The party had prepared for the next wave, and were now waiting as the 15 minute interval timer made its way down to 0. They had spent a total of eight hours leading the crawler according to the timer on Sarah’s phone. In this time, they had all shared information about their skills, familiarized themselves with everyone’s status, and even made traps at the entrance to the lobby using the dead mosquito limbs as spears.
It was less of a trap and more of a wall of sharp spikes that any creature would have to cross to enter, the legs of the mosquitoes sticking out from the bodies of the dead deer at an angle. It probably wouldn’t kill anything unless something was dumb enough to run straight into it, but it would buy plenty of time for Sarah and Madeline to damage any enemies before they made their way to the frontlines.
Madeline had put her free point in Wisdom, bumping her Wisdom up to 11 and her maximum Mana to 112. She had discussed with Teresa about where she had put her own unallocated point and why she had chosen Intelligence. After the last wave when she had run out of Mana, Madeline felt like her Mana capacity would benefit her greatly.
Most of the party was pretty close to gaining a level now, with Jake, Preston, and Sarah all being within 20% progression of level 1. Teresa, on the other hand, was 21% of the way to level 2, with Madeline being 14% of the way.
They had made some discoveries during the increased intermission. For example, it was possible to repair equipment provided by the system by influencing it with mana. Madeline and Teresa had been the only ones able to do this with their
The party had theorized that leveling skills was much slower than leveling their persons, as no one had breached 30% progression towards level 1 in a skill yet.
Jake’s shield and Sarah’s arrows had all been repaired using Mana, and Teresa had even repaired her robe which had been slightly damaged from the fight with the mosquitoes. Preston’s leather armor had been repaired where it had melted at the arm, and every piece of equipment got an infusion of Mana just to be sure it was all in top condition.
They were ready for this wave.
The counter for the next wave reached 0, and the third wave had begun. As the bell rang once more, Teresa opened the quest menu to see the monster count in this one.
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: 2/5
Monsters remaining in wave: 24/24
Well shit, there were 24 monsters this time. If they were anywhere near as strong as the monsters from the previous waves, they would probably get overrun and swarmed. However, that was if they had been doing the Tutorial the way it was intended.
With their preparations, they would stand a chance against 24 of those mosquitoes from wave 1 again.
Rumbling was heard outside the entrance, and soon the monsters made their first appearance.
“Holy shit, Preston! You were right!” Jake called out as the party looked at the incoming monsters.
They were goblins.
Short, green, stubby creatures with primitive weaponry and minimal armor entered the lobby, hunting for prey. The first to spot the party raised its weapon and let out a battle cry, before an arrow firmly planted itself in the goblin’s skull. The goblin dropped dead, and instantly the other goblins began their push forward.
Sparks rained down from above as Madeline showered the incoming wave with
The goblins had a variety of weapons, primarily swords, axes, daggers, and spears. 12 had already made their way inside, and Sarah had taken down three including the one she had shot immediately.
“I got my level!” Sarah called out, quickly putting her unallocated point into Perception. They had discussed ahead of time what stats each of them should aim to improve with their free points from leveling, and Sarah had felt increasing her Perception would let her aim shots easier. Her Perception stat was now a 12, the highest individual stat anyone had in the party.
Meanwhile at the front lines, Jake and Preston were fighting the goblins that were trying to make their way past the improvised spike wall. The goblins had to squeeze between the mosquito legs, making them sidestep to move allowing for quick and easy stabs from Preston.
Preston focused on those with swords and daggers, while Jake targeted the goblins with axes and spears. Preston could easily handle the goblins with shorter reach, but there was an increased risk of going against the goblins that might be able to land a lucky shot on him using an axe or a spear. One bad swing from an axe could disarm him, and a quick stab from a spear could injure him.
So Jake took those, using his now-repaired shield to block strikes from these goblins, and in some cases he grabbed the goblin’s weapon with his hands and yanked them forward. This resulted in the occasional goblin falling to the floor in the lobby, momentarily vulnerable.
