<Watcher, Apology Tutorial #486 Control and Observation Room>

The Watcher continued the business of 'watching', which—if she were being honest—suffered from being a gross misnomer.

She hardly ever got to just watch.

As a perfect example, the next scenarios had been entirely scrapped. Ares usually liked to have his Apology Tutorials have six, month-long scenarios followed by a single, six-month, combined one. Usually, there would be a month given in the middle as a rest and recovery period as well to help the Initiates thrive and make it through.

Not this time.

No, that would be too easy, apparently.

It was apparently also more expensive than the new plan, and her supervisor was the one spearheading the push, meaning she and her fellows got more of the work.

Therefore, after the single initial scenario, they wouldn't get more choices, not broad sweeping ones, instead, they'd all be dumped into various parts of one giant second and final scenario that would last a year of relative time.

Who had planned that out?

No one. No one had planned that out.

So she and the other Watchers were scrambling to build the story structure, quests—both hidden and not—non-Initiate-entities, the whole shebang.

This Watcher glanced at a display containing information on Alex and his current companions, smiling as she saw that they'd finished the hidden quest that they'd most recently encountered.

She spoke absently to herself, as she continued to review the various streams of data. "I hope you liked extermination, Alex, because the next scenario is bug-tastic."

Her smile grew when she confirmed that they'd already triggered the second part of the hidden mission.

"Good. You all just might survive what's coming."

<Alex, Real - Return to Safety, Burntout Gallery>

Alex's question hung in the air, but as it didn't really need an answer, they all moved on. The reason for their inclusion in the quest count was fairly obvious, after all. They weren't guaranteed to reach safety again. Similarly, the question mark simply meant that there might be others who they found along the way.

They were getting better at reading the hints given by the System notices, but Alex was sure he'd missed something else that others might have immediately noticed.

Still, loot. It was time for loot.

Alex reached down and picked up the little box that had appeared next to him, orienting his Mana Sense on it.

He didn't bother really looking at the item within, instead looking at the magic. The prize inside would be his reward, and if he was pining after it, it would be a distraction instead.

Interestingly, under his Mana Sense, it felt very much like Natasha's Force Shield, while being utterly different.

Yeah, really helpful, that.

He could feel loops and swirls, overlapping and intertwining to make an impenetrable container… except… There!

He found a single opening in the woven lattice on one side.

With careful motions, Alex put a hand over the opening, barely registering John retrieving the unconscious woman.

Henry—the Initiate Alex had prevented from turning—had lapsed into unconsciousness as well, leaving them with two new burdens for their return trip.

But he couldn't focus on that at the moment.

He struggled to draw his mana to his hand, fumbling in the attempt as he'd mostly just done macro-movements of his mana up to this point.

Still, he could do that.

He pushed some out of his palm to press against the hole and the box around the hole.

His mana was instantly rejected, the little bit that had begun to sink inside being ejected, the box flashing an angry red and a rather irritating—but somehow familiar—sound buzzing through the room.

Grant had been looking the other way. He stopped, straightening up and looking around in confusion before turning back around, his gaze sweeping right to left. "Who's playing Operation?"

Alex nodded in slow understanding. The sound was from that children's game.

Instantly, Alex knew what the task was, and he groaned. "We have to thread through the hole without touching the sides…"

Grant straightened. "Hey! I loved that game as a kid."

"Yeah… but we have to do it with mana, not tiny tweezers."

"Oh…" He grimaced. "Still, it has to be for a reason, right? This is meant to be a reward?"

Alex's eye twitched. "Wait… if this is a reward, does that mean we'll have to fight a boss or swarm?"

He looked around a bit frantically. He was very low on resources at the moment.

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John shook his head. "I don't think so. When that's happened, we had always reached the rewards on our own, the boss or swarm coming was seemingly to balance that out. This time? These are for a quest we've already done." He shrugged. "I might be wrong though."

That reminded Alex of the other rewards—distracting him further—and as such, he excitedly called up his gauge of experience to the next level.

He hesitated, frowning. "How did it go down?"

He had been close to a level up, he was sure of it, now though? The gauge was less than half full…

Alex groaned, and he smacked himself in the forehead with his off hand. "I've been asking how much XP to the next level."

The others looked his way, and Natasha asked the obvious question. "And?"

"And it cycles back around after I reach the amount for each new level." On a hunch, he pulled up a more detailed notice, sighing when he saw what he now expected. "I'm ready to level up twice in both Race and Class, and I've already earned a good chunk toward another."

John nodded. "Yeah, that was an amazing haul of experience, not even counting fighting up through the building. I'll level across the board."

Alex opened his mouth to correct the man's assumption, but then closed it, sighing. "Yeah…"

Then, he returned his gaze and attention to the reward cube.

It seemed that he'd have to thread his mana into the hole and down the likely twisting path without touching the sides.

This was going to be a chore.

Still, he found himself smiling. He'd wanted to improve his Basic Mana Manipulation for a while now, and he'd been handed this opportunity. In that vein, he spoke out loud. "I think that the boxes, the puzzle, is a part of the prize. It's a training tool."

