TJ's stomach dropped with the insinuation that there was something that they needed him to do. Even so, he stood up and wiped what little remained of his breakfast at the corners of his mouth off. His patchy stubble was coming in, and he could hear Mari's teases about the 'stache ringing around his head. Now that he was somewhere even a little safer, it was surprising how much more his mind could wander.
"Alright. Tell me."
"Walk with me." Zig responded and TJ followed. Stanton too stood while shouting a thank you for the food to nobody in particular before following them out. Zig didn't comment on his presence, and Farid and Seth followed along as well. Their path quickly led them out of the firehouse and towards the general store a hundred yards or so away. At the door stood a man and a woman, the man the level 3 Zealot from the day before and the woman a stranger to TJ. The man held a makeshift club in his right hand and a full coat of chainmail fell over him with a glitter of slight iridescence. The woman didn't react except to nod at Zig and cock her eyebrow at the man.
"Hey Jeff, Sarah. You eaten?" Zig asked as she waltzed right past the two guards.
"Not yet." Sarah responded while Jeff continued to give TJ and Stanton distrustful looks. "The hell's the matter with you?"
"I just don't know about these two."
Zig stepped back out of the store to glare at the guard. He was a somewhat handsome but generic looking guy. Brown hair and eyes, tall, straight teeth, and not in shape, but not fat. Pretty unremarkable person to see throughout the state.
"Two guys, just like us, in the middle of the apocalypse, but instead of being put close to town, they were miles and miles away instead of as close as we were. Now, they're here and happy to work with us to make sure we make it through this "Tutorial". What's the damn problem?"
"Laura Appraised them–they're both at least level 5, which means that they have at least 10 levels between their Class and Occupation. Snake guy TJ here is level 7, which means that he could have a Skill from level 5, 10, and 15. Laura's the only one in town who's been able to get even close to that level, and she's not a fighter. Not meaning a whole lot of offense to you two, but you're dangerous, and the System has said that this is a competition. If you wanted to kill our strongest healer and our leader at the same time, it wouldn't be hard and I don't think any of us could stop you. If you're good guys and are looking to help us, I don't mind if you think I'm an asshole. If you've got bad intentions, then I'll do whatever I can to keep people safe."
As Jeff had begun speaking, TJ felt his blood boil, but as he reached his conclusion, the rage drained away to a sort of appreciation, though TJ still didn't like him.
"Don't know if this'll help," TJ cut in, "but I'm not level 7, but 6. Level 7 in my Class and 5 in my Occupation."
"And it doesn't matter if he isn't!" Zig added. "We're going to work with him for now because the other option is to throw away or hide or hate the most powerful people that we know are in the Tutorial right now! Now get out of the way and shut up!"
The feisty woman didn't say anything more and pulled TJ by the arm into the store. Stanton followed behind, no expression on his mustachioed face. They walked into the store, the lights all out. A couple flashlights were placed in strategic locations to allow for some light to be spilled basically everywhere, but without power or any windows, the building felt more like a cave with aisles than a grocery store. It was small, with maybe six or seven aisles, and nobody was inside that TJ could see.
"Sorry about him." Zig sighed. "He's just… whatever. Not my monkey, not my circus. Not really, at least."
"It's fine. I disagree, but I understand what he's saying."
Zig sighed explosively, blowing her bangs out of her face. TJ changed the topic, "Where's the name Zig come from? I'm assuming it's not the one you were born with."
"Yeah. Go by Zig. Nickname from when I played competitive ultimate frisbee. I've preferred it ever since I got it."
"Something about how you run or something?"
"Something like that." Zig allowed as they turned a corner and there, in front of an empty refrigerator, was a folding table set up as a desk with Laura sitting with a half dozen stacks of paper laid before her.
"Thank you, Zig." Laura said as she looked up from whatever she was writing. "And thank you, TJ and Stanton, for coming."
Last night, between his panic and the darkening skies, TJ hadn't paid much attention to what Laura looked like other than her business attire. Now, lit by several flashlights and a kerosene heater as well as seeming to no longer be afraid at the sight of him, he could get a good measure of the mayor of their Tutorial. She wore no glasses, though TJ felt as if she should have, and her gray eyes were striking, framed by her chocolate skin and curly black hair. Her fingernails were trimmed and well-kept without any polish, and she tapped habitually on the table as she thought over whatever her request was. Again, she wore a pantsuit, this one navy with white stripes over a white button-down shirt.
"Heard you need some help and think we might be your guys."
"Stanton, if you've recovered enough to participate in this journey, then we'd be happy to have you along. Frankly, you were the first person I've healed that was quite so near to passing on, so I can't say what sort of condition you're in at the moment."
"I've been better, but I'm fine. My HP, MP, and Stamina are all recovered and I don't have any afflictions at the moment. Happy to help keep everyone safe."
"I'm glad to hear it. We need to stick together, and every day that passes makes us less and less secure. It is my understanding that the System has said that we will need to defend the town from the creatures' assault before the end of the Tutorial. You two are the strongest fighters we have, except for maybe Zig here. I hope you'll be willing to help us."
TJ nodded, but with a sinking feeling in his gut, he felt like he needed to speak up. "I think we're both willing to help out at least some. I know I am. But… I… I don't care about the rest of you as much as maybe I should."
