“I could have sworn that I just saw a large skeleton, but now it’s gone,” Steve called.
“Could it be a boss mob?!” Clarissa asked with a stutter.
“A boss mob killing other mobs?” Skyler replied.
“We didn’t get a kill this time either!” Audrey confirmed.
As they gathered around Steve below, an idea came to mind that was too good to pass up. It was time I shared one of my favorite jokes even if it would give us away. It would be well worth it.
Looking toward Aeris, she had made her way to a side room and entered safely without anyone seeing her.
With a little bat shrug, I decided it was time.
Turning toward the group of confused players, a large dose of giddiness shot up my spine and I let out a squeaky laugh. I flew right at them.
Diving down, I opened my bat mouth in a fang-filled grin and screeched, “Batman!”
They turned to me as one, ready to fight.
My large bat eyes went wide. Immediately, I retreated out of bat form and cast Skeleton General’s Defense.
Instead of meeting the brunt of their magic and steel, they jumped back.
I landed on the ground with a solid thud and started to roll.
“Elorion?!” Steve cried.
Nearly ten feet away I came to a stop.
“What in the Underworld are you doing, man?” Skyler demanded.
Collecting myself, I hopped to my feet. Turning to them, I looked through the eyes of the Skeleton General’s Skull and saw both relief and irritation.
I was no longer able to help myself. What started as a snicker soon turned into a full belly laugh. I tried to answer the question while holding myself back, but it proved difficult.
Uncasting my skeletal helmet, I ultimately told them the truth. “It’s Aeris’s fault!”
“No, it’s not!” she called as she stepped out of the room behind them.
Their eyes went wide as they turned to see her there.
“It was your idea!” she insisted.
“That’s right! I had this genius idea, and instead of stopping me, you decided to come too. It’s totally your fault.”
Clarissa started to giggle, shortly followed by Audrey.
Aeris’s mouth hung open as she shook her head but was interrupted before she could respond.
“What idea, to steal our kills?!” Skyler accused.
“Well, kind of,” I replied, scratching my head. “Honestly, we ate some magic bacon with happy sauce and wanted to see your faces when your mobs started dying without explanation.”
“You stole our kills, man! That goes against the gamer code! It’s totally unforgivable and not cool either!”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at his response.
Audrey rolled her eyes and hugged Aeris who had stepped up next to her.
“That was pretty funny,” Steve said, coming out of invisibility.
“Batman!” George, the shortest sledge brother, yelled with a laugh. Everyone joined him. Everyone but Skyler.
Taking his helm off, Skyler wore a nasty scowl.
“I’ll make it up to you, Skyler,” I promised.
His scowl remained as his brow raised in question.
“You thought I was lying when I said that there was magic bacon and happy sauce... Would you like to try some?”
“Seriously,” Aeris encouraged. “The sauce holds properties that make you really, really… uh, happy.”
“Haaappyyyyy,” I said, drawing out the word like it had some special power.
“You guys are acting kind of strange,” Audrey said.
“I do like bacon,” Skyler said as the hints of a smile started to overtake his scowl.
“My man!” I declared.
We had all come together in a huddle as they started to discuss how much longer they were going to hunt when a dark static began to bombard us from the entrance of the room. We all turned at once.
A small woman with vibrant red hair hanging down past her waist stared back at us. The magic power that beamed off of her was clear as day even with minimal mana funneled to Mana Sight. When I increased its mana flow, she looked like a black sun with tendrils of dark magic snaking off of her.
Only after we had seen her did she draw back the power emanating from her. It was then that I saw her red silk dress that hung from a single shoulder over her enticing form. She was barefoot, which seemed to add to the illusion that she was delicate and needed extra attention.
“So, you are Lilith’s new pets. A bunch of weak idiots.”
“We are getting stronger!” Skyler spat. “Who are you?”
“Someone who is really hoping you will make a mistake, so I’ll have an excuse to devour you.”
If there was ever any question in my mind as to what she was, that had been answered. She was undoubtedly another succubus.
Chapter 4 – Greetings
Immediately, I empowered my vision with excess mana and cast the skill of Creature Observation to get as much information from her as I could.
Mistress Nava
Ancient Succubus
Level: ???
Creature Observation gave me almost nothing, except her name and a confirmation that she was more than 500 levels higher than we were.
I cranked up my Mana Sight ability to 500 Mana Per Minute, maxing it out, which gave me a clearer idea of how powerful she really was. The dark energy that ran through her was intermingled with crimson light. I believed it to be mana of the Fire Element mixing with her Dark Alignment, which meant she probably had a talent with fire. Compared to my human friends, the magic that flowed around inside of her was liquid in consistency instead of airy like smoke. That was an ominous foreboding.
Almost the same number of popups I had received when trying to steal Blue Magic from the Head Mistress appeared before me with a message I was sadly getting used to seeing.
You are unable to learn this spell at this time.
There was one exception that would have caused me to facepalm if the situation hadn’t been so dire.
