Arrows were planted in the ground near Teresa as she ran around the monster stronghold, archers were taking potshots at her with no chance of landing a hit. By the time Teresa had circled to the opposite side of the stronghold, every skeleton had their attention turned to something of much larger importance.

Lady Liberty was wreaking havoc, her torch's tendrils clearing through crowds of skeletons at a time. Arrows bounced harmlessly off the metal statue, leaving small nicks that wouldn't amount to very much. One arrow shot its way towards Lady Liberty's eye, but surprisingly enough the statue actually took the effort to tilt her head and avoid the attack.

Were her eyes a weak spot? That wouldn't make sense, it was the same metal as every other part of the robot. Whatever it was, Teresa would be sure to target the eyes whenever she could. It was unlikely, as Lady Liberty was roughly 150 feet tall, but it might be useful.

For now, Teresa recovered. If she tried to go in now, there was a good chance she would get killed in the crossfire. Not a great chance, but still a chance nonetheless. Instead, Teresa pulled out her Mana recharging staff and got to it. Every ounce of environmental Mana nearby got dragged towards her as she absorbed it from her surroundings.

She had a maximum capacity of 903 Mana and 406 Stamina. Her Stamina regenerated slower, but she always used her Mana more anyways. Her pants would help enough with Stamina recovery, and there wasn't anything Teresa could actively do to speed it up anyways,

So she focused on Mana. As she recharged, she kept an eye on the fight between the skeletons and Lady Liberty. Many of the vanguard had been eviscerated, at most leaving tiny cuts in the legs. Mounds of sand rose from the ground and tried to keep the statue still, but they barely succeeded at slowing her down.

A massive blob of sand shot out from within the walls, condensing and leaving a small dent in the statue's metal dress. Multiple attacks followed suit, but Liberty's torch began targeting the skeletal mages. Hell rained down from above, multiple tendrils rapidly growing out and crashing into the stronghold at a speed beyond what any normal human could hope to avoid.

Teresa watched with some interest as she observed how the torch worked. There were 6 glowing hot metal tendrils that grew out of it at an insane pace. Once in a while, a tendril would snap off and begin growing out again to stab into more enemies. It turned the landscape into a forest of metal scrap, killing many of the skeletons within the stronghold leaving behind massive graves of gold plated copper.

Ultimately, the stronghold wasn't going to give Teresa a lot of time to recover. She had gotten some Mana and Stamina back, but only to about three quarters of their capacity. She would have to make due, as waiting any longer would result in a dead stronghold.

Hang on. Teresa thought of something that might totally be exploitable. She could outrun the statue, why not just take it to another stronghold and keep getting free loot from within?

Surely there had to be something to keep her from doing that. She could probably lead it to one or two more strongholds before she got tired and needed to sleep. That was just a way to get a bunch of magic stuff for free.

There was a risk to it though that made Teresa decide not to go for this strategy. She didn't know if the Tutorial would keep making these strongholds appear. This stronghold had already been here at the beginning of the third stage, but were strongholds always present? Teresa had spent a lot of time out in the desert, and she had never run into an undiscovered stronghold by accident. She hadn't really given it much thought at the time, but was the System spawning these in?

If so, there was a chance another stronghold wouldn't appear after this one. It wasn't the second stage anymore, and if Teresa wound up wasting a lot of her Stamina and Mana just to discover there were no more strongholds she would be in a significantly worse position. It was still possible, but the <Tutorial Compass> wouldn't lock onto a new stronghold until she looted the chest within.

During one of her more recent attacks, she had discovered not every skeleton necessarily needed to die for a stronghold to be "conquered." She had taken some items out of a chest just to find a skeleton had still been alive, but her <Tutorial Compass> had already begun pointing in a new direction.

The quickest way to test if this strategy would work was to loot the current stronghold. Teresa was not going to let an opportunity go to waste, and she began scaling the walls. She faced no opposition on her trip inside the stronghold, as the skeleton army had way bigger fish to fry.

She snuck her way towards a treasure chest that was completely unguarded, then opened it up to see what was within. There was the standard set of C4 equipment that she immediately put in her <Inventory>, and there was a metal water bottle that she also put away. Teresa could figure out what it did later, for now she pulled out the <Tutorial Compass>. Unfortunately, it still pointed at the now empty chest, meaning another stronghold did not exist.

