Teresa had climbed up the side of an arced tree and stared down at the Monster Spawner below.

<Treant Monster Portal (F): lv 30>

Materials: ???

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

A group of Treants had exited the portal just a few moments ago, and they began spreading out into the forest. They were actually pretty low leveled, all being around level 10. However, there had been twenty of them in that batch, and Teresa wasn't sure how often it spawned more monsters. Would it spawn them forever? If that were the case, could they eventually turn these Monster Spawners into experience farms?

They definitely couldn't right now, it was too risky. It was something to note for later, but if they could make a monster farm that instantly damaged whatever came out of a portal that would be incredibly useful. Just finish off the injured creature, get a little bit of experience for free, and repeat that for a year. She would look into that once things had settled down.

For now, the Treants needed to die.

There were twenty of them guarding the portal, all level 30. It seemed that the higher leveled monsters stayed behind to guard the place while the lower levels went out to cause havoc. Her own party had encountered some Treants before, were they from here?

She also had to consider this thoroughly. There had been many times where she jumped to do the first thing that came to mind, but eventually realized there had been a better way to do things. It was unfortunate, but Teresa couldn't always think of every possible option immediately. Still, giving Madeline a ride to the settlement should have been obvious from the beginning, but instead Teresa had run ahead to scout on her own without weighing multiple options. She had one okay idea, then went with it.

Teresa wasn't sure if destroying Monster Spawners was an okay idea or a good idea. On the one hand, these things could get people killed. On the other hand, they also could produce low level monsters for people to gain experience from. Was it a good idea to destroy these?

Safety had to come first. If people wanted to gain levels, they could do it once the world settled down and society fell into a normal rhythm. As far as Teresa was aware, there was no need to rush for levels. Being strong now would certainly help with safety and all, and Teresa herself had been incredibly adamant on getting stronger in the Tutorial. However, she hadn't known about the settlements.

They had a week before they had to defend themselves, people could level up a lot in a week. Teresa herself had gained multiple levels in a day before, give someone seven days and a big party then they could probably get to a good level by the end of the week.

For now though, survival was the priority.

<Embers> shot down on the Treants, killing multiple very quickly. Some tried to grow their branches out to grab Teresa, but it was amateur compared to Lady Liberty's torch. That, and they were made of wood. <Embers> was made of fire. It wasn't exactly rocket science.

The monsters burned as Teresa unleashed death from above. This was one of the few times Teresa was glad her magic couldn't start an actual lasting fire, seeing how she was in the middle of a forest and all. She had gotten the option to take <Ignite> as a skill if she wanted which could set stuff on fire, but she wasn't sure she wanted it anymore. It would be great for certain situations, but making an actual fire in her current location could only result in catastrophe.

Hang on, she wasn't the only person with skills. What would happen if someone else set the forest on fire? It's not like she could just call the fire department, would everyone have to wait until it rained? A lot of people would die if a wildfire started right now, and there were multiple ways to start one. You didn't exactly need magic to make fire.

The Treants didn't put up much of a threat. Teresa was gradually becoming more on edge about everything that had been happening today. It was the same issue she had in the Tutorial, this was too easy. There was another shoe about to drop any second now, shit would hit the fan and everything would go wrong. Teresa used <Embers> once more, targeting the Monster Spawner. The Elemental Mana was all absorbed and eventually the portal was destroyed.

Level 30 Mana Crystals scattered on the ground, and Teresa began stuffing them into her <Inventory>. She had to put a few in her backpack as her <Inventory> filled up again, making her wish the skill would level up already. It was at 71% now, and she wasn't entirely sure how it gained experience. It was weird to think she had only gotten the skill hours ago, it hadn't even been a full day yet.

She was also hungry, the last party she had run into offered her food but the conversation had gotten side tracked. Teresa had left in a hurry, deciding to go off after the Monster Spawner as quick as she could again. It was another example of her jumping at the first okay idea that popped into her head, what was wrong with her?

Nope, time to stop that right now. Teresa did not beat the Tutorial just to fall down another rabbit hole of shitty mental health. She needed to be level headed about this, she was doing good today and things were going well. Madeline was with Mackenzie, Sarah was alive, she had saved multiple people's lives, if she was unhappy with her performance so far she would never be happy.

It was good for her to go over how she could be doing better, there was no denying that. The issue was she needed to be able to give herself constructive criticism without getting all depressed about it. She needed to think things through a little more carefully. She could make a mistake from time to time, but that was not enough reason for her to go down a spiral of self hatred.

Her mood was kind of ruined now though. Being hungry didn't help. Shit, how long had it been since the end of the Tutorial? She had her quest screen with a timer on it, so she was able to check. It was the one good thing about getting that quest to lead the settlement, she could keep track of time way more accurately.

A quick check showed that eight and a half hours had passed. That meant it had been about four hours since she had left her party, were they doing okay? She should really go check on them, but at the moment she was still kind of upset. It was stupid how emotions worked like that, she could logically see she was doing her best but emotionally it pissed her off that her best wasn't actually the best.