This is where Terisa came in. She held a mosquito leg like a spear and stabbed at the goblins approaching along with Preston, though she mostly stayed near Jake due to her overall lack of protection from armor. This meant most of the tripped goblins were finished by her, and she occasionally assisted against the goblins Jake was fighting.
Terisa had a peculiar position within the party. While it was undeniable that having a healer was extremely valuable, she was the only one with no direct attack skills. However, she was still pretty fit, and as a result could fill another role as needed.
She was not nearly as good at melee combat as Preston who specialized in this, but she would fare far better than Sarah or Madeline up close, being about on par with Jake. She could not take nearly as many hits as Jake could, but she could take more than anyone else in the party thanks to her healing magic.
She couldn’t use her magic to attack enemies like Madeline could, but she could use her magic to heal anyone on the frontlines. She also couldn’t use ranged attacks with high damage like Sarah, but she had a line of mosquito legs ready to be chucked as javelins.
In between rounds, they had all taken turns trying to throw the mosquito legs. This excluded Sarah, of course, who already had a better way to attack from range. The result had shown Teresa was the most adequate at this task, albeit still not great. It was hard to throw mosquito legs, after all.
As a result, Teresa wasn’t the best at anything in the party aside from healing, but she was second best in a lot of categories. She was completely alright with this, knowing that had been a pattern that stayed true throughout most of her life.
So for now, she was going to do what she could to stab some goblins and gain some experience.
Teresa stabbed forward, thrusting a mosquito leg through a goblin’s face as it attempted to make its way past the spike wall. She got a kill notification as it fell to the ground, dead. The system really did just have the creature labeled as {Goblin (F) (lv 4)}, confirming there were no crazy modifiers like vampiric or acidic.
Another goblin lifted its spear and threw it, making Teresa dive behind Jake for cover. The spear harmlessly glanced off Jake’s shield, and now Teresa had another spear to use should she need it.
When she had first leveled up and gotten her title, she hadn’t noticed a huge difference. Now that she wasn’t about to die from blood loss and was in peak condition, she felt fantastic. Her title may have only increased all of her stats by 1, but it was a noticeable change. At level 0, none of her stats had been in the double digits, so all of her attributes had increased by at least 10%.
She felt stronger, faster, and her vision had improved along with all of her senses. Teresa’s memory had even improved, and she could recall that those “feeding tubes” the mosquitoes used actually had a name. She couldn’t remember what they were called, but at least she could remember that she didn’t remember. Surely that was an improvement, right?
The wave had barely begun, but multiple goblins were already dead. Sarah was shooting them like fish in a barrel. Madeline kept the goblins needing to protect their face while Preston fought them with his sword. Jake and Teresa fought alongside one another using the other’s capabilities.
Jake had picked up one of the axes dropped by the goblins, and was now using it from behind his shield. Jake had considered trying to use a mosquito leg like a spear from behind his shield, but that was easier said than done. His shield was huge and his armor heavy, making his movements slow. Any stabbing motion he could make was telegraphed and noticed long before he could reap any benefits, so he had willingly gone into the next wave with only the tip of a mosquito leg to use as a knife if he needed it.
Now that he had an axe, it was far easier to swing a weapon with his shield than to stab. A stabbing motion only moved forward and backwards, making a precise space deadly for an opponent. A slashing motion covered much more area, meaning it didn’t matter if he was telegraphing his swings since his opponents had nowhere to dodge.
Personally, Teresa could imagine using a spear from behind a shield far easier than an axe, but that likely boiled down to difference in mindset. After all, once Jake started swinging it was hard to argue with the results.
His axe brutally tore through a goblin’s face, leaving behind a gory green mess as the goblin died with pieces of its head flying through the air. This marked the 9th dead goblin, already leaving only 15 to go.
