Though Laura, Sarah, and, when he appeared, Farid disagreed with his decision, TJ wasn’t deterred. After explaining himself for the third time, TJ merely said, “I’ll be seeing you either later tonight or tomorrow. Don’t wait up for me, but I’ll make sure the sentries see me when I return so you won’t worry quite so much.” Without listening to any further complaints, he turned and began walking away. Stanton walked alongside while Farid, after a moment’s indecision, trailed behind.
“This is stupid, TJ. I don’t know what you feel like you need to prove, but you don’t.”
“It isn’t for me.” TJ responded simply before asking, “Has Laura announced anything to the rest of the town yet?”
Farid cocked his head before answering, “No. Nothing I’ve heard about, at least.”
TJ nodded slowly. “What level are you now?”
“Acolyte 5. No Occupation just yet, but I feel like I’m close to one.”
“Nice. Tangent, but your Bloodline and Skill?”
“Shiva, and it’s called the Waning Moon. Upgraded my javelins and they have a secondary attack if they hit something.” With a thought, a javelin appeared in his hand, and TJ noted that the head had split into two. Then, looking to make sure TJ was watching, Farid hurled it at a nearby tree. As the projectile flew, a faint halo of a moon trailed at the butt, as if it were fletching on an arrow. When the javelin struck its target, it pierced deeply into the wood and the moonlike halo flew up the shaft of the javelin and cut a six inch gash at least a full inch past the bark and into the trunk.
“That something that Shiva did?” TJ asked, looking closely at the tree as they walked towards the house to drop everything off.
“Well, Shiva the Destroyer is commonly depicted as holding a trident. Though the head now only has two points, I wonder if it will eventually resemble his trident. His forehead bears the mark of the crescent moon, so I suspect that also comes from him.”
“Great. Glad you’re progressing, and I think you’ll want to follow that hunch to get an Occupation as soon as possible. Back to the point at hand–Laura’s come around to my way of thinking, and we need everybody around here leveling up as soon as possible. I wish it’d been today, but I bet she’s letting everyone get a good night’s rest before she breaks the news to them. In the morning, we’re going to have to start training people who are reluctant at best, and I’m going to try to take out some of the most dangerous enemies that’re nearby before they’re able to attack anyone tomorrow. I’m the best person for it because I can get in and out and be pretty sure I won’t die, plus I have a timer of exactly how long I can be out before I need to return.”
Farid thought for a moment, then frowned. “Are you sure it’s necessary to do this? For everyone?”
TJ fought to urge to sigh. “Look. We were outnumbered about 4 to 1 with those javelinas, right?”
“I guess, yeah.”
“And, as terrible as it is, Mary died.”
Farid nodded.
“How many pukwudgies and coyotes and javelinas and mountain lions and whatever else do you think might be in the nearest ten miles?”
The descendant of Shiva’s mouth hung open. “Oh. That’s… really bad.”
“You can say that again. So, we need to close the gap of numbers, and getting more combatants and leveling up will reduce our enemies’ numbers while bolstering our own. I hope everyone lives…” TJ trailed off, not willing to finish the sentence and sentiment. Even so, what he was about to say hung heavily over all three men’s heads. Farid looked shell-shocked, but he nodded several times with growing intensity.
“I should come with, help out.”
“It’d be better for you to get your Occupation.” TJ denied the eagerly helpful man. “Alone, you’re in danger, and getting that other source of Skills and attributes will be way more impactful than risking your life when tomorrow you can assist way more effectively.” Seeing the look in Farid’s eyes, TJ continued, “No, I’m not risking myself doing this. I’m going to be careful and just strike a couple of the higher leveled ones I find from far away. If something ambushes me, then I’m hardy and tough enough to get out of there before they can do too much damage to me. I’m fast enough to get back here if I’m Afflicted with something, I’m kinda the perfect person for the job, and I’m the highest level too.”
Farid nodded, his eyes determined. “Ok. I’ll see if I can get the new Occupation tonight. For everyone else’s sake, we should.”
TJ quickly realized the misunderstanding Farid was under, and couldn’t bring himself to disillusion the younger man. He merely nodded and waved goodbye as Farid jogged into the hunters’ lodge, the door slamming shut behind him. Stanton cocked an eyebrow at TJ, his slight disapproval obvious. TJ sighed and didn’t answer. Instead, he deposited the water and intestines he’d been carrying near the door of the home he and Stanton had begun to live in.
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“Would you boil these tonight? If you think they won’t keep for the next hour or so.”
“They’ll be fine. Do it yourself when you return.” Stanton walked into the horse, seemingly unconcerned with TJ.
“Ok. I’ll be back before an hour goes by. If I want to go back out again afterwards, then I’ll let you know.”
Stanton grunted, and then, TJ was off. He jogged a ways forward, up the hill towards where he and Stanton had been ambushed only the day before. Looking at the setting sun, TJ supposed it had been nearly a full day since they’d made their way into town, and he hoped there would be others like them to appear sometime soon. If they had stronger combatants come and help train the rest of the people who were only now entering the fight, then they would stand a greater chance of success and survival.
