Sarah was not surprised, shocked, worried or any of the emotions you'd expect from someone who woke up in a strange place with a strange orb telling them that TEOTWAWKI had happened. Emotions would only get in the way.

Instead, Sarah was focused. First things first, get information. A quick conversation with the orb told her everything she needed to know: Mana was back, Monsters were everywhere, a System had been introduced, Planet had been altered, anything any human had ever taken from the ground had been put back. The last point had been both annoying and nice. Annoying because all the modern conveniences that Sarah had enjoyed were gone, nice because, as the head of a construction company, there was suddenly a lot of jobs available.

Sarah didn't ask many questions, she didn't need to. The only concerns she had were how to survive in the knew world. As long as she survived, she could work out the rest later.

Which meant she first had to get through the Tutorial. She did spare a moment to be concerned about her idiotic little brother, because where else would he be in the middle of an apocalypse than the other end of the country and deep in a forest?

The orb mentioned a Status and, without a moment's hesitation, Sarah brought hers up.

Status Name Sarah Volker Age 37 Level 1 Experience 0 / 100 Class None Profession None Path None Race Human Health 50 / 50 Mana 36 / 60 Health Regen 2.5 per min Mana Regen 3 per min

Attributes

Unassigned Attribute points : 0

Strength 3 Agility 5 Vitality 5 Dexterity 7 Perception 8 Magic 6 Skills General Class Profession Affinities Water 32% Earth 21% Light 19% Metal 12% You have pending Notifications.

A quick look over the box appearing in front of her told Sarah a number of things. Having played a few video games in her younger years let her recognize and understand much of the information that composed the table. "Anything I should know?" Sarah knew that sometimes it was best to trust the judgement of those who knew more than her and let them advise. She didn't quite trust the AI, but there was no other option. For now, she would accept the spiel that the orb gave, especially since she couldn't explain the 'Status' sheet that appeared in response to her thoughts.

Seeing the pending notifications she tried to mentally 'poke' the sentence. She was rewarded with a popup.

System Initialising...

System Initialised

Tutorial initialising ...

Tutorial started

Well, that was a waste of time. Sarah guessed it was notifications that she hadn't seen due to being asleep. Still, the big blue boxes popping up in her vision was quite the distraction. If the blob calling itself an AI was to be believed, she would soon be facing Monsters. It would be a serious fork up if- Wait, what? Why did she think fork instead of fort. Funk? What the everloving fifteenth? She immediately whirled and stared at the white circular sack of shiny. "Did you place some sort of profanity filter on me?!"

"Ah, no. That is the work of Gaia. Gaia did not enjoy the name that you gave the planet and felt that a light punishment was in order."

Sarah paused a second to ponder the information that the orb had given her. "Understandable. I've often felt that the name was, well, unadvisable." She did not, but it never hurt to pay lip service to the boss. Especially when the boss was a planet and apparently capable of implementing a punishment that affected an entire race right down to their thoughts. "On an unrelated note, is there a way of altering the notifications?"

"Indeed" the AI replied " but that is a feature only available once you have completed the Tutorial."

Sarah eyed the orb, suspicious. "Any other features that are being withheld from me?"

"Several, but we must not digress. Everything will be explained afterwards."

Sarah thought about arguing for a second, but chose to acquiesce. Rather than argue about the idiocy of having a Tutorial with limited access, she felt the more efficient option would be to move through the Tutorial as quickly as possible. The faster she finished, the faster she might get some real answers.

After changing into the clothes which were provided, she strode through the doorway and into the fi- second phase.

After a brief argument with the AI about the legality of mind control, Sarah had to admit that it was an efficient, if amoral, way to get things done. To be completely honest, there were a couple of employees she would have loved to use that on. Especially Mark in accounting. If he spent half as much time on his work as he did flirting, things would run 17 and a half percent faster. She had actually calculated it.

Shaking her head, Sarah pulled up her Status sheet, focusing on pulling up only the skills section as the AI suggested.

