Teresa continued using
“I’ll pin the first monster to come in, Preston will cripple its legs, and Teresa will train it until she’s fully healed.” Jake called out as everyone got into position. After having been through one battle together, everyone had a better understanding of their roles in the party.
It didn’t take long before rumbling could be heard outside, and Teresa checked the quest screen to see how many monsters were going to be in this wave.
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: 1/5
Monsters remaining in wave: 7/7
There were only 7 monsters in this wave. While Teresa hoped this meant the wave would be easier to manage than the first, she still was prepared for a hard fight. Once again, the doors to the lobby opened, and soon the first monster made its way through the entrance.
The creature that made its way in was disturbing. It was clearly a deer, but it had fungal growth all along its body and head. Protruding from its mouth were two sharp fangs, making Teresa think of a vampire. Vampire deer? Vampiric mushroom deer? Were the mushrooms making the deer a vampire or was the deer already a vampire when it started growing mushrooms on its body?
Some questions would never get an answer.
Jake charged into the deer, slamming it between his shield and the wall. Quickly following up, Preston stabbed his sword into one of the deer’s hind legs, causing it to roar in pain. It was a little weird seeing a deer roar like a dinosaur, but Teresa was starting to not even be surprised at these kinds of things anymore.
Preston pulled his blade back and stabbed once again, hitting the deer’s other hind leg. The deer was foaming at the mouth, and the fungal growth on its body started popping.
“I think that’s enough, if we do too much and it’ll die.” Jake said, and with that they both retreated and prepared for another deer to make its way inside. Now it was Teresa’s turn, and she approached the injured deer and got its attention by getting close.
The deer bit towards her, but it was easy to backstep out of range as the deer’s body collapsed to the floor. Despite its injuries, it seemed incredibly intent on killing Teresa, and awkwardly crawled towards her.
By this point, Teresa’s leg was fully healed, though that didn’t mean she was in good condition by any means. She was still pale from blood loss, and her HP, Stamina, and Mana were all still low. She still had the Mana recharging staff, but at this point she didn’t think she was going to need to use any Mana for the upcoming fight. She decided the staff could be put to better use elsewhere, and called up to Madeline on one of the balconies.
“Madeline, catch!” She yelled, and tossed the staff up to her. Madeline caught it, and made a weird face that Teresa couldn’t read.
“Uh, thanks?” Madeline replied, holding the staff awkwardly by the part that didn’t have Teresa’s blood on it.
Oh yeah, she got her blood on the staff. Whoops.
Well, whatever. It was time to train the monster deer. It continued crawling towards her, its front legs dragging the rest of its body behind it. This would be incredibly easy to avoid, letting Teresa take the time to regenerate her resources. As a matter of fact, she considered something Jake had said earlier after she figured out she could view her titles in more detail.
She could also check out what the system said about her skills in more detail.
Teresa opened her status screen, and began to go through her skills one at a time.
Type: General
Speak the myriad languages of the multiverse. This skill has been granted to its user directly by the system due to her introduction to the multiverse.
The screen appeared in front of her as she checked out her first skill,
It also had a type, saying “General.” She wondered if all her skills had a type, and she soon found the answer.
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.
Her most used skill so far was a restoration magic type skill, which she felt made sense. The skill description also confirmed that something did happen to the Mana before it started healing her, meaning she couldn’t just pump regular old Mana wherever she wanted to start healing.
She paused before continuing onto her last skill, looking onto the battle her party was currently engaged in. It seemed this wave was going much easier than the last for one simple reason: Madeline’s sparks.
The deer seemed to be terrified of the sparks, and when they were struck the fungal growths on their bodies would pop. It seemed Madeline was a hard counter to these monsters, making it a very one sided fight.
This was rather fortunate, as Jake, Preston, and Sarah all seemed to be struggling against the quick moving deer. If Teresa had to guess, their highest stat was probably Agility. While all three of them had to take on a deer together one at a time, Madeline was able to fight two or even three without breaking a sweat. Teresa was willing to bet Madeline would be the next to level up in the party.
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Deciding there was nothing to worry about, Teresa continued casually walking in a circle in the back of the room while the injured deer continued to chase her. She opened the description of her last skill.
Type: General
Gain a sense for Mana and its movement, allowing you to manipulate it to perform magical feats.
Surprisingly, her last skill was also a general type. She had expected it to have some sort of magical type like her
Teresa decided that would be something to ask about once the wave was done, and figured the party might benefit from everyone sharing their skills and descriptions. She would also share her
A part of her considered keeping it a secret to try and grind all of the possible titles for herself, but decided that being selfish like that would only backfire. Besides, her party seemed like good people, and she hoped she would be able to call them friends.
She could have been partied with a serial killer or something for all she knows. Actually, she could already be partied with a serial killer now that she thought of it, since it’s not like she would know. However, she doubted it. The system seemed to make parties of somewhat similar people, and Teresa had never committed a crime in her life aside from pirating college textbooks, but that doesn’t even count really.
