Aeris also had a new Wind spell allowing her to knock a group of them off their feet if they were close enough.
Swallowing back a knot in my throat, I didn't stay any longer. The lure to say hi was too strong.
There was one last group that I passed who were fighting zombies. If you can call two people a group. They both seemed to be stealth users, but one used a short sword and the other was a water mage. I didn't think the water bubble surrounding the zombie’s head would do any good, but at least the guy was leveling his spells.
Their invisibility spell seemed to work differently than mine. They weren't completely invisible but seemed to be cloaked in shadow. It was pretty obvious to the naked eye, but the zombies didn't seem to notice them at all.
Maybe the water bubble engulfing its head was to further help their stealth?
***
As I entered the cafeteria I stopped short. I was still invisible, but I had been stomping around loud enough that an old deaf goat would have noticed my presence. Instead, she didn't even seem to notice as she sat at one of the stone lunch tables staring off into the distance.
It was the same blond girl with black rimmed glasses that Aeris and Olivia had convinced to join us for food after our first hunt. To my shame, I hadn't even noticed she hadn't been with them. This time her loaf of bread was nibbled on.
Stepping back to leave her alone, I hesitated. It was one thing to not join the others because I thought they'd convince me to join them, but just ignoring her was cruel.
Sighing, I moved to uncast invisibility, when I heard footsteps scurrying toward us from the direction of the merchants.
Stepping out of the doorway, I was just in time as a familiar guy rushed by. It was the guy with curly blond hair that had originally been following Skyler's group. Using Creature Observation I saw his name was Chris.
“Lydia! I got good news. The halfling said he would sell me the Basic Alchemy For Newbies book for only 5,000 copper. That's half price!”
Alchemy? I guessed that was her talent. 5k was still a pretty extreme amount. Maybe in a couple of weeks or as much as a month, but it wouldn't be a quick road to that much coin.
She didn't say anything, but she did turn ever so slightly and feigned a grin.
It really didn't surprise me seeing him here trying to help her. I remembered how friendly he was when we first met. It was foolish for him not to be trying to get stronger, but generous all the same.
Well, there wasn't really much I could do for her that he wasn't already. Instead of escaping, I removed invisibility and walked toward the other end of the room to order my food. I nonchalantly threw them both a heal as I walked by. It would do little more than heal their exhaustion, but it was the least I could do. I nodded when they looked up.
“Hey!”
I almost fell on my face. The mostly mute girl had just called out as if I had bashed her over the head with a ten-pound pretzel.
Standing just past them on the other side of their table I turned to face her.
She wasn't looking at me but was holding her glasses six inches from her nose, examining them like they were a foreign object.
Chris was just as shocked as I was, standing still as a crippled ghost. It was just as obvious to him as it was to me that something impossible just happened.
“What did you do?!” she asked. Peering up at me with her mouth hanging open.
“Uh. I healed you.”
“I can see,” she said under her breath. “My prescription wasn't bad, but now...”
“Oh,” was all that I could think to say. I was as surprised as she was.
“Thank you!” she said, before jumping up and running at me. She hugged me and continued to say, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
“Heh. You're welcome. How about some food. You guys hungry?” I said, smiling and trying to keep myself from turning red.
Without really waiting for their permission, I wiggled away from her and went to get us all a meal.
Chapter 11 – Power Leveling
A potent aroma of mouthwatering goodness had soaked my plate with meat juice. Beloved steak! I had eaten a t-bone so big it could mask a zombie and make him attractive. After some food and the selling my goods, it was time to get back to work.
Healing myself helped fight off any dreariness I felt coming on from a full stomach. It felt wrong not to sleep even though I knew in body and mind my Healing spell had succeeded. I might never need to sleep again.
Skeleton Archers came after the Warriors. Just like the first time I had met the bow-wielding Scouts, I feared ranged attackers more than the melee fighters. If I wasn't paying attention, I could end up with an arrow in the back.
The bows these archers possessed varied. There was both a recurve and longbow. The Scout's bows had been short children's bows in comparison. Remembering the arrows I dodged before, I scoffed at the idea that they were children's bows. There was no doubt, this would be dangerous.
The first archer I killed gave me the customary bonus experience and two levels. They were more aware with a wider radius of sensitivity. There still wasn't any teamwork, but for the first time, they seemed aware of one another. They were also level 120 to 140. The good news was that they had 1800 HP, 200 less than the Warriors. In a few levels, I could one hit them with my Healing spell and Alpha was already powerful enough to do just that.
Foregoing any Decay or Pain leveling, I focused on killing them quickly to limit the number of arrows flying at my head. My Skeleton Warrior's Shield would likely save my life, but there was no way I was going to test it.
The slow process of finding one, or at the most two, mobs alone began.
I had hoped that the skeletons’ bows would be a Blue Magic spell I could learn, but instead, they were just higher quality weapons. It made sense really. What body part would make a good bowstring? Hair? Sinew? I cringed at the thought.
An hour later Heal reached level 90 and the experience needed to reach the next level doubled. I had a feeling hitting level 100 would be as good of a surprise as reaching 100 in a stat. More importantly, I was suddenly able to one hit the Archers.
