Underworld - Level Up or Die: A LitRPG Series

by Apollos Thorne

  You have learned the Blue Magic Flamethrower!

  To celebrate I gave everyone a shot of Pain and Alpha Bolted them one after another.

  Sadly, there was no other blue magic I discovered while fighting them. Their cave just kept going. I made it a mile in before I turned back.

  Why they kept frying the walls was a mystery to me. Maybe there was something more to it, but I didn’t have the time to do the research.

  If I wasn't in a hurry, it might be fun to explore while looking for other creatures in this area of the dungeon. They were too low of a level to hunt for experience, but I had certainly enjoyed meeting them.

  Back to skeletons for now, but next time I got bored, I would start peeking my head into the side rooms to see if there was anything interesting I could find. Getting extra blue magic was worth an extra fifteen-minute detour here and there.

  ***

  Fighting the Skeleton Archers allowed me to level up a lot faster than all the other mobs that came before them. It was because I was able to one hit them, which nerfed the danger they possessed. After I made it to level 145, I moved on.

  The stone of the next area was of a deep turquoise and very reflective, filling the room with more light than I was used to. That wasn't the only way that it was unique. The number of skeletons that filled the room was three times more than the most populous room before it. Not only was there more of the enemy, but there was also a variety of them.

  Both Skeleton Warriors and Archers filled the room. They were broken up into groups of three to five and actually walked in loose formations, promising to be more difficult than anything I had faced yet.

  It’s about time!

  Checking them with Creature Observation, I confirmed that they were higher in level than the Warriors and Archers from before. The Warriors were now as high as level 130 and the Archers 150. The biggest difference was going to be their HP. The Archers now possessed 2200 which was close to my range of one hitting them. The Warriors were pushing 2500 and since some of the groups had more than one, their shields would be a problem if they worked well together.

  Besides the added challenge of finally fighting something that might be semi intelligent, I was also a level away from reaching level 100 in my Lesser Heal spell. There was a possibility that, unlike Decay that simply maxed out in progression, that Lesser Heal would evolve into a better version of itself. I was almost sure of it.

  The desire to see what happened when Lesser Heal reached 100 determined my strategy against my new enemies.

  I snuck into the first room that was longer than it was wide like a gothic ballroom. It reached at least 100 meters to the other end of the room and had an estimated 150 skeletons packing it tight. My old strategy of getting one skeleton by itself wouldn't work here. There was no way I could attack without having other groups of skeletons joining them. The best I could hope for was keeping the adds down to one to two groups.

  Still, a strategy presented itself. I entered one of the side rooms that had an arched doorway without any doors. I was in a wide room, but not very deep. The stone walls were thick here, so it would do the job. I readied my shield as I turned to face the enemy just outside my improvised kill-box from the back of the room.

  The closest group was made up of two Warriors and an Archer. My first target was obvious enough.

  After taking a deep breath to make sure my nerves were as ready as they could be, I cast Lesser Heal on the Archer.

  As I feared it had depleted all except the last 5% of his HP. He didn't look in good shape, but I now had three Skeleton's turning to face me.

  The cast time on Lesser Heal was pretty minimal. I could pull off about two casts a second, although there was another half second delay before the spell reached the enemy at this distance. My second Lesser Heal reached the Skeleton Archer before the Warrior's really got moving.

  I didn't delay and started to spam Lesser Heal as quickly as I could. The first Warrior was dead before he reached the room. If the other Warrior hadn't been out of view from behind the wall it would have died much quicker.

  It came in view when it rounded the corner to join me in the room.

  Another Lesser Heal was already on its way and rammed into its shield. The damage was reduced significantly.

  I aimed low for the next one. Lesser Heal nearly finished it and I followed it up with another.

  The three Skeletons were defeated before any of them really got close, but the fight had just begun.

  Already another Skeleton Warrior was entering the room.

  I began by blasting low. There was no time to mess with their shields.

