I

Suddenly, Eva felt the grip of gravity yank her downwards. Her arms flailed in the air as she desperately looked around to see what was going on. There were nearly a hundred people in the air nearby. Many of them she recognized as her neighbors; but there were some glaring omissions--like the parents from the apartment across the hall were missing while their two young children screamed as they fell.

Below her, Eva could see the ruins of her former apartment building--and all the nearby structures--spread out over a much larger footprint than they’d occupied before the Tutorial. Cars from the parking lot were scattered and looked worse for wear, as if they’d been subjected to some kind of disaster. Between the cars were patches of asphalt surrounded by fully grown bushes and other small woodland plants.

Eva’s apartment had been on the 4th floor of the 12 story building, so she didn’t have too far to fall. The others--especially those on the upper floors--would have it rough. She had enough Stats that fifty feet wouldn’t be too much of an issue; any farther and she’d risk serious injury or death. As it was, landing feet first at around 35 miles per hour was not a pleasant thing.

Pain lanced through her legs as she landed. Eva tucked forward and did half a roll in the holes that she could reduce the impact on her legs. She succeeded in making sure absolutely everything hurt. She checked her Health and saw that it had dropped by nearly half--not enough that she would use one of her valuable potions, but enough that it was rather worrying.

As she had feared, the other unfortunate residents of the space formerly occupied by solid concrete fared much worse than her. Those that had survived the Tutorial--the adults--up to the third floor made it out about as well as she had, as had most of the children on the bottom two floors. For every floor above that, the survival rate decreased exponentially, with no one surviving the drop from the top couple of floors.

Eva got up as quickly as she could and did her best to avoid the falling bodies--and her cauldron--raining down around her. It was all over in under ten seconds. Most of those that survived the impact lay dying on the ground. She had a handful of potions left, and far too many people just barely hanging on.

She leapt into action and went from person to person, prioritizing the ones that were the most injured. They got just enough to stabilize their condition before she moved to the next person--they would be able to heal from the System in a few hours since they were in no immediate danger of dying. Using her entire stash of potions enabled her to save around twenty people. She could always make some bad potions if she needed some, and she could buy better ones once things got more established.

Eva sat down and Observed★ the people around her. The average seemed to be around level 15 with a couple of standouts in the low twenties. The children that survived the fall--many without their parents--showed a dash where the level was, presumably indicating that they were not subject to the System. If they ever would be and at what age, she didn’t know. If only she’d thought to ask Sun about that when he’d answered her questions.

She considered what to do next. After the initial confusion, Eva needed something to work towards. It was then that she noticed a System message that had popped up as soon as she had come back to Earth but had not paid any mind to with the flurry of activity she’d just gone through.

Welcome to Earth

The planet has grown while you were gone, expanding by several times in the process. In doing so, it has finished integrating with the wider multiverse. Control of the planet is contested. Whoever controls the Planetary Core controls the planet. If you seek the Core, enter the World Dungeon.

“Dungeons,” she said to herself. “Of course it’s dungeons.”

Eva knew what she had to focus on. If the dungeons she’d come across in the Tutorial were also found in the world now, they might have something to do with the World Dungeon, or they might not. Even if they didn’t, it was a priority to capture as many of the dungeons as she could and lock them for human use only--starve out the alien invaders.

The problem was that she didn’t know where to look for the dungeons. Unlike the Tutorial, where each faction was given its own, she had no idea where to begin looking for any nearby dungeons--if there were any to find. She figured she would just have to wander until--

“Hello, miss?” a woman said, interrupting her train of thought.

“Yes?” Eva answered.

The woman was older and was walking with a limp as she approached. Next to her was a young boy that Eva had helped stabilize.

“I wanted to thank you for saving my grandson,” she cried. “After that horrible Tutorial and the fall, I thought I was going to lose not only my husband but my only grandson too. Thank you so so much!”

“Ah,” Eva’s breath caught in surprise discomfort at being the center of attention, “you’re welcome.”

“What should we do now?” the woman asked when she’d wiped the tears from her eyes. Her grandson was pulling at her shirt and hiding behind her.

“Find food, make shelter, watch for aliens, I guess,” Eva shrugged. “I’ve got something I need to take care of as soon as I can, so I’ll be leaving soon.”

“Oh, ok. You’re not going to lead us?”

“Being in charge isn’t for me. Why don’t you give it a try?”

“N-no, I couldn’t--”

“And I feel the same way,” Eva cut her off as she stood. “Like I said, I’ve got something that has to be done right away. I wish you the best of luck, but I can’t stay longer.”

