Underworld - Scorching Sun: A LitRPG Series

by Apollos Thorne

  “Make it quick,” Shamash said aloud before a yellow-orange light flashed at my rear. I didn’t have to look to know he’d raised a barrier to protect himself.

  I saw the looks on the faces of the vampires before me. They wouldn’t give me a chance. Moving to grab a hold of me, blue mana seeped from their hands. It must have been some kind of restraining magic. They were too close for it to take more than an instant to grab a hold of me. It was like three phantom hands reached into my chest and grabbed for my Monster Core. As they did, it only sped up my transformation.

  Their restraining magic worked to revert me to my human form, but the only core inside my true form was used to refine mana, not control it.

  “Human?!” Parth cried from behind them. His men shared his astonishment and even dared to grab a hold of me. I wore a proper vampire suit jacket that shielded us all from the Light and Dark magic reaction, but as my excess mana aura changed to Light, they screamed and were forced back a step or two.

  I stood in the middle of the small shop surrounded by seven vampires. There was a barrier up to keep me from escaping, but it was me that should be thanking them. Taking on three vampires that were close to level 40,000, three more between 20,000 and 30,000, and Parth Gul who neared 15,000 would in most cases be impossible. Especially without my mana fully refined. But here they were so close, and there was nowhere for them to go.

  My change from Ascended Human to Solar Mage was as fast as thought. Even without casting Artificial Sun, the light I gave off caused them instant agony. Instead of using my hands to cast it, it bloomed into life as a part of me. The closer it was, the less delay there was in channeling.

  It had been weeks since I’d been in my Solar Mage Form, and even longer since I’d had to reach my maximum channeling rate. It was reassuring to know that if I failed here without my mana refined, Shamash was ready to save me. But I had a feeling that I’d still need him to do so in the future, so I’d prefer to skip that part.

  Light flared as if a star were being born inside of my gut. Ramping up my channeling also had a drastic effect on my Solar Form, causing the light of my body to intensify. I also cast Vampire’s Might on not one but both of the orbs in my hands. These weren’t Dark Magic ones, but Fire. Knowing that I’d have to change to my Solar Form to fight, I’d grabbed two that wouldn’t react with my Light or Dark Magic while also giving me a higher absorption rate than the Dark Orbs.

  While my Artificial Sun ballooned into a massive sphere, I disappeared in its midst. My vampire-style suit exploded into ash. My Solar body had also lost most of its physical substance. The only thing that held my Fire Orbs in place was the suction that Vampire’s Might provided.

  Before I’d lost my ability to see beneath the all-encompassing light, I’d seen the level 40,000 vampires turn their attention to me.

  Even if I couldn’t see, I could feel the magic my enemies were summoning. It was mostly Dark, but there was also Earth and Ice. Still, I didn’t move. What if the higher level vampires hit me with a spell, even a lesser one? Or what if they were melee specialists? I quickly considered moving, but one thing stopped me. Normally, in my Solar Form, my body had a Solar and a physical aspect. But the more I pushed my channeling, the less my physical body remained. It was as if I’d turned into Light itself. What could harm light?

  I ignored everything else as I fueled my channeling with everything I had. It took 2 to 3 seconds to reach channeling’s normal limit. A time that was just too fast for my opponents to mount a meaningful counterattack against a magic that hadn’t been seen in the Vampire Realm in a thousand years.

  I hit the ceiling of what my channeling generally allowed, but my Solar Form hadn’t reached its limit. The fear of losing myself—my current existence—blared like a warning siren in my head, but I’d already been here before. By both breaking past it and allowing my natural form to expire, my channeling exploded as I reached my ultimate solar state.

  My Artificial Sun pushed against the walls of the room which somehow held it in. Light Magic permeated everything and cut through the Darkness.

  I could only remain in that state for a few seconds. From the moment I’d changed from my Vampire Form until the time I cut off my Artificial Sun, only seven seconds had passed. Reverting from my ultimate solar state to Solar Mage happened almost instantly. I felt the room as much as I saw it and quickly learned who still remained. I returned to my Ascended Human Form to gain the most utility.

