Teresa had made a major discovery. She had been fighting the serpents for almost an hour now, killing one or two and getting as much experience as possible with her two skills that she was focusing on. It was only a matter of time before she leveled up, and it revealed a shocking fact.

Status:

Name: Teresa

Race: Human (Earth)

Level: 36 (F) (0%)

Class: Jack Of All Trades lv 5 (F+) (39%)

HP: (483/515)

Stamina: (411/515)

Mana: (894/1020)

Strength: 37

Fortitude: 36

Endurance: 36

Vitality: 36

Agility: 44

Intelligence: 72

Wisdom: 67

Perception: 51

Unallocated Points: 0

<Skills> {

<Translate: lv 4 (20%)>

<Mana Control: lv 12 (77%)>

<Healing Touch: lv 11 (74%)>

<Facilitated Restoration: lv 13 (25%)

<Identify: lv 7 (98%)>

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

<Magic Wellspring: lv 11 (3%)>

<Embers: lv 12 (81%)>

<Dash: lv 9 (18%)>

<Intuitive Aim: lv 3 (87%)>

<Purify: lv 4 (3%)>

<Inventory: lv 12 (96%)>

<Appraise: lv 12 (36%)>

<Sturdy Outer Shell: lv 4 (8%)>

}

<Titles> {

<System Newcomer>

<Tutorial: Power Hungry>

<Tutorial: Full Completionist>

<Tutorial: Level Pioneer>

<Slayer 1>

<Tutorial: Boss Killer>

}

Her class had changed since she beat the Tutorial. It said that her lowest stat would gain a point for every level up, and she had wondered what would happen if multiple stats were tied for last place. Apparently, they all gained a point. That was insane! Her Fortitude, Endurance, and Vitality had all gained an extra point from the level up, soon her Strength would also start getting extra points. The class rewarded her for having multiple attributes at similar values.

Teresa's Intelligence, Wisdom, and Perception would not receive this benefit for quite a while, but that was totally fine. Sure, it means her class and attributes weren't perfectly min maxed, but that's not how life worked anyways. She couldn't have possibly managed to get a perfectly efficient build, but this was still pretty damn good.

At the moment, Teresa was recovering in between battles. She took the opportunity to use <Purify> on the dead serpent's fangs for some experience, and she also practiced using <Sturdy Outer Shell>. She focused on keeping her Mana from flowing everywhere, only guiding it towards her stomach. Teresa had tried this before, but at the time she had not been successful. Now, however, she had managed to make just her torso get covered in a slightly more durable form of the skill. It still was pretty weak, even at level 4, but she was sure if she could condense it down to a smaller area it would become incredibly useful.

These snakes were rather difficult to fight. Teresa could win each time, but not without getting hurt in the process. She was in a similar situation to where she figured out how to properly use shotgun <Embers>. When she first tried the technique, it had broken her arms. It had required some practice to get good at, but practicing something knowing there was a high risk of injury wasn't easy to just do. It was like trying to learn the guitar, except a clown might pop out of nowhere and break your fingers if you missed a fret.

Speaking of guitars, she still had one that was sitting in her <Inventory>. Teresa would figure out how to play it eventually, but for now it was just gathering dust in her Soul. She looked forward to being able to spend time doing something for fun like that again, like everything was normal.

Anyways, fighting snakes and leveling up <Sturdy Outer Shell>. The only way Teresa could think of improving the skill was by getting hit, which led to an incredibly shitty time. Maybe if she could make the skill just cover her fists she could level it up that way, but unfortunately at the moment it was really all or nothing.

Well, now that she thought about it, that was incredibly wrong. She didn't need it to do a whole lot, she just needed to use it in combat. If she activated the skill and punched something in the face, would that still provide experience even if it had a minimal effect? If so, what the hell has she been doing? Teresa had no idea how many times she had let herself get bit by now, and that fucking hurt! Damnit, was this an option the whole time?

This was why she needed a party with her. Someone to proofread her thoughts in case she got stuck doing something dumb. One person couldn't possibly think of everything, and she was sure if her party were here at least somebody would have brought up "Hey Teresa why don't you just punch stuff in the face?" She loved punching stuff in the face, how did she not think of that?

Teresa had subconsciously dismissed the idea because <Sturdy Outer Shell> wouldn't provide much benefit in hitting stuff with her hands yet. Just cover her whole body with the skill as normal, focus on her hands in whatever way she could, then punch shit. Super easy, barely an inconvenience. Once Teresa was done here, she decided she was going to help her party level up some more. She missed the dynamics of fighting with other people, though only if they were on the same side. Obviously.

