Underworld - Through the Belly of the Beast: A LitRPG Series

by Apollos Thorne

She lit up like a red lightbulb.

  I turned and walked away before she could respond.

  Chapter 11 – Bash

  It may have been a joke, but there was a lot of truth to what Aeris had prodded me with. She was the first person other than myself to reach 1,000 in any stat. The bonuses that came with reaching that level were almost beyond belief.

  More than that, her talent was in an Elemental Magic. After seeing how my fire and ice spells compared with our fire and ice mages who were half my level, I knew any Blue Magic Wind spell that I might get in the future would never be able to compete with what she was capable of. Not without a lot more mana behind it.

  Soon, every caster would reach 1,000 in their stat of choice. It boded well for our survival as a group. I didn’t even have a clue how that would affect our bashers and weapon specialists. What would I become? Sure, I was ahead in level now, but a year from now… Would I end up primarily as a healer with little else except some additional tricks?

  What of my Blue Magic? Its utility was amazing, but as my companions became more and more proficient, I feared my elemental spells would become useless. Things like Invisibility would always have worth as I suspected Pain and Decay would in the right situation. My questions multiplied, but there was no use worrying about it. I had some Greater Earth Elementals to kill.

  I stood in front of the sixth side room that most likely led to a solo Greater Elemental. Looking through the stone bars that blocked me from progressing to the next room, I saw two Greater Earth Elementals standing on the other side motionless. They were waiting for me to pull the lever to raise the bone gate between us.

  I was level 326. In 14 levels I would reach 1,000 Intelligence. Exactly what that would mean I didn’t know, but I did know it should compare to the jump in power I had received when I reached 1,000 Wisdom.

  With a sigh, I opened the door.

  My Earth Golem sped in. I commanded it to brace itself against the wall and put all of its effort into blocking with its shield.

  The Greater Earth Elemental didn’t hesitate to leap in its direction.

  An idea had been gathering in the back of my mind as I had fought with the other captives. Mana Sight gave me some interesting options that would have been impossible without it.

  The Greater Elemental sent an overhand cross dead center into my Golem’s bone shield.

  -324 HP

  I rushed forward fully armored, but with my helmet inventoried cutting 5k HP from my total. Skeleton General’s Horned Helm had replaced it so that my face would remain open and unguarded. I raised my shield as I closed in but left my face wide open. I opened my mouth.

  Flame Thrower raged into the flank of the Greater Elemental. I focused on keeping an angle where I wouldn’t fry my Golem.

  When fighting the Elementals before, I had found myself channeling more and more mana into Wail of the Banshee because I found no way to direct the damage to a point. Its sonic waves just spread out too rapidly. There was one thing I could do to make up for that. Get closer.

  As flames spewed out of my mouth, engulfing its body and blinding me to the Elemental’s dangerous arms and legs, I had Mana Sight cranked up to five times normal perception. Everything seemed to move five times slower. It also allowed me to see the creature’s magical form through my stream of red mana from Flame Thrower. This way if the mob threw an attack I would see it coming.

  The Elemental turned its attention from my Golem to me. Its right fist came in wide in what looked to be a right hook. Without Mana Sight accelerating my perceptions, I would have been through. This thing was at least twice as fast as the regular Elementals.

  Ducking beneath it, I readied my bone-encased scepter across my chest.

  I watched as its arm slowly passed overhead.

  Rising up, I swung down. The base of its neck was in my sights. As my scepter neared, I cut the mana to Flame Thrower and let Wail of the Banshee explode from the scepter’s sweet spot. My buffed up 430 Strength and 437 Dexterity worked together to place what I hoped to be a crippling strike.

  The impact was gleefully catastrophic.

  -3,288 HP.

  A tremor shot through the mob’s torso, loosening its structure like a dog shaking off dirt.

  It wasn’t over.

  The Elemental’s leg swung at me in a low shin kick.

  My scepter met it, once again unleashing a burst from Wail of the Banshee on contact.

  -2,221 HP

  The mob’s leg flew loose of its body and impacted the other side of the room.

  In two hits a third of its HP was gone and the advantage was mine.

  As it started to fall, I lunged forward, intercepting it. Wail of the Banshee burst from my shield as I slammed it into the Elemental, blasting it off its feet to skid across the floor.

  -1,780 HP

  Casting through my shield wasn’t nearly as powerful as my scepter but it did work. Maybe I just needed more practice.

  True, the Elemental was fast, but I had two times its Dexterity. It was still dangerous because of its 500 strength, but with my stats and Mana Sight, it just couldn’t touch me.

  My Scepter came down on the back of its head.

  -8,763 HP

  Its ungainly body lost all strength, collapsed, and dirtied the ground with gravel and dust.

  My idea had exceeded all my expectations. Instead of the 3,000 MP, or more, to clear a room of Elementals, it had just cost me about 1,200. All I’d have to do was make sure I cast Flame Thrower long enough to make the Greater Elementals brittle. The bursts of Wail of the Banshee could cost much less than the typical cast, not to mention that I didn’t even have to channel excess mana into it. I suspected I could clear a room of five of these without spending a full 2,000 MP once I perfected the bursts of magic. That was something I could recover from in less than a minute!

