Was it a supreme shadow? I didn’t know anything about those dwellers of the Shadow Plane. They were supposed to be sentient, like NPCs, and capable of independent actions. Still, what interests did they have? What goals did they pursue? Why did Sphere’s AI even generate creatures like that? Abel had cautioned me against interacting with supreme shadows, saying that they were dangerous. But I had no choice, and really, Tormis must have had his reasons for giving me his legendary archetype. I needed to use all of its abilities.
I still had six attribute points remaining. Well then, let us try. I assigned one more to Shadow Talk, keeping my eye on the changes in its description.
Shadow Talk (2/5): the whispers of shadows become clear and distinct. You can give shadows short commands, and lesser shadows will obey, although the supreme ones will ignore or try to trick you. You can understand long inscriptions in Shadowspeak, but the meaning of complex messages still eludes you.
That seemed better. I subdued my inner miser and, with an unflinching hand, allocated three more points into the skill, capping it.
Shadow Talk (5/5): you can hear and fully understand all shadows. You can order them to stay silent or speak up. Both lesser and supreme shadows respect you, cannot lie to you, and will obey your orders. You can read text of any complexity in Shadowspeak.
As I read it, I grinned. That meant control. I could command the creatures of the Shadow Plane and order them around. But what could they do in the material world, intangible and ethereal, invisible to anyone? The lesser ones could only spy, but the jury was still out on the supreme ones. The pile of bones in the cave with the large shadow hinted that it did have a way to influence the physical plane. If I started to ask around, the residents of the stalagmite settlement would probably tell me a lot of scary stories about the invisible monster in the caves, maybe even give me a quest. Interesting.
However, at the moment, I needed something else. Once again, I reached out to the big black smudge below, trying to make contact. Just as expected, this time, I succeeded. As I sensed its cold, slow thoughts and alien emotions, I recoiled, as if from touching a frog. It was an unusual feeling. However, we could communicate and understand each other.
“Help. I need your help.”
The slider of my multilanguage pack moved to Shadowspeak, translating the shadow’s reply.
“I cannot refuse a Speaker. But everything has its price.”
We had a long conversation. Understanding didn’t come easy, as that creature was too foreign to the material world. I could sense its predatory, almost carnivorous nature. Despite being duty-bound to obey me, the supreme shadow clearly saw me as food. I spent a while trying to explain what I needed. Unfortunately, the shadow couldn’t help me in battle, as its only weapon was the dread it inspired. It also couldn’t bring me to the Isle of Madness through the Shadow Plane, as the beasts lurking in the depths terrified it. Still, it did have a few useful abilities, and after learning about them, I decided to put them to good use.
It was getting dark. The Pandas and their pawns were sitting around the resp point, not saying a word. In all that time, my enemies hadn’t exchanged even a few words, talking either in their chat or via Courier. They were right; loose lips sink ships. I left them alone; if the guys had chosen such a fun-filled job, who was I to bother them? In the meantime, I switched to my second account and finally logged off—although not for long. An hour later, I returned to check up on my sentries, and then once more.
My goal was to wear them out and make them unfocused, not letting the one checking my logins at the oracle fall asleep and pestering the trio guarding the resp point. Let them squirm. You wanted to make my life hell? I’ll do the same to you. Let’s see if your much-touted reflexes will stay the same after a sleepless night.
In short, I spent the entire evening and night getting on their nerves by logging in and out of Sphere, taunting them and feigning attempts to flee the resp point so they couldn’t relax. It was a petty performance, of course, but it must have gotten under their skin. I knew that each time, upon getting a signal about me logging in, they immediately tensed up and mentally prepared for battle. After the tenth attempt, their hunting instincts would grow numb, increasing my chances to escape.
* * *
The next morning, the picture was the same. I had figured out that the Pandas had six-hour shifts and waited for the right moment when Yota and his pawns left the game and Pinprick seemed to doze off.
I contacted Thrainul and warned him not to wait for me before sailing out. The ship must be under surveillance, and I didn’t want to set them up—those guys seemed to genuinely want to help me. A rare thing in Sphere, really. After getting several messages expressing regret, I used a lesser shadow to watch the Abyssal set sail from the Stone Forest and disappear in the greenish mist. If I got lucky, we would meet later. If not...I would find another way.
I gave the supreme shadow my final orders, prepared the scrolls I would need, and put the Dragon Skin Elixir into my quick slot. The gift of Weldy’s late uncle played a big role in my plan, as it raised my resistance scores by a whopping 70%, even if for just ten seconds. Together with my cloak and the Tiara of Prince Consort, I got 88% resistance to most types of magic damage. The formula was complicated, as each resistance-affecting affix lost some of its power when stacked with a similar buff. Eighty-eight percent... It meant that I couldn’t be one-shotted by a spell, as only a tenth of its damage would be dealt. Well, maybe.
