Shadow Seer (Rogue Merchant Book #3): LitRPG Series

by Roman Prokofiev

  Rocky froze in a fencing stance, impatiently swinging the tip of his heavy rapier aimed straight at the elf, and a giant glowing waraxe appeared in Thrainul’s hands. Even Fayana and Bonus sprang up, moving aside and looking for weapons. I was the only one who remained sitting, anxiously calculating possibilities in my head.

  “What do you want, Pandas?” the zwerg thundered, adjusting his grip on the axe. “These players are under my protection!”

  “Step aside, player. Calm your pawns down. We have no argument with you,” Yota said, quiet and calm. “Let your companion remove the hood.”

  “Really? Or what?” Thrainul kept staring straight at him.

  “Or we’ll put down each and every one of you,” Yota replied, unfazed. “I’m counting to three. One!”

  “It’s the Hole, not the freaking Netherworld. We have our own laws,” Thrainul continued pushing. “If you want to fight, then...”

  “Two!”

  “Captains, what are you doing hiding your tongues in your asses?” Thrainul suddenly barked across the room. “Will we let Pandas dictate their rules here?”

  “Thrainul’s right! It won’t do!” a one-eyed giant of an orc exclaimed, standing up. His face scarred, his mouth full of fangs, he looked like the quintessential pirate. The others rose too—almost all of the customers grinned as they drew their weapons. Suddenly, the three Pandas were surrounded by a circle of blades, and numbers were on our side.

  “Fighting is forbidden in Pirate’s Heaven!” the orc barman said from behind the counter, nodding. “And so are spells of mass destruction. This is the Hole, Pandas! Get the hell away from my place and cut each other apart as much as you like!”

  “But only one on one,” Rocky added in a creepy tone.

  “Who’s decided that?” Yota asked, looking around the wall of blades encircling him. He was probably considering if he should take on a score of players and pawns. Could the three of them defeat that crowd?

  “Step back! Remove your hoods! Put your weapons away!”

  A patrol of local NPC guards entered the tavern, pushing the crowd apart with their shoulders. One of the onlookers must have summoned them. They looked rather impressive—tall and slender, clad in black sharkskin armor with massive shields and artifact weapons forged from translucent bone. Humanoid in shape, they still had scales on the uncovered areas of their bodies and three-fold gill slits behind their ears. Their appearance seemed to make the Pandas lower their weapons.

  Reluctant, I pulled my hood down, making Yota nod in satisfaction as he drilled holes in me with his eyes—you’re not going anywhere.

  “I need this player’s ears,” he said, pointing at me. “He has a bounty on him.”

  “He’s under my protection!” Thrainul stepped in. “And a bounty...how many of us have one in the upper worlds? There are no saints here. Ulysses, these guys were trying to start a massacre here!”

  “Players, your battles have nothing to do with us. Mass brawls are forbidden here, and so is using combat magic. Only one-on-one duels are permitted.”

  “We are Pandorum!” the elf girl, silent until then, hissed. “What are your rules to us? We will kill him as many times as we want!”

  “Player, this is not Pandorum territory,” the NPC guard replied, coldly enunciating the words. “This is our settlement and our rules. Those who break them will be killed. Is this clear?”

  “A duel? Then a duel it is,” Yota nodded, stopping his companion with a gesture as she opened her mouth. “Nobody’s stopping us from holding a duel at the resp point every time, right?”

  Chapter 10

  ESCORTED BY THE CROWD, we went outside to the patch of land in front of the tavern. A ring of wannabe spectators circled me and the Pandorum trio.

  “Ran Dom, Pinprick, go to resp. Turn the stonejammer around,” Yota quietly said to his team. He was so sure of victory? The bounty hunters’ plan was clear as day: kill me, surround the respawn point, and block me from leaving with a Soul Stone. Lock me there and reskill via duels ad nauseam.

  Yota beckoned to me with a half-bent palm, twirling his weird weapon with his other hand. He was definitely confident of his abilities. A master fighter? Pandas didn’t really have any weaklings, and those sent after me must be the best of the best. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to analyze my opponent’s kill rating, as the events around me happened too fast.

