by Paul Kite
The boat left the bay and, obeying the commands of the man in charge, turned to the left. Ah, so that's why I hadn't see the ship yesterday! It was hidden by the mountains near the bay. It was a handsome clipper with a shiny, black body and scarlet sails. It was just lovely!
Soon, the boat clung to the Board and the rope ladder was dropped down for us. “Done!” someone shouted from above.
The captain's aide had a simple, short name, Rhyl. He came on board first, then the very man we’d been waiting for climbed the rope; it was a short, inconspicuous, unattractive man of indeterminate age, responding to the nickname Rat, and then I climbed up next.
“Shall I take them to the captain?” the sailor asked Rhyl.
“No, I'll take them myself. By the way, where is he now?”
“In the stateroom, he's waiting for you.”
Rhyl let us inside the aft superstructure, and then he went in and closed the door behind him. Near the pole of the mast, which passed through the whole room, deep into the ship, there was a shabby, but still strong table. A drow was sitting at it, leaning over some papers. He was wearing a leather vest, unbuttoned at the chest, and simple canvas pants, his long hair freely falling to his shoulders.
“Captain,” the first mate addressed him. “The passengers have arrived.”
The drow raised his head, looked at Rhyl, nodded, then turned his eyes to Rat, and then to me.
“You?!” There was no end to the captain's surprise.
The dark elf had a good memory, he’d quickly recognized me.
“Me indeed?” I smiled happily and amiably, hoping to thrust my blade into his heart. From the back, of course, as Dazrael had advised me.
The first mate, having seen his captain's reaction, readily grasped the handle of his boarding sword, which was hanging on his belt, but he didn’t hear the command to attack the passenger.
“The slaves must sit in the hold,” Arkenrid muttered sourly.
“I've already been there, however, I think it was on another ship,” I decided to behave naturally, because I just wanted to be infuriating.
And in this case, the truth was on my side, but the balance of power wasn’t, so I needed to be prudent. The second passenger didn’t seem to be paying any attention to the quarrel, as if nothing was happening. He’d frozen like a silent, inconspicuous statue.
“Was he brought by Dazrael?” the drow said, turning his head toward the worried Rhyl again.
“Yes, captain.”
“Damn!” the dark elf slammed his clenched fist onto the table, sighed repeatedly, calmed down, and continued.
“Welcome aboard, gentlemen. My first mate will show you to your quarters. There, you'll find a scroll signed by the King of Nazhar, allowing you to be on Harith-Hodor, new clothes and a special amulet, Arum, that can change your appearance with an illusion spell of the highest rank. As soon as we get to the island, you'll be informed. Then you'll be transported to the island, to the place specified in the contract.” The drow pronounced it all while ignoring my presence.
The so-called guest cabins were in the same aft superstructure as the company cabins, and the captain lived nearby. Rat was placed to the left of me and the first, mysterious passenger, who’d boarded the ship before our arrival, was staying in the opposite cabin. Why was he mysterious? Because we weren’t allowed to leave our quarters in any situation. And if we suddenly needed something urgently, we were given small amulets to communicate with the first mate. He also singled out the attendant in the toilet and ordered that food be brought to us, if someone got hungry.
The cabin was very small, but cozy and perfectly clean. There was a chest which held a scroll and the Arum, a neatly made bed was to the right of the door, pushed close to the wall, and a small clothes hanger was over the headboard. Having hung the amulet on the hook of it, I removed the damaged armor, weapons and my belt with the quick access slots and sent it all into the inventory. I moved the shapeshifting amulet to the same place. No one had warned me about it, but I hoped someone would eventually give me an explanation on how to use it. Hmm, I didn't want to wear my new, clean clothes, more suitable for a simple hard worker than a warrior, on my dirty body.
I had to contact Rhyl and find out how I could wash myself. He promised to bring a couple of buckets of clean water, a basin with soap and a towel. That was good!
