them had unfortunately come to the conclusion that their missing adult children had actually passed away.

That left one man with the skill who still had someone to find, and Teresa's party was meeting with him in just a few minutes. It was kind of last minute, as the tournament was in half an hour, but this was rather important. They had been striking out all week when trying to find someone who would be willing to help them, but it was hard to convince someone to either put their child in unnecessary risk or to leave them behind in an unsafe world.

They had discovered more unfortunate news about requirements behind getting the skill. Of all the people who had <Familial Duty>, none of them had gotten the skill outside the Tutorial. In other words, for someone to get the skill they would have to get far enough in the Tutorial to level up their class at least once, and then they would maybe get it offered. The party had of course been looking for someone willing to help, as that was the whole reason why they were going to try and find other settlements in the first place, but this was the first time someone had actually expressed interest in the matter.

Teresa and her party were standing near the monolith when a middle aged man and a young teenage boy approached them.

"Hi, my name's Thomas, and this here is Mathew. We heard you were planning on looking for your families, and after some discussion we came up with a deal." The man said. "Mathew here is 14, but his brother Gabriel is 16. From what we know, the youngest the Tutorial took was 16, meaning he was just barely old enough to go through it. I also heard you're heading south, and I can feel that Gabriel is in that general direction. He's not very far, but it's much farther than what I can manage on my own. I want to take Mathew here to find Gabriel, then we will decide whether we'll stay there or come back. Once that's all set and done, I'm willing to go out with your party to help you find who you're looking for, under the assumption the skill will let me do that."

"Okay, so Mathew is coming with us then? We'll need to see your status screens if you don't mind." Teresa responded, looking between the two. They both shared their screens, revealing Mathew was level 0 and that Thomas was level 4, and he was a mage. He did in fact have <Familial Duty>, which was at level 3. "Alright, well we can help train you up so-"

"That's another condition. We don't want to be involved in any of the fighting unless absolutely necessary. I don't want my son involved for obvious reasons, but I don't want to risk dying and leaving my sons without a father." Thomas said.

"But dad, if we train a bit we can level-"

"No son, absolutely not. You're 14, you don't need to be doing all of that. This is a hard boundary, no combat for either of us." Thomas continued.

"I understand, but there's more to it sir. Skills level up much faster in combat, and stats like Intelligence seem to improve a skill's efficacy." Teresa explained. "If you want to help us afterward, you might need to gain some levels to actually use your skill on someone else's family. We don't even know if it will work at all, but we have to get rid of any factors that might prevent you from being able to help us."

Thomas paused and thought about it for a minute. Mathew nudged him.

"Dad, this is the safest opportunity you will ever have to level up! Literally, you'll have the strongest person here watching after you. Someday you're going to have to anyways, so you might as well." Mathew said.

"Yeah, but it's too soon. We don't even have Gabriel yet, if I get hurt now-"

"Then she can just heal you-"

"No Mathew, if I die, then we're never finding Gabriel. Here, once we get Gabriel and both of my kids are somewhere safe, then I'll train whatever it is you want. Until then, my focus is on my kids."

They both had points. On the one hand, leveling up was likely to become a necessity in society in the near future. Especially given the news about multiple alien invasions occurring simultaneously, but there was more to it than that. A high level chef would be preferable to a low level chef, a high level engineer, a high level accountant, a high level everything would one day be preferable. Nevertheless, it took a certain kind of person to get <Familial Duty> in the first place, and it was the kind of person that put their kids and only their kids first, no exceptions.

Leveling up was pretty safe at the moment, but there was always an element of danger to it. Something could go wrong, and someone could die. That was likely to always remain true, and it seemed Thomas was very keenly aware of that fact. If Thomas died, his other son would likely never reunite with his brother.

"Alright, do you have a general grasp of how far away he is?" Teresa asked.

"Kind of. I want to say somewhere between 3-10,000 kilometers, which I know is a lot and it's a wide range, but that's as much as I can narrow it down without actively searching for him. By the time we get there, my skill should have leveled up a lot on its own as well, so if it is possible for <Familial Duty> to work that way then we should be fine."

Shit, Teresa was getting better at thinking of distance in terms of kilometers, but on a scale that big she was still a bit uncertain. How far exactly was 3,000 kilometers? What about 10,000? Let's see, she knew there was 1.609 kilometers in a mile, but that wasn't exactly easy to divide by. Thankfully she had her mental stats, so that would be around 1,800ish to 6,200ish miles. Shit, that was pretty far. Honestly she could cover that distance herself just fine, but they were bringing a level 0 teenager with them.

