The one thing they forgot was that if they were to die in the Underworld, they’d be logged out for a few hours due to the unique death penalty and be respawn in a random location near the area where they had been killed. Since they were right at the entrance to the second layer, dying there would mean that there was a high chance that a few of them, or even all of them, would respawn down at the Underworld's Second Layer.
Maria could probably escape alone given her abilities, but there was no way she’d leave her friends behind. They really shouldn't go down to the second layer, but with the monsters already hot on their heels and closing in, they really had no choice right now. It was either die there and get randomly respawned away from each other, or drop down together and look for an opportunity to make it back to the first layer without dying.
“Hurry up and let’s go. It’s better than us being chased into the Underworld’s Second Layer!” Lizzy said as she just jumped right down the entrance.
“We have no choice. Let’s go!”
“Mhm.”
Her friends jumped down, but Maria looked back at the monsters approaching them and sighed, “If only I was a little bit stronger.”
She said this before following her friends and jumping down to the Underworld’s Second Layer.
*DING*
Your party has discovered and entered a new area! As the first discoverers, everyone in the party will be given a 2x Item Drop Rate buff and a 2x EXP Gain buff for the next 72 hours!
Maria quickly dismissed the notification window and saw that her friends were already taking cover behind a rocky outcrop the moment she landed from the drop. They quietly gestured for her to quickly come over and she nodded, but before that, she took a brief look at her surroundings. After taking a glance, she noticed that there was a large horde of monsters roaming around aimlessly in the clearing nearby, so before she attracted their attention by staying where she was, she quickly dove over to her friends’ side and took cover.
“I expected this, but the number of monsters is more than I imagined,” Maria said to her friends.
Lizzy nodded before whispering with a bit of dread and excitement, “Yeah, and did you see their levels? They’re all at level 325 or above. That’s crazy!”
Even though they were in a rather precarious situation, Lizzy was still extremely excited. She really was just your happy-go-lucky friend who saw the upside of everything. She even looked like she wanted to jump in and attack one of them to get a taste of how powerful they really were. Fortunately, her friends were glaring at her meaningfully, so Lizzy only chuckled in response and didn't let her intrusive thought get the better of her.
Amanda peeked over from their cover and began analyzing the monsters, she noticed that their skin was glistening with a metallilc glow and sighed, “We really stand no chance against them. The level disparity is just too much and let’s not forget that these are the Underworld’s monsters, so evidently, they’re a lot stronger than their surface world counterparts plus they're super tanky, especially with that armor-like skin of theirs...”
“We have to be careful. We should find some place in the area to hide in and wait until there are fewer monsters around before we go back up to the first layer.”
“Let’s get going then. We can’t stay here any longer, the monsters that are coming back to the second layer will see us,” Emily said as she pointed towards an empty path that had no monsters. “Let’s go see what’s over there. I don’t sense any monsters’ presence in that direction.”
“Lead the way, Em. We’re right behind you.”
Emily nodded and began leading them away from their spot. Thankfully, they made a prompt decision to leave because not long after, just like Emily predicted, monsters began pouring down from the opening in the ceiling that led back to the Underworld’s First Layer. A few of the monsters even landed on the spot where Maria and her group were hiding earlier. Things would’ve turned really messy for them if they had stayed there any longer.
Being chased by those monsters through the second layer would only spell their inevitable doom because if a chase were to happen, all of the ruckus they caused would definitely attract more monsters to their area and once they were encircled from all sides, it was practically game over for them. Even worse would be if the monsters lingered in the area and didn't disperse because once they logged back into the game and respawned after the death penalty was over, they'd probably just die again if the monsters were still in the area.
After dying once and then a second time, their situation would spiral into an endless loop of respawning and dying because of the monsters if they were really unlucky. They'd essentially be trapped in the Underworld's Second Layer if things progressed in that direction.