Pedicure
Tired of your toenails being the bane of your very existence? Are they so hideous that a Kobold won’t even give you a second look? This little doozy of a spell is your new best friend! At low levels, it will keep your toenails shapely and polished. At mid-levels you will gain access to every shade of polish for any special occasion. At high levels, your wiggly stability appendages will become masterful works of art! Cast it often! Cast it now!
Of course, my eyes immediately fell to Mistress Nava’s feet. There was so much magic flowing that I had to pull back the amount of mana I used with Mana Sight to even see them.
As I had suspected, each nail depicted a pitch-black pit bull with massive fangs and horns between its ears from a different angle. Smoldering flames escaped from the sides of its mouth like living drool with smoke billowing from its snout. The worst part was that the Hellhound was depicted in typical cute puppy positions. On her right big toe, the creature’s head was turned to the side with some humanoid’s arm hanging from its jaws like a chew toy. The demon pup looked like it was smiling.
“Stealing Blue Magic when you first meet someone is considered rude!” Nava hissed.
The muscles in my upper back clenched like a fist. There was only one reasonable explanation for her to be able to speak to me at the same tempo I was perceiving time. She was also using Mana Sight.
With the flick of her finger, black tendrils of magic surged right at me.
I reinforced my Skeleton General’s Defense by funneling more mana into it before the tendrils struck me. They snaked around my legs, tightening like a school of pythons.
I maxed out Mana Sight to focus my mind and speed up my perceptions, hopefully before my legs were crushed.
Thankfully, my bone armor protected me from coming directly into contact with the Dark Magic, so my legs didn’t get thrashed. Since I was of the Light Alignment, if my body made any contact with Dark Magic the reacti
on would be extremely dangerous.
As her tendrils moved to turn me upside down, I focused Advanced Healing into the air in one spot mimicking Audrey’s trick with her Fire Magic. Instead of creating an overhead flame-shower, Light Magic gathered above me for an uncomfortable amount of time. The pressure built.
When I guessed it would be enough, I released my hold. Light Magic burst toward the tendrils like a massive Wind Slash of Light.
Like cool water on heated steel, our magics warred with a violent sizzle as they met in the air between us. Just a dull knife on tough meat, there was a moment of strong resistance, but the force and density of my spell won out.
As the bindings around my legs were cut off from their source, they immediately lost power and dissolved into nothing.
Panicking, I had funneled a foolish 3,000 MP into my Advanced Healing spell. I scaled back the mana to my eyes by three quarters, to only perceive time twice as fast.
Skyler and his fellow sledge wielders rushed forward and placed themselves in front of me.
As much as I appreciated the gesture, I had the urge to knock my knuckles against the backs of their helmets. Did they not know how powerful she was?
“So, you are the one with old blood. At least you have a little imagination,” Nava said, ignoring them and turning to look at me in the way her Hellhound might when curious. “Torturing you would be so difficult because it would be so easy to kill you with all that Light Magic flowing inside you.”
The thought seemed to have lightened her mood because her scowl changed to an awful smirk. She added, “I do love a challenge.”
“What do you want?!” Aeris said, now standing at my side.
“All of you… for lunch,” Nava said with an airy laugh. “I’m all for playing with my food, but what Lilith is doing here is ridiculous. The moment she gets bored of you or loses interest, just know that you are mine. It’s only a matter of time really. When you live to be a thousand years old as she has, staying motivated becomes a challenge and you develop… quirks.”
It felt like one of her tendrils was still around my gut and had wrenched tighter. Looking down, I saw that wasn’t the case. Instead, I just had a healthy case of dread.
I felt like a fool. I had already seen the Head Mistress falter in her new diet of not eating humans, so why should I be surprised that one of her fellow succubi was just waiting for the right time to devour us. We needed to get out of here. We needed to get stronger.
“Thank you for your visit, Mistress Nava,” I said with the kindest tone I could manage. “I’m sure the Head Mistress will be pleased that you have found a way to help encourage us to work harder.”
Her smug look fell from her face as she became deadly still. Her lips parted as she looked at me as if I was a large plate of magic bacon. Her lip trembled as she imagined how I would taste.
I really hated being looked on like a piece of meat.
“You will not die quickly human,” she said, glowering at me.
With that, she turned and walked away. Her figure and the movement of her hips called out to me, but I closed my eyes to combat her allure. When I opened them a moment later, she was gone.
“Can you tell the Head Mistress?” Aeris whispered the moment she was gone.
“Maybe. I’ll see if the imp in the cafeteria can get her a message,” I replied, but my mind was focused on what Nava had said. “I have seen the way the Head Mistress treats the other succubi. We are probably safe for now, but I don’t think this succubus is wrong that eventually the Head Mistress will get bored, or too busy with other things to bother with us.”
I couldn’t imagine the Head Mistress doing much to her kind in our defense. Since the moment we had entered the Underworld our predicament hadn’t changed. Our lives were in danger and there was almost nothing we could do about it. I was pretty sure I knew what had to be done, but I was secretly hoping that after Lord Darius had been defeated that we would have a time of rest before the next extreme danger presented itself. Any semblance of rest had only been an illusion.
