Two coyotes rushed forward, jaws wide open and saliva dripping underfoot. TJ, mind rushing, looked for anything he could drab to help protect himself.
“Why the hell didn’t you grab anything before when you KNEW something would attack you?” He s himself as, with no rock or hefty sti sight, TJ slung his backpack over his left arm in an improvised shield just in time. The first, faster coyote lunged with its mouth wide open to bite TJ’s knee. He fe off with an awkward swing of his backpack, the fabric audibly tearing us jaws. It tio snarl and thrash, the nylon quickly being rendered useless, but TJ couldn’t care about that right now. Instead, he kept his eyes on the sed coyote that lunged in on his right side, jaws fshing as it went for his right hand’s fingers.
Reag as quickly as he could, TJ ched his fist as tightly as he could as the es es dug deep into his balled fist. He grunted in pain as he uionally dropped his backpad focused on the coyote that was trying to rip his hand off. It thrashed and struggled, but with his ched fingers, it couldn’t spit out his hand. Somewhere in the back of his mind, TJ remembered dog attastrus. No time like the present to apply it!
Brag himself, TJ shoved his fist deeper into the coyote’s mouth, his knuckles scraping along its teeth, tongue, and roof of the mouth. It tried to get away, but TJ swept his leg u and k prone. He pushed deeper. It gagged. He pushed deeper. It vomited. He pushed deeper. It struggled to breathe. He pushed deeper. Bones in his hand and the coyote’s skull cracked. It struggled to whimper. He. Pushed. Deeper.
The coyote under him’s struggles died down, twitg in pain and fear as TJ’s eyes watered from the pain of his hand and his own distress watg the poor thing die. The sed coyote attacked, and TJ wasn’t ready. Its jaws sight on his left trapezius muscle, and TJ screamed in pain, and again when he bashed his broken o his filing arm. He couldn’t care about the first coyote any lohe sed one a much more pressing threat. His screams tinued as he scrabbled uselessly at its face, trying to get it to let go and ign the fres of agony as its teeth dug deep a his wo more times. It refused to let go, instead wresting its whole body to rip his flesh free.
TJ cried out as he desperately jumped up and fell onto his back, on top of the coyote. He felt its ribs crader his weight, and it wheezed wetly as it finally released his shoulder. TJ struggled to his feet, the crippled coyote before him. With a final siing squish of his foot, it was gone. He wao colpse to the ground, but the other one…
Laid on the ground, gasping for breath. Its jaw was obviously broken, and he’d done something to its throat as the wheezing, desperate gasps of the dying echoed over the mountaintop. TJ stumbled over to the dying creature and with an unsteady jump and a stomp, put it out of its misery before finally ying down on the dusty, unfiving ground.
“Status.” He gasped out loud.
2 Coyotes, Level 0, Sin. Experience gained. Experieored until acquisition of Css or Occupatio Css acquisition requirements progress: 3/5
Health Points (HP): 28/100
Mana Points (MP): 70/70
Stamina: 12/80
TJ smiled just a touch, happy to see his survival was currently guarahen, before he closed the Status Sheet, his HP ticked down to 27/100.”What?” He blearily asked.
Warning: Partit Thiage Harris IV is suffering from a minor Bleed affli. Partit will tio lose 2 HP a miil the Bleed dition is cured.
“Oh.” TJ’s mind wandered. Why didn’t it just call him “you?” Why was it… No! Couldn’t let himself lose focus. He couldn’t muster the energy to curse, but something o ge, and soon, or he’d bleed out. The chill crept into his bones, and TJ couldn’t get himself to move, to do anything but y here. With a scream of pain, TJ flicked himself in the nose, and with the burst of light in his vision apanying the tears and agony, he forced himself to his feet.
First aid. press the wound. Stop the bleeding. TJ unzipped the jacket, the deep tears in the flesh of his shoulder screaming in protest as he moved his left arm. The wind whipped around him, gooseflesh rising all across his exposed torso. He couldn’t care about that right now. The left strap of his tank top was ripped apart, the right whole. He pulled his shirt overhead, whimpering as the torn fabric pulled out of his mutited neck. He wasn’t careful enough pulling the shirt over his head, and the front caught on his nose a another explosion of additional agony c through TJ’s body, and he began to sob.
Even so, he wadded the shirt into as good of a press as he could manage and held it on his left shoulder as best as he could while he pulled the jacket ba and zipped it up. With the shredded cotton of his shirt now pced on his wound, TJ looked for his backpabsp;
Just as he’d already known, the back of it was torn open, half of the pockets irely useless, though he hadn’t lost the side pocket or its nearly fotten cargo. Fortunately, the main pocket, the ohat still had a coyote corpse in it, was mostly intact, and TJ shrugged it onto only his left shoulder before tightening the strap as much as he could and pressing the weight of the coyote painfully into his steadily bleeding wound. Then, too exhausted to tirying to staunch his own bleeding, TJ walked to the ree and slumped against it.
“Please be enough.” He muttered, tears of pain and fear streaking his dusty, blood-spttered face. “Please, God, let that be enough. System, please. Kukulkan, whatever…” He pulled up his Status again, nearly too afraid to see what it said.
Health Points (HP): 24/100
Mana Points (MP): 70/70
Stamina: 10/80
At least two minutes had passed, going off how much his HP had ticked down. TJ began ting down from 30, praying he wouldn’t see that number decrease. 30. 25. 20. 15. 10. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. And nothing. He took a deep breath, feeling the renewed lease on life. “How fast will my HP refill?”
