Chapter 14: Anathi Deeps
It was difficult to track my progress as I walked through the unchanging halls of the castle's underbelly. After what seemed like most of an hour, the hallway opened up once again, though this time into a massive room that was at least as big as any house I'd seen. At the far end of the room past dozens of skeletons stood a red plane of light. After approaching the red wall, I noticed a pedestal protruding from the ground. Lying in a recess carved into the pedestal was a black ball. The ball was the most heavily and intricately engraved item I had seen, hundreds of glowing red lines and patterns interlocked one another upon the ball's surface.
Just past the pedestal, the plane of red prevented access or sight further into the vast room. Striding forward, I attempted to pry the sphere free, and to my surprise, It offered little resistance.
I jumped as the wall of red vanished immediately with a sharp static sound after the sphere left contact with the pedestal.
The cherry on top of my already considerable surprise was the small purple humanoid who had been sitting against the wall on the opposite side of the barrier.
Next to the creature lay a massive carved horn, nearly as large as the thing's body.
I quickly inspected the creature.
{Abyss Scavenger}
HP: 38/38
MP: 61/61
Type: Abyssian
Level: 5
Lore: Near the bottom of the food chain in the Abyss, these scavengers lurk in dark recesses, waiting to profit off the successful hunts of other abyss dwellers.
A cry of surprise came from the abyss scavenger, and it scrabbled for the horn. Fearing what help it might call for, I sprinted towards the abyss spawn, stashing the orb in my inventory while I ran.
Before the thing could even grab the horn, a crescent of cutting force was already halfway to its mark. Screeching, the scavenger dove below the arc, narrowly avoiding its edge. The arc did impact with the horn, and cleanly sliced it into two useless pieces.
The scavenger brought its short sword up in a block, and I met its guard with a downward strike, and was surprised to find the small creature could hold its own.
A few feints, parries, and probing thrusts later, the rhythm thumped in the back of my mind, and I began to outspeed the creature easily.
From there, the creature's relatively small heath pool only took a few blows to empty.
To my surprise, a green bow tied around a bag appeared by its body. I stepped up to the corpse and looted it.
You have received:
{Copper Coin} x61
{Lesser Essence of Abyss}x2
Upon looting the creature, hazy dark purple streamers flowed into me. I instinctively knew that the essence flowed into the essence anchor. Excited after finally finding my first essence, I decided to check a few of my other notifications that I had let pile up.
You have completed the quest: What dwells beneath.
You have gained 254 experience.
You have leveled up to level 6!
You have gained 8 free skill points!
Your skill in One handed Swords has increased to Novice: 7.
Your skill in Evasion has increased to Novice: 7.
Your skill in Essence Harvesting has increased to Novice: 2.
Your ability Peerless Rhythm has increased to Novice: 4.
Your ability Blade Manifestation has increased to Novice: 3.
Without much thought, I split my skill points between dexterity and intelligence. Focusing on my experience bar, I was pleased to see it was nearly half full. To my surprise, my mutation bar was nearing full, perhaps around 80%.
Wondering if I should try and go back to town or continue down the dungeon, I ended up deciding it wasn't worth the risk that I'd encounter the worm again.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
The area previously hidden behind the red barrier was truly immense. Every surface was made entirely out of the black stone, and possessed blue engravings that provided more than enough illumination to see by. Skeletons lined most of the floor, many holding weapons so rusted that they crumbled when I tried to pick them up.
I identified a couple of the corpses as human, as well as some that were similar to the abyss scavenger I killed. After spending a few more minutes attempting to loot anything of use among the remains, I made my way to the end of the room.
At the far end of the room two staircases we set into the wall several yards apart. The staircase on the left was angled downwards, and the staircase on the right led upwards. The right staircase had only a few steps visible, as a plane of blue energy blocked sight further into the tunnel.
With nothing else to do in the room, I walked over to the staircases. Both entrances were marked in a language I couldn't read. Additionally, to the left of each entrance lay pedestals identical to the one near the middle of the room. Only the rightmost staircase still had an orb slotted into the indentation, a blue film blocking the path down.
The left passages pedestal was cracked and missing its orb.
Deciding to do a little investigating, I reached for the engraved orb by the rightmost passage. An intense feeling of unease swept over me, and I yanked my hand back.
