The Tree of Ascension: A LitRPG Apocalypse (Peril's Prodigy Book 2) Craig Kobayashi (top 5 books to read TXT) 📖

*Gratitude,* Handsome replied before accepting the heart with both hands. What came next was another disgusting display from the little demon that even the Discovery Channel would pixelate.

The Cambionic Flayer’s jaw came unhinged and he opened it wider than Garath thought possible. Then Handsome shoved the heart into his mouth and pushed it with both hands down his throat and into his stomach. Garath didn’t think that even an insatiable creature like Handsome would try to get it all down in one sitting, let alone in one bite, but that’s exactly what the little demon did. The changes that followed were the most drastic yet.

The horns coming out of his head lengthened, sharpened, and hardened into shiny obsidian. He grew nearly an entire foot in height and his arms and legs lengthened again. Sharp black nails grew from his gnarled and twisted fingers. Even his wings extended to accommodate his larger frame. The lethargic look on Handsome’s face and the skin stretched tight over his bulbous belly let Garath know it was time to put the Flayer back into his mind to relax. If he didn’t, he’d probably have to roll him out of the dungeon. Garath took a second to open his Summoned Creatures panel and see what tangible changes had taken place from eating the heart of Illunitus.

Handsome

Race: Demon

Class: Cambionic Flayer

Health: 710/710

Mana: 1,410/1,410

Attributes

Vitality: 71 - Each point of Vitality provides +10 to maximum Health.

Wisdom: 141 - Each point of Wisdom provides +10 to maximum Mana.

Regeneration: 29 - As a Cambionic Flayer, each point of Regeneration increases Mana recovery rate by +.81 per second; Health recovery rate by +.125 per second; and recovery from injury by +1%.

Strength: 4 - In addition to making one stronger, each point of Strength increases physical attack damage by 1% and reduces damage received from physical attacks by .25%.

Dexterity: 6 - In addition to making one more agile, each point of Dexterity improves the critical strike chance of physical attacks by +.3%; the critical strike damage of physical attacks by +3%; and improves chance to dodge by +.5%.

Skill Tree

Holy crap. Handsome had gained +30 Wisdom from the Devil Fruit, which was great, but eating Illunitus’ heart gave the Cambionic Flayer an additional +48 Wisdom, +20 Vitality, +5 Regeneration, +2 Strength, and +3 Dexterity, if his math was right. Garath wondered if maybe he should have eaten it himself. Either way, because Handsome had gained power, Garath had gained power.

Garath then placed the Fel Iron Ingot into his Items panel and made a mental note to see if anyone at the Guild Hall had unlocked some sort of Blacksmithing Profession. It wouldn’t make any weapon that he could take advantage of personally, but if someone else could benefit from the ingot, he wanted to make sure it got to them. He also picked up another 9 Mana Crystals and the Experience he gained took him past Level 27 and a good chunk toward Level 28.

Congratulations, Garath! For reaching Level 27, you are awarded 5 Attribute Points (3 per Level and + 2 per Level due to your status as a Leader of Man) and 2 Skill Points (1 per Level and +1 per Level due to your status as a Leader of Man) 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: 5

Unused Skill Points: 15

New Skills are now available.

Once they had exited Molten Glacier Peak again, the Party met the rest of the waiting group on the second plateau and Garath distributed all five Attribute Points into Wisdom, then excitedly opened his Skill tree to see what new Skill had become available at Level 27. A quick once-over of the tangle of interconnected Skills revealed a new option on the Demonology tree.

Felfire Bolt

Active

Cost: 261 Mana (.3x Base Mana)

25 Meter Range

1.5 second cast

No cooldown

Effect: Send a bolt of demonic fire at your target, dealing 121(Demonic) damage (.45x Wisdom Attribute) and inflicting Felfire Burn, a damage-over-time effect that deals an additional 27 (Demonic) damage (.1x Wisdom Attribute) over the next three seconds.

Cost to Unlock: 1

Unused Skill Points: 15

Garath purchased Felfire Bolt without a second thought. It was a direct upgrade to Death Bolt, and also benefited from his Mastery: Pestilent passive Skill that increased the damage-over-time effects of his Skills by 20%. The Mana cost and cast time were both higher than Death Bolt’s, but Garath rarely ran low on Mana and he didn’t think the half-second increase to casting time would make much of a difference. Navigating then to his Summoned Creatures partition, Garath was reminded that, because it was a part of the Demonology Skill tree, he wouldn’t be able to purchase the new Skill for Handsome as well. It was a bummer to be sure, but Handsome’s growing list of available Skills would have to be good enough for the time being.

As they waited for the instance to reset, Garath once again got to counting. Obawon and Jebawon would have been unbelievably close to a tie in terms of damage output had it not been for Bug Eyes, who alone managed to deal 6,450 damage - bringing Jebawon’s total number up to 17,770. Garath and his demons, once again, dealt more damage than anyone else in the group with 24,412. It was a good deal less than he’d done in the first run, but Athios’ contributions were harder to account for as she technically did not deal any damage, leaving more for the other members of the Party. In addition to taking significantly more damage than Auto had, and doing a barely passable job of holding aggro, Raust also came in last place in terms of damage output. With a tank, damage was not the highest priority, but in comparison to the impressive damage Auto was putting up, it became