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

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The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) Page 8

by Craig Kobayashi


  With the room clear, the Party took a moment to rest. That’s when Garath noticed a prompt awaiting his attention.

  Congratulations, Garath! For reaching Level 24, you are awarded 5 Attribute Points (3 per Level and + 2 per Level due to your status as a Leader of Man) and 2 Skill Points (1 per Level and +1 per Level due to your status as a Leader of Man) to distribute at your discretion. As a Necrologist, you receive +3 Wisdom, +3 Vitality, and +1 Regeneration per Level.

  You have one week to distribute the Points before they are assigned for you based on your chosen Class.

  Unused Attribute Points: 5

  Unused Skill Points: 17

  Garath wanted to hold off on distributing APs or SPs until after the tryouts were completed, but was happy to be one Level closer to his goal of Level 30.

  Once rested and their respective Health and resources were at maximum, the Party moved to the closest corner to inspect the hovering blue platform. When there was no clear indication of what to do next, Garath gave Bill a mental command to hop up onto the platform. With an eager tail wag, the demon-dog did as ordered. Once the hound’s significant weight landed atop the platform, it sank into the ground with an audible click. Garath called him back and started to pat his head appreciatively, but the platform lifted back into the air a mere second after Bill hopped down.

  It didn’t take Garath long to figure out the solution to this dungeon’s little puzzle. He repeated the command to Bill and told him to sit and wait there on the platform until he received further orders. After that, the Necrologist directed Fergus to the platform in one corner of the large room and Andrea to another. Garath told Curly and Raust to head to the middle of the room, then approached the final platform with Handsome flying at his side. Once Fergus and Andrea were in place and that their platforms had fallen, he stepped up onto his platform. It sank into the ground and clicked into place.

  As he’d predicted, this let the dungeon Boss know it was time to make an appearance.

  In the center of the room a whirling storm of white coalesced. It was the size of a football at first, but quickly swelled as ice was ripped from the nearby columns to join the whirlwind of Elemental energy. When it stopped spinning, Garath looked at the dungeon Boss in its place with a clearly unimpressed expression. It was just a bigger Ice Elemental. If this dungeon had a Yelp page, Garath would leave it a terrible review titled ‘Hashtag boring’. He triggered Inspect on the Boss anyway, and took in the provided information at a glance.

  Greater Ice Elemental

  Elemental

  Health: 2,300/2,300

  Level: 20

  Station: none

  Mana: 725/725

  Description: A Water Elemental evolves into a Greater Ice Elemental after a century of remaining in a frozen state. Greater Ice Elementals can fire shards made up of their own bodies at twice the rate of fire of an Ice Elemental.

  Raust immediately grabbed the Greater Ice Elemental’s attention by sending a replica of his shield made up of pure light to smash against the creature’s still-forming face. The dungeon Boss reacted instantly, each of its white arms sending spikes of hardened ice at the Party’s tank. Garath, Fergus, Andrea, and Bill all converged to join the fight in the center of the room. Without asking, Garath was blessed with Andrea’s spell to increase his Wisdom as soon as he was in range to start laying it on the Greater Ice Elemental. He and Handsome both cast Creeping Death to hit the Boss with two Quickening Entropy debuffs and continued to stack the damage-over-time debuff as Fergus got into position and wailed on the Boss from its unprotected backside. In all, it took the Party less than a minute to drain the Greater Ice Elemental’s Health to zero.

  Begin combat log:

  [You have been awarded 7,820 Experience Points for slaying Level 20 Greater Ice Elemental]

  End combat log.

  Just like the smaller Elementals had when they were killed, the dungeon Boss’s lifeless body melted into the floor and left a Mana Crystal hovering in the air above its resting place. A second later five identical chests appeared in a horizontal row in front of them. Garath tapped the Mana Crystal and it split into five equally sized orbs that distributed themselves to the Party.

  You have received 1.65 Mana Crystals.

  Mana Crystals will be stored in your Items panel until spent, traded, or until your death.

  The Necrologist may have been disappointed with the dungeon itself in terms of fun, difficulty, scenery, creativity, or the tryouts, but some good definitely came out of it. The relatively quick and easy run, in total, netted him 78,650 Experience Points and 10.05 Mana Crystals, whatever he was supposed to do with them. On top of that, they were each rewarded with a wooden chest for completing the dungeon. Garath received two items from his chest. He pulled them out one at a time to see the details of his prizes.

