The Way of the Shaman [06] Shaman's Revenge

by Vasily Mahanenko

  “All right. In that case, I’ll see you later,” yelled Gnum, already almost running. I finally allowed myself to smile—if the Necromancer doesn’t recruit Svard into my clan, then I really don’t know how life works.

  Vacillating for a moment, I got out one of my amulets and made a call.

  “Moshi moshi!”

  “Hey Plinto! I have some business worth a hundred thousand million. What’d you have planned for the next day?”

  “If you’ve decided to wipe someone out, you can forget about me. I’m not much of a Rogue for another week.”

  “Erm…” I fell quiet, remembering that Plinto really was one of the few players who had been stripped of their powers. Stop!

  “Hang on, but then that begs the question—in the video that Clutzer showed me, I could see you killing Anastaria and Hellfire…”

  “Well sure, but you’re forgetting that they don’t have their powers either. Those two are like giant tin cans at the moment with a huge pool of Hit Points. It doesn’t help that they’ve pumped all their blessed stat points into Endurance and Intellect, instead of anything that would actually help them in battle. I simply cut them to pieces with a pair of good daggers and my high Agility. There weren’t any accelerations or other bells or whistles.”

  “Okay, we need to talk. I still don’t understand completely—you came out of Stealth, but that’s a Rogue skill. Where are you now? I’ll blink over to you in a second.”

  “Erm…” said Plinto and my whole world turned upside down and inside out: I could not recall a moment when the Rogue lacked some quick and sarcastic response to a mundane question. If he can’t meet up with me, and it’s clear he’s not in battle, that means only one thing… “All right, blink on over. Here are the coordinates.”

  I quickly entered the coordinates the Rogue gave me into the Blink entry field and teleported, expecting either not to find Plinto at all or to find a portal closing quickly on a delicate ankle…

  “If you tell even one person about this,” came Plinto’s voice as soon as I appeared beside him, “you can forget you know me. At all. You are the first player to see this. Welcome to my workshop. Oh and, pick your jaw up from the floor.”

  I was gaping at ten sculptures hewed from a snow-white stone. Yalininka, Eluna, a Rogue I didn’t know brandishing his daggers, an intricate tree that resembled a Guardian, women, men, monsters, animals…The enormous cavern buried deep in the Free Lands was filled with sculptures which all had one pretty curious entry among their list of properties:

  Creator: Master Sculptor Plinto the Bloodied

  “Damn,” I exhaled only once my ‘Oxygen Remaining’ bar had appeared.

  “Yesterday I found out that there was another certificate available for a new sculpture, so I wanted to take care of that today. I figure I’ll get another point in Crafting for it.”

  “You have Crafting?!” I exclaimed with surprise, staring at Plinto with unvarnished shock.

  “Surprise!” the Rogue muttered sarcastically. “Plinto knows how to make something with his hands!”

  “I can’t believe it!” I blurted out, feeling like I was in a different world. “You’re a Master?”

  “You could always see I’m a Master. It says so in my character properties. Anyone can see it. That’s why I had to acquire Stealth and Tracking Mastery. But originally I became a Master in Sculpture. You had something to tell me?”

  “Yes…Well, no…Listen, why do you keep all this hidden in a cave here? These are really great!”

  “Because as soon as people find out about them, the reputation of Plinto the Bloodied will be destroyed. How is anyone going to fear a player who crafts? And it’s not like I care whether people see my work or not. Their mere existence suits me fine. I just can’t lift my hand to destroy them, so I found a cavern, brought all the sculptures here and sometimes I come here to take a break from the outside world.”

  “Ah…Ahem…No this is some kind of madness! It’s like I’m dreaming!” I blurted again when I began to look at the sculptures. +10 to Building Attractiveness, +5% to Castle defenders’ Endurance, +32 to Building Attractiveness, +23 to…Well, it was non-stop bonuses for castles and various stats related to castles.

  “So who’d you want to knock off?” Plinto reminded me about the purpose of my visit.

