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

Item Requirements:

Level: 12

Strength: 8

"I guess that explains the blue lights before they came in..." Garath thought aloud.

"What?" asked Athios.

"Oh, these Tridents come with a Skill that boosts HP," he explained. Athios covered her eyes as Garath lifted the trident with both hands and mentally communicated with the Flayer to, *move.*

The summoned creature backed away as its summoner brought the golden tip of the trident down on the Naga’s chest, splitting the sternum just above the heart and sliding easily through the organs, muscle, and flesh beneath before contacting the stone floor – resulting in a loud, ‘PING!’. Garath lifted the trident a second time and brought it down on the sternum again, this time just below the heart – PING! As he backed away, the Flayer eagerly approached and wrapped its spiny fingers around the rib bone protruding from each side of the loosened hunk of sternum and yanked the bone fragments free.

What came next, Warrion, Sharon, and Athios couldn’t watch – Garath was feeling… different. He craved the blissful feeling of power rushing into his body and sniffed at the air to fill his nostrils with the fishy scent of his prey. Though he personally wouldn't gain any power from the Flayer increasing in strength, it was directly under his command and if it gained strength from...whatever it was about to do, he would gain that strength in turn. Like when he shifted to cat form, he felt the experience points from the slain foes in ecstasy. Unlike his house cat form though, that had gradually grown in its lust for power, this change was noticed immediately. Maybe his improved awareness and decision making from the Concentrated Crystillium had made the difference, or maybe receiving the Tainted Soul debuff in his human form was the difference – whatever it may be, Garath knew he would have to make an effort to keep himself under control.

He watched as his summoned demon ripped the still, blue heart of the Naga from the arteries that connected it to the corpse and held it almost reverently in front of its open mouth. Garath raised an eyebrow when the Flayer stopped, looked at him sourly, then reluctantly held the dripping blue organ out toward him in offering.

*All yours,* he told it.

With a look that could almost be described as grateful, if the face making it hadn’t been hideously transformed by hatred, the Flayer unhinged its jaw and used both hands to stuff the entire organ down its throat. Garath yacked in his mouth a bit as the demon struggled to swallow the too-large heart, choking and spewing wet gurgling sounds to force it down. As the Flayer fought its lunch all the way down its throat, Garath opened his Items panel and placed the trident inside. He gathered another three of the tridents strewn across the cave and placed each of them in turn into his Items panel.

Once finished with its meal, the bloated little demon sat on the stone floor looking content and, more or less, stoned out of its demonic little mind. Before Garath’s eyes, the Flayer grew in size – not dramatically, but its tiny little muscles tightened and the horns topping its head extended and darkened. Garath thought about one of the first Skills he had received as a Necrologist, Blood Ties. He remembered that it would permanently bind the Flayer to this plain and reduce the chance of mutiny against him. Not remembering the exact details, he pulled up his Skills panel and read the text again.

Blood Ties

Active

Cost:  552 Mana (.85x base Mana)

1 Meter Range

5 Second Cast

*Additional Cost: Tainted Soul*

Effect: Binds targeted Summoned Creature to your realm, and to you personally.

Note: When binding a Demonic creature to this realm, the lifeblood of the caster and that of the Summoned Creature are also bound - slightly altering the characteristics of each.

*Tainted Soul: the form containing your soul is soiled.

“Hey,” said Sharon, interrupting Garath's train of thought. “Garath. Shall we press on?”

“Yeah, give me just a second.”

Warrion rolled his eyes and moaned. “I’m gonna go scout ahead then.”

Athios bent to pick up and store the last trident in her Items panel while Sharon tiptoed after Warrion, craning her neck around the bend leading out of the staging area.

Garath nodded absently, walking to lean against the blue stone wall with his Skills panel open in front of him. He knew shifting into his House Cat form before performing the binding spell that would taint his soul was in his best interest – cats don’t have souls anyways, he figured. As the tingling sensation of shape shifting began to prick at the back of his neck, a prompt appeared.

Warning: You are attempting to BeastScape while a summoned creature is active. Shape shifting will dismiss all summoned creatures.

Do you wish to shift into House Cat form and dismiss all summoned creatures?

Yes or No

Taken aback, he chose not to. He knew he could just summon another Flayer once in Cat form, but something gave him pause. Garath felt some kind of attachment to the ugly little monster now snoring, cuddled into the puss-filled chest cavity of the Naga whose heart it had eaten. He couldn’t explain it, even looking at the creature disgusted him. But Garath knew that the nasty little monster had gotten stronger when it had eaten the heart, and the growing need for more power convinced the Necrologist to throw caution to the wind and bind it to Earth while still in his human form. He closed his eyes as the neurons in his brain made their first connection with a new Skill.

Pitch-black energy that sucked in and blacked all surrounding light shot up from the ground and encircled both the Necrologist and his summoned Flayer, forming a globe of darkness around each of them. Electricity seemed to spark and pop along the inside of the globe containing Garath and he felt it lift him effortlessly into the air. A part of himself, a part that