The Culling of Man: A litrpg adventure (Peril's Prodigy Book 1)

by Craig Kobayashi

  An elementary school aged girl stepped in front of the group and yelled, “Blast!” as she shot a fireball from her hands, shattering the glass double-doors.

  Parents quickly herded their children into the building. They passed through the entrance hallway, through a second set of glass doors, and into the main hall of the converted school building. Garath, Athios, and Warrion formed up with the nine other fighters just outside the doors.

  The crackling orbs started vibrating wildly and they were now almost the size of an adult human. Then, as one, each of the countless orbs across the planet collapsed in on themselves with an audible pop - the resulting boom like cannon fire in a cemetery. In place of each orb, a shimmering light appeared in a roughly humanoid form as they materialized and started to take shape.

  Just like that, the first monsters of The Culling had arrived. When the materializing lights solidified, Garath couldn't help smiling despite the fear threatening to overtake his senses. They were essentially just walking skeletons, each holding one of a myriad of rusted, metallic weapons. Garath wondered briefly if tetanus would count as a poison, but he guessed it didn’t really matter. The Necrologist focused on the skeleton that had taken form directly in front of him and his new Inspect ability triggered automatically.

  Reanimated Bones

  Undead

  Health: 10/10

  Level: 1

  Station: Infantry

  Mana: 0/0

  Description: The bones of humans passed have been reanimated to cull the ranks of the living. Though mindless, Reanimated Bones are aggressive and will attack anything that moves - except other Undead creatures.

  Average Respawn Time: 10 minutes

  Level Range: 1-2

  ‘A good ol' skelly mob to kick this party off. Classic,’ Garath thought. The Necrologist made a quick mental note concerning the verbiage 'average respawn time' - indicating that respawn times may vary.

  It didn't take long for the horde of undead to spring into action. Almost as one, every skeleton within the fenced area raised their respective weapons and charged to attack.

  Athios' hand shot out in front of her the second the withered warriors had solidified, sending a reflective silver disk, one-meter in diameter, to land beneath the feet of the skeleton closest to the doors. The Reanimated Bones sank into the disk, disappearing from view completely. Athios finished her spell by sending a second disk from her outstretched hand. The skeleton emerged from the second disk five-meters away, and thirty-meters in the air. The level one undead creature plummeted from the sky, its weapon still raised to attack. Apparently the landing inflicted more than ten points of damage because, when it hit the ground, the undead creature shattered across the pavement. Each of its many parts flashed neon like an explosion in Tron before evaporating out of existence.

  Garath channeled his Mana into the one-second cast time of Death Bolt. The black energy vibrated between his outstretched hands as he focused on the nameplate of an approaching skeleton, and noticed a red circle that appeared below its feet. The Necrologist wondered if the targeting assistance mentioned in his staff's description was in play as he released his cast and the bolt shot forward. Whatever it was, Garath wasn't complaining. His aim had been off, a few feet to the right of his target, but the pulsing black energy bent to correct course and struck the skeleton square in the chest. The impact from his spell knocked the skeleton back a few feet and the red health-bar displayed above its head dropped by a third. The level one Death Magic spell cost under 10% of his available Mana, so the Necrologist cast a second, and then a third Death Bolt at his foe in quick succession. With the last, the skeleton's health bar was emptied completely and, much like the one Athios had given a free skydiving lesson (sans parachute), Garath's target flashed into neon particles and evaporated into the air.

  Another of the rickety skeletons charged the Necrologist. Garath was shocked and caught off guard by the speed of the level one trash mob - the animated corpse charging him was nothing like the clumsy, bumbling, bag of bones one would expect from a low level creature in a game. Instead, it closed the few feet between them in an instant, already bringing the dangerous end of its rusted axe down at his head. Before he could react, a silver disk appeared vertically between himself and the charging skeleton. The disk vanished along with the axe-wielding undead. Less than a second later, another disk phased into view and, once again, the monster fell to its final death.

  “Thanks!” Garath shouted as another Death Bolt began to form between his hand and staff. He locked onto another target and released, this time knocking half of its Health away with a single shot.

  In his peripherals, Garath saw the rest of the fighters in the party dealing death as well. Warrion had one small dagger in each hand and was dancing through the chaos, shoving his daggers into anything lacking epidermis - only damaging some and landing a final blow on others. An enormously swollen gym-rat-looking fella, with the designation 'Fergus' displayed on his nameplate, swung his long two-handed mace in wide sweeps, each of his attacks inflicting massive damage to the undead horde closing in on the Raid Group. Each of his powerful swings sent two or three of them flying back and some of them even broke into several pieces - providing some much needed space for the group to spread out and cover the doors. Garath looked down at the useless stick he had received, then at Warrion's daggers and Fergus’ badass mace, wondering again if he had chosen his Class poorly. There was nothing for it though. Cursing every game's lack of the coveted 'probably' button, the Necrologist fought on - firing off Death Bolts like a meth addict dishing out sandwiches at Subway at 3AM.