  A Master Light Orb appeared in either hand next to my mostly absorbed Fire Orbs. Vampire’s Might went straight to work to refill the mana I’d lost as quickly as possible. At the same time, Master Light Discs took shape over my head.

  The three vampires that had been standing the closest to me were mostly dead except for one. He was writhing in pain on the floor, so he wasn’t an immediate threat. Parth Gul was the most dead—if levels of death were a thing. There was only a husk left of him and I didn’t even see the glow of his Core through Mana Sight.

  Of course, the ones I really had to worry about were the ones that were only half dead. Though only two remained on their feet, the three level 40,000 vampires were still alive.

  As soon as my first Disc was complete, it shot out like a bullet. The first target was the closest vampire’s ankle. Seeing as his eyesight had yet to recover, he didn’t even notice as it ground deep into his limb, but unlike my fight with Manu Shah, it didn’t directly remove his limb from his body.

  My second Disc rushed for the second vampire’s throat. He seemed to be more aware and had mana funneled to his palms to be ready to cast, but he was still blind to my attack.

  I chided myself. I should’ve started with going for the throat. It became a grisly scene.

  The final level 40,000 vampire that was on the floor seemed to surprisingly be in the best shape of the three. As my Disc flew for his neck, he was rapidly blinking. He saw something, for he threw up his hands and a thick layer of Dark Magic appeared to block it. The shield was surprisingly dense, for it slowed the Disc before it dug into his arm.

  It was then that my first Disc that was lodged in the closest vampire’s ankle exploded. Unlike the Minor Discs I’d summoned during my fight with Manu that I used to blow off his outer Dark Magic shell, these were Master Discs. I was ten feet away, but the explosion threw me clear across the room to crash into the outer wall. Thankfully, Shamash’s barrier was up, or I would have flown out of the building in my human form.

  Enough of this. I began to change into Primordial Cat. I hadn’t recovered much mana, but for its most basic form, I didn’t need it.

  At that moment, the second Master Light Disc went off like a miniature atom bomb. I hoped Shamash’s barrier muted noise as well.

  I scrambled across the room as a giant cat and found that the job was already finished. Even the vampire that had been lying near the center of the room had been finished in the last explosion. The third Disc had been blown away to the other side of the room. I absorbed it with Vampire’s Might.

  It was over, but instead of feeling relief, my apprehension only grew. Who knew if Parth had more people waiting nearby? And there was no chance that he hadn’t told his family what he was doing. They probably had people watching the building right now.

  “Did the sound escape?” I said through mind-speak while reverting to my Vampire Form.

  “No,” Shamash replied. “We are safe for the moment. Drain them now and inventory their skeletons. You can loot them later. We are heading straight to the Hallow Exchange to trade your VT for a body of Trueblood, then leaving town.”

  “We’re going to bother with the Trueblood? Won’t the Guls be watching?”

  “It doesn’t matter. If they attack us in Hallow outside of this shop then there will be witnesses. There’s no way the Tirs won’t implicate them and the Guls will fall far easier than the Shahs would. We must hurry and make it to a highly populated area though. Summon your wings. Once you’re finished here, we are leaving at full speed.”
>
  I did exactly as he said and Drained the vampires of their blood and flesh before depositing their skeletons that carried their loot. Their cores I gathered and put in separately. There was an obvious weight added to my shoulders, but it wasn’t enough to hinder me with my current stats.

  I checked quickly after their power had filled me.

  +119 Str

  +96 Dex

  +755 Int

  +766 Wis

  There was an obvious dip in the physical stats that I received when Draining vampires in the past, but it looked like there were still a number of mental stats for the taking.

  “Now, recover your mana quickly,” Shamash insisted.

  Changing back to my human form, I filled both of my palms with Master Light Orbs and cast Vampire’s Might. It would take a minute for me to fully recover. As I did, I looked to see how much I had leveled. Each of the vampires I’d just killed surpassed my record. Three of them were almost twice the level of the Captain at the Vampire Gate, or four times my own level. The difference showed.