In the meantime, I was finally able to look into my characteristics and distribute the accumulated points. I laid down on the tidy bed, relaxed and closed my eyes.
Name: Kraven
Level: 32
Race: man
Class: Shadow
Clan: none
Guild: ‘Elghinn Dal Veldrin’
The characteristics of the character:
Basic:
Strength—35
Agility—67
Intelligence—21
Secondary:
Life—350
Endurance—670
Mana—210
Free points for distribution: 12
Skills: none
Class skills: Vampirism – 6, Double strike—14, Pair—18, Bleeding—8, Shade—1, Spurt—12, Invisibility—8, Silent death—2
Specialties: none
Achievements: Within a step from death—1
Sensitivity: 70%
Soulbound: The Daggers of Chaos, the black wolf totem Zuraval arn Rar
After level 25, the system began to give you less and less additional characteristic points. However, that was logical. The higher the level of the player, the harder it was to pump up the stats. So, in summary, as far as I could remember from the previous numbers, I had added only two pathetic points, one in Strength and the other in Agility.
Having distributed the twelve free points, I closed the window for the characteristics. I didn't want to get up yet. The ship was preparing to sail, judging by the noise and demanding cries I could easily hear coming from all over the ship.
I heard a knock on my door and two sailors came into my cabin; one of them was holding an empty basin with a towel and soap, and the second had two buckets of water in his hands.
Finally, I could take a bath!
“Where do you want us to put this, sir?” the man with the buckets asked in a rude voice.
Shrugging my shoulders, I pointed to the center of the cabin.
“There’s fine.”
“Anything else?”
“No, thank you. Do you know how long it’ll take to get to the island?”
“Four hours, and if the tailwind is blowing, we'll get there even faster,” the sailor replied.
“Thank you.”
They exited the cabin, and I began to wash myself. Twenty minutes later, I’d cleaned myself up and dressed in new clothes.
I felt the ship tremble, picking up speed, and I decided to relax on the bed. I didn’t suffer from seasickness in real life, and thought that the system would take this into account for the character in the game. And the moment I laid my head down on the pillow, I fell asleep…
* * *
“Tanaral, there is…” one of the senior officers of the clan’s security service hesitated, “a strange visitor here.”
A tall drow, dressed in a fine suit of white silk, distracted by studying a huge map on the wall, turned to the member of his clan.
“Strange?” he asked.
“Yes,” the officer nodded, “he's an NPC.”
“Then send him far away. We're not open to the public.”
“We'd love to, but he is…” the senior officer paused again, “a Shadow Master, and he is level 300, if not 400. He easily handled six guards who tried to stop him. Let me remind you that they are level 150. However, he didn't send them to rebirth, they are alive and well. The stranger is requesting to see you. He says he has news about the guy who put our people in jail. What was his name again?... Ah, Kraven!”
“I see,” the drow's eyes flashed greedily, noting the oversight of the officer and delaying the punishment for now. Of course
, it was still going to be administered soon. “Why didn't you say so?! Where is he?”
“At the castle gate, in the yard. I've already given the order to the mages and shooters to keep him at gunpoint.”
“You're a fool, Fanrig!” the clan leader hissed. “Go to the chief this evening and hand over your duties to him. Get a broom and a shovel instead. Now lead me to the master of The Shadow Guild!”
Leaving the courtyard of the castle, the clan leader immediately noticed a warrior in the black robes of the Guild ‘Elghinn Dal Veldrin’ standing alone at the gate, with a pair of swords on his belt, and throwing daggers arranged in a special sling on his chest.
“Stand down!” the clan-leader loudly shouted, assessing the number of mages and archers aimed at the Master of Shadows.
“Please, accept my sincere apologies for the behavior of my people,” he slightly bowed his head in a friendly gesture. “The person responsible will be punished,” Tanaral sternly said, and Fanrig realized that now he would never avoid cleaning duties, to pay for his mistake.
“Mr. Tanaral from the “Black wolves” clan, if I'm not mistaken?” the drow asked, to make sure.
