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

“Hey!” Tang said, looking hurt.

“It’s true,” Grizz said, trying to keep a straight face. “Nobody likes rogues, they’re just so… annoying!”

“Could be worse…” I said, joining in on the byplay while I stared up the corridor. “Could be a bard.”

“Oh hell no!” Tang cried, jumping to his feet. “I can put up with a lot: abuse, more abuse, sexual abuse… hell, I even put up with working with Grizz, and everyone knows he’s riddled… but comparing me to a bard?!?”

“You really have bards?” I asked, my train of thought derailed as I looked back at the group.

“Yeah; thieving bastards, the majority of them,” Yen said, wincing. “I mean, we don’t have them in the Legion… and I’m sure they’re not all dodgy, backstabbing, thieving bastards; there’s got to be one out there that isn’t… but hell, I’d trust Grizz to watch over me in the shower more than I’d trust one of them. And that’s saying something.”

“I love you, too,” Grizz said, throwing Yen a wink and making her blush bright red.

“Anyway…” she pressed on, obviously flustered. “What’s the plan, then?”

“Well, I’m thinking we follow them, we kill them all, and then we take their stuff,” I suggested, rubbing my chin as though deep in thought.

“Simple, yet elegant… I like it,” Yen declared, and Lydia nodded enthusiastically.

“Murder-hobo,” Bane said in a stage whisper, and I groaned, shaking my head.

“Man, I wish I’d never introduced you to that concept,” I muttered as I began to roughly search the corpse of the very first gnome.

“What’s a murder-hobo?” Lydia asked Bane, and I tuned him out as he started to tell the others a greatly embellished version of my adventures so far, while explaining what I’d taught him about the term back at the Arena.

“Ah, right!” Tang said after a few minutes, as I slipped a pair of magelights, a manastone, and a half dozen copper and silver coins into my bag. “You’re right, he really is!”

“Goddamn wise-ass dolphin-fucking smart-arse …” I grumbled under my breath as I walked forward, picking up the wooden club that the gnome had been wielding.

I flipped it over and examined it, then tossed it to Grizz, who was watching me.

“Can you see anything about that?” I asked him, and he frowned, looking it over.

“Like what?” he asked seriously, all play gone from his voice as he examined the cudgel.

“Anything, really. She acted like it was a great weapon, but it’s just a damn stick?” I asked, and he nodded, inspecting it closely, then swinging it a few times. Finally, he smacked it into the dead gnome, then shrugged.

“Well, whatever she thought it was, she was mistaken. It’s literally a nicely polished stick with some metal shards embedded in it. That’s it.” He passed it back without giving it a second look. I dumped it into a pouch and shook my head in disappointment, scanning the nearest wreckage quickly.

There were several sections that glowed faintly, trailing a white mist, but beyond that, it was literally a pile of scrap. I put the bits that seemed magical into my largest bag, hoping that I could get them to Thorn, but also happy to dump them if something more valuable came along.

We got the team together and started up the corridor, making our way slowly until we reached the fires. I fired a preemptive Fireball through them to hurtle down the corridor until it hit a wall in the distance, and once we were reasonably sure the corridor was clear, we created magical fountains to wash the flaming wreckage down, soaking and diluting the fuel enough that the flames guttered out and we could move on safely.

We continued along slowly, partially to let our mana recover, and partially because we were sure there was an ambush coming, but after a few minutes, Yen asked me to stop, and we did.

“These Spellbooks…” she started to say, holding them up, and I smacked myself on the forehead.

“Yes!” I grunted. “Bane, what can you sense?” I asked, and he paused, then shook his head.

“Nothing for several hundred meters; the corridor cuts to the left, and then there’s nothing but the open air of a big cavern. Whatever these wheel things were attached to earlier was past that point, but I can’t sense it now, so it must have moved back. Want me to do a full blast…?”

“No, that’s good enough for me for now,” I said with a wave of my hand. I passed a Firebolt out to both Tang and Bane, gave the Summoning spells for the Flame Atronarch to Miren and the Earth Golem to Stephanos, the Buff spell for Dexterity to Jian, and the Iceshields to Lydia and Grizz. Those, added to the Darkbolt spells I’d tossed to Yen and Arrin, meant that everyone had at least one spell.

It struck me that it could be argued both ways; teaching them spells, in the case of front-line fighters, like Lydia and Grizz, might make them hesitate between a physical and a magical response at some point, but then I quickly dismissed the concern. If I could manage it, so could they.

I got rounds of effusive thanks, followed by a groan from Lydia as Miren summoned her Atronarch. It was only five feet tall and almost willowy in form, but the flames that formed it flared and crackled, and it moved constantly, watching us all.

“You know she’s going to burn down the camp with that thing, right?” Lydia said to me, and I grinned at her.

“We’re in an underwater city… oh, shit.” I froze, cutting off as I realized something.

“Yeah,” Lydia said, nodding as I came to the same realization she had. “Soon, we won’t be; the mainly wooden Airships are going to love that thing.”

“No summoning that thing on the ships!” I told Miren sternly, and she pouted, looking sullen. “I mean it!” I said, feeling like I was kicking a puppy, but I felt even worse when I caught a glimpse of Jian, who was staring at his