Underworld - Level Up or Die: A LitRPG Series

by Apollos Thorne

  “What are you doing?” Aeris demanded. She already knew how I would answer.

  I hid behind a foolhardy smile and replied, “I’m going to go watch.”

  Before she could object, I activated Advanced Muscular Buff and charged Skeleton General’s Armor up to Skeleton General’s Full Plate Mail. I didn’t quite reach Russ’s size, but with the armor, I looked far more intimidating.

  The only parts of me that hinted that I was actually human were my mouth and eyes that showed from behind the skeletal mask.

  “It’s okay, Aeris. I have to be there to see if I need to warn everyone if she loses.” Hesitating, I added, “I need to see what we are really dealing with.”

  She gave in. “Fine. Go. You owe me though.”

  I did hate to leave her like that, but it was time to see how far I had really come and how powerful these centuries’ old monsters really were. No more illusions.

  Entering the room where the duel raged on, I was able to stand against the worst concussions from this distance. I dared to approach off to the side by the roughly carved out wall until I was a little over 100 meters from the action. I remained invisible, though I was pretty sure at least the Head Mistress had some form of spell that could detect me. My vantage point gave me the opportunity to really watch the battle.

  Under the Mistress’s feet was a river of flame that licked as high as her chest. It was no doubt a spell cast by the vampire to do her harm, though it seemed to have little effect.

  If I had to guess, I’d say the vampire was winning. He stood upon a pillar of ice a story up and was completely encased in see-through ice. There were fifteen feet of ice protecting him on all sides from every angle. Inside he had space to move. His hands wove spell after spell. His favorites seemed to be dark magic bolts and fire.

  The Head Mistress fended them off with an energy shield of some kind and didn’t seem to be able to do much else. It did not look good for her, or for us.

  A massive funnel of wind came down from above the succubus. The twister was stopped a few feet from her head by the Mistress's invisible dome.

  “Do not interfere,” warned a sudden voice to my left.

  Even though I was invisible the voice was directed right at me. I nearly jumped out of my skeletal armor.

  “Yes. His Majesty would not forgive any interruptions either,” came a voice from my right.

  Looking frantically to either side I saw the vampire's lich to my left and the Mistress’s lich to my right. They both looked nearly identical, hunched over with dark cloaks completely covering their faces. Even though they were both hovering about a foot off the ground, they were still only as tall as I was.

  “You are the old man?” I declared to the Mistress’s lich. His size and posture were the same.

  “Yes,” he replied.

  Then I remembered the danger I was in. Before the vampire stood up, these two seemed to be doing all the fighting themselves. Why exactly was I still alive? “Is there a reason you two aren’t fighting each other?”

  “Our contracts only state we fight on our partner’s behalf.”

  “Contract?”

  “The young one has many questions,” the vampire’s lich observed.

  “Young ones do,” replied the other.

  So odd. They were just fighting each other minutes ago and now they were speaking like two old men meeting over breakfast. Or was this their dinner entertainment?

  “May I ask a question?” I dared.

  “Yes, you must.”

  “Must,” echoed the other.

  Well, if that was the case. “Do you have any Blue Magic you can teach me?”

  ***

  Sitting in the middle of the most dangerous moment of my life and I dare to ask for free stuff?! You better believe it!

  “You are watching two masters. Observe all you can. Learn all you can,” the Mistress’s lich answered.

  “Yes. The battle before you will serve you the best. Steal every secret that you can. There is no moment more vulnerable to any creature than the moment they die. Cast Force Learn then. You will then learn the most.”

  Blah! If there was only an imp around to hit in the face. My fist probably wouldn't even break now with my buffs. Of course, I should be casting Force Learn on everything in sight! Even if it doesn’t give me any more Blue Magic, perhaps with enough time it will unlock more.

  I guess I should give myself a break for being surrounded by two liches that were probably powerful enough to kill me with their pinky toes. Not to mention that a literal magic wielding vampire was a football field away and encased in an ice cold glacier he wore as armor. Oh, and the thousand-year-old succubus that was wading in a pool of fire as if it was a hot tub.

  Because it seemed I had learned everything I could from the vampire, I cast Force Learn again on the Head Mistress.

  “Human, you are doing it all wrong. Put some mana into it.”

  “Like charging a spell?”

  “Yes.”

  I couldn't say I was surprised that it could be charged. The fact that there were certain times that my targets were more vulnerable was an even bigger discovery.

  “What other situations are the best times to cast Creature Observation?”

  The Mistress's lich sighed. “When a creature is injured. The worse the injury the higher the likelihood of you learning a spell. Their weakness decreases their natural defense for mind effecting spells. When a creature is sleeping. When a creature is starving. And finally, when you are watching someone cast the spell you are trying to learn. It's best to funnel mana into the spell version of Creature Observation for this more traditional method. This way you can observe it over a period of time.”

  You can funnel mana into Force Learn? How? Wait...

  I let mana gather around my eyes as normal when casting the spell. This time when I released it I didn't let the flow of mana stop. So simple it was silly. I became slap happy, upping the MP usage to 100 MP a minute, then studied the fight before me more closely.

