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

“Where are you going, bro?” Flame asked him, hugging him goodbye. “You’ll be all right? Will you try once more?”

“Nope!” Diareus didn’t seem especially upset, but maybe he was really good at controlling his feelings. “Svenn’s found something interesting and invited me in. I’ll go with him. The voices in my head are telling me it’s time to kill!”

He laughed out loud, cheerful, and we laughed in return, all as one.

Having finally obtained the Watchers’ tag above my head, I needed to take up the ball from the previous clan trader and set up my keep at the castle.

Step one of my plan was complete.

Chapter 7

You joined The Watchers!

NOW I WAS a full-fledged clan member.

A new icon appeared in the inventory. I used to be in Liberty, but the academy didn’t have all the clan features, and its main page had only one announcement with clan rules and a training schedule. Here, however... I opened up the CLAN tab and was shocked by the abundance of information. A complex hierarchy, titles, roles, clan quests, rewards, access to castle warehouses, clan XP bar, the list of players and their positions. Somebody had come up with all of that and turned it to reality. I zoned out. Studying that required a few hours, at least.

The Watchers, part of Northern Alliance

Clan level: 8

Average karma: Virtuous

Clan members: 879

Clan castle: Condor

Current effects: Eyre Nation: +500 reputation, Im Enoi: +200 reputation, Kingdom of Tavilon: +200 reputation...

And so on. The log buzzed with messages — clan effects were applied to my character, changing the stats. It was an intricate system of clan and individual achievements, each of which added a small percentage to the buff, eventually combining into a pretty hefty bonus.

“Hey, Cat! Congratulations!” Komtur’s voice pulled me out of my contemplations.

I was waiting for him in the Condor courtyard after the end of the exam. I had been asked to stay there to meet my predecessor for the transition. The clan leader was accompanied by Olaf and a few other Watchers whom I didn’t know.

“HotCat? That’s you?” one of the strangers asked me. He was called Green and looked like a tall ginger elf or a half-elf, you never knew at first.

“Cat’s really popular today!” Komtur said with a wry smile. “You even managed to pull a slacker into Sphere!”

“You asked me to bring him up to speed yourself,” Green said, shrugging.

“Go on, then,” Komtur grumbled. “Cat, this is Green, our former clan trader. He’ll tell you what’s what.”

“Yes, poor nerds, I’m retiring,” Green retorted, his nose in the air. “Woe to you! Hope this guy can replace me.”

“Why did you decide to retire?” I asked.

“I got sick of playing! Found a nice job in real life,” Green replied, looking apologetic. “It’s on a floating city in the Mediterranean! I’ve always dreamed of living by the sea... It’s an on/off rotation, a month there, a month here. As you can see, being a clan fence is kinda hard with such a schedule. And the clan’s decided, well...”

“To kick him to the curb!” Komtur burst into laughter. The other Watchers joined him, including the trader himself.

After the fun was over, Green led me away.

“All right, so your first task is to maintain clan supplies. Consumables, elixirs, armor sets — Damian will give you the list. Do you know him? He’s in charge of the clan warehouse. Some of the stuff’s provided by our crafters, some can be bought in Eyre or in Fairs.”

“By the way,” he said, winking at me, “up to forty percent of yummy auction lots in Eyre were mine. Hope you’ll continue this tradition — I’ll draw up something for you.”

I nodded, not saying anything.

“So you probably already know that Eyre auction’s only for locals and newbies. All the money’s in the Bazaar, that’s where you’ll need to buy most of the stuff. You can make good money simply by buying there and selling here, get it? Have you been to the Bazaar?”

“Nope, but I have a general idea.”

“So you don’t have a clue,” Green sighed. “I’ll have to give you a tour, then.”

“By the way, how can I get there? I take it that it’s a faraway world.”

“Not really that far away. You can travel there, for instance, via stationary interworld portals. It’s about seven changes, which is a bit much. Personally, I prefer using Teleportation Scrolls.”

“Aren’t they only sold for real money? Resellers usually ask at least fifteen hundred for them at the auction.”

“What’s a thousand, man? Nothing! One visit to the Bazaar, if you know your stuff, will recoup it many times over!”

Going by Green’s implications, he had been making a neat profit by adding his personal cargo to the clan supplies — light-weight, yet expensive items bought cheaply on the Bazaar and sold here — and controlling part of the auction lots in Eyre. He didn’t mention the details or specific items, but the scheme was clear enough. As I understood, the clan had either turned a blind eye to that or hadn’t known at all — after all, the transportation had been arranged by Green himself.

“Your second task is to sell the clan property: loot, masterwork crafted items, mined resources. The stuff from the warehouse that Damian discarded...” my predecessor continued. “Lots of potions, have a look at them later. On top of that, some carebears pay for rent in kind, I mean, in items. They also need to be carried away and sold...”

Northern Alliance consisted of twenty-two clans, only six of which were PvP-oriented. The other sixteen paid a flat sum for the right of residence, farm, and construction of their outposts in the Wild Lands. It wasn’t much, but considering the scope, it made up a pretty