Chapter 10
Once clothed, TJ took special care to stay unnoticed for several minutes as his Diviransformation timer ticked up to 2:00. In total, with his tributes, he could remain transformed for 26 mihough he strained his ears to listen to anything that approached, the whistling wind, groaning trees, and rustling brush didn’t tip him off to anything. With a sigh, TJ, instead of w needlessly, pulled up his status sheet.
Status Sheet
J (Thiage) Harris IV
Race: Human – lvl 3
Css: Neophyte lvl 4
Occupation: Savage lvl 3
Level of Divinity: Dirt (0)
Divine Bloodline: Kukulkan
Health Points (HP): 310/310
Mana Points (MP): 170/170
Stamina: 290/290
Attributes
Strength: 17
Agility: 12
Endurance: 29
Vitality: 31
Toughness: 25
Wisdom: 18
Intelligence: 17
Perception: 19
Willpower: 26
Fixation: 18
Free Points: 3
Skill List:
Css: Diviransformation
Occupation: Primitive Craftsmanship
Titles: Irregur
Current total Diviransformation time: 3:17 / 26:00(End+Vit+Will+Fix)/4
He’d at least doubled every one of his attributes siting an Occupation only yesterday, and his Css today. He could feel that levelling up would take more and more time, sihe slight uanding he’d gained of both Savage and Neophyte warned him that he wasn’t even close oher. Curious to pare, TJ carefully focused to ensure his clothing came with him as he transformed bato a coatl. When he opened his eyes, every article of clothing had disappeared, and he looked once again at the ges.
Status Sheet
J (Thiage) Harris IV
Race: Coatl – lvl 3
Css: Neophyte lvl 4
Occupation: Savage lvl 3
Level of Divinity: Dirt (0)
Divine Bloodline: Kukulkan
Health Points (HP): 620/620
Mana Points (MP): 170/170
Stamina: 580/580
Attributes
Strength x2: 34
Agility x1.5: 18
Endurance x2: 58
Vitality x2: 62
Toughness x2: 50
Wisdom: 18
Intelligence: 17
Perception x1.5: 28
Willpower: 26
Fixation: 18
Free Points: 3
Skill List:
Css: Diviransformation
Occupation: Primitive Craftsmanship
Titles: Irregur
This snake became so much tougher and strohan him that it was difficult to uand. With a thought, TJ shifted back to his inal form and stretched. “Do I o always dispy the whole status?”
Just as when you ged the System’s form of address to you to “you” from “Partit Thiage Harris IV”, you adjust nearly every notification and dispy that the Divine System gives you. The purpose of the System is to assist all Partits in advang towards the Divihrohus the System be adjusted to each Partit’s desires and fort.
“Then hide the Skill List. That’ll just get long.”
Skill List hidden.
He verified with a ghen released the Diviransformation. TJ stood tall and stretched, the bones in his sternum and shoulders popping pleasantly. To his delight, and a little fear, staying mostly still while only garbed in his pretty shoddy clothes wasn’t as miserable as the day before. Before he began to worry, though, TJ had an epiphany. “Do I not get as cold now that my Vitality is higher?”
Vitality and Endurance allow the Partit to better survive ireme climates and ditions.
TJ grinned widely, happy to get some real good news for the first time. He would be demonstrably better suited to life like this. Even so, his smile quickly faded. His son wouldn’t be there, and TJ couldn’t say when he would be able to see him again. Worse, his Strength and Agility were both going to be quickly outcssed. He would swiftly bee nearly impossible to kill as his Endurance, Vitality, and Toughness tio spike, but if he couldn’t do anything to return a hit except for bite and strict, anything rger than him or even a bit tougher than these coyotes would kill him.
Even so, TJ couldn’t simply decide to dump every Free Point intth. That just was foolish, as far as he was ed. There had to be a way for each of the Csses to be individually viable, right? If the System could be trusted, which TJ didn’t but had to anyway, then each Css had to have the possibility to bee the God that sat ohrone. A Disciple couldn’t be fio only heal everyone else, or else they would be mere servants to the Zealots and Acolytes, and the Neophyte couldn’t be limited to taking hits like a video game tank. There had to be something missing.
As if it had listeo his worries, the System chimed in.
At each multiple of five, a Partit will experience a marked increase in their capabilities to protect themselves and tiheir progress towards the Throne. With each Skill’s acquisition, a Partit hoheir vision for their Path towards true Divinity. If you decide that you would like your Css to provide Skills that assist in your ability to cause harm, then a such a way that exemplifies your desire to bee a God of destru. If you desire for your Occupation to provide Skills that facilitate your ability to sughter, then you must engage in sughter.
The way the System bluntly presented what TJ feared he would have to bee turned his stomach. Even as a spike of ay made him lose what little appetite he’d built up, TJ examined himself. For Junior, what would he do? Would he kill coyotes, rattlesnakes, bears, and mountain lions? Absolutely, and without hesitation. Would he take things from others, things that would help another person?
Throughout his life, TJ had sidered himself a generally kind person, willing to share and go out of his way to help people. That wasn’t what this was about. If he had to take food that could go to someone else, would he do it? Would he fight for it? Would he kill for it?
