He couldn't remember the moment his exhaustion finally caught up to him and he fell asleep, but the shock he had when waking up nearly made his heart jump from his chest. Ethan clutched his chest as the memories from the day before returned to him and he gasped in surprise before groaning and closing his eyes. When he opened them again he saw Nora sat next to him, coiled up and her eyes staring into his face. The concern she had for his well being could be felt over their bond. It seems she watched over him the entire time, the exhaustion visible in her eyes.

Ethan managed to sit properly and let his pounding heart calm down, his eyes closed as he only focused on breathing evenly. After calming down he gently placed a hand on Nora's scales, they were rough, not soft and polished like he was used to. She was also back to her normal size which was still pretty big compared to the day he held her hatching egg in his hand.

Thank you Nora for keeping me safe until now, I really needed a break after all…this. Did anything happen? He finally opened his eyes and looked around, the hole from his ability was gone, the sand and wind working together to fill it back up. The dead mages around him looked just like before, their bodies only covered in some sand and the blood they gave for him was dried into a darker shade of red.

Nora gently shook her head. Nothing, after you laid down and fell asleep I waited here. The magic that increased my size finally vanished and left me pretty exhausted so I rested next to you and kept watch. You slept a few hours and that was it really. There is nothing living I could detect, just us.

He nodded and gently glided his fingers over her slender body, noticing the holes that got left by the necrotic magic of the Wight King. His gaze wandered over the field again, there was nothing living here anymore, not one living soul that would need him, he was once again alone in the tutorial. Ethan stood up and grunted, stumbling a few steps before falling to his knees. His arms and legs trembled, the pain from using too much magic still fresh, it felt like hundreds of nails got slowly pushed into his flesh.

"It seems I need to rest a while longer before I'm back to full strength, huh?" he whispered and his hands moved through the sand until he found his staff that laid next to him. With both hands wrapped around its length he used it to push himself back to his feet. Walking bent over and trembling like an old man with Parkinson's he started to walk.

Even with the pain ravaging his body, his mind was full with thoughts and memories, one big mess that would have consumed him, if not for the pain that clouded his emotions. Both pain and memories balancing him out enough to walk in a wobbly line through the desert. Nora followed him on the ground, his body too weak to carry her.

His eyes wandered over the horizon, and in the distance he could see a massive mountain range, Ethan turning that way as he stumbled his way through the desert. His breath was erratic and sweat poured down his forehead, after all this time being a jackass that threw around with magic like it was a party trick he took it one step too far this time.

"We won this fight..can you believe that Nora? The price we paid was too high, nobody should endure like these soldiers did. I can't wrap my mind around it that they're all gone, just like that. Kra'kulgar was an uptied guy but he helped us out so much from the moment we met him…" He looked over to one of the dead behemoth lizards that got spared from the Abyss as it laid too far away, it wasn't his but seeing that majestic beast ripped apart made him swallow.

"We are still so weak, I complained so much about being overleveled, how the system spoon-fed me experience and now I didn't even manage to save one soldier. I just hope the civilians can managed without soldiers to protect them but with necromancer g-"

Ethan looked down at Nora, his eyes wide open as he realized something. "We didn't kill James, he…he is still alive right?" On the battlefield there was only the Wight King and nobody else directing these undead.

I believe he is still alive, yes, the last time we saw him was as he walked back to the enemy camp but I didn't see him again after that. Maybe he's already on his way to the fourth circle and we missed him? But Ethan, you couldn't fight him even if you wanted, not in your current condition, that you manage to walk at all is already impressive.

With a sigh Ethan nodded, Nora was right, with his fucked up mana channels he was no more than a cripple. Without mana he felt a bit like pre-system Ethan, it was depressing in a way that most of his self esteem came from the fact that he was a mage. His only hope was that they would heal with time, if he was lucky they would even become stronger.

With Nora at his side he walked through the desert, his health points had regenerated a bit instead of going down but he was still rather low, during his hobbling walk over and down the dunes they encountered enemies only twice. One was some kind of desert scorpion which Nora killed rather easily, it stung her twice but even in her weakened state the venom wasn't strong enough to harm her. Still it managed to penetrate her scales which was already impressive but she shrugged it off.

The second time was to Ethan's disgust, another mimic but it didn't look like those deers back in the forest. This time it looked like simple sand colored rock, roughly the size of Ethan's torso. It opened like a chest, the rock split horizontally right in the middle. But instead of a wet fleshy inside and tentacles that would fit right into a japanese manga, this one looked more like mummified flesh. The insides dry and yellowish. Its teeth were crooked and broken and instead of a tongue there was something more akin to a chitinous harpoon. Overall it was pretty weird.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Nora tried to dispatch it but couldn't move fast enough over the sand and was always biting on stone, before her teeth broke off Ethan suggested to just walk away for once. The mimic didn't move very well over the sand, which was stupid for a creature living in the desert, so they just left it there while it tried to capture Ethan with its harpoon tongue. The thing was a lot shorter than expected.

It was kind of fun to see the mimic slides over the sand only to fall over and roll down a dune. He watched it wiggle small tentacles on the underside that it used to move around. Ethan could have used magic but for such a goofy enemy he didn't want to risk damaging his body further, it wasn't worth the pain.

When night fell over the land they stopped next to a rock formation, for the first time since entering the tutorial Ethan had nightmares and woke up multiple times. Each time pain flared through his body from sitting up so rapidly, making it harder to fall asleep again until he just gave up and they continued moving.

During the second day the trembling finally stopped and his gait improved somewhat. While he still walked with a limp the real improvement was that he stopped stumbling all the time, over his staff, his own feet or even the stupid sand. With the help of his staff he moved faster over the sand. What he missed was his enchantment on his boots but without magic he had to fight the sand.

The second day was otherwise boring, Ethan and Nora didn't talk, there was nothing to be said as they could feel each other's emotions pretty well at his point, so it was another day in silence. But it wasn't uncomfortable, they supported each other with simple thoughts, a nudge here, a warm gesture sent there. She took some off his pain and it made his self inflicted torture a bit easier.

On the third day he collapsed his breathing shallow, while his health was slowly increasing the burned up mana channels were too much, he became feverish and sweat was drenching his black robe. With no mana to use he couldn't even cool himself down with his aura and while he didn't need food or water due to the system, he wanted to drink an entire lake to quench his thirst and get rid of the dryness in his throat. He felt like crying if he actually still could at this point.

Nora I can't keep going like this, even with my health almost full, my mana channels are burned up. We're alone and I'm not a healer and even if I was, I don't think I could restore myself. Sometimes I wonder if the tutorial not only doesn't help but wants us to suffer with the lack of information we receive.

Ethan laid there for a while before Nora finally spoke up, her voice quiet, barely a whisper as she made a suggestion. Something he didn't think about.

You could try to ask Ouroboros? I mean he's your patron so a simple question should be alright. It's worth a try at least

Nodding along to her words as he heard them in his mind, he hadn't talked to the endless god for a long time and tried to reach out to his patron, he could feel a connection to the serpent god but there was no voice in his mind or a miracle happening, there was literally nothing.

"Well, shit. I think we're on our own this time, no divine intervention. Let's keep going, the fourth circle is close and we don't have time to waste." Groaning he rolled over and pushed himself to his feet, he had to continue, the fourth circle was only a day's travel away. "I won't die after defeating that stupid undead, men died for me and I won't tarnish their legacy.

During their journey the mountain range came closer with each step, he could see the mountains when the sky was clear. These black, jagged rocks pierced the sky like massive monoliths with their peaks covered in snow, on the foot of the mountain range was a lush green forest to explore. The closer he got the more he could make out, what he thought was a forest was actually a dense jungle. A green wall without a gap in sight, reaching from one end of the horizon to the other.

Ethan smiled a bit, a new place for him to conquer he thought jokingly, now he just needed to get better. While he made good progress in terms of distance his body also healed. The burning in his arms became less and his gait returned to almost normal again. His staff was still keeping him on his feet but he didn't need the white knuckled grip he was forced to use even when he only tried to stand up straight, his legs still burned like hell though from all the walking.

When the evening drew closer he almost reached the edge of the jungle but he decided to camp a few more days on some flat rock formation they found outside. The nights were cold but being an ice wizard he could manage easily, his aura only needed a minuscule amount of mana if the protection was just against the cold.

The next few days were boring but also very productive for Ethan's studies. While he couldn't sling spells around and kill monsters he instead focused on his ritualism skill, drawing runes in the sand with his fingers and comparing them to the ones he saw the mages used before.

Every time he thought about them he sighed and his hand began to shake, the right one, the one he used to cast that death bringing spell. He would honor them but not now, not in the tutorial. This place He needed to survive, after all he promised to keep their legacy alive, he wanted to grow strong to show them that the sacrifice they made was not in vain.

After a week of sleeping, studying and talking with Nora, Ethan stood up and cast a simple spell. His body didn't scream in pain but after he stopped feeding the snow globe on his palm mana he felt that his arm was a bit numb from using mana in freshly healed channels, otherwise he seemed fine. As long as he didn't overdo it…again.

Looking at Nora, who was already climbing up his staff, he smiled and set out on his next adventure, it was finally time to approach the last circle of the tutorial.

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