The rate of HP recovery is directly proportional to the Vitality attribute of the Partit. Over the course of one hour of rest, a Partit will regain their Vitality worth of HP. Light activity, such as walking, will not impact the rate of HP recovery. Moderate activity, such as hiking, jogging, or flying, will halve the rate of HP recovery. Strenuous activity, such as bat, running, or exerg, will e the rate of HP recovery.
“I haven’t used my MP. How I use it? And does it e back like my HP?”
Many maions of the divine require the expenditure of the resource MP. Over the course of one hour, a Partit will regain their Intelligence worth of MP. Actively expending MP will not impact the rate of MP recovery. Only certain afflis impact the rate of MP recovery.
“ I use my MP to heal myself?”
In order to use MP to recover HP, a Partit must use a requisite Skill. Partit Thiage Harris IV does not currently have nor qualify to gain any Skills that would allow him to expend MP and recover HP.
A little less paJ actually asked this time, “Why don’t you just call me ‘you’.”
Would Partit Thiage Harris IV like to ge the Divine System’s form of address?
“Yeeeees?”
You have ged the Divine System’s form of address. gratutions! There are no attribute or experieed, nor any other meical advantages gained from so doing.
“I didn’t expect it to.” TJ grumbled. His life no longer, apparently, in immediate daJ pulled the grano bar out. Never before had uning a stupid er been so difficult, much less painful, as every movement of his left arm sent shocks of pain up his shoulder. Even so, eventually, he was able to uhe chocote chip dusted snack, ae it much more quickly than he’d phen, his mouth parched from hiking, screaming, and g, TJ took three long pulls from his water bottle. Putting the lid ba was a serious effort of will, but TJ was able to keep himself from polishing off the water.
Now that the fear of immediate death faded, TJ began shivering. He cursed himself for not pulling his sweats on this m. Sure, they’d been nearly so stinky as to offend a passerby, but if he’d known, then TJ would have worn them even so. They’d keep him warm, and could have at least reduced the damage to his leg from the first coyote’s attack. That didn’t matter though. Not anymore. For now, the best course of a he could take would probably be to see if he couldn’t create a fire.
No ko cut tinder or kindling. No good firepit or anything. No flint, steel, hter. Just… the good old friethod, he supposed. Onearly 20 years ago, he’d o create a fire from scratch. It had given him blisters through the leather gloves. Was there enough stuff to even make a fire?
“Hey, System. There something you give me that would let me make fire easier?”
In order to gain something that would be you in the creation of fire, you would need a Css or Occupation. You have her, and thus ot currently gain Skills or other bes.
“Well, I’m in no state to go kill anything else, so how I get an Occupation?”
In order to acquire an Occupation, a Partit must plete certain requirements, usually tasks, and then be offered the Occupation.
There was no additional information. After waiting a full miJ asked again, “So what do I o do to get an Occupation that will help me build a fire?”
If you desire an Occupation that will better enable you to create fire, then you should create fires, or other things that you would like your Occupation to assist with. An Occupation is earned by pleting requirements, so you should do whatever you would like your Occupation to be focused on.
“So to get an Occupation that’ll help me, I o help myself.” It wasn’t a question, nor posed at the System. “To get a job, I need experiend I need a job to get experience… Bullshit. All ain. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuu–” TJ breathed out the word, not b to plete his pining. Instead, he gnced around, looking for any stick or branch or wood or whatever could help him. Fortunately, Ponderosa pines naturally grow straight branches and trunks, and an old deadfall wasn’t far away.
TJ struggled over to the colpsed tree, where a bounty of sticks y scattered around. It didn’t take long to find several that could work, but after peeling the flimsy bark from each, every one sported at least a dozen of the usual pokey nubs that all sticks around here did. After the fourth such stick, TJ bit the bullet aed the oh the fewest of the sharp spots decorating it before rubbing one of the nubs on a nearby ro an attempt to sand it down to a more fortable grip. Then, after a minute or so, he moved on to the . Then the . And the . Finally, TJ had a serviceable stick to be his firestarter. Then, he needed another for the thing he’d rub it on. The rger trunk with a groove in it wasn’t difficult to find, and so, with a prepared of dead pine needles and little twigs, TJ had everything prepared.
He braced himself for the pain before setting the smaller, long straight stick against the thie, the tip of his handheld stiestled in the groove of the rger. Then, ign the aches, pains, and agony that fred when he did so, TJ pressed the smaller stick down about as hard as he could between his two palms and, while rubbing his hands bad forth as fast as he could, tinued pressing. His neck screamed in protest, and TJ nearly stopped trying to make the fire.
TJ’s hands sported only weak calluses from his st couple of months of weightlifting, and they quickly rubbed raw under his focused effort. He immediately found which of the nubs he hadn’t sanded down enough, but he’d already begun, and refused to lose the progress he’d already made and the energy he’d already spent.
Before long, he was bored and unfortable and sore, but TJ refused to give up. Slowly, he was blessed with the beginning of smoke from betweewo sticks appearing, but he didn’t slow down. Instead, he watched his Status, watg his stagnant Stamina and HP, excited when the HP ticked up one. His Stamina remaihe same, but after more than a couple of minutes ahan twelve since he supposedly recovered 1 HP every six mihe smoke grew thiough that TJ pulled away his long thin stid pulled out the little ember that he’d nurtured. Blowily on it, he deposited it in the ter of the of pine needles while tinuing to blow.
Smoke puffed and filled his face. Still TJ blew, and he was rewarded with a fre of heat. The pine needles exploded into fmes, burning hot, bright, and for just a moment. TJ fed more and more into the growing bze, and finally, ohen two, then five small sticks.
“FIRE!” He cheered, finally sure it would st. “I have fire!” Then, TJ looked at the three coyote corpses. Now, what to do with these?
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