Underworld - Sanctuary: A LitRPG Series, page 10
Constitution: +500
+1% Constitution
-30% Dexterity
Special Abilities: Stone Skin, Hammer Fist, Boulder Throw
Caster’s Height and Mass are doubled.
Stone Skin - Passive
Next Level:
Cost: 2,485 Mana Per Minute (497 with bonuses.)
Constitution: +500
+2% Constitution
-30% Dexterity
Note: The Dexterity penalty is reduced by 1 every 3 levels.
Besides the Dexterity penalty, the form was amazing. It seemed the penalty was less than it would have been if I cast Stone Skin without the form. With leveling, they could both be negated though!
“Elorion!” Chris screamed as he ran into the room like a crazy person.
Travis ran jovially behind him.
“That was huge!” Chris continued. “Not the giant. Well yeah, he was huge too, but the experience! I got 21 levels!”
No wonder he was celebrating. That was a huge bump. Looking down, I saw I had gained 14 levels myself. It wasn’t even 500 levels higher than I was, but because there were only four of us and it was the first Rock Giant we had faced, we made out quite well.
“Sixteen levels for me!” Aeris cheered as she touched down next to us.
“Twelve for me!” Travis chuckled.
That put Aeris at level 407 and 13 levels from 1,000 Dexterity! Chris had climbed to level 324 and Travis had reached 378.
“Move back, everyone. I’m going to cast Drain,” I warned.
“On a rock?” Travis asked.
“It bled. I checked,” I replied with an exaggerated wink.
Casting Drain, I watched as brown blood seeped up from the mass of cooling rock into a large mana orb and flowed into me.
+215 Constitution
I blinked a couple of times, not believing my take. It was the highest amount of Constitution I had ever taken at one time and it was from a single, moderate level creature. I had trouble believing my eyes. All of a sudden, I had 1,038 Constitution.
Unyielding
You will now receive +100 HP per point of Constitution.
Robust Internals
15% Internal Damage Resistance
“What is it?” Aeris asked.
I looked up at her, keeping the straightest face I could manage. With a sigh, I shared my best frown. “I reached 1,000 Constitution.”
“You what?!” Chris spat, pushing his way passed Aeris to get a look at my popup.
When he saw my 130,816 HP, he blew out a long whistle.
I can’t say that I looked or felt any different. When Russ had reached 1,000 Constitution his entire body build had changed. It was more evidence of how important talents really were.
“Maybe we should try to find more of these Rock Giants,” Chris said.
“We didn’t notice any other life in the area,” I said. “Let’s check out that vault. Zorik said it’s probably impossible to open. Then we’ll check the side halls before we leave.”
We took a roundabout route to stay away from the pool of still steaming magma that now took up an entire corner of the room. We’d save our mana. The stairs up to the vault were clear, so we headed toward them.
“I can’t believe you got another stat to 1,000,” Aeris complained playfully while sitting down atop my helmet. I made sure to shrink my armor back to normal size before she got too comfortable.
“I can’t either,” I admitted.
Running up the stairs to try and be the first one there, Chris stopped short of running into it and rapped his knuckles against the obsidian surface.
“Careful!” I bellowed. “The doors are filled with mana.”
“It’s solid,” Chris responded, but took a step back just to be safe.
Travis played it safe and tested it with the blunt end of his spear. “It seems normal enough.”
Aeris flew up as I began to climb the stairs. A concentrated Wind Slash pounded into the doors’ surface just over the other guy’s heads and dissipated, not even leaving a mark.
Even in the mana spectrum, nothing reacted.
I got close enough to touch the surface of the door but held a hand up and cast a number of different elements into it at point-blank range, watching to see if anything would change. Nothing. The strength of this magically enforced rock looked to be far stronger than anything we had seen before.
I reformed my Warhammer, giving it a mighty whack. Not a scratch. Redepositing my Warhammer, I placed my naked hand against it to see if I could feel anything from the wall. It felt just like smooth stone. I’d have loved to try a few of my most powerful spells, but I suspected they would have had the same effect. Maybe if we’d had more time.
“Okay, guys. Let’s get going,” I said, before giving it one last good push. As I did, the wall lost its substance, remaining visible, and I passed right through it. I nearly fell on my face, being caught off guard, but caught myself before I could.
Finding myself inside the tomb with the door between me and my friends, I turned to try and go back the way I had come. As much as I pushed, I knew the moment I had fallen through the wall that I was trapped. For some reason the tomb had let me in.
I called out, but there was nothing but the echo of my own voice. I couldn’t hear the others and trying to reach out to Richard did nothing.
An airy voice then called out to me from the tomb’s depths in a language I did not understand. Turning back from the blocked path, I turned to face whatever was inside.
Chapter 8 – A Wraith’s Welcome
The voice called again, and it wasn’t unkind, which thoroughly gave me the creeps. I was unaware of the language it spoke, but the inflection it used made its desire clear. It was trying to entice me to come.
I immediately recast Bone Titan’s Defense, pumped my Wisdom with the 14 levels worth of stats I had received and checked to see how much mana I had left.
