Tess set the last communal serving of breakfast down on the kitchen table, then piled her own plate with food. Olivia groggily stumbled her way to the table and started fixing her own plate. She was very much not a morning person.

“Good morning!” Tess said before another bite of fluffy pancake.

“Mmmm,” came the grumpy reply, “What'ssso good about it?”

“It's the start of a lovely new day and new opportunities for growth. You're going to need it! Eat up!”

Olivia frankly looked as though she just wanted to crawl back into bed. In a way, Tess thanked the fact that lighting was limited, or rather than she chose for it to be so, as it forced sleep after sunset and wakefulness at sunrise. While she was fine due to her skills, Olivia was not at the same level and so a good night's rest was still critical.

Breakfast passed with more mundane topics of conversation as Olivia became more alive with each passing moment. Tess was pleased that the web question session had opened Olivia up a bit. There was concern about the level of arrogance Olivia still showed, but there was still the opportunity to get knocked down a peg or two in the Tutorial that would solve that. Probably.

“Let's go to the dungeon,” Tess said.

Olivia stared at her.

“I'm not into weird stuff like that.”

“What?”

“What do you mean, what? You said you wanted to go to a dungeon. I'm saying I don't do that kind of stuff.”

Tess looked confused, then it hit her.

“Oh. Not that kind of dungeon. Me neither. This one will help you learn important skills and such. Get your gear though,” she laughed, “It will be useful.”

Tess could not stop laughing again at the thought of the Magical Girl Uniform on Olivia. Olivia grumbled something before stalking back into her room. As Tess cleaned up, she thought about the best type of magic to teach Olivia. Water or wind magic were good supportive types that had some offensive capacity. Earth was defensive and fire was strictly offensive. Those were just basic types though. She could teach Olivia a more advanced type like summoning or healing, but only having those would leave a mage weak. Olivia was ignorant, but actually it would ultimately be her choice.

Tess decided to show off a little. Instead of donning her typical gear load out, she was going to show Olivia the power that she had randomly acquired from the Random Box.

“Hey Olivia? What color should I use?” Tess called out.

The door creaked open slightly as Olivia peered out.

“What?”

“Pick a color for me to use.”

“For what?”

“You'll see.”

“Fine. Red, I guess.”

“Thank you.”

The door shut again. Tess selected the red one from her inventory and several matching pieces to complete the look. Then she started picking through her excess gear to gather those same other pieces for Olivia once she emerged.

Twenty minutes later, Olivia stepped out in the white, form-fitting yet one-size-too-small unitard with the matching stocking leggings and sleeves and the overly poofy shoulders and the giant blue ribbon on the chest.

“Is this really necessary? It kind of hurts here,” Olivia said as she tried to stretch out the fabric around her chest.

“Absolutely!” Tess said, stepping out of her room.

Olivia's jaw dropped. Tess had stepped out in a nearly identical Magical Girl Uniform. Except, it seemed, that Tess had a little more space in the chest and the ribbon was red instead of blue. Tess also had on some sort of silver tiara that had little wing designs on the sides that swept backwards. She was also sporting a pair of thigh high boots with a completely impractical heel that must have had Tess walking on her toes. She carried a metal staff painted white with a bunch of red ribbons tied on it in seemingly random places and atop which was a glowing pink heart that slowly spun in place.

“Tada!” Tess said, beaming.

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“Kill me now,” Olivia muttered.

“Nonsense! You need these too!”

Tess waved the staff and suddenly Olivia found herself with all the other elements that she did not already possess. She instantly started wobbling as indeed the boots were impractical. Fortunately her new blue ribboned heart staff acted as a crutch of sorts.

“How are we supposed to do anything like this?” Olivia asked as she tried desperately not to roll her ankles.

“Activate the crown,” Tess said.

Tess started floating just above the ground, though not so high as to touch the ceiling.

“How?”

“Oh right.”

Tess gave the explanation by walking Olivia through the various interface windows to activate the gear.

“Once you do it enough, you won't have to do all the navigation and can just think it.”

“Great,” Olivia replied, unconvinced.

Tess floated over to the door and pulled it open.

“To the dungeon!”

The pair took off flying towards the dungeon. Tess struck various flight poses as she did so, as it had been some time since she had done this. Olivia meanwhile was just trying to maintain her orientation as she awkwardly tumbled through the sky. By the time they arrived at the dungeon, Olivia definitely had left the contents of her stomach somewhere back along their trip.

“So what sort of magic do you think you want to know?” Tess asked.

Olivia was on her knees, dry heaving as nothing remained to vomit out. Tess glanced back and without a word cast a couple of healing spells on the poor girl. Instead of perking right up, she instead flopped over in exhaustion.

“Can I just go back to bed instead?”

“Nope. We're here. So choose something.”

Tess leaned over to stare at Olivia's face.

“How can you even stand in those things?”

“Still have the crown activated. Just touching the ground. You know those cool, last second dashes that heroes do? That's how I replicate the feat.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“Oh,” Tess said with a frown.

“I have no idea about magic either. So how would I pick?” Olivia pointed out.

“Fine.”

Tess pulled out her hidden treasure pouch and opened it. Her hand went in, far beyond the depth its appearance gave, as she rummaged through for something. Olivia stared in shock, still amazed by every seemingly impossible feat magic gave Tess.

“Ah, there they are.”

Tess pulled out a pair of folding lounge chairs like one might find on a beach. In an instant they were set up and Olivia was dragged into one. Tess sat in the other and began a long-winded talk on magic. Olivia absorbed none of it.

“Stop. Stop. Just stop,” Olivia interrupted not even two minutes in, “Say it simply.”

Tess thought for a moment.

“Magic can, to an extent, perform extraordinary feats that you can't otherwise do, so long as you know the incantation or formula and it's within the bounds of your specialty.”

“So you want me to pick a specialty?”

“That's what I've been asking you to do.”

“No it isn't,” Olivia said exasperatedly.

Tess waved a hand.

“Details. Point is you can't fight without a specialty.”

“And if I don't fight?”

“As I said, you die.”

Olivia continued to look lost. Tess started growing irritated.

“Fine. You know what? All around it is. You're going to learn Water Magic.”

“Finally. Thank you.”

Tess pulled her out of the chair, then put them both away while muttering about a wasted lecture.

“Now, to start. Imagine that you're sucking on a straw,” Tess started.

Olivia followed Tess's direction.

“Now as the water is coming up, think about it squirting from a hose.”

Olivia continued following along.

“And say aloud Water Spurt.”

“Water Spurt.”

A dribble of water appeared before Olivia, dripping pitifully onto the ground.

“Good. Now you should have the notification.”

Tess spent the next several minutes walking Olivia through several basic water spells. Upon finishing, she clapped her hands together.

“And with that, in we go.”

Tess shoved Olivia through the invisible Portal into the dungeon. Olivia screamed as she disappeared from the main Tutorial level and into this Tutorial dungeon.

“After this I'll teach her Appearance,” Tess said before following.

----------------------------------------

Elsewhere

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“Why am I getting complaints forwarded to me?!” the System's supervisor deity demanded.

The lesser deity in charge of the System's Maintenance Mode did not bother to answer. It would not matter what he said to this supervisor.

“What have you been working on besides these complaints? It's your job to fix the implementations when they bug out.”

“The complaints are coming in faster than I can fix them alone. I could really use an extra hand.”

“That's not happening. If we pull anyone else from Development, the next iteration of the System will be delayed… again. Just focus on the complaints rather than this… tracking worm? What would you need this for?”

The lesser deity considered actually answering the question, but the likelihood that his concern would be addressed was about as likely as having a productive conversation with the supervisor. He made a decision.

“It was to try and solve one of those bugs, but I don't think it'll be needed anymore.”

The lesser deity started thinking about the chaos the complaint about that stuck hero would cause the supervisor when it arrived.