Underworld - Through the Belly of the Beast: A LitRPG Series

by Apollos Thorne

  “I do.”

  “I cannot teach you anything about Light Magic, but, there is a spell I will let you learn from me. This will suit your talent for Blue Magic.”

  “Thank you,” I said, letting my excitement show.

  “Now go. And you better go quickly, because I am going to chase you.”

  Chase me?! My senses suddenly reentered my body. I stood there staring at the creature that was still in the back of its cave. It was starting to rise. I saw then what its true form was. It was a massive cat. Maybe a lion was more accurate, but its mane was different. It furrowed back and around its neck. It didn’t resemble the shape of a house cat either. Its ears twisted back and up. Its jaw resembled a pit bull’s jaw and its eyes were wide and alive with hunger. Its greatest feature though was that its body appeared to be made of molten metal.

  Ignoring the popup I received, I quickly used Creature Indicator.

  The only information it gave me was its name. Xaphan.

  Doing an about face, I jumped. As I fell to the next level, I equipped my shield and scepter. Landing, I took off at a sprint. I could flee to the catacombs that littered the plateaus, but not only could I end up stuck there with my back to the wall, I could get lost and never come out. Instead, I would get as far away as I could, then retreat to one of the many paths underneath the Belly’s surface level.

  I leaped off the fourth level and landed with a roll, propelling myself forward once again with as much speed as I could manage. If all else failed, there was another possibility, but I didn’t want to shed my armor to turn into a bat. Not yet.

  I lengthened my stride as I approached my last jump when I felt Xaphan’s energy come.

  Jumping, I let gravity take me.

  Faster than was possible for me to fall, Xaphan snagged me from the air.

  I let Skeleton General’s Defense overtake my armor, turning me into a titan of bone plate mail. Even if I were sure there was no chance of defeating this creature, I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

  He swung me with his massive maw, lobbing me to the ground with incredible force.

  I cratered into the stone floor.

  My eyes opened, spinning, but my mind was still mine. 25,874 HP was gone instantaneously, and I had reverted in part to my maximum base HP. I only had 26,246 remaining. A third of my armor was missing. That could only mean one thing.

  I was helmetless. Knowing there was no time to spare, I spat out the blood that was accumulating in my mouth as I showered myself with Advanced Heal and pushed myself up. Coming to my feet I saw that I had left a jumble of shattered bone in the wreckage mixed with crushed rock. Skeletal General’s Defense had saved my life.

  I was bewildered that I was still alive.

  The breastplate of my Durable Full Plate Mail of Life fell from one shoulder and dangled on my loosely. Looking down, I saw that it had three large cracks spidering out from its center.

  I upped Mana Sight as I assessed what might be the last moments of my life.

  Xaphan was crouched in front of me, ready to strike, less than twenty meters away. The heat coming off of him sent sweat trickling down my brow.

  My shield and scepter had been ripped from my grasp when I hit the ground, so I used my empty hands to yank my plate mail from my back.

  Seeing my helmet just off to the side and crumpled like an aluminum can, I pumped 1,000 mana into Skeletal General’s Full Plate Mail, many times more than normal, creating something altogether new. What started as layers of bone plates began to fuse together to form an incredibly thick breastplate with massive shoulder pauldrons. My skull helmet grew with it. Its eye sockets turned down at the nose and extended up and out in what seemed more demonic than human.

  I knew my enemy’s speed. Even with my perception at its highest level, I had, at the most, milliseconds to react. My body could not respond that fast.

  The giant molten cat shifted its weight to its rear. Its muscles bulged, exhaling steam.

  Escaping was my only true option. The amount of mana that thing possessed dwarfed even the Head Mistress. Bat Form might have been my only hope, but after experiencing Xaphan’s speed and being caught in the air, I didn’t dare try my trump card. Not yet. All I needed was a moment. Something that could delay the beast a few seconds. It was not something I could leave to chance or this monster’s good graces. I would have to create my chance.