The path that the girls took was completely free of monsters and this caused them all to let out a sigh of relief. Emily continued leading them through the path and eventually, they arrived at an antechamber that had walls that were sparkling with so much ore, crystals and other unknown minerals from the Underworld. Maria's eyes were sparkling with a little bit of greed when she saw this and wanted to check the place out, but Emily immediately ordered everyone to stop in a low voice, “Everyone, stop!”
"What's up, Em?"
"Look...this small room leads to somewhere bigger..." Emily replied as she pointed towards the other end of the antechamber.
When the girls saw it, Lizzy and Maria immediately got excited.
"Oh! You're right!"
“Wait, could that place be the–”
“–boss room. That is definitely the boss room!”
Amanda was the only one who paled when she realized that the place ahead could be a boss room and said, “...We should head back. I can't see the boss because of all the weird smog that's pouring out from that place, but we should go.”
“Agreed.”
Maria was at the rear of the group and she was the first to notice that there was a peculiarly foul smell wafting into the chamber and it was coming from behind her. When she turned her head around to see what was causing it, a warm air current hit her face. It brought the disgusting smell along which made Maria tear up as she began choking and gagging at the foul smell.
“Agh, what the he–” Maria’s voice got stuck in her throat when she saw the enormous pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at her and her friends from the entrance of the chamber behind her.
“Guys…I don’t think we can head back…” Maria said as she nervously swallowed her saliva and tightly hugged Cali who was in her arms.
Cali had a frown on her face and Maria covered her nose to prevent her from smelling the foul air. Lizzy turned around to question her, but her words got stuck in her throat when she saw what her friend saw and she involuntarily cursed out, “Oh, shit…”
“What’s wrong?”
“I think the boss is behind us…”
*DING*
You have encountered the Sunken Devourer, Zechenoa. Your party has contracted the unique debuff, Mark of the Devourer
Mark of the Devourer The unique smell of the Sunken Devourer, Zechenoa. For as long as you are marked, monsters and NPCs will run and stay away from you, but the Devourer will continue to hunt you as it can track you down with it. The mark will remain unless you die, or incapacitate/kill the Devourer.
“W-What the heck is this debuff?” Lizzy asked.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Who cares about that…I think I might throw up from this horrible stench!” Emily quipped as she pinched her nose.
“Horrible stench? I think I’ll throw up just looking at this Devourer guy…”
When Amanda said this, the girls slowly backed up and looked at the monster. Chills ran down their spines as their bodies seized with utter aversion and disgust. They continued to slowly back up into the room that they believed was the boss room and noticed that the place was extremely huge, and there were a lot of large holes in the walls.
These holes acted as entrances that led to this place and there were so many of them because this room was many times larger than the chamber that they were just in and they were the size of the large putrid monster that slowly followed Maria and her friends into the place. From the looks of things, the large holes were created by this monster and it used them to get in and out of this place that was likely its nest.
"Oh, come on...that thing looks just as bad as it smells..."
"Guys...I really think I might throw up."
"I-I'm usually afraid of insects...but this thing just outright disgusts me..."
The girls were able to finally get a better look at the monster after it had entered the large place and was illuminated by the glowing rocks in the area. It was extremely large and was a hybrid-insect monster that was a combination between an ant, a beetle, a centipede, a spider, and a snail.
The monster’s head was in the shape of a rhinoceros beetle as it was covered in a thick black shell and had 2 large horn-like protrusions growing from its face. A pair of large yellow eyes glared down at the girls as the monster’s sharp and menacing mandibles clicked gleefully. Yellowish-colored corrosive liquid dripped down from the opening that was its mouth as the insect abomination eyed its lunch that just walked into its nest.
The monster's body was shaped like an ant with its thorax being quite large as numerous spider-like legs protruded from either side of it. Its abdomen part made up most of its body mass as it was extremely large. On top of the abdomen was a large, rock-like shell that the monster was dragging around, which made it look like a snail. It seemed incredibly heavy and the girls couldn’t help but wonder how it was able to move around.
There was just no way its spider-like legs could do the job on their own and the girls soon noticed that there were numerous centipede-like legs growing on the underside of its abdomen, so the mystery of the monster’s mobility was quickly answered. The monster’s appearance was extremely grotesque and anyone who had any kind of insect-related phobias would definitely pass out if they saw this creature.
