The Gene of the Ancients (Rogue Merchant Book #2): LitRPG Series Read online

  Sphere of Worlds greeted me with a letter of congratulations that unfolded over the entire screen, rustling.

  Your account was upgraded to Diamond! We congratulate you...happy to welcome you...blah blah blah. I skipped the wall of text and put off receiving the perks for later. First, I would have to research the issue and get the most out of it. In the meantime, Sphere was waiting!

  Just as I expected, I appeared in the same place where I had talked to the Magister four days ago. The fireplace was cold, the narrow windows with wooden folds were shut, and the room was dark. The massive door was closed from the outside. No problem; if the Magister was tracking me, he would soon get there.

  I lit the candlesticks and sat down at the empty table. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a few message icons flicker, waiting to be opened. Here we go. I was absent for only a couple of days, and I already had to sort through the mail.

  A few letters were advertisements, offering to sell me in-game gold or real money. Apparently, I had been added to someone’s mailing lists, having exposed my nickname somewhere. Maybe back when I had sold the previous batch. With a few clicks, I blacklisted the spammers.

  The other letters were more interesting.

  Balian the Raccoon informed me that the Watchers exam was to take place in...oh, two days!

  Komtur and Olaf the Prophet had written almost identical messages, worrying that I had disappeared and asking me to contact them as soon as I could. Komtur was also implying that he would find me in real life. We won’t lose you, Cat.

  Two more letters concerned trade issues — my auction bots had bought out all faction tokens at Eyre’s auction, and players were asking me to sell them a few to get a reward from Eyre Nation’s NPCs. Faction war rewards — weapons and armor sets — were only available in exchange for such tokens. The better the reward, the more tokens it required. For now, I didn’t reply. I would have to wait and see.

  As I saw the author of the last message, my heart skipped a bit. It was Tao himself! He was succinct.

  You have my stuff. How much?

  And true, after our last battle at the gate of the Order’s stronghold, Tao had dropped a few nifty items which I hadn’t really studied back then, as my mind had been preoccupied with other things. Now I could finally examine them.

  Ring of Nine Lives

  Quality: epic.

  Material: adamantine, ellurite.

  Durability: 11/27. Weight: N/A.

  Nine gem slots. Gems inlaid: 2/9

  Inlaid: Small Healing Gem.

  Inlaid: Small Healing Gem.

  Attention: upon receiving a fatal hit, one of the inlaid gems is destroyed, fully healing the owner.

  The cloak turned out to be legendary. Tao was probably at this wit’s end after losing that.

  King Sildo’s Mantle

  Quality: legendary.

  Material: dragon skin.

  Durability: 0/47. Weight: N/A.

  +50 physical defense (back, shoulders)

  +200 SP to Air Magic

  +50% to Air Magic Resistance

  Levitation: allows owner to fly up. Duration: 5 minutes/6 hours

  Unseen Wings: the wearer obtains Fly ability.

  Dragon Armor: being hit with normal weapons does not decrease the cloak’s durability.

  Attention: unspent Levitation time is required to use Fly!

  Requirements: 600 SP in Magic Craft, 300 SP in Air Magic.

  The ring was pretty used-up. Could it be recharged? It seemed pretty awesome, something like an auto-healer that could save you if you lost all hit points. Now, I knew why Tao was so hard to kill. To check it out, I used Appraise, a new ability of my trader archetype. After a few agonizing seconds, the system determined its price: it ranged from twenty-five thousand to fifty thousand gold. Apparently, I hit the jackpot! That epic ring cost more than all of my stuff put together.

  The cloak was broken, having zero durability after being hit with the Magister’s flaming weapon. Still, it was a legendary item. Legendaries were...I couldn’t even find words to describe their rarity.

  Six affixes made them pretty much the coolest things to find in Sphere. People dreamed about them, chased after them; getting each legendary item was a story in itself.

  Unfortunately, even a Free Merchant couldn’t properly appraise such an item. I had to use a special app that monitored prices at the Bazaar, the biggest Sphere marketplace. After determining it, I was lost in thought. A plan started to form in my mind, making me rub my hands in anticipation. Just you wait! Still, revenge is a dish best served cold. I forced myself to calm down. First, I needed to think it through.

  I heard steps behind the door and clicking in the keyhole. The Magister walked into the room: tall, thin, looking ever more like a Roman patrician with his aquiline nose and the gray hair on his temples.

  “So he comes in and sits down,” he chuckled. “And doesn’t say anything. Are you checking if I track you?”

  “Something like that,” I replied. “So, you are tracking me.”

  “Of course I do. What did you expect? You’re a big deal now, better get used to it.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. You asked me to make a decision. I need to know what exactly do you want from me. What should I do? How am I important?”

