The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2)

by Craig Kobayashi

  Private Message from Garath to Warrion; +202 other recipients - 00/00/07 @ 17:11 (GST):

  Thanks, Warrion. Nice job. Hang out for a few minutes, Athios and I will come relieve you. Let us know if anything changes.

  "I could get us over there in less than a minute. You have something in mind for the next few minutes?" Athios asked.

  "Actually,” Garath said, scratching at his tangle-mess of black curls with one hand. “I wanted to talk to you about something else. "

  "Oh god,” Athios said, sighing. She laughed weakly. “Just don't tell me that you actually have a girlfriend that you conveniently haven't mentioned until now, and that you're holding out hope that she is somehow alive. That you’ll search to the ends of the Earth to find her. Or maybe him?”

  Garath laughed openly at the thought of that doormat trope. Hashtag nope. "No, it's nothing like that. Actually, it's about the Dungeon…"

  He went on to tell her about the Harbinger's Assembly and Alice. He listed out the Lore Keeper's group requirements for Athios line by line. The two of them decided to talk it over as they headed south to relieve Warrion's boredom.

  "That all makes sense,” Athios said. “Especially the group composition requirements. It sounds like the big-d Dungeons are like a standard ten-man Raid. And she thinks we should all be at least Level 30 with a full set of gear?" asked Athios. She pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt as the rain picked up. "If she’s already been there then I guess she’d know better than us, but who is this Alice anyways?"

  "You know..." Garath replied, his face taking on a pensive look as he thought about it. "I really wish I knew. The Harbinger's Assembly has its own set of forums and she seems to have something like admin authority there. She said that, as a Lore Keeper, she wouldn't take up a Party slot but that she could still attend. Apparently she's willing to share the information she gathered on previous attempts. Which leads me to believe that she has accompanied people that have gone in, and then died in there. Yet somehow, she made it out alive. I'm not sure how to feel about it, really."

  "That is a bit strange, isn't it?” Athios asked. “Do you think we can trust her?”

  "I don't know. I think so. I mean, I definitely get the feeling that she has her own agenda but I'm also pretty sure that her agenda aligns with my agenda,” Garath said. He paused to think about it. “At least for now.”

  "Our agenda," corrected Athios.

  Garath smiled as they walked, putting his hands in the pockets of his worn-out jeans and tossing his wet hair out of his face. "Right. Our agenda. Level 30, full set of Class appropriate gear, and a balanced group composition. I think we should comply."

  "I guess we've got some work to do then," Athios said.

  "We sure freaking do. Oh!" Garath said, unconsciously picking up the pace in his excitement. "I haven't told you yet! About my friends heading this way. They were already heading to Vy'thishrak when we got in touch. They were hoping to join a group when they got there. I played Frozen Throne with three of them. The fourth one I don't know but Auto vouched for him. He’s a healer."

  Athios paused as she processed everything he'd just said. "Auto?"

  "Yeah Auto! Ha!” he laughed as he tried to think of the least lame way to explain his relationship with Auto. “He’s an old friend, kind of. I’ve never actually met him. But we were on a PvP arena team back in the day and kicked some serious ass. After that we kept in touch through different games for almost ten years. It may sound stupid, but he’s actually the closest thing I’ve ever had to a best friend.”

  Least lame way to put it, Garath thought to himself as they reached the north end of the Guild Hall. Nailed it.

  “It doesn’t sound stupid,” she said seriously. “I can actually kind of relate to that. It’s always been easier for me to be myself behind a keyboard.”

  People were already gathering near the old school building's north doorway. Garath and Athios nodded and waved as they passed.

  “Well," Garath continued as they walked past the building and onto the asphalt that had once housed outdoor basketball courts on the south end of BoTH HQ, "their group wants to join us to take the Dungeon. Between those four, you and me, and the growing list of hopefuls that have messaged me since our little town hall meeting, we have almost 20 people that want to join the Dungeon team."

  "That's great," Athios said. "Isn't it?"

  "It is," Garath agreed. The Necrologist pointed as the World Boss came into view, plodding its steady path north. "But the Dungeon has a 10-person maximum.”

