There had to be a way though. How had the Lich happened to get in and meet with the imp?
Another thing the book gave me was a general idea of how large the underworld really was if I ever got outside the Leveling Tunnels. It went on for literally thousands of miles in all directions.
What was obviously missing was any path to the world above.
The book on light magic was even more eye-opening. Light magic wasn’t really considered an element. That was why I had no skill tree to speak of like the elemental mages as I leveled up. Most everything you could do with light magic required that you manipulate the one spell Heal. With 100 Intelligence you had access to nearly every light spell you could imagine just because you could manipulate it. Who knew how long it would have taken me to figure this out without a magic book…
First, there were the damage and healing spells.
Normally when you Heal someone or yourself a type of mist envelops the person and they are healed as a whole. It is also possible to manipulate this energy into something like a condensed stream to heal individual body parts or damage them in the case of the undead.
Another use is to turn it into a bolt just like Alpha Bolt. I was also able to turn this into a Health Bullet which flew at high velocities as well but was actually too dangerous to be used to heal someone. The speed of the energy’s impact would actually harm a living creature. I knew because I shot myself in the hand.
Just imagine a man in layered bone armor pointing his hand in the shape of a gun at a well-armed skeleton. Dropping the hammer by lowering his thumb, a small golden bullet soars at the monster's skull, piercing one side and exiting the other. Why fire it out of my finger like a pretend gun? I could just as easily fire it out of my palm, but why would I? I got bullets, bro!
When I reached the Skeleton Warriors I switched from fire to Alpha and Healing Bullets. Though in some cases they were harder to hit, firing bullets at anything can be a blast. These little rounds could even pierce their shields if the angle was right. I wouldn’t say they were as powerful as real bullets though just because the pressure I could build up with magic just isn’t as powerful as a gunpowder explosion. The velocity isn’t nearly as high.
Health Bullet was only the beginning though. I now had a Health Bomb that was an area of effect spell, basically harming or healing. Depending on if you were living or not, everything in about a 10 foot radius was affected. It was an expensive 500 MP though. Lesser Health Bomb was 200 MP. Not that bad with my buffs, but still high considering the amount of damage it does. I’d have to level this one a lot to make it worth it.
As I reached the Skeleton Archers, there were about four standing close together.
I fired a Lesser Heal Bomb off, hitting the one in the middle.
The skeleton that was hit became airborne shrapnel. Another skeleton was killed instantly from the extra bone flying in the air. The other two skeletons were just blown back. A few bullets took care of them.
Next were buffs and debuffs.
All this time I had been sitting on insane power that I didn’t know I had. The buffs worked in a way that I had never seen in a game. For starters, a light magic buff worked by casting Heal on a specific bodily system and directing mana to that spot without stopping the flow. The constant flow of mana to an area didn’t just heal but enhanced it. There were only four systems.
The mind. When healing magic was focused on the mind, it would give an increase in Intelligence and Wisdom: Lesser Mind Buff and (Intermediate) Mind Buff.
When it was focused on the muscular system I was given an increase in Strength and Dexterity: Lesser Muscle Buff and Muscle Buff. I was able to confirm that I could further isolate my channeling to my legs or arms if needed, but buffing the entire body was actually more cost effective.
When it was focused on the skeletal system I was given a boost in Con: Lesser Skeletal Buff and Skeletal Buff.
Finally, you could focus it on your internal organs. This could both cure and give resistance to poison or mental effects like Pain. Lesser Organ Defense and Organ Defense.
Only a crazy person would cast Pain on themselves. You dare call a man fully decked out in skeletal armor crazy? I’m talking to myself.
Now, I only cast Lesser Pain instead of Intermediate, so my insanity was to a lesser degree.
