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SoK Chapter 163
🕑 Added 2025-06-07 17:56:54 +0000 UTC***
You have taken the first steps towards acquiring a Dirt (0) tier version of the Skill: Lightning Manipulation. You will occasionally be able to control the movement of lightning while it is in your surroundings. Continue to increase your control over lightning in order to gain the Skill: Lightning Manipulation.
TJ fell out of his Divine Transformation. The small, reasonable part of him said that of course it wasn’t so easy to get a Skill, regardless of every other benefit and leg up he had. To create one from scratch, he’d need to do a whole lot more than just scream at the heavens while lightning struck him a couple times. If it was that simple, then he would imagine that there would be some aspect of lightning in every god’s ascension. Now that he thought about it though, there were an awful lot of gods of storm, lightning, and the wind… or maybe it was just that those gods became the most powerful and enduring in previous Integrations because they were sufficiently prideful as to think that they could command the most primal version of the sky’s wrath and claim it as their own.
He found his mind wandering, and realized he couldn't think of a whole lot of gods of magma or volcanoes though… maybe they were more of them in some of the Polynesian cultures, where they lived on volcanic islands, but he couldn't think of any. With what the System had said about Divine Authority shifting the natural laws of the world… did the Pacific become a place of lots of water and volcanoes because that was where a pantheon of gods of water and volcanoes set up?
This wasn’t helpful, and it was when TJ pulled himself out of that unimportant focus and instead decided that it was time to actually accomplish what he had come here to do. Gaining Lightning Manipulation was just a secondary goal that he had hoped to accomplish while he was at his primary goal: he needed to find something worthy of hunting and killing for his ascension to level 30. For some reason, that felt more important than many levels before, maybe because it changed the frequency of Skills gained. TJ spread his awareness through the winds, listening for anything that could be nearby and would provide enough of a challenge to perhaps give him any possible bonus with this newest level.
In the skies all around, there were no monsters or other creatures of any sort that were even level 12. With that, the easiest of the options available to him, unavailable, TJ turned his attention to the lake itself. There were plenty of potential foes in there that could, by now, have grown into a creature of at least Copper tier. There were the fish, birds of prey, hell, he'd even seen a couple coyotes around back in the day. Sure, he didn't have particularly great memories of coyotes now that the world had been Integrated, but it could be something.
A part of him almost hoped that he could find some of the upper echelons of the Devotees of Sobek and take them out, but he decided against it, even if he did find some. That would be something for the newly minted copper tier Sam to do. Instead, TJ spread his awareness further, feeling for any movements that were particularly quick, or large from within and around the lake. While he attempted to understand everything around him, TJ realized he could feel that the lake was a bit bigger than it had been. Another aspect of the Integrated world, he supposed.
Below him, he listened and felt the surface of the water. At first, the ripples across the lake were just remnants of the rain falling and the wind tearing its way around. For the briefest moment, TJ allowed himself to lose himself in the freedom of the wind, dancing all over and losing himself—
No, he needed to focus. The ripples were too concentrated, too large to be the errant movement brought even by this furious wind. With a wide grin, TJ stepped forward and reactivated Divine Transformation. With a thought, he rose into the sky. The feathers that patterned his body spread wider to allow the wind to more easily push him into the sky and slither through an almost solid wind. With his Divine Authority and his Skills combined with his Class and form of the Storm Coatl, the winds welcomed themselves to his presence with open arms and excited titters.
This change, flying through the sky, brought a moment of clarity for TJ. Again, his mind shifted from thinking of this world wholly as bloody and violent. After all, there was something beautiful in what he had become through evolution and the Integration. Now, he was no mere regular man, forced to go to his job day after day and struggle to deal with people who refused to listen, and all that just to ensure that his son was fed every day. Now, he was a being so far beyond anything that anyone had imagined as reality… So much so that he could transform into a snake and literally slither through the air.
And, of course, he was on a mission to gain experience and Skills to protect his son in this new, wild world.
The hundred foot long Storm Coatl hovered in the skies over the lake. The ripples, especially now that he could see them with his eyes, obviously showed the passage of a creature that was at least five or six feet across and twice as long. However, through the murky water and continuous disturbance of the surface, he couldn't tell exactly what it was. It definitely had legs, but they weren't so squat as a crocodile’s or most marine creatures. It was almost more of an amphibious creature than a marine one.
That despicable cowardly part in his mind told him to continue to waste MP hovering up above and giving himself more time to observe the creature. The future god within him demanded that he act, and Thiago Jorge Harris IV was to be a god. He called the lightning to wreath his body with his Divine Authority over the storm that he himself had created. It followed his bidding, and as his body was made twice as broad through the constantly crackling energy that surrounded him, he threw himself down into the water, right where he could see the ripples.
