Dungeon nine, it turned out, was the one Tess had preferred to utilize as a final test before sending her apprentices off. Its final boss monster was a protodrake, an early stage of dragon evolution, making it the toughest of the Tutorial dungeons. It had an official name of course, but she referred to it as the Nest.

There was no external indication that these invaders were utilizing the dungeon, but that did not mean they could be inside. If they were intending to move Charles to another location in a relatively short amount of time, it would have to mean there were at least some already inside as the Nest took more than an hour to clear solo. The question was just how many were inside.

Seeing no point in waiting outside for too long, Tess watched as Charles was led through the instance gate before breaking her cover and entering immediately after. The transfer took only a moment, making her emergence into the dungeon a surprise to the escorts. It seemed that her presence back within the Tutorial was still unknown for the moment. Their surprise made them slow to react to Tess as she cut down the pair before breaking the bindings that Charles was bound by.

“Hello adventurer…” Charles started.

Tess slammed her hand over his mouth, muffling his speech. While there were not any of the other soldiers at the entrance, they could be close enough to react still. Tess grabbed Charles hand and pulled him along, peering around corners before taking each turn. Up ahead she knew of a secret chamber that required a specific set of circumstances to enter. She had never put knowledge of this chamber in her guide book as it was so specific that she had felt it unnecessary. Arriving at the dead end tunnel, she tapped a series of stalactites, each giving off a slight musical tone. She had no idea what song the notes produced, but she did find it comforting. Upon touching the last note in the sequence, a section of rock appeared to crack in a perfect door shape before retracting and sliding to the side. Tess dragged Charles inside and slapped the door behind them, which slid shut and left them in complete darkness.

“Thank you.”

Tess whipped around to stare at Charles, who had just spoken a phrase she had not prompted. The lights of this secret chamber, hidden from view, illuminated the room with a gentle glow. She saw tears welling up in his eyes, and reached out to touch his bruised face. His eyes shut at her touch and his seemed to sigh in relief. Then he collapsed on the spot.

Tess was not very knowledgeable about medical situations, but coupled with her healing magic she was capable of providing basic first aid. Charles’ collapse was nothing that she was capable of dealing with. She had immediately poured magic into him, relieving the superficial wounds and damage, which failed to wake him.

“This better be him unlocking your abilities and such.”

The secret chamber was a strangely comfortable place, fully furnished like a one room apartment. If not for the small size and odd location, Tess would have made it her primary residence during her time in the Tutorial. Instead she kept it as a special hideaway.

As she placed Charles on the bed, she checked up on how much time she still had. Timekeeper had over ten hours still on her self imposed timer. The fact that she now had to wait for Charles to be mobile again was an unexpected delay that she wished Chariel had warned her of. Granted, she continued to remain skeptical of the creator of the System and her new overseeing deity.

Tess considered leaving, clearing out the remainder of the Nest while waiting for Charles to recover. It would save on some of the time she had remaining, but two thoughts occurred to her. First, taking a moment to rest was always beneficial in intense situations. Secondly, Charles had not used his skills in a long time. The Nest would be a good place to refresh him on their functions. Tess set Timekeeper to alert her in an hour and settled in a chair to rest.

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“I cannot identify the intruder,” Origin said, “They possess a profile inaccessible through the main MSI server database.”

“So find the database that has them in it and tell me who it is,” Viktor ordered.

“The process is hindered by the isolation of the MSI servers. I am attempting to locate the database via other connections. Other databases containing copies of the System program have been identified.”

“Likely those,” Viktor said, gesturing to the hundreds of biographies lining the shelves of the cabin.

“Tracking the intruder, they have just entered into Dungeon #9. It seems likely they are here for the merchant.”

“Daddy? I’m sure it’s her,” Olivia said.

Viktor contemplated the possibility.

“Yes. I agree. I am most curious about how she got here and for what purpose she needs the merchant. Let’s find out.”

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Timekeeper’s alert woke Tess right on schedule. While she really wanted to continue her restful nap, the urgency of her situation was more pressing.

“You’re awake.”

Despite being awake, she had been trying to fight it by keeping her eyes shut. The words she had never expected to hear ended that fight. She took in the sight before her, almost not daring to believe that this was the same person.

