Trevon’s ice did little better than my Ice Shard, but he could slow it down by covering its joints in ice. It was something I would have to try.
Our bashers found mixed success.
The sledge brothers, with Skyler at their lead, discovered their sledgehammers had the effect of stunning the stone mobs. A well-placed blow would damage the Elemental enough that it had to stop everything to liquify and repair itself.
As I had suspected, when I offered Skyler the one-handed hammer I had found, he shook his head at the offer.
The rest of our bashers who wielded blade weapons did very little damage.
I let the bulk of them settle into a rhythm killing the solo Earth Elemental in the first room. Even Lydia was here and leeching with Richard. They were half the Elemental’s level, but with Skyler leading and the mages limiting the mob’s movements, they overwhelmed it every time it spawned. With the level differential, they were racking up experience.
There was something ominous about our situation that nagged at me in the back of my mind. We had it so easy now. Soon, very soon, I feared every battle we had would be a struggle to stay alive.
“Are you coming?” Aeris asked, knocking on my shoulder with her knuckles as if to see if I was home. With her visor up, for a moment all I saw was a teenage girl dressed up in plate mail. Of course, that was far from the truth. Just two weeks in the Underworld and she had become… more.
Her look turned into a squint when I didn’t respond and she nudged me to encourage me to share.
I smiled back, then replied, “Are you ready for the most intense leveling session you have had in your entire life?”
“You know you are going to be taking bacon breaks,” she teased.
I choked as a chuckle escaped.
“I’ll limit them for you. Let’s get you to 1,000 Wisdom!” I said.
“My hero!” she replied with an exaggerated wink.
I walked with her to join my old group, who were gathered separate from the others, waiting for us.
The excitement on their faces was obvious.
“What’s the plan, Skeletor? Are we going to take on two at a time?” Olivia asked.
“No,” I said, shaking my head. I couldn’t help but to smirk. “We are going to take on all of them. Travis, after we clear each room, be sure to close the door before we move on to the next one. Everyone, call out if you are low on mana. No bashing. Sorry, Russ. Follow my lead. We will only rest when we have to. Let’s go.”
Chapter 10 – Flight
As I opened the door to the second room with two Earth Elementals waiting for us, I had my inventory ready. My Earth Golem rolled out with an ungraceful thud.
Rising from the ground, the Golem ran at the two Elementals, stealing their attention.
“What is that!” I heard four voices say as one.
When my Golem led them off to the side, pulling their aggro, then started to head back our way, I ignored the question and raised my scepter. Flame Thrower spewed out and engulfed the two mobs.
I moved aside to let the Golem exit and the rest of my group jumped back as he did.
Wail of the Banshee screamed as I cut off Flame Thrower. In less than five seconds the two Elementals were dead.
Turning to see the shocked looks of my friends, I looked directly at Olivia and Aeris in turn, offering them each a wink, before hurrying toward the next room.
“Remember the loot and to close the door!” I called. “Come, Golem. We have work to do.”
Without hesitation, I opened the door to room three and put the same strategy to work. Once they were finished, I didn’t stop. With the others hurrying to keep up, I called out, “I think it’s time for Dragon’s Fire. Aeris, you ready?”
“Ready!” she sang.
“Dragon’s Fire?” Russ asked.
We shared a grin.
Opening the door to the fourth side room, I commanded my Golem to remain at the rear of our group. I released my flame into the room at an angle to give Aeris a clear doorway to work with. She handled the rest.
Like a pillar of tornadic wind, Aeris’s Gust spell gushed into the room, picking up my flames and supplying them all the oxygen they could ever want. They burst into life.
If it weren’t for Mana Sight, I wouldn’t have even been able to see the four Elementals at all. Even then, I was only able to make out one of them that was off to the side because of the angle I was at. The wall itself had mana as did the fire, and wind magic was streaming into the room. It was too much obstruction to see through. The mob’s brown aura was overshadowed by the red mana of fire, but it was still clear enough that I could see its outline.
After five seconds had passed I started to get worried. I feared one of the Elementals would get off a Rock Fist before they were finished.
The outline of the Elemental started to get harder and harder to see until it had faded from view.
“Stop!” I called, cutting off my fire spell.
As soon as Aeris halted her own spell I stepped between her and the entrance to the room with my shield ready.
As the seconds ticked by and the magic in the air started to settle, I still couldn’t see any sign of the Earth Elementals, so I started to hope.
“I leveled!” Travis cried.
Even after the magic in the air had faded back, the entire room was still aglow with the Red Mana. Drawing back the amount of mana channeling into Mana Sight, I looked into the room and saw what was left of the mobs with my own eyes.
They stood about half the size they had originally but were nothing more than melted piles of stone.
“Okay, now that’s hot. Rock doesn’t melt like that until about 1,100 to 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit,” Russ said with a whistle. “Wait. Close the door!”
Travis did as he said, but not without having to jump back from the remaining heat.
I think everyone had an idea what Russ was thinking.
