Teresa was laying back on a pile of sweaters and shirts she had looted from the gift shop, eyes open. Trying to sleep felt impossible, she had just learned a new trick with her skills and now she has to sleep it off? Yeah, right.
Still, she really should sleep. If she fell asleep now, she could get a solid five and a half hours. Not a lot, but it beats nothing. If she fought monsters while completely sleep deprived, she might die. Worse than that, she might get someone else killed. So she had made up her mind to try and sleep.
“Hey Teresa.” She heard a whisper, and she shot up to see Sarah entering the gift shop, the goblin a solid distance behind her. “Wake up Preston and let him know I think I saw something out in the desert. I’m going to walk the goblin near the gift shop, if you hear me scream then come help.”
“Got it. How far away was it?” Teresa asked, getting ready for a fight.
“Not sure since there’s no point of reference out there, but pretty far I’d say. I gotta go, can’t have the goblin waking up Jake and Madeline. I think we should be fine, but I thought it would be better to let you know.” Sarah responded, before backing away from the door and heading back out towards the goblin. Teresa calmed herself and went to share the news with Preston.
Overall, he took it pretty well.
“Are they attacking us?” He asked, half asleep.
“No.”
“Okay, wake me up if they’re attacking us.”
“Sarah said she’d scream, you’ll wake up if she screams right?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay cool, goodnight.”
With that, their brief midnight conversation ended and Preston fell back asleep. Teresa was a little jealous of his ability to just go right to sleep like that, and went back to her side of the gift shop.
Laying down once more, she closed her eyes. It was eerie trying to sleep. Even ignoring all of the cool stuff that had happened lately, there were other things on her mind.
Earlier that morning, she had woken up expecting today to be her last day alive. Now, she was going back to sleep so she could fight in the morning to keep living.
Life is weird.
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Teresa woke up after a sleep with no interruptions. She yawned and sat up, stretching as she ran her hands through her hair. Surely this place would have toothpaste and a hairbrush somewhere, right?
Fortunately for her, she was right. Teresa wasn’t sure who was going to Liberty Island to buy Statue of Liberty themed toothpaste and toothbrushes, but she wasn’t complaining. Within a few minutes, she was ready to fight some monsters.
But first, she had to let everyone know about Souls existing.
“Okay, and?” Madeline asked, reading the description. “I was already religious, so it’s not that surprising to me or anything. What I want to know is how you figured that out.”
Jake, on the other hand, took it a little differently.
“Does this mean ginger people can’t produce Mana?” He asked, scratching his head. “They have no Souls.”
“I’m sure everyone has a Soul, sweetie.” Madeline said, barely sparing Jake a glance. “Now how did you level up your
Teresa did her best to explain it to her and the rest of the party, who were now taking a walk outside. She wasn’t sure it would be useful to anyone other than Madeline who also had
Preston had apparently been told by Sarah during the shift change last night, and he seemed about as shaken up by it as Sarah was.
“When I use my
“Well, if you ever do get
The party entered the lobby once more, monster corpses were strewn about. Mutilated mosquito corpses impaled the deer corpses to make a spike wall aimed at the entrance, and there were now a bunch of dead goblins all over the place. The last remaining goblin was still outside, crawling its way towards them.
“I say we make a few piles out of the goblins for us to hide behind if the monster’s have any ranged abilities.” Sarah said, and the party agreed.
Jake and Preston got to work grabbing the dead goblins. Sarah was walking their last remaining goblin, while Teresa and Madeline were going over everyone’s gear and infusing it with Mana to repair any potential damage.
Teresa also used her
She had been a bit busy during that wave healing people, but so long as there weren’t going to be any status ailments that perpetually caused damage while being immune to restoration Mana then she might actually get the chance to use the spears as projectiles.
As everyone eventually decided they were ready, they each used a goblin’s weapon to kill the last remaining goblin together, sharing the experience amongst the party.
You Have Slain {Goblin (F) (lv 3)}
Experience Granted
Teresa barely saw her experience go up from 3% to 4%. Apparently finishing off an incredibly injured goblin with five people didn’t grant a lot of experience, but at least this way everyone got something. Teresa opened her quest screen, and watched the 15 minute counter tick down.
