TJ made sure the pot was as centered as he could manage on the grill’s flames before pulling his Neophyte Skill options. He’d glanced at them right when he’d appeared outside of the Tutorial and his Systemic Audience, but now he actually looked at each one.
Shredding Bite (Copper (I)): Your fangs have ripped into Copper (I) tiered Bosses and Elites. You have proven yourself a dangerous predator, one whose mouth deals death and dismemberment with ease. This Skill will further strengthen and broaden your fangs as a coatl to teeth meant to tear creatures apart. It will also grant you a better understanding of how best to maim and disable with tearing attacks, both as a coatl as well as a human. In addition, this Skill will grant an additional +6 Strength attribute per level of Neophyte, to be applied retroactively (subtracting whatever bonus has been provided before).
A Skill upgrade. TJ considered it a top contender even without looking at the rest, as the additional 130 Strength would make him stronger than any other Participant he’d met. Sure, he realized that Zealots would gain more Strength and quickly outclass him again, but this was an easy way to make himself much more deadly, and immediately.
Sacred Weapon (Copper (I)): You have proven yourself a danger with a weapon forged by your hands. Sacred Weapon will bestow you with an enhanceable Copper (I) tiered weapon that suits your current fighting style. Current options: spear, macuahuitl, spiked bridle, club. While you are wielding your Sacred Weapon, you will be granted a Dirt (0) tier of Weapon Proficiency for that weapon. Current Attainments: 0.
TJ waffled over this choice. This also would help him quite a bit, as having a weapon that, even if it broke, would be available to him, was attractive. He’d put some pretty good materials in the Spear, and he learned that, the more he used the thing, the stronger it became. Ever since the Tutorial, he had Appraised the Spear, but it was listed the same. This Skill could give him something better…
But eventually, TJ disregarded it. Shredding Bite combined with his ability to craft things would end up with TJ having a better item than the base Sacred Weapon. Sure, he could gain Attainments and continue to strengthen it, but to continuously dedicate Skill selections to Sacred Weapon seemed counterproductive, and he wasn't sure how exactly to upgrade the Skill outside of those rare selections. Getting more Attainments, or maybe using some of the materials he gained to fortify the weapon seemed possible, but that was just… unnecessary. TJ looked at the next possibility.
Wind Scythe, (Silver (II)): You are a Descendant of Kukulkan, and have displayed a familiarity with his rule over the winds, even going so far as to establish a Divine Authority over the concept of Storm. You have hunted Copper (I) tiered Elites and Bosses with your winds. This Skill will better hone your ability to use Wind Manipulation as a weapon. This Skill will strengthen the cutting power of Wind Manipulation while decreasing the MP cost of all usage of the Wind Manipulation Skill with the intent to cut. This Skill will be enhanced by your existing Copper (I) tiered Divine Authority; Storm.
This wasn’t quite a direct upgrade, as it wouldn’t impact TJ’s versatility with the Skill, but it would be impactful, especially since it would be a Silver tiered Skill. Intelligence and Fixation were quickly becoming his highest Attributes, and that gap would only continue to grow (unless he took Shredding Bite’s upgrade) as his levels climbed. This Skill probably would have allowed him to fully decapitate the Wendigo Ritualist when he’d tried to before. It was put up for consideration alongside Shredding Bite as TJ went to look at the fourth option.
Lightning Manipulation, (Copper (I)): The descendants of Kukulkan are blessed with an inherent affinity for the skies, winds, and rains, and you have pushed that further to seize Divine Authority over the concept of Storm. You already have called lightning to yourself, though you lack the ability to truly command it. This Skill will grant you the ability to summon and control lightning and electricity near you. Usage of this Skill depletes MP at a rate inversely correlated to your Fixation and Intelligence while scaling in potency at a rate directly correlated to your Fixation and Intelligence.
TJ considered it only for a short time. As before, the Skill offered wouldn’t go up a tier when he used Divine Transformation. He wondered if he could do enough adjacent to Lightning Manipulation to allow him to get that boost when he used Divine Transformation in tandem with it. If not, if he gained the Skill through practice and effort, there was a chance that he would be able to make a choice to select an empowered version of the Skill later on. After all, he’d been told that any Skills he gained through practice instead of selection would be limited to a tier below his own current one. He took a deep breath and checked on the pot of water, which wasn’t boiling yet, before looking at the final Skill option.
Monster Slayer, (Silver (II)): Since the time of the Integration, you have dedicated yourself to slaying monsters beyond the reach of your fellow Participants. You were the Elite Slayer in Tutorial 107.48.891, the primary reason for the deathless defeat of the Boss of Tutorial 107.48.891, and the slayer of the sole Copper (I) tier Elite in Tutorial 107.48.891. Since the time of the Integration, you have been seen as one able to slay the immortal and defeat the insurmountable. This Skill grants a 25% increase in all Attributes when engaged in combat against a monster of Elite tier or those of a higher tier than yourself. This Skill also grants a 10% in all Attributes of all followers when you and any followers are engaged in combat against a monster of Elite tier or those of a higher tier than yourself.
