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

by Apollos Thorne

  Aeris helped raise Audrey up and supported her neck as Skyler carefully peeled the leather off of her.

  As I suspected, the armor was not intact. In multiple places, the Hell Hound’s teeth had lacerated the armor and her skin, embedding the hard leather deep into her injury. As long as the leather itself was puncturing the skin my healing magic was unable to complete its task.

  “We need to clean the wounds?” Skyler asked darkly.

  I confirmed with a nod.

  He began immediately.

  As pieces of armor were removed from her flesh, the wounds closed up before our eyes. Even Novice Healing seemed to be enough once the magic wasn’t impeded to help her completely recover.

  Audrey’s wits started to return.

  “Skyler. I really don’t think our relationship has progressed this far,” she teased, cringing from the pain when she began to laugh.

  “Shhh,” was all he said as he continued to work.

  When she had returned to full health, I teetered to my backside.

  With nothing else urgent enough to steal my attention my mind wandered back to my arm. I could no longer ignore the pain. I let In the Buff recede, but even though my arm shrunk in size as my Strength and Constitution stats decreased, it didn’t help.

  I rocked back and forth as I fought to stay in control.

  “Elorion?!” Aeris said. Her eyes looked frantic as she looked at my arm. “Are you okay?”

  “No!” I shouted, not at her, but because it was the only sound I could manage to make. Nausea was building up inside of me.

  “Russ!” Aeris called. “It looks like his armor has collapsed on his arm. Can you fix it?”

  I was clamping my eyes closed, so I heard Russ approach rather than saw him.

  “Not without heating it up,” Russ replied with a sigh.

  “Do you have your hammer?!” I growled.

  “Always,” he said.

  Dropping my scepter, I opened my eyes and swatted everyone back as I wobbled to my feet. Taking a few large strides away from them to hopefully be at a safe distance I placed my good hand above my vambrace where it was crumpled in. Flame Thrower gushed into life. I compressed the stream of fire as it hit the steel. When it started to heat up, I only managed to hold back for a few seconds before I screamed.

  Everyone was yelling at me, but I was too far gone to understand what they were saying.

  Russ stood next to me, still decked out in plate mail, but instead of a weapon, he wielded a blacksmith’s hammer.

  As the steel on my arm started to glow, I smelled burning meat. Clenching my jaw as if that could mask the scent, I let myself cry out.

  When I couldn’t take it any longer, I cut mana to my spell and slammed my injured arm against the stone wall.

  I clenched my eyes even tighter.

  The reverb from Russ’s hammer caused the muscles in my arm and back to spasm. Once, twice, three times was all it took before I felt something fall away from my forearm and ring against the floor.

  With my eyes opened, I saw Russ bracing my hand against the wall and preparing another swing.

  I yanked my arm away. Without the steel holding my arm straight, it flopped around like a dead fish where it had been crushed.

  My stomach wrenched. I lost all the food in my belly.

  I sent healing magic into my arm as I pried at my gauntlet, which was still mostly intact but had also been bent in tightly against my wrist. When I finally forced it off, I saw Russ’s handiwork. He had managed to open up the crushed end of my vambrace. It had been pierced by the Hellhound’s teeth, so it fell apart at the puncture marks. I was able to squirm out of what was left of it.

  The burning sensation and throbbing slowly started to calm as I flooded my remaining MP into healing magic. Once again, the world around me began to spin. My breathing was heavy as I kept myself from falling over with my good hand on my knee. Still shaken, I looked up and saw everyone standing there in stunned silence.

  Seeing I had recovered, Aeris ran to me and grabbed my arm, checking to be sure it was really healed.

  I amped up In the Buff once again. It felt odd to be so small.

  “It looks like all of you survived,” Rock Hard said from his place on the ceiling. “Master should be here any minute. I suggest you wait. I really don’t think it was a good idea to kill Mistress Nava’s pet.”

  It was impossible to miss the fearful gasps that came in response.

