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

if you’re serious about not coming to play, then I think you need to tell me about your day instead of rubbing my body… unfortunately. God, I want you right now…” I muttered, looking her over hungrily and twitching at the memory of her in my arms. “You do know that teasing me like that is only making things worse, right?”

“I do,” she admitted. “But it’s also payback, for all the times we had the chance and you weren’t ready.”

“You’re evil.”

“Thanks!” She grinned and walked out of the room.

“Two can play at that,” I muttered, lifting myself out of the water and toweling dry. Ignoring the clean shorts that had been set out, I opted to walk through naked to sit across from her.

I helped myself to the food and reclined back in the chair to eat, watching her eyes as she tried not to look down.

“So, what did you find?” I asked her, and she jerked her eyes back up, gritting her teeth at the realization of what I was doing.

“I’ve got good news…” she said, shifting in the chair and blurring away her clothes to sit equally naked. “…and better news.” I choked on a mouthful of dried fruit as she shifted to get more comfortable, then almost swallowed my tongue as she started to bounce lightly in her seat, leaning forward for maximum effect.

“Okay! Okay, you win! Please, for the love of God, either put your clothes back on or get over here!” I begged, holding my hands up in surrender as she laughed. She shifted again, now fully dressed, and I went to sit on the bed, pulling the blanket over to hide my nakedness as I continued to eat.

“So,” she said, smiling. “The good news is that the Emporium is an Imperial structure. It was an old security station, I think, and its Golems are running on an automatic routine. They watch anyone who enters and guard against theft, obeying the orders of whoever is wearing the rank insignia of the commander. That’s how the current owner keeps them under control; the control crystal isn’t active, as near as I can tell.”

“Will they obey me if I declare myself?” I asked, popping a mouthful of cheese in and chewing thoughtfully.

“They probably won’t, and even if they did, your orders could be countermanded by the insignia wearer. I suggest we raid them. I can assume control over them one at a time, while you find and activate the control crystal. With that, we can order them to ignore the insignia,” she said, grinning. “All we need to do is make sure the owner isn’t there, so Mal has invited him to the arena tonight. If he shows up, Mal is going to get him drunk and keep him busy while we rob him.”

“Okay, and what’s the better news?” I asked.

“There are more than six! The owner probably doesn’t know, but I could feel the mana in the building, and there are definitely more fully charged Cores in that building; I’d guess at least a dozen.”

“Golems or Cores?” I asked excitedly.

“Both, I’d think; if there are more Cores under there, then there must be a Genesis Chamber somewhere close by. The Cores wouldn’t last if they were stored too far from it, after all!”

You have received a Quest from the Goddess Jenae: ‘Reclaimer’

You have been offered a Quest to reclaim the lost Imperial Artifacts from the location known as ‘The Emporium’. For each Golem reclaimed, you will receive 5000xp. For each functioning facility brought under your control, you will receive 10,000xp, and for each magical artifact retrieved, you will receive 100xp.

Claim the Emporium: 0/1

Reclaim the Golems: 0/13

Reclaim and Activate Facility: 0/1

‘Retrieve’ Magical Artifacts: 0/60 

Reward: Experience, Unknown, Unknown

Accept: Yes/No

“Fuck yes,” I muttered. For the first time since returning to my room, my mind was entirely sidetracked from boinking Oracle. “What was the Emporium like?” I asked.

“It’s a shiny shop, with a dozen or two genuine magical artifacts on display, I’d say, so there must be a lot more hidden away. Most of what they have, they’ve no idea about. I saw a harness for an aspiring dragon rider; it was designed to train the dragons, get them used to carrying someone, and they’re trying to sell it for training horses! They’ve also got a shield rune on display. They’ve half covered it, so you can’t just copy it, but Mal got him to admit that it’s useless, as nobody could provide enough mana to power it for more than a few seconds. It’s part of a set of plates that generate a shield around something like a Prax, the old War-Cities that had them designed. They think it’s a teaching aid!”

“It could be…” I said rubbing my chin. “If we got that, and Ame could figure out what to do with it…”

“Then you could generate a shield for the entire Tower, like we used to have!” Oracle said, nodding.

“Or put them on our ships; imagine the Battleship with shields…” I stared into the distance, lost in thought.

“Exactly!” She was fairly humming with excitement. “They’ve got books there as well. Not many, not compared to those we have, and certainly no Memorystones, but still!”

“So, we’re raiding them tonight, then, after the fight,” I said, grinning at her.

“Provided you win, yeah!” She confirmed. “Now, the letter?” She nodded to a stack of parchment by the side of the bed. I picked it up reluctantly and looked it over. Finding that the majority of it had already been filled out, I sighed in relief. I remembered Yen and Augustus offering to put down the details, and I scanned them quickly, adding in a few extra bits at the beginning and the end, as carefully as I could, then passing them to Oracle.

“Can you get them to rewrite it with these bits in? I know my writing is terrible…” I asked her, and she agreed, rising to her feet and grabbing the empty plate from the table next to me. I blinked,