The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) by Craig Kobayashi (ebook reader 7 inch TXT) 📕

surfaced, and then another. Within seconds, perhaps a dozen huge worms were sprawled out, wiggling and vulnerable on the patch of wet dirt. The Purple Rain didn't seem to bother the creatures much, despite the minimal damage it was causing each second. Garath watched as the displayed Healthbars of the worms dropped minutely from the rain, then topped themselves back off. He noticed a raindrop icon appear below their nameplates and willed more information to present itself.

Moistened - While Moistened, Earthworms’ Health Regeneration is increased by 150%.

Garath let Auto's group know to meet them as soon as he saw the Skin Beetle counter reach 10/10. With the gang all back together, they made quick work of their worm requirement. They went down wiggling, but without putting up much resistance, netting Garath 20 Mana Crystals and 16,150 Experience for his contribution to their demise. Even after Daisy stopped casting Purple Rain though, more worms kept surfacing. Garath glanced at the Alice-provided counter in his peripherals again.

Skin Beetles: 10/10

Earthworms: 12/10

Mole Rat: 0/1

Time remaining: 1:22

The Earthworms counter ticked up to 13/10 while he was looking at the counter, his damage-over-time spells were apparently continuing to kill even some of the worms who’d thought to escape by slithering back into the perceived safety of the earth below. Just then, one of the worms that had died began to wiggle and Garath knew his hidden Skill, Death’s Medium had just reanimated the carcass. He wasn’t sure how useful an undead worm would be in a fight, especially considering how easily the Raid Group had just downed a dozen of them, so he just gave it a mental command to attack other worms. Garath smiled as another subterranean bonus kill from his DoT spells gave him another 1,600 Experience Points, but frowned at seeing that they had just over a minute to locate and kill a Mole Rat.

In the nearly nine minutes they’d been running around inside the underground gallery, nobody had caught even a glimpse of anything but bugs and worms, not a mole rat to be seen. Then Garath remembered then that moles, not unlike worms, spent the vast majority of their lives swimming through the dirt and digging tunnels. That’s also when he remembered one of the main sources of food for the furry, subterranean mammals—Earthworms.

Unfortunately, Garath’s revelation celebration was short lived, as every source of illumination in the cavern winked out.

The Raid Group froze, breath held as they desperately clung to their other senses in the pitch darkness. For a few seconds there was no sound, no light - Garath felt trapped in an endless black plane. Even if he shifted into House Cat form, the improved night vision wouldn’t help, because there was no light for the enhanced retinas of a feline to make use of. Sight useless, sound absent, Garath turned to his inhuman sense of smell. He took in a searching breath through his nose, but he could only make out the individual odors of his Raid members and the sour sting of the dead worms in front of him. Then the ground beneath his feet began to rumble. Ah, shit.

“Back away from the worms,” Alice suggested, her disembodied voice shockingly close to Garath’s ear.

All ten members of the Raid took a few steps back, each hoping they were actually moving away from the worms and not closer to them in the complete darkness, as the rumbling grew more intense. The timer in Garath’s peripherals read 0:39 when a new smell presented itself. Fur. Fur and dirt. Something erupted from the ground, throwing Garath back to land on his ass a few feet away.

“Daisy, Blast! Straight up!” Garath shouted.

Immediately, a fireball started taking form a few feet to the Necrologist’s right, then shot up toward the spinal column, lighting the cavern like a burning chandelier for a few seconds before darkness returned. In those few seconds, a lot happened.

The Dungeon Team located their mole. When Daisy’s ball of flame first lit up the room, Garath saw the elephant-sized creature slurping up the recently slain worms like a bowl of slimy spaghetti. The light caused the massive rodent quite a bit of discomfort, as it screeched and shielded its face with one huge clawed hand as the ball of flame reached its peak. Garath watched Warrion slip back into Stealth and moved toward the creature’s backside. Auto charged to attack. And then it was dark again.

Daisy didn’t send another Blast! toward the Mole Rat for fear of striking one of the Raid’s melee fighters, but Garath had already selected his target. He started channeling Mana into Creeping Death, even as he gave Handsome orders to do the same. Garath heard a clang of steel striking steel, and someone cried out in pain.

“Daisy, keep the lights on!” Garath shouted.

Garath heard another muffled cry from the blind melee battle somewhere in front of him. He and Handsome both cast Creeping Death again in the darkness, releasing the twin DOT debuffs as Daisy lit up the gallery again with another fireball.

The creature shrieked as the light from Daisy’s spell caused it pain. This time, before the Blast! hit the ceiling, a dimensional disk appeared above it. The fireball fell through, then reappeared from a second disk directly above the Mole Rat. The Fire Magic crashed into the creature and detonated on impact. Auto was raking at the mole’s backside with Obawon, Atlas, Bill, and the Dreadreaver when the second Blast! lit the room. Garath didn’t get eyes on Warrion, but he’d seen him slip into Stealth moments before, so the Necrologist didn’t think twice about it. He didn’t have the inclination to Inspect the creature once he could see again, but was happily surprised when he noticed that they’d already made significant progress on taking the beast down within the few seconds since engaging. Its Healthbar was already near 50%. A quick glance at the timer displayed in the corner of his vision showed 0:19, so direct damage would be a