It took Teresa an hour before she was fully healed. She had to alternate between healing and restoring her Mana, as apparently organs took more restoration Mana to heal. She had also realized that since she increased her Fortitude, her body just required more to heal overall.

At first this had made her regret increasing her Fortitude at all, but thinking about it some more made her decide it had been a good decision. The amount of protection her increased Fortitude provided was slightly higher than the increased Mana expenditure warranted.

Overall her body was denser. She didn't know the exact actual numbers, but if a square inch of skin had one million skin cells, now that same patch of skin would have 1.1 million skin cells. Obviously, these numbers were completely inaccurate and probably not the correct proportion, but it was the way Teresa could understand it.

The total Mana cost to heal herself had increased, sure, but Teresa was sure that the average cost to repair each cell had technically decreased, even if it was by a very tiny amount. This just meant it took more Mana to heal the same wound, but the same wound would be harder to get.

The Fortitude had also likely been a contributing reason to why the miniboss hadn't just torn her in half. Sure, it was only 5, but she had entered the Tutorial with 3. If she still had that starting Fortitude, she would certainly be dead. Hell, if she had any of her starting stats she would probably be dead.

Speaking of her stats, she had gotten a level up from killing the boss. She was now level 5, and had another unallocated point. Teresa opened her status screen, and saw a few things that surprised her.

Status:

Name: Teresa

Race: Human (Earth)

Level: 5 (F) (59%)

Class: Healer lv 1 (F) (47%)

HP: (13/85)

Stamina: (20/85)

Mana: (1/196)

Strength: 7

Fortitude: 5

Endurance: 7

Vitality: 7

Agility: 7

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 15

Perception: 11

Unallocated Points: 1

<Skills> {

<Translate: lv 0 (0.8%)>

<Mana Control: lv 3 (97%)>

<Healing Touch: lv 3 (44%)>

<Facilitated Restoration: lv 3 (20%)

}

<Titles> {

<System Newcomer>

<Tutorial: Power Hungry>

<Tutorial: First Stage Completionist>

}

For one, she had gained a lot of experience from the miniboss. Sure, she had been just a few percentage points away from a level up, but it had launched her all the way from 94% at level 4 up to 59% at level 5. The miniboss had been significantly higher level than most of the other enemies, and it had that "Attuned: Smoke" thing that was included in the kill notification.

Secondly, her skills had gained a lot of experience again. Her <Mana Control> was going to level up real soon, and both of her healing skills had leveled up during the fight. As a matter of fact, <Facilitated Restoration> had leveled up after the fight, while Teresa was healing herself. Despite this, it had already reached 20%.

Last, but not least, she got a new title. Focusing on it brought up the description.

<Tutorial: First Stage Completionist>

Complete the first stage of the Tutorial. +5% all stats.

She had received a percentage bonus instead of a flat boost to her stats. At the moment, this did literally nothing for her. Looking at her stats, it seemed the System always rounded down to the nearest whole number, and a 5% boost to any of her stats did not increase them by at least 1. However, she knew in the long run this would be an amazing benefit.

This made Teresa think about titles more than she had before. What kind of titles were available? If there were multiple that could provide boosts like this, then she would certainly want to find out how to get them. Once she was out of the Tutorial, she decided she would try to find people with titles she could feasibly get too.

Teresa decided to hold off on assigning her unallocated point until she understood her situation better. She slowly sat up, looking at the carnage around her. She saw the Mana recharging staff still on the roof, and made her way over to grab it. She also began collecting any arrows she could find, though most of them were on the ground level, not the rooftop.

She looked out into the desert, remembering something Sarah had said their first night. Sarah had claimed she spotted movement in the desert, but hadn't been sure. By now, Teresa's Perception was actually just 1 point below what Sarah's had been. Looking out in the desert, she didn't see anything in particular at first.

Then she saw it.

A flash of movement in the distance. She couldn't discern what exactly it was, but she was positive she had seen something move. It was hard to gauge distance in the desert, but there was something alive out there.

Teresa slowly made her way down the side of the information center, not hurt anymore but still exhausted. She decided she would think more about her situation after she slept a little. She made her way over to the gift shop, feeling strange. Everything was silent. Completely silent. Normally there was always some noise, whether it was a crawler somewhere or members of her party training and talking.

Now it really was just Teresa.