Skills General Beginner Acrobatics lvl 3 Beginner Administration lvl 7 Basic Construction lvl 6 Basic Cooking lvl 6 First Aid lvl 5 Beginner Leadership lvl 9 Beginner Trading lvl 7 Novice Unarmed Combat lvl 5 Class Profession

"That's it? Surely there must be more? What about things like numeracy or literacy or even language? It feels like there's a lot missing." Sarah was, uh, miffed? Yeah, miffed! She was actually a lot more, but apparently she couldn't even think that way. For Sarah was a lot of things, but unskilled was not one of them.

"Indeed, there are many Skills which you have, but which the System will not display. At humanities current tier of civilisation, 1, the Skills the System will recognize are largely primitive in nature."

"Speaking of, what are the criteria for a 2nd tier civilisation?" Sarah was a bit annoyed at the lack of skills but even more annoyed that Mike probably had more skills than she had. Of course, part of her was happy, more skills meant better chances of survival. If that idiot had to be in the middle of a forest, in the middle of an apocalypse, then at least he had the skills to survive. Hopefully.

"A total of one hundred System recognized towns, 5 recognized cities, and at least 1000 individuals of the third Tier. That and various other things such as intelligible languages, basic Mathematics, Literacy and the various other basics that differentiate a group of barbarians from an actual civilization. Currently, humanity only lacks the infrastructure and levels."

"Are there any advantages for being the owners or leaders of the towns slash city? Also, are there ways to communicate with others in order to achieve tier 2 status? Actually, how do we get the System to recognize a town or city?"

"Ah, uh, good questions. Unfortunately, I cannot answer at this time. The information is locked until you complete the Tutorial."

"Fine, Whats next?"

"Choosing Skills. since you do not qualify for additional Skills you may choose 5 Skills to learn."

A blue screen appeared in front Sarah, filled with various choices.

Skills:

- Beginner Mana Manipulation

- Imbue Mana

- Identify

- Magic Missile

- Novice Heal

- Basic Enchanting

- Beginner Herbalism

- Basic Alchemy

- Novice Stealth

- Beginner Taming

- Beginner Camping

- Novice Dodge

- Novice Archery

- Novice Bladed Weapons

- Novice Long Weapons

- Novice Blunt Weapons

- Novice Shieldwork

- Beginner Teaching

- Beginner Sailing

"Okay, I have several questions. One, is there any way to increase the amount of skills I can choose? Two, Could I get an explanation on what these skills are and why these specific skills are available? I would think that skills like Mining and blacksmithing are considered basic skills but I don't see them on here."

"First, no." The AI answered in a voice that brooked no argument. "Secondly, I will go over the explanations for the skills in a moment but as to why these specifically, that is simple. These skills are ones that are either linked to the usage of Mana or are liable to be needed for your continued survival. Lastly, I have added any skills that you were close to attaining, but were unable to. In your case, Teaching and Sailing."

Sarah was a bit taken aback by Sailing. Most of her early memories of her father were of him taking her out sailing. That was before his law firm started taking off and he started spending less and less time with her. Still, she always cherished those memories, even though she had spent large amounts of the time feeling ill. Seasickness was terrible.

The AI snapped her out of her reminiscing as it began to explain the skills. As she listened, Sarah tried to plan out what she wanted to do, how she wanted to fight. With her Attributes, melee fighting was likely out. She might've chosen one if she had more than five choices. Archery was also out, the idea that she would be reliant on a limited ammo supply made her shudder. Besides, what kind of idiot would choose archery when magic was an option? Sarah's eyes widened with a realisation, before she smacked her forehead. Yup, if anyone would, it would be him.

So, that being decided, she immediately shortlisted Mana Manipulation and Magic Missile. Novice Heal was also in, being able to heal quickly was a must. Identify was important as well, information was power after all. Imbue Mana was ... ambiguous at best. Probably out but, given it's ambiguous nature, it was unlikely that many would choose it so this may be her last chance for a while. If only she could communicate with others and get some coordination going, *sigh*.