  Any relief that I felt at having my arm whole faded at the realization that he was absolutely right. Nava had been daring enough to send her pet to attack us despite the Head Mistress’s wishes. Now that her beloved pet was dead, she would probably go psycho-bus and really come after us.

  A sob rang out, suddenly muffled by a hand to the mouth. Clarissa.

  I saw her near the back of the group. Audrey rushed over to comfort her.

  Olivia stood close by. She choked the handle of her wand, turning her knuckles white. She was staring at the remains of the Hell Hound, which no longer resembled a hound at all.

  I shut off the part of my mind that feels and retrieved my scepter and shield, inventoried the shield and replaced it with my orb that increased mana regen. Even with it, I would now have to sit down to replenish mana as quickly as possible. Meditation still had its uses. This was the worst possible scenario if we were attacked again. I was out of mana.

  Approaching the Hell Hound, I found Travis already there kneeling. A crimson crystal that reminded me very much of the Fire Orb that had been a part of the creature before its death lay on the ground beneath it.

  “For some reason, I’m afraid to touch it,” Travis said with a nervous chuckle.

  I examined it with Mana Sight.

  “It should be safe. The mana seems to be contained inside it,” I offered.

  “Oh,” he replied.

  Taking a deep breath, he reached out and touched it. Yanking his hand back, he slowly exhaled before finally taking it in his hand.

  With plenty of mana for Lesser Blood Drain, I cast it, knowing my window to steal any power that might be in the creature’s blood might end when Rock Hard’s master got here. I suspected it was the Head Mistress, or perhaps the Lich. Please be the Lich.

  The now familiar red cloud rose up from the mangled body and accumulated in a fluid sphere as I cast my spell. When the collection of blood was finished, a strand of red streamed out of the sphere toward me. My veins bulged as the power touched the back of my hand. Like an IV the size of a water hose, the beast’s mana poured into me.

  Curiosity drove me to watch as the Dark Mana in the creature was transformed to a neutral translucent form as it left the mutilated body. That explained why taking in the vampire and hellhound’s blood hadn’t killed me.

  Attributes Drained

  +1,000 HP

  +500 MP

  +200 Dex

  +30 Wis

  The stats I received were far more than what the average creature gave in the Mistress’s labyrinth, but they were far less than what Lord Darius had given.

  “Elorion,” Aeris called.

  I spun around, half expecting another fight. There was no explanation needed when I saw what she trying to bring to my attention.

  Russ had shrunk. He had taken his plate mail off because it was now too large to do him any good. Instead of the man that had grown to the size of a bear, he was now compressed. He was thinner than Skyler, but still had the muscle definition of a fitness model. If that were all, his transformation would have seemed like a downgrade, but the thickness of his bone structure had nearly doubled. There was something alien to his build, even though he still looked like a thinner version of our friend. He was smaller, but there was no denying that he looked much tougher.

  It was no surprise that they had received experience from killing the Hell Hound even though we hadn’t been grouped when I killed it. His group had attacked the Hell Hound before me and multiple party members had attacked it. Experience sharing was a more co
mplex system than what I was used to in most games where only the person that killed the mob got any experience.

  At first, Russ stood there speechless as he tried to take in the changes to his body. What he thought of the changes became clear when he gave Olivia a speculative look.

  I could only imagine what was going on in that mind of his.

  There was a squeal from the back of the group. When I saw Audrey jumping up and down as she still held a distraught Clarissa, it was clear she had also reached 1,000 in a stat.

  “Oh. Me too,” Olivia said with a shrug.

  Aeris hopped up and her air magic caught her. She drifted over to Olivia.

  “I’m so close!” Skyler said as he lumbered over to Audrey to take a look.

  “One thousand Dexterity, fools!” Steve jeered.

  Well, even though we had almost been wiped out, at least the Hell Hound had left us a bit of a gift in its death. With the four more humans hitting 1,000 in their primary stat, that made six of us now and many were close behind. Sadly, we weren’t going to have the chance to stay here and get everyone leveled.