  “Aren’t you scared at all?” I winked at him. “The Pandas’ latest attempt didn’t end well.”

  “I remember. I was on the Leviathan,” Yota replied coldly. “That’s why I volunteered to punish you.”

  I didn’t like him; he was too calm, even phlegmatic. There was no spark, no desire to put me down, no insults—only composure and cold in his eyes. I also didn’t like his unconventional weapon—a short hatchet with a beaklike blade. The rest of Yota’s gear was made of cloth, other than the gauntlets with blades on his forearms. My weapon had a better reach; it meant that I could control the range of our battle. I knew that skill-wise, I was a mediocre fighter who could never take on a real pro, but I did have a few nasty surprises up my sleeve. They were the only things I could count on, plus the incredible power of my flaming sword.

  Aelmaris flashed like blue lightning as I drew it from the sheath, making the crowd recoil and start whispering. Waiting was pointless, and I decided to test my opponent with an experimental attack.

  Yota dodged my wide swings with quick sidesteps, pulled away—and suddenly flicked his strange hatchet. Reflexively, I evaded a possible throw and turned out to be right, as a thin black chain with a spiked tip swooshed just above my left shoulder. It originated in the handle of Yota’s axe, hidden inside a compartment. On its way back, the chain coiled around my neck. With a sharp pull, the Panda warrior drew it tighter in a chokehold, almost knocking me down.

  Hyvaa Yota dealt you 170 damage with Stranglehold! Your HP: 630/800.

  On top of the damage, I also got the Oxygen Deprivation debuff that decreased my remaining health by 5% every three seconds. Gulping like a fish thrown out of the water, I grabbed at the chain with my left hand, trying to free myself, and slashed it with Aelmaris.

  No use. The burning blue blade bounced off the black chain, taut as a string. The Pandas had done their homework, and Yota was wielding a Black Weapon, one of the legendary armaments from the Netherworld, a demonic item without durability. True Fire couldn’t help me—it couldn’t destroy the indestructible.

  My enemy ran circles around me, trying to ensnare me even more, and I did the only possible thing in that situation, jumping to him to close the distance and pulling at the chain between us. Unfortunately, my leap didn’t even shake him—I might as well have pulled at a locked door, as my Strength was far too low.

  Impossible! Yota could predict my every step, deftly moving around in such a way that Aelmaris missed the target each time. It felt as if he was toying with me, pulling his punches. He had incredible Dexterity and perfect scores in Acrobatics and Evasion. I had seen something like that only once—Illith, the PROJECT HELL assassin, fought in a similar manner. Finally seizing the right moment, Panda mercilessly yanked the chain once again, meeting me with a left punch from his razor-sharp bladed gauntlet—a blow I couldn’t hope to parry in melee.

  Hyvaa Yota dealt you 213 damage with Tiger’s Paw! Your HP: 327/800.

  Sharp pain burned my shoulder, making my left hand drop listlessly, injured. The triple-blade that had severed my armor and my flesh suddenly started pulsing with fire—Yota activated his weapon’s affix. Dammit! He was going to kill me! Without waiting for the effect to go off, I used my eyes to find the nearest shadow and dove there, looking for salvation.

  I had two attempts: Shadow Run from Tormis’ cloak and Shadow Travel from the proxy archetype, granting five minutes and one minute in the Shadow Plane. I activated Shadow Travel—a minute should be enough to sneak up on him.

  The grey expanse accepted me as if I were a friend. Instead of the houses around m
e, I saw twisted ruins, and the silhouettes of players were distorted and blurred as if encased in ash-stricken glass. To them, I had disappeared, falling into nothingness.

  Yota swung a wide circle with his chain, hoping to hit his invisible opponent. The dark links passed right through me, not dealing any damage. Material weapons were useless in the Shadow Plane. There were certain exceptions, of course, like Ananizarte’s sword, which was said to be capable of smiting in three worlds. The Pandas, however, weren’t supposed to have anything like that.

