B2 Chapter 1

  Theo was in his room adjusting his armor.

  “Gehenna, where are my friends at?” Theo asked

  “They are currently in the dining room. The spectral staff has already got to work. The librarians have gone to the library to straighten up the mess, as they call it, while the chefs are preparing a meal for your friends,” Gehenna said.

  “Then I will go to the dining room,” Theo said

  Theo has never been to the dining room. Still, since he’s bonded to Gehenna, he knew precisely where to go. After a few minutes, he entered a beautiful room. The floor was like everywhere else, stone, but it had many beautiful rugs on top of the gray stone floor. The walls were a soft, light wood, with magical candles in sconces set every 5 feet; they radiated more light than any pre-system candle Theo knew of. In the center of the room was a giant table that could fit 20 people, 10 on each side, plus like three on the ends of the table. There were three of the spectral staff close to the walls, not intruding on the group at the table. The area around his friends was filled with dishes, filling the center of the table. Theo had a sneaking suspicion, looking towards the brick wall of a man.

  “José, did you ask for everything on the menu?” Theo accused

  “What, no, I did not, Allen did,” José said with an affronted look on his face.

  “I only suggested it as a joke; José was the one who went through with it and ordered it all,” Allen said

  Allison and Jimmy nodded.

  “As I said, it was Allen’s idea,” José said.

  Theo sighed and sat next to Jimmy. A staff member came and set a plate in front of him.

  “What would you like to drink today, sir?” the spirit asked.

  “Just water,” Theo said

  The spirit nodded and walked off.

  Theo grabbed the tongs near one of the plates, filled his plate with various meats and vegetables, and side dishes. As he filled up his plate, the spirit came back with a glass of water.

  “So, where’s the rest of your family?” Jimmy asked

  “About that, they all left for Earth.” Theo was cut off before he could say more

  “Already that fast, I figured that we'd spend some time here, and train,” Allen said

  “If you would let me continue and not cut me off, I will explain,” Theo said

  While glaring at Alan. Alan gave a nod as a go-ahead.

  “Okay, everyone in my family accepted, but except one: Grace. What Alexander has told me in the past is that Grace can be really impulsive, so I’m guessing she decided to go to Earth for whatever reason and not think of the opportunity of meeting up with her family. Because she wasn’t there, everyone decided to go to Earth to find her, and since I am the only one who can bring her back here by a ritual portal, I have to go as well,” Theo said.

  “Normally, I would say that would suck, but working for the system, it will be no problem to find her,” Jimmy said

  “How’s that?” Theo asked.

  “Have you looked at the prompt for going to Earth yet?” Jimmy said

  “No, I haven’t had the time to do that, and I wasn’t planning on going to Earth anyway,” Theo said

  Opening up his notifications, he saw the prompt that Jimmy was speaking of

  Congratulations on finishing the solo and group tutorial.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Would you like to go to Earth or somewhere else? Going to Earth is usually random for everyone involved, where you end up, but since you work for me, you get to choose.

  [Note: Tell people this is the favor you asked for, for dealing with Tim, if you decide to teleport to someone.]

  “That’s convenient. I should have checked this earlier. This notification would have spared my family a lot of grief,” Theo said

  all of them just grinned

  “Yes, it would’ve,” Allison said

  Sighing, Theo said, “Can you guys come with me to get her, or would you rather stay here a little longer?” Theo asked

  “That was what we were discussing before you came in, and we think it will be best if we go along alone; the opportunities that we would have most likely would be better, and since you can teleport directly to her and back to Gehenna, there should be no problem for you at all, and I don’t think you’ll need us,” José said.

  “FairPoint,” Theo said

  A lull in the conversation happened as they continued eating. The food was delicious. After a while, a spirit walked up to him and set a storage ring on the table. In front of him, close to his plate.

  “Sir, I did as you asked. The ring is filled with many provisions, clothes, and items that will fit in E grade for a journey of an unknown time. In the storage ring, I cooperated with Gehenna to get the best gear that was available,” the spirit said

  “Thank you,” Theo said

  Theo took off his old ring and put on his new one; the volume in the spatial pocket was three times bigger than his old ring. He saw camping supplies and other things, including many health and stamina potions. Theo handed his old ring to the Butler.

  “There’s a bunch of junk in there basically, and some potions, but what I saw there are not nearly as good as the ones you gave me, so do with this storage ring and the items within it as you will,” Theo said

  The Butler nodded, took the ring, and went off.

  “I guess I'd better be off as well,” Theo said

  With that, he said his goodbyes, opened his notification again, and thought, "Send me to Earth close to Grace Thompson." A portal opened in front of him, and he walked through.

  Grace's P.O.V.

  Fuck!, fuck!!! Why didn’t I agree to go where Uncle Theo is? I had to go straight to Earth because my friends all agreed we would meet there, even though it’s random, dumb decision. I bet the realm of Gehenna, where Uncle Theo is, is a lot better than here,” Grace thought.