  I turned my attention to my own popups.

  Bonus experience for defeating your first Hell Hound!

  Bonus experience for defeating a creature 1,000 levels higher than you!

  1,000 levels higher? I supposed that that made sense. It moved so fast that even as I perceived time at one-fifth of its normal speed it was moving when everyone except Aeris was standing still.

  When I saw that I had only received 16 levels for defeating the high-level mob I felt like I wanted to hit something. Maybe it was irrational, but after the pain and having to heal Audrey, it felt like I deserved more. That we deserved more.

  I checked my current stats.

  Level: 356

  Health Points: 70,516

  My health had gone up 1,000 from leeching the Hell Hound but decreased 2,000 from losing the vambrace on my left hand.

  Mana Points: 161,777

  Endurance: 3,768

  Mana Per Minute: 3,062

  Attributes

  Strength: 430

  Dexterity: 637

  Constitution: 471

  Intelligence: 1,002

  Wisdom: 1436

  Stat Points: 80

  After the big jump in Dexterity, I was only 363 from 1,000. That was only 73 levels away if I spent my new stats on it. That also required me to be in Advanced In the Buff at all times, but honestly, I didn’t think I would ever go into a fight without having it active. It was tempting. Very tempting and I didn’t want to leave my new stats unspent while we were in this predicament. On the other hand, if I put the new stats into Wisdom I would have an additional 350 mana per minute, which would be welcome right now.

  I then looked at Blue Magic: Canine’s Sense of Smell.

  You no longer have to depend on sight as your primary sense for experiencing the world. You will now be able to better categorize and distinguish smells.

  Interesting, did that mean I would be able to track mobs or possibly even notice them when they were invisible? It at least sounded promising.

  “Children! Come!” A haunting voice resonated from the entrance of the hall.

  A cloud of dust drifted in, and swirled around the ice spear that had impaled the Hell Hound, holding it secure to the Earth. The cloud started to eat away at the ice until it had almost fully receded and then started to devour the Hell Hound’s corpse. All that remained when the deed was done was the hound's disjointed skeleton that lay on the ground in pieces.

  When the dust collapsed, and the old man took form, I didn’t jump back like the others but stepped forward.

  Crossing my arms across my chest, I greeted him with a glare.

  His eyes flickered toward mine. He answered my question before I had to ask. “There was no way to know that Mistress Nava would dare to attack you this soon. She is far more daring than I gave her credit for.”

  With an obnoxious twist of his head, his eyes drilled into mine. “It seems someone offended her when he dismissed her like a common underling earlier today.”

  With a sigh, I dropped my arms to my side.

  “What do we do?” I asked.

  “There is only one choice I’m afraid. Flee. Now,” the Lich replied.

  “How?!” Skyler soldiered forward, making himself big as if bullying the old man would be possible.

  “Well, originally you would only be able to leave if you beat the boss of the Earth Level.” Turning to Rock Hard, he asked, “What do you think? Have they earned the right to move on?”

  “I suppose they have,” Rock Hard replied. “A Hell Hound is not a good representative of the Earth Element, but it had a much better offense than I do, and I have seen how they handled my Elementals. I could probably kill a few of them if we fought because humans are so soft, but if they joined together I think they would defeat me now.”

  “Wait. He’s the Earth Level’s boss?” I asked.

  “Yes,” the old man confirmed.

  Turning to the philosophizing rock-man, I asked, “I thought you told me that you would run if I tried to attack you?”

  “That is true,” he said with a nod. “Unless you entered the center room, I would have run. It's rude to crush flesh-softs when they don’t realize they are facing a Master Earth Elemental. Besides, like bacon, you have no crunch. What would be the point?”

  “Enough!” the Lich warned. “You must go.”

  “What about our stuff?” Russ said from Olivia’s side.

  “I have everything you will need.”

