“Twenty-four, my lord.”
I nodded. She was older than she looked but not to a fantastical point. “Please call me Elorion, or El for short.”
“Yes, my lord.”
With a thought, I commanded Brat the Embar to stop.
She kept looking down and became very still.
“You are no longer to call me lord,” I commanded with a gentle tone. “I am not a vampire nor am I a fan of the slavery that is practiced by most vampire families. I’d like you to call me by my name and look me in the eye when we speak.”
I watched her as she struggled to lift her eyes off the floor. Ultimately, though, she did as I asked.
“You are not of lesser value or status than I am,” I said. “There are things you are capable of and have knowledge of that I don’t. We can mutually help each other. Even if one of us gains more benefits from the relationship, it doesn’t matter. We’re not master and slave, but friends. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my Lor—” She cut her words short. “Yes, Elorion.”
“Good. And Jasmine, I want to stress that a good friend isn’t just there when they receive mutual benefits. Even if you don’t like it or want to be alone to self-destruct, you don’t have a choice in the matter. Someone very special to me taught me that right after I came to the Underworld. In other words, I’m your friend whether you return my friendship or not.”
I wasn’t sure why I was being so aggressive. I’d planned on being as kind and meek with her as possible, but now I was lecturing. The special person to me of course was Aeris. It made me wonder if this was how she’d handle things, or if she’d give me a good rebuke.
“Okay.” Jasmine nodded rigidly while still struggling to keep her eyes up.
Her response was better than I’d expected.
As we continued on, I opened up my Character Sheet every couple of minutes but couldn’t make myself increase my stats. Every time I looked at it, I heard the screams of the dying people of Persepolis and saw the image of the Scorching Sun as it fell upon the city as if it had been burnt into my irises.
We’d already gone a few miles since we’d last spoken. Since I couldn’t bring myself to apply my own stats, I asked Jasmine about her own. “Did you place your stat points?”
“Some of them, my—Elorion,” she replied, then opened her Character Sheet and held it out for me to see.
Jasmine
Level: 8,415
Attributes
Strength: 2,131
Dexterity: 4,347
Constitution: 2,081
Intelligence: 10,000
Wisdom: 10,000
Unspent Stats: 35,864
She’d had an unexpected jump in her level. Because we’d been in the same group when I’d—cast Scorching Sun—she’d gained 3,552 levels without having to lift a finger. It was only a tiny amount of experience compared to what I’d received, but for her at her lower level, it was incredible. She’d also done as I recommended and got her Wisdom and Intelligence to 10,000 for the bonuses but hadn’t spent any of her other stats. She now had more to spend than she had when I’d first met her even after increasing her stats by so much…
“You’re saving your stats until you better understand your talents?” I said.
“Yes, Elorion,” she replied, only meeting my eyes momentarily like a little girl peeking in on something she wasn’t sure she was supposed to.
She used my name as if it were a title, but it was still better than the ‘my lord’ nonsense. What was important was that she was trying. I felt that it would be just if I were never able to smile again, but because I felt it was appropriate to encourage her, I grinned as warmly as I could manage. “Then you better get started.”
I turned to Shamash, who seemed to be ready for what I was about to ask. “Could you please help her develop her magic?”
He didn’t reject my request, or mention contracts or any such conflicts. He simply did as I asked. Since we’d left, he’d returned to his vampire form, but it didn’t seem to be an act as he began to instruct her with a much softer tone than he used with me. “You have a unique trinity of talents with your Earth, Water, and Nature Magic. With your Dark Alignment, this makes it even rarer. Nature Magic is most commonly associated with the Light Alignment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be Dark. It just means that the plants and natural phenomena you can summon and control will be limited to the Dark Magic flora. Your Earth and Water Magic will greatly supplement and enhance them. Focusing on each individual element will also benefit you, but your greatest strength will come from utilizing them as one…”
Soon their conversation faded into the background. It wasn’t that I was uninterested, but that I currently wasn’t capable of mustering the emotional strength to help. I’d help her in a few days after mourning the people I’d murdered.
Come to think of it, I’d accused the lich of leading me into a situation where there was no other choice but to slaughter hundreds of thousands of people, yet he hadn’t taken any offense. Many creatures seemed to experience emotions less than humans in the Underworld, or at least to different levels, but the lich were the only race, if they could even be considered one, that really seemed to exist without emotions at all. Despite that, he was capable of making the decision to express certain emotions if he so desired. That could only mean that I was wrong, and that he did experience emotions to a certain extent, or that there was a time in the past when he had…
As for me, I knew that if I taught her myself it would help redirect my mind from what had happened, but even though I wanted to help her distance herself from her personal tragedy I couldn’t allow myself the same grace. I’d taken the lives of so many people. Was there anything more disrespectful than trying to forget them less than a day after I’d taken their lives?
Our pace did speed up about an hour after Shamash began instructing her. He’d given her some exercises to practice so that she could start power leveling her magic. Other than that she just needed to worry about mana management and not falling off Brat’s boney back.
