Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) by Jez Cajiao (free ebooks for android .TXT) 📕

Said it wasn’t to be used right now, but maybe a little pick me up? It’d help us out… focus us well...” he continued quietly, glancing around. “Or, if you’re worried about things getting out of hand, just a little for me…?”

“What?” I asked, confused.

“He means the drugs,” Yen said disgustedly. “I got there just as they found the old lord’s loot stash, and barely managed to get to it before they all drugged themselves into insensibility. I told them it was your order that they load up the loot, and I forced them to leave the rest. I’ve heard nothing else but reasons why they should be given ‘just a little’ since leaving.”

“Wait, you mean they spent ages back there tearing the place apart, looking for drugs?” I asked grimly, fury filling my voice.

“No, you told them to find the ‘stash’, so a few of them did that, while the others joined the damaged Badunkas together to make the sleds. They loaded the majority of the ‘Master’s’ looted gear into the rear one, and I took what looked the most valuable…” she clarified, reaching for her pouches.

“Keep it for now,” I said holding one hand up. “Unless there’s anything that can help us, we don’t have time to fuck about with it.”

“There’s a dozen healing potions and three mana,” she said quickly, pulling the vials out. “There’s a load of others, but little that is immediately useful, beyond the healing and mana. There are also three health rings; each only gives an additional plus fifty health, but…”

“Put them on him.” I said, nodding, and she went to work, slipping them into place. “Frederikk, thank you again for choosing to follow me.” I nodded to Giint, who grinned maniacally back at me. “And you, Giint. Now, as you can see, I have wounded, and both Arrin and I need somewhere to sit where we can meditate, but most of all, we need to go fast…” I said, pausing when I saw the look of glee on the old gnome’s face, and the look of utter horror on Yen’s.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her under my breath, as Frederikk spun around, lifted both arms into the air, and shouted something I didn’t understand.

The other gnomes looked overjoyed and started piling off the vehicles. They began working together, tearing some of the outer strapped gear off, discarding anything that wasn’t clearly magical, and integrating more and more into the devices.

“You never, ever, ever tell a gnome you want to go fast,” Yen said bleakly. “You spend all your time trying to make them go slow, and you just… I don’t… I mean…” She shook her head in a mixture of horror and amazement.

“Lordddd, we neeeeed a littlllle… extrrrrra?” Giint said, sidling up to me and holding his hand out hopefully.

“What does he want?” I asked Yen, and she scowled.

“He wants some of the drugs they developed. They speed up the heart rate, the mind, everything, but the crash afterwards…” She met my gaze appealingly. “It’s seriously dangerous, Jax.”

“We can do it, my lord.” Frederikk piped up, nodding earnestly. “Your Legionnaire doesn’t understand. Yes, other races have… issues… with the gnomes, but we get things done! We’re the greatest crafters the realms have ever seen, and it’s been many, many years since we had more than a taste of the substances of life… we can do this, make it faster, stronger… but we need our mana to do it, and to do that…”

“Fuck it, time to toss the dice,” I muttered and gestured to Yen, who covered her eyes with one hand, sighed, and handed a small bag over to me. I peered inside and found a single medium bag of what looked to be icing sugar, but it glittered strangely, making me think it was the ‘other’ kind of sugar, and dozens upon dozens of sticks of something. I pulled the bag out and, after Yen confirmed that was probably the lesser of the substances, I handed it to the gnome elder.

He took it with a huge and slightly disturbing grin, before darting off.

“You know you’re going to regret doing that, right?” Yen asked me, and I shrugged.

“If it keeps our people alive, I won’t,” I replied.

“Oh, believe me, you will,” Yen muttered, then snorted, patting me on the shoulder.

“Frederikk, how long…” I started to ask him, and he spun around, his eyes unfocused, face looking like he’d had a kilo of flour stuffed into each nostril. He huffed at me, coughed, and blinked, as though trying to see where and who I was.

“An hour… no more!” he managed to wheeze out while facing a pile of rubble and clearly thinking that was me. Then he collapsed onto his back and started to giggle, even as other gnomes did the same.

“Oh, fuck no!” I snarled, learning that in under thirty seconds, they’d gone from frantically working to off their tits on the floor.

“Don’t panic; they’ll be down for a minute or so, that’s all; or at least, that’s the normal response. Then… just stay out of the way, I guess,” Yen explained, shaking her head again. “Oh, and Jax, I won’t tell you ‘I told you so’. Others might, in this situation, and even more so, considering you’re going to be riding a magical construction built by drugged up gnomes soon. Hell, some people would be telling you that you’re a lunatic, and that they warned you about just this very thing, but I won’t.” she said calmly, turning to walk over towards Grizz. “I’m a much bigger person than that!” she called back over her shoulder.

“I’m so glad to hear that,” I replied sarcastically, then I nodded to Arrin, and we started meditating again and taking turns to heal Bane.

After fifteen minutes, I stirred, ready to take my turn, only to find Tang hurrying to me, and I let out a sigh of relief. The older gnomes were working at a speed that was beyond belief now. Even if they did occasionally