She knew she had to go or she would get dragged into being the leader of the local survivors, which was not her style. She was a fighter and a bit of a loner, so having to deal with politics was a strict ‘no’ when there were so many other, better, options out there--like dungeon delving. Eva cast her gaze over the spread out ruins of her former home one last time before she turned and left it for good.

II

There were many places to look for a dungeon--caves, ruins, copses of trees--but she wasn’t sure where to begin, so she wandered for several hours. There were other groups of people she encountered, but all of them were in the process of surviving rather than looking for a fight or for dungeons--she’d asked a few times but some away with no leads.

It was five hours later--just as the sun was starting to drop close to the horizon--that she encountered a group of aliens. The thirty or so aliens were milling about near a still-standing ruin intermixed with some humans. Observe★ put their levels at around 20. Not high enough that they would be able to take the dungeon she was fairly sure, but a worrying development that there were a handful humans working with them.

The aliens themselves were leonid in shape with a scaled torso coming out where the neck might be--just like a centaur but with the body of a lion and the torso of a naga. They had sandy colored fur with a multitude of scale colors ranging from white to muddy brown. The System called them tailless. Eva checked them again and, indeed, they were without tails.

After taking several minutes to watch the aliens and humans rotate through the dungeon, she approached them. Several of the aliens tensed as she drew near, no doubt on account of her high level--even if she looked extremely silly with a cauldron slung under her left shoulder. One of the tailless motioned to a nearby human to go up to her.

“Hello,” said the man, a level 22 Swordsman.

He had a strange look. It was as if someone had stuck together the demeanor of a military man into the outward appearance of a hippie surfer. He wore heavy armor that clanked as he moved, and his sword--a two-hander--looked like it meant business.

“Hi,” she responded.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, nervously.

“I see you have a dungeon over there. Been looking for one all day. Mind if I take a slot?”

Eva was willing to bargain or even pay for one. If the aliens were friendly or at least not hostile, she would leave them be. Only the ones that were looking to conquer Earth would meet the end of her blade. She’d learned from the forseli that the aliens could be used in the same way they used other humans.

“Um, the tailless have claimed this dungeon as theirs, and--”

“Have they now?” Eva asked, activating her Tutorial Conqueror✹ Title. “Is that System designated control, or just you outside of it?”

“Uh,” he paused.

She tilted her head and rested her right arm on her hip.

“Well?”

“Let me ask,” he relented.

The man walked back to the aliens and began conversing with a yellow-scaled tailless. While they talked--quite animatedly, from what she could see--she flipped her cauldron upside down and used it as a seat. She crossed one leg over the other and waited.

When the man returned, the yellow-scaled tailless was with him. Even though she didn’t know the alien’s particular body language, she guessed they were rather pissed based on how they stomped over to her. She checked its level, confirming that it was only level 25.

“So you think you’re funny, do ya?” the tailless said.

“Huh?” Eva asked, confused. “I only asked about getting a slot in the dungeon. No need to get fussy about it.”

“This is our dungeon. How dare you try to interfere with tailless business! Don’t you know that we’re--?!”

“I don’t really care how great you think you are. Have you claimed the dungeon through the System or are you just trying to keep people out until you’re strong enough?”

“Why you--!”

“So it’s the latter. Good to know. Anyways, why don’t you actually Observe me before you grow a tail or something.”

“You little shit! How can you talk to me like that! You’re no--. Fuck! How the hell did you get that Title?!”

“By conquering all six dungeons? How else does one get the Title?”

“Fuck! Fine, have at it. I’m warning you that this ain’t a Tutorial dungeon. This one’s a Novice✦ dungeon, so the boss is somewhere between level 30 and 50!”

“That sounds great!” Eva smiled. “I haven’t had an actual challenge in any of the dungeons since I took the first one when I was level 15 or whatever it was.”

She chuckled when she saw the alien’s reaction. They looked like they couldn’t figure out if they should be angry, scared, or if they could believe what she was saying. At least she had a dungeon to work on, and some more experience to get.

“Since you’ve been such a help--both of you--why don’t I give you each one of these?” Eva said, pulling two Journeyman Shards★ from her Shard Ring✹ and giving one to the human and one to the tailless.

Her business with them finished, she stood up and grabbed her cauldron. She casually walked towards the dungeon entrance and Observed★ it. Unlike the Tutorial dungeons, this one’s entrance had a rating attached. It was the Spider Cave✦. Just seeing those words sent a shiver down her spine and set a manic grin on her face. She had Fireball★, and she wasn’t afraid to use it. Without much fanfare--the other tailless had been waived off by their leader--she entered the Basic▲ version of the dungeon.