Though it would take another hour for his MP to recover to full, TJ knew he needed to take the time to work on the barricades. Not only was it so that he could be seen working for the benefit of the town as a whole, but also because he had a sneaking suspicion that building things like barricades would help him to gain experience for Savage. Since he wasn't felling the trees himself, and those that were were using axes, saws, and tools from before the Integration, TJ could feel that he was gaining a reduced amount of experience. That said, with fewer than three days remaining before this final siege, TJ wanted every last level he could manage to seize for himself.
Opening his eyes and looking around, TJ could see the sun directly overhead. There weren't any clouds, much less a hint of a storm coming, and TJ hoped he could figure something out about how to ensure he would have some level of Storm cover for the final siege. He supposed he could just do a long Stormcalling the day before, but would that be worth more than killing more monsters and maybe getting another level? TJ walked towards the nearest construction crew while doing the mental math of how he could achieve a 24 hour, weak Storm for the final siege.
"Life over there! We're using these branches to lock together, so stop futzing with them!" Peter was shouting at the rest of the team hauling the massive log into position. "No, the branches go facing out! We cleared out this side so if any of the monsters get close, they have to struggle through the branches. Yes. the outside, not the inside, you know, the part that's facing OUT. There. Yes. Now drop it here. No, I'll take care of it. You just go prepare one just like this and bring it here. Hopefully, by then, you've learned your lesson."
As he finished speaking, the other three men grumbled but dropped the 40 foot log. Its branches had, just like Peter said, been stripped off half of it, the others facing one side, like a giant, long green hedgehog.
"Can you give me a quick hand here?" Peter asked TJ. "I know you've got better things to do, but I just need to take care of this without putting out my other eye."
"I can do you one better than a quick hand. I'll help you out for the next hour, how's that sound?"
"Can you?" Peter asked, hope glimmering in his remaining eye. His glassy right eye didn't move, maybe unable to, but his left eye maintained eye contact with TJ. "It's hard to do this with half my vision, even if I've gotten a little better."
"Course. Between the two of us, I think we can get this figured out."
"Great." Peter smiled an exhausted smile. "I'm glad I ended up with this Occupation, now that this all is happening."
"Builder or something?"
"Not or something. Just 'Builder'."
"How'd you end up with that?" TJ grunted as he hauled back on the trunk of the tree. The damned thing was heavy, even with his immense Strength.
"Was helping out with some stuff when we were first here in town. My old company, Build-Wright, is probably long gone now, but I guess it's all the same, since we've still got a Builder and a Wright." Peter scoffed as he pointed at himself, clearly not believing the positive spin he put on things.
"Ok then, Mr. Wright." TJ answered. "What do you need me to do?"
The next hour passed in a blur as TJ followed Peter's instructions. With Savage guiding some of his movements and an experienced contractor at his side, they made good progress. By the time it was time for lunch, they'd made a wall over 100 feet long and about chest high. It was far from complete and only a little more sturdy than a regular stack of logs, but Peter assured TJ that it was only a matter of the rest of the afternoon to double the length and strength of the wall. TJ couldn't do anything but take his words at face value, but he believed the man's words and the faint trickle of experience that brought him over to Savage 18.
Occupation: Savage has advanced to level 18.
Attribute points allocated: Strength +1, Agility +1, Endurance +2, Vitality +1, Toughness +2, Wisdom +1, Intelligence +1, Perception +2, Willpower +2, Fixation +1, Free Points +1.
Though he'd been told that the Occupation's experience gain was reduced somewhat, TJ was seeing the benefits of the nearly universal opportunities for Savage to gain experience. Building a wall? Experience. Killing some monsters? Experience. Making some moccasins? Experience. That all paired with the small but noteworthy bonus for all experience for his Occupation gained from his Irregular Title made for a comparatively quick level gained. TJ threw the additional Free Point into Intelligence and went to eat lunch. On his way there, he finally came to the decision of what it would take to ensure that he had the benefits of Storm for the entire 18 hours of the siege.
Assuming he needed four hours of sleep and meditation afterwards, he'd need a total of 22 hours resulting from Stormcaller, and he didn't want to do anything that would inhibit the rest of the defenders, so he'd need to stop the Stormcalling right after it crossed another multiple, so he'd take it to the one minute past something. Then, with the four hours of couple regeneration combined with Meditation, he could, effectively, spend the entirety of his resources, leaving behind just 100 or so in each. As his attributes were right now, that meant, if he left 100 in HP and Stamina while leaving only 60 in MP, that would be 2,580 seconds, or 43 minutes. 22 hours was 1320 minutes, divided by 43 was a bit over 30.5. That meant that TJ needed to have 31 times 5 minutes, or 305 minutes, which was five hours and five minutes. Or, six minutes, given the additional minute necessary to make it a Storm that wouldn't blind everyone else.
