Successor of Kukulkan
Chapter 149

What he’d thought was the sewer was much more than the sewers that he knew about. Where pipes had once been the sole reason the earth hadn’t collapsed, now there was a full cavern. Disgusting water dripped from the roof, but TJ couldn’t take the time to evaluate his surroundings. Instead, he threw himself to the side as a deluge of rubble threatened his life. As the deafening sound of falling rocks echoed in the space, TJ looked for his enemy. It remained hidden, but the stones congregated and threw themselves at him again. He dodged to the side, still unable to locate the monster.

The animated rocks flowed like a river towards him, and TJ tried to call on the winds to help him move more quickly. Though it listened to him, there was precious little air in here in the first place. There wasn’t enough for him to do more than get a small boost to his ability to dodge the constant flow of attacks. When no monster showed themself after another flurry of attacks, something else occurred to TJ and he looked at the rocks themselves. Appraising them gave the answer he was looking for.

Cracked Stone Golem, 19 (Copper (I)) 

As he fought against the creature, TJ quickly realized that, not only was this a Copper tier that had most assuredly started as a Copper, like the mountain lion in the Tutorial, it was also an Elite, just like that monster had been. Monster Hunter flooded his body with strength, and, if he’d had shoulders, he would have rolled them in anticipation. Yes, this was what he’d come out here to face. The serpent inside (and outside) gloried in the challenge, in the contest of strength against strength. 

It had no core body, no central nervous system as far as TJ could tell. There wasn’t a part of it that seemed to be even remotely vulnerable, and for the first time, he’d found a monster whose Toughness outclassed his own by a sizable margin. When the creature lunged forward to attack again, TJ continued to dodge, but snatched one of the stones out of the air and bit down on it as hard as he could. 

His teeth complained and his jaw ached, but TJ felt the stone crumble under his attack. As it cracked, the shuddering rock went still and stopped trying to escape from his clutches. When it fell from his mouth, it didn’t join with the rest of the rocks trying to kill him, and the grinding of stone somehow became more shrill and infuriated. The golem had felt that, and it was actively seeking his death. The attacks that had seemed probing before shifted to be much more overwhelming. A burst of gravel like buckshot flew towards him and TJ tried to dodge, only partially successfully. Bowing his head to keep from being blinded, his feathers thankfully kept the worst of the attacks from piercing his skull. 

Scales cracked and TJ groaned as the shower of bullet-velocity rocks smashed into him. Even so, he couldn’t recover, and he rolled over just in time to avoid a solid pillar of stone that smashed down from above. The ground overhead shuddered as he fought to figure out what to do. Here in the golem’s domain, there was precious little his magic could do for him, and though his body had grown immensely in power, there wasn’t much he could do against a creature that was made of stone. 

But would he try to escape from this beast? Of course not. But what could he do? With each frantic dodge, he was sustaining more and more damage from the golems waves of shattered stone, and the walls were closing in. TJ quickly tried to understand what the monster could do. It should have… three Skills? Something allowing it to attack the way it did, something that let it shift stone… what else would it have? There wasn’t time to sit down and puzzle it out. Instead, he continued moving, dodging. The golem’s attacks were overwhelming, but they lacked finesse, and the longer he dodged, the simpler they appeared. 

For all its strength, the Elite was obviously somewhat limited in the mental department. That was more than enough for TJ. After all, each time it smashed a pillar down from above at him, TJ could feel and hear the ground overhead crumbling. The stupid creature was weakening his cell with each of its movements, and it wouldn’t be long before he could fully turn the tides on it. In addition, the winds were excited to follow his command. After all, rocks liked to hold the wind back. He’d show the rocks who was really the strongest, wouldn’t he?

Now that he knew how to provoke pillars from above from the golem, TJ did so. He stayed far enough back that the golem didn’t want to send out another spray of itself, and one, two, three pillars crashed down from above. The third managed to catch his side, and TJ felt ribs be reduced to powder under the stone. But he didn’t focus on that. Instead, he looked at the golem and bared his teeth in a smile of victory. 

With a wordless scream of effort, TJ pulled all the air from the tunnel in the direction of the golem. As it whipped towards him, he leapt up and allowed the wind to bring him up as well. Winds screamed all around him, and TJ continued upwards until he was a couple dozen feet in the air. Stretching, he placed his tail on the ground and kept his head high as hundreds of stones that made up the golem sailed into the sky. Strangely, once a certain amount of the bulk of the golem sailed overhead, hundreds and thousands more rocks followed, even though the wind wasn’t pushing them nearly as hard and the additional rocks were far more than those that had been launched skyward.