“How come all the hot girls are the most dangerous?” George jested, breaking the silence that had started to linger.
“I should encase you in rock!” Clarissa rebuked, turning her back on him.
“Pretty or not, that woman’s an idiot. Who goes barefooted in a dungeon?” Skyler chided.
My eyes went wide, but I didn’t dare to look at him, let alone answer his question with the obvious. Rebuking him would achieve nothing. If someone looks like a dainty little girl that walks around barefoot in the Underworld, alone, there are only a few possibilities: She is a poor lost child, is under the influence of too much happy sauce, or she’s a freaking monster!
“We aren’t okay. Are we?” Audrey asked, crowding in at Aeris’s side.
I found both of them looking at me.
My eyes wandered as I stared off, considering how I should break it to her.
When I looked back, everyone else had joined us and awaited my answer.
Wetting my lips, I looked each of them in the eye before I responded. “For now, yes, we are safe, but I wouldn’t count on it staying that way. We need to level up as quickly as we can and get as far from the Mistress and her succubi as possible. As long as we are here we aren’t safe.”
At first, no one spoke.
I watched as they each tried to reconcile our predicament.
“That sucks,” Skyler blurted out, breaking the silence. “How about that bacon?”
No one answered, but when he started to walk toward the exit, everyone started to follow.
“Wait!” Clarissa said. “Didn’t the succubus just go that way?”
“Yeah, but if she wanted to kill us it would have been done already. I’m going to get stocked up. We are in for a long couple of days,” Skyler said over his shoulder. He just kept walking.
***
If the Skeleton Key to the Bone Palace wasn’t stored in the armory at our base I wouldn’t have bothered to go back and would have opened the doors to the tower immediately. Instead, I traveled back to our base with them and took the time to watch the others.
They were silent for three rooms before the whispers started. Everyone depended upon each other for support. Even the sledge brothers leaned on one another, they just didn’t discuss it like the ladies. Skyler rushed toward the first skeleton we ran across and the other two followed. They faced their fear and uncertainty with activity. I had to give Skyler credit, he understood his men well.
As casters, the rest of us spread out. We simply walked forward and blasted anything in sight. With Aeris and me walking with them, we cleared the room with little effort. It gave the girls time as we traveled to discuss the situation. They were much more honest and open than the guys about what they were feeling. I understood the guys’ approach better, but, while listening to them, I realized I was thankful that I had not been captured and brought here alone.
“I still have both of my parents and a younger brother,” Aeris said under her breath as she leaned next to me. She was not talking with the others.
It was kind of random. Why was she telling me this?
“Did you know everyone else here was raised by a single parent?” she asked.
“I didn’t…” I replied, looking to her in question.
“I don’t know why. What makes me different? Sure, I played one of the games the Mistress used to choose us, but I have a lot of people who would miss me. Not that everyone else’s mother or father wouldn’t, but…”
“Were you close?” I corrected myself. “Are you?”
“Very,” she insisted. “I was homeschooled and have always done everything with my family. I know they are devastated, but I also know that I’m needed here. Even though everyone has less family than I do it seems like they miss them more. Is that terrible?”
Her eyes drifted to the ground as we walked.
“I don’t think you miss them less. I think you need them less.”
�
�I think you think too highly of me.”
Stopping, I replied, “No, I don’t.”
She halted, meeting my eyes.
“So, you’re concerned that you love your family less because you haven’t had the same emotional outbursts the others have?” I asked.
“I guess,” she said, shrugging.
“Is it possible that because you had so much support you are just more stable than most of us? I don’t think you love them less, I think they gave you so much love that you just have no doubt in your mind that they love you even now. In fact, the reason you spend so much time trying to help the others is because you have had excess love, something most of us never had.”
Her eyes met mine and she studied me for a moment.
“I hadn’t thought of it that way.” A small grin turned up her lips, but just as soon as it came it was gone.
“Most of us?” she asked.
“What?” I replied.
“You said most of us. You seem steadier than ‘most’ and I think you are the only person left that hasn’t told me their story.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly uncomfortable. Still, this was Aeris. I had nothing to hide from her. “My mom raised me alone, but only after I had already turned thirteen. My father was a police officer who was killed in a random shooting when he stopped for gas.”
Aeris’s hand shot to her mouth. “Oh. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. It was years ago and, like you, I had a lot of support growing up. When my father was killed, I suddenly had twenty police-fathers who were there for me even if I didn’t want them to be. They made sure that I knew who my father was. He was a great shot and had the sharpest mind. But what always bothered me was that despite all of that he was beaten by a common thug who just walked up behind him without a word. That scares me, Aeris. Say we survive for another week, a year, or even ten years. Is it possible for us to become powerful enough that some random mob won’t just sneak up behind us and shoot us in the back of the head?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she hugged me.
Chapter 5 – Decisions
Pulling up my Character Sheet, I studied it as I prepared for what I was about to do. With all my buffs, passives, armor, and synergies active my stats should have impressed me.
Underworld - Through the Belly of the Beast: A LitRPG Series Page 4