Okay, and maybe a few other tiny things in that same category, but obviously nothing on the level that would warrant being partied with a murderer.
Looking back to the fight, it seemed like it was approaching its end. There were only three monsters left, including the crawler that was chasing Teresa. There was only one left in the room otherwise, as the last deer had yet to make an entrance. If the first wave had been a team effort, then this wave had been absolutely carried by Madeline.
Soon, the quest screen showed only two monsters left as Madeline’s sparks caused a deer to burst enough fungal growths to drop dead.
“Holy shit, I just leveled up!” Madeline called out, the excitement clear in her voice. Everyone congratulated her, and even the deer chasing Teresa let out a well timed agonized roar from hell.
She felt a little bad for the deer, knowing this was absolutely animal abuse. However, fighting for her life had made Teresa a bit more morally flexible. If survival included hobbling a vampire deer with mushrooms growing on it, then so be it.
A moment later, the last deer to worry about came in through the entrance. It was clear this was a miniboss as well, as it was larger and had large antlers that were dripping a yellow substance.
Sparks shot out from a balcony as Madeline attacked it, but the deer dodged to the side and quickly managed to avoid it. Madeline quickly corrected for this and aimed the stream of sparks towards the deer, making it borderline impossible to dodge the continuous stream of sparks in the enclosed space.
However, just as the first sparks hit the miniboss, the stream of sparks suddenly stopped.
“Fuck!” Madeline yelled, eyes wide. “I’m out of Mana!”
“Let us handle this one, don’t worry about it.” Jake called out, and soon a red wave of energy seemed to shoot out from his body towards the deer. Teresa was pretty sure this was his
The deer turned its head to look at Jake, and the two charged at one another. The deer slammed its head against Jake’s shield, its antlers taking the blunt of the collision. The two came to a standstill, neither side pushing back the other.
Preston sprinted forward, going from a standstill to full speed far faster than anyone Teresa had seen before. This was most likely the result of his
In a terrifying turn of events, the deer jumped, managing to do a freaking front flip over the top of Jake to avoid Preston’s blow. Jake’s shield was dripping metal where it had made contact with the antlers.
“The antlers are acidic!” Jake called out, another wave of red energy flying towards the deer to keep it focused on him. The deer swung its antlers towards him as he slowly turned around, his movement slowed by his heavy armor.
Before the deer hit him, an arrow plunged into the deer’s nose, making it recoil and roar out in anger. Acid was flung from its antlers, splashing onto Preston’s arm.
Preston screamed as the leather armor melted onto his flesh, his forearm receiving horrific chemical burns.
“Madeline, switch!” Teresa called out, stepping away from the crawler. Madeline caught on quick, and tossed Teresa the staff as she took her place distracting the crawler.
It was time for Teresa to do her damn job as the healer.
She darted forward, and made her way to Preston while Jake and Sarah fought the miniboss. Reaching him, she activated
The leather on his armor had melted and fuzed onto his skin, causing an agonizing pain. Teresa used her
Before, she had to use her skill to completely regrow the flesh through where she had been stabbed. Now, the skill just needed to repair the damaged flesh that was already there instead of replacing it entirely.
Within a minute, his arm had gone from a horrific chemical burn that would permanently disfigure anyone to a pretty bad sunburn. Teresa could have kept healing it further, but Preston thanked her and got back to the fight as soon as he was able. Teresa could finish healing him in between rounds anyways.
Jake’s shield looked like it was made of mercury as it melted against the deer’s antlers. He was clearly being careful to avoid getting the acid on his armor, not wanting to suffer the same fate as Preston but with metal.
Preston swung at the deer once again, and Jake angled his shield and shoved to push the deer’s head down to prevent it from performing any more acrobatic stunts. That, combined with the arrows that peppered its body, made the deer completely incapable of avoiding the blow.
Preston’s sword bit into the back of its neck, cutting into the spine. The deer roared one last time before blood filled its lungs, and within a few moments it was dead.
You Have Slain {Acidic-Vampiric Cordyceps Deer (F) (lv 8)}
Experience Granted
It looked like Teresa still got experience from the kill even if all she did was heal one of the combatants. Considering solo killing the miniboss last wave had made her level up, this one granted her far less experience. It was probably split among the party members somehow.
Teresa opened the quest menu again to double check their situation.
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: 1/5
Monsters remaining in wave: 1/7
The last remaining monster that was slowly crawling after Madeline roared again, seemingly still determined to catch up to the slowly walking woman. It looked like they would have plenty of time between this wave and the next. Teresa approached Preston with
“Hey, so funny story.” He said, stepping away from the dead miniboss. “I kind of need to use the bathroom, and I have absolutely no idea how to take this off.”