Teresa Of All Trades (Book 1 Complete)

How do you invade a stronghold of monsters that are stronger than you single handedly?

Teresa had spent all night trying to come up with a plan, but she wasn't sure of what to do. Before leaving the stronghold, she had used <Identify> on a few skeletons walking past the entrance.

{Skeletal Warrior (F) (lv 16)}

They were higher level than Teresa, and likely had more combat-oriented stats. She had considered killing a Clubber in front of the entrance to block it off and then flooding the entire stronghold with poisonous gas, but it was full of skeletons. They didn't exactly have lungs.

Another option that wasn't completely off the table was killing them one at a time from a distance. Fire a shot, hope it lands, run away, repeat. Not entirely impossible, and if Teresa had the archer class that is probably what she would do, but she couldn't land her shots like that. She would run out of ammo by the time she killed maybe one of them with a lucky shot.

Could she charge in there and fight them with a sword? Sure, if she wanted to die. Okay actually maybe in that case she should just charge in-

Nope nope nope nope nope. Nope. Teresa was getting sick of her own shit, she had to stop herself from thinking that. She had been getting panic attacks more frequently since the start of her isolation, but it was really hard to convince herself she wasn't just faking it for attention. Sure, she was the only human in this Tutorial as far as she knew, but she still felt like she was faking it even as her heart pounded against her chest.

She pressed her hands to her head and activated <Healing Touch>. Could she heal her brain better? Make her stop constantly finding a reason to be sad and belittling her own experiences? Could she heal her brain to feel less shit?

Unfortunately, like every time Teresa had attempted this, nothing happened. Healing magic sure worked wonders, but it couldn't heal whatever Teresa had going on. Go figure.

Skeletons. Monster stronghold. She can't keep distracting herself with stuff that wasn't important. Charging in with a sword was out of the question, she would get cut down immediately. She was not skilled enough with the sword nor strong enough stats-wise to confidently take on an entire camp of higher leveled opponents.

With a party this would be far more possible. Jake could have used his <Taunt> to draw a few out, Sarah could shoot them while Preston cut down any that got too close, Madeline could probably set the wooden walls around the stronghold on fire with her <Embers> and Teresa would be able to fill whatever role she was needed in.

Unfortunately, it was just Teresa. She was having the same problem she had in the desert a week ago, where she could not think of a solution to her problems. Maybe she could get a Wyvern-Fish to shoot fire at the walls and burn them down? No, that wouldn't work. Their fire always seemed to disappear after a few seconds, and it probably wouldn't result in many dead skeletons anyways.

The fact of the matter was Teresa could not take on this stronghold by herself. There was just no way. She wasn't even very confident in taking out a skeleton one on one, as she had no practice fighting these monsters. Who knew how capable they were?

Teresa was close to being able to save Sarah, or at least closer. Maybe if she just stuck around another two weeks killing low level monsters, she would be able to heal Sarah by the end of the Tutorial. Besides, who knew what came after this quest stage? She wasn't required to destroy the strongholds and collect artifacts or whatever.

Unfortunately, that probably wasn't the case. Teresa had hunted a lot of low level monsters, and the diminishing returns would just keep on diminishing if she didn't try something riskier. If she wanted to improve enough she would need to take on this quest with full effort.

So what could she do? Make a trap? No, if Teresa was capable of making traps that could harm a decent leveled monster then she would have already been doing that at night. What other options did she even have?

Then it hit her. Why fight them alone? There were other monsters out and about, why not lead a monster pack straight into the stronghold? She had already discovered the monsters didn't get along when the Wyvern-Fish had killed that Shaman ages ago. All she had to do was piss off a group of monsters and lead them towards the stronghold.

Then came the next question. What monster would suffice? The mosquitos were instantly ruled out. They didn't seem like they would be a good matchup against bloodless monsters. Maybe if the monster mosquitoes could fly like a regular mosquito it could work out, but Teresa had never seen one actually fly.

Not that she was complaining. She vaguely remembered seeing some mosquitoes try to fly during the first wave, but either their bodies were too big or their wings too weak. If those things could fly then she would have been in a very bad situation. Maybe a higher leveled mosquito could fly, but she really did not want to find out.

The Vampire Deer were next to be eliminated for very similar reasons.

Goblins were eliminated next. Teresa couldn't see them holding up against the skeletons, their miniboss used a poisonous gas that was basically useless against them and the goblins would probably get slaughtered in no time.

Clubbers or Wyvern-Fish? Honestly, either could work. If Teresa could get a pack of Clubbers over there, the skeletons would probably get crushed by the larger beast. Wyvern-Fish would be able to set them on fire, possibly damaging their equipment. Between the two, Teresa would have to go with the Clubbers.

