The Master of the Tutorial is Overpowered in a New World

Tess had been retelling the story of her time after the Tutorial. She mostly had glossed over the events on Iriea, except those specifically involving Olivia. Those instances she had mentioned as she wanted Charles’ opinion on how things went. Charles had remained quiet as she told her tale, only commenting sporadically for her to continue or to ask for a clarification. Once she moved on to the intrusion of Viktor and the meeting with Chariel, Charles’ expression became even more intense.

“If I had to guess, you now exist here,” he finally said after she had finished, gesturing to the landscape around them.

“Ubeta? That’s a good thing right? I can’t be targeted by Viktor’s System disease thing.”

“You said that Chariel gave you a strange look though.”

Tess shivered as she recalled the brief moment of darkness that had eclipsed the god's face. Indeed it had been a moment where she had questioned whether putting her fate in his hands was wise, despite appearing to be the only path forward.

“Yeah.”

“Then you are in just as much danger as I am of being controlled by him. I’m less worried about Viktor and more so about the aftermath. We will gather the power necessary to stop him and his people while we’re here, but there is no way Chariel is going to let us maintain that power.”

Tess pondered what to do.

“Is there a way we can escape his reach?” she asked.

“Not that I know of.”

“Then how are we going to be anything but his puppets?”

Charles reached out and grasped her shoulder. He gave a light squeeze so as to reassure her.

“He needs us. Otherwise he would deal with Viktor himself. Somehow, that man is a threat to a deity. He wouldn't send you…. send us here if there wasn't a way to win hiding here. That means that there is a way to threaten him here as well.”

“What is it?”

Charles looked conflicted.

“I have so many of his memories that I should be able to find it, but I don't know what it might be. I guess he never realized it existed until after I acquired it. I think you're going to figure it out because you are going to gain the skill to exploit whatever that weakness is.”

“Wait. That means you can do it right now,” Tess said.

“In theory.”

“Why would he leave it available here? If he can strip you of your ability to use skills, to even function on your own, why would he leave it in your skills?”

Tess had a point. If Chariel had discovered that a certain skill, or perhaps an interaction of skills, was a threat to himself then it made little sense as to why he would leave it available. Charles, however, seemed to have an answer as he shook his head.

“Look at it this way. You have Timekeeper, right?”

“Yes.”

“What would you think if it was suddenly gone?”

Tess thought about it. It would certainly be harder to do the things that the skill did, but not impossible. Then she realized that was not the point Charles was trying to make. If, in his example, Timekeeper was the skill that was the threat, and it was suddenly removed, then it would be obvious that it was the solution. By instead leaving it in, Chariel was betting on it being obscure enough that Charles would not figure it out. He also could not remove the skill from being acquired for the same reason, it would highlight the answer.

“You get it now?” Charles said with a smirk.

“That it relies on you not finding it is kind of impractical.”

“It clearly doesn’t say ‘This will affect a deity.’ So it has to be a combination of effects. Do you know how many skills I have?”

“I have 2481 from the Tutorial,” Tess said, remembering her multiple times counting them up.

“I have 4449. That’s not even all that are here. I’m not even sure I have all of yours, though I probably have most of them. It could be a combination of two skills, or maybe ten or more.”

Tess had once had an apprentice pass through that was exceptional at mathematics. While she had not fully grasped the idea of mathematical permutations and combinations, she did understand that when the number of options was larger, the number of arrangements grew larger too. Especially, in this case, if they would need certain skills in a certain order.

“How are we going to find what we need?” Tess asked, overwhelmed by the scope of what Charles was implying.

“I know a guy who can help. It’s been a long time, so hopefully he’s still alive.”

“Why does this not inspire a lot of confidence?”

The journey across Ubeta was long. Charles had mentioned that compared to what she had mentioned of Iriea, Ubeta was several times larger than the other world. Really they had been crossing one of the massive continents, stopping at every point that Charles had mentioned was a good place to pick up a feature not found in the Tutorial. It made sense to pick them up now, so they had no need to backtrack should one of these particular skills be the pivotal one.

They had been trying to piece together what the particular combination of skills was meant to be during the journey, but had been having no luck so far. Each new one only complicated the matter further for Tess, as she felt that the factors had to be considered in their entirety each time.

“Here. Hopefully,” Charles had finally said one day.

