Tutorial days elapsed: 66.75 (267 Days in Trial time)

  Talia Rhineheart

  The dungeon had been longer and harder than she had expected. Ryan and his party had helped her clear the early stages, but once their wounds started to mount up, they had to stop and recover.

  That said, they had been helpful. Their aid allowed her to use less mana and keep a faster pace. Thanks to that, she could save her best stuff for the later stages of the dungeon and had cleared it rather quickly.

  Still, about two days had passed since she entered, and the remaining Tutorial time was quickly slipping away.

  Not only that, but the last sections of the dungeon had drained her. Talia had been forced to camp by the entrance leading into the Tutorial boss to recover.

  It wasn’t a big deal, or at least it shouldn’t have been. She had been here for months already. A couple of hours of recovery was hardly that big of a deal, especially since it was her first proper break since entering. Hell, even the fact that she could go for a couple of days without a proper night’s rest was amazing.

  And yet she was groaning and kicking rocks in frustration as she waited for her energy to tick upward. It felt like time was getting away from her, and she wanted to make the most of the mysterious trials.

  She appreciated Ryan, the other hunters, and fighters. Even those back in camp who avoided combat. Heck, maybe she appreciated them more, after all, they had been crafting things for her since the beginning. But their weakness worried her. There were too many people she wanted to protect, and if she didn’t get strong enough, the Tutorial might turn out to be one big waste of effort.

  It was strange, too. There was a police lady, and even a former National Guard member in the camp, avoiding the monsters. Whilst she was out here about to take on the damn boss.

  Constant fighting couldn’t be further from her old life, and so it might have seemed strange to some how successful she was. But Talia had always been a hard worker, and the multiverse provided the tools and resources to succeed, if you were willing and able to make the most of them. And who knows, perhaps her previous life as a risk analyst gave her an edge when it came to picking her battles? Although many had called her reckless since arriving here, so maybe that didn’t add up.

  Nonetheless, her mind did wander back to its old ways at times.

  She wondered what the risks were to Earth and its people now. How much did they increase with every wasted hour in the Tutorial? If the other species mentioned in the Tutorial ran through the boss faster than humans and then outperformed the trials, how would that affect humanity's chances of survival beyond the Tutorial? What risk category would she put the survival of humanity in?

  Talia was honestly glad she didn’t have a laptop and all the data points to crunch, as much as an annoying part of her mind wished for just that. She was fairly certain she wouldn’t like the answer, and it was better to keep focused on the task at hand.

  Pulled from her musings, she felt the energy of the previous potion run dry, and immediately, she downed another mana potion that the camp alchemist had made for her. Within several seconds, she could feel that her reserves had filled back up without even checking.

  It was time to finish this thing.

  Climbing back to her feet, she walked the short distance down to where the boss was and entered the shrouding fog.

  Passing through, she found herself in the boss's lair. At the far end of the gray, filthy catacombs was a patchwork monstrosity, its four arms each wielding huge, crude, and bloody cleavers.

  It didn’t look very smart, at least, Talia thought as she approached. Rusty nails poking out of its head, and stitches that made it look lobotomized did that.

  As she stepped closer, she activated her Skill, and her huge knight avatar shimmered into existence around her.

  But she wasn’t the only one with assistance. Thousands of tiny red eyes appeared all around her, peering out from the shadows of the rock and crumbling marble of the underground chamber.

  “Of course,” she muttered.

  This was the boss, after all. The Tutorial had warned many times of the difficulty of this fight, and she had come expecting the worst.

  Stomping toward her, the monstrosity shook the ground with its massive feet, and then, they charged.

  Little spiders crawled out from all around, swarming Talia in the hundreds. At least she knew what the little red eyes were.

  Swinging around, she used [ Severing Swipe ] and her avatar’s already huge blade lengthened into sparkling white light, and swept across the chamber, culling dozens of spiders in a single swing.

  Bouncing out of range and positioning herself, she activated the Skill twice more, cutting down a great number of the little demon spiders. But she could already tell by the lackadaisical meandering monstrosity that the spiders didn’t mean much.

  That said, her plan hadn’t changed. She wanted to pour all of her focus into dealing with the boss alone, and so she continued to kite the slow marching monstrosity around the chamber as she finished off the remaining spiders.

  But just as she cut down the last of them, the patchwork monster eyed her with a dead, but oddly knowing look, and then stomped the ground again. Within seconds, more red eyes appeared all around.

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  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Talia groaned as the new swarm of spiders scampered out.

  She was going to need a new strategy.

  Well, it was probably as good a time as any to down that special potion the alchemist had given her. The potion of heroism was an Epic rarity potion with great boons. The alchemist also spent an entire week filtering and purifying the water and ingredients that went into it. Time was poured into the making of the potion so that it was as pure as humanly possible, and in doing so, greatly reducing the potion’s side effects. That said, she knew she’d feel like shit for a while.

  And time was experience and rewards. She had to be careful. Think things through. If the potion made her feel terrible, even if for only a few hours, that was time lost. She would only use it if she needed to.

  I don’t know if I have a choice. It’s going to be hard to take that thing out whilst I’m being swarmed by all these spiders.

  Wings expanded from the back of the avatar, and she used them to fly short distances around the chamber, continuing to kite the boss and its spiders as she thumbed the potion with indecision.

