Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) Jez Cajiao (top ten books of all time TXT) 📖

hidden behind a barricade on the north of the island, but if you could reach it… There may be sufficient manastones in the Vault to enable you to power it again,” Jenae said, the excitement giving way to concern. “Jax, the ships are hidden by a powerful illusion; the Legion is unaware of them, and as slow as the Battleship is, its only chance is to flee, and flee now.”

“Right.” I bit my knuckle as I thought. “We’ve got six hours; six hours from now until the ships make landfall, and DarkSpore would tear through the Legion as it is now, with hardly any spells… they have to leave.”

“Jax, this is the Legion; they can take down any monsters…” Grizz said, clearly offended.

“And how many would die? How many citizens?” I asked him grimly. “No, the Legion needs to go, and we need to go as well. We’ve got six hours, that’s hardly any time, but we need to escape the gnomes, cut our way through the damn Lich and its forces, and find that Vault, then the ship, and get the hell out of here. I don’t know if we should hope they follow the fleet or stay here, but either way, we’ve only got the one chance. We have to cut our way through them.”

“There is a path, high above. It is narrow and crosses through collapsed sections, but Oracle could make it through to speak to the Legion. I cannot help further; they hunt for me, and I must flee. Either way, Jax, I am sorry, but I must leave you. Good luck, my Champion,” Jenae said, and the sense of her presence faded as I looked around at them all, wishing now that we hadn’t stopped for the night, or that I’d taken the time to make more potions. I’d planned to do it this morning, but now it was too late.

“Right, you’ve got five minutes. Loot the shit out of this place,” I ordered. “Anything magical, any potions, or valuables, get them here.” I pointed to the floor before me, then turned to Oracle, reaching out to her. She flashed to full size and landed, reaching out to me as well.

We held each other for a few long heartbeats, then I released her, and she stepped back, knowing what she had to do.

“I’ll go to them, give them their orders and get them moving, and then I’ll come find you…” she started to say, and I shook my head.

“No,” I said simply. “You’d never be able to find us; you know it as well as I do. You go with the fleet, you command them in my absence, and when you can, you said once you could communicate with Seneschal and Heph if you got high enough. Get them free of the trap, then go high, get Decin and Oren out to join the fleet. Those extra ships could make all the difference. Then run, go straight to the Tower. The cities know who we are by now, and they’ve clearly picked a side, or they’d have not joined forces.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” she said, tears running down her cheeks.

“I know, and I don’t want you to, but it’s what you have to do, or they’ll all die. Go. I love you, but go!” I said to her, kissing her fiercely one last time.

“You better win this!” she said, glaring up at me, and I grinned at her as she shrank to her smallest size and flew out of the door. The pair of us knew the risk we were both taking; without her support, we could all die down here in the dark, and without my direct mana, she would die within days.

“I will.” I said quietly, as she took one last look back at me, then vanished upwards in a blur of light.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I pulled up the notifications that had been pulsing away, guessing at what I’d find, and dismissing the unimportant details, like the experience notifications, until I saw it.

Congratulations! You have made progress in your Quest: ‘Fix the Fixers’

The Goddess Jenae has commanded you to explore the Sunken City, a site you now know to be the Prax ‘Glorious Retribution.’ Upon further investigation, you’ve found a lost tribe of gnomes, a species renowned for their standoffish nature, their unwillingness to allow their technology to be investigated by others, and their borderline drug-fueled insanity. Jenae wishes you to further investigate the tribe, healing any you can, and adding to your people.

Discover the secret of the gnomish regression: 1/1

Recover Magical Artifacts and Technologies: 2/?

Retrieve Manastones: 17/100

Retrieve Spell and Skillbooks lost in the Prax: 0/37

Recruit additional citizens: 1/?

Recruit skilled crafters: 1/?

Find the ‘Master’ and free the Gnomish tribe: 1/1

Bonuses will be given for exceeding these numbers.

Reward: Improved technological capacity in the Great Tower, Possible technological boosts to the fleet Unknown, 250,000Exp

*

Congratulations! Because of recent events, the Goddess Jenae has upgraded your Quest: ‘Fix the Fixers’

You have discovered the chilling secrets of the Prax ‘Glorious Retribution,’ discovered a working, if unpowered, portal, and killed the ‘Master’ and his unwilling servants. Due to the level of difficulty involved, and the bravery shown by your acceptance of the realities of your situation, the Goddess Jenae has increased your rewards and has altered the Success Conditions of the Quest.

1)     Recruit the Gnomish Survivors: 1/27

2)     Recover sufficient manastones to power the ship ‘Interesting Endeavors’

3)     Eliminate Bartholomew the Lich

4)     Find and prepare the ship ‘Interesting Endeavors’ and use it to escape.

5)     Bonus Condition: For each SporeMother killed, receive 10,000xp.

Reward: Improved technological capacity in the Great Tower, Possible technological boosts to the fleet, Survival , Gnomish exploration vessel ‘Interesting Endeavors’,  500,000Exp

Accept? Yes/No

I grunted as I looked it over. I still needed the Spellbooks, regardless of them being missing from the newly updated quest, as I needed to find out about the Valspar, but the rest was interesting, to say the least.

“Says here that we’ve found seventeen manastones so far; is