Sophia was back into the void.

Not just the sense of deprivation she felt while her system window was open. But the sensation of being disincarnated once again, deprived of her own agency, and utterly at the mercy of the system.

You have completed the tutorial first floor and earned a new boon.

After you are done with your selection, your companions and yourself will be assigned a new group together. Please try not to antagonize your new companions, if any.

You have nine options available.

Rogue Archetype Sneak Attack Hide Dash Disengage

You can intuit actionable weaknesses of any foes you have an advantage against.

Advantage is acquired by things like utilizing the terrain, getting the upper hand in a fight, surprising your opponent, or sneaking behind them. Get creative!

You get a preternatural sense of stealth akin to precognition to help you prevent being discovered.

You can further hide from enemies by muffling the sound of your steps, sticking to the dark, and avoiding enemies' sightlines.

You gain a burst of speed allowing you to run twice as fast. The effect can be maintained so long that you can concentrate on it and will end within 6 seconds of losing concentration.

After taking a hit, drastically increase your ability to evade getting hit again, for six seconds.

You also get a preternatural sense of danger to evade projectiles aimed at you while fleeing combat.

Weavesinger Archetype Song of Rest Song of Healing Faerzress Wild Magic Magus Arcana

Once per day, you can sing to the Weave to revitalize yourself and your allies.

Everyone who can hear your song recovers from physical or magical fatigue and gets a significant boost to their natural healing.

Commoners enjoy gathering for lunch breaks and listening to a bard Song of Rest, improving productivity by 50% for every workplace benefiting from it.

Once per combat, you can sing to the Weave to evoke a healing energy that heals yourself and your allies.

However, once the danger has passed, your magic fatigue will catch up to you.

This boon improves over time, increasing the charges and potency of the healing energy, by drawing synergy from every other Weavesinger boon you have.

Attune your Feywild magic to the Faerzress, the magical energy found in the Underdark.

While on the surface, this will stabilize your magic further, so long you make regular trip to the underdark.

While in the Underdark, this will temporarily empower your magic, making your spells more potent and your surges, even wilder.

Blend your Primary Archetype with any profane Secondary Archetype allowing you to cast spells. This functionally alters your secondary Archetype to [Magus Weavesinger]

[Rogue Archetype]

Arcane Focus: Choose one weapon to help you keep your concentration while spellcasting.

Spellstrike: you can imbue your chosen weapon with magic and deliver your spells through it.

Fighter Archetype Second Wind

Once per combat, you can draw on your stamina to heal yourself.

However, once the danger has passed, your fatigue will catch up to you.

You cannot assign less than a third of your boons to your Primary Archetype. You can have as many secondary archetypes as you wish but cannot assign them more boons than your Primary. Currently, you have:

[Rogue Archetype (Primary): 2 ] [Weavesinger Archetype: 1/2 ]

You can assign up to 3 boons to your secondary archetypes before you are forced to assign more boons to your Primary.

The message she might get new companions did not surprise her. Matchmaking survivors to optimize their collective survival before putting their adaptability to the test sounded like the best thing to do. Not any of her readings ever mentioned the specifics of meeting new companions so she had guessed the answer was taken for granted.

The bad news was waking up in that slimy pod once again.

But back to the important choice at hand.

She was surprised that the Wizard and Cleric options had disappeared entirely. But she already had magic so she indeed had less need for the default Wizard option. As for Cleric, she guessed it might have something to do with being a warlock. Gods and Patrons had in common to be extremely possessive and hers was probably both.

Then, there were her Rogue options, all amazing in their own right, yet completely underwhelming. She wanted them all but had no pressing need for them, especially Sneak Attack, since she already had an upgrade of the ranged option.

Next, there were her Weavesinger options. And she desperately wanted Magus Arcana but had no spell to use it. Then was the oddly specific Feywild option, which she was certain wasn't some random addition. And finally, the two Song options that Prince had mentioned she should get eventually from her warlock contract. So she was sure Lady Silverhair would be very displeased to learn she would have gotten them for free.

Song of Rest was good. It was her golden ticket back to civilization once the tutorial was done. But she had a more pressing need for Song of Healing. First, it was completely trivializing the Fighter option, Second Wind, healing herself and her allies. Second, it was the only boon she ever saw that mentioned a growth factor.

It would lock her up into choosing a Rogue option next or unlocking a new Archetype, but Song of Healing was the best option here. Plus, she did not want to tempt fate and risk not finding it next time, in case her patron had that sort of influence on the system.

'I will take Song of Healing' She declared to the system and the screen changed to reflect her choice.

'Is there any representative who has signed the terms of services since last time?'

This information cannot be disclosed. You can still browse through the content and see for yourself.

'Of course, as useful as always.' She mumbled to herself and started searching.

She set her filter to tutorial and sorted everything to only see the most recent.

