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

I scanned the cavern, my gaze lingering on Cam’s body where it lay at the back of the cave. When everyone had moved closer, including the prisoners, who’d finally been clothed, I smiled and laid out the plan.

“Right; there’s been a change of plans.” I looked at them all individually, feeling better now that my thoughts were somewhat organized.

“The arena that Mal runs, where is it in relation to the exit from these tunnels? And how far is the Enclave from there?” I asked, and the smuggler spoke up.

“The arena is about a mile south across the city from the exit, and the Enclave is about two miles from there, hard up against the western wall; why?” he asked gruffly.

“Anything in your Oath about not being allowed to take us directly to Mal yourself? Without telling anyone else about what happened?”

“Well, no…”

“Good. Amaat, you’ll travel with us until we reach the arena, then you’ll break off and head straight to the Legion Enclave. You tell the Prefect where we are and what’s happened so far, and you get him ready. Then you sneak out and come back to us at the arena. Anything happens to us, you bring the entire fucking Legion in and cut us free, understood?”

“Yes, my lord,” Amaat said. The characteristic harshness of his voice made it hard to be sure, but I thought I detected approval from him.

“Good. Yen, any of you have any Bags of Holding?” I asked, and she nodded.

“We’ve each got a small bag; makes it a lot easier to carry supplies. Can I ask why?”

“I need to loot as much of this as possible,” I said, gesturing around the room.”

“Ah…the smugglers would have been using Bags to transport what they could. The bigger things are items that couldn’t fit in Bags.”

“Yeah, that’s what I figured, so we need to strip the cavern of everything we can. The least valuable shit gets left behind, and the rest, we take. How much farther is it to the city? I’ve been assuming you killed the Drow and anything else that was along the path from here?” I asked Yen, and she nodded.

“It’s about half an hour’s traveling from here to the exit, and we killed everything that moved. Just in case.”

“I like it.” I said, nodding approval. “And the size of the tunnels?”

“Fairly large, certainly none smaller than this one.” She gestured to the tunnels behind her, which led back to the city.

“Fan-friggin-tastic,” I said, grinning. “Bane! Looks like we’re going back to the stables. We’re bringing the horse here, along with anything else that looks useful.”

“Can we bring the cat?” Barrett asked, and I chuckled, remembering how well he and the giant tiger had gotten on.

“Yeah, fuck it. Barrett, you’re with us; Yen, one of your group as well, please. The rest of you, stay here and strip the cavern. I want items piled and sorted by size, value, and usefulness.”

“What’s the difference between useful and valuable?” asked one of the smugglers, and I nodded at him, still smiling.

“‘Useful’ is stuff that can be sold or used, while ‘valuable’ might be like those strips of wood there.” I pointed to a load of lustrously glowing planks that had been stacked against one wall. “They’re clearly magical, but if we can’t lift them or sell them, they get left. Valuable to only a few people means low priority, as opposed to things that are useful to us or can be easily sold; you understand?” He nodded, and I saw Lydia raise an eyebrow to me in question. I gestured her over and spoke to the group clearly.

“This is Lydia. She’s my squad leader and is in charge when Barrett and I are gone. Do as she says, or she’ll fuck you up. She doesn’t need me to threaten to punish you; she can do it all on her own. This is your only warning,” I said, making my point by looking directly at the leader of the smugglers.

“Thanks,” he said sourly, scowling at me.

“Anytime,” I replied, smiling coldly in return. “Okay, all of you, I want this entire cavern searched. Strip it and pile it, and we’ll sort it all out when I get back, but plan for whatever we can carry or strap to the horse, okay?” I got a series of nods, and I took a final deep breath. I was determined to be the bigger man, and I was aware that in all of this, I wasn’t the only one who’d been stressed. “Look, I’m sorry I couldn’t just give you the potion for your granddaughter, okay?” I paused and looked at the caravan leader. “What’s your name?”

“Gar,” he muttered, taking a breath and straightening his shoulders. “My name is Gar… my lord,” he repeated, clearly making his own effort to not be an ass.

“I’m pleased to meet you, Gar. I’m Lord Jax. Who’s with you?”

“My granddaughter, Ellen. Durrm is the big lad at the back, and Frank is the skinny one,” he said grudgingly, and I nodded to each of them.

“Good to meet you all, and I’m glad you survived. We’ve all been a bit stressed so far, so let’s try to start from scratch, okay?”

I got a round of nods and affirmative sounds from them. Satisfied, I began heading toward the tunnels with Bane, Barrett, and Yen.

We set off at a quick jog, following behind Bane, who ghosted ahead. His ‘Worldsense’ was the best safeguard at keeping us out of trouble.

It took maybe twenty minutes, if that, to reach the branching path down to the lower level, and a few minutes more to get to the larger cavern that the Drow had been using as both a stable and a slave pit for the kobolds.

When we arrived, we found it had been stripped bare, with dozens of kobold footprints indicating who’d come back to do it. Even the corpse of the big raptor-looking motherfucker had been stripped down to bones. They’d clearly gutted it and taken all the meat they