Teresa tried everything to heal the Clubber. She used
This made no sense. How could something just reject a certain kind of Mana? It’s not like a creature could reject the elemental Mana from Madeline’s
Maybe since this kind of Mana wasn’t hostile in nature a creature could reject it. Teresa had never felt anyone else’s restoration Mana as she was the only healer, but perhaps there were differences in how it worked from combat oriented Mana.
“Preston, go tell everyone to stop their training immediately and get ready on the rooftop, the Clubber can refuse to be healed.” Teresa said, hurrying away from the Clubber. “We have maybe a few minutes before it bleeds out, if even that.”
“Got it.” Preston replied, already hurrying out of the lobby. He was the fastest in the party, so it only made sense to send him to inform Jake and Madeline of what was going on. He sprinted away at a speed an Olympian could only hope to match, as he was now faster than any human before the Tutorial with an Agility of 15.
Teresa waited a moment, watching the Clubber as it bled out. The party had agreed a week ago that Teresa should be the one to get the most experience when and where possible to maximise the odds of saving Sarah, so she would be the one to finish off the Clubber. Teresa hadn’t gained any progress on her personal level, still being level 3 at 19%. Practicing skills didn’t grant any experience to her own level, just experience towards the skills. Her class had also barely gained any experience, being at 14% of the way to level 2.
Her personal level required her to actually kill things to gain experience, and her class mostly required her to actually heal things. She had gotten some experience from practicing skills, but it had been negligible. Over the week-long training period, she had gotten more experience in her class from the few times she had healed the Clubber, and even that had only been a small amount of experience.
Teresa drew her goblin sword from her belt, and approached the Clubber as it was taking its last breaths. Enough time had probably passed for Preston to alert everyone, and after she killed the creature there would only be 15 minutes before the final wave. If she waited too long to kill it, the creature would die on its own and she wouldn’t get the experience from it.
She plunged the sword into the creature’s face, stabbing it through the eye. The Clubber did not react, or even put up a resemblance of a fight. As soon as her blade was decently deep within the Clubber, she got the kill notification.
You Have Slain {Yectin Clubber (F) (lv 7)}
Experience Granted
Checking her status again, she saw this only got her up to 28%. Killing the Clubbers during the wave had given her a significantly larger amount of experience, but it seemed finished off a wounded Clubber barely gave her anything. Still, it was better than nothing. That 9% jump in experience was one baby step closer to Sarah’s life being saved.
Teresa checked her quest screen, and saw the 15 minute counter ticking down now that the wave was over. It had only been a week since the last wave, but that was far more time than what the Tutorial would normally grant. The lobby began to shrink slowly, returning to the size it had been before the 4th wave. However, the ground was still extremely uneven, and the craters left behind by the Clubbers began to displace one another in a strange fashion as the holes seemed to move with the room.
Watching the lobby shrink made Teresa’s head hurt, but she still tried to memorize as much as she could. Space magic seemed far out of her league, but maybe one day she could revisit the subject. For now, she would recharge the Mana she had spent trying to heal the Clubber while studying how space distorted.
Once the room was done shrinking, Teresa started to run towards the information center where the party would fight. Only two and a half minutes had passed since the timer started, so there was plenty of time for her to get there.
Once Teresa had arrived at the information center, she saw the rest of the party was already there. Jake was hurriedly taking off pieces of his armor while Madeline and Preston brought them to the rooftop by climbing a rope made of hoodies and sweaters. Madeline was tossing up the lighter pieces while Preston climbed up with heavier parts. Madeline saw Teresa approach, and spoke up immediately.
“You couldn’t heal the Clubber? Why not?” Madeline asked, not stopping what she was doing.
“The Clubber refused the restoration Mana from my skills, as soon as the Mana entered its body it expelled the Mana on its own.” Teresa explained.
“And you didn’t know it could do that? Why not? What the hell Teresa?” Madeline replied, clearly upset.
“How could I have known that? I’ve never felt anyone else’s restoration Mana, I’m the only healer.” Teresa said, defending herself. Madeline looked like she was about to continue, but paused for a moment. She took a deep breath before speaking again.
