"Kinda overkill, don't you think?" Jake laughed as they made their way back to the rest of the group.

"I think it's great, I didn't even use that much HP either." Teresa replied as the air whistled past her. Her buff from <Retaliate> had worn off seconds after killing the last Sandwalker, and she had felt it rapidly weaken as she used <Embers>. Using a chunk of HP at once definitely boosted her damage output quite a bit, but it was pretty short term. At least that's how it was at the moment.

"Really? If you didn't use much that's pretty ridiculous, if you can spam that over and over again and melt everything in sight you'll be unstoppable."

"Well I definitely couldn't spam it, but if I pace it out well it will help a lot."

"Why not spam it? This seems like an overpowered cheat dude."

"If I spammed it like that I would die, I only used 500 HP but doing that twice would kill me. I'll need to space it out with really tiny amounts of HP."

"That's half of your health. That's almost as much HP as I have total. I thought you said you didn't use much."

"I didn't, the first 40% doesn't really count."

"That makes no sense."

"Well if I'm ever in a fight and I'm losing enough HP to notice, normally it's at least 40% gone."

"It's still a lot of HP, that's extremely dangerous."

"Nuh uh."

"The hell do you mean nuh uh? Teresa, that's really bad man. I know-"

"Jake, calm down, I'm fucking with you." Teresa interrupted while trying not to laugh. "500 HP is a lot, but it'll regenerate in like probably two to four hours. We're here all day, there's plenty of time to not worry about it."

"Are you actually fucking with me, or are you just saying that so I don't worry?"

"I'm actually fucking with you, over 50% of anything is a majority and 500 HP is over half of my HP. Believe it or not, I am actually able to do math. I want to find out what happens if I use more since the lower my HP gets the stronger the skill should be, but on the bright side it doesn't hurt to use. I get a little tired in a way I can't really explain, but really I'm pretty happy with how it turned out."

"Don't push it dude, I'm not sure messing around with extremely low HP is a great idea."

"What's the worst that can happen?"

"Death?"

"Like I said, what's the worst that can happen?"

"That's not funny bro."

"It kinda is."

"The second we find a therapist for you, we are taking a break for a bit."

"I figured." Teresa chuckled at Jake's exasperation, deciding to enjoy the moment as she ran. In her <Inventory> she had yet another consumable that she looted from the destroyed Portal.

<Supreme Human Mouthwash (F+): lv 38 (MAX)>

Materials: ???

Status: Ready (100% Remaining)

Enchantments: Perfectly cleans the interior of a human's mouth.

Was magic mouthwash what Teresa had been expecting? No, not really. Was she happy with it? Absolutely. <Facilitated Restoration> actually helped prevent any dental issues and drastically slowed plaque build up, but having something like that was actually incredibly nice. There were supplies in the Tutorial that took care of random things like dental hygiene, but now that Teresa was free of that System hellscape she had to worry about random things she used to take for granted.

Once they reached the group, Sarah was immediately asking questions.

"What were those tracks?" Sarah asked, concerned.

"I don't know, I was hoping you might figure something out." Teresa admitted honestly. "They looked like they were from a tank."

"Yeah, continuous tracks." Sarah agreed. "Do you think someone has a tank?"

"I sure hope not, that would be ridiculous." Teresa answered. "Actually, now that I think about it, I kind of hope people have tanks. That would be kind of reassuring, you know? That and an attack helicopter. You think helicopters are still around?"

"I doubt it, I didn't see anyone with a car back at The Mall, so why would someone have a helicopter?" Sarah replied.

"Hey, that's pretty much what I said!" Jake concurred.

"How did <Retaliate> work?" Mathew asked excitedly.

"I drained over half my HP and managed to completely obliterate a bunch of monsters with the basic version of one of my spells." Teresa answered. "They were all lower level than me and it's only one data point, I'll need to use it a few more times to really get the hang of it."

"Does it hurt?"

"Surprisingly no."

"How much does it empower you?"

"Not really sure yet, enough to obliterate anything lower level than me without a problem but I need to try it on something stronger."

"That's badass."

"Mathew! Watch your language!" Thomas scolded.

"Sorry."

"Can you see where those tracks lead?" Teresa asked Sarah, steering the conversation back to the important part.

