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

by Craig Kobayashi

  He approached the tree and bent to take a better look. It looked harmless enough, so he pulled the string looped through two holes in the paper to release the note. He unfolded the page and read its contents aloud.

  Look to the mountain and you will see,

  A world of brown that once was green.

  It isn't hard to spot the trouble,

  If you check the creek and puddle.

  To earn the chest’s contents you'll need to find,

  The lifeblood of the earth gone blind.

  They used to climb their way to spawn,

  But to the ocean they've all gone.

  Direct their way back whence they came

  Where death brings life like plague and flame

  Last but not least, I gift admonition:

  When your heart speaks to you, admit your omissions.

  Garath frowned. "When your heart speaks to you, admit your omissions." He rolled the words around in his mind.

  "Cryptic A.F.," Auto said.

  Garath frowned, but he thought he understood. He'd been burned in the past by forcing a gut feeling to conveniently fit his desires, only realizing the 'omission' after the fact.

  Garath turned to Alice. "What do you think it means?" he asked.

  "Salmon," Alice replied.

  "What?" Garath asked.

  "Salmon," Alice repeated. “Creek and puddle, river and ocean, so marine creature. Climb their way to spawn, only salmon do that. Native Americans of this region worshipped salmon, the vile-tasting fish go spend their entire lives in the ocean only to come back to the place they were born, somewhere upriver, where they lay eggs and then die. On their way back to the place where they spawned, the salmon feed just about every carnivore in the entire ecosystem. After they lay their eggs, they die and their corpses feed just about everything else, from scavengers to the plants and trees. Trees near salmon runs grow exponentially faster and taller than other trees of the same species elsewhere. Essentially, the salmon bring the rich nutrients of the ocean to give life to the land. It all fits."

  "What about the rest? Gone blind?" Garath asked.

  "There are still missing pieces to this puzzle," the Lore Keeper replied, scratching her chin thoughtfully. "Theoretically, if the salmon stopped leaving the ocean to spawn and die in the rivers, the ecosystem would suffer greatly."

  Garath nodded again. "A world of brown that once was green."

  "That's great," Auto chimed in. "So we go find salmon in the ocean and direct them up the river?"

  Alice nodded speculatively. "The note seems to suggest as much. Activating the chest may provide more information."

  "So we open the chest," Garath agreed.

  Athios huffed quietly to herself and rolled her eyes thinking about Garath’s new best friend, Alice. She briefly considered locking the Lore Keeper in a pocket dimension for a couple of hours, but decided against it.

  After making sure everyone was ready in the case of another timed Quest, the Necrologist bent and placed his hand on the chest.

  In the water you will find six white islands. Travel beneath the water’s surface, deep below to find an activation chamber near the ocean floor.

  When all six chambers have been activated, the salmon will return to the place of their birth.

  Once complete, return to this chest for your reward.

  “Looks like we’re going swimming,” Garath said to the Party, each of whom was looking questioningly at him.

  Garath shrugged and shared the quest details with his Raid Group. About an hour of scouting in his Sbearrow form later, Auto reported that he'd located all six islands and marked them on the Dungeon Map. The Map itself was still a blank canvas but, between the markers Auto had placed and the little green dots representing each member of the Raid, they were able to get a rough idea of what to do next. The closest was just offshore, and the other five seemed placed at random as far out as a few nautical miles. With the islands located and marked, Alice gained further insight to share with the Party.

  “I cannot be certain,” the Lore Keeper said, “but I believe that, once we activate all six of the islands, it will create a fish weir.”

  “Fish weir?” Daisy asked.

  Alice nodded, drawing lines in open air with her fingers. She noticed the little girl still staring questioningly at her. “Yes.”

  “What’s a fish weir?” Daisy asked in exasperation.

  “Well, the creation and method of enactment varies, but the purpose of a fish weir has been the same since the time before written records. It traps or directs fish with a manmade obstruction to their natural path. This one, I believe, will forcefully divert the salmon swimming past this place into the river mouth, and then up the mountain,” Alice replied casually, still drawing lines in the air in front of her.

