Intermediate Light Step
Speed Increased by 50%
Quick Reflexes Increased by 50%
Jump Height increased by 400%
With 1009 Dexterity, 813 Strength and 472 Constitution, thanks to my buffs, I now had the stats of a level 458 basher. My size increased with my stats, but my excessive Dexterity seemed to keep me thinner than Skyler’s bulk. Had I grown taller? It was incredible, to say the least, but I had already faced a level 500 mantis shapeshifter here. If there were too many high-level creatures attacking me at once, I was a goner.
With 1,000 mana per minute going to Bone Titan’s Defense, 1,000 going to Advanced Muscular Buff and my other base buffs adding up to 210 mana per minute, I still had 932 mana per minute free to use.
I didn’t bother upping Skeletal Buff to increase my Constitution, because I had something better than a larger pool of HP. I could heal. Without my Durable Full Plate Mail of Life, I now had 45,000 HP less than I had before it was broken. Such a loss of HP caused me to second guess my assessment.
I cast Advanced Heal on myself, restoring my max HP to 26,341. Then, I cast Advanced Heal on myself in a way that I had only ever cast on others. Since the base level was 49, with all my buffs and my scepter, Advanced Heal healed for approximately 24,500 HP. I let the mana trickle out of me at a consistent pour, creating a form of Rejuvenation that would heal me for about 1,000 HP a second at the cost of 500 mana per minute. Advanced Rejuvenation was created!
If I needed to, I would add mana to its flow, but the remaining 432 mana per minute would help recover MP and be my reserve.
Looking down at my scepter, there was still one thing left to do. An idea came to mind.
My grin reached from ear to ear as I placed my orb at the butt of my scepter and once again manipulated Skeletal Warrior’s Sword. Bone engulfed the shaft of the scepter and expanded beyond it over my Channeler’s Orb, holding it securely at its base like it was a part of the scepter itself.
Skeleton Warrior’s Sword wasn’t finished there. Bone wrapped itself over the scepter’s business end then started to expand. Before, when my scepter had been wrapped in bone, only a spike had been added, giving the weapon a point, but this time the shaft of the scepter became an extended handle and the spike grew to become a ferocious blade. It curved back like a katana but along the mune, or the back of the blade, there was a serrated bone edge.
It would cost me 300 mana per minute, but instead of a scepter, I now wielded a two-handed sword.
Grabbing the weapons with both hands, I was thankful for my time earlier with the Earth Elementals. Despite my lack of skill with a blade, my stats and my increased perception of time would allow me to make up for it. I hoped.
Though there were only about twenty creatures in close proximity, an army of monsters now ran at me from all directions, close on their heels.
I would not wait for them. Running forward at a speed I had never experienced before, I made the first move. My strides now ate away at the distance, surprising me, and would take a minute to get used to.
I cleaved six were-rats in two in a couple of swings, then danced to the next beast, a fanged Werewolf with possessed eyes that stood as tall as I was and was level 341. My blade slashed down the length of its arm while intercepting an attack. It continued on until it had cut deep into its shoulder and down into its chest. Though it wasn’t needed to finish the Werewolf off, my Advanced Rejuvenation spell that blanketed me with Light Magic added some damage the closer I got to it.
Adding new stats to Wisdom thanks to leveling from the bonus experience for killing my first Werewolf, I didn’t stop.
A giant spider leaped toward me. Skirting under it, I removed its head and let it plow into whatever unsuspecting creature happened to be behind me.
There was no pattern to the attack. It was as Xaphan had said, the monsters of the Belly went frantic with bloodlust after his kills. Was the chance of dying really worth the power they could gain from devouring his leftovers? I knew the answer before I had finished the thought. Power. In the Underworld, it was the only thing that mattered.
A tank-roach plowed through a group of mobs to get to me. It immediately lost its feelers, quickly followed by a front leg when I spun from the first attack and brought my sword up from below and cleaved deep into its underbelly and up through its mouth.
Its momentum smashed into me and drove me into the creatures at my rear.