  Time seemed to slow as the scene before me became clearer. It felt like I was standing in the middle of the contest immune to any damage and standing as judge of how well the competitors were doing.

  Hundreds of pop-up windows appeared before me from casting it on the Head Mistress for the first time. As I feared, most of them just warned me that the criteria to gain the spell from her weren't met, which I was able to close in bulk. There were still a few that I was able to glean from her, though.

  Cleanliness

  Use mana to clean your body. Its ability to clean and disinfect grows with level. At the highest level, this can even be used to cleanse bacterial diseases.

  It was the same spell the Mistress had used on me to clean me up when I had warned her about the lich. For some reason, I felt embarrassed learning this one. Why had I learned it now anyway? Had she just cast it on the vampire? I hadn't noticed if she had. Was she planning on insulting him to death?

  Ice Shard (Novice)

  A large ice shard is propelled at your enemy. The number of shards and your ability to manipulate them grows as it levels. One additional shard for each 10 levels while in novice rank.

  Well, at least Shard was obvious. It was one of the few spells she cast periodically, although why she was attacking ice with ice I couldn't say.

  Only two spells in close to 300 windows? In comparison, the vampire only had seven windows to click through. I didn't learn anything from him this time around. Maybe he just didn't know blue magic, but these were his natural skills that fit the criteria for blue magic. Could he really even compete with her? Something felt off. Was he really winning?

  As fire and dark magic continued to bombard the Head Mistress to wear her down I decided it was worth asking.

  “Who is winning?”

  “The Head Mistress has won,” the Head Mistress's lich replied.

  Quickly after, the vampire’s lich replied, “Very true. It’s just a matter of time now.”

&nbs
p; “But it looks just like the opposite.”

  A single bony finger pointed up. My eyes followed it to see thousands of what I suspected to be the very Ice Shards of the spell I had just stolen from her. The shards were gathered behind the vampire, so he probably didn't even notice them.

  Doing a double take, I just realized the lich on the losing side was still standing here. Why wasn’t he fleeing for his life if he believed the Mistress was going to win?

  Instead of fleeing I readied Force Learn to cast the moment one of them died just as the liches had said.

  “Wait for it. The threat is imminent but the damage has not yet been done,” the vampire’s lich warned me.

  “And use more mana,” the Mistress’s lich added.

  I already had 500 mana prepared. Not enough? How about 2,000. I let the spell slowly gain in mana; the energy around my eyes was overwhelming.

  “More.”

  Fine. If 2,000 wasn't enough, how about 5,000.

  “Good,” was all the Mistress’s lich said.

  It felt as if my eyeballs were commissioned with trying to hold back the sun. It wasn't exactly painful, but that amount of power around my eyes had the very real likelihood of killing me.

  Another part of me wanted more. My body lusted over the potential of what such power was capable of. The idea of magic and the reality of it couldn't be compared. I loved it. The way it felt and how it enabled me.

  The ice shards were released. A sudden cone of sharp ice shards arrowed toward the seemingly impregnable glacier defense. If the vampire did die, I really wanted that defensive spell.

  It didn't make sense to my gamer brain. Why attack ice with ice?

  The vampire’s defense was tested.

  Before my eyes, the glacier turned into a fountain of ice chips and slush that flew in all directions. It flew so far that it ended up covering the two liches and myself. I was still able to see the vampire clearly because I was viewing him magically with a charged Force Learn.

  The spell was so powerful that each ice chip seemed to fly in slow motion. The millions of them were clear and visible. I could have stopped what I was doing and studied each one individually. But there was no way my attention could be swayed. I was crushed under the weight of the powerful magic that I was watching unfold.

  The ice shards ate through the fifteen feet of ice and pierced the vampire through the gut before the majority of the shards had even started moving.

  “Now!” both the liches screeched as the ice spears started to extinguish his life.

  You don’t have to yell! I wanted to scream back, but instead, I unleashed Force Learn on the dying vampire.

  An avalanche of energy entered my vision. It was as if my spirit was thrown from my body and pummeled the vampire with vision itself. I was no longer outside of him, looking upon a dying monster, but had pierced into his very soul, his magic itself, and saw all that he was.

  Learning new magic no longer mattered. I wanted to stay and dwell in the ancient creature. His lust for blood wasn't just a lust for refreshment, but power! The power he had already drunk from thousands of other souls was there. It touched me. Not on my skin, but it was suddenly a part of me and we were one.

  Chapter 20 – Loot!

  As if it had never happened, I was driven back into my body and knew the vampire was dead.

  The four Blue Magic spells I had not been able to learn from him before became mine!

  Bat Form

  Capable of turning into a bat form. All spells and stats remain available in this form, but the stronger you are the larger the bat. Stealth becomes harder the higher the Strength and Constitution, but Invisibility is possible.

  Cold Resist (Novice)

  The ability to resist cold damage. This skill grows as your spell levels and increases in rank.

  “The vampire was resistant to ice?!” I shouted, not really sure why.