Teresa stabbed forward at another goblin, impaling it in the shoulder. The goblin screamed at her, and stabbed its own spear in retribution. Teresa was able to dodge by moving to the side, as the goblin’s attack had been rather lackluster with a wound in its shoulder. Teresa stabbed again, this time hitting it right above the eye. The mosquito leg wasn’t great for slashing motions, but it was so sharp it was great for stabs.
The goblin’s body twitched for a moment before falling to the ground dead, a pile of goblin corpses were now littering the entrance. More goblins poured in, and there was immediately an issue.
The goblin miniboss was here, and it could use magic.
The miniboss looked like a shaman, and it had a completely wooden staff that had a hazy green gas swirling around it. Immediately, Sarah wasted no time and fired an arrow at the Shaman, but a gust of wind nudged the arrow’s trajectory enough to make it miss.
They were indoors, there should be no gusts of wind. It didn’t take a super genius to figure out that the Shaman was using wind magic of some sort. Another arrow was fired, and the result was the same.
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Even Madeline’s sparks were diverted, like a passive barrier of wind was shielding the goblin from all projectiles. Despite that, Teresa noticed that the sparks would burn through the green haze the Shaman emitted, making Teresa think.
If the wind magic was able to divert the sparks without getting canceled out, then what does that say about the green haze? Was that not wind magic? Or maybe it was just some sort of passive wind Mana that hadn’t been used yet, like the restoration Mana that Teresa’s
Unfortunately, she would soon get her answer. The Shaman goblin lifted its staff and pointed it towards Madeline, while its free hand pointed towards Jake. The green haze started to shoot towards the two, blowing like the wind. Madeline shot her sparks into the gas coming her way, while Jake lifted his shield to provide a barrier between himself and the brunt of the attack.
The gas was being burnt by Madeline’s sparks, but the continuous stream still made its way closer as a barrier of wind seemed to protect the green haze while in transit. On the other hand, the attack dispersed around Jake’s shield, surrounding him in the nasty green haze.
Jake breathed it in, and immediately fell to his knees dropping his axe. He held his shield in front of him as he clutched at his throat and chest, struggling to breathe.
Teresa had a pretty solid guess that this Shaman used poison and wind magic together, which was an incredibly deadly combination that violated the Geneva Convention. She ran towards Jake despite the poisonous gas, lifting the neck of her robe around her nose hoping for any level of protection.
The healer robes had been pretty useless against physical damage, but they proved their worth when the poisonous gas was completely purified by the fabric the robe was made out of. Teresa was able to charge into the mist without breathing becoming a problem.
However, her eyes still started burning the moment she entered the green haze, but that was miniscule compared to what it could have done. Jake was twitching uncontrollably as he struggled to keep his shield in front of him, the poisonous gas invading his body through the lungs.
Teresa placed her hand on his chest, activating
This left Jake in a perpetual state of his body being slowly turned from necrotic to healthy and back to necrotic in a cycle that was comparable to torture. Teresa grabbed the sleeve of her robe and ripped, tearing off a piece of the robe while making her outfit have one slightly shorter sleeve.
She wrapped the fabric around Jake’s head, covering his nose and mouth to prevent him from breathing anymore poison in. There was still poison running amok in his body, so she went back to healing him to keep him from dying of his internal organs slowly rotting.
Teresa could see why the use of chemical weapons were considered war
crimes before the System.
A goblin made its way past the spike wall as Preston and Sarah were the only ones in a position to fight the regular goblins of the wave, and it charged at Teresa ready to stab her.
Jake, despite his condition, tackled the goblin and pinned it under his body weight, his eyes bloodshot as he pulled out the mosquito leg tip and stabbed into the goblin again and again.
Teresa ran over and placed her hand on his back, continuing to heal his lungs as he killed the goblin on the ground.
“Shit!” She heard Madeline yell, as the gas started to envelope her. The Shaman had chosen to attack Jake and Madeline both, and while Madeline had the means to hold out for a little while longer her magic was not a match for the Shaman’s.
