Underworld - The Succubi - Underworld - Chapter 7

I couldn’t rightly say if Intelligence and Wisdom improved a man’s performance in the bedchamber, but Constitution certainly did. Even more than that, my stamina restoring Light Magic was miraculous. If I could only figure out how to bottle my magic’s restorative properties, I could rule the energy drink market in a matter of days.

“I don’t sleep anymore, El,” Aeris said from where she was curled up beneath the covers beside me. She was wearing a silky pajama blouse and pants because she liked how they felt.

“At all?” I asked.

“Never. I do enjoy resting. Maybe it would be more accurate to say I like growing still. In both my sprite and wisp forms, drifting at the leisurely pace of the surrounding air is delightful. Since temperature doesn’t bother me, being next to your warmth is very comfortable.”

“So last night, you weren’t asleep?”

“Nope. I don’t lose consciousness, at least. Are you able to relax?”

“Not exactly,” I admitted. “I do find it comfortable laying here with you. But even now, I’m filled with energy. It’s not the restless kind though.”

“What do you want to do today?”

“Want? What makes you think I’m going to let you leave this room?”

She snickered, but also retorted, “I bet it would be harder for me to get you to stay here, than it would be for you.”

“So you’re telling me you haven’t been thinking about what we should build?”

“Of course, I have. Olivia and I will be in charge of designing the fashion mall. We need to invest big DP into the best hairstylists.”

She was on her side with her back against me, so when I didn’t immediately respond she made a prissy hum.

“Who are you and what have you done with my wife?”

She quivered in laughter. “Hey, I do like to get done up. Just not as much as girls that live for it. Now stop talking and get going already. I need to pick out what I’m going to wear today.”

“You don’t want my help?”

“I haven’t even taken the time to look through all the clothing you pulled from that Master Ring. Do you really want to stay here for the next hour and go through clothes with me?”

“I’ll bring you breakfast.”

“That’s the right answer.”

***

As I walked toward the kitchen in just my skeleton armor, I started to make a mental note of all the things we needed to do.

Not as many people were up this early in the morning. I checked the time on my status screen and found it was 4:07 AM. We still didn’t know if time zones were a thing.

I immediately found out we were running low on the Bork, but Zoric saved enough for Aeris and me. What we really needed to find was an Underworld chicken. I could really go for some eggs right about now.

As I returned to Aeris, she flew over and kissed me on the cheek, then shooed me out of the room. She mentioned that she knew where she’d find me and would come join me soon.

Eating my Bork gained me +1 permanent point in Strength. It seemed like a measly amount, but it came easy and was even an enjoyable experience.

Aeris may have been joking about the fashion mall, but if we could pull off creating a store like the Hallow Exchange and create a high-end restaurant with some ingredients people couldn’t find anywhere else, the whole notion of turning Sanctuary into a tourist destination was more real that I wanted to think.

As soon as I walked into the Master Chamber, I threw Richard a Heal.

Instead of turning in surprise, he did a shimmy in his bulky armor and moaned in thanks. “That hit the spot.”

I shook my head as I strolled over and stood beside him. His arms were crossed as he viewed the map. No longer was it contained to a small area on the wall. It’s like that side of the room had become segmented into numerous flatscreens lined up in rows and columns that took up half the room.

Something changed on the screen directly in front of us and I recognized the maze of rooms that was our Outer Perimeter. Suddenly the image changed. A single skeleton warrior holding a sword and shield with a dark aura clinging to it rushed forward. With a loop of its sword, the hippo-sized shelled lizard creature with spikes on its short tail fell dead. The creature looked more like a dinosaur than a monster.

“Mel and Olivia have split the all of our entrances between his minions and her vines,” Richard spoke as he worked. “They draw back from the busiest caverns when the others go out to get their grind on. Of course, Those two haven’t limited themselves to the dungeon’s limits.

“Mel is extended all the way over to Vodnyy Zomak, that dead fire incubus’s dungeon. Olivia hasn’t taken as much territory yet, but she sent her vines in the opposite direction since she’s returned.”

Nodding to myself, I asked, “Are they smart enough to determine friend from foe?”

“We haven’t had any issues. With Mel’s minions, at least. The goblins come around fairly often now with information, and it’s never been a problem.”

“That’s good to hear.”

He glanced back and gave me a half-manic glare. “You ready to see it?”

“Uh.”

