Chapter 17: Training Montage

  It was day two when Teresa got her first skill level up.

  Skill Level Up!

  

  Type: General

  Gain a sense for Mana and its movement, allowing you to manipulate it to perform magical feats. Your careful introspection on your use of Mana has allowed you to gain a glimpse of your Soul. You may use Mana slightly faster and more efficiently.

  ----->

  

  Type: General

  Gain a sense for Mana and its movement, allowing you to manipulate it to perform magical feats. Your careful introspection on your use of Mana has allowed you to gain a glimpse of your Soul. You may use Mana slightly faster and more efficiently, making the manipulation of Mana in a familiar manner easier.

  She had gotten the level up first thing in the morning, as she had been extremely close to topping it off when she went to sleep. Teresa spent the rest of the day working on her dual casting and Mana absorption once again, making even more progress.

  As the new description had said, doing familiar tasks with Mana was a little bit easier. Keeping two skills activated at the same time while stationary was much smoother, even if Teresa had already been able to do it without much issue. Moving with the skills activated was still a challenge that she was working on, but it took a tiny bit less effort to get there now.

  On day three, Teresa visited the Clubber.

  The last remaining monster of the technically still ongoing wave was still in the lobby they had originally fought in. They always had someone watching the monster, but it was easy enough to do from just outside. The creature couldn’t move aside from thrashing about, and it was completely blind.

  The reason Teresa was there was to make sure it didn’t die. The Clubber had worsened its own wounds, and Teresa was the only one who could keep it alive. She activated , and focused deeply on the skill. She carefully tracked her Mana as it gathered into the skill, the green ball of fire being held by a small field of Mana. Restoration Mana flowed from her hand to the fire, and the spell gradually became more and more eager to get away from the restoration Mana coming out of Teresa’s palm.

  She charged it up as much as she could, then sent the ball flying towards the Clubber. The monster was huge, so it took a lot of healing magic to help the beast. She also was hesitant to get too close, and she was certain the monster would not let her use even if it was helpful to the creature.

  Using the skill had granted her a second skill level up.

  Skill Level Up!

  

  Type: Restoration Magic

  Channel Mana to your palm and create a projectile of carefully crafted restoration Mana. When impacted by this projectile, the target’s body will naturally convert Mana from their surroundings into restoration Mana that will assist the body in its healing processes. Restoration Magic used on a target affected by this spell will see an increase in efficacy. Duration is dependent on Mana cost.

  ----->

  

  Type: Restoration Magic

  Channel Mana to your palm and create a projectile of carefully crafted restoration Mana. When impacted by this projectile, the target’s body will naturally convert Mana from their surroundings into restoration Mana that will assist the body in its healing processes. Restoration Magic used on a target affected by this spell will see an increase in efficacy. Duration is dependent on Mana cost. Control over familiar properties of the spell is slightly enhanced.

  The description really hadn’t changed much, and the additional sentence was similar to what the new description for had said. She had improved both skills in a similar fashion, so it made sense that the power up would be identical.

  The only reason the skill hadn’t already leveled up was probably because she hadn’t used it enough on an actual target. While her seemed to gain experience just fine, her two healing skills were much slower to progress without anyone to actually heal. They both made tremendous progress, but they had both stopped at 99% progression no matter what Teresa did. It seemed those skills absolutely required healing an actual target to level up, and she couldn’t just level those skills up purely through practicing her control over them.

  Interestingly, even after the skill leveled up it wasn’t at 0% again. was already at 66%, and it had just gotten a level. It was likely leftover experience from her improved control over the skill, as she probably had far more control over it than anyone else who would have just reached level 1 with the skill.

  Of course, she had to level up her too.

  Teresa set down her equipment, that being Sarah’s bow and quiver along with the Mana recharging staff. Holding the bow in her hand reminded her that she should probably practice archery as well, as she had been pretty terrible at using the bow in the last wave.

  Feeling much lighter now, Teresa made her way closer to the Clubber. The monster had begun panicking after being struck by , and thrashed about once more.