The green haze surrounded Madeline, and soon she was also suffering from the poison. Teresa glanced back at Jake, who also still had poison in his body. If she left him without any assistance, he might die.
But then again, if she left Madeline alone then she would certainly die.
“I’m sorry.” Teresa said to Jake as she ran back towards the stairs to get up to where Madeline was. She tore another strip off her sleeve, as her baggy robes had plenty of sleeve fabric for the party, and all she would have to do is wear a short sleeved robe for a bit. Besides, she still had her normal clothes on underneath, so it wasn’t going to be a problem.
She tossed the small strip to Preston as she ran by, and he quickly understood as he wrapped the fabric around his face. Teresa decided she would get a piece of fabric to Sarah as soon as she could, but she was on the opposite balcony from Madeline who needed urgent medical attention.
Behind her, a wave of red energy shot out from Jake as he used his
Type: Mental Magic
Convert Mana to a mind-altering state and release it in an uncontrolled explosion. Any hostile creature capable of feeling emotions will feel inclined to attack you over other potential targets.
Teresa dashed up the stairs and made her way to Madeline, and immediately began healing her with one hand while wrapping a prepared strip of fabric around her mouth and nose. The fabric was easy to breathe through, and simply purified the poisonous air as it passed through, not obstructing breathing at all. Regardless, Madeline had a lot of poison in her body and less physical stats than Jake, putting her in a far worse position.
Madeline had black bile pouring out around her lips, nearly making Teresa gag. She didn’t stop healing for a moment, and briefly wondered if doctors and nurses had to go through training to not react to a patient’s injuries right in front of them.
Thankfully, Teresa’s healing was a bit faster than the poison, bringing Madeline to a state closer to Jake’s who was now fighting again, even if he looked wretched and pale. Teresa was pretty sure that if she didn’t make her way back to him soon, then he would likely die.
However, if she left Madeline alone she would also probably die, and for a moment she panicked as she thought she was going to have to choose between the two. Then her brain turned back on, and she realized a relatively obvious solution.
“Madeline, I’m bringing you down to the frontlines so I can heal you and Jake at the same time, okay?” Teresa said, getting Madeline to her feet. Madeline just nodded, clearly not able to speak at the moment.
They made their way down to the frontlines as quickly as they could, Madeline shooting her
With Jake and Madeline fighting in suboptimal conditions, Preston and Sarah had needed to do most of the grunt work themselves, especially considering Teresa was now on full-time healing duty.
Teresa’s skill couldn’t cancel out the poison, only heal the damage it did, meaning that they just had to ride it out and wait for their bodies to slowly use up all of the poison’s efficacy. She had tried directing the restoration Mana towards the poison to fight it, but nothing happened when they interacted with one another. There were multiple different kinds of poison out there, and if Teresa’s skill she had gotten almost immediately in the Tutorial could heal poison right off the bat then that would make poison pretty obsolete.
This certainly curbed Teresa’s expectation to cure diseases once the Tutorial was done, but she wasn’t disheartened. She would figure it out eventually, but for now she had to work with the tools she had.
They made their way to Jake, and soon Teresa had one hand on Jake and the other on Madeline as all three were now the target of the poisonous magic thanks to
“Madeline, tear off part of my sleeve and wrap it around a goblin dagger or something, then toss it up to Sarah. Also hand me the staff, I don’t want to run out of Mana healing two people at the same time.” Madeline quickly nodded, handing her the Mana recharging staff and following her instructions. Thankfully, Teresa could still heal someone with a hand that was holding a staff, as the staff worked as an extension of her palm.
Soon, Sarah had a piece of fabric as well, and they were all relatively protected against the poison attacks. With Jake’s skill keeping the focus on him, it was unlikely anyone else would be attacked by the Shaman. However, Teresa more than anyone was aware of the possibility that Jake could die, with the exception of Jake himself.
