SoK Chapter 196

First, TJ checked the description of Storm Serpent. Despite the Skill having grown to Silver, there wasn’t any change in the description, which wasn’t much of a surprise. Even so, it bore to check. Once the System verified as much, he moved on to the other two Skills. 

Skill: Stormcaller, (Silver (II)): You have embraced the storm and, with it, the Divine Authority of Storm. Some Divine Authorities are nearly or entirely omnipresent, while Storm, a violent, encompassing force, is fleeting and overwhelming. Those with a Divine Authority must have the capability to summon, create, and influence the concept, domain, or aspect that their Divine Authority encapsulates. Stormcaller allows its holder to create a storm in their vicinity that serves as a Storm for the purposes of Divine Authority and any other Skills. To create the storm, you sacrifice any amount of your current HP, MP, and Stamina over the course of any time longer than one minute. The strength, longevity, potency, and range of influence of the storm created is dependent upon how long you spend calling and channeling the storm, as well as how many resources you put into the creation of the storm. The Storms created can last for up to three days through creation with the Silver (II) tiered Stormcaller Skill.

Skill: Storm Soul (Silver (II)): You have seized a Divine Authority as a Dirt (0) tiered Participant, and your soul has been moulded by that Authority. Beyond that, you evolved to a Storm Coatl, a serpent known to create and thrive within the hostile bounds of storms. Storm Soul is the manifestation of that influence. While within the domain of a Storm, you can draw on the Storm to replenish your resources, weakening the domain in exchange for your own recovery. While within the domain of a Storm, your resource recovery will passively be tripled. NOTE: This bonus to resource recovery is in addition to the bonus to resource recovery granted by Divine Authority.

Neither of the Skills changed so significantly that he was surprised, but, despite the buff to Storm Soul, going from doubling his recovery rate to tripling his recovery while within a storm, one thing stuck out to TJ over everything. The inclusion of the greater length of time that Stormcaller could now be used to create storms reminded him of the ever-changing scope of time that having the System with grant. With each new tier that somebody reached, their lifespan would expand, until, at even the lowest levels of divinity, true divinity, a person was immune to the passage of time. Somehow, he remembered that Ruthenium was the name for the seventh tier, and at Ruthenium, a Participant became a god.

Yes, there were six more tiers of existence for him to pass through before he got to that, but he wasn’t about to set his sights on anything less than the highest tiers. His original, primary motivation for progressing was to protect himself, and those who cared about, most especially his son. A toddler would die in the apocalypse, so TJ would protect his son. And if there were going to be assholes like Sven nearby, then TJ was going to need to be strong enough to keep every threat to him and his people away. More, that was saying nothing of any monsters that continue to grow stronger. The System has stated specifically that in certain places, there were already Gold tiered enemies that he couldn’t do anything to. It didn’t matter if they were the weakest of Gold tiers, TJ was confident that even if there were 1000 of him fighting together, he wouldn’t have a prayer of harming even a hair on a Gold.

TJ sighed, refocusing on the present, even with the greater lengths of eternity spread out before him. Even with this change in long-term perspective looming and refusing to be forgotten, TJ had a self-imposed timeline, as well as the one presented by the System. At this point, he only had something like 65 days until the next System-sanctioned event, but he’d wanted to be Silver by the time 100 days had passed. 35 of those days had passed, and he’d only gained 5 levels in his Class and Occupation each. This was an embarrassment that he’d spent so much time doing so little.

His desire to reach Silver before those 100 days passed was only slightly to help him with whatever the System’s event was. Instead, it was mostly because 100 days meant that a full day had passed to Junior’s perception. Yes, he himself would have changed immensely in that time, but that was an arbitrary decision that he made to try to ensure his son wasn’t left behind. If Junior forgot him, TJ wouldn’t be able to continue on his path forward.

TJ looked around, noticing the morning’s light shining around him, and rubbed at his eyes. He’d spent the entire night awake, fiddling with the new blade he made, this unfinished product that’d gotten him another level. Luz was waking up and TJ was going to be spending the day busy, though he wasn’t sure yet just how specifically. He’d need to test out this new ritual with some of his people, and he wasn’t going to forget that he needed to dedicate himself to gaining levels. He understood that the System granted a condensed level-gaining experience in the Tutorial, but he would work to keep from losing the advantage he already had. 

