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

by Craig Kobayashi

  Gary breathed in deeply, desperately wishing someone else could do what he then had to. "I'm sorry," he told her, gently grasping each of Daisy's arms and pulling her away from her Gran.

  She fought him, desperately clutching at Gran's old cardigan and kicking at the man pulling her away. Gary took the kicks and punches and slaps and scratches with an accepting determination, he knew it was nothing personal - there was simply more emotion in the poor child than she knew how to express. When he pulled her from the couch, she thrashed and flailed about, striking his chest as he pulled her close. She fought, sobbing, for a few seconds before she wrapped her arms around Gary and whimpered softly into his flannel shirt.

  "I'm sorry," she said, after long minutes of painting Gary's shirt a shade darker with her flood of tears. Snot dripped down her face as well and Gary smiled at her comfortingly. "I'm going to go to the bathroom."

  "Okay," said Gary. He watched the little girl walk all the way out of the main hall before he did what needed to be done.

  With Daisy safely out of sight, he hefted the dead weight of Gran's decrepit body and cradled her in his arms to carry her to the washroom near the back exit. His boys had brought a handful of white drapes to the room when the first death occurred to wrap the body until they could bury it. The first death was that of Nigel, another elderly member of the Raid group formerly known as The Band of the Hawk. Gary had already hauled Nigel's body to the washroom, wrapped his corpse, and laid him on the marble floor not even an hour before he cradled Gran's remains through the washroom door. He laid out a bedsheet, set the woman down and then left her to rest, wrapped in white next to Nigel.

  Alone with two dead in the washroom, Gary felt panic creeping up on him. He was infected with Plague, denoted by a small skull and crossbones icon in the bottom corner of his vision. The panic he felt was not for himself though, his Regeneration stat of 21 replenished his HP almost as fast as Plague drained it. He was more worried for his sons, his nephews, and the other two hundred people suffering from the Plague's effects. He looked at the icon closely and read the informational prompt that appeared.

  You are infected with Plague. You will suffer 18 (death) damage per second until you are cured or until the source is neutralized.

  The previous Raid Group members with healing Abilities had each attempted to cleanse the Plague with no apparent luck. Gary shook his head in frustration, the only thing he could think to do was contact Garath and ask for help. He didn't know if the Necrologist would know what to do, but he seemed to have a greater understanding of this new Earth than Gary did - what other option did he have?

  He willed his MENU panels into existence before him and sent a private message to the away team (dungeon Party) with hopes that Sharon's Cure Poison spell would have more luck than the other healers. The bearded handyman sat next to Gran's corpse and awaited a reply.

  Private Message from Garath to Gary - 00/00/06 @ 07:19:

  Isn't Mark there? He's a Naturist too. What kind of Plague? I don't know if there is any way out of this dungeon without completing it. Who died? Is it a DoT magical plague? ... (DoT=damage over time) or is it some kind of virus ?? Either way, doing this dungeon and will get back ASAP

  Private Message from Gary to Garath - 00/00/06 @ 07:19:

  Who's Mark? I'll ask around and try to find him. Is he the chubby guy that always looks like he's about to cry? I don't know what kind of plague, I see this little skull and crossbones icon and it says, 'you have plague and will take damage every second until you are cured' or something. If there's another Naturist here then you don't really have to hurry, not sure what you can do that we haven't already tried.

  An older fella named Nigel passed and Daisy's Gran just went too. Everyone is trying to use their health potions to keep their health up but I don't know how long it's going to last. My Regeneration seems to be high enough to make up for it but almost everyone else is fighting a losing battle with the potions. Healers are trying to keep everyone above 50% but they’ll run out of Mana eventually too.

  You have any ideas how to cure?

  Private Message from Garath to Gary - 00/00/06 @ 07:20:

  That's Mark alright. See if he can cure it and let me know.

  #sadface @Gran, that's rough.

  To cure, I have no idea. You don't know the source of the disease at all?

  Private Message from Gary to Garath - 00/00/06 @ 07:21:

  No idea.

  Private Message from Garath to Gary - 00/00/06 @ 07:21:

  k. Let me know what happens with Mark. Going to get moving on this dungeon. I'll send you a message when we're heading back.

  Oh! Check the forums and see if anyone else knows anything about this Plague, keep me posted! Good luck and let me know if anything changes.

  G

  ***

  Garath led the Party through the blue stone tunnel with his Flayer and Fel Hound trailing five-meters behind at his command. He was discussing the Plague debuff with Athios as they walked, debating whether an epidemic so soon after The Culling could possibly have been planted by the same entity, until an odd sound caught his attention and Garath called a stop.

  "You hear that?" he asked, pausing and cupping his ear toward the noise. It sounded like a massive waterfall in the distance, with a closer, sloshing sound. As they rounded the last corner and entered the cave mouth, the sounds explained themselves. The sloshing sound was produced by sapphire water creeping up into the mouth of the cave and fading back in slow waves. The crashing waterfall sound was a bit deceiving though, it was not one massive waterfall. The cave mouth opened into a water filled cove with a series of impossibly high waterfalls dumping thousands of gallons of gloriously blue water into the cove lined up along the right and far sides.

