The Way of the Shaman [06] Shaman's Revenge
Page 1
Shaman's Revenge
a novel
by Vasily Mahanenko
The Way of the Shaman
Book#6
Magic Dome Books
Shaman's Revenge
The Way of the Shaman, Book # 6
Copyright © V. Mahanenko 2017
Cover Art © V. Manyukhin 2017
English translation copyright © Boris Smirnov 2017
Published by Magic Dome Books, 2017
All Rights Reserved
ISBN: 978-80-88231-38-7
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.
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ALSO BY VASILY MAHANENKO
The Way of the Shaman LitRPG Series:
Survival Quest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #1)
The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman: Book #2)
The Secret of the Dark Forest (The Way of the Shaman: Book #3)
The Phantom Castle (The Way of the Shaman: Book #4)
The Hour of Pain (The Way of the Shaman Bonus Story)
Dark Paladin LitRPG Series:
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1)
The Quest (Dark Paladin Book #2)
Galactogon LitRPG Series:
Start The Game (Galactogon: Book #1)
Short Stories:
You're in Game!
(LitRPG Stories from Bestselling Authors)
The Hour of Pain (The Way of the Shaman Bonus Story)
Table of Contents:
Chapter One. Emergence
Chapter Two. Return to Barliona
Chapter Three. A Meeting and New Quests
Chapter Four. Blue Mosses
Chapter Five. The Ergreis
Chapter Six. Escape
Chapter Seven. Aquarizamax
Chapter Eight. Premonition
Chapter Nine. The Dungeon of Shadow
Chapter Ten. Into Armard
Chapter Eleven. The Tears of Harrashess
Chapter Twelve. Epiphany
Epilogue
Chapter One. Emergence
“Climb on out!” ordered a man’s voice so hoarse it sounded like its owner had been suffering from a long-term cold—and treating it with ice cream. “Or are you just going to lie there forever?”
Even though my cocoon’s lid had slid aside a while ago, I couldn’t summon the strength to get up and return to the real world. Fluorescent lights buzzed before my eyes—a standard fixture of every office, or in this case the facility where ex-prisoners were released from their confinement capsules—and still I went on staring, as if into infinity. My head was such a jumble that I concentrated on the only thing I knew to be true and then held onto it like a lifesaver to keep from drowning—I was free! I, Daniel Mahan, who had incurred the wrath of my entire city, had regained my freedom! I had managed to trade eight years of imprisonment for a mere eleven months of gameplay.
And yet, this realization did not make me happy.
The only thing rattling in my head was the terrible phrase that Anastaria had thrown into my face: “You’re useless now.” I tried to clear my mind yet again, but the last thirty minutes of my stay in Barliona kept surging to the forefront of my consciousness.
“Hey—are you, uh, alive in there?” A note of worry sounded in the voice and a bearded face materialized above me. A bandana covered his right eye as well as the scar that began on his forehead and zigzagged like a lightning bolt down to his lower jaw. “You seem to be okay. So why don’t you get up? All the other prisoners come flying out like bullets and start kissing the blessed floor of reality, but you’re still in there. Did something happen to you?”
“Analysis of patient’s functions complete,” a robotic voice announced several seconds later. “Patient’s organism is functioning normally with no defects detected. Physical state is 88% of nominal.”
“Look here, I don’t have time to deal with whatever your problem is. I have another dozen releases to attend to today, so shake a leg and get a move on. You were released ahead of schedule, so someone will come for you in about half an hour. You’ll have to wait in the reception room in the meantime…Hey! Can you hear me or not?! Make a sound or something!”
“I can hear
you, I can hear you,” I muttered, clearing my mind as best I could. I didn’t feel like going off on this fellow—his life seemed tough enough as it was, so I waited until the restraining bar moved aside, sat up and sighed deeply. Immediately, my head began to spin and stars danced before my eyes, but I forced myself to stay sitting—I was done with being weak. It was time to grow up.
