Warsinger by James Baldwin (most important books of all time txt) 📕

the fuck away as the Tomb Guardian belched a plume of smoke, jerking, then slumping over from the waist onto its face. The purple energy holding it together collapsed, and then the entire thing came apart. The head, arms, weapons, everything fell to the ground with a deafening crash.

There was no time to relax yet, though. Karalti backed into the room, firing the pistol at the shades pouring through the door: seven of them, who yelped and chittered as one of them took a Phantasmal round to what passed for its face and vanished into a curl of smoke. Exhausted, my armor shot to shit, with blood in my eyes, a chest full of broken ribs and a dick shoulder, I used the Spear to lever myself up to my feet.

“You guys don't fucking learn, do you?” I flicked the weapon out, coils of black flame curling up to wrap around my arm, and dashed forward. The shadows reached for us as I sprinted past Karalti and blew the rest of my AP on one final Umbra Burst. Shadows screamed as whipping tendrils of dark energy latched onto them and sucked them dry. One by one, they snuffed out like candles. When the last one disappeared, I crumpled to my knees and groaned.

[You have defeated Tomb Guardian!]

[You defeated Lesser Wraiths!]

[You gain 1522 EXP!]

[Congratulations! You are Level 24!]

[Karalti gains 1522 EXP!]

[You have unlocked new locations: Karhad Bathhouse, Tannery, Fertilizer Production. You gain 50 BP and +200 Renown (Myszno, Renown (Karhad))]

[You completed Quest: The World Beneath. You get 1550 EXP!]

[Congratulations! Karalti is Level 14!]

“Urrrgh.” I rested my forehead against the cold haft of the Spear, clutching it with both hands. My HP jumped up with the level, but there was a nasty stabbing pain in my chest that wasn’t going away. I ransacked my Inventory for the Bonefuse potion I kept for times like this and chugged it. There was a painless 'pop', and then a weird crunchy sensation as the alchemical brew pulled my ribs out of my lung, re-aligned them, and set them where they were supposed to be. I grimaced, then drank a Concentrated Moss Tincture before I bled out.

“Here.” Karalti came up beside me, my helmet in her hands. She had already gone through her Sailor Moon schtick and had leveled up while I hadn’t been paying attention. She was slightly taller, her hair about five inches longer than it had been a couple minutes ago. It fell over me in a gently perfumed wave. “Wow. That was a hard fight.”

“Yeah. Not as hard as Nocturne Lament, but damn.” I smiled at her, taking the helmet from her. She was pale, her brow a little sweaty. “You used a lot of mana.”

“Yeah.” She tentatively smiled back, her eyes bright in the gloom. “I'm sorry I wasn't much help.”

“If those shadows had gotten in while I was fighting the Tin Man over there, we'd have been fucked. You did exactly what we needed you to do. You’ve got two bonus Lexica now you levelled: what do you want to spend them on?”

“Magic? Hmm. I think we should improve Teleport. Maybe save the other point until I turn Level 15. I get a Path ability then, and some good spells might open up. Between now and then, I need to learn to fight in human-shape.”

“You will. You'll pick it up so fast your head'll spin, Tidbit.” I pulled my helmet on, then went into my HUD and boosted Karalti’s teleport ability. She could use it four times a day now, instead of three. “Or Vash's will, because you'll cold-cock him when he isn't expecting it.”

She got a smug, vaguely predatory expression. I could almost see her tail swishing as she turned, put her hands on her hips, and considered the wreckage of the Tomb Guardian. “You know... that thing looks kind of like a little Warsinger, doesn't it?”

“Yeah.” I heaved up to my feet and went over to it, poking through the shattered metal until I got the 'Loot here' alert. I brought it up, and grimaced when it displayed only two items: a [Broken Golem Core] and [Unknown Metal Scrap x 50]. “Bleh. Shit loot, but I bet Rin will be able to find a use for the metal. Jeez… it weighs a ton.”

“I can take some. What do you think it was guarding?” Karalti went over to the bricked-up tunnels, prying around it.

“Well, the name suggests a tomb somewhere. Seems weird that there'd be a tomb in a sewer, though.”

“Not if it wasn't always a sewer,” Karalti said. “Maybe it was a nice clean river once. Where are we on the map?”

I checked. “Almost right under the university.”

“Remember what the looter's note said about the university protecting something with magic?” She pointed at the hulk of the Tomb Guardian. “I bet the mages knew this was here, but it didn't do anything for a really long time.”

“Either that, or they made it and hid it here under all the shit.” I went over to the plugged-up doors and put a boot against up against the surface. As I did, a HP ring jumped up. “These door barriers have five thousand hitpoints? Guess we're going to be digging for a while.”

Karalti cocked her head, then went over to the giant rifle. She hauled it up with a grunt of effort, setting it over one shoulder before beaming at me. “I’m getting pretty good at shooting. This should make it faster.”

Chapter 26

It took us a while to hack and blast our way through the doors. One of them led to the ass-end of the Fol Alugut. There were more dung beetle-like [Guardian Drones] here, frozen in the moment that their controller had died. Some of them were halfway through pushing clumps of sewer cement into position, back legs resting up on their payloads. There was approximately a ton of balled-up waste in the huge sewer channel that opened up into a filtering pool. Foul liquid sprayed out through the