Clan Dominance - the Sleepless Ones 2

by Dem Mikhailov

  Basically, those were the very reasons why I’d always try to gather as much information about an unfamiliar location as I could before exploring it personally. The only reason I’d decided to disregard the rule this time was that mobs up to Level 30 only differed in their looks, but could be easily killed with any weapon, be it a simple stick, a sharp blade, or a battle spell.

  I was still trying to keep my ears pricked, so I stopped the horse as soon as I’d heard a strange noise and some strange muttering up ahead, just to be on the safe side. As I lowered my head to listen closer, I became even more confused. There was labored panting and grunting accompanied by the cracking of breaking twigs and the sound of several muffled voices becoming ever louder ever second; however, they weren’t getting any easier to understand.

  “Hold the rope!”

  “I’m holding it all right!”

  “Lana, heal me, or I’ll kick the bucket right now!”

  “I cannot. All out of mana. Damn. Didn’t I tell you this one was too big and best left alone? But you’re a greedy lot, aren’t you? And it’s all your fault, Nick!”

  “Do you know how much the reward will be for such a big one? You’ve read the conditions, haven’t you? The reward is proportionate to the size!”

  “Someone, heal me at last! I‘ll only last until the nearest thorny shrub!”

  “I’m out of mana, I’m telling you. You’ll have to wait for it to replenish.”

  “What kind of healer are you, anyway, if you keep running out of mana?”

  “I’ve already healed you about forty times! Lassoing such a huge one wasn’t a good idea! I’ve got less than half of my HP left!”

  “Here goes! Damn, he’s heading for the thorns again!”

  “I’ll get snuffed out any moment! A twig hitting me on the nose will be enough to do me in!”

  “Get to your feet, Virgs! Come on!”

  “It doesn’t matter which side of me gets dragged through the thorns! Lana! Heal me! A-a-a-a-a-rgh...” A wild howl almost sounded louder than the bushes being parted forcibly. I shuddered reflectively.

  What could possibly be going on there?

  “Stop your nonsense! You’re still alive!”

  “I only have ten HP left! Don’t so much as breathe on me!”

  “Then break loose, you hear me, Virgs? I need about two minutes to regen my mana; you can grab the rope later.”

  “It’ll move faster, then! And replenish its strength. What’s gonna happen then? We start again? Lana, get on with the mana already!”

  “Don’t panic! We’re wearing him down!”

  “You’ve been saying that for the last hour or so, and you watch the thing go! It’s like a tank!”

  The bushes parted, and what emerged from them could only be described as a “thing.”

  What it resembled most was an enormous shapeless ball of grey wool with a thick rope tied around its middle part. The other end of the rope throbbed with tension and led into the bushes. The unidentifiable creature paid me no attention as it lunged forward again, pulling on the rope with great strength and perseverance.

  The next instant I was looking at a right old tableau in astonishment. There was a motley trio of players holding on to the rope for dear life, with the beast trying to break free, dragging them behind itself. There was a ginger dwarf in leather armor, a human equipped in the same way, and a human girl lying prostrate right on top of them, clad in a long blue dress and a red cap covering her honey-colored hair. Both men were Level 27, while the young woman was at 29.

  I shook my head, rubbed my eyes, and looked in front of myself again. There were no changes, except for the mob having taken a few more steps forward, puffing loudly. I looked closely at that Gargantuan ball of yarn to find out what its species was called: Shaggy Gwankh. Judging by the color, it wasn’t aggressive. This information didn’t help me much, and so I finally asked them in a loud voice,

  “Guys... What are you up to here?”

  Three startled pairs of eyes glanced up at me from their horizontal position.

  “Whew... It’s not a PK,” the girl exhaled in relief. “Hi!”

  “Hi,” I nodded to them, regarding the trio from the saddle.

  “Hello!” The dwarf yelled. “Rosgard! Hey, could you heal us, please? You won’t believe how much we need it!”

  “Oh, but I would,” I grunted. “That much is perfectly obvious.”

  Everybody’s HP bar was in the red, the dwarf’s blinking furiously to notify that the short guy would be sent to the respawn location any moment.

  I quickly reshuffled my spells, set Lesser Healing into my right hand, got off my horse and took a step toward the players, who were being dragged along after the beast slowly. Lesser Healing, Tier 1, was a contact spell.

  I leaned over, touched the dwarf’s right shoulder, and activated the spell. My hand wrapped itself in a soft blue mist, and the dwarf sighed with relief once his HP bar started growing — slowly, but steadily. Without asking any untimely questions, I used the spell a few more times, taking turns healing each of the members of the strange group. In order to accomplish that, I had to follow them on foot, leading the horse by the reins. The gwankh did not pay us any attention, but he wasn’t about to stop, either.

