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

up on that ship and start getting it free. Even if you have to burn the goddamn vines off it, I don’t care; just don’t fuck the ship up.”

“What about me, boss?” Grizz asked, and I grinned at him.

“You’re going to help me get up there, and then we’re going to make damn sure this ship can actually fly. I’m going to need two hands, I’ve no doubt; it’s not as glamourous as the rest of the jobs, but I need someone I can trust, because sooner or later, the SporeMothers will arrive, and I’ve got the only weapon that I know those fuckers are going to fear,” I stated. Grizz perked up excitedly.

“I’m looking forward to seeing these fuckers; the records say they were a bastard to fight in the old days!” he commented, and I clapped him on the shoulder.

“Good, because we’ll need to work together to do it, as I haven’t got the time to teach you any more magic, and we’ll need all of it that we can get.”

Grizz set off up the side of the ship, following Arrin, who had started up already, and in short order, they were both standing on the deck overhead. Grizz wasted no time in tying off the rope, then flipping one end down to me with a loop tied in the end of it.

I braced my foot in the loop and held on tight as Grizz wrapped the rope around himself and started walking away from the side.

I could hear the grunting as he pulled, but as I lifted up smoothly, I appreciated the effort he was putting in. I rose quickly into the air, dangling over the side, and looked out across the area we found ourselves in now. The ship had been maneuvered into a small, partially collapsed building at some point in the past. It was obscured from casual view from above, and the only way into it, as near as I could tell, was through the barricaded entrance we’d just smashed through.

The overhead sections that allowed sunshine in were small and high up, giving enough light for the plants to grow, but not enough to draw attention that there was anything hidden there.

The cavern we’d just abandoned, on the other hand, had a few places up high with gaps big enough to fly out of, or at least I hoped so…

I watched the gnomes swarming over the wreckage, grabbing anything they could, and like a pack of ants, they then swarmed the ship, dumping it all into the main hold.

I looked down, seeing the neat stacks of boxes in the hold being crushed by the dumped equipment, and I paused, thinking about searching the boxes, then resigned myself to the fact that there just wasn’t time.

I grabbed a gnome that was frantically dashing past and spoke quickly before releasing him, half afraid he might bite me, by the feral gleam in his eye.

“Make the loot from the ‘Master’s’ stash the priority, then anything magical, and then and only then, the parts of your machine. Pass that one to the others,” I ordered, then dismissed him from my mind and headed to the structure at the back of the ship.

I knew from the ships I’d been aboard so far that they all had a similar design of a ‘nerve center’ in the engineering section. It was a room where a single larger manastone was placed in a specific pedestal, along with the smaller ones being set in the actual engines themselves to control the ship. I ducked inside, figuring if this was the same sort of design, then I might as well get that one in place first, followed by running from engine to engine and trying to replace the manastones in them individually. At least if the central ‘nerve cluster’ was powered, then we’d be able to power the ship, even if we only had enough to limp along.

It took Grizz and I tugging on the hatch to open it, thanks to the mound of dirt and debris piled over it. When it eventually came free, it was blatantly obvious that the years in this hidden cavern hadn’t been as kind to the ship as I’d first hoped.

Along with tarnishing the copper fittings of the ship an unhealthy green, the wood had warped and swollen from decades of exposure to rain and other water sources. The hatch creaked and ground alarmingly as we pulled it open.

We jumped down and strode into the dimly lit hallway, pausing while my eyes adjusted and Grizz activated his magelight. The first few rooms were clearly designed for housing for the important people aboard, and at the end of the small hallway was a ladder, leading down to the next level. I grunted defiantly, before jumping instead.

I bent my knees and took the landing like a champ, straightening nonchalantly as though I did this all the time, when Grizz leapt down beside me, landing with one fist pressed to the ground, one knee down, in true super-hero style, before straightening up and looking around.

I paused to curse him internally, knowing that if this was a movie, he’d just identified himself as the hero, while I was clearly the sidekick, judging from the total lack of flair and general gracefulness of my own landing.

He set off without noticing my glare, and we searched the nearest rooms, finding scattered moldy clothes, patches where food had rotted away, and beds that had a thick layer of dust coating them.

We moved on, rushing to the end of the corridor halfway to the bow end of the ship. Every room appeared to be a mix of living quarters, a few engineering labs, I guessed, and a small library.

The books were mainly buggered, thanks to water ingress from a swollen joint over one bookshelf, but there were a few dozen that looked intact from my cursory glance.

We jumped down to the next level, and I tried not to think about how awkward climbing back up all