“That’s what I thought,” he said, throwing his arms wide. As he did, the many depictions of different rooms and map segments disappeared with one giant map taking its place. It immediately reminded me of a world map because of the scale, except instead of being made up of mostly water, at least 80 percent of it was land.

“This is just the map of the Dungeon Level. We’re here,” he said, when a dot glowed. Sanctuary was little more than a speck. Even The Belly was barely visible.

There were literally hundreds of Magic Veins in our surroundings. Because of the scale, some of them were hundreds of miles away, but in comparison to the size of the Underworld, that was nothing. There had to be tens of thousands of them all together. Then it registered what Richard had said.

“Switch it to the Cavern Level.”

“Ya got it, boss.”

All expression fell from my face. There were even more veins shown, but the size of the Succubi’s realm drew my attention. For some reason boundaries were drawn on this map but not the other. “Lilith’s territory is so large. How does it compare to the surface world?”

Richard thought for a minute. “Well, imagine North America was all one country. If you balled it up and widened it a bit, it would be about two of them combined.”

“That’s ridiculously large.” It also answered the question whether we were still in her territory or not. We were like next door neighbors to Matriarch’s Crown, the ruling city of the succubi realm. Lilith’s city. Sanctuary was also close to the border with the Vampires in the north. It also seemed like we were the furthest settlement east in her realm because of the lake Folken Shores. It wasn’t just any lake either. It would’ve probably been more accurate to call it a sea. Could a sea have fresh water?

“You think that’s big,” he said with a chuckle. “This is the Vampire Realm.”

Another border flashed. It was like fifty percent of the norther hemisphere was all theirs. From there, my eyes traveled east. I quickly found the dark elf’s Andheree Raat kingdom. It was small in comparison. Maybe the size of Australia. Next to it was another elf kingdom, then another and many other non-monster races nearby including the halflings and gnomes. The dwarves were the furthest east in a darkened area that looked to be made of underground tunnels. Not much of the area was shared.

The fae were in the northwest which seemed to border the other side of the dwarf realm. Many other monster races had smaller regions in the north like different were-creatures.

The minotaurs region was in the middle of the map and was slightly larger than the dark elf’s territory. The southern hemisphere had far more smaller realms. They were beast race kingdoms. The orcs had one of the largest near the bottom of the map. There were giants, cyclops, ogres, trolls, centaurs, fauns, dryads, and kobolds. Master Khaba had said the goblin empire had fallen, but there was a small kingdom of goblins in the south. I wondered if he’d be interested in visiting it.

What was also surprising is that there was an awful lot of area in the north and south that wasn’t claimed. It was only when I returned my attention to one of these borderless areas in the north that I realized why. There was an area with a small ocean and a lot of extra territory around it north of the dwarves and east of the vampires. In what looked like a mountainous region, there was a single word written. Dragons.

I snorted to myself. I’d been in the Underworld for over a year and still found it unbelievable. I’d even traveled through a tiny section of the vampire realm, but it was just too much—too large. The Hallow Exchange was in a corner in the southwest of their territory. Persepolis had been even closer to the border of the succubi’s territory. The Vampire’s Gate was just south of where it had been.

Giving Richard a sharp knock on his armored shoulder, I asked him to contact me if anything came up.

“You got it boss.”

As I headed toward our new ceiling feature in the form of a giant tunnel, I was creating Master Light Orbs one after the other instead of breaking and repairing them. It certainly wasn’t instant, but I had a mana regen of 100,000 MP a second. Every few minutes I could finish one without it dipping into my stored mana. Even if the dungeon wasn’t prepared for more than 10 Master Orbs, I was determined to change that as soon as possible.

In my Advanced Ascended Form, I cast 15x Mind Buff for a bonus 9,000 Intelligence and Wisdom. It gave me an extra 5.4 million MP to play with. It cut into about a quarter of my mana regen, but it wouldn’t hinder my ability to make Master Orbs as I worked.

Steve appeared out of the cave swine den, and I waved.

Brushing his hands against each other, he held it up in response.

It looked like he was heading to breakfast so I wouldn’t stop him. I remembered how he’d admitted to hanging out while invisible to relax and avoid the other’s questions when he wanted to be alone. He was an introvert, which I understood. He’d also been a good person to ask about how the others seemed to be doing. I’d have to speak with him later.

