Underworld - Level Up or Die: A LitRPG Series

by Apollos Thorne

  “That’s pretty gross.”

  “After watching you enjoy popping the heads off skeletons I thought you would be into this sort of thing.”

  She looked at me in disgust and just shook her head.

  “Oh, come on. Admit I at least look cool.”

  “Sure. Cool to the touch.”

  I chuckled at the terrible skeleton joke. “You ready to finish these loot campers?”

  “My bones are crawling to get out there,” she teased.

  We looked at each other. Even after discussing a more serious topic, the adrenaline high and exhilaration from beating our first boss was making us slap happy. These kinds of moments were what made massive multiplayer roleplaying games so thrilling, but this was real. I almost hugged myself.

  A lot of our caution had disappeared as we strolled out into the room and started blasting away with no care for how many spotted us. About 30 Skeletal Champions were slaughtered as we teased each other all the way.

  If Aeris was willing, I could see that she wouldn’t slow me down, but only be an asset as I tried to become powerful as quickly as possible. We could hunt together, but I knew she wouldn’t agree to that arrangement before I asked.

  Hunting alone had been lonely and this had been a great change of pace.

  Her goal of tying me closer to the others had succeeded. Perhaps I was attracted to her. I was definitely attracted to her. What guy doesn’t want to one day marry a beautiful girl with elf features and a great sense of humor? She had insulted her way into my chest cavity. In all seriousness, it was even clearer now why I needed to continue to get stronger. Protecting the others meant a lot more now that I had actually got to know her.

  A small treasure trove of loot awaited us as we finished the last Champion.

  After a knuckle bump, two ethereal humans plundered the large corpse. Not only was it worth a good sum of money, the items were useful. Cloth gloves that added 10% elemental damage to spells. Aeris got those. A necklace of trap detection. She insisted I take it because Travis and Olivia both had trap detection skills. It stacked with my ring. A bronze small shield of toughness. Basically, it had crazy durability. Aeris got that. A bracelet that added a huge 400 mana. Aeris insisted that I take it since I soloed so much.

  The rest of the items we split. Since I got the bracelet she got an extra odd item to sell. The main item that we would split the profits on was the Boss’s sword. It scaled down to human size when dropped, but had a few unique properties. For one it changed weight and balance depending on the user to make it the perfect weapon. It was an item property I hadn’t seen before. Secondly, it added a full +100 to strength. I imagined keeping it just for the fun of whacking Skeletons apart.

  Lastly, it was capable of causing Wind Concussions which stunned anyone in range if the swing was fast enough. We had been at a far enough distance that we never had to experience them. Perhaps we had been luckier with this boss than I knew.

  With the intake of items from the boss, we had to stash some of our other drops in the empty room we had been able to rest in.

  And at that, we headed back to the base. I threw us both a Heal to relieve our exhaustion.

  In the middle of our walk back, Aeris looked to me seriously.

  “Yeah?”

  “You need to share that ability. You have hunted, what, 48 hours in the last two days? We have only been able to go about 6 to 8 hours before we are too exhausted to go any further. If there really is something dangerous coming then it’s important we all use any advantage that we can get.”

  It was like a giant fist had knocked me atop the head, leaving some sense where it had been lacking. I replied, “I really am an idiot. You’re right. I didn’t even think about that.”

  “I know you might not join our group because you won’t level as quickly. If you could meet us a few times a day and night to cast heal on us that would be enough I think. You have to come back to sell stuff anyway. Right?”

  The lingering fear that she would insist I join them was alleviated with her words. She’d just given me an out. “That wouldn’t be a problem. We just need to come up with a schedule.”

  So we did. We didn’t bother keeping our voices down and just killed anything that got in range as we spoke on our return.

  ***

  “150,000 coins is my best offer!” insisted the Dark Elf who had just outbid the Dwarf by a whole 10,000 coins.

  Our merchant friends weren’t happy at first when we woke them up that night, but their rudeness quickly changed. I made sure we spread the wealth around when selling to make it worth their time.