No one spoke during this time, but just got into their various positions as if they had been training for this for far longer than they actually had. Quite a few things were still going through Teresa’s mind, and that kill notification from the Shaman still didn’t sit right with her, even after hearing a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Madeline and Sarah stood on opposing balconies overlooking the lobby, while Jake, Preston, and Teresa all stood at the frontlines right behind the spear wall. Teresa had a far better weapon than last time, and she had never felt more prepared.
As the timer reached 0, she checked the monster count for the 4th wave.
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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: 3/5
Monsters remaining in wave: 9/9
There were only 9 this time, a far cry below the 24 goblins. Teresa wanted to get some more kills this time, even if it was her job to heal people. After getting some sleep, she had steeled her resolve to get stronger. She thought back to Madeline talking about her family, and Teresa decided to think of her own. Hopefully, her parents would have left the Tutorial by now, as it did not feel reasonable to think they would try to get stronger like she was.
Her brother, on the other hand, would totally stick around in a Tutorial with magic and monsters. Teresa was still worried for him, but more than anything she just wanted to make it farther than he did so she could rub it in his face later.
Suddenly, the impossible happened.
The entrance to the lobby began shifting, like space was breaking. The room started to widen, like the room had just gained a whole lot of square footage. The doors began to expand, most of the wall being replaced by open air to allow the giant monsters that they were to fight this wave enter the building.
Entering the lobby were what looked like reptilian giraffes, scales covering their bodies. They had the same general shape as a giraffe, except for when you looked at the head. Sitting atop their heads was a ball of scales. The heads reminded Teresa of an ankylosaur’s tail, like the monsters had replaced their heads with clubs.
This made her wonder how the giraffe-like creatures could even see, and as soon as she realized where the monsters’ faces were, she was disgusted.
The monsters had their eyes and mouths on their chests. The eyes looked like snake eyes, and the mouth was just a lipless hole that could open to reveal circular rows of teeth.
The monsters stepped forward, calmly ignoring the wall of spikes as they just stepped over them. Light poured down from above as Teresa realized the ceiling to the building had been removed, and considering the Statue of Liberty was supposed to be right above them, she knew this was the System’s intervention.
She wasn’t sure why the System would allow them to keep a monster alive between rounds to prepare longer, but not let them stay inside a building too small for the monsters, but that was a train of thought she could go down later.
It was time to kill these things.
Teresa ran towards one, slashing her shortsword into its calf, as she was just tall enough for her head to be at roughly knee height for the monsters. The blade slammed against it, cracking a scale. This clearly annoyed the monster, as it roared and swung its head at Teresa like a golf club.
Teresa was able to dodge this rather easily, as she simply stepped forward underneath the monster. The creature rapidly began to shift to the side, but Teresa managed to nick a small cut in the belly of the beast with a jumping slash. It was hard to reach, but it seemed their stomachs were vulnerable.
“Their stomachs have no protection!” Teresa called out, figuring this might prove useful to someone. As a matter of fact, she had an idea of her own.
Teresa carefully avoided the scurrying legs of the beast, not wanting to get kicked and trampled. The creature wasn’t wide enough to stay underneath for more than a fraction of a second, so she would have to be quick.
She darted over to her pile of potential spear projectiles, and grabbed two after tucking her sword away into her robes. The monster chased after her, letting out a terrifyingly human scream. Teresa charged forward to meet the monster head on, only swerving at the last second to throw a spear up at the monster.
The projectile sunk no more than two inches into the monster’s belly, but it still clearly pissed it off. The screaming intensified, and it started trying to pounce on Teresa. This was incredibly difficult to avoid as it swung its legs at her wildly. After barely dodging the first swing, she immediately knew that any second now she was going to get punted.
Making a split second decision, she grabbed onto the nearest leg for dear life, letting go of the spear and gripping onto the space between the scales with her fingers. She climbed up past the knee quickly just as it began to panic and flail its leg. It was incredibly difficult to hold on, and Teresa would have regretted not putting her unallocated point into Strength if she hadn’t just barely avoided a kick a moment ago.
Once Teresa was gripping onto the side of the creature’s torso, it was a little easier. The creature began to run forwards towards Jake, who was already desperately shielding himself from two monsters flailing their heads into his shield while Sarah and Madeline shot at it.