The real power leveling had begun!
I saved 300 MP for an emergency cast of Alpha Bolt, that now cost 246 MP and a few Heals that now cost 10 MP each to cast. With the rest of my mana, I unleashed my full arsenal of Heal and Alpha Bolts. Entire rooms of archers were wiped out in a few minutes. I began to ignore whether they could see through my invisibility because of all my casting and strolled from room to room. The danger of their arrows had nearly disappeared after I was able to finish them with a single cast. I went from level 122 to 132 in less than two hours.
Decay maxed out at level 100 after I had continued using it, giving me no bonuses except that it now cost 1 MP. I completely removed it from my spell leveling strategy. I hadn't really had the opportunity to take advantage of it fully. I killed these too quickly to use the cast Decay and wait method to get the full use out of the spell. Eventually, I was sure I would run into something where it would become necessary.
You'd think my boredom would return now that I was quickly slaughtering the things, but they had gone from the most dangerous monster to an easy one with the simple advancement of a spell. I was getting stronger.
I allowed myself to bask in the joy of progression. It felt like I’d had just discovered energy drinks for the first time.
An archer’s bowstring drew back. It took little aim to get me in its sights.
My empty casting hand was relaxed at my side. The bone enhanced dagger was looped in my belt and my shield was sitting lazily low. I dared the creature to release its string. In anticipation, I held myself back as long as possible.
I saw the bow snap into action before I heard the twang of the bow.
My hand shot up, a partially developed Alpha Bolt already forming in my hand as it rose to meet the arrow.
Leaning to the side, I positioned myself in case I had taken my dare too far.
The arrow was a blur that screamed into the developing ball of purple energy. It splintered into oblivion where it met Alpha Bolt, shearing off in all directions. My shield and leather vest caught most of the splinters, but one pierced me in the muscle between my shoulder and my neck, and another in the meat of my palm. Alpha Bolt continued to grow.
Heat rose up in my chest and my jaw flexed. I nearly screamed at the bloodless thing, but instead, I let Alpha Bolt fly; redirecting it at the last moment toward the archer’s head.
The skull of the archer was pummeled into powder before it even hit the floor. Its vertebrae tumbled like dominoes followed by the rest of its corpse.
If the splinter in my neck was any closer to center mass it could have really been dangerous. Removing the splinter half as thick as a pencil, and a thinner but much longer one from my palm, I left them on the floor as I healed myself. I had only lost about 92 HP in total, but real pain was... just painful.
As I started to rebuke myself, I forced myself to remember I wasn't a bot or machine. I feared a monster that was strong enough to think it could challenge the Head Mistress. It would be here at any time. I needed to level up as quickly as possible, but the repetition was getting to me. Even with my ability to heal away my exhaustion, I didn't have the discipline for this.
Remembering the pain I felt when the imp taught me the blue spell Pain, I shook my head. I better learn the needed discipline quickly.
***
Once I had hit level 140 in the early evening, I found a side tunnel to sit back and have a snack in. The stone bricks were the same color and size in this long hall I found myself in. Four people could fit shoulder to shoulder, but the length of the room was at least forty meters to its end. A door faced me, unlike any door I had seen in all my time in the underworld.
The frame wasn't arched, but square. It was a single door, but large enough that even someone ten feet tall would be comfortable using it. The door itself was white stone, with charred soot around the edges of the door and frame. Had there been a fire?
I stuffed some jerky into my mouth as I approached it and started to examine it closer. Besides the soot, stone seemed like an odd material to make a door out of. The door hinges were solid brass and much thicker than I remember seeing in my old life in the world above.
Sitting down at a comfortable distance, I considered seeing what was behind it instead of moving on from the Skeleton Archers. This was the first room I had entered with a hall and door to another room. Since I usually ignored rooms with doors and used those that were mostly doorless to limit the noise I made, I knew there were probably others like this.
It might be wise to find a side tunnel anyways to kill the repetition. I suspected that the creatures I had been facing in the main rooms of the labyrinth were nothing more than training wheels created by the Mistress so that we would have an easy time leveling up. The more we grew in strength the more energy she would leech from us. It only made sense she would try to make leveling easy as well. My fear was that once the opposing Lich arrived to attack the Mistress, and us, even if I was stronger, how would I fair against intelligent creatures that had likely lived in this world their entire lives? My strength didn't mean anything if a monster that I should easily be able to defeat killed me because of my lack of knowledge.
There was also the very real threat that the Lich and whatever army it brought with it would have to pass through the main passage I was used to hunting in. I didn't want to test my Invisibility spell against whatever was coming. If it thought it could take on the High Mistress than it was likely it would be able to see me.
The door handle wasn't round, but an iron bar jutting out and bent to accommodate a much bigger hand than mine. Despite that and the door's weight, I was able to pull open the door without much difficulty. The world that opened up to me was nothing like the stone halls of my hunting grounds. Red and brown stone mixed with gray in a cavern of uneven walls and a ceiling that peaked so high I couldn't see its top. Rock and worn stone met my foot as I stepped into the new room or cave.