Nothing.

The last article was her own paper about the warlock contract summoning ritual for any future wave. It sounded like early adopters such as her were not a thing. And so far, one representative per wave except the second had done so.

Was she supposed to be alone for this wave too? Had the system even proposed it to anyone but her? She was starting to doubt it. There were over six thousand people in the tutorial. No way so many people would lack curiosity. No way so many people would value privacy or intellectual property over their own lives.

Yet here she was desperately alone.

Was she some sort of experiment within the experiment? Even more disturbing: did the second wave was wiped out not because of imbalance but because someone like her refused to play along?

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

She started to think it through, assuming the almighty aliens were somewhat reasonable and would not do something like this for fun. First, premises, then hypothesis. Then the experiment itself designed to invalidate the premises.

They were told the tutorial was to determine the adaptability of the human race. What if the true goal was to determine if they deserved to be saved? They were given every opportunity to cooperate, given incentives to cooperate, and rewarded for their cooperation. She had been given access to knowledge that could improve everyone else survival but could not freely share with anyone else. How did that add up to her hypothesis? And even more: why???

Ironically enough, she was lacking information to make a better guess or even try to disprove her hypothesis.

She willed herself to wake up, resigned.

★☆★

From inside her respawn pod, she was met with a sight that made her blood boil.

Paolo was unconscious, still in a respawn slimy suit, tied up to a chair, and beside him, another empty chair was waiting for her. And awaiting her were a Fighter, Wizard, and Cleric she did not know but looked positively hostile.

She opened her pod but didn't make a single move to crawl out of it.

And she used Guidance for the very first time, hoping to talk her way out of this situation was among the things a god could help her with. Then, she felt the weight of the divine fall on her shoulders:

"You are going to untie my friend immediately or there will be consequences." She commanded, not believing her ears.

The divine were encouraging her to intimidate them?

"What are you gonna do? You are naked and there are three of us" The Fighter played along, flashing his Axe in her direction.

"Weapons are overrated. Come. Try me." She taunted, feeling the divine guide her, her hand mimicking the gesture of readying herself to throw a non-existent goal.

"You are bluffing." The Fighter called her out on it.

"She is not." The wizard said. "I felt her channel her arcane magic the moment she opened her pod. And she has a monstrous amount of magical energy crawling under her skin, begging to be unleashed. I never saw a Wizard like her before."

"Because I'm not." She heard herself stating with the same booming authority. "I'm a witch and my patron is furious. Now, do as I say or I let her feed you to her hellfire."

And incredibly enough, they bought her bluff and did as she said. It was exhilarating.

"Now back off. I need to get changed. In private." She ordered before feeling the almighty power of the divine Guidance was going off.

She kept the same façade not to give anything away until the three Hostiles had retreated, closing the door behind them.

'That's was something else. I'm never going to underestimate Guidance ever again.' She sighed. 'Never thought I would ever intimidate my way out of a situation like this. That was so Z movie villain performance. And yet, it worked. Are people really so gullible?'

She went immediately for her safe, freeing Prince who had surprisingly waited quietly this time around.

"Thanks," The tressym said. "Quite a performance you did there. Now get dressed while I'm taking care of your friend."

And by taking care, the winged cat meant harassing Paolo until he woke up.

She was fully dressed before he even got to his safe and proceeded to inspect her equipment to give him some privacy.

All her arrows were back to pristine condition and even one arrow she had lost was now back in her quiver.

But the material she had collected from the first floor was gone. Which answered her questions:

Nope. She could not keep anything she was not specifically given by the system.

Which was bad news.

Yet nothing else was missing. Everything she took from the first floor resting area was in the bag, exactly as she left it.

It was yet another clue to ponder in her future hypothesis:

The control experiment only let her keep pre-approved content. Why?

"Thanks for the save." Paolo interrupted her thought. "Those guys were brutal. My head hurts."

She turned over to face him. He looked fine. Nothing much to worry about.

"Let's see why they were so hostile. And if things go sour, you aim to paralyze. And if it's not working, you fry their brains. Got it?" She instructed.

"They won't get me twice." Paolo fiercely promised.

"Good." She approved of his tone and opened the door.

"Greetings, fuckers." She shouted, trying to channel some of the divine confidence Lady Silverhair had temporarily bestowed on her. "Care to explain why you assaulted us?"

"This place was barren, except for the barrack and mess. BARREN. Then you show up, still unconscious in your pods and suddenly, the beds are nice, the food is good, the library is full and the training room is suddenly well-equipped. Who the fuck are you and how far did you get on the second floor?" The Fighter responded, obviously the leader of their group.

There was so much information in that answer already.

They got minimal support from the system. They failed the second floor at least once. They wrongly assumed it was the same for them. And they were reasonably pissed off for their VIP treatment.

