It was a tall, pear-shaped thing without clothes or hair, like the Michelin Man if he had lost a ton of weight while still being fat. Rolls of loose skin covered its disgusting, fleshy body, and its head resembled that of a pig, with small protruding ears, sunken eyes without intelligence, a pushed-in snout, and a wet, reeking mouth with yellowed tusks in the lower jaw.

  Inspected Monster: Groll. Level 6.

  The Groll roared as it swung a heavy club, sound coming out as half grunt, half oink. A group of four was already fighting it, but they weren't doing a very good job of it. Luke watched as a tall black guy with long, flowing hair, wielding a trident, took a blow from the Groll's club to his shoulder and was thrown back like a train had struck him.

  Luke set off, and Nate followed. Together, they dragged the guy back, where Nate left them to help the rest of the crew as they engaged the monster.

  "You're gonna be fine," Luke said.

  "No, I'm not," Caleb said.

  Luke got the name when he focused on his fellow Integrated. He wanted to say something soothing to put Caleb at ease, but couldn't find the words. "Shut up and let me heal you."

  Caleb blinked. "You're a healer?"

  "Sure," Luke said.

  Each breath seemed to bring Caleb pain, and flecks of red surrounded his lips. Not good signs. The blow had done more damage than just to his shoulder. Broken ribs and a punctured lung. Just then, the fighting grew more intense behind him.

  "Luke, heads up!" Sarah shouted.

  Luke looked over his shoulder and saw the Groll charging through the group trying to put it down, ignoring everyone as it charged him and Caleb. Blood gushed from a multitude of cuts and punctures all around its jiggling flesh, but the Groll ignored them all. Its club came down in an overhead arc, and Luke threw himself to the side.

  The sound of snapping bone and the crunch of muscle and organs told him what'd happened even before he stood and turned to see how Caleb had become a pile of broken flesh and gushing blood. A second later, his corpse disappeared.

  Luke had little time to consider what had happened because the Groll charged him again, relentless in its pursuit. It stumbled forward, losing its footing, and Luke saw Sarah standing on its back, unloading her guns into the Groll's neck, firing an unrelenting torrent of bullets.

  That wasn't enough, because the Groll roared and rolled, grabbing hold of Sarah's arm with one hand and striking out with the other. She attempted to dodge back, but the Groll held her fast, its fist connecting with her jaw in a wet crunch.

  Nate rushed in, along with a woman wielding daggers. Both of them cut into the Groll's face, stabbing and hacking, while several of the others attacked its lower body. Luke crawled to Sarah and found her unable to breathe, her whole body trembling. She struggled for air, but again, there was nothing he could do. Her jaw was just gone, the lower part of her face just a red, cavernous hole. Luke didn't have the first clue how to even begin healing something of this magnitude. Even if he'd known what to do, it wouldn't have mattered because within seconds, she was gone. First, her breathing stopped, and she stilled. Then she disappeared. Useless. He needed to improve. Lives depended on it.

  System Message: Congratulations! You have reached level 3!

  Through the combined efforts of the remaining Integrated, they put the Groll down, but it'd already done so much damage. With both parties having lost members in the fight, it was a muted group standing around afterwards.

  "Why did they disappear like that?" Luke asked.

  Nina, the dagger-wielding woman, pulled her hair up in a ponytail and put her weapons away. "We hope they go somewhere else to be revived."

  Inspected Integrated: Nina. Rogue. Level 2.

  "This is the tutorial, after all," Mingze said, nodding with a big dose of enthusiasm. "People don’t just die in a tutorial!"

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  "Sarah isn’t in the party anymore, though," Luke said.

  Nate stood after looting the Groll. "Guess we’ll find out later. It doesn’t take much to end up like Sarah down here."

  "With a healer here, things are looking up, though," Nina said.

  "We should join forces," an older man said. His teeth were too white, almost like snow, matching his short, trimmed beard and slicked back hair. Alan, according to the interface. He looked like some executive type, not the sort to throw themselves into an unknown situation like this.

  Inspected Integrated: Alan. Commander. Level 3.

  "Nah," Irene said. "This weird cave is almost all hallways. Not built for so many people."

  Alan seemed to ponder Irene’s response for a moment, then nodded to himself before turning an intense stare at Luke. "Perhaps you would like to join us, Luke?"

  "Join you?"

