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

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