  Thankfully, the creature had slammed its clubbed head into the ground so many times that multiple compact craters were all around it, and no debris was being launched from the impacts. This meant Teresa could get much closer to it without too much worry, although she still kept a safe distance for now.

  She waited for the creature to calm down, taking the moment to practice absorbing Mana. She wasn’t low or anything, she just didn’t want to sit idle doing nothing while waiting. The surface area through which she absorbed Mana still barely encompassed the edges of her hands, but it felt like tremendous progress. She could recover her Mana without using the staff at the same speed she used to while actually using the staff.

  Of course, whenever she was really trying to recover her Mana she still used the staff. Having increased Mana recovery was nice and all, but at the end of the day her main goals involved healing. Teresa couldn’t spend too much time on her Mana recovery.

  As the monster gradually calmed down, Teresa took note of its condition. The scabs covering its severed legs were red, green, and black. It probably had some sort of nasty infection, though Teresa’s would probably be enough to take care of that.

  Speaking of that skill, Teresa used on herself as well. When she had been healing the monster a few days ago at the end of the wave, she remembered she felt she could take the restoration Mana from the skill being used on herself to boost . She hadn’t attempted it then as she had been on death’s door, but now seemed like a good opportunity to try it. If it worked out, she could probably use this trick to increase her odds of saving Sarah.

  Once she felt the monster had calmed enough, she snuck forward as quietly as she could. She activated in both hands, preparing to heal the scab covering a severed hind leg. Her self imposed objective was to try and turn the scab into a stump, though she doubted she would be able to do that today on her first try.

  Now that she was close, she pressed her palms against the scab and channeled as much Mana through her as she could. She also focused on grabbing the residual restoration Mana within her own body that had been created with , and sent that into the scab as well.

  The wound started to heal at a visible pace, a weird dry skin replacing the scab a few centimeters at a time. The skin was probably what was underneath the creature’s scales, and it only took a moment before Teresa got her skill level up.

  Skill Level Up!

  

  Type: Restoration Magic

  Channel Mana to your touch and convert it into a healing energy. Use this energy to repair wounds and facilitate the healing process. Your experience in healing your own wounds has made your restoration Mana become familiar with your state of being. Gain a slight boost to efficiency and efficacy to restoration Mana used to heal yourself.

  ----->

  

  Type: Restoration Magic

  Channel Mana to your touch and convert it into a healing energy. Use this energy to repair wounds and facilitate the healing process. Your experience in healing your own wounds has made your restoration Mana become familiar with your state of being. Gain a slight boost to efficiency and efficacy to restoration Mana used to heal yourself. Using this skill in conjunction with other restoration skills will provide an increased effect.

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  Teresa didn’t have time to read the new description as the Clubber began to move, thrashing its stumps and its head. Teresa had to be careful, as even the short stumps could hurt a lot if the Clubber got a good kick in. Teresa continued using the skill, overclocking to the max.

  She had first coined the term “overclocking” for her skill after she discovered she had a Soul and could force a lot more Mana through it. Now, it barely felt like it was even overclocking. Teresa was just shoving a lot of Mana into the spell, and she had gotten much better at controlling her Mana since she first discovered her Soul.

  Teresa decided to stop claiming she was overclocking her skill, as it seemed like a very extra description for something she now considered very normal. She would bring back the term when she found a new way to improve the skill to an extreme degree in the short term, but for now what she had once considered “overclocking” was just the regular old spell with a bit of extra Mana.

  The skin continued to gradually replace the scab, even as the monster thrashed. Teresa was a little worried about what this implied, as it seemed she couldn’t replace limbs entirely yet. Sarah’s arm had barely been attached to her body, so hopefully the spell wouldn’t consider it severed and would still work to fully heal her arm.

  This continued for about ten minutes before Teresa ran out of Mana. She backed away from the creature, taking the moment to look at her skills. Once again, her did not start out at 0% or anywhere close to it. Instead, it was already at 51%, and her had jumped up to 79% already. To be fair to her skills, she had spent well over 24 hours constantly using both of them to practice her control.