It was time. May fortune be in my favor! I stepped out of the respawn circle where I had been hovering like a ghost, suddenly becoming corporeal. Right away, I activated Dragon Skin and cast Rigor Mortis on Ran Dom, who was on his feet. It worked! The Panda warrior slowed down, suddenly growing stiff. It wouldn’t hinder him for more than a few seconds, but I didn’t need more. I feinted and ran toward the staircase.
However, I had underestimated the reflexes and the speed of Pandorum’s team. Evidently, they had long since perfected the reskill tactics and knew all possible tricks. The players and pawns moved quickly and smoothly, reacting in just a few seconds. My pathetic attempt at escaping was over before it started.
A lasso, a net, an unstoppable blow between my shoulder blades... I almost fell, then sprang back up and beat in the snares like a caught butterfly. A moment later, Aelmaris burned the net, but time was already lost.
Bang! The elf girl, having scrambled to her feet, fired Crimson Fire at me, reducing my health by three quarters. I was knocked back to the ledge above the precipice and tried to use Pitch Darkness to cover the area around me, but I was too late—the werewolf interrupted my casting, charging at me with a long leap, and the last thing I saw was his gaping red maw.
…247 damage. Your HP: 0/800.
You are dying! 60 seconds left till final death! 59…58…
Pinprick killed you!
My enemies turned around to the resp point, lowering their weapons, while I agonized in suspense, waiting for the unpredictable Soul Forge Gem to trigger. Come on! A thirty-percent chance of resurrection wasn’t a long shot! Otherwise, I would have to use the precious Greater Shield of Shadow to get out of there.
The Soulbinding Stone retained the hold of your soul and may return you to life. Do you wish to respawn? Yes/No
When the Pandas didn’t find my ghost in the stone circle where it was supposed to manifest, they seemed to start realizing something—or maybe, someone had clued them in. Abruptly, almost simultaneously, they turned to me, but it was already too late.
Finally made flesh, I swiftly rolled forward, finding myself on the very brink of the chasm, and jumped right off the edge.
Chapter 11
THE BLACK WATER MIRROR covered in green haze rapidly gained on me. I thought I could see the cracks on the sharp stalagmite spires looming below. Even if I didn’t impale myself on them, falling from such a height would surely kill me. Still, I had one more trick in store.
Shadow Run! I activated that ability, and my fall imm
ediately slowed down, letting me float like a feather, hovering in the air in the colorless grey world.
A large shadow, a blob of darkness in the shape of a large manta, broke away from the Stone Forest that looked like a colossal stalagmite adorned with a crown of ruins. It darted forward to meet me. A second later, it swooped up my falling shadow shell and carried it away. I was sitting on the back of its neck as if riding an unusual mount.
Light flared behind us: pale and weak, it nonetheless reached us from the material world. As I looked back, I saw a Circle of Light spell form specks on the black water, one after another. Blurry grey silhouettes of Pandas flew down on the back of their birdies, raining light across the area of my potential fall. So they figured out that I had moved to the Shadow Plane when my signal disappeared from their search sphere. I wondered which of them was a seeker; it wasn’t obvious by their gear. A player or a pawn? If I got rid of them first, tracking me down would become much harder...
But the place where they searched was already empty. We were rapidly retreating, and my shadow mount confidently carried me where I had told it to go. Distance was calculated differently in the Shadow Plane; space there was “shrunk down.” Almost immediately, the pillar of the Stone Forest disappeared from my sight, fading in the grey shroud.
It was a frightening flight, in the complete silence of a dimension that inspired nothing but terror. The water there resembled thick flowing fog, black serpentine silhouettes writhing in its depths. Each time my mount saw anything like that, it gained altitude, and I sensed a strange anxiety that increased the closer we got to my destination.
Thrainul hadn’t gotten the chance to go far and was sailing above the surface, although in the Shadow, I would have found him even underwater. The Abyssal turned out to be the pale green skeleton of a giant turtle, slowly moving its flippers, hazy figures of players and NPCs bustling about its insides. We swooped down, easily going through the physical obstacles, and I ended up where I had wanted to—in the hull, where I saw several familiar coffins.
My companion transmitted an empathic pulse, which I didn’t understand, and sharply threw me off its back. Was it discontent? Impatient? My Shadow Run was about to end, and I had to leave the Shadow Plane. We made it.
“You can go home. You are free,” I relayed to the supreme shadow.
“I need food.”
I felt an overwhelming hunger: intense and demanding, driving me crazy. Through the bulkheads, I could see the blurry silhouettes of the crew, and so could the shadow. Suddenly, I realized that it considered all of them food, including myself. It was barely refraining from attacking me! Only my title as a Listener and ability to talk to shadows kept it at bay. However, going by the description of Proxy’s abilities, I could command it, and it had to obey.
“I command you to go,” I rephrased the order. “Leave this place at once!”