“You’re right, that was unfair of me. I’m sorry, I’ve just been on edge is all.” Madeline apologized.
“It’s fine, I get it.” Teresa said. Madeline had probably been asleep when she got the news, as she had been the one watching the Clubber during the nights. “Here, let me help with that.”
The minutes ticked by as they rushed to get everything on the rooftop, only managing to get fully prepared with three minutes remaining. Everyone was tense, holding their weapons at the ready. Teresa handed the Mana recharging staff to Madeline, and got Sarah’s bow ready.
Teresa hadn’t gotten as much practice with the bow as she would have liked, but she was at least able to hit a decently sized target now. She barely had the time during the last wave to get acquainted with the weapon, though she would likely have far less issues this wave with it.
“Hey, I’ve been thinking.” Preston said as the timer counted down. “What do we do if the monsters can fly?”
“Why the hell would you say that?” Jake asked incredulously.
Shit. Teresa thought. It was a good point no one had considered. If this wave included flying monsters, they would get swarmed on the rooftop with no protection above them.
“We better pray they don’t fly then, otherwise we will have to take out as many as we can before leaving the Tutorial.” Madeline said. “If they do fly, hopefully they’ll be easy to kill like the goblins were.”
Even if the monsters could fly, it’s not like they had anywhere better to fight. Everywhere available was either cramped or had terrible terrain. The counter reached 0, and a bell rang out as the 5th wave began.
Teresa immediately opened her quest screen, and died a little inside at what she saw.
Questline
Newcomer Tutorial (1/3)
Establish Liberty
Waves of monsters are seeking escape from the perennial desert. You and your party inhabit the only piece of green land for miles. Defend your territory from the waves. Waves will invade 15 minutes after the defeat of the previous wave.
Waves defeated: 4/5
Monsters remaining in wave: 36/36
“36 monsters?” Preston gasped, eyes wide. Everyone had a similar reaction. Even the goblins only had 24 in their wave. All around the perimeter of the island, they saw blue hands begin to dig their way out of the surrounding desert. They had never actually seen the monsters at the start of the wave as they initially arrived, and it seemed they dug their way up from underground.
The monsters were soon revealed, and Teresa sighed in relief as she did not spot any wings on the creatures. They were humanoid fish creatures, with blue and gold scales reflecting light off of their bodies. The fish monsters had beady black eyes, making it difficult to tell what exactly they were looking at.
Teresa took the chance to use
The monsters began sprinting towards the building, thankfully none of them were flying. They didn’t seem to have any weapons either, which made Teresa particularly suspicious. Maybe they had a nasty bite?
Either way, their position was perfect for this. The first fish creature arrived at the base of the building, and began climbing up. The creature’s hands seemed to have some sort of suction capability, as it was able to scale the walls almost like a copyrighted cross between a spider and a man.
Teresa drew an arrow and aimed, taking a second to line up the shot. She released the arrow, and it plunged straight into the creature’s head.
You Have Slain {Atrocious Wyvern-Fish (F) (lv 5)}
Experience Granted
Wyvern-Fish? Weren’t wyverns just dragons with two legs instead of four? At least they were easy to kill, and Teresa drew another arrow as she aimed down at another Wyvern-Fish scaling the building. She released the arrow, getting another kill notification. Teresa was gaining about 11% experience from each kill, which was nothing to scoff at. Just the two kills had already put her at 50%.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Maybe they were called Wyvern-Fish because of their sca-
Teresa’s train of thought was interrupted by a stream of liquid fire shooting from a Wyvern-Fish’s mouth, the river of projectile fire just barely missing her. Well shit, that’s why they’re called Wyvern-Fish.
“You assholes!” Madeline yelled out as she sprayed her
Madeline’s skill had seen some solid improvement since the last wave. The sparks lingered longer, searing into flesh before dissipating. Thankfully, the Wyvern-Fish did not seem to have any immunity to fire despite being able to spit it. The Fish hit by the sparks did not make any sound, as it seemed they were incapable of speech entirely.