With the buff, Lesser Organ Defense activated, Lesser Pain didn’t even take hold. I was literally immune to it. That was when I went completely crazy and cast Intermediate Pain. With Lesser Organ Defense I wasn’t immune, but the 10-second stun turned into a 5-second muscle flexing exercise that hurt a lot. It was not debilitating though. I would have been able to struggle through it and fight if I had to. With Intermediate Organ Defense Intermediate Pain lessened the effects of the stun greatly to where I could fully function, even if it was annoying for 2 to 3 seconds.
So how did these buffs work out practically? They were all mana per minute spells. Not to mention they were also fairly expensive when added up. Buffing each system with Lesser Heal cost 100 mana per minute for each system and a total of 400 base MPM. This gave each attribute a +25 buff.
Intermediate buffs were on a whole other level. they cost 300 mana per minute for each system or cost 1200 base MPM total for all four systems active at once. The effects couldn’t be ignored though. Instead of +25 to all stats, I received +75 to all stats.
You were talking to a caster that could take on a brown bear with one hand while holding a frappuccino in the other; a mocha frappuccino with whip topping. I didn’t give in to the desire to bash some skulls often because there would be fewer opponents to level my spells on. Then I would have to wait for them to respawn.
With all my buffs combined, I decided to give it the nickname of In the Buff!
These light magic buffs became debuffs if I cast them on an undead monster. To initially cast it I had to be close. Since most of the enemies I faced were skeletons or non-humanoids I had to focus on what to direct the buff upon.
Skeletal Defense became a debuff called Brittle when cast on the undead, making fighting Skeletal Sentries easy. It was like debuffing their Constitution by 75 attribute points.
Over the next two days, the mana per second cost of In the Buff became manageable. Since I only had the Mana Per Minute to level up a few of my buffs at a time, it took longer than it would have if I had enough Mana Per Minute to keep them all active. But now, it had all been worth it. I was prepared for war.
Out of my Mana per Minute buffs, currently I had Fluid Body and Mind that each cost 12 Mana Per Minute each, Skeleton Warrior Shield and Sword enveloping my shield and scepter costing only 5 Mana Per Minute each, Invisibility costing 20 Mana Per Minute at its maximum level, Skeletal Armor costing 60 Mana Per Minute with its level maxed out, Intermediate Mind Buff costing only 36 Mana Per Minute maxed out, Intermediate Organ buff still costing 62 Mana Per Minute at level 46, Intermediate Bone Buff costing 102 at level 29, and finally Intermediate Muscle Buff costing 110 at level 21. For a grand total of 424 Mana Per Minute to keep my buffs running. With my current 598 Mana Per Minute without buffs, I was easily able to sustain this now with mana left over.
Thanks to constant buffs my Heal spell had begun leveling much faster even at the Intermediate level. Heal was at level 98, almost to the Advanced rank.
It was going to be a good day. Today I should reach Advanced Heal and 1000 Wisdom. It was almost time for a huge jump in power. The last 5 days hadn’t been easy, but the 100 plus hours of hunting were starting to bear real fruit.
***
Moving on to the next room, I was closing in on the last room of the Mistress's Labyrinth, about two rooms from the Skeletal Sentinels.
The Skeletons in this area were in mixed groups of bashers and archers. Just because I was in the mood, I was sniping them one at a time with Health Bullet from afar. It was a quick way to whittle them down without much effort.
I noticed something was off. Spending so much time in this place had made me at one with
it. A large number of groans and the shuffle of feet in the distance made me consider a possible elite monster, but there was nothing I had faced that sounded so large..
In total stealth mode, I headed toward the noise, avoiding the skeletons nearby. With my concealment cloak and boots, 80% of the sound my footfalls were making went unheard. Just a quick stroll through the labyrinth. Nothing to see here.
When I reached the entrance to the next room, I approached it from an angle to see as much as I could in the low light with my light orb off. It wasn’t necessary. There was so much light coming from the next room that the doorway nearly glowed.
Even from an angle, I saw what was making such a large racket. There was an army of zombies.
