TJ regretted a lot of things. The time he’d pissed all over the high school locker room floor as a dare. Or the time that he’d jumped onto a motorcycle he didn’t know how to ride and crashed it into a wall. The time he’d purposely twisted Mari’s words against her in an argument and made her cry. Somewhere between the sed and the third was how he felt now, deliberately searg for a rattleso fight mano a mano. Doubting himself and everything he’d doo get to this point, TJ gnced once again at his “Divine guidance”.
Requirements to mahe ability to harness your bloodline:
Locate a rattlesnake.2. Defeat the rattlesh your bare hands.3. e the rattlesnake whole.The Feathered Serpent assures you that, if you plete these tasks, even if you are bitten, you will not o worry about the rattlesnake’s venom.
The hours until sunrise had passed fitfully, TJ uo sleep once he’d seen this test assig from the System. Or, from Kukulkan himself, if his dream was to be believed. The guttering fmes and incessant questioning of the System were all that could occupy his mind. Could he actually do it?
No matter how many times the System assured him that, This is a rare occurrence, and the Divine System suggests you follow it, TJ had been taught from when he was a little kid that you didn’t mess with rattlesnakes. His tough as old boots grandpa had killed one oh a bowie knife from about 10 feet away. The damn geezer had then chased the 11 year old TJ around with the corpse, promising that it “probably” wouldn’t bite TJ if it touched him. He’d cried for almost an hour afterwards, and TJ’s mom had chewed her father out for it.
“I really shouldn’t do this.” TJ muttered to himself as his stiff fingers lifted a bough of prickly brahe System had warned him that even using the pelts of the coyotes as improvised armor could keep him from qualifying. There wouldn’t be sed ces if he was being deceived about the venom of the rattlesnake. People could survive a bite, but only with the proper antivenin. There wouldn’t be any ce for TJ to reach a hospital with the proper equipment. Even so, that deep feeling in his core that he o follow this avenue offered to him kept TJ hiking forward, cheg under rge rocks and uhick scrub brush whenever he thought a snake could live there.
The hike tinued, and TJ grew more and more antsy as he went. He’d takeime deying leaving to go to his possible death by cooking up some more of the eat. It hadn’t gone bad yet, he supposed, but TJ didn’t think he could eat any more of it without risking food poisoning or worse. Maybe it was his imagination, but he swore that his sour stomach wasn’t ay or nerves but the beginnings of his ignominious death by diarrhea induced dehydration.
And, of course, when he was whining about his upset tummy was whetlesruck from under a rock TJ poked his head uhe fangs fshed, and paied in TJ’s he snake held on for ara moment to deliver its venomous payload. He reached up and wre free. Unprompted, a System notification appeared in his vision, distrag him.
Warning: you are suffering from a Severe Poisoned affli (Dirt). You will tio lose 20 HP a miil the Poison dition is cured. Current HP: 107/140
“Fuck!” he screamed as his nose and eyes burned. With a quick thought, TJ dismissed the notification as he looked at the ambushing asshole. The snake was huge, bigger than any rattlesJ had ever heard of. When he held it out in his outstretched hand, there was still half the snake dragging on the ground, so like 12 feet long. Though TJ held its head, and thus the only dangerous part out from his body, he got the distinct sehe snake was still threatening. He hadn’t thought to look at its tail, still uhe rock it had struck from. That same tail shot out of the shadows, tipped not with a rattle but a scorpion’s stinger.
Only barely did TJ rea time, jerking his right hand out of the path of the needle-sharp appendage. Unfortunately, in his panic, he dropped the snake.
“Oh no you don’t!” He screamed as the stupid thing slithered as fast as it could away from him. He lunged, knees scraping painfully against the rocky dirt. His left hand caught the tail of the devil-snake just above where the stiill threatened him, a gob of venom dripping from the tip. Held back from its escape, the rattlesnake whirled back at TJ, and though he had the presenind to keep hold of its tail, it used his anch hand as a reference point to strike. Its fangs struck true once again a another lethal dose of venom into his left hand.
Through the agony, fusion, and frustration, TJ kept hold of the sh his left and grabbed its skull with his right. Its stinger in one hand and fa the other, TJ had the snake like a jump rope. Without ahought but pure fear-driven rage, he whipped it into the ground again and again, the body thumping heavily with every strike. After the fourth devastating smash, TJ somehow tweaked his bad he roared in anger as the snake’s broken body slumped from his fingers.
It still hissed a threat as TJ went to end it. Its tail twitched threateningly, and TJ stomped down oail, the six inches of chitin crag audibly as he did so. Then, as the rattlesempted to flee again, he grasped it behind the head. The little bastard had bitten him, twice! An unnatural anger surged in TJ’s chest, and he screamed into its face, “You pathetic reptile! You think you pare to the Feathered Serpent? A god!” Then, without thinking about it, he opened his mouth unnaturally wide and, with a single p, bit the rattlesnake’s head off.
