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

and thicker, until I swore that I was swallowing something with the consistency of cold oatmeal. A handful of seconds later, I was able to gasp for breath again, having finally got it down, and Augustus passed me his water bottle.

I upended the bottle gratefully and poured in a good mouthful, before starting to cough and splutter. My eyes were watering and my throat burning, as a few Legionnaires started to laugh.

“What the hell was that?” I wheezed, blinking back tears.

“The first one was ‘Legionnaire’s Might.’ It’s a potion the quartermaster makes; does a little healing, little stamina regeneration boosting, but mainly, it gives your body a serious kick full of something. He says the recipe’s a secret, but it’ll kickstart your body’s natural healing like nothing else. When you’ve pushed past the point when a normal potion or even healing spells can help, your body goes into shock. Too much of a drain, we’re told. That potion refills the body’s stocks of… whatever, I guess. It’d get people out of hospital much quicker if they’d drink it more than the once. The other one, well... that’s premium rotgut, that is…” He finished with a wink, and I shook my head again, grimacing.

“That potion felt like cement coating my tongue, and swallowing it…” I muttered.

“Yeah, as soon as it mixes with your spit, it changes; a ‘chemical reaction,’ they call it. Starts to expand and fill you up. You’ll not be hungry for a while, put it that way…”

“I might never eat again,” I groaned, shaking my head. Trying to divert my thoughts from the lingering taste, I pulled up my blinking notifications and grimaced.

Beware!

You have pushed to the limits of your mortal form. Healing performed on you has drained your body’s natural reserves to a dangerous level, and now you must suffer the consequences!

All stats reduced by 10. ‘Confused’ debuff is active.

These effects will remain in place until you have replenished your body’s reserves to their most basic level. Increased drain upon your body at this stage may result in permanent lowering of stats.

 

Confused:

‘Confused’ debuff lowers your reaction time, increasing motion sickness and exhaustion effects by 10%, and slows Mana recovery by 25%...

This status effect will last until your body’s natural reserves have been replenished to their most basic level.

Congratulations! You have killed the following:

2x Promethean Personal Guard of various levels for a total of 15,900xp

3x Imps of various levels for a total of 3,150xp

A party under your command killed the following:

18x Promethean Personal Guard of various levels for a total of 144,900xp

13x Krynnit of various levels for a total of 14,875xp

1x Altai, Wing-Lord for a total of 32,500xp

1x Anubai Warrior for a total of 8,000xp

3x Greater Stone Imps of various levels for a total of 11,200xp

10x Imps of various levels for a total of 9,150xp

1x Skyking Beholder for a total of 55,000xp

Total Party exp earned: 275,625xp

As party leader, you gain 25% of all experience earned.

Progress to level 18 stands at 153,330/225,000

Congratulations!

You have completed the Quest you received from Xerix: ‘Free our Mother’

You were asked to free, or kill, Helenica, Clan Mother of the Gueric Clan. If you agreed to do your best and did not ask the Djinn to leave the city unless she had been freed, they agreed to swear a Conditional Oath to you. If you managed to free her, she and her children offered to swear to obey you for ten years.

If you managed to also kill the Skyking, however, the Gueric Clan agreed to swear to follow you for your lifetime.

Free Helenica: 1/1

Kill the Skyking: 1/1 – (Completed)

Reward: Allegiance of the Djinn of the Gueric Clan, 62,500xp, Lifeblood

“It is time, Lord Jax,” came Hellenica’s voice as I dismissed the notifications. My vision cleared to reveal the Clan Mother and dozens of Djinn in the room moving to surround me. Augustus and the others moved back as the Djinn began to glow, softly at first, but quickly growing stronger. They reached out their arms to the sides, throwing their heads back, and began to chant slowly and clearly.

“We swear allegiance to Lord Jax of the Great Tower, Lord of Dravith, and Acknowledged Scion of the Imperial Line. We swear to uphold his laws, serve his will, and protect his interests, to the best of our abilities, until the hour of his death. We further swear to abide by the spirit of this agreement, not only the wording.”

Hellenica flowed forwards, each of the Djinn glowing brighter  as their mana reached out, linking them together in concentric circles around us. She reached out, pulling the glowing soul threads to herself, then pushing them out to me, where they sank into my chest. I felt a new load of awareness’s filling me, sensing where they were, and their lifeforces. It was weird, but after a while, I knew it’d settle down like the sense I had from the Legionnaires.

I damn well hoped it would, anyway.

“Thank you, all of you,” I said nodding to them and drawing in a deep breath. “Okay, Hellenica, I’m going to need your help, and that of your people. Tonight, there’s a lot more going on than just freeing you and killing the Skyking. I’ll fill you in on the details as we go, but for now, I need you to send some of your Djinn out to search the area. There were a handful of fliers from my forces out there; the fact that they haven’t arrived inside yet is a bad sign. Can you send your people to find them and bring them in? They were being led by an Alkyon called Amaat.”

“Of course,” She said, gesturing smoothly, and a dozen Djinn turned, flying at top speed to the lower floors to escape the building.

“Once we’ve got them, and we know everyone’s okay, it’s time to get the ships that are on patrol above us. I know we already got their attention after destroying that soul-stealing feckin’ belt, so it’s going to be a bit harder, but that’s just how life