Teresa slept like shit. How was she supposed to get a good night's sleep after all of that? She killed four people, had a million questions running through her mind, and zero answers. They had stayed up late, and now there was a rotation of guards meant to keep watch over their only prisoner. She felt bad about it, but it was undeniable that killing him would be easier. That didn't mean she was going to though.

Simon had dug a hole along the outskirts of the settlement, using the dirt to pad up makeshift walls around the ditch. It was just dirt, and realistically the man could break free pretty easily if not for the full body straitjacket. Whatever people imagined about digging a hole large enough to actually fit a person, they were wrong. It took ages, turns out making a hole deeper than 6 feet was incredibly difficult, especially without real tools.

Teresa herself had needed to step in and help, as she was the strongest person there. She could rip apart the roots in the ground with her bare hands, burning them when needed and stomping on large stones that didn't mesh perfectly with the walls of the hole. It had taken them just over an hour, and that was with superpowers! They had all tried interrogating the man - without torture - but he never spoke a word. He also refused any food or water, but they didn't exactly have enough of that going around for supporting a prisoner long term anyways.

On the bright side of this whole ordeal, Teresa had hit level 35 after her last fight, and her class had also hit level 5. She hadn't picked a new skill yet due to her exhaustion hampering her decision making process, but she was awake enough now. She had already read through them once, but she needed to go through them again to properly make a choice.

<Silent Step: lv 0>

Type: Stealth

Limit the noise created by your footsteps, become silent to all but those with the highest Perception.

This was a pretty solid choice in the long run, but it was only useful if Teresa was the one engaging. If she had gotten this skill choice before her fight against those psycho's yesterday, she probably would have gone right for it. She now knew just how incredibly advantageous a surprise attack could be, she experienced it firsthand after all. However, she was already doing well enough in fights she picked herself. It was the fights that chose her that she was worried about. Fighting mindless monsters was one thing, fighting humans who have min maxed their stats to mesh with their skills was an entirely different arena. It was like going from playing the campaign of a video game to competitive multiplayer. Teresa was pretty sure that despite her previous enemies being half her level, the only stats that she had that were higher than all of theirs were likely Intelligence and Wisdom, and maybe Agility.

<Sturdy Outer Shell: lv 0>

Type: Defensive Barrier (Self)

Channel Mana or Stamina to the outermost layer of your skin, solidifying the resource into an extra sturdy layer of protection. Limits movement speed in exchange for safety.

Alright, this one might help a lot actually. Limiting movement speed didn't sound great, and last night it had immediately disqualified this skill as a valid choice. Now that she had slept on it, she realized its potential. If Teresa could use this and combine it with <Dash>, she might just turn into a high speed tank. Or maybe just a pretty quick tank, depending on just how much her movement speed was limited.

<Monster Hunt: lv 0>

Type: Karmic Magic

Your strong desire to hunt those who would threaten your allies has caused your Soul to strengthen the karmic bonds between you and nearby monsters. You may pull on these karmic bonds to gain a sense for these monsters. A sufficiently capable monster may notice the shift in karma.

She had three really strong choices, even if she didn't get all of them right now she could in the future. First things first, she eliminated <Silent Step>, at least for right now. It was a toss up between the other two choices, which both had a lot of potential. <Sturdy Outer Shell> would give her a huge advantage in combat that she didn't have already, Teresa was lacking a good defensive skill.

She had <Embers> for offense, <Intuitive Aim> to help with ranged attacks, <Magic Wellspring> and <Facilitated Restoration> to buff herself, <Dash> as a movement skill, plenty of healing capabilities, and a bunch of general skills like <Inventory>, <Identify>, <Appraise>, and <Mana Control>. She could use some variety in her offense and some stealth somewhere down the line, but for now she needed something to help tank damage.

Alternatively, <Monster Hunt> had an advantage that was unique to it. Depending on what the range of that ability was, she might be able to level up a lot quicker with it. The way she saw it, she could either be safer now or take a gamble and level up quicker, then get <Sturdy Outer Shell> after some grinding.

