Spiteful Healer

Chapter 135: The Underrealm

“Aye, you said you want how much rope?” Tullan looked at Lina with a raised eyebrow the following morning. She, Pyri and Aegis stood in front of the Night Hunter’s market stall in the town square of Rene.

The stage from the previous night of festivities had been cleaned up, and the members of the other guilds had returned to Kordas through portals a few hours earlier, leaving Rene to return back to normal.

Despite this, though, Aegis could tell the celebrations had had a positive impact on the moods of the NPCs of Rene. He heard them repeatedly discussing the celebration with one another as they walked around him in the town square.

“1000 meters. Please.” Lina replied with a serious expression.

“I don’t have that much rope.” Tullan shook his head at her in disbelief.

“500 meters.” Lina replied.

“I’ve only got 300 on hand. I could craft yeh more, but, it’ll take a bit.” Tullan sighed.

“300 is good.” Lina quickly pulled out a pouch of gold coins for Tullan and handed it to him.

“Alright.” Tullan shrugged as he began to take the rope out of his inventory. It took a cartoonishly long time for Tullan to hand it all over to Lina, but she patiently grabbed it all and added it into her inventory.

“Okay, I’m all ready for the journey.” Lina turned to Aegis and gave him a nod.

“Good. We’ve got food, repair materials, some nets and cages for some spiders. I’ve got plenty of tools, vials, bottles, spices, and a few extra shields just in case.” Aegis declared.

“I have enough portal dust to portal us back to Rene twice, no matter how deep into the underrealm we go.” Pyri smiled.

“Darkshot and Rakkan are having their dreamstate Simboxes installed as we speak, and I think they’re all ready to go too.” Aegis replied. “All that’s left is to grab Snowflake and say our goodbyes.” Aegis added.

“You’re bringing Snowflake? I think I’ll leave Melon behind. Underrealm sounds dangerous.” Pyri replied.

“Yeah… just in case we need to fly. Snowflake is level 50, so he should be okay.” Aegis shrugged.

“He should also gain experience as long as he stays with you.” Lina added.

“Perfect.” Aegis answered.

“Yer serious about it? I still think yer underestimatin’ how dangerous it is down there.” Tullan shook his head in disapproval. “But I suppose if you were crazy enough to go up against an army of the abyss on yer own, this’ll be like a typical day for yeh’s. Good luck, hope yeh come back nice ‘n strong.” Tullan smiled.

“Thanks. Take care of Rene for me while I’m gone.” Aegis replied.

“Aye, dontcha worry. If anythin’ fishy start’s goin’ on, I’ll send ya a message right quick.” Tullan replied. With that, Aegis and the others made for the stables where Yuki, Savika, and Celestian were already standing within the pasture.

“Oh, hi!” Yuki waved as she spotted the three approaching. “Princess Savika heard that you would be leaving on an adventure, so she suggested we make a going away present.” Yuki smiled.

“It’s not ready yet though.” Savika hurriedly worked on fastening some straps to Snowflake’s legs and neck as Celestian watched them from a few meters back. “There, I think it’s ready.” Savika said as she looked up at Yuki for approval, whom nodded back. “Taadaa!” Savika stepped to the side to present Snowflake to Aegis, Pyri, and Lina.

Snowflake was now equipped with a mix of leather and iron armor on his his head, neck, and the front of his knees. Aegis could tell Yuki put a great deal of consideration into making sure it was comfortable to wear, because Snowflake wasn’t fussing with it at all, rather he proudly began to strut to put it on display.

“It looks great, that will help keep him safe.” Aegis smiled at Princess Savika, causing her to grow a gigantic childlike grin across her face. “You ready to go, Snowflake?” Aegis asked him, and he let out an excited squawk before quickly trotting towards them and hopping over the pasture fence. “We’ll be on the look out for those spiders for your tailoring. I’ll make sure we don’t come back without one.” Aegis said and Yuki nodded.

“I can’t wait.” She replied.

“Good luck. I will keep order in Rene with Farlion while you are away, so do not worry.” Celestian spoke confidently with a polite bow. Lina, Pyri and Aegis gave them final waves before they made their way away from the stables and towards the keep ruins.

“Are you sure you’re okay with that?” Savika asked as she and Yuki watched Aegis’ group disappear down the road. “I thought you liked him.”

