Brandon’s face threatened to ignite into flames any second. Garath thought he knew what was going on and grinned to himself. The Necrologist was torn between helping the young man out of this awkward situation, or if he’d rather just pull up a seat and watch what happened next.
“Daisy!” Garath said excitedly, his decision made. “I’m glad you’re here, I need you to start a fire.”
Garath remembered then that his appearance frightened the little girl. He attempted to twist his face into a warm smile to come off a bit less, well, terrifying. The toothy grin crossing his demonic features must not have done the trick though, because Daisy’s eyes opened wider and she took an involuntary step back. That’s when Garath noticed the word ‘Archmage’ on her nameplate.
“You want me to Blast! something?” Daisy asked, the fear melting from her face to be replaced by suspicious excitement.
“Uh… yeah,” Garath said, still staring at the little girl’s title. “Archmage?” he asked incredulously.
“Daisy,” Athios said, coming up to join the conversation from behind Garath. “You’re an Archmage now?”
Daisy cocked her head questioningly, then her eyes widened as she remembered. “Oh, yeah! That’s right! I’m an Archmage now! I got the title after unlocking some non-Class Skills. Just by being an Archmage, all my spells got stronger, too!”
Garath looked at her uncomprehendingly, his jaw hanging open until he was able to choke out a single word. “How?”
Daisy placed her hands proudly on her hips and widened her stance. “First, I got Manual Targeting, then Spell Design, and then after I got Mana Manipulation, one of the system messages appeared to tell me about the title!”
Garath blinked rapidly, then turned to Athios and Warrion for further explanation, but they were just as lost as he was.
“Well done, kiddo!” Athios cheered. “That’s super freaking epic!”
Garath wanted to say something, anything, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that this child had managed to learn non-Class Skills he hadn’t even conceived of. Spell Design? He had so many questions to ask her and didn’t know where to start. Garath bowed deeply to the girl, his silver tiara only inches away from the Elementalist’s face. “Sensei, please accept me as your student. I pledge my life to studying under your wise tutelage.”
Daisy took another step back and away from the Necrologist, scrunching up her nose and squinting at him from behind blond curls. “What?”
Athios laughed. “He wants you to teach him to be as super freaking epic as you are,” she translated.
“Oh,” Daisy said. She turned from Athios to look back at Garath like he was some kind of idiot. “Why didn’t you just say that, then? And also, while you’re here, when is my tryout to go to the Dungeon? I know you’ve done other tryouts, but you never responded to my message.”
Garath frowned. He knew the odds of the little girl agreeing to teach him how she unlocked all of those non-Class Skills would decrease dramatically if he told her she couldn’t be a part of the Dungeon team. “Let’s talk about it while we walk. Gary’s boys stacked some firewood and I was thinking you could start the campfire for me.”
"You want me to Blast! it?" she asked excitedly.
"Would you mind?" Garath asked, pleased at how easily her attention was diverted.
"Where?" she asked, looking to Brandon for an answer.
"On the other side of the statue," Brandon told her, pointing. "You didn't see them stacking the wood when you were flying?"
"I was playing tag with Dave, Brandon," Daisy said defensively. "He's a real crow, I had to focus."
Garath walked with Athios, Warrion, and the two children across the unkempt grass of the abandoned Legion Memorial Park. As they walked, Garath sent a message to the entire community, including Auto, Maimon, and the twins to meet him by the fire to discuss the Dungeon team’s next steps. When they reached the firewood stacked by Gary’s tireless gaggle of red-headed boys, Daisy stepped up to set it ablaze.
"Blast!" shouted Daisy, with both hands outstretched toward the large pile of dry sticks and twigs. An orb of flame shot from her hands to ignite the pile of dry wood, among a few other things. When the Blast! made impact with the heaping pile of sticks, they didn't simply catch on fire. Several were sent hurling through the air, spinning and burning like fireworks in the night sky. One hit Gary square in the chest, singing his favorite red, flannel shirt.