  Apart from the cave mouth, the cove itself only had a few areas that weren't completely submerged in water. There were five circular, raised platforms placed purposefully throughout - one on either side of the cave mouth, separated only by ten-meters of flowing water; behind them, and directly in front of the cave mouth, was a larger, even more raised platform with an ornate, white gazebo standing on its center; the last two platforms, like those flanking the cave mouth, were placed between the larger (gazebo-topped) platform in the center and the waterfalls behind.

  On each platform, a group of five Naga stood on guard - looking left, then right, then shifting in place before looking left and right again. Garath Inspected each of the enemies on the nearest platform.

  Aquawood Naga Pikeman

  Humanoid - Naga

  Health: 1,155/1,155

  Level: 16

  Station: Infantry

  Mana: 195/195

  Description: Infantry unit of the snake-people of Aquawood Depths. Aquawood Naga are fabled to worship the mystic Magic of Hypnotism.

  Three out of each group of five were similar to the Pikemen they had fought in the cave, simply a higher level. They weren't overly concerning, but Garath's high hopes for an easy dungeon run dropped when he Inspected the other two.

  Aquawood Naga Sentry

  Humanoid - Naga

  Health: 650/650

  Level: 15

  Station: Scout

  Mana: 425/425

  Description: The ornate horn carried by Aquawood Naga Sentries is not for decoration.

  Aquawood Naga Hypnotist

  Humanoid - Naga

  Health: 750/750

  Level: 14

  Station: Mage

  Mana: 865/865

  Description: Naga Hypnotist's are rumored to paralyze foes with only a glance.

  The Sentry in each group stood next to the Hypnotist, the three Pikemen in a loose circle around them. The sentries held an ornate horn in one hand and a sharp, silver javelin in the other. Garath had seen similar mobs in games throughout the years, the idea was simple: silence or kill the Sentry before they alerted every Naga in the dungeon. As much of a non-factor as a single Naga was, fifty at once would almost certainly spell death for the four-ma
n Party.

  The Hypnotists were obviously female and, just as obviously, the biggest threat. They stood with wider hips and narrow waists. They were topless, like the Pikemen, but with a pair of noticeable, blue-tinted differences standing out on their chests. The Hypnotists wore golden tiaras and held tall gold staffs with glowing, blue orbs pulsating sapphire light from their tips. The Hypnotists were even more concerning than the Sentries - paralysis in general was something Garath had learned to fear and hate in the world of online gaming - being immobile, even briefly, could easily prove fatal. But then, so could one of the Sentries alerting the entire cove of their presence.

  In addition to the five-Naga-groups stationed on each of the five terraces, there were also three patrol groups that swam back and forth on a predetermined path through the cool blue water between the raised platforms. One pair of Naga Pikemen swam from just in front of the cave mouth, around the platform to the right, and all the way to the waterfalls lining the right side of the cove before pausing, popping up out of the water, treading with their powerful tails to look around, then dipping back into the water and swimming back to the cave mouth. A similar pair of Naga took the opposite path on the left in alternating fashion - as the patrol on the right reached the waterfalls, the patrol on the left was directly in front of the cave and turned to skirt the left side of the cove as the first group made its way back toward the cave.

  The last patrol was a group of three Naga. One appeared, from a distance at least, significantly larger than the others. Garath tried to trigger his Inspect Ability on the larger Naga but gave up after a few seconds of trying, but failing, to acquire any information. To the Necrologist, this meant one of two things: one, it was simply out of range to Inspect from his current location; two, dungeon boss.

  After back tracking into the tunnel and outside the line of sight of the oncoming patrol, the Party discussed their observations - Sharon aside, the youthful old woman was busy studying a painted mural on the cave wall.

  "Looks pretty cut and dry," said Garath.

  "Poor choice of words," Athios disagreed, eyeing the waves of sapphire water creeping into the cave mouth. "I think dry is key though, I'm not fighting those things in the water."

  "Def," agreed Warrion. "We could all go Crow form and just knock out one group at a time?"

  "And risk a horn blower on another platform or patrol seeing us?” Garath asked, shaking his head. “No thanks. Here's what we do..."

  Sharon walked from the left side of the cave tunnel to the right, observing a mirror image of the same mural as Garath explained the plan. It was a tried and true method of getting through a dungeon such as this: pull and pummel.

  "It looks like a dance of some kind," Sharon was saying, perhaps to herself, as Garath pulled her further back into the tunnel with one finger held vertically in front of his lips.

  The patrol group from the left side of the cove was so close to the cave mouth that Garath, with his improved sense of smell, could clearly identify their individual scents.

  He summoned a recently looted trident from his inventory and cast Aquawood Defense on himself. The weapon-provided Skill had a completely different feel to it than the ones in his Class repertoire. Each spell he had cast before felt like it came from within himself, the knowledge to execute it floating around in his mind from the second he purchased the Skill; Aquawood Defense, on the other hand, had no casting cost or time and the magic seemed to come from the weapon itself - flashing a brilliant blue as the blessing was bestowed. He passed the trident to Athios, Sharon, and Warrion to do the same then gave a silent command to his summoned demons to stay back and out of sight until further notice.

