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

to develop our community and explore the new magics and technologies in order to ensure our continued survival. I would like to collaborate with those of you who share my desire to create a place where survivors of this terror can come together and thrive.

There will be a code of ethics and a set of expectations established for each Guild member before I send out any invites. I'm not sure exactly what that's going to look like yet, but I have a pretty good idea. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or input via private message (or in person, since we all live at this building... Whatever).

That’s all,

G

He kept the message as a draft, reading over it repeatedly on the semi-transparent messaging panel hovering over his lap. He fussed over his verbiage, hoping he conveyed everything he wanted to, until he was joined by Athios and Warrion.

"Any luck?" he asked them, minimizing the draft and resting a foot up on his knee.

"Nobody," Athios reported. "Turns out we're the only ones crazy enough to go looking for murderous creatures on purpose."

"Huh," Garath huh'd thoughtfully. He couldn't blame them. Everyone there had lost nearly every person they had ever met to The Culling. Who in their right mind would go looking for more monsters only a few days after something like that? Warrion answered that question for him.

"What do we do, G?" asked Warrion with disappointment written all over his features. "Man, we gotta do the dungeon."

"We four-man it,” said Garath as if it were the obvious conclusion. “Where's Sharon?"

"Last time I saw her she was talking to Daisy's Gran in the first room," said Athios.

"Probably trying to talk her out of today's food rations," laughed Garath. "I'll go get her."

"How about you get a clue instead," Sharon suggested, walking out of the red brick building with the wind in her hair and a food ration in her hand. Her eyes seemed distant for a moment before a black, spatial disk the size of a beer can appeared before her and she inserted the ration into her Items panel.

Garath smiled, remembering all the times he had to 'fix her phone' by turning it on or making sure her charger was also plugged in to the wall. Yet here she was, accessing a holographic menu with her mind and navigating to the Items panel to put road snacks into a dimensional anomaly for safe keeping.

"Are we going to get this show on the road?" Sharon wanted to know. "Or do you millennials want to stare at your smart phones for a while first?"

"Almost ready," said Garath, pulling his messaging panel back in to view. "But first, I'm going to send out a message to the entire Raid. Read it when you get yours so I know we're all on the same page, then I'll make a Party invite you."

He looked the message over a final time and decided it would have to do. There was so much more he wanted to say, but it gave the current Raid members enough to think about for now. He finally clicked ‘yes’ with his mind to the confirmation prompt, and the message was delivered.

He watched the faces of his friends closely as they read, gauging their responses. Warrion just nodded to himself as he read. Athios looked concerned as she sped through Garath's message, then shrugged at the end and flashed him a thumbs up. Sharon read about three sentences then closed the message and looked at the Necrologist.

"I don't know what all this means. I'll just have to trust you.” Sharon smiled sweetly at the Necrologist, then scowled. “Swindler.”

"Thanks, Sharon."

"Someone's got to keep an eye on you."

"We ready to go?" Garath asked them.

Garath felt his stress levels lighten just a bit with the message out of the way. After a bit of mentally navigating through his panels, the Raid Group coined The Band of the Hawk was officially disbanded and Garath, Athios, Sharon, and Warrion formed a four-person Party.

Between the growing anxiety of combatting the unknown and the new sensation of flying, butterflies filled Garath's stomach as the four of them shifted into Crow form and took to the air, leaving the safety of headquarters behind. They flew due south toward the well, the dungeon, and a new adventure.

Chapter 28

Aquawood Depths

The ten mile flight from the red-brick HQ building to the Party's first destination, the artesian well, passed blessedly uneventful and surprisingly fast. Garath marveled at the amount of ground they were able to cover traveling upwards of thirty miles per hour, sans traffic lights and turning in general. Unlocking Crow form had vastly expanded the area they could reasonably cover, opening a whole new world of possibilities and adventures.

Just off what had been a very trafficked main road that connected Interstate 5 to a popular shopping area, yet still surrounded by a forest because it's the Pacific Northwest, dwelt the public artesian well. Having never seen an artesian well before, Garath was surprised to find that it was not a large hole in the ground enforced with brick and mortar and topped with a bucket on a pulley system. Instead, it was a modern, sleek gazebo sheltering what looked to be a large block of cement with a metal tube protruding upward from its center. The metal tube split at the top into a T and crystal clear water spouted freely from both ends.

The Party of four landed down on eight scrawny black legs at the base of the gazebo. It looked different from the ground, Garath noticed, hidden amongst the conifers and underbrush, a modern wonder in a world of green. Garath shimmered into his human form and patted his pocket out of a growing habit to check on his egg.

When each of the adventurers were back into their natural forms, Garath turned to Athios.

“Hey, did you bring those empty bottles?" he asked the Dimensionalist, who nodded and assumed the vacant expression Garath recognized as the look a