  “Well, alright,” Garath said. He was glad to have some semblance of an objective at this point. The Tower was unlike any dungeon or Dungeon he’d ever encountered, either on this new Earth or in the video games he’d spent so much time on before the apocalypse. So open world. “The chest mentioned a chamber deep beneath each island. So, water forms then. By a show of hands, who doesn't have a Water form?”

  Daisy, Athios, Maimon, Atlas, Obawon, Jebawon, and Sharon all raised their hands. Garath nodded and willed open his BeastScape panel for a quick refresher on which swimming forms he had access to. He only had two, and neither could actually breath underwater. Garath hadn’t foreseen needing a form to remain under water for extended periods of time. Even if he had, though, the Woodland Park Zoo had a fairly limited marine exhibit. The Necrologist frowned.

  “Anyone have a cool water form?” Garath asked dumbly.

  “Yes,” Alice said, looking at him with her signature head tilt. Then she pointed out to sea. “But you should unlock one of those.”

  Garath followed her outstretched hand to see that the previously still water in front of the Lore Keeper was now being broken in regular intervals by a pod of majestic, black and white monsters regularly seen in Puget Sound near his home.

  Orcas.

  An excitement crept up his spine as he considered the idea of taking that powerful and beautiful form.

  About a soccer field away, the pod played in the cold water, but Garath couldn’t unlock the form. He’d have to get close enough to make eye contact. His excitement nearly led the Necrologist to shift into one of his many flying forms, but then Garath’s cautious side poked its head out from the cage he kept it in. It reminded him what would happen if he used his allotted BeastScape transformations too quickly, and provided a solution. Garath thought for just a second that maybe, just maybe, he should let that part of himself out of its cage more often.

  “Auto, be a pal and go unlock Orca form, then come back here and beach yourself so we can get it from you?” Garath asked with his prettiest smile on. Of all the advantages that the Chimerist Class had, the one that Garath envied the most was the removal of the daily shift limit.

  Auto thought about it, nodded, and then shifted into the ugliest creature Garath had ever laid eyes on. Some familiar features, namely the mutant’s coloring and weight allocation, led him to believe he was looking at a hybrid of the two forms they’d unlocked at the zoo that could be considered ‘water forms’, a hippopotamus and a penguin. Garath laughed. Auto looked like a fat man with a beak wearing a tuxedo tailored for a child.

  The Penguipotamus belly flopped into the water swam toward the pod of orcas with its short, stubby wings. Garath hoped the orcas weren’t hostile, but even if they were, he was sure Auto would be able to either take the damage until he could make it back to the group, or escape by shifting into a flight capable form. Luckily, that wasn’t the case.

  The orcas swam up to him curiously, then circled him playfully. A few seconds later, Auto transformed to match their uniform black and white majesty. He swam and danced with them for a few minutes, playing and splashing in his new form, then doubled back to meet the Party on the white sand beach. Garath sm
iled to himself, pleased that everything had gone to plan, then cocked his head when he noticed that the orcas were following Auto back to the island. When the Chimerist beached himself on the white sand, the orcas stayed away and circled, looking up out of the water occasionally at the Party.

  Everyone approached Auto in turn and met his gaze to unlock the new form, then Auto shifted back into his natural form.

  Congratulations, Garath! You have unlocked the BeastScape form - Orca.

  ***See the BeastScape partition of your MENU panels for additional information.

  “Those aren’t normal orcas,” Auto said, tipping his head to one side and shaking out the water. “Unless all orcas are that curious and friendly. I guess I don’t really know what I’m talking about. We don’t have many of those in Wyoming.”

  “Orcas are curious by nature, but you are correct in assuming these are unlike the ones you would see in the oceans outside of The Tower,” Alice said. She held one finger up to her chin and tilted her head thoughtfully as she watched the circling marine mammals. “There’s something… familiar about them, actually. But I can’t quite place it. Like seeing someone you only met once, in a dream, a long time ago.”

