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SoK Chapter 151
🕑 Added 2025-05-20 16:09:56 +0000 UTCA/N: BTW--book 1 is going live for free tomorrow. As such, I'm going to take a week off posting for free. Ordinarily, I take that time to just get further and further ahead on Patreon. This time, though, I'm going to post two chapters for the True Keel tier, and then not post for the rest of the week. I'm recovering from a really painful sore throat (not being able to swallow for the past 8 days has sucked), so I'm just going to take a little break. No idea when the two chapters will be coming. Thank you for your understanding!
[Angelo POV]
With the return of the monsters, there was the return of the perversion of all that he and his people held sacred. Angelo spent his days attempting to heal and cleanse the land that was falling under the damned thing’s control. Wherever it was, they needed to deal with it, even if it cost lives. Fortunately, the community and the elders were all in agreement of this. Now that he was Copper tier, he could help.
Hopefully, it would be enough.
[Rebekkah POV]
“Over here. Yes, you Markus.” Rebekkah commanded. Her child obeyed, and Robbie made to say something to her younger brother. “No, Robbie. I’m his mom. You don’t need to pretend to be one.”
“You’ve told him a million times—”
“Roberta.” Joseph’s voice cut their eldest off. She didn’t say anything more but rolled her eyes.
Their only daughter was going to community college, and, by God’s will, she’d still been home when all this happened. Rebekkah was glad her husband had listened to her about letting the two littles stay out of sight for now. She’d been able to see them when she’d evolved, but it was painful knowing that they were somewhere she couldn’t reach. That they were safe was the only reason why she’d allowed it to happen. Strange that the System wanted both parents to weigh in on any decision respecting their children. A good thing, though.
“I can smell something over there.” Rebekkah whispered to Joseph. Other than her, he was the highest level in their family, and they’d continued gathering more and more strays as they traveled. Anyone looking for help was welcome, just as Christ would have welcomed the weary and forgotten.
“Is it…” Joseph trailed off.
“Yes.” Rebekkah confirmed it was the iron scent of blood, and Joseph swallowed and nodded. Seeing the twisted body of a sweet child murdered by the demons that filled the earth now once was more than enough. Joseph, wonderful man that he was, had been willing to take upon himself the yoke of scout for suspicious things. Robbie and Markus didn’t need to see that.
When Joseph came back and reported it was a single adult’s body, Rebekka nodded, and they continued on their journey to hopefully find safety. Rebekkah wished she could find someone from her Tutorial, having someone as tested as them would be immensely helpful to keep her children safe. Plus, they’d all been through something that she hesitated to explain even to Joseph. His own Tutorial was so… gentle. The few nights she’d had since returning were restless, nightmare-filled affairs. Maybe having another survivor nearby would help. It was all she could do not to spend the entire night curled up around her children and looking out for any one of the innumerable monsters that wandered the city now.
Rebekkah shuddered and tried to hide it as she gestured for her people to follow along.
[Seth POV]
Avenger’s Rage pushed him to move. There were pukwudgies nearby, and they needed to be slaughtered to the last. Now that the Skill was Bronze tier, it affected him all the time. That didn’t matter, though. Seth’d always been an angry guy. People saying he looked like he was gonna snap and kill everyone around him someday had only barely been enough of a deterrent to keep him from doing it. Spite was a powerful motivator, and he had that in spades. The shitty home life, cigarette burns, bullying, everything… well, he’d graduated, and that was enough.
Now that he’d been thrown out of the house and living out of a car while working at a Micky-D’s, Seth figured there wasn’t much worth living for any more. Then, there’d been Hannah. She… didn’t think he was disgusting. She’d laughed at his jokes. Treated him like a human.
A pukwudgie’s spear had taken that from him. And he wouldn’t suffer another of the monsters to live. There was something else that pulled him for revenge, someone who’d treated him like shit. Went to ASU now. Or, he did. But Seth was sure that Gus couldn’t compare to what he was now. Instead of going for petty revenge, Seth would go for the true vengeance that Hannah’s soul demanded. If Gus or any of his other tormentors showed up though…
[Zig POV]
Zig fought back the urge to scream. Without giving a fuck, TJ just slithered along. He’d been attacked by something, it looked like, as his own blood covered the scales all along his back. The wound had mostly healed, though. What could it have been, then? Probably the damned Asanbosams she’d been preparing to hunt herself. There were two of the creatures dangling from his mouth, and again, the urge to do something to him struck her. At least they’d hurt him a little. Serves him right.
With a sigh, Zig pushed down the animosity. She wanted to spend more time away from the bastard, to better sort out her feelings. If she was honest with herself, she’d really fallen in love with Charlie, and she’d hoped that there would be something more long lasting that came from the desperate need to vent emotions. Now, she’d never know, and it was TJ’s fault.
She knew that Charlie made the decision. He’d been there because he wanted to protect TJ. If TJ hadn’t been there in the end, there would have been way more casualties, maybe even everyone altogether would die. Realistically, TJ made way more of an impact in the Tutorial than Charlie could have. His life was more important there.
