Successor of Kukulkan
Chapter 142

“They seem to have a good system going on for getting people experience.” Sam explained. “It sounds like most Tutorials were like ours, pretty laid back compared to yours and Sven’s. Theirs had 60 survivors, so yours must have been the most difficult one around here. I wonder if there were any that had no survivors… Anyways, Gus said that Raya should have some information about people who’ll be around our level who we can work with. She’s out on an excursion, so she’ll be back soon.”

TJ nodded, seeing that, as far as he could tell, the four people he’d brought with him had drunk the Kool-Aid. They’d fallen hook, line, and sinker for the explanation that the people over here had presented. After a second’s thought, TJ cursed himself and checked his Status. No afflictions right now. Maybe Sven had been doing something while they were talking? He hadn’t even thought about the possibility. 

“Hey, Mimi, Sam.” TJ asked, trying to keep his voice as casual as possible. “Do you have any afflictions right now? Same for you two, Roger and Susan.”

Both of the teens frowned, confused, but they checked their Status. Roger seemed to understand why TJ had asked and he stiffened while checking. All four shook their heads to let TJ know they weren’t still under the influence of anything, which was at least a little heartening. Even so, he wasn’t sure that there hadn’t been any Skills at work. After all, Laura was only a Bureaucrat and she’d had Skills that encouraged harmony in the people in the Tutorial. Sven was a self-proclaimed Monarch, and with the Skills that Occupation would grant, TJ could be sure that they would encourage or force subordination and obedience. 

“Ok, glad to hear it.” TJ said with a smile. It must have looked as forced as it felt, as Mimi’s eyes flitted back and forth, trying to understand what it was that had him off-kilter. If this place was even half as good as it appeared, disregarding the viewpoint of their leader, then TJ didn't want to ruin it for these kids. Hell, he didn’t want to ruin it for himself and Junior! If might definitively made right in the Integrated world, as it increasingly appeared to, TJ was in a good place. He could shelter his son and other people he cared for by just flexing some of his own muscle. He couldn’t change the world anyways, and people would mistreat others no matter what he said and did. That Sven had a couple ideas that TJ didn’t agree with didn’t matter, as even for the people that Sven didn’t see any future for would be taken care of.

“Why did you ask?” Sam pressed TJ with a worried look on his face. TJ sighed before deciding to give an abridged version of the truth.

“Well, Sven’s damn strong. Higher level than me, and I don’t know how many Copper levels he’s got under his belt. He mentioned he’s got a Divine Authority, which is huge. On top of that, he mentioned that his Occupation is related to ruling over others. I’m not going to give more specific information than that, as I’m not sure how much he told me in confidence. Even so, with an Occupation like that, there’s a whole lot that he can do that I know about, and more that I can only guess. Frankly, this all seems too good to be true, given that we’re in the apocalypse. So, I was worried that it might be Skills making us all more or less agree with what they’re doing here. Seems like that worry was wrong.”

TJ shrugged. “I think this is a good deal they’ve got going on. I’m not sure how it’ll look long term, since Sven’s damn ambitious, but like you realized yesterday, Sam, everyone who’s gonna step into Divinity will be a damned ambitious person. People who go far in this will be people who think they’ve got what it takes to be a god. Sven’s got the mentality for it, if nothing else.

“Eh. I’m rambling. What were your thoughts, uncolored by my skepticism?”

“It sounds better than staying in our house.” Susan was the first to speak. “I might be able to repair it with my Transformation, but it doesn’t feel safe any longer. There are things I will bring back here, but I don’t retain any ties to that house.”

“I always loved it more than you.” Roger grumbled. He seemed to agree with Susan, but he would obviously have a harder time leaving their home behind than Susan. “I think we’ll stay.”

“Mimi, Sam?” TJ asked, looking at the teens.

“It… this seems like a good place.” Sam answered. “I think we’ll be able to find… not a party, but a group of people to work with and get experience with. Maybe some friends from school will find their ways here, and that’d be cool to work with them. With so many people here, it’ll probably be safer than just us three in your house.” He shrugged, as if worried that’d offend TJ. It didn’t. 

“Good point.” TJ agreed before looking to Mimi. She kept her head down before speaking. 

“TJ,” Mimi whispered, “are you going to leave us?”

Completely surprised by the change of subject, TJ didn’t know how to react. After a second to gather himself, the prepared speech went out the window. Instead, he asked, “Do you want to stay with me? You can.”

“Then will you stay here if I say I do?”

“I can’t…” TJ cut himself off and restarted. “I’m not going to stay here all the time. I didn’t love being roped into staying in Pine during the Tutorial, even though it was necessary. Beyond that, I suspect that the monsters at Copper tier won’t come directly to campus as often as they can be found further away from places with tons of people. I plan on getting stronger and being able to protect Junior so I can bring him here when I evolve to Silver tier. That’ll require me to hunt a whole lot of monsters, and they’ll need to be stronger than ones you can safely face right now. Even so, I think this might be my home base, long term. At least, for now.