  “I think I see the problem.”

  “I don’t know what to do about it," Garath said. "I mean, obviously we’ll have to trim some hopefuls to meet the group composition requirements from Alice but…”

  “Actually," Athios said, absently pushing her wet bangs out of her eyes, "maybe this isn’t a problem at all. We may be looking at the rare and coveted best-case-scenario."

  “How so?” asked Garath, coming to a stop at the asphalt's end, where bent and broken fence poles stuck out of the ground at awkward angles. "And where the hell is Warrion?"

  “We’ll probably need to do more little-d dungeons to Level up and get gear to fill our raiment slots, right?” she asked.

  Garath nodded along, waiting to see where she was going with this.

  “Tryouts!”

  “Tryouts?” came the disembodied voice of Warrion. The short, but somehow still gangly assassin appeared out of nowhere a few feet in front of Garath and Athios.

  “Tryouts!” Garath agreed. What an obvious and perfect solution.

  “Yeah!” she confirmed, getting more excited as she worked out the details in her mind. “Garath, you’re definitely going. I’m definitely going, because you'd probably die in ten minutes without me there to save your ass. Let’s assume your friend Auto is definitely going too, right?”

  “Oh yeah,” Garath confirmed, nodding. “He’s one of the best gamers I’ve ever played with.”

  "I came in late, are we talking about the Dungeon team?" Warrion asked. The Assassin screwed up his eyebrows. "Hey! Why didn't you include me in the definitely going list?"

  “You can always try out for the team," Athios told him, smiling deviously. Then she turned back to Garath. "Do you know when your friends will get here?”

  “Best guess, evening, day after tomorrow. Or maybe the next morning.”

  “Okay. So either you, Auto, or myself go on a little-d dungeon run with a few hopefuls and see how they do in group combat. We can score them each on performance and use a combination of that score and the necessary group composition to come up with our team.”

  "You guys are really going to make me try out?" Warrion asked incredulously.

  Garath ignored his gangly friend, chewing on his bottom lip as he thought about Athios’ proposal. “I think this is a really good idea, Athios.”

  Athios smiled proudly. "All of my ideas are good ones,” she said with uncharacteristic confidence. Then she turtled back into herself sheepishly.

  “No doubt,” Garath said appreciatively. “I was planning on grinding all day tomorrow anyways, so we can start then. We got some solid experience from Aquawood, so I'm not opposed to using little-d dungeons for Leveling. I’m also going to do some research tonight to see if anyone has come up with a better way to power Level. Either way, the Leveling method isn’t going to be a factor for tryouts. You’re right, we need to see how people perform in group combat." Garath wiped some rainwater off his brow then scratched thoughtfully at his chin. "I’ll put a plan together later tonight and schedule the tryouts to take place over the next few days.”

  Athios smirked.

  “What?” Garath asked.

  “Not a leader he says,” she mocked playfully.

  Chapter Seven – Bird Brain

  Two hours later, Rum’bah finally rumbled his way over the asphalt south of the old school building. As the World Boss neared, Gary came out to join Garath, Athios, and Warrion as they waited to provide the
rest of their community waiting on the opposite side of the building with some kind of update. Everyone had taken a few minutes to make sure they relocated anything they would terribly miss into their Items panels in the case they were forced to leave the stronghold. Garath was still hopeful they wouldn’t have to, but it was a reasonable precaution.

  The four of them stood in the invisible 10-meter perimeter that was supposedly included in the building's inviolate status. The small group watched in nervous silence as the burnt-orange turtle came to a stop only one giant step from the unseen line in the sand. At least, Garath was pretty sure it stopped. The damn thing moved so slowly it was almost hard to tell. The pillar of smoke that followed the giant turtle went out a short second after. Rum’bah gave no hint as to what it might do next.

  "This is probably a good sign, right?" Warrion asked.

  Garath just nodded, never taking his eyes off the World Boss. "Yeah, I think it is. If it was going to burn down the building, it wouldn’t have stopped."

