Successor of Kukulkan

“He’s obviously taking the most valuable part!”

“And it’s his, because he either brought it from the Tutorial, or he killed it here before any of us got here. Given that this blood is all old, then it’s from the Tutorial. You think he killed it or it was given to him?”

“I… don’t know?”

“Either way, I don’t want to mess with him. So, Kylee, please be quiet.”

Kolt and his… wife, maybe, were trying to whisper, but with a Perception well over 200, TJ could hear everything clearly. More and more he became inhuman, inhumanly strong, fast, and everything else, to say nothing of the whole “able to control the wind” thing. Or turning into a giant snake. TJ focused on cutting the hide free as quickly and cleanly as possible. He refused to damage the hide, but he didn’t mind having to scrape more connective tissue and fat from the skin after he got out of this annoying and possibly contentious situation.

It was still the work of almost an hour to cut the hide free, even with his immense Attributes. As soon as he finished, he bundled the hides all together before looking at the beast’s exposed skull. How was he going to get the brain out and carry it with him? After grumbling to himself for a second, TJ focused a blade of wind on the tip of his Wendigo Blade and sent it through the nearly two feet-thick neck of the mountain lion. With a wet crunch, the Skill cut through everything, sending blood flying everywhere and letting the offending head bounce free. 

A chorus of gasps rose from people behind him. TJ looked down at himself and couldn’t help but laugh a little. Just two weeks ago, he’d nearly vomited from killing a coyote and trying to cut off its hide to keep himself warm. Now, he was coated in the mountain lion’s blood and fragments of its bones, and all he thought about was how annoyingly sticky blood was. 

He grabbed the head, bundled it in the pelt, cut a thick hank of the mountain lion off and bundled that in there as well, then grabbed his spear and additional wendigo horn before turning to walk away.

“That’s all I really wanted. Thanks for your patience, all. I’ll be off now.”

“No problem, TJ.” Kolt said, offering a hand to TJ. The Neophyte looked down at his two full hand before looking up at the Zealot. The other man raised both hands in an apologetic gesture. “My bad. Just curious, what Skill did you use for that? Is it something for crafting or…” he trailed off.

“I don’t think you really need to know that, Kolt.” TJ refused to answer. “I don’t think that any of you have plans to hurt me, but I think you can all understand that the world is different. While I’d like to get along with you all, I want to make sure that I’m safe more than that. You know, trust but verify. I won’t ask you about your Skills, and you won’t ask me about mine.”

A couple people obviously wanted to press him on that, but Kolt nodded slowly. “I don’t like that, but I agree. The world is dangerous, and we don’t know if we can trust strangers like we did before.”

“Look, you done kissing ass or whatever?” Another man’s voice cut in. TJ sighed as he looked at the interrupter. He too was tall, though not nearly so imposing as Kolt, and much younger, maybe college age. He wore surprisingly clean clothes, but his fingernails were dirty and his hair showed that he’d lacked enough water to wash his hair frequently. Strangely, his eyes were particularly blue and his hair showed blond at the roots. The still-unnamed man put his hand on TJ’s shoulder and tried to pull him towards him. TJ resisted and Appraised the pushy kid.

Acolyte, 23

How a higher levelled Participant had avoided his Appraisal before put TJ on edge. Not seeming to notice that, he continued speaking.

“There’s a guy, Sven, who’s gonna be at the ASU campus. He could use strong people like you to reestablish some sort of normalcy around here. Come with me and I’ll introduce you.”

Something about his tone implied that he thought he was doing TJ some massive favor and that just rubbed him the wrong way.

“I’ll swing by at some point.” TJ shrugged the hand off. That seemed to somehow surprise the boy, and he looked at TJ with his strangely blue eyes and put his hand back on TJ’s shoulder. Or, at least, he tried to.

“I’d say it was pretty obvious he didn’t want you touching him.” Kolt interrupted as he caught the other man’s hand in his. “What did you say your name was?”

“Andrew.” The younger man answered. After pulling on his hand for a second, he only got free when Kolt let him go. Then, he looked at the crowd around him. There were dozens of people, many of which looked confused and lost about what to do next. TJ only then realized he saw two younger kids and one sleeping baby that’d appeared at some point. All three were currently sleeping, but the parents didn’t look concerned. Kaylee, Kolt’s wife/girlfriend, held the baby in her arms. Many other parents nearby were conspicuously alone. 

“You guys brought your baby back?” TJ interrupted as Andrew looked to be about to speak again. The younger Acolyte seethed at the inattention but seemed to be barely able to reel in his anger. 

“Yeah.” Kolt answered as he looked back at TJ.

“That’s brave.” TJ said, nodding. “You’re not Copper yet, but if you work hard to protect your kid, I wonder if there’s a Class you’ll be offered. Paternal Protector. It’s a good Class, and I wonder if you two together can protect your little one. I wasn’t confident I could, but I hope for your success. I’ll be near campus in the next day or so, if you want me to make something for you. If you have materials, I’ll be able to do more. But for now, I’ll get moving. Sounds like, regardless of my impression of Andrew here, Sven might be able to keep people pretty safe. If you’re pretty close to campus, you might wanna check it out.”