  Even though I’d lost 903 levels when gifting Shapeshifting to Parth, I’d gained close to 5,000 and reached 13,828 by killing him and his crew of mid-level vampires. It had gone so well I even momentarily considered finding small shops like this one to have Shamash barricade for me to kill everyone inside. I immediately rejected the idea, but in trying to trap me, they had instead created for me the perfect kill-box. I couldn’t have created a better one myself.

  I flooded my Wisdom stat with more than 23,000 stat points to reach 65,724 with my current 8x In The Buff. In The Buff I’d leave in place because it affected my common aura, but I quickly calculated a few changes I could make if I was forced to fight again.

  With my MP reaching its max including the excess from Vampire’s Might’s Mana Buff, I was ready. Switching back into my Vampire Form, my Crimson Incubus wings took shape.

  With a sharp look, Shamash said, “Follow me.”

  He didn’t bother to open the door, but instead burst right through it. I followed him closely as he took a sharp right out of the building and darted down the side street. We’d only gone a dozen feet before he shot into the sky and rocketed across the roofs of the nearby buildings.

  I felt movement from multiple directions as soon as we exited, but no one had expected our sudden retreat toward the heart of the city.

  I wasn’t sure if he was right about them not being willing to attack, but one thing was sure: we had their attention.

  Chapter 32 – The Hallow Exchange

  We made it to the main street that headed straight to the Amphitheater without incident. As always, there was a steady stream of people both walking and flying. We skirted low while keeping to the air at breakneck speed. It was considered rude, but we were finally finished with vampire civility. The Hallow Exchange, the city’s premiere shop that only traded in VT, was located right next to the coliseum. It was overly large with a forest of gladiatorial statues lining a long sidewalk that led to the entrance. It was over ten stories tall, with columns surrounding it on all sides reaching all the way up to the massive stone roof. We dropped down close to the entrance and walked past the eight-foot orc guards that stood to either side.

  There was a large showroom on the first floor that was accessible for anyone to browse. In many ways it was there to show off the power of the Hallow Amphitheater, but also to inflame the lusts of young gladiators. I forced myself to ignore what was on display and the awe-inspiring décor. A woman vampire in a silky black dress approached.

  “Young Master Zerin of the family of Tir,” the woman announced as she curtsied. “It will be my pleasure to serve you this evening. My name is Zuri.”

  She knew who I was on the spot. This was good, for she’d know exactly how many VT I had earned without me having to tell her. It wasn’t all good though. The moment I left the store the news would spread that I’d purchased Trueblood.

  I gave her a smile. “Zuri. Is there a private place where we can discuss the purchases I’d like to make?”

  She gave me an understanding nod. “Follow me.”

  We headed deeper into the store before heading to what looked like a stairwell, but instead it was a shaft used to fly to different floors.

  Without hesitation, Zuri took to the air without wings or her Bat Form. While following her, I used Creature Observation to see how it was possible for her to pull that off. Her level didn’t seem high and I wasn’t wrong. She was level 23,000. I then focused on her aura through the mana realm and saw something unexpected. She was a Wind Mage.

  Stopping on the fourth floor, she walked us past a few nondescript rooms before opening a door to an empty one and waving us in. There was little more than a rectangular table with chairs on either side, but the table was pale red with swirly grains, almost like it was some kind of strange wood, and the chairs were cushioned and reclined at a comfortable angle.

  “Please sit,” she said, before sitting with her back facing the wall. With a palm out, she sent a gentle stream of mana into a small oval stone on the table and the walls suddenly hummed with energy. “It is now safe to speak freely. I’m assuming you wish to spend your VT before tomorrow’s ceremony, correct?”

  “Yes,” I replied. “Is that possible?”

  “Absolutely.” A mana tablet appeared in her hand and she scanned it quickly. “You have 10,515 VT available. Do you already know what you plan on purchasing?”

