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

I had the day before, hoping the rest of the clothes would come back soon. I made sure everything was packed away in my bags, just in case, and headed out into the corridor.

Lydia and Yen were waiting in the corridor, as was Stephanos. The rest were out in the city already, either visiting family or having some ‘downtime,’ albeit after a very stern talking-to by Barrett.

“You all ready?” I asked them, receiving a variety of nods in reply. “Glad to see it. Right, let’s check in with Mal on the way out, see where this healer is.” I started toward the door, and Lydia and Yen followed along. Stephanos brought up the rear, holding his bow tight to his chest.

“You know you’re not gonna be able to use that in the streets, right?” I asked him and he shrugged.

“If I need to I can. If not, it’s just a big stick if I take the bowstring off. It’ll still hurt when I use it on people.”

“Fair point.”

“You know you’re gonna have more trouble with that thing?” Yen asked me, nodding to my naginata, and I frowned.

“Why?”

“Why?” she repeated, looking confused. “Besides the fact that it’s a huge swordblade on a stick, out in the open, where people brush against each other all the time on these streets? You’ll end up chopping someone’s arm off!”

“Well I sure as shit ain’t leaving it behind,” I said, glaring at her.

“You can’t carry it out there in the daytime. Seriously, Jax. I’m sorry, but the first thing the Guard will do is claim that it’s dangerous and take it for ‘safe-keeping’. And they’d be right, even if they weren’t a bunch of thieving scumbags. Once they get their hands on it, it’ll be sold to the highest bidder, or you’ll have to kill them all. Do you want that?”

“I can’t just leave it here, though…” I said, conflicted.

“You’ll have to leave it with Mal, or one of us can stay with it,” she offered.

“I don’t know…” I muttered, and she snorted, shaking her head.

“You’ll trust him with your plans for the city and everything else, but not with a weapon?”

“An evolving weapon,” Oracle said quietly, and the others froze.

“Seriously?” asked Yen after a minute, and I saw Lydia staring at it in awe, while Stephanos looked it over, slowly stroking his bow. I assumed he was thinking about having an evolving bow, or at least, I hoped that was why he was stroking his ‘wood’ anyway…

“Yeah, seriously,” I said, and she rubbed her mouth slowly, still staring at it.

“Okay, then. Yeah, that makes sense, I suppose. Maybe we can disguise it?”

“As what?” I asked “Do we just claim we’re off to play the world’s weirdest and most fucked up game of cricket?”

“What’s cricket?”

“It’s…it’s not important, is what it is, okay?” I muttered, leading them up the stairs toward Mal’s rooms. A handful of minutes later, we were escorted in to find Mal and Soween sitting and talking. A dozen lists had been strewn across the tables in the office, as well as two new people in the room that I didn’t know.

“Jax!” Mal said, nodding as he saw me. “Good, ‘bout time you got here. Look, we’re gonna need you to free those Imps. If they carry the right message to the Skyking, we can get it to come on board with the arena fight, but nobody but them knew where it lives.”

“We can’t free the Imps,” I said, shaking my head. “They know too much about who I am, and they’re constrained by Oaths to return to the Skyking and serve it. They want to be free as much as any of the others.”

“What others?” he asked absently.

“The rest of the Harpies that I made swear fealty to me,” I said, waiting. When he blinked and looked at me, I winked at him, then moved out onto the balcony. The others followed me out as I turned slowly, scanning around, and feeling the bond.

It took me less than a minute to pick him out, crouched on the top of a building in the distance. A slight flutter of his feathers in the wind was the only movement he made. I waved to him, pointing with one arm first, then waving both arms out to make sure he saw me, then waving him in. He’d clearly been waiting for us to make contact, and he ran forward, diving off the side of the building. His wings flared to catch him and lift him from his dive.

In less than a minute, Amaat was swooping in for a landing, his mace held lightly in one hand as he glared at those he didn’t know.

“Amaat. Good to see you, buddy; sorry that took so long. How’s it going out there?” He looked at me, then cocked his head to the side as he regarded the rest of the group, before answering cautiously.

“All is well,” he said, watching the others.

“Amaat, this is Mal and Soween. They’re with us. The other two, not a fucking clue,” I said, arching an eyebrow at Mal, who gestured at the new pair. He continued rubbing his chin consideringly, watching Amaat.

“Ah, uh… I’m Muskin. I arrange the fights at the arena, and I’m pleased to meet you, sir?” One of the men introduced himself, bowing jerkily and straightening back up, while the second stepped forward, watching us all carefully.

“And I am Gaion. I help Mal …. procure… things.” The second man was dressed like he’d just wandered in off the street: plain trousers and tunic, no rings or anything, a simple heavy bladed dagger belted at his waist. He wore plain workman-style boots and had a little grime on him, dust on his clothes, a ragged tear here and there. His sandy blond hair was a little shaggy and needed a trim, but not badly. Literally everything about him screamed ‘forget me, I’m ordinary…’ until I looked into his eyes.

He had that weird genetic trait that caused a person to have two