30 days after the tutorial started
Stephen Stevens had been in the military before everything changed, but as a head-gamer, not as a soldier. He was a third generation military, but did not have the temperament for fighting. He wasn't trying to stand out but some of the things the system did and said made it obvious to him that there would be plenty to do for the middle ground people who weren't at the top, but were not slacking off. Having only 3 nodes put him right in the middle of the population which meant a couple things that he cared about. First, he wouldn't be a threat to anyone so people weren't going to pick fights with him for no reason. Second, he would most likely be able to take care of himself. Lastly, he wouldn't be useless to Konzak and the group he would undoubtedly form.
Despite all of his talk with Lambert, he did want to find Konzak and try to join up with him. Stevens knew he was going to be strong and he trusted him to keep himself in check and not let the power get to him. If his boss was anything he was a paragon of self control. If Lambert had hit on him the way she did with Konzak, he would have been unable to stop himself. Not only was she smart and passionate, she was unbelievably beautiful, with a fierce sharp face, fiery green eyes, and the body of a goddess, there was no way anyone could resist her. However, the boss was not just anyone, he was someone special, or maybe abnormal was a better word, his presence in a room commanded attention and sometimes obedience. Staff Sergeant Konzak was the kind of man who everyone would follow, and he didn't want to be followed so he kept himself in control, which was another thing Stevens liked about him.
It has now been a month since this thing started and the majority of the people who have made it this far had hit level 10 and received a class. Those with uncommon classes were recruiting into teams for dungeon clears and the few who had rare classes walked around like rulers, one had even hit level 25 already and got his class upgrade. He was still a rare class but he was one of the highest leveled people around and pretty much did what he wanted but was focused on training and leveling with his team of three. He spoke to others often saying that a tutorial was going to be easy compared to when it was over and everyone should try for level 25 before it was over. This was not easy, the monsters nearby in the wild were camped so you would have to go a full day's journey or further to find any in the wild and they got stronger further away. There were also rumors going around that people were being found killed by swords or daggers in the wild too, and that pretty much meant that you had to wait your turn for a dungeon. There were 30 dungeons, but there were also over 75,000 people here now.
The dungeons were quick, only one floor and not too difficult but after a team was done it would take an hour to reset. A few of the strong tried to organize a line system with rocks or sticks with a name carved on them but it was full of corruption, line guards were easy to bribe and there was no one to complain to. Some form of organized crime was starting to happen and they would keep their people in the lines to get them leveled so they could bully those without levels. This made Stevens upset as he could already tell that some bad stuff was going to come out of this, those who couldn't level or were too scared to get very far would need entertainment and stress relief. He expected some gladiator style fights would start with betting and tickets to see the show.
All of this was stressing him out, but what he was really worried about was the fact that he searched the area around the arrival building for his and Lambert's phase 2 and she was nowhere to be found. If she didn't make it through the tutorial then Konzak would never let him follow him or even be around him, the boss had a big soft spot for Lambert. He was sure that she was mad for him, and he was also sure that he would utterly destroy anyone who hurt her. Her and Konzak's relationship was strange and from the outside it would seem one-sided, but if you knew him as well as he did, you could see that his eyes would linger on her when she wasn't looking. It wasn't in a lustful way or a possessive way, it was more like admiration and pride, it was a look he imagined husbands gave their wives when they just completed a great accomplishment.
That look is why he was worried that if she died and he didn't die protecting her, that Konzak might kill him. It was unlikely since no one had ever seen him lose his temper but he didn't want to fight and being a guy at the back with magic seemed like his best bet. Teaming up with the boss who almost certainly is going to be a badass melee fighter would be a good way to have someone he trusted watching his back. Today he searched again, looking all around for Lambert, and he would keep doing so everyday until he found her.
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Tara checked her notification about the tutorial ending, it had a timer on it and it said 29 days left. She had stayed out as far as the tutorial would let her go, the strongest monsters out here were level 20 to 25. Having already killed two level 25's so far and being level 24, she wasn't in as big of a hurry to level anymore. Soon she would run out of levels to get by being too high of a level to get experience, so she worked on her body and her soul, not really knowing how to level them but just playing around with her magic. At this point she could take a surprise attack from any of these monsters and it wouldn't phase her much. The extra stats from having a rare class really put her on par with the monster at her level, they weren't much of a challenge anymore.
