City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) Jez Cajiao (best color ebook reader txt) 📖

As soon as the Golem had cleared the space, directed by Oracle, it came down to join us, sealing the doors as it went. The shield bearer was a ‘Complex’ Golem that took my orders readily, directing its lesser brethren to follow and obey, and I felt Oracle release her direct control over it.

As soon as I gave the word, it set off running, sprinting across the room to leap at the huge glass windows by the door. The metal mesh fixed across the windows to prevent burglars tore like tissue paper as the huge Golem slammed through it, hidden behind its shield.

It hit the ground, skidded, carving a path in the cobbles, then set off due north, straight to the harbor.

A shout rose from the streets above, echoing down to us faintly as people set off in pursuit. I grinned, hoping they’d enjoy the swim, as dozens of guards ran after the Golem, while others flooded into the Emporium. A figure sinking to its knees in the middle of the room made me feel bad, as I guessed it was the owner, but there was nothing I could do for him, not now, and my people needed this.

I watched as he jumped up and ran down to the lower level. Other figures turned and headed out, presumably at a demand from him. He opened the lower passage into the old building, running down the stairs to the Golem storage hall. He stopped for a long minute, while I prayed fervently that he would not try to open the hidden Control Room door, or the one that led down to us. After a pregnant pause, he rushed off again up to the main floor and started searching the room, presumably for whatever was left.

I looked over at the pile of gear, guessing we’d managed to get about half of the store’s stock. Thankfully, we had snagged the books, as the Golems had been ordered to get them first, then anything magical. I felt bad for the guy, I really did, but I forced those feelings away, making myself remember the way Oracle had told me he’d made her feel, drooling over her and trying to touch her.

“Jax.” called a voice, and I dismissed the map, scanning the room until I spotted Grizz waiting near the far wall.

“What’s up?” I said, moving over to him.

“Is this where you said the tunnel to the sewer was?” he asked. “The water that’s getting in here has loosened the bricks. If we’re careful, we might be able to take it apart without too much noise.”

“Get it done,” I said to him. “If you need help, just shout, and I’ll have a Golem join you.”

“One of the smart ones wouldn’t go amiss?” he asked, and I summoned over the remaining ‘Complex’ War Golem.

“Assist Centurion Grizz in breaking through to the next tunnel, but do it quietly.” I ordered it, nodding to Grizz and moving away. I headed back to the center of the room, joining Augustus in sorting through the piles of loot with the others and separating gear out quickly.

In a handful of minutes, it was all done, and I couldn’t help but smile at the piles stacked before me. We had twenty-seven books, eleven of which were Skillbooks; the rest were all spells. I searched through them quickly, tucking away the Magical Gardening one that Mistress Nerin had enthused over, then checking the others. We had, disappointingly as Nerin had said, gotten a load of ‘mundane’ skills: three identical books on Carpentry, one on Smelting, two on Weaving, and another four on Farming, Glassblowing, Animal Husbandry and Tiling. They were average skills in comparison to some, like making magical machines, or Runecrafting, but to us, they were still hugely valuable. After all, we needed everything.

The momentary thought of a gang of carpenters making me a goddamn bed made me pause in fond imagining. I shrugged it off after a moment; after all, they were skills that could be used in a variety of ways. A carpenter could work on a ship as easily as a damn dressing table.

The Spellbooks were the better prize, as we had collected sixteen. The most useful ones we’d collected were two Firebolt, one Lightning bolt, and two ‘Natures Boon’ spells, which were apparently healing spells. Three Deathbolt spells, which fired a bolt of necrotic energy, were especially interesting. They apparently did five points of damage individually, but each bolt had a twenty-five percent chance of causing a further ten points of damage over the next ten seconds, and that DPS, or Damage Per Second, stacked up to ten times! If you hit someone repeatedly, they’d essentially bleed out, and considering it only cost ten points of mana, if I had three people using it together on the same target, they could take down something huge in short order, or at least, they could once they leveled the spell up and made it either more efficient or more powerful.

The remaining eight spells were a mixture of buffs and curses. There were five ‘Buff’ spells: two ‘Hastes,’ which sped up the target by ten percent for a set period of time, and three separate spells that boosted Intelligence, Strength, and Dexterity individually. Each apparently boosted the respective stat by five points for a minute, costing fifty mana each. Naturally, I could see massive uses for them.

The Curse spells were good, as well. I was impressed by a ‘Disease’ spell that drained Health and Stamina for five points per second for thirty seconds, a ‘Blind’ spell that would hit the target with a darkness debuff, making it almost impossible to see for up to a minute, depending on resistances and mana used, and finally, the best of all of them… ‘Vampire’s Touch’.

‘Vampire’s Touch’ drained the target of not only their Health, but also had a chance to drain their stats! It was hugely expensive, at two hundred mana per second,