  It had to be done. She couldn’t waste any more time. People were relying on her. Pushing herself and getting stronger was the entire point of coming here alone, and she couldn’t waste it now. Not to mention, she could die, but that was more of an afterthought.

  This had better be worth it, she thought as she glugged the potion down.

  The power was impressive, and she felt her mana reserves not just grow stronger, but their regeneration improved noticeably.

  Activating [ Shields of the Avatar ], transparent blue shields appeared around her, rotating clockwise, and she charged into battle.

  The Skill was powerful, but it was also a massive drain on her mana, and that was the reason she hadn’t used it earlier. But with the potion’s help, things had changed.

  But now with the rotating shields protecting her, she could focus on the monstrosity, and the spiders squealed and sizzled as they tried to charge through the shields, and were blasted with burning light magic.

  Activating another Skill, she empowered her avatar’s sword with spectral flames and released a torrent of attacks down upon the patchwork monster.

  The monstrosity sizzled with every strike, and limbs were cut free from its huge body, though they weren’t dead. Severed limbs climbed onto their fingers and possessed new life.

  One severed arm charged her, while another climbed back up the monstrosity’s body and reattached itself.

  Not only that, but a toxic black ichor poured from the wounds she was opening across its foul body, covering the ground around it.

  Talia could sense the mana within the blood. It was some kind of Skill or spell, and she knew better than to touch it.

  When the charging arm reached her, she destroyed it with a single strike, but it exploded in ichor, and the foul substance licked her arm. She could already feel the toxins seeping into her.

  No time to waste!

  Pressing forward, her rotating shields pushed into the Tutorial boss, and its patchwork flesh sizzled against the Skill’s power. And she continued to barrage it with her avatar’s sword.

  But just when she thought she was close to beating it, dozens of chains with hooks on their ends shot out from its back, and the powerful attack passed straight through her shields with a crackle of light energy.

  Talia was forced to dodge, flying away with a powerful flap of her avatar’s wings.

  She had survived, but she was expending a stupid amount of mana every second with so many powerful Skills activated, and if the patchwork monster could force her into retreat, it could potentially outlast her reserves, even if she were the stronger of the two.

  This couldn’t be allowed. She needed to make this fight decisive and quickly.

  Powering up her strongest attack, she flooded what mana she had left into it and flew toward the monstrosity.

  White flames and blinding light shot free from her avatar’s sword as it was cast down upon the monster like some kind of angel casting away a demon.

  The power was incredible and did no damage to Talia, which was probably one of its best perks of the Skill. It was both powerful and area affecting, exploding through the chamber, and wiping away the remaining spiders.

  But defiantly, the monstrosity stood, ichor pouring out of wounds covering every inch of its body.

  Panting, Talia clenched her scepter tightly. “Just die already!”

  Her shields flickered out of existence, and she had just enough mana to keep her avatar summoned.

  Even then, her passage regen was only able to keep the avatar summoned thanks to the potion, and she wouldn’t be able to use any more Skills.

  She desperately cut into the monstrosity, unable to even use the wings to fly and dodge the ichor splattering out as she swung.

  The flesh construct was incredibly hardy, and she could sense that it was trying to reform and reconstruct itself.

  She had to ignore the wounds and the poison seeping into them from the ichor, and keep striking it. If she let up for even a second, the pendulum would sway, and the monstrosity would gain the upper hand, and the fight would be lost.

  Biting down, Talia summoned all her willpower and courage. She wasn’t just doing this for herself. She was doing it for everyone in her Tutorial. For humanity. For Earth.

  Her vision began to blur. Her muscles ached. And she knew her HP was dangerously low, but she did not relent.

  And finally, she felt it. Her avatar’s sword cut straight through some kind of core at the heart of the patchwork monster, and the thing began to fall apart.

  Quest: Challenger of the Tutorial COMPLETED!

  Calculating rewards and transporting to Shadow Trials!

  Offboarding in process…

  Talia fell to her knees. She had done it. She had managed to beat this damn Tutorial.

  Maybe it would have been wiser to gain a couple more levels first before taking on the boss. If she’d done that, she probably wouldn’t be in such a state right now.

  But that would mean less opportunity to win more rewards, and she could always gain a couple of levels later.

  Not only that, but testing herself like this would no doubt pay valuable dividends toward her D-grade Class evolution, which was far more important than hitting a level or two a little sooner.

  A screen appeared like a shop front. She had Tutorial points and items she could purchase.

  It took a little while, but she was happy with the Tutorial rewards that she picked. They would hopefully give her and her people a good chance at surviving what came next.

  Especially the Waypoint. It was expensive, but being able to summon everyone who survived her Tutorial to the same spot once they left this place and traveled to their new world would likely save many lives.

  If they could build some defenses and set up a little society, those who focused on their Professions could be kept safe, and people like Talia could focus on getting stronger.

  It finally felt like a little structure was forming amongst all the madness. Maybe humanity wasn’t as doomed as she once thought; maybe their risk category might have even changed.

  Then, she appeared in a hallway of black stone lined by purple, flickering flames.

  “So, this is the Shadow Trials.”

  “It is indeed, newcomer,” Douglas said with a smile. “Would you like an introduction?”

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