  Garath could feel the heat radiating off the wondrous beast standing a little over ten meters away. Its steady, slow breathing was, an infernal breeze drying the rain clinging to his skin with each exhale. It appeared to be considering what to do about this new obstacle in its way. After half a minute of just watching the motionless World Boss, they looked at one another with the obvious question written on each of their faces.

  After another minute, Warrion broke out a can of Spam from his Items panel and began snacking loudly on the salty 'meat' product.

  "How can you eat that?" Athios asked, her repulsion evident.

  "What, Spam?" Warrion asked with a mouthful of spam.

  "Spam puts hair on your chest," Gary said seriously.

  Garath kept his eyes on Rum’bah, but chuckled as he wondered how much Spam it took Gary to grow the rug on his chest and back.

  "You don't actually like Spam, do you?" Athios asked.

  "Athios, nobody likes Spam," Gary said. "But a man can only eat so much salmon."

  That got Garath thinking. Sure, they had a virtually inexhaustible source of the nutrient-rich fish and a decent supply of rations and various canned foods, but he knew they'd need to start working on ways to feed their community long term.

  "That reminds me," Garath said. "We need to find some way to grow food. I was thinking chickens."

  "Chickens?" Warrion asked.

  "Yeah, man. Not only are they freaking delicious creatures, eggs are like the most versatile cooking ingredient ever," Garath said sagely. "And they pop 'em out on the daily."

  "Chickens," Athios agreed, nodding.

  Warrion looked pensive for a second, then a stupid grin spread across his perma-stoned features. "Having chickens would be…"—the Assassin paused for dramatic effect—"clutch."

  There was a moment of comedic silence. Garath only smiled, but then Athios and even the laconic Gary both laughed softly, still cautious not to startle the large, unmoving Rum’bah in front of them.

  "Well I'll keep my eyes open," Gary said with an eye-twinkling smirk, "and let you know if I happen upon a wild chicken."

  Finally, its decision apparently made, the gigantic Rum’bah took a right turn and headed inland. The turn was painfully slow. It started with just the creature's huge eyes, then the rest of its head, and then, finally, it picked up one massive foot and shifted its bulky body.

  "We might have to do shifts for this part too, G," Warrion said, looking bored already.

  Garath had no idea what kind of awesome scenario would be able to keep the Assassin’s attention if a house-sized fire-turtle only a few feet away couldn’t. He shrugged. “You guys can head in. Go tell everyone the building is safe,” Garath said. "I'll keep an eye on Rum’bah for a while to make sure he doesn't change his mind. I've got some clerical stuff to work on anyways.”

  It took some convincing, but eventually, even Athios left Garath alone to watch the World Boss as it moved slowly inland. At first, Garath looked for somewhere comfortable to sit down and get started on scheduling tomorrow's tryouts, but then he started getting short of breath. Dizzy. He felt a nagging anxiety tightening his chest. He'd meant to get a start on increasing his own power today, to grind or get a profession or something, anything to get stronger. The fact that he only had one new BeastScape form to show for the day, coupled with the lust from the soul taint stack on his human form brought him to a near panic attack.

  It was a good a time as any to explore his new, taint-free Osprey form. He’d be able to navigate his MENU panels the same as he would in human form, but with a clearer perspective. He shifted into the aerodynamic hunter form and soared gracefully to a large, east-facing branch. Another perk—it was significantly easier to find a comfortable perch in a tree than it was a seat on the asphalt. With one eye on the slowly maneuvering Rum’bah, Garath willed open his MENU panels and navigated to the private messages he had dismissed earlier that evening.

  Thirteen new messages awaited his attention, all from members of the old Raid group. He started referring to the interested parties as ‘the hopefuls’ in his mind. Among them were familiar names, but some of the people that had expressed interest in the Dungeon team came as a bit of a shock to the Necrologist. For example, the group of middle-school aged dorks that Garath was calling ‘the Hawkies’ submitted their candidacy as a whole. He was even more shocked to find that Sharon had sent him a message, hers had only two words: I’m in. The most shocking result of his call to action though, was the little Elementalist, Daisy. He paused to consider these, the most familiar names that jumped out at him upon opening his Message panel.