It was one of the rare times since arriving in the Underworld that I didn’t take the opportunity to power level. Instead I flew in silence for the rest of the day. Normally, we’d only stop if I needed to refine mana. Technically I was in need, but all I had to do was spend my stat points and I didn’t even know what level of power I would reach. Suffice it to say, doing so would likely make me much more powerful then refining a little bit of mana. Our main reason for stopping that night was because Jasmine still had the need for sleep. After losing her husband, she probably needed more than normal.
We found a little nook in the cavern wall that was covered with Dark Aligned grass. At first I chose it because it would be more comfortable than sleeping on cold rock, but then I remembered the Master Ring.
It was my first time scanning it since I’d assimilated the vault’s world into the ring. Not only was I able to quickly view the furniture section by sending my perception into the artificial world, but I could view descriptions of items without removing them. Finding a smaller bed that was a little larger than a full-size, I removed it and placed it safely in the back of the nook. I began to shake out the thick upper blanket before doing the same to the silky sheet-like one below. My fears were unfounded. The blankets were spotless and even the mattress felt like it was brand new. It wasn’t a spring mattress, but more closely resembled memory foam.
Just because it was a smaller bed didn’t mean it was any less impressive than the larger pieces. The bedposts were solid gold that was molded to resemble man-sized sunflowers. Taking a closer look, the bloom more closely resembled a lily.
The blankets and pillows seemed to be made of matching material that was black in color but glowed with the purple light of Dark Mana.
“This bed has healing and restorative properties for Dark Aligned creatures,” Shamash said. “It will enhance your sleep greatly.”
Jasmine just stood there looking at the ground with
her hands crossed over the front of her skirt.
“Get some sleep,” I told her. “In the morning we will start out at a faster pace.”
She looked up at me before glancing at the bed then back at me with a questioning gaze.
“Because of my Light Magic talent I don’t need to sleep,” I responded. “Most of the time it’s even impossible. You can feel perfectly safe since I’ll be awake to stand guard anyway. Please.” I gestured toward the bed.
She bowed her head before nearing it. Pulling back the covers she crawled in, then disappeared beneath them.
I turned away and walked toward the entrance of the nook. Looking out over a vast expanse of Underworld grassland and ravines, hills and jagged mountain peaks, and even creeks and pools of water, I quickly forgot what should have been an awe-inspiring sight.
“It’s time,” Shamash called out from behind me.
“I need a few days to process what happened,” I replied without looking back at him.
He walked over in his vampire form to stand beside me. “And you will have it, but you can’t afford to delay placing your stats and refining your mana. Don’t think that what happened at Persepolis will go unnoticed for long. The search for you could’ve already begun. If you want to protect the girl, and return safely to protect your people, then you mustn’t leave yourself vulnerable for even a moment. I’ve given you a day without forcing the issue, but at least get your Wisdom to 100,000 and begin refining just in case.”
“Will they know it was a Light Mage that—did it?” I replied.
“I don’t know. Scorching Sun literally devours the Light Mana used to cast it, so there shouldn’t be any Light Mana residue left behind. But there are only so many spells capable of such destruction at that scale. As for perfectly carving out the outer surface with something the shape and size of a city-dwarfing orb? Dark Magic doesn’t act that way and neither does Fire. There’s no other spell that I know of that is capable of the exact same thing… They may suspect Light Magic or Scorching Sun may have faded enough into the recesses of history for it to be forgotten. It may take them time to research it. The missing magic vault will also cause all types of questions. I’m not sure if even Scorching Sun would be able to quickly destroy that artificial world you now have in your hands.”
He extended his index finger and started to tap on the air as if sorting his thoughts. “However, there are ancients that still remember the destruction that Scorching Sun is capable of and have even seen it with their own eyes. Whether they will bother to make the trip to investigate a small border city is another matter entirely. It’s Lord Soroush’s family that will have the most incentive to figure out what has happened. Even if it’s the vault of a branch family, not even the royal family would quickly accept such a loss.”
“I see,” I said, pulling up my character sheet. I transformed into my human form and dropped all my buffs.
Character Sheet
Level: 29,641
Health Points: 5,560,316
Current Mana: 8,746,000
Base Mana: 8,746,000
Mana Per Minute: 764,360(12,739.33 Per Second)
Attributes
Strength: 10,332
Dexterity: 10,430
Constitution: 11,062
Intelligence: 17,492
Wisdom: 76,436
Unspent Points: 67,960
“Don’t do it here,” the lich warned me. “Your transformation could hurt the girl.”
I took his advice and took a short trip away from the nook where Jasmine slept so that any surges of Light Mana wouldn’t disturb her. I didn’t look for anything fancy. I went around the corner and down into a shallow crevasse that was deep enough that it reached a few feet over my head once I was in its depths. Although the walls were tight it was also quiet, and the smooth dark-stone surface of the rock reflected the natural Light Magic glow of my Ascended Form.
I began placing my stats into Wisdom at a steady pace. I could feel myself slowly filling with power as it neared 100,000, but it was nothing extreme. Once I hit 99,999, I stopped. I stared at the screen for more than a minute as I thought of all I’d done to get here.