“No, it’s okay. We’re just friends now.” Yuki shrugged. “Yumily’s advice was the best. It’s better to confess early before your feelings grow too much, so it’s easier to get over it.” Yuki advised Savika.

“Hm. So the moment I think I like someone, I should confess to them?” Savika asked Yuki curiously.

“Well… maybe wait a day or two first…” Yuki replied apprehensively once she’d spotted a strange look in Savika’s eyes.

“Do you think I’ll be a master tailor by the time they get back from their adventure?” Princess Savika asked as she, Yuki and Celestian began walking out of the pasture.

“Maybe. Let’s train hard. You can become intermediate, and maybe I’ll be able to reach advanced.” Yuki smiled with determination.

When Aegis, Pyri, Snowflake and Lina arrived at the entrance to the keep ruins they spotted Chax, Ruffily, Farlion and Amlie waiting for them on the paved northern road that passed by the ruins and continued towards the northern gate of Rene.

“Hey, woof! We wanted to see you off before your great big adventure.” Ruffily smiled.

“Rakkan still hasn’t logged back in yet?” Amlie asked as she looked over the group.

“Not yet, but I’m sure he’ll be here soon.” Aegis replied.

“Any special instructions for us before you leave?” Chax asked.

“Uhm. Not really. Don’t let any suspicious players in. If you have any doubts, let me and Erikson know right away.” Aegis explained, and they all nodded.

“I’ll be off for my intermediate quest, woof! I want it before we build the keep when you get back.” Ruffily smiled with her tail wagging.

“Me too. I’ll be an intermediate farmer the next time we meet.” Amlie smiled.

“I’ll make sure Rene stays safe. I’ll keep training hard to protect these lands.” Farlion bowed.

“Good. Also, make sure no one else follows us down. Maybe block it off. It’s dangerous down there, don’t want any NPCs accidentally wandering through into the underrealm.” Aegis added, and they nodded, while hearing the sounds of talking and footsteps from behind them. Aegis turned to see Darkshot approaching with Sherry beside him, and Darkwing on his shoulder with a little black bow tie around his neck.

“What’s with the bow tie?” Aegis asked as he motioned to it.

“It’s a going away present, from Sherry.” Darkshot smiled at it.

“I’m not really a good crafter, so, I just got something simple.” Sherry shrugged as her and Darkshot’s eyes met for a moment and they both smiled. A few seconds later, Rakkan could be seen rushing towards them, much to Amlie’s delight.

“Yo, Aegis, this Simbox is sick. You got yours too?” Rakkan said, looking from Aegis to Darkshot.

“Yeah, it’s sleek as hell, I sent the cash-in money to you already.” Darkshot replied, nodding towards Aegis.

“Same.” Rakkan added.

“Ok, cool.” Aegis replied. “Are you all ready to go?”

“Yup. Got everything I need. 25,000 arrows oughta be enough right?” Darkshot asked.

“I hope so. If not, I’ll make more.” Aegis replied.

“Wait.” Amlie quickly walked over to Rakkan and took out of her inventory a bracelet made of flowers and green stems. “I made this for you, as a going away present. It helps with health recovery.” She said as she shyly held it out for him.

“Oh, thanks.” Rakkan smiled as he took it and quickly equipped it.

“It suits you. Really pretty.” Darkshot smirked, causing Rakkan to throw him a nasty glare.

“Nice bow tie.” Rakkan commented as he spotted the accessory on Darkwing, and this caused Darkshot’s smirk to fade.

“Alright.” Aegis clapped loudly to stop their bickering and get all eyes on him. “It’ll be a long time before we see the sun again. We have a lot of goals to achieve in the underrealm.” He said as he looked over his party members and Snowflake. “Get stronger. Find Shadowspiders. Explore ruins. Get better crafting materials. And stop an evil Dark Elf Warlord.” Aegis declared.

“Good luck.” Chax cheered.

“I’m excited to see what you find, woof!” Ruffily joined in.

“I’ll be watching the adventure.” Sherry smiled as she motioned to Aegis’ live streaming icon, with a viewership of 37,000.

“I’ll train hard following your instructions, so that I am much stronger by the time you return.” Farlion bowed.

“I’ll be the best farmer in all of Kalmoore when you get back!” Amlie gave a thumbs up.