“Aeris,” I said. “How many more times can you cast that spell until you need to rest for mana?”
“Two more,” she replied eagerly.
“Okay. Russ, we are going to need your expertise here. Let’s create some Elemental-filled furnaces.”
“Dude!” he responded.
“What about the drops?” Travis asked.
“We can mine them out later,” Russ answered.
“Okay. Well, I might need an oven mitt to close the door…” Travis added, scratching his head. “My gloves do nothing against this heat.”
“I got the doors,” Olivia insisted. “Why send a human when a plant can do it?”
***
We moved onto the room with five Elementals. I had Aeris take extra precaution by hiding behind her shield. In the same way as before, I released my flames into the room at an angle and Aeris’s wind caught it and roared into life.
The cyclone of Fire and Wind Magic took little time to fill the room. We pushed it for a good ten seconds before we checked. All five Elementals were giant mushrooms of melted rock.
There was a four-minute timer on the respawn of room four and a three minute one on room three. We moved back to room three and roasted us some more Elementals.
“We have about a minute before room four respawns,” I said to everyone. “Aeris, do you need to rest?”
“Give me about two minutes and I’ll be ready for one more.”
As we waited, everyone examined their character sheets to get a look at their new stats. Now that I was a slightly higher level than the Elementals and grouped with the others, it would take about forty Elementals for me to level up once. If we could literally turn rooms three, four and five into furnaces it wouldn’t matter. We might have found the ultimate way to farm experience from these mobs. Once I reached about level 330, the experience I was getting would plummet and it would be time for me to move on.
We approached room four with Aeris ready to go. I had everyone stand back for a moment as I took a look inside with Invisibility cloaking me. Even though it had been f
our minutes I snagged one with Creature Indicator and watched as HP rolled off of them at a rate of about 50 HP a second. It was all thanks to the remaining heat. It should take a little less than four minutes for them to die without our help.
Stepping back, I cast Flame Thrower and Aeris followed up with Gust. I stopped her after about five seconds, half the time it had taken us before.
“Close the door!” I commanded.
Olivia’s vine rose up from the ground and pushed the door shut.
“That should do it,” Russ agreed.
“Watch your experience bars,” I replied.
Everyone did so without another word.
As the seconds passed I began to think we had closed the door too early. No crashing sound came from the other side of the door, so I wondered if the heat also worked like a debuff, slowing them down as they melted.
The first Elemental fell. Like dominos, my experience bar rose incrementally as each mob died soon after.
“Ha!” Russ bellowed. “Let me check the room.”
I watched with Mana Sight as crystalline mana gathered at his eyes in the same way Mana Sight did for me. It seemed all examination skills worked in a similar manner.
“You probably don’t need to use as much mana next time,” Russ said, giving me a thumbs up. “Travis!” he called. “Let’s work out while these beautiful people handle the mobs.”
“Hey! That’s not fair,” Olivia complained with a pout.
“Sure it is,” he replied with a wide grin. “You guys have magic. We don’t. When you need us we’ll be ready. Until then, we might as well gain a few extra stats.”
“Makes sense to me,” I said.
We experimented by only casting three seconds of Dragon’s Fire into room five. It worked, but it was about fifteen seconds before they died.
I leveled up.
Russ checked again, and we continued our experiment on the next room. About four seconds ended up being just about right, not just to kill the Elementals, but to keep the room at the right temperature so that it stayed hot for the next spawn.
I was on a pace to level about once every twenty minutes, but everyone else got about four or five levels in the same amount of time. It may not have been as fast as I could have leveled if I had gone off on my own to grind Greater Elementals, but a promise was a promise and this wasn’t bad at all. Besides, if the coming battles were really going to start getting harder, then having a group that could realistically have my back would be priceless.
The other larger group split into two while staying grouped as they took on room one and two at the same time. Their rate of leveling wasn’t nearly as fast as ours, but the solo Elemental spawned after a minute in room one and the two Elementals took two minutes to respawn in room two. It gave them plenty to keep them busy and to keep leveling at a steady pace.
As we started to master managing the ovens that were rooms three, four and five, the respawn times gave us enough downtime to keep the cycle going indefinitely. One hour turned into two, then three finally came.
Aeris neared level 211. I could see the nervous energy build in her with every level she got. By the time the three hours had passed, she was just one level away. 1,000 Wisdom was within her grasp.
Whether she realized it or not, instead of walking heel to toe, she never left the ball of her foot. She sprang along as we approached the next room.
“This is it!” she squealed, unable to hold herself back as we readied for room four. “How about we turn up the heat?”
The spring in her step turned into a full-on skip.
“Okay, but don’t blow me away,” I reminded her.
“I’ll try not to,” she said, doing an about face and sharing a mischievous grin. With a jump she twisted, landing in a side stance as her visor slammed down. She held her shield high and her hand back, curled up in a claw. She looked like a battlemage from an over the top anime who was getting ready to do battle.
“You go, girl!” Olivia called as she commanded her vine to open the door.
My flame leaped into action.
