The Gene of the Ancients (Rogue Merchant Book #2): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (ebook reader for comics .TXT) 📗

A private message chimed. I was contacted by a complete stranger called Captain Panther.

Captain Panther: Hi, buddy. What’s this magic you just used?

Captain Panther: I’m your cellmate, I’m next to you at the resp point.

I couldn’t make him out in the crowd of specters around me — the NPCs still had a while to resurrect. Who was he? I opened his kill rating. Whoa!

Captain Panther: Say something.

HotCat: I’m trying to figure out what your deal is.

Panther’s biography, going by the statistics, was pretty remarkable. The kingdoms, some world called Taerland, tons of red lines — character deaths. There were a lot of them. Nobody had spared the young Captain. Afterward, green started appearing: his first kills. Then a clan, an alliance, entire pages of kill lists in some grandiose battles in which my new associate had actively participated. I saw mentions of odd auras and unusual weapon types. He was clearly not a frontline fighter, more of a support buffer. A banner? Ah, now it was clear: he was a Bannerman or a Captain, maybe a Stalwart Leader. That’s why he had relatively few kills, only two thousand. We had been taught to identify such archetypes, as they were to be killed first, together with healers. Some of their abilities made squads under their command invulnerable.

Panther was in a weird clan called Gentlemen Bastards. Apparently, he was the only active player there. But two months ago, he had been in Pandorum, and not in Jerkhan’s Russian-speaking branch, but in Euthanasia, a clan consisting of former residents of drowned British Isles. Was he English-speaking? Interesting. Were Pandas settling a score with their former member? Or was he a stool pigeon sent after me? I couldn’t leave out that possibility, either.

Captain Panther: Ha-ha! Don’t bother yourself, I’m in the Pandas’ KOS list.

HotCat: Something didn’t work out between you?

Captain Panther: Yep. It’s a long and pretty daft story. So I get it, you want to leave?

HotCat: Thank you, Captain Obvious! Can you believe it? Do you have any idea? If you’re local, you must know how to get out.

Captain Panther: Don’t fret, write the admins, and go to sleep. They’ll pull you out in a day. There’s no way out; everything’s thought out to the last detail. Sometimes, after huge battles in the Astral Plane, hundreds of guys respawned here — and couldn’t get out.

HotCat: Do you know where the stonejammer is?

Captain Panther: It won’t help you. I tell you, forget about it, go to sleep.

HotCat: Why aren’t you going?

Captain Panther: I’ve had enough sleep. I logged in to check if they pulled me out yet. I’ve been here for sixteen hours already, but my petition hasn’t been answered yet.

HotCat: Just tell me where the blocker is, and we’ll leave together.

Captain Panther: Hahaha! Amusing. Well, if you really want to know, I could tell you. But this information won’t be free, so pay up a thousand, all according to the price list. Still, I’m honest, so I’m warning you — it won’t help you at all.

HotCat: I’ll pay you as soon as I check that you told me the truth. You know us Russians, we don’t cheat each other.

Captain Panther: You’re funny. All right, do you want a contract? I’m going to write it up.

HotCat: Wait. Listen to me. How about that: you tell me where the stonejammer is, and I’ll try to destroy it. If I’m successful, we’ll leave via Soul Stones. If not, I’ll contact the admins via my channels, and they’ll pull both of us out in an hour.

Captain Panther: And I’m supposed to believe you’re able to contact the admins directly?

HotCat: Look at my kill rating, the latest kills.

Panther grew silent. I knew that he was typing my nickname into the search field of the global Sphere kill rating that was synchronized with the game. But when he opened the kill lists, instead of my nickname, my clan, and my equipment, he would only see question marks. Anonymity was a really nice feature of my new subscription.

Captain Panther: Are you a Diamond?

HotCat: So, do you agree? You won’t lose anything!

In a minute, I knew everything. First, the cell was an artifact created by Artificers. It emanated an aura of antimagic that blocked all spells. Basically, you couldn’t use magic inside, only outside. Pandas weren’t stupid and had done their utmost to keep themselves safe. Second, the stonejammer. According to Panther, it was encased in an adamantine sphere that was enchanted with something called Thousand Patterns.

Adamantine ignored all physical damage, it was the strongest material in all of Sphere, while the Patterns bestowed almost maximum resistance to all types of magic damage.

Captain Panther: You see the gargoyles at the entrance? No? But they are there, only invisible. It’s inside the left one.

So, it was also buried inside an invisible statue. A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

I paused to think. Fiery Lightning could destroy the blocker — adamantine and Patterns wouldn’t help, as true fire couldn’t be resisted. However, the entrance was far away, and the statues were invisible. I could easily miss my aim. I had only 6/12 lightning charges left, so I had to be sure. I needed to get as close as thirty feet away from the entrance, so the statues would be affected by Star Metal Wrath, dispelling their invisibility, and for that, I had to leave the cage.

I already had a solution for that. On top of that, I was itching to try out my sword’s new affix in battle. All right, here we go! Activate Blazing Warrior!

I felt heat, strong enough to make the air I was breathing burning hot and immensely