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

bridge would arrive and they could seal that space as well, giving them a protected area to control the damn whale from.

The hoist crunched into the ground and she bent her legs unconsciously, absorbing the impact and stepping off, as Bolvar fell over with a grunt of surprise. She grabbed him by the back of his jerkin and hauled him to his feet. Her heavy muscles and calloused hands were evidence of the years she’d spent in the shipyards, making the lift easier for her than it looked like it would be.

“Where do they be?!” she asked him, irritation bleeding into her voice. “We be dancin’ on a knife’s edge for time as it is, laddie. If…”

“There!” Bolvar gasped, pointing at the far side of the room, and she grunted, pushing him along as she started to jog, all the while thinking of the next job, and the one after that…

“Elise!” A familiar figure called, and Finbar stepped out of the shadows, waving to her. She skidded to a stop next to the tall elf, giving her friend a hug in greeting.

“What’s up?” she asked gruffly. The sight of a friend in the middle of such a panicked few days was enough to make her feel better instantly.

“We’re on schedule; in fact, we’re ahead of it. I came with a dozen of my people to help for a few hours, deal with a few of your problems. Did your boy not tell you?” He looked askance at Bolvar, who had pulled out a carving knife and was fiddling with a small wooden figure almost before they’d come to a halt.

“No, th' damn eejit didn’t!” Elise snarled, staring daggers at Bolvar, who hastily put the wood away. “Go on, get back to th’ second floor, an clear up th’ break room!” she snapped, before turning back to Finbar. “Thank ye, old friend.” She exhaled slowly, relief washing through her. “Reet, I need someone t’ check the north engine relay, followed by th’…” She rattled off tasks, already marching back through the ship. Finbar followed in her wake, giving orders and dispatching people as they went, her idiot nephew forgotten beyond a momentary feeling of guilt over dismissing him so abruptly.

***

Chapter Thirty-Three

We searched the entire floor, spreading out as we waited for the Djinn. It didn’t take long before Bane called out from the side that he’d found the Anubai quarters, a series of upright coffins that, while filled with cushioning, just seemed weird.

I left the others to loot as much as possible as I examined the Skyking’s corpse, discovering that the majority of it glowed to my inexperienced eyes.

Its teeth, the eyeballs on the end of the stalks, the stalks themselves, and a handful of other internal components all glowed in various shades, but best of all, when I was practically knee deep in the mess, I found what I’d been hoping for, nestled at the center of its brain.

You have found Beholder Eyes x11, Beholder Eye stalks x7, Beholder Salivary Glands x4, Beholder Cranial Inflation Gland x1, Beholder Greater Essence Core x1, Beholder Teeth x21, Beholder Pituitary Gland x1, Beholder Brain Matter x5

I packed all of the materials in my various bags, noting absently that I had accrued a lot of crafting components. I made a mental note to sort them out, provided I could find another way of identifying some of them; I sure as shit wasn’t going to put any of these in my mouth.

“Jax!” Tang called from one end of the room, and I straightened up from washing my hands in a handily summoned fountain. I fought to kickstart my brain properly, my stomach roiling from the combination of the exploratory post-mortem I’d just done and Augustus’ damn potion.

“What is it?” I rasped, swallowing hard and repeating myself louder.

“It’s the Skyking’s stash! We’ve found it!” he called, and I set off to join them immediately, crossing the floor to a convergence of three silken drapes hanging over the seemingly solid stone wall behind them.

“See it?” Tang asked, and I shook my head. “Look at the drapes,” he suggested. They were woven of heavy red and black silk. Weird symbols had been stitched onto them, and… and they were moving in a faint breeze, while no others in the room were.

I looked back at the wall, holding one damp hand up, and felt the breeze on my skin, raising my eyebrows at Tang in question.

“That’s it!” He grinned. “Just walk forward.” I complied, feeling like a certain underage wizard, and half expecting to break my nose on the stone… but my pride kept me going. The world went black around me, and a second later, I emerged in a  smaller hall that ran alongside the first.

Plinths on either side held magical items, organized as they had been in the main hall, but here they were more frequent. Gold and gems were displayed in chests on either side of the room, onyx weapons reflected the light, and a long black cloak hung from one wall, the inside lined with golden silk, and the dark outside as flexible as silk but as strong as cured leather.

I moved from item to item, until I saw it.

The real treasure was clearly the same for the Beholder and I, as a bookcase holding over two dozen books of clearly magical origin stood at the back, in pride of place.

“Are there traps?” I asked Tang quietly, and he shook his head.

“Not that I can find,” he reassured me.

“Get the others in here and load up as much as you can carry,” I ordered, pulling my Bags of Holding out of the Bag of Spatial Folding and discarding dozens of items, chucking aside weapons that were simple or average in favor of magical ones, until I had an entire bag free. Thirty two slots were filled in minutes, as I stored the Spell and Skillbooks from the Emporium, then the two Engineering books I’d brought from the Tower were added, and finally