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

“They coming by choice?” I asked.

“Possibly, possibly not. I can’t be sure from up here.”

“Fine; let’s go find out, I guess then. Grizz, you and Lydia okay? Ready to flank me?” Grim nods came from them both. “Good. Grizz, on my right, Lydia, on my left. Jian, you’re with Lydia. Miren, Stephanos, Arrin, you’re behind us. Stay as high as you can and blast them if a fight starts. Yen, you’re our trump card; stay hidden, and be ready to use the Spears if we need it, as high powered as you can. Bane, Tang, stealth… be ready to jump them and gut anything you can.” I snapped out orders as I headed across the room and towards the stairs.

I knew there were things hidden in here, I just goddamn knew it, especially with the way the corpses in the cage were dangling; the whole place just screamed out ‘hidden treasure,’ but I had neither the time nor the ability to loot it properly. We’d gotten a good supply of gold, silver, and jewels, ironically the things that had the least value to us, and the thing that was the most valuable, the portal, and any hidden magical gear, we didn’t have time to attempt to disassemble or find.

It was galling, but I didn’t even dare use the ability that Jenae had given me to find the hidden room; it was a strictly once a day ability, and I couldn’t risk using it now when I might really need it later, and when I’d considered it last night, I’d not known if ‘once per day’ counted as the rise and setting of the sun, or a twenty-four hour period. I resolved to talk to Jenae about it later.

I grumbled to myself as I jogged across the floor, kicking a small, broken section of the ceiling out of my way and sending it flying out into space, before hearing it clatter to the ground three floors below.

I jogged down the stairs, the rest of the team following me, and by the time we’d reached the lowest balcony, Giint and his people were in sight, crossing the outermost edge of the building and heading inside.

We reached the ground floor at about the same time as he led the first of the gnomes into the atrium, and I stopped a few stairs up from the ground, with the rest of the group spreading out around me, ready for a fight.

“Lorrrrd Jaxx,” Giint called up to me, bowing awkwardly and glaring at me before spitting on the floor. “I findsss my peeeople. Bring them for healiiiing. You do thisss… they sssswear, like Giint.”

The group that moved in around him were a mixture of the noticeably young and the very old, with only Giint seeming an able-bodied adult; still, I let out a sigh as I relaxed. I’d been hoping they were coming to join us, now that the more… rabid… of their people were dead, and the asshole that had been controlling them was gone, but still. Hoping and having it confirmed were two vastly different things.

“Okay, Giint, you brought them here to swear to me. Do they understand what this means?” I asked, and he nodded hesitantly, so I went on, looking out at the group that shuffled around, glaring at me and each other in equal measure.

I didn’t have to count them; the Quest from Jenae had said there were twenty-seven in total that could be recruited, and this was obviously them. Despite the filth that coated them, and the borderline madness that shone in many an eye, I knew what had to be done.

Not only could I not leave them, but I also damn well needed them, each and every one, if I was going to find their old ship and get it flightworthy again, not to mention figure out how the hell it worked.

“Giint says you have come to swear fealty to me, in exchange for healing and being taken off the island; is this true?” I asked, my voice echoing around the atrium.

They looked at each other, and slowly in ones and twos, then more, they nodded or spoke up to agree.

“Good!” I said. “First, then, the good news. I can heal you all, and I can get you off this structure, leading you up into the sky and to a home that, while not safe, will be a damn sight safer than this place will be.” I waited, seeing relief on the faces of some and hostility on the faces of others.

“The bad news is that there is an enemy fleet heading here now. My own forces are leaving, by my orders. The only way we can get out of here, and escape with our lives, is if we clear out the undead, kill the Lich, and reach your old vessel. I know roughly where it’s hidden; do any of you remember it?” I asked, and the older members of the group nodded, most of them, anyway.

A tiny figure shuffled forward, his right eye covered by a monocle and a scruffy cap perched atop his head. Dozens of larger and smaller lenses decorated it, clearly ready to be pulled down at any time to be looked through. He wore pants and a tunic that once must have been smart, and probably black. Now they were an off-grey, with patches that covered older patches, and I suspected the original garment was a distant memory at this point.

“I remember it,” he wheezed, and I frowned, hearing a rough, but cultured accent and clear diction, as opposed to the way that Giint spoke. I glanced to Giint before I could stop myself and back at the elder. “You offer to heal us… and in return, we swear our lives to you, something no gnome has ever done…” He glared at me suspiciously.

“Wrong,” I said without thought, hastily going on when I saw the glare grow deeper. “You think no gnomes have sworn fealty before, yet your ancestors