Successor of Kukulkan

Chapter 144

The path through campus was easy, especially since more than half of it had been left untouched by the New Republic. The places that Sven and Raya had seemed to decide they couldn’t protect were left alone, and they’d chosen to disregard the buildings already destroyed by monstrous presences. TJ realized that he hadn’t asked anyone about if they’d been in whatever Tutorial was here in Tempe, and what monsters they’d fought here. Or how big the bounds of the Tutorial were. Sure, he didn’t have any clue as to how big his own Tutorial had been, but he’d traveled at least a dozen miles to get to Pine, and it stretched a fair distance in every direction from there, which seemed to be the center of it.

Ideas of how the other Tutorials flicked through his mind as TJ ran through the streets. A couple creatures seemed to be moving behind walls and out of sight, and TJ didn’t care enough to track them down. He wouldn’t get any meaningful experience out of it, and the people who needed the experience would have to

“What the fuck man?” the Acolyte shouted as he turned and saw TJ’s face. “You don’t do that! You’re lucky you didn’t get stabbed! Now let me go!”

Though the Acolyte blustered and cursed, TJ saw the very second that the Zealot Appraised him. Her face went pale, and she, with shaking hands, put her knife back in its sheath as she raised her hands in a conciliatory manner.

“I will once you give me back everything you just stole from my house.” TJ tried to keep his voice calm. After all, petty theft didn’t merit death, and if he lost his cool, that’s what’d happen. Maybe being so calm was the wrong choice, though, because the woman’s eyes went wider and she begged,

“Please, don’t kill us! We were just looking for food! We’re hungry, that’s all, ok?”

“That’s why you took the most valuable item in my house and left the meat that’s all prepped to be eaten? That’s why you only took the nonperishable things from before the Integration? Cut the bullshit and give me my supplies.”

More than seeing, TJ felt the man trapped in his arms realize exactly who TJ must be. “You just… you left it, you know? Life is hard, right?”

“It is for all of us, and, by what you were saying, you already knew damn well that there was someone who the shit you were taking belonged to. Now, give me the backpacks and my pelt, and be on your way.”

“They’re our backpacks, man—”

TJ didn’t say a word. He just shook the man once and he went silent. Before the Acolyte could do anything, his companion pulled her backpack off and tossed it over to TJ. He caught it in his free hand before stepping back from his prisoner. Fortunately, the thief didn’t try to pull anything, and just let the backpack fall off his shoulders. Then, when TJ didn’t threaten them any further, they scampered off with a couple glances behind themselves to make sure that he wasn’t following. 

The anger in him wasn’t unfamiliar to his life. TJ’d been angry plenty of times, and it was natural to be. But now that he’d embraced his Bloodline again and again, that he’d taken a Class that pushed him to further embrace Kukulkan’s legacy and mould it to fit his own future, TJ felt his anger grow to be more of a part of him. He was more prideful, and he found himself looking down on people for being weak when he’d never done so before.

You always were weak. That’s why you never did before, you were already on the bottom.

That part inside of him seemed to whisper doubts to him, and TJ wondered if he should even care. Frustrated with continuing to lose himself in stupid philosophizing, TJ grabbed the two backpacks and his pelt before jogging towards his house. In there, he could see that most everything had been ransacked. The two nameless people he’d just caught hadn’t cared about merely taking what was in the house. They’d broken cabinets in their haste, trailed mud and other crap through the house, and a couple wrappers were on the floor from fruit snacks the pair had eaten as soon as they’d found them. 

“Assholes.” TJ muttered to himself as he came to a decision. He couldn’t leave anything of value here, not when he wouldn’t be around to protect it. He’d already known that, but seeing it kinda made him sad. Truly, this wasn’t his home any more. Not anything that he could consider a sanctuary, at least.

The choice made, TJ grabbed his dolly from the garage and a couple of boxes. He filled them with wherever came to mind, sets of jeans and shirts, some of Junior’s clothes as well, and food. With three boxes stacked, the house was basically stripped of everything worth taking, except for the Vargr corpse out back. After thinking about it for a second, TJ wrapped it in an old bed sheet and slung it over his shoulder. He was totally loaded up, but his journey back to campus was only a couple miles, and he could deal with whatever came his way before then. 

Thanks for reading! If you're dying to read more, join the Patreon, where you can read up to 28 chapters ahead!

Join the swarm! .gg/RqzsKj8hkD