Shadow Seer (Rogue Merchant Book #3): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (english reading book TXT) 📗

for as long as he wanted. He wasn’t using any invisibility, either; it was pure skill. I was blown away—perfecting a technique like that required a lot of training.

“Be careful, Cat. The Shadow is unkind,” he warned me before leaving. “It’s like a drug. If you get hooked, you start craving it more and more, but it’s dangerous. Everything has its price. Do you know that in the Shadow, you forget unused skills much faster than here? Basically, you pay for staying there with your skill points. You could easily lose an attribute. Your karma decreases, and so does your reputation with Light-worshipping factions. In short, watch out. You could really screw up a character so much you’d spend an eternity regaining the lost stats.”

That was interesting. My understanding was that nobody liked shadow users, and they preferred to keep their abilities hidden—admittedly, like everybody else in Sphere. That was the basis of the in-game mechanics: nobody was invincible; every archetype had a weak point.

While everyone was busy and work was in full swing, I went to visit the Temple. I recalled a certain someone promising me another task after I sorted out my own affairs.

The Temple looked abandoned. Sad, really. When I had freed it from the Negation Crystal, it was radiating golden light, glowing like a Christmas toy. It was no more: the halls were empty and grim, and deep shadows lay in the crevasses of narrow windows.

As I entered the long archway leading inside, I switched to Shadow Sight, and everything around me changed in an instant. In the Shadow Plane, the Temple looked like the skeleton of an unknown creature cut out of sharp bones, a work of art created by an alien mind. The statues in the recesses transformed into eyeless snakes, and shadows big and small rippled around them, their shapes shifting. I knew that if I entered the Shadow, I would hear their whispers.

I stopped by the altar amidst the large statues of Tormis. In the Shadow, they looked a little bit different: the features of the Wanderer and the Thief, the Trader and the Messenger became pointed, losing the remains of complacency. They stared at me with their eyes malevolently half-closed as if trying to probe me.

I knew how to attract the deity’s attention. Offerings, valuables, money—Tormis accepted all of them, but he loved secrets above everything else. The best sacrifice to the God of Shadows was a secret told at the altar. I bent down and whispered something I had learned through Shadow Eyes—a useful ability for a spy. I almost wasn’t surprised to hear a satisfied chuckle behind my back.

* * *

“A good story!” the man in a brown robe said, praising me. “But beware—losing face won’t stop their attack anymore. Don’t spend this secret needlessly, revenge for revenge. Remember: even a tiny stone can trigger an avalanche.”

I nodded slowly, examining him with my Shadow Sight. His figure was odd, as if shrouded in a cloak of shadows, and kept shifting every second, transforming from young Messenger to wrinkled old Beggar. It looked slightly creepy. Shadows snuggled up to him like a pack of loyal dogs to their master.

“You solved your problems and came back,” the god said. “I have a task for you. Fulfilling it won’t be easy, but you’re the only one I can charge with it. Are you ready?”

“I would like to hear more.”

“The Ancients possessed strange magic foreign to us,” Tormis said. “At the peak of their power, they were capable of many things—creating Beasts and Colossi, distorting the fabric of reality, and transporting entire worlds. They managed to steal and trap my temple. This is not the place for it. The Temple must leave Helt Akor and return to the Road of Stars.”

You are offered a quest: The Road of Stars.

Class: legendary.

Find a way to move the Grand Temple of Shadows to the Road of Stars.

Completion time and the number of participants: unlimited.

Reward: reputation, item, (varies).

 

“What a setup. Is this even possible?” I drawled, in no hurry to accept the golden-framed legendary quest.

“It is—otherwise, the Ancients wouldn’t have moved the temple here,” Tormis explained patiently. “You, players, inherited the strange power of the Ancients. You have their blood. You must find a way!”

“Actually, I’m having doubts. And really, undertaking a mission like that without an advance payment...” I said slowly.

“Do you want to receive a part of your reward in advance?” Tormis smiled. “What will you choose—the item, the reputation, or the skill?”

Chapter 7

“INFORMATION! You’ve mentioned the Lee-Nar nodes, told me about the Sin-Da thread. You can move through Helt Akor. I need this knowledge.”

“The knowledge... It took me a long time, searching for my temple in the web of the Endless Paths. So you’ve chosen the item!”

With a devious smile, he handed me an odd leather tube similar to a case used for maps and scrolls. Its outline glowed with the orange aura of a legendary item.

You received an item.

Helt Akor Map Fragment.

Personal. Quality: legendary. Crafted by Tormis.

Inside was a wooden shaft wrapped in several layers of slippery white fabric. To my surprise, it was easily integrated into AlexOrder’s Atlas. When I looked at it, I saw a strange chaotic network of circles, arcs, and parabolas, similar to sewing patterns from old paper magazines. It was riddled with inscriptions in Kann-Elo. When I zoomed the map, I appreciated the scope of the work made. Apparently, Olaf had been wrong: the number of Crossroads was no more than a thousand. Not all of them were identified—the map was full of blank spots. Still, the possibilities even that information would grant boggled the mind. Without a moment’s hesitation, I accepted the quest, and Tormis smiled, his expression making it clear that I sold myself short. But how?

“Other players possess this knowledge,” he said,