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

as “monsters” were supposed to get 5 points of Dread in my presence. It didn’t work on anybody else and generally seemed useless. It’s not like I met mega monsters that often. Five points of Dread meant weakening the opponent by 50%. Any carebear clan that farmed dungeons would probably jump at a chance to recruit me.

Dauntless, however, was something else. It was a secret passive ability similar to Ascetic. The description said, After killing the Deep Guardian, you cannot feel fear. You are no longer affected by Dread.

Unbelieving, I read it once again and glanced at my Dread bar—it was empty. Four stars of Estel shone instead—even in the Hole, where Dread was always at three to five points. That was a mind-blowing gift of incredible power. It meant that I would get a huge advantage in any place ruled by Dread where players had to wear Estel gear simply to retain their stats.

However, the most interesting stuff was still hidden inside the Guardian’s colossal corpse. For example, an essence crystal is usually dropped by smaller monsters. True Fire might have burned all loot—or not. I shouldn’t linger; I was already expecting to have to spend the entire night in-game.

HotCat: Thrainul! I hope you aren’t too far yet!

* * *

Just as expected, gathering loot took up far longer than the battle itself. We only finished at dawn.

There was nothing to be afraid of anymore—the Guardian was dead, and the rest of the local fauna were too scared to enter its domain. Thrainul’s crew pulled on deepwater suits and flayed the monster’s carcass, using harpoon guns to load everything onboard the Abyssal, which was staying on the bottom. Contrary to my predictions, there was so much loot that even the submarine’s bulky hold couldn’t contain everything. Barrels of “mushroom flesh” and other cargo flew overboard as Thrainul frantically freed up space. The Guardian’s slimy entrails filled up the deck and the hold, looking as disgusting as ever. However, I seemed to be the only one struggling with my gag reflex, as the others were too riled up. Of course, they were—nobody else in Sphere had ever killed a creature like that!

“There’s enough loot here to sell for six figures, dammit!” the zwerg cursed when the cargo hold ran out of space. “And we’re leaving just as much!”

“Six figures? I think you’re underestimating, Captain,” Fayana said thoughtfully. “All ingredients and reagents are of legendary quality, and they’re one of a kind. I can’t even imagine how much it could cost.”

“Who needs it, anyway? Crafters?” I asked, curious.

“Oh, there are lots of applications! Alchemy, cooking, enchantment, artifact making, leatherworking, even astrology and divination. Dread-affected bones—what do you think could be crafted from them? Legendary-level materials should produce legendary items, the best in Sphere. Too bad so much burned away. Still, you’ve become a very rich man, HotCat. Congratulations.”

“Only if I get all of that out!” I retorted. “As far I know, transporting stuff out of the Hole is very hard.”

“We’ll do it, for a small fee!” Thrainul puffed. “It’s on me. Don’t worry!”

“I have a different proposal,” I said. “A fee’s a fee, but the Guardian’s dead, and the path to the Isle of Madness is free. If you—”

“You’re at it again!” Thrainul grumbled, interrupting me. “I’ve already said—”

“If you get me there and back,” I continued, stubborn, “then I’m willing to give you some of the loot in return. Say, this one...”

I pointed at a large yellow orb covered by sackcloth. Even through the fabric, I could see it pulsating. That was the Guardian’s essence crystal, and it possessed a lot of curious features. For me, they were completely useless, but any of the captains in the Hole would have sold their soul to the devil for anything like that. I had seen Thrainul’s eyes light up when we raised that thing aboard.

First of all, it was a powerful source of light both above water and below the surface. Second, it had a mile-wide Guardian aura that scared away sea monsters. Third, it removed two points of Dread for everyone onboard the ship. The essence crystal could be made into an artifact-level searchlight and installed on the Abyssal, making Thrainul the only captain in the Hole capable of sailing the far reaches of the underground ocean.

“I’m not sure...” Thrainul said, hesitating and glancing at Fayana and Bonus. “We were sailing to Scale...and I have arrangements with my passengers.”

“Really, with cargo like that?” I clapped the zwerg on the shoulder. “There’s no harm in changing plans.”

“The passengers don’t mind,” Fayana said with a wry smile. “Captain, don’t forget that we’re the Pioneers! We’re always up for discovering new locations! Please agree to HotCat’s proposal—actually, I’m begging you to do it!”

“If anyone told me the story about the Deep Guardian, I would have never believed it,” Bonus spoke up. “But now, I want to see how this ends and be the first to map out this island of yours!”

“You silver-tongued devils,” the captain grumbled, grinning. “Honestly, this is a royal gift, Cat. I can’t really refuse, considering your luck... So the Isle of Madness, you say?”

Chapter 16

“THERE IT IS. I won’t sail any closer, sorry.” Thrainul passed me the spyglass.

The black crags of the Isle of Madness loomed before us. The Abyssal’s new searchlights illuminated the coast, revealing the sharp spines of stalagmites above the surface of the water, lustrous obsidian cliffs, and stiff rockslides. The island wasn’t big. Most of it was taken up by a huge cone-shaped mountain shrouded in darkness.

Locating it hadn’t been too hard, at least with our newfound immunity to sea monster attacks granted by the Guardian’s crystal. After a day spent searching the blank spot on the map, our seekers detected only one landmass.

Pressing my eye to the lens, I carefully studied the coastline. Unfortunately, coming closer to the