  “Make it 140,000 and throw in the Cloak of Concealment and we have a deal.”

  He eyed the cloak with 50% noise concealment that he knew I had been looking at for a while and smiled broadly. “Deal!”

  The cloak was worth over 20k so it was an extra 10k on top of the price for us. Of course, the merchant had a certain amount of mark up on the item so he likely didn’t lose much. Also, did I mention we were rich!

  Aeris hopped up and down clapping her hands in quick succession.

  He handed over the coin in large currency. 140 gold coins the size of my palm were counted out. 75 went to Aeris, since I had taken part of my share through the item, and then the rest to me. These were not your normal gold coins. They were called Gold Marks and were worth 10,000 copper coins each.

  After selling everything else, I had just over 90,000 coins and this was all before the loot we had stashed in the labyrinth.

  “Shopping spree!” my partner declared.

  The first thing I bought was the scepter that gave 50% additional power to any light spell cast from the dwarf. That cost 26k. After that, I realized I could start looking at higher tier items than I thought would be possible for a while. The two main items I had been eyeing, the scepter and cloak, were now mine. With the remaining 66k coins, what should I focus on? Defense? I just got a high offensive weapon. Perhaps something designed specifically for Blue Magic?

  It was no surprise to the merchants when I asked aloud for them all to answer, “Anyone have any Blue Magic specific items?”

  There was no answer at first, but scanning each face, I knew they were considering my question.

  The first voice was that of the Halfling. “Would you be interested in a magic book?”

  Would I be interested? Come on, little bro, what gamer doesn’t drool at the mention of magic books? Not that I let my drool escape from my mouth.

  “I’ll look over what you have.” I smiled politely, keeping my excitement under wraps.

  He laid out about twenty different books he had on various subjects and there was only one duplicate. Now only half of them were magic books, but some of them were on other subjects altogether. Some of the names included: Creatures of the Underworld, How to Make a Trap for Dummies, and I Love You to Undeath. These I scanned quickly, but nothing really stuck out.

  As for the magic books, two of them seemed to jump out at me. Healing Magic 101: Is Light Magic Really an Element? and The Blue Magician: Magic Theory and Where to Find Common Spells were basically no-brainers. The rest of the books were on using the different elements and there were three on dark magic. Anything about learning a new element though went for...

  “How much are they?

  “50k for an Elemental Compass. 15000 each for the books on theory, except the dark magic books are 20k each.”

  “Oh…” The books teaching you how to learn a new element were called Elemental Compasses?

  When he saw my reluctance he shrugged. “Sorry. Supply and demand,” he said, meaning the dark magic books.

  It wasn’t the dark magic books costing more than all the others that caught me off guard. It’s just that that was a lot of meals.

  “I’ll take these two.” I pointed toward the healing and blue magic books. Before I spent more I would see if they were even worth the coin.

  “Very well.”

  After that transaction of 30k, I had my
share of shopping. I’d save my leftover 34k for a rainy day. Not that I was likely to ever see rain again.

  Aeris, on the other hand, quickly came over and grabbed the book on Wind Magic and kept going. Soon she was decked out in very good scale armor with a mix of physical and magical resistance. She grabbed a wand designed specifically for Wind Magic that was just as powerful as the scepter I bought. Not to mention, now she had a pair of earrings, about eight different rings, and two bracelets. These gave additional Constitution and Dexterity stats. She told me since they didn’t match exactly the bracelets were both supposed to go on the same wrist.

  I didn’t get it but didn’t say anything.

  When she was finished, we went back out to hunt some more, not forgetting to grab the items we had stashed. After two more trips back to the base to sell items from our hidden stash and additional hunting, somehow I felt human again. Loneliness was not something that I could just ignore anymore.

  Chapter 15 – Magic Books

  Over the next two days, we mastered scheduling our meeting times so that I could cast Intermediate Heal on all the members of the party to keep them from exhaustion. It seemed a single cast would do them for an additional 3-4 hours of hunting before they started to struggle.

