Teresa Of All Trades (Book 1 Complete)

Who would have guessed large military operations involved a lot of studying? Most people, probably, but there was a lot of memorization even for someone with a 'perfect' memory. Teresa didn't mind, as a matter of fact she kind of enjoyed it. She even got to contribute sometimes when a skill was brought up. They were discussing Completionists that were likely to directly oppose the operation when one such occasion arose.

"… the party heavily revolves around Angelo, a mage with skills that directly affect your mind. According to our records, he mostly utilizes the skills <Lucid Dreams> and <Sleeping Powder>. He is capable of rendering someone unconscious in a manner similar to the mage we faced earlier today in the city. He is also capable of manipulating those dreams, and he can also push images into your mind for a brief moment." Ezio explained as they went over yet another potentially problematic party.

"I have <Lucid Dreams> in my skill selection actually, I can look at the basic description." Teresa offered. "If those skills are his bread and butter then he'll probably have more details in his skill description."

<Lucid Dreams>

Type: Mental Magic

Convert Mana to a mind-altering state that allows you to manipulate the dreams of a sleeping target. Failing to maintain a constant flow of Mana will cause the target to become aware of your manipulations if they are not already, and they may even awaken while the skill is active.

"That explains some things, but it doesn't tell us how he's able to put an image in someone's head." Ezio said as he finished reading the description.

"What do you mean by putting an image in your head?"

"He did it once in casual conversation. We were talking about a Portal and instead of describing the area he did something to push the image of it directly to my mind. It was as if I was standing where he had been for a moment, looking right at the Portal. We know he was in med school pre-System, yet he chose the mage class instead of the healer class. Not that his party's healer is anything to scoff at, he…"

The discussion on various parties continued, though Teresa admittedly was still a little skeptical of the whole thing. Taking down Chernobyl together sounded like a good idea and all, but weren't they moving suspiciously quick? They had brought up the idea of a joint operation the same day Teresa had arrived at Arconette, that was pretty quick.

Were they operating this fast out of necessity, or was there something else to it? Teresa agreed that something needed to be done soon, but they were putting a lot of faith into a settlement they barely knew. It might be her paranoia talking, but was it actually anxiety if she was just right?

Nope, not falling down that rabbit hole. Teresa was getting better at catching phrases that would send her down a spiral if she dwelled on them too long. Thinking that it wasn't anxiety if she was just right was a prime example of something that could cause her to spiral, the idea still lingered in the back of her head but at least she was doing better at preventing panic attacks.

Two full days had passed since she first arrived at Arconette. Most of her time had been spent either in meetings or hunting monsters to gain levels. She had made some solid progress considering she had been level 50 when she first arrived in the city.

Status:

Name: Teresa

Race: Human (Earth)

Level: 55 (F) (25%)

Class: Jack Of All Trades lv 7 (F+) (88%)

Secondary Class: Scavenger lv 3 (F-) (91%)

HP: (1274/1274)

Stamina: (1274/1274)

Mana: (1445/1445)

Strength: 82

Fortitude: 82

Endurance: 82

Vitality: 82

Agility: 82

Intelligence: 96

Wisdom: 92

Perception: 82

Unallocated Points: 0

<Skills> {

<Translate: lv 13 (70%)>

<Mana Control: lv 19 (4%)>

<Healing Touch: lv 16 (13%)>

<Facilitated Restoration: lv 19 (2%)>

<Identify: lv 14 (43%)>

<Totem Of Life: lv 8 (15%)>

<Magic Wellspring: lv 18 (50%)>

<Embers: lv 20 (1%)>

<Dash: lv 19 (79%)>

<Intuitive Aim: lv 10 (30%)>

<Purify: lv 9 (17%)>

<Inventory: lv 20 (2%)>

<Appraise: lv 15 (28%)>

<Sturdy Outer Shell: lv 16 (11%)>

<Monster Hunt: lv 7 (10%)>

<Extract Core: lv 9 (70%)>

<Skittish Looter: lv 4 (64%)>

<Retaliate: lv 8 (45%)>

<Quiet Looter: lv 1 (9%)

}

<Titles> {

<System Newcomer>

<Tutorial: Power Hungry>

<Tutorial: Full Completionist>

<Tutorial: Level Pioneer>

<Slayer 2>

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

<Tutorial: Boss Killer>

<Ambassador Of The Mall>

}

She was now level 55, and her secondary class had leveled up again. Once more she was only given a single extra skill to choose from, meaning it was between <Pluck> and <Quiet Looter>. The former of the two removed fur off of a corpse, while the latter slightly muffled any noise she made while looting a corpse. It was super situational, but between the two <Quiet Looter> just seemed better. It was a passive similar to <Skittish Looter>, and it made Teresa wonder just how many 'Looter' skills there were.