His vision exploded into bubbles as the lightning boiled the water all around him, obscuring his vision. With a snarl, TJ reminded this water as it roiled that it was becoming part of his storm. That it had come from his storm! This was rain had come here because he had called it here, so this was water that was under his dominion, and it would not listen to anything other than his command. Again, that coward inside of him said that to think so was foolish, but the Neophyte thrust away the thought. Instead, he could see through the water as it listened to his command and was made glassy. And there was the monster.
Even before he took in the sight of that which would be his prey, he took the time to Appraise it.
Ahuizotl (Copper), 32
Yes, this was a creature that was worth hunting! Was it a higher level than him? Was it something that had befriended the Aztec rain gods in eons past? Yes and yes, but it would bow to him now and give him its strength that he may create a world in accordance with his whims!
The Ahuizotl observed him in turn as he looked at it, the strange creature looking like a mixture of one of the Mayan lightning dogs and an opossum with almost human-like hands. Its body was mottled with skin that appeared like fur, and its massive eyes widened as it understood that its death was near. The water all around reverberated, hearkening to its call, to its vapid control over the water. That weak resistance was far from enough to stop his attack.
With his Skills and his newfound connection with lightning, TJ sent a dozen arcs of bright light towards the creature. He grinned, ready to watch as its body twitched and thrashed uncontrollably. Yes, he was ready to seize that next level for himself. Perhaps this wouldn't be the level that gave him the Skill that he wanted for his son, but it would be enough for him to solidify himself as a true powerhouse.
The damn creature before him decided it did not wish to comply with his perfect plan. Instead of succumbing to the might of his wrath, the Ahuizotl swept its hands through the water and made a pearlescent wall of water solidify. As the lightning surged into the protective measures the creature had made, it splashed in every direction as if it was the flow of water from a faucet hitting a spoon. Enraged and still convinced of his superior might, he threw himself forward, his jaws tearing through the solidified wall.
Whatever Skill, ability, or Authority it was that allowed it to do it, the Ahuizotl’s wall almost felt like thickened, hardened gelatin. His attacks were able to pierce through it, but it behaved more like a non-Newtonian fluid than it did like any form of water he had ever seen. That didn't matter, though, as he slithered through the gap that he gnawed into the protective wall and approached ever closer to his prey.
Before he could pass completely through the wall though, TJ found himself surrounded by more of the same kind of walls. He tried to retreat, but his body was shunted into the box and held there while the walls were closing in… he thrashed with all his strength, to limited effect. TJ re-exerted control over the coatl, forced Kukulkan’s wrath and fury down. His Bloodline fought back, but TJ reclaimed his leadership of his body, and he cursed his foolishness. How in the hell did he think that, as a creature who lived above ground and whose power was wholly limited to things above the water, that it was a good idea to willingly drag himself out of the sky and into the water where a higher levelled Elite tier monster could attempt to kill him. And it was Elite, because he was getting the boost to his Attributes from Monster Slayer.
TJ refocused himself, finally feeling his lungs burn all throughout his body, and pressed his face into the topmost wall of the solidified water. His jaws shredded the resistance as his body thrashed and he fought for every inch he could get. Suffocation threatened, and TJ pulled what little additional energy he could from the storm overhead to strike down with a thick curtain of lightning at his current position.
As electricity diffused through the water all around him, TJ saw the massive eyes of the Ahuizotl observing him from a couple dozen feet away. Then, while they were locking eyes, the wall separating him from escaping upward out of the lake disappeared. Every avenue of attack towards the creature was closed by more of the strangely solidified water, but what TJ wanted most of all right now was to escape to the blessed air above. Just as soon as his face breached the surface, he breathed deep, grateful for whatever the reason was that the monster had decided to show mercy on him.
Before the tip of his tail could exit the water though, a hand reached out and grabbed it. With a firm but gentle tug, his erstwhile enemy blinked up at him with curiosity. Before he could think of how to respond to the monster that, besides trapping him, hadn’t done anything threatening, a vibration buzzed up his entire body and resounded inside of his head. He could understand the words, though it wasn't in any language he had ever heard.
why did you attack?
“I seek to strengthen my Bloodline and myself, that I may protect those whom I care for.” He neglected to mention anything regarding his own desires to grow stronger and stronger.
but we are friends. i cannot serve as something to hone your strength on.
The voice was somehow innocent, childlike, the tone confused and hurt by his aggression, but still forgiving. The predator inside of him wanted to continue to press the attack, to slay this beast that dared to defy his plans, that it was weak for showing mercy! But he tamped it down. Instead of indulging the beast within, TJ took several deep breaths. He cast away the idea that he needed to get that level right this moment, because there was still time for him to get the experience necessary. Instead, he spoke to the Ahuizotl.
“My name is TJ. What should I call you?”
