Shadow Seer (Rogue Merchant Book #3): LitRPG Series by Roman Prokofiev (read ebook pdf .TXT) 📕

“That’s why some of the coffins were wrapped in chains?”

“Well, many aren’t eager to move here.” Rocky snickered. “Some of them are can be violent. That’s why we have to make sure they’re bundled well. As our captain says, safety first!”

“So you’re on Thrainul’s crew?”

“Yeah, I don’t like sitting onshore. Of course, I risk getting new scars, but at least I’m not bored!”

“Have you seen all of the Hole? I need to get to the Isle of Madness.”

“The Isle of Madness?” Rocky immediately turned serious, pressed a finger against his lips, and then slowly made a cuckoo sign. “Are you out of your mind, man?”

* * *

“No, no, and no!” Thrainul bellowed. “Not in a million years! You have no idea what you’re asking about!”

“I’m prepared to double the payment.”

“It’s not even about money! Look!”

The captain produced a timeworn atlas and pulled a map from it, rolling it open on the table. The corners kept trying to fold, and Thrainul pressed them down with whatever he could find—a compass, a massive coaster, and a dagger. The map showed the world of the Hole, and I started to examine it, curious about local geography.

Dagorrath was a huge underground ocean inside a cave of unimaginable size. It had no continents, but the procedural generator had generously endowed it with numerous islands—several dozen, at the very least. Judging by the icons of settlements and seaports, many of them were inhabited. Whirlpools, stylized pictures of monsters, lots of blank spots—the map hadn’t been explored in full.

“Look, we’re here.” Thrainul thrust his fat finger at a large rocky island in the northwest. It was marked by a pyramid icon.

“I’m charting a course here—we need to get our cargo and new passengers—and then taking them here.” He outlined a serpentine route.

“So? Where’s the Isle of Madness?”

Thrainul pointed at a large blank spot in the center surrounded by pictures of mythical sea monsters. The largest of them had sprouted its tentacles across a third of the map, representing a giant octopus or a kraken.

“Somewhere around here! I’ve never been there myself. Some think it’s a myth told by madmen,” the zwerg said.

“This is the Sea of Terror.” His finger was still on the blank spot. “Everyone steers clear of it. It’s full of nightmarish creatures, and the deeper you go, the more Dread you get. I only reached seven points once, and the crew started to go mad. See?”

Yeah, the Magister’s mission turned out to be nowhere as simple as I had thought. Find Svechkin on the Isle of Madness in the Sunless World and get his compass! It was starting to dawn on me that Svechkin had a good reason to hide so deep in this Hole. The Magister hadn’t told me a lot about their conflict. From the looks of it, the second developer really didn’t want anybody to find him. So far, I had no idea how to solve this problem without knowing half of the conditions, but I did have several aces up my sleeve.

“Fine. What is the closest island to this place?” I asked. “An inhabited one, with a port where I can hire a ship and a crew?”

“Ha! Such a sweet summer child!” Thrainul replied. “The closest is the Scale, here. It’s an outpost used by sea monster hunters. But you won’t find a ship there. Actually, you won’t find one anywhere. Nobody will agree to take a ship into the Sea of Terror. People who go there don’t come back.”

“Where are the resp points? Does every island have one?”

“Yes, all faction settlements do. It’s not that simple with them, however. You need to find the right approach. Have you seen the Gravekeepers? The others are even weirder.”

“Can you get me there?”

Thrainul coughed, then scratched the back of his head. Going by his behavior, I realized that he was about to puff up his price, and the entire conversation was only a prelude. Well then, let’s haggle.

* * *

We sailed away, leaving the Tomb behind us, its green lights glowing above the sharp fangs of cliffs. The upright ray of light slowly faded away, transforming into a thin line on the horizon. We were surrounded by complete darkness dispelled only by the ship’s lanterns used as navigation lights. Still, all they could illuminate were a few feet of black, still water that emanated a nasty stench. I already knew that there was no wind or underwater currents there.

Thrainul’s iron turtle was crawling in an unknown direction, its propellers on. We were above the surface and, as far I understood from the captain’s words, weren’t going to submerge.

The level of Dread increased the further away we moved from port and finally reached three points. Dark shadows flew above the ship, and Rocky and others fired their bows and multi-charge crossbows at them, dragging their prey onboard with fishing spears to show off. I managed to get a look at one: it was a giant bat with a seven-foot wingspan. They were the only “birds” in the Hole. The crew passed their bodies down into the galley to be cooked—any meat was a prize catch.

We traveled for at least three hours. During that time, I inspected the ship from top to bottom and talked to Thrainul’s entire crew that consisted of a dozen NPCs: Gobbler, the large and slightly haughty navigator; Stormbreaker, the gunner who had hated me at first sight; Drumba, the physician; and finally the fishman seeker, an all-around weird guy. Rocky and a few other Gravekeepers were the heart of the boarding team. I also saw the astounding Clay People, large brown golems who toiled in the hold all day long, turning the metallic handles that transmitted an impulse to a complicated gear system that powered the screw propellers. The