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

by Apollos Thorne

  The looks of surprise and raised brows when we arrived caught me off guard until I realized it was the first time they had seen me in Titan’s Bone Defense.

  “Meditate and rest!” Olivia called from the midst of them as they opened up a path for us. She had taken over and was barking orders like a veteran group lead.

  We hurried to the back of the group and found room to sit against the wall.

  Travis started to list the strengths and weaknesses of the creatures we had fought over group chat.

  I took a seat, but Aeris plopped down on top of my head and dangled her legs over my shoulders as she had before.

  Travis hadn’t joined us. Rejuvenation and Muscle Buff was still going strong, so he was probably excited to show Skyler and the guys what he was now capable of. He had likely saved my life, so I wouldn’t take that from him. I let the buffs remain.

  I did release Titan’s Bone Defense and let it revert to Skeleton General’s Defense. My Muscle Buff also reverted to its normal amount of mana, freeing me up to recover MP even faster.

  “Hey!” Aeris said from atop my head. “Warn a girl if you are going to shrink.”

  “Sorry!” I said with a snort.

  “You better be. I’m also mad at you for almost getting killed.”

  “Yeah. That would be terrible. I wouldn’t want you to lose your ride.”

  “Exactly,” she said, leaning forward to reveal a mocking grin. It faded quickly. Her genuine concern was clear.

  “I really am sorry,” I reassured her.

  Her jaw muscles clenched up and she swallowed back what she was going to say. Instead, she gave me a small smile.

  It really had been a close one.

  Even though Meditation wasn’t necessary to reach my Maximum Mana any longer, as I Meditated, my mana per minute started to skyrocket. It slowly increased the longer I meditated.

  I quickly turned my attention to the others, concerned they might need my help.

  Mel had stationed his skeletons to guard the entrance to the Belly, which had become our flank. His minions fought mechanically, but it was as if they shared a single mind. They overwhelmed anything they faced, led by their Skeleton Captain that wore the Skeleton General’s head in place of its own.

  The necromancer himself stood at the top of the path heading up, a few feet away from where we sat now. He cast large shadowy black hands that sped toward any creature that approached the ledge above his skeletons’ position below. Pushing them off, he directed their fall to the space in front of his minions and so that they wouldn’t fall on top of them. I would have almost given him the rest of my bacon jerky if he would have been here when I had first been attacked by the creatures of the Belly.

  Olivia’s eyes were closed, and vines extended from her fingers and shot into the ground. Despite this, she screamed commands as if she saw everything. After seeing Rock Hard’s ability to feel through the rock, I was sure she was using something similar.

  Clarissa and Audrey were side by side. Clarissa kept her eyes on the fortification and drilled anything with a Stone Fist that looked like it was going to make it over. Audrey funneled her fire high into the air and let it shower down upon the mobs a few meters in front of our bashers. Still, it would probably get rather warm on the front line.

  Even though I didn’t see the fruit of Trevon’s casting, I suspected he was coating the stone with ice under some baddie’s feet as I had seen him do before. His focus was forward, but he seemed to be looking past what was in front of him.

  Our Imp Zorik was doing his part, watching the wall opposite Clarissa. He also used Earth Magic, but held his palm face up, where rocks the size of golf balls formed, one after another, and fired off, hitting anything trying to climb over.

  I yelled to him.

  Quickly he stopped what he was doing and flew over to me while keeping his eye on the wall.

  I explained what I was about to do, so he flew up in the air, just overhead to stay out of my spell’s influence. Then, I extended out an Intermediate Healing Aura further than ever before. Since I was sitting against the stone wall I redirected it from stretching out behind me to save some mana per minute. It reached out, putting our bashers and Mel in its radius. Even though it now cost just over 1,000 mana per minute, Meditation wasn’t hindered, which surprised me. If I cast a spell like Advanced Heal, it would completely interrupt the skill, but passives didn’t seem to have that effect.