“The shower is ahead and to the left,” the man added, moving away from the cocoon. “You’ll find clothes there for you too. Anyway, I’m not a nanny. You can figure out what’s what on your own. Oh and by the way—congratulations! Obtaining a release before your sentence is up is like gaining a new level in-game. Even two, I’d say…”
With these words, the technician turned around and went off on his business, so I had nothing left to do but slide my legs over to the floor and take my first step in the direction of the door he had indicated. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the strength for a second one…
I can’t explain what happened, but as soon as I took the second step, my legs gave way, a terrible aching swept across my body, my muscles contorted and a hundred little fireworks went off in my head, giving rise to interesting and strange thoughts: ‘Achievement earned: You have left your capsule. That’s worth two levels!’ Great! Now where is my wave of pleasure?
During the eleven months I had spent inside the game I became so accustomed to experiencing a wave of pleasure from reaching some new milestone in my level or skills that I basically stopped noticing it when it happened. It was only in extremely important cases like when my Jewelcrafting skill would grow by several points that I’d still collapse to my knees in sweet exhilaration, subconsciously preparing my hands for the creation of my next masterpiece. For a prisoner like me, the dose of pleasure meant a lot.
Now, I fell to the floor with a dull groan. I could barely feel my own body—my craving to ‘feel’ that next level eclipsed everything around me.
“You feeling ill?” the technician’s mocking voice pierced the fog around me. “It’s okay. Just wait a little. You should feel better in a bit. Happens to everyone…”
My muscles contorted themselves so painfully that all I could do was groan and whimper—my craving of the ‘dose’ was insane. All of a sudden, I understood very clearly that the old technician was the reason for why I was feeling so ill! It was he who was withholding my dose—it was he who’d pulled me out of the capsule—it was he who…
“Oh! You’ve really got it bad, eh?” said a surprised voice when I began to growl and crawl in the technician’s direction—so that I could gnaw his leg off for him. “Well, all right. You can have another hit. It won’t kill you. Enjoy it while you can.”
A sharp pain flashed near my shoulder and was followed by a warm and stunningly pleasant wave of pleasure that washed over my body. My muscles relaxed, my bones stopped dancing, my consciousness once more began to perceive the world and I flipped over onto my back completely ignoring the fact that I was lying naked on a frigid floor. My gaze encountered the white ceiling with the aforementioned fluorescent lights which were now full of unicorns wandering here and there picking bouquets of flowers. It’s odd—I don’t remember Ishni having arms. These unicorns looked more like centaurs with horns in their foreheads…
“I thought you only spent a year in there. How’d you manage to get so hooked?” The technician’s one-eyed face blotted out the centaur who had just begun to sing a ditty in the background.
“Reality perception level at 35%. Patient is currently at Dependence Level Black. Recommended rehabilitation period: two months, fifteen days,” the medical AI summarized my condition, while I fantasized about letting it have it with a Spirit…
“Level Black?” the technician’s one eye spread out to cover his entire eye, confronting me with a horrifying Cyclops. Try and believe an NPC after that! Didn’t they tell me that all the Cyclopes had been exterminated? Here’s one right before me. “You know buddy, I’m even kind of curious about what happened to you.”
The Cyclops stepped aside allowing me to rejoin my happy centaur. He was busy gathering flowers and singing songs—when suddenly he looked up fearfully, tucked in his tail and dropped down to the floor. The Master had come to swim the skies—a black Dragon.
Flourishing his enormous wings in the air around him, the Dragon enthralled and captivated me with his power and beauty. His entire body was filled with strength. He was the true master of this world and no one and nothing could depose him from his throne. Not even the Sirens.
The Sirens…
Anastaria…
Barliona….
I am Daniel Mahan, an ex-prisoner.
The Dragon flapped his wings one more time and vanished, returning the ceiling to its blank white state.
“Reality perception level at 85%. The patient has reached Dependence Level Yellow. Recommended rehabilitation period: fifteen days,” the AI reacted immediately.
