Teresa had gotten a new material from the Illuminate Ghasts she had never seen before.

<Illuminate Ghast Monster Essence (F+) [Attuned: Radiation]: lv 62>

Type: Material

A Monster Essence left behind by a departing monster's Soul leaving an immaterial body. Can be used in magical crafts, typically as a conductor.

She still didn't have any use for the Monster Cores, Essences, or Mana Crystals, but she'd figure it out one day. Having a bunch of materials with promises that they can be used for 'magical crafting' and no payoff was frustrating.

<Suffocate> was now level 5, its rapid leveling had slowed down a bit at level 4. Evidently Teresa had an easy enough time with leveling combat skills, though she definitely felt like she could get more creative with her new choice.

If she got better at moving while using the skill, she could lower the air pressure in front of her while running to reduce air resistance, allowing her to reach absurd speeds. That is, if the skill worked the right way. It was totally possible pushing air out of the way would generate its own resistance that could slow Teresa down, but she would burn that bridge when she got to it.

Once the party returned to the full army, it was almost immediately time to get back to work. Teresa's responsibilities using <Facilitated Restoration> had been heavily delegated to other healers, as they deemed it important for her to have Mana ready to be used on <Suffocate> should bombs begin to drop. Teresa had been visualizing that situation as much as she could, though it still didn't look like they had a full solution to the problem.

Even with her new skill hitting level 5, she likely wouldn't be able to redirect multiple bombs at once. If she used the skill in both hands, she would be able to double her total volume of displaceable air. She would still have problems with redirecting more than a single bomb at a time. Teresa didn't know how long it would take for her to make a bomb enter a spin that could redirect the device.

If she managed to create an extremely thin slab of low pressure air that stretched 100 meters long, a bomb falling at terminal velocity would probably be able to cross that entire distance in around a second or two. If she wanted to properly affect the bombs in the intended manner, she would need to create the 100 meter slab and then try to move it along with the falling bomb.

There were a few things Teresa was tinkering with, stopping frequently to try and get a better grasp on something new. Expanding the shape she made with <Suffocate> to drain air was pretty basic, but she needed to remodel a shape she already made. Teresa's current strategy was to make a long, thin rectangular prism that only had the goal of reaching high into the sky, which would then have the large volume of displaced air attached at the top to introduce spin to the bombs.

For now, she made what looked like a toy sign in her hand, an extremely small version of what she would eventually create. She practiced by changing the height of the sign, making it taller and then smaller repeatedly. Doing it on a small scale wasn't overwhelmingly difficult, but most of her practice manipulating Mana outside of her body came from healing others. Restoration Mana was a lot easier to mold than air based Elemental Mana.

She also tried using the skill while walking, though that was also incredibly difficult. Whenever she moved, she needed to manually move her spell with her. If it became too displaced from her palm, the spell would collapse. If her vertical movement from each step caused part of the shape to overlap itself, the spell would collapse. Thankfully Teresa had a lot of practice with moving while casting spells already, otherwise she would be making a lot less progress.

While Teresa was very accomplished in regards to <Mana Control>, relying entirely on her using a completely new skill would be both suicidal and stupid. Others in the army had gotten class level ups, and they too were experimenting with new ways to counter the bombing.

Noah had leveled up his <Adhesion> skill several times in the last battle, and he managed to get another skill selection. <Elastic> was a new skill of his that behaved very similarly to <Adhesion>. It could increase the elasticity of a body of mass, turning something like a brick wall into a trampoline. Noah had been incredibly disappointed with the skill after choosing it, however, as it didn't work on people. Apparently he hadn't chosen the skill because it might help against bombs, but rather because he wanted to be like a character from One Piece, only to find out the skill didn't work that way.

On the bright side, it could be used on <Light Shield>. Noah had been brought to Ezio and Nikolas after getting his new skill, and they wound up discussing strategies with several others. They talked with their hands covering their mouths to prevent anyone from lip reading, though with the army's general level of Perception it didn't do a whole lot. The precaution was meant more from anyone who might be spying from a distance, like a potential drone in the sky that could see but couldn't listen. Was there an actual spy drone? Nobody had a clue, but there was no harm in taking safety precautions against something like that.