Nikolas was in Arconette now. He had been in the Swiss Armed Forces pre-System and was the General of The Mall. Meetings with him were far more intense, if Teresa had to guess he really did not want to be in Arconette. She didn't blame him, they were diverting a lot of important people away from The Mall for these discussions and it was incredibly expensive to teleport someone who was now level 40 across the entire Contaminated Zone.

Teresa herself had been making some decent money, although it didn't feel like it in comparison to her Tutorial Rewards. That first haul she sold to the Guild had netted her $118.50. Each day after that she had been able to repeatedly bring back a full <Inventory>'s worth of high level Monster Cores and Mana Crystals, making a little more with each trip out as her skills leveled up.

Rather than saving that money, she had decided to make a purchase in the city. For too long now she had relied almost entirely on either magic or her sword, she wanted to change it up a bit. Teresa had bought a Tutorial Bow and some arrows for relatively cheap, and she had used an item token on the weapon to increase its level cap.

Now that the party could hunt Radioactive Portals without concern, they had been stocking up on quite a few consumables. They had taken out 14 Radioactive Portals since arriving at Arconette, giving them lots of experience and loot. They had gotten another bottle of super vitamins, another monster lure, a flashbang grenade, a race upgrade consumable, and eight item tokens. Two of the tokens had gone to Jake, who upgraded his armor and shield. He had also purchased a new axe in the city that was far more hefty than his previous goblin axe, which had looked ready to fall apart any day now.

Almost everybody's weapons and armor had been upgraded to F+ and had their level caps removed. There were probably ways to simply make better armor and weapons, but if those methods existed they weren't available to Teresa's party. There were a few things that could still use an item token such as Teresa's Mana recharging staff, but that wasn't a massive priority.

Teresa could see why some people wanted to farm the Contaminated Zone so badly. Her party had made leaps and bounds in their levels and capabilities, to the point where normal Portals above Teresa's level felt like cannon fodder. Even Thomas had finally started making progress, though it had apparently taken a lot of coercing from his kids to make him really apply himself.

"... I'm willing to work with you, but you're asking for too much. The Mall cannot send that many people to Arconette, we need to keep our own settlement safe." Nikolas was saying as the meeting dragged on.

"Your settlement won't be safe if we don't take out Chernobyl." Ezio countered, matching Nikolas' gaze.

"You want us to send our strongest parties here to assist in the event that some of your own people stand against us. Our interests revolve around Chernobyl, not your domestic affairs. It would drastically increase the risks posed to The Mall by the Contaminated Zone while offering minimal reward, our militaristic capabilities wouldn't make much of a difference fighting alongside your own. I suggest we pincer Chernobyl by attacking from both sides, it would both reduce the total landmass affected by radiation while keeping both cities safe."

"The Mall is much farther from the center of the Contaminated Zone, I believe you would actually be putting yourselves in greater danger with this strategy. If Chernobyl sends Avatars to The Mall while you're making the multiple day long journey, then you won't be able to return in time. If you're moving out from Arconette, it will be far quicker to return to The Mall in the event of an emergency." Ezio said.

"Regardless of what strategy we use, The Mall will be prone to a counter attack. If we had to retreat to deal with an emergency back home, we would never make it in time even if we were near Arconette. Our best bet is to minimize the chance of a counter attack on The Mall by clearing the path between The Mall and Chernobyl ourselves." Nikolas retorted.

"George has been setting up traps along the border of the Contaminated Zone. He's a big space geek, when we told him about the Avatars he started comparing them to the Mars rovers." Saylee said. "He ranted for a while about it actually, I think he finds the whole thing fascinating. I think he wants to take apart a few of the Avatars himself, and from what I've seen he just might be able to with his traps."

"He sounds useful, I can appreciate a smart fighter." Ezio remarked.

