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

by Apollos Thorne

  The warg’s tongue drooped out in excitement as it neared its next meal.

  My heart thundered in my chest as the creature lunged for my friend. He had guaranteed he would be able to handle a couple of them and would only need our help if there were three or more. Even still, Russ had only just reached level 402. The warg was level 629.

  The warg’s jaw expanded in a grotesque fashion as its eyes rolled back into its skull. The jaw grew wide enough to devour Russ’s entire upper body. As it twisted its head to the side, that looked to be its goal.

  Russ swung his hammer. Purple light appeared surrounding his weapon, enlarging its striking surface to the size of a frying pan. It smacked the warg’s lower jaw, forcing it closed and hurling the monster dangerously close to the edge.

  The warg clawed at the stone floor with its front paws as its rear legs slipped over the cliff.

  With a nudge of his hammer to its nose, Russ sent the warg flailing into the pit.

  “Now!” Aeris cried as she extended her jeweled hand and started to build up mana.

  Trevon was ready. With both hands extended forward, one aimed at each end of the causeway, he released a massive amount of mana from either hand. Something resembling small blue meteors shot forward, striking the pathway at both ends.

  The path before Russ exploded as an overgrowth of ice sprouted up twenty feet in the air with dozens of vicious spikes ready to meet the mass of wargs heading right for it. At the same moment, the doorway to the room shrouded over with ice entrapping 31 of the 38 wargs.

  Aeris’s wind started to blow. An immense gust of wind met the wargs covering the full length of the bridge. Russ scrambled to grab his plate before running for the exit. The wargs still struggling on the patches of ice were the first to fall.

  Not leaving anything to chance, Trevon fired off numerous smaller projectiles that coated the rest of the pathway in ice, adding his ice-covered guarantee.

  The wargs started to tumble to their deaths en masse.

  I leveled up twice.

  Soon, all but one had entered the pit. The final warg started to grow. Its transformation was gut-wrenching and quick.

  With Mana Sight turned up near its max, I saw dark mana extend out and take shape before his physical body met the new mass. We now face a Dire Bear.

  You have learned the Blue Magic Mighty Maul!

  At the cost of 1,000 Endurance, you are able to strike a single blow with the equivalent of 500 lbs. behind it.

  That would really come in handy with my ability to heal my endurance.

  You have almost fully understood Advanced Blue Magic Shapeshifting!

  Blah! Again with the almost?! Flooding my eyes with mana, preparing Force Learn, I was determined this time to steal the evasive skill.

  I watched its mana fluctuate oddly as the creature began to change. Dark Magic seemed to be its base, but there was blue and grey mana mixed in. Then, when it shapeshifted, a shade of green was added to the mix.

  We all had the same idea. Aeris, Trevon and myself all prepared our quickest attack spells and let them fly.

  Wind Slash hastened forward faster than Trevon’s Ice Spear and my Advanced Health Bullet. Before it arrived, the Dire Bear roared.

  The roar was so immense that the air around it seemed to quiver. It was emitting Sonic Energy. The Wind Slash seemed to dissipate into nothing as it swam through the sonic energy. Trevon’s ice and my Health Bullet did the same.

  Interesting trick. More than happy to test the extent of the monster’s ability to disrupt magic, I hesitated when it lowered its head and fire erupted out of its mouth, melting the sheet of ice beneath it.

  There was something wrong and it wasn’t the fact that a bear was breathing fire. I wasn’t sure if I could ever be surprised again after entering the Underworld. If the ability to breath fire was really its natural ability than I would have gotten a Blue Magic popup. Since I didn’t, that could only mean one thing. It was using magic.

  Creature indicator showed me something terrifying.

  Dire Bear Form

  Level: 1,032

  Health Points: 156,075

  Mana Points: 252,600

  Strength: 2,537

  Dexterity: 542

  Constitution: 2,081

  Intelligence: 1,684

  Wisdom: 1,374

  The Dire Bear was level 1,032, which was scary in itself, but it had the stats of a level 600 caster and of a level 1,000 basher.