  The real question was, could I survive long enough at a melee distance to make it worth the mana savings?

  Turning my attention to the drops, what I saw pleased me.

  8 oz of Iron Ore

  2 oz of Bauxite Ore

  3 oz Firazite

  Seeing the sudden increase in Iron Ore, I saw it as time for a Golem changeup. Dismissing my current one, I took 6 Iron Ore in my gauntlet and cast Animation, letting the ore fall as they transformed.

  Animation has reached Level 3!

  Iron Ore Golem

  Level: 226

  Health Points: 7,530

  Mana Points: NA

  Strength: 276

  Dexterity: 100

  Constitution: 753

  Intelligence: 10

  Wisdom: 10

  It looked like this one was limited to 100 levels less than my own, just like the ones before. Even after reaching level 3 in Animation there seemed to be no change except that the cost of the spell went down by 50 MP for each level. The large HP gain was exactly what I needed at this point. It was perfect.

  I remembered the war hammer I had found before entering the Bone Palace. Pulling it out, I examined its stats.

  War Hammer of Howling

  +50 to Wind Damage

  +70 to Sonic Damage

  I considered it for a moment but dismissed it quickly enough. If I had had no elemental damage at all to speak of the hammer may have been worth using, but I had another option.

  I channeled 500 MP more into Muscular Buff, giving me an additional 150 Strength and Dexterity. It was time to go fire-breathing battlemage on these mobile dirt dudes.

  The last Elemental respawned one more time before I pulled the lever to face the next two. With Mana Sight, I made it through the fight with little effort.

  I was back to only needing to kill eight to ten of them for each level I gained.

  A stone fist was already airborne as I exited the room.

  “There he is!” Travis called out in relief. His words were drawn out and distorted while I used Mana Sight.

  Oops. That was right. The others were close by.

  My mouth
slowly turned up in a grin as I leaped to intercept the Elemental’s flying fist. With my scepter arching back, I swung down, battering the projectile towards the inner wall of the palace, away from the others.

  As it drummed against the wall, I leaped again.

  The closest Greater Earth Elemental was already barreling for my Golem.

  Landing between them, I squatted down and braced for impact.

  Wail of the Banshee screamed from my shield as we collided.

  I surged up with my legs, lifting the Elemental from the floor with my shield and flinging it back as the spell helped repel it.

  I had just manhandled a man-sized rock monster. My physical stats went a lot further than I thought. Why haven’t I been doing this all along?

  In two strides I met the next Elemental, my scepter clipping its forward leaning knee as it swung at me. As it fell, I drove it hard to the ground and let Wail of the Banshee sound for an extra second.

  -3,009 HP

  Even without Flamethrower, the damage I was doing was devastating. Still, efficiency was its own reward. Besides, people were watching.

  Flame Thrower roared to life from my mouth as I stood over the downed Greater Elemental.

  As its arms reached to push itself up, I swatted them away through my flames, momentarily engulfing my hand and scepter in the heat. I took no damage but was unsure about my equipment.

  Seeing the other Elemental was still on its rear, I turned back to the one at my feet and leveled my scepter down upon the mob’s back from high overhead. Sonic magic burst through it as I bashed it to death.

  After three strikes it was finished. I dug my foot into the ground, springing from where I stood and rushed to the other mob that was making it back to its feet.

  My Golem readied his bone shield to take a blow.

  I let my flames leap from my mouth to cake the Elemental’s head in fire.

  A giant stone fist smacked into my Golem’s shield. The blow drove him back about a foot.

  -322 HP

  There you go, Rock-boy! It’s your turn!

  I gave the command.

  My Golem’s fist flew right at the Elemental’s face.

  The shot caught the Elemental on the chin, driving the mob’s head back.

  -437 HP

  That’s my boy!

  As the Elemental reached for my Golem, I bounded forward, smashing my scepter into the Elemental’s face as I passed by.

  I turned to see a headless Elemental.

  -6,885 HP

  Commanding my Golem to retreat, flames escaped my mouth once again. I cast Wail of the Banshee from the end of my scepter as its point touched the Elemental’s back.

  Three seconds later it disintegrated, falling to my feet in a pile of rubble.

  It struck me as uncomfortably quiet.

  Turning, I saw about a dozen pairs of eyes staring at me dumbfounded. Aeris was among them. She floated a few inches off the ground with her head cocked to the side and a curious look on her face.

  “What are you guys looking at? It’s not like I can fly, or anything,” I jeered.

  Turning my back to them, I collected my loot and approached side room seven, that should hold two more Greater Earth Elementals. All the while, I was internally pumping my fist in the air and screaming, ‘Awesome points!’

  Chapter 12 – Mind Synergy

  My stats were beyond my level, yet I had kept myself from melee combat except in cases when I needed a little physical exertion. It was something I really should have tested earlier than today.

  My skill level was probably below average with my scepter, but because of Mana Sight, I could consider each movement I made before I made it. It was a concept that completely flew in the face of anything I knew about real fighting. A fighter normally trained his body to develop the appropriate muscle memory and relied on the experience of past fights and training to direct their actions when the moment came. Strategy was often settled before the fight even began. There were fighters that thrived entirely off instinct, but normally the greatest fighters were the greatest preemptive planners.