She made her way inside the gift shop and laid down on her makeshift bed. Her eyes felt so heavy, and she was out in seconds. She didn't dream. As far as Teresa knew, she had blinked and time had suddenly passed.

It was time to decide what to do about her current situation. She needed to go out into the desert, needed a <Tutorial Compass>, whatever that was, and she needed to decide what skill she should pick as a reward. She also still needed to finish collecting all of the arrows along with Preston's sword.

Picking up items was something she could do on autopilot, so she made her way back to the information center while considering the circumstances. First, she started with what skill to pick. They were all incredibly useful, though she could only choose one.

Teresa decided to cross off <Appraise> as an option. It would certainly be incredibly useful, and it might allow Teresa to find some items that had hidden uses she would have never considered. What if one of the goblin weapons had a crazy awesome enchantment?

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Still, while it certainly might be useful it wasn't necessary. Both <Inventory> and <Identify> seemed like must-haves. If Teresa was going to adventure out into the desert, she would need to bring supplies with her. Having <Inventory> would allow her to pack far more water and food than normal, and she would also not have to carry several kinds of weapons all the time.

On the other hand, if Teresa was planning on fighting anything then <Identify> was also needed. She knew she was going to need to level up more now that she was on her own, and the risk for every fight had jumped significantly. If she tried to fight a monster alone that turned out to be significantly stronger than her, she would probably die.

She decided to go with <Identify>. The other options had their benefits, and <Inventory> might even hold some secrets to how space magic worked if it involved putting physical objects into her soul, but they weren't quite as useful as <Identify>.

She selected the skill, and strangely enough a small metal object appeared right in front of her. It floated in the air, completely stationary. As soon as Teresa touched it, the hovering stopped. Looking at it closer, she realized it was a compass. The arrow within it pointed out into the desert, and Teresa quickly came to the conclusion that this was probably the <Tutorial Compass> she had been wondering about.

She pocketed the device and continued collecting arrows. She also found the sword that Preston had left behind, and decided to replace her goblin sword. Preston's sword was far higher quality, and the edge was much sharper. It also had the repairing mechanic that would let Mana fix any damage.

Teresa had now collected all of the weapons she would need. She had the sword, a bow, most of the arrows, and the staff. She walked around the island, knowing what she was looking for. She just had to find it.

She had never been to the Statue of Liberty herself before the Tutorial, but one thing was clear from the signs. No large bags were allowed inside the Statue, which could only mean one thing.

Somewhere on the island was a place to store large bags before tourists would enter the monument. She continued searching, and eventually found some lockers that likely served that purpose. Teresa began searching through them, and eventually came across a large backpack. Perfect.

There was no time to waste, as apparently Teresa had been on a timer since the start of the Tutorial. She went to the cafe and began packaging rations for herself. She also put the staff in the backpack, though most of it was sticking out the top. It would be very uncomfortable to walk with both a backpack and a quiver holding arrows, but the Tutorial didn't seem to be the kind of place where one could afford luxury.

She managed to put away enough food to last her for probably a week, maybe a little bit longer. She also had three weeks worth of water, as she imagined she would go through it far faster. Carrying everything was incredibly heavy, so heavy in fact that Teresa knew what to put her unallocated point in.

Teresa sighed in relief as her strength increased to 8, making the weight on her back just a little more bearable. If she had a full party with her, this would not be a problem. With more people, they could have had one person take each reward skill, which would cover all of their bases. Someone could have used <Inventory> for the party, someone could have used <Identify>, and another <Appraise>. Since it was just Teresa, she would have to stop complaining and make it work.

After taking a deep breath and double checking that she had everything, Teresa set off into the desert. She used <Facilitated Restoration> on herself, which wouldn't keep her from getting tired but it would help her with getting sore and sunburn.

She decided to ensure that the skill's benefits were always present by using the skill again every once in a while. She even managed to use her dual casting technique to make it even more effective, which would let her practice her skills and gain experience.

Teresa continued toying with Mana as she walked through the desert, sand beneath her shoes. Now that she was getting the hang of dual casting two different skills, she was looking for another experiment to pursue with her Mana.

She could dual cast <Facilitated Restoration> in both hands to make a supercharged version of the skill's projectile, but it wasn't nearly as effective as using <Facilitated Restoration> and <Healing Touch> instead. She also tried using the fire from <Facilitated Restoration> as a light source, more out of curiosity than practicality.