  As it found surer footing, the creature once again started to change. I got the same popup.

  You have almost fully understood Advanced Blue Magic Shapeshifting!

  The sea green skin immediately gave way and revealed the true form of the Shapeshifter. The succubus had called him Yaatiesh. Creature Indicator changed as he did, revealing his true self.

  Dark Elf

  Level: 1,032

  Health Points: 13,925

  Mana Points: 252,600

  Strength: 274

  Dexterity: 1,271

  Constitution: 557

  Intelligence: 1,684

  Wisdom: 1,374

  He had lost most of his melee stats, even if his Dexterity had more than doubled. The most frightening part about it was that he had 50,000 more mana than I did and an Intelligence of 1,600.

  “Richard. We are facing a level 1,000 Dark Elf Shapeshifter,” I said through group chat.

  “Okay! Sending backup!” Richard replied, sounding stretched thin.

  Yaatiesh stood across the pit from us, smirking as his grey cloak blew exposing his blue plate mail underneath. The wind had calmed since Aeris had ended her Gust spell, but it still left the room excessively drafty.

  “Rather quaint trap, but it worked surprisingly well,” Yaatiesh commented in a tone that was a mix of compliment and disgust. “There are only four of you? We were under the impression there were close to twenty.”

  “We are all that’s left, after the Belly,” Aeris answered slowly.

  “You are lying,” the dark elf said with a sigh. “I can smell it.”

  “I can smell your hussy from here!” Trevon jeered.

  Craning my neck, I looked at him in bewilderment. I didn’t really know the guy, but I didn’t expect trash talk.

  “My… hussy?” the Dark Elf asked.

  “You know, the gothic chick that smells like warg farts,” Trevon shouted, throwing his arms down like he had dropped the ultimate slam.

  Aeris and I looked at each other, surprised he had used nearly the same quip the dwarf had when we were eavesdropping on their conversation earlier in the day. Then, I realized Travis had probably told him. Of course he would relay that kind of detail.

  “Wiping out the last of the humans in the Underworld sounds even more enticing now that I know you have the manners of a dwarf,” Yaatiesh said.

  Our enemy’s hands shot up.

  I watched through Mana Sight as a Fireball slowly formed in his right hand and sonic energy solidified into an air-distorting shield in his left.

  Another realization struck me. It might not be helpful having Aeris and Trevon here with me. I would probably be more worried about defending them than figuring out how to defeat this guy.

  I prepared energy in my off hand, ready to defend the others if need be, but I also built up a large Advanced Health Bullet with 2,000 MP. I forced the energy to compress more than I ever had, creating something altogether new that I named Sniper Shot. As his Fireball released, I fired my spell in return.

  His spell had an impressive speed as it came toward us, but the amount of mana he used was rather minuscule.

  Was he unable to sense our levels? Or just testing us?

  Aeris easily deflected his attack into the pit with a concentrated Gust.

  My Sniper Shot was aimed at the center of his shield. I would test him as well.

  As he reacted to my attack, the amount of energy that was flowing into his Sonic Shield increased exponentially. It was far more mana than he actually needed to block the
spell. Catching my attack dead center, he braced against it.

  The condensed Light Magic was too much to just disintegrate, but it couldn’t pierce the sonic field. The angle of attack was enough that after a moment in a turbulent stalemate it ricocheted off to the side and punched into the wall on the other side of the room.

  Trevon flung one of his meteors of Ice Magic at the base of the platform on which the Dark Elf stood.

  A funnel of sonic energy rushed from the Dark Elf’s hand, stopping the ice magic as it flew and causing it to explode in midair. Once again, the amount of mana he used seemed like overkill. Either he just didn’t care about conservation because he had such a massive pool of mana, or his ability to sense magic power was very limited.

  The Dark Elf jeered, then extended both of his hands toward us. Sonic Magic surged.