As Aeris cast her spell, her arm shot forward.
The surplus of mana I saw her exude through Mana Sight caused me to take a step back.
Somehow, she was able to funnel two to three times the amount of air that she had before through that single doorway. There was so much force that I had to double the amount of mana I had funneled into Flame Thrower, otherwise she would just push my flame off to the side.
My flames only stopped when her eyes went wide. She didn’t bother to check the room to see if the Elementals were dead.
After what we had just done, neither did I.
She removed her helmet and inventoried it immediately. She skimmed over her character sheet and increased her Wisdom stat. As she checked her new popups her demeanor changed.
Moisture started to build up in the corners of her eyes. When a tear fell, her eyes dropped to the floor. She stood motionless for a long moment.
“Aeris,” I said in a low tone.
Her eyes slowly moved to find my own. She blinked, sending another tear down both sides of her cheeks.
I had experienced the same jump in power that she was experiencing now. I knew how overwhelming it could be.
Opening her mouth to say something, she couldn’t find the words. Instead of telling us what was going on in her head, she showed us.
Suddenly, the air in the hall started to churn around her feet. It rolled across the ground in all directions. We all felt the strength that was behind those waves of wind.
She started to rise. Plate mail and all, her feet left the ground. At first, it was an inch, but soon she floated there with a foot between her and the floor as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
As she hovered there she started to remove her armor.
I walked forward to help her, finding it more and more difficult to take each step. If I still had the strength of a normal human, it would have been impossible.
As I helped her from her armor, she finally spoke above the wind. “I’m not meant to wear armor, Elorion! I can fly for fourteen minutes with it on, but forever without it!”
I nodded. Whether I agreed with her assessment or not, how could I say anything now while she was enjoying the moment?
Tears were streaming out of her eyes, but the wind was too fierce for them to roll down her cheeks. They were carried off before they met her cheeks.
No one complained when we missed the timer to move on to the next room.
I inventoried her armor, knowing that it would weigh her down even if she placed it in her inventory. Later, I would have to try to persuade her to keep it, or at least trade it in for something that had better protection than a pink shirt and athletic pants.
As she lost the armor, the wind that streamed off of her calmed considerably.
“I’m not sure I ever want to come down,” she said, giggling.
“If one of you makes an airhead joke, you will have to answer to me!” Olivia warned, walking up now that the air pressure had calmed and standing at her friend’s side.
That sent Aeris into a laughing fit as she rolled back in the air and hung there floating on her back.
We gave her a few minutes to calm down. No one had to remind her we were still in the middle of hunting.
“Let’s go. Elorion, this time, let me. You can sit this one out!” she teased, sticking out her tongue.
Standing before the entrance of the fifth room alone, she wasn’t even holding her shield. With one hand behind her back, she reached forward with her ringed hand.
Air started to churn. Her heels left the ground first, but she continued to rise until her toes left the floor.
A beam of air, much more compressed than I had ever seen her cast, tore through the air.
With Mana Sight at its max, I hurried to get to an angle that would allow me to see.
The wind that entered the room started to cyclone. It grabbed the heat that was still
there and smothered the room with it. But the heat wouldn’t be the creatures’ undoing. The Elementals quickly became airborne and slammed against the ceiling. Even as they struggled, the upward air pressure held them in check.
When the wind stopped, the mobs fell to the floor, many of them in pieces. Those that were still alive liquified to repair themselves and moved to get to their feet. They didn’t make it.
Almost quicker than I could perceive, even at five times my normal speed, three quarter-sized air masses darted into the room, one after another. They pierced through the chest of each Elemental, eating away the rest of their HP entirely.
“Olivia,” Aeris said, summoning her.
The smirk Olivia had as she looked Aeris in the eye gave me pause.
“It’s time we bring the groups together. Get Audrey,” Aeris said.
“We need another fire mage?” Olivia asked.
Turning to me, Aeris gave me a pout. “Yes. It’s time we kick Elorion out of the group. Don’t you think?” she said, looking back to Olivia for approval.
There was no hesitation. A smile filled Olivia’s face.
A touch of solemnity softened Aeris’s features as she turned back to me. “Your high level is slowing us down and I know you aren’t getting nearly the experience that you could elsewhere, Elorion. These mobs are still one hundred levels higher than we are, so you better get busy or we really will catch you.”
Crossing my arms, I arched my head back and looked down my nose. “So that’s how it is, huh?”
She held up a finger, stopping me from continuing.
“How many levels until you reach 1,000 Wisdom, Olivia?” Aeris asked.
“Thirty-three,” she replied.
“See? You better get busy. If you don’t reach 1,000 Intelligence soon, you are in danger of becoming old news,” Aeris said, finishing with a wink.
“Challenge accepted,” I replied. “Just know that I am taking my bacon jerky with me.”
Rolling her eyes, she blew in my face. I felt the air pressure build until I had to step back to keep from falling.
“What, no kiss?” I badgered.
Underworld - Through the Belly of the Beast: A LitRPG Series Page 9