  Auto looked at Alice with some interest, then his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Alice, can I get you to go into your octopus form for a second?”

  Alice happily acquiesced, sprouting several extra limbs as she shifted into her favorite form. Auto stared into her emotionless, horizontally slitted eyes for a moment, then nodded.

  “Got it,” he said, then almost skipped his way back to the water’s edge with glee. The Chimerist turned back to Alice, a terrible grin stretching from ear to ear. “Thank you!”

  The Party watched as their tank took a few steps and began to shimmer as he changed forms once again. The result of Auto’s second marine hybrid was vastly more impressive than the first had been. The new mutant form was a little smaller than his unmolested Orca form was, and retained the black and white coloring. The biggest difference though, were the several new appendages sprouting from his sides.

  *Behold, bitches! The glory of the Orctapus!*

  "Wow." Garath laughed, clapping dramatically. "New best mutant, man!"

  Auto wiggled his tentacles wildly in response, getting a chuckle out of most of the group. Daisy, however, hid behind Athios, who shook her head slowly in disbelief. Garath was impressed as he watched Auto dragged himself along the sand with his tentacles in a repulsive imitation of a crab-walk into the water.

  Alice insisted on the whole Raid Group unlocking their Octopus forms as well before setting off to the open water. It made sense to Garath. In the case that the ability to breath underwater became an emergency, it would be good to have the option. After that, the rest of the Party followed Auto into the water and shifted into their own pod of orcas.

  Garath became immediately fond of the new form as he felt the strength of his tail and fins. He dove below the water's surface and delighted in the sensation of simply being an orca. Each push of his tail propelled him ahead and each move of his fins, no matter how minute, altered his course as he dove deeper into the cool water. In his mind, Garath heard Peppy Hare’s command to, "do a barrel roll!" and couldn't resist. It was a fairly simple maneuver but, being his first time, he didn't stop the roll at the right time. Then he over-corrected, and started to feel dizzy. Seeing the light from the sky coming from a direction he had related with "down" only a second before was disorienting. It wasn't until he remembered the wise words of Merlin in The Sword and the Stone that he was able to right himself and really find his water legs. Upon seeing the other members of the Party going through the same sense of disorientation, Garath decided to pass Merlin's sage advice to everyone.

  *We are living between two planes now,* Garath told them. *Somewhere between the ceiling and the floor.*

  The synaptic process of speaking, even when speaking was done telepathically, reminded Garath of another process that he had never had to consciously think about before. He felt a rush of claustrophobic panic as he realized he hadn't yet gone up for air. How the hell was he even going to breathe? He'd never had a blowhole before. He forced himself to calm down and work the problem out.

  Not a big deal. Garath propelled himself toward the plane he was now thinking of as the ceiling. I've seen orcas and dolphins and whales do this a thousand times on TV. How hard could it be?'

  Now that he was thinking about it, Garath found that he could actually feel his blowhole connecting the back of his neck to his gigantic lungs. He somehow knew that he could open the blowhole voluntarily any time he wanted to. He also knew that now, submerged completely in water, was not a good time to do so. After making his way back to the surface, Garath allowed himself to float there with his neck and back exposed to the open air. Then, in one of the strangest experiences of his life, Garath took his first shot at a completely new concept: voluntary breathing.

  He started by exhaling the air still within his lungs, sending a jet of salty air spraying from his back a few feet into the sky. Inhaling was even stranger than exhaling, he noticed. Sucking air through a completely new orifice to fill the massive lungs of his Orca form felt totally unnatural.

  Since the apocalypse, Garath had taken the form of a House Cat, a Puma, a Crow, an Osprey, and a handful of other forms, but none of them felt so completely alien as the Orca form. Gliding on wind currents and flapping his wings to gain altitude was somewhat similar to the feeling of swimming as an Orca, but also decidedly different. Garath had always figured orcas were similar to land mammals, but after taking the form of one for only a few minutes, he realized just how different they really were. Another spray of salty air to his right shook Garath from his excessive internal comparisons, and he saw the rest of the Party, apart from Auto, whose Orctapus form could apparently breathe underwater - breaching the surface to take in their first breath as an Orca as well.

