The woman’s face, though somewhat pretty, framed by her dark hair and strikingly light eyes, was pinched in frustration. Seeing TJ’s face, she took a deep breath and settled a more understanding look on her own while steepling her fingers.
“Hello TJ. How was the hunt? Do you have something specific to report?”
“I… do you want the bad news or good first?”
“Bad.”
“Mary died while being attacked by a giant herd of javelinas. It was ugly, and at least one of the hunters holds me responsible.”
“Why would they think it’s your fault?” Laura’s face remained impassive and professional, though TJ noted a shaking in her hands.
“Sheridan said that I should have been able to do something more because I was the strongest person there. She… I mean, she’s wrong, but I feel like I might have been able to do something else? I don’t know. It was bad.”
“Ahh, yes. She’s young and emotional and her friend died. I’ll ensure she receives whatever support we can offer.”
Though he spoke as dispassionately as he could manage, TJ clenched his jaw as he remembered Mary’s face, the skull crushed, her body torn… It was replaced with Mari’s bloody body in the hospital room. The smell of antiseptic. Junior’s confusion and tears and screams. The sound of her heart monitor flatlining. The emptiness. His gorge again fought to rise, to spill the meal he’d just consumed. His throat swelled and threatened to shut entirely. With a force of will, TJ breathed deeply through his nose and shook his head forcibly.
“Yeah. She’ll need that.” TJ swiped at his eyes and changed the subject. “Um. Yeah. Just a couple of things. One, I brought javelina bodies back, so where do you want me to leave the prepared meat? My Occupation will progress by preparing the materials, so I’d like to process the meat.”
“I’ll decide what we want to do about those by the time you’re finished.”
“Fine. And then there’s the big point. I don’t know if you can, but you need to force everyone to level up as fast as possible.”
Laura cocked her head, her eyebrows raising in curiosity. “Why do you say that?”
“You’re an intelligent woman. The creatures out there are just getting more and more dangerous. If the herd of javelinas was just one level higher, I don’t know if any of the hunters would have survived, myself included.”
“And there will just be more enemies every day. That compounded with their strength growing continuously doesn’t bode well. In fact, I’d say our days are numbered if we think we can just sit comfortably here in town.” The politician bowed her head and held it in both hands as she rubbed her forehead. “You’re right. So much of what we’ve been doing in town has focused on the idea of merely holding steady for now.”
“Great. I’m going to go take care of the bodies before taking a rest to recover my Skill and my HP, so let me know if you have any questions before I’m elbow deep in a corpse.”
Laura’s face blanched at TJ’s words, but she shook her head. TJ didn’t say anything else to her, instead giving a two finger salute as he turned and walked out of the firehouse. The stressed but generally calm conversations that filled the communal space would soon be replaced by frustration, disbelief, or even rage, but TJ couldn’t bring himself to care. Almost every one of these people in here were surviving off the goodwill and patience of the dozen people risking their lives outside.
If he was honest with himself, TJ recognized that if he’d been teleported here instead of in the middle of nowhere and forced to fight to survive from the same moment the Divine System manifested itself, then he’d want to do the same. Why not trust other people to keep you safe, wasn’t that what police, firefighters, and soldiers were for?
This world wouldn’t allow that complacency, TJ realized. It seemed like the Divine System would create more and more trials for the Participants until it found whoever it deemed to be the best pick for the next occupant of the Divine Throne. Though he only considered even attempting to get there to restore his family, he recognized he didn’t want to be a god. The world and the System didn’t care about what he wanted. This Tutorial would push him to keep fighting and striving to get stronger, and if he wanted to see his son, he would claw his fingers down to the bone to destroy whatever stood in his way.
He internally decided that if Laura hadn’t broken the news to the rest of the town by tomorrow, then he’d start telling everyone to get working. Whether or not that would be at all effective or possible, TJ couldn’t say. He pushed that possibility to the back of his mind and returned to what he next planned to do. Feeling at his pocket, he could tell he still had one of the sharp stones in there, and though he wished for something more like a real knife, that wasn’t to be.
Jeff’s replacement guard didn’t seem too worried when TJ approached with the intent to enter the store.
“What’re you up to?” He asked as he leaned on his large shield for support.
“Cleaning the javelinas and getting them ready to eat.”
“Have fun, then.”
TJ nodded and made his way into the store. As before, it was dark, restrictive, and uncomfortable inside. Uncomfortable? As soon as he thought it, TJ wondered why he’d think it was restrictive, much less uncomfortable. Sure, he didn’t love being in a place he couldn’t see well, but he’d never thought of that as uncomfortable before. Though he continued to think about it and try to find out why he subconsciously hated to be in the store, he couldn’t place it.
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The mystery remained as he pushed into the back area, where, after following a faint scent of iron, TJ found something he was relieved to see. A fully stocked butcher’s kitchen with meat hooks, a drain for blood, and everything else he could imagine as well as various things he had no idea what function they would serve awaited him. TJ set his rock aside on the counter and gathered in the six corpses. Then, looking at what was waiting for him, TJ looked down at himself, sighed, and stripped out of his shirt before putting on a heavy apron that was hung in the corner of the room. Finally, with his sharp rock in hand, TJ set to work.