New strat, punch a snake in the face repeatedly. She wasn't sure how loud that would be, but she had already been pretty lucky with noise. A group of serpents had only been attracted by sound the one time, and it was a miracle more didn't come when she had been forced to use <Embers>. She would punch a few snakes, get her skill leveled up some more, maybe even <Purify> a snake's venom in its fangs while still alive, then profit.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Teresa looked around for another snake, and she didn't have to look very far. She may have killed a few herself, but the Portal kept producing more. They were dying faster than they were being produced, but Teresa knew every now and then a level 40 serpent would spawn. She wasn't entirely positive how a fight with one of those would go.

The level 33 serpent in her sights was facing the opposite direction, and Teresa had a genius idea. She activated <Dash> and began sprinting towards the monster, clearing the gap in no time. She jumped towards the back of the monster's head and activated <Sturdy Outer Shell> midair, causing a layer of Mana to condense around her body.

She focused it on her fists as much as she could, even if it didn't make an overwhelming difference. She maintained her speed as she had already jumped, only being slowed down by air resistance. The monster began turning around due to her footsteps, but it was too late. Teresa slammed her hand down on the top of the serpent's head like she was spiking a volleyball, creating an indent in the serpent's skull.

The monster hissed and collapsed to the ground, caught off guard by the surprise attack. Teresa followed up with a kick to the jaw, her metal boot colliding with the snake's chin. Was it a chin, or just a jaw? She was pretty sure it was just a jaw, but- never mind, she was in the middle of a fight. No time for distractions.

Teresa activated <Purify> in both hands and gripped the snake's fangs as it was disoriented, sending Restoration Mana to destroy the venom in a still very alive monster. She opened her status screen and kept an eye on it, happy to see this was rapidly gaining her skill experience.

The serpent lunged forward and tried to bite Teresa, but she was already braced holding onto the fangs. The snake's jaw closed and opened repeatedly, but Teresa kept her arms out and stiff while hopping along the ground. It looked goofy, but it worked wonders.

She had to deactivate <Sturdy Outer Shell> for this so she could adjust for the sudden movements, but she would activate it once she was ready to deliver the final blow. The situation remained unchanged for a time, Teresa continued draining the serpent's venom while it failed to kill her. The monster's venom was beginning to run out, but it seemed to have an idea.

Rather than trying to bite Teresa, it stood up tall, lifting Teresa off the ground. She was basically planking over the monster's mouth at this point, but that wasn't the real threat. Centrifugal force nearly made Teresa lose her grip as the snake slammed its head down like a hammer, trying to crush Teresa against the canopy.

She let go the moment she realized what was going on, causing her to go flying across the canopy attracting the attention of multiple other snakes. Shit, this again. A crowd of snakes began to converge on her, and she decided it was time she stopped fucking around. Teresa activated <Dash> and ran back to the snake she was originally fighting. Her foot lifted and kicked the serpent in the jaw once again, giving her the opportunity to use <Embers> to burn a hole clear through the serpent's head.

There were already a metric fuckton of snakes on her, there was no point in being stealthy now. Her best bet was to run away while firing <Embers> at the snakes behind her, hoping more wouldn't come up from the lower canopies. The monsters were faster than her by quite a bit, but thankfully <Embers> was putting in work.

Her flames burnt flesh to a crisp, not always strong enough to completely melt through but definitely killing multiple snakes in quick succession before they could get close. The ground in front of her rustled as more snakes came from below, each level 35. She changed course to avoid them, spraying fire erratically in multiple directions.

It was doing the trick, and strangely enough the snakes seemed to be getting confused. While chasing after her, they frequently took an indirect path or changed course entirely. What was going on?

More snakes began burrowing up from beneath, these guys level 36. Still, they also seemed to be confused as Teresa shot <Embers> everywhere. She wasn't positive about why the snakes seemed so lost, but Teresa wasn't complaining. This made things drastically easier for her, and suddenly Teresa wasn't running away anymore.

She was on the offensive.

Teresa burnt apart snake after snake, sometimes building up Mana to release shotgun <Embers> when a level 38 or even level 40 snake appeared. It had something to do with the fire, and eventually Teresa had a thought. How do snakes see? Teresa racked her brain trying to play through her memories in elementary school, but there were too many to sift through to find what she was looking for.