  “No one…Tell me, how come you had Stealth back at the plateau?”

  “It was a scroll. Clutzer called me on his amulet and told me that something was about to go down and I needed to be there. Then Viltrius teleported me there using Clutzer’s coordinates. I hid myself and watched the show. Then when you left the game I decided to spin the merry-go-round. Stacey and Hellfire were defenseless and unprepared to fight, so I stunned them with a blow to the temple and finished them off a moment later. To be fair, their henchmen ended up getting me in the end too, but it doesn’t matter—I’m up 12–9 against Hellfire now.”

  “Okay, I see.”

  “Listen, believe it or not, I have no desire to explain anything, prove anything or beg for anything. If you want to go on working together, you should revert back to the old Mahan I know—ready for any old madcap business. If not, I hope for your sake no one finds out about this cavern.”

  “All right, forget it. You’re right. What happened, happened. I can’t go back and change it, so we have to move forward. I’m considering raiding a new Dungeon but I need a high-level fighter. I forgot that you don’t have your powers when I called you, but I’ll extend the invitation anyway. Do you feel like spinning your knives around for a few hours?”

  “When?”

  “We’re going in in four hours. I can bring you to the starting point.”

  “It’s just us two?”

  “No, we’ve got some Shamans with us. There won’t be anyone else from the Legends in the raid with us.”

  “Heh. You’re plotting some kind of mischief but you need a high-level Rogue?”

  “One ready for all kinds of madcap business. I have a couple plans, but I won’t be able to make them happen on my own. I’ll die too quickly.”

  “Are you talking about what Clutzer mentioned?”

  “Not quite, but something similar. I want to cast Armageddon in the middle of Phoenix’s main castle.”

  “The castle will only drop a level, and even then maybe…”

  “That’s only from one scroll.”

  “Hmm…”

  “What’ll happen if we activate all three at once?”

  “Hmm…I don’t even know what to tell you. The clan doesn’t have enough money to buy three scrolls at once, but knowing you, I’m guessing you already got your hands on them. Correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “In that case, I’d be happy to do a fiery cha-cha-cha through Phoenix’s main castle in a week’s time. Do you merely want to blow up their castle or do you want to blow it up properly?”

  “Meaning?” I furrowed my brow not understanding.

  “For instance, Anastaria, Hellfire, the Phoenix leadership and their raiders, et cetera—do they have to be in the castle? Do you want to do maximum damage or kind of just fart and spoil the air?”

  “Maximum damage.”

  “I got you. I’ll do the planning. As for the Dungeon—if your Shamans won’t be embarrassed by extra help, then I’ll be happy to join your raid. Only, I’m going to pop out to reality for a few hours and tell my family.”

  “They won’t be embarrassed. Listen, let me take these sculptures to Altameda, what do you say? No one knows where it is beside me. And even if someone finds it by accident, it’s not like they’ll get into the throne room. You know as well as I that someone will stumble across this place eventually. You did, after all.”

  “What makes you think that no one knows where Altameda is located?” Plinto arched an eyebrow in surprise. “If you want, I can tell you the precise coordinates of my personal chamber and, consequently, the entire castle.”

  “WHAT?!”

  “Whoa, what are you a
ll wound up about? How do you imagine I took out old Hellfire without knowing where the castle is?”

  “You put some kind of crap into my castle!” I yelled, without hearing Plinto’s last words. Or, rather, not wanting to hear them. What the hell?! Why is it that when it comes to words, everyone is so good and ethical and then when it comes to actions, all you start finding are closets full of skeletons?

  “Calm down. No one put anything in your castle. Viltrius would’ve ratted me out long ago. What do you know about a Master of Tracking?”

  “I don’t know shit about it! Plinto! What the hell?!”

