Turns out, retracing your steps through a massive forest was kind of hard. She actually remembered her exact path, her memory had improved a lot with her stats. It was just, weirdly improved. Teresa's brain felt like she had a video of her entire life, with a lot of spotty parts where the quality suddenly dropped into 144p. Most of her life was there if she really looked for it, but she still had to look for it.

It was like having a college lecture recorded on her phone. Sure, if she needed to know something from the lecture she could just look through the video, but she still had to actually look through it. She didn't have all of her memories intuitively at the ready, but she could retrace her steps by playing through her memories in reverse.

But Teresa hadn't exactly run in a straight line. Whatever, Teresa only really had to look for her party, not a random baby laying around that could go unnoticed if she didn't pay much attention. She kept <Dash> activated, letting her Stamina drain as much as it wanted to.

She was getting kind of hungry. Teresa didn't exactly have a Liberty Island to loot for food anymore every day, that was going to be something she needed to figure out. Could she eat monsters? Like, that Charger Boar earlier probably had a good amount of calories to it, was it edible? Teresa had once heard that an issue with ever coming into contact with aliens would be diseases, as they could get humans sick with a whole bunch of stuff that the immune system had never seen before, and alternatively humans might also get them ridiculously sick.

Did that apply here? Well, Teresa had <Purify> now, would that help with diseases? Shit, that reminded her. Was the common cold just solved now? Get the sniffles and then BOOM magic it away. If she would never have to deal with a stuffy nose again, that would be awesome.

Teresa blasted through the forest, making an absolute mess of the terrain. It would be fine, it'd grow back. Eventually, she heard a commotion and found her party once more. They were engaged in combat with a group, wait, were those trees?

{Sapling Treant (F) (lv 7)}

{Sapling Treant (F) (lv 6)}

{Sapling Treant (F) (lv 6)}

Small trees were using their roots as legs, standing about 8 feet tall. Their branches grew out in a fashion that reminded Teresa of Lady Liberty's torch, just way slower and weaker. The branches tried to wrap themselves around Jake, though the strategy was not working at all. Madeline's <Embers> scorched the Treants, making them hesitant to attack. They seemed incapable of attacking anyone but Jake, meanwhile Madeline kept him covered as Preston and Sarah delivered killing blows to the monsters.

Teresa stopped right next to Madeline, deciding not to steal her party's experience.

"I need you to come with me, I found a campground up ahead full of children and really old people. I think Mackenzie might be there." Teresa told her, keeping an eye on their battle.

"You should totally give her a piggyback ride!" Preston yelled over the commotion as he stabbed a Treant in the face. Teresa approved, stabbing stuff in the face was a great way to kill them.

"We probably should have just done that in the first place, but I didn't think of it." Madeline said, the party relaxing after the last Treant died. Teresa cast <Facilitated Restoration> and <Magic Wellspring> on everyone, though no one seemed to be hurt at all. Still, the buffs couldn't hurt.

"Alright, but is everyone going to be okay? I'm strong enough to pick all of you up, but I only really have two arms. We'd be leaving the three of you on your own for a little bit."

"Go, don't worry about it. Hell, we might find someone and expand the party a bit." Jake said. "Should we follow you guys though? I have a solid sense of direction and all but I'm not sure it's good enough to keep in a straight line for however long it'll be."

"I'll use <Embers> on the ground here and there to make a trail." Madeline said, already hopping on Teresa's back. "Just follow the burn marks and you should be good."

"Hang on, let me think about how I'm going to do this thoroughly. I feel like there's something I should be considering but haven't yet." Teresa mentioned, pausing. Madeline looked annoyed.

"Really? What is there to think about? Let's go get my daughter!"

"Oh shit, I just figured it out. I've got <Dash> now, but I probably can't use it while carrying you. At least not initially. Going from stationary to max speed might break your legs off or something, I just gotta be careful with my acceleration." Teresa explained as she began jogging back in the direction of the campground. She began picking up speed at a reasonable pace, and called back to her party. "I'll head back to you guys again once I drop her off!"

"You know what? I would like to keep my legs, thank you very much." Madeline said apologetically as the wind began whistling by them. It was likely a very uncomfortable ride for her, with Teresa's uneven hair whipping in her face as they ran. Additionally, Teresa was much shorter than Madeline, making it a bit awkward to stay on. Child safety was more important than comfort, however, so Teresa didn't hold anything back as she reached her top speed.

She activated <Dash>, gaining a sharp increase to her speed that made Madeline's legs and arms pop. It wasn't bad since the increase wasn't as sharp as if she had just immediately used the skill to reach top speeds, but Madeline did not have Teresa's Fortitude.