Serket-blessed Rattlesnake, Level 3, Sin. Experience gained. Majority of experieored until acquisition of Css. Small portion of experience allocated to Savage Occupatio Css acquisition requirements progress: 4/5
Warning: you are suffering from a severe Poisoned affli (Dirt). You will tio lose 20 HP a miil the Poison dition is cured. Current HP: 86/140
Ign the appearance of the System notification, the iron taste of blood exploded in his mouth, and TJ gagged and spit the head out. Why did he just do that? The blood was horrendous, and he–
“Oh, shit. Shit shit shitshitshit.” He o eat the thing whole. TJ was going to die in just a couple minutes unless he somehow pleted the instrus that Kukulkan/the System had given him. Gagging on blood and his own human instincts, TJ picked the head back up and shoved it into his mouth. The severed head was at least the size of an adult man’s hand, and a part of TJ wondered how he was getting the whole thing into his mouth, but he didn’t allow himself to think about it any longer. Instead, with the head slowly choking him, TJ raised the rest of the rattlesnake like a giant spaghetti noodle to his mouth. He swallowed.
And again. And again. And then, his hands no longer held the rattlesnake’s corpse. As a matter of fact, his hands no longer existed. her did his legs. He id on the ground, his throat muscles trag almost reflexively as the rattlesnake was forced deeper and deeper. It took nearly a minute for the huge serpent to disappear fully down TJ’s throat, and as it did, another System notification appeared.
gratutions! You have qualified to acquire the Neophyte Css! Would you like to acquire the Css?
“Thissssss issss different than before. What issss happening?” TJ spoke, the “s’s” unnaturally and unwillfully long and sibint.
WARNING: The System give you additional information about the css before acquisition. However, you are suffering from a severe Poisoned affli (Dirt). You will tio lose 20 HP a miil the Poison dition is cured, and the acquisition of the Neophyte Css will cure your severe Poisoned affli. Current HP: 39/140
“Yessss! Acccccept!”
Css: Neophyte unlocked. You have seen the Zealot’s simplicity, the Acolyte’s frailty, and the Disciple’s weakness and you deny them all. You are ready to embrace the Divinity within and allow that Divinity itself to fuel you in body and soul. The Neophyte dispy the Zealot’s brute force, the Acolyte’s ing, and the Disciple’s guidance. You are a Neophyte, the apex of your Divine Bloodline. Per level attributes gai the Dirt level of Divinity: Endurance +3, Vitality +3, Toughness +2, Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Perception +1, Willpower +2, Fixation +2, Free Points +1.
Css: Neophyte acquired
Css: Neophyte has advao level 1. Attribute points allocated: Endurance +3, Vitality +3, Toughness +2, Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Perception +1, Willpower +2, Fixation +2, Free Points +1. Additional Free Points currently avaible.
Css Skill: Diviransformation acquired.
As a result of your Diviransformation into a lesser coatl, you have been sed of all poisons from below the Copper tier.
TJ allowed himself to breathe easy, seeing that this snake-like form he’d somehow gained kept him from dying. Then, he finally allowed himself to take in the information about this new Css he’d mao gain. “That’sss way better than the Ssssssavage’ssss attributessss!” He immediately pined once he say the bonuses from his new Css.
The total number of attributes granted per level of Occupation: Savage is 15. The total number of attributes gained per level of Css: Neophyte at the Dirt Level of Divinity is 16. A deviation of 6.25% is unremarkable at this level.
After a moment’s thought, TJ realized that, of course, the System was correct. Instead of thinking about any perceived injustices he was currently suffering, TJ took the moment to look at himself as best as he could.
His shorts and jacket were still ed around him, though they no longer fit. The “torso” of this snake body was just a little bit smaller than as thick as his neck was, going off of how he fit through his jacket’s nee. If he was to guess, this snake, or coatl body was about 20 feet long, and he experimentally slithered out of his clothes. His new body, as he feared to think of it as, atterned with stripes and scales of varying shades of green and red. As his body unduted, he realized that the serpentine movement came surprisingly easily to him, and TJ curiously stuck his o the rattlesnake’s den. It was a sorry affair, filled with its feces, sour air, and nothing else.
TJ turned his snout up at the hovel the pathetic reptile had occupied and couldn’t help but notice out of the er of his eye a couple of feathers attached to his head. W if he looked like the Kukulkan in his dreams, TJ instead looked at his discarded clothing. What was he going to do about this? “Am I sssstuck assss a ssssJ dreaded to ask.
Your current form as a coatl is due to the activation of your Css Skill: Diviransformation. Most Neophytes fight through the transformation of their bodies, and the duration of the transformation is depe upon an aggregate sum of the Partit’s Endurance, Vitality, Willpower, and Fixation and divided by 4. With your current attributes, you spend up to 14 minutes in a row while uhe influence of your Diviransformation before needing to take twice as long as a recovery period. The duration and limitations of this Skill will ge as the Skill progresses.
Damn. And… what exactly does this Skill do for me?
Author’s note: Yeah, I guess I just ’t keep myself back from freakiiles. It’s funny, this wasn’t at all my pn when I set out to write this story, but here we are. Hope you like this being the way that I incorporate the “ evolve into nonhuman”!
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