The siege was set to begin at 8 AM, so that minus the 4 hours of rest and the five hours of channeling, he'd need to begin right before 11 PM, though 10:30 would probably be better. Having done so much mental math had TJ surprised at himself and his heightened mental acuity. He'd never been a slouch, able to do most multiplication with a couple digits in his head, but he'd worked all these calculations while keeping up idle conversation with Peter and building the wall.
Shaking his head at the almost unnoticeable changes to his mind from the Integration and all these new Attributes, TJ grabbed a plate and was surprised by what he'd been offered. It seemed like Stanton was better learning how to make vegetables sprout, somehow, as there was a small salad available for each person. Though it was plain spinach with a light dressing, TJ devoured the four bites he got.
It had been almost two weeks with poor nutrition at this point, though it was obvious that, as everyone's Vitality, Endurance and just levels in general increased, poor nutrition had much less of an impact than it had before the Integration. Even so, nobody turned away at the sight of the healthy greens, and as Stanton walked in and looked at everyone enjoying the products of his work, he smiled in a small, satisfied way.
"You just using magic or something on seeds?" TJ asked when Stanton approached.
Stanton grunted, and when TJ rolled his eyes, Stanton replied with that same self-satisfied smile. "It's part that, part Lifeblooms. I help 'em along, but it's mostly the blooms, if I'm honest."
"Huh." TJ responded as he set to eating the javelina steak that remained. After the salad, it wasn't nearly so disappointing to eat the gamey, samey meat. It was still the same food he'd been eating for the past week and a half, but with something else to accompany it, TJ could manage without it turning his stomach. Where the energy from eating at least one javelina or something similarly sized in coatl form every day went, TJ couldn't say. At least he didn't need to eat that much every day, so far as he could tell. It was difficult to say, in honesty, because from the limited information TJ had, most snakes didn't have to eat more than once or twice a month. Now, as a coatl, he'd eaten hundreds of pounds of prey, and there didn't seem to be any sign of him needing, or even wanting, to stop.
Instead of getting fat, though, that mass seemed to be gradually getting pushed into his size as a coatl. If he wasn't mistaken, he'd begun the Tutorial as a snake about half as long as he was now. On top of that, he'd been pretty thin as a 20 foot snake, about as thick as a man's clenched fist. How much he could have weighed, he had no idea, but he guessed maybe a little bit more than he had as a human, so less than 200 pounds. Now, he was at least half a foot thick, and his head had grown more and more draconic instead of snakelike, and it was thus significantly heavier to complement his Shredding Bite. TJ had no scale or other weighing implement to verify his theory, but his guess was that he weighed over 800 pounds now, assuming he'd doubled in size in each dimension.
"You want help out there?" Stanton asked as TJ scarfed down the last of his lunch.
"I'm focusing on killing as many as fast as I can." TJ replied with a shrug. "I have a couple Skills that I can get to work in tandem now, and I just want to do as much as I can as fast as I can. Doing it, though, makes me a bit of a one minute warrior. I'd guess you'd do more with a fully established team, since I'm just focused on finding groups of powerful monsters and exterminating them all before coming back here to rest. I killed almost 30 javelinas and pukwudgies in about two minutes a couple hours ago."
Stanton grunted, though more pensively than usual. "Couldn't you do that same thing with a team in just a bit more time? Then you wouldn't be back here out of commission for a couple hours."
TJ shrugged. "It gives me experience with all these new Skills, and I can do something nobody else can. Beyond that, getting back here and working on the walls is giving me experience for Savage. Just got a level and everything."
Stanton grunted, cocking his eyebrow in disbelief. The old cowboy continued looking at TJ like that until, nearly a full minute later, the silence was too much.
"Yeah, I like the excuse to be alone, ok?"
Stanton nodded knowingly. TJ merely shook his head in reply. Stanton spoke up, still smiling. "I guess that's enough. I think you've got more Lone Ranger in you than you thought."
"Sure." TJ shook his head. "But I won't have any allies outside of wherever we end up, if it's outside of the Tutorial. I'm willing to bet I'm taken back home, or at least where I was before the Integration occurred. I don't know anyone who lives nearby around here, and any neighbors I did know weren't particularly close. If they're going to stick their necks out for me when it might be them or me… well I wouldn't believe it. I think I'll be alone again after the Tutorial, and I need to understand myself and everything I can do before that happens and I still have somewhere safe to get back to."
Stanton tapped his nose at TJ, and the younger man sighed. "Yes, you're so wise, or whatever. You got any more spinach or vegetables for me before I go?"
"No favoritism, I'm afraid."
TJ grunted in response and left his plate where it was, seeing one of Penny's fellow Attendants approaching to clean off the table. After all, his MP was basically full at this point, and he was ready to go out for another blitz hunt. If he was quick enough, he might just be able to get three in before nightfall, then spend the evening helping with the wall and then making something with the Tezcatlipoca-blessed mountain lion hide.
His plan for the rest of the day made, TJ rolled his shoulders, walked past the wall, and jogged off to find his next prey.