Tess woke up precisely an hour before the next summoning would occur. It was one of the benefits of Timekeeper, one of the more mundane skills she had picked up over her long tenure in the Tutorial. Her Recovery skill, paired with her high Fortitude statistic, was more beneficial as the two meant that regardless of how short her rest was, she was always at peak performance.
She remained in bed for a minute, contemplating whether she really wanted to take on another apprentice right away or let them flail around for a bit.
“Well. It wouldn't hurt to see I guess,” she said to no one.
In a few minutes she had changed into her armor and donned her chosen weapons as well. The Appearance skill hid the true strength of the gear she used by making them appear to be made of more generic materials rather than the gaudy metals and designs that high class gear tended to have. She had come to find those who flaunted their perceived power as more reckless than those who did not. Granted, sometimes it was necessary to present a powerful facade.
Tess finally packed a small basket with a variety of fruits, some bread, and some dried meat before setting off. Her journey was swift, as she had carried out the trip countless times and therefore knew the most efficient route to get there. Arriving at the circular stones and the obelisk again, she sat beneath a nearby tree and waited. She pulled out an apple from the basket and started slowly eating as she watched the central obelisk, Timekeeper keeping her appraised of the current time.
“Three, two, one. Here we go.”
The obelisk's runes lit up with a magical flare. Circuit-like lines stretched from the center to the surrounding stones, causing various images to appear within their archways as the individual was sought by the magic summoning. Over the course of a few seconds, the images stopped shifting as each focused on the one person that was about to be here. A final flash of blue light and the light show was over, a single standing figure all that remained. The figure spun around, as though to take in their surroundings, then collapsed on the spot.
“Crap, a fainter.”
Tess bit into the apple as she rose and approached. She arrived next to their form and nudged them with her foot.
“Hey. You okay?” she asked loudly.
Hooking her foot under their shoulder, she flipped the person over so they were now face up, revealing that they were a young woman. The young woman’s face was covered currently in a copious layer of makeup that gave Tess no idea what she might actually look like. Her hair was curly, well-maintained, and of medium length. She had on a fine fur coat over a revealing, yet still fabulous, black knee-length dress.
“Rich girl,” Tess murmured.
Whether she was from some sort of nobility or upper class did not matter much anymore. Here in the Tutorial, and likely beyond it too, she was going to have to work for whatever she wanted. Tess sighed. These sorts of people were tough to break out of their ways, but Tess had more than a handful of them and so knew how to snap them out of it fast. It was not going to be pretty though, that was for certain.
She took another bite of the apple, wandering back to her basket and grabbing it. She took a few minutes to adjust the position of her weapons, as carrying the unconscious woman was going to be hard if left unmoved. Satisfied, she went back to the woman and sat her up against the obelisk. Once she was in position, Tess pulled hard to get the woman up onto her back like a firefighter. Feeling secure about her hold, Tess took the final bite of the apple before tossing the remaining core into the forest and setting off towards the cottage.
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Tess set the woman down on the bed in the guest room she had in the cottage. It was not fancy, by any means, but it was soft and functional. Somehow, all the jostling from the trip had not woken the woman, which briefly concerned Tess as to whether she might have a concussion or something similar. A simple use of Analyze though showed no serious medical concerns.
Tess took a quick moment to set down her own belongings and quickly change into something more comfortable for the next task. She also dug through all the excess clothing she had procured to find something that would likely fit the other woman. Settling for a simple set of pants and tunic, she got to work.
First to go was the other woman's coat and dress. Tess carefully did a quick, magical cleaning of the garments before folding them up and placing them nearby. With a follow-up of what she had dubbed Shower Magic, Tess also cleaned up the other woman. Then she pulled the extra clothes onto the other woman. Tess did struggle a little, much to her own irritation, with the tunic and left the drawstring loose at the neck to compensate. She finally tucked the woman into the bed before stepping out of the room.
The sun rose as Tess put the finishing touches into the book that she had written of Daniel’s tale and his time here. As she let the final bit of ink dry, there was a scream.
“Ah. There she goes,” Tess murmured.
Slowly, she closed the book and casually walked over to the bookshelf. Sliding her finger across the names, she pushed open a space so that Daniel’s book would be alphabetically consistent with the rest. As she placed the book onto the shelf in the space, the door to the guest room swung open, crashing into the wall.
“Who the hell are you?” demanded the woman.
“Tess. And you?” she replied without even looking.
“What? Do you seriously not know who I am?” the woman said angrily.
Tess quietly turned to face her.
“No, I don’t.”
“I am the daughter of OES’s CEO! You will release me at once!”
“Good for you? I don’t really care. Your OES status, or rather that of your mother or father apparently, means nothing here.”
The woman stood flabbergasted at Tess’ nonchalance. Tess figured it was likely one of the first times that someone outside her family, if not someone at all, had ever stood up to her. Tess watched the metaphorical wheels turn inside the woman’s head, then her skin flush red as she stormed towards Tess.
The woman brought her hand up and tried to slap Tess across the face. Tess countered with a block, bringing her hand to a complete stand-still. In the same motion, Tess slapped her across the face with her other hand, with heavily restrained force, and sent her spinning to the ground. The woman started crying.
“And now you should see the notification that you received the skill Toughness,” Tess said, ignoring the woman’s wailing, “Recovery is next.”
Tess advanced menacingly.
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Elsewhere
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“A hero!” the lesser deity shouted in surprise.
Somehow, a summoned hero had gotten stuck in the Tutorial. For some reason, he could not access her information, but it seemed that he would need to flush her out of the Tutorial. If she was there, it would explain everything about the other heroes ‘breaking’ the System.
The Tutorial was supposed to be quick and, well, not the most helpful. It was to give the basics and then have the hero move along. They would maybe pick up a unique skill or advance a common one to a high level before leaving, giving them an edge.
Not able to see her status though, he could only guess at how many unique skills she may possess. How high those unique skills, not even mentioning the common ones, might be. This was bad. He could not even do anything within the Tutorial as it had death prevention. He would have to do something within the client's version of the System.
But first he had to get her out of there. He started frantically writing a patch for the Tutorial.