Dylan wanted to look around the room for something that could save him, but he couldn’t. Even his eyes were frozen by Immobilize.

His line of sight was fixed.

[Mana: 21.2/103]

The only thing he could move was his mind.

And his summoned creatures.

He thought back to the tests he’d done in the training room before entering the dungeon. When he’d used Immobilize on himself at the time, he could still command his phantoms.

He quickly sifted through the mental connections that tied him to the things he’d summoned. Only one archer was left. He could no longer feel the Living Spider Shield and one of the phantoms had reached the end of its duration, dissipating when his turn began.

He commanded his last remaining creature to move to where he could see it while thinking through how he could use it to help.

[Mana: 20.2/103]

Though his ears were ringing a bit from the explosion, he could still vaguely make out the sounds around him. He no longer heard any signs of battle and assumed the fight was over.

In front of him, a bedraggled Chester was helping Dena to her feet. Jaiden was rushing over toward where Dylan had last seen Alice’s group of three and soon passed out of his vision. Out of the corner of his right eye, Rowan was hunched over, catching his breath.

The room itself was a mess. Awash with scorch marks and spider parts.

[Mana: 19.2/103]

It’d be great if there were a rope, Dylan thought, just as he noticed a small section of web stuck to the ground.

After the shaman had melted all the spider silk, the room was mostly bare rock. But new web shooters had continued to harass the group throughout the rest of the fight. Patches of their sticky white fibers littered the ground around the party, mixing in with the gore and debris.

One clump in particular caught Dylan’s eye.

A small section of white had spread itself on the stone floor about four feet from the edge of the cliff. It was where he’d dodged an attack from one of web shooters. What drew Dylan’s attention was that attached to the mass of fibers was a long thread that had failed to spread out like the rest of the web.

If the archer could pull it up and throw it to him…

[Mana: 18.2/103]

Dylan ordered the phantom to rip the thread from the ground.

He watched as it moved over, reached down with one hand, and tugged. The web barely moved.

As the archer kept trying, Dylan ordered it to drop its bow and use both hands, but it didn’t seem to understand. It was as if the bow was a part of its body.

After trying to rephrase his command in a few different ways, Dylan gave up. No matter how he worded things, the archer wouldn’t drop the bow. The best he could do was get it to use the hand holding the bow to try to help with the web, but with the weapon getting in the way, the effect was minimal.

The archer was clearly not meant for this kind of work. It was all Dylan could think to order it to do, but he knew it probably wouldn’t be able to save him. Especially in the limited time he had left. After seeing its clumsy attempts, Dylan didn’t think the handful of seconds his mana could still support him would be enough for the phantom to remove the thread of spider silk from the ground. Let alone throw it to him.

Less time than that, he reminded himself. The phantom’s duration would be up at the start of his next turn, and then, it would dissipate. When that happened, he’d truly be left hanging in the air with nothing he could do.

Seconds ticked past as Dylan watched the archer fumble with the sticky thread. His mind frantically wandered around his rapidly depleting mana reserves. He wished he could draw either Mana Surge or Lunadera’s Bloom, but he quickly realized they’d both be useless. Without being able to move his arms, he couldn’t play the cards, and even if he found a way around that, he didn’t have the required energy.

He’d only get one more beginning of the turn action before his mana bottomed out. If he drew a card he wanted to play, he wouldn’t have the chance to generate the energy it would cost; if he chose to generate or drew an energy card, he wouldn’t have the chance to draw something to use it with.

[Mana: 13.2/103]

Should I just quit now?

Dylan worried whether he’d have the presence of mind to exit the Tutorial in a state of mana exhaustion. If he bottomed out and fell, would he be able to recover fast enough to avoid splattering himself across the ground beneath him? However deep that was.

He also worried about what would happen when he left. He had no idea about the state of Fairbasin after the dungeon break. Maybe the town had successfully repelled the monsters, but maybe it had been completely overrun. If he waited to quit until his mana was gone, would he just be escaping from one death to another? Without mana or the ability to use his cards, he’d almost be as vulnerable as he’d been during that first fight in the basement. Sure, he would have his new stats to support him, but that would be it.