  Ice Cave Cloth Boots

  Raiment Slot: Feet

  Armor: +8

  Magic Resistance: 0

  Durability: 30/30

  Item Score: 16

  Defense Rating: 8

  Type: Cloth Armor

  Quality: Average

  Rarity: Common

  +10 Wisdom

  +3 Vitality

  ***Note: cloth armor will not keep you warm in the Ice Caves.

  Item Requirements:

  Level: 3

  Ice Cave Cloth Gloves

  Raiment Slot: Hands

  Armor: +4

  Magic Resistance: 0

  Durability: 30/30

  Item Score: 18

  Defense Rating: 4

  Type: Cloth Armor

  Quality: Average

  Rarity: Common

  +6 Wisdom

  +3 Vitality

  +1 Regeneration

  ***Note: cloth armor will not keep you warm in the Ice Caves.

  Item Requirements:

  Level: 3

  Garath would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed with the quality of his chest loot, but he was happy to fill two more Raiment slots. He’d never been much of a glove guy, but Attributes are Attributes, so Garath put the white gloves on. They were a bit ostentatious, but they fit like they’d been crafted by a master tailor. Like a glove, so to speak. Snug to his fingers and silky-smooth against his skin, Garath barely noticed he was wearing them at all.

  Saying goodbye to his trusty Chuck Taylors, Garath slipped the dirty old sneakers into his Items panel and pulled the new boots on right there in the dungeon. They were also white, but considering how silly he looked wearing a pair of beat-up jeans, a dark leather cuirass, and a silver circlet, Garath didn’t mind at all that white clothes have a tendency to get dirty. He made a mental note to make them dirty intentionally as soon as they weren’t surrounded by ice. Better yet, he was sure Sharon could help him dye them black when they got back to the Guild Hall.

  The other members of the Party each took a minute to inspect and appreciate their own loot, and then they made their way through the portal that lead them back to the plateau where Athios, Sharon, Steve-oooooh, and NickCarter were waiting for them.

  The sun had moved quite a bit on its daily journey across the sky while the first group was in the dungeon. Athios and Sharon both rushed over to him when they saw the Necrologist appear out of thin air beside the shimmering portal, each looking relieved to see him. Garath was touched, but gave them both the typical Garath response of nonchalant cockiness. Athios punched his shoulder and Sharon called him names, but soon the whole group was laughing and talking as Garath recounted the dungeon run.

  He checked the clock on his UI, it read 10:13 (GST), what would have been 1:13pm (PST) before the stupid new clock system. Had they really been inside the blindingly white dungeon for so long? He shrugged and mentioned to everyone that group two wouldn’t be able to enter until 11:13 (GST). Garath, Athios, and Sharon each pulled a few canned goods from the Items panels to share with everyone for lunch.

  The mandatory one-hour waiting period between instanced encounters passed in a flas
h as everyone ate and talked. Garath found that the lust to continue growing in power and the urges to do whatever it took to do so were somewhat lessened around these people. NickCarter especially took his mind off the taint as the handsome young man regaled everyone with a story about some neuroscience students drinking too many Four Lokos back when he was in college. Garath had a hard time picturing NickCarter, with his goody-two-shoes appearance, skinny dipping in one of Portland’s many public fountains, but it was the story that mattered, not the truth of it.

  Garath’s second run through of the dungeon was an interesting experience, with two rather large surprises. The first one was NickCarter. As a Huntsman, NickCarter was able to spot and mark every Ice Elemental in the icy chamber with ease, which was incredibly convenient because the perfectly-camouflaged creatures were pretty darn hard to spot. With a red crosshair hovering unnoticed over the head of every Ice Elemental, the second group would have a much better chance to avoid pulling more than a single Elemental at a time. The charismatic Huntsman also struck Garath as a natural leader, but without the domineering personality that was too-often paired with other natural leaders he’d met. Even being in a Party with Garath, Athios, and Sharon, who had already been through at least one dungeon each, NickCarter began giving Steve-oooooh directions on the best target to pull next in order to clear the room as effectively as possible. Garath didn’t object, as the directions coming from NickCarter were exactly the suggestions he himself would have made.

  The second large surprise was the unintended result of one of Steve-oooooh’s Class Skills. With NickCarter clearly stealing the spotlight, the Armoron stupidly designated ‘Steve-oooooh’ was desperate to do something impressive in hopes of catching Garath’s attention. After the Party had systematically taken down the first few Ice Elementals with relative ease, the Party’s tank decided it was time to make his move.

  After pulling the next Ice Elemental, he triggered a Skill he said he’d never used before— Commanding Presence. It came with a one-minute cooldown and cost Steve-oooooh nearly half his total Rage, the Armoron equivalent to Mana. The Skill description had led the inexperienced tank to believe it would increase the amount of threat he could generate by 300% for ten seconds. With his Commanding Presence active, Steve-oooooh shouted at the Ice Elemental and rammed it with his shield. To be fair, Commanding Presence did have the intended effect. Unfortunately, it also applied his 300% increased threat to every enemy within twenty meters of the tank’s position.

