The Culling of Man: A litrpg adventure (Peril's Prodigy Book 1) by Craig Kobayashi (ereader android TXT) 📕

make the difference between life and death, victory and defeat; the Hallowed Knight, a heavily armored holy-warrior that could specialize in restorative magic or melee combat; and lastly, the Necrologist Class caught his eye, appearing to him as some combination between a typical Warlock and Necromancer. He read the summary of each a final time before locking in.

The Tamer befriends or enslaves powerful creatures to do their bidding. Once under the control of a Tamer, beasts may develop new abilities. Without animal companions, the Tamer is far from helpless - cunning and quick, the Tamer specializes in devious traps and ranged combat. Will you become a Tamer? Yes or No.

He chose no. As cool as powerful creatures doing his bidding sounded, the ranged combat and traps didn't really fit his playstyle. On top of that, he hadn't actually handled a bow and arrow in his life - and where would he find 'powerful creatures' to enslave or befriend? He lived in a city... A homing pigeon? He chose no and read on.

The Hallowed Knights are holy warriors whose immense physical strength comes second to their mental fortitude. By calling upon the Divine, Hallowed Knights have the ability to call healing beams from the heavens or rain down righteous judgement on their enemies. Will you become a Hallowed Knight? Yes or No.

Again he chose no. The Hallowed Knight sounded very similar to the character he had spent so many hours on, his Paladin healer (also named Garath). The option was tempting, he had spent almost as much time lying in bed and fantasizing about actually being the plate armor healer as he had controlling it from his keyboard. In Garath's experience, having a great healer on the team was more important than any other single factor, although, he would have to admit an argument could be made for a competent tank. Since he had rarely come across great healers to play with in his early years of online gaming, Garath dedicated hundreds of hours to perfecting his technique so that he could play that invaluable role in every dungeon and raid. He considered the Hallowed Knight for a few more minutes in the darkness of his apartment. He decided to read the summary of the Necrologist one more time before making a decision.

A Necrologist harnesses the powers of Hell itself to conquer enemies by summoning demons from the pits, manipulating their blood, and spreading pestilent disease. Though the path of Necrology seldom comes without sacrifice, a master Necrologist is resilient and death itself will act as his agent. Will you become a Necrologist? Yes or No.

It may have been the last several hours of very enjoyable play on his Warlock, or maybe something else entirely, but he felt a pull to the Necrologist Class - he could summon demons and slay enemies with disease? Cool! Garath didn't know what the summary meant by, 'seldom without sacrifice,' but the rest was pretty exciting. He looked back and forth between the Hallowed Knight and the Necrologist for several minutes, thinking so hard about the decision that he didn't even hear the footsteps and hushed voices in the hallway outside his front door.

When it came down to it, Garath looked at the choices in front of him as a far more profound decision than simply choosing a character to play in a game. He felt himself torn between taking the path he always had or choosing a new one. The path he had always taken was the one that would make things easier, the same path that had lead him to where he was now, living alone with his cat in a messy apartment and only online gaming to fill his need for excitement and adventure. The same path that had led him to fits of anxiety and panic attacks whenever he thought about what he was doing with his life. Though his in-game Paladin and life choices had nothing directly connecting them, they were as much a part of his identity as the face he saw in the mirror. An identity that he was ready to leave behind with the new age.

Garath had always wanted more out of life but never made the sacrifices necessary to get more, be more. He took a deep breath and decided right then and there that he was done taking the easiest path.

Once you have made your decision, it cannot be reversed. Are you sure you want to choose Necrologist? Yes or No.

‘I really wish there was a, 'probably' option,’Garath thought to himself. He chose yes and braced himself.

White light flashed over the panels in front of him and entered his eyes and open mouth. A surge of blinding energy filled his body and mind and he began to hover a few centimeters off the ground. When the light finally faded and the brand-spanking-new Necrologist landed back down on the cheap carpet of his apartment, Garath felt… odd. His entire body felt amazing, not like any kind of high - but definitely more than it should have considering he hadn't slept in almost two days. Even more surprising than his rejuvenated body was a sensation completely new to him, an aura of sapphire energy. He couldn't see the color, but rather could feel it. The last changes he noticed were a pair of, filled, bars that remained affixed to the top his vision no matter which way he looked. On top was a ruby Health bar that read 90/90. Below it, a deep blue Mana bar read 70/70 - the azure color was the exact shade of the new aura he had sensed and Garath drew correlations.

After a few seconds of simply breathing, Garath looked ponderously at his MENU and noticed a new option had appeared reading ‘Skill Tree’. Instead of jumping directly to his Skill Tree or BeastScape, he decided to start from the top and work his way down. First on the list was the Items option,