I

As dusk turned to night, Eva lit a Fireball✦ to illuminate the path in front of her. Unlike her usual Infusion★ trick, the Fireball✦ had no ongoing cost and was a better alternative as a result. She couldn’t see as well as with the light Infused★ sword, but she also didn’t have to hold it up while she walked, which allowed her to have both her hands free in case something happen—

Eva ducked when she heard the sound of an arrow being shot. The arrow sailed over her head and stuck into a tree. She looked around quickly to assess her situation before realizing she could not see anyone! Instinctively, she launched the Fireball in the direction from whence the arrow came. It splashed harmlessly against a tree—well, as harmless as lighting said tree on fire could be considered ‘harmless’. Importantly, the light from the tree fire showed her what she was up against.

There were a pair of human-looking creatures that had some obviously non-human attributes. For one thing, their skin was green. For another, they had horns coming out of their heads that reminded her of a buck’s antlers, though not quite as big or ornate. They were fairly thin for their height, which was a head shorter than Eva. All in all, they had an advantage in camouflage that came naturally to whatever they were.

She Observed★ one as quickly as she could. They were omyeskadi, and even more importantly, they were sapient according to the information she received back. The one she checked was level 16, and some kind of hunter or ranger class.

Eva drew and Infused★ her sword with light, both because light was great at helping her see in the dark, and also because it was the only other element besides fire that she had boosted the damage of. She Charged★ towards the pair, who scattered in different directions.

Her repeated Charges★, though a significant drain on her stamina, brought her in range of the one she had Observed★ earlier. She slashed at its back and cut deeply as it was unable to Dodge out of the way of her attack. The alien turned sharply when Eva made to Dodge★ an arrow that came from behind. Though it was a good attempt, the arrow was almost silent from some kind of skill the other alien was using and it punctured her armor before cutting her side and exiting out the other side of her armor.

The glancing blow shocked her into action. Despite the pain, she could tell that the fight was more difficult than she was used to. Though they wouldn’t be able to stand against her in a straight up fight, they made up for that by having a good matchup against her with their ranged attacking abilities.

She made the snap decision to go after the one she’d already injured. It was better to limit their numbers rather than risking being attacked on two fronts even if that meant taking some damage by ignoring the second alien.

Eva Charged★ again and caught up to the omyeskadi just in time to barely Dodge★ another arrow. The alien tried to avoid her, but she used the opportunity to grab hold of it with her left arm and Pierce★ its chest with her sword. It did not die instantly, so she repeatedly stabbed it until she got the experience notification, taking two arrows in the back for her trouble.

When it was down to her and the second alien, she gave chase. It harassed her with ranged shots every so often, while at the same time, managing to keep its distance from her relatively steady. She was slowed by the damage she had taken—the arrows were still stuck in her body.

She tossed a Fireball✦ every so often while she ran. Her opponent Dodged them with deft skill. Despite her stats and experience, whatever this alien was, it had better speed and maneuverability than she did despite the lower level. She wondered if that had something to do with whatever class it had.

After chasing for almost an hour, and having drunk most of her Stamina Potions, her quarry escaped into the dark. She’d managed to clip it with one of the Fireball✦’s explosions. When she stopped to catch her breath, no more attacks came her way. She pulled the arrows out and chugged a Health Potion✦ to fix what ailed her. Once in good shape, she cautiously returned back to where she’d encountered the two and walked back towards the human town and her shelter.

The gate was closed for the night when she arrived, but she was able to convince the guards to let her in. One of them had recognized her for her efforts in culling the exploding monsters during the wave a day and a half before. Once inside, she beelined for her shelter and crashed. She was asleep within a minute of getting comfortable.

II

When she awoke the next morning, the first thing she did was to undress and wipe herself down as much as she could before putting on the clothing she’d bought the previous day. It was loose but fit well enough with a belt. Before the training, there was no way she’d have been able to get the pants on, but now she needed her belt just to keep them from falling off!

