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

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.”

“A location is not a file. It cannot be overwritten. All changes are irreversible. Only via rollback...”

“I know that myself, dammit! But there are no logs. And then, there is a curious connection... Remember the imba sword story? You know, the one with a player who got banned and then unbanned?”

“Yeah. They talked about him at a meeting. But we’re controlling him, aren’t we?”

“Right. So, the Order’s NPC began to stir after his arrival. The faction leader is acting strangely. Quests are unblocked, rewards are available, reputation can exceed Friendly. As for background, it’s the Seven Brothers, Seven Swords, save the world, blah blah blah...”

“Looks like a hidden chain of super quests got triggered. Is it continental?”

“More than that. The task is marked as hidden in the quest log. We can’t trace their conversations because of the citadel’s super defense.”

“Have you tried putting a ‘shadow’ there? Sending an invisible spy?”

“Protection from rank eight is way beyond that! Even gods couldn’t enter. It’s a hell of a place. I have to say, it really doesn’t look like procedural generation. It’s like they created that location manually.”

“Shoot. What a mess. What are you going to do?”

“We’re the little guys. Let the bosses think. It’s what they’re getting paid for.”

* * *

 

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