Thinking of this new ritual, for the first time, TJ truly understood how a Disciple could become the head of a pantheon and rule convincingly. With Skills like this, focused on ritualism and passing out strength while serving as a nexus for their pantheon, Disciples could become a painfully difficult opponent as they bolstered everyone around them to greater heights while also protecting their followers. A nearly unkillable god who gave portions of their divinity to their devoted fellows in their pantheon would be impossible to face and survive. But that wasn’t his current goal, nor was it a foe he currently needed to face. Instead, he needed to ensure that he could be ready for the power leveling that he was about to put himself through.

Before long, TJ rose and walked out, speaking with the people in his little town while checking with each to see if there was anything that needed his attention. It was strange how naturally the action came to him, given that TJ hadn’t ever been much of a leader. Even now, he didn’t think of himself as a particularly competent core of this community, but even so, he needed to be. Each day, each moment, it was re-impressed on TJ that he needed to change. Strangely, unlike every time in the past when he’d been forced to change, he wasn’t uncomfortable with the weight of responsibility settling over his shoulders and pressing on his chest. Maybe he’d always been meant to be a leader, or maybe he was being changed by something, but whatever the case was, TJ was no longer the ordinary man from before the Integration. It was obvious, it was stupid to think anything otherwise, but even so, despite the frequency with which the thought crossed his mind, TJ couldn’t believe how far he’d come.

“Mr. Storm Serpent, sir!“ Sarah called him without a lick of sarcasm.

“Yes, Sarah?”

“What’s the plan for today? How can I be less of a bump on a log and help us to actually make sure that we’re not going to get killed by the next monster that comes looking? Sir.”

“Sarah, I need you to stop with this ’sir’ nonsense. If you want to call me by a title, I guess you can call me ‘Storm Serpent’, but unless we’re interfacing with some other group of people, I’d really prefer you call me by my name.”

“Yeah, I would too, but there’s something about being a Valkyrie that’s making me more and more want to do this. I’ve masked it with teasing and sarcasm before, but honestly, it’s getting harder to call you anything other than sir or my Lord, or things like that.” Sarah‘s face twisted a little bit in confusion or frustration, and she shrugged helplessly.

“I don’t think it’s a Valkyrie thing.“ Seth interrupted as he strode closer. “I’m willing to bet that being an Avenger doesn’t make me more respectful towards any deities, and yet I feel the same way. Maybe the way that you’re feeling about it is heightened by the fact that you have a Class focused on devotion, but it’s hard for me to think of TJ as anything other than my leader and my ruler, even though you’ve been my friend.”

“Huh. That’s… a little worrying.“ TJ scratched at his jawline, his sparse stubble coming in more thickly than before, he realized.

“Why is it a problem if people feel like they should respect you? Do you feel like you shouldn’t be respected or something?“ Sarah asked with a chuckle.

“I’m not thinking about myself. I’m thinking about Sven and people like him. Is this going to make everybody who enters the New Republic fanatical? How is this changing him? Sure, the guy is an asshole, but was he always? His Bloodline is one of a serpent that was supposed to destroy the world. How much of what he’s done that we all hate came not from him, but from whatever it is that's making you feel this way? Is he going to get worse, more aggressive?“

The group went silent as they entertained the possible reality of TJ‘s fears. There were plenty of possible events to occur if these changes were going to continue happening, and the first one that TJ focused on was the impact of a leader on their followers. So long as the person in charge was good, kind, or benevolent, their people would become more so, right? With how he was now, TJ couldn’t honestly call himself good, at least by pre-Integration standards. Sven, though, he was a tyrant, and on top of that a King! If he hadn’t already made himself a Nascent Deity, he would soon, and however that paired with a tyrannical Bloodline and an Occupation focused on the monarchical rule of his people, it was going to be a lot worse than whatever TJ’d already feared.

“I need to get moving. I can’t let Sven be even close to my level. Sarah, how do you feel about working on clearing out a swamp?”