Chloe wasn't too mad about Culinarian from the Gacha. Honestly, if the four of them were going to be tuck in the Tutorial for a while, having a dedicated cook wasn't going to be the worst thing. Ashley and Lily had still chewed her out a bit, but they'd come around after a few good meals. here's hoping the 'Innate Intuition' thing was able to do some heavy lifting. The Cook hopeful turned to examine the beast she would be serving up. The bear was large, definitely more than the group could eat in a single go, so she'd have to portion it out a bit. A dull ache throbbed in her breast as she eyes the clawed paw that had ripped through her gambeson and skin alike; a reminder of how close everything had been to ending. Of how useless she'd been as a frontline. Chloe decided what to cook first and methodically got to work.

  It turned out that while [Culinarian] was an amazing skill and did a lot of heavy lifting, it wasn't going to help Chloe become a world famous chef overnight. Well, it might if she dedicated an inordinate amount of time to studying cooking when she got back, she probably wasn't going to keep the Skill equipped forever though, so that wasn't super likely. Chloe had grabbed some basic spices from the System store when she'd gotten some cooking tools and she'd tried her best to use them to improve the Cinder-Like taste of the meat, but it was a loosing battle. She hadn't burnt it. With [Culinarian] that was basically impossible unless it was intentional or she somehow physically couldn't get to the cooking food for whatever reason. No, the spicy-char flavour came from the elemental affinity of the meat. The creature wasn't called an Inferno Bear for nothing after all. All things being equal, Chloe felt like she'd done a good job; a passable first attempt. She had some ideas and thoughts to try out next time though, and a part of her was excited about it. Honestly, she'd never realised cooking could be so fun.

  The other three girls ate the meal without complaint, though she supposed it wouldn't be all that proper to complain given the situation. Lily did give some Milk to the rest of the group to help with the spiciness, and it was surprisingly effective. Strangely enough, Lilac didn't seem to want the milk at all. Chloe couldn't tell if she liked the spicy heat or just couldn't feel it.

  Lily sat with her back against the wall and washed down the last of the bear meat with the last of her milk. 5 Tokens for 2 litres wasn't the worst deal, all things considered. And it certainly helped. She did give out the milk equally, diving it up among the group. Lilac had refused it though, which was odd as she wasn't usually all that fond of spice. Lily had just decided to keep that last quarter for herself. Ultimately, she knew she couldn't rely on the System Store for everything; using up all her tokens now would likely make her a lot weaker in the future. For now though, it was fine. She was still only level 1; she'd get plenty more tokens in the future, even if she was one of those people that maxxed out at level 10.

  Lily got herself more comfortable before deciding to pick her level up skill. She brought up her system and allowed various screens, each containing a skill description to float past her. no-one had really codified a full list of skills the system could grant. Mostly a few generic ones, some examples of specific tags or builds and some that strange or abnormal in some way that made people want to show them off. Lily now understood why. The fact that you only received a choice of three skills at the start lured her into a strange false sense of confidence that she'd be able to truly understand what was on offer. She lazily glanced at a few of the skills passing by; [Lightness of Action], [Conceal Presence], [Mana Spring], [Enchanted Arrow], [Statistician], [Telepathy]... There was so many. What's more, she also knew there was skills that simply weren't there. Skills from other classes, Higher Stage skills. Chloe's [Culinarian] wasn't here, so she must have only been able to get it because of the Gacha. [Telepathy] mentioned 'Skills with the (Psionic) Tag', which she couldn't see within the mass of skills before her. She decided not to think about it for now. That was the best option, after all. Yes. It made her head hurt less. So she reached out to take [Conceal Presence]... but was stopped. some kind of nudging in her head pulled her towards a different skill; [Spatial Hop]

  Lily wasn't one to make choices on a whim. Moreover, she wasn't one to get such strong impulses. It was strange; as if the though wasn't entirely her own. It was persistent and insistent. And it felt strangely important in a way she just couldn't quite describe. The young woman closed her eyes and focused on that feeling, interrogating it with her minds eye. She saw suddenly a Fox's ear, twitching atop a head of long, silky silver hair. A warmth hugged her from the ether, making Lily feel comfortable beyond all reason. She felt blissful as a phantom silver fox tail wrapped gently around her waist. A gentle voice echoed softly into her mind; "We ask kindly that thee trust us and do as we ask. Dear Lily, please know that we are sorry for what is to come." A moment later, the vision was gone, though the warmth lingered vaguely in Lily's chest. She replayed the voice in her head. It's warmth and love. It's Sadness and Regret. Lily wiped the tear from her cheek and calmed her beating heart. She would trust this lady. Without a second more of hesitation, she selected [Spatial Hop]

  Ashley finished off the last of her food and sighed. Honestly, she didn't like spicy food all that much, but considering it had been made fresh in front of her, by Chloe of all people. Well, she could hardly complain, especially given the circumstances.