Looking for a better way to boost her strength she decided to work on her body for the most part, for the last week she had been doing extreme amounts of exercise. Hours of squat jumps, pull-ups on trees, push-ups, and rock climbing, since the outer edge of the space had cliffs and canyons. Each day when her body was recovering she felt magic from her heart node going into her body as it was repaired. She felt like she was making slow progress but she felt like it was working, like her body was being repaired and replaced with a magical version. However with her low magic reserves, she could only do so much a day. But with a routine down she felt like she would get there before the tutorial ended.
Her work-out and recovery was done for today so she was going to go hunting, as usual, by following the edge of the zone where the strongest monsters lived. She came across a waterfall that fell into a pond then led off through a stream, this is the second one she had been to and she felt like she could use some cleaning. Covered in sweat forest grime and blood, a nice wash was something that would hopefully raise her spirits, being alone for so long was getting to her and only her drive to succeed was keeping her going at this point. She wanted to strip off everything and just stand under the waterfall but she was being cautious and brought out her sword from her inventory. Having broken her scabbard on her first monster, she had become very good at taking it out right into her hand ready to swing in an instant.
Tara slowly made her way into the water and it was cold, almost like ice, which made her shiver for a second but wouldn't hurt her with her stats. She stayed looking into the water worried a monster might be hiding in it, but after two laps around she didn't see anything. Setting her sword down on a rock near the water she stood next to it and began cleaning her armor while it was still on her. She wasn't sure how many people were this far out but the camp area had to be full of people so many would be desperate and head far out in groups. She ran into one group a few days ago looking for monsters, where they were resting for the night and talking about how hard it was getting to level. They never saw her as she stayed away and moved as quietly as possible.
Getting the outside of her armor clean she dunked her head in and started trying to clean her hair, she had chestnut brown hair but with all the blood and grime it looked matted and black. She laid in the water with her sword in her lap and dipping the back of her head into the water and did her best to rinse out the gunk from her hair and face. With her head underwater she heard rocks shifting softly and jumped up ready for a fight. As soon as the water cleared from her eyes she could see a strange six legged crocodile, with longer legs than the ones before the system and a shorter nose. It was crawling out from behind the waterfall and staring right at her with hunger and violence in its eyes.
Before it could get out from the waterfall she used several skills at once and dashed over to it. She activated her water node skill mist walker allowing her to walk on water or even the moisture in the air for a higher mana cost, while still moving she activated her life node skill water golem that conjured a three foot tall person shaped golem that would help her fight and could repair itself using her magic. Then right before her strike she activated curse slash which slowly ate at the target's vitality, and when she hit the golem hit as well with a ranged water blade looking skill. The monster tried to move or dodge but it couldn't get out from the waterfall cave it had been hiding in so after repeated slashes and golem attacks it went down.
The problem with Tara's skills and stats when it came to fighting was that it was all very magic heavy, she burned through her magic within 20 seconds of a fight. With monsters she knew she could handle it since they were not very clever at this level, but with people, if she went up against a smart tanky person. They could easily outlast her. Until she could find a way to get more skill with a sword, she would be vulnerable because of how heavily she relied on her magic. There was an option to invest stats in wisdom but she wasn't quite there yet, she would need to be more pressed from a fight than what this monster gave her.
She was a little upset that killing the monster wasn't enough to push her to 25, but she was still alive and covered in blood again. After about ten minutes the water was mostly clean again and she got to work cleaning herself. Tara took her time and made sure she had her sword nearby, but if anyone was around they would have heard the fight so she kept going. She took her boots off and put them in her inventory and washed her feet, then took them out and washed them before putting them back on. She did the same with her leg armor and chest armor, doing those as fast as possible because she felt more vulnerable when naked. With everything back on she was ready to move on and get to level 25.