Still, she had never let others dictate her choices before, and she wasn't going to start. Which meant Imbue was out. Enchanting, herbalism and Alchemy was out. Sarah knew herself, she was a leader, not a creator. She may have had building skills, and now the Building Skill, but that was purely so she could better lead her company. Stealth was definitely worth considering as was Dodge. Both could help her avoid or survive an encounter. Taming was definitely attractive, if she was going to build a future out of the rubble of the past, she was going to need a lot of help. Still, she could list at least five people off the top of her head that she knew would absolutely take the Skill, even if they might die for the choice.

It was sad, deeply so, but Sarah knew quite a lot of people that would likely die in the Tutorial. She couldn't do anything for them, and it hurt. The helplessness merely spurred her to make sure she could save as many as she could in the future. Much like when she was six and learned of the stark reality that, as a woman, she would be constantly be looked down on simply because she wasn't a man. She hadn't let the helplessness crush her then, and that sure as hick wasn't going to change now.

Back to the Skill choice, she discarded both Teaching as well as Sailing. Neither were useful for surviving or growing and definitely not worth taking one of the skill slots.

That meant she was taking Mana Manipulation, Magic Missile, Novice Heal and Identify. The final slot going to either Dodge or Stealth. After a minute spent debating the two options she finally chose Dodge. Stealth was invaluable when it came to avoiding fights but did nothing in them. Dodge on the other hand, would be a literal life saver in a battle. Whilst she may not particularly want to be in a battle, she knew it was unlikely that it could be avoided, especially if battle gave levels and levels gave authority. Stealth would do nothing but prolong life, and weaken her position.

Choices made, she informed the AI.

The learning process was surprisingly easy though Sarah couldn't spend as much time practicing as she wanted to, as the AI was already explaining the third phase. Which made her really glad she had taken Dodge instead of Stealth.

The third stage took place in an arena, somewhat roman in inspiration if Sarah was to guess. She had always found the romans to be somewhat fascinating, even though they could somewhat be described as a more militant version of Greece. Still, there was something about them that drew her attention. That something was definitely not dying in an arena, so she would have to avoid that.

When given a choice of several different armors, Sarah went over to a light blue cloth armor with silvery accents. She had absolutely no intention of getting anywhere near the Monster and would rather pump it full of Magic Missiles than try getting up and close with something out of a horror movie. The light armor would help with dodging and hopefully let her keep distance without getting bogged down by heavy armor. Truth is, Sarah would have loved to be covered in safe, durable steel, but her strength was nowhere near high enough to let her do that.

The armor was made up of pants, a long sleeved shirt and an absolutely beautiful hooded jacket. The entire set was made of some sort of cloth that felt wonderfully soft and yet, when she tested it with a knife borrowed from the weapon racks, surprisingly resilient. The clothes were paired with a dark, almost midnight blue pair of boots that somehow, against all the odds, were comfier than her pair of bunny slippers that absolutely no one must ever know about. Her image as a tough but fair boss would be dead in the gutter if her employees found out she had bunny slippers.

Her armor sorted, Sarah moved on to weapons. Looking over the racks of weapons that Sarah had zero understanding how to use, she wondered if maybe she had made a mistake when she ignored the weapon skills. Sure, her plan was magical deadliness, but a plan B would be really good about now. After all, she only had 6 Missiles before she ran dry. After a brief moment of self doubt her resolve firmed. If she was going to go the Mage route, she was going to give it her all. Anything less than 110% effort was not her way, and when the world was literally ending, she had to stay true to herself.

A quick question to the AI about Magic enhancing weapons led her to a selection of staves and wands that would slightly (about 5%) enhance her magical skills and allow her to cast through them as if they were an extension of herself. Completely ignoring the wands she chose a silvery white staff that complimented her armor nicely. If she had the Mana to spare she would have tested it out but that was not the case. It didn't matter though, worst case scenario meant casting skills without the staff in which case she at least had a something solid and long reaching as a weapon.