  I was thoroughly impressed with the lot of them. So much so, that I allowed myself to breathe easy. I turned my attention to my stats.

  Level: 555

  Mana Points: 47,681/161,777

  Mana Per Minute: 5,002

  Wisdom: 2,376

  I shook my head at what I saw. I had gained another 61 levels. Throughout the fight, I had continued to pump Wisdom and was close to 2,400, which gave me over 5,000 mana per minute! Even without Meditation, it would take me less than half an hour to fully recover my 161k MP.

  Looking to my other stats, I saw then what Vampire Might had given me after leeching the Werewolf Pack Leader.

  My Constitution had gone up 200 points upping my HP by 5,000. I had also received 20 points in Strength and Dexterity. It was an exceptional bonus for a creature just under level 1,000. But it also reminded me that there had to be thousands of creatures lying dead on the ground that I hadn’t had the opportunity to drain. How many stat points would pass me by? Did they have to?

  After a few minutes, my MP reached over 100,000 and I decided there was something I had to try.

  “I’m going to stand,” I warned Aeris.

  “I’m ready,” she said in too serious of a tone for someone literally riding on my head.

  I rose, quickly walking over to Mel to stand at his side. This was the best vantage point to see the area where Xaphan had first thrown me to the ground and where my battle with the Belly had begun.

  He nodded to me but didn’t take his eyes off the ledge where he focused on the monsters trying to get at his minions.

  Lifting an empty hand, I tried activating Lesser Blood Drain near the plateaus hundreds of meters away. Of course, it did nothing because I was out of range. Since it was considered a basic spell in its Lesser Blood Drain form, it cost less than 5 base MP and even less with my passives. It was one spell I only briefly experimented with to try to enhance with channeling. When trying it on the Lesser Zombies, regardless of how much MP I used it never gave me any additional stats. I had never channeled more mana into it to try to extend its range though.

  Since time was tight, but I also had access to Meditation for the moment, I didn’t bother being stingy with a small amount of mana. I let 1,000 MP accumulate in my palm before letting it loose.

  My aim was just above the area at the base of the lowest plateau. It was a little less than a mile away if I had to guess. This time, instead of fizzling out, I felt the spell come into being. It sped toward my target like a hungry beast. The mana of the spell itself left me baffled. With more than 200 times the normal amount of mana supplied to the spell, its true nature became known. It was Dark Magic.

  What I saw next left me awestruck.

  Charged Lesser Blood Drain reached the area, stopping high overhead. From there, not one, but hundreds of strands reached down to the earth. Blood flowed up from the bodies littering the ground. The sphere of liquid power grew to what looked like a massive size even from that distance. When it was finished collecting all the blood it could hold, a long strand shot in my direction. It started to grow until something like a giant pile of blood directed the large collection of blood toward me.

  As it approached, it became clear how much blood was on its way. I took a step back. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.

  The fluid didn’t just touch my hand to seep in from the normal contact point. It swamped my hand, then flooded over and enveloped my entire arm. The surge of energy that came as it soaked into my system was more than just empowering. It was a tidal wave of power that rushed to my
heart and caused it to swell. I felt like my arteries were going to burst.

  I found myself fallen back, sitting on my rear when my senses returned.

  Aeris was floating about ten feet above, staring at me like I was in trouble, or was going to be.

  Getting to my feet, I nodded that I was okay.

  “Don’t do that again,” she said, releasing a deep breath.

  “No?” I said, giving her a shrug.

  Without another word, I inventoried my scepter and cast Basic Blood Drain with both hands. Repeatedly, I let dozens of casts fly.

  You have unlocked Intermediate Blood Drain!

  You will now receive slightly more stats from the creatures you drain!

  Due to blood saturation, you are now able to wait 14 days between feeds in order to keep your stats.

  The timing couldn’t have been better, although I recognized I should have experimented with Blood Drain more, for I might have reached the Intermediate level sooner.

