Teresa was kicking up a sandstorm behind her as she sprinted, wind blasting her in the face. She felt like this would be sort of annoying to a normal person, but her high Fortitude made the wind in her eyes barely a problem. Her heart pounded and her face was locked in a smile as she ran, taking a moment to hold her arms out to properly get the full experience.

This was great. She already was glad she chose <Dash> as a skill, even if it still used Mana. It also used Stamina, and it was the first skill she had ever gotten to actively use it. Her Stamina naturally drained as she physically exerted herself, but she very rarely had a problem in the Tutorial with it so far. Even at level 0, her cardio had been a lot better than normal.

Fighting was normally incredibly exhausting. There was a reason rounds only lasted 3 minutes in kickboxing, and it was because it was incredibly tiring. Just throwing a few good punches was enough to get your heart really going, but Teresa's Stamina didn't seem to behave the same way as before the System.

However, now that she was using <Dash> a lot she was finally experiencing what it was like to run low on Stamina again. She had only been truly out of breath a few times in the Tutorial, but now that she had <Dash> it was probably going to happen a lot more often. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing, if anything that just meant Teresa was utilizing a resource she wasn't properly using to its full potential before.

She reached the first stronghold of the day in no time, and she took a break to recharge her Mana and Stamina. Sure, this was a speedrun, but if she was too careless she could still die.

As soon her resources were full she darted towards the stronghold, holding a shield out in front of her. Multiple arrows smashed into her protection, but Teresa herself was unharmed. She held out her spare hand and used <Embers> once she got close to the vanguard of skeletons, burning through a group of them at once.

An arrow grazed her exposed arm, but it was quickly healed by <Facilitated Restoration>. She adjusted her spell to fire at the archers, a thick stream of sparks obliterating the inside of a tower.

She adjusted her aim towards another tower that was within range, squatting down and putting as much of her body behind her shield as possible. Arrows continuously struck the shield, but she still did not have any real problems.

A second tower's worth of archer skeletons were killed, and Teresa changed her aim back towards the skeleton vanguard that was now rushing her. They held their shields out in front of them, but their legs were totally exposed. A stream of <Embers> severed several of the skeletons' legs, stopping their push before it could even really start.

So far, so good. Teresa stopped using <Embers> for a moment to pick her next target. If she wanted to actually conquer two strongholds in a day, she needed to be at least a little bit considerate of her Mana consumption. She could take a break to recover and come back to conquer the stronghold, but she would strongly prefer not to.

There. Now that a large group of skeletons were either dead or crippled, there was an opening for Teresa to get closer to the stronghold. Then she could target some of the archers that were still shooting at her.

Their bows had a lot more range than Teresa's <Embers>, but the skeletons weren't landing any shots on Teresa herself. Teresa heard wood split as another arrow struck her shield, and it seemed like her only source of protection wasn't going to last for much longer.

Oh well. Teresa did the rational thing and picked up another shield from a dead skeleton, swapping out her damaged one. There were plenty considering how many skeletons were at the stronghold, so many that Teresa didn't even bother counting them.

With a new shield in hand she ran forward, seizing the opportunity to take out a few archers. She lifted her hand and fired <Embers> once more, watching as the sparks flew towards the tower.

Before her spell could melt another batch of archers, a massive blob of sand burst out from the ground and floated in front of the tower. Her <Embers> struck the sand, getting completely blocked by the floating mass. Well that's new.

A quick look around revealed a skeleton wearing robes just past the gates of the stronghold, and it was holding out both hands in the direction of the floating sand. Teresa figured she should change targets, and began blasting her spell at that skeleton instead.

A wall of sand burst up from the ground, blocking her attack and forming another floating blob of sand. By the archer tower, the previous blob of sand plummeted to the ground creating a massive plume of dusty sand.

The new sand blob that protected the skeleton mage shot forward, launching itself at Teresa. Acting quickly, Teresa used <Dash> and quickly got out of the way. She ran to the side at a full sprint, and had an idea that she wanted to try out. She deactivated <Dash> for just a moment while she was running, then reactivated it as she took a step in the direction of the skeleton mage.