"Right a bit more." Madeline yelled over the wind, as they traveled. She continued to correct their direction as they moved, making Teresa realize they really should have just done this from the start.

Madeline's <Embers> left a trail behind them, which required her to free a hand. Teresa held onto Madeline as she ran, as she wasn't confident the woman could stay on otherwise. It wasn't a perfectly smooth road or anything, they were going through a forest. The odds of Madeline getting whiplash were unfortunately high. Surely healing magic could just take care of that.

Finally, they arrived at the campground. Teresa spotted a few people that weren't there before, likely parties that had been guided by someone using <Familial Duty> or parties who just happened to stumble across the site. Madeline and Teresa made their way into the valley, slowing down to normal speeds.

"Shit hold me steady." Madeline said as she wobbled on her feet. She had practically just been strapped to the side of a very tiny plane going through nightmare turbulence on steroids. She was alright thanks to <Facilitated Restoration>, but if not for that Madeline could absolutely be injured from that experience. "Thank you hon, I think I'm good now. Let's go."

Teresa followed Madeline as she moved past the tents, seemingly intent on a specific direction. There were multiple people eyeing them, ranging from curious children to skeptical adults. Now that Teresa paid more attention, it seemed that the elderly here were trying to take care of the kids. There were even a few older folks who were patrolling around the edge of the camp, probably making sure a child didn't wander off.

What had happened from their perspective? Everyone here was level 0, excluding the occasional adult she saw wearing Tutorial gear. The elderly and children had no such gear themselves, which led Teresa to believe they hadn't gone through the Tutorial at all.

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Madeline began picking up the pace, seeming to have sensed something. Was Mackenzie okay? Did something happen? Madeline began running, pushing past kids and elders shamelessly as she made her way towards a specific tent. She burst in through the front flap, and Teresa heard her gasp.

"Oh thank God!" Madeline cried, kneeling within the tent. It was exactly the size of a standard camping tent, and Teresa spotted what looked like a crib inside. Madeline began weeping, holding something in her arms as she rocked back and forth speaking almost incoherently.

It was Mackenzie.

Teresa let out a massive sigh of relief as she saw the scene unfold. It was pretty hard to understand what Madeline was saying, but it was clear the baby was alright. Teresa turned to give Madeline some space, but a hand grabbed her own so absurdly fast that Teresa herself couldn't even react in time.

"Thank you." Madeline said, still looking down at Mackenzie. Teresa just squeezed her hand, and Madeline put all of her attention back towards her baby. Teresa didn't have anything to say, not that she should. This was a moment for Madeline, and Teresa needed to let her have it.

She began walking away from the reunited mother and daughter. It was beyond relieving, but Teresa couldn't just stop now. It would be nice, really really nice, to sit down and pat herself on the back for a good day of work. In just a few hours, Sarah was saved, Madeline found Mackenzie, they found a campground full of people, but she couldn't stop there. Jake, Preston, and Sarah were still out in the forest of monsters. There were also plenty of others whose lives were probably in danger that Teresa could help.

First things first, she needed to figure out just how safe this place was. The Mana dome that surrounded their campground blocked outsiders from using skills like <Identify> and <Appraise>, though they worked just fine while within the dome. Additionally, the dome was intangible. Did it keep monsters out? That's what Teresa wanted to think, but she had no proof. The System had seemingly skipped the Tutorial for children and elderly, there was no way it would just plop them down in the middle of a bunch of monsters about to eat them.

Thankfully, she spotted a familiar face.

"William!" Teresa called out, seeing the Scottish man she had run into earlier. The campground was big, but it wasn't that big. William turned his head and saw Teresa, then waved.

"Hey, you made it back already. Did your friend find Mackenzie yet? If not, I can probably help them out." William said, making his way over to Teresa.

"Yeah, she found her. Everything's alright there, but I'm about to head out again. I have some friends still out in the forest, I'm not sure how much you know about what's going on but it's not safe out there. I'm thinking of bringing them here, but I need to know how safe here even is." Teresa explained. William smiled and began explaining his own story.

"Well, I'm not sure how much of this you're going to believe, but I actually know a good amount about this settlement. I was watching TV sitting in my chair, then everything froze. Next thing I knew, I was in some weird white room. For a second, my body felt like it was on fire. Now I'm not sure what happened to me, but it sure helped me out a lot. I was able to walk without my cane for the first time in years.

"Words started to appear in front of me, and it said I was exempt from something called 'The Tutorial Process,' but I could still participate if I wanted to. It said that it would be really dangerous, but there was another option. The floating words wanted me to learn about taking care of children, as if I didn't already have grandkids of my own. I had a whole lot of stuff shoved in my brain, and I knew a bunch of things I had never heard of before.