Laura frowned and leaned forward, but she seemed more curious than anything else.
"Explain."
"I have a son, he's just about three and I'm all he's got left. The System says I'll be able to be with him again if I make it through this Tutorial, so I'll do whatever I can to make it through. I'm willing to help out the town with things that'll help us on that path, but I can't be some captain or leader or hero or anything. My focus is on Junior, and getting back to him. If you're gonna ask me to do something really dangerous because it'll be better for everyone else, I'll feel really bad about it, but I'll have to tell you no."
Laura nodded slowly, digesting his declaration. Stanton didn't say anything either, his face impassive while Zig scowled and looked at TJ.
"That makes sense, and I don't mind it, for now." Laura finally answered after nearly a full minute of contemplating. "Remind me of what the Tutorial's requirements are?"
TJ realized that she was asking the System, not him, but he mentally requested that the System pull up the requirements.
In this Tutorial, Tutorial 107.48.891, the Quest Goals are as follows:
Within two weeks (336 hours) of Integration, enter the city limits of the city Pine, Arizona. Time remaining: NA–you have entered the designated area. Total elapsed time: 72:46:31Within 18 hours of the end of the second week of Integration, defend the Pine, Arizona general store from assault.Defeat the assigned Tutorial Boss.
When he looked at the first Goal, TJ felt like he needed to rub at his eyes. It'd only been three days since he was taken away from his previous life?
"Looking at the requirements," Laura continued, unaware of his realization and struggle to believe, "it seems to me that it's in your best interests to cooperate with everyone else in town. I agree that there are certain assignments that I will want to make that will not necessarily further your explicit goals, so I will hold back from even asking you to complete them. Thus, I will request that you understand that every assignment I ask you to perform will directly improve our chances of succeeding on each one of the Tutorial's Quest Goals."
TJ felt his stomach unknot and nodded. "That's more than fair. Thank you for understanding."
"I'll try. Now, I introduced myself to you last night, but allow me to do so once more. I'm Laura McDougal, and I've become the leader of this town, for now at least. Under normal circumstances, I can't imagine that I would speak about this as candidly as I'm about to, but the reality of the matter is that with 178 people in this small part of one town with no additional food or supplies coming in, we will soon starve. At least, we will if we rely entirely on the food contained within this single store and the nearby homes and buildings. The hunters have been tasked with finding and hunting anything that is edible, but all they've seen so far is a goblin-like thing called a pukwudgie. You mentioned seeing them last night.
"As of yet, we aren't willing to begin eating something like a person, but the time is quickly approaching. In your recounting, you mentioned seeing coyotes and a mountain lion. I can't imagine that we would be able to find those bodies and bring them into town, but they do promise the possibility of finding something worth hunting for food, for now at least."
"Weird you haven't seen any deer or elk." Stanton cut in. "There's usually hundreds of them around here."
"Which brings me to the point of what we would like to ask you to do. We don't have as much water as we need, either, and the sole creek with running water we've found is almost a mile away. Collecting the water and bringing it back to town is intensely difficult, and we still need to boil and clean the water after that as well. In addition, we're making efforts to collect all the food, perishable and otherwise, that we can from the surroundings. All the houses within the half mile or so that the monsters don't seem to enter have been scoured clean, and we need to find every additional source of food that we can."
"Is it a half mile from the center of town, or from this store?"
"I'd imagine it's this store. The Tutorial has assigned it some measure of intrinsic value due to our Quest Goals. There is also the not insignificant possibility that the safe area will shrink or altogether disappear at some point."
"So you need people to get water and to keep searching for food." TJ completed the meandering conversation. "I'm fine to go with one of the teams searching for food. Stanton, what are you planning on doing?"
"I'll go with the water team. Taking care of a group holding a position is a good fit for my abilities."
"There you have it."
"Great. Now, before you go, would you two tell me your Classes, Occupations, and Bloodlines, as well as any powerful or potentially impactful abilities they give you? Also, any other abilities you have that may assist the rest of the town would be greatly appreciated."
"Why do you need to know that?" Stanton asked, his eyebrows raising nearly all the way up to his hat.
"I am in charge of 178 people, and every person is assisted by knowledge. I am compiling, explaining, and working however I can to ensure that we all make it out of this hell alive. For your information, I am a Disciple level 5, Bureaucrat level 5. My Bloodline comes from the African goddess Inkosazana, and I am limited almost entirely to healing and to running some semblance of a civilization. Is that a sufficient answer?"
Stanton merely grunted and TJ broke the growing tension.
"TJ Harris, Neophyte 7, Savage 5." Zig didn't hide a quiet hissing breath at the name of his Occupation. "The Savage occupation mostly means that I was taken outside of civilization when I was left here. It's why I don't have real shoes, because I get a bonus to my attributes when fighting if I don't have equipment from before the Integration when I fight. Normal clothes don't count, but the shoes do."
"Stanton. Acolyte 6, Druid 4." Of course, the old man didn't offer any more information, nor did Laura request it. Then, after Laura asked a couple questions, the two men walked out of the store and into the light of day with Zig behind them.
"Stanton, go with Nat's group. It's her turn to lead the water team. TJ, you're with me. Let's see if we can't find some food, huh?"