The other three hesitated for only a moment before they each gave a movement or sound of agreement. It was obvious as soon as it was pointed out.

"Alright, then we'll investigate further back at the Base. Can you fit your boxes, or should I carry them all?" Three more clear boxes were tossed at him, and he Inventoried them with a small smile. "Very well, let's get out of here. I think the 'supplies' portion of the reward were those that we are able to find. That in mind, we need to quickly sweep this floor, then keep an eye out on the way down."

They all agreed and got to it.

They did a quick sweep of the floor and found a few boxes of camping meals, the type that were dehydrated and vacuum sealed to be as light and compact as possible. As such, the three boxes they found held a total of near to a thousand meals that only required water to be rendered passably edible. Heat would improve that a bit, but that was mostly a matter of taste.

It was honestly a windfall for their Inventories and emergency food stores, even if it wasn't that useful for their base. Still, there was no way they were being left behind if Alex could help it.

He was able to fit them… barely, and even then only be rearranging what he already had in his Inventory.

In the end, he was very glad that he'd emptied as much out as he had. I'm glad that I can get back to expanding this skill again soon.

The other three grabbed a few odds and ends, but there was nothing truly of note, and that was that. They were ready to descend.

John took up the still-unconscious woman once more, and Grant took up Henry, who had seemingly still not woken.

Given that, Alex once again took the lead with Natasha falling into the position of rear-guard.

The trek back down the building was almost frustratingly uneventful, not a single undead having made their way back into the areas they'd cleared. Even so, in timing that would make a blockbuster movie proud, there was a growing amount of smoke, and when they made it down into the gallery once more, they found that the fires that had previously been reduced to embers had now grown back to merry blazes.

Picking up the pace, they were about to go down the main stairs—rather than trying to get back into the security box to descend the back set—when Henry groaned, rousing and looking around. "Wha—?"

Grant set him on his feet, steadying the lad. "We stopped you turning and are trying to get out of your former base before it burns down around us. Can you walk?"

Henry shook his head, trying to clear it, before rubbing his eyes with his palms. "Where in the building are we at the moment?"

"About to go down the main stairs to the ground floor."

Henry froze, paling. "Mega-lottery winners, all of you."

Alex frowned, looking his way. "What?"

"You are luckier than I can express."

John growled. "Speak sense, boy. We need to get out of here."

"I'm not a b—" A beam collapsed on the far side of the building, causing a portion of the floor above to fall down and cutting Henry off. The boy turned, eyes widening. "Whatever, old man. I armed the front stairs with enough traps that none of you would have made it to the bottom. I'd have died too, if you'd carried me that way."

Alex grinned. "I knew it."

Henry gave him a flat look. "Good for you. Yet you were going to go down anyways. That seems like a special kind of foolish."

Alex opened his mouth, but paused, not really seeing a way to argue.

Henry shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Give me a moment."

Alex's Basic Mana Sense told him that Henry enacted some sort of magic before he stepped to the side of the stairs and slapped a seemingly plain part of the wall.

The action triggered a wave of magic to radiate down the stairs, and Alex sensed all sorts of spells and constructs unraveling. Despite the cavalcade, Alex was sure that he only caught a small portion of what had been there.

A moment later, Henry nodded. "Alright, that should be clear to go."

"Impressive." It was Natasha who spoke.

Henry grimaced. "Yet, it wasn't enough." Then, he shook his head. "Sorry. Thank you. This isn't your fault."

On that dour note, they descended the stairs, finding them—and the landing at the bottom—clear of undead as the fire continued to grow around them.

They burst out onto the streets, and had to kill a few ravager and fodder variants, but it seemed that most of the more powerful undead had moved away from the growing blaze.

"This way." Alex indicated to Henry, but the boy shook his head.

"Nah. Thank you for the help, and you are certainly fascinating NPCs, but I'm going my own way."

Grant smacked Henry on the back of the head. "We're Initiates too, idiot. We have a base and it's much safer there than being out on your own."

His eyes widened. "What? I thought you were just some System given, second chance or something."

Natasha gave the boy a searching look. "And you thought you earned that because…?"

He shrugged. "I had a quest to set off the base's S.O.S. beacon. It took some doing too. Figured that did it. The rewards included a 'chance' at survival."

She grunted. "Well… that's not an unreasonable assumption."

Alex cleared his throat. "We can talk as we run. We have another of your number with our companion, and they're on the way toward our base. If you get to our base and want to leave? We won't stop you, but please come for now."

Henry looked momentarily conflicted, then sighed. "Fine… I'm not too good in a straight fight, and if you have a place that I can help fortify? That's my bread and butter in this place."

"Fair enough." Alex nodded once, and they set off, killing the undead that got in their way on the way back to Pilar and the other Initiate.

Hopefully they still haven't been found.

Almost as soon as Alex had that thought, John's phone rang, and he grunted and stretched to pull it out while continuing to run with his burden. "Hello? Pilar?"

His face paled.

"We're on our way." He hung up and tucked the phone away, calling forward. "They've been found! Go faster!"

The five Initiates all sped up, even as Alex shook his head, recriminating himself for the jinxing thoughts. Of course, they have been.

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