  Even with a direct hit, it took another cast to finish it.

  Two more Skeleton Warriors filled the entrance, struggling to fit through at the same time.

  I smirked.

  As their bodies hit the floor, the beginning of a bone barricade started to form. It wouldn't last long. Their bodies would dissolve in a few seconds, but there was more where that had come from.

  Level Up!

  I’ll take it!

  An archer stood behind the fallen Warriors, arrow nocked and drawn. Its arrow released before Lesser Heal countered.

  Raising my shield as I ducked, the arrow struck solid, high on my shield, but spun off to the ground. I hadn't wanted to ever have to test my shield, but that was pretty impressive.

  Even as the Archer fell, more Warriors reached the room's entrance.

  At first, their numbers worked to my advantage. They tried to pile in and instead ended up bones and dust helping to block their group members from getting to me.

  There was really no danger of running out of mana even if the entire room of Skeletons came at me. It was my rate of fire that would ultimately hold me back. I defeated four or five groups, or about twenty skeletons, before one Skeleton Warrior pushed past the others and the small barricade of ankle high bones.

  It fell before it got too close to me, but another Skeleton had already come in behind. A second was behind him and there seemed to be no end to them. Perhaps I had really pulled the entire room.

  After finishing the closest Warrior, I sent an Alpha Bolt into the shield of one at the entrance, knocking him back into the incoming horde.

  It bought me a few seconds.

  I shifted my position heading to one of the side walls, all the while continuing to fire off Lesser Heal. Since the room was wider than it was deep, this gave me more distance between me and the skeletons. In addition, I hoped that they may lose aggro if I was less visible.

  That didn't seem to be the case. They kept coming. The only benefit was that once the Skeletons entered the room, I was finishing them off fast enough that they couldn't look to the others to know where I was but had to take the second or two to search for my action location.

  Seeing that this was the case, I place myself in the corner closest to the entrance and ducked low with my shield up, making myself as hard to see as possible. Invisibility was doing me no good because I was casting too quickly, but the angle gave me a slight advantage.

  With most of the Warrior's gone, the Archers started to enter the room.

  Even as I killed the first one, an arrow grated against my shield.

  I received a pop-ups but there wasn't even time to glance at it.

  My breathing quickened. The Archers found me much quicker than the Warriors.

  With a clenched jaw, I ducked lower to make myself even smaller.

  Another arrow rapped on my shield, but I never stopped casting Lesser Heal.

  Soon enough, arrow after arrow was pelting me in my corner while four Skeleton Archers bombarded me.

  An Alpha Bolt found one, knocking him out of the picture for a time as I finished another with Lesser Heal. If a Skeleton Warrior joined I had no idea what I was going to do, but I was seriously in a tight spot.

  When an arrow hit the ground between my feet, I decided it was better not to just stay here.

  Rolling to the side, I threw a Lesser
Heal, finishing the Archer I had hit with Alpha Bolt. With two Archers left, I had an idea.

  With my shield in front of me, braced with both arms, I bull-rushed the closest Archer and plowed into it.

  The collision was more than I had expected, jarring my shoulder, and only knocking it back. Operation Skeleton Baked Oven!

  I threw my arm forward, and willed Flamethrower to activate for the first time. When the energy didn't shoot down my arm but up in to my throat, I looked at the Skeleton Archer like I was about to be sick.

  I dropped my shield as much as moved it out of the way as my stomach muscles tensed and something felt like it was going to erupt out of me. A red light flicked on under my nose and energy spewed out. A long stream of flame shot forward, hitting both skeletons. Remembering my entire point of casting the spell, I shifted my head to redirect the flame at their bows. Both bowstrings were rendered useless! The whole experience had felt like vomiting except without the disgusting taste.

  In the confusion of losing their weapons, I finished them off with Lesser Heal.

  Before I tested my luck that I had finished the last of them, I took a seat out of sight.

