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SoK Chapter 160
🕑 Added 2025-06-04 15:00:13 +0000 UTC***
TJ sent Molly and Tessie off with the two newest Copper tiers around. The four of them would be more than capable of working together and making sure the others states safe, especially since there was now representation from each of the primary Classes. For his part, TJ wanted to be alone. More and more, he realized his Bloodline wanted him to hunt by himself. Community was good for working together, for protecting others and allowing rest and exchange…
But Kukulkan was not one who would share. They were his skies and his prey. He didn’t want to share experience or the spoils, unless he made the decision to grant his lessers with a share of the spoil.
Beyond that, TJ enjoyed the leisure of wandering, of finding what caught his nose and eye. He wastefully used some of his MP to let him leap high into the sky and glide down to a destination something like a quarter mile away from there. The arcs he cut through the sky let him lay eye on a couple other monsters making the heavens their home, but they fled fast enough that he couldn’t get a close enough look at them to Appraise the beasts. Even so, given their fear and immediate attempted escape, he figured they were all Dirt tier.
After a sixth leaping descent, TJ saw something that interested himself enough to leap towards. A gathering of a couple dozen people, all following two others. The followers started to escape as they saw him, but the leaders didn’t seem to fear his appearance. As he pulled the wind towards his ears enough to let him understand what was being said, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh c’mon you buncha dumbasses! I promise! That’s the guy that got us through our Tutorial. Just a Neophyte. Eh. Whatever. Fuck off to your scared little corner. Whatever. TJ! How’re you doing?”
Sarah’s voice carried easily through the air, and Farid’s was simple.
“Glad to see you, my friend.”
TJ deactivated Wind Manipulation as he floated down from the sky. He settled onto the ground in front of his two friends, both looking the worse fort the wear. Sarah was haggard, though her face was bright. She looked like she hadn’t slept a night since returning from the Tutorial, and considering how important sleep had been from those last days, it was saying something. Farid, though, was skinny, his eyes and cheeks sunken, and though he smiled and spoke in his usual tone, he wasn’t himself.
“I’m glad to see you two too. I’m happy to bring you to where I’ve seen Molly and Tessie, as well as their families. Maybe drop off a load.” TJ looked somewhat pointedly at the cowering additions who scurried around corners and looked at him as if he were a boogeyman made flesh.
“That’d be a dream.” Sarah laughed as she held her arms open for a hug. TJ gave it before pulling back and pulling Farid into one as well.
“Well, there’s food there, and people who’re already Copper get better treatment there.”
“You made a little town?” Sarah asked incredulously. Farid’s face was no better.
“No.” TJ shook his head, laughing. “Temporarily in someone else’s, though.”
Sarah opened her mouth to say something, then she closed it and nodded knowingly.
“Your kid. Trying to have a place to keep him safe.”
“You got it in one.” TJ nodded. “Though, I’m rethinking it and planning on being a bit more mobile. Undecided if I’m thinking a new home, a nomadic lifestyle, or just leaving for days at a time and returning to campus.”
“Campus?” Farid asked. “ASU?”
“Right again.” TJ nodded, then, he held a hand out to Farid’s shoulder. “You said something about your parents. Bad news?”
The man’s eyes immediately welled with tears. “You… got it in one.”
Echoing TJ’s somewhat joking words back at him struck TJ deep. “I’m sorry. Did they just not return or…?”
“They never returned.” Farid shrugged helplessly. “I had hoped… that they would gain levels. Each one helps so much, right? Then they would be able to be the parents from my memory, active and kind and good. But… it wasn’t to be.”
“I’m sorry.” TJ took his friend in a tight hug. “I’ve been in that situation, though not quite so suddenly. Tell me if there’s anything I can do.”
“Perhaps just keep me busy.” Farid shrugged. “Honestly, much of my… emotional turmoil comes from how little I feel about it. I had prepared to mourn them as they deserve for years. With their health, it was a question of how many years, not decades. But now that they’re gone, so much of me does not care. It thinks they have simply returned to the cycle of birth and rebirth, and there is naught left to worry about. After all, if they have lived as virtuously as I believe, they will be more than happy to be reintroduced to the cycle.”
Again, TJ was reminded of his own feelings and how they’d been influenced by his Bloodline. Or, maybe it was just his own callous nature after making it through the Tutorial.
“I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong, Farid.” TJ took the younger man into his arms again. “Don’t worry. I’m here with you. Just let me know…”
“Of course.”
TJ nodded at Sarah again. “You doing alright?”
“Course.” She shrugged. “My family’s far off, and we weren’t too close. Maybe it’s the whole ‘Bloodline’ thing, or maybe it’s something else entirely. Honestly, I’m just not worried. If they died, I’ll be sad, and I’ll move on. Not too different from what I woulda done if it was the old world where it’d happened.”
TJ pursed his lips as he shrugged. “Not my monkey, not my circus. You gonna convince your underlings to follow along or…? I don’t care much, but I do have some things I wanted to get done today, so I’d prefer to do them if at all possible.”
