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

get close enough to make eye-contact. The osprey dove toward the water, and Garath saw his chance. He broke into a dive as well, quickly losing altitude on an intercept course. The osprey smashed into the water with its clawed talons extended, reaching for its lunch as Garath pulled out of his own dive a few feet above the water’s surface. The osprey, lunch in hand, flapped its wings wildly to get back into the air. That’s when it locked eyes with the crow uncharacteristically skimming the ocean’s surface.

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

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

It was a bummer that Garath didn’t get a Class synergy with his new BeastScape form, but he figured not every form he unlocked would be synergistic with a Necrologist. The fact that the first two forms he’d unlocked were both synergistic with his Class was a like gift from the Gods of Machina. If nothing else, at least now he had a new go-to form to get from A to B as fast as possible, without a single soul-taint.

A short flight northeast, and Garath landed back in the comforting presence of his planted egg atop the cliff overlooking the Pacific. He shifted back into his natural form and willed his MENU panels into existence. He pulled up his Friend list and drafted up a message to everyone that had been in the Raid group, as well as the ‘bimbo sisters’ that were unable to join the Raid group before Garath dissolved it. The message was simple: Danger heading for HQ. Meet me in the main hall in an hour.

Chapter Five – Manifest Destiny

It was late afternoon and the main hall of BoTH HQ was filled with sound. The majority of the remaining population of what had once been a thriving city were packed into the cavernous room. Families and small groups talked together sitting on couches, love seats, tables, and desks, all arranged to face the back of the room. Brandon’s Crow, Dave, flew overhead, swooping low when his Tamer tossed a morsel in the air for him to catch. Garath could smell the growing anxiety filling the room. It was time to say what he came to say.

The Necrologist expected to feel nervous as he stepped up onto a long oak table in front of the buzzing crowd. He'd never had a problem with public speaking, but he always had to fight back a bit of anxiety. This time, however, there wasn’t a single butterfly in his stomach. He felt more confident than he ever had. Dismissing the sudden confidence as just another unspecified perk from his Leader of Man status, Garath lifted his hands and the noise quieted.

"Thank you for coming," he started, raising his voice and projecting to the far side of the room. "I asked you all to come because there are a few things we need to talk about."

Questions started pouring out of the crowd. "What happened with Leviathan?" one person asked.

"Did he leave?" another shouted.

"No way!" came a third voice over the rising ruckus, "G took him out, didn't you G?"

Garath raised his hands again in a plea for silence. The effects of the tainted soul had been creeping forth from the back of his mind since he left the comforting presence of the egg buried in the soil on the clifftop. The egg that seemed so far away now, as he stood over the small crowd in the main hall of HQ. He saw everyone in front of him, sitting at attention with their Healthbars affixed to their heads. He inhaled deeply through his mouth and could almost taste the Experience Points contained within their still-breathing bodies; he craved the feeling of his Plague draining the life from them. He knew he could always shift back into Crow form if the murderous urges got too strong, but felt that he could keep himself together for a few more minutes. It was time to get to the point.

"I'm not here to talk about Leviathan,” he told them frankly.

“Your message said there was a potential danger?” a woman asked from a couch where she sat with her two children and her husband, TodoroKen. Garath checked her nameplate to refresh his memory when he couldn’t remember her name. Heather#1417.

“Right,” he nodded. “Thanks for reminding me, Heather. Some of you may have noticed the smoke pillar to the south. I went to check it out. It’s coming from something called a World Boss, and it’s headed this way.”

The worried murmurs grew, and Garath worried he might lose control of the conversation. He raised his hands again, patting the air in front of him to quiet the crowd.

“That’s just the bad news, though. The good news is that I don’t think it’s particularly hostile. It’s been burning away the wreckage of everything in its path and new plants are growing from the ashes. The other good news is that by creating a Guild, we can make this building into a Guild Hall. There are a lot of details, but I’ll keep it simple. By creating a specific type of Guild, we can make the Guild Hall what the system called ‘inviolate’. I’m not positive, but I am pretty sure that’ll keep everyone safe as long as we stay inside as it passes. It’s coming at us from the south, so we’ll get the Guild set up to make the building a safe zone, then have everyone wait at the north end of the building to see what happens when it gets here. Ideally, it’ll just go around us, but if not, we’ll head out the north doors and figure it out from there. Like I said, it’s moving very slowly so we’ll have time to get out of its path if we need to. Any questions before I move on to the next topic?”

An older man with a round belly and a bristly mustache