Teresa got out of her tent and began to walk around the settlement, taking in the sights around her as she thought. They had gotten more people in the camp, to the point where soon they wouldn't have any space left for tents inside of the Mana dome. The situation had been very weird to say the least, as English wasn't spoken by everyone.

There was a party from Madagascar that spoke Malagasy and French. Teresa had never heard of Malagasy before, but it turns out that was the primary language of the country. There was a party of people from Japan, where only one person spoke English, a few parties from Brazil that spoke mainly Portuguese, a party from Thailand where only one person spoke English and another was actually incapable of speaking, and a whole lot of other parties that had a variety across multiple countries.

The weird part about it wasn't just that everyone spoke different languages, give it enough time and that wouldn't matter anymore. The weird part was that the children of the settlement basically spoke all languages. It turns out, they had <Translate> too as their only skill. A lot of the children seemed fascinated by other cultures, and actually spent nearly the entirety of yesterday power leveling the skill.

Once one kid was able to communicate with practically anyone, all of the other kids wanted to do the same. Now, Teresa was able to spot multiple children speaking in completely different languages yet she could understand them perfectly. The children were the camp's defacto translators. There were a few kids playing with a dog, and the dog even seemed to understand them well.

A few people had been nervous to let the kids near the dog, but it turned out he was great with children. He liked to stay around a toddler named Charlie who was barely old enough to walk, but Teresa thought it was cute.

How does that even work? Teresa had seen plenty of creatures that were clearly based on animals that existed pre-System. Was that Giant Salamander just a regular salamander a few days ago? If so, why was this dog completely normal? His collar said his name was Maxwell, so maybe it had something to do with domestication.

Around the camp, there were multiple construction projects underway. Along with a lot of national diversity, there was a large amount of professional diversity as well. Carpenters, construction workers, electricians, retail employees, a pilot, there was even a party of people who had been in the Swiss Armed Forces.

They had been lucky enough to go into the Tutorial with friggin guns, but they ran out of ammo by the end of the first stage. They hadn't exactly been walking around with several mags on them, three of them had actually been asleep when the Tutorial started. It had been very early in the morning in Europe when everything kicked off, most Europeans reported waking up in the white room.

Today, Teresa was going to be on water duty. She was the only one with a Bottle Of Holding, so it was her job to visit the Scilian swamp and begin hauling water back and forth. Simon was working on digging a hole to store the water, and the plan was to cover the inside of the hole with tarp from tents to keep it from leaking into the ground. Someone would be in charge of boiling water and making sure it was clean, then filling up recycled water bottles to pass out.

Watching the settlement develop was fun, but it also made Teresa anxious. She didn't want to lead this place, it was contradictory to her goals. Hell, she might even enjoy it, but she wasn't looking to be some sort of legendary figure. Her family was still missing, that was her main concern. She didn't have an easy way to find them yet, but the second she got the option for <Familial Duty> she would take it.

That would make leading the settlement practically impossible, she was going to be absent. Teresa didn't want to sound selfish, but between this camp and her family, she would pick her family any day of the week. It's not her fault no one else beat the Tutorial except for some missing Mijo guy.

There was another reason to pick <Monster Hunt>, it was karmic magic. <Familial Duty> was also karmic magic, maybe this could eventually lead into getting the skill she was hoping for. That thought added a lot of value to the option, but there was still one issue weighing on her mind.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

She wouldn't be able to find her family if she was dead.

With a heavy heart, Teresa chose <Sturdy Outer Shell>. She would get <Monster Hunt> next time. Besides, her class gained experience differently from her personal level. It got experience through doing diverse things, like learning how to use a boomerang for example. Making her skill set more diverse might actually do more for her class than taking more fights.