"George doesn't really fight for the most part, he's a paraplegic. I'm pretty sure he thinks of the Avatars as more of a science experiment than an actual threat to his life, he was going on about how the hardware on the Avatars must be resistant to bit flips or something." Saylee continued. "Believe me, he loves to talk about it."

"In that case wouldn't The Mall be capable of defending itself for a short period of time?" Ezio asked. "Sounds like he can help delay if you do need to retreat, that makes the joint attack from Arconette the safest option."

"Why haven't the Avatars attacked The Mall anyways?" Teresa asked. "If they were to attack us, I don't think we would stand much of a chance. No offense Nikolas, you and Theo's parties are pretty impressive but I don't think you would win against level 70 death robots."

"If the Avatars attacked The Mall, then Chernobyl would fall." Ezio answered. "As I've mentioned before, we have performed our own covert missions with the goal to attack Chernobyl. If an army of Avatars were dispatched to The Mall, it would leave an opening we could take advantage of. It's likely we're the reason you haven't been directly attacked yet."

"I understand that it wouldn't be tactically sound for Chernobyl to counter attack The Mall since it would divert its troops, but I don't like the idea of operating on the assumption our opponent will always make the most logical move." Nikolas said. "If we do take out Chernobyl, what's stopping them from sending a counter attack anyways? Those Avatars might not be reliant on the main facility to continue operating, and while it is a long trip I wouldn't be surprised if a level 70 machine could send a few drones our way and bomb us. George can put a few traps in the trees to take down any flying opponents, but we can't rely on him entirely. The guy's in a wheelchair, how the hell is he going to put a trap in a tree?"

"If we really need to, we can slow our infrastructure development and have the Albino Gorillas help." Saylee offered. "I'm sure they would love to learn about that."

"In that case, I suppose we can send a few parties here. I'm willing to have Theo's party, Teresa's, along with my own here in Arconette to assist." Nikolas offered.

"Only three parties?" Ezio questioned. "That's nothing."

"I would be willing to send more if I knew we could evacuate our people here in the event of an emergency, but considering your city's prejudice against nearly half of our population I do not believe that will be a sound option." Nikolas retorted. "Even if Chernobyl doesn't attack us directly, we still have to deal with the daily threat of monsters."

"If you're only sending three parties I don't see the point in working together at all." Mordecai said, clearly unhappy. "Teresa would be the only Completionist involved, meanwhile we'll be contributing 18 of our own. We have more Completionists going into this than you have normal people."

"He's just lowballing us." Axton said, seeming unphased. "He knows he can't send a large force over to us, so he's telling us a low number so that way when we eventually convince him to send more we'll feel satisfied with what we got. How about a minimum of forty people? Not every party has 5 members remaining anymore, so let's just count by people."

Nikolas eyed him for a moment, taking a second to think.

"Axton, right? How does 35 sound? That's my hard limit, no more than that, and Arconette covers teleportation fees."

"Make it 40, we cover the teleportation costs, and we skip the part where we both try to only contribute as much as necessary. Nobody under level 30."

"No nonsense to it then. That works for me so long as we attack soon. We cleared out a lot of the Portals around The Mall and Blue Waters before I left. I suppose we can meet those standards, but we're avoiding any fights between you and the other Completionists wherever possible. Our job is to fight Chernobyl, not your dissidents."

"Well Ezio, how's that sound?" Axton asked.

"I think it'll work." He answered. "How soon can you get your people here?"

"It wouldn't take long, we can teleport them all over in the morning."

"Then how about we attack tomorrow?" Ezio asked.

"I need to make a trip back to organize things, but we can make that work. The real question is how long would it take you to get ready? I've heard most of your Completionists are rarely in the city, they're always out hunting." Nikolas replied.

"I would prefer for the logistics of our strongest people to be more confidential. You are correct, but everyone needs sleep. They'll be back tonight and we'll approach them then." Ezio said.

"Very well. I best get going, I have a lot to prepare for." Nikolas said as he stood up.

"As do I." Ezio replied, doing the same. Seeing that the meeting was ending, Teresa figured there was one last question she should ask.

"How do you do that trick with <Embers>" She questioned, knowing what Ezio was capable of with the starter spell for mages. Ezio smiled wryly, shaking his head.

"State secret." He answered as he made his way to the door.

Well damn, it was worth a shot.