Teresa struggled her way onto the creature’s back, then stabbed down into where she imagined the spine would be. She slid her blade between the scales, plunging it deep into the monster. It let out a wail as she felt the blade cut against something hard, and the monster’s back legs began to spasm.
She twisted the blade on the way out, trying to increase how much damage she had done. Teresa quickly stabbed down again and again, only occasionally messing up and having the blade glance off a scale.
The monster yelled in anger, and the club head swung at her from the side. Teresa leaned forward and rolled over to the opposite side of the creature’s torso, barely holding on as the club swung past her. The momentum of the club combined with the creature’s difficulties controlling its hind legs caused the monster to fall towards the side Teresa was hanging onto, forcing her to let go.
Teresa dropped to her feet as the monster collapsed beside her, and a flailing kick caught her in the side. Teresa spun and fell herself, feeling a nasty crack from her hip. She was pretty sure she just broke something, and wasted no time.
Teresa pressed an overclocked
Within seconds, she was standing again with her blade in her hand, and within half a minute she would be back in top condition. The monster was struggling to get up, flailing its head uselessly against the floor as its front legs tried and failed to push its own bodyweight up. The hind legs had finally gone still, so Teresa stumbled towards the creature's backside before sticking her blade into its belly. The creature cried out, unable to hit her as she disemboweled it, sawing the blade grotesquely across the underside of the monster.
It only took a few seconds before the creature was dead, and Teresa got the kill notification.
You Have Slain {Yectin Clubber (F) (lv 7)}
Experience Granted
As Teresa finished healing herself, she glanced at the notification and pulled up her status screen. She was shocked to see this single kill had gotten her from 4% of the way through level 2 all the way up to 31%. It seemed killing a higher leveled creature granted significantly more experience than similar leveled creatures, as this single kill had raised her progression by 27%.
That meant she only needed to solo kill three more for another level up.
She analyzed her surroundings before making her next move, wanting to make sure everything was going well. Jake was now taking the attention of three monsters while Madeline and Sarah both shot at the monsters. It was hard to hit any weak points from the balconies, but she saw enough burn marks and arrows around the monsters’ faces to let her know they would have it handled.
Preston had already slain a Yectin Clubber and was fighting another one, meaning 2 of the 9 Clubbers were down. 4 of the remaining 7 were occupied, and the 5th made its way inside.
Nobody seemed injured yet, so Teresa decided to take on the newcomer. She grabbed another spear and pushed forward, deciding to try aiming for the creature’s face on its chest.
As she approached the Clubber who was now charging at her, she chucked the spear and managed to sink it into a soft patch of flesh above an eye. The Clubber screamed in anger, not stopping its charge like a bull seeing red. Teresa put her increased Agility to use and dove to the side, once again narrowly avoiding the monster. She stood up and dashed for another spear as the Clubber pivoted and began charging at her once again.
Teresa chucked her spear at the creature’s face once more, stabbing it off to the side of its mouth. She managed to dive out of the way again, and just as she began to think this might not be so bad now that she had a strategy that didn’t involve trying to climb the damn thing, a loud CRASH echoed in the room along with a scream.
Looking back at Jake and crew, her eyes widened. One of the three monsters they were fighting had slammed its club head onto the balcony Sarah had been standing on, causing it to crumble down into rubble. It had been Sarah’s scream, as she was now laying on the ground level with a mutilated leg.
“Preston! Take this one!” Teresa yelled as she ran towards Sarah, sprinting as fast as she could. Jake used
Sarah screamed as she fired an arrow right into the Clubber’s left eye, making it yell out at her. With its other eye closed, it blindly bit at Sarah, the circular rows of teeth squeezing together to tear into Sarah’s side.
She shrieked in pain as her waist was torn apart, only for the monster to drop her as Jake swung his axe clean through one of its legs. Teresa arrived just as Jake swung a second time through the Clubber’s neck, killing it.
Teresa crouched down in front of Sarah, horrified.
Her entire right side had been chewed and eviscerated, her arm was barely attached to her body. Teresa could see some of her organs, and part of her intestines had been ripped to shreds. At most, Sarah had a few seconds left to live.
“P-Please.” She cried, hyperventilating as her eyes darted around wildly. Teresa activated
“Please, I don’t want to die.”