  “Here he is, our fearless clan leader—Screech. What is the world coming to?! I’d like to point out that you’re the first person to learn that I’m a Master of Tracking. Everyone thinks that I’m a Master of Stealth. I won’t bore you with the details, but basically when a player reaches a certain letter of development in this area, he can acquire a very important little thing called a Mark. A Master of Tracking assigns a marker to an item or player and later he can determine its exact location whenever he likes. It’s not that hard to get rid of the marker—all you have to do is have the Priests or the Emperor bless you, but who’s going to bother doing that? Only those who know about this skill. I have markers assigned to you, to Altameda, and in fact to everyone I’ve worked with or met.”

  “The first time we met, back in Beatwick, you asked me where Anastaria had gone. As if you couldn’t see her on your map.”

  “Back then I didn’t have a marker on her. Before heading out to Farstead, Anastaria reset all her buffs, so the markers were erased.”

  “But now you know where she is?” I smirked.

  “Of course. At the moment she is in,” Plinto’s eyes fogged over for a moment as he opened his map, “Hmm…she is several feet from another player I keep tabs on named Kreel. Simply Kreel. The coordinates are…”

  “WHAT?!” I couldn’t keep myself from exclaiming in surprise. Stacey was with Kreel?! Considering that the Titan was supposed to be working on the Dragon Dungeon, Anastaria was with him?! That bitch decided to betray me again and get a First Kill?!

  “Oh look at how excited you are!” quipped Plinto. “Just like a jealous husband who’s just discovered that his wife is out with another man.”

  “They’re doing the Dungeon!” I yelped, still unable to get ahold of myself. “A Dungeon I really need to complete myself!”

  “Have they been doing it for a while?” the Rogue inquired.

  “There’s two floors left.”

  “Then you can forget about it. Even if Kreel and Anastaria didn’t assign someone to defend the entrance, you won’t catch up to them.”

  “Why should I forget it? I could simply accept their progress and join them…”

  “You think that Anastaria will share a First Kill with you?”

  “Five million per player,” I muttered, suddenly realizing the reason why Kreel had named such a steep price.

  “They offered you the chance to complete the Dungeon for five million?” Curiosity appeared on Plinto’s face. “Was that their offer or do you think that they agreed to that amount?”

  “Kreel offered.”

  “Say, how much money does our clan have anyway?” Plinto inquired.

  “36 million.”

  “Will you let me borrow five? I’ll pay it back the first chance I get.”

  “I’ll trade it for the sculptures,” I instantly knew what to say. “With all due respect to your authorial rights to the sculptures and all that—I could really use them. You’ve seen the castle—the walls have nothing on them. I’ll have Viltrius hide the creator’s properties and no one will know that they’re yours. I can even put them in the cellar if you want.”

  The Rogue smirked and gave me a wry look.

  “You want to give me five million in exchange for a blow to my reputation?”

  “No—for the risk of one, not a blow necessarily. And, please note that that risk isn’t much greater than some player stumbling across this place. Even lower, I’d say. The sculptures will be protected.”

  “Where will you put them?”

  “If concealing their properties is enough for you, then in the main hall. If not—in the storehouses or the cellars. Wherever, as long as their bonuses still apply.”

  “All right. Call Kreel. We’ll do this together. Two more wagons for their train.”

  I got an amulet and called my majordomo.

  “Viltrius, open a portal to the following coordinates.” I looked at our current location and read the coordinates to the goblin. “Send Rorg over here. He needs to pick up some sculptures. Your orders are as follows: If you can conceal the sculptures’ properties, you may place them in the hall. If not, you must place them somewhere where no one will see them, but where their bonuses will still apply to the castle. That’s the first thing. Second, I’m allowing you to let Spiteful Gnum and Plinto into the castle from now on. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir!” came the reply and a portal opened beside us. A moment later the Tauren emerged from it with a terrible look on his face.

  “Master,” boomed my head of security. “What do you need moved?”

  “The statues. They have to be moved to the castle. On the double!”

  The guards began doing their job, but I knew that I hadn’t done everything the Rogue asked of me. Checking my mail one more time to make sure that the Titan hadn’t answered me, I got out Anastaria’s amulet and called her.

