Titan: A LitRPG Adventure (UnderVerse Book 4) by Jez Cajiao (beach books .txt) 📗

part of you, of who, and what, you are. You haven’t read your notifications for a while; now might be a good time…” she suggested hopefully.

“Okay…” I shifted to sit upright, grinning as she effortlessly floated into the air before me, her tiny wings blurring. “I need a drink first, and damn, flying does look fun at times…” I admitted as I watched her.

“It is!” she replied with a smile as Bane materialized from the darkness of the corner, stepping forward and offering me a canteen. I nodded my thanks and swigged from it, washing my mouth out first, then swallowing a second mouthful and feeling better as the cool liquid ran down my throat. As I handed it back, I eyed Bane’s gear with concern.

“You’re a mess, mate,” I said, and he shrugged nonchalantly, moving fluidly back to the corner where he’d been crouching. Bane was a Mer, or a Tia’Almer-atic,  as the race called themselves. Essentially, Bane was an amphibian frigging ninja. He stood about six foot tall, with no visible eyes or ears. Instead, his face and head were smooth, intersected only by a mouth that contained a mix of sharp incisors, canines, and flatter molars. About three quarters of the way back on his head, where a human would have hair, just behind the ears, a ridge looped around, running from behind his jaw to halfway up his skull. From under this ridge hung a nest of tentacles. They were short and stubby, and long and thin, and every shape in between, and they moved constantly, shifting like a nest of vipers. These tentacles were how he ‘saw’ the world. He somehow produced a kind of sonar, or at least that was what I understood, called ‘World-Sense’. He could perceive far more with the sense than I could with my eyes, due to being totally unreliant on light, and the peculiar nature of it allowed him to accurately ‘map’ things. He tended to be amazing at finding traps and other such hidden dangers. He had four arms and two legs, wore mainly leather and chitin armor, typically carried a pair of short stabbing spears, and almost always had several sets of daggers, knives, and throwing blades secreted about himself, even when he was “off duty.” He was sarcastic, snappy, and the sneakiest motherfucker I’d ever met, able to blend in almost anywhere, through a mix of a racial ability, heavy training, and investing his points in becoming an assassin-hunter class. He’d appointed himself, with his trainer’s approval, as my personal bodyguard.

During our time in Himnel, he’d recruited an elven Legionnaire called Tang to join him, and the pair kept me as safe as possible around the clock.

Bane had become a close friend, even more so now that he understood the male bonding ritual that was shit-talking, and we spent at least half of every day trying to wind each other up.

Normally, I could expect to be mocked for ‘napping’ in the middle of the day or something. The fact he hadn’t made a single crack meant he’d been seriously worried.

His armor was torn, battered, and missing in sections, and I clearly remembered the terror and fury I’d felt when he’d been gravely injured in the fight to reach the Skyking. His chest armor had clearly taken the brunt of the damage, barely holding together the remaining sections, and I shook my head in dismay.

“Seriously, Bane, we need to replace your armor, mate.” I insisted, frowning at him.

“And your own,” he replied calmly. I glanced down at it, noting the multiple sections that had been hastily stitched back together, the missing links and torn sections of gear, and the way that I was constantly having to pull my belt up, as even that, old faithful weapon that it was, concealing my razorwire, was starting to give out.

“Good point. I think a trip to the armorers is due…” I muttered, “…and if we look this bad, god knows the rest of the team will as well. Shame, really… I like these pants…” I tugged at a fold of Gloom Spider silk.

“Jax, I know you feel like your head’s full of wool right now, but focus, okay?” Oracle said, floating closer. “You really need to read your notifications.”

“Right,” I said, rubbing my face and trying to clear my mind fully. “Sorry.”

I pulled up the notifications and read carefully, finding that I had quite a few of them awaiting my attention.

You made progress in a Quest given to you by the Goddess Jenae: ‘Bring Home the Bacon…’

The Goddess Jenae has commanded you to retrieve all you can from those that skulk and raid the corpse of the Empire. Take your rightful place as their Lord and bring back that which you need to repair the seat of your Power, the Great Tower.

Recover Magical Artifacts and Technologies: 27/?

Retrieve manastones: 327/100

Recruit additional citizens: 937/100

Recruit skilled crafters: 31/100

Recruit a Tower Healer: 1/1

Bonuses will be given for exceeding these numbers.

Reward: Basic functionality of the Great Tower, Unknown, 250,000Exp

Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Constitution by two points. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.

Congratulations! Through hard work and perseverance, you have increased your Intelligence by one point. Continue to train and learn to increase this further.

I quickly pulled up my stats, reading them over and nodding to myself as I found the differences from the last fight.

Name: Jax

Titles: Strategos: 5% boost to damage resistance. Fortifier: 5% boost to defensive structure integrity, Champion of Jenae

Class: Spellsword > Justicar> Champion of Jenae + Imperial Magekiller

Renown: Unknown

Level: 18

Progress: 86,810/265,000

Patron: Jenae, Goddess of Fire and Exploration

Points to Distribute: 7

Meridian Points to Invest: 0

Stat

Current points

Description

Effect

Progress to next level

Agility

42

Governs dodge and movement.

Average speed + 320% (+10% increase in darkness, -20% in daylight)

38/100

Charisma

23

Governs likely success to charm, seduce, or threaten

Success chance +130%

71/100

Constitution

36

Governs health and health regeneration

700HP (200+500), regen 26pts per 600s (+10% regen due to soul bond, -20hp, each point invested now worth 20hp)

19/100

Dexterity

31

Governs ability with weapons and crafting success

+ 21% chance to wield