  By Saturday, the fifth day after we had been kidnapped, I had reached level 235, only a level away from having 1000 Wisdom! Booyah! Leveling after level 100 had become much more difficult. After level 200 the amount of experience I need to advance had doubled again. I had also reached the last room and almost outgrown the Mistress’s leveling tunnels as we started to call them.

  I had gained some really good additional info from the other captives about the creatures I would have to hunt down to try Force Learn on. You can never have too many spells!

  With my help, healing my old group’s exhaustion, their leveling rate went up drastically. All of them were at least level 125, with the exception of Aeris who had reached 154. What can I say? Her company kept me sane.

  I had started eating with them twice a day. More than once I was tempted to ask if I could join them, even if it was only for a few hours, but none of them pushed me. Aeris had taken me at my word that I would stick to solo.

  Even spending the little time I did with them helped to keep my motivation high. It was mutually beneficial in that way. Also, Aeris kept my supply of ranch dressing stocked. They all seemed very thankful that I was willing to help, except for maybe Olivia.

  “So, bonehead. Will you finally tell us your secret hunting spot?” Olivia asked, giving me a hard time while lifting a spoonful of oatmeal to her mouth. She knew I wouldn’t answer because there was no secret spot. It was just her way of letting me know she was thinking of me.

  Olivia had lovingly stopped hating me and I had leveled up to the dislike category. Hence the loving pet name thanks to my skeletal armor. Perhaps I shouldn’t have it cast at all times…

  “Sorry, Farmer.” I returned the favor. Her talent was nature magic, so it fit. “There’s too much shade for anything to grow there. I’d invite you otherwise.”

  “With a green thumb, you can make things grow anywhere. Trust me!” she threatened; suddenly a flower grew out of my sunny side up eggs. Eh… It’s in the yoke.

  “That’s very artistic,” I mocked and praised her at the same time. It actually did look pretty interesting.

  Plucking the flower from my breakfast, I just continued to eat. Bacon and eggs! Did I mention there were biscuits and a side of bacon?!

  “Why are you begging to hunt with the guy that’s all sticks and bones when you have these at your disposal?” Russ grinned as he flexed his now massive arms. He was genuinely impressive. That’s what 100 Strength and 350 Constitution looked like, ladies and gentlemen. Constitution had a lot more to do with your size than you might think. Also with his talent in Constitution, it translated as much to his toughness as it did his endurance. Just imagine a thickly muscled dwarf warrior… that was six foot tall and beardless.

  The man had certainly grown into his position as the main tank of the group. Instead of the mostly tall chubby guy, he was now a block of muscle, thicker than anyone I had ever met thanks to his Con, with just a little chub left in his face and around the waist. With his blocky face and large build, he looked perfect for the part.

  Because he had once been your typical overweight gamer, he was a little socially odd, especially around Olivia. He crushed on her pretty hard. Everyone knew it, whether they would admit it or not, but instead of being annoying it was hilarious. Not in the laughing at you kind of way, but the situation was comfortably awkward.

  Olivia liked the attention, even if she wasn’t exactly nice to him either. She was at least gentler with him than she was with me.

  “Because I’m not having a ‘cheesy’ burger for my breakfast, Mountain Man,” she barked.

  I didn’t see how she could get away with calling Russ cheesy while giving him a name like Mountain Man. Oh well. I slipped quietly out of this conversation thanks to Russ’s good timing.

  “Where are you hunting currently?” Aeris asked, bringing me right back into the conversation I was so close to escaping.

  “Skeleton Sentinels. As you know, after Champions the different kinds of skeletons start to mix in groups, but after that, about five rooms deeper, there is a large room with the ceiling so high you can’t see it. At the far end of the room is the bone palace I mentioned with its locked door. That’s where you find them. They are about level 230.”

  “Yeah. Just Sentinels. They are nothing to me. I just fight them because if I win they give free foot massages,” Olivia jabbed.