"Looks like it goes deeper into the Contaminated Zone in one direction and goes into a cave in the other." She answered.

"Maybe there's a civilization underground." Preston said. "Our locations were randomized, right? What if some people appeared underground?"

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"I mean, they were pseudo-randomized." Teresa replied. "We appeared near Madeline's daughter despite the planet being the size of the sun. Either Madeline should have been buying lottery tickets pre-System or there's something influencing where people appear. Maybe something kept people from spawning in the middle of the ocean or underground."

"But what if there's some alien species that thrives underground? Like dwarves or something." Preston questioned.

"That's a good point, the Scilians appeared in a swamp that fit their natural habitat. Then again, there might be more Scilians out there that spawned in the middle of a desert, we just haven't seen enough to know." Teresa continued. "It's fun to contemplate, but no matter how much we think about it we won't know anything for sure."

"I guess that's true, do you want to explore the cave?" Preston asked. Teresa thought about it for a few moments before she shook her head.

"I don't think that's a good idea. If they're hostile, we'll be screwed. Any serious fight could cause the cave to collapse, then we'd really be shit out of luck. Let's wait a while, if nothing pops up by the time I'm at full HP again then I'll try taking out the stronger Portal." The rest of the party agreed after some thought, and with that they relaxed for a little bit.

A few hours passed with no change. The radiation actually dropped a little bit as the Portal Teresa destroyed was no longer contaminating the area, but Teresa actually got the chance to witness something new for the first time.

Deeper in the Contaminated Zone, there was a chunk of air that began to shimmer. At first Teresa thought it might be something to do with the weather messing with her vision, but she dismissed that idea after considering the fact she had 66 Perception. Surely that would be enough to overcome some heat mirage, right?

"Oh hey, a Portal is spawning." Sarah said, pointing out the area Teresa was just looking at.

"That's what's going on? I haven't seen that before." Teresa asked, keeping her eyes on the anomaly.

"We've only seen it once and it scared the shit out of us. Feels a lot different now looking at it knowing I'm level 30 instead of level 3." Sarah responded.

They continued to watch for a minute until the air in question began to glow intensely, a bright light expanding until suddenly a green Portal took its place. It was too far away for <Appraise> to work on, but Teresa was already planning on taking out a different Portal.

It was dumb that they were called Portals, wouldn't that imply they went both directions? Teresa couldn't go through a Portal, they were solid objects that she could literally punch. Kind of lame if you asked her.

"Well, my HP is full again so it's about time I take out the level 51 Portal." Teresa said, stretching before she went into battle. She cast <Appraise> on the Portal absentmindedly to confirm she was looking at the right one, and was surprised to find its level had changed.

<Inferior Al-Mi'raj Portal (F+) [Attuned: Radiation] : lv 52>

Materials: ???

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

"Huh, the Portal leveled up." Teresa said, surprised. It shouldn't be too surprising, they already knew Portals grew stronger the longer they were left unattended. Still, it was weird to see it happen in real time.

"Are you sure you'll be alright against them?" Preston asked.

"They're unicorn rabbits, I'll be fine." Teresa told him. The monsters in question did closely resemble yellow rabbits with a horn atop their heads. The horn was a pale yellow with black highlights, and each rabbit seemed basically identical. Once more, Teresa wondered what these monsters ate. Did they go to the forest every day to eat? Did they need to eat? So many questions, so few answers.

"All fun and games until it turns out those unicorn rabbits can throw hands, these guys are stronger than the Mutated Slimes. Are you really sure about this?" Preston reiterated.

"I'll try to just take a few on at a time. I'm thinking maybe I can lure a group of them away from the Portal, kill them, and then repeat the process until all of the rabbits are dead." Teresa explained.

"If you say so. Just shoot a flare into the sky if you need any help." Preston told her, referring to her bright version of <Facilitated Restoration>.

"Will do. Anything before I go?" Teresa asked. Nobody said anything, which was her queue to leave. She used her buffing skills on everybody once more before departing. "Wish me luck."

Teresa ran off, not activating <Dash> as she chose to conserve as much Mana and Stamina as possible. Running did use up some Stamina, but it would regenerate pretty fast. Besides, refreshing <Facilitated Restoration> and <Magic Wellspring> used Mana as well. Before actually engaging in combat, she was going to take a few minutes to recharge anyway.