  It took a few minutes for everyone to really grasp the concepts of swimming and periodic, voluntary breathing in their new bodies. The pod of orcas that was apparently native to The Tower's strange ocean watched patiently nearby as Garath and the rest of the Party splashed and flailed about in order to learn the basics. Once they had, the native orcas excitedly approached and began to weave between and around the clumsy newcomers.

  Garath watched as one of the natives dove thirty feet or so beneath the surface, then turned and jetted past him heading toward the ceiling with a full head of steam. It broke the surface and continued on, propelled by a final whoosh of its powerful tail. The jumping orca came back into Garath's new, blue-tinted world with a huge splash. He couldn't be sure, but Garath thought the acrobatic orca was smiling as it swam past. He couldn't blame the beautiful creature if it had; that jump had looked like a great deal of fun. Garath had to try it.

  Garath's jump was decidedly less impressive, but it was even more fun than he'd thought it would be. He wasn't the only Party member to give it a try, either. Daisy tried and failed tremendously. The whole Party swam and jumped and played with the native pod of marine mammals for nearly an hour. Garath happily considered that time spent as an investment in mastering the new form with a whole pod of natural instructors. A priceless opportunity. His mood, his mind, and perhaps even his tainted soul felt uplifted by the entire experience.

  Only an hour before, Garath wouldn't have believed that he even could feel so carefree and joyful. His anger and lust for retribution at Warrion’s death hadn't left him entirely, but he had a much stronger control over himself. In short, the little playdate with their new friends made Garath feel like he'd just watched a Disney movie after being unable to sleep because of The Conjuring. Fuck that movie.

  Now full of good feelings, Garath called the pod together to discuss their next steps. Alice, who had been idly watching the Party play with the native orcas from the shore, made her way over in her Octopus form.

  *The chest mentioned we’d have to activate a switch in a chamber beneath ea
ch of these islands,* Garath started the discussion. *There are two islands pretty close to shore, I think we should start with those.*

  *I have been considering the order in which they should be activated,* Alice offered, now holding onto Garath’s Orca form with her tentacles - a sight that had Athios glaring at the Lore Keeper. Alice, of course, did not notice the Dimensionalist’s glare. *The two white islands closest to the shore would be a good place to start. After that, I suggest going clockwise to activate the rest.*

  *Alright,* Garath said, glancing back to make eye contact with the Lore Keeper. *Why?*

  *The fish weir will most probably work regardless of the order in which you activate the islands but, by activating them in my suggested order, the salmon will be redirected more effectively,* Alice explained.

  Garath bobbed his huge Orca head in agreement. *Anyone else have something to add?*

  Maimon swam his way to face Garath. *The water has been safe enough so far,* the Preacher offered, *but the chest’s prompt said the chambers are deep beneath the islands. I know we can hold our breath much longer in this form, and we can always switch to Octopus form thanks to Alice.* Maimon nodded appreciatively at the Lore Keeper clinging to Garath’s back. *But we have no practice with underwater combat. If we have to fight anything down there, we’ll be hopelessly underprepared.*

  *He’s not wrong,* Athios agreed. *I actually can’t cast my spells at all in this form. It was part of the BeastScape notification when I unlocked it. Anyone else get that?*

  *I did,* Daisy pouted.

  *Me too,* Sharon said.

  Jebawon and Maimon both voiced their limitations as well.

  Garath frowned. If he’d been able to find a pile of bones somewhere to meet the summoning requirements, the Skeletal Warriors would probably be okay underwater. *I got limited to only using my Blood spells and my demons would most likely drown if I brought them out, so they’d only be helpful as fish bait… I hate to say it, Mr. Rabbi, but you do have a point.*