"Not our fault the system gave up on you. And that's none of your business. As for who we are: here is Paolo, Battlemage. There is Prince, my tressym familiar and patron's minder. And myself, Sophia, Witch-Rogue extraordinaire. A pleasure to meet you."

She kept trying to emulate the same persona about absolute confidence, looking down on them, but could say her performance was not nearly convincing enough.

Yet, it seemed like a proper introduction had somehow put the other team at ease. And the Fighter responded in kind.

"Blake, pure fighter. Michel, our diviner-rogue specialist. And Sienna, Tempest Cleric of Talos. Now be a dear, tell us how you did it, so we can stock up and get out of your hair."

"The answer is simple: Don't. Stay here. Train. Prove the system its resources are not wasted on you. Then, and only then, when you are confident you can clear this floor, go out and prove it." She replied, sincerely.

It was not something she had to keep for herself anymore as Paolo could have told them the same.

"Where is the rest of your team anyway?" The fighter asked inquisitively.

"Dead." She lied through her teeth "We hoped to regroup with them here. Instead, we got you. Yours?"

"They betrayed us over some loot." He replied grimly.

Ouch. If they had stuck together since the beginning, they had been together for almost a month. That was plenty of time to get emotionally attached to your would-be-backstabbers.

"For what it's worth, I'm willing to accompany you to the nearest exit to the third floor. But we won't join you. We have unfinished business here."

"In that hellhole of a jungle?" The fighter exclaimed, before thinking it through. "Well, that's make sense. The system isn't investing in you for nothing, is it? I can respect that."

"Good. We are going to peruse the library for new books. Then we will invite you for some training. And if we are getting along, we might travel together for a bit." Sophia declared.

She didn't want any of them as a permanent addition to their team. Mainly because she could not trust them in the long run. But they had invaluable experience with this floor and could help each other. First impressions and hard feelings aside, it was a win-win situation.

The fighter nodded and his group retreated to the 'barracks,' leaving them to their own business.

"Talk to the library," she whispered to Paolo. "Prince, can you keep watch by the door please?"

The tressym simply nodded his understanding and went sit by the door as they walked through.

"Sorry for that." She said "I had to bullshit them into thinking I'm some fearsome witch and took the lead. Are you okay?"

"I don't like them," Paolo said. "And that Cleric, she is extra nasty. But I understand your reasoning. Better make use of each other and cooperate until we can get our separate way."

"My thought exactly," Sophia confirmed. "Now, let's look through the library as we said we should."

She opened the door to let Prince go through and they started their inventory.

★☆★

"So we got a new but already obsolete ritual summoning. Some new potions recipes. Hints about how to unlock new archetypes, including what's looking like musical partitions intended for bards. And even more magical theory with no hints of practical use." Sophia summarized, pinching her nose, frustrated and tired.

"Hey! Don't judge a book by its cover. Maybe there is some treasure hidden among all this." Paolo replied "Give me four days. A week, top."

"We have eight weeks left and eleven floors to clear. We cannot afford to stay that long. Burn the midnight oil, pick whatever books sound the most promising, and add them to your bag. I'm picking the potions recipes."

"Not the musical records?" Paolo asked, surprised.

"They are folks song. We might understand the language but we cannot speak it. We do not know the keys. I'm barely getting a vague idea of rhythms. And even if I could learn the percussions or Gods forbid, how to hum the melody, the audience it was intended for is out there, not here." She reasoned pointing at the ceiling.

She was pretty sure that if singing had been the requirement for getting the bard archetype, she could sing 'Over the Rainbow' and the system would not mind.

But she already knew there was something more to bards than singers: they were dancers, comedians, painters, performers of all kinds, and charlatans too. While Rogue was about stealth, sleight of hands, survival, and getting their hands dirty, Bard was about showmanship and deception.

Two things she only recently learned she could do and get away with, let alone be proficient with. And she would probably reach the end of the tutorial before she would grow confident enough to do it without needing some Guidance from her favorite goddess.

"If you say so." Finally said, going back to his readings.

Sophia smiled at his antics. The first floor had done wonder for his confidence. And now the table was turned and he was the avid reader trying to convince her it was worth it. But it wasn't even an argument. She thought the same. But the clock was ticking and she did not want to find out what would happen if they were still within the tutorial after three months.

They were given ninety days. Seven days per floor. They should already be challenging the fourth or fifth floor but had bet everything on further preparations instead. And now, they only had five days left per floor, of which they already spent one. And if the first floor was of any indication, they were barely on schedule if they left tomorrow, first thing in the morning.

Granted, it was her fault for wasting an entire week on the first floor due to an existential crisis. But he chose to wait for her. And now they had to live with the consequences.

She left Paolo to his books. That's what he needed the most anyway.

As for her, time to see how she fared against second-floor veterans.