"Garath," said Sharon. The nameplate hovering above her read Sharon#142, which Garath found amusing. He was taken back though, how did his seventy-whatever-year-old neighbor know his gamertag? Before he could ask, she just continued talking in her shaking and raspy, old-lady voice, "can we come in? Why are your eyes glowing?"
"Yeah, come in. Glowing? What do you mean glowing?"
Sharon was a salty old bitch that would probably take offense to being described in any other way. She was sweet deep down, probably. She'd always been nice to Garath at least, brought him leftovers and reminded him to clean his place up, get a real job, and leave his apartment once in a while. In return, he helped her bring groceries up to the thirteenth floor and move heavy things like a jar of peanut butter whenever she texted him. It was a good neighbor relationship as far as Garath was concerned.
"I mean glowing. Like you've got lightbulbs jammed in there or something. I don't know how else you want me to describe it, young man. They're fucking glowing."
She entered his messy apartment and found a seat on the lumpy couch, closest to the cat-tree where Garath's cat, Tarzan, had been sleeping soundlessly. When the old bird plopped down, Tarzan spilled off the cat-tree and into her geriatric lap.
Entering after Sharon came Mark. Mark was a banker of some kind or another that lived down the hall. The portly banker flashed Garath a nervous greeting, smiling awkwardly as he side-stepped past the Necrologist and scuttled into the living room. Warrion loped through the doorway after Mark. Warrion wasn’t his real name of course, that was his gamertag. Garath knew that because they had talked about the games they were playing on the elevator from time to time, but it was also the name displayed over his head, above his Health and Mana bars . For some reason, Garath couldn't remember his neighbors given name. Warrion slipped him an awkward high five before taking his seat next to Sharon and scratching Tarzan on the head. Lastly, Sarah entered. She was the neighbor Garath always smiled at, but never talked to. She was in her mid-twenties, gorgeous, and unapproachable. And now she was standing awkwardly in his apartment. His very, very messy apartment that probably smelled like a cannabis dispensary.
‘I really wish I wasn't this stoned…’ he thought for the fourteenth time since his neighbors had entered his apartment, or was it the fifteenth?
"So, I take it you guys got the same message I did?" he asked his neighbors while leaning against the kitchen counter, across the dark room from his lumpy, currently overpopulated couch. The light from the stars and moon was repressed by the blanket of dark clouds and obscured further by the heavy precipitation, he could barely make out the forms of his uninvited company.
"Yes," Sharon confirmed bitterly. "What the shit is this all about, young man?" she accused, her voice shaking under the strain of simply being old.
"What in THE hell makes you think I would know, grandma?"
"It’s just that,” offered Sarah, “we were all talking in the hall and this looks kind of like a game. Aren’t you..."
"A total nerd?" he finished for her.
"I wasn't going to say it like that..."
"It's fine, I'm good with it. But I'm just as in the dark about this as the rest of you. Anyone know what time it is? I stopped wearing a watch, because I have a cell phone... that doesn't work now."
"The UI has an internal clock," Warrion told him. "Just open your MENU, top right."
Garath focused on the word MENU again and the panels appeared, hovering in a semi-transparent half-circle in front of him. Sure enough, there was a digital clock displayed in a boxy font in the top right corner of his vision. "8:43PM. Did you guys see the second message about a new age starting at 3AM?"
"Yeah, and if this is anything like the games I've played..." Warrion started.
"Then monsters," Garath finished for him.
"Then monsters," Warrion agreed.
Sharon, still stroking the purring Tarzan in her lap choked on her cough drop. "What do you mean monsters?"
"Monsters, like... I dunno. Maybe zombies or demons or something that will attack you on sight," Garath offered helpfully.
"They'd better not," Sharon said threateningly.
Mark, who had been standing next to Garath silently walked across the room and sank into the couch beside Warrion, then sighed heavily. He was so close to getting a promotion... The sad, pudgy man just stared into space through rimless glasses, desperately hoping to wake up from this nightmare.
"Are you going to tell us why your eyes are all glow-y?" Sarah asked.
Garath thought for a second, he remembered his little panel avatar and how its eyes began to glow after choosing Necrologist but his eyes didn’t feel any different so he had just assumed that was part of the avatar. "I'm not positive, but I think when I chose my class it made some real changes to my body. Here look at this," he said, then pulled his Profile page up and turned to show everyone. "Can you see this?" he asked with his pointer finger touching his avatar.
Warrion leaned closer and reached toward the open air Garath was gesturing to. "Your panels are right there?"