  The timer for Shadow Travel counted down seconds. 53...52...51... Biding my time, I circled Yota, picking the right moment to materialize behind his back and decide the outcome with a single hit. The Pandorum warrior slowly turned, waiting for me and preparing to interrupt my attack. He understood my plan. Then, a strange glowing vial appeared in his hand. A potion? An elixir? No! Yota raised it, and the item flashed, filling everything with a bright white light that left no place for shadows.

  I was blinded, and the world around me shattered in pain. The sharp blow to the head knocked me out for a second, and I woke up lying on the ground. My vision was fogged, and red lines flared in my combat log.

  Hyvaa Yota interrupted Shadow Travel with Circle of Light! You are no longer in the Shadow Plane!

  Critical hit! Hyvaa Yota dealt you 476 damage. Your HP: 0/800.

  You are dying! 60 seconds left till final death! 59…58…

  Hyvaa Yota killed you!

  You lost 6318 XP. You lost 43 gold and 14 silver coins. You lost Minor Culinary Kit. You lost Major Healing Potion.

  The Soulbinding Stone didn’t proc, of course. Hello, respawn!

  The resp point in the Stone Forest was a circle of rocks on a narrow cliff, the highest point of a giant stalagmite. A staircase cut into bedrock led there, the lights of the settlement dimly glowing below, seemingly close by. There was only one entrance; the other side featured a precipice above the ink-black water of the underground sea studded with the sharp fangs of stalagmites.

  The Pandorum vultures were already waiting for me. They had positioned themselves correctly, with stonejammer out of sight and a Circle of Light already active, cutting me off from the Shadow Plane. My fight with Roa and Jerkhan at Atrocity had left its mark—their analysts clearly studied my strong and weak points and prepared countermeasures.

  It would be stupid to respawn right there and try to charge the Pandas. Ran Dom and Pinprick were probably not much weaker than Yota. I whistled in surprise as I found their kill ratings. They had silver frames around their nicknames, meaning top 500 in PVP, and Yota had a golden one—he was in the top 100. I also learned the name of the extravagant chain sickle—kusarigama. All of them had more than ten thousand kills with overwhelming efficiency. The trio were top-class assassins. I was screwed.

  A personal message popped up. Who was it? Wow, I was contacted by Phantom himself, the unofficial leader of Pandorum. As I slowly read the text, I imagined his cold voice, oozing venom.

  Phantom: First death. There will be more, so many that you’ll get tired of counting. We’ve found all of your binding spots. You can’t even imagine what’s in store for you.

  HotCat: Oh, please, don’t stress yourself so much over humble old me!

  Phantom: You’re asking me? That’s not asking. When we destroy everything dear to you, when your friends start hating you—that’s when you’ll learn to beg.

  Phantom: We’ll strike when you don’t expect it.

  HotCat: I’m scared. I’m so scared! What do you need, anyway?

  Phantom: Nothing. Delete your account—it’s not like you’ll be able to keep playing. We’ll see to that.

  Yota pulled up to the resp point together with a crowd of locals, including my companions. They kept bickering with the Pandas, but as soon as the Pandorum warrior lost his patience and offered anybody to duel him, the disgruntled voices died out. Nobody was willing to risk it, although Rocky seemed to throw hopeful glances at the captain. I ignored the fuss and conducted an audit of my inventory. What could I use in a situation like this?

  I had standard Estel gear intended for Helt Akor and a raid kit of consumables: healing potions, antidotes, regeneration potions, and a “Seven Protections” resistance set. There was also some dragon venom, an epic Dragon Skin elixir I had once gotten as a reward from Ciage Nialit, and three scrolls from Fokial’s book with weak necromantic spells: Pitch Darkness, Mass Blind, and Rigor Mortis.

  None of that would fit the bill. Pitch Darkness created a short-range cloud of impenetrable darkness, but would it work in a Circle of Light conjured by a stronger caster? I wasn’t sure. Mass Blind required 5 seconds of casting time, which I probably wouldn’t get, and was removed with a simple Cleansing. Rigor Mortis, the last scroll, was a weak single-target stun coupled with slow; I doubted that my 100 skill points in Necromancy would be enough to penetrate the enemies’ resistance scores.