  Immediately, I switched to the Intermediate version of Blood Drain, fed it an extra 200 MP and continued to pepper the air above the areas where fighting had taken place. When I reached the area above where my group was fighting now, I knew they wouldn’t mind so I drained their recent kills.

  Before I realized it, I was out of mana. There were close to 50 casts of Blood Drain spread out throughout the cavern, making it look like I was sucking the blood out of the Belly itself. Immense orbs of blood floated above the sea of mobs like the balloons of a grand parade.

  When the rivers of blood headed my way, I didn’t know if I should run away, or dance toward them like Wolverine the Musical.

  They arrived. My arms drowned in the first few deposits, but as the rest of them came, they found no room to enter, so they flowed into my back and chest. Soon, not even that was enough and the rest of me was completely submerged.

  As if all the rivers of the world met at a single point, great ribbons of flowing power pushed into me from every angle. What had felt like pressure, turned into white, searing pain. It was so overwhelming that I became numb to it, or so I thought. A new tingling sensation over every inch of my body started to flourish until I felt intoxicating pleasure.

  It receded.

  I found myself still on my feet, but my lungs sucked air like I hadn’t been able to breathe during the process. I probably hadn’t. Normally, after using Blood Drain, the feeling of power quickly faded after the spell had finished. This time much of the feeling remained.

  Things were different. I had received the blood from hundreds, no, thousands of creatures. No doubt, with the help of reaching the Intermediate level, the spell was more efficient than it had ever been before. The power of the Werewolf pack, the hundred Imps, countless were-creatures, goblins and giant insects filled me.

  “You jerk,” Aeris rebuked.

  I looked up and saw she had climbed nearly fifty feet in the air and was now floating back down.

  “Oh. Did you get caught up in that?” I asked.

  “I did,” Mel huffed from the ground.

  His red hair was twisted up like an orange Hershey’s Kiss. He had been drenched as the spell dragged all that blood over him before filtering into me.

  “Oh man. I’m sorry, guys,” I said, surprised, but finding it hard to empathize because of how good I felt. I offered him my hand.

  “Blue Mages are a pain in the butt.” Aeris pouted. She now hovered at my level, face to face, with her arms across her chest.

  I shrugged.

  “Go on then. Check your stats. What did you get?”

  Giving her a grin, I pulled them up and gave them a look.

  +6,775 HP

  +3,672 MP

  +296 Str

  +362 Dex

  +134 Con

  +133 Int

  +83 Wis

  To say I wasn’t excited would be ridiculous. I had just received over 200 levels worth of stats, not including a good chunk of HP and MP. Altogether it was more than what I had received when draining Lord Darius. But I suddenly felt very small and insignificant. How many times had Mistress Nava done something just like this and received just as many stats if not more in her lifetime? What of the Head Mistress, or the Vampires of the Underworld? Was this a daily occurrence for them?

  “What’s wrong?” Aeris asked.

  Ignoring the question, I gave her a general rundown of how I had done.

  “You’re a monster,” she said. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or serious.

  “Let me finish Meditating and we will find out,” I replied.

  I now had over 1,000 Dexterity without having to charge Advanced Muscle buff with extra mana and was 50 levels from 1,000 Strength. I’d also got a nice bump in Intelligence and Mana Points giving me a total of 185,849MP!

  Aeris joined the others as I sat down again to refill my mana pool. Many of our casters that had witnessed what happened gave me looks. The only person that seemed to be unbothered by it was Mel and he had been the one drenched in the process.

  I took the time to examine the new Blue Magic I had received from keeping Mana Sight active throughout the battle.

  Stone Skin

  When activated, your skin solidifies into stone, leaving you hard as rock and immobile. If you cast another spell, Stone Skin is immediately deactivated.

  Eh. It was the kind of spell that I rarely used in the games I used to play, but perhaps I could find some unique uses for it.