  Garath's volley of Death energy halted suddenly when he heard a very human cry of pain to his right and turned to look. The mace-wielding gym-rat had apparently bitten off more than he could chew and was bleeding from multiple wounds all over his too-muscular form. His mace lay on the ground and three skeletons stood over him as he dropped to his knees. The nameplate above his head indicated thatFergus only had 10% of his maximum Health remaining and Garath almost looked away, torn for a split second between wanting to save the man and not wanting to watch the butchery that was about to take place.

  Suddenly, a green glow enveloped the muscular man and his health-bar jumped to just under 50%. A flash of white followed it, and another. Seconds after he was almost certainly going to be a human shish kabob, color and life came back to him and Fergus was almost at full Health. His bleeding continued and small amounts of HP drained away each second, but he would live. Garath searched for the source and was surprised to see Sharon standing in the doorway with green light surrounding both outstretched hands. Several other designated healers stood there with her, each scanning the melee ahead for someone to heal. And Garath grinned, beyond thrilled that his plan to add healers to the group panned out - and even more than that, that Sharon was leading the way. Maybe if he wasn’t fighting a life and death battle with a seemingly unending horde of undead soldiers he would take the time to pat himself on the back. But as it was, Garath had work to do.

  Decision made, Garath targeted the skeletons around Fergus and let Death Bolts fly as fast as he could. The 9 Mana cost was starting to add up with repeated casting and his Mana was already running low, but the work the Healers did to save Fergus’ life would all be for not if the skeletons standing over him weren't immediately dispatched.

  Garath let loose a black orb that connected with his target while Athios sent a silver disk from her hands and Warrion took off in Fergus’ direction. Athios’ target reappeared in the sky as Garath's second Death Bolt flew toward his target and Warrion raised both daggers with an underhand grip. All at once, the three enemies shattered and flashed neon before dispersing into nothing.

  The group of fighters secured the double-doors of the brick building and everything was going to plan. The majority of the skeletons that had spawned within the fenced area surrounding the brick building had been dispatched. The healers stayed in the entrance and Garath formed up with the
other fighters, their backs to the doors.

  His heart sank as he took in the view. Reanimated Bones were jumping down from the chain link in every direction with more climbing the fence behind them. Beyond that, dozens (if not hundreds) more were moving quickly in their direction with rusty weapons raised - stopping only to slaughter anything in their path as they made their way to the old brick building, apparently attracted to groupings of humans. As he completed his scan of the surrounding area, the Raid leader and Necrologist noticed a sign on the wall of that building for the first time that read, ‘The Church of Immaculate Conception’.

  ‘I'm going to have to remember to make a joke about that later,’ Garath thought to himself.

  Chapter 8

  Breather

  Just over an hour into The Culling, Garath stood breathing heavily between the clashing melee outside the building and the group of healers flashing multicolored beams of magic from the doorway as the sun’s golden light poured over the mountains to the east. The Necrologist channeled every available point of Mana into Death Bolt after Death Bolt at the thinning, but still oncoming horde of aggressive undead. As his blue Mana bar neared empty, Garath's mind began to fog and he knew he needed to let his Mana replenish or risk losing his life to a slower reaction time. The group seemed to have the swarm of skellys under control, bottlenecked at the entrance to the building, so he felt comfortable enough to step away while his Mana regenerated.

  He stepped past Sharon and the other healers flashing green and white as they sent recovery spells to aid the fighters outside. Once through the second set of doors, Garath took a good look at the Raid members inside the building. Most of the scared, cowering people he expected to see there - the pregnant woman and her four young children, the blind man and his wife - he also noticed the young girl that had blasted open the doors holding onto an old woman's arm, and Mark was sitting with his arms around his knees, shaking. It occurred to Garath then that the people behind the healers were utterly helpless. If even a few of the murderous undead found a way inside, they could legitimately kill all of these people. Mark aside, Garath didn’t want that blood on his hands.

  Garath was sure the fighting force could hold off the level one skeletons bottlenecked outside the doors but the building did have another entrance on the opposite side. It took a little mental flexing, but Garath found that he was able to alter his next words to only reach the eleven fighters - his Raid interface confirmed the change with a small 'ear' icon next to those his voice would reach.