Level: 607
Health Points: 130,816
Mana Points: 172,664 /206,499
Mana Per Minute: 6,766
Attributes
Strength: 990
Dexterity: 1158
Constitution: 1038
Intelligence: 1,169
Wisdom: 3,083
I still had a comfortable amount of mana remaining and just over 2,500 mana per minute available. Equipping my scepter, I enhanced it into a bone Morningstar, which was more mana efficient than a larger weapon’s cost, and cast Skeleton Warrior’s Shield. Lastly, I cast Invisible. Better to be safe than dead.
The entire arched ceiling was made of the same obsidian as the outer court. Gloom settled down upon me. The only light was a purple glow from a Dark Mana vein that ran above. Even the ground was dark with a mirror finish playing tricks with the light, forcing me to rely mostly on Mana Sight. Even stranger, there was a weight to the mana in the room that caused real physical pressure.
I took slow steps down the long corridor, which angled downhill at a gentle decline. Settling my breathing, I look for the source of energy that had powered the vault, thinking I could possibly manipulate it to trigger the door, but there was no sign of the elemental mixture of mana.
The voice deepened, purring as if pleased. Again, it spoke, but this time in question.
I didn’t want to give myself away, though I doubted my Invisibility would do much good here. I had wanted to try to converse with the giant anyways. Why not a tomb?
“I do not understand,” I said in a level tone.
The voice did understand me. Its tone changed to that of a wizened old man. “What are you? Magma Mage. I do not recognize your race.”
Oh great. The last thing I wanted was to reveal that I was human and come face to face with some Underworld racism. I had a suspicion it would involve being eaten alive.
“I’m human,” I finally responded.
“Hu-man,” the voice said to itself. “Long ago… yes. I remember your race. They came from above. Noble at first, but easily corrupted… Not long thereafter. Before you were driven out. Such a lust for power. And foolish you were...”
“I hope not to repeat the mistakes of the past.”
“Of course. Of course, you do... Come. Come, child… I can help. Power I have and power will be yours.”
I stopped at its words. “Once I have this power, can I leave?”
“No, leave… Why? You have killed my guardian, so my guardian you will become. My power I will give you. Come. Come…”
Oh great. My worst fears of being stuck here would soon be realized if I didn’t find a way out. But how?
“Who’re you?” I asked as I continued down the corridor, heading deeper into the tomb.
“I am… not who I was. This is my eternal state. I made it and it sustains me.”
“Made it? Your tomb sustains you?”
“Oh yes. The design of these halls is mine alone. The mana machine gives me form and life. It is unique like none other. Even among my own race, my genius shone the brightest.”
“The red skinned soldiers that were engraved in the walls on our way here. Are they your people?”
The voice moaned as if the memory pained him. “The Ireki. Yes… We are ancient. The first… Gone now, I fear, but we discovered the elements and brought them under our control. All others were primitive… They begged in our streets for any scraps.”
“What happened?” I asked, my curiosity growing despite the danger.
“We became fat, immoral and bored… We experimented on the other races. They grew powerful. Jealousy and vengeance brought them to our door, and in their ambition, they wiped us out. We should have hoarded magic to ourselves, but the promise of coin was too much to pass up. So long ago… Millenia.”
I neared the bottom of the corridor, which opened into a round chamber. At its center was a purple bonfire as high as my chest. I took a moment to examine the room before I made my presence known.
The voice had stopped. It waited as I took in the new marvel.
The walls and floor were made of the same obsidian as the rest of the tomb, but when I looked up, the ceiling was lit up with the brilliant glow of mana. Great cords that shone with every color from the light spectrum reached out from the edges of the room toward a crystalline sphere. The cords connected around the circumference of the sphere, empowering it. A storm of mana from every school swirled around on the inside of it in a vortex. How it didn’t explode baffled me.
“Behold, my mana machine!” the voice proclaimed. It was coming from the fire.
“A what?” I asked.
“A mana machine. This one is of my own design. Their uses are vast. It gives me the ability to interact with the physical world. Like this!”
With a crackle, the fire shot up, but instead of reaching flames the form of a person climbed high overhead. He was robed in a cloak with a billowing collar. Though it was impossible to know if his skin was red in the purple light, his large catlike eyes and high sitting ears made him the spitting image of the red-skinned race.
He looked down at me like an aristocratic snob, gifting me with the privilege of gazing at his image.
I used Creature Observation. My discovery didn’t bode well.
Ireki Wraith
Name: Forgotten
Health Points: NA
Mana Points: NA
Note: Wraiths are formed when their mana is trapped in death and forced to remain whole.
It looked like as a wraith he didn’t have any form on his own. This tomb must have been keeping his mana in place and giving him life somehow
Light danced across the glassy walls, revealing long thin columns built into the obsidian that ran from the ceiling all the way to the floor and reached toward the center of the room. They were scattered every couple of feet all around the room.
I studied the flow of mana with Mana Sight at full power. Dark Mana ran down the columns and across the floor to the fire, giving it power. It seemed the mana machine somehow converted other forms of mana into Dark Magic somewhere above the vortex where I couldn’t see.
