Underworld - Vampire Gate: A LitRPG Series Read online

  Underworld

  Vampire Gate

  Book 5

  By Apollos Thorne

  Copyright © 2020 by Apollos Thorne

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – Blowing Off Steam

  Chapter 2 – Getting Focused

  Chapter 3 – The Lich’s Contract

  Chapter 4 – Quest Difficulty

  Chapter 5 – Heading Out

  Chapter 6 – Bloodlust

  Chapter 7 – Fire Dungeon

  Chapter 8 – Her Majesty

  Chapter 9 – Buckets and Buckets

  Chapter 10 – Golems

  Chapter 11 – Smoking Hot

  Chapter 12 – Mr. Marshmallow

  Chapter 13 – Core

  Chapter 14 – Friendly

  Chapter 15 – What’s Up?

  Chapter 16 – Magic Indigestion

  Chapter 17 – Wolfy Grin

  Chapter 18 – Lost Signal

  Chapter 19 -The Armies of Undead

  Chapter 20 – Advanced Control

  Chapter 21 – Embar

  Chapter 22 – Dark Magic

  Chapter 23 – Mechs

  Chapter 24 – Stop Sign

  Chapter 25 – Holding Back

  Chapter 26 – Loosening Up

  Chapter 27 – Now What?

  Chapter 28 – Sleeping Metal

  Chapter 29 - Sunburn

  Chapter 30 – Advancing

  Chapter 31 – Trust…

  Chapter 32 – Pretty Please

  Chapter 33 – Brothers

  Chapter 34 – Grandmaster

  Chapter 35 – Stealth Teddy

  Chapter 36 – Big Head

  Chapter 37 – Loot

  Chapter 38 – Hard Decisions

  Chapter 39 – Geeking Out

  Chapter 40 – My First

  Chapter 41 – Everything

  Chapter 1 – Blowing Off Steam

  As much as I should’ve been considering the contract with the lich, my mind was too preoccupied with having everything taken from me. I hadn’t felt so human in weeks—maybe months. Despite my Intelligence and Wisdom stats being off the charts, they just weren’t enough to allow me to ignore my plight.

  There was no logic behind what I did next. It couldn’t rightly be called training. I allowed the feeling of betrayal to drive my magic, but it wasn’t alone. The blood that gushed from the still open wound in my chest at having Aeris taken from me sharpened my magic’s bite. In Primordial Cat form I didn’t move from where I stood, yet the power that flowed through me and into my surroundings possessed more thermal destructive force than ever before.

  Both my unconscious and conscious will had always kept my magic reined in while I tried to direct it. No longer. Like raging fire, my power burned in every direction with no care for what it devoured. If it wasn’t for the cube-shaped shell that the lich had raised around us, this cavern would have melted and collapsed in seconds. It was only when my mana tanked that I fell semi-unconscious and changed back to my human form.

  Periods of meditation came and went. I spoke to my friends and even Aeris as she was carted off to the Succubi city. They gave me advice on what they thought I should do about the contract, but I didn’t want to discuss it. I thanked them and filed away what they said for later. The lich was allowing me to take my time to consider his offer, so I would. Power leveling my spells was also his idea, so I just gave myself over to it for a time without thinking of much at all. My goal wasn’t even to improve my magic. I let it all go.

  I was more in my right mind later in the afternoon. I wanted to contact our goblin friend but doing so would give away his existence if the Head Mistress didn’t already know about him. There was no sure way of finding out what they knew without asking and I wasn’t about to do that to him after all the help he had been.

  In one sense, my fight with Mistress Nava had been a victory. We’d survived. In another, the rewards of victory were missing—the experience, loot, and bonus stats that would normally come with defeating such a creature. It didn’t feel like a victory at all. The only incentive I had received from the fight was that Primordial Cat Form had leveled from 95 to 96. It seemed that getting blown up while in the form had been exactly what it needed to progress. As if to mock me, after all my raging about, it leveled up again to 97. Only three more levels until 100.

  The lich had kept to himself since I’d begun, only speaking if I asked a question. He didn’t have any trouble dealing with my form’s power, for he passed through the amber wall of his spell at will. When he entered my training cube without me saying anything, I was sure his patience was wearing thin. Instead, he informed me, “The wolf has arrived.”

  The amber energy field pulled back from the Head Mistress’s barrier that was still standing between me and Sanctuary. I saw Travis cautiously approaching. He was barefoot and shirtless in knee-length shorts. I knew his gear was already secure in his inventory. He was preparing for his change. When his eyes drifted down the barrier and found me, his face lit up and he stiffened his posture before walking forward. He didn’t even lift a hand to test the barrier but pressed into it, forehead first. It seemed to slow him as it flexed toward me like a spider’s web might against heavy prey. After a moment of tension, it released him, and he slipped right through.

  Looking back, he examined the barrier for a moment before turning back to me. We shared a look but didn’t say a word. We knew what each other were thinking. He seemed to deflate now that he had finally found me. Kylie was gone and he had no idea what to do.

  “You are Travis, yes?” the lich said suddenly.

