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

I was imagining it as a tapestry that formed a spell, but for her, it was a layered, infinitely complex, yet visually understandable thing. I gazed in awe at the spell as she seemed to pull it into being, speaking the words and altering the flow, making my own spell casting look like a chimpanzee hammering on a start button by comparison.

I resolved that I was going to goddamn well learn more about magic.

And Alchemy.

And the Realm.

Dammit, might as well chuck in the exact air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow while I’m at it, seeing as I was probably going to end up as a king, or emperor, by the end of all this.

I stiffened, and not in a fun way, as the spell was guided down into me, and I felt the improvements that the Greater Examination had wrought on our spells alone as I watched Oracle guiding the spell down to a macro level, seeing a blueprint of my form being constructed in the air before us.

It took less than a second, but as I gazed at the outline and detail of my body as it was hidden in my every cell, I winced.

I was hugely messed up.

The potential that I saw here would take literal months to bring out; even working on a cell-by-cell basis, it would take forever practically, but thankfully, once the overall examination was done, we could easily assign the spell a priority now.

As the last of the mana drained from me, our twin gazes lost in the examination of the details, I winced, the spell failing and a migraine flaring to life.

“God dammit!” I moaned, throwing my uninjured arm across my eyes as I tried to ignore the pain. The failure of the spell was made worse by the utter loss of all mana, and I turned on my side, groaning.

I was useless after that for almost an hour. My mana channels felt red-raw and like they’d been scrubbed with a pipe-cleaner, not to mention the god damn migraine, but eventually, when I could see again, I relaxed.

“I’m so sorry, Jax…” Oracle whispered to me, and I winced, as even that low volume felt like she was screaming in my ear.

“It… it’s… okay…” I ground out, forcing myself to breathe through it. It was a weird sensation, having a spell fail. Not only were you useless for casting for a good long while afterwards, but your mana system also seemed to be actually damaged by it, as was your physical form.

“Just meditate if you can…” she whispered again, and I bit down on another groan before sitting up and choking down the vomit that tried to escape as the room spun.

Another half an hour, and I was at last able to lose myself in my meditation.

An hour later, and I felt Oracle start to cast, a soothing sensation building and sweeping through me, as I tried determinedly to build a third layer of compression.

I felt the weave flow through me, tightening in my truncated left arm, and a slow itch began to build. I doubled down, trying frantically to ignore it, but the longer I did that, the more the compression failed.

Soon, my second box collapsed, followed by my first, and the soothing, cooling breeze that surrounded me from my ‘Peace’ ability died away, as I opened my eyes and grabbed at my left arm, scratching at the newly formed skin.

My arm was growing before my eyes. Inch by inch, it stretched, the flesh bubbling out as the hand grew inside. It was freaky as all hell to watch, and I had to stop and meditate three times, but eventually, I was whole again, and I looked at my left arm in wonder.

I flicked the fingers, rolling them and twisting my wrist, feeling the smoothness of the motion, and comparing it to the way my right worked, as I realized that this rebuild had been done to a higher standard than the original growth was.

“Is this…?” I asked slowly and Oracle nodded.

“It’s brought you closer to your genetic ideal by seven percent. The nerves are stronger, the bones purer; even the hairs have less contaminants in them,” she said slowly. “But… we were wrong. This is your left arm closer to ideal by seven percent, not your overall body. So yeah, it’d take about a week of constant work to have your arm alone perfect…”

“Fuck,” I grumbled, thinking about just how difficult this path would be. “I thought Nerin could do this?” I asked, and she nodded.

“She can, but in a different way, and at a far higher cost. Her version of improvement removes the impurities; it doesn’t rebuild to the maximum efficiency.”

“Damn,” I muttered. “At least I’ve got my arm back, though…” I said slowly, my stomach rumbling. I looked around and saw that Bane’s bedroll was gone, and instead, Tang sat with his back against the door, watching me, the pair having swapped over at some point while I was distracted.

“Don’t even think about testing out the ‘feeling’ of that new arm while I’m here.” Tang warned, and I laughed, getting a smile from him and Oracle.

“Ah, you wish… admit it, that’s why you swapped with Bane, in the hope of a show!” I threw back to him and he laughed. I grinned and shook my head as I turned back to Oracle.

“Right, then; I’m getting dressed, and then we’re getting the goddamn potions done,” I said, even as Tang got some more food out.

“I’d suggest you eat before you work with the potions. You know, in case you end up snacking and poisoning yourself,” he suggested, and I grimaced but took the hint.

Ten minutes later, I was spreading the various herbs and ingredients out around myself, looking them over and trying to decide where to start.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The next ten minutes was spent reviewing all I knew about the herbs, and more specifically, about Alchemy itself.

There was something missing here. I could literally feel that I didn’t understand this in