  Alan frowned. "Well, yes. Unless the other members of your party are longtime friends of yours?"

  Luke eyed the others. "Not really."

  "I’d make it worth your while, of course. Having a healer in my party would certainly be a boon."

  "He’s a real shitty healer, just so you know," Irene said.

  "Irene," Nate said, warning in his voice.

  "How does a hundred thousand sound?" Alan asked, holding out his hand for Luke to shake.

  Luke swallowed hard. "100k?"

  That was a whole lot of money. Money he, and more importantly, his family, could use on the ever-growing stack of envelopes with angry demands in red ink printed on them. The only problem was the look on Alan’s face, like the decision was a foregone conclusion. This was a man who got his way no matter what, using money to buy power.

  "No."

  Childish, perhaps, but Luke just couldn’t make himself take and shake that hand. It would be like selling his soul. With the world turning on its head, there would be other ways of getting the money they needed.

  "No?" Alan frowned, looking down at his outstretched hand like he wasn’t sure what to do with it.

  "I think I’ll stick with the group I have."

  "Huzzah," Irene grunted.

  "Stop being an asshole already, Irene," Nate said.

  Alan’s grin returned. "Are you sure I can’t make you reconsider?"

  "Yeah, no," Luke said, turning to Nate. "We should go find Sarah."

  "Wait a moment, please," Alan said.

  "What?"

  "I will not try to convince you with more money, at least not right now, but here," he held out his hand again. "Please take my card. I am sure there will be opportunities for us to work together in the future. The world has changed, and with it comes a new order. If you ever need anything, call me."

  "Sure," Luke said and took the card, "but no promises."

  "Of course," Alan said, the agreeable grin on his face never faltering.

  "What about us? Don't we get cards?" Irene asked.

  "Something tells me your type will be plentiful enough," Alan said, turning his gaze to Luke again. "Could I at least ask you for a heal before you go?"

  "Your health is full."

  "And yet, I am not healthy."

  "I guess I can take a look," Luke said. But before he reached out and touched Alan, he added his new attribute points from leveling up to Focus and used the skill point to rank up Weaver's Eye, since he hadn't gained any new skills to choose from.

  Weaver's Eye [Passive]: Reveal the imperfections in a target’s life-weave.

  Turned into.

  Weaver's Eye (Rank 2) [Passive]: Reveal imperfections in the weave.

  He was about to touch Alan's shoulder when he stopped, his hand hovering in the air. Luke frowned and looked back at Nate and then at Nina, sensing them. It wasn't the full scope of what he identified when touching a person, but not far from it, either. The change in the skill's description was slight, to say the least, and didn't explain much, but this had to be part of the improved Weaver's Eye.

  And when he resumed the motion and put his hand on Alan's shoulder, it grew more apparent. It was like a wave of mana surged through his target's body, allowing Luke to pinpoint a mass.

  "You have cancer," Luke said, looking into Alan's eyes.

  The older man nodded. He already knew. "Yes. Is there anything you can do?"

  "I'm not sure," Luke said. A brain tumor was not something you could stitch together, and he hadn't read much about cancers other than the overview module on oncology in the internal medicine block. It wasn't like he could just create a targeted therapeutic drug with mana, not as far as Luke knew, anyway.

  "If you want, I can try to flood that part of your brain with healing mana, but I'm not sure what it will do."

  "Do it," Alan said, the intensity in his eyes only growing.

  Luke raised an eyebrow. "50k?"

  Alan guffawed, then laughed, a booming sound. "You have my card. Call me if I live through this."

  "Are you sure?"

  "My physician said I wouldn't live out the year, and I've run out of experimental treatments. It's inoperable. So, I'm willing to take chances."

  "I'll try. Don't blame me if you end up a vegetable."

  Alan showed his too-white teeth in a confident smile.

  Luke channeled his mana into the thalamus, the area affected by the mass. As far as Luke could remember from class, it was an awful place for a brain tumor, which was already a terrible type of cancer to get. He narrowed his eyes and focused, feeling the mass shudder, then maybe, just maybe, diminish in size. Holy shit, it was! It was getting smaller! Luke's mana ran out.

  Alan's eyes rolled back into his head and his mouth fell open as he fell into a heap on the ground, seizures wracking his body, arms and legs flailing. The older man drew one last, ragged breath before going still.

  Then Alan disappeared.

  "Whoa," Irene said. "Did you just kill that guy?"