Teresa still hadn't chosen a second class as a part of her class perk. It would give her a shitty class to also gain experience in and get skills from, her main class getting 75% experience and her second class also getting 75%. In total, that was worth more experience than not having a class. It would provide more skills in the long run, but Teresa didn't need low tier skills. She needed <Familial Duty>, she just didn't know how to get it. She would pick a second class once she felt it was reasonable to do so. For now, she was consciously taking the loss in experience.

It was about time she headed out to the Scilian swamp. She would take out any monsters along the way, and she also wanted to test out her new skill. She activated <Dash> and ran into the woods, heading southwest towards the swamp. As she ran, she wondered how the plants were able to survive without any rivers or streams nearby. Was it magic, or just science? Was there a difference between magic and science anymore?

Once she put a good distance between herself and the settlement, she activated her <Sturdy Outer Shell> for the first time. It could use either Stamina or Mana, but Teresa had way more experience using Mana. From her Soul, Mana poured out in all directions to cover her skin. It was incredibly costly, rapidly draining her Mana pool as she used it. The skill actively required a steady stream of Mana, so it wasn't something that could be used for very long.

All along her skin, Mana transformed into a pale yellow material that reminded Teresa of saltines. Touching the material, it felt extremely dry on the outside but she could barely feel the protective barrier underneath. She tried to move and, holy shit, it was incredibly difficult. The barrier made it feel like she was constantly pushing against a heavy object, as if she were trying to slide a refrigerator across the ground in front of her.

She activated <Dash> again, which helped quite a bit. She was still faster than any pre-System human, but compared to how she could normally move it was extremely slow. She deactivated the skill and went back to running, when another idea popped into her head.

Did she have to cover her whole body with the skill? What if she could control it well enough to just protect, say, her fists? Make her hands way tougher right before she punched someone, or just made a patch of hard material wherever she was about to get hit?

Teresa reactivated <Sturdy Outer Shell>, trying to only cover her stomach. It was really close to her Soul, so it would probably require a lot less effort than her hands. As the Mana poured out, she noticed the area around her stomach was much stronger, but the skill still covered her whole body.

Maybe it was a level thing, once she got better with it she might be able to micromanage the Mana. She decided to leave it on for a minute to get used to the feeling as she ran with <Dash>, wondering just how durable it actually was. It didn't feel very strong, as a matter of fact it was kind of brittle, but it was also level 0. Taking a look at her status screen, the only skills that were still level 0 were <Totem Of Life>, <Purify>, and-

Holy shit.

<Sturdy Outer Shell> was already at 72% experience, and <Purify> was at 97%. How? She only used <Purify> the one time really, and she had just gotten <Sturdy Outer Shell> a few minutes ago. Then it hit her.

She was dual casting.

It was something she took for granted now, being able to use two different skills at once. Apparently for most, it was incredibly difficult. Teresa herself had spent an entire week learning how to do just that, so it wasn't too surprising that very few people could do it. Some skills it wasn't a problem, like <Intuitive Aim> or <Bulwark>. Those were practically automatic, but skills like <Dash>, <Healing Touch>, and <Embers> all required a lot of focus to dual cast with a different skill.

When she applied that tidbit of information to her memories, it made sense. That Giant Salamander she loved to bring up all the time had been stationary while sinking a party of people, and Noah had mentioned he believed the creature was using two spells at once. Teresa had wondered why the Giant Salamander had been completely stationary while its prey was vulnerable, it was because it had to be to use two different skills simultaneously.

Teresa activated <Purify> as she ran using <Dash> and <Sturdy Outer Shell>, and watched with joy as her skills rapidly gained experience. They would never go past 99% experience this way, but it was a great way to level them up while also learning just how many skills she could use at once.

She tried to activate <Healing Touch> in her spare hand, but found four skills was too much for her. They all began sputtering, none of her skills working properly at all as she needed to maintain four streams of Mana and a stream of Stamina all with a different current. Well, at least she found something else that would entertain her <Mana Control> training.

