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

all before he even allocated his 6 new Attribute points) led Garath to believe that he could easily survive a hit from anything near his level. Although, when Athios was impaled by the scimitar, her health bar dipped to well below twenty-five percent - it even continued to drop after he had removed the sword, presumably a 'bleeding debuff' of some kind; the Endless Potion of Healing he poured into her mouth must have closed the wound while he was fighting on ground level. She easily could have died if he hadn't removed the rusty shish-ka-bob and poured the healing potion down her throat. Maybe critical damage from being impaled was the explanation.

‘It just doesn't make sense,’ he thought. Then he remembered that a combat log was recently made available and opened his main MENU panel to adjust the settings.

"Oh hey, G. Thanks for your help with the horde of those fuckers I pulled so you could get inside," said Warrion, his voice carrying to the Necrologist over the murmuring company of children and non-combatants between them. The Assassin walked past Sharon and the healers, then entered the building panting heavily and gleaming with sweat in the morning sun.

"Oh, hey man. Sorry, I was doing some things..." Garath replied shortly before turning his attention back to his panels.

"No big, homes. Hey, does it seem to you like we're super OP? Like... These things go down in two or three well placed hits but I have two hundred HP and my regen has been enough to just keep fighting."

"You know," the Necrologist said, closing his panels and turning his thoughtful stare to Warrion, who had taken a seat next to him, "I was literally just thinking exactly that… but so many people have died."

"Right?!"

"Death of a thousand cuts?"

"What?"

"An organized army of mice could kill a cat. Speaking of..." Garath stood up and scanned the room for Sharon and Tarzan, he located the black ball of fluff quickly. She was dozing lazily in the lap of a beautiful young woman next to Mark on the ground. Satisfied that his cat was safe, he continued scanning the crowd for Sharon.

"Wait, what? Mice?"

"Forget it,” Garath sighed expansively. “Hey, will you do me a favor?"

"Whatcha need?"

"I want you to hit me with one of your Skills, but I need to figure out the combat log first. Why don't you go to the bathroom and get some water while I dick around with the options?" he asked. Warrion was still breathing heavily and looked like he could use something to drink. "It's down in the main hall, apparently indoor plumbing doesn't rely completely on electricity."

"Dude, nice."

With that, the gangly Assassin got to his feet and eagerly sought to quench his thirst. Garath returned to his MENU panels, the newest option available glowed gold in the center panel reading 'Settings'. He focused on the option and a Settings partition filled the left third of his vision. There were customization variations in a long column, about half way down he found what he was looking for.

Combat Log: Disabled

When he focused on the word 'Disabled', he found that it opened a drop down menu of sorts, listing the options.

Disabled (selected: default)

Enabled Background

Enabled Foreground

Garath chose Enabled Foreground and noticed a few other interesting options in this new Settings panel. He was reading through them when he felt a familiar brush of fur against his leg.

"Been taking it easy, huh?" he asked the black feline. Tarzan flicked her tail irritably and turned away from him. "Oh don't be like that. Have you seen Sharon?"

Tarzan yawned and started cleaning herself, ignoring his question completely.

‘Fucking cats…’ Garath thought. Even when he knew for a fact that, not only could she understand him, but she could literally converse with him - and she still just ignored him just like she often had before the apocalypse.

"I'm right here, young man," a beautiful young woman said to him. In all the excitement of the past few hours Garath had completely forgotten about her recent transformation.

"Sharon, holy shit! I forgot that you're not old as balls anymore. Thanks for keeping an eye on this A-hole for me."

The cat meowed haughtily and sauntered over to stand next to Sharon.

"Listen," Garath continued. "Me and Warrion are going to do a bit of a test when he gets back and it may... Well, it may hurt a bit and I don't know exactly how it will affect me. I wouldn't mind having a back up to my health potion around in case anything unexpected happens."

Sharon readily agreed to help and Garath felt much more confident after seeing her healing in action throughout the first two waves. He wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that she was able to pick up spell casting so easily considering how long it took him to teach her even the basics of a smartphone.

The sounds of battle echoing from the entrance of the building had grown more and more sporadic as the massive horde of Ghouls had been defeated and the party keeping them at bay had only to dispatch of a few Ghouls at a time when they respawned and attacked.

A prompt appeared in the forefront of Garath's vision in the elaborate gold font signifying it was a world-wide notification.

Monster respawns will be halted for the next 30 minutes as the next wave is prepared. Rest and hone your skills, human. The Culling continues at 06:00(GST).

The Culling Totals

Global Death Count: 2,311,764,001

Community Death Count: 51,027

‘Over fifty-thousand... Here in Everett?’ he thought, disbelief filling his heavy heart. ‘How? How did these mindless undead kill so many?’

"So, you just want me to hit you with something?" Warrion asked as he entered the crowded hallway, one eyebrow slightly raised. He lifted both hands out to his sides, they shimmered and the twin daggers appeared once again in his grip. Garath internally marvelled about the badass entrance his nerdy neighbor had just pulled off and even considered complimenting