FWOOMP

Teresa heard what it was like to be shot through a pneumatic tube once more as she experienced a System teleport, something she hadn't heard since the start of the Tutorial.

A comfortable, mellow light hit her eyes as she appeared in a forest, her supercharged <Facilitated Restoration> still ready to be fired. Teresa wasted no time, immediately looking at her surroundings with a reaction time that was no longer human. Sarah was laying on the ground, half of her body missing and her arm barely attached. Multiple organs had been damaged or destroyed entirely, and there was evidence of a sloppy attempt at healing her.

The green ball of fire shot right at Sarah, and two instances of <Healing Touch> were immediately applied to her body. The first thing on the list was to stop the bleeding. Skin and flesh grew to cover Sarah's wounds within a second, leaving only internal damage. Several notifications began popping up, but Teresa ignored the distractions. Next, Teresa guided Restoration Mana towards multiple organs, causing them to repair themselves ridiculously fast.

Veins, arteries, parts of her immune system, what Teresa was pretty sure was parts of her endocrine system, and broken bones were mended. Sarah had a few ribs that were broken off from the rest of her skeleton, but they were close enough for Restoration Mana to get the job done anyways.

Sarah was still extremely low on blood, and that was something Teresa didn't have a lot of experience in. Regardless, she would try her best. She focused on making the Restoration Mana target blood cells, forcing them to replicate with magic. Sarah's body quickly had plenty of blood to keep her alive.

"Oh fuck, we gotta help Sarah!" A male voice said from behind. Footsteps approached, and three familiar figures were all standing around Teresa and Sarah. "Or… not. Jesus Teresa, that was fast as shit!"

Preston kneeled down next to them, looking between Sarah and Teresa wide eyed. Sarah herself was still breathing heavily, but she looked far too stunned to speak. Aside from her breathing she was still, as though she were scared to move in case it would result in her death.

"Are you okay?" Madeline asked Sarah, everyone now kneeling around the woman. Sarah looked back at Madeline, her face still wet with tears. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Instead, she just nodded slightly.

Teresa sat back and exhaled, her face twitching towards a smile. She laughed once, then fell flat on her back and started laughing harder. Sarah was alive. She would be fine. Everything was okay now. Tears welled up in her own eyes as a major source of stress was relieved, she had saved her party member and everything was fine.

A pair of arms wrapped around Teresa, as Sarah leaned up and attacked her with a hug that may as well have been just as superhuman as Teresa herself.

"Thank you." She whispered, sobbing as she held on tight. "I really thought I was going to die, I don't- I didn't… I don't know."

Everyone was silent for a moment, everyone clearly relaxing significantly more.

"Teresa, are you okay man?" Jake asked, looking at her.

"Shit, yeah man. You uh, did some interesting stuff with your hair I see." Preston added on. "You doing alright?"

"Oh fuck I forgot, I'm sorry!" Teresa quickly said, activating <Facilitated Restoration> and casting it at Jake who still had burns from the Wyvern-Fish miniboss. They healed up rapidly, and within a moment Jake was back in perfect condition.

"Holy shit dude." Jake said, feeling around his head. "That was insane! Like, I guess it shouldn't be surprising after, well, all of this, but fuck man. How long were you in there?"

"A month." Teresa replied, her voice feeling strange. Everyone's voices felt strange. Was that what they always sounded like? Shit, was this a trap? Was she still in the Tutorial, the System just doing some weird mind wipe thing about to put her in someone else's Tutorial?

No, stop. That was just panic. She's been alone for a while, it wasn't unfair for conversing to feel weird for a bit. She would get through it. Talking to people was nothing compared to the Tutorial.

"Honey…" Madeline started, looking at her with concern. No one could really find the right words, but Teresa didn't blame them. In their shoes, what would she even say? Fuck if she knew.

"It's really nice to see you guys again, I know there's some weird time manipulation stuff that just went on but I spent a long time waiting for everything to be done. Shit, let me give everyone their stuff back actually." Teresa unsheathed her sword and handed it to Preston along with her bow to Sarah. Sarah wasn't really doing much aside from hugging her and crying, but Teresa laid it on the ground next to them.

"I don't know man, you might be better off with the sword." Preston said, looking at Teresa with contained curiosity. It was obvious the party had a lot of questions, but they were trying to be nice and not ruin the moment.

"It's fine, I got some other stuff to fight with. Besides, if I need to stab something I got this." Teresa said, pulling out the magic kitchen knife she had gotten from a stronghold. It was ridiculously sharp and seemed to never dull, though admittedly Teresa hadn't put it through a lot of testing.

"Where the fuck did you just grab that from?" Preston asked, eyes wide as Teresa showed off her knife.

