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

Unfortunately, the gnome was easily over two hundred, wizened, and clearly drugged up to the eyeballs, so his version of a whisper was little different to someone shouting and pointing at me.

“I know! Fucker cut his own arm off, I hear. I say we make nice, grab the good gear, and run for it!” his friend ‘whispered’ back, then noticed the way that everyone was looking at them and forced a smile, waving nervously around. “Smile and wave, Jimkin, smile and wave!”

I shook my head, looking away and ignoring the loud discussion they started up about wondering how I knew they were talking about me.

Sighing, I focused once again on the structure, reaching down deep and listening(?) to the feeling of magic.

I drew in a long, slow breath, followed by another, mentally centering myself before stepping forward and reaching out my hand to press it gently to the side of the Vault.

“I am Jax, Lord of Dravith, Scion of the Empire, and by the right of my blood, I claim this structure,” I stated formally.

I heard people go silent, watching and waiting.

After a minute, I cracked an eye open and glanced around, feeling incredibly stupid. Voices started to mutter quietly, while bugger-all happened. I was about to give up when I felt a resonance begin in my palm.

It was minor; hell, it was practically infinitesimal, but it was there, and I knew it had begun. The metal under my palm grew warmer, slowly building until it reached the temperature of a comfortable summer’s day, and the glow of the Vault grew with it.

At first, it had been a gentle, dim, even shimmer, but now it was shining. The room we were in began to glow in response as tiny pathways of silver metal spread out, racing for the far walls.

The liquified mana seemed to bring life to the stone and metal as it went. Color and vibrancy began flooding the room, pushing back the darkness.

I stepped back, somehow knowing that what I’d started couldn’t be stopped now, and my moving would have no effect on it.

The floor shuddered slightly, then again, more forcefully, as something awoke under our feet, and the Vault began to glow brighter. The small building itself was an octagon, eight slightly sloped sides leading up from the ground to meet a sharply slanted triangular roof with a peak in the middle. The design made me think of a mix of a Chinese pagoda and a Bedouin tent, for some reason, and the panels that made up the sides began to glow in an alternating pattern.

As the glow grew, the room filled with light as dozens of previously defunct magelights bloomed to life, scattered across the room. They ringed the outer edge and were positioned strategically on the dome, as it climbed high overhead, but the vast majority were long dead.

The measly thousand mana that the Vault had needed to reawaken clearly was supposed to be an emergency seed of power, and as I watched, the lights bathed the room in a dim, late afternoon light, instead of what I guessed was intended to be a brilliantly sunny day.

The building shuddered again, and a loud crash somewhere in the distance, followed by rushing water, made me swallow hard, as I hoped I’d not just doomed us all.

“Yen…” I said, turning to look at her. “Get everyone ready to go, just in case…”

“Will do.” She saluted, turning and heading off to gather up the gnomes, occasionally kicking one who gave her abuse.

I shook my head at the problems the little bastards were going to cause in the Tower… but I couldn’t wait to see what gnomes could do with the Airships, as well.

I dismissed them from my thoughts, though, as I felt the resonance building to new heights, and then, finally, the Vault glowed with a solid golden light, as the silvery liquid metal-looking mana that flowed back and forth around the structure returned to a single point.

It formed a pool, flat and still, but laid on the side of the structure at a ninety-degree angle, like a mirror. While it reflected the room behind me perfectly, my face frowned out at me sternly.

I blinked and tilted my head, considering the reflection and realizing just how rough I looked these days. My beard was scruffy, and my hair appeared to be matted with dried blood and dirt. I reached up to scratch my chin self-consciously, and did it with my missing hand, making me look all the more monstrous and scruffier.

“What do you seek here, Scion?”

I heard the voice differently to the way that I heard Oracle and the other wisps of the Great Tower; they were bonded to me and spoke into my mind, while this voice… this was a faint whisper on the edge of hearing, a voice that echoed strangely, filled with a mixture of fatigue, sadness, and indefatigable yearning.

“I seek lost knowledge to enable me to defend the Empire…” I answered, forcing my words at the seemingly distant contact.

“And you think I possess this? I have little here compared to the great Repositories of the Empire. Why do you wish my death?”

“Death? I don’t want your death?” I responded, confused.

“A wisp is tied to its function. I must protect this knowledge. Without it, I have no reason for existence. When my mana is gone, I will cease to be. I thank you for the donation of mana, but alas, I cannot help you. Please… do not kill me.”

“I don’t want to kill you.” I said impatiently, hearing the crash of something collapsing in the distance and the surging sound of more water pouring in. “There must be another way; there is no need for you to die…”

“I agree, there is no need. Leave this place. I sense rising water, and the structure has taken damage. Allow me to sink into my dreamless sleep again, Scion; let me sleep away the years until my Prax and I are recovered.”

“Who do you think will recover you?”