There was a bustling city below situated on the coast. The busy harbor had many trade ships in port loading and unloading the goods passing through. Local fishermen who had smaller boats or could not afford to dock instead pulled their boats onto the nearby beach. On the other side of the city, a large mountain rose up into the clouds and was covered in a dense forest of trees. The flatter bits of the surrounding landscape had been turned into massive fields of crops so as to sustain the large population of this trade city.

“What is this place?”

“Welcome to Havenport. Good thing the name is still the same. Largest city in the world and one of the only places one can truly be safe from all the horrible atrocities of Ubeta.”

“Truly safe?”

“Villages get destroyed all the time by monsters. But Havenport has built up enough strong folks to fight off most stuff. If not enough people are strong, they have numbers. Even we can get tired.”

Tess was not sure how to feel about just throwing countless people at a problem that killed them. She had always tried to prevent the death of others. It was part of the reason she had fought the demon lord of Iriea alone.

Together they flew down to the road leading to the city gate, as they had been using flight to cover the vast distances much faster. Charles stopped her once they touched down.

“Um… there isn’t an easy way to say this, but let me handle the talking. If the city is like I remember, they probably have some laws that are a little… unusual. Just go with what I say and please don’t take it personally.”

Tess gave him a questioning look.

“Should I be worried?” she asked.

“I mean, you’re strong enough that they can’t make you obey. We’ll get out of here as soon as possible, but we are going to have to endure it for a while.”

It was obvious that he was not telling her everything, and that he was uncomfortable with whatever it was that the city mandated. Tess was curious about what it was, but she would have to see.

“Alright, I guess.”

Charles led the way to the city gate. Together they stood in the entry line for newcomers as the guards conducted whatever inspections they had to. Tess noticed that many of the men in line were sneaking glances at her as they waited. Subconsciously, she drew closer to Charles, which seemed to lessen the ogling. When it was time for their own inspection, the guards called them forwards.

“Together?” the guard asked.

“We are,” Charles replied, “And she is.”

The guard looked at Charles.

“We haven’t taken the word of travelers in over a thousand years on that. She’ll need to touch this crystal.”

“What?” Charles said.

Tess noticed the sweat beading on his forehead.

“What’s the big deal?” she whispered, “All I have to do is touch the thing.”

“Yes, well…,” Charles stammered quietly.

Tess stepped forward as the guard held out the crystal in question. She reached out and touched it. Nothing happened for a moment, then the crystal turned a deep red.

“That is why we don’t sir,” the guard said mockingly towards Charles.

“What does it mean?” Tess asked, still unbothered.

“Well, first it means that you must wear this,” the guard replied as he pulled out a medal on a length of cord.

The medal was fairly large, but at least was a sort of oval shape. The guard tapped it against the now red crystal and the color seemed to transfer from the crystal to the medal. He handed it to Tess, who casually slipped it over her head.

“You need to make sure that remains visible,” the guard mentioned.

Tess tightened up the cord so the medal was close to her neck.

“The second thing it means is that your husband has two weeks to change that color. Otherwise it will be changed to green and you’ll be subject to the green laws,” the guard continued.

“And how does he change my medal here?” Tess asked.

“Please don’t…,” Charles whimpered in a strange voice.

Tess glanced back at him, only to see a pained expression. Clearly, whatever this medal and changing its color meant was what he had been trying to avoid.

“Simple,” the guard answered, “He gets you pregnant.”

Elsewhere, over Ubeta

Chariel was not pleased. The puppets were just talking about cutting their strings. He was the master of their destiny, and they were to be the first of his greatest creations. If it was not for the fact that they were right, he would tighten their strings now. He switched his view to the Tutorial feed, watching as another portal was opened and a team of mercenaries invaded another world.

Complaints had started pouring in from MSI customers. The invaders were coming in and abducting the heroes of those worlds if they could, or killing them if they resisted. Some of the more powerful heroes had even joined the invaders, throwing the System implementations into even more chaos. They already had access to the System, why did they not just copy it onto their world and go away?

The leader of the invaders was an annoyance. He actually believed he was equal to a deity. He believed that he was greater than a deity. In the end, the puppets would put him down. That was assured because he willed it to be so. It was not the leader that was the real concern though.

“Why are you here?” Chariel said to no one.

“Your time is short Chariel. You have stepped out of line.”

The answer seemed to come from all around, without a true source.

Over Iriea

“Disconnected,” the nameless deity sighed.

“Good. So we’ll have no other invasions?” Oena asked.

“They have the coordinates, so they could come back.”

“Can you stop that from happening?”

“Are you going to pay me for continuing to work for you?”

Oena looked a little guilty.

“Fine. What do you want?”