TJ sighed and refocused on his current situation. He’d found his mind wandering a lot today, and he refused to be caught by something in the forest, away from all support, because he was unfocused while in a dangerous location. He stretched his ears and eyes, looking for anything that seemed to communicate impending danger. Nothing seemed to jump out to him, but TJ remained still, looking for the faintest glimmer of a pukwudgie, the slightest sniff of coyote. After several minutes, TJ felt he was ready and activated Divine Transformation.
Scents bombarded him as he took special time to evaluate if his more limited observations as a human had been correct. A minute later, he was relatively sure that he wouldn’t be walking into an ambush of some sorts, but decided to ask the System one final question he couldn’t believe he hadn’t asked already before setting out.
“Why don’t the enemies come closer to town?”
As the Tutorial progresses, the safe zone’s radius around the general store within Pine will shrink. There remain 10 days, 11 hours, 22 minutes, and 18 seconds until the safe zone disappears completely. Currently, the safe zone’s radius surrounding the general store is 650 yards. Each day, the safe zone’s radius will be reduced by 50 yards. On the final day before the next phase of the Tutorial begins, the safe zone’s radius will be 100 yards. Once the next phase, the 18 hour defense of Pine’s general store, begins, there will remain no safe zone in the Tutorial.
TJ hissed in thought, his tongue flicking and tasting the air. At least now he knew how limited his safety was. Looking back at the general store, he was well within the bounds of the safe zone’s 1900 feet. Did he wish he’d been smart enough to ask this well before right this moment? Of course. Even so, here he was, and he still needed to pick off the strongest enemies he could find as quickly as possible. With that in mind, TJ slithered forward without thinking further about it.
Instead of sticking to the road where visibility was high, he dove into the thick scrub brush that filled the area between the trees. He made his way through a gully and a dried wash, his every sense stretched to find anything that wasn’t a mere deer or elk. If he was able to find one of those, of course, he’d happily hunt it and bring it back to town, but that was far from his focus. Unless it was a monstrous–
With a quiet hiss to himself, TJ pulled his mind from continuing to wander. There was a faint taste of… something rotten on the air. He somehow knew that this wasn’t the smell of some natural death, and TJ was more than willing to listen to his instincts on this, given his total reliance on the coatl’s form and function. The air stilled, the nearly constant winds dying away. The immobile air stopped carrying the scent he’d been following to him, but with his Wind Manipulation, he was well aware of where it had been coming from. He slithered over the omnipresent bed of pine needles, the sound of his scales on the brittle litter quiet.
The scent grew stronger once again, though the winds remained quiet and nearly imperceptible, forcing TJ to stop himself from rushing forward. Instead, he lowered himself entirely to the ground, keeping his coils hidden below any bush he passed by. He made his way forward, nose and tongue to the air. The scent of rot overcame the pleasant odor of the pine trees and creosote. Somehow, as the light fell and the air grew ever more chilled, the scent of death took on a certain freezer burned quality, like that of an ice cream carton left long forgotten in the back of the freezer.
Then, without warning, the feathers in TJ’s mane prickled in warning. He froze, looking for whatever it was that had his Bloodline and Divine Transformation nervous. The sound of quiet steps echoed around a small clearing in front of him, and in the waning light of dusk, TJ watched as a pack of a half dozen pukwudgies gathered together in a huddle. They each had their left hand on the next’s shoulder, their right hands in the center. They moved four times in concert, and one of the six groaned in a bitter, almost hopeless disappointment.
While they were distracted, TJ Appraised them.
Pukwudgie, 7
Pukwudgie, 7
Pukwudgie, 7
Pukwudgie, 7
Pukwudgie, 7
Pukwudgie, 7
It was strange to see every one of them at the same level, since there had always been at least some level of variation before. Even so, that was far from TJ’s main concern, given that the pukwudgies then reached out and plucked a long, hard hair out of the loser’s back. Before, he’d thought the creatures to somewhat resemble a porcupine, and these ones were no different. When the hairs left the loser’s body, they became much stiffer, seeming almost needlelike in form. TJ considered rushing out and dispatching the beasts as he knew he could, but something held him back. They were far from enough to give his Bloodline pause, and they certainly weren’t the source of the smell that still choked the air.
His answer came swiftly, though. A groan, wheezy and painful, came from a particularly deep shadow TJ hadn’t taken notice of on the opposite side of the clearing. Then, a shambling figure emerged, towering over the pukwudgies. Before TJ could react, the loser pukwudgie stepped forward and prostrated itself before the shadowy figure. It stepped forward, and TJ finally saw it.
The emaciated figure showed itself from the shadows. Its fingers were tipped by long black claws and its mouth hung wide open, drool and slobber dribbling from between its teeth. The sharp teeth that filled the vaguely bovine-skull looking face were filed to points, and, ringed with curling ram’s horns, its sunken eyes glowed with an icy blue flame. The flesh that covered the monster’s body had rotted, and a cold fog seeped off its every limb. Beneath its humanoid legs grew a small forest of ice crystals, and the ice slowly grew over the prostrate pukwudgie.
TJ couldn’t help but watch as the creature languidly reached down and pushed its claws into the base of the pukwudgie’s skull and slew the worshipful goblin. It raised the corpse to its face and began tearing into the flesh with a deliberate slowness, and TJ appraised it.
Wendigo, 5
While TJ debated what to do now, the wendigo made the choice for him.
“More. Flesh. Here.” It said, pointing a finger coated with frozen blood at his position.