[Mana: 12.2/103]

Dylan hesitated for a moment. If he could find a way to save himself and finish the dungeon, he’d get more powerful rewards from the System. And like he’d told Mark earlier, better rewards would mean a better chance of dealing with the challenges that he’d face outside the Tutorial.

But in the end, he decided that his life was more important than gambling on whatever the System might give him. What if it was just a larger stack of Blank Cards? That might help him build and customize his deck faster, but it would be useless against the immediate dangers he was worried about.

Having at least some mana and an already summoned deck was a safer bet. If Fairbasin was overrun, he’d use the remaining time his mana could support his deck to try and find somewhere to hole up and meditate. Then, he’d consider his next move.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

[Mana: 11.2/103]

Now or never.

Just as he was about to focus his will on the words necessary to exit the Tutorial, there was movement in front of his archer.

Rowan ran over and pushed the phantom aside. Realizing what the summoned creature had been trying to do, the man swung his sword down to cut the longer thread away from the rest of the web anchoring it to the ground.

[Mana: 10.2/103]

Spider silk in hand, Rowan then ran to the ledge and flung the makeshift rope out at Dylan. Or at least he tried to. The sticky fibers making up the thread clung to his hands just enough to affect his aim. It fell short.

[Mana: 9.2/103]

The man let out a frustrated grunt, pulled the web back, and tried again. Compensating with his experience from the first attempt, Rowan’s second throw came closer to Dylan, but it still wasn’t enough. Even if Dylan had released Immobilize’s channel to reach for the thread, it would have just barely missed.

When Rowan pulled the web back, he closed his eyes and paused for a moment.

[Mana: 8.2/103]

A new turn began and the archer disappeared. Dylan chose to generate.

[Mana: 7.2/103]

Dylan’s worries increased. His mana was getting low. Quitting the Tutorial now wouldn’t help him much upon his return to Fairbasin beyond avoiding being debilitated by mana exhaustion.

Soon, the same aura of heat that Dylan was used to seeing around the Blade Warden’s sword rose from around the man’s muscles. Through a torn piece of fabric, Dylan noticed that Rowan’s arms were glowing red.

When the man opened his eyes again, they seemed to be leaking steam. It almost reminded Dylan of the crazed spiders after being affected by the green flames.

[Mana: 6.2/103]

Rowan hurled the web forward, and this time, there was no doubt that it would find its target. The white thread rushed toward Dylan, seeming to radiate the same heat as the man that threw it.

In the moment it arrived, Dylan released his channel and grasped for the spider silk. He hardly had time to notice how warm it felt before gravity pulled him down.

The web stretched as he fell, and a pit formed in his stomach. he prayed the line would hold.

Suddenly, Dylan’s shoulders jerked in their sockets. The thread reached its limit. He gritted his teeth in pain but held on as he swung toward the rocks in front of him.

He brought his legs up to brace them against the cliff face, lessening the impact.

He let out a breath.

Before he had a chance to recover, he felt a pull from above. Rowan.

Dylan scrambled to use his legs and the rope of sticky silk to climb the wall.

With Rowan’s help, the ascent was fast. It wasn’t more than a few seconds before the man grabbed Dylan’s arm and hauled him over the edge of the cliff. The redhead’s hands were scorching.

Dylan gasped a bit as he lay on the ground. “Thanks,” he managed to let out between heavy breaths.

Rowan nodded, letting go of whatever skill he’d used to empowered himself. As the steam and red skin faded, so did the man’s energy. He slumped to ground next to Dylan, exhausted.

The two just lay there as they recovered.

When Dylan felt his mind split again, he didn’t choose any actions. Instead, he let the deck dissipate. The fight was truly over.

He pulled himself to his feet and looked around.

Dylan was surprised to see that Rowan had already entered a state of meditation. They were probably safe for at least the next half hour, but it was still risky to start doing that without moving to a more secure location or designating someone to keep watch.

Although he’d only known the man for a few hours, Dylan felt that it was unusual for Rowan to simply start meditating without a word to anyone while sitting mere feet from a deep chasm.

That last skill must have taken more out of him than I thought.

Dylan found the rest of the group over to his left.

Alice was sitting down and leaning against the wall. Like Rowan, she was already meditating. Covered in dirt, blood, and bruises, she looked like she’d taken the brunt of one of the explosions. Nothing looked debilitating, but she’d need all the time the group could squeeze out to recover before they moved to the next room.

Everyone else was searching for something along the ground a couple yards away from the Blacksmith.

Everyone else except for Mark.

Dylan felt that pit return to his stomach and rushed over.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Mark’s gone.” Dena didn’t even turn around as she replied, still examining the ground.

“Gone?” Dylan felt his voice crack a bit.

“It’s not like that,” Chester said. “We think he exited the Tutorial. We’re just double checking for traces to make sure.”

Relief immediately flooded Dylan’s body, but it couldn’t wash away all his anxiety. “What happened?” he repeated.

“Alice shielded us from one of the web shooters, but there was an armored spider that came at us from behind,” Sara explained. “Mark threw a rock at it to get its attention and then ran over here.” She pointed around the area the group was searching. “Then it blew up.”

“We haven’t seen any signs of his body, so we’re assuming he managed to quit in time to escape,” Chester finished.

“That’s good,” said Dylan. He didn’t particularly like Mark, but he’d hate to see him dead.

“Where do you think he went?” asked Jaiden.

“What do you mean?” Dylan asked in return.

“Well, he’s obviously not from around here,” the Earth Mage gestured vaguely in the air. “Do you think he went back home, or did the System send him somewhere in our world?”

Everyone was quiet for a second.

Dylan had had suspicions about Mark’s origins and had known he wasn’t the only one, but this was the first time anyone had said it outright.

After a moment, it was Sara who responded, “I’ve never heard of a case where the System teleported someone out of the Tutorial to a different location than where they were when they’d entered. I think it’s most likely that Mark came to our world before the Tutorial started and was sent back to our world when he left.”

“But I’ve never heard of anyone travelling across worlds either.” Dylan paused. “I mean, outside of getting teleported to and from the Boon Wars.”

“I have.” Everyone looked over to Chester when he spoke. “A couple decades back, the System set up a Boon War that required multiple sides to work together. My grandfather spent time getting to know his teammates and learned some things.” The Guardian hesitated, looking lost in thought. “He said that their world was more advanced than ours.”

“More advanced?” Jaiden asked.

“A higher tier,” Chester said. “It’s like classes. Worlds advance like we do. I don’t know how it works, but in basic terms, the more mana a world has the more advanced it is. Once that mana crosses a certain threshold, the world moves up a tier.”

“And what does that have to do with traveling between worlds?” Dena asked.

“My grandfather said that when his teammates’ world advanced to the second tier, it went through a period of instability. It was like the Awakening all over again. Expanding planet, rioting monsters, general chaos.” Chester took a breath. “Apparently, when the world was on the verge of advancing, there were storms of ambient mana that would tear space apart. When that happened, those cracks in space would sometimes connect with other worlds, sucking things through.”

“If that’s true, and it is how Mark got here, then that would mean our world is advancing as well,” Sara concluded.

“It would make sense,” Dylan said. “Everyone knows that the level of ambient mana has been rising for years.” He paused, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “And just before the Tutorial started, something happened to the mana around my town. It was short, but storm would be a good way to describe it. It caused a dungeon break.”

Everyone was quiet again.

“Whatever happened,” Chester began, “and whatever happens, we’ll know more once we finish the Tutorial. Besides,” he looked over the group, “we’re just a bunch of newly initiated tier ones. We’re not the people to be doing anything about it. Let’s focus on what’s in front of us.”

Dylan nodded and saw the others do the same.

“Sara, can you keep watch while we meditate?” Chester asked.

“Not a problem.”

Seeing that Rowan and Alice were already resting near the chasm, everyone else took positions along the ground between them.

As Dylan sat, he began to worry about the implications of what he’d just learned. If Fairbasin’s dungeon break wasn’t normal, but the result of some kind of mana storm, how would that affect the town’s efforts to deal with it? And what about the other chaos their world’s advancement would bring?

Dylan shook his head, trying to clear his mind. Chester was right; they were too weak. It wasn’t their turn to deal with things.

What they had to do was to finish the dungeon. Get the best reward they could and better prepare for the future.

Dylan closed his eyes and began to meditate.