  “Thanks, mate! You’ve really saved the day!” The girl with the nickname Lanassi Mauve Light thanked me heartily. “We can manage on our own now. Are you a healer?”

  “No, I just had a spell handy,” I shook my head. “Manage what exactly?”

  “To wear this beast out,” Nick said wheezily. “It’s been dragging us along for over an hour.”

  “Dragging you along?” I asked, looking at the mob in surprise. It was Level 30... Why couldn’t these three take it out, I wondered? “Need any help killing the beast?”

  “No!” the trio shouted out in unison.

  “I don’t really get it,” I had to admit.

  “It’s a quest,” the girl explained. “A collector of animals came to Selene, and he’s buying these shaggy gwankhs, but only if they’re alive and unharmed. The bigger the beast, the greater the reward, and you can make some good money that way. We’ve been hunting like that all day long. If we manage to catch this one, it’ll be our fifth.”

  “I get it now,” I nodded, falling behind the group for a moment — the gwankh once again changed its direction and charged right at a huge shrub, twice as tall as an average person and with branches covered in enormous spikes — it would make a cactus even greener with envy. I made a careful detour around it, while the gwankh ploughed right through, pulling the players, who moaned in chagrin, right through the thorniest part.

  I didn’t wait for them to ask me, and used the healing spell on the injured members of the party once again.

  “Once the critter wears itself out and stops, we’ll catch it with a special magic net; it will teleport the brute right into the collector’s cage, and we’ll get paid. If you try netting it when it’s still full of power, the damned thing tears it up. That’s why we try to make it use up all its stamina,” the dwarf continued. “Now we’ll definitely catch this one.”

  “Right on. My mana is already back at one third,” Lana said happily. “We’ll wear the beast out all right. It won’t escape.”

  “But why do you need to follow it?”

  “We told you, that’s how the quest works.”

  “I gathered as much. But why haven’t you tried tying it to a large enough tree? It would probably wear itself out trying to move the tree on its own, and thus make things much easier for you.”

  “We’ve tried it already. It keeps pulling for a minute, and if it fails to move anywhere, it just lies down and falls asleep. Cunning bugger.”

  “Right on,” I said slowly, and used the Lesser Healing spell on each of them once again before I remounted. “In that case, good luck.”

  “Same to you! Thanks! Give us a shout if you need anything, we’ll do what we can to help!”

  “I would, however,
still try tying it to a log or a heavy rock, so that he’d drag that instead of you,” I concluded as I was riding off. “Bye!”

  The reply was a tense silence, then the girl said in a high-pitched voice, pensively.

  “A log or a rock... Hm... Damn! Nick! Virgs! Why didn’t either of you suggest that?”

  “Why haven’t you suggested anything yourself?!”

  I moved a few paces away, and, noticing a red mushroom cap underneath the fallen leaves, gave a start, and said,

  “One more thing! Should you fail, eat the mushrooms if the beast manages to drag you off — as soon as you see them, just grab them with your teeth and eat them ! Good luck to you once again!”

  I kept nodding pensively as I spurred Sist on and headed for Selene, which lay just across the sparse wood. I had lots of stuff to do today.

  Mossy Hills, which I’d left behind me, was a sleepy flyspeck village in comparison — in every way. There were more houses here; the village was bigger, and, most importantly, there were more players and their behavior was a lot less sedate. It was a really busy place — I counted around fifty players minding their own business after a quick reconnaissance.

  That was easy enough to understand — the terrain around Selene was excellent for leveling up. There were plains, woodlands, and even a river. Further west there was also a small four-level dungeon for beginners. It was hardly a walk in the park, but there weren’t any mortally dangerous monsters there, either.

  Most players were gathered in the small marketplace, sitting wherever their fancy took them, with their wares spread out in front of them. Others walked around makeshift stalls, checking out the prices and just gazing. Some appeared to be in a hurry, and would dash toward the stall they needed, quickly stock up on everything necessary and disappear at once. I hadn’t noticed any thieves, and they wouldn’t have had it easy here — three local guards were making rounds of the marketplace unhurriedly, with heavy maces on their belts. One of them also had a sturdy net — they reminded me of gladiators. People were buying and selling everything, so I decided to linger for a while, listening to hawkers and trying to get a general impression. Sometimes you just needed to look what the vendor had to offer to understand who they were and what they did, which was often useful, especially in small villages like this one. Where you have busy bees, you should also expect lazy drones expecting to grab their share of honey without having to work for it.

  “Lesser and greater healing potions! They’re cheap, and I have plenty! If you bring empty vials, you’ll get them even cheaper!”

  This was clear enough. A newbie herbalist/alchemist, selling his own produce so that he could level up his skill and make some money on the side. On the other hand, if you think of how long it took him to crawl through hedges and thistles, looking under every bush and behind every tree, to gather enough herbs... Poor guy. Still, if he managed to level up his chosen profession well enough, any clan would accept him most gladly. One always uses up tons of alchemical stuff during any war or raid. If one had to buy all that stuff, one would soon be broke.

