Rise of the Devourer

Book 2: Chapter 37 — Beneath the Earth

The world swirled in a familiar disorienting manner before with a pop Aurelia found herself standing in an unfamiliar location. Keeping her guard up, she raised her firsts, little wisps of embers burning through her gauntlet as she looked around. She was in a dilapidated wooden house that also looked like it served as a storage room. Pickaxes, axes, bags of stones, cut pieces of lumber and such littered around the dusty chamber, all accompanied by dim blue lightning entering from the outside, that lightly illuminated the chamber.

Where was she? Aurelia looked around herself, finding herself alone in this place. Had the spell gone wrong? Keeping her guard up, she looked around the area. The first thing she noticed were the sounds. Clangs of metal and little grunts echoed through the chamber, even from inside her little shack, Aurelia could tell she was somewhere underground from the way the sound moved around her. Moving closer to the walls of the storage room, she looked through the gaps to the outside. Figures moved in the dark, carrying items that she recognized to be mining tools.

[Stone-Miner - lvl 142]

Aurelia continued to watch the miners move to a silent rhythm outside, mining through the walls at the mana crystals embedded around them. She looked back around her, trying to figure out just where she might be, this was not the forest she’d been told to expect. Not to mention she was all by herself.

New Quest obtained!

Quest: Scattered

Your allies have been separated from you. Find them, before something that shouldn’t, does.

Reward: Experience points

Aurelia jumped back at the notice. She’d been getting these ever since Noah had added her to his Party thing or whatever. She had never gotten used to it, the Astral Script looked so different from hers, with a transparent blue background with glowing words that flickered in too neatly cut out shapes. At first she’d been ignoring them, but eventually she’d figured out how they worked, which explained to her how Noah got all the tomes that he did.

She couldn’t deny her jealousy. Had she had something like this when she was younger, she could’ve… she let the thought die. Regardless, so they’d all been scattered, wonderful. So now, where could she find a way out.

Walking through the gates of the shack, Aurelia looked around herself. The miners moved nearby, either not noticing her presence, or not caring that she was there. She couldn’t tell. Their bodies were strange, morphed humanoid shapes, but with little crystals and rocks embedded into them. But it was the eyes that bothered her the most, they moved without any purpose in their gaze, like mindless husks wandering the area without any thoughts about what they were doing. Walking outside, and seeing if any of the miners would react, and finding that no, they did not, Aurelia began to look around at the area. The mana crystal mine was thriving, with tons of mana crystals collected in little jute baskets that the miners would carry. Aurelia looked at on in particular, noting the multitudes of F and E grade mana crystals, with some D grade chunks littered here and there.

Even uncut or unrefined as they were, these would sell for quite some money. It was like having a fortune in front of you, but only in little copper coins from her home. She wouldn’t even be able to carry all of this.

Picking up some of the D grade mana crystals for herself, Aurelia began to make her way down the mining tunnels. So far nothing had attacked her, but that didn’t mean she was going to let her guard down. Carefully walking down the mines, Aurelia began to note the equal intervals at which the miners were working. Like something had set preordained paths on which they could move, they would only ever adjust their path if she directly walked in front of them.

Aurelia looked around, before she spotted one section with some sort of device. A metallic container about twice as big as she was set on the ground with runes engraved upon its surface. The miners would take their crystals, depositing them into the machine, as it lit up with runes, crushing the crystals and consuming them. Aurelia walked closer, noting the device as it ate crystals.

The device looked like a mix between something the celestians would develop with their fancy magic runes, and one of the technological metal based devices some of the northern kingdoms had. She’d seen diagrams of it, but never really understood how they worked.

Aurelia walked around the device for a few minutes, spotting little pipes going into it from the walls, as mana runes and wisps ran up the walls. She’d been wondering how a place like this could exist in isolation, but perhaps these were the devices that controlled the Astral Rift?

She pressed her hand on the device, and felt a wave travel through the mines. The miners all stopped moving, before turning towards her direction. Aurelia looked at them, realizing she’d messed up. Slowly she pulled her hand back from the device, stepping back. The miners continued to look at her for a moment, before they turned back around, returning to their tasks.