-1,067 HP
Even with my monstrous armor, I couldn’t take the impact of an SUV charging into me at thirty miles per hour without taking some damage. Rejuvenation took care of the damage a moment later, but I had to spend 400 MP immediately to repair my armor.
I cringed at the mana cost. 400 MP wasn’t a terrible loss, but as it accumulated… It could be my downfall.
Leaping up onto the shell of the roach as it rolled over dead, I slashed at those behind me as I went.
My sword had taken damage, so I sent the mana where it needed to go to repair it as I continued to swing. It was another mana cost, but this was just under 100 MP.
Lesser mobs, often more than one, fell beneath my weapon in a single slash.
Even as I took the high ground atop the dead roach, the mob of creatures swarmed it, both to eat it and attack me. I used their hunger to my advantage, lopping off heads of as many of the creatures as I could before the roach’s exoskeleton gave way. Perhaps I could further use their hunger to my advantage.
It was time to get off.
Taking a running step, I leaped.
Landing among a small mob of goblins, I crushed one underfoot but was quickly swarmed by the creatures and their obsidian knives. The hideous waist-high monsters had green skin, sickly yellow eyes and pitch black facial hair. Since when do goblins have goatees?
Finding it hard to move, I extended the range of my Rejuvenation spell to about two meters in all directions. It cost me an additional 200 mana per minute, but the goblins started to tremble as they came in contact with the Light Magic.
The lowest level goblins died in seconds. I left the rest of them in pieces, clearing some space so I had a small breather. Mobs ran to their dead bodies as much as to me. There were so many creatures coming that it didn’t seem to matter.
As I leveled I continued to add every stat I got into Wisdom when I got the opportunity but I ignored all popups. Having them steal my attention would not serve me now.
A sudden brutish cry rose up from behind.
I had no time to react to it. I jerked forward and flew through the air, landing in the midst of a bunch of spiders.
Drawing back Rejuvenation to reduce its radius since these creatures didn’t have a Dark Alignment, I was overrun by the eight-legged nasties.
In panic, I opened my mouth and let Flamethrower fly. Moving my head around like a person possessed, I spit it in the face of as many spiders as possible. Thankfully, the spell itself didn’t cost much mana since it hadn’t been charged. Another 150 MP disappeared.
Then I sent another 100 MP into my armor to repair a few small fractures in the bone.
Rising up, I slashed about. The creature that had sent me flying stepped up to face me. It was mostly humanoid in shape but stood ten feet tall and looked like the mix of an oak tree and a thorn bush. A level 438 Greater Nature Elemental.
For a moment, everything seemed to stop as we faced each other.
With a shrug, I spewed Flamethrower into its face just as I had the spiders, then surged to the side. Taking advantage, I ended a few goblins while I was at it, then slashed down across the back of the Elemental’s leg, splitting it partway before it got stuck.
Looking up, I saw a thorn-filled arm speed toward my head. Kicking off, I pried my sword from the thick wooden trunk of a leg and rolled.
As I landed, I spun, slashing at whatever had stopped my momentum. A were-coon’s jaw held on to my arm even after I had cut him in two.
Swiping it off, I faced another lumbering back fist from the Nature Ele
mental.
I considered the skeleton in my inventory or creating a Golem to help, but my skeleton just did much better as a loot carrier than a fighter and couldn’t be resummoned once killed. The Golem cost too much mana for it to be worth it at the moment. If only I could create more than one of them.
Returning to my roots, I cast Decay, but instead of a single cast, I channeled a stream of mana into the trunk of the Elemental. It cost less than 20 mana per minute. Despite the low cost, I noticed it had an effect almost immediately.
Skidding to the side I dodged its attack and sped forward, attacking a flock of gargoyles, if you can call them a flock, that had been hovering behind the Elemental.
The grey-skinned, flat-nosed bat-men tried to climb above the fray which only made it easier for me to catch more of them with each attack.
With a kick to a green spider’s head, I jumped back and found the Greater Nature Elemental with peeling bark and browning leaves. I torched the sucker.