  Anyway, I didn’t much lament the hardships a beginning alchemist had to endure — his next pitch showed his business acumen well enough:

  “Medium and lesser healing potions! I also buy all sorts of herbs! Cash on the nail! I pay double for chamomiles and dandelions!”

  I chuckled and carried on, careful to maintain a relaxed demeanor of someone who was in no hurry. The next hawker’s cry got my attention:

  “Equipment for sale! Leather armor with a bonus to Defense and Strength, flying boots boosting Stamina and Speed, a steel sword, and an ironclad wooden shield! Everything’s for a Level 25 player and good as new! Be the one to get it first! There are also gwankh pelts, acrole horns, and a little bit of alchemical stuff! A huge discount to anyone who buys the whole lot!”

  I took a sideways glance at the hawker to appraise his appearance. Human, Level 32, with spiked hair the color of a fresh tomato. He was wearing a brand new leather jacket with wide sleeves, a strangely curved staff carved from dark wood on his back, and a long dagger on his belt. His hands were covered by leather gloves, so there were most likely a few rings on his fingers, too. Definitely a mage.

  My concern, however, had been very simple — this vendor’s wares looked rather peculiar. One could have said they had blood on them. All the equipment was for the same level, complemented by horns and pelts. He must have tracked down a peaceful hunter, killed him, and gone to the market to sell the loot, thus being able to both make some money and choose his next victim. One of the drones mentioned later, in other words.

  I pondered this for a while, then opened the interface menu, made a new list, colored the entries yellow, and added the suspicious vendor. Now if I met him outside of a peaceful zone, the system would instantly notify me of said unfortunate event. Why unfortunate? Well, if I was right about the tomato-haired player being a PK, I’d be in for lots of trouble — I wouldn’t be able to take him out for sure. The difference in levels and equipment was just too great.

  Having wrapped up my business, I plodded on, still paying close attention to the hawkers. I made three more stops, adding a name to my “yellow” list every now and then. Once I’d finish my business and leave this location, I could clear the list, but it made sense to know what suspicious characters I could find here.

  “Crayfish! Fresh crayfish for cooks, straight out of the river!”

  “Fresh fish! Barbel, perch, pike, and lots more! I can fry it right here or sell it raw!”

  Fishermen, obviously. Judging by the catch, they were anglers or used sink nets. With a proper net and a boat they could have brought in a much more substantial catch. Fish sold well, and it wasn’t just the players buying it, but locals, too.

  “Live blue-scaled unicorn fish! Expensive! No haggling!”

  That for sure was a rare catch — and the guy had been lucky enough to keep it alive to boot. Someone would definitely buy it for its scales and the venom in its bony spike, or for a private aquarium. Those were majestic fish indeed.

  “Linen pants! Some are embroidered! Shirts, too!”

  “Recruiting a party for the Caverns! It’s more fun to level up together!

  A party to the Sinkhole Caverns? Nothing suspicious about that, but why would one gather the group so far away from the Caverns? Anybody willing to explore underground locations usually gathered at the entrance and formed their parties there.

  “Wild apples for sale, sour enough to make you wince and so wild they almost howl at the moon! Restoring life; fifteen-minute Agility bonus and three points to Agility!”

  “Get your weapons fixed here! I fix armor! No leather, rags, or non-metal weapons — I only work with metal!”

  “Looking for a party! Healer Mage, Level 26! I have a Blessing spell, but it works randomly! Lesser Regeneration Aura down pat! I’ll definitely keep you alive!”

  “Leveling up for gold! Level 20 to Level 30! Quick group leveling! No paupers!”

  “Return rune crystals for sale! From any level of Sinkhole Caverns to a safe spot right at the exit! Buying craft steel-tipped arrows, fire arrows, and five glowballs! No torches!”

  Sinkhole Caverns were the very dungeon located next to the fishing village, and that’s where the crystals must have come from. Dead monsters dropped them, but the chance of finding one was rather low. So how much time had that fair-haired elven archer spent there if he’d managed to harvest enough crystals for himself, and had a surplus for sale? And his zealous stockpiling of arrows and glowballs could only mean he was planning to go back.

  Incidentally, a few glowballs would be of use to me, too. They were fist-sized globes of glass which, when activated, hovered in the air above their user’s head. Those light sources didn’t cost much, but remained functional for quite a while — up to an hour, often more. Dungeons were dark, and there was nothing to do there without a source of light. Even on regular terrain they were indispensable at nighttime. Certain players
could make do with regular torches, but that would be out of the question for an archer — you couldn’t use a bow with a single hand, and I, of all people, should know. An extra pair of glowballs in one’s pack always came in handy. I’d buy a few, too, only I was broke.