"Oh, I grabbed it from my <Inventory>." Teresa replied completely deadpan. Preston and Jake shared a look, then both burst out laughing.

"Okay that was a good one dude, you actually got me with that. Fuck, your inventory, I wasn't expecting that." Preston laughed, clearly thinking she was joking. Teresa put away her knife once more, making it disappear before everyone's eyes. Everyone paused for a moment, but soon everyone started laughing. "Holy shit guys she deadass has an <Inventory> what the fuck?"

"I can't breathe, shit I'm laughing too hard. I'm fucking crying." Jake said in between laughs, trying to brace himself to speak. "Bro is literally Minecraft Steve."

At that, everyone began laughing even harder. Tears ran down Teresa's face as she laughed too. She wasn't sure if it was because she actually thought it was that funny, or just from being back around her party with everything being alright.

In reality, everyone felt the same way.

"So uh… now what?" Sarah eventually asked, as the laughter died down. Good question.

"Madeline, how does your <Familial Duty> work?" Teresa asked, standing up and observing their surroundings. They were in a forest, but the trees were completely unlike anything Teresa had seen. Massive wooden trunks were sprouted out of the ground and into the sky where branches and leaves could be seen far above. The tree trunks were curved, however, and angled right back down into the ground to form an arch.

If she followed the trajectory of the tree trunk underground, it looked like it sprouted out from the ground again a distance away, forming another arch. All of the trees in the forest seemed to follow this pattern, creating a terrain similar to a chess board. There were patches where the sky was enveloped in a thick canopy, followed by patches where sunlight shone down onto huge green and yellow plants as the trees burrowed underground.

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"I just feed it a bit of Mana and think about someone in my family. I don't really know how it works, but using it I can feel that my Mackenzie is alive." Madeline responded, her eyes focused on something no one else could see. "I think she's… that way?"

Madeline pointed in a seemingly random direction, but Teresa knew better than to doubt what magic could do. She nodded and began tearing off strips of her sleeves. She handed the rags out to everyone, and even strapped one around her own mouth and nose.

"Put these on. They're a bit dirty, I'm sorry about that but I did just get done with blowing up the Statue of Liberty. We don't know what's in these woods, and I have <Purify> now but it's still better to be safe than sorry." Teresa explained.

"You what?" Madeline asked, looking at her with a puzzled look. "You know what, never mind. We can talk about it as we move."

The party began to travel through the woods. The easiest places to walk were where the trees arched up into the air. If Teresa had to wager a guess, the canopy above kept anything too crazy from growing in the more shaded areas. There were still multiple kinds of moss, but compared to where the tree's burrowed underground it was nothing.

In the sunlight, green alien-like plants grew out of the ground. Some of them looked like large pods that could fit a horse inside, others looked like mutated vegetation that resembled nothing Teresa had ever seen on Earth.

Were they even on Earth anymore?

"So the Statue of Liberty, huh?" Sarah asked with a smile, walking next to Teresa. From the looks of it, she didn't want to stray too far away from her. Teresa couldn't blame the poor woman, from her perspective she had almost been turned into monster food just a few minutes ago.

"Yeah, blew it up. Just didn't like it yah know? It looked at me funny." Teresa said with a smirk. "Definitely wasn't for a quest or anything, just pure love of the game."

"You should absolutely never tell anyone about that." Sarah responded with a chuckle. Teresa laughed right back.

"Oh God, I don't plan on it. For the record, I am not a terrorist, I only blew up one national monument and it tried to kill me first." Teresa sarcastically replied, glad to finally be back around other people. It was nice to shoot the shit.

"Wait, you actually blew up the Statue of Liberty? Shit I got to stop assuming that you're joking." Preston interjected.

"Oh yeah, you would have loved it. There were even skeletons with bows and stuff, I even fought a mosquito that could actually fly. All the ones we went up against were pretty grounded." Teresa continued. She was about to explain more, but movement caught her eyes. "Stop. Something's in the trees."

Up above, there were multiple creatures swinging from branch to branch, many of whom were climbing down to look at Teresa's party. There had to be at least fifty of them, and they looked like giant white monkeys with an extra pair of arms. Teresa used <Identify> on a few, trying to gauge their opponents.

{Albino Gorilla (F) (lv 8)}

{Albino Gorilla (F) (lv 6)}

{Albino Gorilla (F) (lv 9)}

{Albino Gorilla (F) (lv 8)}

"It's fine, they're pretty low level." Teresa said, becoming far more relieved. If they had been closer to level 30, she wasn't sure she would be able to protect everyone there.

"You can see their levels now?" Madeline asked, an eyebrow raised. "What are they?"

