Before TJ could curse to himself, the System tio give its warning.

  The previously threatening wildlife will remain much the same as before, but will gain levels at an accelerated rate. Additional, non-native threats will be ied to each Tutorial area. The non-native threats will provide additional experience acc to the ensurate increase in danger and difficulty they provide. There will be a signifitly increased density of threats to enter from now on. The total number of threats withiorial will steadily climb for the 196 hours, after whio additional threats will be created. hat the total quantity of threats withiorial is set, and each threat dispatched is ohat will participate in the sed phase of the Tutorial.

  The realization that he couldn’t do this alone was immediately and obviously apparent to TJ. If there were more things that stantly grew in number and power as they hunted him and any other human in the area, then he o make his way into town with support. Otherwise, he would die if it was more than a couple more miles to get there.

  TJ decisively turo return to the . Any dey could result in him being ambushed. He wao shift and rush back, but losing the backpack could be much more detrimental than deying his arrival. With no way to carry their things, he and Stanton would be severely limited in how much food and other supplies they could bring with them, and that could prove deadly. With a deep sniff, TJ tried to see if he could smell anything approag, anything he could do to make sure he could get back to the retive safety of the .

  Nothing suspicious, wet dog or the distinctive smell of reptile. No sounds of stalki or anything else. TJ could smell the vague hint of spring approag, leaves beginning to sprout once more, but tinged with rust–

  It was January 16th. TJ lunged forward, eyes a rag as his mind made the e. Two spears sunk home in his hamstrings. Agony fshed and filled TJ’s mind. Without g about his clothes, he activated Diviransformation. As a coatl, his senses expanded, and the little goblinoid things’ presence became obvious. A faint shimmer surrouhe space where they ambushed him, obsg his view, but he could taste them. They smelled of spring, and greenery. And blood.

  They’d pulled their spears out of his flesh when he shifted, and specks of blood patterhe dirt road uheir nearly invisible feet. Never having used it before, TJ activated Primal Savagery to give himself every advantage he could.

  You have currently equipped pre-Iion equipment. You ot use the Primal Savagery Skill at this time.

  He hissed in impotent rage as he luowards the aggressor. It screeched like a hawk and dodged to the side while attempting to put out his eye. TJ ducked, instead raking the spear over his raised eyebrow and through his mane of feathers. Several fluttered to the ground as he pressed his attack. After it dodged the sed time and the other ambusher plus spear into TJ’s side, he let the agony of his failed rebuttal calm him.

  Two more times TJ made wild lunges, pretending to be desperate. Then, ohird, as the matador-like thing dodged again, TJ’s tail caught its ankle. He stricted, its fragile bones crag like dry tinder. It screeched again, the sound more pihis time. It was stuck, though, and TJ’s cavernous maw fshed ohe little creature attempted to raise its spear in defiance, but TJ k was ing. Instead, his needle-sharp teeth sunk deep into its chest.

  As its blood flowed freely down his throat, its magical camoufge dissipated, leaving a furry bck thing in his jaws. It wriggled and tried to escape, but TJ opened his mouth wider, just to sm it shut with eveer force. Ribs cracked then cumbled, and its wheezing breaths struggled and began to die out. TJ didn’t fet the other, though, and dropped the crippled goblin to the ground just in time to take another spear to the nebsp;

  Though it sought his eye, TJ avoided the strike enough to have the hardeip skitter off his mane and scales. The goblin, seeing its panion felled and its ambush failed, attempted to escape. Its presence faded even more, but the coatl’s tongue could still taste it. It had turs ba. Foolish, disbelieving that he couldn’t find it. With a final twist of his full body, TJ’s tail smashed into the side of the goblin’s knees. O with a wet snap, and it fell, screaming like a hawk. The coatl showed no mercy, its tail raised up high before crashing down on its skull. He turned and did the same to the first, whose wheezes were quickly dying down. The System’s notifications assured TJ that his hunt was over.

  2 Pukwudgies, Level 3, sin. Experience gained.

  There was no relief from the pain of his wounds with the notification. No level then. TJ quickly checked his Status:

  Health Points (HP): 562/700

  Mana Points (MP): 200/200

  Stamina: 591/680

  Nothing life-threatening, then. The wounds had been deep, but nowhere vital, and hadn’t even triggered a Bleed affli. Even so, it had sucked, and TJ made special note of how to see, hear, or smell the bastard ambushers before they appeared. The first, a option, robably leveling up Neophyte.

  TJ could feel that Neophyte was so close to the fifth level, but not quite there. Something else would o die to feed him his Skill, but the urgency he found himself in was too great to seek out something else to kill. If several of these found Stanton when he wasn’t ready… TJ took several tastes of the air, making sure he couldn’t smell anything else approag, and was rewarded with a retive surety that there wouldn’t be anything ambushing him just yet. He dropped out of Diviransformation, standing in the middle of the road in just his pants and boots, his shirt, jacket, and backpack strewn wildly around the path.

