"Level 34!" Jake exclaimed as the party looked at Teresa's status screen.

"That was <Embers> you used? How is it level 12? I thought it was a different skill entirely, it looked like you were an actual flamethrower." Madeline added.

"What is <Tutorial: Full Completionist>?" Sarah asked, eyeing the titles section. Preston, on the other hand, was unusually quiet.

"I got it from beating the Tutorial." Teresa answered, putting away her status screen before someone in her party had a stroke.

"Holy shit dude, that's insane." Jake said. "What's your ranking then? It must be ridiculously high right?"

"My what?" Teresa asked, having no clue what he was talking about.

"Your ranking, it should have shown up as soon as you left the Tutorial." He answered. "Mine was like four hundred million and something, I don't remember."

"Mine was in the five hundred millions." Madeline said.

"Lower end of eight hundred million." Sarah added.

"One second, let me look for the notification." Teresa said, glancing through the messages she had ignored while healing Sarah. There were a few she would definitely need to look into more, something something royalty, and there! "Found it."

Earth Integration Complete

Congratulations on surviving the Tutorial. Below is your current universal ranking. Maintain a high ranking for additional benefits.

969

"It says 969, what's that even mean?" Teresa asked, sharing her screen.

"Not sure, but yours is way higher than any of ours." Jake replied. He turned to the person beside him. "Preston, what was your ranking?"

"Five hundred millions." He answered curtly, not looking away from Teresa. "Are you sure you're okay man? We all fought for our lives and some of us nearly died, and the highest level among us is level 3. That was tooth and nail, every fight someone could have died. I don't know what more I could have given, and I only got to level 2 from that Tutorial. You're level 34 Teresa. You were a healer. The only way those healing skills could have leveled up was from use, and they are pretty high level. If you don't want to talk about it, we don't have to, and I don't really know where I'm going with this but I'm worried about you."

Teresa paused for a moment, everyone silent. She decided she would tell the truth.

"Honestly, I feel fantastic." Teresa said. "Like, don't get me wrong, being alone for the better part of a month? Probably not great for me, but I'll get through it. Really though, if not for the whole 'ahhh the world might be going to shit,' thing then this would probably be one of the better parts of my life so far. I've nearly died I have no idea how many times, but somehow it isn't bothering me as much as it should be. A lot of the Tutorial sucked, but I actually chose to stay longer than I needed to just so I could beat it. All of the magic and skills and monsters and stuff, as rough as it's been I've enjoyed it. Like life just became so much more interesting, way more than I thought it could ever be. I want to find my family too and make sure they're all okay, but otherwise I feel pretty great."

The moment was ruined as Teresa spotted a level 16 snake slithering in the grass towards the party, making her quickly cast <Embers> to kill it.

"My bad, monster." Teresa said, gesturing towards where she had seen the snake.

"Well I'm glad to hear it, and now I don't feel so bad about asking this dumb question." Preston said, looking a little relieved. "Can you like, fit us all in your <Inventory> or something? How does that work? I imagine you could probably move ahead way quicker than us, and time is pretty important here."

"Huh, let me try." Teresa said, reaching over and grabbing Preston. She activated <Inventory> and tried to put Preston in it, but nothing happened. "Nope, doesn't look like it'll work."

"I'm gonna start jogging now, I want to get to Mackenzie as quick as I can and this is already taking too long." Madeline said, beginning to jog ahead of the group. Teresa matched her pace, still feeling like this was practically a walking pace. Everyone in the party followed suit, thinking about a toddler being surrounded by monsters.

They continued on being guided by Madeline's <Familial Duty>, no monsters really bothering to get in their way. Teresa had seen a notification that she was unsure of.

Royalty Status Gained

She tried to select the notification, but nothing actually showed up. She couldn't interact with it, and it came with no explanation. More vague System shit that she might never really find out about probably.

Additionally, her class had slightly changed.

Class Rarity Upgraded

Jack Of All Trades (Rare) (F+)

----->

Jack Of All Trades (Legendary) (F+)

She wasn't sure what exactly that meant as she had never seen "class rarity" before, but she figured she should open up her class and see if anything changed.

Class: Jack Of All Trades (Legendary) (F+)

Jack Of All Trades, master of none, oftentimes better than a master of one. Excel at nothing to experience everything. The multiverse holds many mysteries, why only solve one?

Class Perk (awakened): Gain the ability to unlock skills of any type you have a basic understanding of upon a class level up. Class level ups take 150% experience. General skills gain experience 5% faster, and other skills gain experience 5% slower. Gain the ability to take a secondary common class. Upon experience gain, 75% will go to Jack Of All Trades and 75% will go to the common rarity secondary class. Secondary Class Change Cooldown: 1 month

+1 Strength, +1 Fortitude, +1 Endurance, +1 Vitality, +1 Agility, +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +1 Perception, +1 Lowest Stat per level.

There were drastic changes. She could take on a second, common rarity class? She could kind of guess what rarity implied about a class' quality, but splitting her 100% experience into two sets of 75% was still a net positive. Her actual Jack Of All Trades class would level up slower, but she would also be getting skills from a specific class.

That was awesome! Thinking about it intently opened up another screen, and it was a class selection.

Class: Campfire Cook (F-)

If one must eat, then one must eat well. Explore the lower culinary arts, cooking monster meat and making quality meals.

Class: Gatherer (F-)

Nature has its own resources that one may make use of. Develop a green thumb, and delve into the practice of foraging.

Class: Scavenger (F-)

Make the most of what you find. Your weakness in combat is compensated by your ability to make use of the scraps. Explore lower level scavenging and carcass prepping.

There was a long list of potential options, all of which in relatively the same boat. None of them gave any extra points per level, and a lot of them took effort to point out how… meh… they were. In terms of everyday life, Teresa was sure she could find a job in the long term using any one of these classes. In terms of combat, there were a few options but it was made exceptionally clear just what quality they were.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Class: Militia (F-)

In times of need, even the weak may need to fight to protect the village. Become prepared, and seek out combat abilities that might help you survive a little longer.

Really, might help? The combat option had insecurity issues that went beyond even Teresa's. The class could at least be a little less depressing about itself. Still, there might be some useful things in there. It's not like Teresa had a point of reference here, really it was all just guessing. There was one that caught Teresa's eye, but it probably wasn't a good time to split her experience from her main class even if it resulted in a net positive.

Class: Housekeeper (F-)

In a world of magic, everyone can benefit from spells, even the weak. Learn Everyday Magic, for simple tasks and household chores.

Did Teresa like the implication about being weak? No, not particularly. Who was getting these classes, all of Teresa's options had been way cooler. Still, Everyday Magic sounded really useful. Not at the moment, but there would come a time where Teresa was settled down and not fighting for her life. She wasn't sure when that would be, or who would still be around, but it would come one day.

Unless one of the classes could help her find her family, a secondary class would have to wait. There wasn't any immediate use from them, though she was very conscious of the fact this choice was technically less experience efficient.

Additionally, she had a new skill she still needed to try out. She also had the perfect item to try it on. Teresa summoned the water bottle she had found in the last stronghold, and activated <Appraise> for the first time.

<Bottle Of Holding (Rare) (F+): lv 0>

Materials: Stainless Steel, Plastic

Enchantments: Can store more liquid than the physical volume of the container. Liquids will remain the exact same temperature within.

Hold the fuck up. Items had levels? What else had levels? That was going to be a lot to keep track of. She had another suspicion, and pulled out her poison staff to check if that was why it had kept getting stronger.

<Goblin Shaman's Poison Staff (Common) (F): lv 25 (MAX)> Materials: Wood.

Enchantments: Converts Mana into a poison gas through a low quality process.

Yeah, her poison staff sure had a level, and interestingly enough it said "MAX" next to it. Was the level on the poison staff maxed? Did everything have a max level? She sure hoped she didn't have a max level, that would be so disappointing. She really hoped it was just items, but Teresa was well past level 25 and she hadn't seen that before.

It had to be an item thing. The items had rarities to them too, maybe that's what it was. The higher quality or rarity an item, the higher the level cap. It was a total guess, but it felt reasonable.

She put away her water bottle and began keeping her eyes out for any monsters. Admittedly, she wanted to just relax and talk with everyone for a bit, but the situation did not call for that at all. A toddler absolutely should not be left alone somewhere random in the world right now, which also brought another question to mind.

"Madeline. Do you know how far away Mackenzie is?" Teresa asked, still jogging alongside her. "Like, she's not on another continent or something is she? That would be a really big problem."

"I don't know, I can't tell exactly. If I focus on my husband, he feels a lot further away. Enough so that I can tell we wouldn't be able to get there on foot within a month. Mackenzie though? It feels way closer. I'm not sure how close she is, but I know she is still alive at the moment. If anything happens to her, I'll know it." Madeline answered, her eyes still locked on some unseen target. Teresa just nodded, relieved that this wouldn't be too impossible.

"If you want, I can run ahead and scout." Teresa said, fully aware of just how slow their current traveling speed felt. "You guys would have to be on your own for a bit though."

"That's fine, I think you should scout ahead." Jake replied. "We can't just rely on you forever, and we've got to catch up in level somehow. Madeline's baby is more important."

Everyone in the party seemed to agree. Sarah looked nervous about the situation, but she was doing her best not to show it.

"I'll be fine this time." Sarah said, her bow and quiver equipped. "Go for it, we'll catch up. You'll be able to find us, right?"