  A bag the size of a regular pack appeared in his outstretched arm. It was leather with a leather flap covering its open end with a strap.

  “This is a magic bag. Anything you put in here will only weigh a tenth of what it normally does,” he added.

  I looked at it in awe. I had seen magic bags at the merchants’, but the best they had were insanely expensive and only reduced the weight of what you carried by a quarter.

  There were numerous questions that came from the others all at once.

  “What about my forge?”

  “What will we do for food?”

  “My flasks?”

  “I assure you,” the Lich responded, “I brought everything you will need: the orbulist anvil, rarest ore, Alchemy set and the rarer ingredients, enough food for a few weeks, including some cave-swine bacon and muck-cow milk dressing since the imp said you liked it. It’s all in there.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Aeris blurted out. “The muck-cow milk can make you act funny.”

  “Huh? No, it doesn’t,” the old man insisted. “It is very similar to the caffeine you are used to except instead of making you irritable or causing heart palpitations it will calm you. If you were acting funny, that was all you I’m afraid.”

  Aeris looked to me for reassurance, but I couldn’t deny what he said. Sure, I had felt good, happy even when eating it, but it hadn’t numbed my wits or dulled my senses like alcohol might.

  “Also, your necromancer, Mel, is right behind me with Zorik, the cafeteria serving Imp. Mel has retrieved some of the items from your armory. The Imp will join you and help guide you through the Dungeon Level, so, if things haven’t changed, you won’t have to go up to the Cavern Level at all in your travels. Dungeons are created, taken over and lose ownership all the time. There is one that comes to mind that might just work for you all, but it has been years since I ventured there. It will take you three days to get there. Two if you are lucky,” the old man said before tapping his chin like there was something he had forgotten.

  I scanned the others, embarrassed I hadn’t realized Mel wasn’t here, but not terribly surprised either. Everyone was looking from person to person hoping someone was making better sense of the situation than they were. I didn't look anyone in the eye.

  “Two things. Where is the Fire Orb that the Hell Hound dropped?” the Lich finally asked.

  “Here!” Travis said, stepping f
orward to hand it to him.

  The Lich took it and added it to the magic bag.

  “This is a lesser gem, but powerful all the same. Many higher level creatures possess these naturally,” he said as he waved his finger. “When you make it where I am sending you to, place this on the altar in the heart of dungeon. It will grant you possession of the area. Any of the magic utilities that remain in operable shape, including traps, crafting stations and the like, will be yours to control. Look out for other orbs such as this one. The more powerful the orb the more power your dungeon will possess. Orbs also have different elements and alignments, just as this one is of the element Fire. As you use them, they can even advance in power.

  “As you get more of them, you will also be able to power things like a furnace,” he said looking directly at Russ, “with individual stones.”

  “Finally, you do not realize how much danger you are in. Nava is a Mistress, the highest rank a succubus can obtain besides that of Head Mistress. You defeated her pet, but you will have no chance of standing against her. Not yet. Use every trick in your power to get to where I’m sending you as quickly as possible. Currently, I am blocking the spell that would inform Nava that her pet has perished. In doing so, I am also blocking her connection to her pet. She must already suspect what has happened. I will not be able to hold her back for more than a few days.

  “The biggest danger to you currently isn’t her though. I can hold her here for a time, but I can’t block her magic if she tries to communicate with someone outside of the Head Mistress’s domain. Also, if another succubus joins her cause, then there might be others that come after you from here as well. I don’t know their politics well enough to make any promises that I can stop everyone that might join her.”

  My heart thundered in my chest when I heard the sound of a small army of boney feet enter the Bone Place’s lobby just a room away.

  I summoned Skeletal Armor to form up over the gap in my plate mail where my vambrace had been. It overlapped my gauntlet and couter, which covered my elbow. Seeing how naturally it filled in the gap, I added some mana to the spell to let the bone grow until it covered the mail of my entire left arm. It didn’t seem to affect my movements, so I kept it that way.