While Teresa could hopefully manipulate a bomb as it was still falling, Noah could make the ground bouncy and launch a bomb back into the air. That was his job, until another Completionist pointed out that the bombs had exploded just above the ground. It was the same woman who had correctly determined that the falling objects were bombs. She pointed out how they didn't explode when hitting a <Light Shield>, and theorized the reason some bombs didn't explode upon hitting the ground after smashing through a <Light Shield> was due to the mechanism determining altitude being damaged.

They had taken apart several Avatars, and apparently they were incredibly messy. Components of the hardware were advanced, beyond what many in the army had ever seen, including Ezio. Some Avatars used LiDAR for vision, others used countless ultrasonic sensors. The higher level ones used regular cameras, albeit with some durability upgrades.

There were magical materials present within the Avatars, sometimes even monster parts from various creatures and Portals. Ezio had to stop someone from taking apart a component they misidentified as a steam engine, as apparently the real answer was a lot more nuclear.

Despite the incredibly advanced scientific components found within the robots, they were still deemed messy. Far too messy. Anyone capable of creating these components should have an advanced understanding of system design, however the components were connected haphazardly. According to some of the more mechanically inclined individuals of the army, the components were connected in a way that would frequently result in latency issues, signal delays, or even power delivery failure when multiple components were active at once.

While looking through the remains of their opponents, some had opted to take apart the bombs that had not detonated. This was left to the Completionists who were both mechanically inclined and durable. They confirmed the bombs had subsystems of their own, however they were a lot simpler. There was a laser likely meant to gauge distance, along with a strange box that Ezio claimed was similar to a Geiger counter.

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The theory that some of the bombs didn't detonate due to damaged components was likely correct, although there wasn't a foolproof way to 100% confirm it. As a result, if Noah wanted to use <Elastic> to help out, he would have to use it on a <Light Shield> floating in the air cast by someone else. This was tricky since it required him to physically touch something connected to what he wanted to make bouncy, but thankfully after some trial and error they confirmed he could modify someone's spell by making physical contact with the caster.

Another person from The Mall also received a new skill that might help out. A healer type had gotten the skill <Featherfall>, which allowed them to slow the descent of an object. Like many other skills, its efficacy was also dependent on the mass being affected. The healer, Clyde, would also be involved in handling the bombs and would likely work closely with Teresa.

It was undeniable that the Completionists from Arconette had more firepower than The Mall. While Teresa's people had more numbers, she doubted they would win in a fight against the 18 Completionists. It would be a terrible battle for either side, but The Mall was certainly behind in terms of levels.

However, they were far more adaptable. Completionists from Arconette had a concerning theme amongst them, a lot of them were one trick ponies. In other words, they found something that worked, and didn't care to expand outside of that field very much.

Getting new skills was a pretty common event, at least Teresa thought so. Despite this, many of the Completionists seemed to have quite a few extremely low level skills that didn't fit their normal build, so they wasted away doing nothing in their status screens. Additionally, a few Completionists had discovered skills were capped at level 25, but the level cap for a skill could be increased as an alternative option to picking a new skill. Ezio had apparently done this with <Embers> at some point, choosing to increase its level cap from 25 to a number nobody knew of yet instead of getting another skill.

People from The Mall were a lot more versatile. Nobody had reached the level cap for a skill yet, and instead people gravitated towards picking up new skills and trying to use as many of them as possible within a fight. Teresa herself had always advocated for creating an excuse to use skills rather than using them only when necessary, and it seemed that her style had rubbed off on numerous others.

During the previous battle, the only person who could really do anything about the bombs was Ezio, and that was because of circumstances beyond their understanding. After that fight, there were still no Completionists from Arconette capable of dealing with the bombing. Meanwhile, after encountering it only once, there were now three people from The Mall with skills that helped with the new situation.

It was a difference in culture that wouldn't have existed pre-System. The Mall favored survivability and versatility while Arconette favored individual power houses who were extremely specialized. There was no way to determine if one culture was 'better' than the other, and it was more likely that each had their own strengths and weaknesses.

Right now, The Mall was showing its strengths.

"Man I wanted to be Luffy, this sucks." Noah said as he placed his hand on Theo's shoulder, who was currently using <Light Shield>.