As soon as morning came Teresa was ready to go. Her backpack was lighter today, as she would need to run from monsters while still wearing it. She trekked out into the desert, running in a straight line to where the <Tutorial Compass> pointed.

She refrained from attacking the occasional monster pack along the way, but there weren't many she needed to avoid. Within a few hours she was near the stronghold once again, taking a moment to catch her breath.

Normally she wouldn't get very tired from running, but she had rushed out today. She needed all of the time she could get, she didn't know how long this battle would last, and she did not want to be stuck in the desert at night again. It wouldn't take her very long to recover her Stamina anyways, and she still needed to take the time to find some Clubbers.

Teresa began her jog in the area surrounding the stronghold, searching for Clubbers. She ran in a circle around the stronghold, gradually straying further and further in her hunt for Clubbers. She saw some goblins and even a pack of Wyvern-Fish, but they were either not what she was looking for or too high leveled. The Wyvern-Fish were an acceptable substitute if need be, but the pack she found was too strong. They would obliterate her before she managed to lead them back to the stronghold.

Once again, Teresa was grateful for her <Identify> skill.

She continued her search, each step away from the stronghold making her a little more anxious. She had gotten pretty fast over the last week, but she would still get run down by a Clubber. She was going to have to dive and weave her way back to the stronghold, avoiding multiple monsters without defending herself.

At this point she was pretty familiar with avoiding the Clubbers' attempts at turning her into a pancake. She wasn't too worried about that part, but there was always the chance of her making a mistake. She would prefer to minimize the chance for human error, but that wasn't always avoidable.

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Eventually she found what she was looking for. A pack of seven Clubbers, all roughly level 14. They were a few levels lower than the skeletons, but who said she needed to do this in one go? She was sure the Clubbers would cause enough mayhem in the stronghold for her to get away if need be.

Her biggest issue would be getting experience. That was a large part of why she was doing all of this in the first place. She wasn't just launching an invasion on a fortified position for shits and giggles, she needed some levels out of this. Thankfully, she might have a solution to that problem.

<Facilitated Restoration>. If she used the passive healing skill on the Clubbers and let them go to town, she might get some experience from the whole thing. She had previously gotten a kill notification from healing Jake during a fight she hadn't really participated in otherwise, so it was entirely possible she would get the experience from the kills by healing the Clubbers.

It would also help deal with the skeletons.

Teresa fired off a <Facilitated Restoration> in the direction of the Clubbers and began running. She had learned to manipulate how bright the green ball of magical healing fire could glow, so she chose to make it as bright as can be. This would surely get their attention, and soon Teresa heard rumbling behind her as she ran.

Even if they were roughly Teresa's level, they were far more combat oriented. Teresa had taken a few risks here and there with similar leveled monsters in the past, but not with Clubbers or Wyvern-Fish. As great as healing magic was, having a skill that could kill something would be massive for Teresa. If only the healer class provided skills with a little more murder to them.

The stronghold was within sight, though she knew the Clubbers were catching up. Teresa may not have thought this part of the plan through nearly as well as she should have, but it was too late to back out now. The skeletons in the stronghold had actually seen her approaching, and a small group of nine were now guarding the entrance.

Perfect. Now, Teresa just had to figure out how to get the Clubbers to attack the skeletons instead of teaming up and squashing her first. The distance between herself and the skeletons was about equal to the distance between her and the Clubbers behind her, and they were much faster than her. If they were at least twice as fast, they would catch up before she even reached the stronghold.

Unfortunately for Teresa's 15 Agility, they were almost certainly at least twice as fast as her.

Before she could reach the skeletons she was forced to leap to her left, a massive club slammed down into the ground where she was just standing. As soon as her feet touched the ground she was sprinting again, avoiding a Clubber that had just nearly trampled her.

She continued on towards the skeletons, and they even began to march out to meet her. Teresa certainly wasn't going to complain about that given the circumstances.

Finally, the moment arrived. Teresa darted out of the way of a charging Clubber, and used <Facilitated Restoration> on the beast as it ran by. The Clubber crashed into the crowd of skeletons, punting one through the air as its leg slammed into the skeleton's entire body.

The rest of the Clubbers had arrived, though they seemed to still be targeting Teresa. An arrow whizzed by Teresa, which immediately stole her attention. Where did that come from? Near the entrance to the fortress, a single skeleton was standing atop the ramparts holding a bow and arrow, and it was lining up its next shot.

Teresa began to run in a chaotic pattern, trying to keep the skeleton archer from shooting her. This worked in her favor on both fronts, as the Clubbers struggled to hit her while the archer was having a difficult time hitting a target that was weaving between massive monsters.