“If they follow, they follow.” Sarah shrugged. Then, thinking about it, she added, “If you want them to follow you, I’m sure we can convince them to. Just give me the word.”
“No, I don’t care.” TJ shut the idea down as Farid too expressed his willingness to help. “Just will direct you, get you some rest, and then get back out here.”
“You going hunting?” Sarah’s face immediately lit up. “I can help with that! Not great for tracking or anything, but I’ll tell you that a Zealot Guardian with the Protector Occupation can really help take care of business here on the ground! Even killed a troll the other day. Took fuckin’ forever though! It didn’t care how many times I chopped its arms and legs off, it just kept getting up!”
“I’m sure we can learn a lot more about it later.” TJ chuckled. “But I want to go myself. Especially not with you, right now. Don’t give me that look, I’m about to explain. It’s Skills. I want to get one in particular, and having someone equal to me in strength who’s also gonna be tanking things beside me isn’t going to be enough. Instead, I need to be alone in the nitty gritty. I’m going alone, and if I’m not getting any of the Skills I need at 30, I’ll change my approach for the level 40 Skills.”
Sarah’s face had fallen when he said he didn’t want to go with her, but she’d loosened up enough after being called his equal.
“Doubt you could call me your equal, but I appreciate it anyways.” Sarah said. “Now, lead the way!”
TJ threw and arm around Farid as he stepped forward, leading his two companions forward. Though there were some muttered complaints that TJ didn’t care enough about to actively listen to, Sarah’s hangers-on didn’t do anything but fall in step behind them as they led the way through streets and ruined buildings. As everywhere else, nature was fighting back against all previous attempts at civilization that weren’t being actively maintained. Roads were cracked everywhere and buildings crumbled. In yards where grass and foreign trees had been cultivated, they flourished. Elsewhere, sand and dirt poked through where they’d never be expected before.
When they passed near a line of trees, TJ paused and looked overhead while paying special attention with Wind Manipulation to see what it had to tell him. No Asanbosams immediately visible.
“Hey! You!” TJ called back to the terrified followers. One woman, a spindly middle-aged librarian-looking sort, was almost pushed forward by her companions.
“Yes…? Lord? Or… what should I call you?”
“TJ.”
“Tee Jay.” She inflected the name wrong, seeming to think it was some foreign title for a moment. Then, she seemed to understand what he’d said and flushed a little. “TJ. Yes. What is it?”
“I don’t think there are, but these little forests are dangerous. There’s these vampire creatures that can lurk there. Something Copper tier. They jump out of the branches and bite you. You don’t need more specifics than that, but if they catch you, you’ll die. I was going to tell you to get over the stupid nervousness and stay close to us three so we can try to keep you safe.”
“Well, I certainly hope you can!” She huffed as she whirled to speak with the other Dirt tiers.
“Is she just annoying or…?” TJ asked, looking at Sarah.
“There’s been some entitlement from them.” Sarah shrugged. “Something about taxes, social security, and respect for your elders. I tried to explain it gently a couple times, but most just don’t get it.”
TJ blinked slowly. “Are they dementia patients?”
“That’s not at all how that disease works.” Farid cut in.
“You’re right. Are they basketcases? Is there something wrong upstairs?”
“Not as far as I know, beyond the general idiiocy.”
“Well,” TJ answered, “if that’s the case, I’m not going to be particularly benevolent with them. I’m moving. Hope you two come along.”
“You didn’t need to tell me twice!” Sarah laughed as she kept pace. Farid, though, reached out a hand to TJ.
“Please. For me, would you give them just another minute? I can ensure that they are all moving in time. It is the duty of the wise to educate as well as to lead by example.”
“Sure.” TJ nodded. Farid quirked a quick smile before running back to the collection of, TJ now consciously realized, senior citizens.
“Has he been like this ever since you met him?” TJ asked quietly.
“Mostly.” Sarah shrugged. “A little mopey, a little philosophical. At his core, he seems the same. Just a little… different.”
“Ok.” TJ sighed. “I’ll be patient, then.”
“We’d all appreciate it.” Sarah smiled as Farid jogged back over.
“They will walk between us all, if that’s alright with you, TJ.”
“Of course. Don’t worry about it. I’m not our leader or anything.”
Sarah and Farid both looked at each other before then meeting TJ’s eyes and smirking.
“Well… ok. I suppose I am. But I don’t really want to be, so that should count for something.”
“And who would you like to have in charge instead of you?” Sarah asked, faux innocence dripping from her words. “After all, there are so many qualified for the position!”
Despite himself, TJ felt his lip curl at the idea of someone being above him, someone leading him. Maybe that instinctive hatred to being “under” someone was part of why he wanted to get out of the New Republic so badly. Even with that in mind, TJ didn’t care to think about it right that moment, as instead, they were approaching the edges of the New Republic’s territory, which was spreading further and further in every direction. Fortunately, there was no conflict as they passed through the borders, but when Raya saw TJ walking through, she cocked her head before approaching once again.
“TJ. May I speak with you please? Privately?”
