Infinite Core (School of Swords and Serpents Book 5) by Gage Lee

Author:Gage Lee [Lee, Gage]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: MMO litRPG role playing steampunk quest gamelit, men&#8217, s adventure video game adaptations young adult, coming of age sword sorcery dungeon core demon, action dark epic metaphysical vengeful myth asian, Chinese manga wuxia xianxia martial arts kung fu, supernatural fantasy magic occult legends thriller
Publisher: Shadow Alley Press
Published: 2020-11-02T16:00:00+00:00

The Warning

IT TOOK ME MORE THAN an hour to restore my jinsei and replenish the strength I’d lost in my battle with Xaophis. The energy I’d gathered from the Umbral Forge was depleted, too, which did nothing to take the edge off my exhaustion. But I knew that Xaophis was beat as well, and wouldn’t want a rematch just yet. My best chance to finish this was to push ahead, through the weariness.

It took me an hour to use up the last of the elemental aspects trapped in my thread of fate. That produced three more ingots of orichalcum, each weighing in at roughly a pound. Probably a little more, but what can I say? I’m a generous guy.

Best of all, the gamble of pushing ahead when I was on the verge of sleepwalking had paid off. Xaophis had not shown up to eat my face. He was probably enjoying a nice relaxing nap somewhere.

“That is a lot of loot,” Niddhogg said with wide, hungry eyes. “Maybe I could just take sleep down here...”

“You’re a funny guy,” I said. My voice was startlingly weak. I’d sleep like a baby tonight.

“You look tired,” Hahen said. “Perhaps if you had learned the Sleepless technique...”

Hahen had not appreciated the shortcut provided by the Flame’s energy I’d taken from the Umbral Forge. It had let me go without food or sleep, which made the rat spirit’s favorite thing to needle me about obsolete.

Now that the fires of that power had burned low, I was back to being a very lazy and hungry sacred artist.

At least that’s what Hahen would surely lecture me about.

I grumbled and jerked a thumb toward the ladder to the surface. “Move along, friends,” I said. “I need to get back topside before I pass out.”

The Stacks were as far as I made it. The effort to seal the New Moon hiding place drained the last of my energy, and it was all I could do to retreat to the cots in the far corner. It was lights out for me the second my head hit the pillow.

Hahen woke me the next morning with a pointy finger jabbing into my ribs. “Enough sleeping,” he said. “You missed all your classes and your friends are worried about you. There’s still time for dinner. Go speak with them.”

Dinner. For the first time since the Umbral Forge, I felt hungry.

“Let’s go.” I dragged myself out of the cot and headed for the dining hall with the rat spirit beside me.

Hahen was uncharacteristically quiet as we wound our way through the School’s shifting architecture. It wasn’t until we’d almost reached our destination that he spoke up.

“Tru is with Clem and the others,” he whispered. “And she knows you did something... impressive last night.”

“How?” I asked.

While I hadn’t technically broken my promise to Tru by creating the shell, even I had to admit that came awfully close to crossing the line. The young dragon wouldn’t be pleased. But I was much more concerned by the fact that she knew what I’d done than by her potential anger.

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