POV Tess Hansen

Nat and the others stand around the crater created by his skills. “A small accident”, he calls it. Kim and Lily following are close behind, though I notice that he seems to be a bit disappointed.

“I thought it would be a bigger explosion. Was most of the mana wasted? Or is it…” he mumbles under his breath.

Well, it's Nat, so I'm not even surprised, as I observe the crater and remember the explosion and how far away we were when we felt its effect.

Could I have created something like this? Probably not, I mostly focus on increasing single-target damage, that's why I picked Potency mana upgrade. Nat could probably do similar damage to a single target, but I believe that mine is stronger; it's just that his skills and their applications are… exotic.

As I watch Lily and Kim follow him like little ducklings, I can't help but smile. It feels nice for the group to be together once more.

“That's a nice smile,” Maya says as she stands by my side.

“Thanks,” I say, smiling at her as well. “It's nice to have the band all together, well, most of us.”

“Dennis and Aaron will be back soon, and then it is group 4 at full power once again. After months,” Maya sighs and looks at Biscuit as he floats around Isabella, who, with a serious expression, tells him that she could create a crater like this as well.

“Yes, and when they get back, it'll be us against the world once again.” I say.

“Heh, so silly.”

“I know, right? So what do you think of this?” I ask, gesturing at Nat.

“The crater or the guy?”

“The guy. Things like the crater are old hat at this point, and they come as a package with him.” As I say that, I declare the space around Maya and me as mine, preventing our conversation from leaking out.

He notices right away as I create the field, and a golden light flashes in his eyes before he turns back to Kim and continues to explain something.

“He seems a bit more approachable. Even his expression is softer when he talks to the others,” Maya says.

“So, It’s not just me.”

“You know him better, so what do you think?”

I take a moment to think about the answer, “Nat is… well, his upbringing has been a bit difficult, so he likes to close himself off and keep to himself. I think having to take care of his disciple on the 5th floor has helped him realize a few things.”

“I can imagine that with the way the system chose our disciples. Mine was way too similar to me, Tess; it was almost scary. As if I was seeing myself as a kid. How was yours?”

“Mine was the same. It was like looking in a mirror, but I'm happy for that. It made me realize how cute I used to be and how well I've grown,” with a smile, I poke her side and then dodge her playful attack.

I continue, “As for our walking bomb, I'm happy to see him like this. You might laugh at me, but I think out of all of us, he might be the most normal person here.”

Maya shoots a few small mana projectiles at me, and I evaporate them with my lightning.

Unbelieving, she lifts her eyebrow, “I know he keeps saying that, but Tess, you at least, should know better than to fall for it. The guy is bonkers. But now then, do you still have that snack you stole from the Butler? I will trade you a few rare-grade mana stones for it.”

I partially filter out Min-Jae’s and Lily’s conversation and examine the crater once more.

How is it so small!

From the way the shockwave hit us, I expected the damage to be bigger. There was no implosion either.

Did most of it get sent upward? Is the rock here more durable? Was there too much mana for an implosion to occur, maybe it was the lack of negative pressure?

The smaller crater could also be because it was just compressed mana without any skill infusions or instructions. That could be it.

As for the crown and black mana, I’ve already thought about what went wrong. It's highly likely that the crown should dominate mana, maybe even the black stuff; it's just that the level is too low or, maybe I used too much mana when I created the black orb. Both of these problems seem to be similar in nature so in the future, they could probably work pretty nicely together.

Imagine a crown infused with black mana absorbing the mana from the attacks being thrown at me and filtered through the crown to change the frequency so that I can use said mana. Later on I might be able to use the crown as a medium to absorb ambient mana.

I already have a few ideas, inspired by the ethercrystal shortsword I got from that guy, Elydor. I wish I could meet him one more time… to talk.

The combination won’t be viable for a while yet. Pushing black mana into the crown gave it easier access to my own mana. It continued to absorb my mana even through the Mantle and my natural barrier, it usually wouldn’t be capable of that, at least not at this level.

Then it even absorbed mana from my Mana Reservoir and I find that highly interesting. Very, very interesting.

Damn, this shit is going to be good. I just need some training and levels.

That's when Lily moves closer and pokes my side.

I don't let her know, but I carefully strengthen my body and even then I feel it. Once again, I'm reminded of the physical power of the muscle heads in group 4. The heretics that didn't go full mana.

“You said you missed us, did you mean me as well?” she asks carefully.

But I can see where she’s going. She knows the answer but wants to hear me say it out loud. I don't mind all that much, it's not that difficult to say, but something in the way this petite girl looks at me makes me want to tease her.

“Oh, yes, I missed Biscuit,” I answer before turning around, and heading to the bottom of the crater.

“H-hey!” she shouts and quickly follows me, nearly immediately appearing by my side with a quick movement.

Did she use [Sacrifice] or is it her own strength?

“So you said you upgraded your Constitution?” I say changing the subject.