"I knew I was going to be appearing within a settlement of some sort, and it would be filled with people like me in charge of taking care of the kids. I learned how to open that status thing, but I don't know what any of that means. Whatever did all of this seemed more intent on making sure I understood my role within this settlement and laid down some ground rules.

"I don't mean to alarm you, but there's some actual magical stuff happening all around us. Apparently, the air here is filled with something that's supposed to keep out monsters. Now, I don't know for sure what it meant by monsters, but there was also stuff about selecting a leader and some other mumbo jumbo. I've already seen you running around so I know you've got some idea of what's going on, but I'm kind of lost here."

Teresa nodded as she followed along. The people here really hadn't gone through the Tutorial at all, and went through their own thing instead. A quick <Identify> showed the man was still level 0, and from the sound of it William had not even seen a monster yet. Additionally, it seemed the Mana dome did keep out the monsters, which was a huge plus. That particular detail was what she needed to know the most about right now.

"Okay, so this magical stuff you're talking about that keeps away the monsters. Tell me everything you know about it." Teresa said, picking out the important bit. She could figure out the leader stuff later, she obviously wasn't going to lead a settlement so it didn't really concern her. There had to be significantly more qualified people to do that.

"Well, it's around for about a week I think and then goes away. I know we have a short grace period, and after that we're on our own. That tall thing you were touching earlier is supposed to be able to show us more details about the place, like population count and such. I'm no good with technology though, it's all too complicated for me." William replied. "I needed my kids to help me with changing the channel on TV, I don't understand any of this. They make these things way too complicated."

"Thank you William, that's really helpful. I'll give you a quick version of what's going on, and we can go into more detail later. Magic is real now, there are monsters out in the forest, everyone else on the planet went through a Tutorial in groups of five where they either fought monsters or just left early, everyone got their location randomized and now here we are. I'm going to go help some people out and bring them here, do you have a place where I can set down some of my stuff? Teresa asked, being far more concise.

"Tell you what, just set it down near the tall thing and I'll make sure no one touches any of it. I think we got a few more tents I can set up for you." William answered. Teresa raised an eyebrow at the thought of making an old man set up a tent, that seemed cruel.

"You want me to do the tent?" Teresa asked.

"Let me, I haven't felt this good in years. I can't remember the last time I put a tent up, it'll be fun. Don't you worry." William replied.

They said their goodbyes and separated, Teresa going towards the monolith to set down all of her weird magic crystals while William went to get a tent. He seemed like a nice enough guy, and the settlement sounded safe if he was telling the truth.

She began dropping Mana Crystals out of her inventory near the monolith, eyeing the stupid thing. It had given her a quest she absolutely should not follow under any circumstance at all. Really, the System needed to figure out that beating the Tutorial was not all you needed to lead a settlement.

William had said that it could give her information about the settlement, and while she felt the man was trustworthy she still wanted to verify it herself. She placed her hand on the monolith, hoping it wasn't about to sign her up for another quest she didn't want.

[UNNAMED] (F)

Ruler: N/A

Population: 5027

Land: 1,130,973.355 Square Feet

GDP: 0 Currency

Tax Rate: 0% (FLAT)

…

Leader Candidates: 1

Qualified Candidates: 1

Protection Countdown: 6 Days, 19 hours, 55 minutes, 3 seconds

Time Until Tournament: 6 Days, 19 hours, 55 minutes, 3 seconds

Statistic Assistance: 29 Days, 19 hours, 55 minutes, 3 seconds

Upon opening the screen, a massive amount of statistics appeared in front of Teresa. Some of them were self explanatory, like the literacy rate. Others, not so much. The screen had everything, it even listed the settlement's carbon footprint. There was stuff about agriculture, production, income, military power, exports, imports, everything. Yeah, Teresa was really not qualified to lead this place despite what the System may think. She didn't even know how to calculate GDP, and only had a vague understanding of it.

Well, it wouldn't be her problem. She felt bad for whoever was going to wind up needing to take on that responsibility during what equated to an apocalypse. They would have to be responsible for multiple people across multiple cultures with differing ideologies all with monsters and magic completely overhauling how the world worked. When Teresa had thought about what she would do as a leader, the first question that came to mind was what side of the road people should drive on. Then the monolith hit her with a bunch of statistics and really drove home just how bad it would be if she had to lead this place.

No more looking at the stupid monolith stuff. She was just about to go on a rant to herself about how the statistics weren't even in alphabetical order or anything, but she couldn't afford the distraction.

It was time to go back to the forest.

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