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

well.” He graced them with a beatific smile, before saluting me and walking away into the light drizzle without a care in the world.

“What?” Grizz said, having just joined us as Restun was leaving.

“Well, Grizz, I’ve got good news for you, mate,” Tang said stepping up to him and clapping him on the shoulder.

“Great!” Grizz said, smiling, then immediately frowned. “Wait… it’s never good news when the Centurion Primus is that happy… I’ve only ever seen him smile like that when…” He paused nervously, his mind working frantically through the options, before letting out a small whisper. “Oh gods, no…”

“Oh, yeah,” Tang confirmed, nodding. “His fault.” He yanked his head to indicate me.

“Why?” Grizz asked frantically. “Look, okay, I probably took the joke too far, interrupting you guys so much, but come on, boss?!” He dropped his face into his hands and groaned loudly.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Yen piped up grimly. “It’s not just you.”

“What?” Grizz asked, whipping his head back up and noting the expressions on both Yen and Tang’s faces, then the wide grins on the faces of the rest of the Legionnaires that passed by.

“I was conned,” I said shortly.

“You never heard the saying, did you?” Yen asked me, quirking an almost-sympathetic smile.

“Which one?” I asked.

“‘If you think you’ve won when it comes to a Centurion Primus, count your fingers, toes, then relatives,’” she said sadly.

“That’s not a real saying,”  I scoffed, ducking under the canvas edge of a large grey-green tent, and shaking myself, sweeping my hair back from my face and running my fingers through my beard to get rid of the water. “Damn, I need a trim.”

“Well, I can do it,” offered Bane, materializing out of stealth. “Just let me near that throat with my blades…” He finished in a low growl.

“Not a chance!” I said, grinning at him. “You brought this on yourself, mate!”

“How?!” he growled, and I opened my mouth to tell him when Lydia and the rest of her team reached the tent, coming inside in response to my waved invitation. Romanus was heading across the grass, and with him were a dozen or so other Legionnaires, carrying tables, chairs, and more.

“Hi, guys…” I said to the squad, smiling at their return greetings. “Look, I’m just going to get this over with...” I sighed, giving up on any chance of sugarcoating it. “There’s no good way to say this, but you all know who Centurion Primus Restun is, right?” I asked, grinning evilly when Arrin spoke up.

“The guy who was torturing you last night?” he asked cheerfully, eliciting a few chuckles.

“Yup, that’s the guy. Well, there’s good news and bad news, so what do you want first?” I asked.

“Bad news,” Lydia replied. “Always th’ bad news first.”

“Fair enough. He’s decided to take over the training for us all,” I said, glancing around at the rapidly shifting looks on their faces. Lydia looked like all her Christmases had come at once, and Arrin looked like he was going to be sick, with the rest of the group falling somewhere in between.

“What the hell is the good news, then?” Arrin gasped, appalled.

“Well, if you want to come explore the Sunken City with me, you can probably put off beginning the training for a day or two,” I chuckled.

“I’m in,” Grizz said straight away. “Anything that keeps me out of his clutches for a little longer? Hell yes.”

“Me too.”

“Oh yes.”

“Can we go now?”

The others spoke up quickly, falling over themselves in their haste to escape Restun, with only Lydia and Jian looking disappointed at our imminent departure and the delayed opportunity for bodily torture.

“So, boss, the Sunken City…” Grizz prompted, and I nodded for him to continue. “Is this a, oh, you know, a situation where… if, just as a wild example, off the top of my head… where if a certain Legionnaire was to loot some stuff; gold, jewels that kinda thing… that Legionnaire would keep them, or would they have to give them up?” he asked mildly, trying to appear innocently curious.

“It’s a case of looting for the group,” I said firmly. “Everyone gets a cut, but the majority of high value stuff goes into the coffers. If we find Spellbooks, Skillbooks, or memory crystals, those definitely go into the vault, but… I’ll be giving a bonus out at the end of the dive, as you’ll have damn well earned it, and you know, risked your life and shit.”

“What about gear?” Tang asked, and I shrugged.

“Depends what it is. You’ll note the Drow weapons everyone has?” I pointed out, and he nodded. “They were all looted. I don’t have any issue with handing out the gear we take; I just want to make sure it goes to the best person for it. None of that shit about claiming stuff when you can’t use it, to just sell it later, understand?”

“Yeah, that’s fine,” Yen said nodding her agreement. “We’ve all heard about people in the adventuring parties doing that. For the Legion, it’s a lot different. Usually, we give up everything to the Legion coffers, and then we get a bonus for it. Most gets sold to keep the Legion going, but sometimes you can buy the gear you want from the internal auctions before it goes outside.”

“You loot it, hand it over, then have to buy it out of the pot with your own money?” I asked suspiciously.

“It’s the fairest way, Jax,” Romanus interjected as he joined us. “It’s never been popular, but when it costs as much to feed and clothe the Legion as it does, not to mention healing potions and other supplies, well, it has to be done.”

“You buy potions?” I gaped, shocked to my core. “Surely you have people who can make them?”

“Yes and no. We had a single alchemist, and he had an assistant. That was the Legion General‒the alchemist, I mean‒and his assistant had only been studying under him a few months, as his previous assistant died last year.”

“That’s unlucky…” I said, frowning suspiciously at the too-convenient