“Thanks, TJ.” Kolt nodded, not reaching out a hand again. “Hope to see you soon.”

TJ looked around and saw nobody else looking to stop him, so he turned and began jogging away. Even carrying hundreds of pounds of pelt and equipment, he wasn’t slowed, and he nearly immediately was outside of the park. The towering climbing structure in the park quickly disappeared behind shopping centers and other buildings as TJ ran west. Though his arms were full, TJ focused on listening and looking out for anything approaching. He hadn’t seen any monsters so far, but there was, as far as he knew, also no safe zones nearby. If there would be any after the Tutorial was up in the air as well, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that. Instead, TJ continued on his path in the direction of his home, running down the center of the three-lane road under the 101.

Every step of the way, signs of devastation greeted him; destroyed homes, limp corpses, and bloodstained sidewalks were everywhere he looked. There were no signs of life at first, but as time passed, more and more people appeared. There, a house had young voices calling for parents or older voices calling for children, and on the other side, tearful reunions occurred. TJ forced himself to remember why he didn’t have Junior with him right now, and redoubled his dedication to make a safe place for his son to return. That Sven guy could be an adequate leader, and if he was, that could be a place that TJ ended up settling down. With hundreds of other people, even if they weren’t tied together by the Tutorial, monsters would have much more trouble getting into their safe areas. 

As someone shouted and ran at him from the mall as he ran past, TJ stepped back and listened as he Appraised her as a Disciple, 17. 

“Hey, where are you going?” The slightly overweight woman asked.

“Further into Tempe. Why?”

“Can you take me with you?” She asked, desperate. “My son and daughter. They’re at Tempe High. It’s in that direction, but I can’t get there by myself and the care isn’t working. My phone isn’t, and my husband… I, I just… Please. Just help me get further west?”

TJ wanted to grumble, but he also knew what the woman was feeling, but more than him, the middle aged Hispanic woman who’d run up to him needed to see if her kids had survived their Tutorial. 

“Sure. My destination is just a bit further west than the school, so I’ll take you right there. I want to keep running, though, if I can.”

“Yes, thank you! I don’t care. I was just shopping…” Her voice hitched. 

“I get it.” TJ answered softly. “My name’s TJ, you?”

“Rosa.” She answered. Her clothes were filthy, but she obviously didn’t care. Her single focus was to get to her children, so TJ respected that. He resumed jogging in the direction of the high school, going a mile further south than was necessary for him to get home, but he didn’t have anything pressing enough to make him abandon the desperate mother. He couldn’t leave a parent behind like that, desperate and needing someone else’s help to find their child and see if they’d survived the apocalypse. So, though a couple other people wanted his attention and Rosa was pushing herself and gasping for breath after a couple of miles, they didn’t slow. As each main intersection passed, bringing them closer to the school, Rosa pushed herself harder, sweat beading on her brow and coursing down her face. 

When they were just a mile away, though she was flagging, Rosa sprinted faster and harder than before. Her gasping breaths almost made TJ want to carry her the final steps, but he let her continue on her own feet, and as they came up to the gate of the school, Rosa looked at him for a brief moment.

“Thank you, TJ.” She panted, hands on her knees. “I… don’t know if… I could have… made it… without… you. I don’t… know if… there’s monsters.”

“I get it. TJ answered. “Do you need me to walk you in or…?” He trailed off.

“No. I’m fine.” She waved him off, standing up tall and putting her hands behind her head. “I can find them now. Thank you.”

“Ok.” TJ nodded. “With everyone in there, you should be safe. We haven’t seen any monsters anyways.”

Rosa merely nodded and resumed walking into the high school, her legs obviously wobbling with every step. Even so, she had a goal, and she was focused on it. TJ turned, and once she was within the bounds of the school, jogged back north for a mile before going further west to his home. Nobody else jumped in front of him like Rosa had, and he had a brief moment to himself. As the slapping of his bare feet on the asphalt accompanied his thoughts, he asked the System, “Why haven’t I seen any monsters?”

There is a safe period for the next 15:36:23. Until 8:00 am local time tomorrow, there will be no monsters to be found within the bounds of any population center.

TJ cursed himself. How had he not been asking questions after already knowing how important it was to keep asking them? He raised a dozen more as he continued to run in the direction of his home. One of his most burning questions was how so many people of lower level managed to survive their Tutorials, but that and most other questions received no real answer. The only other question he asked that had an even remotely interesting reply was, “if there’s going to be another Tutorial or anything like it any time soon.”

There will be no System-guided events occurring in the next 100 days. At the end of the 100th day, there will be an announcement regarding the next System-guided event.

The System didn’t give him any more information about that, regardless of how he asked or what specifics he went after, but then, just a couple minutes later, TJ turned into a neighborhood, and, instead of asking any more questions, he unthinkingly slowed down. Then, as he turned another corner, he was on his street. Slow steps carried him forward, and as he saw his home, his heart clenched.

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