Underworld - Book 2 - Chapter 28! (Last Chapter)

I removed all of my buffs and let Skeleton Armor revert to its most basic form. Aeris held me around the waist as I held her in my arms. She launched us up from the bottom of the chasm. As we neared the bridge we slowed, and she set us both down next to Skyler. He was being examined by Audrey as she gave him a tongue lashing.

Olivia rushed toward us and pulled Aeris into a hug.

“I can’t believe it. Somehow, we survived!” She said like a giddy school girl.

Travis appeared before me wide eyed, holding up a black sphere the size of a melon. I knew what it was immediately. 

“It’s another orb!” He said excitedly handing it to me.

He was right. It was the Dark Magic Orb that had been at the heart of Lady Contessa.

Why she had had an orb I didn’t exactly know. I had expected her life force to be in her blood like the Dark Elf, but I had been wrong. Perhaps, it was the difference between a monster race and one of the three prime races Zorik had mentioned: human, dwarf and elf. Maybe it was because she was pure blooded.

I inventoried the orb and offered him thanks.

Heavy steps came at us from the entrance of the room, stopping our celebration before it got started.

“I don’t believe my eyes.” Ujurak, the pale dwarf stood staring at us with his mouth drooped open. 

Immediately, I cast Creature Indicator.

Ujurak 

Dwarf

Level: 1,114

Health Points: 289,700

Mana Points: 490

Strength: 2,023

Dexterity: 349

Constitution: 2,897

Intelligence: 98

Wisdom: 203

He only came up to my chest, but his build was so wide that two adult men could sit on either shoulder. His blue plate mail and grey cloak looked menacing enough, but the befuddled way he looked at us easy the tension slightly. Still, he had an insane amount of HP and Strength.

“She’s dead!” Skyler called, as he gently removed Audrey’s hand from his arm and marched toward him.

Our bashers started to form up without word as they left the huddle and followed after him.

“Wait!” I shouted.

Skyler raised his hand high and gave a thumb’s up to indicating he heard me. He had stopped before reaching the end of the bridge. 

I hurried forward and squeezed threw the crowd. Sensing Aeris directly above me, I knew we had a chance to end this before a fight it even started.

I glanced and saw that I was now level 593. I had gained an incredible 23 levels for defeating the succubus while being grouped with 19 other people. It was 7 more than when we had defeated the Hell Hound. We had received bonus experience because the Hell Hound had been 1,000 levels higher than us. Not even taking into consideration how many levels I had received since then, but it was clear Lady Contessa had been much higher and was easily the strongest creature we had ever faced.

My armor had been at its most basic, so I was currently without a helm.

I walked directly toward the bewildered dwarf and let him see me as In the Buff filled my torso and limbs with size and strength, then Titan’s Bone Defense assembled itself before his eyes. As the horns of my Skeleton King’s Helmet reached their peak, Aeris took her place on my head.

When I was as close as I dared to stand, about two meters away, I lowered my head and looked him directly in the eye.

“Lady Contessa, is dead.” I promised him.

There was another moment where he didn’t move, then all of a suddenly his face lit up with a grin from ear to ear. He burst out in a howl of laughter. Before I knew it, he was spinning in a circle and stomping as he went. 

He ignored us in his enthusiastic mirth. 

Aeris gave a full belly laugh as I started backing away from the dancing dwarf.

“What are we going to do with him?” She asked.

I just shook my head.

***

Everyone took some time to take in what all had happened and checked their stats.

I pumped my Wisdom to 2,707 and my Mana Per Minute jumped up to 5,414, not including the 250 from my Channeler’s Orb.

Most of us congregated on the other side of the bridge and kept an eye on the dwarf as we let him be. His celebration went on for over 15 minutes.

It was time to finally look at all my popups.

Resurrection

By placing a concentration of Light Magic into a suitable host, you can pull them back to the world of the living when they are on the brink of death.

The number of Blue Magic spells I received from Lady Contessa were far less than it would have been if I would have used it on a succubi that was talented with Blue Magic. Still, there was nothing to complain about.

Succubi’s Caress

Through physical touch you are able drain the mana from a creature.

This one by itself looked extremely powerful. I doubted I would have any problems applying this to one of my bone appendages. After jabbing a creature with the claw at its end, I could then suck the mana from them as I continued to fight. At least, I hoped that was possible.

Seduce

This grants you an aura that triggers the release of oxytocin. Your target will feel drawn to you and have a sudden desire to have your affection.

