Underworld
Through the Belly of the Beast
Book 2
By Apollos Thorne
Copyright © 2017 by Apollos Thorne
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 – BACON FOR DESERT
CHAPTER 2 – MAGIC FOOD
CHAPTER 3 – THIEVERY
CHAPTER 4 – GREETINGS
CHAPTER 5 – DECISIONS
CHAPTER 6 – THE BONE PALACE
CHAPTER 7 – EARTH ELEMENTALS
CHAPTER 8 – LEVELING
CHAPTER 9 – THE OVEN
CHAPTER 10 – FLIGHT
CHAPTER 11 – BASH
CHAPTER 12 – MIND SYNERGY
CHAPTER 13 – HELLFIRE
CHAPTER 14 – INTO THE UNKNOWN
CHAPTER 15 – RATS
CHAPTER 16 – THE BELLY
CHAPTER 17 – INDIGESTION
CHAPTER 18 – MAGIC FROM ABOVE
CHAPTER 19 – WELCOME
CHAPTER 20 – CLEARING THE WAY
CHAPTER 21 – CORNERED
CHAPTER 22 – BLOCKING THE WAY
CHAPTER 23 – HORSE’S HEAD
CHAPTER 24 - SANCTUARY
CHAPTER 25 – INCOMING
CHAPTER 26 – WOULD YOU LIKE TO DANCE?
CHAPTER 27 - AFTERMATH
CHAPTER 28 - PREPARATION
CHAPTER 29 – CURIOSITY
Chapter 1 – Bacon for Desert
I cast Lesser Blood Drain on every lowbie zombie we came across as I walked with Aeris. The dull-grey stone of the Head Mistress’s Labyrinth under the dim glow of randomly placed Light Orbs didn’t have the dreary effect you might think. This was one of the lightest areas in her entire dungeon, and with the addition of added light from our personal Light Orbs, it was rather relaxing. As relaxing as it could be surrounded by the ever-respawning undead.
Lesser Blood Drain was powerful enough that I didn't have to bother killing these mobs with an attack spell. It dealt close to two hundred damage itself. The stronger the enemy I cast it on, the less damage they would take. Outside of the newbie area, it would do little more than fizzle out until after I had killed stronger enemies.
I sent out my Skeleton Warrior, who picked up all the loot and stored it in a large pack I had bought for him that was strapped to his boney back. It might seem like a waste of a level 170 Skeleton’s abilities, but the convenience was worth it. He was great for collecting the little odds and ends Lydia would need for her alchemy. The less I had to touch rotting flesh the better.
Where’s Olivia and her Nature Magic when you need it? Her vines could easily gather loot and bring it to her and were much quicker than waiting on my minion to go from corpse to corpse.
One of the primary reasons I could consider these rooms filled with rotting animated bodies comfortable was certainly not just due to the lighting. Aeris had found a way to help with the smell as well, but it had nothing to do with her Wind Magic. She cast Mage’s Deodorant on them. It masked the scent—not exactly neutralizing it, but it made a big difference. She did use Gust to filter air out of the room, but the deodorant allowed us to pass by the nasty mobs without choking up.
I only had to use Lesser Blood Drain on a creature once every seven days to keep my drain bonuses, but it had become such a habit I probably did it a couple hundred times each day. It was a sub-spell of Vampire’s Might, which seemed to have more to it than just draining blood, but that was all I had access to at this level. There was no experience bar for the spell, but I was pretty sure the more I used it the faster it would level. These zombies were too low to give me any additional stats. I hoped leveling up to Intermediate Blood Drain would give me a big boost in the stats I could earn.
“I never thought I would say it, but I really want to be able to drain zombie blood too,” Aeris said with a pout.
She wore her polished plate mail that shone in the subtle light of the Mistress's Dungeon. Her black cloak billowed about in gentle waves as we continued our stroll through this room. I wasn't sure if the cloak's movement came from her forward motion, or, as I suspected, an invisible aura of air that surrounded her. As her Wind Magic grew more powerful I wasn't sure what to expect. Neither was she.
My eyes met hers as I snickered. She deposited her helm in her inventory and looked to me, pleading that I do something about it. Her large eyes that had once been deep blue had changed with her increase in power to a cloudy color, but it hid none of her mischief.
I simply shrugged.
She sliced the head off one of the last zombies with her Wind Slash with little effort before we entered the next section of Skeletons.
We didn't slow as we killed every Skeleton that got in our path. We didn't have to. She was able to sling her Wind Slash spell so quickly now that the Skeletons fell in two at the spine with little more than a look from her.
After the vampire Lord Darius had attacked the Head Mistress and lost his life, our fears of the mid-level skeletons had mostly vanished. It had only been two weeks since we had been kidnaped by the Mistress, and yet we were starting to realize how powerful we had become, and ultimately, how powerful we weren’t.
Once a day, all my fellow captives had agreed to start meeting at the Skeleton Sentinels for a few hours of group tactics training. Yesterday had been our first day. Only two days had passed since Skyler had been returned to us from the Mistress’s clutches, but with my ability to heal exhaustion, we had all tried to make the most of our time.