I glanced up once I reached the corner to see a perfectly round cavern staring down at me. Instead of flying, I bent low and tried to judge the angle. Then I jumped. I wasn’t using In the Buff, but with 10,000 in each physical stat, it wasn’t difficult. I considered what we should do about going from the Dungeon to Cavern Level. Stairs maybe? Was there some kind of Underworld elevator? I could look into building some kind of Transport Array.

Jumping from on side of the tunnel to the other as I ascended was quite leisurely. I reached the top, and immediately brought up my Portaling Blue Magic details.

Base Cost: 1,000,000,000 MP per mile traveled.

62,500,000 MP for every 100 meters traveled.

I quickly calculated the cost.

Pristine Mana Control

The amount of total mana you possess is now calculated with a multiplier of +600 for every point of Intelligence.

For each point of Wisdom imparts 1 Mana Per Second.

All spells cost 90% less mana to cast.

All spells are 100% more powerful.

So to travel a mile it would cost me a 100 million MP, or 6.25 million just to go 100 meters. With such a cost at its current level, the spell wasn’t worth casting. Eventually, it might be worth it.

There was another problem. I could only cast it with the help of a targeting array. It looked like that was something we’d have to build. In the long run, it would likely be worth it, but there was so much I needed to do now. Chief amongst my priorities was to grandmaster Light Magic. I didn’t want to sit on unspent stat points longer than necessary. Many, if not all, of other priorities depended upon or would benefit from advancing it. Including my Blue Magic, Calamity, and advancing Dark Magic.

It made me wonder if I could make use of Trueblooded Vampire Form’s 10,000 Intelligent bonus to force my way to 100,000 Intelligence, but if that were so I was still too far away. Blue Magic Forms usually didn’t allow me to unlock stat bonuses from their buffs, either.

Coming out of my musing, I looked up to find Shamash and Khun waiting for me.

“Sorry for making you wait,” I said, greeting them both.

“Did you bring it?” Shamash asked.

“I did.”

Finding a nice and flat area, I removed the casket from my inventory and sat it there. I also removed the spirit projector he had used to appear. This spirit projector wasn’t the original one. Instead of taking apart the Mana Cannon that had been upgraded and was now a more permanent fixture in The Pits, Khun had simply made a duplicate. With all our ore, the little he’d learned from me about Arcane Engineering, and the fact he was an awesome Dungeon Spirit, it hadn’t been difficult even if it cost a good chunk of DP.

“Excellent,” Shamash said, glowing brighter as if unable to contain himself. “Now there are two steps you must take. The order doesn’t matter. You must increase the number of orbs Sanctuary can utilize. Secondly, you must fortify this location. I recommend a necropolis. Not one that will cover the entire city, but one massive building to protect the passage to Lower Sanctuary and act as a crypt for the Wraith. Specifically, a pyramid. It will allow us to keep him under control, while giving him a level of freedom he didn’t have before. Master Khun will be granted authority over him in this way.”

I saw the impact Shamash’s words had on Khun. He was glancing up as if imagining where the crypt might stand.

When he noticed I was watching him, he lowered his gaze.

“I like it,” I insisted. “What do you think?”

He thought for a moment before responding. “I don’t know of a better way.”

“Great. Aeris will be here soon. After talking to her, we’ll get started. How much will it cost to increase the number of orbs you can use?”

“It depends on how many you’d like me to utilize. 50,000 DP would give me access to two more, while 1,000,000 DP would allow me to make use of 100.”

“Then let’s start with you spending everything you got. Spend extra DP if it will speed it up, and if you need your cores then just let Richard know. He has a few hundred on hand to switch them out as you need.”

The once cocky dungeon spirit stood there motionless. “For 10,000,000 DP, I can build an incubation chamber that will allow me to hold a Refinement Chamber which will allow me to hold 1,000 orbs and finish the work today.”

“That’s more like it.”

“Should—should I begin?”

“Are you able to work on that and this pyramid as long as we provide you enough DP?”

A grin tugged at his mouth. “It will take longer, but yes.”

“Good. Then go ahead and get started. We’ll get Aeris’s opinion before moving forward.”

“Yes, Master.”

I quickly calculated how much DP 1,000 Master Orbs would grant us. Turning to Shamash, I asked. “Will 400,000,000 DP be enough for us to get started?”

“Started, yes. To build more than a small town, its just the beginning. With your ability to create orbs, spending extra to fortify each building isn’t something you can afford to neglect. Keep making orbs. The next few days will be busy.”