Teresa turned her attention back to the fight, putting away her <Tutorial Compass> and pulling out another item she had been saving for a special occasion. She moved towards the battle, staying out of sight from the remaining skeletons. This was the perfect opportunity, where all of her enemies were distracted. Mana coursed down her arm and out of her hands, into the wand she had gotten from her second stronghold.

A small bolt of lightning shot out, moving far slower than a lightning bolt should. It went towards Lady Liberty as the wooden wand began to crack more. Teresa pushed more Mana into it again, firing a second and then a third lightning bolt.

The wand finally gave out and crumbled into pieces as she used the last of the weapon's charges. She got another kit of C4 ready to go as the first lightning bolt struck Lady Liberty in the torso.

KABOOM

A massive bolt of lightning came down from the heavens, striking Lady Liberty and creating a massive scorch mark where it hit. Two more bolts of lightning followed shortly after, leaving the statue completely stunned for a moment. Teresa ran towards Lady Liberty, C4 in hand as she got ready to throw.

One's first instinct might be to destroy Lady Liberty's other foot. However, the statue had already demonstrated the ability to balance on a stub. It might work, it might not. The next best option was to blow up the already damaged leg again, making it completely impossible to remain standing.

C4 stuck to the knee of Lady Liberty's injured leg, and another explosion rocked the statue. Lady Liberty began to fall towards the ground, struggling to move after being struck by three bolts of magical lightning. It hit the ground hard, its arm failing to reach out and catch itself.

Teresa used <Dash> and went straight for Lady Liberty's head. Arrows surprisingly were still being fired, a few of the archers were actually aiming for Teresa now. To be fair, she had just summoned lightning and caused an explosion that did what no skeleton had managed to accomplish. In the skeletons' eyes, she was just as big of a threat if not more so.

More C4 was out and ready, tendrils struggled to attack her but failed to move at a speed fast enough to actually pose a threat. A wall of sand appeared in front of her as a skeletal mage controlled the ground, but Teresa had experienced this before and actually jumped over it.

On her descent, she threw the C4 towards Lady Liberty's chest and began preemptively charging shotgun <Embers> in her free hand. She hit the ground and spun on the ball of her foot, activating <Dash> and running away. A second passed as she got to a somewhat safe distance, then she activated the detonator.

Another explosion rocked the Tutorial, and a quick glance showed Lady Liberty was missing an arm. She had managed to raise her shoulder in time to catch the C4 and tank most of the damage, though it was clear the statue was about to go down any second now. Parts of its face had melted, making the statue's resemblance of a human drastically decrease.

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Teresa turned around and stopped charging her shotgun <Embers>, instead pulling out more C4. She had gotten the spell ready in case she needed it, but it looked like one more set of plastic explosives would do the trick. She got the C4 ready and made her way back towards the statue, using <Embers> to take out a few skeletons that still thought shooting at her was a good idea.

She stood before the fallen statue, tossing the C4 onto its jaw and ensuring with her own two eyes that yes, this time it actually landed on the head. Teresa jogged away solemnly, her mind getting ready to kill the final boss of the Tutorial.

Teresa activated the detonator.

One last explosion rang out, a shockwave blowing sand up into the air.

You Have Slain {Lady Liberty (F+) (lv 40)}

Experience Granted

Level Up!

It was over. Teresa looked around at the wreckage. There was debris everywhere. The stone walls of the stronghold had been knocked over in multiple places, the inside was filled with discarded attacks from Liberty's torch, and there was the occasional skeleton that had been heavily injured trying to run away. They were running from Teresa.

Questline

Newcomer Tutorial (3/3)

Liberty's Lie

Even Liberty wears a crown. You may not leave the Tutorial during this stage of the questline.

Seize Your Crown

Quest Complete

Reward Available

The Tutorial will close in: 59 seconds

Exiting the Tutorial is now available.

Teresa sat down, taking a moment. The Tutorial was done. Actually done. She had beaten it, making it through even the last stage by herself. She wouldn't have made it through the first stage without her party, but stages two and three? Aside from the equipment, that was all her.

She laughed, realizing she was about to see the world again. Teresa hadn't really spoken to anyone in three weeks. Every day had just been violence for so long by herself. How long was a person able to be left alone? Teresa didn't know, but the answer probably wasn't three weeks.

The laughter grew more intense as Teresa tacked on another issue she would probably have to deal with. Whatever, she could take it. No matter what came next, Teresa would find a way to get through it. She had beaten the Tutorial, and nothing could ever take that away from her.