“Ahem,” coughed the technician. “What exactly is going on anyway? Black, yellow. Listen, the doctors will show up in ten minutes. Let them deal with you. The shower is straight ahead. There are clothes there too. I have enough problems of my own…”
I sat up abruptly, experiencing no discomfort whatsoever—neither nausea, nor weakness, nor the desire for another ‘dose.’ At the moment, my entire consciousness was seized with a single feeling—hate. I never imagined that I could feel this terrible feeling, but at this very moment it was like a massive piston that was pushing my pleasure-deprived organism forward. The hate that consumed me was so immense that if Stacey had appeared before me right then, I wouldn’t even think twice and…Although, no—I had no desire to go back to the mines. I had to act more thoughtfully. I had to…I had to seek revenge. The important thing was to think of how. This is what I would occupy myself with once I completed my rehabilitation.
“Reality perception level at 100%. The patient has entered Dependence Level Green. Recommended rehabilitation period: three days…”
“That’s impossible!” exclaimed the doctor, once she had examined my medical charts. Gingerly holding the tablet with her thin fingers and long nails, which were decorated with a fairly intricate ornament, the doctor kept looking up at me with surprise as if I shouldn’t even exist. Her white tunic didn’t do much to conceal the shapely build of a longtime patron of either capsules or fitness centers—and with that said, I’d put my wager on the former. Fitness centers aren’t very fashionable anymore. “Daniel, how do you feel?”
“As far as I’m concerned, the AI’s diagnosis is all right by me,” I shrugged my shoulders, unwilling to engage in any unnecessary polemics. I didn’t feel like explaining the reasons for how I’d managed to ‘return’ to reality—that was between me, the Phoenix clan and no one else. As I showered and dressed, I made up my mind about one ironclad thing—I would have my revenge. It didn’t matter when that would be—I could figure that out as I went—but it was clear that I simply could not let the actions of Phoenix and my so-called friends go unpunished. Otherwise I might as well stop thinking of myself as human.
“It says it here, but…” the doctor stuttered looking up at me with her blue eyes. “It’s impossible to emerge from Level Black on your own! That’s never happened before! In all my twelve years in the practice!”
“There’s always a first time for everything,” I noted philosophically and changed the subject: “Tell me, doctor, will my hair start growing again? Or am I going to stay bald for the rest of my life?”
“You can simply call me Lucia,” the girl sighed, evidently realizing that she wouldn’t find out anything from me at the moment. “Your hair will grow back, don’t worry. The capsule contained a special solution that blocked its growth, so…Daniel, I’d like to run one more, small test before we head over to the rehabilitation clinic. I need your permission to read your brain signals in your waking state. Are you opposed to this?”
“Not at all. I don’t have anything to hide,” I replied graciously. If at the beginning of our co
nversation I had unwillingly associated Lucia with Stacey, and kept looking for some catch, then now it seemed to me that I had known this doctor for a long time and so I didn’t want to disappoint her by refusing. Anyway, she’s a doctor—who says no to a doctor? Only people who are very ill…
It was explained to me that we would drive the two hundred kilometers between the facility that contained the prisoners and the rehab center in only an hour. According to the doctor, there are seven colored levels of pleasure dependence—from the highest which was black to the lowest, which was green. Furthermore, the lower the level, the further away is the corresponding rehab center. The doctor kept trying to involve me in a conversation about the meaning of life and my future place in this world, so I stared out at the trees rushing past us and turned my attention to my plan for revenge.
And so!
The first thing that I’d have to do would be get my Shaman back. Even if they had to drag him out of the prison servers and transfer him to the public ones. I hardly felt like starting the game again from square one when I had such a monster at my disposal.
The second thing was that as soon as I entered the game, I’d go to Anhurs and demand an audience with the Emperor or the High Priestess—whoever was in charge of marriages. I’d demand a divorce from Anastaria and the return of my personal property—everything that Anastaria had stolen from my bag. I’d need to make sure to see a Barliona lawyer about this matter—are items that were removed from an open bag considered loot or not? If not, I’d hold Anastaria legally responsible, and if yes…I’d rather not think about that…It would be really upsetting to lose my Chess Set.