  I didn’t even glance at the popup indicating I had learned Blue Magic. It was true that what I had just experience from casting Force Learn was completely different than anything I had experienced before—but one thing would always remain the same. The Blue Magic I learned would be based on a skill that my target possessed. If that remained true, it was more than likely Xaphan would be tough against or immune to the spell he had let me learn.

  That left me with the arsenal of spells I already possessed. I uncast Invisibility and every spell except for my defensive passives, buffs, and my new Skeletal Armor. This left me with approximately 1,500 mana per minute to work with.

  Did I have any spell that could hurt this creature? His element was obvious enough through Mana Sight and seeing the lava type substance his body was made up of. It had to be a sub-element of fire and earth.

  I could immediately rule out the strategy I had used against the Earth Elements. Heating him up would not dry him out to make him susceptible to Sonic damage. Besides, the hottest temperature Flamethrower could produce was like warm air to a raging furnace compared to the heat he was already giving off.

  He was not of the Dark or Light Alignment, so my strength, Healing, was just about useless. There were only two real possibilities: Ice Shard and Alpha Bolt. I had no time, so I would have to try them both. No half measures and no holding back.

  I started to build up mana in my chest and the palms of both of my hands. I sent more to my back as I prepared the only thing I could imagine that might work.

  Smoldering fumes started to billow out of Xaphan’s nose. He seemed to smirk. Then, with a quickness I could barely comprehend, the hellcat surged forward. He came right for me.

  One bone lance after another spewed out of my chest like long poles to keep him back. Their razor points jabbed into his chest as he came.

  Numerous bone arms were then birthed out of my back and curled around me like spider’s legs. They shot forward, sharp as spears, and penetrated the monster’s shoulders and mane.

  As Xaphan sped forward, his momentum pushed against my defensive assault and jarred me from my feet. I was pushed back at an impossible speed.

  -7,369 HP

  Bone Lances had extended out and stuck in his chest. Bone Appendages from my back arched behind me like an angel of death, before reaching forward with their deadly stingers and helping to hold him at a distance. I dangled at the end of my bone assault about fifteen feet from his mouth.

  As he rose up from his lunge, the beast held my weight three meters off the ground like I was nothing more than an insect to him.

  Again, I had just used a mix of Skeleton Warrior’s Sword and Skeletal Armor to create something altogether new in my desperation. Bone Lance and Bone Appendages had cost me though. 30,000 MP.

  With both arms extended, my mana swelled.

  I had learned my lesson when casting the huge Ice Spear against the Hell Hound. This time I formed many smaller versions of the same spell. Each spear was as long as a person, but only as thick as my arm. Its point was just as deadly, and now there were over a dozen of them.

  In my other hand, Alpha Bolt formed, except this was no mere bolt. I knew I would have no problem getting Alpha to fly as I had the vast amount of ice. It was a part of Alpha Bolt’s nature to soar. So instead of a bolt, Alpha grew. In fractions of a second, the purple energy was violating the air before me. It bulged until it was nearly half the size of the tank-roach I had faced an hour before.

  Xaphan twisted his head to the side, confounded.

  With 100,000 mana split between the two spells, I opposed more than just
the monster before me. I defied Mistress Nava’s wish to see me dead. I spat in the face of the Head Mistress who would take my freedom for her own selfish ends. I cried out for the entire Underworld to hear me. I would live!

  My spells rumbled as they departed.

  Ice Spear Barrage buried long spears of ice deep into the hellcat’s front leg, neck and side before the magma’s heat could turn them to steam.

  Super Alpha thundered forward. The shockwave of Alpha grabbed hold of my chest and squeezed. If felt like my lungs and heart were being crushed inside me.

  Alpha tore into Xaphan’s mane. His entire shoulder was removed from his body. The mass of energy kept going. It smashed into the ground some 100 feet away and bored down into the crags, toppling a huge chunk of the ground level below the first plateau.

  As the giant cat faltered, my position in the air did so as well and I almost hit the ground.

  This was my one chance.