Gary brushed burning ashes off his chest and looked disapprovingly at Daisy for a moment, but then smiled warmly. "I guess it beats rubbing sticks together!"
Gary's boys scrambled around to put out the unplanned fires. Garath, Athios, and Warrion moved a few large rocks and logs around to act as seats for anyone who showed up. And then they waited.
Brandon got to work on crafting the rings. It didn’t take the young Jeweler long to make six and Garath excitedly triggered Inspect on one.
Wooden Band of Wisdom
Raiment Slot: Finger
Durability: 10/10
Item Score: 21
Quality: Average
Rarity: Common
+20 Wisdom
Created by the Jeweler, Brandon.
The Necrologist thanked the young man and slipped one of the wooden bands on each of his index fingers, handed two to a surprised and grateful Athios and pocketed the others to give to Sharon later.
Garath wasn’t sure who to expect at that point, but he wasn’t surprised when only a handful of people showed up. His speech in the Guild Hall a few days before had indeed been motivational and everyone in attendance had bought in on his plan for a better future, but after the excitement of Garath’s call-to-arms had faded, mortality showed its ugly face. These people, these survivors of the apocalypse that had already lost so many loved ones would have a hard time finding the strength to seek out more danger. Garath couldn’t blame them for being disinclined to risk their lives yet again to follow him into the Dungeon, after everything they’d already been through.
Daisy, Gary, and all five red-headed young men stayed by the fire with Garath, Athios and Warrion as they waited to see who would show up. Auto, Maimon, and the twins were the first to join them. Shortly after, Sharon took a seat beside Warrion on a moss-covered log closest to the fire. NickCarter strolled up and sat on a large rock, followed shortly by Curly and Raust who chatted quietly near the fire. Fergus, sweating like a pig, had apparently been on an evening jog before arriving. The Spirit Master, Andrea, was the last to show up; her quiet approach nearly went unnoticed.
Garath waited a few more minutes to see if any additional attendees would be joining, but stood to speak when he noticed the eyes of everyone there glancing at him with expectant expressions. “First, thanks for being here. Before we get started, I want to wait a few more minutes. I’m expecting a few more people that replied to my community thread. One is an Elementalist that's already at Level 31, Lorena is her name. She said she’d be bringing a friend along too. The second is a guy named Atlas. He’s a Mage Smith, and he’s also hoping to join our Dungeon team.”
As if by command, an unfamiliar voice came from the darkness just past the light of the fire. “Speak of the devil and he shall appear.”
Everyone turned to see who the voice had come from, their eyes simultaneously landing on the name ‘Atlas’ displayed above a man with wild blond hair. Garath was slightly taken aback by the man’s appearance. Though he must have been roughly the same age as Garath, his messy blond hair was streaked with white, seemingly at random. His brilliantly blue eyes whispered to Garath of the barely-contained insanity within. And yet, his facial features were the least interesting part of the Mage Smith’s visage.
The chest and leg armor he wore were clearly made of cloth, yet they glowed ostentatiously with matching shades of blue, as did his high-top sneakers. Garath tried not to dwell on his growing fantasy of being in a boy band with NickCarter and the twins, but Atlas would totally fit as the fifth member.
“Atlas, I’m glad you made it. I’m Garath. Pleased to meet you.” He wasn’t sure how he felt about the guy, based only on his flamboyant appearance, but he figured it wouldn’t do any harm to have him in on the conversation. “Feel free to have a seat. We're just waiting for one more person before we get started.”
Atlas bobbed his head in agreement and sat beside Maimon, propped his foot on one knee, and looked the Preacher up and down. "Preacher?”
Maimon sighed. “Technically, yes. I prefer to call my Class Rabbi though, if it’s all the same to you.”
Atlas looked at Maimon as if he were waiting for the punchline of a joke. When he realized it would never come, he started laughing. The sound was awful, a too-loud maniacal cackle that silenced everyone around the campfire.
“What’s so funny?” Maimon asked, getting to his feet.