"Hey kid, are you okay with being carried a lot of the way? I mean physically picked up off the ground and carried, you too Thomas." Teresa asked.

"I don't mind."

"Fine with me." Thomas said.

"Hang on, I have my own question." Sarah interjected. "So you just want to find Gabriel, right? I'm sorry if this is insensitive and I'm not trying to offer more or anything, but what about their mother?"

"I… can't sense her." Thomas said sheepishly.

"Oh shit, I'm so sorry-"

"No, I don't mean she's dead, I mean I can't sense her. We got divorced a few years ago, I'm not sure how it works but I just can't find her in my head."

"That's… not great news." Sarah said. "If you can't find your ex that you have kids with then can we be sure you'll be able to find our families?"

"I don't know, but I guess we can use that as a test. If I can figure out how to use the skill on her, that will be a really good sign for you guys right?"

"Maybe. We'll talk it over if that's okay with you, would you mind giving us a few minutes?" Sarah asked. Thomas nodded.

"Of course, no problem. Come on Mathew, let's see if we can find where Maxwell went."

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"He's probably with the little kids, we should just let them have their time with him…" With that, the two walked off a short distance allowing Teresa and the others to discuss. Normally private subjects would require going out into the forest for a bit since anybody could have enough Perception to overhear you, but this wasn't super sensitive information and Thomas definitely didn't have the Perception to eavesdrop.

"So what's the verdict?" Teresa asked, looking around at her party members.

"I mean, honestly it doesn't look great, I won't lie." Preston said. "But it doesn't change the fact we don't have a lot of choices here. If <Familial Duty> can't help with finding other people's families at a high level, then at least we can cross it off the list of options."

"Plus if we just carry them it should be fine. You think we could get someone to make a cart, then we could just pull them behind us." Jake offered.

"I call not it on being the horse." Teresa replied, smiling. "But I don't think that would be worth our time, it would take probably a week for a cart and it might just get destroyed by a stray pack of monsters or damaged in transit. So long as we're careful Preston and I can carry them."

"No using <Dash> while holding a fragile human being in my arms, got it." Preston responded.

"It's a shot in the dark, but it beats doing nothing." Sarah said. "I think we take it, but don't get our hopes up too much. Worst case scenario, we help reunite a family. Best case scenario, all of us find our families."

"I mean, I don't think that's the worst case scenario, but yeah I agree." Preston said. Everyone else seemed to be on the same page, and with that their plan had already gotten past the hard part. They were always going to have to pass through the south, at least now they were guaranteed to be with someone who had <Familial Duty> and was willing to help them out.

"Fuck their privacy, our lives are at stake!" Teresa heard a man say. Jonathan was walking towards the monolith, the rest of the council behind him. "We have a way to know if someone is an invader, and you're worried about something as stupid as that? That's ridiculous!"

"Well shit, here we go again." Preston muttered.

"What's going on now?" Teresa asked, already exasperated as the council hurried to the center of town.

"Jonathan, calm down and let's go back. You're going to cause a panic!" Saylee said, but Jonathan paid her no mind.

"I'll tell you what's going on, we thought of a way to know if someone's an agent, and they aren't sure about doing it!" Jonathan yelled. "Show me your status screen."

Teresa shrugged, revealing her status for the man to see. It's not like there was anything private there.

Status:

Name: Teresa

Race: Human (Earth)

Level: 42 (F) (41%)

Class: Jack Of All Trades lv 5 (F+) (148%)

HP: (739/739)

Stamina: (739/739)

Mana: (1138/1138)

Strength: 50

Fortitude: 50

Endurance: 50

Vitality: 50

Agility: 51

Intelligence: 79

Wisdom: 74

Perception: 58

Unallocated Points: 0

<Skills> {

<Translate: lv 8 (20%)>

<Mana Control: lv 14 (21%)>

<Healing Touch: lv 12 (33%)>

<Facilitated Restoration: lv 14 (17%)

<Identify: lv 11 (9%)>

<Totem Of Life: lv 2 (3%)>

<Magic Wellspring: lv 13 (11%)>

<Embers: lv 14 (45%)>

<Dash: lv 11 (80%)>

<Intuitive Aim: lv 6 (17%)>

<Purify: lv 5 (99%)>

<Inventory: lv 15 (25%)>

<Appraise: lv 13 (6%)>

<Sturdy Outer Shell: lv 9 (95%)>

}

<Titles> {

<System Newcomer>

<Tutorial: Power Hungry>

<Tutorial: Full Completionist>

<Tutorial: Level Pioneer>

<Slayer 1>

<Tutorial: Boss Killer>

}

Teresa was pretty happy with her status screen. None of her skills were level 0 anymore, though that was likely to change really soon as she was due for a class level up really soon. She had originally been planning on taking <Monster Hunt> since it was the same kind of magic as <Familial Duty>, but it might not be necessary anymore. It might still be nice to have just in case, but it also depended on what other skills she was offered.