  Trying to level the skills outside of combat was much slower, combining that with how slow it was without having a target to heal made this leveling speed actually rather slow in Teresa’s opinion. If you just looked at the amount of time invested into using the skills, had taken well over four times as long to reach level 1 compared to . Had she invested the same amount of time using the skills in live combat she would easily have hit level 3 in both skills long before now.

  “Healing it gave me a shitload of experience.” Teresa said to Jake as she walked back to the entrance. It was currently Jake’s shift to watch the monster, as he, Preston, and Madeline each took eight hour shifts on Clubber duty. He was still able to practice his skills watching the Clubber, but he had to put up with the screaming.

  Teresa didn’t have a Clubber shift herself, as the party had agreed it was of utmost importance for her to level her skills as much as possible. Saving Sarah was the only reason the party hadn’t already left the Tutorial.

  “I thought you were going to take it easy for a bit.” Jake said suspiciously, raising an eyebrow. Teresa shrugged.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll relax for the rest of the day and go for a nice long walk.” Teresa lied, heading back to her spot in the cafe. She gathered up her gear again and continued walking, throwing a peace sign behind her hoping Jake wouldn’t stress over her.

  She was more likely to die from her party trying to throw an intervention than from a monster at this point.

  By the end of day four her was back at 99% again, so she went to use the skill on the Clubber a few times to get another level. At this point, she was able to make very slow motions with both skills activated, though she still couldn’t accomplish what she originally set out to try.

  It was late at night, meaning it was Madeline’s turn to watch the Clubber. Teresa used her on the monster a few times, and got her next level up.

  

  Type: Restoration Magic

  Channel Mana to your palm and create a projectile of carefully crafted restoration Mana. When impacted by this projectile, the target’s body will naturally convert Mana from their surroundings into restoration Mana that will assist the body in its healing processes. Restoration Magic used on a target affected by this spell will see an increase in efficacy. Duration is dependent on Mana cost. Control over familiar properties of the spell is slightly enhanced.

  This time, the description had not changed at all. It seemed that the description only changed with a level up if she applied the skill in a new way. Regardless, the description didn’t need to change for her to know it had become more powerful. She was still a very long way away from being able to heal Sarah, but it was nice to see her own progress.

  Teresa hadn’t been able to completely heal the Clubber’s stump in ten minutes. That was just forcing the skin to grow and cover up an old wound. With Sarah, she needed to be able to completely heal half of a person’s body within seconds, while completely replacing bone, flesh, and probably some organs.

  “You might want to use on its eyes again, my might accidentally heal its vision.” Teresa said to Madeline as she prepared to leave the lobby. Madeline stopped her, concern on her face.

  “I don’t like this.” Madeline said, looking over at the monster. “We’re healing the thing just to keep hurting it so we can heal it again. I don’t know if you noticed, but that is literally torture. We are torturing this animal.”

  Teresa understood where Madeline was coming from. Earlier in the Tutorial, she had thought of a situation very similar to this. She had considered the idea of leveling her healing capabilities by harming a monster and healing it repeatedly. At the time, she discarded this idea on moral grounds. Madeline was right, after all. They really were torturing the Clubber, and Teresa herself felt very uneasy about the situation. Regardless, she steeled her resolve.

  “I don’t like it either. I don’t want to level up my healing this way, frankly what we’re doing repulses me. But regardless of how much I want to stop, I want to help Sarah more.” Teresa said. Her pre-System morality would have to take a back seat to practicality.

  “I understand, but I still don’t like it.” Madeline said, and she sighed. She began walking around to the front of the Clubber, preparing to use her . “Please Lord, forgive me…”

  Teresa had forgotten Madeline was religious, and it made her feel especially bad about involving her in what they were doing. She both saw and heard the sparks flying through the air, seeming more powerful than it had been previously. The sparks sizzled on the Clubber’s face, burning into its eyes. The monster screamed, its wails echoing in Teresa’s ears.