  With a shiver, TJ pulled the shirt, then jacket around him before tossing one of the “pukwudgie” bodies into his backpack. He ched it carefully around his waist, trying to make sure he could bring it all with him. Then, making especially sure to transform with all his clothing, TJ reactivated Diviransformation. The coatl id coiled where TJ had stood, and already, the smell of other pukwudgies approached. Without eveime to curse, TJ gingerly picked the other body up and began slithering away from the se of the fight as fast as he could.

  The time passed quickly, though TJ’s ability to sense anything nearby was dampened by the creature occupying his mouth, and he sidered dropping it in the name of caution, but the angry part of him demahat the pukwudgies offer their flesh along with their lives to him. They dared to ambush him, so they would serve to help him along. At least, trary to how goblins had always been portrayed, the pukwudgie in his mouth smelled good, if slightly marred by the st of blood.

  Three other pairs of hiding goblin-things attempted to ambush TJ on his route back to the . So far, they always came in pairs, and if their numbers tio grow, theime might have enough to swarm him to death. More importantly for now, though, he quickly found that his speed outcssed their own, and his haste pushed TJ to greater heights than he’d believed his unfamiliar snake form could achieve. Disregarding his disbelief, though, TJ made his way back to the ihan half the time it had taken for him to get there. The w sound of several gunshots beed him onward.

  In the clearing, TJ spat out the corpse and took a deep taste of the air. Blood, and not his own. Pukwudgie, nearly certainly. Just the one he was carrying? And another’s. More acrid. Stanton. Gunpowder.

  A mere moment was all it took for TJ to slither up and through the banhat rihe around porch, disregarding the usual path for entrahe taste of blood was thicker in the air, and the windows in the ’s door were shattered, a pukwudgie body prone and bleeding. The smell of gunpowder threateo choke TJ, but he rushed into the , ready to defend or aveanton as necessary. Rustling in the alerted him to something’s presence, and TJ rushed to strike the pukwudgie down. Maybe he could still be there in time, maybe this time he could be there to stop the end, or at least witness it. He didn’t pay attention to the two bodies in the hall, their deaths insequential. In the room at the end of the hall, where he’d stolen his clothing from, the noises quietened down. TJ hissed loudly, his jaw open wide and threatening.

  Luckily, Stanton had been much wiser than TJ, and raised his hands in warning or wele, the goblin body . “I khose scales were yours.” He slumped down to the ground, his leather jacket sp a couple thin holes. “ you get something to me up?”

  TJ dropped his transformation before striding forward aly opening the older man’s leather jacket. Blood colored his blue pid shirt, but it hadn’t soaked through with his lifeblood. They seemed to be mere flesh wounds.

  “Shit. How many times did they get you?”

  “Hell if I know. Hurts worse than I’ve hurt in a long time though, I tell you that.” Somehow, the tough coot got more talkative when hurt. “Maybe seven ht? My leg doesn’t hurt muy more. That’s not good. Might be going into shock. You gon me those bandages? Says I’m bleeding. No shit sherlock. I got stabbed.”

  The urgency of the situatioled over TJ like the ringing of a bell. “Didn’t you level up? That would have healed you… whatever. You know where some are? Or do I o cut sheets?”

  “I did on the first ohe ot me. And bandages are upstairs. There’s a bathroom, behind the mirror is a medie et. Had a bunch of gauze and so on in there.”

  TJ didn’t say anything as he nearly sprinted out of the room and to the stairs. Four pukwudgie bodies were scattered around the house, ahought he could paint a pretty accurate picture of what had happehey burst through the door, Stanton shot o went down there. No other bodies, so maybe he missed a shot areated back down the hall. They got him once or twice there, but he killed two more. The st oried to end him in the room, but he got it first. TJ grabbed a double handful of gauze and tight ings and topped it with antibacterial oi and hydrogen peroxide and ran back dowairs, disregarding the few he dropped.

  ‘Alright, let’s get your shirt off.” TJ anded as he strode bato the bedroom. With quients, he unbuttoanton’s shirt to see the wounds while disregarding the old man’s rambling about hollow point ammunition. The most serious one was in his belly, just beside his J s it, worried about his iines or stomach being ruptured. He couldn’t smell anything except blood, but he also couldn't say if that would work anyways. The bleeding was more immediately pressing, though, and TJ poured capfuls of the peroxide into each wound before patting it dry and daubing it liberally with the oi. It wasn’t long before each of the small wounds in Stanton’s torso were patched, and the man iion had moved on in his rambling topic to birdshot vs buckshot.

  “We’re gono get your pants off for the other ones.” To his credit, Stanton didn’t stop in his discussion of the merits and demerits of each gauge and type and so on and so forth about shotguns as he dropped trou. There were two shallow wounds in his quads, but nothing deep or he massive arteries on the ihigh. TJ ministered to the wounds, and then helped the unsteady man into a pair of the inal inhabitant’s fnnel pjs. Not wanting to leave the wounded man aloJ helped him to the cou front of the still-burning fire, aled him down.

  Just in time for the sound of footsteps on the porch outside to fearlessly approach.

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