Chapter 169 – Asphodel Meadows

Chapter 169 – Asphodel Meadows

Twas the night before Christmas, noise echoed through the house. Embarrassment started brewing, as Ikarus moaned at her future spouse...

"*Sighhh*... always the same with you Petra. It's appearance over practicality like usual"

"Heh, you barely feel the cold though Ikarus. Give me a spin since you look cute"

"No..."

Spoiler

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---FYI, I'm using the holidays as an excuse to slack off so uploads will probably be sporadic this upcoming week. Happy holidays everyone and don't drink too much! I'm a hypocrite so I'm ignoring said advice...

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"Uh, this place seems scary"

"Heh, slight understatement Ariza. You don't have to look so happy about this though Ikarus"

"I'm not Petra! It's just that this sort of place was something I expected, that happy Elysium place was unsuitable for the Underworld. This is definitely more like it"

"Even I don't understand orangey's tastes here, this place just looks shit. Like a necromancer's wet dream or something"

(Geld) "Funny you should say that Zeki, my master did mention once all undead are summoned from the Asphodel Meadows"

"Meadows? But there's no flowers or even life here?"

"Maybe the spikes are supposed to be flowers Lotte? There is a lot of dead shrubbery around, the name probably isn't literal though"

Now fully healed up and ready to go, we've just entered the doorway to the next Underground region and boy, this place definitely looks more suitable for this place.

Standing on top of a huge rock overlooking Asphodel, what presents us is a huge, flat but lifeless wasteland vast as the eye can see, also containing these small rocky spikes and deceased plant life. The darkened sky itself adds to the ominous atmosphere, the lighting that repeatedly strikes the land in the distance makes it feel even more terrifying.

"So, we'll have to fight off the hordes of the undead then? Pretty sure I can just make out the next gate way over there"

"Heh, your eyesight is probably the best out us all Ikarus so that's where we'll head"

Should also mention the skeletons roaming about aimlessly, countless different shapes and sizes coming from any sort of creatures corpse imaginable. This place still has the ghastly souls that reside in the Underworld but it almost looks like they're trying to hide or stay out of sight from the undead, are they policing or hunting the souls? Not really about all that sure.

"Anyways, let's get on with this then"

"Heh, catch me Ikarus"

"What..."

Slowly climbing down the rocks with me leading, Petra can't help but 'accidently' slip and somehow ends up being princess carried within my arms. Normally, I like this sort of thing but not when we're literally about to fight the entire goddamn skeleton army!

"...You know Petra, sometimes you really make me wonder"

"Heh, that better be in a good way Ikarus. You also make me wonder as well"

Putting her down before having a quick kiss and trying my best not to scoff at the joy of a woman alongside me, we gradually make our way to the first batch of skeletons after passing one of the rocky spikes around Asphodel.

Ahead of us is a small squadron of boney creatures all approaching not looking best pleased from us intruders. I'm getting the vibe this may be easy but I'm not overconfident enough to neglect a fight.

Putting out an arm and releasing a good burst of flame all over ahead of us, my suspicions are all but confirmed when the shattering of bones occurs and most of the forces collapse onto the ground adding more death into this place. I barely charged up the flamethrower there as well.

Even the few to the side get swiftly burnt up by Zeki and Petra, just how weak are these undead to flame? It reminds me a little of how video games do it, skeletons are always either too powerful or too weak. In this case, it's obvious the answer.

"Heh, don't jinx it Ikarus. We all know what you're thinking"

"Uh huh, Petra is right Ikarus"

'Look at Ariza ganging up on me as well'

"I erm... imma just stay quiet this time then"

"Orangey doesn't have to jinx it, these bastards are worthless fodder only fit for becoming a wolf's treat"

At least I'm not the one setting a red flag now, it just has to be Mr obnoxious doing it this time around. When we come across a skeletal mammoth or dragon now, he can be blamed.

After Zeki can't help but do what I'm best at, another group of undead makes a way to our travelling party and like the first, have greatly superior numbers to our seven.

Once again, us mages now including Charlotte let out our usual spells of choice and like the first time, all the skeletons collapse with no issues whatsoever. This place is clearly going to be a breeze until we come across something different, more and more skeletons appear to be approaching again all as weak as the last. As much as we all love overpoweredness, this isn't even worth it. The fight is basically form a line, spray magic everywhere and the undead collapse. I get that the Underworld needed some foes like this but still.

'That's the second group of these done. Now, only a few thousand more to go, no point wasting too much time on this...'

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'Status'

[Name: Ikarus | Species: Phoenix | Level: 588]

[Health 166,666*/166,666*]

[Stamina 72,420*/80,000*]

[Magicka 130,008*/166,666*]

[You currently have 7334 unassigned points]

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"Wait, seriously!? You don't want to fight us like with the other fury?"