—---
Initially, he’d tried to keep the blood off of himself. After all, it was sticky and generally distasteful. Then, as the third body hung, dripping blood to the ground, TJ couldn’t bring himself to care any more. The damn sticky crimson stuck, seemingly, to every bit of his body, and more than once, he couldn’t figure out how, he’d gotten the blood into his mouth.
With a grunt and a grumbled curse, TJ hung the sixth corpse to drip. He felt a welcome surge of energy, and quickly realized what it was.
Occupation: Savage has advanced to level 6.
Attribute points allocated: Strength +1, Agility +1, Endurance +2, Vitality +1, Toughness +2, Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Perception +2, Willpower +2, Fixation +1, Free Points +1. Additional Free Point available.
Without a second thought, TJ put the Free Point into his Intelligence and pulled up his Status sheet.
Status Sheet
Name: TJ (Thiago Jorge) Harris IV
Race: Human – lvl 6
Class: Neophyte lvl 7
Occupation: Savage lvl 6
Level of Divinity: Dirt (0)
Divine Bloodline: Kukulkan
Health Points (HP): 480/480
Mana Points (MP): 300/300
Stamina: 460/460
Attributes
Strength: 22
Agility: 21
Endurance: 46
Vitality: 48
Toughness: 39
Wisdom: 26
Intelligence: 30
Perception: 30
Willpower: 40
Fixation: 31
Free Points: 0
Skill List: Hidden
Titles: Irregular
Current total maximum Divine Transformation time: 41:15
(End+Vit+Will+Fix)/4 Current cooldown: 0:00
Status Sheet
Name: TJ (Thiago Jorge) Harris IV
Race: Coatl – lvl 6
Class: Neophyte lvl 7
Occupation: Savage lvl 6
Level of Divinity: Dirt (0)
Divine Bloodline: Kukulkan
Health Points (HP): 960/960
Mana Points (MP): 300/300
Stamina: 920/920
Attributes
Strength x2: 44
Agility x1.5: 31
Endurance x2: 92
Vitality x2: 96
Toughness x2: 78
Wisdom: 26
Intelligence: 30
Perception x1.5: 45
Willpower: 40
Fixation: 31
Free Points: 0
Skill List: Hidden
Titles: Irregular
He didn’t know if the cooldown for Divine Transformation would have been fully refreshed by his new level, but it had been well over an hour since he’d begun his butchery, so the cooldown had long since passed. When he turned to look at his handiwork, TJ did feel some measure of pride at what he’d been able to accomplish. Though the first two attempts had not gone especially well for him, the other four corpses had their matching hide stretched out behind them. Though the cuts remained clumsy and inexpert, he could see that, properly cured, the hides could be quite useful.
This first step complete, TJ considered leaving the rest for someone else, but he’d already seen that he could be overwhelmed by numbers and strength. The rest of the town would learn that they needed to work harder soon, and TJ would seize every bit of experience he could for himself at this point. If others became Tanners or Butchers or any other Occupation, then they could do whatever they needed to level up on their own time.
Getting the materials for and using them for processing the hides was still horrendous and turned his stomach, but TJ cracked the skulls, extracted the brains, and took care of the hides as best as he could. All the while, he couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t leveled up his Class or Occupation before now. He’d killed tons of javelinas and pukwudgies and coyotes, to no avail. Sure, there hadn’t been hundreds of them, but he felt that another level of both seemed like they would make sense.
After each watershed level (every five levels in the Dirt (0) tier of Divinity, the requisite experience per level increases while the awarded experience from activities and experience sources from below that same watershed is decreased.
“So the more I level, the less I get.” TJ sighed and continued working the brain slurry into the raw hide. The smell no longer bothered him after hours spent elbows deep in gore, so after another hour of rubbing the foul mixture into the pelts, he carried them out into the sun to dry. In his time working in the butchery, he’d found the door out the back, where the shipments would have been delivered when the world hadn’t gone and collapsed in on itself. Four days ago. He sighed and rubbed his eyes as the reality of that settled over him. This was the fourth day since hell had decided earth was a good place to set up camp, and things were just going to get worse. How many people would have died by now? Were other Tutorials worse off than this one? If people had been yanked from their homes in Canada and were stuck outside without their winter clothes, they’d all have died.
He shook his head. Worrying wouldn’t do anything right now. Other people freezing to death was a horrible end, but Junior wasn’t there. So long as the System was to be trusted.
TJ grunted and ground his teeth. His mind kept wandering, betraying him. He needed to focus on the here and now to make it to tomorrow. Looking around, TJ couldn’t see anywhere that stood out to him as a good place to hang the pelts. He sighed and threw them over his shoulder while disregarding the blood that streaked all over the bottom pelt’s fur from his torso.
“What–what the hell–”
A terrified voice pulled TJ from searching for somewhere to leave the pelts to dry. Whirling around, searching for enemies, he couldn’t see or hear anything. Instead, he watched as Laura, dressed in her suit and with a pencil held in a horrified, disbelieving hand, gaped at him. Before TJ could ask what was wrong, her face drained of its blood and she collapsed to the ground.