It wasn't perfect, but a lot of Teresa's momentum abruptly shifted. It was like riding a roller coaster that had way too sharp of a turn, the abrupt change in direction was rather dizzying. Teresa did her best to focus, and she managed to push through just fine. She sprinted towards the mage, drawing her sword and admittedly wondering how cool she would look if the sword was on fire.

The distance was closed in seconds, and soon Teresa's sword decapitated the skeleton mage. It was a shame Teresa didn't get to fight the mage longer, but she had a goal in mind. <Embers> shot out once more, melting more skeletons just as an arrow pierced straight through Teresa's calf.

She had overextended, there were multiple angles she could be shot from now and her shield wasn't able to cover them all. <Healing Touch> repaired her calf in a second, and once more she used <Dash> but with the intention of repositioning.

Air whistled past Teresa's ears as she sprinted towards the base of an archer tower she had already cleared, using the structure as cover. No archer was able to land a shot on her when she was running at such a ridiculous speed, and a quick glance through her notifications revealed multiple skill level ups.

She would look through them in more detail later. <Embers> cleared out yet another archer tower, and Teresa briefly noted how each stronghold seemed more developed than the last.

The first had looked like a glorified campsite with a sturdy wooden wall around it, but this one had multiple cabins and structures that made up the stronghold. There was also a stone base to the wooden walls that protected the exterior, likely making them far sturdier. Who knew, maybe these walls could actually withstand an attack from Clubbers.

She continued melting the skeletons until none were left. They were all level 22, which followed the expected pattern. Teresa herself was level 26- no wait, level 27 now, so really this was a one sided slaughter.

With the stronghold now cleared out, Teresa made her way over to the treasure chest that was sitting in plain view. These skeletons really needed to take a note from pirates and hide their treasure somewhere, maybe bury it or something. Also now that she thought about it, what were the skeletons doing with C4? Was this treasure chest supposed to belong to the skeletons, or was it purely a System thing?

What was the lore? Was there Tutorial lore? Hell if Teresa knew, but she laughed a bit to herself thinking about Tutorial lore. Long ago in a Tutorial far far away, there was a Teresa, and she killed a lot of stuff.

10/10 storytelling, Teresa should be a writer for Hollywood. Maybe she could get Mark Hamil in a movie or something. He could play Jake or Preston. The ages wouldn't match up at all, but the movie could just have him still be a young guy. Just give him a wig or something and never address that he is obviously not like 20 years old, that would be so funny. Shit, how old were those guys? How old was anyone in her party? She should ask when she got the chance. That and what everyone's last names were, that was also something she totally should have figured out by now.

In the chest was more C4, wow what a surprise, and a pair of pants. It was made of leather, but it had chainmail protecting the outside. It completely clashed with Teresa's robes, but she was already wearing a goblin belt that didn't match her robes either. The chainmail on the pants would be the polar opposite of stealthy, but it's not like Teresa had been sneaking around anyways.

Teresa pulled on the new pair of pants, and noted a strange feeling in her body. Oh shit, she was regenerating Stamina faster! Teresa was pretty happy with the loot this time, even if her attire looked aesthetically terrible.

Alright, next stronghold. Teresa's game plan had two versions to it. If she managed to conquer the first stronghold in time, then she would take a trip back to Liberty Island to deposit any loot in her stash, adding to her growing collection of C4. If it took longer than expected, she would run straight to the next stronghold and attack immediately.

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Thankfully, she had conquered the stronghold in record time. She took a few hits to do it, but it was nothing too bad. Teresa laughed a little thinking about how in the first wave, she had been impaled through the leg by a mosquito and nearly died from it. Now, she was able to get shot by a bow and arrow and walk it off. Teresa had already decided she would try out therapy once she got the chance, she figured she should probably add her experience in the Tutorial to the list of things she should talk about.

Now that she thought about it, a lot of people were probably going to be seeking out therapists after this was all said and done. Teresa wasn't sure if therapists would consider that good news or bad news, but either way therapists were sure as shit going to make a lot of money in the near future.

Teresa began making her way back to Liberty Island, surprised at how little noise her pants made. There was a bunch of metal on it clashing into other bits of metal, but the sound was incredibly dulled. Probably magic. No, not probably. 100% totally magic.

She ran her way through Liberty Island, quickly stopping by the Information Center where she kept all of her C4. Teresa carefully added to the growing pile of plastic explosives, and set aside the detonator and receiver in its own spot. Originally she was going to make a pile of detonators and a pile of receivers, but she realized if each detonator only corresponds to a specific receiver then they shouldn't mix.

Teresa looked at her loot and smiled. She was TSA's worst nightmare, no chance in hell she would ever get past any security on the planet with this stuff. Just having this much C4 would probably put her on a list somewhere, but she didn't have to worry about that in the Tutorial.

Alright, back to it.

She took out her <Tutorial Compass> and observed it. As soon as she knew what direction to go in, she was off once more. Teresa was fast, but there was still quite a bit of travel time between the island and the strongholds. In the movies, a quick cut would eliminate that travel time. Unfortunately for Teresa, she actually had to go through the mind numbing task of running in relative silence across a desert for a few hours. She didn't even have music! If only she had her friggin phone with her it would be a significantly less shit experience.

Teresa avoided a few packs of monsters, all of whom were too low level for Teresa to really get anything out of anyways. Monsters that didn't even provide a single percent of experience per kill were quite literally not worth her time, especially not right now.

Another monster stronghold appeared in the distance. Considering there was a limit to how far Teresa could see in the desert, that meant she was close. She got to a safe distance and paused for a bit, recovering her resources once more as she prepared for another fight.

{Skeletal Warrior (F) (lv 24)}

Yep, another 2 levels higher. Teresa still outleveled the monsters, but the gap was shrinking and there were a metric shitload of them. She counted about 16 archers spread across 8 towers, several groups of melee oriented skeletons, and there was probably another mage hidden away somewhere. It wouldn't make sense for the previous stronghold to have a mage but not this one.

By the time this fight ended, it would probably be late. Teresa was almost certainly going to be running back during the freezing night again, but it actually didn't bother her much anymore. She was totally fine during the night, the only real reason she ever went back to Liberty Island was because she still needed to sleep.

Soon, she was ready. Her Stamina was full, her Mana was full, both <Facilitated Restoration> and <Magic Wellspring> were active, and she had her shield out in front of her. She jogged towards the stronghold, smiling to herself as she noted she was faster than she was that morning. It was hard to tell out in the desert with no point of reference, but seeing the stronghold rapidly get bigger in her vision was all the proof she needed.

Multiple dark lines appeared in the sky as arrows began to rain down on Teresa's position, but she would be able to avoid them just fine. They buried into the sand behind her, as she picked up the pace just a hair. <Embers> activated in her hand, and she began her methodical sweep across the front ranks of the skeleton army that had come out to guard the gates.

Huh, this one had actual gates. They were closed on the entryway to the stronghold, but Teresa would burn that bridge when she got to it. She activated <Dash> and sprinted parallel to the walls of the stronghold, making it far harder for any of the archers to land their shots. She had her shield, sure, but what was better than blocking an attack? That's right, not getting hit by it in the first place.

Skeletons raised their shields to push towards Teresa, but they had the same old problems as all the skeletons Teresa had already fought. She targeted their legs, and they were barely a threat.

A wall of sand appeared in front of Teresa as she was running, making her crash into the attack before she could stop. A second wall appeared behind her, and they both began to slide towards each other in an attempt to crush her. The attack had been sudden, and caught Teresa before she had a chance to stop her momentum.

Her nose was bleeding and her ears were ringing after she slammed into the sand wall going at high speeds, though <Facilitated Restoration> was putting in work. She tried to step away with <Dash> but couldn't get proper footing in time, so she panicked and did the only thing she could think of before she got crushed.

Mana shot through her arm into her hand, moving at ridiculous speeds due to Teresa's high Intelligence stat. She had maybe a second and a half, which was not nearly enough time. She shot a very wimpy version of her shotgun <Embers>, which produced enough force to shove most of her body out from between the sand walls.