“Take care, guys.” Aegis smiled as he headed into the ruins.

“Bye, everyone. See you when we get back.” Lina added as she and Snowflake followed behind him.

“See you all later.” Pyri waved.

“When we get back, another date.” Darkshot winked at Sherry as he and Pyri followed Aegis and Lina.

“Maybe.” She rolled her eyes at him playfully.

“I’ll let you know as soon as we’re back.” Rakkan nodded at Amlie.

“Okay.” She smiled, and with final waves, Rakkan turned to follow the others. They remained watching Aegis’ party as they traversed over the ruined rocks of the keep and made their way into the cleared out hallway, until Aegis’ party had disappeared inside the ruins.

“Lumina.” Pyri cast, causing her staff to light up the hall around them as the party of 5, plus Darkwing and Snowflake, quietly but excitedly traveled through the ruined hallway until they reached the door that lead into the cavern that the world boss had been fought in.

“So realistically, how long you thinking we’re going to be down here for?” Darkshot asked as they walked towards the ledge beside the waterfall. Aegis was relieved to see that the stone staircase made by the Night Hunter druid was still there, making it easy for them to descend down the cliff to the lower cavern floor.

“Well, Luryala said it took her people two weeks to reach here. And all they were doing was walking. We’re going to be doing a lot more than that.” Aegis answered.

“So basically, the rest of the summer?” Rakkan asked with a smirk.

“Basically.” Aegis shrugged, and the others chuckled.

“Nothing like spending my work holidays exploring damp, dark caverns with my son and his friends.” Pyri shrugged, and Snowflake screeched excitedly along with her. The group descended the stone stairs to reach the lower cavern floor and made their way northward towards the sloping tunnel out of the cavern.

Slowly, the sound of the rushing waterfall faded from their ears, leaving them only with the sounds of their leather shoes tapping on the cavern floor, until they reached the top of the slope.

The Lumina spell allowed them to see down the wide sloping tunnel a few meters, but not much. It was roughly 6 meters wide with a 4 meter tall arching ceiling, with jagged walls and stalactites hanging down from the top.

“Here we are. From this point on, we’re going where no player has gone before. A completely unexplored region of the underrealm.” Aegis said as he took a deep breath, then made the first steps down the slope. The others didn't hesitate to follow behind him.

The tunnel went on for much longer than any of them expected, all the while it continued to slope downward, at an increasingly steep angle. It got to the point where Aegis was having trouble believing they were still on the island of Kalmoore, as he knew the island was floating in the sky and had to have a bottom eventually.

After a few minutes of walking like this, though, the slope evened out into a flat tunnel, and they spotted something shining on the tunnel wall up ahead a few dozen meters. It gave off a light blue glow, but was hard to discern from their distance what it was.

“Any idea what that is?” Aegis turned to the others, but saw no look of familiarity on their faces. “Heh. Really, no one knows anything about what we’re going to encounter down here?” Aegis confirmed, and both Lina and Rakkan shrugged.

“Never been to the underrealm.” Rakkan replied.

“Didn’t explore it much…” Lina replied.

“I can…” Darkshot squinted, using his tracking skill. “Make it out a bit… It's a bunch of tiny blue balls. It looks like a plant, some sort of patch of moss that the balls are growing out of.” Darkshot explained as the group slowed their step.

“Let’s take it slow.” He added as he took the lead, fastening his shield to his left arm. Lina drew out her daggers, Darkshot his bow, and Rakkan his longsword and spear, while Snowflake continued forward behind Aegis with his head down, slowly prowling forward with the others. Once they’d gotten within 15 meters of it though, Aegis held his hand up to signal everyone to stop.

“If the enemies down here are really as high level as everyone has been implying, we’ll need to play it extra safe.” Aegis said as he turned to Rakkan. “You mind checking it out with an echo?” Aegis asked.

“Sure. Rune:echo.” Rakkan said, and a second copy of himself appeared beside him. He then motioned his echo to walk toward the patch of moss. The dark green moss was growing on the left wall of the cavern, and mixed in with its green strands grew the occasional round blue bud that was creating the glowing blue light they had seen from far away.

As Rakkan’s echo closed in on the moss, they watched silently, holding their breath to see what would happen.

“It could just be moss, you know.” Darkshot whispered.