"My Perception is high enough, I can probably find you all just fine if need be." Teresa answered. She looked to Madeline to point her in the right direction.

"Thank you," Madeline said, pointing into the woods. "She's somewhere in that direction, but I don't know where exactly."

"That's alright, I'll sweep a wide area." Teresa said, turning heel and activating <Dash>. She kicked off the ground, running with a high bounce through the forest to avoid tripping on any roots. Wind whistled by her, and she even scared the shit out of what looked like a giant squirrel.

She jumped from one clear patch to another, covering a vast amount of area in a wide arc. There were multiple creatures around she hadn't seen before. Glowing rainbow insects, beavers with multiple tails, rabbits that jumped higher than even Teresa could, and eventually she ran into something that was clearly not friendly.

There was a large glowing orb that vaguely reminded Teresa of the supernova orbs at the start of the Tutorial. When she and the rest of the party had been in the white room, there had been five floating orbs that looked like they contained supernovas. Now, before her, was a larger version of exactly that.

Massive green humanoids stepped out from the orb, clubs and weapons in hand. They were similar to the goblins, but much larger.

{Ogre (F) (lv 19)}

{Ogre (F) (lv 17)}

{Ogre (F) (lv 17)}

There were about ten of them, and it was definitely more than what the party could handle. Teresa felt a bit bad that she immediately assumed they were hostile, as that was kind of racist. She was raised better than that. The Albino Gorillas had turned out pretty alright, even if she had to make an example out of one first. Still, they had expressed a clear level of intelligence and could be reasoned with.

Admittedly, Teresa may have gone a bit overboard with the whole dismemberment thing on that gorilla. Sure, it had tried to kill her, but that was a fully conscious being that was smart enough to communicate. She had done a lot of stuff in the Tutorial, and she would prefer to stop using violence for violence's sake.

She stepped out into a clearing, revealing herself to a camp of ogres.

"Hello, I come in peace." Teresa said slowly, not making any sudden movements. The ogres all paused, looking at her in total surprise. One of them shrugged, and instantly reached for its weapon. "Don't do that man, I'm telling you I'm friendly."

The ogre roared and charged her, as did all of the other ogres in the camp. Teresa sighed, activating <Embers> in both hands.

"I tried." She noted, before melting a row of ogres' heads off. The rest kept charging her, though their attack almost instantly lost momentum. Within seconds, Teresa was surrounded by charred bodies. She approached the glowing orb and used <Appraise> to see what it was.

<Ogre Monster Portal (F): lv 18>

Materials: ???

A one way portal that connects monster Souls with generated bodies. Can be destroyed for resources.

Well, that didn't sound great to leave lying around. Someone could get hurt, it was the responsible thing to destroy it. She raised her hand and began building up Mana, releasing a shotgun <Embers> at point blank range. A massive burst of flames shot out of Teresa's palms, which was actually absorbed by the orb.

Cracks began to form, running along the entire surface of the structure. It shattered, turning into countless pink and red crystal fragments. Teresa walked over and picked one of each color up, using <Appraise> on each.

<Mana Crystal (F): lv 18>

Type: Material

Can be used in low quality general enchantments and magical crafts.

<Fire-Attuned Mana Crystal (F): lv 18>

Type: Material

Can be used in low quality fire based enchantments and magical crafts.

Magical crafts? That was another thing added onto Teresa's list of things to try. Could she enchant stuff? That would be sick if she could make items magic like her clothing and weapons. She began putting the crystals in her <Inventory>, quickly getting surprised at how many it could hold. It got full before she could put all of the crystals away, but she still had her backpack. She began stuffing the last crystals into her bag, figuring the extra weight wouldn't bother her. Just like that, the ogre camp was looted.

She felt a little bad leaving the bodies out like that, even if they were charred beyond recognition. She did it all the time in the Tutorial, but being here felt more real. Teresa still wasn't completely sure what to make of the monsters in the Tutorial, but that ogre spawner description had clearly stated these monsters had Souls. They were 100% real.

Something shiny caught Teresa's attention from one of the bodies. She walked over and used <Appraise> on the shiny object.

<Ogre Monster Core (F): lv 19>

Type: Material

A Monster Core left behind by a departing monster's Soul. Can be used in magical crafts, typically as a battery.

The individual monsters had loot? Well, Teresa wasn't going to complain about that. The monsters in the Tutorial sure as shit didn't have any Monster Cores. Teresa began to burn away at some of the bodies, revealing the newly discovered materials and stuffing them into her bag.

The whole ordeal from beginning to end took about two minutes, it was back to looking for Mackenzie. Teresa looked at herself as she ran, realizing something else she should work on.

She really needed to figure out how to make <Purify> work as a cleaning spell.

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