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

impression on you, but please understand, a handful of minutes ago, you were trying to kill me, so you’ll have to trust that this is as much for your safety as it is mine.” I took a deep breath, speaking firmly.

“Nigret, I order you to speak the truth to me now, for the rest of this conversation. Are you planning to break faith with me or any of my people?” I watched the phrasing of the Oath take hold, making him hiss in fury as he tried to stop himself from speaking, but couldn’t.

“Nigret had no intention of breaking faith with you or your people, until this Oath was used. Now, Nigret wants to be free!” he spat, his eyes blazing with anger.

“Then I am truly sorry, Nigret, that I had to use it. Rest now and relax. I needed to be sure, since you’re going to hear a lot of things in the next day or two that cannot be betrayed. If you want to be free after all this is done, I’ll honor that, despite the ten years you promised,” I offered sadly. It had felt cruel to compel him to tell me the truth like that, but it had to be done. The other option was to kill him.

I shook my head to clear it and gazed around the room. I was met by the approving nods of the Legion, and the mixture of looks the others gave me. Clearly, nobody liked seeing the compulsion magic behind the Oath, but it’d been needed.

“So… that’s two fights down now,” Mal switched topics suddenly. “You ain’t plannin' on another stupid trick like that for the next ones, are you?”

“What, recruiting my opponent?” I asked, flashing a smile.

“No, movin' straight into the next fight! I missed bein' able to place the bets; I lost a goddamn fortune!” he fumed, and I snorted in laughter.

“Bets…” Grizz muttered, clicking his fingers. “Can we put some coin down, Lord Jax?” I shrugged dismissively.

“You’re welcome to, mate, though I think you’ll have a job getting Mal to hand over your winnings…”

“I’ll take the bets,” Soween said, waving her hand, to a round of relieved sighs and nods.

“Hey! What, none of you trust me with your coin, but you’ll trust me to plan all this mess out?” he asked, looking hurt.

“Would you give the gold over without taking a cut?” I challenged him and he froze. “…and that’s why they trust Soween more than you, mate!” I said, grinning.

“You’re all friends here?” Nigret said suddenly. “We… the gangs, that is… were told you were prisoners. I thought I saw hints that it was fake, but this… how did you convince the Legion to play along? This is setup, you’re bleeding the gangs of their gold!” He gaped from me, to the Legionnaires, to Mal.

“Oh, you’re in for a treat, son,” Mal said, shaking his head at Nigret. “If you think this is the main event… we ain’t even started the real game yet.”

Nigret blinked at the sea of grins that surrounded him.

Oracle started checking over my armor, and that spurred the Legion into motion. I was pulled to my feet as they examined my armor minutely, and Mal and Oracle were pulled out of the way while they got to work.

They started to strip off sections, while another Legionnaire who was close to my size began removing some sections of his armor to replace my damaged ones, grinning enthusiastically at me as I thanked him.

“Are you crazy, Lord Jax? I’m the one that needs to thank you! You’re wearing my armor as you step out there, teaching those assholes to fear the Legion!” He said proudly.

“We’re headin’ back up there. We’ll put the bets in, and then I’ll invite our victim to my booth for the final fight. Make it a good one, and I’ll keep him at the bar as long as possible,” Mal tossed me a wink as he headed to the door, Soween and Oracle joining him. Oracle spun back to blow me a kiss as she left.

I winked at her, and while they fixed my armor, I pulled up my notifications from earlier in the day, since I’d been too worked up to look at them earlier.

Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Agility by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.

Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Constitution by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.

Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Dexterity by two points. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.

Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Endurance by three points. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.

Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Strength by two points. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.

*

Congratulations! You have killed the following:

1x Promethean Warrior Golmar for a total of 11,000xp

Progress to level 16 stands at 72,448/165,000

I grinned, thrilled with the jump in the Experience that I’d gained from the fight with the Promethean. It was a bit of a sickener that I got nothing from the harder fight with Nigret, but I shrugged. I’d still earned more than I would have otherwise.

I was far more pleased with the first notification. I’d increased my stats by nine damn points due to letting Augustus kick my ass for a day. The noticeable boosts prompted me to check my skill notifications, as I’d disabled them long ago, except for the big ones. After a few seconds of searching, I found it… my shields skill had jumped to level four, and my swordsman to eight!

A few more fights, and I should be able to get my sword skill up high enough to evolve it, and I just knew that would fucking help.

“That’s you ready, Jax,” Augustus said, slapping me on the shoulder. I jumped, returning to the world as I blinked my eyes clear.

“Sorry, checking