  The Magister lowered himself in the chair opposite me.

  “Everything. You should do everything,” he chuckled once again. “Thing is, I’m stuck here, in this location. It’s designed in such a way that I’m the master here. I control everything — even the admins can’t intervene. As for why, it’s a long story. Just go with it.”

  “So, you can’t leave?”

  “Only in exceptional cases. As soon as I leave the Order, my Key will be localized, and a rat race will start. Unnecessary questions will be asked. This is why I need help, an assistant who will gather the rest of the Brothers together and find the Seven Keys.”

  I nodded. It made sense.

  “Do you know where to look for them?”

  “If only things were that simple. No, Cat. The Seven Brothers protocol was incomplete. We didn’t have enough time to work out the communication. Originally, we intended for each of the Seven to know where their Key was being held and to take it if the protocol was activated.”

  “And?”

  “But everything went wrong. We didn’t finish the preparations, and now I have no idea where the other five are and where their Keys are hidden.”

  “I don’t buy that you didn’t have a backup plan for such an occasion.”

  “You’re right. We did. In addition to the Keys, we created the Compass, an artifact leading to their location. Just as a safeguard, in case they get lost or fall into the wrong hands. But there was a problem with it, too.”

  The Magister fell silent.

  “It’s a pretty touchy subject. In short, I had an associate, my right hand. His name was Dmitry Svechkin, and we had a falling out concerning the Seven Brothers, just before the plane crash. It was a huge fight. I won’t go into detail, but it was personal. He has the Compass, or, rather, his digital copy does. You will have to solve this issue.”

  “Err...what do you mean?”

  “Find Svechkin. I know where his digital avatar is. He has the Compass and one of the Keys. You must locate him and persuade him to give them up. That won’t be easy, I won’t lie.”

  “I see,” I said. “So let’s say we have a deal. I’ll find your friend and get you the Compass, work for you, and find the rest of the Keys. What is my reward?”

  The Magister gave me a dry smile. From the looks of it, he hadn’t expected my question.

  “Filthy lucre... Oleg, if we’re able to control the procedural generator — and with it, the Sphere itself — we won’t have any financial problems. Ever. As I said, if you help me, you’ll get your share.”

  “Those are all words. I would like a confirmation, here and now,” I insisted.

  “I think that by helping you deal
with...whatshisname, Goggy, I’m already confirming my intentions ‘here and now,’” the Magister said. “By the way, the problem is already solved. They won’t bother you anymore.”

  “Thanks for helping me in real life,” I answered after a pause. “I didn’t expect you’d be able to do something like that. Now, I see that the business is serious.”

  “Mr. Leo will write a report. Take his contact information, he’ll be in charge of your security over there. If anything happens, call him any time, don’t be shy.”

  “All right, I’ll do that. But this is not what I was talking about,” I said, not about to be thrown off. “You’re promising me the moon for my help, but it’s pretty abstract. The amount is unclear, too. I would like to get something right now.”

  “Well, Oleg...” the Magister hesitated. “I don’t understand what you want. It’s not like we could sign an agreement about something like that, and it would never have held, anyway. It’s all quite simple, really — either we win or...”

  “Nope. It won’t do,” I interrupted him. “That’s not how I work. I propose a simple and clear scenario: you give me a task, and I’ll do it. The reward is set in advance, the payment is by piece. And, of course, I still get the share, eventually. One-seventh, am I correct?”

  “You’re one smooth operator!” The Magister laughed. “No wonder, considering what they told me... All right, I agree. But keep in mind, I cannot pay you real money. Transactions over there are too easy to trace. It might cause problems for people who are helping me. So we’ll have to keep it to in-game currency, all right? I don’t need to teach you how to transform it into the real one.”

  “That’s true. In-game currency can also be traced, however. All I need from you is insider info, and I’ll use it as I see fit.”

  “Hmm. That’s smart of you, Cat.”

  The Magister drummed his finger on the table.

  “But that’s harder than it looks. Sphere is a living world, everything is generated randomly here. Still, I might have something for you. All right. Bring me the Compass, and I’ll pay you a sum equivalent to a million gold. Deal?”

  “Not quite. Respectable people always pay in advance,” I said, smiling.

  “How cheeky! An advance!” Balabanov flicked his fingers and chuckled, but the look in his eyes stayed hard. “Fine. As a sign of your future handsome reward, I’ll give you an exclusive item from the Order. After all, I’m the Magister, am I not? Pick one — an item, reputation points, or a recipe?”

  Well, reputation points would probably unlock the Order’s quests with rare rewards — but I didn’t really need that, considering my close relationship with a certain Magister. An item, especially a unique one, was nice, but it was one-time, I would either equip it or sell it; rubbish. But a recipe, especially if it was completely new, was a great way to make money. All right; I made my decision.

