Each step forward made Teresa’s vision fade a little more. There was only so much willpower could do to keep the human body going. The odds of survival weren’t great at the moment, but Teresa was taking a gamble.
If Teresa had stayed where she was, she would have nowhere to dodge. The miniboss would have crushed her into the rubble, and it wouldn’t have mattered if she leveled up her skill or class because she would be dead.
So she just needed to accept an injury that had the lowest chance of killing her. The creature swung its clubbed head into the ground beside it as it charged, smashing the club into the concrete and sending debris flying.
Teresa just barely avoided a piece of debris that would have taken her head off, but didn’t stop the charge to meet the creature head on. The room had become larger than normal for this wave, but the monsters in this wave could easily cross from one side to another in seconds.
The distance between the two had barely taken a moment to cross, and Teresa gritted her teeth. The monster seemed ready for her to dive to the side again, having its tail ready to swing at one side and its clubbed head ready to swing at the other.
Unfortunately for the Clubber, Teresa was changing it up.
She jumped up at the creature head on, driving her spear into its right eye as they charged into each other. The creature screeched, and Teresa felt the wind get knocked out of her as her body slammed into the Clubber’s chest-face. The monster desperately tried to bite her, but her legs were curled up as she held onto the spear for dear life. Each motion from the Clubber caused the spear to wiggle more, enraging it further.
The creature turned hard, flinging Teresa back across the room and making her skip along the concrete floor once more. Taking that charge head on had been quite literally like being hit by a truck, and she was pretty sure her face was unrecognizable at the moment. Her right eye had swollen shut, and she had broken her sternum making her breathing even more difficult than it already was.
That was just from the initial impact. Being flung across the room had resulted in multiple deep gashes, and she was confident that she had more internal injuries she hadn’t noticed yet.
Weirdly enough, it didn’t hurt too bad. Teresa was definitely in shock, but she wasn’t complaining. Logically, she knew that she should be in agonizing pain, and decided to try not to think about it too much. Teresa wasn’t 100% sure how shock worked exactly, but she was confident the only reason she could think right now was due to her Intelligence stat now sitting at 15.
She reactivated
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.
----->
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.
Class Level Up!
Healer (F) Skill Selection Available!
Teresa hazily read through the notifications, in the process learning that if she tried she could see her screens without using her eyes. In the distance, she vaguely heard combat, but everything sounded like it was underwater. She probably had a concussion, and a quick look at her HP showed she was in terrible condition.
HP: (13.8/85)
Stamina: (20/85)
Mana: (9/139)
Using
Healer (F) Skill Selection Available!
Just focusing on the notification brought up another screen, and it contained a list of different skills. Teresa finished healing the important parts of her head, mainly her brain and an eye. In the distance, the miniboss was attempting to fight Jake, Preston, and Madeline all at the same time with a spear sticking out of its eye. The party only seemed to sport minor wounds, and would certainly be able to kill the miniboss without any more casualties, it was just a matter of time.
Teresa decided that while healing herself, she would take the chance to look at the skills available to her. She wasn’t going to be very useful in this state anyways, and the fight was already in their favor. One of the last Clubbers Jake had been fighting was still alive with three of its legs missing or mutilated, it seemed they had remembered to make a crawler to stall out the time between waves.
They would be fine, surely. Teresa began looking through the available skills that had come from leveling up her healer class.
Type: Restoration Magic
Create a very low quality restoration Mana matrix around your Soul, causing all expended Mana to be converted into very low quality restoration Mana that will disperse in the area around you, slowly healing yourself and allies alike. This skill requires activation, and can be used at varying levels of intensity. The more allies affected, the greater the Mana cost. Other skills requiring Mana cannot be used at the same time as this skill.
The first option was a home run right out the gates. If Teresa could heal everyone in the party from a distance at the same time, she would be able to focus on fighting while still fulfilling her role as a healer. It also provided her with some healing, although she was a little hesitant at the mention of “very low quality restoration Mana”. How bad did it have to be for it to be labeled as very low quality? Even her
Still, she was sure it would level up quickly. This skill would be very useful for gaining experience, as she could be constantly healing everybody. Would she get kill notifications for every monster her party killed while being healed? On top of that, she was sure her class leveled up specifically from healing people. If she was always healing people, surely she would get another skill selection in no time.
Teresa’s vision began to fade, but she managed to bring herself back to reality. She had almost passed out, but she needed to stay conscious. If she stopped using
Bleeding out from a bunch of deep flesh wounds on the other hand? That would totally kill her. Probably for the best if she doesn’t let that happen. She had scabbed over almost all of her wounds, coagulating the blood to prevent her from bleeding out. Ironically enough, forming a scab also cost her some blood, so it was important to account for how much blood would be needed to even form a scab when trying to decide how close you were to bleeding out.
Damn, I really almost bleed out a lot. Maybe I should put some points into Vitality next time, Teresa thought. Shit, that and my Fortitude. Also my Strength would be nice, would make killing stuff a bit easier. But Agility has also really kept me alive… Fuck I need a bit of everything.
Teresa sighed as the last of her Mana was used up, bringing her Mana pool down to 0. She would live, probably. Her HP had dropped to the single digits, but it wasn’t dropping anymore. That was a good sign, right? Sure, her sternum was broken, none of her cuts had actually been fully healed, her breathing caused a weird wheezing sound and she couldn’t move her left leg, but that was rookie stuff that would kill some wave 1 noob.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
Thankfully Teresa had grown stronger since the start of the Tutorial, so instead of killing her this had just seriously maimed her instead. Light work, no reaction.