“From what I remember, everything down here tries to kill you.” Lina whispered back just as Rakkan’s echo moved to stand in front of the moss.

“Doesn’t look like anything is happening.” Rakkan said.

“Can you see it close up, through your echo?” Aegis asked.

“Nope, can’t see through my echo.” Rakkan shrugged.

“Try poking it.” Darkshot suggested, but Rakkan looked to the others for approval on this suggestion. No one seemed opposed to the idea, so they all leaned forward to curiously watch as Rakkan’s echo reached forward and started poking into the patch of moss.

Nothing happened.

“It’s really just moss.” Pyri giggled as she started walking forward.

“Worried for nothing.” Darkshot said as he followed behind her.

“Well, better safe than sorry.” Aegis grumbled as he followed behind them with the others.

Once Aegis reached the moss he leaned towards it and tried touching it as well. It was cold and damp to the touch, with tiny dark green grass-like strands blanketing the surface and a dark brown underside that was spongey to the touch. The blue orbs grew intermittently across the surface on the tips of thick white stems.

First, Aegis tried pulling one of the orbs off, but the moment he did, the orb stopped glowing. Then, he tried digging through the moss to see underneath, only to find that the rocky wall of the cavern underneath the moss was damp and soft. Not quite dirt, but not quite rock, closer to a clay like substance.

He tried grabbing a solid bundle of it and added it to his inventory just to get some sort of item card for it, and it displayed in his inventory as [Underrealm Soilstone]. Afterwards, he tried doing the same thing with the moss to get a sense for its properties. It didn’t show any alchemic properties, but had the name [Reltrak Moss].

“Reltrak Moss… Luryala mentioned something about a Reltrak Forest. And it’s all damp, so there’s gotta be some sort of water source up ahead. Let’s keep going.” Aegis said once he’d finished his investigation with the others watching.

The party continued forward through the tunnel, though they didn’t need to go very far before the tunnel abruptly opened up into a gigantic cavern with bright blue, green, and yellow lights visible from a distance.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the sources of lights were until they walked forward out of the tunnel to stand on a ledge overlooking the gigantic cavern. Despite them being deep underground, there was plenty of light that allowed them to see just how vast the cavern in front of them was.

The floor of the cavern was about 8 meters below the ledge they stood on, with a jagged path to their right leading downward to the floor in the form of a ramp. The cavern floor was blanketed with the same dark green moss Aegis had just inspected, sprinkled with tiny blue orbs that illuminated it.

Additionally, spread about the floor were large white tree-sized stalks that reached varying heights, and atop them stood various colored and shaped mushroom tops. Some of the mushroom tops were bland and boring, and difficult to see due to lack of light, but others had glowing stripes and spots that gave off the varying shades of yellow and green glows. Together, the bioluminescence of the blue moss orbs and the mushroom tops allowed Aegis’ party to view the mushroom forest in its entirety, despite its vast size and the otherwise dark cavern.

It was impossible to see just how large the mushroom forest was, due to the height of some mushrooms reaching the roof of the cavern and preventing them from seeing very far into it. In addition, there was a light green misty fog that had settled on the floor of the forest.

They could hear the sounds of running water echoing off of the walls some distance away, but couldn’t see it, and spotted several strange plants mixed in with the moss and mushrooms.

There were other living, moving creatures amidst the moss and mushrooms. Some were hard to make out from their vantage point, but Aegis clearly saw a snail slinking along atop one of the glowing mushrooms, eating it.

The snail was huge, its shell made of a rocky gray stone-like material with a spiral in the center, and what looked to be stalagmites growing out of the tops of the shell. The slug portion of the snail was transparent, making it possible to see what it was eating - parts of the glowing mushroom it was consuming could visibly be seen glowing inside the snail's body as it digested it, and [Rockrub Snail - Level ??] sat above its head. The ?? indicated to Aegis and his party that this creature was at least 50 levels above theirs.

“It’s really pretty.” Pyri said with wide, excited eyes.

“Yeah, but, it’s a bit above our level still.” Darkshot replied as the voice of reason. Suddenly, there was an obnoxious slimy suction sound coming from their left. They all quickly turned to see another Rockrub Snail slowly sliming its way up the cavern wall, up from below the ledge they stood on.