  Thrainul: So what are we going to do? They’re going to reskill you. I’ll try to rally the people, talk to local NPCs, but nobody wants to mess with Pandas. Technically, they didn’t break any rules...

  HotCat: Calm down. Everything’s under control. When are you going to leave?

  Thrainul: I planned on sailing out in the morning, at ten New Tokyo time. But considering the situation...

  HotCat: Wait for me. I’ll be on the ship. All clear.

  Fayana Fly: HotCat, I want to say that if you need help, we’re on your side! This is outrageous! We can fight; we have warrior pawns. You can count on us!

  HotCat: Thanks for your support. I’ll try to handle it on my own. See you, I think.

  In truth, I had no idea what to do. The Circle of Light prevented me from escaping via the Shadow Plane—no shadows could get into the bright glowing ring around the resp point. Sometime later, after watching the Pandas, I realized that Yota kept recasting it on cooldown, once per 30 minutes, via some artifact with a magic gem. Who would have thought that a simple light magic spell could be so dangerous for all shadow users? I recalled Abel warning me about that.

  Summoning the Succubate was blocked in this world, like all portal magic. Maybe I could use a Greater Shield of Shadows? They would never deal me ten million damage. It was a logical solution, which is why I put it on the back-burner. Intuition told me that I might need the rare spell with a two-day long cooldown later, and probably very soon. Flaming Bolides were out of the question, too, as they were AOE skills that would quickly make local NPCs join the hunt for me.

  I wanted to leave gracefully and undetected, while the Pandas didn’t suspect that I returned to Thrainul’s ship. They probably had eyes on the wharves, and the trio of assassins could easily board the Abyssal and take on the entire crew.

  Well, I had the whole night ahead. The Pandas were in no hurry, and neither was I. They released their pawns, doubling their numbers. I really didn’t like one of their minions, a huge grey-maned werewolf with eyes burning like scarlet coals. He sat down right in front of me, licking his fangs. Pinprick went offline, indicating that they were going to take shifts watching me. I noted the time and opened up my Proxy archetype.

  The Proxy of the God of Shadows

  Rank 2: Shadow Listener (level up skills to increase rank)

  Passive abilities:

  Shadow Sight (5/5): you can see the Shadow Plane and its items and inhabitants just as clear as the material world. You don’t have to travel to the Shadow Plane to interact with them. You are able to find caches and secret passages in the Shadow Plane.

  Shadow Talk (1/5): you can hear whispers between shadows and understand individual phrases. You can read simple writing in Shadowspeak. You can talk to Shadows, but they can play tricks on you.

  Active abilities:

  Shadow Eyes (5/5): you can find and sense shadows within a thousand-step range. You can use their eyes and contact them. You don’t have to be in the Shadow plane to use this ability.

  Shadow Travel (1/5): you can enter and move through the Shadow
Plane for up to 1 minute / 80 minutes.

  HIDDEN (rank 3 required)

  HIDDEN (rank 4 required)

  Talent:

  HIDDEN (rank 5 required)

  HIDDEN (rank 6 required)

  Lost in thought, I sat cross-legged, closed my eyes, and activated Shadow Eyes. A three-dimensional search sphere appeared in front of me, similar to the ones used by seekers. They, however, could see the sparks of objects and creatures while I saw the black dots of shadows.

  There were a lot of them! Small shadows hid in the darkness along the roads and unilluminated sides of buildings, stirring in the clefts of sharp cliffs. Mindless, invisible, and incorporeal, they still existed, and each of them was at my disposal. Upon sensing my touch, they shuddered in fear, giving me their sight.

  My attention was drawn by a black smudge skulking in the depths of the Stone Forest, in the maze of caves running through it. This smudge was much bigger than the other dots, and I reached out to it, trying to “connect” to its eyes. For a second, I saw grim grey rocks and grotesque growths of stalactites, heard the sound of dripping water... Skulls and rib bones gleamed in the dark around it. I felt the cold shock of an alien mind before it broke the connection between us, interrupting the empathic link.