  “Is the recipe exclusive?” I asked to make sure.

  “Yes. You’ll be the first to get it — this quest chain of the Order hasn’t been unlocked by players yet. I’ll have to open it.”

  “The recipe, then!” I said.

  “You’ll get it in the lab. Ask the alchemist. I temporarily allowed you to access the inner circle.”

  “And speaking about rewards... What did the Sphere’s marketers promise you? I hope you got a bargain. But then, that’s unlikely,” the Magister corrected himself.

  After hearing about the Diamond account, he gave me a nod of approval and told me that I would need it later anyway. This account type offered advantages and made playing easier; the administration cut Diamond players slack, treating them completely differently.

  “And now pay attention. The rules allow any player with that subscription type to pick a gift. Now I’ll tell you what to choose...”

  * * *

  Upon leaving the Magister, I decided to take a stroll around the Order’s stronghold. The huge fortress built from red stone teemed with life. Its depths were probably full of cool stuff — I would probably have to spend several days exploring them. The knights’ percherons chewed oats in the stables, militiamen practiced sword fighting in stone training yards covered in straw, and rugged armigers in full gear guarded their stations, passages, and closed doors. It was a whole NPC faction; it might have been small, but it still had its own coat of arms, history, hierarchy, quest chains, and rewards. The Order was made to look like warrior monks, like Crusaders or the Templars, the same bearded guys in full plate armor.

  I didn’t see any players, and I knew why. The Order was a closed faction. Earning reputation with them was complicated. Forum posters wrote that they were only giving basic resource gathering and supply delivery quests with measly rewards. Achieving any reputation above Friendly with them was all but impossible, as there simply wasn’t a way to earn it. The location of the Magister’s stronghold also didn’t inspire anyone to farm there; it was the edge of the Wild Field, a zone of tempestuous PvP.

  I didn’t have to look long for the alchemy lab, even if it was in the dungeons. A knight of the Order opened the door. Like everyone else, he wore armor and a tabard, carrying a sword. The only way to tell that he was an alchemist was by his grey hair and a face a tiny bit smarter than the others.

  “I was warned,” he told me instead of a greeting.

  I opened the virtual reward list. I had the choice of two chains of potions and elixirs, ten types in total, ranging from simple six-component solutions to Greater Potions that had only a dozen known variations. Apparently, the Order specialized in protective alchemy: most of the elixirs increased resistances. I didn’t have a clue about that. I needed to consult an expert.

  To do that, I sent the screenshot of each recipe to my cloud storage. It was the insider information that I had asked for — potions that players hadn’t yet discovered. Of course, preparing an elixir was impossible without a recipe, but at least I would know what ingredients were required, and that was a weapon in itself — provided, of course, that I used it correctly.

  Unfortunately, the Magister proved to be cunning, and I only had the choice of two basic recipes. The rest were marked red, requiring an insane reputation. Look, but don’t touch.

  Resolute, I selected Tincture of Fire, and the alchemist, gesturing like a magician, handed me a wooden case with the scroll. The item had a blue outline, signifying its rare quality. Too bad; I had hoped for something better. And it’s not like I could complain, as the recipe was exclusive. However...

  “Is it true that I’m the first player who got a recipe here?” I couldn’t help but ask.

  “You’re actually the first player to ever set foot in the inner sanctum of the citadel,” the alchemist told me grimly. “It begins...”

  Chapter 2

  New Tokyo, the campus of Sphere of Worlds Corporation, smoking room

  “HEY NICK, how is it going? I heard it’s crunch time in your department!”

  “You don’t say! The Japanese has gone into overdrive. We’re checking the logs of one location manually, can you imagine that? Pretty much sleeping on the job, it’s crazy.”

  “So, have you found anything?”

  “That’s the thing; we haven’t. And we’ve looked it up and down, it’s really weird. There was a battle, there are witnesses, even a record in the kill rating, but no logs, as if nothing happened.”

  “But how is it possible?”

  “We’ve no idea. It’s an odd place, too — a small NPC faction, lots of locked quests. It’s a conundrum...like it’s waiting for a signal.”

  “A trigger? Is it frozen, like that area with valkyries?’

  “The invisible ones? Nope, that one was simply triggered by some kind of super quest. Here, it’s different. The faction is open, it can be accessed, but everything is just...strange. Like a false bottom. The citadel’s protected from rank eight, they even have their own portal, can you imagine? It’s not marked on the maps, either.”

  “Wow. Where’s that?”

  “Dorsa, Order
of Lily on the Sword.”

  “I think I heard something about it. And what’s so odd about the logs?”

  “They don’t match. I mean, there are no logs. It’s as if...as if the old file was overwritten with another version.”