Once she was a safe enough distance away from the Portal, she paused and took that short break. The Al-Mi'raj didn't seem to have a great Perception as they didn't pay her any mind, but honestly that was still concerning. That meant their stats went somewhere else, and considering they were rabbits Teresa wouldn't be surprised if they were Agility focused.

As soon as she was ready to go, she launched a brief blast of <Embers> towards the camp of rabbits, hoping to get their attention. A long time ago she had tried to increase the distance her <Embers> could travel, and accidentally invented her shotgun <Embers>. Unfortunately, she had never really found a good way to improve the spell's range.

The range did improve as her skill leveled up and as her Intelligence increased, but ultimately it still fell short. She was about two kilometers away from the rabbits, and her spell definitely could not travel two kilometers. It could clear about 500 meters on flat ground if she had to guess, which was still a really good range, but that wasn't two kilometers.

Regardless, the spell caught the attention of quite a few rabbits. A streak of fire in the sky was pretty hard to miss after all. Teresa heard some strange muttering sounds coming from the rabbits as they grouped together. A squad of about 20 Al-Mi'raj was quickly formed and dispatched from the Portal to investigate.

Perfect.

Teresa watched carefully as the unicorn rabbits made their way closer, itching to take them out. She was trying to improve in regards to fighting drawn out battles, but against an opponent higher level than her she felt it was best to play to her strengths. Hit and run tactics simply worked.

Once the rabbits were about halfway to her, they froze for a moment. The creatures sniffed the air for a few seconds, and they seemed to smell something they didn't like. The Al-Mi'raj let out a bloodcurdling screech, alerting the remaining monsters around the Portal.

Okay, so while sight might not be their strong suit, they sure as shit could smell. The pack of rabbits were hopping at a ferocious pace towards Teresa, seemingly capable of crossing the distance in seconds.

The last time Teresa used <Retaliate>, she had supplied a single chunk of her HP at once. This time, she was going to try spreading it out a lot more. She had 970 HP, if she sacrificed 1 HP per second that would give her 970 seconds of maximum use, or about 16 minutes. That wasn't accounting for HP loss during fights or excessive consumption of HP for a moment of increased damage, nor did it account for how the buff improved the lower her HP got.

Regardless, it felt like a good test. Her HP began to slowly drain, and a red glow began to emanate from her body. <Embers> shot out towards the rabbits, but they were able to dodge the attack relatively easily. <Retaliate> wouldn't make much of a difference if her attacks didn't land, so she tried to lean into <Intuitive Aim>. Her skill certainly helped with predicting her opponents' movements and putting her spell on target, but it didn't change the fact the rabbits could see it coming and dodge.

In seconds they were already upon Teresa, only three of the rabbits having been hit by her attack at all. Multiple leaped at her, ready to impale her on their unicorn horn. Teresa activated <Dash> and avoided the attacks, using shotgun <Embers> to punish the rabbits for getting too close. Two of the rabbits were caught up in the flames and immediately killed, while three more were just injured.

Even while using her movement skill, Teresa noted that several rabbits had no problem keeping up. Rather than leaping at her and leaving themselves exposed, the rabbits began charging her while remaining close to the ground.

High Agility or not, it was incredibly hard to dodge <Embers> in close quarters. At some point it was a measure of whether they could run faster than Teresa could point her palms, resulting in quite a few charred rabbit corpses slamming against her shins.

This wasn't too bad, at least not at the moment. In roughly half a minute the rabbits would have reinforcements arriving, but several were already dead with multiple monsters injured. They also gave good experience, which Teresa was plenty happy with. Her leveling speed had slowed down as she reached higher and higher levels. She missed the days where killing a single Yectin Clubber would give her enough experience to be measured in the double digits. Now she was happy when monsters gave her more than 1% per kill. At this rate, she would level up twice from just a single Portal.

A glowing green energy caught both her eyes and her senses as something familiar yet simultaneously wrong occurred nearby. A healthy rabbit was pressing its horn into an injured monster, Mana flowing from one rabbit to the other. A tumorous growth began to form over the hurt rabbit's injuries as the Mana did its job.

Teresa recognized the Mana, because of course she would. She was an expert at using that kind of Mana, even if it had been tainted with radiation.

The Al-Mi'raj could use Restoration Magic.

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