Although its appearance was shocking and unnerving, the rock-like shell that it was dragging around on its back like a snail was what caught the girls’ attention. It had many holes in it and some kind of slimy liquid was oozing out of them, coating the shell along with the abdomen part of the Sunken Devourer along with a portion of its thorax. The liquid seemed highly corrosive and a sickly green gas was wafting into the air from it.
Maria and the others immediately figured out that the slimy liquid that was coating a large portion of the monster’s body was the cause of the disgusting stench that they were forced to smell. They immediately started complaining amongst themselves even though they were in such a dire situation.
“The devs really went wild on this monster. Not only does it look disgusting, but it also smells disgusting as well.”
"Yeah, I know right? Couldn't they make the Underworld monsters a little more elegant? Who the hell would want to farm in this place if they're forced to fight monsters that look like they're straight from a nightmare?"
“Guys, who cares about that. Check that thing’s level…”
“[Inspect].”
Name: Zechenoa, the Sunken Devourer Level: 450 HP: ???/??? MP: ???/??? SP: ???/???
“Oh. My. God."
“W-We can’t kill this guy…there’s just no way!”
“Well if we can’t kill it, then start running!”
Maria and the others weren’t even going to try and attack the Devourer becuase its level was a whopping 450 and that was more than twice as high as Maria’s level. Levels may not be that important in the game because stat points was what really mattered, but if the disparity was extremely huge like in this case, then that was an entirely different matter altogether. The girls may be able to inflict damage onto the monster, but would their damage be able to keep up with its natural battle recovery?
The group found the answer to this question almost immediately after Lizzy launched an attack at the Devourer. She did manage to do over 60,000 damage, but the green numbers that popped up almost half a second later immediately caused the girls to despair.
+10,000,000
"What the fu–"
"Liz, language! Cali's here!" Emily immediately said as she interrupted her.
"Fudge! What the fudge!"
Amanda did a quick calculation and spoke up with complete disbelief in her voice, "If it's natural recovery is ten million...doesn't that mean it has one billion HP?"
"1% of 1 billion is...ten million...holy shi–"
"Language!"
"Shillings! Holy shillings! Let's book it!"
Since it just wasn’t possible, the girls quickly decided to run away. They were just about to run when Lizzy noticed that their friend, Maria, wasn't there with them.
"Guys, where's Mary?"
"Oh, no..."
They thought that their battle-crazed friend had jumped into battle, but they were completely wrong with their assumption. Taking a frantic look around, they didn't see their friend anywhere near the boss monster, but after hearing her voice echo from the distance, they all snapped their heads in her direction and saw where she was. A distance away, close to one of the large entrances that led to the boss room in the completely opposite direction that the Sunken Devourer was currently at, Maria was there and was calling out to them with Cali in her arms, "Guys, I told you earlier to just run!"
"M-Mary?! What the hell?!"
"I-I can't believed that you just ditched us!"
"Hey! I didn't ditch anyone! You guys were the ones dawdling!"
Maria pouted before stretching out her hands and releasing her Chains of Greed. She shot them towards her friends and wrapped her chains around them before pulling them back towards her.
"I told you to just run! Why were you guys trying to test that thing?! Are you crazy?"
"N-No, but–"
GROOOOOOOOAAAARRRR
The Sunken Devourer let out an extremely loud roar and cut Lizzy off. She immediately zipped her mouth and started running into the tunnel that led away from the monster's nest.
"Less talk, more run!"
"Y-Yeah!"
The girls thought that they'd be able to shake the monster off pretty quickly, but to their dismay, the Sunken Devourer, Zechenoa, had a relatively high movement speed despite it's extremely large size. Although it wasn’t fast enough to be able to catch up to the girls who were focused on running, it was enough to give Maria and the rest a big headache, and even if they were able to run away, the monster could just use the [Mark of the Devourer] to track them down and find them...