Charles was now clad in heavy looking, segmented plate armor with a glyph of some sort etched onto each piece. A sheathed blade on each hip gave him two options for distance while the shield slung across his back seemed to be from a scaled creature. He wore no helmet, instead using a simple white headband which was tied around his forehead. A grim expression was on his face, yet she saw it soften as she took in his new look.

“Hello, Ther.. Sorry, Tess. It is a pleasure to finally meet you,” he said.

Tess felt her heart skip a beat.

“Charles. I… Yes. It is wonderful to meet you. Or meet you again? I’m not really sure.”

“I remember everything from your time here.”

“Oh. You do?”

Tess felt the heat rising as she thought about some of the one sided conversations she had with him, thinking that he had no retention of her comments. There were definitely some things that she would have never said had she known this day would come. Charles, however, waved his hand.

“Sort of. There are some hazy bits and I don’t have a perfect memory. What I do know though is that there is a reason Chariel freed me. What is it?”

The shift in tone changed the atmosphere. Tess got serious to match him.

“The ones I rescued you from are taking over the System. Even he is having trouble containing them. So he’s sending us somewhere so I can train and fight them directly. You have apparently been there before and are supposed to be my guide.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Ubeta.”

Tess shrugged.

“If you say so.”

Charles closed his eyes and rubbed one hand over his face.

“Do you need to readjust yourself to working with your skills?” she asked.

“No. Despite how long it has been, it was a short time compared to how long I’ve been his champion.”

“That’s another thing. He picked me. Should I be worried?”

A pained expression crossed his face.

“I suspected as such when you were here for such a long time. But let’s focus on getting out of here first. We will have to discuss what happens with him at a later time.”

Both rose from their respective seats. Tess was amazed at how much his gear filled out Charles’ frame and made him look intimidating. She tugged her hat down to hide her face as she felt its color changing again.

“H-how do you fight?” she asked.

Charles let out a chuckle.

“Is it too obvious that I’m a paladin, a holy warrior? It’s a sort of cruel joke. The copy of a deity, who is at odds with said deity, channeling the power of that deity.”

“So I guess you’ll be up front. I suppose I can focus on magic support.”

“That would be nice. I won’t stop you from getting into a scrap though if you want.”

“Thanks,” she said, “Let’s finish up the Nest and head to the obelisk.”

“The Nest… That’s an interesting name,” Charles commented.

Tess opened the doorway back out into the dungeon proper.

“Shut up.”

Charles laughed as he moved past to take point. Tess followed behind, embarrassed by his teasing.

The journey through the remainder of the Nest was quick. Tess had only completed the dungeon when she was at a much lower level, so having the two of them just breeze through the dungeon as they were threw off her time estimations. Charles was literally just poking the monsters with his finger and they dropped dead. That was not even taking into account that those same monsters were unable to even damage him, a feat completely the opposite of what she had seen from Charles in the past. He had been essentially a practice dummy when bound by Chariel’s restraints, very capable of dying.

The pair rounded the corner to the last stretch just before the final boss chamber, stopping at the sight of the mercenary team holding near the chamber. Tess was about to unleash a massive spell when Charles disappeared from just before her. He now stood at the chamber entrance, the mercenaries around him collapsing in much the same manner as the monsters. She had not even noticed what he did to kill them this time.

“Come on. We don’t want to keep them waiting, right?” he called back.

“Who?” she asked, darting forward to catch up.

Tess had an idea of who was waiting, but she really did not want to believe it. Charles raised an eyebrow before ducking into the boss chamber and smacking down the protodrake. She was relieved that he was not rusty in a fight and that he seemingly had no issues utilizing his skills, but it left her wondering why he could not simply take out Viktor right now. Together, they opted to leave the dungeon and teleported back outside of it to complete silence.

“Visitors,” Charles remarked.

The shots rang out as Tess dodged by sprinting to the right, intending to sweep around to the flank of their assailants. She cut through four with little effort before she found herself rejoined with Charles.

“How many did you get?” he asked.

“Four. And you?”

“Eight.”

“How?”

“If we are going where I believe, you’ll see soon.”

“That relies on us getting out of here.”