They crushed together on her legs, breaking both of them. Teresa screamed as her bones crunched, momentarily wondering if she had bitten off more than she could chew. She activated <Healing Touch> and did her best to cover herself with her shield as the sand walls began to crumble atop of her shattered legs. Arrows slammed into the shield and sand, her legs thankfully protected by the crumbling walls that had crushed them in the first place. Additionally, her legs only had a few breaks thanks to her new pants that had taken a lot of the force.

A skeletal hand gripped the top of her shield and pulled, revealing a skeleton about to stab Teresa in the face. Teresa activated <Embers> in the hand still holding the shield, causing a thick stream of sparks to spray along the backside of the wood. The handle for the shield melted on Teresa's hands, causing a horrific burn.

Thankfully, it also killed the skeleton that was about to turn her into a shish kabob. She grabbed the dead skeleton's shield to help protect herself as more arrows continued to rain down on her.

After a moment of using <Healing Touch>, Teresa was back in fighting condition. That had drained her Mana significantly, but she was still alive. She activated <Dash> and got moving as an arrow hit her in the shoulder.

These monsters individually were still pretty weak, but throw enough numbers at someone and it could overwhelm them. That seemed to be the skeleton's strategy here, and unfortunately for Teresa it seemed to be pretty effective.

Teresa made the decision to retreat for now. Her speedrun wasn't quite dead yet, but she needed to recover and restart the fight with a clean slate. She hadn't been expecting a wall to suddenly appear in front of her while she was running, the attack had completely caught her off guard.

It was really simple, but it had worked. Unfortunately for the skeletons, it was the kind of attack that would only work once. Teresa sprinted her way out of range, an arrow still sticking out from her collarbone.

That had been way too close to her neck. It was weird to think she could probably survive getting shot in the neck, but only if she got lucky. If her spine got severed, she wouldn't be able to control her hands. In that case, she wouldn't be able to use <Healing Touch> until <Facilitated Restoration> repaired the bone and restored motor functions. She might still survive even that, but not if a bunch of skeletons proceed to turn her into an arrow porcupine.

Teresa fired <Embers> behind her as a few of the Agility oriented skeletons attempted to chase after her, taking out a couple more of the monsters during her retreat. Once she was safe, she collapsed to the ground and grabbed the arrow that had shot her. In movies, they always broke the shaft of the arrow and left the arrowhead in so they wouldn't bleed out. However, the people in those movies didn't have <Healing Touch>.

She pulled the arrow out and immediately began using <Healing Touch> in conjunction with <Facilitated Restoration>. It took less than a second to heal, but it still made Teresa frown. She was strong enough to save Sarah, right?

Teresa had to remind herself that Sarah had probably a seventh of the Fortitude Teresa currently had, and would be significantly easier to heal. She almost wanted to curse her Fortitude stat for making healing harder, but then again she would also probably have died from crashing into a wall at somewhere around 40 miles per hour without it.

She was definitely going to make her way home at night, but she was confident she could still take out the second stronghold of the day. With her resources topped off once again, she made her way back to stronghold number two.

This time, she was far more careful. She stayed on high alert for any moving sand as she ran, clearing out archer towers with her <Embers>. She could only take out four of them without getting inside, but she needed to deal with the melee fighters first.

Under significantly less suppressive fire, Teresa made short work of the skeletons outside the gate. Sand walls sprouted up time and time again, but Teresa was ready for them. She did her trick with <Dash> where she deactivated and reactivated the skill to quickly change directions, which was something she still needed practice with.

Once she was close enough to the walls, the archers had a much harder time targeting her from within the stronghold. She burned her way through the gate, melting a Teresa sized hole through the structure. The gate had been made of wood, so it wasn't too difficult to burn through.

Inside, all that remained were 8 archers and a mage. She stayed close to the walls of any structure she could, giving her cover against the archers as they tried to shoot her. <Embers> cleared out the towers one at a time, and she eventually found the mage.

Well, mages. There had been two of them, and they were killed rather easily in close combat. They could block Teresa's <Embers> as much as they wanted, but they couldn't stop her from getting up close and stabbing them in the skull.

The last archer was melted within a tower, and Teresa stood alone in an empty stronghold with a treasure chest just asking to be opened.

It was time for some more loot.

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