"Hey! Don't touch my panels." Garath pulled away defensively.
"We can't even see… whatever it is you're pointing at," said Sarah from the love seat, folding her arms and releasing an exasperated sigh.
There was so much more to learn about this UI, about the skills available. Testing to do, abilities to try - ideally BEFORE this new 'age of Earth' started. Garath temporarily lost his patience. He was hoping to get answers from his neighbors but instead they were overwhelming him with questions.
"Listen, you guys are welcome to hang out here and debate the why's and how's or whatever, but if we're right," he gestured to Warrion, "and monsters are going to start appearing at four, then I want to be prepared. So I'm going to go hang out in my room and see if I can learn a thing or two about how to deal with them. There's beers in the fridge, but I wouldn't have too many... We may be in for a very interesting morning."
Without awaiting a response, the Necrologist turned and left the unwanted company sitting in his living room. Just before he made it around the corner, a thought occurred to him and he turned back to face his neighbors again.
"Sharon, don't pick your Class yet. Let me do a little research and I'll help you with it okay?"
Before she could answer he turned around again, stopping at the bathroom on his way to his bedroom. He fumbled around in complete darkness, quickly throwing the dirty laundry that was sprawled across the floor into the empty hamper then sprayed a can of Febreeze in every direction – end of the world or not, a man has to stick to his principles. And one of Garath’s principles was to always, always clean up the bathroom if a pretty girl was in his house. Tarzan scuttled silently behind Garath into the bedroom. The brand spanking new Necrologist shut the door, popped an Adderall, and got to work.
Chapter 3
Discovery
The door shut behind the Necrologist and he looked down at Tarzan. The fluffy, black, oversized house cat looked right back up at him and sat with her tail wrapped around her body.
"Awesome. I've been making eyes at Sarah for months," he said to the feline brushing affectionately against his leg, "...and now she's in my apartment and I'm like," he raised the pitch of his voice mockingly, "I'm going to my room!"
When he made eye contact with the cat, he quickly realized that something had changed. Her typically lazy demeanor was gone, replaced with an intensity of some kind that he didn't understand. As they held each other’s gaze, Garath felt an odd sensation at the back of his mind, a kind of click as the dots connected in his subconscious mind. A new prompt appeared in his mind's eye.
Congratulations Garath! You have unlocked your first BeastScape form - House Cat.
He focused to open his MENU, below the option for Profile, he found the line reading BeastScape. He focused on the option and it expanded to fill the left panel, encompassing a third of his visual range.
BeastScape - Shape Shifting
&n
bsp; The ability to take the form of a beast. When in beast form, your skills and abilities may vary.
BeastScape Forms
House Cat
+150% sense of smell
+250% sense of hearing
+300% dark vision
-95% sense of taste
Form Size: Tiny (+150% to all damage received in this form)
Note: You have unlocked a BeastScape form that is synergistic with your chosen Class. House cats have been used by witches for centuries as a familiar to channel spells. All Mana costs are reduced by 20% while in House Cat form.
‘Didn't see that coming. I kind of wish I had a pet bear or something,’ he thought with a laugh as he sank into his bed.
He focused on the House Cat icon to see if any additional information would present itself - but none did.
‘I'll get to that later. Shape shifting into a house cat is probably not going to help me much against monsters…’ Tarzan meowed haughtily at him. ’Did you hear me thinking that?’
He dismissed that thought with another laugh and willed the BeastScape panel closed, then focused on the Skills icon listed on the center MENU panel. An elaborate Skill tree took the place that the BeastScape partition had occupied on the left panel.
The Skill Tree was split into three sub-panels, one for each school of magic he would have access to as a Necrologist. From left to right they read Death, Blood, and Demonology. At the bottom of each section a glowing circle shined brightly. Each school offered one starting spell and, as Garath's eyes panned over each of the illuminated Skills, more information presented itself.
Death Bolt
Active
Cost: 10 Mana (.09x Base Mana)
30 Meter Range
1 Second Cast
Effect: Send a bolt of entropic energy at your target, dealing 3-4 (Death) damage (.4 X Wisdom Attribute).
Summon Flayer
Summoned Creature - Demon
Cost: 36 Mana (.4x Base Mana)
3 Second Cast
1 Minute Cooldown
*Additional Cost: Tainted Soul*
Effect: Summon a Flayer (maximum: 1) from the outskirts of Hell itself. The Flayer will aid you in battle for up to one hour before returning to Hell.