And all these reasons together did nothing to quash the fury she felt towards him. More than before, his eyes actually glowed with some new, unnatural light. Of course, the bastard had gotten stronger. She shook her head. She wouldn’t do anything stupid enough to antagonize the man, but she still didn’t want to deal with him any more than she absolutely needed to. As such, she stepped back into the shadow to watch as he fell in with this group of wanderers. She thought she recognized the voice calling him, and given that they recognized the snake meant that they’d probably been from her Tutorial. She sat back and settled in to watch.
[TJ POV]
Whoever was calling him must have been someone that he’d been in the Tutorial with, as there wasn’t anyone else nearby that had seen him in both and knew his name. Just as soon as he spent the time necessary to get an understanding of who was talking to him, TJ perked up and deactivated Divine Transformation. Over a nearby wall ran Molly in her Lightning Dog form, Tessie riding her like a horse. He fought not to react to that, remembering the sight of Luz’s parents dead in her nursery. Instead of saying anything, TJ just chuckled and waited for the two teens to approach.
Just as soon as they were within a dozen feet, Molly leapt up and shifted back into herself. Tessie flipped gracefully and landed on her feet. Both gave TJ a quick, tight embrace, and he returned it.
“You two found each other? That’s good.” He said as he stepped back. Neither of the girls looked injured in any way, which was about all he could confirm immediately. Tessie’s face… was different. She’d lost even more weight in the past days, and her cheekbones were protruding from her face. Her eyes were less alive as well. Molly stepped back and took Tessie’s hand in hers as they smiled at TJ. For her part, Molly looked much the same as she always had, though she carried herself much more confidently than before. When TJ Appraised them both, he couldn't help but smile.
Neophyte (Copper (I)), 23
Acolyte (Copper (I)), 22
“Glad to see you’re keeping up with your training.” TJ tried to joke. As he spoke, another voice carried over the wall that Molly and Tessie had come from.
“Hey, kids. Get back here.” The male voice was commanding and older.
“We’re fiiiiine.” Molly replied. “Just come over here. You’ve heard about TJ, and here he is!”
There wasn’t an answer, but TJ felt the wind whisper that the people already approaching hurried to hop over the fence at that. The first was a large man, over six feet tall and at least 250 pounds. Though there wasn’t much of a resemblance that TJ could see, he pegged him as Molly’s dad. Behind him came a pair of women, one obviously Molly’s mother by the resemblance, the other maybe Tessie’s mom. Another man brought up the rear, and as TJ Appraised them, he was, again, struck by just how low some people’s levels were.
Zealot, 17
Zealot, 16
Acolyte, 15
Disciple, 17
Molly’s dad strode forward and extended his hand. “TJ? I’m William. Molly says you helped her out in the Tutorial. I appreciate you keeping my girl safe.”
“Of course.” TJ nodded. “I wish I’d been able to help more people. Especially the kids. They don’t deserve to live through this hell, and I think it’s the responsibility of us adults to face as many of the horrors the world’s throwing at us as possible.”
“She says you have a kid of your own?” William asked.
“Yeah. I was able to talk to the System before I chose if he came here yet, and it told me a little about what was going on here. I decided to have him come when I evolve to Silver. I should be able to protect him better at that point.”
“Ok. Well, sounds good. Thanks for your help. Girls, should we keep moving?” William made to command them to leave. He kept it hidden, but TJ wanted to laugh at a level 17 Dirt tier trying to boss around two Coppers. That he was a parent to one of them was enough to keep himself from commenting. That he felt that way at all surprised TJ, actually. He was a parent, and retained the thought that, strong though they may be, teens needed help, guidance, and correction from adults sometimes. Maybe he’d change his mind when Junior was there, but he doubted it.
“No, we’ll stick with TJ.” Molly shot back.
“We can learn where he’s staying and visit him there later.” Her mom tried.
“No, we’ll be way safer around him.” Molly shook her head. “He’s killed Copper tiers by himself. We can’t do that.”
“He saved me from the Copper that we made those weapons out of.” Tessie added. Her face, haunted as it was, was sure of how she wanted TJ nearby.
“William, I think she’s right.” Tessie’s dad said. “You don’t like to hear it, but frankly, our daughters are the ones protecting us now, not us them. If they think he’s strong enough to help us out, then I think we should stick around.”
He ground his teeth at multiple people taking stances contrary to his own. If it weren’t two people from his Tutorial, two kids who’d gotten Copper already, then TJ probably would have just walked off and left them to their drama. As it was, though, TJ refused to leave them.
“Look, William.” TJ said. When the angry but trying to hold it together man looked at him, TJ grabbed the Asanbosam body and held it up.
“Can you Appraise this?”
“Sure.” William did it and then shrugged. “What does that matter?”
“On my way here, I was ambushed by a dozen of these. Every one of them Copper. Frankly, you would die to that. I haven’t seen too many Coppers, but if you ran into any of them, you’d die. Your Attributes are just too low. It’d be better for all of you if we stick together. I’ll be making my way back to ASU campus now, where there’s more and more people getting together. It’s gonna be safer to travel that way together than to go alone. Frankly, because I want to make sure these two are safe, I’d stick around whether you wanted me to or not. Getting your family killed for pride is stupid.”
TJ heard William’s teeth grinding, and he figured he’d made a poor choice of words. Even so, he stood by them and stood tall.
“Fine.” The man didn’t say anything more, and Molly and Tessie both grinned widely.
“Sounds good. Thanks, William. Now, could I learn your names as well?”
Comments
Lwoah
Get well soon
