Maria found out about this other face that Vanhal had when she completed the foundations for the upper level and inner level of Heltania Undercity.
The underground area of the Undercity was originally just a dome that was located beneath the surface city but after the foundations for the two levels were completed, which was around the half year mark since she arrived on Vanhal in the real world, the first underground monsters suddenly broke through this dome-shaped enclosure and attacked the city.
Maria and her forces were caught off guard during this first attack since they didn’t know about the monsters’ existence before, so they hadn’t prepared any defensive measures against any possible attacks and suffered immense casualties, while the city was severely damaged as it bore the brunt of the underground monsters’ attack and was nearly destroyed.
At the time, Maria was still relatively weak compared to the underground monsters, so she had a hard time fighting against them, but in the end, she managed to repel them. That's right, she only repelled the monsters, not defeat them, and because of that, the monsters would sometimes come back and attack her city while it was still under construction which delayed its completion.
From then on, however, more and more monsters continued attacking and when Maria finally obtained the strength needed to overpower those monsters, she completely wiped them out every time they attacked her city again.
After numerous cycles of repetition, Maria grew completely annoyed with the monsters and finally decided to explore the cave paths that the monsters created to find the source of the problem–their nest–and destroy it once and for all, eliminating the problem altogether. However, what she found out instead was that there was another side, or another face, to Vanhal, and it was the subterranean world she discovered underneath Vanhal’s surface that she dubbed as the ‘Underworld’.
Vanhal’s Underworld was like a completely different world and it coexisted with the surface world like two sides of the same coin, which was why Maria said that Vanhal had 2 faces.
The Underworld had its own unique environment and ecosystem that actually allowed it to be habitable for not only monsters, but also people. Maria had only explored the area roughly 50 kilometers around her Undercity and found 2 different biomes that were suitable for people to live in and were teeming with life and unique underground resources that couldn’t be found on the surface world.
She hadn’t thoroughly explored those areas because the monsters she encountered were very strong and they lived in large colonies. She had tried attacking one of those colonies before and nearly got logged out because of it. The monsters were so persistent that they chased her around the area for a few days before finally letting her go. It was the biggest humiliation of her gaming life, but at least no one was there to witness it since she had gone alone and didn’t stream it.
Although it was good content, Maria wanted to keep the Underworld a complete secret because it was very special. When Maria finished her rough explanation about the Underworld, her friends were wide-eyed and their excitement showed on their faces.
“Holy s***! That is amazing! An underground world, that’s so awesome!”
“A world that has monsters that are strong enough to give even Mary a run for her money…that sounds quite exciting…”
“So, this is what you were exploring in secret, huh?”
Maria continued explaining to them that it was only recently that she had established a few exploration teams to start exploring and marking the area around the Undercity for any valuable resources they could mine. She tasked them with exploration, but they weren’t exploring any of the areas outside of the 50-kilometer mark that Maria had already explored.
Instead, they were to keep within the 10-kilometer zone because going past that would send the exploration team headfirst into a bunch of monster colonies. Even then, the area within the 10-kilometer zone still had many places that needed exploration because Maria hadn’t explored those areas thoroughly enough when she passed by them. Also, they needed to find mineable resources that Maria would've likely missed in the places she's already been to because she lacked the necessary skills to identify them.
“So, you’re only sending them out to find and gather resources? That sounds…boring,” Lizzy said.
“Well, if you guys want to, we can go hunting together past the 10-kilometer zone,” Maria offered.
“That sounds great!”
“Be warned, though. The monsters are really strong and they come in hordes. If the situation gets too dangerous, we have to run but don’t get separated during the retreat. Also, don’t retreat in the direction of the city. I don’t want the monsters to get there and potentially damage it.”
“Damage it? Even with the city’s incredible defenses?”
Maria shrugged and helplessly said, “The underground monsters have absurd physical and magical defense. It’s to the point where all my attacks are barely half as effective as they normally would be.”
“...They’re that tough, huh?”
“Yeah, and let’s not forget to mention that they also have absurd HP levels…and these are only the mobs! The bosses, mini-bosses, and even the elites are more powerful.”
“...”
“Their defenses, HP, and resistances are what makes them so difficult to deal with while their attacks are–” Maria paused for a moment to think before continuing, “Well, I don’t think they’re anything special. I can easily dodge them and they can never hit me, so I don't know how strong they actually are.”
“I see…so when are we going on our expedition?”
“I’m ready to go any time, but how about you guys? Don’t you have something to do on the surface? You can’t just leave behind your guild and drop everything to come with me to the Underworld.”
Lizzy and the girls were reminded of their responsibilities and began to groan at their dilemma. Before being guild executives, they were still just players after all. They were excited about going on an adventure, but their duties were holding them back.
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Maria saw their conflicted and unwilling looks so she spoke up and tossed them a bone, “Just go and do whatever you guys need to do on the surface. The Underworld isn’t going anywhere and we can just postpone our adventure to a later date. I’m only sending my exploration team out there to find resources and set up outposts. Naturally, I won’t be going with them since I don’t need to babysit them anymore like before.”