“Morning, Eva,” said Jakov.

“Morning,” she yawned.

“Nice clothes, where’d you get ‘em?”

“I went to check on the forseli town to see what we’re up against. Stopped by their market and found this amongst the trash.”

Jakov frowned for just a moment. Without her perception being as high as it was, she would have missed it.

“Is that blood on your clothes?” Marie asked when she came back to their camp ten minutes later with her breakfast.

“Yeah. I ran into some alien assholes last night.”

“The forseli are really getting bold!”

“It wasn’t them. Some other kind I’ve never seen before called omyeski or something like that when I Observed★ one of them.”

“Never heard of them. I wonder how many alien bastards there are out there that we still haven’t had to deal with?”

Eva shrugged.

“Well, at least you made it back safely.”

“Thanks. I’m going to get some breakfast then it’s time for the dungeon?”

“You bet!”

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III

Eva awoke the next morning in an odd mood. Part of her wanted to keep going so she didn’t have to deal with any of the consequences of what had gone on throughout the Tutorial, while another part wanted to take a day of rest. After a couple minutes of internal struggle—her residual sleepiness slowing her thought process—she decided on a compromise. She would take it easy during the morning hours before the dungeon run, after which she would give it her all like she usually did.

She stretched and dressed in her much more comfortable clothes. After living in fur armor for nearly a week, they were a welcome comfort. She left her armor in her backpack for the time being—Eva planned to stay in the town for a while—before walking to breakfast.

Breakfast was some kind of fruit skewered on sticks and charred over the fire. It was the first time in a long time she’d had a meal without any meat. Meat was easy to get. Nearly every day, the system was throwing beasts at them that were edible; so much so that any town had either massive piles of rotting flesh or deep pits filled with… rotting flesh. There was just an overabundance of it. However, a balanced diet needed more than just meat. That some enterprising hunters had found vegetables and fruits she could eat greatly boosted her spirits.

Eva sat far away from the gate, where the ground was less touched and plants hadn’t been completely trampled to death. She pulled a couple of flowers and some blades of grass that she twisted into different shapes while her mind wandered.

She thought back to the trainees she was supposed to have continued training but had dumped when the landwalker fighting started in earnest. She felt a stab of guilt over that. It wasn’t the first task she’d dropped, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. There were a lot of things she failed to complete over the years, and those people were just the latest casualties.

Thus far, she’d managed to stick with the fighting without giving up. Having an all seeing and possibly all powerful system giving her objectives in her mind certainly helped keep her on track. That the monsters attacked every day made combat an unavoidable part of her life. She couldn’t escape it even if she wanted to! It was much more akin to a commute to work than it was any particular job she had to do; it was part of survival.

If she knew something about herself, she was a cockroach that would always find a way, even if that involved placing herself in a shitty position so she had no choice but to do it! That was how she finished her studies to receive her degree. Her grades didn’t end up very good, but they were good enough to graduate and get her first job. That was what mattered, after all. That style of thinking left her less able to react to new information since she was stuck completing whatever long-term plans she’d set for herself. That was yet another habit she hoped the changes from the Tutorial would break. She hated herself for much of the pain she’d been through because nearly all of it was her fault.

There was no use dwelling on those issues, Eva figured. Afterall, what good came from putting herself down again when actually making the effort to change was far more important? That's what she would do moving forward. Only if something big changed her perspective would she revisit her past. With the world outside the Tutorial—presumably—changing, she would cast away the parts of herself that she despised, building herself into the woman she always wanted to be.

Eva stuck the completed flower bracelet on her arm and lay on the ground. The sky was a cloudless blue, the same as it had been since the beginning of the Tutorial. There’d been no rain and yet nothing felt dry. It was as if the weather was frozen to be as perfect as it could be, maybe to remove distractions or maybe to simplify the scenario. She mentally shrugged. It was just another oddity in a sea of oddities.