The rest of the trip to the obelisk was relatively uneventful. They primarily moved stealthily, though there was an element of haste. Tess’s Timekeeper clock still had over six hours, but she was aware that the element of surprise had long since passed. That fact was even more obvious as the obelisk site came into view.

“I suppose you are not here to join me after all,” Viktor called out.

Tess and Charles stood a distance away, looking up the hill to the three individuals standing near the obelisk. Tess noted that Olivia looked nervous about being there, while Viktor was a step forward and clearly in charge. The third, the golem-like individual, was still a mystery to her.

“No,” she called back.

“A shame really. You look very different, merchant. But what do you think you could possibly do with all that gear? Did the girl give it to you?”

“I suppose I’ll let you in on one of my secrets,” Charles replied, “This was how I performed my old job.”

“He does speak! And not the gibberish!” Viktor seemed surprised, “Perhaps he will be more amenable to our questions, Origin.”

“It is possible, sir.”

“That won’t happen,” Charles interrupted.

Viktor moved, disappearing with his sheer speed from his position up on the hill and reappearing before them.

“Rabble answers to me,” Viktor claimed.

Charles caught Viktor’s hand, stopping the cutting motion towards his throat. He wretched Viktor’s hand back, causing him to drop the dagger he had intended to use. Tess could barely keep track of the movements. The two began a high speed duel, which Tess’s attention was pulled away from by the feeling of a certain individual’s skill being used.

“Counter.”

Olivia looked devastated as Tess focused on her.

“Daddy made me work on that. How is a nobody like you able to stop it?” she cried out.

Tess felt a wave of pity, which switched to alarm as Olivia started using something else. She considered using Counter again, but she did want to see how far Olivia had come since their fight just the other week. Olivia had been underwhelming when they had fought then, so if Viktor had forced her to train then perhaps Olivia might be strong enough to be the hero Oena needed. Whatever she was using, it was not something Tess had seen her do before.

“Try it. Come on, you can do this,” Tess whispered.

The clash of the duel between Charles and Viktor faded as Tess focused on Olivia’s oncoming attack. In rapid succession she threw up her magical defenses as, while it was becoming an impromptu test, she had no intention of falling to Olivia. A vortex of water gathered in front of Olivia as the magic nearby condensed into physical form. Olivia gave a sneering smirk as Tess appeared to just stand there. Tess had meanwhile identified six ways to dismantle the spell, not counting the various other ways she could disrupt Olivia during this lengthy casting time.

“Die,” Olivia muttered.

The vortex collapsed into its center, leaving an orb of water present for a fraction of a second. The orb burst forward, shooting forth a singular stream of highly pressurized water directly at Tess. Olivia started laughing as the stream impacted Tess’s magical shield and cracked straight through the first layer without slowing. As the second layer cracked, Tess was actually impressed.

“When you do try, you can do things,” Tess commented.

She turned as the stream cracked through the other magical layers, dodging the physical impact it was about to make. The stream carried on, impacting and slicing through the trees in behind Tess as Olivia moved it to try and hit Tess. Tess used her own speed to barely stay ahead of the stream.

“You forgot something important again, Olivia,” Tess chided, “My mobility renders your power ineffective. If you can’t hit me, why invest the power?”

“Shut up!”

The distraction was enough that Tess had forced Olivia’s orientation to change. While she had focused on dealing with Olivia, she had kept an awareness of Charles’ location. Olivia had failed to notice the change, and aimed her spell at where Charles and Viktor were fighting.

“Charles! Now!” Tess called out.

Tess dodged out of the pathway of the spell, revealing the improvised trap. Charles had somehow disengaged, leaving Viktor the only target of Olivia’s rampant spell. Together they charged to the obelisk, which began to glow red at their approach. Olivia’s scream and an explosion sounded behind them as they reached out and touched the obelisk. Instantly, they were whisked away from the Tutorial and crashed to the ground at a new location.

Charles offered a hand to Tess, assisting her as they both rose. Tess looked out at the landscape before them. It felt very similar to the Tutorial or to Iriea, but at the same time strangely different. A certain weight seemed to hang in the air.

“Welcome to Ubeta,” Charles said with a sigh, “Or as some might call it, the beta test.”