Did they have thermal vision? She was pretty sure she had once heard that some snakes use thermal imaging to see, but she hadn't been positive about if that was true or not. Apparently, it was. Shooting fire all around her made it difficult for the snakes to see, and due to their lack of Perception her fire was a perfect counter to them.

Why hadn't she just tried this from the beginning? Teresa had been so sure she would get swarmed and killed immediately, but clearly that wasn't the case. Her confidence had taken a major hit after losing to a bunch of level 15s, yet she was able to take on level 40 monsters. She was gaining shitloads of experience from it too, although <Purify> and <Sturdy Outer Shell> had both stopped close to level 5.

Teresa was running low on Mana now, so it was time she made her exit. She built up Mana in both hands and unleashed two instances of shotgun <Embers>, creating a wall of flames that blocked her from the snakes' lines of sight. She took the opportunity to activate <Dash> and jump up towards the nearest tree, quickly scurrying up to the higher canopy.

She crawled through the massive leaves and branches, putting distance between herself and the monsters below. As soon as she was standing on strangely sturdy canopy again, she ran as fast as she could away from any and all snakes. She noted it felt slightly warmer on this layer, and wondered if that was why the snakes were climbing the trees. They were cold blooded after all, maybe they just wanted to lay in the sun.

Once she was safe, Teresa laid down on her back and panted heavily. That could have easily gone wrong, but she had lucked out. This was another sign she needed a party of people with her, not just because of the increase in combat capabilities but because multiple minds were better than one. Had she been with someone who knew some snakes saw with thermal vision, this whole ordeal would have been done by now.

That's it, forget the level 36 Monster Spawner after this. Teresa was tired of combat by herself, she was tired of realizing she could have done something better after the fact, and she was tired of trying to think of everything alone. She was going to find her party, and see about helping them take on higher level monsters with her as a bodyguard.

How many other things had she missed before because she simply didn't think of it? Teresa always ripped on movies and TV shows for characters not doing something that could solve the whole plot easily, but maybe she was just as bad. It was similar to her issue with jumping at the first okay idea that popped into her head, sometimes she just didn't think of a great idea when someone else might have.

Having a party would alleviate that issue drastically, while solving numerous other problems. There was safety in numbers for more reasons than just pure firepower. Teresa was going to see if her party would be willing to try taking on a stronger Monster Spawner with her assistance, and she hoped they would agree. It was time to put an end to lone combat. Sure she had her issues around people lately, but if she didn't try then she would never get better.

For now though, she had her own Monster Spawner to finish off. She began regenerating her Mana, focusing on it carefully as she tried to lock in. All around her, the Environmental Mana was far denser than normal. She was pretty sure the trees themselves radiated Mana, making the process significantly faster.

Once she was fully recharged, it was time to finish the Giant Serpents off. She began to work her way down and through the canopy, heading towards ground level. There were still multiple snakes on the level where she had gone on a snake killing rampage, though they weren't her priority. She also made a note to herself to check for monster cores later, prioritizing the high level cores in her <Inventory>. She was also tempted to try and skin the snakes for their durable hide, but she would probably fuck it up not knowing what she was doing. She would leave the corpses for someone else at the settlement to come prepare.

Once the Portal was in sight, Teresa took a second to look at what she was up against. There were still several level 40 serpents, but Teresa wasn't too worried about them anymore. Mana began to condense in her hands once more, and she positioned her palms with some help from <Intuitive Aim>. She ran forward, activating <Dash> to get close to the pack of monsters.

They saw her coming, and all turned at once to try and kill her. Unfortunately for them, Teresa made guns look like toys. She unleashed shotgun <Embers> in one hand, causing a wave of fire to almost instantly kill the nearest serpent. She alternated back and forth between hands, firing shotgun blast after shotgun blast while running around at high speeds.

It was an embarrassingly easy fight that awarded her a lot of experience. In no time, she was the last one standing next to the Portal. She almost destroyed it with <Embers>, but then she had a better idea. Mana began to condense around her skin from <Sturdy Outer Shell>, and Teresa punched the Portal as hard as she could.

The Portal absorbed all of the kinetic force, completely stopping Teresa's fist but not hurting at all. She punched it repeatedly, again and again until eventually the Portal collapsed into numerous Mana Crystals. There were different kinds of crystals Teresa hadn't seen before, having a Kinetic or Defensive attunement. She didn't have a use for them yet, but this had given her a different benefit that she was even happier with.

<Sturdy Outer Shell> had hit level 5 from punching the Portal. Fuck yeah. Teresa needed to punch things more often.

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