  “Speaking!” The girl’s charming voice wafted through the cavern. I could hear the sounds of battle in the background, yet hearing the girl’s calm voice, you wouldn’t guess that she was in active combat. One more wagon. Heh, Anastaria a wagon! If I told them they wouldn’t believe me.

  “Hello, my darling,” I began and encountered Plinto’s wide-eyed stare. I never told the Rogue about the manner in which Stacey and I were speaking to each other, and he therefore lost his customary mask of sarcasm for a moment.

  “Hi baby, why are you calling me on the amulet? Did something happen?”

  “Oh I just felt like it. Listen, baby-poo, could you let me speak with Kreel please? I don’t have his amulet with me and mail takes too long.”

  “Bunny, I don’t think he can talk at the moment. He’s a little occupied,” Anastaria said sarcastically, “I’ll be happy to pass your message on to him though.”

  Only knowing Anastaria well could you catch the slightest note of surprise in her voice. It was infinitesimally small, but to my tuned ear it blared at full blast: ‘How did you find out?!’ Of course the girl would never allow herself to show a weakness and therefore covered her words with a patina of sarcasm.

  “Tell him to call me back as soon as he gets the chance. Tell him that I’ve sent him an offer that he can’t refuse. That’s it, my little wagon—hugs and kisses. Be careful not to get crushed by the boss!”

  When I hung up, I encountered Plinto’s mocking stare.

  “You’re a real mean one, Mahan. What are you making the girl panic for? Now she’ll start imagining that if you don’t have people of your own in Phoenix, then at least you have spies in Kreel’s clan…and then she’ll start guessing who spilled the beans and suspect every fifth person she comes across. Hah! I’m sure this very instant Stacey is standing there and desperately trying to remember whom she’d mentioned that Dungeon to.”

  “No big deal. It’ll do her some good,” I answered Plinto’s smile with my own. “By the way, is there a chance she’ll think of you? I didn’t betray you, did I?”

  “They already checked me several times. I’ll say it again—you’re the only one who knows I’m a Master of Tracking. Anastaria knows that I’m a Sculptor. She’s actually the very person who suggested I develop that Profession to me. But they don’t know a thing about the Tracking business.”

  “She knows about the sculptures?” I asked surprised.

  “About my Profession, not the sculptures. We started out together after all—and in the v
ery beginning carving marble is a great way to raise your Agility. So Stacey advised me to become a Sculptor. She doesn’t know that I never quit this Profession after reaching the higher levels. She doesn’t know about the Crafting either. By the way, did you know that Crafting isn’t only a creative stat? You should go see a High Shaman and ask him to teach you how to use your Crafting in battle. I’ll wager my right eye that the outcome will please you.”

  I was about to start interrogating Plinto about what Crafting gives him, when my amulet began to squeal—someone wanted to speak with me.

  “Speaking!”

  “Mahan, this is Kreel. I read your letter and I can only say one thing—welcome to the raid party. We’re actually already done for today. We’ll pick it up again tomorrow, so be online in the morning. I’ll send you an amulet. We have two bosses left. If you like you can join us for the last one. It doesn’t matter to me. Aren’t you a bit underpowered at the moment anyway?”

  “I won’t be coming alone. Plinto is with me. One more wagon for our train.”

  “You never mentioned Plinto, but I don’t see any problems with it. Let him come along. His ticket will be five million too.”

  “I can offer an exchange. We’re about to do a virgin Dungeon, so we can make a deal in which I invite you to our raid to get you a First Kill there too. In exchange, you’ll take Plinto into your raid party. I think that’ll be to our mutual benefit.”

  “Agreed! Send me your amulet.”

  “Done,” I replied after opening my mail and sending Kreel a way to get in touch with me.

  “In that case, I’ll see you tomorrow. Anastaria wants to talk to you. I’ll pass her the phone, erm, amulet now.”

  “The answer is no,” I said before Stacey could utter a word. “I’m not taking you to this Dungeon.”

  “But you haven’t even heard my offer, kitten,” said Anastaria as Kreel’s chuckle sounded in the background. “Don’t you want to save Renox? I can tell you how to do it.”