My early days in the Head Mistress’s dungeon were extremely self-defining. I’d told myself that I was going off on my own to protect the others, but when they were crying themselves to sleep at night, Aeris was the one offering them the support they truly needed. The work that I put in did pay off, but I didn’t even know the others, nor did I really care to. I saw what needed to be done, grit my teeth, and pushed forward. Aeris knew that what I was doing was necessary, but also that it wasn’t enough. I needed them as much as they needed me. I needed her. It took me a while to really understand that.
That’s why it was impossible for me to follow the lich’s original advice and stay in the Vampire Realm for decades to gain the power I needed to one day protect them. Without their support, I’d never be able to make it. I was not as self-sufficient as I’d like to believe. I needed the others even if trips away from Sanctuary were sometimes necessary. Having it as a place to return to with people I knew in the most authentic sense possible, it had become a fundamental part of who and what I was. Without them, I’d be little more than a shadow of a man. I’d be a lich and live for no other purpose than pursuing power.
I tapped the screen one last time and my Wisdom reached 100,000.
The glow of my body… It was mild compared to the changes I’d experienced in the past. I narrowed my focus to catch any change that had happened inside my body or out, but I was underwhelmed as the seconds passed. The popups indicating what had changed still hadn’t appeared either.
The shining light of my body didn’t die down even after half a minute. Instead, I started to feel that this time might be unique. After a minute passed I began to notice a pressure that was being exhaled from my body’s every pore. It was like my body was ridding itself of all mana, but my Current Mana wasn’t changing at all. That pressure only grew until soon I could feel it building inside of me. My body seemed to become lighter and my luminescence finally shone brighter.
Then the force inside me accelerated. My aura changed from an intangible Light Magic residue to a repellent force that began interacting with the walls of the crevasse and any loose rock particles shook and fell toward the ground. The gravel didn’t have a straight fall, for my aura pushed it aside.
Another minute passed when the rock to either side of me started to moan and crack. The muscles of my body felt powerful but were also twitching and spasming at a rapid rate that was only growing. It felt like I was going to explode. It continued ramping up until my body seemed to hit its limit, then it stopped. Everything became perfectly still.
One second passed, then another. I started to slow my breathing when I noticed I still hadn’t received any popups. But then, it was as if the world suddenly imploded as all the air, mana, and energy in my surroundings rushed toward me and entered my body as if I was a black hole. Except it didn’t stop in my torso. All of that power rushed into my head. My vision blurred then cleared before plunging me back into a world of dull haze. At one moment, the pressure in my head made it feel like it was going to explode, and in the next everything was being sucked into a single point in the very center of my mind. I knew what was coming next. I reached the peak of the world’s highest roller coaster and was looking down awaiting that moment that gravity would take me.
The explosion came, but my skull and brain matter didn’t lose their form. My very perceptions ruptured and were cast into the world. In that moment, I saw everything in my surroundings. It was like casting Mana Sight except I could travel the world at will and see everything at once or penetrate the smallest hairline fracture in the wall fifty feet away.
I knew what this was even though I hadn’t expected it. It was just like when Shamash was able to perceive the city of Persepolis from a distance of more than a mile…
All the pressure had been released and soon I realized the ability to
cast my perceptions was under my control. With a sweep of the area, I turned my attention to our camp. Shamash was there and seemed to sense me, for he nodded his head in the direction of my perception phantom.
“You can see me?” I said, not even sure if it was possible to communicate like this. As soon as I’d opened my proverbial mouth, I realized what was happening. Not only was I casting my perceptions, but I was also casting my voice. This was why mind-speak was so easy for people at a higher level.
Did that mean that Richard’s communication abilities were based on him having an exceptionally strong perception? Once he reached the level where he could unlock this casting ability, what kind of transformation would he undergo? The very notion was almost frightening.
At the speed of thought, I reeled in my perceptions which plunged straight back into my head and my physical senses became my own. Two popups were waiting for me.
Exalted Perceptions
No mana cost.
Cast your perceptions at will to sense the world around you.
Range: 1 foot radius per 1,000 Wisdom.
Note: Mana Sight, Forced Learn, and Time Crawl are perfectly integrated with your perceptions when cast. Other sight related abilities also integrate.
I could even use my advanced Blue Magic observation abilities through it. And it looked like my range was 100 feet in any direction. If Shamash could see things from a mile away, what kind of Wisdom did that mean he had…
Pulling up my second popup I suddenly became lightheaded.
Pristine Mana Control
The amount of total mana you possess is now calculated with a multiplier of 500(+100) for every point of Intelligence.
Each point of Wisdom imparts 1 Mana Per Second.
All spells cost 90% less mana to cast.
All spells are 100% more powerful.
Each point of Wisdom equals 1 Mana Per Second? That meant that my 100,000 Wisdom gave me 100,000 Mana Per Second, or 6,000,000 Mana Per Minute. Only one thing had really changed, but it was more mind-blowing than undergoing the awakening of Exalted Perceptions or even my first time Ascending.
Underworld - Scorching Sun: A LitRPG Series Page 39