  “Let's do it,” he said in a whisper, motioning with one hand to move to the open cave mouth.

  Athios moved ahead and poked her head around the opening in the stone wall into the cove to get a location on her targets. When the left-side patrolling pair of Naga popped out of the water in front of the cave mouth, Athios dual-cast two dimensional disks beneath their tails, transporting both Naga Pikemen - along with several gallons of water that slipped through the tear in space-time as well - onto the blue, stone floor of the cave. Before either of the muscular snake-people fully reoriented themselves to their new surroundings, Garath and Warrion swept up from behind to make their moves. The Assassin found no fault in his previous method of savagely stabbing the lower back of his target to bring down their Health before sliding a dagger between the its neck vertebra and twisting, and so he repeated that method. Garath decided to use a Skill he had only used once before, to kill Aldrasyl at the culmination of The Culling, Black Blood.

  As his will focused into the casting, Garath felt his own blood emerge from his skin in tiny droplets, his Health and Mana bars each took a significant hit to pay the cost. Obsidian liquid formed a black mist around him, then solidified with a thought into a pointed lance that extended directly into the shocked face of the second Naga. Garath was able to retract the lance easily and the black blood forming it rejoined the mist surrounding his body. He scored a critical hit by skewering the unaware Naga's brain, the Pikeman's Health dropped precipitously from the unexpected crit - but it didn't die. Garth swore loudly and willed the blood-mist to form a lance a second time. This time, however, the obsidian liquid remained in a protective bubble around him and didn't respond at all to his will. Unlike the first time he used the Skill, when he had died just after casting it, he was able to sense the mist surrounding him and noticed a small black icon in the corner of his vision. Information was provided and he took it in quickly as Warrion moved to finish the Naga.

  Black Blood - Your blood can act as a weapon (maximum: one use. 0/1 remaining) or shield.

  Spell time remaining: 4 minutes, 52 seconds; Cooldown remaining: 9 minutes, 52 seconds.

  The sensation of actually feeling his blood was odd enough. The fact that it was outside of his body, even weirder. Throw in the ability to manipulate it into acting as a shield or even a Naga-kabob and Garath was starting to wonder if it was even his blood at all - or just an interestingly named Necrologist Skill. He wasn't able to explore the sensation further as the mist slowly dissipated and evaporated completely. Garath just nodded in frustration, but relented that the Skill description had specified weapon OR shield.

  After claiming two more tridents and collecting the Mana Crystals from their kills, the Party repeated the process on the second pair of patrolling Naga, filling the inside of the cave once again with a cascade of water that was followed by two confused snake-people - then were quickly replaced by a couple of corpses and a growing puddle of blue puss. Garath slid two more tridents into his Items panel, tapped the teal orbs to collect the Mana Crystals, and then prepared himself for the next attack.

  "Just pull the Sentry," Garath instructed as Athios took a long pull from her Endless Potion of Mana and placed it back in her Items panel. Dual casting had drained her Mana significantly faster than sending out one disk at a time. Her available Mana increased by 10% in a flash and the blue bar below her nameplate continued to fill at an increased rate for the next 60 seconds. She removed the Naga trident from her inventory, struggling slightly with its weight, then nodded.

  "Everyone ready?"

  "Yessir," said Warrion. "I've got the horn blower."

  "I'm ready," said Athios, holding her trident in one hand with the bottom of the shaft propped against the stone cave floor - her other hand held out at the ready to start the next pull.

  "Let me do one thing," said Sharon. The Naturist folded her arms into her chest and a green light shot from her body in every direction, lighting the walls of the cobalt cave with an emerald flash. Each member of the Party received a new icon denoting the blessing she had bestowed.

  Bark Skin - Your base Armor is increased by 10%.

  Spell time remaining: 9 minutes, 59 seconds.

  Between Sharon increasing his Armor and the Naga trident's spell increasing his HP, Garath felt like a legitimate tank. He was psyche
d, even if he was a bit sore that she just NOW used full Party buff - but better late than never, he figured.

  "Okay, just like we discussed. If shit gets crazy, use the Party channel to call out what you're doing. Remember, communication is key,” Garath told them.

  They started with the platform raised out of the flowing blue water on the right side of the cave mouth. Athios pulled the Sentry through a rip in space-time - visually denoted by a silver disk - to land inside the cave mouth with the waiting Party. Warrion made his move, rushing up from behind the Sentry and slashing at its neck with both daggers. Garath and Sharon each sent their respective bolts of magic into the creature as well as the Naga lifted its ornate horn to its lips.

  Thankfully, the dungeon Party's ears only heard the wet schlap as the Sentry's body hit the floor instead of the sound of a horn alerting the entire dungeon of their presence. Unfortunately, the four Naga that were on the platform with the Sentry seemed to notice their compatriot missing and were already in the water on their way to the cave mouth to investigate.