The following day, the group traveled with Mr. Williams to Aviemore, Scotland, with several stops on the way to explore dungeons. Serenity found it invigorating, but he still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something he needed to do.

That evening, he ventured into the Tutorial. It’d been a few days since his last visit, and he was starting to feel like he was falling behind. He really needed to be doing several Tutorial visits a day. It would give him time to think and practice; he couldn’t really practice either his SpaceTime or Magitech Affinities, but he certainly could practice both Liminality and Nihility.

More importantly, he could work through his library of spells and see what he saw of their Essence forms.

On the way by, he should finish the solo dungeon and attend some classes; he specifically wanted to spend some time on the city management classes, now that he owned a city. He reminded himself that he still needed to check what else was offered; there were probably things taught in the Tutorial that he didn’t even know existed. They were probably obvious, simply things he’d never thought of, the same way he’d vaguely known that World Cores existed but never had anything to do with them.

Or the way he knew there was a water reservoir for New York City, there had to be, but he’d never really thought about where the water in his tap came from.

Naturally, Serenity started by heading into the solo dungeon as soon as he had enough time available. The classes weren’t going anywhere, and neither was his exploration of magic, but he was really curious about what the apparently useless magic rocks did. They couldn’t be useless; they were the only rewards he’d gotten from the dungeon. The Voice didn’t give useless rewards from the Tutorial. They might not stay useful for long, but they always had a use.

One Tutorial gave Serenity just barely enough time to finish the last two levels. They weren’t threatening at all; they had clearly been designed to stress a high Tier One individual operating using potions for healing. The only problem Serenity had was that he only had the time when he wasn’t teaching available, which meant that if he wanted a particularly long stretch, he had to give up his sleep.

Two days before the end of the Tutorial, Serenity finished the Solo Dungeon. He opened the chest expecting to find more Magic Rocks, but that wasn’t what he found. Instead, there were two things in the final chest.

Teleportation Beacon

This beacon may be attached to any Settlement or City Core. It will allow people with Attuned Keys to teleport to the Settlement or City Core Portal from any valid starting location even when the Portal is not otherwise available for use. No other qualification is required to use the Portal.

If the Portal is disabled by the City Owner or Manager, the Teleportation Beacon will also be disabled.

That was definitely useful. Serenity had two different places he wanted to put the beacon, even though he only had one beacon. Could Aki’s dungeon even handle a Teleportation Beacon? He knew Serenity Settlement should be able to; that was directly in the item’s description.

He’d probably establish it at Serenity Settlement.

Serenity also knew a number of people he wanted to give Attuned Keys to; the question was where he would get them. Hopefully the second item would tell him that.

It was a small book; more of a pamphlet, really.

Enchanting: Beacons

This text contains a limited overview of the general methods for creating an enchanted Beacon. Beacons are used for many purposes, and are usually constructed as part of a larger enchantment.

Specific instructions are included for the construction of an Authorized Teleportation Beacon, including the creation and Attunement of Attuned Keys.

Enchanting. Serenity stared at the booklet. The one thing he wasn’t was a crafter. Did the Voice think that was going to change?

Of everything that had changed, starting to build things wasn’t on his list. It simply didn’t call to him; Serenity wanted to work with and explore magic, not build things. Not even build things that used magic.

Serenity flipped the book open. Even if he wasn’t going to use it, he should at least look at it. Maybe there was something in it he could use; at the minimum, he needed to know what to gather for someone to make him some Attuned Keys.

Beacons … Types of Beacon … Basic Beacon Construction … Beacons (Teleportation) … ah, there. Keys. Serenity turned to the page it indicated and read through the top-level material. Apparently he needed to make something called a “Key Blank” then Attune it to the Beacon. Some Keys could be further attuned; one common attunement was to a particular person. Serenity knew when he saw the option that he’d definitely want it.

Serenity turned to the next page and started laughing in relief. It had a picture of a Key Blank, and it looked exactly like the Magic Rocks he’d been getting from the Solo Dungeon. No wonder he hadn’t been able to figure them out: he was missing the more important piece!

Serenity skipped the entire section on the creation of Key Blanks. He could come back to it in the future if he wanted to, but he’d probably just find someone who could enchant to make them. For now, all he needed to know was how to Attune them.

