[Time Remaining in Stage Two: 03:14.32]

[Time before next Beast spawn: 00:04.32]

[Note: Killing all spawned Beast Lords will cause an early spawn of the next Beast group]

[Time before next Beast attack: 00:23.32]

Beast Lords defeated: 12/15

Beast Lords spawned: 13/15

[Tutorials Completed as Instructor: 25/180]

The wall was being rebuilt. The timer for allowing Time ripples to settle was over. They had a day before the next Beast attack. Doyle and his team would be leaving shortly to find and hopefully kill the one Beast pack that was out there anyway. It would speed up the next spawn, but everyone was looking forward to the promised reward of no attacks during Phase 3.

They didn’t need him here; it was time to get back to where he was needed.

Serenity hugged Rissa, then stepped into the small shelter and triggered the transition to the next Tutorial.

The world smeared around him. Time didn’t move properly. Space was slightly twisted. Serenity tried to match things up, but that only made it worse. He relaxed, and it got a little better. He closed his eyes and Rissa vanished from sight. He could feel himself moving away from the Stage 2 Tutorial into another, where Time was compressed even more than in his Tutorial.

It felt constraining, almost like he was moving through water instead of air.

Time stretched and rebounded and the world squished back into existence. Serenity was standing in the usual student arrival area, but there weren’t any students. Ekari was standing there, watching him. “Serenity? Is that - oh good, it is you.”

[Welcome to the Tutorial]

[Time Remaining in Stage One: 31:08.22]

“What - that can’t be right.” Serenity’s eye was caught by the Tutorial display. It showed him to be more than a day late joining the Tutorial.

“If you mean that you’ve been standing there as a glowing statue for more than a day, it’s correct. Oddly enough, it was actually helpful in getting people to believe us. The handful that tried to attack you bounced when they hit you. It was strange, almost like what they did undid itself. Any idea what happened?”

“Time - time and space. They moved strangely. But mostly Time.” Time still seemed to be stuttering a little. It didn’t seem to affect his movement, but for a moment Ekari would be speaking quickly and then she’d be very slow.

Serenity felt an ache, like he’d overused a muscle. It wasn’t a muscle, exactly. It wasn’t physical. It was magical. He felt inside his magic to see what he’d strained.

It was obvious once he found it. His Time Aspect was vibrating, almost ringing with the strain. He clearly wasn’t up to moving from one Tutorial to another. Maybe he’d be able to again, once he improved his Time Aspect.

It had been very good for his Time and Space Affinities. Maybe he’d try again once the strain faded. That much Affinity improvement was worth some pain, especially in Affinities that were notoriously hard to improve.

With that, the Tutorial was off to a normal (if occasionally bumpy) start. It went well, but Serenity never did quite get comfortable with the speed of Time in the Tutorial.

At the end, his transition out was just as smeared and messy as his transition in was. This time, he paid even more attention to what was happening. It made sense in a way that it hadn’t before.

When he finally phased in to the Stage 2 Tutorial, it had clearly taken a long time. His friends were all watching.

Serenity felt dizzy. The world was randomly speeding up and slowing down and moving strangely on him. It reminded him of the worst experience he’d ever had with drinking, when it had passed from being numbing and kind of fun into simply awful.

If anything, it was worse. He wasn’t sick to his stomach, even though he felt like he should be, and he couldn’t throw up to make himself feel better.

He tried to calm his Time Aspect, but it resonated with each beat of his heart.

Unlike everything else, his Status seemed to move at the right speed. “Strained” was not something he’d ever seen next to an Aspect before. He never wanted to see it again.

Rissa came up to him and tried to talk to him, but her words were inaudible, either stretched out too far or sped up until they sounded like squeaking. “I need to rest”. He wasn’t sure that had come out clearly either, but when he pulled out his bedroll and climbed into it, he was sure they got the message.

He wasn’t sure he’d sleep, but closing his eyes and not looking at anything might help him feel better.

Serenity opened his eyes to his bedroom. It was the bedroom in his apartment. For a moment, he wasn’t sure why this was surprising, then everything flooded back in. It was Thomas’s bedroom, first of all, and there was no sign of Rissa.

Instead, sitting in the chair at his computer desk, was a man that it took Serenity a moment to recognize. He hadn’t really spent much time looking at himself in the mirror, and this was definitely Serenity, not Thomas.

Serenity was shocked at just how big the difference was.

This Serenity didn’t quite look like Serenity, either. It was his eyes. Instead of green eyes with a normal pupil or the eyes covered in pale blue fire that Serenity sometimes saw in the mirrors of the Tutorial, both the iris and pupil of this Serenity’s eyes were gray, almost silver - and they glowed faintly. “Ah, you’re here. Good.”

“What - Who -” Serenity wasn’t sure what was going on or what to ask.

“I’m you. Well, no. I’m who you could be. Who you’re the most likely to be in the future, if things go as they are right now. That’s why I could come here, when you’ve strained yourself.” The other Serenity smiled. “I fully expect that I won’t ever exist, and truthfully I hope that’s the case. We’ve done excellently at keeping them off balance, and I’m afraid it’s up to you to continue that.”