The one thing the nice weather did have—that she enjoyed with her eyes closed on the ground—was a fairly constant breeze. It wasn’t quick, but just enough to be pleasant without being cold or in the way. It was the kind of weather she’d have wished for if she could have her wishes granted, not that perfect weather would be anywhere near the stop of the list. Still, it was nice to feel the heat of the sun on her face and the cooling breeze washing over her.

IV

Two hours later—most of which she napped through—Eva got up and stretched. It was time for the Journeyman★ dungeon with the team. She put on her armor and met the others by the gate with a pleasant smile on her face. For the first time since she’d been yoinked from her life, she felt at peace. Mostly. There were a few regrets that dogged her in spite of her decision to let the past go, but she felt miles better than before.

The run through the dungeon at Journeyman★ was a fair bit slower than she could have done on her own. The others had to pair off against the gingerbread men while she was able to toast the remaining one or two with Fireballs. She was glad she’d eaten breakfast or she would have been salivating for their disintegrating gingery corpses. She still was, of course, but she wasn’t hungry enough to try it.

With all of them going for the witch at the end, there were no issues. It was killed in around half a minute, not really having a chance to display its abilities. Eva made a mental note to remind her teammates that she would need to see what the boss could do at Adept✶ as she’d have to face it alone in the end.

It had been a profitable run, in the end. She’d gotten a fair few shards to stick in her ring, though the quality of them left something to be desired as the majority were Basic. The experience gained was minimal with the tier difference penalty, but she was able to get a level to her Fireball skill, enough to upgrade it.

Journeyman Fireball★ Lv 1

Deals 3.1 damage per mana spent

Creates an explosion, dealing 12% additional damage in a sphere 1.2 yards across

She’d taken the option that gave a bonus to the explosion damage. The strongest Fireball★ she could throw dealt a bit more than 500 damage, including around 55 damage to anyone caught in the explosion. The first number was more than enough to kill someone around level 18 before taking into account whatever strange fuckery happened with the difference in tiers. She was fairly sure that anyone under level 20 would be one-shot by it.

After they exited the dungeon, Eva walked out of the gate and sat on one of the many stumps that littered the ground in front of the walls around the dungeon. She had an hour to follow the old army adage: why stand when you can sit?

There are 15 days remaining

3733/10000 are still alive

New Quest: Defeat a monster wave. 0/454killed

Out into the clearing crawled an army of ants led by a handful of lieutenants. They were the size of dogs, which gave their steady march an eerie quality to it, punctuated by the rubbing of chitin against chitin. Observe★ put their levels at around 14, with the lieutenants at 19. All of them within easy Fireball★ range.

The defenders on the wall shot their arrows and the oncoming ants, most of which failed to penetrate their natural armor. Eva lit her first Fireball★ and threw it into the crowd. The hit killed one outright and the explosion hit two others, damaging them enough that a few incoming arrows were enough to finish the job.

She tossed the rest of her mana pool worth of Fireballs, eliminating around 40 ants in under 30 seconds. A worthy achievement to be sure, but running dry on mana meant that it was time to light her sword on fire and exterminate the bug problem.

Eva Charged★ into the sea of ants, Piercing★ them with her fire Infused★ shortsword. Most fell to a single stab with the occasional hit missing enough of the vital areas to require a second poke to finish the job. The lieutenants were a bit larger but otherwise were as easy for her to step on as the privates.

Though she had to chug a couple Stamina Potions to stay fighting, Eva was able to clear a good fifth of the ants by herself, netting at least some experience. The tier difference again cutting into her net gains. She wished she knew more about the system. It was a pain in the ass trying to figure out anything useful without someone like Hideki helping her.

Eva walked to a nearby stump and sat down. Losing Hideki still hurt in spite of the revenge she’d undertaken. Retribution didn’t bring him back, and only pain mixed with a knot of silent rage was left in his place. She knew she’d have to deal with those feelings eventually. She knew she couldn't ignore them forever. However, that day was some time in the future. She would bury them as long as she could get away with it.