  He nodded his head, acknowledging the monster for the first time.

  “You will be transforming soon.” It wasn’t a question. “I’ll make a second territory so that Elorion can keep training. It will keep you from being a nuisance.”

  Travis didn’t object or take offense. He didn’t look to have much fight left in him.

  The lich closed his amber enclosure once again and created one almost identical to mine right next to it. Both of them covered the cavern walls, floor, and ceiling, so that they were like two large honey-colored bubbles blocking the exit to Sanctuary.

  Travis trudged across my territory and entered the one the lich had set up for him. I watched as he sat down and just waited for his werewolf to take over. I didn’t go back to training right away. Instead, I watched my friend who was feeling dejected, because I’d been too weak to stop a couple of old succubi ladies from taking the girls. The thought inflamed me once again.

 
; “He won’t be of much help to you in his current state,” the lich said. Before I could rebuke him for his lack of understanding, he clarified that he wasn’t talking about Travis’s emotional state. “I was first going to advise you to seek out your next school of magic to strengthen a few of your shortcomings, but for him to be of use, he needs at least one school of magic to improve his martial abilities.”

  “Is his current mana neutral then?” I replied.

  “Not exactly. I’m sure you know that his blood flows with the same Light Mana that flows through yours. But when he draws upon it, he doesn’t have the ability to draw it out in its true form as you can. Instead, he leeches power from it which lacks any of its innate characteristics. That leaves it in a state that is less than neutral. You have learned Alpha, yes? What are its properties?”

  Narrowing my gaze, I tried to see under his hood to sense any ulterior motive but was still unable to see him. Shrugging, I answered, “It seems to have a natural propulsion and explodes on contact.”

  “Good. Neutral Mana contains the highest amount of what is generally referred to as Force out of any School of Magic. It’s what makes it useful. Most schools have varying degrees of Force, but also other characteristics. Part of your training will be to memorize these characteristics and the many ways you can manipulate them. The game of elements is like a beautiful tapestry that is always changing with almost limitless possibilities. If you master it, then I won’t have to teach you how to break the Head Mistress’s barrier. You’ll already know.”

  I didn’t expect to find myself in the middle of a lecture. Let alone one that I was actually interested in. That helped steer me back to the real problem at hand. The lich’s contract. There was no doubt that he had the one thing that I couldn’t live without. Knowledge of the Underworld.

  It was then that Travis began to change into his werewolf form. Just as before, it was extremely quick. In a few seconds, he was fully transformed. Instead of his normal uncontrollable rage, he rolled over onto the floor where he’d been sitting and curled up into a moping ball.

  He was like a dog that had lost its best friend. Blinking away newly forming tears, I turned to the lich.

  I already knew most of what I wanted the contract to say despite not spending much time thinking about it. There was one underlying issue though that I didn’t think could ever be reconciled. What if the lich was already under contract with the Head Mistress and was able to sign a second magic contract with me because her contract allowed it? But, in the fine print of hers, it also gave him freedom to betray me any time? If her contract with him could override my own, regardless of any extra stipulations, mine would be worthless. I didn’t know if one contract could override another or protect a person from a second one. There was no way around having to trust the lich, which might just mean putting my faith in the Head Mistress once again. I’d do it, but I’d hate every second of it.

  Instead of giving in to my inclination to just get it over with, I addressed him. “After getting Primordial Cat Form to level 100, I’ll be ready to negotiate.”

  The lich nodded. Knowing it could be a few days before I was ready didn’t seem to bother him at all.

  It was time to gather my thoughts so I could get this contract over with. Getting Primordial Cat Form to 100 likely wouldn’t give me any big evolution, but it would make the form a little less costly and slightly more powerful. Even if I wasn’t able to use it to defeat Mistress Nava, I’d been able to hold her down for a number of seconds, so I had at least one trump card.

  Glancing at Travis once again, I swallowed a knot forming in my throat. A moment later, liquid fire filled my veins and I began to transform.

  Chapter 2 – Getting Focused

  “Aeris. Is it safe to talk?” I said using Richard’s long-distance communication ability.

  “For a moment, yes,” she said under her breath.

  “Are you safe?”

  “I really don’t know how to answer that… Elorion, the Head Mistress paraded us through the city. The succubi—there were thousands of them—and they weren’t exactly hostile which startled me. We were more of a curiosity. And this place is like nothing I’ve ever seen. There are miles of skyscrapers except everything is made of stone and the buildings are like grand palaces from some fairy tale. The streets are spotless cobblestone—and the light. It’s as bright in the city as if it were noonday on the surface. Somehow they’ve created their own sun. It isn’t like your Solar Magic, or a Light Orb. It’s a real star, just smaller, that’s always active overhead. There is something peculiar about it though. And this place makes the Belly look tiny.”

  “But you feel safe?”

  “No. El, I don’t know how to say this, but the Cavern Level is on a completely different plane from the Dungeon Level. The succubi—even the weakest ones are at Lady Contessa’s level. And on average they are many times more powerful than she was. If just one of them decided they didn’t want us here… Look, if the vampires are as powerful—Elorion, you can’t beat them. Please, don’t rush trying to get back. Take your time. Do things right.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me. Be wise and stay safe. Where are you now?”