  It was honestly a bit of a shock; Ashley would have assumed the attraction to have faded due to time. Had you asked her just a few days ago if she still had feelings for the cute Tomboy from School, she probably would have laughed and said no. After all, how can such a thing be maintained after years of loosing contact? And yet, seeing her in person again after all this time had brought those feelings back stronger than ever. The fact that she had thrown herself in front of the bear practically on an instinctual impulse proved to her how deep her feelings went. Ashley pulled her legs close as she thought back to that fight. She had almost died again. These dungeons had taken her family farm from her, had hospitalised half of her family and now? It almost taken her life and the life of the girl she wanted. She needed to get stronger; much stronger. And she also wanted to make sure she had no regrets. She regretted not becoming a Systemer earlier. She Regretted keeping her feelings to herself way back when. No more regrets. If she died tomorrow, she'd make sure she had nothing she wished she'd have done sooner.

  The healer took a deep breath, stood, and walked over to the Martialist.

  "Eh... Yeah?" Chloe was flustered. She was cute when she was flustered.

  "I want to... talk" Ashley's heart wouldn't stop beating faster and faster.

  "Ah, me too actually," Chloe grinned. God, she was cute when she grinned. "What skill did you get for your level up? I picked [Skinshield]"

  "I picked up [Mana Spring]; extra MP is extra heals after all"

  Chloe giggled. She was cute when... well, Ashley supposed Chloe was just always cute... God, Ashley was a bit of a disaster, wasn't she? "Nice." Chloe's words jumped Ashley out of her attempt at introspection "So, what did you want to talk about?"

  Ashley sat down next to Chloe and prepared to put her plan into action. She rested her head gently on Chloe's shoulders, looked directly into her eyes as she fluttered her eyelashes and asked the first question. "Do you think I'm cute?"

  A shiver had shot up Chloe's spine when Ashley gently rested her head upon her. When she stared into those lovely eyes, she felt her heart starting to beat faster. And then the question came, and Chloes poor, overloaded brain shut down. Chloe's mouth moved more rapidly than it had ever done before. Despite thins, no intelligible sound actually made it's way past her lips for over 30 seconds. At which point, Chloe gave up on trying to actually speak and just nodded her head. Ashley giggled, a lovely sound that quickly had Chloe smiling dumbly. "look, this isn't easy to say" Ashley's words were calm, her tone steady and level. But Chloe could feel the slight shake in her frame through their point of contact "It's not easy, but I'm not going to risk never actually saying this." Chloe swallowed nervously and continued to stare into Ashley's eyes. Ashley took a deep breath before continuing.

  "Chloe; I think... no, I know I'm in love with you. Please, be my Girlfriend"

  Chloe giggled as her smile grew wide and she pulled Ashley into a big hug. "I love you too! Yes, of course I'll be your Girl!" Chloe looked around the cave "You might need wait for us to get out of here before I can take you on a proper date though. For now though..." Chloe hugged her new girlfriend even tighter.

  Ashley smiled as she returned the hug "You silly... of course. I'll hold you to that though, girlfriend" Chloe's heart fluttered as the two moved apart slightly, just enough to allow them to look into eachothers eyes once more. The gaze did not last long, however, and soon, the two shared a loving kiss as they fell asleep in each others embrace.

  Lily was awoken by Chloe late into the night. The Martialist had just finished her watch, and it was time for Lily to take hers, the final one of the night. Chloe, after waking Lily up, went back to where Ashley was and curled back up with her new girlfriend. Lily couldn't help but smile. They were so cute together. Lily had been rooting for them since the Tutorial Started. She briefly wondered if she'd ever get a girlfriend herself, but quickly shook those thoughts aside as she made her way to the cave entrance; It wouldn't be right to get jealous of them after she had just this morning been cheering them on.

  The first thing Lily noticed as she moved towards the front of the cave where where she would be taking her watch was Lilac, who was sitting off to the side so as not to disturb anyone. Lily decided to have a little bit of fun at her sister's expense. She stealthy approached Lilac, who was clearly engrossed in something related to her System. lily slapped Lilac gently on the back. The mage let out a yelp, jumped up and stumbled forward; turning around and preparing to cast a spell. The moment Lilac's eyes met Lily's though, she stopped whatever magic she was performing and gave her sister a pout instead. Lily failed to supress her laughter, which only served to maker Lilac pout more

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Once her laughter had died down a bit, Lily stood and took a deep breath. "So then, pulled an all-nighter did you?"

  Lilac sighed as she rubbed the back of her head and nodded "Yeah; Spent some more time messing with the System. Got something to show off to everyone once we're all up and stuff" Oh? What sounded fun.