There was still a dim light that filled the lower twenty feet or so of the cavern here. It was pale with an unknown source. In the distance a warmer light mixed with it, this seemed to have a source, but there was only one way to find out for sure.
Placing a plastic bag that held a quarter of the two pounds of beef jerky that was originally its contents into my inventory, I moved forward as silently as I could manage.
I expected more undead, so my nerves kept steady. As I got closer to the light, its source was clear. Multiple small fires were lit. What was their fuel, the rock itself? In the orange light, the walls became clearer and my eyes relaxed a bit. I hadn't realized I was squinting.
Soot covered the walls and floor in patches where other fires had been. What is that all about? I could go for some BBQ!
Fire suddenly sprayed across the room directly toward me, billowing into a ball of flame against the wall at my side.
I froze where I stood. It had just missed me.
The little devil that blew it out of his mouth was three feet tall with crimson skin and ears that rounded up into points like little horns. It was humanoid in appearance with a black skinned mug that reminded me of a flat nosed dog. Its eyes were more feline than canine.
Even after its flame filled the room with light, it didn't notice me. So it hadn't been aiming for me.
Creature Observation told me it was a Fire Imp and about level 100 with 1200 HP. An easy one hit for Alpha Bolt. I considered testing Heal on it. This would be a good test for Light Magic. I suspected a lot of creatures in the Underworld were weak against it, but that didn't mean all of them were. I knew the normal imp I had killed had been, but this was a Fire Imp. Shouldn't it have a nature of fire?
Then it came to me. Pain! Pain should actually work against this creature since it wasn’t undead and actually had a body. That should give me the time to test Heal on it, and if that didn't work then Alpha Bolt.
Still oblivious to me, the Fire Imp had gotten closer as it studied the wall it had just scorched.
I took a look around to make sure the two of us were alone. Somehow I had missed the little hot tamale and it was lucky I hadn't stepped into its spray of fire.
When I was sure I was alone, I cast Pain.
Not only did the stun work, but I almost felt sorry for it as it fell to the ground wide-eyed.
Heal followed right after Pain, but its effects shocked me almost as much as Pain had the Fire Imp. Not only had Heal not killed him, but it seemed to lessen the effects of Pain.
The muscles in my back clenched in panic as I began casting Alpha.
It was then that it saw me. Its wide eyes turned down into a snarl. When it opened its mouth I knew what was coming.
Alpha flew after reaching its full size, a ball of power twice as large as the Fire Imp's head.
If any flame escaped its mouth its head was crushed before it could harm me.
I got another level thanks to the first kill bonus experience.
For being such a low level it had certainly given me a surprise.
Well, that answered my question about the light element. I wouldn't be all-powerful down here just because of gaining the ultimate element. Man, was I thankful for Alpha Bolt! If it wasn't for that I would have had to try to kill the imp melee-style. That would not have been a fun experience.
Another idea came to me. I was very interested in finding out if the flames it blew out of its mouth was a creature skill I could learn with Creature Observation. Since I hadn't gotten a pop-up yet, and the first Fire Imp surprised me, I didn't think I had really concluded one way or the other yet.
Letting myself settle for a moment, I soon moved on to find another Fire Imp to observe.
The room seemed to end after another hundred feet or so, but that was because it split off in two directions. I considered stopping there because of the danger of getting lost in a cave. Because there were only two large tunnels
that continued and no small ones to confuse things, I took the tunnel on the left. Almost immediately I ran into another Fire Imp.
Did I say another? Make that three. They were actively scorching one part of the wall after another.
I stood there at a momentarily safe distance and watched as thin streams of flame spewed from their mouths. They seemed to have control of how wide the flame spread, but at the end, it always engulfed its target in a ball of fire.
It was not much time before I got the first pop-up.
You better understand Flamethrower!
I wasn't sure what I was looking for. Watching the creature itself, it breathed in through its nostrils, its chest expanded, and then it bent forward to blow its fire. There was no way to better observe it unless I let Flamethrower be cast on me and that wasn't happening. I couldn't use the same tactics I used on the Skeleton Warrior either. How could you attack fire to see how it reacted?
The temperature this close to the Fire Imps wasn't exactly comfortable. I spent at least five minutes watching them before my sweat was starting to annoy me. Was there another way?
I looked at Creature Observation closer. What was strange was that it didn't describe itself as an active or passive skill, yet I was about to use it as both. I had an idea.
My mouth dropped open and elation rose up in my chest. Thankfully magic was controlled by the will, otherwise I probably never would have figured this out. My idea had been to cast Creature Observation as a spell instead of a skill. As a skill, it always just gave me basic information about the creature. I went to activate Creature Observation, while trying to push mana into it.
You have unlocked Force Learn!
With a thought, I was able to execute Creature Observation as a spell for the first time. I felt energy, or a pressure, gather around my eyes. As a Fire Imp leaned forward to vomit up its flame, the mana around my eyes surged into my eyes themselves, crystallizing my vision for a split second. It was as if the creature was suddenly in front of me frozen. I had a front row seat to examine the creature and that moment in time as well. Not only did it work, but only cost 10 MP. I immediately I got the pop-up I had been hoping for.
Underworld - Level Up or Die: A LitRPG Series Page 9