There wasn’t any reason to pay attention to that, though. TJ grunted and, spending several thousand MP, created a pillar of wind that smashed the stones down into the ground. There was a horrific crash as thousands of pounds of rock smashed into the ground, cracking on each other and the asphalt of the road. Somehow, a static discharge grew as the stones flew up and down, and in the crater he suddenly created, visible crackles of electricity glimmered. Many of the stones had cracked and lost whatever it was that kept the golem living in the attack. TJ was far from done, though. 

He went to the crater and found the stones that remained quivering. Some tried to push themselves into the ground, to try to escape, but TJ didn’t allow it. With Divine Manifestation empowering Divine Transformation, TJ set about cracking the stones with his body. Glancing at his Status, his Strength was well over 1,000, and he didn’t mind if he needed to replace some teeth after all this. Each time a half dozen stones were launched into his maw, he gnashed his teeth and the stones broke into gravel. The glory of being able to dominate a Copper Elite surged in him, and TJ relished the opportunity. 

As his MP fell nearly to 0, TJ stopped channeling Divine Manifestation, and his body sagged. Even so, he grinned as he got the kill and level notifications.

Class: Storm-Calling Neophyte (Copper (I)) has advanced to level 27.

Attribute points allocated: Strength +7, Agility +6, Endurance +13, Vitality +13, Toughness +11, Wisdom +7, Intelligence +11, Perception +7, Willpower +11, Fixation +13, Free Points +10. Additional Free Points currently available.

Race: Semi-Divine Human (Copper (I)) has advanced to level 27.

Attribute points allocated: Strength +8, Agility +8, Endurance +8, Vitality +13, Toughness +8, Wisdom +8, Intelligence +13, Perception +8, Willpower +8, Fixation +13. Additional Free Points currently available.

Occupation: Savage Shaman (Copper (I)) has advanced to level 27.

Attribute points allocated: Strength +5, Agility +5, Endurance +5, Vitality +5, Toughness +5, Wisdom +12, Intelligence +12, Perception +12, Willpower +12, Fixation +12, Free Points +15. Additional Free Points currently available.

His MP was restored to full, and he allowed Divine Transformation to fade as he looked around. Most of the block around him had been leveled, and TJ suddenly realized he didn’t know if there were any people nearby who’d been killed in the fight. Though he didn’t want that to be the case, he couldn't do anything about it now, and he suspected the golem hadn’t allowed much in the way of other creatures nearby. As the adrenaline of victory faded, TJ felt his mind catch up to the situation he’d just escaped. As he thought about it, he sighed.

If the golem had been just the smallest bit more intelligent, then it wouldn’t have allowed him to get out of the prison, and then, he would have died. If it… TJ felt his heart race in panic. Yes, if it hadn’t continued to let him out the way that it had, he wouldn’t have had a prayer of survival. He made the decision not to transform for a while. Maybe it was that, maybe it was something else entirely, but whatever the case was, TJ wanted to make sure his mind was completely his own as he continued exploring.

Looking around, TJ got the feeling that the rocks that made up the golem were valuable, but he had no idea what he could do with them. Instead of wandering further, he cinched up his backpack’s straps, and began investigating. There were thousands of rocks the golem had controlled, but mere hundreds of them were the monster itself, he quickly realized. Somehow, the golem had been able to extend its reach and control, which made up the stones it used in its explosive shots. When it rolled around like a river of stones, its true body mixed with the rest of the rocks it owned, and it was nearly impossible to tell the real from the extension. 

Now that it was dead, though, TJ could tell the difference. The golem itself had streaks of color going through its stones, as if it had veins of metal within them. Which, now that he thought about it, TJ figured was the case. Could golems have been one of the ancient ways of acquiring stronger, more impactful alloys and metals?

TJ centered himself. His mind was wandering more and more. Why was it so… unfocused? The Wind manipulation filled his thoughts. Was he more flighty because he was indulging in the wind and became more and more like it? That thought concerned him, and TJ thought back over the past couple of days, of his rapidly changing temperament. More and more, he couldn’t trust himself, and, beyond that, he realized that he didn’t care as much about it. After all, if he was getting stronger, wasn’t it worth it to change?

No. 

He’d turned down Overwhelming Origin because it would wash away who TJ was. He refused to become someone and something he wasn’t. It wasn’t worth it if he lost who he was… but was this losing himself or just growing? These concerns and things much like them flooded his mind as TJ gathered up the largest of the particularly dense rocks, placed them in his backpack, and resumed his journey east. After all, he was going to see if there were people who needed his help, and he could, more guilt free, do what he could to gain the Father’s Sacrifice Skill. 

“Hey! Are you ok!” A voice called out to him, giving TJ some measure of hope that he would be able to find someone to protect. Just so long as they didn’t make him want to kill them more than he wanted to help them.

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