  "No sneak peak for your lovely Sister?"

  "... the lovely Sister that just stuck up behind me in the middle of the night when she should be keeping watch?"

  "Spoilsport. Fine, I'll wait." Lily gave Lilac a pat on the head, earning herself another pout "Well, I should go actually keep watch, eh? Good luck with the Experimenting"

  Lily moved slowly up to the mouth of the cave and leaned herself against the wall before looking out into the burning forest. The intensity of the flames didn't seem to have changed, having the same head and thickness as yesterday. There was evidence of rainfall overnight, with a small amount of moisture still in the soil. Most of that, though, had turned into a thick mist that clung low to the ground, likely a little trapped under the smoke and heat of the flames. It was not at all pleasant. She wasn't fond of the idea that she might have to spend multiple days here. Thankfully for her, nothing actually made it's way towards the cave. That made some level of sense, as if this was known to be the territory of that bear they killed, she can't imagine there was many that would want to challenge it. The watch was boring, but that was still better than the alternative. After an hour or two, Lily caught the scent of something cooking inside the cave, and so she made her way back towards their makeshift camp.

  Lilac had gotten a whiff of the roasting meat and decided to hasten her final experiment to a close. Unfortunately, she was unable to brute force anything else out of the System for now. It wouldn't even give her any information about this 'Bloodline' Stat thing she'd found like it would for her other staus menu things. Oh well, she could try again another time.

  The meal was arguably nicer this morning, better cooked and better spiced. What's more, the elemental kick had been reduced quite a bit. Though, honestly, she kind of liked that Spiciness the meat had before for some reason. She never before been fond of spicy food, so she was herself shocked to have enjoyed it and even more shocked now to be missing it. That Spicy-Charred flavour had been related to the meats' elemental affinity; Fire. She herself had decided to dedicate herself to fire. Perhaps that decision had somehow aligned her to Fire on some slight level? It wasn't impossible. After all, she had a Fire-Aspected Item, decided to take a Fire-Aspected skill then ate Fire-Aspected Meat all while calling herself a 'Budding Pyromancer'. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine a fire burning within her. She decided that she would ask Chloe to make her some Spicy-Fire Jerky... though she'd probably forget to do so. Once everyone had finished eating, she gathered them all together.

  "So," Lily began, "This is about that thing you mentioned to be before my watch last night?"

  Lilac nodded and showed the group her current Stat Screen.

  Chloe nodded "Oh, you customized it a fair bit, nice... wait..."

  Lilac giggled "I was messing about with the System haphazardly yesterday and at some point, as I was building my personalized status, I caused the System to glitch and display a hidden stat. Overnight, I kept pushing and poking and managed to make it stable enough to actually add to my Status Screen. I don't think the System likes me having it there though; it won't actually tell me what a 'Bloodline' is or anything like that"

  Lily and Ashley couldn't help but stare, intrigued. "It's telling you nothing?" Lily tilted her head in confusion "That's odd. though I suppose you did just mention you only got it to appear by causing the System to glitch"

  Chloe cleared her throat "I have some ideas..." Everyone turned to her and she visibly blushed. Lilac though she kinda looked like a puppy. A vague memory flashed through her head of her Sister looking up something called 'Puppy girls.' She wondered what that was. She should ask Lily later. Oh, everyone was staring at her

  "... yes?"

  "Did you space out again?" Lily giggled "What were you thinking about this time?"

  "... Chloe reminded me of a Puppy, which reminded me of that Puppy Girl stuff you were talking about to your friend before. What-" Lilac stopped her questioning. Lily was already on the floor laughing. Ashley was looking at Chloe with a grin who was herself blushing hard... Okay clearly there was something here she didn't understand. It was just Puppies, right? puppies were cute and innocent... normal people were weird. Wait, was that an oxymoron? Didn't matter. She should bring the conversation back on track "So... did you ask me something"

  Chloe seemed to jump at the chance to go back to the bloodline thing. Okay, so she was no longer going to ask her sister about this later. She was going to interrogate her about it. "Ah, yes. Have you figured out anything about the '%CI#2% thing?"

  "not much," Lilac was happy the conversation was about important things. Not to say that puppies weren't important. Actually no, they probably weren't all that important right now at all. "I know that it's another hidden stat and that it's somehow similar and/or related to 'Bloodline'"

  "Try 'Physique'"

  Ashley giggled "How can those two possibly be related?"

  Lilac was willing to try it. "Ah!" Everyone turned to her. "... it worked..." Before she could say anything more, she suddenly lost control of her body and felt limply out of her sitting position.

  New System Skills mentioned in this Chapter:

  And seeing as [Telepathy] here mentions them, here's [Telekinesis] and [Telepresence]:

  And finally, the thing they combine into: