Walking out of the grocery store, TJ fought to keep his eyes from watering in the bright light of late morning. There was movement all around the town, though it was localized to the area immediately surrounding the firehouse and the grocery store. More than a hundred yards or so from there, nobody could be seen to go anywhere, except for one group of five or so, who stepped purposefully with their eyes peeled in every conceivable direction. His breath clouded in front of his face and TJ idly rubbed his hands together in a habitual reaction to the cold, though his fingers were hardly chilled.

“You’re ok in this weather?” Zig asked. “You don’t have gloves or real shoes, so aren’t you miserable?”

“Not really.” TJ shrugged. “Here.” He proffered a hand and Zig seemed to think about taking a glove off to test him, but instead decided to lean her face against the extended fingers. TJ almost recoiled but decided against it. Zig’s cheeks were flushed from the cold, and TJ realized it was probably 50 degrees in the store and closer to freezing outside. His fingers were warm against the chilled cheeks, and again, he shrugged.

“Probably because of my Vitality. I noticed even when I’d just barely gotten my Divine Transformation that I wasn’t that affected by the weather. Now that I’ve gotten some levels, I’m really doing ok. If I was outside overnight without anything, I’d probably get a little sick, but I’m not. It’s a cold day, but I’ll be fine, especially as I keep moving.”

“Huh. I guess Charlie’s never really complained about the cold, but he’s not much of a complainer anyways so I never thought about it. I guess we’ll have to ask him later. This’ll be your stop, Stanton.” Zig gestured to a house on the corner where there was some movement inside. Under the shadow of a massive tree, the home seemed gloomy and unwelcoming, but Stanton merely nodded and walked forward.

“Hey, Nat!” Zig shouted, “got an old guy coming in, the one from last night! Name’s Stanton, and he’ll be with you for the water run and all the other crap you get up to today!”

A wordless shout of acknowledgement echoed out of the building, and TJ watched Stanton settle his Stetson more securely over his head.

“Keep an eye on your six, kid.” Stanton called back. “Not everyone’s as good a shot as me.”

Zig muttered darkly to herself about old men and sexism and TJ cocked his head at the younger woman.

“--always saying some shit about how a woman can’t shoot–”

“It’s nothing like that.” TJ interrupted. “He doesn’t trust easily, and we’ve both saved each others’ lives. He’s just worried.”

“Sure about that? You’ve known each other for two days.”

“We’ve saved each others’ lives.” TJ replied simply. Zig seemed initially resistant to the statement, but didn’t take long to make her decision.

“Makes sense. I trust my team as much as anyone from my old life. Sorry.”

TJ shrugged, following her as she walked back up the highway towards the hunting lodge and where he and Stanton had stayed the night. It wasn’t long before Zig broke the silence, and TJ briefly saw Stanton’s own frustration with TJ’s constant interruptions of their quiet traveling.

“I’ll give you a quick rundown on what we’re looking to do today. Laura talked about it, but more specifically, we’re gonna go up the hill a little to where that turn is, by the church. There, we’ll hit as many of the rich cabins we can safely get to today and return with whatever we get. Capische?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. So, you said you have a kid? How old is he? What happened?”

TJ tamped down any outward signs of his frustration with a force of will. “I’m sure there’ll be plenty of questions for me before long. How about I answer them all when everybody’s together? I don’t want to answer the same questions over and over.”

“K.” For a blessed minute, they walked in silence. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be. As soon as they were easily seen from the hunters’ lodge, a voice called out to Zig.

“We ready to blow this popsicle stand?”

“Hells yes!” She shouted back, and nearly immediately, a dozen people swarmed out of the lodge. Each one wore a mostly empty backpack, just a water bottle or two poking out of the side pockets. TJ quickly Appraised them, seeing one Disciple, level 3, and one Neophyte, Charlie, who was still level 3 as well. All the rest were Zealots and Acolytes, somewhere from levels 1-3. Zig was the only level 4, and TJ felt his confidence slip a notch or three.

The kids, for that was all TJ could think of them as, looked anywhere from a pimply-faced 17 to a deliberately severe-looking 23 or so.

“You’re the snake guy!” one boy shouted, pointing at TJ’s face.

“Snake guy!” A couple others took up the call.

“Just call me TJ.” He replied.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Listen up!” Zig cut in, her voice surprisingly authoritative. TJ’s estimation of her climbed as she continued to speak. “We’re moving together today. TJ here ran into a huge group of the pukwudgies yesterday, and he said some of them were riding coyotes.”

Quiet mutters of “Cavalry” and “I want a mount” briefly burst into being, but Charlie reached out and flicked two ears and the peanut gallery quickly went silent.

“They’re an unknown, and we don’t know if they’ll be waiting for us. They were in this direction, but much further up the highway than we’re planning to go today, so we should be fine. Key word is should. I say it every day, but this isn’t a fucking game. I don’t want to hurt anybody, but remember that Hannah died yesterday, and there wasn’t anything we could do about it.”

The man Farid had introduced as Seth turned away at Zig’s words, though the rest also looked deeply uncomfortable with the reminder of their mortality.

“So, we’re all together, minus Nat with the water team. Keeping an eye out and making sure everyone stays ok. We won’t cross as much ground like this, but once we get closer to the cabins we haven’t visited yet, we might spread out a little.”

“It’s a good plan, guys.” Charlie jumped in. “We need to be as safe as possible as we go through this. Angelo, you’re our number one priority so stay in the middle of the group the entire time. If you’re safe, we have a much better chance to be sure we all make it home alive.”

The sole Disciple nodded his head in acknowledgement. He was a shorter man, about the same height as TJ, with long straight black hair in a french braid down his back.

“Good.” Zig jumped back in. “We’re moving in two minutes, so if you have any questions for TJ, get them out now. After, we’ll be trying to be as quiet as possible, since our main goal is going to be staying out of sight and mind of the goblin bastards out there.”

Before any of the rest of the hunters could jump in on the sudden opportunity, Zig herself asked the question she apparently still had for him, “You said you have a son. How old is he?”

“Almost three, just a month away.” TJ answered, keeping from clenching his jaw. Where was he? Was Junior really ok? The anxiety spiked, and TJ felt his stomach twist and turn and complain as the thoughts of his child came back. His fear struck him so suddenly that he didn’t hear the next question. Charlie’s hand and voice pulled him from continuing to spiral into deeper and deeper paranoia.

“Look, we know that nobody under 15 came to the Tutorial. Now, we know his kid isn’t in a different one. Leave it alone. You don’t want to worry about your siblings, family, and so on, so don’t make him do it. Got it?”

Mumbled apologies echoed out, and Zig specifically spoke louder than the rest as she too asked for forgiveness.

“What was your old job?” Charlie prompted.

“Administrative manager in a real estate firm. Basically herding a bunch of contractors to work better together and stop poaching clients from each other.”

The curious sounds of teenagers and early twenty-somethings died off in a disinterested grumble. Before long, they turned to a much more interesting topic.

“So how do you transform into a snake? Can you show us?”

Without another word, TJ activated Divine Transformation and let them ooh and ahh. One enterprising and annoyingly bold young lady reached out and grabbed one of the large feathers that stuck out of the base of his skull and tried to pull it out. He hissed his displeasure and stopped using his Skill. The girl had a fistful of his hair, twisting his head to the side.

“Why would you do that?”

The girl stammered wordlessly as she released his head and TJ stood tall.

“I think that’s enough. Zig, Charlie, can we go?”

Then, without waiting for their response, TJ led the way up the hill towards the church on the corner. A couple whispered conversations began as he continued walking, his unnatural pride demanding some sort of recompense.

“That’s impressive.” Charlie said as he jogged to walk alongside TJ. “My own Skill is way worse.”

“You said we could talk about it yesterday. Show me.”

Charlie sighed and shrugged his jacket off. Then, his Skill activated, and his arms and legs bulged to twice their original size while the rest of his body remained the same. TJ stepped back, unsure of how to react.

“Yeah, that’s about what I thought when I did it the first time.” Charlie laughed ruefully. “But the 50% bonus to every attribute is really nice, so I don’t mind the way the Skill makes me look.”

TJ nodded in agreement at first, but then turned with a confused look. “What do you mean 50% each attribute?”

“Is… that not what your Skill gives you?”

“No, it doubles my Strength, Endurance, Vitality and Toughness and gives a 50% to Agility and Perception. Nothing else.”

They both looked at the other, surprised to see the blatant difference between their supposedly identical Skill. TJ was the first to break the silence as he asked the System, “Why do our Skills give different bonuses?”

Due to the variability offered by any Participant’s Divine Bloodline, the Divine Transformation Skill they acquire will vary from one Neophyte to the next, as well as from a Neophyte’s Skill compared to that an Acolyte, Disciple, or Zealot may acquire. At the Copper (I) tier, the Divine Transformation Skill offers a total of a 500% increase to attributes. The Divine Bloodline of each individual will determine what the additional attribute bonuses provided will be.

TJ nodded slowly as he tried to understand what he’d just been told. The voice of the System slowly faded from his mind as he considered what this would mean longer term for him and other Neophytes. Then, he thrust it from his mind–it didn’t matter how other people’s Skills benefitted them. Just how it helped him, and while his Divine Transformation didn’t mesh as well with his Wind Manipulation as Charlie’s would have, he didn’t regret it. There was nothing he could do.

“Ok. Well, interesting.” TJ said.

“Your Skill is way better!” Charlie responded, his face obviously envious. “I don’t use like any of these attributes, and yours are the best.”

“I disagree.” TJ scoffed. “I need better Intelligence and Fixation than Vitality. My level 5 Skill is great, so much better than the mere attributes Divine Transformation gives.”

“Well, I’ll worry about that when I get there, I guess.” Charlie sighed. “Might be another couple of days. We’re trying not to fight anything right now.”

“Wait… not just on this trip? You’re trying not to kill anything?”

“Yeah?”

The ignorance of his statement immediately set TJ’s blood to boiling and he fought to hold it down. Unfortunately, the only thing he could bring himself to say was, “Are you all stupid?”