She knew a good way to blow off some steam. She was going to kill a metric fuckton of monsters. Looking for her party was the first okay idea that had popped into her head, but then she thought about it more. How would she find them? Would she just go running around back where she came from? That would be really counterproductive.

If she wanted to help, she should launch a preemptive strike against the monsters. Kill as many of them as she could before they could kill a human being. That seemed like a good idea. She would also help whoever she came across, that was still a big priority and she couldn't let her random emotional turmoil get in the way of that. Still, she was going to kill some stuff.

Teresa ran through the woods, the noise of the crystals in her bag clattering around ringing in her ears. Damn it, it was just one more small thing that annoyed her but it was really succeeding at that. She cast <Magic Wellspring> on herself to help clear her mind a bit, and thankfully it did help a little. It still wasn't a cure for anything, but it was better than nothing.

She spotted some of the Treants that had run away earlier, and she decided to take her anger out a bit. Teresa went flying at a poor Treant going her top speed, and she shoulder checked it with all her Strength. An explosion of splinters shot out as half of the monster's body was completely obliterated, and the other half went flying into a massive tree that was far less sentient.

Another Treant screamed, surprising Teresa as she hadn't expected them to be able to make noises. They were basically trees, after all. Teresa could totally just use <Embers> and be done with it all, but she had been spamming that skill for ages. It was dumb, but she simply wasn't in the mood to use it.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

There were some things she hadn't been utilizing to their fullest potential lately. Teresa was a kickboxer, why hadn't she been kicking or punching stuff lately? Okay, maybe she shouldn't be calling herself a kickboxer, she only did it for a few months in college. Still, it was the only form of combat she had actually trained before. Why not use it?

She hit another Treant with a jab to the face, causing bark to break off. Had this been a creature made of flesh, that would probably be terrifying, but thankfully it was just a Treant. She followed up with a cross, giving it a simple 1-2. Her right fist broke through the monster's entire body, sticking out the back of it.

Branches began moving towards her as a few of the Treants tried to grab her, but these creatures were all ridiculously low level. This was just an excuse for Teresa to get back into the rhythm of kickboxing, a warmup. Okay, it was closer to bullying, but at least she was bullying monsters that would totally kill someone if they could.

How long had it been since she practiced her head movement? What about her footwork? Teresa began to move closer towards a Treant, making a deliberate effort not to use <Dash> or go ridiculously quick. She imagined she was trying to draw a triangle with her head, all while keeping her arms up and utilizing her lead shoulder wherever possible.

She slipped between multiple branches, rolling beneath them and keeping her feet properly spaced. It had been a long time since she really did anything like this, so weirdly enough it was actually pretty relaxing.

Kickboxing required a more upright stance than boxing. It prioritized mobility and kick defense, not that there was anything wrong with boxing. Teresa had sparred plenty of times with boxers, it was just a different sport. Her back leg lifted and she drove her heel into just above where she imagined a kneecap would be on a Treant. Totally an illegal move that could permanently injure an opponent, but this wasn't a match between two people in a sport.

The kick completely immobilized the Treant, as what she had actually kicked was more like the monster's hip where the roots sprouted out. She finished it with a right hook, instantly turning towards the next one.

It was the last monster. Teresa wasn't completely satisfied with her performance, she had already made a critical kickboxing mistake. She had learned head movement from a boxer, but it didn't carry over into kickboxing perfectly. Generally in martial arts where kicks were allowed, you didn't want to go low with your head. That was just asking to get kicked in the face, or kneed if you did Muay Thai. Teresa had gone too low under one of the branches, she should have just blocked and counterpunched.

Actually, she wasn't 100% sure on that. She could totally use a coach, but a lot of the joy in martial arts was that it was like a puzzle. Opponent does X, do you do Y or Z? A big part of getting good at fighting was figuring out what to do in the moment.

Teresa feinted a jab to the body then followed up with a lead hook. She tried to hit the Treant with a right uppercut immediately after, but it had already fallen to the floor dead. That was not a fair fight in the slightest, but she had enjoyed it. The entire encounter had taken maybe 30 seconds from beginning to end, so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

She wanted to try that on something else. Something stronger.

Teresa ran through the woods, instantly killing any medium to low leveled monster with <Embers>. She wanted to kickbox something that wouldn't just die from one hit. Unfortunately, most of the monsters in the forest were pretty weak.

She came across another party locked in battle with a group of ogres. She was pretty sure she had destroyed the ogre portal, were there multiple? Unfortunately, they were all around level 15. They would still die from a punch, not to mention it would be a lot messier than when she had punched the Treants. These guys weren't made entirely of wood.

The party was all around level 5, the highest being level 6 and the lowest being level 3. The ogres were pretty high level for these people and the fight was not going in their favor, so Teresa didn't feel too bad about stealing their kills.

