City of Fallen Souls: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 3) by Jez Cajiao (fb2 epub reader .txt) 📕

thirty points of it. It had been enough to do some real damage, but all I could think about in that moment was how I should have put it all into Wisdom instead of Intelligence, as that pool was going to take forever to regenerate. I ran the numbers in my head; one point seven times sixty gave me a hundred and two. I groaned in dismay. It was going to take five goddamn hours to refill!

“Thank god,” I whispered, straightening up and shrugging as I felt the impact points for the Lightning Bolts. Those fuckers had hurt!

Lydia was slowly straightening up, blood dripping from her gauntlet and her armor both, where splatters had layered up to coat her in a glistening sheen of red.

“Are you okay?” I asked her, and she glared at me.

“Am I okay?!” she snapped at me. “Me? O' course I’m not okay! I’m in charge of a squad tasked with th' personal protection o' th' fuckin' Lord o' Stupidity himself, who just ran through a dozen bloody traps and tried to solo a damn room full o' monsters! How could I be okay?!”

“Ah…” I muttered, rubbing the back of my neck. “That…”

“Yes, that! Seriously, Jax what th' hell were ye thinkin'!” she snapped, drawing a deep breath in and visibly trying to restrain herself. “Look, I get that yer th' best fighter we have, an’ I get that yer probably th' best in miles around to go toe to toe wi' these fuckers, but if yer gonna do that, yer need us ta watch yer back, an’ we can’t do that when yer go mental and run off screamin’ about fuckin’ 'em up!!!” she snarled furiously.

“Bane…” I sputtered, before she cut me off.

“Is yer bodyguard! Not the other way around! We live ta protect you, our lives before yers. That’s how this works, Jax. Yer can’t go crazy if one of us is hurt and try ta fight the whole world, okay?” She picked up her mace, shaking her head at me. “Look, yer freed us, ye gave us a life ta live, but if yer gonna keep doin’ this shit, I’m gonna ask Barrett for a transfer to a different duty. Yer keep on the way yer goin’, and it’s gonna be us stood over yer grave soon. When that happens, we all lose our homes, our futures, everything. Please, Jax, don’t do this ta us…” She trailed off at the end, her rage-fueled adrenaline rush petering out.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly after a few seconds, to my people in general. “I don’t want any of you to get hurt, that’s all. Having you all protecting me, it just feels wrong. I’m just me...”

“I know, but…” she started, as Bane walked in, supported by Arrin, with Oracle buzzing over him worriedly.

We all paused at the sight of him, and I felt a wave of relief at seeing him alive. I also felt a pulse of pride and love flow into me through the bond from Oracle.

“Okay…is anyone going to check the next room?” Bane asked into the silence, and all at once, there was a round of embarrassed coughing and movement as people realized they’d been so focused on the argument developing that we had no idea about the rest of the floor.

“Glad to see you’re all right, mate,” I said to him, walking forward and clapping him on the shoulder. “Flux would have killed me if I let anything happen to you.”

“Bah, I’m your bodyguard; it’s my job.” He shrugged dismissively. He looked terrible, though. While his wound had closed, he looked thinner, his breath was coming in gasps, and he was pale.

“How bad?” I asked Oracle.

“He died four times,” she said bluntly. “We need Nerin to look him over, and preferably find some healing potions, food, and drink, as well as enforcing plenty of rest…”

“He’ll get all of those tomorrow,” I said, trying to project confidence in my mental sending.

“Yeah…” Oracle replied in a disappointed tone, and I knew I’d failed entirely.

“There are more Imps coming, Jax,” Yen called from the door and I nodded in acknowledgment.

“Can you keep them busy?” I asked, pulling my armor from my bag and getting dressed again.

“We can,” she said confidently, and Miren and Stephanos stepped up next to her, firing into the next room.

It didn’t take long for me to settle my clothing into place, quickly joining them in the next room, where they were already cleaning up the last of the Imps.

“Looks like a roving patrol...” Yen said quietly, moving to the door leading into the next room and glancing around. “…and it’s empty in here.”

“Okay then, strip them of anything valuable, and we move on,” I directed, moving to the three Promethean corpses in the first room. Beyond their jewelry and weapons, there was nothing useful, but as I tucked the last handful of golden bangles into my bag, I decided that at least if we had an eighties party, we were all sorted now.

“Any potions?” I asked the group at large, getting a few headshakes and one nod, as Miren held up a small vial of something that moved with a muddy viscosity.

“It’s ‘Earthblood,’” Yen said, checking it quickly. “Grants a five percent resistance to earth-based spells for three minutes. That’s it.”

“Feck,” I grunted, dismayed. I’d been hoping for a healing or mana potion. “Okay then; let’s move out. Yen, lead the way; you’re scouting now. Bane, before you try something stupid like buggering off to stealth your way all over the place, you’re at the back, making sure nobody sneaks up on us.”

“But…” he started to object.

“But you’re barely able to stand, you’re that buggered, and we don’t have the mana we need to heal you. Here…” I said, passing him a healing potion from my pouch. “Use that and stay at the back. I’m not losing any more of you.”

“You might need it…”

“I’ve still got one left,” I said, which was true. It was the shitty one, as I’d just