Thomas pushes forward into the gun, deflecting the barrel and taking a bullet to the chest as he brings Macho down. The fight is brutal and immediate, ending with Machos skull deforming under Thomas backhand. Rissa calls an ambulance, and Thomas checks his injury to find it bleeding freely but not deep. At the hospital, the wound begins to heal visibly within hours, and the doctor gives him a clean bill of health despite expecting cracked ribs and broken bones. Lancaster, an honorable policeman, takes their statements and reveals that Machos name is actually what he went by. As they leave the hospital, the system prompt appears: Welcome to the Multiverse. Do you want to attend the Tutorial? Rissa is staring at the air in front of her, pale and worried, and Thomas touches her shoulder. Say yes, he tells her. We will be in the same Tutorial. She looks startled, then angry, then collapses in laughter. It takes her a couple of minutes to recover enough to agree.

Thomas chooses the name Serenity, a recognized title that carries over from his previous existence, and feels a ripple run through reality as he selects it. The tutorial guide explains the basics of paths and tiers, and Serenity realizes he has forgotten much of what he should know. He finds Lancaster at the trial area and convinces him to join their group, but when he loses control of his aura and projects his pain to everyone nearby, Lancaster demands to know what the hell he is. Serenity explains the dream, the future he remembers, and the fact that he managed to take out the guy that killed Lancaster in the previous timeline. Lancaster laughs and agrees to work together, though he remains suspicious. The first trial is a dungeon full of slimes, and Serenity leads the group through it efficiently, but when he dives into the boss slime to retrieve its core, the acid dissolves his eyes. He heals them back using his strange new abilities, and the group moves on to fight goblins, then skeletons, then dream blossoms that make him evolve the ability to send himself to sleep and wake at will.

An instructor named Entherys and a cleanser named Margrethe conspire to kill Serenity, believing him to be an abomination that will inevitably go insane and destroy everything he loves. Margrethe shoots him in the head with an arrow, and he survives only because his body develops runic shielding tattoos that activate when he is about to die. The attacks continue: Raymond throws a curse pillow that locks his leg, Macho and Entherys ambush him and Echo outside the camp, and Serenity kills Raymond and cripples Entherys before Doyle arrives to help. He interrogates Entherys by appealing to the Voice, and learns that Margrethe is the archer. When he confronts her, she explains her duty to kill abominations, but the Voice has protected him because he is a good-natured chimera with a high likelihood of encouraging local and extended success. Serenity reveals that he already has a Core, that it is Unique, and that sundering it would kill him. Margrethe agrees to stop trying to kill him without talking first, and Serenity gains a follower named Moira who swore fealty while corrupted by skeleton cores.

Serenity and his group enter the Great Tutorial Dungeon, fighting through levels of insects, undead, and shadow wolves. On the fifth level, a city overrun with vampires, Serenity is forced to unleash his damaged Death Aspect to save Rissa from a pair of intelligent vampires. The Aspect consumes all undead on the level, but leaves Serenity in a coma, his body transforming into an egg. He awakens in a vision of the Dragon Conclave, where the Eldest dragon Althyr offers to become his mentor and grants protection from other dragons. Serenity accepts, becoming an Essence Dragon Chimera with a new Path called Death-Eater. He hatches from the egg as a small dragon, then uses his Basic Draconic Shapeshift to return to a humanoid form with scales, wings, and claws. The group completes the level, gaining enchanted armor and a cloak of disguise, and Serenity discovers he can no longer eat normal food, only Death-attuned essence. He must survive until the end of the Tutorial or find another solution to his hunger.