She pouts for a moment, but happy even for that conversation she answers, “Yes! It will make my body much tougher. But the main reason is that the stronger the body I have, the more I get from [Sacrifice].”

Lily is still somewhat awkward. We haven’t seen each other in weeks so it will take a bit to get as comfortable around each other as before, but it's also fun to see her struggle.

Am I the bully here? Am I the asshole as Earth's future Absolute declared so long ago and my first minion confirmed?

“Any improvements to your usage of the skill or [Reconstruction]?”

Her eyes shine at the opportunity and she gestures for me to look.

She uses her skill and slowly her face changes, her nose becomes a bit longer, her cheeks sharper and even the shape of her eyes changes. Her lips grow bigger and her chin moves too.

In the end, there is a small but clear resemblance to Tess.

“I can reconstruct my body and face a bit. Though I don't know how to change the color of my hair, yet, but I will get there,” she declares proudly.

Is she using such a top-notch skill to do magical plastic surgery? Did she spend her time on the 5th floor learning that? What the heck? If she is going to waste such a great healing skill like that she should give it to me!

“All those small changes taught me a much greater degree of control. I leveled so much!” She says quickly after seeing my expression.

Oh, that makes a bit more sense.

“And look!” Without any hesitation, she rolls up her sleeve, and a dagger made of gray mana forms in her hand, just before she cuts her arm off at the elbow.

The gray mana in the dagger then lashes out at the arm as it, disintegrating it. Min-Jae, standing nearby, pauses whatever he was doing and has an expression I can understand.

I watch as with visible speed, Lily’s arm grows back. She doesn't use [Sacrifice], it's just her healing skill, and it only takes her a few seconds.The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The petite girl smiles cutely, “I can control [Disintegration] a bit more, and if I want, I can ensure anything the skill touches becomes more difficult or nearly impossible to heal. Well, it's not like I need it that much. Usually, when I hit something with [Disintegration], it dies, so anti-healing isn’t needed.”

“Hehe, I see.”

“That’s cool, right?”

“Very cool, Miss Lily! And yes, I missed you as well.”

“Oh,” a slight blush appears on her face. “Nice try!” she giggles. “But I’m still mad at you for leaving me alone. I can understand, Tess explained it to me, but I can't help it!”

Should I deploy the hug strat? She is weak against it. But somehow, that feels cheap, “That’s fine with me. Let's just give it time, and we will see.”

After a short silence, she answers, “Yes, let's do that.”

It looks like the 5th floor helped her. She seems to have calmed down a bit and she’s not as clingy. That’s good to see.

(Food!) a message sounds in our heads.

“We’re coming,” I shout back and gesture for Lily and Min-Jae to follow me.

As we get out, we rejoin others that already made a small circle around Isabella’s fire orb, taking out food and water.

Tess starts talking first, “We now don't need as much food or water as we did on Earth, hell we can last days without it, but let's be careful. It seems like food is going to be scarce here, that is if we don't want to eat the monsters, and most of them don't seem very tasty. As for water, we haven’t found any yet, so let's go over our reserves.”

“Water shouldn't be a problem.” I show Tess my epic water bottle. It's filled with multiple swimming pools worth of water that I filtered in the Sanctuary.

Hearing my explanation, she tries, “Try if you can use it. The system might have blocked its use.”

When I do so, it works just fine.

“Great, so the water won't be a problem, and with the food we have, we should be able to last comfortably for multiple weeks.”

(Food!)

“A week or two less if we have to feed Biscuit as well,” Min-Jae jokes, and I’m sure he gets called an asshole for that by our cute doggo. Deservedly so.

Biscuit wobbles on his short legs in front of me. His expression gives the impression that he’s asking if I can believe such rude behavior, and then he climbs into my lap. There, I sneakily feed him a few small pieces of the dried deer meat I made on the 5th Floor.

Slowly, hours pass, and the tournament is coming closer. Everyone takes a few hours of sleep while others keep watch, and stories are told.

We joke, we tease each other, and we fight over whose disciple is stronger or cuter. We theorize about how we will find them or get the coordinates to their worlds.

Even in the cold area and lit by light from the stars only, it feels somewhat cozy.

Biscuit's small body is comfortably warm and heavier than before. Lily is sneaking and moving closer to me. Maya teases Min-Jae, and Sophie refuses to leave Isabella's side. Noodle seems to be annoyed by that but doesn't show any aggression towards her. Smart small danger noodle.

But the happiest of all seems to be Tess. She is quiet most of the time, but she has that smile on her lips as her golden hair seems to shine in the starlight.

So we wait, and then the notification finally comes.

Congratulations on your 1st year in the tutorial!

The tournament preparations have been concluded.

During the duration of the tournament of the 5th round of the tutorial, all Floor quests will be put on hold.

The tournament will have a 7-day duration, and you can decide to participate or not.

More information will be given after entering the tournament floor.

Would you like to participate in the 1st tournament of the 5th round of the Earth's tutorial?

Yes/No

“Does it mean side quests can still be done?” Sophie asks. “Or maybe it will pause the floor fully, and all natives and monsters will disappear?”

“It's possible that side quests will still be available for people who decide not to enter the tournament,” Tess joins in. “That would mean that the system will either block the progression of Floor quests or remove the natives or places you need to visit for them. It should be capable of that.”

“The seven-day duration is interesting as well,” I say, adding my piece. “That probably means there will be one long event or we’ll have multiple events.”

Min-Jae asks, “Do you think there will be any duels or will it be something else? What if we aren’t able to meet each other, and only see each other during the duels?”

“In that case, I want to apologize ahead of time. I won't hold back,” Tess says, smiling brightly.

Please decide in the following 30 seconds if you would like to join the tournament.

“Someone's impatient,” Sophie sighs and then grabs Isabella's hand. “In case we get split, try to find me, okay? I will be using our signal if that happens.”

“I have Noodle; I will be safe, Soph!”

“First place is mine,” I tell Tess.

“We shall see,” she says, returning my gaze.

The time ticks down, and with a small bag of a few important items and a damaged arcane ax in my hand, I click yes. The rest of the things stay on this floor, buried deep underground and hidden to be retrieved when we come back.

I don't even feel the effects of the teleportation and find myself in a different place. The bright sun makes me squint my eyes.

Around me, I hear small birds sing, the sky is beautifully blue, and the gentle breeze moves through the leaves of the trees all around me. The air smells like summer.

Then I sense a presence behind me.

Mana rushes through my already strengthened body, and I swing the ax in my hand, ready to redirect it if needed.

As my body tilts, my shifting point of view reveals a thin girl with messy brown hair and lively eyes.

She ducks under the ax and tries to stab me with the dagger in her hand. It's a playful move, but extremely quick.

Kinetic energy explodes into the area around me, and sensing that, she aborts the attack. With an even higher speed and three nimble jumps, she moves behind just out of reach. In the process, she easily dodges the few small orbs I launch at her.

Then there she stands, her lively eyes observing me. There is no text over her head, identifying her as one of the other tutorial attendees.

But just the way she hid her mana from me is scary. I couldn't feel it until she was nearly touching me. Even now, as I look at her, she is barely different from the tree next to her when it comes to sensing her presence. And that speed.

“Who are you?” I ask.

Lowering her guard, she just shrugs her shoulders. Then she lifts up one of her fingers gesturing for me to wait and nimbly moves towards one of the bushes and breaks off a small thin branch.

She takes a few steps closer, not worried at all, and draws into the dirt on the ground.

(;-_-)ノ

Haaa, Is no one here normal?

“Tacita?” I ask.

She nods energetically, happy for my guess, her brown hair bouncing around her head as she does so.

The tournament is a competitive base, but also an opportunity to meet your fellow tutorial attendees.

In one day the events will start, until then please enter the common area.

There are no monsters or natives, allowing other tutorial attendees to get to know each other.

Death is impossible on the tournament floor.

Enjoy your first tournament!

I look at the woman next to me who is still reading the notification. She is the first Beyonder I’ve met other than Tess and Lily, so I'm curious. So far she is the same as she was in the Community and refuses to talk. She only uses emoticons.

My theory that I'm the most normal here is getting stronger even as I meet more and more people.

“I'm Noname, you may have seen me talking in the Beyond community.”

She nods a few times and does some hand signs. Sign language? Is she mute?

Seeing my expression, she just smiles weakly, as if not expecting me to understand.

Well, it doesn't matter that much. The tournament has finally started and even though it's not what I expected, I feel myself getting excited.

I can't wait to see people from Hell and other difficulties.

POV Tess Hansen

We got split again. At this point it’s starting to get annoying how often the tutorial does this.

“Hello friend, my name is Gareth. I'm happy to finally see someone outside of my group,” the man in front of me smiles friendly.

He is tall, muscular, and has a face that seems like the kind you see on superheroes. The man is wearing full plate armor made of silver metal. I don't see any weapons on him, but the armor itself feels like it’s at least mid epic grade.

“Hello Gareth, I'm Sset, we’ve spoken.”

“Oh, a fellow Beyond explorer!” he says excitedly. “It's nice to finally meet you. I hope we get along!” he says energetically and with a smile.

Right away I know Nathaniel is going to hate this guy.

POV Lily Chen

The man in front of me doesn't move. Even his expression is neutral. But the way he stands makes me put my guard up.

Even though he is missing his right arm judging by the empty sleeve where it once was, he feels very dangerous. And there is a beautiful sword on his hip. The sword is broken, and half of the blade’s missing, yet he’s still carrying it.

His face is calm, even pretty, he has a small birthmark under the left corner of his left eye. He has long black hair tied into a ponytail and very light green eyes.

“Are you a healer?” he asks.

How does he know that?

“And if I am?”

“Then I will ask you to restore my arm. If you are capable of that, I'm willing to offer a trade.” He pauses, his eyes observing me, “Are you his healer? Grumpy?”

I get ready to use [Sacrifice], “Savant?”

His expression changes and he nods.