The idea of mana machines confused me. “Are they like dungeons?”
He sneered. “We invented dungeons. They’re just mana machines with the ability to create lesser ones.”
“But… Aren’t dungeons alive?” Had he turned himself into a dungeon spirit?
With a frustrated sigh, he replied, “Yes, yes. In a manner of speaking. All mana machines are directed by the will of a master. But enough of this… Come,” he entreated, opening his arms to embrace me. “Become my guardian. I will make you powerful!”
End of the line. Taking the creature up on the offer was not something I was going to chance. I had a feeling anything he gave me would come with chains attached. Not that I was much better off at the moment. Still, I currently had options. Nothing had presented itself as a means of escape and fighting this…thing…seemed like nothing but a losing battle. The only thing that seemed to be working in my favor was that the guy liked to talk.
I considered Primordial Beast Form and trying to bust through the vault at the top of the corridor. It was possible, but I would only have a few seconds to try it before it drained me. I didn’t want to be left in here without any mana.
I needed to buy time.
“Before that. Can you tell me about this marvelous creation? I’ve never seen anything like it.” I asked with all the flattery I could muster.
The Wraith glared down upon me, unmoving. I feared I had offended him and was about to see what he was capable of, when he lowered his chin and showed his teeth, grinning widely. “This is my audience chamber. Splendid, isn’t it? The machine’s prime purpose is to work as a projection engine. That is what makes it possible for you to see my image and for me to form a mana link with you.”
Mana link… That didn’t sound good.
I made a show of releasing my Invisibility spell and looking up at the mana machine in awe. Though I doubted it would prove much use, I decided to charge up Mana Sight and cast Force Learn on the crystalline orb to get a closer look. If my freedom wasn’t on the line, I’d have found it interesting anyway.
Time came to a standstill and I found my consciousness wading in the vortex of power. To say I was shocked was an understatement. Unlike the simplicity of a living creature, the dozens of mana streams, and how they flowed and interacted with one another, were unveiled.
I was able to see the tomb as if from above and how it acted as one colossal mana catch that spanned far further than this tomb suggested throughout this area of the Underworld. The literal weight of the world, countless tons of earth from above, pressed down to empower it. The mana catch led to a refinery underneath it, many meters above the tomb’s ceiling level. It separated the different elements through refining crystals, then filtered them into giant coils made of an unknown substance that acted as a battery. From there, cords of mana ran to sixteen different mana machines. The one above my head was just one of many.
Like electricity, the different forms of mana ran down their cords and into the crystalline orb, where it was compressed before going through another filter that converted it into Dark Mana. It ran down the sides of the room and into the center to power the Wraith’s mana projector.
It was then that I noticed that Light Magic was the only school of magic not in use by the machine. That had to mean that the reaction between the two magics meant they could not be used together. It also made me painfully aware of the danger of letting the Wraith give me its power. It had called me a Magma Mage. Was it unable to sense what I was capable of? I’d even used multiple elements against its vault before I fell through, so how did it know I used Magma but not that I used the other elements?
The Rock Giant. Of course. When I defeated it, I must have blinded the wraith to the area outside of its vault. Knowing it used the giant to see through made me even more reluctant to let the thing leech off of me.
Time was almost up and yet I had only begun to understand. I had used much more mana than this when I cast Force Learn on Xaphan, which had allowed me to stay for an extended period of time, but I had let it build before casting it. I was in the middle of a cast of the spell this time, but I didn’t want it to end. That didn’t stop me from trying to will more mana to be used to fuel my time in this state. I didn’t know if it was working, but I quickly moved on to trying to finish my exploration.
I moved on to the next machine, which had a similar design, but a different filter. It was a machine that worked with other machines to provide energy to a long rectangular container. No, it wasn’t a rectangle in shape. It was a coffin.
Every machine led to this one place. They supplied it with mana and mana flowed from it. Like a computer, this was the brain—the processor. This was where the Ireki’s remains must be.
From there the entire operation started to make sense. Each of his sixteen mana machines had been designed for a specific purpose, but unlike physical machines of the world above, the work that these machines did required the will and direction of a master, or user. They weren’t limited to one job or action even if they were primarily used for one purpose. There were so many things it could do, but that didn’t mean it was limitless. The wraith had built himself a system to sustain his life after death. But he was also trapped.
Despite the fact that this creature wanted to steal my freedom and use me as his pet guard dog, I couldn’t help but feel pity for him.
It was almost enough, but I knew time was not on my side. My consciousness quickly returned to the machine in this room and looked for any possible way out. There was one thing that might work and not automatically kill me. When I found what I was looking for, I stopped trying to hold Force Learn any longer, and immediately shot back into my body.
I found I had numerous popups waiting for me. My mana now sat at 150k and climbing. So I could extend the time of Force Learn even after casting it.
The Wraith rose up multiple feet in the air and shrieked, “What did you do?!”
“I’m just admiring your work,” I replied, finding it difficult not to be rattled by the sudden outburst.
