Chapter 21) The Pro. Or, Oh it’s you again.

There was no countdown this time, just a terribly familiar sounding bellow of rage echoing down the long hall from the entry room.

“Oh good, I get to deal with her some more. Such a joy.”

No wait time for the air to replenish either. I guess a failure state means no reset.

Gloria had all the things she had with her when she went into the exit portal, which meant she should still have the skills and other unlocks she had earned as well. She also had her same old attitude, just with some new complaints.

“What the sort of bull excrement-” My words, not hers. “ are you trying to pull here? When my husband hears about this..."

I sort of ignored the next few minutes of her going off while I thought about things a bit.

So if the Tutorial fails, they start over? What happens if they fail because they die somehow? Like when I "die" while I'm in a starter monster. If I was going to experiment to find out what happens if I kill someone with a starter monster, I don't think I'm going to find a better qualified person to risk the life of than the one I got right here.

No. Bad Tex. Just because you’re an inhuman ball of light, it’s not the time to start thinking that way.

Dungeons are supposed to train people, not kill them. Right?

Actually they are supposed to imprison people. Like how I’m stuck here for the nest nine thousand some people... and like the people I’ve trapped on the other sides of those portals…

What is it that I’m really doing here?

“Are you listening to me!”

Oh, is she done? “No, I’m not.” She sputtered at me with a look of disbelief. “You were told you had to unlock armor along with everything else. Now go put on that coat and get your club ready. This time you’re going to fight, not just club something in the head that isn’t even defending itself. I let you down by letting you get away with that last time.”

I guess she didn’t like me talking like that to her, since she whaled on the goblin I created for her to fight, this time I didn’t even have to jump into it.

Then I had to argue with her to use the same gate again, I wonder if she was giving me such a hard time at the end there because she realized she would never get the chance to force me to listen to her complaints again once she stepped through again.

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I think it was only when she realized how out of breath she was and what it meant that her eyes went wide and she turned to dash through the gate to the Plane of Slaughter.

If I could have held my breath while I waited to see if a failure Panel popped up again, I would have.

8: Gloria Arlington. A very unpleasant woman.

I played around with some of the weapons in the form of a goblin while I waited for the next customer, getting a feel for them so I could make some recommendations.

The next few people were pretty nice.

9: LaJaun Tate. Misses her kids.

10: Senji Patel. Ready for the next adventure.

Then we had Matt Thomas.

Matt was a fit looking guy, a little on the short side, and his hair was going white on the sides even though he looked thirty something at worst.

There was nothing wrong with Matt, in fact, he was not only cooperative with unlocking things but eager.

“So I get to use spells, and I get a special fighting ability. Sign me up.”

Matt had been a computer guy, he didn't go into much detail, but her was also some sort of medieval equivalent of a Civil War reenactor, so swords and shields instead of flintlocks and hardtack.

“Can you believe I got Quartermaster and Town Guard as my other options? No thanks."

He was also pretty excited to get in as many fights as he could.

"For once, I get to use real weapons, and I don't have to hold back so I don't hurt anyone."

Despite his eagerness, I had him unlock the four skills mean for Fighters, [ Skinning ], and [ Cooking ] as well as the spells before I let him go at the weapons.

I even made doing so his quests, Mind, Wit, and Health at his request. “Smarter and more alert are always going to help. Tougher will too.”

Fighting the starter monster on their own wasn’t enough for him once he found out I could take control of them. I think he would have kept me fighting until he ran out of air if he had the chance, but I didn’t mind. I was learning a few things myself.

"Hold your shield like this, so all you have to do is tilt it down to protect your leg, or swing it up to cover your head."

“Snap your wrist at the end of your swing, you want to hit with the tip of the blade to concentrate the force.”

“Don’t just go forward and backwards, circle around, use the room.”

That last one was what caused a… issue.

I went after him, I circled, and I took some steps back when I needed to. I ended up with the middle portal right behind me just as he surged forward and pushed me with his shield up against mine…

And I took three steps back, right into the portal for the City of Tesero.

I guess telling me to keep track of my surroundings would have been some good advice too.

Everything went red around me as I stepped back, my view of the room rapidly shrunk away as I drifted back. I heard Matt yell out, "Hold on…"

Then I was stumbling backwards into a great big room made of cracked and fallen marble columns, statues, and walls.

The dim light of a sunrise shined right into the open doorway of what looked like an old Greek temple.

[ Welcome to The City of Tesero ]

Then before I could read the follow up messages, Mr Rude, with a crazed look in his eyes, was standing in front of me with a jagged hunk of stone in his hands held up above his head.

And he brought it down into my face.

Abruptly I was floating above the center of my dungeon once again, just like every other time I got killed away from my dungeon.

“Well, ain’t that something..”

Heading towards the final room to let Matt know I was okay, I found no sign of him or any of his stuff.

“No.”

Please tell me he didn’t…

I flew at the gate for Tesero and smacked into a solid barrier like a bird hitting a window.

“Right. Need to be like a Trainee to exit. I knew that. Now.”

Paneling in a fresh goblin, I focused my way into it and stepped into the red portal to the city of the dead.

To find Matt and Mr. Rude staring each other down.

Great...