This time the fire did more than scorch it. The fire blazed into the air as it caught, making it look like it had a flaming haircut.
Channeling extra mana to my sword for a short burst, I manipulated the bone into the shape of an axe.
Giving my best snarl, I rushed in, dodging a fist of smoldering thorns, and wound up. I swung with all my strength.
The axe blade bit deep into the creature’s gut, throwing wood chips and leaving vines dangling. The blow seemed to knock the sap out of the nature monster, stunning it.
I forced mana into my axe blade, commanding it to grow. With a blade the size of an extra-large pizza, I spun with the massive blade to build up momentum and leveled it again into the Elemental’s gut. Wood chips exploded out its back as my axe burst through.
There was no time to celebrate. I chopped through a group of goblins fighting over a dead spider before letting my weapon return to a sword.
Group after group died in my wake as I tried and succeeded to create some open space. As many of the creatures fought for the remains of the defeated mobs, it gave me a short breather. I soon learned that rest was not an option. The moment I slowed, death closed in. The mobs that had stopped to feed were soon trampled by others. The only thing keeping me alive was that I kept moving forward.
I repaired my sword again. Seemingly, floating through time, I prepared each action with purpose and as much precision as I could muster. I was a lion among sheep. Some of them had horns and left the occasional bruise, but, in turn, I tore them to pieces.
Countless creatures new to me and different species of the more common creatures I had already faced died at the end of my blade before I had a chance to examine what they were. My level kept climbing, and I continued to add my stat points to Wisdom.
The more I killed, the more seemed to come. Some continued to try and feed on the ones I had already killed, but the biggest ones made them regret it. They were after the bigger prize. Me. Perhaps those that had thought to spare their lives in the fight to win Xaphan’s kill had finally become emboldened, or the smell of so much death had finally roused them. Each time that I made some room, the space filled up quicker than the time before.
The crowd pushed in upon me from all sides. I saw that my mana had risen to 30,000. It was more than enough to clear the area, but not all of them were sheep. It was only a matter of time before I faced another lion, or possibly an entire pride of them.
Instead of using a lot of mana, I decided to disrupt the enemy’s line. I sent three Intermediate Health Bombs, costing about 200 MP each, into the groups around me, killing countless mobs weak against Light Magic. Those that didn’t have that weakness still found it difficult to stand in the blasts.
With more room to move, I went to work cutting down what remained.
Then, when all seemed to be turning in my favor, the creature I had feared finally appeared. But it wasn’t just one mob. There was a myriad of them.
I only remembered seeing one Werewolf before, and it was in the mid-300s. But now, an entire pack of them had arrived and these were much larger.
Whether out of fear, or inability to get passed the Werewolves, the army of monsters halted their charge. The Werewolves were spread out in a semi-circle standing about forty feet away. To my rear, there was an odd assortment of were-creatures. Rats, coons and what looked like a giant weasel also kept their distance. As before, these were-creatures didn’t attack one another and seemed to be working together.
Using Creature Indicator, I quickly assessed a number of the Werewolves and got a range of their levels. I swallowed hard when I saw their lowest level was 623. The highest was level 796 and each one of them had over 1,000 Strength and Dexterity.
I estimated there were at least thirty of them. Bashing my way through this would be impossible. There was no way I was getting out of this without using mana.
Being surrounded by were-creatures at least gave me the advantage of being able to use Light Magic. Remembering Lord Darius’s attack, I had used a Health Bomb with 3,000 MP to destroy most of the zombies attacking my group. They had been in the 300s. Now, with Advanced Heal, my Health Bomb would be much more powerful. I also had much better passive skills that would greatly reduce its mana cost and make my spell more powerful. Still, I couldn’t chance it. Having to cast multiple Health Bombs would just waste more mana. On the other hand, casting too weak of a bomb could get me killed.