"Tsh, you really shouldn't compare us three sisters to each other. I do want to fight you, and we will inevitably fight, just right now isn't the ideal time since there's other places to be within Sir Hades's realm"

'Huh, I wonder what the cause could be the cause of this. Judging by how uncomfortable her face looks, it's clearly something embarrassing so not going to ask, bet she's got a date or something like that! Wait, could the whip be related? Okay, I'm definitely not questioning that...'

"Who are you anyways, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Megaera, make sure to keep that to yourselves..."

While speaking, the fury sister sinks back into the ground and the doorway to the gate opens up a mirror portal to the next Underground region. To actually think we got through this next bit without having to fight the boss, I know she just said we'll have to fight again but still.

[<Aesa has been keeping an eye on status and would like to inform Ikarus another 10 levels have been obtained>]

[Name: Ikarus | Species: Phoenix | Level: 598]

[Health 166,666*/166,666*]

[Stamina 65,518*/80,000*]

[Magicka 101,226*/166,666*]

[You currently have 12334 unassigned points]

'Seriously!? She's given levels as well? Well, this has been a fight worth fighting!'

To think, we just got to skip a boss fight! You'd think I'd be pissed but if it wasn't for so much boring skeleton action and just wanting to leave the meadows already.

By the sounds of it, I'm not the only one noticing the increase. Mr obnoxious does sometime pay attention to his system stuff as well.

"Wait, when the hell did I gain twenty levels? Was this from the half-naked sisters or something?"

As soon as Zeki notices, both Ariza and Petra join us in the blue eye status gang. Guess they didn't realize we're getting EXP inside this place as well.

"Zeki, you really need to be friendlier with your voice more, this seems like one of those things he would told you if he noticed it. Mine didn't but she's sleeping right now"

'Ariza's voice can sleep? Ah, I probably shouldn't ask, hers does sound like it's going down the route of Petra's'

"Brother, that dickhead doesn't deserve anything nice! Like orangey, he keeps going on about that stupid jugular body of mine that I'm NEVER going to accept! He can fuck right off"

Okay, I really want to speak with Zeki's voice now if he's in agreement with me, we really need to drug Zeki up again sometime soon but should probably wait until he does something despicable. So won't be a long wait I hope.

"What about you Petra? Have you finally hit max level yet?"

"Heh, still stuck just before a thousand Ikarus. It's good that this place is levelling you three up though"

Ah, guess she's still at nine-nine-nine again. We're still unsure why Athena broke her level counter but it definitely should come up someday.

Of course, Nathan, Charlotte and Geld still aren't going to be completely sure on the whole level thing but two of which are locked at five hundred after all. The only one who isn't and isn't a mythical creature is Nathan, that actually presents a good question though.

'Huh, wonder what his level is at now? Status'

[Name: Nathan | Species: Human | Level: 209]

[Health 10,450/10,450]

[Stamina 4,321/10,450]

[Magicka 0/0]

[<Last check on Nathan showed him at a level 182 Ikarus. Even excluding 10 levels just obtained, clearly travelling in the party agrees with him>]

'I'm pretty certain he must've gained some EXP from one of the previous dungeons somehow? Eh, I'm not figuring this out'

It wouldn't surprise me if he's able to level inside the majority of dungeons unlike us birds but basic levelling was always weird and broken to begin with. Let's just move on from all this system related stuff now.

Before moving on and deciding how to approach the next region, Geld now feels the need to step up and say something though.

"Before we precede into Tartarus, I suggest we take a much longer break than beforehand Queens. Unlike these two previous areas, the next one could prove an extremely difficult challenge"

Judging from the fact his arm is shaking a little, the warrior is surprisingly nervous about entering the next region.

"It's safe to assume Tartarus is extremely dangerous then Geld?"

"Yes Queen Ikarus, at least that's what I've been told from my master. Tartarus is the heart of the Underworld so anything that is really strong must be residing down there. Hopefully, we get lucky and miss most of it but he did say to be careful"

We still don't have a clue who this mysterious master of his is other than the fact he's a demon lord but best not question everything right now. We'll find that out as well someday, hopefully he's not a dick but you never know with these sorts of things.

"Then, we'll definitely have a proper break and a good nap or two... me and Petra call dibs first though!"

"Damn it orangey! Can you read minds as well or something?"

Noticing Zeki spark up when a break was mentioned, could tell he was about to call shotgun on first break but me and Petra always deserve it first. Can't all be sleeping when it's guaranteed more and more skeletons will approach this area throughout the night, or however the light cycle works within this place. It's always kinda dark really.

"Heh, are you really that desperate for a sleep Ikarus, or is this something else?"

Judging by the way she just winked at me, Petra's clearly got a dirty mind and I'm not for it, at the moment. As if we're going to hump in the middle of this 'dangerous' place, we'd clearly get interrupted by skeletons and ain't no one going to stand over us protecting us while we do the deed. This isn't that sort of show, guess Aesa could be useful for watching duty but even then, that clone body is extremely weak.

"No no, nothing like that, just want a proper hug before sleep really. You started it earlier when you accidently fell into my arms..."