  Looking over her surroundings was a mountain range that she could see in either direction; she was on a plateau, a vast plateau that was several miles long, and it was a long way down to the ground. Looking up, it was a long way up to the top of the mountain. Going close to the edge of the plateau, it was a jagged cliffside that she could see, and there was no easy pathway down. And she could barely see the ground.

  “Besides the fucking terrain, I’ve already killed and run off multiple mountain lions and goats. Who has even heard of a goat that is a carnivore? Well, at least I learned how to skin animals in the tutorial, and I got a storage ring. I used some of my points for provisions and other things, so I’m good for a while,” Grace grumbled.

  Grace looked at her status sheet again.

  Grace Thompson

  Race: Human E-Grade Lv. 25

  Class: Rogue Lv. 25

  Profession: journeyman alchemist Lv. 25

  Health: 530/530

  Mana: 580/580

  Stamina: 600/600

  Stats:

  Vitality: 53

  Strength: 60

  Endurance: 60

  Agility: 71

  Intelligence: 58

  Wisdom: 56

  Willpower: 84

  Perception: 61

  Free Points: 0

  Class Skills:

  Stealth, Common, Master, 9

  Knowledge of traps, Common, Master 5

  Short Sword Mastery, Common, Master8

  Backstab, Common, Master 6

  Professional skills:

  Herbalism, Common, Journeyman 1

  Potion Making, Common, Journeyman 1

  Knowledge OF Herbs, Common, Journeyman1

  Knowledge OF Potions, Common, Journeyman 1

  Gen. skills

  Identify Master, Journeyman 5

  Bloodline Skills:

  Mental Resistance, Common, Novice 5

  Physical Resistance, Common Novice 5

  Soul Resistance, Common, novice 5

  Bloodline: Fortitude

  Grace was pleased with her progress, even though she focused more on her class than her profession. The only thing that she was annoyed with was that her class had the same name, but the difference was that this was an uncommon class, sighing.

  But at least I finally got an Identify skill at a higher rarity during the system store.

  She decided to head towards the other side of the plateau, where there was a wall; maybe she could find a cave system or something. As she got there, there was actually a cave opening in the wall.

  “Yes, maybe this will be a way down,” Grace thought.

  Grabbing a dark vision potion from her storage ring, she drank it, then put the bottle back in her storage ring. She then entered the cave and walked on a downward slope. After a while, Grace heard some chittering off in the distance, getting closer to where the noise was coming from. Grace saw giant ants whose heads were the height of her torso. Even though being stealthy through the cave, not making a sound, and not being in direct sight, the five ants turned towards her.

  “fuck me,” she said out loud without thinking.

  grabbing her short sword from her storage ring and using Identify on one of the ants.

  Cave ant level 15

  Cave ants usually live in mountainous regions, nesting in natural caves and then expanding from there. Miners look for cave ants because they’re attracted to the mana in all magical metals. They take the metal and eat it, absorbing and strengthening their carapace. As a result, their carapace will be stronger than that of any other ant variant.

  Grace used the Identify skill on the other four ants, who were also level 15

  “At least there, all five of them are low-level, I should handle them easily,” Grace thought.

  She moved before the ants could gang up on her and swiped at the closest ant. The short sword clanged off its carapace, leaving not even a scuff on the ant. Grace tried other spots on the ant with no luck. She was easily able to dodge the five ants. As she was focused on the one in front of her, realizing that the carapace and the joints were too hard to cut through, she decided to stab her opponent through the eye. The blade sank in easily, not recognizing her own strength. Her arm went through almost elbow deep into the eye socket when she pulled out, gore covering her arm, nearly retching. She focused on the task at hand and repeated it four more times, storing the five ant bodies in her storage ring for later use. She also grabbed out a cleaning solution and doused her right arm liberally with it, trying not to be disgusted. Moving through the cave system, she encountered a few more ants and dispatched them quickly. And every time, it doesn’t matter what she does, the ants can sense her, trying to figure out the reason why she pulls up the description again for cave ants.

  “They can sense mana in metals. I guess that’s how they’re able to see me. No matter what I do, they're able to sense my mana. Well, fuck the shit, a rogue that cannot stealth—fuck my life,” Grace groaned.

  She entered a long cavern that veered off to the right. She could hear lots of skittering around and just an overwhelming cacophony of noise. Grace wanted no part of whatever it was down this path. Grace started to retrace her steps when all the noise stopped. Then she heard chittering, and after a couple of seconds, she felt the cave floor vibrate beneath her, and the sound of many creatures marching grew louder.

  “Oh fuck, oh fuck,” Grace mentally screamed, running away from the ants.

  “Grace, think of a plan. Think... I got it, let’s go back to the plateau; we'll have enough space, but damn it’s gonna be a while to get there.”