  “Yes,” the vampire’s lich responded. “She finished him with ice magic to show her superiority and crush his spirit the moment before it took his life.”

  The other lich mused, “His only real hope was to catch her off guard and that didn't happen.”

  I found myself trembling once again as I learned more about how powerful our kidnapper really was. Just minutes ago I was thinking we had grown powerful; far beyond what our levels spoke of. But in comparison to what these monsters were capable of, we were less than newbies in comparison. No, what are newbies in comparison to a being of true power? She was beyond me, beyond us all. How was I ever going to kill her and get home?

  If I did ever get home, she could slaughter the entire world of men just out of spite before taking me by force again.

  Shaking my head to regain my senses I put my mind back to work to forget my horror.

  Vampire’s Might

  Novice Blood Drain evolves into its truest form. By draining a creature’s blood, the power gain can be applied to Heal, Mana and attribute points. Must continue to consume blood for your power to not fade over time.

  The power I had felt when I had cast Force Learn on the vampire came back to me. It was terrifying. I was determined to never use this spell if it caused me to lust so intensely for the power that came through blood. Even as the thought entered my mind, I knew I would never be able to hold myself back. Had my search for power just changed me? Was I now a vampire?

  Fear

  An aura of bloodlust terrifies all of those caught in its influence. Its effects grow with level. Does not affect those with a strong will, rage, bloodlust or high focus.

  What if I wasn't a vampire, but I was still able to gain power as they did? Without the bloodlust, this might be the very thing that makes it possible for me to not only survive but grow powerful enough to get my life back.

  The pillar of ice melted away as the Mistress strolled up to the now lifeless corpse of what was once the vampire. Even the water evaporated before her red heels touched a single drop.

  The vampire had been pierced so many times it was impossible to even tell what creature had once stood there. She held out her hand and the same dark cord that had drained the energy from her undead minions reached out and drained him of his body’s remaining power.

  Even though I didn't know the spell she cast, I felt a star's worth of radiation leave his corpse and enter her.

  I was too frightened to cast Force Learn on her.

  Both liches floated towards her as if they had been summoned.

  There I stayed, keeping my distance. Her power was now clearer than ever.

  As she turned to leave, her eyes stopped on me and she studied my still invisible self for a few seconds. I wasn’t even a cockroach to her. I was more like a hamster shrunk to the size of a cockroach that could only try and harm her with cuddles and stink pellets.

  I dropped Invisibility, even though I knew she could see through it, and bowed my head. For some reason calling out “Good fight, Head Mistress!” didn’t seem appropriate.

  She smiled wide, looking genuinely happy at the turn of events. As she headed in the direction of her home she skipped like a schoolgirl. The liches both followed in tow. Why the vampire’s lich was still alive gave me pause, but it was clear the liches were not just another monster. Not even a boss. It worried me that in some ways they might be more dangerous than even the Mistress. The fact that she kept one around proved they had their uses.

  They stopped at the entrance of our home base well out of hearing range and began a conversation I would have loved to get an ear in.

  Though I should be terrified, I didn’t let the vampire’s corpse being left there escape my attention. I had not forgotten that feeling of power I had when observing him. The situation demanded I try. Seeing the Mistress’s power terrified me. I wasn’t normally willing to drink blood, but if it was the only way...

  I approached the vampire's mangled body. I took a deep breath before bringing up my hand. I willed Vampire's Might to take effect.

  Red smoke rose up from the corpse
and gathered at one point, creating a cloud. It compressed until the cloud was one large fragile globe of blood. It took only seconds for it to gather. As soon as it did, a stream of it rushed at me from its center. It touched my palm and violated me by magically entering into my system. Power filled me.

  Whether the Mistress had left some power in the vampire's corpse, or the blood itself contained its own power, the thousands of creatures that had died to supply him power were now mine.

  The veins in my body seemed to swell, pulsing with power. My heart beat harder than I had ever experienced. It was like it was rejoicing by drumming its beat with an intensity it didn't know was possible. I knew then that I was different and I would never be the same. No longer was I human, but I wasn't a vampire either. I was a true to life Blue Mage. Through magic, I was becoming more than human. In time I would be both creature and man. A monster ruled by the humanity inside me.

  I didn’t have to become a blood drinker! Flexing the muscles in my arms and chest, I basked in the power I felt, but fear started to rise up. Even if I didn't lust for blood in the way a vampire might, I couldn't deny that receiving power through Vampire's Might was intoxicating. It might be just as dangerous. There was also an additional pop-up I received after casting it.

  You have fully drained a Master 200-Year-Old Vampire!

  Because of the purity of the source the benefits will be 100x that of a basic creature, plus bonus stats depending on the target’s personality and talents while living.

  +10,000 HP

  +10,000 MP

  +50 Str

  +20 Dex

  +50 Con

  +200 Int

  +100 Wis

  Note: These stats are permanent as long as you use Vampire’s Might at least once in the next 7 days and once a week after. If you do not find another creature to drain within the next 7 days these stats will be lost at a rate of 3.33% a day until the end of a full month when your stats will return to normal.