Teresa interacted with the quest screen to get her reward, and she did not even get a choice in what the reward was. Immediately, the knowledge on how to use <Appraise> entered her mind, and she had yet another skill under her belt.

She opened her status screen one more time before the end of the Tutorial. Teresa had learned a while ago she could move things around in her status screen, though she had chosen not to since she liked the original arrangement. This time, she was able to modify her status screen to show her stats at the start of the Tutorial compared to the end.

Status:

Name: Teresa

Race: Human (Earth)

Level: 34 (F) (89%)

Class: Jack Of All Trades lv 4 (F+) (55%)

HP: (259/468)

Stamina: (112/468)

Mana: (283/986)

Strength: 6 -> 35

Fortitude: 3 -> 32

Endurance: 6 -> 33

Vitality: 6 -> 33

Agility: 4 -> 42

Intelligence: 7 -> 70

Wisdom: 4 -> 65

Perception: 5 -> 49

Unallocated Points: 0

<Skills> {

<Translate: lv 0 (1.3%)>

<Mana Control: lv 11 (89%)>

<Healing Touch: lv 10 (30%)>

<Facilitated Restoration: lv 12 (6%)

<Identify: lv 7 (30%)>

<Totem Of Life: lv 0 (29%)>

<Magic Wellspring: lv 9 (98%)>

<Embers: lv 12 (24%)>

<Dash: lv 7 (90%)>

<Intuitive Aim: lv 3 (1%)>

<Purify: lv 0 (0%)>

<Inventory: lv 12 (45%)>

<Appraise: lv 12 (0%)>

}

<Titles> {

<System Newcomer>

<Tutorial: Power Hungry>

<Tutorial: Full Completionist>

<Tutorial: Level Pioneer>

<Slayer 1>

<Tutorial: Boss Killer>

}

Along with the level ups, Teresa had also gotten two new titles. The first had replaced <Tutorial: Second Stage Completionist>.

<Tutorial: Full Completionist>

Beat the Tutorial. +15% all stats.

Once again, this did not include the buffs from the previous titles. She gained exactly 15% to all of her stats total, the 5% and 10% of the previous titles were gone. It was still a massive net positive, she would always have 15% more stats than someone at the exact same level and class. Additionally, there was another title that had been added to the list.

<Tutorial: Boss Killer>

Deliver the final blow to the Tutorial's boss. +1 all stats.

This one was less overwhelming than the previous title, but it was still basically a free level up. She actually had four titles with that exact buff, which was essentially four free levels. Teresa really had the stats of someone at level 38 now, and that wasn't even accounting for the percentage buffs.

The countdown continued on and Teresa got ready for what came next. First, she recast <Magic Wellspring> on herself to get a buff to her Intelligence and Wisdom. Next, she cast <Facilitated Restoration> in one hand and <Healing Touch> in the other, making a massive ball of green flames appear in front of her. She got it to be about seven times the size of a normal <Facilitated Restoration> before she had to release it, giving herself a massive Restoration Mana buff.

The Tutorial will close in: 16 seconds

She had used <Totem Of Life> earlier and it was still on cooldown. After all of Teresa's gains, the cooldown had eventually stopped decreasing at 5 days. Teresa had used it barely an hour ago, so there was no chance it would be ready on time.

Oh well. She didn't need it.

Once more, Teresa began using <Facilitated Restoration> and <Healing Touch> together, trying to make yet another massive version of her healing spell.

The Tutorial will close in: 10 seconds

The ball reached its maximum size that Teresa could maintain, and Teresa opened a menu to leave the Tutorial.

Leave Tutorial? Yes

No

She selected "Yes," and surprisingly another screen appeared right after.

Stay In Party? Yes

No

(4 Party Members In Queue)

In queue? What, was she loading into a game lobby or something? Teresa smiled and selected "Yes," once more, wondering if anyone had ever died trying to leave the Tutorial only to see another unexpected screen popping up. Pretty much all of her party members had been moments away from death when they left, that could have gone very wrong for any one of them.

There was no sound within the Tutorial as Teresa disappeared. As far as the skeletons were concerned, she had been there one second and vanished the next. This had all taken place just seconds before the entire world went dark, and everything within the Tutorial disappeared.

On a screen that Teresa couldn't possibly read yet, another message appeared.

Tutorial Complete! Administering Additional Rewards…

Class Rarity Upgraded

<Jack Of All Trades (Rare) (F+)>

----->

<Jack Of All Trades (Legendary) (F+)>

Royalty Status Gained

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