  "I don't know if these skellys are smart enough to break in the other side but we should station at least one of us behind the group at all times as a precaution. We can do it in shifts since this shit-show is supposed to last a whole day."

  "We get it G, you're tired. Go take a resty-rest while we kill shit," Warrion replied on the same channel, his breath heavy between words. The Assassin, a few feet outside the doors, had just discovered that the pommels of his small blades did more damage to the undead than the stabby ends and the gangly little guy was just running around, clocking the skeletons in the back of the head like some morbid, fucked up game of undead whack-a-mole.

  Garath wanted to argue, but figured it wasn't worth it. "Okay, I'll take first shift then - if your Health gets low or you need to tag out just call it on this channel and we'll switch."

  As he reached the back of the group in the main hall of the old building, he noticed a tiny script in the corner of his vision - when he squinted to read it, the font grew to the regular prompt size.

  ‘Was it minimized because it would be a distraction in combat?’ he wondered.

  Congratulations, Garath! For reaching level(s) 2 and 3, you are awarded 6 Attribute Points (3 per level) and 2 Skill Points (1 per level) to distribute at your discretion. As a Necrologist, you automatically 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: 6

  Unused Skill Points: 2

  New Skills are now available.

  ‘More detailed again!’ he thought excitedly, doing a little jig for the increase in his personal level and the more detailed prompt information.

  Once behind the closely huddled group, Garath scanned the early nineteen-hundreds school building. The sun pouring through the east-side windows reflected blindingly off the white marbled flooring in the main hall. Four thick stone pillars, one in each corner of the room, rose from the marble floors to the high, domed ceiling.

  ‘I don't know about Immaculate Conception, but these floors are fucking PRISTINE,’ he thought - then pouted to himself. He could do better than that with a setup like Immaculate Conception and he knew it. He moved past that quickly though, and opened his MENU panels to access his Profile page.

  Garath

  Race: Human

  Class: Necrologist

  Level: 3

  Age: 29

  Health: 150/150

  Stamina: 79/100

  Mana: 180/180

  (base:150; items: +30)

  Experience to next Level: 478/4000

  Attributes

  Vitality: 15

  Wisdom: 15

  Regeneration: 5

  Strength: 5

  Dexterity: 5

  Unused Attribute Points: 6

  ‘Not bad not bad!’ he thought, looking over how much his stats had already improved.

  Garath considered dumping every point into Vitality, it seemed that each point of Vitality resulted in ten additional points to his Health pool. More health equaled being more of a pain in the ass to kill, at least that’s how he saw it. Then the Necrologist looked speculatively at Regeneration. He wondered if the Attribute regenerated Health, Mana, or both. Even though his prompts and interface seemed to be providing more information with each new info dump, it still just wasn't enough for him. In the end, he decided to divide his points evenly between Vitality, Wisdom, and Regeneration.

  Are you sure?

  Yes or No

  He chose yes and looked at the Profile partition of his MENU again.

  Garath

  Race: Human

  Class: Necrologist

  Level: 3

  Age: 29

  Health: 170/170

  (base: 150; APs: +20)

  Stamina: 53/100

  Mana: 200/200

  (base:170; items: +30)

  Experience to next Level: 688/4000

  Attributes

  Vitality: 17 - Each point of Vitality provides +10 to maximum Health.

  Wisdom: 17 - Each point of Wisdom provides +10 to maximum Mana.

  Regeneration: 7 - As a Necrologist, each point of Regeneration increases Mana recovery rate by +1.11 per second; Health recovery rate by +.25 per second; and recovery from injury by +2%.

  Strength: 5 - In addition to making one stronger, each point of Strength increases physical attack damage by 1% and reduces damage received from physical attacks by .25%.

  Dexterity: 5 - In addition to making one more agile, each point of Dexterity improves the critical strike chance of physical attacks by +.3%; the critical strike damage of physical attacks by +3%; and improves chance to dodge by +.5%.

  Unused Attribute Points: 0

  Garath was thrilled to bits about the fact that his interface seemed to be customizing to his every desire, or perhaps his every frustration, in this case. Either way though, he wasn’t complaining. He smiled to himself as he noticed that he had been receiving Exp just from being in the Raid. That made him think for a second. He was a bit unsure how he felt about an even distribution of Exp from kills to the entire Raid. He probably would have cared more if his personal Level was higher, and therefore more difficult to progress in. As it was, like in most popular RPGs with a Level system, the first handful of Levels would be relatively easy to fly through either way, so he guessed it didn’t really matter. That was considering he lived through The Culling, of course. First thi
ng’s first.