Note: By summoning this demon, you have plucked it from its home. The magic of this spell will force it to follow your commands but Flayers are opportunistic and will betray you if given the chance. To reduce the chance of mutiny, anchor summoned Flayer to Earth by casting Blood Ties in its presence. For additional information see the Summoned Creatures partition of your MENU.
*Tainted Soul: the form containing your soul is soiled.
Blood Ties
Active
Cost: 77 Mana (.85x Base Mana)
1 Meter Range
10 Second Cast
10 Minute Cooldown
*Additional Cost: Tainted Soul*
Effect: Binds targeted Summoned Creature to your realm, and to you personally.
Note: When binding a Demonic creature to this realm, the lifeblood of the caster and that of the Summoned Creature are also bound - slightly altering the characteristics of each.
*Tainted Soul: the form containing your soul is soiled.
It seemed like a pretty standard - albeit a little ominous - set of starting spells to Garath and he internally debated which to try first. He looked around the room and decided it probably wasn't the best place to start hurling magic around or summoning demons that may or may not attack him. He willed the MENU panels to close and they vanished, leaving him staring at the ceiling in his bedroom.
"Hey, you wanna head up to the roof?" he asked the black ball of fluff dozing beside him on the bed. Tarzan looked up, cocking her head to one side thoughtfully. Though the large black cat had always seemed to listen when he spoke, the comprehension and intensity in her eyes was new - and a bit startling. He stood and, just before opening the door to the rest of his shoddy little apartment, remembered that he had company. He looked again at Tarzan and considered the shape shifting aspect, 20% reduced Mana cost was nothing to sneeze at - taking 150% increased damage wasn't ideal, but Garath figured it would probably be easier to avoid attacks with the nimble, athletic form of a cat and decided to give it a go.
"BeastScape," he said aloud, rolling the word around in his mouth. "Well... this should be safe enough to try in here."
He focused and opened his MENU panels once again, taking note that a new icon had appeared below BeastScape that read Summoned Creatures. Maybe after I turn myself into a house cat, he thought.
Garath re-read what he had seen just after unlocking his first BeastScape from but couldn't find any kind of instruction on how to pull it off. He focused again on the icon for House Cat, still nothing. Finally, he looked down at the cat standing on the bed. She was watching him intently, the tip of her tail slowly flicking.
As their eyes met, he resisted the urge to look away from the new-found intensity of those yellow orbs, instead looking harder into them. The click he had felt just before the prompt appeared to notify him of the new form happened again, this time followed by a pricking sensation on the back of his neck. The Necrologist and the feline held the gaze and the tickling on his neck began to spread. Within seconds, his whole back was tingling, then his limbs. The sensation continued to spread over his head and to his front. When his whole body was consumed by the feeling, he began to feel himself changing. As much as he wanted to look down to see what was happening, he somehow knew to continue looking into Tarzan's eyes until, instead of looking down at her standing on the bed, he was looking up to her on the bed. Her penetrating eyes relaxed and she almost seemed to nod approvingly.
*About time...* said the cat, her enchanting voice echoing with sarcastic boredom in Garath's befuddled mind.
He looked down and saw two furry white paws, he felt the carpet below and awed at the comforting sensation of spreading his toes as he kneaded his sharp claws into it. Never in his life had he felt so sure of himself, so athletic and powerful. The muscles in his hind legs coiled as he prepared to leap onto the bed, tightening then releasing in a quick burst. He overshot his mark, flailing wildly in the air. As he began to descend, his body twisted and lurched instinctively to land on his feet.
"Meoooooowww," he meowed. Oh for fuck sake, he thought.
*Don't meow... do you really think that is how cats communicate? We meow to get the attention of humans, so they will feed us or clean our litter box or let us inside... or outside,* Tarzan explained, her entire tail flicking now with irritation.
*Tarzan?* he asked, projecting his thoughts outward.
*Now he's got it...*
*This is so weird,* he said.
Garath walked in tight circles on the bed in an attempt to get a better look at himself and noticed the lack of light was far less inhibiting to his new, feline eyes. From what he could see, his whole body was a smooth white and seemed miniscule standing next to the fluffy, black behemoth next to him. *Tarzan, you're huge.*
*I am not huge, G. I am a maine coon... and you aren't much bigger than a kitten.*
‘Seriously? I acquire the power to shape shift and my only form is a (probably adorable) white kitten. At least it’ll be fucking precious when I cast Death Bolt,’ he thought to himself. ‘Speaking of…’
The Culling of Man: A litrpg adventure (Peril's Prodigy Book 1) Page 2