She ran between them and used <Embers> at point blank range, making everyone jump. None of them had seen her coming, and Teresa didn't want to aim a flamethrower spell next to a crowd of people. Damn, was this how Madeline felt during the early parts of the Tutorial? It wasn't exactly the same, but still.

The group of three ogres died without the chance to put up a fight, leaving Teresa and a party of injured and shocked humans.

"English?" Teresa asked, looking between them. A couple of them began speaking in what was either Spanish or Portuguese, but one of them replied.

"Yes, I can speak English." She answered. "Thank you for the save, that was not going well for us. Do you know where we are?"

"Head that way and there's a settlement that's safe from monsters. Have you seen any Monster Spawners?" Teresa asked. She quickly described what they looked like, and the woman nodded.

"We saw something like that, but we stayed away from it. I think it was somewhere over there. My name is Laura by the way. The others only speak Portuguese, but I don't mind translating."

"Don't worry about it. Just head to the settlement, I'm going to go take care of that Monster Spawner. Remember, go that way. Good luck, but you're not the only ones in this forest and other people might need me." With that, she cast <Facilitated Restoration> a few times then ran off towards another Monster Spawner.

It didn't take long to get there, and soon she was able to <Appraise> another ogre portal. This one was level 28, and there was a group of twelve ogres present in the camp.

Teresa ran in immediately, punching one in the back of the knee. The monsters were tall, so she needed to bring them down to her level. The ogre fell to the ground, its leg completely shattered from the initial strike. Teresa followed up with a lead uppercut to the jaw, grotesquely snapping the monster's head back. Its neck was broken, and Teresa moved onto the next target.

The monsters in the camp seemed surprised by the sudden attack, but Teresa wasn't going to stop. Pre-System, it was pretty much impossible to win an unarmed fight against multiple opponents. Even just two people could overwhelm a decently trained fighter, unless the fighter struck first. If you could eliminate one opponent immediately, then it would become way more reasonable for you to take out the second.

This obviously had problems once there were more than two opponents, and there were way more than two opponents in this camp of ogres. However, Teresa had a little trick that most martial artists didn't have. Literal superpowers.

Or skills, whatever. Same difference. She kicked the knee out of an ogre exactly how she imagined against that Treant, then followed up with two jabs and a right hook. Another ogre down, ten to go.

An ogre tried to kick her, but she pivoted on her lead foot and retaliated with a check hook. Her fist connected with the monster's leg that was still planted on the ground, snapping it and causing the ogre to topple over. A quick kick to the head snapped its neck, killing yet another.

Another ogre tried to dive on top of her, hoping to crush her beneath its bodyweight. Teresa was able to avoid it using <Dash>, quickly getting out of the way. It was on the ground now, so she stomped on its head and killed it. Eight left.

Three ogres seemed to get the memo that attacking one at a time was a terrible game plan, and they all tried to swarm her at once. Teresa activated <Dash> and stepped to the side, hitting one with a roundhouse to the calf. The leg snapped, and Teresa jumped up the side of the now kneeling ogre so she could stand at eye level with another. She jabbed it in the face, then the sternum, then followed with a right hook to the temple.

The ogre underneath her tried to shake her off, but she stomped her foot into the back of its neck. The third ogre of this group took a step back, seemingly caught off guard that Teresa had just killed its buddies so quickly. Six to go.

Five of the remaining ogres all tried to swarm her, but she kept using <Dash> to control distance and pick her fights. Her own attack pattern was pretty predictable as she always targeted the legs first, but the ogres didn't seem capable of retaliating.

One by one they fell to their knees with broken legs. Teresa would try to finish them immediately where possible, but oftentimes Teresa didn't get an opportunity to do so. She would leave one or two crippled and finish them later, and eventually there was only the one ogre left that had stepped back earlier.

Actually, wait. Where did it go? Teresa looked around, and realized with shock that it was actually running away. Teresa didn't feel good about killing a retreating creature, but if she let it get away it might go on to kill someone else. She activated <Embers> and destroyed the Monster Spawner real quick, and used <Dash> to chase after the escaping ogre.

Teresa jumped onto the ogre's back and elbowed it on the top of the head, killing it instantly. That one wasn't really a kickboxing move, but it felt natural so she went with the flow. Man, she really needed to figure out how to use <Purify> to clean. She always thought that, but she needed to poison herself and figure out the basics first. Maybe poison a monster actually, that might be a better idea.

Footsteps made Teresa turn quickly, ready for another fight. From out of the forests a group of five new monsters appeared that Teresa had never seen before. They were quadrupeds, four legs supporting a horse-like body covered in fur closer to that of a Pomeranian than an actual horse. It was incredibly similar to a centaur, except instead of a human upper body it was closer to a squid.

Teresa almost immediately threw hands, but there was one key detail about their appearance that made her stop.

They were wearing Tutorial gear.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.