Teresa shot another Fish, then drew an arrow and shot it again as the first did not kill it. She stepped back away from the ledge for a moment as fire was shot up at her, and she took the chance to draw another arrow.
The roof was rectangular, so it had four sides. There were four people in the party, so each person would be responsible for defending one side from the climbing Wyvern-Fish. Jake’s axe smashed through the skull of any Wyvern-Fish that got close to the top, and Preston slashed his sword through the Fish climbing up his side of the building.
Teresa shot another Fish, and then another. There were a lot of Wyvern-Fish however, and they were climbing up the wall faster than she could shoot. As Teresa shot yet another Fish, she decided it was time to start stabbing things. She slung the bow behind her and drew her goblin sword, running over to the Fish she had just shot to finish it off. The Fish opened its mouth to shoot fire at her, but she swung her blade through its jaw before it could do so.
The jawless Wyvern-Fish plummeted to the ground just one story below her, uncontrollably spraying fire over its allies. The Fish who got struck by the friendly fire began to melt, but the fire went out before any of them actually died.
It seemed the fire they shot was short lived once it hit a target, which was good to know. It would still hurt like hell to be burnt and possibly life threatening, but at least it would be temporary. Teresa stepped back from the ledge again to avoid another stream of fire, running over to where another Wyvern-Fish was about to reach the top.
Teresa plunged her sword into its head, killing it. Along with the kill notification, she got an additional notification telling her she had leveled up. Teresa put her unallocated point into Fortitude, as it was her lowest stat. This brought it up to a 5, though she didn’t have the time to look too closely at her new stats before she was running again towards another Wyvern-Fish.
This one managed to crawl over the ledge, just getting to its feet as Teresa stabbed it through the head. She kicked the monster’s corpse over the edge of the roof, making it knock another Wyvern-Fish down to the ground. This marked Teresa’s eighth kill, and everyone in the party had been going to town on these beasts.
The party was having a particularly easy time with this wave, and no one had even been injured yet. Teresa winced as she thought that, knowing she probably just jinxed it, but a quick look around proved just how much of a cakewalk this final wave had been so far.
The plan was still for Teresa to get as much experience as possible. Now that the wave had already lost quite a few monsters, everyone else in the party had actually stopped killing anything. Instead, any Fish that made its way close to the roof was simply kicked off.
Teresa wasn’t going to say she was disappointed with the last wave being this easy, if anything she was relieved. It all just seemed, well, anticlimactic. This was the fifth and final wave, surely this couldn’t be it. Sure, the party had all grown significantly more capable over the last week, but really? Any moment now, the other shoe would drop, and Teresa would be able to say she called it.
She sheathed her sword and once again unslung her bow. A quick glance at the quest screen showed there were 12 monsters remaining. Teresa shot the last Wyvern-Fish that was climbing her side of the building, bringing that number down to an 11. Each kill was only giving her around 8% experience now, but she was still already at 20% of level 4.
Teresa first made her way over to Madeline’s side, as she currently had the lowest physical stats, putting her at the highest risk of injury. Currently, there were three Wyvern-Fish still alive on her side, and the view down below was nasty.
Madeline’s
Madeline only had five monsters in total come to her side, as Jake had used his
Sure, Madeline had only killed two Fish herself, but even the three remaining Fish had some absolutely disgusting burns. Teresa mentally noted to never get into a fight with Madeline, not that she ever planned on it in the first place.
Teresa began shooting the monsters like fish in a barrel. She tried not to snicker at that statement, as she was sure she would look like a psychopath if she started laughing while killing these creatures. At times she wasn’t sure if her improved Intelligence stat helped her attention span or just enabled her to get distracted by random things faster.
This brought the monster count down to 8, all of the remaining monsters seeming to be over by Jake and Preston. Teresa looked over at their situation, and honestly found it kind of amusing.
Jake was standing still, leaning over the edge with his shield out in front of him. He had what seemed to be a bored expression on his face, and he periodically used his
Preston used his
Killing the monsters on this side of the wall was somehow even easier, as they didn’t even shoot back at her. All of their attention was on Jake, who calmly blocked multiple streams of fire with his shield.