Teresa's Mana had dropped insanely low from this, to the point where she already couldn't use <Dash> anymore. <Sturdy Outer Shell> had taken most of it, as covering her entire body made it by far her most Mana hungry skill. She could run the rest of the way just fine, it wasn't too far.

Eventually, Teresa arrived in the swamp. The Scilian settlement was near the edge of the swamp and the forest, and many of the Scilians spotted her rather quickly. Teresa noted that skills like <Silent Step> wouldn't do much if she was just seen out in the open, but it's not like she was trying to be sneaky.

If anything, they should know Teresa was here. Getting water wasn't her only goal today, she also needed to talk to them about the existence of hostile humans. Before it had been a possibility she had brought up, but now she knew for certain they were out there. It wasn't like they were just regular bandits either, they had a lot of oddities to them.

Teresa approached the settlement, and found with annoyance the Scilians all began to kneel. At least she didn't catch the word goddess, ew just thinking it almost made Teresa physically cringe. As she got closer to the settlement, she felt a strange desire to touch their monolith. It stood in the center of their camp, identical to the human counterpart. She wondered if it worked the same way, all she would need to do to find out was touch it-

Nope, fuck no. Teresa learned her lesson last time, she was not about to get conned into leading a settlement of aliens. She already didn't want to lead humans, she sure as shit wasn't going to lead these guys. Fool Teresa once, shame on you. Fool her twice, shame on her.

"Hey, Teresa here." Teresa said, immediately wincing. How was she supposed to introduce herself to aliens? Shit, did she ever tell them her name was Teresa? Fuck, the Albino Gorillas probably didn't know her name either. This was almost just as bad as her still not knowing her party's last names, which she was definitely going to figure out as soon as she got back home. "Few things. Water. Drinkable?"

The Scilians began conversing amongst themselves, many of them visibly confused. Teresa's <Translate> had hit level 3 during her time in the settlement, but it still wasn't enough to figure out what was going on here. Eventually, she got a response from an elderly Scilian that she actually understood.

You are drinking?

"Say that one more time, I don't think I caught all of it." Teresa said, then realized she also messed up and spoke too much at once. She slowed herself down, repeating herself a few times at a snail's pace. Eventually, she was able to piece it all together.

Are you not drinking it right now?

"What, no? I drink with my mouth." Teresa said, pointing to her face. Did these creatures drink like plants? Just standing in the water might be enough for them to ingest it, did their Pomerian horse body's do osmosis or something? The Scilians talked amongst themselves some more, and Teresa realized they might not consider the same kind of water drinkable. "Sorry, ignore that. Different thing. Some humans, bad. Big bad. Very bad. Kill people bad."

Teresa went on to try and explain the situation with her attackers earlier, not going into too much detail about the result of the fight. She wasn't sure if they understood her, but she did her best to make it clear that only some humans would kill them and they should just be careful.

Once that was done with, Teresa had a bright idea. Up to this point, she had exclusively used <Appraise> on magical stuff, did it work on regular things too? Could she just <Appraise> the water? She gave it a shot, and found that if she intended to, she could.

<Scilian Filtered Swamp Water (F)>

Type: Material

Water that has been filtered through biological Scilian processes.

The description and name said it was filtered, but what counted as filtered? Eh, she would let Theo try it, he offered to after all.

"I take water, that okay?" Teresa asked, eagerly waiting for the day she could talk like a normal human being to whoever she wanted. The Scilians all clamored that she could take as much water as she wanted, at least that's what she thought they were saying based on what she could piece together. Her <Translate> hit level 4 mid conversation, making her one step closer to being a universal translator like the children at home.

She got a short distance away from the settlement and opened up her Bottle Of Holding, pushing it under the water. It sucked water in at a ridiculous speed, far faster than a bottle typically should. Definitely magic. After a few seconds it was full, and she was ready to take a trip back to the human settlement. She thanked the Scilians before she activated <Dash> and got going, deciding she would keep practicing her four skill quad-casting on the way back.

She had a present for Theo to try.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.