“Well, I’m not touching that again,” Aurelia said to herself, turning around as she began to make her way ahead. Given the size of this place, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to find a way out, especially with how many smaller tunnels seemed to branch outwards from the main path.

As Aurelia walked, her path ended abruptly with a giant gate of wood standing in her way. Aurelia looked around, trying to see if she’d missed something, yet the path definitely ended where she stood. Walking closer, Aurelia gave the gates a push, finding them jammed. With a harder push, the wooden gates moved with a vibrating scratching sound. Stepping inside, Aurelia saw a giant creature covered in little crystals sleeping inside.

[Crystalline Troll - lvl 168]

With a rumble the giant rose, noticing her presence. Aurelia stepped back, trying to step out, but found the doors closed behind her back. Magical runes glowed on the door, telling her she would not have much luck trying to run back out.

Cursing her luck, she gathered her flames, preparing for battle.

The troll rose with a powerful roar that shook the earth, as it raised its heavy body. Aurelia rushed in, fire swirling around her gauntlets. Embers swirled around her, ash mixing in with her fists, as she rushed up to the troll. It stood towering over her, its body large enough that if it wanted it could simply crush her with its body. Aurelia struck her fists at the creature’s feet, finding its skin as hard as rock. Cracks spread through her strike at the creature, as the creature howled, falling forward. Aurelia jumped back, before she rushed up to the creature, climbing on its back as she grabbed the two horns jutting from its head. Pulling back on them, she reared its head back, before striking with her fists. Each punch drew blood, breaking its rock-like skin, but she couldn’t continue the barrage, as the creature slammed its face into the ground.

Aurelia jumped back, almost being flattened on the ground within a single shot. The troll shook its head, pulling itself back up, as it looked at her in anger. With a roar, the beast lunged, arms swinging and Aurelia weaved through the attack, striking at its feet again. The creature stomped, forcing her to jump back as it grabbed a giant boulder in its arm, making it look like a normal rock in its hang, before chucking it at her.

Letting flames gather in her gauntlets, Aurelia struck the boulder, shattering it before it struck her. She let out a warm breath, the heat around her rising. She was hoping to conserve her strength. Her heat had finally begun to rise.

Allowing the gathered flames to rise, Aurelia let fire cover her body and self. Embers burst around her rising in strength.

Embers of Fury strengthens your body for a minute.

All attributes by 100%

Power increased to 974.

Agility increased to 702.

Constitution increased to 758.

Mystic increased to 802.

May your Path light the dark.

Rushing in, Aurelia moved like a blazing meteor. Fire trailed her steps as she moved in towards the stroll, her fist striking its chest, blasting the monster back as its hard outer shell cracked. Aurelia let her strikes continue to strike at the troll. The beast roared, falling over, as Aurelia grabbed its face, holding its throat as she pulled back, letting her gauntlets gather heat.

Charging her flames, she pulled her gauntlets back, the blades attached coming out free, as she sunk the weapons into the trolls neck where the rocky skin had been cracked enough to reveal the underneath flesh. Flames burst through the creature’s body as it let out a shuddering roar, toppling over.

Aurelia jumped back, breathing heavily as she watched the giant corpse of the fallen creature.

Path of the Berserker Monk has reached level 124

Path of the Flame Touched has reached level 122

Path of the Cinderborn has reached level 113.

She watched the words burn themselves into her Astral script. Pulling her blades back, Aurelia tossed a D grade mana crystal in her mouth, replenishing her lost mana immediately.

“Well… that was a workout,” Aurelia said, checking her surroundings to make sure no other threat was lurking nearby. Her armor glowed with her flames, absorbing the mana around her as it reabsorbed the flames she had used to funnel them back to her. Aurelia smiled, pleased by her gear. She will have to thank Nae when she went back.

Turning around, she looked behind her at the area the troll was guiding. A gate, much smaller and built with stone awaited her. An arrow with a circle at the top of it was carved into the door. She pressed her hand onto it, pushing the door open with effort.

Aurelia looked beyond the entrance, finding an even more tunnel awaited her, this one lined in carved stone slabs, with musty and humid air coming out, alongside a rotting stench.

It took her a moment before Aurelia realized what the tunnel was.

“Ugh, I hate this place,” Aurelia said, letting a small ball of flame manifest around her, as she stepped into the sewers.

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