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

but inside, I felt immense relief at having the team back together and winding each other up. I missed Stephanos, but… it is what it is, I reflected.

“Yeah, and believe me, we’re all thankful you did. Not so much on the dancing, but you know…” retorted Bane as he waved people out of the room. “I’ll watch over him for now, make sure he doesn’t get into any more trouble,” Bane told Grizz and Tang, and they nodded, going with the others into the next cabin, where we could hear the sounds of the group setting out their bedrolls and making a meal.

“It’s still dirty in here, but at least you’ve not been naked in it and contaminated it!” Tang yelled to me, and I facepalmed, knowing full well that if I could hear him that well, the damn researchers and Hannimish would be able to as well.

“Close the door please, Bane…” I asked, shaking my head. “You know you need some sleep, right? You’ve had your body pushed to the damn limit with that healing.”

“I’ve had two potions of ‘Legionnaires Might,’ and I’ve been unconscious all day. Believe me, after Grizz forced that shit down my throat, I might never sleep again…” Bane muttered, and I nodded, grimacing at the remembered taste.

“Fair enough, but at least lay your bedroll out. There’s no way anyone can get to us here,” I advised, and he snorted.

“And that’s why I need to watch over you. If I was going to try to kill someone, I’d be looking to strike exactly where nobody believes it’s possible,” He retorted, but he did lay his bedroll out against the door, after checking that the porthole was too small to let anyone in and sealed up tighter than a duck’s arse.

I shrugged and left him to it, sitting down cross-legged on the damp floor and looking at Oracle as she stepped down lightly from the wall and inspected my arm determinedly.

“Okay, this is going to hurt, but it’s the only way, as near as I can see, unless you want to wait until we reach Nerin or Hellenica?”

“No, let’s just go for it,” I sighed.

“Okay, we’ll start with the new spell, ‘Surgeon’s Scalpel,’ and we’ll use the Genetic Drift Examination first as well; it means the spell is going to take time. Worst case scenario, it’ll be costing us two hundred mana a second, and it’ll only at the absolute best do two percent in changes, but your arm is what, less than ten percent of your body mass? That gives us five seconds of work… I think… once we’ve used the genetic spell to look you over…” She pondered, rubbing her chin as she worked it out.

“Okay, we’ve got a manapool of five hundred and twenty, so that’s two seconds at a time, say, with a regen of six point four five; that works out as eighty minutes… add in the meditation… that’s anywhere from forty to ten minutes, maybe, to regenerate it?” I guessed.

“Yeah; it’s weird that some of the abilities you gained, like that ‘Peace’ meditation, only give ‘a boost’ and no specifics…”

“Tell me about it,” I grumbled and Oracle laughed, shrugging.

“Honestly, Jax, the capability to use the genetics and abilities of some of these creatures is amazing, I’m not surprised it’s vague; it’s part of a different creature you’re suffusing yourself with, after all.”

“Yeah, I know, and some of it is amazing, it really is. And some of the other changes are, as well, like doing that math there was so easy. That hardly required a thought, and the fact that I’m now even more of a goddamn sexual Tyrannosaurus than I was before, but still, there’s times I’d love to be back in my old life, you know?” I grumbled, looking down at my stump and thinking back to lazy afternoons in Jesmond Dene, drinking beer and eating a burger, talking shit with Tommy. Our only concern had been who could seduce the hottest girl in the group that day.

“I know,” Oracle comforted me, reaching out to lay her hand on my stump, even as I looked up to her smiling face. “But would you really want to go back?” she asked, and I shook my head immediately.

“No,” I contradicted myself quickly. “I love the idea of it, you know; the lack of giant monsters trying to eat my face, and weirdos like Bane staring at my arse and trying to watch me naked, but…”

“Believe me, the sights I’ve seen already haunt my nightmares…” Bane cut in, and I grinned involuntarily.

“You love it, really,” I retorted. “Anyway… no, I was just grumbling.” I clarified, and Oracle smiled again.

“I thought so. After all, I couldn’t survive in your world…” she said sadly, and I stiffened.

“Then I’ll never return regardless,” I said adamantly.

“You sure? I mean…?” Oracle started to question, and I held my stump up, cutting her off.

“Let’s get this fixed, then get the potions done. Then we kick that pervert out, and I’ll show you exactly how unwilling I am to go anywhere without you,” I offered, and Oracle laughed, even as Bane put his hands over his head.

“Who do I have to pray to that you’ll get a soundproofed room soon?” he muttered, and both Oracle and I laughed at him.

“Okay, let’s do this, then,” Oracle said, and I laid back slowly, stretching out and closing my eyes, feeling the link with Oracle that she’d extended to me when we had worked together to heal Bane, ready and waiting.

I slipped into it and focused, feeling her all around me as she built the spell. I saw the world through her eyes, and felt the additional senses she possessed but I had no context for.

I felt her structuring the spell, and instantly, I knew why she was so much better at building spells from scratch than I was. Mana was an almost physical construct to her, and when we spoke of ‘weaves’ and so on, she literally saw them that way.