The woman’s face, though someretty, framed by her dark hair and strikingly light eyes, inched in frustration. Seeing TJ’s face, she took a deep breath aled a more uanding 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 ood 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 stro 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 aional and her friend died. I’ll ensure she receives whatever support we offer.”
Though he spoke as dispassionately as he could maJ ched his jaw as he remembered Mary’s face, the skull crushed, her body torn… It was repced with Mari’s bloody body in the hospital room. The smell of aic. Junior’s fusion and tears and screams. The sound of her heart monitor ftlining. The emptiness. His ge again fought to rise, to spill the meal he’d just ed. His throat swelled and threateo shut entirely. With a force of will, TJ breathed deeply through his nose and shook his head forcibly.
“Yeah. She’ll hat.” TJ swiped at his eyes and ged the subject. “Um. Yeah. Just a couple of things. One, I brought javelina bodies back, so where do you wao 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 , but you o force everyoo 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 pounded with their strength growing tinuously doesn’t bode well. In fact, I’d say our days are numbered if we think we just sit fortably here in town.” The politi 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 fached 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 versations that filled the unal space would soon be repced 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 ho with himself, TJ reized 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 maed itself, then he’d want to do the same. Why not trust other people to keep you safe, wasn’t that olice, firefighters, and soldiers were for?
This world wouldn’t allow that pcy, TJ realized. It seemed like the Divine System would create more and more trials for the Partits until it found whoever it deemed to be the best pick for the oct of the Divihrohough he only sidered even attempting to get there to restore his family, he reized he didn’t want to be a god. The world and the System didn’t care about what he wahis Tutorial would push him to keep fighting and striving to get stronger, and if he wao see his son, he would cw his fingers down to the boo destroy whatever stood in his way.
He internally decided that if Laura hadn’t broken the o the rest of the town by tomorrow, then he’d start telling everyoo get w. 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 auro what he po 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 khat wasn’t to be.
Jeff’s rept guard didn’t seem too worried when TJ approached with the io ehe store.
“What’re you up to?” He asked as he leaned on his rge shield for support.
“ing the javelinas aing them ready to eat.”
“Have fun, then.”
TJ nodded and made his way into the store. As before, it was dark, restrictive, and unfortable inside. Unfortable? As soon as he thought it, TJ wondered why he’d think it was restrictive, much less unfortable. Sure, he didn’t love being in a pce he couldn’t see well, but he’d hought of that as unfortable before. Though he tio think about it and try to find out why he subsciously hated to be iore, he couldn’t pce it.
The mystery remained as he pushed into the back area, where, after following a faint st of iron, TJ found something he was relieved to see. A fully stocked butcher’s kit with meat hooks, a drain for blood, and everything else he could imagine as well as various things he had no idea what fun they would serve awaited him. TJ set his rock aside on the ter 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 er of the room. Finally, with his sharp ro 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 wele surge of energy, and quickly realized what it was.
Occupation: Savage has advao 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 avaible.
Without a sed thought, TJ put the Free Point into his Intelligend pulled up his Status sheet.
Status Sheet
J (Thiage) Harris IV
Race: Human – lvl 6
Css: 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: Irregur
Current total maximum Diviransformation time: 41:15(End+Vit+Will+Fix)/4 Current cooldown: 0:00
Status Sheet
J (Thiage) Harris IV
Race: Coatl – lvl 6
Css: 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: Irregur
He didn’t know if the cooldown for Diviransformation 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. Wheuro look at his handiwork, TJ did feel some measure of pride at what he’d been able to aplish. Though the first two attempts had not gone especially well for him, the other four corpses had their matg hide stretched out behind them. Though the cuts remained clumsy and i, he could see that, properly cured, the hides could be quite useful.
This first step plete, TJ sidered 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 o 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 o 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 Css 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 tinued w 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 w ichery, he’d found the door out the back, where the shipments would have been delivered when the world hadn’t gone and colpsed 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 pce to set up camp, and things were just going to get worse. Hoeople would have died by now? Were other Tutorials worse off than this one? If people had been yanked from their homes in ada and were stuck outside without their winter clothes, they’d all have died.
He shook his head. W 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 mi wandering, betraying him. He o focus on the here and now to make it to tomorrow. Looking around, TJ couldn’t see ahat stood out to him as a good pce 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 searg for somewhere to leave the pelts to dry. Whirling around, searg 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 colpsed to the ground.
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