  After Steve-oooooh’s mistake became obvious, the tank panicked. Elementals converged on the Party from every direction and the Armoron struggled to pick even a single target to effectively tank. Garath had to shift into House Cat form to make use of his Skills, at the added cost of tainting his soul, but between the damage-over-time attacks from Garath and Handsome and the impressive burst damage coming from NickCarter, the Elementals dropped to the onslaught quickly. Thanks to the rolling heal-over-time spells from Sharon and clutch relocations of Party members, Elementals, and ice spikes from Athios, the whole Party made it out of the chaotic battle alive.

  Following his near fatal mistake, Steve-oooooh contritely followed directions from both Garath and NickCarter without question. The Party then continued pulling one Elemental at a time until they’d cleared the room. Garath directed NickCarter and Athios each to one corner of the room, then he and Bill split up to take the other two corners. They pushed the hovering blue platforms into place to trigger the dungeon Boss, and then met back up in the middle of the room where Steve-oooooh and Sharon were already locked in combat with the Greater Ice Elemental. The Boss went down with no trouble, and the Party excitedly looked to the chests that appeared containing their prizes for completing the dungeon. Garath received three items from his chest on this run and pulled them out to take a look.

  Ice Cave Cloth Shako

  Raiment Slot: Head

  Armor: +6

  Magic Resistance: 0

  Durability: 30/30

  Item Score: 17

  Defense Rating: 6

  Type: Cloth Armor

  Quality: Average

  Rarity: Common

  +4 Wisdom

  +5 Vitality

  +2 Regeneration

  ***Note: cloth armor will not keep you warm in the Ice Caves.

  Item Requirements:

  Level: 3

  Ice Cave Cloth Shako

  Raiment Slot: Head

  Armor: +6

  Magic Resistance: 0

  Durability: 30/30

  Item Score: 17

  Defense Rating: 6

  Type: Cloth Armor

  Quality: Average

  Rarity: Common

  +4 Wisdom

  +5 Vitality

  +2 Regeneration

  ***Note: cloth armor will not keep you warm in the Ice Caves.

  Item Requirements:

  Level: 3

  Ice Elemental Core

  Type: Reagent

  Quality: Immaculate

  Item Score: 63

  Weight: 1.36 kg

  Rarity: Rare

  ***Note: harvested from The Rolling Deep.

  Garath frowned. Not only did his chest give him two of the same item, said item wasn’t even close to being an upgrade to his Hypnotic Diadem of the Wise, that provided +15% Magic Resistance, +20 Wisdom, and +8 Regeneration. He put the two helmets in his Items panel and made a mental note to set up a room for people to put gear they didn’t need for others in Guild to pick through. An armory of sorts. He didn’t know what to make of the Ice Elemental Core, but he figured it had to be good for something. Didn’t it?

  It was evening by the time the group shifted once again into their Osprey forms and took to the sky, en route back to the Guild Hall. With the wind beneath his wings, Garath played back the day’s events with a critical eye. He decided that, instead of scoring the hopefuls with a numerical value based on their performance, he was just going to give them a pass or fail for the first round of tryouts. If there ended up being more ‘passes’ than available Dungeon team spots afterward he’d figure something else out. For the day, Garath marked Athios, Sharon, and NickCarter with a ‘pass’. Then he graded Steve-oooooh, Raust, and Curly with a ‘fail’. He wrote in ‘redo tryout as healer’ next to Andrea on his roster and put a question mark next to Fergus. The beefy Brawler hadn’t done anything stupid, but he really hadn’t done anything that impressive either, so Garath decided to keep Fergus on the proverbial table for the time being.

  When they neared the Guild Hall, Garath gave a quick farewell and let everyone know he would keep them apprised of the results of their tryouts over the Raid communication channel before disbanding the group. He broke off from the formation and peeled off to the east toward his clifftop and the comforting presence of his egg. The Necrologist was beyond excited to water it for the third and final time the following morning, and finally find out what would become of it.

  Chapter Nine – The Archmage

  Daisy kept her eyes shut and her breathing easy when the soft sounds of Athios leaving their shared sleeping quarters woke her up. The little Elementalist knew she was going with Garath and some other adults to go do fun things they would never allow her to do. Athios had told her the night before that they would probably be gone the whole day holding tryouts for the Dungeon team, which meant that Daisy had a whole day to practice for her own tryout. The young woman was determined to make the cut. She was sick of being told no and that she was too young for these things. Apart from the other people living in the Guild Hall, everyone she’d ever known was dead. Daisy didn’t have a mom or dad; she didn’t even have Gran anymore. Which meant she didn’t have anyone with the authority to dictate what she could or couldn't do.

  When the door shut behind the Dimensionalist, Daisy opened her eyes. Only a bit of pale light filtered in through the east-facing window. She listened to Athios’ footsteps as they echoed softly in the hall outside the door, growing fainter until she couldn’t hear anyt
hing at all. She got out of bed and crept through the Guild Hall and out the south doors without being seen or heard by anyone. Once outside, she walked past the ten meters of cement, then entered the young forest growing from the ashes left in Rum’bah’s path.

 

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