  It looked like he was done testing us. As his sonic energy turned into focused beams, I realized he was accomplishing the very thing I wasn’t able to figure out with Wail of the Banshee. What was worse was that I had no idea how to protect from Sonic Damage. I doubted any bone structure I could make would keep the energy from reverberating through it. Could I just fight Sonic Magic with Sonic Magic?

  Aeris shot up, reaching a height of nearly 40 feet overhead and met the sonic attack with a downpour of wind. This wasn’t her typical Gust magic but churned like a whirlwind. It wasn’t her Twister spell either, because it flowed out from her in a confined stream. Perhaps stream wasn’t the best word to describe it, for its radius was the size of a large car.

  Trevon dived out of the way, even as the sonic beams were greatly crippled by being battered by Aeris’s wind.

  The Dark Elf raised one hand to redirect one beam at Aeris. The other he kept aimed at us.

  I cast invisible on all of us and we scattered, hurrying out of the beam’s path. Now that the three of us were split, one of us would hopefully be free to attack.

  The Dark Elf ceased his attack, but he had been able to follow us better than I’d hoped. I needed to end this quickly. It was getting too dangerous.

  Removing Invisibility from myself, I pumped mana into my scepter while bolstering my armor by casting Bone Titan’s Defense.

  Seeing his eyes widen, I knew I had his attention.

  Skeleton Warrior’s Shield also took form and started to thicken. It was a gamble, but if I was right, I had found his weakness.

  As he turned both palms toward me, I continued to stream mana into my shield. It was already digging into the floor and rising up over my head, creating a bone wall. I left an open porthole to one side so that I could see clearly and weave other spells with my scepter.

  His great beams of sonic energy gushed in my direction.

  With a flick of my scepter, I released the Advanced Sniper Shots I had been hiding.

  I had been forming them from the moment I released Invisibility. They were scattered along the length of the room waiting for my command in the pit below his line of sight. Their positioning would give my attack different angles for each of the 40 Sniper Shots.

  With an arcing trajectory, they raced toward him from below.

  I saw it in his face when he sensed their approach. His stance widened as his hands spread out. The beams of sonic energy were cut off and the energy was redirected into two large Sonic Shields.

  The Sonic Beams that were already on their way plowed into me.

  I had been partially wrong about my shield and armor not blocking it. The thick bone shield and even thicker armor did reduce the vibrations, but by how much it was nearly impossible to tell as my teeth rattled together and my nose started to bleed. I cast Wail of the Banshee, releasing it from my shield, but it seemed to have no effect.

  My Sniper Shots drummed into his shields. Each was deflected.

  Half of them had already been blocked when one made it past his magic defense and pounded into the plate mail on his thigh. His mail did its job and protected him from the violent reaction that accompanied Light and Dark Magics when they came in contact with one another.

  Aeris appeared above me.

  Much to my relief, her Wind Magic nullified most of the strength behind the sonic attack.

  My mind cleared enough that I could see the damage he had caused.

  -4,320 HP

  In that short burst, he had taken a tenth of my HP.

  A dozen more projectiles carpeted his legs. They staggered him back, so he lowered his magic shields.

  I smirked and diverted the remaining three magic rounds right for his head.

  One hit the rim at the top of his shield and flew wide.

  Noticing my deception, he glowered as he moved to correct.

  Before he could, a Sniper Shot struck true but grazed his sideburns. It sizzled as Light Magic met Dark Mana, searing the side of his head and eating a hole through his ear.

  He had just a moment to give me a scowl before the final Sniper Shot buried itself right below his eye. Light and Dark Magic howled as they warred. I had to turn away from looking at what was left of his head.

  I couldn’t hold back a grunt of delight.

  After a moment, with Force Learn ready, I watched closely but stopped myself from casting. His mana hadn’t leaked out as it should when someone was dying.

  Suddenly, his body started to convulse until he burst into flames.

  You have almost fully understood Advanced Blue Magic Shapeshifting!

  A pillar of fire stood where he had once been. It started to take form and soon a humanoid Fire Elemental blazed in his place.