  Garath wasn’t sure if any one of the Hawkies would be willing to go to the Dungeon unless they all went, so he sent a quick message to all five of them to clarify.

  When it came to Sharon, Garath was all for having her around. She’d developed into quite the versatile healer since The Culling. Her quick reactions and steady heal-over-time spells would make for a great Raid healer in a ten-man group setting.

  Daisy though, that was an easy one. There was no way in hell was he going to bring a little girl into one of the most dangerous locations on modern, apocalyptic Earth. He could understand why wanted to. Over the last week she’d grown pretty attached to Athios, clinging to the Dimensionalist whenever possible. She’d know that Athios would be going and, with her Gran gone, Athios was just about all she had left.

  Garath shook the rain off his neck and wings then scooted closer to the tree for better cover. Rum’bah was still working on that first right turn, but all evidence pointed toward the giant-turtle World Boss continuing his agonizing march east.

  While he waited for a response from the Hawkies, the Necrologist pondered over some of the other hopefuls. He was glad to see that, like Sharon, some of the people he’d strong-armed into becoming healers during The Culling had really adopted their Classes. Apart from the seventy-eight-year-young Naturist herself, three of the healers she’d been so helpful in directing throughout the apocalypse had also messaged Garath in hopes of joining the Dungeon team.

  The other three healers Garath didn't have any opinion of. They'd all been vital to The Band's survival during the horrific event, but they'd all been standing grouped up behind the damage-dealing casters, making it hard for Garath to know who was doing what. He read them as ordered in his inbox. Curly, a Hallowed Knight that had spent all his Skill Points on the Light section of his Skill Tree. Heidelberg, a Preacher that Garath couldn't even conjure the faintest mental image of. And Andrea, a Spirit Master who asked to submit her candidacy as either a healer or damage dealer. Garath made a mental note to look further into the Spirit Master Class shortly.

  As relieved as he was that some healing Classes were interested in joining the team, it came as an even bigger relief that a few of the shield-wearing or tank-type Classes had expressed interest in joining as well. It had been a mistake to do Aquawood depths without a solid tank, and they'd all barely made it out alive. Garath wouldn't make th
at mistake again. Raust, a Legionnaire by Class that Garath remembered having fought well during The Culling had sent him a message, as had Steve-oooooh, who Garath remembered having not fought particularly well. If memory served, the Necrologist had to repeatedly shout at the man to take his turn in the tank-rotation when they’d fought Aldrasyl.

  As if summoned into existence by the mere thought of his name, the great white Dragon soared silently on massive wings over Garath, his course due east toward the mountains. Garath had seen the Ice Drake heading that way more evenings than not as the sun nestled under the ocean to the west. When asked about it, Aldrasyl told Garath that he had found the mountains east of BoTH HQ to be an adequate hunting location. Garath thought for a moment about how much fun it could be to follow along and watch the Dragon hunt. Best nature documentary ever.

  Garath focused back on the task at hand, reading the last few messages and frowning. There were a handful of tanks and a handful of healers, but there were only a few damage dealers that had expressed interest.

  There was a guy named NickCarter, which was apparently his actual name, no relation to the other Nick Carter. He had chosen the Huntsman Class, a ranged specialist that, after reading the description again, sounded to Garath like something in between an Assassin and a Tamer. Garath couldn’t remember seeing this NickCarter at all while fighting wave after wave of monsters during The Culling, but there had kind of been a lot going on.

  Apart from Daisy, the Huntsman and the Hawkies, the only damage-dealing applicant was Fergus, a pumped-up gym rat who’d chosen the Brawler Class. The two-handed mace that had come with choosing the Strength based melee Class was devastating to the undead throughout The Culling, but Garath wasn’t sure if the big meathead could be counted on in a group setting. He just shrugged though and reminded himself that he was holding tryouts for exactly that reason. Unfortunately, at that moment AyAyRon replied to Garath’s message on behalf of his little group informing the Necrologist that they were essentially a package deal. Without having a healer or a tank among their group of five, the Hawkies were a no-go.