  Quickly I added, “When you have boney feet as I do, can you blame me?”

  Everyone laughed, including Olivia.

  After a few more minutes I had cleared my plate. It was time to get to work. I stood to go.

  “Don’t forget to give me some of your sunshine before you leave,” Travis jested, adding to the awkwardness.

  When I finished healing everyone with Intermediate Heal, I wished them luck and headed from the dining hall after depositing my dish in one of the busing bins on the side of the room.

  As I left, I healed everyone else that happened to be there, which was about 5 or 6 other players. Only one of them looked at me oddly. I didn’t have to explain anything to him though because his friends did that for me. They had started showing up any time I met with my group.

  The word was getting around so more people were starting to get the idea when I would be at the base. There was even a large group that just happened to be there the same time I was around at midnight, so they could manage to hunt late into the night.

  Traveling to where I was currently hunting took me almost an hour if I didn’t rush. Normally I would power level my spells on my way to and from that area. I continued that practice today.

  The books I bought had proved their worth to help keep me sane during my long hours alone. More than that, I would have given the 90k for just one of them if I knew they would be this helpful. The knowledge inside was like throwing fried chicken at a starving teenager. Lifesaving and tasted awesome too!

  The theory behind how the magic worked was the key that unlocked a new world of possibility to me.

  Though the new information on Blue Magic wasn’t as life-changing as Light Magic was, nonetheless I was enlightened. The prerequisite to manipulate the mana of a spell was 100 Intelligence, which I had. This book guided me in doing things like changing the shape of Alpha Bolt. It allowed for me to compress the bolt, while using less mana, into a small, bullet-like projectile.

  A bullet was my idea. The book described an arrow, which seemed like a lot of excess energy for the shaft. Because of its smaller size, a bullet also flew at enemies faster than a normal Alpha Bolt and actually did slightly higher damage if my aim was good. It could be difficult to hit unarmored skeletons though the practice was good to improve my accuracy. Also because the mana used was only about a quarter that of a normal Alp
ha Bolt I could fire a bunch of them much quicker, greatly upping my efficiency.

  Each time I manipulated mana and used it a few times, it would develop a new spell which I was able to name, making it easier to utilize. Alpha Bullet was one such spell.

  Flamethrower easily became Fireball, but still had to be fired out my mouth.

  As I headed through the lower rank skeletons and zombies, I roasted me some undead baddies just for the fun of it. I had yet to figure out what I enjoyed the most, the area of effect of Flamethrower or the explosiveness of Fireball.

  I could also do things like cast Skeletal Warrior’s Shield and direct the hard bone to form over a normal shield, just as Skeletal Armor formed over my leather armor. The same went for my scepter, except it insisted on giving my scepter a sharp pointy Mohawk. I was fully covered in bone except for my head. This would help save the durability of my items and add to their effectiveness.

  With some trial and error, I was also able to charge my defensive spells just as I did Alpha Bolt and Heal. This would more accurately be called channeling. This added to my mana per minute cost, but in emergencies, it could be useful. I now had Skeletal Plate Mail ready for emergencies, which was a charged Skeletal Armor. For some reason, Fluid Body and Fluid Mentality were not able to be charged. They both maxed out at 33% physical and magic reduction and didn’t have stages like my Heal spell did after you reached level 100. Their mana per minute cost had become almost nothing.

  Also, there were over two hundred spells mentioned in the blue magic book and the location of the creatures that gave them. It even included a map. Some of them were worthless or just plain odd, like a spell to make your tongue super sticky and flexible so that you could catch things like a frog. Others were on my wish list of things to track down.

  I wasn’t sure I could pursue anything in the book now because, at the end of the Mistress’s labyrinth, the same place I was going now to fight Skeleton Sentinels, the dungeon just seemed to end. A large palace with two large locked double doors made of pearl white bone stood blocking the way. These bones weren’t from anything I had ever seen because the ones used were taller than I was and as thick as my leg. There was no getting through them.