  Master Fire Elemental

  Level: 1,032

  Health Points: 2,311/252,600

  Mana Points: NA

  Strength: NA

  Dexterity: NA

  Constitution: NA

  Intelligence: 1,684

  Wisdom: 1,374

  All of his physical stats had disappeared, and his HP was low, but climbing rapidly. His Max HP was now the same as what his Max MP had been. Was this a characteristic of Fire Elementals or some strange Dark Elf ability?

  “Hit him with everything you’ve got!” I cried.

  Trevon fired off Ice Spear after Ice Spear like a Gatling gun, while Wind Slashes raced toward it.

  Since Trevon had Ice Magic covered, I poured mana into an Alpha Bomb.

  The Fire Elemental fled with an extreme burst of speed, right for the ice-covered exit.

  I didn’t have to say a word. Trevon’s launched one of his ice meteors in the direction the creature was headed.

  A 10,000 MP Alpha Bomb flew right behind it.

  As the ice meteor struck the entrance, the barricade of spike-covered ice violently thickened, stopping the Master Fire Elemental in its tracks. If he had thought he could melt a hole in the ice a moment ago, that opportunity was gone. The wall of ice was now more than 6 feet thick.

  The Elemental turned to flee in the other direction just as Alpha Bomb hit the ice barricade.

  The concussion caused my ears to ring, but I didn’t need them as I watched the ice explode, blanketing the Elemental and smothering his flame.

  Force Learn activated.

  The world disappeared as my senses came alive inside the dying Dark Elf. Just as in humans, Yaatiesh’s Dark Mana swam with his blood, but his two magical talents of Fire and Sonic Magic existed as orbs of power inside of him. Where was the orb of Nature Magic his Dire Bear Form possessed?

  As I tried to reach for the orbs with the thought of using them on the Dungeon’s pedestal, I realized they weren’t the same. These orbs started to seep out with the Dark Magic in his blood. They were a part of him.

  His ability to Shapeshift was harder to find, but the neutral ethereal orb was there all the same. He hadn’t had the ability to use Blue Magic, therefore he had no Creature Observation skill to get a true bearing on his enemies. That was why he had used so much excess energy against us.

  The ethereal orb I didn’t let slip away so easily. I grasped at it even though I knew that I had no hands to
reach for it. With nothing but my will, I demanded it remain whole. Instead of heeding my command exactly, the orb intensified. It became clear. The ethereal orb worked with Yaatiesh’s other talents and his blood when he transformed.

  When I was driven out of the dying Dark Elf, I finally possessed the skill I had been seeking.

  You have learned the Blue Magic Shapeshifting!

  You have unlocked a hidden aspect of Force Learn sub-spell, Steal Image.

  Steal Image works automatically when Force Learn is cast.

  You are now able to take the shape of any creature you have successfully used Forced Learn on and stolen the full Essence of Blue Magic from the creature.

  You will receive bonus stats when transformed depending on the creature’s natural base stats.

  You will have full access to your spells, but any spell that you use may harm you in your transformed form if it is weak against the school of magic you use.

  Each form will have the ability to level up and undergo creature evolution.

  Exception #1: You must have access to the creature’s base school of magic. Example: You must be able to cast Ice Magic in order to shapeshift into an Ice Elemental. Note: If you learn a new school of magic, old creatures you have already stolen the Essence of will become available to you.

  Exception#2: You must have enough mana to sustain the creature’s base form. The larger and more powerful the form, the more mana it will take to sustain it.

  Note: If you run out of mana during Shapeshifting you will revert to your true form.

  After a quick read, it looked really promising. I was even able to pull up a list of all the creatures I had successfully stolen the Essence of.

  Fire Imp, Blue Slime, Green Slime, Werewolf, and Hell Hound were the only creatures I could actually transform into. The rest were mainly Dark Magic creatures like Skeleton Sentinel, Dark Elf, Zombie General, and Ghoul, so they were greyed out on my list. I wouldn’t be able to use them, for now.

  Sadly, the Dire Bear and Master Fire Elementals weren’t on my list, so it wouldn’t be as easy as watching another Shapeshifter change into different forms.