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

checked Tang again, verified that there no emergencies that I could help with, then drew a deep breath and started.

I spread the ingredients out on the table before me. Using a short, sharp blade, I separated the heads from the Green Flutes, then split them lengthways, peeling back the fibrous outer layer to reveal a sickly glowing sap that ran the length of them.

I stripped this out; my basic knowledge of alchemy, combined with the practice I’d had thus far and the little training I’d received, guiding me as I worked.

Once the sap was out and had been squeezed into a vial, I started to chop the root itself, finding that it dried quickly once the liquid was removed, becoming brittle and crumbly. I chopped it as quickly as I could, then set it aside in an alembic, putting it on a low boil with some pure water I summoned, filling a handful of beakers quickly before letting the spell wink out.

While that was boiling, I worked quickly to peel and chop the Mora Telendril. These were short, stubby roots, almost like tentacles, but as solid as sweet potatoes and lined with dozens of tiny holes. I diced them up and dumped them into a vial with a small solution of the glowing liquid from the Flutes, watching as the liquid was absorbed with alacrity.

I muttered notes to myself, removing the previous vials from the alembic and replacing it with the new one, then getting to work on the next one.

The next hour passed at speed, and soon, I had half a dozen different potions set out before me. Some, most likely the majority, I knew, would be failures, or at least very weak, but that was fine.

I did a little healing on Tang, then set to identifying the potions and memorizing what had worked, and what had resulted in wasted ingredients.

All in all, from the dozen potions I’d managed to create, I’d made real two successes, which were both healing potions. Three new potions, I’d not made this way before, which were variously a potion of Somnolence and two potions of Cure Disease, accompanied by seven utter failures.

I stretched, cracking my back, and checked on Tang again, before walking over to Jian, looking down at the mess of controls and frowning.

“How are we doing?” I asked him, and he started, having been lost in the complicated controls.

“Ah!” He cried, jerking back, and making the ship shudder before he grabbed the sticks again and got it under control. “Damn, boss, don’t do that to me!” he said, shaking his head. “What did you say?”

“I asked you how we were doing?” I said again.

“We’re okay… not good; don’t get me wrong, but whatever Frederikk and his people have done, it’s resulted in a serious cut to the loss we were suffering. We’re using about one percent every two hours now, as near as I can tell, but they’re still gaining on us. The rest of the fleet disappeared into the storm up ahead about twenty minutes ago, though, so it looks like we’re on our own. Best we can hope for is that we can lose our pursuers in there, maybe change direction and see how close to shore we can get? Land and make a run for the Tower on foot?”

“Not a good option there,” I said, shaking my head. “We’d be hunted from above and followed by their forces. I doubt we’d last long.”

“Could the gnomes not make us something to ride to escape them?”

“Possibly, but it’s heavy trees and thick underbrush down there for what, a few hundred miles to the Tower? I don’t see us riding something the gnomes made and controlled for that long, do you?” I arched a questioning eyebrow at Jian, smiling wryly.

“Well, no… besides the ship, I mean,” he said, unconsciously adjusting his crotch, and I nodded in understanding. The ride to the ship itself had been an absolute ball breaker for me too.

“Besides, they used their manaengines as explosives to take out the barricade earlier. They might be able to cobble something together, but it’d still need power, and I don’t have any we could use,” I said simply. “How much longer do we have?”

“We’re down to nine percent, so if we don’t have to make any fast bursts of speed, maybe eighteen hours.” Jian said uncomfortably.

“And how long to the Great Tower?” I asked, and immediately catching the way his shoulders slumped.

“At this speed, and the direction we’re going, following the fleet and all, I’d think at least fifty-five to sixty hours. Probably closer to seventy, considering the wind is against us, so we can’t use the sails either…”

“So, we’re fucked,” I stated after a minute of careful thought.

“Yeah, seems that way,” he replied quietly, keeping his eyes on the display.

“Well, that’s a kick in the teeth,” I muttered, shaking my head, and looking around the bridge, as though expecting an answer to just pop up.

“Yeah, I asked Tenandra, and she said that she would look into options, and then she vanished. I know you might not like her, but she’s really helped me so far…” Jian said hesitantly, and I looked at him in confusion.

“Who…” I started to ask before noticing that the Core sat on the deck, seemingly dull and lifeless. “The wisp?” I asked and he nodded.

“Okay…” I said absently, examining the Core more closely. This damn thing had taken a charge before, hadn’t it?

I was turning the Core over and over in my hands when the wisp‒Tenandra, I supposed‒reappeared.

She looked haggard, but she gave me a polite nod before giving Jian an altogether more friendly, if weak, smile.

“We may have an option, but it will not be easy,” she offered hesitantly and looked at me.

“Go on,” I encouraged her.

“The storm ahead,” she said, gesturing into the oncoming clouds. “The rest of the fleet has altered course to ride the outermost edge for safety…”

“Seems a bloody good idea to me,” I admitted.

“We don’t,” she said simply. “Instead, we