After the countdown ended and the AI left, the gate on the opposite wall started rumbling up to reveal, a rat. Sarah, poised to fire at the big bad monster, was surprised. She expected something more, well, more. A wolf made of fire or a giant bear or something. Definitely not an, admittedly somewhat large, rat. Sarah's confusion didn't last long as the rat finally spotted her and, with an angry screech, charged at Sarah. The sight of the large rat charging at her triggered something primal in Sarah and, before she even knew what she was doing, she blasted three Magic Missiles at the creepy creature, utilising the staff as if she had been using it for years. The poor rat never stood a chance and, after barely dodging the first missile, was immediately stunned by the second one impacting its head in a truly lucky shot. The third and fourth also struck the rat in the head, eventually killing the beast with multiple critical hits.

lvl 1 Dire Rat Killed!

30 experience points earned

Sarah swiped away the notification to find that she was no longer in the arena but in a featureless white room, similar to the first she had woken up in. It even had the AI present.

"If you are prepared, we will move on to the second half of the third phase." Sarah nodded, the fight hadn't been difficult thanks to the lucky hit.

The AI then went on to explain the rest of the phase, giving Sarah information on the various options available. After weighing up the options, Sarah decided to forgo the extra trial. She had no crafting skills for the crafting trial, the last fight was too fresh in her mind for the fighting trial and the survival trial would take too long. She needed to get back and group up with others as quickly as possible. She may not be a particularly great fighter, but she was a dingle fine leader. A good team was far more useful than any item.

"Now, are you going to answer the questions I had earlier?" Information was power and, right now, survival.

"Ah yes, the questions about towns. They are quite easy to construct, merely requiring a certain amount of resources, at least one hundred settlers, and a town token. The town token can be gained as a reward from a Field Boss kill or as a random, and very unlikely, reward from various different events such as dungeon clears or loot boxes. Once you have a town token, interfacing with the token will allow you to know what materials you need and in what amounts. Simply gather the materials, and the people, and activate the token. Doing so will cause a basic town to be constructed in a style of your choosing and will automatically designate the one who used the token as the mayor of the new town. Cities are different in that they do not need a city token to be created, though that is an option. If a basic town is upgraded through the ranks to a Powerful Town, and certain requirements are met, you will be able to upgrade it to a city. I won't tell you the rewards for being the mayor of a town, but they are somewhat extensive. Then again, so are the responsibilities. Unlike your politicians, those who govern a town or city under the System are monitored and cannot work against those under them without severe penalties."

"You mentioned that creating a city through a city token is an option but didn't expand on it. Is it similar to a town token?"

"Yes and no. The city token allows a town of any rank to immediately upgrade to a city, merely needing materials and enough of a population. The lesser the town, the more materials will be required. I advise you to forget about the token for now as they are exceedingly difficult to find. As an example, surviving ten full months in the Survival Trial would give you the token. That is Impossible though, to do so a level one human would have to survive against twenty level ten monsters a day. To put it in perspective, it would be similar to a human with 5 Strength lifting one of your Navy's warships with one hand."

"Oookay. Nice to know. How about communication? Is there any way of communicating with, say,everyone within a mile radius?"

"Plenty, but none that you will be able to access within a reasonable timeframe. Most of the classes capable of doing so are in the second or above tiers of civilisation so not achievable at the current time. There are items such as Empowered Speakers that would have a similar effect, but that would require access to a town. All in all, no. Communication will be a face to face affair for the foreseeable future. Apologies."

"Darth. Well, then I suppose there is nothing that I can do but get started. Uh- one last question. Is my brother okay? His names Michael Volker."

A brief silence passed. Sarah was about to ask if the AI had heard when it spoke up in a surprisingly weary voice.

"I cannot tell you how he is doing, but rest assured. He is unlikely to fall any time soon. I am not that fortunate."

Before Sarah could ask what it meant by that she was teleported out of the Tutorial.