Atlas kept laughing for a few seconds, wiping tears from his eyes before finally speaking. “It took me a second to realize that you meant that. When I did though…” He started laughing that awful cackle again, but finally calmed enough to finish his thought. “I just can’t even believe it, but you’re obviously being serious.”
“Deadly serious,” Maimon said, his hands squeezing into fists. “What of it?”
“Theology? At a time like this?” Atlas asked with an insane smile. “Where was Yahweh during The Culling, man? Or the Christian God, for that matter? I just couldn’t believe someone would be so fucking stupid, but when I realized you were, it struck my funny. That’s all.”
Garath failed to suppress a laugh. Now he was sure how he felt about this ostentatious Mage Smith. Garath liked him. Garath liked him a lot.
“We’re not doing this again,” Athios said, getting to her feet. “Just let it drop.”
Atlas smiled as he stood and extended a hand for Maimon to shake, but didn’t apologize. “Alright, I’ll call you anything but daddy. Rabbi it is.”
Two white owls landed beside the Mage Smith and the Rabbi as they shook hands, then shifted into human form. The one Garath had mentioned before, Lorena, pushed tortoise-shell glasses up her thin nose as she scanned the group. Garath guessed her to be somewhere in her mid-twenties. She had dark hair, but he couldn’t be sure of the exact shade by the firelight. Her plus-one, an older man, perhaps in his late fifties, had the name Duran displayed on his nameplate. He looked wary, as if expecting the meeting to be a trap that would spring at any second.
“Well hello,” Garath said to them. “Thanks for coming, I’m Garath. Feel free to find a seat. We were just about to get started.”
Lorena and Duran each introduced themselves before finding a seat on the moss-covered log beside Warrion and Sharon. Garath noticed then that the two newcomers had nearly identical, bright green eyes and wondered what their relationship was. He also noticed that they were each wearing a midnight blue robe dotted with stars that shifted and twinkled on the fabric.
“Alright,” Garath said, stepping into the middle of the group. “Our goal is to assemble the strongest possible team to take on The Tower of Vy’thishrak. It has a ten-person maximum and, based on what I’ve seen from the dungeons we’ve done, we can expect The Tower to operate similar to the ten-man Raids that some of us have done in online games. I’ve also been in contact with someone who has actually been inside The Tower, and she’s confirmed that observation.”
“Does that mean we can bail if we need to?” Auto asked. “The dungeons we did on our way here made us finish before we could leave.”
“Short answer on that one is no,” Garath told him. “The person I’m referring to is a bit of an oddity that I really can’t explain. Her name is Alice, and apparently her Class is called ‘Lore Keeper’. She told me that she is able to join groups as an ‘observer’ that does not count toward the ten-person maximum.”
“Lore Keeper?” Atlas said doubtfully. “I read all of the Class descriptions at least three times and I didn’t see anything called Lore Keeper.”
Garath nodded. “Yeah, I know. Like I said, she’s a bit of an oddity but, because she’s been able to enter and leave the Dungeon, she knows more about what we might face there than anyone. After ‘observing’ the full Party wipes of the first two groups that attempted it, Alice put together a list of requirements for any group hoping to benefit from what she’s learned. Based on the specificity and group composition requirements she listed I came to the conclusion that, at the very least, Alice knows what the hell she’s talking about. The main thing I want to discuss tonight is group composition, then we’ll move on to scheduling the remaining tryouts.”
"While we're talking about it, G,” Jebawon said gravely. “Nobody here is equipped with enough gear to keep up with us." Jebawon gestured to himself, his brother, Auto, and Maimon. "I don't mean to be insulting, but I think we need to prioritize gear improvements."
Garath nodded his agreement. “Indeed we do, young man, but first things first. We’ll lock down who is going, and in which role. After that we will work on meeting Alice’s gear and Level requirements before we head to The Tower.”
Just then, a white disk appeared below Jebawon's feet and the serious young man sank into it. A second later, he was falling from the sky through a second disk, flailing and screaming as he made the inevitable fall to the unforgiving cement below. Just before his ankles shattered on impact, another disk appeared, and he fell through that one too before being plopped harmlessly on the grass beside the fire.