“Fuckkkkkkk…” Teresa whispered to herself, the adrenaline wearing off. Her entire body was ablaze, and it hurt too much to even make a sound. Every jolt of pain made her flinch just enough to cause another jolt of pain, catching her in a brutal cycle.
Teresa tried to take her mind off the pain by focusing on absorbing Mana, but she couldn’t keep her attention focused long enough to really do anything. She could still think somewhat clearly, once again likely due to her stats, but she couldn’t expend effort through her body. She would have to wait for her Mana to recharge on its own.
Why am I complaining? Teresa asked herself, eyes watering. This isn’t half as bad as what happened to Sarah.
Teresa’s breathing became labored once more, and she shuddered as her heart attempted to start beating faster with her body in a wretched state. If Teresa didn’t survive, if she didn’t get stronger, Sarah would die.
She began to shiver, though she didn’t think she was that cold. It was probably just a shock thing. All Teresa really knew about shock was that it caused adrenaline to flow throughout your body, but that was pretty much it. It got mentioned in movies and TV shows all the time, but she had never actually seen someone go into shock.
Teresa was spiraling, having a full blown panic attack as she thought about her situation and how she could have changed things. Had she gone back to help Jake earlier instead of taking on one of the Clubbers on her own, maybe Sarah would still be fine. It wasn’t reasonable to expect Jake’s
She continued to find reasons to blame herself, thinking of multiple “what ifs” that might have resulted in a better outcome. She gradually became aware she was having a panic attack, as they weren’t a new experience for her. Logically knowing that might have brought her just a little bit of relief, but it did nothing to stop her heart from pounding and her lungs from gasping for air.
A few minutes passed, and she was sure she heard the battle coming to an end. Her breathing had slowly gone back to normal, and while her heartbeat had slowed her chest still hurt.
She started processing her surroundings a bit better again and noticed the screen that had been constantly present in her vision. Oh yeah, new skill. I forgot.
Teresa had regained a little bit of Mana in that time, though it was still in the single digits. Regardless, she used it up with
Skill selection Teresa, get to it. She thought. Teresa looked at the next skill after
Type: Restoration Magic
Channel Mana to your touch and convert it into a healing energy. Use this energy to slowly destroy toxins at a similar level or weaker.
This skill would have been nice a wave ago, but what were the odds of Teresa fighting another poison user?
Okay, maybe the odds of Teresa fighting another poison user weren’t that low, but it was a very situational skill. Besides, her robes seemed to block poisons, so she was probably fine. Teresa decided between
and
Type: Buffing Magic
Channel Mana to your palm and create a projectile of low quality buffing Mana. Use this energy to grant a small buff to Intelligence and Wisdom. The efficacy of the buff is directly affected by your Intelligence, Wisdom, the skill level, and the stats of your target. You may only cast one buff on any given individual, and the duration of the buff is determined by the Mana expended.
Well shit, apparently the healer class came with some buffs she could apply to her party.
If she could boost her own Intelligence and Wisdom, her
As Teresa was thinking, she took a moment to watch the final moments of the battle still going on. It seemed the miniboss had decided to keep its distance from the party after receiving multiple wounds in close quarters. The room was trashed, as it had slammed its clubbed head into the ground to launch chunks of concrete at the party repeatedly. Jake had used his
The miniboss had also been completely blinded by this point by Madeline, who had burnt the creature’s other eye. Preston darted in and out, using hit and run tactics to avoid taking a hit from the flailing miniboss. It was much harder to cut open its stomach like Teresa had done with the other Clubbers, as the miniboss had an extra set of legs that made going underneath it far more dangerous.
The party had slowly whittled it down, Preston leaving multiple cuts along its face while Jake smashed his axe into the creature’s front legs whenever possible. The scales on the miniboss were stronger, so his attacks weren’t able to do nearly as much damage as they could against the other Clubbers. Now, it was exhausted. The miniboss Clubber was panting for breath, and each swing of its head or tail was slow and clearly telegraphed.
The fight finally ended when Jake took the opportunity to bury his axe in the monster’s face, the slower movements allowing him to get close. The miniboss shuddered as its legs gave out, then everyone in the party got their kill notification.
You Have Slain {Royal Yectin Fledgling (F) (lv 12)}
Experience Granted
It hurt Teresa’s Soul a little bit to see the System describe the miniboss as a “fledgling” but then again she had also nearly died to some mosquitoes in the first wave. This Tutorial was either incredibly brutal or just giving them a reality check for what waited for them when it was all over.
Teresa still had one last skill to look over, so she got to it.
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.
Teresa was pretty sure this one was a winner. This one had the synergy with her
More importantly, it might help her save Sarah.
She considered waiting to talk with the group about her decision, but she was confident that
Status:
Name: Teresa
Race: Human (Earth)
Level: 3 (F) (19%)
Class: Healer lv 1 (F) (2%)
HP: (9.1/85)
Stamina: (23/85)
Mana: (1/139)
Strength: 7
Fortitude: 4
Endurance: 7
Vitality: 7
Agility: 7
Intelligence: 15
Wisdom: 11
Perception: 9
Unallocated Points: 0
}
}
All things considered, Teresa had seen a substantial increase in her capabilities after this wave. She had even gotten a good chunk of experience from the miniboss dying, which had brought her progression to her next level all the way up to 19%.
She heard multiple sets of footsteps rapidly approaching her as the party rushed to her location. Teresa could just barely move a little at this point, so she slightly shifted herself to look at Preston who was the fastest to reach her.
“Holy fuck, you’re alive?”