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

“Good to see you don’t take that kind of thing too seriously…” mused the woman, stepping forward and offering her hand. I reached out, and we clasped wrists, shaking once and letting go.

“Where I come from, it’s not that big a thing. Glad to see it isn’t here, either. You can kick someone’s ass, and as long as it doesn’t go too far, you can have a beer after,” I said, thinking of the Bigg Market in Newcastle, an area notorious for its violence and terrible beer, yet always packed. I realized I missed it. It might have been full of assholes and watered-down cheap beers and lagers—the brand-name bottles of rum were always filled with as much paint-stripper and bootleg knockoffs as real stuff—but it had been home.

“God, I’d kill for a dirty burger and a pint right now,” I muttered, shaking my head.

“What’s that?” she asked, and I shook my head again.

“It’s not important.” I banished the thought and looked around the courtyard. Barrett and Yen continued watching me like I was a lunatic as we were led inside and guided to a stairwell leading upwards.

“I’m Soween, Mal’s right hand,” she offered as we walked.

“I’m Jax, and this is Barrett and Yen,” I replied. After a short ascent, we came out onto the next floor, passing a long bar and heading toward a pair of doors at the back of the room. I nearly grabbed a bottle from the bar as I went but decided against it at the last minute.

“I think I’m going to need that clear-headed spell soon…” I sent to Oracle, realizing that the drugged mist was responsible for my willingness to step up and fight that guy, Jay, viewing it as no big thing, when it could have buggered everything up.

“Ready when you are. It’ll take a few seconds to prepare, but I think I’ve got it worked out,” Oracle responded, and I sighed in relief.

We passed through the doors into a small room with a dozen seats spread around it, which took up most of the space. The man I assumed was Mal had taken a seat on the far side, a table next to him. On the table sat a brown, unmarked bottle with condensation running down its sides, and I locked onto it like a homing missile.

The bastard had cold beer.

Chapter Nine

“So, seems we’ve got somethin' to talk about,” Mal said, gesturing to the seats across from him. Soween crossed to sit on a seat close to him, but not too close, I noted. She was spaced about ninety degrees from both me and him, but on his side of the room, and she drew both crossbows, nonchalantly setting them on the couch on either side of her.

I sat in the middle of the room, Yen taking up a seat on my left, across from Soween. Barrett plonked himself down on my right, groaning as he pulled his greatsword free to sit comfortably.

“Now please, Oracle,” I said, and she lifted off my shoulder into the air, spreading her hands to either side and glowing with an internal light. She floated in midair, her tiny wings buzzing as I felt the knowledge seeping through our connection into my mind.

I could feel it; the cobbled-together spell was simple and range specific, I realized by the outline. The basic framework had been torn from my ‘Cleansing Fire’ spell, as I’d suggested, but instead of laying down a hard barrier that would be patrolled by semi-sentient flames, it simply washed out a breath of air that carried a gentle healing spell. It was weak and would take ages to heal a real injury, but that same weakness meant it could be channeled for significantly longer amounts of time.

I opened my eyes, observing a faint blue glow to the air as Oracle finished the chant. She settled back down next to me, growing to twelve inches in height as she looked around the room coolly.

“What the hell was that!” Mal growled at us, his crossbows back in his hands. His partner, Soween, rested her hands on her own, glaring at us.

The door behind him burst open, and a blonde man erupted into the room, causing us all to go for our weapons in response.

“I felt magic…” he started, then froze as he saw the weapons leveled at him.

“Dammit, Josh!” Soween snarled, jumping to her feet and striding to the middle of the room with her arms held out to both sides. “I told you to knock!”

“Okay, this is gettin’ outta hand…” Mal snarled, and I snorted in response. “Josh, sit down and shut up. Soween, lock the doors, so nobody else decides to join in and start a fight. And you! You don’t cast spells without warnin’ a body! What did you just do?!”

“We just set up a little healing for everyone. Check your notifications; see if there’s anything bad in it at all,” I said, noting the way he’d ignored Oracle as a person, presumably viewing her as an extension of me.

“Well, stop it. We don’t need healing,” he growled, and I smiled, spreading my hands evenly.

“Of course, just as soon as you shut off the smoke. We don’t need ‘relaxing,’ either.”

Mal glared at me for a few seconds, then gestured to Soween, who walked to the back wall, sliding a picture aside and pressing a blue gem set in the hidden space. A gentle hum filled the air, and the smoke cleared away.

The sudden combination of the smoke being gone, and the effects of our healing spell brought my brain back to full clarity, and I straightened, blinking, then cut off the spell. I felt Oracle’s annoyance that she’d gone to so much effort to create the spell, only for a few seconds of use, but it had been worth it to me, knowing that Mal would have never given up his advantage if he had not been convinced it was worthless.

“So, last time offered. Tell me what