A cloud of indignation and scorching anger almost knocked me off my feet. It couldn’t! Yes, the shadow was supposed to obey my commands, but it really couldn’t leave the ship. To follow an order, it required food. Too much of its energy had been spent transporting me there, and the creature wanted to replenish it. Even more than wanted—it anxiously coveted it, trembling with the desire to absorb someone’s lifeforce. Its emotions were so powerful that I couldn’t help but feel scared. What had I brought on the ship?
As the shadow grew in size, it transformed into something horrible. I flinched back, seeing it advance and fill out the space around us, snake-like and fanged, reaching out to me with its long claws.
“Payment. We talked about payment. I need food!”
“Can I give it to you?”
I shouldn’t have asked. Its claws pierced my shadow shell, and I gasped as icy pain skewered my body.
Drain Essence decreased your Constitution by 1!
Drain Essence decreased your Strength by 1!
Flashing crimson lines in my combat log informed me about permanent attribute loss. Permanent! You could drain a character to zero; what the hell? I had thought it would take health or mana, but attributes? I never expected that!
“Stop it! Get away from me!”
A metal door creaked, and I heard the sound of footsteps—someone had come down to the hold at their own peril.
The monster reluctantly let go of me and slipped into the doorway as a swirling cloud of black smoke, heading right to the staircase that led to the upper deck. It smelled new prey.
It was Fayana. She couldn’t see us in the Shadow, neither with her ordinary sight nor her seeker abilities. Most likely, she had come there by accident. The shadow coiled around her and opened wide its pseudo-maw, preparing to attack the girl.
I was thrust out of the Shadow, losing half of my health and getting a lot of various debuffs. Unable to keep balance, I collapsed on the floor and started shaking my head, trying to make sense of the walls swimming before me. Shadow Run had expired, and I knew that I shouldn’t linger in that dimension for too long.
“HotCat?” Fayana froze, startled by my appearance. “Where did you...ouch!”
A wave of icy wind passed over the hold, accompanied by a howl at the upper edge of my hearing. The lanterns blinked, and some of them went out like blown candles. Sharp weakness overcame me; my whole body felt numb, and a new line appeared in the log.
You are under the effect of Otherworldly Call! Your Dread was increased by 5!
My Dread was already at three, resulting in eight points—almost enough to paralyze. Thankfully, I had been wearing a four-point Estel gear set when Tormis yanked me out of Helt Akor, which served to cushion the blow. Still, even minus forty percent to all attributes was hard to bear, and Fayana was much worse off.
The girl went limp, as if unconscious, and slumped, but something kept holding her in the air. With my blurred vision, I saw her fade away, vanishing in the air while reaching out to me, pleading. What was going on?
Fayana Fly: Warning! Help me! I’m in the hold, attacked by an unknown creature! I’m under a debuff, shadow magic! It’s...it’s dragging me to the Shadow Plane!
So supreme shadows could take people with them? I realized that I didn’t know anything at all about these creatures, the danger they posed, or their skills. Maybe I had just let in an invincible predator capable of destroying the entire crew.
When I scrambled to my feet, the walls revolved around me—dizziness was still active. Too bad, really, but I had no choice, and I activated Shadow Travel. It would last only a minute, but that should be enough.
Yes, they were right there, just a few steps away from me. The creature had dragged Fayana into the Shadow Plane, wrapping her in multiple coils and ravenously consuming her. Blobs of energy split away from the Pioneer, and her shadow shell became less solid, while the shadow quickly grew in size.
One swing, one blow. I had no idea if my flaming sword worked here, but I saw no other option. Aelmaris flashed white, casting a circle of light. As it saw my blade, the supreme shadow hissed and started turning around to me, its hood inflating like a giant cobra’s. But I was too close. The blue blade slashed through the black coils around Fayana and cleaved the flowing hood on its way back.
You dealt 3500 damage to Belech, a supreme shadow. Souls eaten: +1!
Attention: you have absorbed the soul of a non-playing character unable to respawn!
A piercing shriek went off, followed by a howl, and the black smoke flew inside my blade. Two welcome pieces of news: a supreme shadow’s soul could be stolen and Aelmaris worked in the Shadow! I left the plane together with Fayana. Lying on my back and gasping for air, I read the combat log.
You are the first player to steal the soul of a creature from the Shadow Plane! Unique achievement unlocked: First Shadowcatcher! You receive 5 free attribute points! You receive 500,000 XP!
You dealt damage to a creature from the Shadow Plane! You are the 243rd player to do that! Achievement unlocked: Shadow Fighter! You receive 1 free attribute point! You receive 100,000 XP!
/> Attention: a shadow entity is sealed inside your sword. Your sword gains a new ability: Shadow Breath. When unsheathed, it inflicts Dread (3/10) on all surrounding characters.
* * *
“So you say you’ve escaped the resp circle?” Thrainul asked, squinting and nipping at his beard. “Will you tell us how? As far as I know, the Pandas are searching the island, looking under every stone.
“I have a surprise. I can enter the Shadow Plane. Did you see me disappear when fighting Yota? That’s how I escaped.”
Shadow Seer (Rogue Merchant Book #3): LitRPG Series Page 14