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

“Yes, you could say that.” Romanus said grimly. “It was right after we’d started to sell our own potions, due having teams of Legionnaires to harvest ingredients. It was a way to get out from under the thumb of the nobility and their taxes on the people, or so we thought, until the man who was making the potions came down with a bad case of dead. Steel poisoning.”

“Steel poisoning? I didn’t realize… you mean he was stabbed, don’t you?” I faltered, sighing at the confirming nod, and moving on. “So, the assistant was making them, or the Legion General?”

“His assistant was making the vast majority, as the Legion General was too busy, understandably. Their death meant we started having to buy them in again, instead of selling them. Then when we lost the General, with his new assistant only half-trained… well, the costs rose again,” he said grimly.

“Gotcha.” I met his embittered eyes firmly. “Well, I’ve got some good news there, then.”

“Oh?” Romanus asked, lifting one eyebrow. “Do tell. Gods know we could always use some of that…”

“Do you have access to many Skillbooks or memory crystals in the Legion?” I received a snort of derision as an answer.

“They cost more than a Legionnaire makes in years, Jax. The exceedingly rare times we loot them from battles or monster hunts, we’ve been forced to sell them, as whoever uses them gets murdered in the city shortly after, otherwise,” Romanus scoffed, anger and bitterness tinging his voice.

“Well, I’ve got a few hundred of each back at the Great Tower,” I admitted, casually dropping the bombshell into the conversation. “Spellbooks, too.” Silence spread around me as Romanus and the rest of the Legionnaires present absorbed that information. “I’m an alchemist as well, I’m crap at it, don’t get me wrong, but I can do it.”

“You have access to hundreds of them?” Romanus asked me slowly, his eyes searching my face with nervous hope. “Truly?”

“Yeah, and they cover everything from the basics to master level. Don’t get me wrong; there’s not a full library of everything… but it’s pretty packed,” I confirmed, shooting a quick look up at Oracle, who still sat, smiling proudly, on my shoulder.

“You… I…” Romanus spluttered, trying to get his words out, before turning and locking eyes with Tribune Alistor. “You see! I told you the risk was worth it! This is truly the rebirth of the Legion!”

“Yes… Prefect,” he said flatly, his eyes never leaving me, only forcing an oily smile when he caught me watching him.

I glanced from him to Romanus, realizing that Romanus had entirely missed the exchange and was lost in imagining a future where the Legion wasn’t barely scrabbling by, but was instead respected, well-supplied, and supported. I felt my heart clench when I realized what he was seeing. He wasn’t thinking of  personal wealth or glory; he was picturing a world where the men and women he was responsible for weren’t hated and reviled. Despite seeing the causes of this desire already, knowing the weight of it, it still filled me with a simmering fury.

“Lord Jax, Prefect Romanus, they’re here,” a Legionnaire stationed outside the tent announced, and I nodded my thanks to him, swallowing my rage. The adjutants had finished setting up the inside of the tent and were filing out quickly, leaving chairs and a low table covered with food ready for us.

“We can discuss this later, then,” I reassured Romanus, dismissing the Tribune’s odd behavior from my thoughts, and turning to walk out of the tent. Romanus and the others followed my lead, with Tang and Yen staying close by. Bane was hidden somewhere close as well, I presumed, while Lydia guided the rest of the team away to give us some room to talk. Oracle lifted from my shoulder to hover at the edge of the tent, just inside the protection from the rain.

I stopped just outside the entrance, taking in the scenery for a moment. The slight drizzle was picking up to a steady downpour, making the branches of the trees surrounding the clearing shake as rivulets of water ran from their leaves.

The Battleship had landed as gracefully as it could, all things considered, but due to its size, it had still taken out a sizable swath of forest when it had come to rest. This clearing, which the Legion was leading the delegates to, was only large enough to accommodate the bow of the Battleship at one end, and that was surrounded by broken trees.

I glanced back at the devastation, then shook my head, wondering about the damage the forest must have caused to the ship. I abandoned that line of thought, however, as the first group left the tree line and walked out into the clearing.

They were led by a tall, slim man who was impeccably dressed in dark knee length boots, white trousers and shirt, topped by a red jacket and gold flashing ostentatiously at both collar and wrist, with a black cloak flapping behind him, which had been lined with a golden interior.

His long, dark hair was pulled back and tied up atop his head, a variety of feathers sticking out of the arrangement, and he totally ignored the slightly built man who hurried alongside him, holding one side of a square sheet over his head with a pair of poles. The child who bore the other side of the sheet stumbled as he tried to avoid catching it on a tree. Both he and the slight man, who motioned frantically for him to keep up, were dressed in well-worn, rough clothes, frequently mended tears in the knees and hems clear to see as they moved closer.

The pole-supported sheet was the local equivalent of an umbrella, I realized, as I watched the water streaming down the sides and off the back as the first man strode forward. He was followed by a coterie of eight guards, and unlike the guards from the city, they were heavily equipped.

Their heavy plate armor had been painted