Atop the head of the snail were two eyestalks with tiny black eyes in them, which it pointed in their direction as it continued to climb. The party apprehensively held their weapons towards it, preparing to fight, but the snail had no interest in them and just continued its vertical climb towards the ceiling of the cavern. Snowflake continued to keep his head down and stare at it intently, but apart from that, it seemed harmless.

Aegis couldn’t help but wonder why it would climb up the cave wall, so followed its potential path up to the ceiling of the cavern. It was there, now that he knew what to look for, that he spotted dozens of the stony snail shells camouflaged along the cavern roof, pretending to be stalactites. As he tilted his head up to look at them, the others in the group noticed what he was doing and did the same.

“Look, over there.” Rakkan pointed at one of them that was lowering itself down from the cavern roof. They watched as it extended itself down as much as it could until it abruptly released its grip on the cavern roof, dropping down on top of a spotted, green glowing mushroom, and started munching.

“Hm. That’s how they get on top of the mushrooms to eat them.” Aegis pondered as he put his hand on his chin. “They’re not hostile, like the lagnoks. But why go from the top, rather than the bottoms which would be easier, to get to their food? There’s probably a reason. I bet the underside of those mushroom tops are poisonous or something.” Aegis suggested.

“Oh, yeah, good point.” Darkshot nodded as he thought about it as well.

“So, what’s the plan?” Pyri asked Aegis curiously as she watched his pondering expression.

“It’s like everyone is saying, the enemies down here are probably all high level. We need to find something easy to grind, like we did with the lynx enemies. That’s our first priority.” Aegis replied.

“Why not the snails?” Darkshot suggested as he drew attention back to the one slinking up the wall. “They’re slow, probably easy to kite.” He shrugged.

“Yeah, they’ve likely got skills to offset that though. And probably really high health and defense. It’s an option, but they’re leaving us alone so let’s search for something weaker first.” Aegis replied, and the others nodded. Aegis then began walking down the ramp to their right.

It wasn’t a smooth, flat, continuous ramp. There were cracks and jutting rocks and tiny ledges, but it served its purpose as giving them a relatively safe path down to the cavern floor.

A good meter before the ramp had reached the bottom, the moss had already begun growing on it and overtaken the cavern floor.

“It seems possible to dig up this underrealm soilrock. I wonder if there are special plants and farms that only grow down here.” Aegis wondered out loud as he took the first steps onto the spongy moss floor, but as he did, Snowflake let out an aggressive squawk and stopped walking forward alongside them.

“What’s wrong?” Aegis turned to Snowflake to see his head down, his eyes squinting at the patch of moss at the very bottom of the ramp. Aegis wasn’t sure what to make of it, but Snowflake hadn’t reacted to the other moss like this. He turned to the others who simply looked back at Aegis anxiously.

“Echo?” Rakkan asked.

“Echo.” Aegis nodded. Rakkan then sent his echo down the ramp ahead of the party slowly while they all watched intently.

The moment Rakkan’s echo reached the base of the ramp, suddenly a large hole opened in the moss floor, enough that Rakkan’s echo’s foot fell into it and got bit, showing a red 17320 damage, destroying the echo instantly and sending the damage back to Rakkan. Luckily for Rakkan, the maximum damage he could take from his echo was half of his health, and thats exactly what it did.

A moment later, a large, dog sized insectoid creature lunged upwards out of a small burrow in the ground that it had been concealing itself in, below the mossy cavern surface. It landed on its six stony, thin legs and turned to face them.

It had a flat-topped head covered in the green moss to mimic the floor of the cavern. Its three eyes were barely discernible from the blue glowing orbs that were scattered about the mossy cavern floor as well - they were only slightly larger than the actual blue orbs and had black pupils in them. Its mouth, and lips, appeared in an opening in the center of its mossy head, revealing several sharp teeth and feelers on the inside, but it quickly closed its mouth again when it landed and turned to stare up at them on the ramp. When closed, it was possible to see where the creature’s mouth was - it was hidden perfectly within its mossy face. [Reltrak Mosstrapper - Level 76] sat above its head and it let out a horrendous hissing sound towards them.

“It hit for 17320 damage.” Rakkan warned Aegis as Aegis stepped forward to stand in front.

“Good, it shouldn't one shot me. Level 76 is manageable. Let’s try killing it.” Aegis replied as he began blessing the party.