There were three methods listed. One used Mana, one used Essence, and one used both. The Mana-only one was a limited-time enchantment which might or might not leave a viable Key Blank when the enchantment eventually failed. The Essence version was permanent. The method that used both was listed as “permanent, multi-link possible”. Unfortunately, it didn’t specify what that meant. It sounded good, though, and it seemed likely that it was the best option.

Regardless of which method he used, Attuning a Key Blank to a Beacon was simple; attuning one to a person was much harder. Serenity didn’t take the time to read through the method; he wanted to get back to his room and get some sleep. There would be time in a future Tutorial to absorb what it meant and Attune some Keys.

Serenity left that Tutorial feeling accomplished; he’d finally completed one of the tasks he’d set himself to do in his extra Tutorials. It wasn’t by any means the most important task, but it was still done.

He was debating another Tutorial or simply heading to bed with Rissa when the Voice spoke.

[Something is wrong in the Tutorial]

Serenity froze. “Something” was very nonspecific and actually kind of terrifying.

What do you mean?

[When the first Phase of the Tutorial ended, you were not the only student to be sent somewhere other than the second Phase. All other students should have gone to the second Phase]

Serenity forced himself to relax. One person going missing was bad, but it wasn’t a tragedy; the Voice could probably find them and figure out what happened.

On the other hand, if it was just one person and minor, why was the Voice even mentioning it?

[Investigation results indicate that this is not an isolated incident. Approximately 0.00005% of the Tutorial Phase One survivors, 972 people so far, do not appear to have reached Phase Two]

[This rate is well within the error threshold for a Tutorial and would not have been noticed if an incorrect teleportation had not occurred at the same time as your controlled teleportation outside the Tutorial]

Almost a thousand people were missing. Well, potentially missing; chances were good that at least some of them were dead. They might not even have a Path; you weren’t required to choose one until the Tutorial ended. Did being teleported incorrectly count?

Did they even have a Path? Were they automatically Pathed when they left the Tutorial?

There was a pause; Serenity hoped it was the Voice looking at its information.

[876 of the 972 had already chosen a Path. The remaining 96 were automatically assigned the Human Path]

[793 of the 972 had either the Mage Path or one of the {Affinity} Mage Paths. This appears statistically significant]

I agree. Mage Paths are common, but they’re nowhere near that common. A lot of people choose either physical combat or a crafting class. I’m seeing a lot more social classes lately, too.

There was another longer pause, then the Voice spoke again.

[969 of the erroneous teleports appear to have been performed to the same planet, at approximately the same location. The remaining three returned the participants to their entry position]

[Three failures in over 1.9 billion phase transitions is well below the normal failure rate, while 972 was well within the expected range, above average but not unusually so. This may indicate a pervasive Tutorial issue rather than an issue with Earth’s Tutorial]

The vast majority of them went to the same planet. Are you going to ask me to investigate? I can’t do anything until the invasion portals are closed.

[You have access to the Tutorial without being a fixed Instructor. You are the only person who can investigate the Tutorial itself. Investigation may wait until the invasion portals are dealt with; future erroneous teleportations will be examined and, if possible, averted]

That was something. Serenity wasn’t certain how much, but it was something.

There was nothing he could do about it immediately, but it did make the decision for him on what he was doing next. He was going to bed, to cuddle with Rissa for a while. Perhaps he’d do another Tutorial in the morning.

Fire fell from the chilled sky onto a landscape of ice and snow as Helios closed his third portal. This portal was the easiest yet; there were no defenders, simply a portal sitting in the middle of nowhere on a frozen island. The hard part with this one was simply finding it.

Helios wondered if there were more like it. They’d likely be hard to find, since he couldn’t look for strange creatures, but if the portals were visible in the light of the Sun, Helios could find them. These abandoned portals were certainly the easiest to close, and Helios knew he’d started at a disadvantage.

Worse than that, portals Helios didn’t close were closing faster than the ones Helios was managing. That didn’t mean he was losing ground; he didn’t know that it was his opponent closing them. It might easily be other mortals. Someone had to have closed all the portals that were closed before Helios started, after all, and his opponent being the “leader” implied he wasn’t the only one.

It was too bad that closing undefended portals would deprive him of the pleasure of a fight, the joy of killing his enemies. That was nothing compared to the pure horror of losing. No matter what, Helios still needed to close more portals. Where else could he find an undefended portal?