Serenity’s fears weren’t realized when he entered the Tutorial. It was another Child’s Tutorial. He wasn’t expected to specifically teach Death magic in a Child’s Tutorial; any kind of training would work, as long as it helped the children on their way to becoming adults and completing as much of the Human Path as they were expected to have at their age and maturity.

After they had all the children separated by age, maturity, and classes they wanted to take, Serenity asked Kerr if he’d been lucky to land in a Child’s Tutorial and she laughed at him. “This is only your second one out of - how many have you had?”

“This is my 43rd Tutorial,” Serenity admitted.

“Then you’ve been incredibly lucky - or maybe unlucky - so far. More than half of all Tutorials are Child’s Tutorials - well, that’s the usual rate for Humans. It does seem to be a bit lower than that here. Probably means more people are accepting the Tutorial. It’s not optional for children, but it is for adults, so-” Kerr shrugged. “The Voice sometimes even gives second chances to get in, but there are always a lot who turn it down.”

Serenity did end up teaching magic to the children, but he didn’t specifically teach Death magic; instead, he concentrated on a few basic spells - at least one per child for the children that were over ten - and trying to figure out how to make magical theory interesting.

After the third day, he started taking small groups of children out camping overnight. They’d try to figure out how to use magic to set up the best camp they could, then Serenity would tell a few stories while they ate the food he cooked while they were setting up camp, before the exhausted kids fell into their bedrolls and slept under the stars.

It was a lot of work, but Serenity had more fun than he’d expected. Some of the children really seemed to take to using magic to do everyday tasks, instead of solely using it for combat. It wasn’t always an easier method, but it was different and Serenity knew that was sometimes enough.

By the end of the first week, Serenity hadn’t made any progress on his Core, but he had found the Dungeon.

By the end of the second week, most of the children that were originally scared by his appearance were willing to accept him being around them, even if some still hadn’t completely warmed up to him.

He’d also managed to complete the first three levels of the Solo Dungeon, but they were already starting to get long for doing in two-to-four-hour chunks, which was all he could spare. He went ahead and ate the three level crystals from the Ancient Temple. They were worth more than he’d expected; they were worth far more than the level crystals from the Great Tutorial Dungeon, even in the solo levels.

During the third week, one of his students managed to turn a “luau cookout” into a series of exploding firepits. It was pure luck that Serenity was checking on the cookout when her spell went wrong, he was able to shelter her from most of the explosions, and no other children were injured.

He spent the rest of the week going over the spell with her, figuring out what went wrong and teaching her what she should have done to make the harmless sparkling lights she’d planned on - and how she could use the spell in combat to do far worse than what she’d done to him while preventing it from splashing onto her or anyone else she didn’t want it to hit.

He never told her that she would have done serious injury to him without his Heat resistance; he doubted most of the other teachers had any resistances over 100. Even with his as high as it was, he’d had some notable burns. They’d all healed before he got her to the healing building, of course.

The disaster meant he barely had time to enter the solo dungeon, and he didn’t finish the fourth level until midway through the last week. It was - barely - enough to finish off his Core, and Serenity was relieved. He wouldn’t have to do another Tutorial; he could Evolve and take care of the people who needed his help outside the Tutorial.

He waited until the afternoon of the last day of the Tutorial to Evolve. By now, everyone knew he liked to sleep early on the last day so that he didn’t have to spend as much “real time” sleeping, so he wouldn’t be disturbed.

[Path Chosen: The Way Out is Through]

[Conditional Reward requirements met. Additional Evolution options are available]

[Requirements met for Lich of the Blood, Deathless Lich, Fast Zombie, Strigoi Viu, Dhampir Noble, and True Dhampir]

[Core complete. Tier 2 achieved]

[Please choose your evolution]

[All of the available options are Death-related. Most would transform you into an undead. Do you wish to see those options?]

No

[There are not many remaining options]

[Suggested Evolution Categories]

Death Exemplar (Not recommended due to removal of all other Affinities)

Deathwitch (Not recommended due to Path conflict)

Despair (Not recommended due to Path conflict)

Dhampir (Recommended)

Strigoi Viu (Not Recommended due to potential Path conflict)

The list was far shorter than either of the ones he’d seen before.

That’s it?

[All of the other options are undead]

Serenity remembered the Exemplar and Despair options from his first Evolution. They hadn’t been acceptable then, and they wouldn’t have gotten better with time. Dhampir was the only one the Voice was recommending, but it sounded closer to “vampire” than Serenity liked. It might be acceptable since it was living and not undead, and the Voice’s recommendation meant he should look at it. Even so, he would check the others out first. Maybe he’d see something else good, even if the Voice wasn’t happy with the options.

Please show me Deathwitch and Strigoi Viu.

[Deathwitch]

Deathwitch is the literal English translation of the name of a type of spellcaster. In history, Deathwitches were much of the reason witchcraft was abhorred by many. Instead of the natural, lifegiving power that many witches seek, a Deathwitch draws his power from Death itself. Sacrifices are necessary to a Deathwitch, whether that is as little as destroying a plant, giving up a little blood, or killing a man to power the spell. The only way a Deathwitch can regain mana is by stealing the life-force of another being.