  When I was breathing easier I check my pop-ups. The one about leveling up I had already seen, but the next one brought me back to my feet and I started bounding around the room like a bunny in a straitjacket!

  Lesser Heal had reached level 100!

  Heal has been unlocked!

  This is the intermediate rank for Light Magic: Heal.

  Heal

  Base Heal of 1000 at level 1.

  Cost 100 MP per cast.

  If I was going to get a surprise like this form almost dying I would do it more often! Even though it cost twenty times the MP to cast Heal in place of Lesser Heal, with the double damage to undead and my damage bonuses I could now one hit these bums. Not to mention, I couldn't even imagine how powerful it was going to become as I leveled it.

  I was still in for a long night, but it felt like I was finally getting somewhere.

  Boney feet scurried in my direction. I stopped my celebration and let Invisibility take me.

  I really needed to learn not to celebrate when there were hordes of undead within hearing distance. Regardless, I was still grinning from ear to ear and ready to try out my next level Heal spell.

  Chapter 12- Returning From a Sleepless Hunt

  Hours and hours had past. It was about time to return to my home base to sell a full inventory of goods and get some food. I had started my solo hunt 48 hours ago and besides a few other trips to town, I hadn’t stopped since. So much had changed. I had reached level 192 in that time and was much more powerful. Still, there was one last thing I had to do before I headed back home.

  Three blue slimes as tall as a large dog were communicating through the vibrations their bodies gave off. At level 120 they weren’t even close to the highest level monster I had faced, but I was sure there was blue magic to learn from them. The green slimes that were level 100 gave me Fluid Body, which gave me physical resistance. Currently, it lessened 26% of all damage at spell level 87. I was hoping the blue slime would give me magic resistance in a similar fashion. So I watched.

  Invisibility had started out costing 200 mana per minute. Thanks to constantly keeping it activated it had leveled a lot and now cost 44 mana a minute. It was level 78. I couldn’t imagine there being multiple spell levels, like novice, intermediate and advanced. Once it reached level 100 I suspected it would be maxed out.

  This cost over time didn’t bother my hunting speed anymore. I had over 463 mana regenerating every minute. I had room to spare.

  My biggest accomplishment was the Lesser Heal had reached level 100! Already Heal was doing well over 1680 points of base healing at level 17 with spell cost reducing skills. Maxed Lesser Heal only cost 3MP with close to 800 healing without bonuses; with bonuses it was just over 2000. Last night had only required half the number of self-casts to stay awake after Heal had progressed to intermediate.

  Then came my Alpha Bolt. It had started out costing a whopping 500 MP. As you can expect it was taking longer to level up. Now it was only level 61, but even then it had lowered the MP usage to 156 with level and bonuses. The damage had begun at 500. Now it was close to 2300. Not as good as Intermediate Heal, but if it was against anything that wasn’t undead or evil alignment it was the way to go. These slimes were a perfect example. If it wasn’t for this spell it would have been impossible for me to kill these magic resistant goo-blobs. It slipped by their defenses because it was element neutral.

  So I waited and watched. Out of all the blue slimes, this was the highest level I had found at 121. Its two companions were 114 and 118. Then I saw what I was looking for. A single strand of blue electricity jumped from the highest level slime to its neighbor, and then to the last one. The blue electricity returned back to the initiator of the energy. I immediately cast Force Learn. A pop-up appeared!

  Through observation, you have learned Fluid Mentality

  Fluid Mentality

  5% resistance to magic

  Your resistance will grow as the spell levels

  Finally! This was my first magic resistance blue spell. The cost of 100 MP was greatly lessened with my 40% reduced cost to cast bonuses. 60 Mana Per Minute at level 1!

  Here’s a quick list of the blue magic I had learned in the last two days.

  Alpha

  Decay

  Invisibility

  Skeletal Breast Plate

  Skeleton Warrior’s Sword

  Skeleton Warrior’s Shield

  Flamethrower

  Fluid Body

  Fluid Mentality

  It was a small list, but a great start!