“Really?! You won’t be going without us?”
“Yeah and just to let you know, but this would be my first hunting expedition in the Underworld. I’ve been busy with my country all this time, so I never had the opportunity to hunt or explore the Underworld properly. The 50-kilometer zone I mapped around the city was only possible because I was running around trying to escape the monster colony’s pursuit and got lost…” Maria said with a dark look on her face.
“Ah…why am I not surprised?” Lizzy said with a look of schadenfreude.
When Maria saw that look, she immediately punched her friend’s arm while Emily spoke up and asked, “So, how long did it take you to find the city?”
"Did you set a new record for yourself, Mary?"
Even though Lizzy wanted to joke about it, Maria's answer left them all shocked.
“...1 week… 1 real-world week…”
“Eh?”
“Ah?”
“S-So…3 in-game weeks? You were lost for nearly a month in the Underworld?!” Amanda exclaimed in absolute shock.
Maria smiled wryly at her friends' shocked looks and said, “The Underworld has a unique feature that stops the use of any teleportation abilities, so I couldn’t call Lilah or anyone else to my side. Thanks to that, I had no one to guide me back and was left alone to my own devices. Also, once you step out of the city, the minimap will stop working and you have to start using a physical map…"
Maria pointed to the map on the table nearby and continued, "I obtained the [Cartography] skill at some point thanks to that…”
“...”
“...”
“Goodness…this is why I keep telling you to fix that side of you!” Amanda said as she walked over and pulled her friend into a hug. “Why do you have to be such a fool when it comes to directions? You can’t even read a simple map!”
“S-Sorry, but don’t worry though I think I managed to fix that side of myself! I was able to use my map to get back to the city! Isn't that great?"
"...Yeah."
"I guess...?"
"..."
Seeing their expressions, Maria continued to say, "And I wasn’t scared or anything! I thought it was a bit fun actually!”
“You say it was fun, but I won’t forget how you had that dark episode in school for 2 whole weeks! I was wondering why you looked so depressed, but when I asked, you said you were fine!”
Maria didn’t remember being depressed at all. If anything, she was slowly losing her patience back then. She was lucky all of it happened long before the players arrived in Vanhal.
Amanda was still hugging her and this caused Maria to give a flustered response to her friend who was glaring down at her, “...O-Oh…Ehh…Hehe?”
“Don’t ‘hehe’ me!”
“A-Anyway! I’ll have you guys with me now, right? So this time, I’m sure I won’t get lost!”
“Yeah, sure, but the Underworld…I don’t think it’s a suitable place for you to explore alone, Mary,” Lizzy said concernedly.
Even Emily spoke up to support her friends’ opinions, “That’s right. With your weakness–which I sincerely question whether it's fixed or not–you shouldn’t even think about exploring the Underworld alone. What were you thinking when you decided to go by yourself?”
“Well, I didn’t go by myself. Actually, I had come with a team and we were only exploring the area in the 20-kilometer zone but after we accidentally stumbled upon a monster colony, we immediately retreated and I got separated from them…” Maria explained.
“If you ever go exploring in the Underworld, make sure you call us or tell one of your more reliable subordinates to come with you, got it?” Amanda ordered and like a child, Maria nodded and said, “Yes, Ama…”
She nearly said ‘mama’ but thankfully her tongue didn’t slip and say such an embarrassing thing to her friend. Amanda was always the big sister figure of the group, though she was actually the youngest of them, but although she was the youngest, she was the only one among them who was an actual older sister. She took good care of her siblings and that habit followed her almost everywhere.
“That’s enough nagging for today," Lizzy said before she heaved a sigh and continued, "We failed as friends for not realizing that you were in a huge predicament back then."
Maria quickly shook her head and denied it, “Don’t say that. It was my fault to begin with and it’s not like you guys could’ve done anything to help me get out of there.”
“Yeah, but we could’ve at least done something…”
“I-It’s in the past so don’t worry about it, okay? Besides, I'd rather you guys not talk about it since it really wasn't one of my greatest moments...”
“...Alright, just make sure that next time you speak your mind and tell us if you ever need any help. We're your friends and that's what we're here for. You don't need to tackle every problem on your own, y'know.”
"Got it."
Amanda eventually released Maria from her hug and the 4 of them continued talking. Maria shared what happened to her when she had gotten lost and thankfully, Lizzy and the others didn't see any trauma in her eyes when she spoke about the events in detail. In fact, it seemed as if she wanted to go back down there as soon as she could.
After Maria finished retelling the events of her 'lost episode', she quickly said to her friends, “Let’s go back to the surface! You guys should finish whatever you need to do with the guild so that we can go exploring the Underworld as soon as possible! Last time, it was a horrible experience for me, so help me rewrite it into an awesome adventure, okay?”
“You got it. Let’s go back then!”
“Yup.”
“Most of our guild members should be in the city by now. If we get things done quickly, maybe we can start exploring tomorrow!”