“So am I leaving you? Not really. You can think of me as an uncle that goes on business trips and I’ll come back and check on you regularly. But I think it’ll probably be better for you to stick around here until you hit Copper.”

Mimi swallowed a couple times before nodding. TJ suspected she still felt like he was leaving her, but what else could he do? He stepped forward, just a step away.

“Would you like a hug? I’ll still be here tonight, since I think I’ll go check on my pelt and decide if I want to bring it here. Then we can have dinner together?”

Mimi stepped forward into his open arms, her shoulders shaking. TJ wondered if this was the best choice he was making, but then he thought of Junior in that fake room with the fake Mari. Yes, this was the best choice he could make for himself.

[Stanton POV]

“No no no. That right there needs to stay.” 

Stanton sighed as the Myconid Tender looked up at him. The little mushroom child always wanted to please him, and the Grove they were making together was thriving beyond even the limits of the burgeoning growth the System seemed to be encouraging everywhere. As a Desert Druid, Stanton could feel the changes his presence brought on the surrounding vegetation. The orchards he’d requisitioned grew without irrigation, which was good. Citrus loved the climate here, but they required tons of water to thrive, and he just didn’t have access to that. 

Now, the oranges were tougher with thick rinds, but the fruit was, even while not quite so juicy, as delicious as before. The Tender walked to each tree and, with a leaf from a Lifebloom and a fungus that it caused to sprout in mere seconds, created a perfect compost around each tree’s roots. The plants were happy, and he enjoyed seeing how he was able to make his Grove perfectly suit the surroundings. It was interesting to see that, while the Integration was making nature go wild, it wasn’t changing the environment from what it naturally was.

A screech interrupted his happy observation of his Grove, and he turned to see another damned swarm of the Fear Gorta. They were just like the damn pukwudgies, if instead of invisible and with spears in hand, they were zombies that ate everything he cared about. So, not at all like the pukwudgies, except for looking like a monsterized starving human. Their naked bodies showed every bone in stark contrast to the flesh that clung to them, and long claws and fangs seemed to be their weapon of choice. However, they were just too slow to have ever proven that idea correct to Stanton.

He raised his hand and Suzie appeared in the form of an AR-15. With the blessings from evolving to a Gunslinger, Stanton didn’t need to do more than casually glance down the iron sights before squeezing off perfect killshots. After a dozen lay dead on the ground, the remaining five seemed to get enough of a hint to try to escape. They were too slow, though, and he killed every one of them. 

“Yeah, you can eat.” He answered the Myconid before it could answer. He patted the soft mushroom cap that made its head and it toddled off towards the various bodies. Laughing, Stanton watched the grisly sight of the roots of the mushrooms covering the monsters and pulling them into the ground. As the Myconid looked back at him for approval, Stanton wondered what TJ was up to.

[Sarah POV]

Without using a Skill, Sarah slashed her axe through the monster in front of her. It was some strange lizard/dragon mix, and she just didn’t know what a “Jiao” was. She could ask the System, she supposed, but it was just way more fun to kill the things that tried to eat her. The System had helped her out and kept a couple levels behind that she got as soon as she evolved, which was awesome. Just those six levels had given her over 70 Strength! With the upgrade to Holy Vestments and Sacred Weapon that Apprentice Valkyrie gave her, she was rocking well over 400 Strength, and she could cut through these weak almost-Copper tiered monsters without any trouble. 

Disregarding the Kill notification, Sarah smiled. She was at the edge of Tempe Town Lake, and she’d be able to make her way around it towards ASU campus soon. The bridges had collapsed, so it was just going the long way, but she didn’t mind that too much. After all, she could feel she wasn’t too far off from that next Class level. The Shieldbearer Occupation wasn’t getting much right now, though, since there wasn’t anyone around to protect with it. 

A distant cry for help pulled Sarah from thinking about getting towards TJ. After all, there was someone here who would offer her some experience, and maybe she could bring them to gather under TJ’s wing. He’d need followers, wouldn’t he?

[Laura POV]

“That’s a good point, but how about this: you do what I say, or we’ll kick you out of town entirely? You’ve only got a couple people who’re willing to listen to you, and they’ll turn on you before they lose their place in town.”

“Well, I suppose I don’t have many more options than to concede to that, do I?” Laura answered Krista with an easy smile. “I wouldn’t want to oppose you and your leader anyways. I just wanted to get some experience with my Occupation. If trying to do so will jeopardize my safety, I’ll find other ways.”

“I have a couple ideas for how you can get experience, though. Don’t count yourself out just yet!” Krista’s smile was positively lupine as she leaned in towards Laura. Laura had known that TJ and Stanton were, as far as immensely powerful individuals in a society went, easy to deal with. Even so, she hadn’t been prepared to deal with this level of bullying. Nothing she could do about it, though, except for hope that, for some reason, one of the people from her Tutorial showed up and told Krista where to shove it. This far north of everyone else, though, it’d take a miracle. Maybe, once she hit Copper herself, she’d try out traveling…

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