She gradually figured out how to increase and decrease the intensity of the light from the fire, though it never provided any heat. She was able to change the light level by changing the density of the restoration Mana within the fire. Spreading the Mana very thin versus condensing it would have an effect on how bright it was. She didn't particularly have a use for it at the moment, but it was still a cool trick she had learned.

Another thing she wanted to experiment with was figuring out how exactly her Mana got converted into restoration Mana. There was a certain point in the skill where her Mana entered some sort of transformation process that happened faster than she could process. She was about to give it a go when movement caught her eyes.

She had only been in the desert for an hour now and she had already run into monsters. In the distance, she saw a pack of humanoid shapes walking. She couldn't tell what they were, but she had an idea. She activated <Identify> while looking intently at one particular shape in the monster pack. She felt a little bit of Mana leave her Soul from within her head, though she would need a lot more time before she could detail what exactly was going on.

A screen appeared in front of her, though she didn't need to read it to know what it said. <Identify> had pushed the knowledge straight into her brain.

{Goblin (F) (lv 5)}

Teresa laughed to herself. This was probably the first time she had encountered a monster that was the same level as her. Using <Identify> on the rest of the monsters in the group revealed they were all goblins of similar levels. There were eight of them, and none of them seemed to be a Shaman.

It was time to get some experience.

Teresa went off in the direction of the goblins. It was literally out of her way to fight them, the <Tutorial Compass> was pointing in a slightly different direction, but it wasn't too out of her way.

Despite the seemingly endless distance, it was crossed in 10 minutes. It really was hard to get a sense for distance when everything around you was a flat field of endless sand, excluding the Statue of Liberty that was still vaguely visible on the horizon.

There might also be some weird magical stuff going on that messes with vision, now that Teresa focused on it. The environment Mana was all slowly flowing towards the only green land visible, which likely played a role in why things like grass could grow there. The movement of environment Mana might be enough to manipulate someone's vision, though that was a bit of a stretch. Still, Teresa liked to think about how things might work even if she could be wrong.

Now that the goblins were much closer, the two parties spotted each other. Teresa couldn't exactly sneak up on the monsters, but she had certainly seen them long before they had seen her. Teresa had her backpack set on the ground behind her, and she faced the oncoming goblins. She had her bow at the ready, an arrow drawn as she lined up her shot. The monsters were charging towards her now, and as soon as the first one entered firing range she released her arrow.

It landed in the leading goblin's stomach, crippling it but not killing it outright. She drew another arrow, aiming at the next goblin. This shot was a miss, but she managed to land a hit on four more goblins before she was forced to draw her sword.

The three goblins that had made it this far held a sword, an axe, and a dagger. The one with the sword reached Teresa first, though she was able to quickly thrust Preston's sword into its face. The blade cut through flesh and bone, penetrating the goblin's brain and killing it instantly.

The next was the goblin with the axe. It swung the axe at Teresa, forcing her to let go of the sword still inside the first goblin's skull so she could jump back. As soon as the swing passed, she rushed forward and uppercut the goblin in the chin. Using her momentum, she shoved the goblin off balance in the direction of the dagger goblin, giving her a moment to retrieve her sword.

The dagger goblin entered striking range, and she quickly slashed it across its chest. The goblin screamed, falling to the ground. It caught itself quickly and began to get back to its feet, but Teresa finished it off with a slash to the top of its head.

The axe goblin had gotten back to its feet as well, and Teresa saw an opening. She grabbed the dagger of the goblin she just killed and threw it at the axe goblin, hoping to finish it off quick.

Unfortunately, throwing a dagger was way harder than it sounded in Teresa's head. The weapon landed hilt first against the goblins arm, and didn't even impact hard enough to leave a bruise.

Shit, that would have been badass if that worked, Teresa thought as she lifted her sword. The goblin swung its axe once again, and Teresa easily avoided it. She swung her sword at the monster's head, killing it with the blow. The monster dropped to the ground, and Teresa ripped her sword free from the goblin's skull.

Of the five goblins she shot, two had now died. One had been from a headshot, the other had been from blood loss. Another goblin was unconscious, and the remaining two could barely stand on their feet.

Teresa had no problems finishing them off, deciding not to take any risks. She used her bow to kill the goblins from a safe but short distance. The goblins didn't provide a lot of experience, but there were eight of them. By the time Teresa finished off the last one, she had gained another level.

Maybe the desert wouldn't be so bad after all.

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