Evolution: A Warlock's Rise To Power

Chapter 3: Depths of Despair

"DAMN IT!" Lucan screamed as he dropped into the darkness. His heart was beating like mad while he continued to fall. It felt like he had been falling for a full minute. He expected a hard ground to come any moment, but it never did.

He opened up the player interface and found he had been kicked from the party.

[You are approaching the Depths of Despair. Death penalty will be multiplied by 5]

'What! What the hell!'

Lucan quickly opened his warlock tab and opened his wish list of spells and abilities. He purchased two abilities and spent every bit of experience points he had saved up over the past 2 months.

[Basic Night Vision]

[Passive]

[You will be able to see clearly out to 25 feet in complete darkness. Things 26-50 feet away are blurry and hard to distinguish.]

Lucan hoped this would help him see the ground.

[Shadow Form]

[Toggle]

[Your physical body becomes a shadow, invulnerable to physical damage. You can not attack or cast spells while in Shadow Form. Shadow Form can be active up to 10 seconds every hour.]

[Shadow Form Attributes]

>Increase movement speed by 100%

>Increase stealth by 100%

>increase damage taken from light magic by 100%

Hopefully this ability would break his fall.

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With his two purchases completed, Lucan started to exit out of the windows when they were forcefully closed.

[You have entered the Depths of Despair]

[All communication to the outside has been disabled]

[Death penalty his been multiplied by 5]

Lucan couldn't buy any more spells or abilities even if he wanted to. Suddenly he saw more than just black endless space. He activated Shadow Form and silently slammed into the ground taking no damage. He turned off the ability after only using a second and a half.

"I'll kill you!" Screamed the overseer as he fell only a few seconds behind.

Lucan turned his Shadow Form back on.

*Splat*

[You have received 82,343 experience points; additional experience had been added due to level difference]

[Congratulations! You have leveled up]

[You have received 15 silver and 12 bronze pieces]

[You have received Overseer's whip]

[You have received unknown mineral]

[You have received Master Key to Mine of Despair]

[You have received Dwarven Dagger of Fury]

Lucan dismissed the notifications with ease.

'How could I be so stupid to believe them.' 'You're new so you may not know, you need to turn off your notifications.' 'AHHH What bull crap!'

Lucan fumed while stomping his foot over and over.

The scream from the dwarf and its impact attracted others. Lucan stopped mid stomp as he heard small rocks shifting. He looked around but nothing was near him. He could hear movement on the edge of his vision range.

70 feet out a small orange light started to glow, it softly bounced back and forth. Lucan's mind was calmed as he looked at the happy light dancing in the distance. He took a step forward.

'Do you think I am the biggest idiot in the world?' He thought to himself before immediately turning around and sprinting in the other direction.

The light extinguished as Lucan heard something sprint after him. Whatever was chasing him sounded big and it was closing in. He soon ran into one of the chasm walls and turned left, he kept sprinting as fast as he could.

Lucan waved his wand behind him, summoning an illusion. A copy of himself made from shadows was running in a different direction. The creatures paid it no attention. In the pitch black, an illusion made of shadows was worthless.

On the edge of his vision he could see an alcove in the wall. Another few steps and he could see it was a tunnel carved into the stone wall. He turned in to find it blocked. The tunnel had caved in and was filled with rocks of various sizes. With nowhere to turn, he put his back against the cave-in and readied his wand.

A 10-foot-long lizard with and orb hanging from an antenna on its head was charging him.

"Shadow Bolt."

The lizard didn't even flinch as the magic bounced off its leathery skin. Lucan activated his Shadow Form again. He could at least buy 5 more seconds to think of something.

As his body lost its physical presence, he fell backwards into the cracks between the rocks. The moment Lucan realized what happened he started clawing and pulling his way through the caved in section. With only a second left he felt the other side. As quickly as he could, Lucan pulled himself through.

*Squish*

"AHH!" Lucan screamed as his foot was only halfway out of the rubble when the time limit for Shadow Form ended. He fell to the ground after the toes on his left foot had been crushed along with the front of his foot.

On the other side of the cave-in, the large lizard was stomping and screeching since its prey had escaped.

Lucan laid on the cold stone floor and began to sob. He took turns between crying, screaming and cursing.

"You're a grown ass man, you can't just wallow here." Lucan said to himself after 20 minutes. He sat against a wall. His left foot was under the status condition [Broken]. Without a priest or some sort of healer, it would be days before he gained full mobility again.

'How pitiful am I?'

'Stop this, you're not helpless.'

Lucan readied his wand.

"Enhanced familiar connection."

***

Even though Lucan had gotten rid of the overseer, the rest of the miners weren't pushovers. They had been battling Goldbear's party for thirty minutes. Only four dwarves remained, and they were all low on heath.

A small brown mouse squeaked while it crossed the bridge.

"I feel bad about what we did." Shinny said, while healing the group from the back. "Lucan was a nice guy and didn't deserve that."

"You heard what the guild leader said. He want's us the be level 100 by the end of the month. This was the only way. It was necessary, unless you have a different idea on how to get into the mine." Goldbear said after knocking a dwarf to the ground.

"I know. But I still feel dirty."

"Who cares about that guy? He is dead and gone." Cracked Teapot remarked.

"You all are a bunch of rat bastards who deserve what's coming to you!" a hoarse voice screamed from behind them.

The voice was familiar to all of them but the assassin. They turned to see Lucan standing before them holding a shortsword.

"What?!"

"How?!"

Lucan stared each one of them down.

"Were not scared of some illusion." Cracked Teapot said while swinging his staff through the Lucan before them. "That should be the rat you used earlier." He said, pointing to the small brown mouse.

Cracked Teapot walked through the illusion and went to stomp on the mouse. Lucan swung the sword and there was a splash of blood. Cracked Teapot's head tumbled from his shoulders.

"None of you are safe." Lucan said. The illusion collapsed into wisps of shadows. He unsummoned his familiar and it too collapsed into shadows as well.

Lucan did the best he could before running out of mana. Enhanced Familiar Connection let him take control of the mouse, speak through it and even cast spells. He was able to cast an illusion in front of them. Noticing that Shinny was devoting her heals to Hirako and Goldbear. Lucan used Telekinetic Slash while making his illusion swing its sword.

He felt like it wasn't enough, but they should now know that he was unhappy. Running out of mana always left him feeling overwhelmingly exhausted. He could turn health into mana but that would slow down his natural healing. For now, he would bear with it.

[You have gained 20,451 experience]

[You have killed another player. Your name will turn red. While it is red you will lose additional experience from death and it is likely you will drop more than one item.]

"Damn it, Damn it, Damn it."

Lucan sat alone in the dark, waiting. His stamina had reached its limit, he would need to sleep a few hours in order to restore the energy he used today. He closed his eyes and waited before eventually drifting to sleep.

Even though his character was asleep Brax was still playing the game. He opened up Evolution's forums and began to search for the Depths of Despair. He found several posts where Non-Player Characters (NPCs) cautioned players to stay away from the Depths of Despair. It was confirmed that the Depths was at the bottom of the Well. So far there were no posts about anybody falling in and surviving the landing.

Ultimately, he found nothing that would help him in this situation.