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

"It really was though," Athios disagreed. "I would give my left leg for a video of that. Would have gone viral as hell back in the day. You know, like, last Wednesday... when the internet was still a thing."

Garath tried to take an objective step back and imagine what he must have looked like in his panic but still didn't find it quite as funny as Athios obviously did. But then, he had been among the small group of people who had used the internet for things other than that for which it was invented (watching cat videos).

Warrion, now on the roof as well, was looking from person to person hoping someone would explain what he had missed. Aldrasyl, who had yet to wake for his nightly hunt, huffed irritably at all the commotion and picked his sedan-sized cranium off of the white rooftop and swung it with his long, scaly neck to the other side of the school building. Daisy, to Garath's sincere appreciation, was not laughing. In fact, the little Elementalist looked absolutely put out by the whole fiasco. She was silently pouting with her arms folded across her chest. Nobody asked her why, but if they had, she would have explained that she was upset because the scary Raid Leader had a cuter cat form than she did.

"Hey, what did I miss?" Warrion asked, still playing eyeball tennis between Athios and Garath.

"Nothing," said Garath. "Well, nothing you needed to see at least."

Athios finally managed to control her laughter, though a shit-eating grin was still plastered on her face as she mentally replayed the scene on repeat. "So, you were looking for me?" she asked.

"Yeah, about tomorrow - I noticed a dungeon pretty close to the well on the World Map when I was plotting a course. It may be a good place to get some gear and do some leveling before heading to the Space Needle Dungeon. So, we're putting together a group. Five person max. So far we have myself, Warrion, and Sharon. You want to come?" asked Garath.

"Yeah, you can count me in. So the little D dungeons are standard five-man encounters?"

Garath nodded, walking to the edge of the roof and taking a seat, his feet dangling off the side. "That's what it said on the map," he confirmed.

"Are you thinking it's set up for a standard five-man group composition too?" she asked, approaching and sitting to Garath's left as Warrion sat to his right.

"Yeah. That's my best guess at least," said Garath. "You have any more smokes?"

Athios reached into the pouch of her hoodie to retrieve a nearly empty pack and handed one to the Necrologist before lighting her own and passing the lighter. Daisy, who detested the smell of cigarettes, decided to find out how many steps it would take her if she started from the tip of the sleeping Ice Drake's tail and walked to the tip of his snout.

"So we're just missing a tank," Athios said, accepting her lighter back from Garath and sliding it back into the pocket of her hoodie.

"Yeah," Warrion confirmed. "Should we ask Gary if he wants to go?"

"No," Garath said adamantly. He remembered the conversation he had with the bearded man when he and his boys joined The Band of the Hawk during The Culling. Gary had been watching his two sons and three nephews for the week while their mothers were on a girl's retreat. Garath watched the man break as he explained that he was unable to get in touch with his wife. The Necrologist felt for Gary, but gained massive respect for the man when he watched him un-break and keep his shit together to fight wave after wave of enemies to keep the boys safe. After The Culling, Gary had posted several contact attempts on the forums but had not heard from his wife. He had even exchanged a handful of private messages with people that had passed through the Cascades, where his wife and sister-in-law had been at the time, but nobody had seen them. "He has enough going on."

"Alright. What about those kids? They were clutch A.F. during the even. Maybe one of them can come tank it. Which one had the shield?" Warrion asked.

"The hawkies?" Garath asked, a cloud of smoke escaping his lips with each syllable as he placed his cigarette into Warrion's outstretched hand.

“Hawkies?” Athios asked.

“Oh, yeah. That’s what I’ve been calling them in my head,” Garath explained. He took the cigarette back from Warrion and placed it to his lips, took a drag, and then handed it back to the Assassin.  “I think the one they call Ted was their tank. His nameplate says TheDM. We could ask him, but I think they like to work as a team.”

"Oh, before I forget,” said Athios. “Another group of survivors made it in about an hour ago and they need Raid invites."

"Names?" Garath asked while pulling his Raid panel into view and accepting his cigarette back from Warrion.

"Becky and Cindy Winkerstaff, they both entered their full names into the choose a name thing, no space between first and last. Don't even ask how these two bimbos survived The Culling because I honestly have no idea," Athios told him.

Warrion perked up. "You say bimbos?" he asked shamelessly. "Are they hot?"

"Depends on what you're into I guess," the Dimensionalist replied, dropping her cigarette from the roof. Before it traveled even half the distance to the ground, she reached out one hand and sent a silver disk to pop into existence below it. The burning butt fell into the tear in space and emerged from a second disk thirty-meters to the west.

"Nice shot!" Garath said, dropping his own cigarette off the roof. "You're getting good at that."

Athios let his fall to the ground.

The Raid leader keyed in the name Beckywinkerstaff to send an invitation.

Unable to complete Raid invitation for: Beckywinkerstaff

***Note: the Raid Group, “The Band of the Hawk” has reached maximum Raid size (200 members). Consider converting your Raid Group