  Dark Vision

  When cast, the world of shadows is revealed to you and the contrast between greys and black becomes much more refined. The distance in which you can see will improve as the spell levels.

  Finally, a proper spell to allow me to see in the dark. Mana Sight worked beautifully, but I still feared running into a creature that was able to disguise its mana. This would give me another mode to see, which would only benefit me.

  Acid Breath

  When cast, a thick cloud appears. There are three ranks. Each rank changes the mist’s properties. Rank 1 causes watering of the eyes and difficulty breathing. Rank 2 can incapacitate if enough is breathed in. Rank 3 melts the flesh of any creature it comes in contact with.

  Note: Mana must be channeled to extend the range of the spell.

  Now that sounded even more useful than the Necrotoxin I’d received from the Trap Door Spider. With this spell, I wouldn’t have to touch something to use it.

  Tail Regrowth

  If your tail is severed, at the expense of mana, you are able to regrow your tail.

  Note: If you do not have a tail, or want to manipulate your tail to possess talons, claws, or pinchers, this spell must reach its final level.

  I had to read that one twice. Did any part of me want a tail? Maybe?

  Mating Call

  When triggered, Mating Call allows you to mimic the mating call of other creatures.

  You have unlocked an additional subskill of Mana Sight!

  In order to mimic a creature’s mating call, you must observe them for an extended period with Mana Sight. The length of time depends on the level and Intelligence of a creature.

  My eyes went wide the more I read. Finally, a spell that might be helpful. It would take some work, but it might help me when trying to hunt specific creatures.

  Tooth Extension

  When chewing into your prey, you are now able to extend your teeth for a deadlier bite.

  I just shook my head.

  Toe Fungus

  Grow toe fungus at will! Whether you like it for decoration or just to season your favorite dish, this delightful little spell will make sure your feet are the talk of the cave bog!

  If I knew what creature had given me Toe Fungus, I would have happily killed more of them. I had never been creeped out by roaches or bugs, but anything that ate its own toe fungus needed to die.

  Creature Observation Subskill - Clarity unlocked!

  You have seen and faced hundreds of creatures. You will now gain a greater level of understanding when Observi
ng them. You can see the information on creatures within 1,000 levels of your own.

  When I stood back up, I was ready to move on.

  “Do you guys want to head toward the Crystalis?” I asked through group chat.

  “I need to Meditate,” Olivia said. “So do the others.”

  “Go for it.”

  “All of us?” she asked.

  “Yup. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

  “Okay…” Olivia said, turning to look at me to see if I was serious.

  I stepped past her to retrieve my scepter and cast Advanced Muscle Buff on our dozen bashers. With my mana per minute, it took a small fraction of what I was now capable of. I cast Invisibility on them as well, not that they would be able to become completely ethereal with how much they were moving, but it would still make it difficult for the creatures they faced to follow their movements as they faded in and out. I added Invisibility to our casters as well. If a new army of Imps tried attacking again, this time they would get a nasty surprise.

  A hoot rang from the sledge brothers in coordinated thanks for the buffs.

  Russ rumbled like an excited minotaur. Not that I knew what a minotaur really sounded like. Not yet.

  It was a cheap trick, but I cast a number of Light Orbs near the top of our barricade to confuse the enemy and make them think twice about climbing up. Most of the creatures I had faced were much smarter than the skeletons we were used to facing in the Head Mistress’s dungeon, but that didn’t mean they were necessarily intelligent. It bought me a number of seconds until the first Tank-Roach showed his ugly head.

  I used Ice Shard as a base spell and formed some nasty Ice Bullets from it. A dozen of them followed the leader and burrowed themselves into the monster’s face.

  With Mana Sight, it wasn’t difficult to keep up with the walls to either side of our bashers. And they really didn’t need any of my help after the buffs. Even though many of them had lower stats than I did now, I had seen what it meant to be talented in physical combat when I fought with Travis. They had also been fighting this way since the day they entered the Underworld.