"Albino Gorillas, none above level 10, most around level 8." Teresa replied, looking around and using <Identify> on more of the animals. For all she knew, one of them could be a powerhouse amongst weaklings, using them as cover. The flying mosquito she fought had been surrounded by low levels, it might be the same deal here. However, she didn't find anything exceptional. "We should be fine."

The Albino Gorillas watched them cautiously, maintaining a healthy distance. They were already smarter than the monsters within the Tutorial, so Teresa would prefer not to kill them if she could help it. So long as they stayed chill, they could leave alive.

Teresa continued forward, leading the party underneath a horde of creatures easily capable of ripping a human being apart. She could practically feel her party members' gazes, and everyone was completely silent. No one made any sudden moves, though more Albino Gorillas began to appear.

She kept using <Identify> on every single one that she could find, but none were very strong. There was one that was level 10, but even that wasn't really a big deal.

"Hey I forgot, what levels are you guys?" Teresa asked, staying on guard without being too stressed about their situation.

"I'm level 1." Sarah answered.

"Level 2." Preston and Madeline both said.

"Level 3 and my class is level 1." Jake said.

Okay, so maybe the gorillas would be a problem. Not for Teresa or anything, but if they threw a bunch of really big rocks or something that could be extremely annoying.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Teresa said, trying to sound reassuring. She had a solid 30 levels on all of them, she would do just fine at keeping them safe.

A chorus of gorilla noises overtook the forest as a single gorilla dropped down in front of them, multiple other gorillas seemingly trying to stop him. A quick <Identify> revealed he was level 11, wow. So strong, what a threat. Hopefully it wouldn't try to attack them, Teresa would highly prefer to maintain good relations with the gorillas. They were gorillas and Teresa loved animals, plus who wouldn't want to be liked by gorillas? Gorillas are awesome.

The Albino Gorilla approached Teresa, seemingly sizing her up. It was pretty comical considering the large height difference, but the System made things like that irrelevant so long as it wasn't an obscene difference.

"Hey." Teresa said steadily, not trying to startle the animal. She wasn't sure if she remembered right, but weren't gorillas supposed to be pretty chill with people? Like, you wouldn't invite a wild gorilla over for a cup of tea or anything, but they generally weren't outright aggressive. It was the chimpanzees that would get you.

The Albino Gorilla roared in Teresa's face, seemingly trying to spook her. She barely flinched, she wasn't even sure if the gorilla could actually hurt her if it tried. The lack of a reaction angered the animal, and it spread two of its four arms out wide. It then proceeded to try and crush Teresa with a massive clap, but Teresa could very easily avoid it.

Regardless, she chose not to.

Teresa held out both arms to either side and caught the Albino Gorilla's attacks, stopping it dead in its tracks. She began to squeeze, gripping into the flesh of the gorilla's hands and tearing. The animal began to roar and panic, trying to attack her with one of its two remaining hands.

A quick push shoved the gorilla off balance, making it stumble back before a quick demonstration of <Embers> burnt one of the Albino Gorilla's arms off. The forest went into an uproar, and two more gorillas dropped down to the ground. Teresa got ready for a fight, but surprisingly enough the two gorillas held out their palms and shook them as though asking for her to stop.

Teresa nodded and lowered her own hands, as she had been barely a second away from incinerating the animals with her spell. The gorilla with a severed arm was thrashing on the ground, screaming and yelling as it gripped the stub. One gorilla tried to tend to it, and the other kept eye contact with Teresa. It very slowly moved its arms down, and one hand formed a fist that went over its chest. The gorilla made a circular motion with the fist, and somehow Teresa understood what it was saying.

Sorry.

Did… did the gorilla actually just communicate with her? Before anything else could happen, the gorillas began to drag the injured gorilla away, the whole horde retreating. Teresa had only really fought against seemingly mindless monsters, this was different.

"Wait!" Teresa called out, and the two gorillas froze. A green ball of flames appeared in Teresa's palm, and she pointed it at the injured gorilla. The other two seemed alarmed, waving their hands as though begging for the gorilla's life. Teresa spoke as softly as she could, trying to calm them. "It's okay."

The green ball of fire shot out and into the injured gorilla, <Facilitated Restoration> causing the animals injuries to heal. It wouldn't grow back the arm, but the gorilla at least wouldn't spend weeks in recovery. It stood up after a few seconds, seemingly startled at the turn of events.

The group of animals regarded Teresa warily, before they began to retreat with the rest of the horde. The gorilla that had communicated with her earlier placed its outstretched hand to its chin and then moved it outwards.

Thank you.

With that, the gorilla threat was no more.

"Jesus Christ Teresa, I thought you were a healer." Jake said from behind her, seeming just as impressed as he was alarmed.

"About that."

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