If that were to happen, their party would quickly fall apart. Every member of the party was essential, losing just one person would probably start a series of events resulting in multiple casualties. By no means did Teresa expect Jake would die from his wounds so long as she kept healing him, it was still a possibility she had to consider.
Making sure everyone had protection against the poison was a good way to keep losses to a minimum, even if Teresa herself were to die.
A group of eight goblins wielding a variety of melee weapons approached the group, hesitant to get close due to the magical cloud of poison that was surrounding the group, primarily Jake. After a brief moment of hesitation, the goblin group seemed to accept their fate and charged at the three.
An arrow struck a goblin close to the front, causing it to fall and trip a goblin behind it. Preston used his skill
The remaining goblins reached the group of Jake, Madeline, and Teresa who were all in an awkward formation due to them needing to stay close to Teresa if they wanted to remain alive. Jake swung his axe downward at a goblin, the weapon cutting through the goblin’s shoulder before becoming lodged halfway through its chest. He let go of the axe and brought his shield to face another goblin already swinging a sword at him.
Madeline used her
A goblin with a dagger found a perfect opening as Madeline and Jake were both occupied for just a second, and charged towards Teresa. In that moment, Teresa had no choice but to display why her hands weren’t entirely necessary to fight.
Because getting kicked in the face hurts so much worse than getting punched.
Teresa launched a front kick at the goblin, slamming her heel into the bridge of the goblin’s nose. The goblin screamed as green blood squirted out from its broken nose, and it wildly swung its dagger as it fell back. The dagger grazed the side of Teresa’s leg, leaving a cut along her knee.
The goblin dropped the dagger as its back hit the floor, getting winded. Deciding to seize the moment, Teresa released her hand and staff from her companions to grab the dagger and quickly plant it in the goblin’s skull, before returning back to healing. This whole process took maybe three or four seconds, making it a very quick kill.
Of course, these three or four seconds sucked for Jake and Madeline, but not enough to cause any damage that couldn’t be healed. It was cold, but Teresa figured their survival didn’t have to be a pleasant experience, they were fighting for their lives after all. Killing the goblin was worth a few seconds of pain.
Teresa could only hope her companions felt the same, and she didn’t sense anything but relief from the two as she began healing them again. Blood ran down her calf due to the slash in her leg, but it was not nearly as bad as it could have been. She could still stand and fight, and it didn’t hurt that bad compared to being impaled. This wound was one she could ignore until later.
A part of her wondered if she should stop kicking things, as every time she did so it seemed to result in her getting injured. Then again, everything she had kicked so far had eventually died, so clearly she was doing something right.
“I’m going for the Shaman!” Preston called out, ignoring the remaining goblin grunts as he went for the miniboss of the wave. This was probably a good move, as Preston couldn’t get close enough to the others at the frontline without exposing himself to the poison. While Teresa had not breathed any in, her eyesight was definitely taking a hit as she could barely keep her eyes open at this point. She brought her hand and staff near her companions’ faces for a moment to heal their eyes before going back to healing their lungs.
Teresa had briefly considered pausing her healing of one of her companions to fix her own issues, but decided against it. Her mind had some key differences from a normal, healthy adult person. It was easy to forget with everything that had happened, but the Tutorial had only been going on for about 10 or 11 hours at this point. Earlier that day she had decided to kill herself, and accepted death as a comfortable possibility.
So she decided to use this experience to try and get used to poisonous chemicals. If she ever made it out of the Tutorial, she would do some with a solid expectation of what being poisoned would be like. She wanted the challenge, to fight through it and kill some goblins even with their poison burning her eyes.
This was a stupid train of thought that unnecessarily put her party at risk, and she was aware of that. Regardless, there would come a time after this Tutorial where Teresa was sure she would need to be as strong and experienced as she could get. She didn’t know what would come next, but if something called the Tutorial was this hard then she was sure nothing else was going to be easy. Teresa had made up her mind as she realized that despite everything, she was having fun.
If anything was going to kill Teresa, it was going to be herself.