  In my case, I indeed had a strategy planned beforehand, but, as the fight progressed, I could take the time to study my opponents and change things up as needed. Still, it wasn’t nearly as safe as it had been when I focused on nothing but casting. If I didn’t push myself, then I wouldn’t know what I was capable of.

  Even at half their level, my Golem was no pushover. Charging the two Greater Elementals, he barreled into the closest one. A battering from the mob’s fist didn’t slow him. He ran right through it and drove his shield into its chest.

  Commanding my Golem to flee to the flank, I roasted the Elementals as I ran forward. I gained their attention.

  It was time I made better use of my minion.

  My Golem clobbered the Elemental he’d rushed in the back with his fist.

  -388 HP

  I leaped high in the air, flying at the opposite Elemental with my flames still blazing out of my mouth.

  The mob’s fist left its arm and darted toward me.

  It was simple enough to pick the right angle to swat it to the side. Using the same momentum from the swat, I brought my scepter up and crashed it down upon the Elemental’s arm with all my weight behind it. Wail of the Banshee sounded.

  The mob’s arm shattered as I struck it, not even slowing the momentum of my downward swing. Its shoulder gave way. The rest of its arm fell away entirely as its thick torso took the rest of the impact.

  -8,601 HP

  It grabbed at its own shoulder that was no longer there and clawed at its back, trying to hold itself together from the massive cracks that had snaked down its torso.

  As it liquified, I showed it no mercy. Stepping into my next swing, I caved in its gut.

  -4,116 HP

  I watched it struggle to hold itself together and finished it with a Wailing shield bash.

  -2,500 HP

  I was in time to see the second Elemental swing at my Golem’s head.

  Instead of blocking, I commanded him to duck.

  The swing missed.

  My Golem grabbed at the mob’s front leg and placed all his weight into his shoulder as he tackled it to the ground.

  Already in the air, I fell toward it like a meteor in plate mail.

  Was my enemy braced against the stone floor?

  A manic grin struck my face as my scepter surged down.

  -16,413 HP

  The Greater Elemental’s torso collapsed.

  You have reached level 327!

  I took a few deep breaths to recover. Looking at my Character Sheet, my Endurance was still 3,693 out of 3,768 and climbing rapidly. It didn’t look like I would have much of a problem with running out of steam by the time I made it to the five Greater Earth Elementals.

  Pulling the lever to face three Elementals next, I hurried out to find the stone bars lifting to reveal my next challenge. It was not as efficient as creating a bunch of furnaces to melt the mobs en masse, but the more I fought with my shield and scepter, the better I felt.

  ***

  Leveling one mob with my shield as my Golem got the next, I bombarded them with fire and sonic destruction. My scepter was becoming far more than just a tool to buff my Light Magic.

  I had never been a good dancer, nor really cared to be, but as I moved on to face four Elementals at a time, then five, my mind seemed to relax, and I didn’t have to think about each and every action. The strangest thing happened. I started to have fun.

  With inhuman strength, speed and perception, I tore through the living rocks like a toddler does a sandcastle. If I focused only on what needed to be done next, I would miss the way it felt to wield such unbelievable power. For hundreds of years, no living human had been given the opportunity to experience something like this. It was wrong not to appreciate it. To enjoy it.

  My mood took a dive when I realized that there was so much good I could do with this kind of power in the world above. If I ever m
ade it home, seeing my mother would be only the beginning. What would I be called to do if that ever happened? What of my healing ability?

  Shaking my head clear so as not to dwell too much on life’s what-ifs, I floated through the mist of the Greater Elementals, driving Wail of the Banshee into their chests, shoulders and backs. Collapsing one at the hip, I smacked it upside the back of the head as I spun and battered another one.

  I stood in the midst of five piles of rubble. My chest heaved, but only once to settle my breathing back to normal.

  The popup before me was the one I had been waiting for.

  You have reached level 340!

  Leaving the side room and closing the door behind me, I cut mana from my Golem and let myself settle into Invisibility to be as alone as possible. My friends were within shouting distance, but unless I opened the final gate to the next hall, they would be paying attention to their own situation.

  Looking at the 5 points I had just earned, I had a sudden thought. What would happen if I didn’t place them? What if I stopped everything now, went back to our base and stopped fighting entirely? There was no doubt the others would catch me in a matter of days. Death would probably come to me soon after. The succubi would kill me if the Mistress didn’t after she realized I was no longer leveling up. It really wasn’t a choice.

  I now knew what it felt like to glimpse into the realm of magic and become one with it, if only for a moment. I had felt what it was like to crush rock and dominate anything that stood before me. My progress had been incredibly fast. Was this an opportunity I could really walk away from? There was no doubt in my mind what the answer was.

  I clicked the arrow to add five to my Intelligence stat. It reached 1,000.

  Intermediate Mana Manipulation Understood

  The amount of mana you receive per point of Intelligence now has a multiplier of 150.

  Meditation is no longer necessary to reach your maximum mana.