It didn’t surprise me, but this was one I wished I could throw back.

Lesser Devour

By consuming a creature recently deceased, you are able to leech some of the power they had in life. As its level increases Devour will increase in the amount of power it can leech.

The very thought of devouring the monsters that I killed was disgusting, but it was likely the spell worked like Vampire’s Might and I didn’t really have to eat what I defeated. I guessed this was what made succubi’s so powerful. It gave me an idea.

“Heads up everyone!” I said raising my voice. “I’m going to try casting Blood Drain even though there doesn’t seem to be anything left.”

Walking to the middle of the bridge, I held up my hand and offered the spell an excessive 5,000 MP. I cast it just overhead.

Dark Magic tentacles burst from the heart of the spell and intruded on everyone standing there and everything in the room, drinking up even the smallest droplets of blood. Before it was done the spell had gathered gallons of what was left of the succubus in a liquid orb. The blood poured into my hand. My power surged.

+10,475 MP

+145 Int

+225 Wis

Closing my eyes, I smiled to myself. Lady Contessa had been just the kind of monster I had hoped for. I didn’t receive unnecessary stats, only the one’s I needed. My MP jumped to over 226k and my Mana Per Minute was close to 6,000! 

Now to try Devour.

With my hand still raised in the air, I cast it with the same amount of mana. I expected it to not be nearly as powerful as Blood Drain because it was the first use of it.

Almost immediately I was concerned I had cast Blood Drain a second time, for the way it reached out with dark threads of energy was identical, but when the sphere started to fill above my head, it was made up of a dark substance, not blood. As it filled me, the power I felt was just was real.

+2,000 MP

+7 Str

+8 Dex

Even though it had seemed to gather just as much from the walls of The Bridge, it seemed either its low level, or the fact I had already cast Blood Drain had lessened the stats I could leech with it. Not to mention, why had I received Strength and Dexterity now when I hadn’t with Vampire’s Might? I would consider that later. Now was time to celebrate the fact that we were still alive.

***

The dwarf happily let us lock him between two lesser doors in the Inner Chamber. We only spent 2,000 DP on two of the stone variety. When we offered him something to eat he thanked us, but said he had his own.

The group started to gather about an hour later and filtered into the Master Chamber. Everyone spread out so that they had a good view of the pedestal and the new image on the mural above us of Lady Contessa with a bone spear piercing her gut engraved under our feet.

Murmurs echoed through the group.

Taking out the Dark Orb, Khum’s ghostly red appeared above the pedestal.

“Welcome back, master. It is a pleasure to see that you’re still alive.” He offered while all the time not taking his eyes of the orb I held in my hand.

“Thank you, Khum. We have something for you.” I said, approaching the pedestal.

“That looks like a fine upgrade.” He nodded as he spoke.

“Do I need to place the new orb first, or can I remove the current one and put this in its place?”

“It is better to place it upon the podium first, so I have access to both, but if you remove the Fire Orb, it will be a few days before it will need to be replaced.”

I looked to Zorik, who I had spoken with beforehand and offered him a grin of thanks. He had told me that Dungeons are jealous by nature and even though they can’t act against your orders, he had seen Khum arguing with Xenos in the past. I had at least been able to confirm that Khum wasn’t lying to us.

Taking the Fire Orb from the middle socket, I replaced it with the larger Dark Orb. Dark energy shot down the veins of lighting at the podiums base. Seconds later, the wall to the right of the arch doorway thundered.

Now inscribed in the otherwise smooth segment of wall was the name of our Dungeon followed by 50,000/50,000 Dungeon Points. 

Cheers rose up as we saw the big jump up from 20,000.

“Russ.” I called, turning and offering him the Fire Orb as he approached.

He looked at me confused.

“I bet there is a forge around here somewhere that needs to be powered.” I said with a wink.

“Yes!” He replied, pounding his fist into his chest. He stomped off with a big grin on his face.

“What now?” Aeris asked from her perch.

Before I could answer, Skyler’s voice blared. “I’m hungry!” 

A chorus of laughs sounded in response.

“Master.” Zorik said, leaning toward me to get his voice to rise above the mirth.

“Yes Zorik?” I replied.

“We only have three, maybe four weeks of food if we ration it.”

Taking a deep sigh, I thanked him again.

“It seems our first form of business is going to be finding a consistent food supply.” I said to Aeris.

Khum took my words as if I was speaking to him and replied. “That, I could help you with, sir.”