Except for my solo hunting, most of my time had been spent with Aeris. It wasn't just because we enjoyed each other’s company, although I wasn't exactly hiding that fact any longer. We were on another errand for Russ who was determined to collect as much rare ore as possible before the new forge was finished in about twelve days.
Travis had taken to mapping out the Mistress's Labyrinth. A Labyrinth was a type of Dungeon with a giant maze of tunnels and hidden rooms for those curious and strong enough to find them. There were even different ranks of Dungeons, but it seemed that advanced information on a Dungeon was only available to those with the right examination skill. Thankfully, Travis had the skill, but it wasn't as simple as examining an item. A dungeon had to be explored to a certain extent before its rank was made known. It didn't seem like a very useful skill if we had to find out the hard way what kind of danger there was before Travis’s skill told us anything useful.
His real usefulness was found in other areas. If it wasn't for him, we would have never found the Rock Lizards. They were ugly little buggers that looked a lot like gators with the heads of hairless beavers. No surprise that they mostly munched on rocks and your occasional skeleton that lost its way. Not only did they drop rare ore and the occasional gemstone, but they also had a knack for finding the best caverns with a good supply of the best ore. They were Russ’s favorite.
They didn't respawn like the Mistress's undead minions did, so once we cleared them out they were gone. It also meant that they didn't follow spawn patterns, so we found them scattered all over the place. Our fellow humans with mining skills had taken a break from clearing the area that was to become our new home so that they could pick clean a cavern we had cleared of Rock Lizards just yesterday. It was a n
ew spotting of Rock Lizards that Aeris and I were heading to now.
“Bacon jerky?” I asked, removing my gauntlet and retrieving a half-eaten bag from my inventory. We both had our shields and weapons put away as we traveled back and forth through these low-level areas. I was also helmless and wearing my green rune-covered plate mail.
“We just ate breakfast. You're still hungry?” Aeris asked, amused.
“This is dessert.”
“Bacon for dessert? Really?”
“Now that I can afford it? Yes!”
She rolled her eyes, but her grin remained.
“Okay. Just one piece though,” she replied.
Handing a generous strip over to her, I watched as she tore off a large chunk.
“It almost makes you feel sorry for the rock-beavers, doesn't it?” I asked, using the nickname I had given the lizards. “Can you imagine going all of your life and never trying bacon?”
“Do you think they even have taste buds?” she asked, tilting her head up in question.
“How else can they tell the difference between rocks?”
“Texture. They probably just like the way certain things...”
“Crunch?” I replied, finishing her sentence.
“Yup!”
“I don't know. I like my bacon every way. Both crunchy and slurpy.”
“Ewww,” she said scrunching up her nose. “You’ve got to at least cook it.”
“I'm not saying that you should eat it raw, but there is nothing wrong with it coming with a nice dose of bacon juice.”
“That's disgusting. It needs to be a little crispy.”
“It’s startling that you share so much in common with the rock-beavers,” I said with a sigh. “Are you sure you aren't part beaver?”
She stopped and huffed out an abnormally large amount of air for a single breath. Suddenly, I found myself stumbling forward from the gust of wind that struck me from behind.
With a chuckle, Aeris retorted, “Are you sure you aren't a rock-beaver? You share so much in common with them when you’re crawling around on all fours.”
When I caught myself, I looked up with all the fabricated offense I could muster and glared at her.
We shared a laugh.
Humor was something we both fled to as a coping mechanism for this totally messed up situation we found ourselves in. But I could feel that there was a difference from how things had been before Lord Darius had come. Life felt more precious when it could be stripped from you at any time.
***
“Are you ready?” I asked, taking a step out from behind the boulder standing between us and forty Rock Lizards.
The spell form of Creature Observation gave me a type of magic vision. It was called Mana Sight and required a steady stream of mana. Activating it to get a clearer view in these darkened caves, the world lit up and I was able to see the mana that flowed through all matter. Living things had a much brighter density of mana than inanimate objects which made it easy to pinpoint them.
This cavern that Travis had found was a naturally formed cave that had been uncovered when the Mistress's dungeon had first been excavated. It was connected to a side tunnel in the Skeleton Archers’ area of the Labyrinth. We had walked about two miles through side tunnels just to reach the entrance. From there it had taken us a few minutes to get to a place where the cave opened up. That was where we found the Rock Lizards.
“I thought you would never ask,” Aeris whispered.
I hesitated for a moment as I considered whether I should cast from my mouth or just use my hand. Casting from my hand gave me the ability to keep my eyes on what was around us, but it lacked style points.
Having already made that mistake once, I chose to go with what was the most practical and raised my hand in the air above my head.
“Now!” I called, slipping out of Invisibility I released a jet of flames into the air.
Aeris's Gale met my stream of fire. The additional oxygen fed the flames, and like pulling the trigger on a giant cannon, it surged forward, exploding into the room and devouring everything in its path. My Flamethrower merged with Gale and turned into something we had agreed to call Dragon's Fire.
Rock Lizards’ scaly hides were just as solid as they sounded. Instead of burning to death, they melted like butter in the microwave.