You have discovered a dungeon.
Recommendations:
Party members: 4
Average level: 6
Unwilling to risk dying with the odds so heavily stacked against me, I decided against attempting to solo the dungeon.
Curious to see if the leftmost passage was also a part of the dungeon, I took a few hesitant steps down the steps.
To my relief, no surge of negative emotion accompanied my steps.
With no other safe choice, I started down the steps.
After a few minutes of carefully navigating downwards, I was ripped from my thoughts as an announcement played through my mind..
System Alert! Arteria is the first player to reach level 10, and undergo their first class evolution!
My fingers tightened on the hilt of my sword as I recognized the name of my former team mate. Although Arteria and I had a pretty good relationship while we were both in Invictia, he had stood by as I was booted from the team.
As frustrating as it was to be 4 levels behind my former guildy, I was not surprised to see them in the lead.
This just meant I needed to step up my game and earn some system alerts of my own.
I looked up just in time to see a mace arcing towards my chest. An awful cracking noise rang out as my ribs buckled, and I suddenly wished I had put all 8 of my skill points into constitution.
A much taller and larger version of the abyss scavenger stood before me, tusks jutting from its obese body in random places. It gripped a crude mace made of a strange purple material in one massive hand.
I rolled to the side as it brought the club down in a crushing blow, one hand clutching at my side. The creature roared as the blue engravings on the floor flashed, and lightning coursed through its body.
Coughing blood, I stood, and poured mana into my sword before taking a few hobbling steps backward.
Unfortunately for the creature, by the time the lightning induced paralysis faded, my spell was already crashing into its chest.
The creature bellowed as a severed tusk tumbled to the ground.
Lurching backwards, the creature made some kind of gurgling noise in its throat.
Approaching more carefully, the beast swung its mace horizontally at me, careful not to strike any of the engravings. Ducking its swing, I cut at its stomach. This pattern persisted for nearly a minute, it was clear the aberrant was too hesitant to put much force into its attacks.
With each injury the creature sustained, the gap between our speed grew as a thumping rhythm invaded my mind. After a particularly nasty counter attack aimed at the monster's heel, the creature roared, and its skin changed from dark purple to a deep crimson.
Its eyes blazed with hatred, and it charged at me with reckless abandon, swinging its club two handed at my head. Back against the black stone wall, I dove to the side, barely evading the creature's monstrous swing.
Unfortunately for the beast, its swing smashed against the wall causing lightning to course through its veins once again.
Imbuing my blade with mana, I slashed at the creature's neck.
The projectile tore out of the blade from where I had made contact with the monster's neck, not so cleanly decapitating it.
Panting, I scanned the room for more danger, then collapsed.
The creature's single surprise blow had dealt over half of my health. Taking out the smoked meat Arcis had given me, I brought up its inspect window.
{Smoked Meat}
Type: Consumable
Effect: Restores 120 health over 30 seconds.
The smoked meat tasted similar to the dish I was served only several hours ago, although this time the meat was drier and tougher.
After recovering, I looted the monster, receiving some copper and three more lesser abyss essences. Upon inspecting the monster's corpse, I found out the creature was a level 7 Abyss Ogre.
The view of the path downwards was now blocked with a hazy blue fog. It was no wonder I hadn’t noticed the Ogres approach, I could hardly see more than a few steps down. What wasn’t clear was where the fog came from. I hadn’t noticed it at all when I first began my descent. Shrugging, I resumed my journey.
I was relieved when the last step finally came, and the fog cleared noticeably. Tension drained from my body as I took a short break at the foot of the stairs. Though the fog no longer completely obscured my vision, it still clung to the floor. The stairs had led me into another room.
At the far end of the room was an open door. Through it I could make out-
My breath caught in my throat. What I had mistaken for a door was actually a tear in the world. As the fog shifted around the uneven border of the portal, I attempted to make out where it led.
Dark purple stone was all I could discern before a surprised grunt sounded from a few yards away.
Mana had already finished pouring into my weapon as I laid eyes upon what had made the noise.
A deep horn shattered the silence, and I knew I had made a mistake. Less than a second after, my spell tore into the scavenger's neck, but the damage was already done.
After only a few seconds, a horde of purple skinned creatures began to spill through the portal.