  I imagined I could hear her smile, as reluctant as it might have been. “I will. She took us to the Nursery.”

  “The what?”

  “It’s not what it sounds like. It’s a school where female imps become succubi and are given their initial training. It’s incredible. The baby imps are given small creatures to kill on their first day of life and progressively stronger mobs are given each following day. They reach level 100 in a few weeks before they transform. They never look like human children but teenagers—maybe. The baby imps are kind of cute though. Then the new succubi are led to discover their talent and their magic training begins. The Head Mistress is having us join one of the groups of fledgling succubi.”

  “A few weeks? And I thought we had it easy.”

  “Right? It really doesn’t compare. During training, they are handfed mobs until they are close to level 1,000. Then they are considered adults and go on to apprenticeships of some kind. Lady Contessa was just that, Mistress Nava’s apprentice.”

  “That doesn’t sound too bad,” I said, purposely ignoring the topic of Mistress Nava and the real danger that might be lurking there.

  “It’s not terrible. Take your time and use the lich for all he’s worth. When we finally get back together…”

  “I’ll have picked out your ring.”

  “Elorion…”

  “I know, Aeris. Focus on what you have to do to survive and get stronger. I’ll do the same. Keep your eyes open.”

  “I will. I have to go. I’ll talk to you soon.” With that she was gone.

  I turned my attention back to Travis who was still in his Werewolf Form. He was no longer lying there curled up but pacing back and forth on his hind legs like a human. I knew the war that was raging inside him between his humanity and the beast. He hadn’t lashed out once in the last six hours, so I wasn’t about to buff his Wisdom and Intelligence when he was doing so well on his own.

  “Your woman is right,” the lich said. He’d stepped through the amber barrier a moment ago as my conversation with Aeris was ending. I was sure he’d heard the whole thing, so I wasn't surprised when he admitted as much. “The Cavern world is much different than the Dungeon Level. This place is like the basement where the rats fight one another over every scrap. Though there are a few more stops that you will need to make down here before you’re ready, the Cavern Level is our ultimate goal. You’ll never find enough powerful enemies down here to become strong enough to finish your quest.”

  Bringing up my base stats, I gave them a once over before responding. “Be honest with me, lich. How do I compare to the succubi?”

  Character Sheet

  Level: 802

  Health Points: 335,216 (+3,059)

  Mana Points: 368,299 (+3,683)

  Mana Per Minute: 10,268 (171.1 Pe
r Second)

  Attributes

  Strength: 3274 (+31)

  Dexterity: 3,143 (+30)

  Constitution: 3,059 (+30)

  Intelligence: 2,243 (+22)

  Wisdom: 5,134 (+50)

  There was no audible laughter, but I could’ve sworn his breathing gave away a held back snicker. “If I was to only consider your level, you’d be little more than a child. Your abilities make up for that to a certain extent. But your woman was wrong about one thing. Succubi don’t consider their own to be adults at level 1,000. That is when they obtain the title of Lady and the pride of their people. At that stage, they look upon them as learning children. It isn’t until level 10,000 that they are considered adults and given the rank of Dame. The title of Mistress comes later and is only given when a succubus gets their first stat, generally Wisdom or Intelligence, to 100,000.”

  I took a step back, feeling suddenly like I needed to sit down. “That means Mistress Nava…”

  “No, child,” he said, swaying to the side as if to give me a look of pity. “Mistress Nava is an elder succubus. She has at least two stats at 100,000. She was toying with you when you faced her. You know this. But to answer your question plainly. At your best, you might compare to a succubus that has just reached the rank of Dame. You surprised her with your ability, but she was never in any real danger, even against the mana weapon you created.”

  Whatever was keeping me on my feet started agreeing with my head, and I plopped down onto my rear. I was in my human form with my skeletal armor covering my lower half. There was a hard clank as bone collided with the amber energy shield that hummed as a thick layer over the floor.

  “How are we supposed to survive this…”

  I wasn’t asking him, but he answered anyway. “You probably won’t, but if you do, you’ll do it by taking one step at a time.”

  Shaking my head, I was starting to feel as Travis looked. “What about the Head Mistress? How powerful is she?”

  He seemed to be trying to mimic me by shaking his head, but it was as if his neck was too stiff and his entire form shook instead. “That’s impossible to say. I’ll give you my best estimate. In your human form, you might be considered to have reached level 1 if 100 was the maximum level. When you transform and are at full power, you climb to level 10 and take your place alongside the Dames. The earliest a succubus reaches the rank of Mistress is around level 20. Mistress Nava is at least double that, if not level 50 or 60. Only the greatest of succubi reach level 100. They have 100,000 in every stat or have focused on a few stats and have pushed them to unfathomable heights. The Head Mistress hasn’t just reached the maximum level, she is beyond it. Remember that it’s not just levels that allow a person to grow in power. After a thousand years of draining the life of countless victims, it's impossible to know how powerful she has really become unless you were there with her on the entire journey.”