Additionally, <Totem Of Life> was still active. The totem had never disappeared, and was still pumping out low quality Restoration Mana around the monolith. She wasn't sure how long it lasted exactly, but it sure as shit lasted quite a while.

"See! That right there, how has nobody noticed that yet?" Jonathan asked, extremely angry.

"What?" Teresa asked.

"What do you mean what, look at your damn status screen! What does it say right next to your race?"

"Human- oh."

Race: Human (Earth)

Earth. Her status screen literally said Earth in it. Was she fucking blind? Honestly whenever she looked at her status screen, her eyes normally skipped a lot of it and just went to the neat parts where her numbers went up and her brain made dopamine. How had nobody pointed this out? Did everybody just skip over parts of the status screen? She did, sure, but everybody in the council?

Teresa had once heard in a class that people automatically filtered obvious things out if they weren't looking for it. If someone frequented a website, they might automatically ignore the advertisements without even needing to think about it. She had thought the idea was pretty neat, but shit, having it pointed out to her and now realizing she had been filtering out important information for a while now was kind of shocking.

"Exactly. It says 'Earth.' Now, how much do you want to bet these alien invaders won't have 'Earth,' next to their race?" Jonathan asked. "Fuck everyone's privacy, this is more important!"

"Jonathan, there are kids around-" Saylee started, but she was cut off.

"They can hear this too. Anybody could be a body snatching spy! This isn't the time to care about privacy, it's a status screen! What do you have to hide?"

"I… holy shit. I can't believe it, but I'm actually kind of agreeing with Jonathan of all people." Sarah said, shaking her head. Multiple people started talking at once in the settlement, murmuring to one another about their status screens.

"Okay, yes, I get your point Jonathan, but Saylee's right. You're going to start a panic." Teresa said. "I can't believe it either, but I'm also kind of agreeing with you, but there are better ways to go about it than yelling in the middle of the town."

"What, so we can wait around and talk about it for who knows how long? This needs to happen! Your status screen shouldn't be private, it should be a damn requirement for people to see it. If you don't like it, then you can leave, simple as that." Jonathan yelled, still incredibly angry. Multiple people in the crowd started to agree, and in only a few moments there were multiple screaming matches going on within the settlement.

The number of people who considered their status screens private were admittedly a minority compared to those who thought it should be public information, but that didn't stop people from getting paranoid and accusing everyone around them of hiding their status screens. Several screens started to appear in the crowd, while those who were reluctant to show theirs were surrounded by an angry mob in seconds.

Teresa activated <Facilitated Restoration>, using her Mana to make the ball of fire resemble an atom with supportive pillars holding up what would be the electron cloud. She made the nucleus as small as she possibly could, replicating the same thing in her other hand. Two incredibly bright balls of fire shot out into an angry mob, shining bright enough to make them stop and cover their eyes as she shot the flare gun version of her healing spell.

"Calm the fuck down! We are going to handle this in an orderly manner, mob mentality isn't going to get us anywhere." Teresa yelled, activating <Dash> to quickly approach an angry woman who had just activated her <Embers>. She grabbed the woman by the wrist, forcing her to point her own spell back at her. "If anybody attacks anyone over this shit, I will personally break your fucking legs. If you ask nicely, I'll heal them afterwards. We will take care of this, your panic is not helping."

"Teresa, maybe threatening an angry crowd with violence isn't the move." Jake whispered, making a good point. Unfortunately, Teresa was not at all trained in handling this kind of situation. Thankfully, Nikolas was.

"Everybody form two lines! We're going to do this the right way, Matteo here will be at the front of one line while I'll be at the front of the other…" Nikolas yelled, giving instructions to the angry crowd while his party went through them to handle any individual incidents.

There was some more yelling from a different part of the camp, surprising Teresa. What was going on over there now? Someone came running to the monolith as quick as they could, his eyes frantic.

"We found something!" He said, waving his arms in a panic. "The dog! Maxwell! James couldn't <Identify> him!"

What? This was getting ridiculous, this was the worst possible time for a panic to break out. Any second now the tournament-

FWOOMP

-would start!

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