I knew it was coming, that they were readying their attack. You could smell the anticipation like it was something you could reach out and touch. Then it became clear that I was probably smelling some kind of chemical their bodies gave off as the anticipation grew. I took it as a warning. The only reason I was noticing it was because of Canine’s Sense of Smell.
The scent grew more potent until it was almost all-encompassing. Before it happened, I realized, it was a literal countdown.
The sounds of their howls grew more frantic.
I bent low, letting tension build in my legs. Mana began accumulating at the end of my sword.
As if a gun had been fired, they surged toward me.
I jumped.
New to having 1,000 Dexterity and not having had the chance to test 400% jump height, I was astonished as I vaulted high into the air. I started to slow when I was approximately twenty feet overhead.
My 5,000 Advanced Health Bomb took shape at the tip of my sword. As condensed as it was it was only about the size of a basketball.
The small army of were-creatures surrounding me had packed into a huddle below, waiting for me to drop down into their clutches.
Are you puppies hungry? Sorry, but before chow time, you need a bath!
I slashed down. My Health Bomb shot to the earth and mangled those that just happened to be in its path. It exploded, drenching them and everything in the area in light.
I closed my eyes just as it exploded and started my descent. I felt an immense pressure from below, but the creatures had been packed tight enough that they absorbed most of the energy.
Opening my eyes before I landed, I saw that the lot of them had been thrown and were lying at least ten feet away.
I was able to catch myself easily enough with my legs, but just as I turned my attention to the next wave of monsters, I saw movement.
One of the biggest Werewolves started picking himself up and rose to his feet.
Using Creature Observation, I winced at what I saw.
Werewolf
Pack Leader
Level: 922
Health Points: 87,621/120,000
Strength: 1,007
Dexterity: 2,274
Constitution: 1,017
Everything about the beast unnerved me. He had an extreme amount of HP, which was regenerating extremely fast. He had 1,000 in every physical stat which probably gave some crazy bonus synergy. Plus, he doubled my Dexterity, so I could no longer count on superior speed. There was no easy way to put it. This creature could kill me.
When a few more Werewolves started to take their feet
, I took a step back, then froze when I realized I could be attacked from behind at any moment. Looking around frantically, I saw the hundreds of monsters surrounding us were still keeping their distance or busy feeding on the fallen.
The respect they were showing this Werewolf caused me to gulp.
I rushed the Pack Leader in hope that he was still stunned by my attack. Luck was on my side as I won a clean slash that cleaved into the monster’s chest.
-4,937HP
As I pulled back to slash again, I saw that the damage my attack had done was almost nothing in comparison to its HP. The cut across its chest was not nearly as deep as I had thought. Worse yet, its HP was still climbing.
I thrust my blade into the creature’s stomach. What I saw next was even more disheartening.
-2998 HP
Regaining his wits, the Werewolf swiped at me, pummeling me off my feet.
I had seen the blow coming, but it was the same kind of speed I had seen from the Hell Hound. It was something I could perceive, but my body just couldn’t move fast enough to do anything about it. Large chips of my armor flew off.
-1,654 HP
Though it was a lower number than what I had hit the Pack Leader with, I had a fourth of his HP. I spun to the floor and started to roll but threw my arms out wide to stop myself. I sent another 300 MP into my armor for its needed repairs. Pushing up, I leapt to my feet and started to prepare another spell. As low as my mana was, magic was my only hope.
We both hesitated.
A new danger approached. The sound was so soft that I was surprised I could hear it at all, but the speed of the rhythm of footfalls that was heading toward us was undeniable. It was only getting faster. It seemed to have started from the other side of the Belly and was clearing the distance between us unbelievably fast.
Choking up on my sword, I prepared as much as I could. With that kind of speed, I feared even with Mana Sight I wouldn’t see it coming.
To my astonishment, seven spear points erupted out of a level 714 Werewolf’s stomach, chest and neck. It had just risen to its feet and stood impaled about 20 feet behind the Pack Leader. Just as quickly as the attack was executed the spears were yanked from the monster. It fell to its knees.
Underworld - Through the Belly of the Beast: A LitRPG Series Page 18