“What’s isekai?” Teresa asked, as she looked around. She stood on the same island as the Statue of Liberty, though calling it an island was a stretch. The Statue of Liberty was supposed to be on Liberty Island in New York. However, instead of some water and a massive city being nearby, surrounding them was desert for as far as they could see.
“It’s like a genre, I guess.” Preston explained, as they all took in their surroundings. “It’s Japanese, but like that doesn’t mean all isekai is Japanese. Basically it’s just where the main character gets transported to another world somehow, like being reincarnated or summoned there.”
“Oh, so like Narnia?” Teresa asked.
“No-” Preston started, but paused. Jake had a puzzled look on his face, which quickly turned to disappointment. “Fuck, no I think you’re right. Yeah, Narnia totally counts as an isekai.”
“Why would you say that?” Jake asked Teresa in faux exasperation. “Now he’s going to keep bringing that up. Narnia does not count as an isekai.”
“Yeah, it totally does.” Preston argued, the two of them seemingly more invested in this stupid conversation than the fact that the freaking Statue of Liberty was in an ocean of desert.
Thankfully, a screen appeared to get them back on track.
Questline
Newcomer Tutorial (0/3)
Welcome to the System! Your universe has been integrated into the multiverse, granting all inhabitants a once in a lifetime opportunity. You and your party will be given a series of optional quests that you may opt out of at any point, however doing so would forfeit the opportunity for any rewards. Each additional task you complete in the questline will result in greater rewards for you and your party, who may choose to stay together or split up upon completion of the Tutorial
Please note, upon exiting the Tutorial your location will be randomized and all inhabitants will arrive outside of the Tutorial at the same time.
Teresa read the screen, getting some details out of it. Okay, she almost certainly hadn’t died, and this was not the afterlife. The Tutorial seemed similar to what she would expect from a video game, and decided she would just stop being surprised at that. From now on, she would just assume video game logic until proven otherwise.
“I can leave if I want to.” Sarah said, looking at a screen she had chosen to share in front of her.
Leave Tutorial?
Yes
No
“I don’t think I will.” Jake said to the group. “This has some pretty heavy implications. I’m guessing everyone everywhere is going through the same thing, or something similar. It also says we will arrive outside of the Tutorial at the same time, so I think that means if we leave immediately we might arrive back on regular Earth at the same time as someone who spent a few days here.”
“Me neither. If everyone is going through this, I kinda want to do really good at it. Like, what if we managed to get farther through the Tutorial than anyone else on Earth?” Preston asked, smiling. The screen in front of Sarah disappeared, and Madeline nodded, seeming to share the same sentiment.
It looks like nobody was leaving the Tutorial this early.
“I don’t want to push my own unreasonable expectations that I have for myself on any of you, but I absolutely want to get really far too.” Jake said. It seemed the two guys in their party were pretty competitive.
“I can understand that.” Teresa responded, sharing the same sentiment. Less than an hour ago, she had tried to kill herself. Now, she was still alive and magic was real and the multiverse was real and, and, and…
And life had just gotten so much more interesting.
“I think that’s a good sentiment to have, but we have to keep in mind our limits and set realistic expectations.” Madeline said. “We all have similar levels of capability, so I think the System may have grouped up people based on some sort of metric that determined our athleticism and capabilities to group up people at similar levels. If that’s right, then there are probably a bunch of Olympians in a party together somewhere that we shouldn’t hope to compete against.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s fair.” Preston replied, feeling humbled. Teresa hadn’t considered that, but it made sense. Their group was in no way comparable to a group of Navy Seals. “Still, I imagine that after a few levels, we would easily be able to hold our own against anyone pre-System. The highest stat any of us has is a 9, and so after just a few levels we should all have some stats that far surpass that.”
“Still, some people will have a lot more regular skills and talents from before the system that will help them a lot. I’m sure we can do well, just don’t expect to be the best of the best.” Madeline continued.
The screen in front of Teresa changed.
Questline
Newcomer Tutorial (1/3)
Establish Liberty
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Waves of monsters are seeking escape from the perennial desert. You and your party inhabit the only piece of green land for miles. Defend your territory from the waves. Waves will invade 15 minutes after the defeat of the previous wave.
Waves defeated: 0/5
Time remaining until next wave: 14:59
“What the hell does it mean by monsters?” Madeline asked, confused. “Are we about to be attacked by dragons or something?”
“I sure hope we’re not about to get attacked by friggin dragons.” Jake said, looking over to his friend. “Preston, you’re the isekai guy. Are we about to get attacked by dragons?”
“I told you I’m pretty sure we aren’t being isekai’d, and how the hell would I know? Maybe it will be like goblins or wolves or something. Or goblins riding wolves. I wouldn’t discount the goblins riding wolves.” Preston replied.