“Are you not getting cooked in that armor? It’s all metal, I would have assumed it would act like an oven.” Teresa asked, lining up another shot. She released the arrow, killing yet another Wyvern-Fish. These provided less experience since they were distracted with Jake, but experience was experience after all.
“Kind of, not really. The shield blocks most of it.” Jake replied nonchalantly. “My
Teresa shot another Fish, then grunted in annoyance as it didn’t die. She had to shoot it two more times for it to drop dead. She glanced at the kill notification, and saw it was still just a normal Atrocious Wyvern-Fish. She had gotten worried for a moment when it survived the first two arrows, but they had just been mediocre shots.
“Hell yeah, I leveled up my class.” Jake said with a smile, looking at a screen that was not visible to Teresa.
“Congrats man, welcome to the club.” Teresa replied.
“Aw man, why am I the last one to get my class level up?” Preston asked with a laugh, clearly not actually that upset. “I’m so close to it too, I really hope I don’t manage to somehow get through all five of the waves without leveling up my class once.”
Another arrow planted itself into a Wyvern-Fish, and soon Teresa only saw one left.
“Here, keep kicking this dude down for a bit. Maybe it’ll give you the last boost in experience you need for it.” Teresa said, leaving the last Wyvern-Fish alive. Preston smiled and ran over to the ledge above the Fish.
“Sweet, thanks. It shouldn’t take too long, I’m at 97%.” He said. Teresa stepped back to let him do his thing, but she was still feeling antsy. She felt like she was missing something, but she couldn’t figure out what.
She looked over her stats to see if she could find what she was missing there.
Status:
Name: Teresa
Race: Human (Earth)
Level: 4 (F) (92%)
Class: Healer lv 1 (F) (2%)
HP: (85/85)
Stamina: (71/85)
Mana: (135/168)
Strength: 7
Fortitude: 5
Endurance: 7
Vitality: 7
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 17
Wisdom: 13
Perception: 10
Unallocated Points: 0
}
}
Oh, right, it was probably her
“It feels like we may have over prepared for this wave.” Jake said, looking at the carnage around them. The sound of a boot kicking a Wyvern-Fish in the face was followed by a cheer.
“Okay, I got my class level up. You can kill it now.” Preston said, stepping away from the ledge after kicking the monster down to the ground again.
Teresa wordlessly approached the ledge, taking aim at the Wyvern-Fish. Just as she released the arrow, Madeline spoke.
“So who killed the miniboss?” She asked as the arrow planted itself in the last Wyvern-Fish. Jake frowned.
“I figured Teresa probably killed it already knowing her.” Jake said, looking over at her. Teresa shook her head.
“No, there was nothing special on my side, just a bunch of Atrocious Wyvern-Fish.” Teresa replied. She opened her quest screen again, and her eyes widened.
Questline
Newcomer Tutorial (1/3)
Establish Liberty
Waves of monsters are seeking escape from the perennial desert. You and your party inhabit the only piece of green land for miles. Defend your territory from the waves. Waves will invade 15 minutes after the defeat of the previous wave.
Waves defeated: 4/5
Monsters remaining in wave: 1/36
Fuck.
They had forgotten about the miniboss.
“Well, at least it's just the miniboss left. I’m surprised it hasn’t done anything yet.” Preston said, but then he frowned. “Hang on. All of the other minibosses fought alongside the other monsters, even if they showed up late. Why would this one just wait until all of its allies were dead?”
As he finished speaking, a gust of wind knocked everyone away from the ledge. Everyone fell flat on their backs except for Jake, who was still staggered by the sudden pressure.
All around the building, black smoke began to rise from the corpses of the Wyvern-Fish. The bodies of the monsters were dissipating into smoke, making it hard for anyone to breathe. The smoke began to form a cloud above them, creating a massive shape of black gas.
“What the fuck is going on?” Jake asked, coughing. Teresa noticed her
Above them, a massive pair of wings took shape made of entirely black smoke. In between the wings was a Wyvern-Fish, with exclusively red and orange scales.
Teresa had called it. It was time for the other shoe to drop.