The fight only existed in this state for a few seconds, as Teresa spammed her <Facilitated Restoration> on some Clubbers and started getting kill notifications.

You Have Slain {Skeletal Warrior (F) (lv 16)}

Experience Granted

You Have Slain {Skeletal Warrior (F) (lv 15)}

Experience Granted

Perfect, they were going down and Teresa was getting the experience. More skeleton guards formed a line near the entrance of the stronghold, and a Clubber tripped to the ground only to be swarmed by skeletons. Swords cut into its body, and soon the beast's human screams were cut short.

That was alright, there were plenty of Clubbers. Teresa might not even need to go get a second pack at this rate, this was working great. The skeleton archer had also stopped targeting her, deciding to go after the monsters that were slaughtering its allies. Fair enough.

With nothing targeting Teresa, she was safe to run away from the scene. She put one foot in front of the other and booked it, trying to get some distance between herself and the battle between monsters that were all stronger than her.

Wait, if she ran too far away would she still get experience? Shit, she did not want to find out. Teresa stopped in her tracks, turning around to face the battle again. She opened her notifications screen and saw she was still getting experience from kills, so she decided this was a good spot to stay for now.

She was getting some solid experience from this. Both her personal level and even her healer class had seen some progression towards another level up, which made her mind stray a bit. If healing from a short distance still granted experience, then if she had chosen that <Healing Aura> skill and just stayed in the backlines of a war, she could get a lot of level ups. Not that she was really planning on participating in any wars, but surely there would be wars once the Tutorial was over. There was no way being introduced to the multiverse with magic would be enough to end human bickering on Earth.

The battle continued on between the Clubbers and the skeletons. The Clubbers had a clear upper hand, their sheer size and Strength was enough to overcome the small level gap. Evidently level wasn't everything, but Teresa was still positive she wasn't going to fight anything higher leveled than her until she had a chance at winning.

Eventually, the fighting wore down as the last skeletons were killed. Even the archer had eventually run out of ammo and ran out to join the melee, only to be immediately crushed by a Clubber. Of the original seven Clubbers, only two were remaining after the exchange.

They were injured, but Teresa's <Facilitated Restoration> had come back to bite her in the ass. The monsters were slowly healing, and they were still in great fighting condition. Teresa used <Identify> and saw they were levels 14 and 15. Teresa had killed level 17s before, but those had been vampire deer. These were Clubbers, and they were much more dangerous.

She might stand a chance against them, but she couldn't cancel her <Facilitated Restoration> which was passively healing them. She could wait it out, but even then she still would prefer to avoid a fight with these Clubbers. Teresa had once thought that a Clubber's level was rather inflated, as she had never seen a Clubber with a level below 7, but she had been so very wrong.

The Royal Yectin Fledgling miniboss had been level 12 if Teresa remembered correctly. That fight had nearly killed Teresa, and the rest of the party had been the ones to finish it off. Sure, Teresa was way higher level now and these were just regular Clubbers, but they were still strong.

If Teresa had brought her poison staff with her then she definitely would have gone for the fight. However, all she really had was her sword, the <Tutorial Compass>, and some water. She left everything she didn't need at Liberty Island, it would just weigh her down. Unfortunately, the Clubbers would get to live another day.

Though if Teresa found them later, she might not be able to say the same.

She was incredibly close to a level up, sitting at 94% progression on her personal level. Shockingly enough, she had gotten yet another class level up. It seemed that healing multiple targets even as they approached death gave a lot of experience towards her class.

Depending on what artifact was in the stronghold, she might just walk right out and kill those two Clubbers for the last bit of experience. She didn't have anywhere to really hide from the Clubbers except inside the stronghold, and as soon as they got their bearings together they would probably spot her.

So Teresa darted her way into the stronghold, immediately breaking any potential lines of sight using the wall. Now, another problem Teresa had been thinking of was how would she find the artifact, or even recognize it. She hoped the <Tutorial Compass> would point her in the right direction, and fortunately she was correct.

However, she didn't really need the <Tutorial Compass> to know where the artifact was. On the ground near the back of the camp was a literal treasure chest, and Teresa felt her heart speed up. Was she about to get a kickass magical sword? Maybe a bow that split arrows into two? A staff that could shoot fireballs? Please let it be a staff that could shoot fireballs.

Teresa made her way to the chest and opened it, finding that it was already unlocked. She lifted the wooden lid and pushed it back, only to become very confused at what she saw inside the chest.

There were three things in the chest. First was a small container holding white, putty-like dough inside of it. Second was some sort of spike with an antenna. Third was a black stick, with a bright, shiny red trigger and a metal antenna of its own.

Now, Teresa wasn't 100% positive she knew what she was looking at, but she had a pretty solid guess.

Was… was that fucking C4?