“What?” This didn’t make any sense.

“Right. You haven’t met them yet. Hopefully you never will. They can only interfere with certain paths.”

That didn’t help at all.

“Of course it didn’t, I can’t tell you about them yet. And you’ll probably never meet me again. All I can do is help ease your strain a bit.”

In the back of his head, Serenity heard his own voice. I didn’t have to wake you for that, but if I didn’t, how would I drop hints? Remember this if everything else fades: you choose your own future, it does not choose you. Don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise. That’s a terrible mistake. I should know.

Sleep well.

As he drifted back to sleep, Serenity had to admit that giving himself obscure hints and telling himself to trust his own judgement above others’ words did sound like something he’d do.

When he woke up, he was curled around Rissa. His bedroll was on the bottom, and hers was on top of the pair of them. It was the most comfortable he’d felt in a long time, other than the hard ground beneath him, so he lay there for a while before he did anything.

[Tutorials Completed as Instructor: 26/180]

[Time Remaining in Stage Two: 02:17.15]

[Time before next Beast spawn: 00:00.00]

[Time before next Beast attack: 00:02.15]

Beast Lords defeated: 14/15

Beast Lords spawned: 15/15

When he stirred, he found Nightwitch sitting in a chair he didn’t remember, watching him and Rissa. “Welcome back, sleeping beauty. How do you feel? You look better. No more odd skips and stutters.”

“I feel. I feel fine.” He did. It was like he’d slept a good night’s sleep when he’d needed it. “Was I really?”

Nightwitch grinned. “It was like a computer game with terrible latency and a weighed-down CPU. Oddest thing I’ve ever seen and I’d have to say this past month has made that pretty hard to reach.”

“How long did I sleep?” By the timer, he’d been in the tutorial or asleep for most of a day, but he wasn’t sure how long the transitions had taken.

“Eighteen hours, more or less. We’ve just been waiting for you to wake up. We’re going to take out the last group before the attack either way, but-” She shrugged. “It’s possible that will trigger a big attack or something. I know if I were designing it, I’d do a kaiju or something to end the Stage. A bonus level. So we figured we’d see if you woke up in time first. Are you ready?”

Serenity picked himself up and stretched. He felt ready. “Sure, let’s go. Hopefully there won’t be such a thing, but I’m as ready as I’m going to be.”

Nightwitch unfolded a piece of paper, tapped it, and said “Go for it, Doyle.”

The paper folded itself into a small origami bird and flew away from them.

“Messenger spell?” It was a unique one, and probably only suited for short distances and nice conditions. Still, it would be very useful under those conditions, especially if it could be used by someone other than the creator.

“Yeah. Jun-Li came up with it. She can make as many as she has mana for, but until they’re used or destroyed she can’t use the mana for anything else. It won’t refill.”

Very useful, but a significant drawback to go along with it.

“Oh, you’re up.” Serenity turned to see Rissa sitting up next to him. She leaned over and hugged him “I was worried.”

After a couple minutes, Nightwitch coughed. “It’s good to see the two of you are happy to see each other, but … how about we play some cards to pass the time, instead?”

Half an hour later, Nightwitch was winning (as usual). The only person who seemed to reliably give her competition was Doyle, and everyone had agreed that Doyle had to be cheating, even if no one had figured out how.

There was a loud roar from somewhere in the distance. The three of them dropped their cards and ran towards the noise. Once they exited the camp, they could see a large shape in the distance. As they grew closer, they could see a giant white bear that seemed to be made of snow and ice. It was probably forty feet tall, and the attacks from Doyle’s team seemed like pinpricks against its huge size.

It was so covered in arrows that its arms looked more like a porcupine than a bear.

Each swipe knocked over a tree, but its attacks didn’t seem to hit anything other than trees. It looked like the first attacks had been against its head, and it couldn’t see.

They were barely within shouting distance when the snow bear fell and collapsed into a more-or-less bear-shaped pile of snow, ice, and arrows. Three people climbed off the pile. It looked like they’d all been on the shoulders or head of the snow-bear.

Doyle stalked up to Nightwitch. “I blame you for this one! We hit the first one and suddenly they all ran together and melded into a single giant creature instead of a bunch of small ones! You and your kaiju!”

Nightwitch snorted then started laughing. “You just fought a giant snowbear and you’re mad at me? It’s a giant snowbear! That’s awesome!”

Doyle turned to the pile of quickly-melting snow and started laughing himself.

[Stage Two - Building Complete]

[Stage Two Results:]

[97% survival]

[Average Level: 51]

[Current Grade: Excellent]

[Reward for Stage Two Excellent Grade: Optional hidden bosses added to Stages 5 and 10 of the Great Tutorial Dungeon. Gear from chests will be customized to a participant where appropriate. All chest rewards will have at least one enchantment. Bags with storage enchantments added to guaranteed loot on appropriate levels.]