When the third wave of The Culling began, Garath wasn’t surprised to see more undead type creatures spawning from the black orbs spread across the planet. Predictably, the average Level of the monsters had increased – ranging now from Level(s) 6-8. The increased Level of this wave’s enemies didn’t pose much of a problem as The Band of the Hawk’s individual Levels had also increased. The hurdle they did face were the Skeletal Archers that started popping out of what Garath had started referring to the ‘monster balls’ in his mind along with the Fetid Ghouls from the previous wave. Instead of simply bottlenecking the enemy horde outside the doors, the Raid now had to deal with ranged attackers that effectively used the Ghouls as animate meat shields (sans most of the meat).
Throughout the third wave Garath stayed behind the clashing of steel on the basketball courts, opting to hold a position with Athios and the other ranged fighters between the joined melee and the healers just inside the doors. From there he was able to maximize his effectiveness (and earned experience), able to cast Death Bolts with impunity and infect a large number of Fetid Ghouls with Blight each time its cooldown elapsed with only a few steps forward. His Endless Potion of Mana Restoration proved invaluable as the constant casting drained his Mana all the way to empty after only a few minutes fighting. The sapphire beaker found a new home in the pocket of Garath’s worn out jeans. He pulled it out to refill his Mana almost every time the ten minute cooldown period elapsed.
Among a myriad of new functions that had become available in the Settings partition of his MENU panels just after The Culling got underway, Garath found that being in a Raid allowed him to ‘mark’ his target with only a thought. Doing so would slightly illuminate the marked creature in the vision of other Raid members and outline its silhouette with a glowing red aura. It quickly became the group’s method of choice for dispatching the Skeletal Archers. To avoid letting the Skeletal Archers simply fire arrows at them unimpeded, Garath instructed the ranged fighters in The Band to mark their target with the red aura to signify that someone was on it. With this simple system, and the melee fight outside the doors continuing much the same as it had for the second wave, Garath’s Raid group powered through two and a half hours of the combined attack of the Archers and Ghouls without incident.
After taking a moment to wet his whistle, eagerly shoving his head beneath the faucet in the little boy’s room, Garath sat down on the not-quite-immaculate white countertop to go over the prompts that had been earned and minimized during the third wave. The first to receive his attention was the elaborately decorated, world-wide death count that, apparently, would be provided at the end of each wave, just for those keeping score.
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 09:00(GST).
The Culling Totals
Global Death Count: 3,615,989,902
Community Death Count: 63,914
Garath didn’t know how he felt about what was starting to look more and more like the genocide of his species. He didn’t even know what he should feel at that point. What would normal people feel? After the first death count prompt had spelled out the demise of millions of humans across the planet the Necrologist felt crushed, claustrophobic. But, as he looked at himself in the mirror, water rolling off his chin below dangerously glowing eyes in a reflection he barely recognized, Garath realized something that made him think. He was having the time of his life. A fact that gave him pause. Had he always been so insensitive?
The rapidly increasing number of human deaths had little to no effect on him and he had to ask himself why. Why didn’t he care that, in all likelihood, everyone he used to know, everyone he had worked with or gone to school with, was dead. Why he hadn’t spared even a second thought for his mother and grandmother who lived together in small-town Idaho? Two single old birds living the simple life for the remainder of their time on Earth. What were the odds that either of them, the women that had raised him, were still alive? He knew he didn’t have the luxury of time to mourn at the moment, even if he did have the inclination. With that in mind, Garath dismissed the death count prompt and moved on to the next one.
Congratulations, Garath! For reaching level(s) 9, 10, and 11 you are awarded +9 Attribute Points (3 per level) and +3 Skill Points (1 per level) to distribute at your discretion. As a Necrologist, you receive +3 Wisdom, +3 Vitality, and +1 Regeneration per level. You have one week to distribute the points before they are assigned for you based on your chosen class.
Unused Attribute Points: 9
Unused Skill Points: 7
New Skills are now available.
Garath’s concern regarding his lack of concern regarding the growing death count washed away, and was immediately replaced with excitement when he saw that he had passed Level 10 and that new Skills were now available. In Garath’s experience, Levels that were a multiple of 5 were often accompanied by unlocking some of the best available Skills. He hurriedly dismissed the congratulatory prompt, turned away from the barely recognizable face in the mirror, and accessed his Skill Tree.
On each of the three trees, directly in the middle of the sprawling tangle-mess of interconnected Skill circles - the vast majority still greyed out with no information provided - one new Skill was glowing brightly. The Skills that had become available at Level 10, just as Garath had predicted, were different from the others he had unlocked to that point. The previously unlocked Skills each had a simple globe with the
