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

Athios took a sip of her Crystillium-Infused Coffee. “Agreed.”

“Alright,” Garath said. “Obviously Athios and I are taking two of the remaining seven slots, so we have to pick five. Before we get to the damage output factor, who stood out to you guys?”

“Apart from Daisy?” Athios asked.

“Seriously,” Auto agreed, nodding vehemently.

“Apart from Daisy,” Garath confirmed.

“The backstreet boy was legit,” Auto said. “His overall damage wasn’t anything crazy, but his traps and positioning were on point the whole run.”

Garath laughed. “Yeah, NickCarter did well in The Rolling Deep too. What about Lorena and Duran?”

“Not impressed,” Auto said immediately. “Duran’s priority was protecting Lorena, which I get, but he took it to the point of getting in her way.”

“I was wondering why her damage numbers were so low,” Garath speculated.

“How did the twins do in your run with Raust?” Auto asked.

“Great,” Garath replied simply.

“The twins are solid,” Auto agreed. “And Obawon can tank when necessary, so that gives him a leg up.”

Athios followed the conversation with her eyes and ears as she continued to sip on her coffee. With a cigarette in one hand and a coffee in the other, she mostly listened.

“Can we agree to add them to the team?” Garath asked, looking at his friends questioningly.

“They’ve got my vote,” Auto said.

“How did they stack up in terms of damage output?” Athios asked smartly.

Garath’s eyes went vacant as he pulled up his private message to himself with notes on each hopeful from yesterday’s tryouts. “Really well, actually. Only myself, Daisy, and Atlas did more damage than either of the twins in a single run.”

“Then I think it’s a no-brainer,” Athios said. “What about Warrion?”

“Is that the skinny, stoner-looking guy?” Auto asked. “Why didn’t he come to try out?”

“Warrion was already a lock in my mind,” Garath said. “He’s a legitimate gamer. We can take him to do a tryout tomorrow if you want to see what he can do, but Athios and I did a dungeon with him a few days ago and he fought in our group during The Culling. Warrion’s a fighter.”

Auto turned to Athios, who nodded her agreement behind the rim of her coffee cup.

“If you two vouch for him, I’m fine with that,” Auto said.

“Two spots left then,” Garath said. He considered for a moment their current group makeup. Excluding the tank and healers, they had two melee fighters in Warrion and Obawon; two ranged fighters in Garath and Jebawon; and one support caster in Athios. “It’d be nice to have one more melee fighter and one more ranged fighter. What’d you guys think about Atlas?”

“I only did MGP in the group with Daisy,” Athios said as she exhaled and tossed her cigarette. “So I really don’t have an opinion, except…” she trailed off.

“Except?” Garath prodded.

“I get the feeling that guy isn’t quite, well, right in the head. It’s something about his eyes,” Athios said.

Garath laughed. “I think I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

“If we’re disqualifying people based on having creepy eyes, you’re definitely out, G. Sorry, I was hoping it wouldn’t have to be this way,” Auto said with a genuinely apologetic look on his face.

“He’s got you there,” Athios said with a barely concealed grin. “Are we out of coffee?”

Garath filled her cup and poured a second for himself as well. “While we’re talking about Atlas, there is one other factor,” Garath said, moving right along. “His Class allows him to play any role. Ranged, melee, even healer depending on which gear-set he’s got on. I obviously want to hope this isn’t the case, but if we lose a healer in the Dungeon it would be nice to have a backup. I think Atlas gets my vote for one of the last two spots.”

“I’m good with that,” Auto said. The Chimerist looked like he wanted to say more, but stopped. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. When he finally spoke, Auto had the uncertain look of someone who knew he might be voicing an unpopular opinion. “What about Daisy for the last spot?”

Garath figured this would come up. After Daisy astonished them all with her performance, how could they not at least consider the little girl for a spot on the team? At first, Garath was firmly against the idea of bringing a child along. After hearing of the non-Class Skills she’d unlocked to become Archmage Daisy, he was willing to entertain the idea. After watching what she could do in action at MGP, even Garath was no longer against it.

“She gets my vote,” Garath said finally. “The other option would be to bring Andrea as a damage and support role with responsibilities to heal when necessary - but we’d be losing a significant amount of damage by plugging her instead of Daisy.”

“Daisy then?” Auto asked. They both looked at Athios.

“We could all die in there,” Athios said somberly. “In fact, it’s probably more likely that we all die in there than not.”

“I think Daisy understands that,” Garath replied.

“Can she really understand that, though?” Athios asked, worried eyes behind a curtain of long black hair. “She’s only a little girl. A child. Can she fully comprehend the risk she’d be taking by coming with us?”

Garath and Auto were silent for long seconds as they silently tried to answer that question. Finally, Garath spoke.

“I think she can. Daisy is a smart kid and I honestly think that leaving her out because of her age would be doing the rest of our team a disservice. What’s the difference between an 11-year-old Elementalist and a 30-year-old Elementalist, really?” he asked, then shook his head. “Athios, will you talk to her about it? Stress to her the danger and, if she still wants to go, let her know she made the team.”

Athios thought about it for a moment, then nodded.

“That’s that, then. We have our team,” Garath said. He was happy with the results and excited to see what Daisy could do with a full Raiment of gear. Which brought him to the next topic