When I say army, I mean they were lined up in formation with helmets and wielding weapons. With Creature Observation, I saw that even the Zombie Foot Soldiers were level 320. That was close to 100 levels more than the highest mob I had faced before.
Suddenly, I was unsure I trusted Invisibility enough to remain standing there. Before I left, I used Creature Observation one more time to view the Creature Sheet of a Lesser Zombie Sergeant that was level 511. My Healing Bomb would be little more than a fart to them.
I fled.
In the room directly attached to theirs I kept my pace so that I wouldn’t lose invisibility, but after making it to the next room I ran. The danger that I had been afraid of was finally here. From the looks of it, after all my progress, I had failed in my mission to get strong enough to protect anyone. Survival was the next mission. Perhaps it would be enough.
With my buffed stats and the ability to heal myself, I didn’t stop. In less than twenty minutes I made it the approximate five miles to the base.
My immediate action was to warn everyone, so, now with my Invisibility off, I shouted, “We are being attacked!”
Chapter 16 - Flee
The members of my old group as well as a few unfamiliar faces raced into the hall from the dining area. Thankfully they hadn’t left. Six other people joined us.
Aeris spoke first. “What’s happening?!”
“There is an army of Zombie Foot Soldiers,” I said, catching my breath and Healing myself to help with the recovery. “Their levels start in the 300s! We have to run! Gather everyone you can!”
I pushed past them and yelled at the imps in the dining hall. “Get the Mistress! We are being attacked!”
The imp who knew me had already left the counter and nodded as he accessed the magic entrance to her living quarters.
“Are we missing anyone else in the base?”
“Nope! Everyone else is out hunting,” called Travis, who was heading out of the barracks.
I saw Lydia had joined us near the back of the group with Chris. That was a relief.
“We are heading for the first slime tunnel. Stay close to those you are used to fighting with. Aeris, throw me a group invite.”
It was quick coming and I accepted. Everyone was soon grouped into a 15 man raid group. More like a flee group. Just like that and we were gone. If only fast food was this fast back home. Maybe all you had to do was make the fast food workers scared for their lives.
“Alright. Follow me!”
A few voices threw out objections, but I didn’t bother answering them. There wasn't time to debate.
By the end of the first room, there were already complaints that our pace was too fast. We didn’t have time for it.
Thinking quickly, I turned and started spamming a Constitution Buff on all 15 people. I choose stamina over Dexterity because even if we were going faster, I didn't want to have to stop. It ate up the rest of my available Mana per Minute regeneration points, but it would be worth it if we made it out of here without having to face the army.
My higher level buffs made me overwhelmingly more powerful than average at this level. It wasn’t fair to force them to follow at my pace, but I didn’t have time for being nice. That could wait until later.
As everyone filed out into the next room through the narrow entrances I threw another Lesser Health Bomb for good measure.
My group stayed at my heels, and even Russ was keeping up with ease. If I thought about it that shouldn’t have surprised me. His talent was in Constitution. Even without the buff, he could likely run longer than everyone there except for me with my buffs.
Zombies were easy enough to force our way through without much effort. Lesser Skeletons were just as easy. Aeris and Olivia took care of them for us all.
It was the first time since our first day that I got to see Olivia’s magic. She was now on an entirely different level. Good. We would probably need her.
Her favorite spell seemed to be one where a single large vine with sharp thorns shot out of the ground or ceiling and grabbed and constricted the enemy. The vine pierced through the zombies, but crushed the skeletons.
A green energy shot from her wand and landed where the vine sprouted from. One after another, she seemed to cast them in threes.
“We are getting close,” Travis said, taking the lead of our small mob of frightened players. His pace quickened even more and he raced into the next room ahead of us.
I moved to quicken my own pace when Aeris spoke up. “Let him go.”
Nodding, I forgot one of his talents had been tracking. Okay, perhaps two people wouldn’t have a problem running with me. It seems that his talent was more in-depth than it sounded.
