The Gene of the Ancients (Rogue Merchant Book #2): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (top books to read TXT) 📕

dry. Taking a look at my body, I noticed that it transformed into star metal, glowing bright blue and semi-transparent, silver sparks shining in its depths. An aura of true fire surrounded this metal.

The ability only lasted for sixty seconds. I had to make the most of them.

Upon coming into contact with me, the thick steel bars around the resp point vanished without a trace. I passed that obstacle with hardly any resistance and left a human-shaped hole with smelted edges in the cage. The Pandas tried to stop me, or at least I thought they did: a cloud of green smoke wreathed around me, a lightning bolt flashed, and I saw arrows fired at me point-blank. It was useless; all they achieved was to create zero damage messages in the log. As Blazing Warrior, I was invincible.

And I loved that. I leaped at the enemies circling me, my sword burning blue. A hit reached its target, then another one. I pressed on, paying no attention to the damage that Pandorum heaped upon me.

And then, I realized that I was stuck. I couldn’t do anything. The odd black weapons and armor worn by Pandas could withstand the blows of my flaming blade, and a Fiery Lightning feebly dissipated against the breastplate of one of the jailers. They had known my powers and were ready for them. It was nonsense to think that Pandorum, the richest alliance of Sphere, didn’t have a few sets of Black Weapons. I didn’t know whether it was a whim of fate, a design oversight, or a joke played by the Law of Balance, but items without durability couldn’t be broken by the sword. My only hope was to strike the spot unprotected by demonic armor — but the Pandas, the strongest warriors, the cream of the crop, never gave me the chance.

The seconds were unforgiving, and my invulnerability was inevitably running out. I was zipping around among the enemies, trying to reach at least some of them. It was pointless. They couldn’t kill me — but I couldn’t do anything to them, either. After realizing the futility of my attempts, I rushed to the exit, trying to get closer to the invisible statue and destroy it with a Fiery Lightning. Pandorum warriors parted, recognizing that coming into contact with my blazing blue body was extremely dangerous. Then they closed their ranks back up, and three of them produced tower shields, black and spiky. Jerkhan had used one of them back in Eyre.

10…9…

 

A blue wave passed through the blade. Wrath finally worked, and I was thirty feet away from the entrance. The empty space on its sides took form, outlining the shapes of two statues depicting fanged gargoyles, their stone wings unfolded.

3…2…

 

I raised my sword, aiming at the left one. A Fiery Lightning hit its target, and the stone beast exploded in a heap of dust, fire, and smoke that grazed us. At last!

In an instant, I got knocked down with a shield bash, a few sharp items pierced my body in various places, and a rain of fire blasted me all over — just in case. My invulnerability had run out.

The finishing blow came, and once again, I was dead. The Soulbinding Stone hadn’t worked. I lost five thousand XP, half a hundred gold, my breastplate, and a few other items. Whatever. I had succeeded in destroying the gargoyle, which meant that the stonejammer should be broken. Time to leave before the Pandas brought in another one.

Return failed! Transportation via Soul Stones is forbidden in this area!

 

That wasn’t funny at all. I knew I wouldn’t get another attempt; an alarm sounded all over Atrocity, and new guards ran into the resp room. I had managed to catch them unaware by destroying the cage with Blazing Warrior, and that got them moving, the bastards. By why wasn’t teleportation working?

Captain Panther: That was a good show, I filmed it. Give me your number, I’ll send it to you later. I’m your fan!

 

HotCat: I’d rather you tell me why Soul Stone isn’t working! I did destroy the statue!

 

Captain Panther: Huh. I said it was in the LEFT statue, which means it’s on your left when you enter the room. Which one did you break? The one on the left of you!

 

Crap. It was an epic fail. I couldn’t tell left from right? That was a misunderstanding to end all misunderstandings. Or he might be pulling my leg; I couldn’t rule that out. Holding back the anger that threatened to pour out of me, I sat back on the floor and fell silent for a time, trying to put my mind at rest by controlling my breath. I remembered an old joke about two monkeys, a favorite of my father’s.

Two monkeys are standing under a banana that hangs from a palm. They are trying to reach it by jumping up, but each time, they fail. Finally, one of them gets tired and says to the other one, Wait, something’s wrong here. We need to think... The second one replies, No time to think, WE NEED TO JUMP!

Basically, I was the second monkey, mindlessly jumping after the banana hung by the Pandas. I had put too much of my trust in the power of true fire, while all I really needed was to use my brain.

What did the Pandas want, really? What did they know? I tried to imagine what it looked like from outside. Some newbie gets a weird sword, a Soul Eater, that disintegrates high-level players with one hit. The Pandas need souls and a soul-eating weapon. The newbie belongs to a backwater clan that could be ignored. The Pandas don’t know that the sword is personal and don’t believe his words, so they lure the newbie to a closed resp point and try to mug him, all to get the Soul