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

of them hidden beyond my sight. At varying height, those towers were surrounded with round docks for flying ships, reminding me of choker necklaces.

Aircraft... I had never seen so many at once. Hundreds of them circled the sky above the Bazaar, coming in many colors, shapes, and sizes. Endless lines of vessels, their sails raised high, flocked toward the tower docks, taking up the wharves in the order of arrival, and the other ships departed, while some continued to hover above, seemingly aimlessly. I could bet that collisions happened here every day.

In front of my eyes, an Astral Portal lit up in the sky, and a dark carcass poured out of it, the same size as the Stormbringer, but very different in look. The Pandas’ juggernaut was a colossus stylized to look vicious and battle-ready. This one mostly reminded me of a bunch of barrels tied together with a pile of sails.

“A nave!” Green explained to me. “A large-capacity freighter with its own spelljumper.”

It was a rare and expensive ship that only extremely rich alliances could afford. We couldn’t even dream about having one. In Eyre, the entire city would stare slack-jawed at that flying monster; here, its arrival was unremarkable, and nobody even seemed to notice.

I felt like a backwater youth standing at a train station in a large city. Oh, screw that. The Bazaar’s auction was inside one of these towers, and having made up my mind, I tagged along with Green, wedging myself into the crowd.

Those narrow streets full of trade stands, shops, and noisy NPCs made me think of old Eastern flea markets. Around me, everything was riddled with signboards, and babbling merchants grabbed my clothes, trying to draw me to their goods. Hawkes yelled, drumming up customers. Creatures of all races roamed the streets; the Bazaar’s NPC population was extremely multinational.

That was some aggressive marketing. Everything could be bought here: food, fruits, clothing, armor, weaponry, carpets, houseware, books... We passed through an entire quarter of magic shops, and I barely resisted going inside. A savvy tiefling almost sold us a set of Rainbow Rings when we were careless enough to stop by an amulet stand, and a half-naked girl with the body of an ancient goddess invited us in for some private time, seductively licking her pink lips. She looked really tempting, despite the animal ears sticking out from her hair.

“What a girl!” Green winked at me. “They say, beastgirls are real feisty in bed... Mind if we pay them a visit and check?”

I hadn’t been to in-game brothels before and honestly, was in no hurry to do so — hadn’t I seen enough VR girls already? It was the same old thing, only local flavor. I shook my head in refusal, Green sighed in disappointment, and we continued on our way.

Our goal was the auction.

The tower entrance was bursting with players and NPCs. Who would have thought there would be so many of them? They walked in and out, ran, jumped, and summoned mounts. Navigating in the crowd, Green and I closed in on the giant structure hanging over our heads, and the shadows of arriving and departing Astral ships fell down on us. I raised my eyes, studying them, as I had never seen so many types; at the same time, I tried to avoid losing Green.

A small and slender figure bumped into me. The two of us almost tumbled down, and he grabbed my belt to keep his footing, coming very close for a scant few seconds.

“I’m sorry,” the player mumbled, in no hurry to let go. “I didn’t want to...”

Kesson successfully used Steal against you!

 

You lost Big Atlas of AlexOrder!

 

Combat log exploded in alarm, and the shorty bounced away from me like a scalded cat, his yellow nickname turning red as he ran. By committing an unlawful act, he got flagged, and now I, the guards, and any other players had a right to attack him. Hiding his criminal status under a quickly donned hood, he rushed through the crowd, maneuvering between the hurrying NPCs with a stunning skill. In two seconds, he was gone.

I stopped in confusion. I had just been robbed. What was I supposed to do, shout “Thief!”?

“Cripes,” Green commented. “Were you robbed? Did he steal something valuable? Why were you standing frozen while he rummaged through your backpack? It’s a ten-seconds action, you should have interrupted him! Shame...”

I really regretted losing Alex’s atlas. It was a gift from an old friend given to me on my first day in the game and a really useful tool for navigating Eyre. I had heard about pickpocketing before, of course. In theory, any player could rob another by using Steal skill, but the chance of opening inventory and pulling an item heavily depended on the skill points invested into it. By the looks of it, that guy had almost perfect stats — that’s how smooth he had been.

A guard patrol headed toward us, making their way through the crowd. Upon their coming, I was wide-eyed: the guards were freshly polished metallic golems who rode mantis-grasshopper hybrids! The constructs had blue fire burning in their eye-slits and intricate runs on their bulging chests and wore first-rate gear: fullmetal shields and artifact weapons that emanated magic. As for armor...well, they were walking armor themselves!

Instead of nicknames, they had a complicated mix of numbers and letters. I had never seen anything like that before.

An even weirder entity hovered between two guards: a metallic cub with a huge eye in the center of its body. It kept closing and opening its eyelid, as if taking photos — or blinking. Four lithe metallic cables — its limbs — wreathed around the cube, their movements erratic. They had sharp three-digit holders.

“A dromont. It’s an advanced patrol,” Green whispered to me. “Be polite, they’re neutral to us.”

“A crime has been detected.”