  Even after speaking with the Head Mistress about how I should level up, it wasn’t as easy as just following her directions. She had confirmed that at 100 all of my stats would give a bonus. The bonus that Constitution and Dexterity would give could literally save my life later on. Increased speed or health; either of these seemed worth the points, but she hadn’t even mentioned bothering with anything except putting 100 in intelligence. Perhaps she assumed I would add some to Constitution or Dexterity because it was the obvious thing to do. I was spamming Wisdom, so perhaps I should actually use the wisdom I had.

  Thankfully I had not gotten these spells all at once because I would not have been able to level them up at the same time if that was the case. Here’s a list of their base cost without leveling as an example. Invisibility costing 200 mana per minute at level 1, Skeletal Breast Plate 100 MPM, Skeleton Warrior’s Sword and Shield 50 MPM a piece, and Fluid Body and Fluid Mentality 100 MPM each, so with my regeneration rate of just over 463 mana per minute it just wouldn’t have cut it against the 600 MPM cost. After leveling everything up though and my 40% reduction in spell cost they now cost me approximately 200 MPM and that was with a new level 1 Fluid Mentality that still cost 100. Soon I would be able to have all of my MPM spells active with an excess 300 MPM.

  Another theory presented itself. Perhaps the reason the Mistress directed me to max Wisdom was because of all the Mana Per Minute blue magic spells available. I didn’t have too many spells yet myself, so I just wasn’t sure, but it was a good possibility. I held off spending points in Constitution and Dexterity; at least for now. Currently, it would cost me 16 levels to reach 100 in both stats.

  There was always the option of training outside of leveling up. Constitution and Dexterity were the type of stats I could also gain points in just by working out.

  I had run into these slimes in one of my few mental breaks. The cavern here was much like the Fire Imp cavern except it was wet and the rock was smooth with stalagmites and stalactites in abundance. My only complaint was that they were more complex than the undead I had been fighting, but because of their lower level, the experience wasn’t as good. It felt wrong, like they deserved more credit or something.

  I was decked out in Skeletal Breast Plate that literally formed a magic breastplate over my
leather armor made of solid bone. It looked amazing, as if I had thirty ribs on each side all sitting one upon another. I hadn’t yet had the guts to test it out though. My shield, on the other hand, had caught a number of arrows, and I happily carried it everywhere I went. My bone-covered dagger I kept looped in my belt so that I could switch shield and casting hands.

  With all of my MPM spells cast, I begin casting Pain. The Blue Slimes were only stunned a fifth of the 10-second timer, but it was still worth casting.

  My Invisibility spell casting downtime had decreased. As an example, when I cast Alpha Bolt it only took about one and a half seconds to go completely invisible again. If you asked me what was better, bacon or invisibility, I’d say eating bacon while invisible of course! It was possible to chew slow enough that you didn’t become visible. I know, because I tried it. You don’t have to choose between the two, but it’s easier to come by bacon if you have invisibility, so it's bacon’s best friend.

  The lowest level Slime was killed immediately after my first Alpha Bolt fired. I was able to cast Alpha one more time before the other two were able to respond. With one left alive, the 120 level Blue Slime threw its customary blue bullet which was easily blocked by my skeletal shield. My last cast brought his health down to dangerously low levels, but it wasn’t finished yet. Another bullet flew at me as it started to slime its way toward me. There was really no hope for it. Alpha went off a final time and ended its life.

  Eyeing my inventory I had two slots left for monster drops. I had forgone picking up ingredient type drops like zombie eyes and bones, instead sticking to the rare potion, weapons, armor and the odd ring or gemstone.

  Heading back out of the slime area, I killed the odd mob. Not that it was necessary in my invisible state. Nonstop hunting made spell usage natural and I didn’t have to think about what I wanted to cast anymore. I just reacted.