  “I do, but first there’s something you must know for your own safety.” I immediately felt the pressure from Shamash’s gaze as if he were in his lich form, but I continued anyway. “Just moments ago, we were completing a business deal that we believed to be friendly enough but were attacked. In defending ourselves, we killed our attackers. There are now high level people from a family of some influence in Hallow chasing us. We believe that they followed us here.”

  She held up a hand and said, “I’ll stop you there. They won’t attack you while you are within these walls. That I can guarantee, for an attack on the Hallow Exchange is the same as an attack on Hallow itself. However, if you are only here to seek refuge, then I must ask you to leave… Unless you pay the appropriate price for temporary protection.”

  “That’s good to hear. Then about the items I’m interested in—first, a body of Trueblood.”

  She shifted in her seat. Leaning forward, she gave me a closer look. “To persuade any high level vampires to escort you safely to the Tir residence will cost at least 1,000 VT. If you purchase the Trueblood now, then you won’t have enough…”

  I shook my head. “That shouldn’t be necessary.”

  “Then…” Her eyes fell to the tabletop as she realized why I had told her. “Thank you for your concern for my safety. You didn’t have to reveal your troubles… You might have other options. To remain here under our roof while a message is sent to the Tirs is much cheaper. You can wait here for them to come and retrieve you. Or maybe—”

  “Zuri, thank you, but we won’t be returning to the Tirs. I’ve already caused them enough trouble. Instead, is there a way for us to secretly leave town after purchasing the Trueblood?”

  Her eyes widened as she listened to my reply. “I suppose you could use the Transport Array. It’s normally used for long distance transportation, which starts at thousands of VT, but if it’s only to leave town, you can probably just afford it. I’ll have to ask for you.”

  A Transport Array? Immediately, I remembered the Head Mistress suddenly appearing through some kind of magic rift at the end of my fight with Mistress Nava.

  “That should work,” Shamash said through mind-speak. “They’ll be expecting us to flee to the Tirs. If there is a Transport Array pulse, even if they investigate it, they’ll have no way to directly search for us if we appear just outside of Hallow.”

  “Please check for us then,” I said after the lich’s confirmation.

  “Just a moment.” Her eyes lost focus as she reached out to someone with mind-speak. Over a minute
went by before she blinked. Her mouth turned up subtly. “A price of 400 VT has been approved for transport to just outside of the city’s limits. I’ve also requested to have the body of Trueblood brought here. Are there any other requests?”

  I looked to Shamash and he quickly indicated there were none.

  “It looks like that will be all,” I said, turning back to her. “I would like to send a message to Jale Tir, only to be delivered after we’ve left. And I’d like to request that House Tir is given the Leviathan Corpse I won in the preliminaries.”

  “No problem.” With the flick of her wrist, a mana tablet appeared in her hand which she slid over to me. “After you’ve finished constructing the message, it will be delivered as requested—at no additional cost. As for House Tir, I’ll see to it that your prize is delivered to them after tomorrow’s ceremony.”

  ***

  The cylinder of Trueblood arrived before I’d finished writing my message for Jale in the Mana Tablet. I’d read many of these tablets before but writing in one was new to me. It was extremely easy compared to learning to write on paper or with a keyboard. It was like filtering mana through your thoughts. With every word that had enough emphasis from mana, the Mana Tablet would record it.

  I had no idea what format vampires used to compose letters, but since it was meant to be a personal one, I decided to skip the lecture I was sure Shamash was ready to provide and just started it addressed to Jale.

  I didn’t make it overly emotive, but it was hard to ignore what I was feeling as I told her I was leaving. I explained to her what happened with Parth Gul, in detail. Then I got to the main point… I was hyper critical of what I was writing, so I did a number of revisions before admitting to myself that it would never be perfect. It either sounded too romantic in nature or lacked any heart at all. I just tried to be honest.

  I finished the letter without knowing if I’d be able to accomplish what was written. I wrote it anyways.

  Your virtue and kindness were unexpected, and unbeknownst to you, you’ve guided me from the path of death and slaughter. For that I’m forever grateful. I must leave, for now, but one day I hope to return with the power to show you the same kindness you’ve shown me.