Holding my hand up, I stopped him from going further and said. “Thank you, but first I must take your first piece of advice and explore the Living Distract. We will discuss it soon.” 

Everyone left in their own time to enjoy the first proper meal they had had in a few days. I stayed, taking the first watch of the dungeon map as everyone else ate. Aeris wouldn’t leave my side until I asked her to find someone that had finished eating to take our place. Later, I would set a constant watch, where everyone would take their turn keeping an eye on the map. For now, I would let everyone relax and recover. They had earned a much needed break.

***

The dwarf snored as he leaned back against the wall in the corner of the room we had locked him in. There was a stone partition running close to parallel to the wall so he was boxed in except from the direction we approached. His head was back, his mouth drooped open and he sounded like a humpback whale trying to blow its nose. The dwarf still wore his blue plate mail, but he had no weapons visible and his handed were folded together, resting comfortably on his stomach.

“Ujurak!” I said with a raised voice, standing a foot away from where he sat. My advisers stood behind me, ready to start the interrogation.

With a snort, the dwarf’s head rocked back and forth before settling to one side. He took a deep breath, that turned into a yawn.

“Ey.” He said, groggily. His eyes stretched open. “Have you decided where you are going to flee to next?”

Looking to Aeris who stood at my side, I raised a brow. This was not how I thought this would begin.

“Why would we run.” I asked.

“Ha! Look.” He sighed, leaning forward. “Lady Contessa was scary, I’ll give you that, but Mistress Nava is going to send her Captain after you next if we don’t return in a few days. Waldemar is far more powerful. You don’t want to have to deal with a Minotaur of a war-bull clan. A war-bull is a paid mercenary, not a slave.”

“How long do we have?”

He looked me in the eye and shook his head in contempt. 

“Maybe a week or two. Maybe more. It might be difficult for them to find us if none of the wargs escaped.”

“Does Waldemar have an army?”

“Yes. About eighty strong.”

“Do they use magic?”

“No boy.” He chuckled. “Minotaurs throw things.”

“We’ll be ready.” I swore, trying to seem more confident than I felt. “Are their any other dangers we can expect?”

He nodded. His eyes never left my own before he said. “Yaatiesh was the son of a noble family. Don’t ask me how dark elf politics work or why he had sworn himself to that crazy succubus. But he was here on his own accord. If Mistress Nava doesn’t get to you first, then the dark elves will. If they ever find out what happened to him that is.”

I heard a murmur rise up from behind me. Someone leaned forward and whispered in my ear. It was Russ.

“Maybe we can ally with the dwarves.” Was all that he said.

Ujurak suddenly hocked up a big loogy and spit. It landed an inch from my foot.

“Dwarves don’t ally or go friending no spoiled humans!” He insisted.

I needed to remember dwarves had good hearing. His reaction surprised me. Especially after we had saved him from slavery, our intention or not. The only other dwarf I had met was the merchant, so I didn’t know what way to approach this problem. Remembering the other dwarf gave me an idea.

“What about trade?” I asked.

As quickly as he had turned on us, his scowl turned to a grin.

“Well. If you aren’t looking for no handouts, then perhaps we can do business.” He replied.

“That was easy.” Olivia huffed.

He inclined his head to the side to see passed me and said. “Gold talks missy. Dwarves always respond well to turning a profit.”

“I also hear they like soft sheets.” I replied, remembering the merchant dwarf.

His eyes lit up and her turned back to me. “That they do my boy!” With a throaty chuckle. “So what kind of trade are we talking about here?”

“One moment.” I said, before turning around and facing the others.

They all looked at me with looks of concern, which were appropriate give the fact we had learned there was another enemy on its way soon enough. A stronger one.

“Olivia. Can you give the others the news please?” I said.

She gave me a nod.

I continued. “It looks like our break ends here. We need to start to prepare. Meet in the Master’s Chamber in one hour. Those who are interested can stay as we finish with Ujurak.”

“I’ll stay.” Russ said immediately. No doubt wanting to talk to the dwarf about forging. He had talked to many of the other dwarves who had still been building our forge when we had to flee from the Head Mistress’ Dungeon. Perhaps, I should let him lead the conversation.

Besides Aeris and Russ, the other’s left, hurrying off to inform the others and begin planning. Today we had a great victory, but with the new revelation about Mistress Nava’s Captain and the Dark Elves, I got the feeling our fighting had only begun.

“Um. One last think.”

Turning, I saw Mel had stopped at the door.

“Yeah?” I asked.

He replied in all seriousness. “Can I have the dark elf’s skull?”