TJ sighed. This was another one of those conditional Skills. He’d spoken with others, and they didn’t get anywhere near as many offered to him as he did. He hadn’t seen anyone else take any like Primal Savagery, that gave percent bonuses to Attributes. He’d seen a couple like Shredding Bite, that gave a benefit and an Attribute increase, or even some like Prehistoric Huntsman, that gave bonuses to attacks based off of an Attribute, but the bonuses to Attributes were different from any other he’d seen.
As he tried to decide between the upgrade to Shredding Bite or the two Silver tiered Skills, TJ realized he couldn’t come to a decision. Monster Slayer would help him against, basically, any monster that actually posed a threat to him, as would Wind Scythe. Shredding Bite would provide exclusively a boost to his physicality, but 130 to his Strength would catapult it to 360, nearly as high as his Fixation or Intelligence. Then, as a coatl, his Strength would be truly monstrous, over 1000 with Primal Savagery. He simply couldn’t shove that aside, even though he didn’t want that to be his focus.
He enjoyed the magic of using… magic, he wanted to call it. Sure, the System called it “divine manifestations,” but given that MP stood for Mana Points, TJ didn’t mind thinking of it as magic. Anyways. TJ enjoyed doing magic. He liked the slow progress he’d made towards flying, and realized he hadn’t paid nearly enough attention to that. While he didn’t mind becoming a coatl and ripping his enemies apart, he… just didn’t like it. It had become necessary, but more and more, he just wanted to be a magical flying snake, not a world-devouring one.
Reluctantly, TJ pushed back Shredding Bite as one of the options for his Skill selection. Realistically, it might be the most powerful of the Skill options being presented to him, but he’d also seen how much each Skill chosen affected what the System would offer moving forward. There was power in strength of body, and if TJ had become a Zealot, he’d have accepted Shredding Bite without hesitation. The biggest influence for the Skill was that it effectively elevated his Attribute growth back in the Dirt tier to a Copper level, at least for Strength.
That didn’t outweigh the inconsistency in his path that would highlight. TJ had leaned powerfully into the “magic” side of things with his evolution. Semi-Divine Human was an all-rounder, though he’d cursed his choice of that in the past, but Savage Shaman was obviously built towards becoming more and more magically adept, given its Attribute focus and the Skill it’d given. Already, the Skills it’d offered were focused on magic and leadership, and if TJ showed the System he wanted to become a physical bruiser, he was sure that it would facilitate that. Even Storm-Calling Neophyte was focused on channeling the more magical aspects of his Bloodline.
No, TJ would take one of the Skills that would strengthen him in different ways. Monster Slayer was a draw, and though he didn’t imagine it would give him quite the same benefits as Primal Savagery quite so quickly, it would continue to scale with his growing strength. How it multiplied with Divine Transformation also couldn’t be forgotten, as he’d seen. On the other hand, there was how Wind Scythe would help him to last longer in fights and to kill more quickly.
More than that, though, Monster Slayer would do the same. Again, that was only conditionally, but… weren’t those conditions the ones that he had already established as the ones that would pose a threat to him? Something in the back of his mind, a warning that he couldn’t quite place, whispered about why Monster Slayer would have issues, but that doubting voice never gave him anything concrete. When fighting against a monster of Elite tier or higher tier of divinity than himself, he’d get the boost, as would anyone following him.
Once he realized it was just a general worry, TJ made the decision. Thoughts of how best to strike wendigos, Raven Mockers, and even Chindis occurred to him after he selected Monster Slayer. Ideas of how to cripple the Wendigo Ritualist’s raising of the dead, or to poison nearby corpses flitted through his mind. Experiments of how to disable or slow the Copper tiered Tezcatlipoca-blessed mountain lion’s teleportation made him smile.
Then, with his decisions made and Attributes already assigned, TJ looked at the pot, which had started boiling while he contemplated the various Skill options. As he stirred the brain into the water to make the pelt-processing slurry, TJ thought about the promise he’d made the System, to “be its monster”.
Maybe it was reckless, but tomorrow, he’d know for sure what that would entail. His Skills and Occupation lent themselves to working with other people, and TJ would prefer to go through the Apocalypse with friends instead of just enemies. He’d work on getting a better relationship with Roger and his family, so that they could work together and maybe have them follow him long-term. He’d find more people to come under his banner and make a place where, whenever he reached Silver tier, he could bring Junior.
And, if monsters stood in the way of him making that safe zone for his son, they wouldn’t live for long. Even if those monsters were human.
Thanks for reading! If you're dying to read more, join the , where you can read up to 28 chapters ahead!
Join the swarm! .gg/RqzsKj8hkD