It wasn't just a burst from a magic inferno that did them in, but what had been a cool cavern trapped the heat and turned it into a raging furnace. Every Rock Lizard caught in the area found no escape.
“Bacon jerky?” I asked as I lowered my hand.
“Are you trying to get me fat?” she teased. “Sure.”
The experience was barely measurable at this point. I had gained one level yesterday. One. After ten hours of clearing the Skeleton Sentinels, not to mention all the other mobs I had killed or drained traveling back and forth, I had basically out-leveled the Mistress's dungeon. It shouldn't have bothered me, but danger was always looming. Not to mention the others were starting to catch up.
My level wasn't the only avenue I could progress in though. Vampire’s Might and the ability to leech stats was a big advantage, but the low-level mobs of the Labyrinth weren’t powerful enough to give me much of anything. There was also finding new creatures to use Force Learn on. Leeching some new Blue Magic was near the top of the list. But that alone wasn’t enough.
Mel, our necromancer, was building a small army that was able to fight for him as he slept. Because he could focus his attention on other things, he technically had the greatest ability to level up out of all of us, even if it would be a few days before his Skeletons leveled enough to get the most out of his ability. And that was only one example. Olivia, our Nature Mage, could fill an entire room with Skeleton-devouring plants and clear them repeatedly as they spawned.
In other words, if I didn't do something soon I would get left behind.
I set about the work of cooling the cavern down. This task proved more difficult than killing a bunch of Rock Lizards. Instead of casting Ice Shard, I manipulated the spell to make a large ice cube of sorts and just summoned about ten of them and placed them around the room near the walls.
Aeris helped by creating a wind vortex that swirled around in the center of the room. It was nowhere near as powerful as a twister, but I suspected she was almost at the level of power needed to create a small one if she went all out.
Stepping back into the passageway to get away from the loud howling of the wind, I leaned against the wall to think.
Aeris had climbed faster in levels than anyone else besides me. At first, it was because of my help, but as she came into her magic, she discovered she had a natural speed to her casting that I doubted anyone could match. It must have been a Wind Magic thing. At level 181 she would be the next to reach level 200, and soon after that, she would reach 1,000 Wisdom. I knew how much of a power boost it would give her. I could also rest easier once she reached it, knowing she would be able to better take care of herself and the others.
“What's wrong? You look like you've seen a giant melted otter,” she said with a snort.
I found her standing there looking at me with a hand on her hip. Instead of her flirtatious grin, she had one brow raised in concern.
“I'm still thinking about opening up the Bone Palace and giving the first floor a go. I know it’s selfish. I should wait for everyone to catch up to my level, but I also feel like I'm wasting time. I'm just not sure what to do next,” I replied.
“You could always go with Travis and help him map out the labyrinth to steal all the Blue Magic you can while you're waiting.”
“That's true. I could also try enchanting, mining, even botany.”
“Definitely botany. Although Olivia might take that as flirting.” She chuckled, walking over and leaning against the rough cavern wall next to me.
“We can't have that,” I replied.
“Poor Russ?”
“Poor Russ.”
We shared a laugh.
“I don't know what the right answer is, Elorion,” she said, leaning against my shoulder. “I'd say try to help power level the others, but honestly they are killing fast enough in their groups that you would just be an experience drain.”
I shrugged.
“Your desire isn't completely selfish,” she said, turning to look me in the eye.
I met her gaze.
“Without your going off and power leveling as you did when we first got here we would have died more than once. Give it a day, and if you find nothing else to do, then I say go for it. You're going to bring me, right?”
Immediately, I wanted to reject her request. The danger was unknown. Who knew what strengths and levels the mobs behind those boney doors possessed. A part of me wanted to go off and explore. To just do my own thing.
Shaking my head at myself, I finally replied, “Sure.”
“Took you long enough to respond. I was getting worried,” she countered.
“I was just thinking I should charge you to come with me.”
She offered me a fake chuckle and didn't even bother to roll her eyes, before saying, “Whatever. I know you only see me as an incredibly attractive girl and a living air conditioner.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head.
“No? To which part?”
“Oh look,” I said, walking past her. “Things seem to have cooled down. Let’s get our loot.”
My Skeleton that had been standing guard at our rear came trotting up to help with the haul.
I didn't have to look back to see her expression. The gust of air that pushed me forward told me all I needed to know.
I smirked.
Chapter 2 – Magic Food
The pounding from Russ’s hammer greeted us as we entered the vast hall that had once been the newbie skeleton area. It had been cleared out in minutes by either the Mistress or her Lich. I still couldn’t rightly judge how much mana that would have taken or what kind of spell could do such a thing in so little time. I looked up to see the same eerie light that also filled the rest of the Mistress’s dungeon throughout its main corridors. The height of the ceiling varied. It only reached about two stories high near the entrance to our old base that still contained the merchant shops, mess hall, barracks, and armory, but near the center of the room it reached at least five stories in the air. Since we had started construction, there always seemed to be numerous Light Orbs setting the room aglow, which reminded me of a stone age shopping mall.
Underworld - Through the Belly of the Beast: A LitRPG Series Page 1