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

quicker information about it would spread. Of course, getting to the cave required the ability to use Ancient mechanisms and knowing the right coordinates, but...as we had found out, Hird could do it, and they likely weren’t alone in that.

The next few letters were connected to the hunt Pandorum had declared on me. I skipped through the threats and various nonsense, making a note of Ran Dom’s message—he wanted to buy out his set armor and inquired about purchasing all stuff lost by Yota’s team. A reluctant smile appeared on my face—all of those items had to be transported out of the Hole first. The best the Pandas could hope for was getting a link to the auction lot.

I also liked Kesson’s message. The master thief I had met through the Dark Side wrote, Bro, have you seen the bounty on you? I dunno who you crossed, but mad respect, dude! Let’s pull a fast one on your cucks. The scheme is simple: I kill you, we get the reward and share the money. Everyone’s hunky-dory. Easy! What say you? Waiting for your confirmation!

 

Sorry Kesson, but I couldn’t do it. The scheme really was tried and true—for those who didn’t care about kill rating and lost experience. Five hundred gold per death was a large reward, even if split in half, but for me, it was nothing.

Spam, advertisements, letters from Diareus and Captain Panther, who wondered where I was and how soon I would come back, a small mailout from the Bazaar Gentlemen’s Club with insider information on upcoming trade wars, auction notes on sold items...

Two letters stood apart. The first was a touching missive from Weldy telling me that she had learned three new recipes of rare potions and become an apprentice alchemist. She was sheepishly wondering how soon she could return home. The second was a raging message from Komtur, in which he demanded I immediately make contact, threatening to kick me out of the clan if I didn’t.

Fine, fine, I’ll do it... Despite the late hour, the clan leader was still online. Our conversation left me with mixed feelings. The clan—actually, the entire alliance—really needed my help. During my travels in the Hole, I had lost touch with the events in Dorsa, while they took a nasty turn.

A grandiose faction war was spreading throughout the continent. Ananizarte and her crew had assembled all forces of the House of Darkness and started a war against everyone. I smirked. What had gotten into her after the battle in the Astral plane? Their goal was conquering Dorsa and annihilating everyone who refused to swear fealty. That was a lofty aim; did they have the strength for it? However, the skeptics soon fell quiet, as the Lady’s troops moved at an impressive pace. In less than two weeks, they occupied the entire northwest of the continent, including four NPC Kingdoms and more than twenty provinces formerly belonging to player clans. Eleven castles and more than a hundred outposts were destroyed; the losses were horrific. The House of Darkness was preparing to march on the rich southern lands, mostly populated by players from the Phoenix alliance.

Overall, clashes between players and NPCs weren’t uncommon in Sphere. From time to time, reputation losses or changes in the Balance forced individual factions to declare war on clans, routing players from their lands. There were even precedents of attacks on outposts and clan strongholds. However, there had never been a war on such scale—a war that involved the population of an entire world, forcing players to migrate and triggering turf battles. Well, technically, it was the second case of all-out hostilities between players and NPCs, but people usually tried to avoid mentioning the Taerland incident that ended with the evacuation of all players and the flooding of the most populated world of that time.

The analysts of Phoenix and the Watchers observed the course of warfare and concluded that the secret to the House’s fast movement was portal magic. Common and Great Pentagrams could transport entire legions across thousands of leagues. That allowed the House to maintain their fast pace and appear in the places where nobody expected them. The NPCs used that ability both by themselves and through their vassal clans that comprised the coalition. According to our experts, the pentagrams lit often enough to require resupply from in-game markets. Actually, Dorsa’s local auction was already dry—most reagents had been sold out. So what did Komtur want from me? Simple—get my ass into gear and travel to the Bazaar to cut off the enemy supply. For this, I was given access to one of the clan accounts with an unlimited budget and a list of rituals with resources required to create portals.

Well, no rest for the wicked. Still, I couldn’t leave the Hole yet; my business there wasn’t finished. I decided to use my twink account, especially since it was already logged out at the Bazaar auction. I couldn’t buy everything without skill points in Trade, but it should be enough to monitor the market and do recon.

Portal magic was one of the best-held secrets in Sphere. Simply being given a screenshot with ingredients for a portal meant a high level of trust. Portal Master was an epic archetype; its requirements weren’t known to the public, and the owners usually concealed their abilities, as knowing how many of them were in a raid allowed the enemy to estimate its movement distance, route, and target. I used to know only basic information—but not anymore.

All right, so there were three kinds of portals—at least that’s how many screenshots I got. The first type was basic; it transported up to six creatures for no more than fifty leagues. The second ritual was the most popular one. This pentagram could fit an entire large raid and allowed it to jump up to a hundred and twenty leagues. Distance and cooldowns depended on skill level, but that was