  I wasn’t happy to be leaving my shield and scepter behind, but it was better than death. I cast the spell to take my Bat Form.

  Before my transformation took me, I was ripped from the air.

  How had Xaphan recovered so quickly, let alone shattered my bone appendages holding him back?

  I was on my back. The giant cat had a single paw resting on my chest, holding me in place. His nose was a mere foot from my face. The damage I had done to him had completely vanished.

  To my surprise, my skin wasn’t sizzling nor was my blood boiling being this close to him. I hadn’t lost any HP?

  “Power is always earned!” the hell beast rumbled in emphatic fury. “You ask to have what you have not taken!”

  Turning his head once again, he seemed to calm, slightly.

  “But you have surprised me,” he said, snuffing out a fume-filled grunt. “I was going to kill you, but I think I will let you earn your prize after all.”

  His paw was as large as my chest and the weight behind it was so immense that I couldn’t take a deep enough breath to speak.

  “Rarely do I wake from my slumber, but when I do it is often because a fool seeks me out to increase their power. After I am done tearing them apart and leave their body mutilated, the Belly comes alive and devours whatever is left,” he said, pulling his head back to finally look me in the eye. “Do you know why they rush to my kills with such fervor and often to their own deaths, human?”

  Gritting my teeth, I stopped struggling and glared at him.

  His eyes widened and seemed to burrow into me. “Because those that come to me, though torches of power in comparison to my inferno, are many levels beyond the creatures that dwell here. They will eat you and their power level will climb to great heights if you don’t kill them first. Get up.”

  When his foot lifted, I scrambled to my feet and healed myself, then applied more mana to mend my armor.

  “Look at the spell that I gave you,” he insisted.

  I did.

  Colossal Blue Magic - Magma

  “As you see, but do not yet understand, this spell is a colossal. Each sub-element only has one colossal and no other spells compare. Just as it is among the most powerful spells in existence, it doesn’t level like normal spells do. Already, you have access to its most powerful form, but you have no means to use it.”

  I looked at the description and immediately saw what he was talking about.

  Basaltic Magma

  Spell Cost – 2,000,000 MP

  Andesitic Magma

  Spell Cost – 1,000,000 MP

  Rhyolitic Magma

  Spell cost – 500,000 MP

  I froze. The base spell cost for the lowest form of magma was 500,000 MP. Even with Mind Synergy, it would cost me 100,000 MP to cast its lowest form. I could only cast it once. It would be possible to channel a smaller amount of mana for a dumbed down version of it, but the further away I got from its base mana cost, the less effective it would be.

  Turning my attention to Basaltic Magma, I found myself dumbfounded. How could a 2,000,000 MP spell even exist? When I had faced Xaphan during Force Learn I had felt the ocean of mana inside him. It had been too much for me to comprehend. Seeing such a mana cost started to bring things into perspective. The monster standing before me… what was he?

  “Now you truly see. I will leave you now,” he said, moving to turn. “But before I go, a warning. Do not flee until you have cleared this room. If you do, I will begin where we left off. The Belly has grown louder as of late, so I will be watching from my perch. You will earn my gift while you do me a favor. You are cornered, human. If you fight with everything you have left, you might just survive.”

  With that, Xaphan turned and strolled away before picking up speed and bounding up to the first plateau.

  Not a second had passed before pandemonium broke loose.

  Chapter 17 – Indigestion

  Perhaps the only remaining grace was that the army of random monsters flooding out of the Belly’s underparts would never be able to come at me with the same speed that Xaphan was capable of. Not even a fraction of it. I supposed that meant I would see my death coming.

  I let Mana Sight build until time seemed to flow four times slower.

  How sheltered we had been in the Head Mistress’s dungeon. The skeletons and zombies had driven many of us to tears. As I watched roach-tanks, hulking spiders, giant serpents, were-rats, coons and wolves, and what had to be goblins, elementals and gargoyles spew out of the crevices in the rock, it was as if the Mistress’s dungeon had been a tease and now the abyss was finally opening up to devour me.