  Why did the Clubber’s voice have to be so human?

  Teresa tried her best to sleep that night, but she couldn’t get the shrieks out of her head.

  Teresa spent the entirety of day five working on her dual casting and Mana absorption once again, making good progress on all of her skills. Her had reached level 3, and her was not far behind. Once again, Teresa had another skill level up without changing its description. She still felt the benefit from the level up as it made her ability to manipulate Mana better, but it was nothing to write home about.

  Day six had arrived, and Teresa finally felt prepared to attempt what she originally set out to do. She was seated in the cafe once again, both of her healing skills activated simultaneously. She was finally at the point where she could make some movements with both skills activated, although it still required a lot of attention and wouldn’t be practical in combat yet.

  However, using two skills at the same time wasn’t Teresa’s goal during this training period, but just a means to her goal. She wanted to try and combine her skills, using her to provide extra restoration Mana to her .

  It was around the time she realized Mana worked similarly to magnetic fields that she had gotten this idea. One of the issues with just pouring more and more restoration Mana into was that it became harder and harder to keep from shooting off prematurely. The restoration Mana leaving her hands repelled the restoration Mana already clumped into a ball of fire more as the ball became more dense.

  It was like trying to hold a pair of keys in front of a magnet that kept growing stronger. Eventually, the magnet would rip the keys from your hand. In this case, the ball of fire would rip free from the regular Mana holding it in place in front of her hand, meaning there was a maximum amount of Mana Teresa could put into the skill.

  If Teresa was able to use with her spare hand to supply restoration Mana from the opposite direction, perhaps the opposing forces would balance each other out and allow her to use even more Mana in the skill.

  Teresa gradually brought her closer to her , and quickly felt the ball of fire become repelled by the skill. The fire inched closer to the palm that was using , only to be repelled by the restoration Mana there back to her . The forces balanced each other out, though it soon got launched sideways into a wall.

  Still, Teresa smiled. It was possible, she just needed to practice some more. By the end of the 14 days, she would certainly have it down to a science. Teresa continued practicing for the rest of the day, although she had introduced a change into her training regime.

  She no longer focused on absorbing Mana after running out, as she had something else that needed practice. Teresa had set up a few empty soda cans on a bench, and she tried to shoot them using Sarah’s bow.

  While Teresa could certainly benefit from improving her Mana absorption, she would also benefit a lot from improving her archery. She was no Sarah when it came to the bow, but she still needed to learn how to use the weapon so she could get more experience in the upcoming wave.

  Leveling up by killing monsters would probably do more to save Sarah than leveling up her ability to absorb Mana, at least for right now. When the next wave came, Teresa would be prepared.

  On day seven Teresa’s had reached 99% progression to level 3, so it was time to visit the Clubber again. She sighed and mentally prepared herself, but just as she stood up she saw Preston running over.

  “Teresa!” He called, waving to her. “The Clubber tore open one of its scabs again, and it’s bleeding a lot. We gotta get to it quick or it’s gonna die.”

  “On it.” Teresa replied, figuring this was perfect timing. She had just been about to see the monster anyways.

  The two ran back to the lobby, Preston clearly running at a slower pace to match Teresa’s. When they arrived, Teresa felt something was off. The Clubber was completely still, and she could barely see its breathing. There was a pool of blood around one of its severed legs, where its scab had been torn apart against the concrete floor.

  Teresa considered testing out her and combination, but there was no time for that. She needed to heal it now and quickly, or it would die. There was no time for experiments.

  Oh well, she could always try it later.

  Teresa approached the still Clubber, placing her palms against the bleeding leg while using in both hands. As soon as she made contact, she frowned. Her eyes widened as she felt the restoration Mana enter the monster’s body, only for it to be spat back out.

  “Fuck.” Teresa gasped, trying again and again to push the restoration Mana into the open wound. Somehow, the Clubber was rejecting the Mana, refusing to be healed.

  Their 14 day training break was about to be cut short, and soon the 5th and final wave would begin.