The emotions warred within him, TJ desperate to protect his son, to make sure he could go ba. But he’d never killed someohe only fights he’d gotten into as a kid were schoolyard things, never anything worse than a bloody nose and a split lip. But to asd to the Divine… would he step on people to get there? Would he bee a god of sughter aru, leaving a ruined world in his wake just for the slight leg up it might give him?
For his soJ would weep bitter tears aroy his soul for his son. If TJ must hurt others to protect his child, his sole remaining link to his beloved Mari, his little guy, then he would regret it, but he would do so.
“Have mery soul.” TJ quietly prayed as a siear dropped from the er of his eye. He’d never dreamed of being in a situation like this, but he was here. And he would succeed.
With a brusque brush of his dirty and rough hands, TJ ed his face. He was sure that there was a streak in the dirt now from his brief stint with emotions, but he couldn’t care. No. He had a goal now, and though his current objective was still the , TJ would ehat he killed and harvested every creature he found on his Path. And, first things first, he o process these corpses.
Unsure of his own abilities, TJ decided to practice skinning the first two coyotes before tag the Anubis-blessed one. He drew one of his “knives” from his backpack before beginning the messy, painful process of butchery. He’d dohis a little before, and now, with his Occupation and Primitive Craftsmanship, the going was faster. In fact, he learhat, with certain cuts made, he could pull the pelt from the meat in one mostly piece. With that revetion, the first coyote was quickly reduced to a furred torso with four stripped legs. Then, w quickly, TJ disemboweled the corpse and tried to carve the much rger and more intricate torso free from its skin and fur. Though more successful than every attempt before, the e still sported various holes and awkward cuts.
Savage Occupatioed task pleted. Experience gained.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, TJ realized he could feel how much he’d progressed with his Occupation, drawing somewhat o level 4. Though a part of him wao carve a Path entirely focused on sughter, as the System had somewhat suggested, TJ realized that he would want to be able to take care of himself as much as possible. The Savage, though a less specialized Occupation than so many others, would afford him the ability to provide for himself when others couldn’t or wouldn’t. Beyond that, he couldn’t be sure that there wouldn’t be times where he was forced to fight as a human. In those cases, his Occupation would tio serve him greatly.
He refocused his mind, and already flowing from oask to the , TJ didn’t hesitate to jump into stripping the hide of the sed coyote. Again, with more experiend the bonus from his Skill, TJ’s hands moved ever more smoothly aerously. On a whim, he didn’t cut the skins of the legs free ohe pelt had been carved from the meat, instead preparing to take the whole of the pelt, legs and all. TJ’s fingers, wet with blood and stiff from cold, ached terribly, but he forced himself to tinue. Each leg’s fur ulled up to the shoulder or hip, and he began to process the whole body. TJ fought to keep his hands steady, cutting smoothly and ly through the eg fat and tissue, but when he unwillingly shivered, he actally sent the bde of his stohrough the pelt.
“Shit!” He cursed to himself, but after pulling his hands bad out of the corpse for a moment, he returo cutting the pelt free. Another couple of minutes passed, and the mostly whole pelt was off the corpse. Again, the System sent him a notification, but he didn’t pay it any mind. He couldn’t five himself for his stupid mistake, because an obvious solution was right there. With a quick thought, TJ activated Diviransformation and the chill that had slowly settled into his bones was gradually banished. He watched the ter that had pletely repleself tick down, tinuing to curse his erness.
Four miicked down, and TJ felt he’d warmed up enough to deactivate the Skill. As his human body returo him, TJ flexed his fingers and found them agile once more, caked blood and viscera notwithstanding. He then turo the final corpse, its bck fur somehow refusing to show the brown dust that should have covered it. TJ began to methodically process the body, cutting around each paw, and then up each leg. With sharp tugs, he pulled the pelt inch by inch up the extremities, the movement making a siiearing noise. With each leg pulled up to the torso, TJ carefully carved where his Skill guided him to, disemboweling it of its viscera and carving up its nebsp;
With a series of sharp slices, TJ cut the pelt from going higher than the base of the coyote’s skull, knowing that he couldn’t really skin it there with his current tools and abilities. Then, more carefully and deliberately than before, TJ carved the pelt from the ribs, the shoulders, hips, spine, and belly. Once, as he felt his fingers begin to pin, he immediately pulled back, let himself rest, and then, as the chill set in, he briefly transformed to a coatl. Without waiting too long, he returned, and though his fingers ached from the effort and strain, TJ pleted removing the pelt.
It felt special, the moment it was removed, and TJ’s body stiffened with the now familiar sensation of levelling up.
Savage Occupatioed task pleted. Experience gained.
Occupation: Savage has advao level 4.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.
Race: Human has advao level 4.Attribute points allocated: Strength +1, Agility +1, Endurance +1, Vitality +2, Toughness +1, Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Perception +1, Willpower +1, Fixation +2. Additional Free Points currently avaible.
He grinned fiercely before bundling up the pelts, pg them in his backpack, aing off once more towards the . And if he found something else to kill on his way? Then the hunt would begin.
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