“We should set up in position or something.” Teresa said, pointing to the Statue of Liberty. “We can probably hide in there, and let the monsters funnel in one at a time, but if we do that there won’t be a path to run away anywhere. It also might be harder for all of us to fight together in a cramped space.”
“Yeah, I’ve been here before. There’s kind of a lobby at the base of the statue.” Sarah said. “The lobby has some walkways above the ground level we can shoot down from, so we can have our melee fighters on the ground floor of the lobby while the ranged fighters can attack from the balconies. Shouldn’t be too cramped. There’s also a museum back there with some space to run around in if we need to, but I wouldn’t recommend going up the actual statue itself - way too cramped.”
“That sounds like a plan.” Jake said, looking at Sarah now. “Lead the way.”
The group followed Sarah towards the base of the statue, while Teresa kept looking at her stats. Her Mana had already regenerated the few points she had expended while testing out
“Hey Madeline, have you tried using your
“No, I wasn’t sure how much Mana it would use and how long it would take to regenerate.” She answered.
“You should try it, just for a second. I tried
“Uh, no actually. I know how to activate it, but that’s it really.” Madeline said. “I guess it would be better to go into a fight with less Mana than to go into a fight not knowing what my spell does, huh?”
She pointed her hand out away from the group, palm parallel with her body and perpendicular to the floor. A moment later, several sparks shot out of her hand like, well, a sparkler. A sparkler with range, that is.
The sparks shot forward until they hit the ground about 10 meters away, and small glowing embers floated along the path the sparks traveled in the air. The sparks continued to shoot out continuously for a few seconds, before Madeline stopped using the skill. The ground where the sparks landed seemed alright, with tiny burn marks that admittedly weren’t that significant, similar to the mark that a popper might leave.
“That was… honestly underwhelming.” Madeline said, disappointed. “How the hell can I use that in combat? It’d hurt, sure, but I can’t imagine killing something with that.”
“Maybe aim for the eyes?” Teresa offered. “I sure as shit wouldn’t want one of those sparks to hit my eye, it may be insignificant otherwise but it still could probably blind me.”
“If what we’re fighting will even have eyes.” Preston spoke up as the group continued to the statue. “Just saying, we’re dealing with multiversal monsters. For all we know they see with smell or something.”
“Or echo location.” Jake added. “Think we’ll be fighting bats?”
“I don’t know man, why would the multiverse follow common rulesets from our universe’s media?” Preston replied. “Really, no matter what it is I’ll be surprised.”
The party made their way inside, and were soon standing in the lobby. It was a relatively simple room, with two balconies on either side about two or three people tall with stairs leading up to them. Across from the entrance were more stairs that led to a closed door with a sign reading “To Pedestal & Crown” displayed above it.
“This is it.” Sarah said, gesturing around the room. She pointed to the door with the sign over it. “Back there is how to get up the statue and if I remember right I think you can get into the museum back there as well.”
She walked up the stairs and pushed on the door handle. The door didn't budge.
“I think it’s locked.” Sarah said. “We’re gonna have to make do in here.”
“This should be fine.” Jake said, moving towards the center of the lobby. “I guess I can try to catch them on my shield and punch them? I don’t know, all I got is this shield, I don’t have anything to hit with.”
“Maybe you can push a monster and hold it against a wall, and we can attack it while you pin it?” Teresa offered. “Though I wouldn’t rely on just doing that, if any more monsters come in while you’re pinning one, it would leave the rest of us open. I guess just try to keep them away from the stairs?”
“I think that could work.” Jake replied. “That reminds me, where are you going to stand Teresa? You can heal, but otherwise you’re kind of just a regular person. Do you have a weapon or something? Can you attack with that staff?”
Teresa shook her head.
“No, I think the staff just helps with regenerating Mana for now. When I used a few points of Mana earlier I felt it funnel into my body through the staff quicker. Honestly, I think it would do better in Madeline’s hands until I learn a skill that uses the staff or until I start using up Mana.” Teresa replied. Madeline hadn’t gotten any tools with her class aside from some purple robes with stars on them. She looked like a wizard from a children's cartoon.
“Sure, I won’t mind some extra Mana regen, but that doesn’t answer what you’re going to do during the fight. Maybe you can hide until one of us gets hurt?” Madeline offered, grabbing the staff.
“Absolutely not.” Teresa stated. She was adamant on this, she was going to fight somehow. She wasn’t sure if four and a half months of kickboxing back in college would hold up against multiversal monsters, but if she got hurt she could heal herself.
She wasn’t too anxious about getting hurt. She had already resigned herself to suicide not too long ago, and even if she had changed her mind since then some pain wouldn’t be that big of a deal.
“I’ll stay down on the ground floor here with Jake and Preston. I’ll try to avoid anything too dangerous, but I’m sure as shit not going to do nothing.” Teresa confirmed.
“If you say so.” Madeline responded. “Be careful.”
With that, a bell rang out through the building, the sound seeming to reverberate inside of Teresa’s head.
The timer was up.