Deathwitch spells are particularly well known for creating blights and curses, but they can also be turned to “better” purposes, such as warding off the death of someone whose time has come.

Serenity would rather be undead.

In fact, he’d rather be a vampire. At least they didn’t have to kill their victims.

Well, most types of vampire didn’t.

[Strigoi Viu]

The Strigoi Viu or “living Vampire” is someone who has been infected with the power of vampirism without dying. As this is only possible with sorcery and the desire of the Strigoi Viu, all known Strigoi Viu are sorcerers.

A Strigoi Viu gains many of the powers of a Vampire - increased healing after drinking blood, limited shapeshifting, limited mental control of people who meet their eyes. They suffer lesser forms of the normal vampiric drawbacks, as they are able to cross running water with only minimal pain and sunlight diminishes their power and causes sunburn rather than harsher damage or destruction. They are still fully vulnerable to Divine powers wielded against the undead, as most Divine entities do not distinguish between them and other Vampires.

As they are still alive, they eat normally, but a limited amount of the blood of a sapient being is required or the Strigoi Viu will first be unable to use their vampiric abilities and then will begin to waste away. Madness has been observed in Strigoi Viu who are prevented from drinking sapient blood for long enough. Some have tried to subsist on the blood of animals, but it is sufficient only for short periods of time.

A Strigoi Viu does not age, but when a Strigoi Viu dies, he will rise as a vampire.

Speaking of vampires … this was better than Deathwitch, but not by much. Serenity thought he’d look at the undead variants before he considered this one. He knew how to reverse being undead, at least. Whether or not it would work on a monster or chimera he didn’t know, but he’d prefer that to this.

Fine. Show me Dhampir.

[Dhampir]

Although the origin of the name comes from a cross between a Human and a Vampire, Dhampir are actually the fusion of two opposing yet complementary types (usually Affinity-based); living and undead is the most common, but other pairings exist, such as ice/fire or light/shadow.

On some worlds, there is an elaborate hierarchy of the Dhampir, but on Earth (as in almost any place they are born without other Dhampir nearby), living/undead Dhampirs are seen in only one of two ways: as the outward expression of the sin of their undead parent or a savior that can use the undead’s power against them. Sometimes they are seen both ways at the same time.

Note: Only the living-oriented living/undead Evolution variants will be open to you based on your choices.

Serenity wished he weren’t locked out of the choices he’d had during his last evolution; they seemed much more interesting than these.

Still, Dhampir was surprisingly not bad. He could see why the Voice had recommended it. He’d prefer it to being undead, which made it better than any of his other options.

You did this deliberately, didn’t you? None of the other choices are even remotely acceptable.

Serenity wasn’t surprised when the Voice didn’t reply.

Dhampir it is.

[Your subchoices are:]

Common - Most Dhampir are formed by the fusion of a living species and an undead species. Choose which best describes you.

Hunter - Some Dhampir are held to higher standards. These Dhampir are usually raised by an embattled community, and rise to become the Hunters for their area. Commonly known as Hunter Dhampir or Dhampir Savior, combat is all they know - and all they expect.

Crossblooded - While many Dhampir do not marry or take their mates from outside the ranks of Dhampir, some choose each other. While the Nobles have bred themselves to be the pinnacle of a particular type of Dhampiric cross, the Crossblooded are those born with more than one lineage. Their choices are wider, but some have additional limitations as well. The Crossblooded are the most varied of the Dhampire types, and different bloodlines are treated very differently.

Noble - While other Dhampirs are raised by those they only partially resemble, the Dhampir Noble is born into a family of Dhampir. These Dhampir receive the best education and training their parents can manage, but often they are separated from the reality of the clash between their bloodlines. Increasingly, the Nobles breed for purity and power at the expense of understanding the conflict - for they believe that once they have reached the pinnacle, it will not be difficult to resolve whatever conflict remains. The Nobles found outside their hothouse often disagree with this concept, but do not have the power to change generations of assumptions.

True - The True Dhampir is often compared to the Dhampir Savior, but while they are willing to aid an embattled community, the True Dhampir knows that there is more to life than combat, and that there are two or more sides to any story. The few peacemakers that have been known among the Dhampir were all hailed as “true” by some and “traitors” by others. A True Dhampir must understand both sides of his heritage, understanding that Life and Death are part of the same cycle and both are necessary, without placing either in an inherently superior position. True Dhampir often find themselves in conflict with Dhampir Nobles because True Dhampir, even ones with a heritage that would normally include a hierarchy, do not innately submit simply because of a pure bloodline.

If he had to choose Dhampir - and it seemed that he did - the subchoice was simple.

Common could be ignored, he didn’t want to be continually in combat like a Hunter, and he was uninterested in the maneuvers of Nobles. Crossblooded and True were the only even vaguely interesting ones, and while he didn’t want to be only in combat, he knew he’d spend a lot of time fighting.

He also didn’t like the idea of submitting to anyone because their blood was somehow more “pure” than his. He didn’t think that would be a problem - it wasn’t a characteristic of liches after all - but he still didn’t like it.