  I had dropped my scepter, my breastplate had cracked, and my helmet was crushed. I allowed the 1,000 mana per minute to continue to run into my new form of skeletal armor. I named it Bone Titan’s Defense.

  Looking at my mana, I saw I only had a little over 20k left. It was going up, but it would be 45 minutes before it was full without Meditation. If I had all of my mana this may have been possible, but now that I only had a little over 10% of my mana remaining…

  “What’s happening, Elorion?” Travis hissed through group chat.

  “Stay back,” I commanded him.

  “What is it?!” Aeris demanded.

  “It’s like the entire Belly has come awake. Elorion is caught in the middle of it,” Travis said.

  Spotting my scepter near the lip of the shallow crater created when the hellcat had thrown me to the ground, I ignored the rest of their questions and ran at it.

  A crazed were-rat neared it as it was coming at me.

  I slid, skirting across the ground on armored knees. Grabbing my scepter, I swatted the ugly rat upside the head.

  He tumbled across the ground and fell into a fissure.

  Rising to my feet, I equipped the sphere from my inventory that gave me an extra 250 mana per minute and assessed the situation.

  I had enough mana to fire off about 4-5k basic spells, 1,000 intermediate and between 60 and 150 advanced ones. Light magic wouldn’t do any good against many of these creatures. Maybe half of them. Casting would not be enough. Even if I could cast 5,000 basic spells all at once I doubted it would do the trick.

  Was it possible to rest my hope on the single cast of a charged spell? I would have to cast Magma with only a fifth of its required mana and I had no idea how useful it would be. An Alpha Bomb could clear everything in a wide area, but there was no way it would be wide enough.

  Did that mean that there was no hope?

  Could I run from Xaphan even though he told me not to? I knew the answer was no. If he could really cast something that cost 2,000,000 MP, then there was no way my puny Bat Form could fly high enough or my feet could flee fast enough. Not only would he catch me if he cast such a spell, but the Belly would likely be obliterated in the process. The others needed to pass through this place to get to our possible refuge. Even if I died here, the least I could do was clear the path.

  The creatures I saw closest to me were on the weaker side, so I didn’t jump into the fray just yet.
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  I cut mana from my Muscle Buff, allowing the width of my arms and legs to shrink. This made it easier to shed the armor that was still left on my arms and legs. Doing without the layer of protection my plate mail offered may have been foolish, but my helm and breastplate were already gone. My Bone Titan’s Defense would have to work for what I was planning.

  There was only one real avenue I could see for me to take. Only one path forward. My talents were my true strength. It was time to push them to the limit.

  For some reason, what the Lich had said earlier that day came to mind. “There is more to Wisdom than stats on a page.” Despite all my Wisdom, I knew it was my lack of true wisdom that had put me in this position. Not only was I in danger, but so were the others.

  Opening up my Character Sheet, I put all my spendable stat points into Wisdom, giving me an additional 270 Mana Per Minute. I could have reached 1,000 Dexterity, but I would take care of that in short order.

  I reapplied Advanced Muscle Buff but this time I flooded it with mana. Thanks to Mind Synergy, all of my spells cost only 20% of the mana they did naturally. Also, since I kept Advanced In the Buff active at all times it had leveled up quickly, even for an advanced tiered spell. When I had first received it, Advanced Muscle Buff had cost 600 base mana per minute to cast without Mind Synergy and gave me 300 to my Strength and Dexterity stats. It was now at level 49 and, with all my buffs, it only cost 70 mana per minute. I increased the flow of mana until it reached 1,000. My Strength and Dexterity soared!

  Even with Natural Channeling, which allowed me to surpass the limits of what was normally possible when adding more mana to a spell to make it more powerful, there was still a law that seemed to govern Channeling. The more mana used, the more mana would be needed to further increase the effectiveness of the spell. Basically, the extra 930 mana I added to the spell didn’t give me 14 times the Strength and Dexterity that the amount of mana might suggest. It did little more than doubled it. It was necessary though and well worth it. My Dexterity jumped to over 1,000!