"How the hell..." Jebawon said breathlessly, clutching his chest.
Atlas jumped to his feet, clapping excitedly. “Aww, man! I knew I should have picked Dimensionalist. That was so cool!”
"I agree that having the best gear is an advantage," Athios said coolly, letting her hands spark with Dimensional energies to let Jebawon know who was responsible for his unexpected skydive. "But on this new Earth, the application of power seems more important than it did in games. For example, Garath killed a Dragon thirty Levels higher than him by latching onto its..."
"We don't need to share that story," interrupted Garath quickly. "She does bring up a good point, though. More things are possible here without the limitations imposed by game design. Now, let’s get back to the group composition…”
"How'd you kill the dragon?" Auto pressed the issue.
“Well I didn’t do any of it by myself,” Garath clarified, “our Raid group killed a Dragon.”
"I saw it," Daisy told Auto. "He was being a cat, and he attacked the Dragon’s privates."
Garath just looked at the little girl with a furrowed brow and his arms held in the air at her blatant betrayal.
"Savage," said Auto, looking from the Elementalist to the Necrologist with his mouth hanging open. "Did you really?"
"That happened," Garath confirmed dumbly. “Now we’re going to move right along. We’ll start with the three most important roles, our main tank and two healers. It isn’t official yet, but after our duel earlier and the tryouts that have already taken place, I feel fairly comfortable in saying we have our two healers in Sharon and Maimon. Let’s talk about our main tank next. Raust, I know you’re wanting to fill the tank slot. Who else? Obawon?” Garath asked the youthful Hallowed Knight. “You going sword and board?”
“Negative, hombre. Auto’s main tank,” Obawon told him without any hesitation. “I planned on using a two-handed weapon unless a backup tank becomes necessary.”
“Auto?” Garath asked, turning to the Chimerist questioningly.
Auto nodded sagely. "Yeah, Chimerist is OP as fuck."
"Auto, there are children present," Garath admonished.
"I've heard it before Garath," Daisy said casually. “Don't you ever even talk to Gran? She has the mouth of a…" she stopped abruptly. The young Archmage’s eyes quickly filled with tears and she hung her head, letting her hair fall to cover her face.
Athios wrapped one arm around the girl, pulling her close. The Dimensionalist whispered something into Daisy’s ear. Garath couldn’t hear what she�
��d said, but whatever it was seemed to cheer the young Archmage up a little bit. Garath continued without drawing further attention to the poor kid. The last thing she needed was to dwell on the passing of her last family member.
“Okay, so, where were we? Ah, that’s right. Tanks. So Auto and Raust are shooting for the tank spots with Obawon as a potential backup. Anyone else?”
Nobody replied. Garath wasn’t surprised. When playing online games, death’s only consequence was a wait to respawn or an Experience penalty. No big deal. In real life, Garath was surprised anyone at all was willing to play the role of meat shield.
The conversation continued to the damage-dealing and support roles. Garath was clear that a maximum of two support Classes would be allowed into the group, and he was just as clear that Athios would be one of them. He was hesitant to even consider a second pure support role, but left the option on the table. The damage-dealing role, as usual, was the most contested. It was decided that a few additional tryout dungeons would take place the next day to decide who, apart from Garath, would fill those slots.
A quick discussion later, Auto, Athios, and Garath were deemed the judges and the hopefuls would be scored from one to ten in three categories, their final score being the average of the three. Because the damage-dealing role was the most hotly contested, there would have to be a clear and quantifiable method to judge the tryouts. The first criteria was the ability to follow the group leader's instructions. Each candidate would also be scored on damage output. It would be a pain to tally up, but it would be possible by scrolling through the combat log. Lastly, each candidate would be scored on group combat and overall performance.
Garath made some notes to himself in the form of a private message draft to organize his thoughts. After that, he called the names of each person who would be flying east with him to Molten Glacier Peak the following morning.
The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) Page 17