Milla pulled back, laughed at his comment, and punched his arm. "My new job will pay well enough to treat you to pizza until the end of days."

  "You got a job already?" Luke asked. "That was quick."

  "Yup! I just got it today! I am on the payroll of The Department of Integrated Affairs."

  Luke coughed and cleared his mouth. "You work for the DIA? Wonder why Marston didn't mention that."

  Milla shrugged and got off the bed. "Sure, why not? They've hired a bunch of Integrated. It's a government position, so I get health insurance, good retirement, and a bunch of paid leave. I even got higher pay since I'm a healer! I don't know who Marsten is but let's just say they're scrambling over there with everything that has happened."

  "So, what do you have to do? What’s the job?" Luke asked. "Are you going to be interviewing people who leave the Tutorial Dungeon?"

  "Hell no," Milla said, making a face. "That would be boring as hell. I'm going to go into dungeons. I can even do the job now, since you cured me. I wonder why you could, but my healing didn't work."

  "I've got a theory about that," Luke said.

  Milla raised an eyebrow. "Do tell."

  "Well," Luke began. "My healing works by fixing what's wrong with someone."

  "Mine too," Milla said.

  Luke shook his head. "I don't think so. The only other healer I met restored health through Vitality, which then in turn healed wounds. See how that's different?"

  Milla nodded, thoughtful. "Kind of like the reverse, I see what you're saying. That might be it." Then she shrugged. "At least I don't have to walk right up to someone to heal them. I just cast a spell then I'm done with it."

  "Fair enough," Luke said, going back to their previous topic. "The DIA has dungeon teams of their own?"

  "Yup. You should join too. Like I said, I'm the only healer. So they'd love to have you, little brother."

  "Maybe," Luke said.

  "Maybe," Milla imitated, making her voice deep and brooding before she stepped out of the room, leaving Luke alone with his thoughts.

  After sleeping like a stone for the entire night and for much of the morning, Luke woke and felt calm and rested, and with a focus he hadn't experienced in a long while. Purpose. He'd regained his purpose. It was time to see how these Lifeweaver powers could build him a new life. Waking up to a reply from Alan offering him $250,000 didn't hurt either.

  They made plans for Alan to fly in the next day. Apparently, he was a big enough deal to have a private jet. He even promised to refer his wealthy friends to Luke for healing if they needed it. And quite a few did, from what Alan was saying. Ka-ching!

  Next on the agenda was breaking the news to his parents. They took his moving out with grace and perhaps even a hint of relief, at least after he told them he'd still help with the mortgage. When Milla broke the news that she was also moving out, they weren't quite as pleased. Their parents didn't quite trust that she was fine in the medical sense. But in the end, they relented. His sister was almost thirty, after all.

  A little later, Milla drove both of them into the city. Luke checked the news on his phone.

  Monsters Rampant in Pittsburgh! Department of Integrated Affairs Sending Integrated from D.C to Deal with the Threat.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  All Integrated Banned from Performing in the Summer Olympics.

  Flying Man Spotted Traveling West from North Korea. Defector or Spy?

  When will the next portal appear? We have the scoop!

  "Shouldn't you be looking up apartments?" Milla asked, not taking her eyes off the road.

  "That's probably a good idea," Luke agreed.

  "You're going to live alone?" she asked. "Or do you want a roomie?"

  He looked up at her. "I don't think us living together would be such a great idea."

  She laughed. "Definitely not. It was just a pity suggestion, anyway. Will you be able to pay rent working as a burger flipper?"

  "No," he said. "But I'm quitting. There's money in doing this, whatever it is we're doing. I just have to figure out exactly how I'm going to go about it. Other than healing wealthy people for money, that is."

  "That's a thing?" she asked.

  He showed her the text from Alan.

  She shook her head. "Sellout." Then she grinned and wiggled her eyebrows at him. "Just teasing."

  "If everything else fails, I could just become a government stooge like you," he teased back and was rewarded with a light punch in the arm.

  He found a few places and called around as they drove into the city, and found an old lady willing to rent him a one-bedroom apartment as long as he paid a deposit for the first six months right away, which he could cover with what Alan transferred to him last time.

  "We're not even going to look at the place first?" Milla asked.

  "I don't really care," Luke said. "I won’t be spending much time there, anyway."

  "Still," she said. "Just hope you don't have to wake up screaming, because a cockroach is trying to crawl into your nose."

  "That is gross," Luke agreed, rubbing at his nose. "What about you?"

  "DIA provided us with housing," Milla said. "Six of us for a full party and then a bunch of Integrated cops training together."

  "Not a bad deal," Luke admitted.

  Milla dropped him off near the building, and after a brief conversation with the old lady he'd spoken to on the phone, he signed some papers and received a set of keys.

  An apartment in a major city in the span of a few hours wasn't bad, not bad at all. It might have helped a little that he promised to heal her hip when he spoke to her over the phone. She'd sounded skeptical, but once he arrived and performed his little miracle, you'd think she was his grandma. She offered him food and even lowered his rent. Lowered it very little, but still.

  It was an old eight-story building, and the apartment wasn't in the best condition. But there were no bugs, as far as Luke could tell. The bathroom worked. So did the fridge and freezer. Everything anyone could ask for. The lack of furniture, like a bed or a TV, was a problem for later.

  He put his phone charger into the wall, plugged his phone in, and set to scrolling, searching for gyms nearby and martial arts places. There was a hospital right next door, where Luke figured he could grind Focus and Willpower by healing people. As he searched, Luke found some interesting places for practicing martial arts: a Thai boxing gym and a martial arts place using staffs called Bōjutsu that he'd check out later.

  As he scrolled, he got a text message from an unknown number:

  "Got monster parts, weapons, or armor from The Tutorial? Perhaps even something magical? Come check out our website, the premier market for Integrated items! We offer above market value for all items and only take a small percentage for auctions between Integrated! Sell us your items for cold, hard cash! Credits to USD conversion available."

  Luke was about to tap the link to what they called the Integrated Marketplace. Then he thought better of it, opened his browser again, and searched for the name. The site was less than a day old, which made sense. But there were still plenty of reviews for it. Most of them were 5-star, but they were so generic, he thought most were bots or bought reviews.

  Still, the website looked legit. And the credit-to-dollar ratio was now 10 to 1, meaning he'd get $5,000 for the 500 credits he received from the chest after defeating the Flesh Golem. Not bad. Part of the site worked like eBay, where Integrated or non-Integrated could bid in auction-style selling of weapons and gear. Then there was a platform for selling to the owners of the site itself. They offered decent prices as well.

  Interesting. Interesting indeed. The avenues for making money were many, but Luke wasn’t sure this was one he wanted to delve into as a meaningful way of making money. Still, though, waiting around could lead to him missing out. To that end, he created auction listings for the Knight’s armor and a goblin corpse, placing both in the apartment's bathtub to take some macabre pictures. If everything went well with those, perhaps he’d invest a little more time into the platform. For now, the most important thing was to grow stronger until the next portal appeared and then use his newfound profession to make sure he was one of those who got to go inside.

  It was time Luke joined a gym.

  "You picked a healer class too, huh?" she asked. "Mine is called Bloomcaller. You didn’t choose healer because of me, did you?"