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

and I’d start to regenerate again properly, boosting my mana regen from one point seven, up to three point four per minute.

I wavered between Intelligence and Wisdom. I could see good reasons to do both, but for some reason, I just didn’t want to waste the opportunity, and I felt like splitting the majority of the points would be a mistake. I drew a deep breath and called out to the room.

“I’m assigning some points, so don’t worry if I collapse, okay?” I said. getting a round of grunts in response. I took a deep breath and, because I was an adult who always carefully considered things, I pulled a coin out of my bag.

One side had a cog design inscribed on it, and the other side displayed a face that seemed to be glaring at me in disapproval.

“Okay,” I whispered to myself. “Cog’s Intelligence, and head’s Wisdom… makes sense, sort of. Drop the four odd points into Luck, and…” I flipped the coin, slammed the points in before I could think better of it, and grunted as the world seemed to expand before my eyes. Pain ripped through my brain, threatening to make me pass out.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

It took a handful of minutes before I could see again, and even then, it felt like someone had ripped the top off my skull, poured bleach onto my brain and scrubbed it, before wiring me up to a car battery.

Twenty points to Intelligence in one go: man, that shit hurt! It also increased my manapool another two hundred, giving me five hundred and thirty, despite the twenty that I had lost to Oracle and Bob permanently.

I shrugged as I regarded my pathetically low amount of mana available, and I downed the ‘Greater’ mana potion. The jump in my regeneration from one point seven points per minute, to eleven points per second for a hundred and twenty seconds, was huge. It literally regenerated my entire mana pool in under a minute, so I went to work fast, fully healing the prisoners. I drained my whole pool within the first minute, letting myself recover as we turned to the stairs.

“Time to go play,” I said quietly, feeling the rest of the group’s readiness. I took a head count, trying to figure out why two of my people were missing, before noting that Miren and Jian were off to one side, having a heated make-out session behind a cage full of rotted corpse and shit. “Really?” I said loudly. Lydia whistled, and they broke apart, red faced, having been totally oblivious. “Seriously, guys? You choose now... and there… of all places to try to get some action?”

“Sorry, Jax…”

“Sorry, Lord Jax…” The pair parroted, rejoining the group rather shamefacedly.

“Seriously, you two, get a fucking room when we get out of here.” I shook my head disapprovingly, winking at Lydia, who glowered at them, then turned her face where only I could see and stifled a laugh at how contrite they appeared.

“I’d suggest you wait a few minutes,” I said to the former prisoners, who were now huddled together, confused and clearly distressed, “then either follow us up to the top, and you can escape the city with us, or go to the bottom of the tower and head back into the city, if that’s what you want to do. Be warned, though; we’re Legion, or at least some of us are, and there’s a mob outside that doesn’t like us. They’re being whipped up into a frenzy to attack us, so you might want to be careful down there.”

“What?!” shrieked a woman garbed in filthy finery and stinking velvet. “Surely you don’t mean that! We need escorts back to our homes. You’ve rescued us; now do your jobs! If you’re Legionnaires, which I doubt, considering how scruffy you look, you’ve sworn an Oath to obey the Empire. I’m Lady Karen Hightree, and as I am obviously the highest ranking noble here, I order you to stop whatever you’re doing and take me home!” I looked at her, then to Grizz, who nodded to me, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.

“You really have this kind of shit to deal with?” I asked in disbelief, and he nodded again.

“Daily, mate. Honestly, they’re all like this,” He said croakily, rolling his eyes in irritation.

“You!” she snapped, seeing Grizz clearly for the first time. “You’re a Legionnaire! I order you to escort me to safety! And if any of these ruffian’s object, you’re to take their heads!”

“The offer of escaping with us is no longer open to you,” I informed the entitled bitch sitting on the floor. “Any of the rest of you who feel this way, stay here or fuck off downstairs, otherwise you’re welcome to follow along. Grizz, I officially relieve you of any requirement to obey any orders outside of my own and your Legion chain of command, just in case that was an issue for you.”

Grizz took a deep breath and smiled as he felt his Oath acknowledge that change, and I felt my mana take a dip.

“Man, that feels good,” Grizz muttered, closing his eyes for a second before walking over to the filthy noblewoman. He loomed over her momentarily, then leaned down and looked her in the eyes as she shrank back from the intensity of his gaze. “Listen, you sanctimonious piece of shit…” He spoke slowly and clearly, enjoying the look of shock on her face. “…the Legion doesn’t answer to you and your pathetic attempts at nobility anymore. We’re Imperial Legionnaires, and the Empire is rising again. I’d have a good long look at the Imperial Codex of Laws when you get the chance, if I were you; see how many you’ve broken, because we’re shackled no longer. The Legion’s gonna enforce the law, as it was written, from now on. None of the shit we’ve had to put up with forever.”

“How dare you!” she snarled, white with outrage. “Who do you think supersedes my authority! I