Travis finally came flying back faster than I suspected was humanly possible as we reached Skeleton Warriors. His face was bleached white.
I let everyone slow to wait for him and cast Invisibility on myself as a precaution.
As I had feared, I noticed someone following him. He was cloaked in some kind of dark fog or shadow. It seems his movement had allowed him to be revealed enough that I had noticed him since I had been looking for someone.
Creature Observation told me it was a Dark Elf Scout, level 310. When he saw our group the dark fog started to fade into an invisible state. I cast my spell before I lost sight of him.
Travis ran past our group, still going at his insane pace.
Everyone else seemed confused when he raced by. This seemed to put the Dark Elf at ease since I saw no more movement. That is until his muscles started to flex violently as my Pain spell overtook him.
Pretty sure he hadn’t been able to move from that spot, I started to cast Health Bullet. I didn’t know if it would harm or heal a dark elf, so I immediately cast Alpha Bullet afterward. It was impossible to tell so I started casting Alpha Bullet non-stop.
Everyone else got the idea when they saw my little silvery projectiles running into a cloudy bulge of matter and disappearing out of nowhere. The noise of the impact was probably even more obvious. Besides a Wind Slash and a giant vine grabbing the dark elf, a long bolt of electricity surged by followed by a glowing shadow bolt type thing I suspected was dark magic. We pummeled the dark elf and he was dead before the 10-second stun gave out. His now visible body lay in an unnatural heap.
Basically, everyone in our mob got a chorus of Level Ups including me.
That means it was time for 1000 Wisdom! It was not something I could wait for. It could literally save our lives. I had received 3 levels from the experience bonus for being the first time killing a new species. No doubt the others had extreme jumps in level. Especially since the mob’s level was so much higher than theirs.
At level 237, I now had 1003 Wisdom and saved the rest of my stats. I was considering getting every attribute to 100 for the bonuses I knew would come with it. That I would save for later. My bonus window populated.
Intermediate Mana Flow Understood
Mana rejuvenation is now calculated by 2 points of mana per minute per point of wisdom.
Total mana multiplied by 5. 1000 base mana is now 5000
All spells cost 40% less mana to cast.
All spells are 40% more powerful when cast.
My base mana regeneration had just gone from 598 to 2000 MPM. That wa
s over 3 times more. And my base mana went up 5 times more than before. Slime muffins and goblin dumplings! Eh… On second thought, even ranch dressing couldn’t cure that grossness, but my excitement still stood! Wisdom had been a wise choice.
Novice Spell Mastery
All spells at the Novice level now cost 5 MP/MPM or less regardless of level.
Not that novice spells were expensive in the first place, but my efficiency had just gone up to an insane level.
No time to bask in my new awesomeness, or to get the drops.
To my surprise, I heard Olivia. “I got them!” A spell she had cast entangled the body and dragged it over to us.
I nodded to her as she smiled slyly and looted the corpse.
Travis had soon returned to my side. Quick little bugger.
He must have had some kind of stamina skill because he wasn’t even breathing hard. “They are marching this way. We won’t make it to the slimes area.”
Panic gripped at my gut like an iron fist.
“The tunnels!” came a voice from somewhere behind.
“Where?” Aeris asked.
A silver cloaked girl with short curly hair stepped forward. “Only about three rooms back. No one knows where it goes though. There were no monsters in there for like a mile, so we stopped exploring.”
“Good!” I responded. “We’ll follow you!”
With such a huge jump in my Mana Per Minute, I cast Lesser Skeletal and Muscular Buff on everyone in our group and we really started to run.
As we backtracked, I started to quickly reconsider my buffs with all my newfound mana and regen. Quickly, I charged up my Skeletal Armor to Skeletal Plate Mail, as I had named it. The bone just thickened to grant me more protection. It was now costing me 300 MPM, but I had a lot more to spare. With my attribute buffs, the added weight wasn’t even noticeable.
Underworld - Level Up or Die: A LitRPG Series Page 14