"At least our skills synergize well, this is going to be useful well after we're done here." Theo reassured him. "Besides, look how many levels <Adhesion> got, not to mention you."

"I am the highest level here now, so I guess that's a positive." Noah responded.

"The highest level in your party, you mean." Sarah corrected.

"Yeah yeah, at least we only have one person left to hit level 40. Nikolas can suck it."

"I don't know how I'm supposed to get the last bit of experience out here, I'm level 39 but I heal people and buff them, that's about it." Leo said. "Getting levels as a healer type is hard."

"How did you do it?" Clyde asked, the healer with <Featherfall>. He was looking at Teresa when he spoke, making it clear who he was talking to.

"How did I get levels? I guess I just killed a bunch of monsters." Teresa answered, not really sure how much advice she could give the guy.

"Not just that, your healing skills too. We can only improve them through use, but your healing is well beyond what most of us are capable of. Despite that, you don't seem to consider yourself a healer." Clyde continued.

"Well I used the skills a lot too, there have been plenty of close calls that probably gave them a good boost in experience."

"But how? Even healing every injury my party gets, we aren't on the same level. I saw someone get shot through the stomach, only for the wound to close up before I could even get there. That was just because of your <Facilitated Restoration>, and I can only assume your <Healing Touch> is even better. I want to be useful, or at least to be on your level. What's the trick? Is there one?"

Teresa was at a loss for words. She wanted to help him out, but she couldn't think of anything in particular that he could do. From the sounds of it, he was healing people whenever the situation arose, so what more could he do? Thankfully, Sarah saw that Teresa was struggling and began to give an answer of her own.

"Teresa was in the Tutorial for a full month. Early on, I got fatally wounded and had to leave. Normally, I would have just bled out a few seconds later anyways, but I got lucky that Teresa was our healer. She refused to leave the Tutorial until she was strong enough to heal me, and she eventually did. I would 100% be dead if not for her. She went through most of the Tutorial alone, and beat it by herself. I think most of the reason her healing skills are as good as they are is because they needed to be, people like me were going around and nearly dying. Don't feel bad about your healing skills leveling slower, that just means the people around you aren't fucking up as bad." Sarah explained.

"She also just puts herself in dangerous situations a lot, that probably helps." Preston said, giving a much more simple answer.

"Yeah, and a week of traveling in the Contaminated Zone would probably help a lot as well." Jake added.

"Don't go doing stupid stuff like that, just keep doing what you're doing. If you don't like how things are going with your class, then change it up a bit. That's what I really did." Teresa interjected. She didn't want Clyde to put himself in overwhelmingly risky circumstances or anything.

"I'll think about it." Clyde responded, before continuing on to practice using <Featherfall> on various objects.

The army also had a few more weapons capable of dealing with the drones, such as wands. The lightning wand had broken during the last fight, as they had limited uses, but there were others that might be able to help. One mage had a wand that could cause a large pillar of earth to sprout out from the ground, while could be used to help handle the bombing.

They didn't travel very much after the battle, having taken out over 1,000 Avatars already. Many mechanical components had been looted by members of both cities, some of them capable of drastically changing day to day life. From the sound of it, electricity was likely to make a comeback soon, they just needed the infrastructure.

Additionally, new strategies had been developed in dealing with the Avatars. Since some subsystems were wired through other subsystems, taking out certain components could eliminate multiple functions. Damaging particular motors would disconnect various other sensors, potentially deafening or even blinding some robots. There was a consistent theme amongst the Avatars for the wiring from the gun turret to be packed next to a coolant system for the CPU. While the exterior of the Avatars were extremely resistant to heat, the internal components melted against <Embers> just fine. Destroying the internal cooling could eventually cause the Avatar to crash, although it was unlikely that would produce immediate results.

A lot of what was discovered really boiled down to educated guesses. Teresa herself couldn't really assist in that endeavor, so while the army was making camp she took the opportunity to continue leveling her new skill against monsters. Once it was finally her time to fall asleep, her dreams were filled with skills and combat.

As morning came, it was time for the army to get on the move again. It was slower than traveling alone, but they were gradually making their way to Chernobyl.

So long as there were no complications, anyways.

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