“Yes, master…” the clan leader stopped, hinting that he didn’t know the name of his guest.
He didn't understand why the NPC had come to him, it was very unlikely he had come just to share the information about that young man. It was strange that an NPC of such a high level had personally appeared at a meeting with a player; in any case, the clan leader wouldn’t need to quarrel with him.
“Hontar,” the drow grinned at these words. “I'm a former master, to be precise. A conflict with the right hand of our esteemed Derolighler forced me to leave the Guild. But it's not worth discussing, because this isn’t about that. As far as I know, you've met a man named Kraven and his escort-a light elf, the Master of Shadows Dazrael, in Siaren.”
“That's right,” Tanaral agreed, still not seeing what this strange NPC needed from him.
“And the reason for your clan's interest in him is because of the possibility of obtaining a... Shadow class? You Immortals seem to call it that. Right?”
Tanaral, a player with more than four years of experience, who’d begun his immersion in virtual reality almost from the very start of the game, was only able to control himself with great difficulty. It was the first time he’d heard the words "class" and "immortals" from an NPC. After all, such expressions simply didn't exist in the dictionary of NPCs. That was the system of the game, making the world more real. And players didn't differ from NPCs, except for the ability to revive, which was called immortality. Although, rumors about powerful NPCs being able to perceive such things were spreading over Noria, but no one had been able to confirm or refute them. And then an NPC said something like that!
“Let's go to my office,” the clan leader offered. “Further discussion is best done privately. Away from prying eyes and ears.”
“Don't you trust your own people?” the former Master of Shadows asked.
“I trust them, but not all of them,” Tanaral said softly, inviting the drow to follow him.
* * *
“Brother, couldn't we have found a better man?” the first voice spoke with a hint of irritation.
“What's wrong with him? The best option isn't easily found! He is patient, determined, able to withstand any hardships and difficulties…” the second started to answer his question.
“Yes, I know, I know,” the first interrupted his interlocutor. “You've said that more than once. You even talked me into helping you with him. But is it worth it?”
“Of course! Freedom's worth anything!” the second responded excitedly.
“And you think he'll be happy to know that he was just taken advantage of…” the first smiled, “that he was a bargaining chip.”
“Well, we aren't the only ones using him,” the second also laughed. “In any case, we can quickly get rid of him, he's only a man! Most importantly, let him open…”
A persistent knocking on my cabin door instantly snatched me from my dream. It had been a very strange and weird dream.
“Mr. Kraven,” Rhyl came inside. “We've arrived at the protective canopy. Now it's your turn to go to the island. We've lowered the boat, everything's ready to sail.”
“Do I have to go there alone?” I imagined how I would be rowing in the open sea, since I doubted that captain Arkenrid had dropped anchor near the shore.
“Of course not. Several sailors, as well as myself, have access to the island,” the first mate responded. “We'll take you there and then get back on the ship.”
“Then it's just wonderful!” I was delighted.
“Leave the amulet here,” Rhyl said firmly, when I reached for the bag-inventory and ship's connection amulet. “You won't need it there. You've got everything you need. We followed the contract concluded with Zorkhan, Master of the Guild ‘Elghinn Dal Veldrin’, to the letter. Also…” the man paused for a moment, “I advise you that you put an Arum talisman on your neck right now, it needs a bit of time to adapt to its host. By the time we get to the shore, your appearance will have changed completely and you won't be able to recognize yourself. Just try not to attract the attention of magicians.”
“Thank you, Rhyl,” I nodded.
“Don't hold a grudge against the captain for that chance meeting that made you a slave, and gave you such a complex collar,” he hinted at the Ansr-run. “You know it's just his job, it wasn’t anything personal.”
“I won't…” I wished to say I wouldn't hold a grudge, but I didn't want to lie to myself. “...promise that,” I honestly said and Rhyl only sighed sadly and motioned for me to leave the cabin.
Surprisingly, a lot of people were on the deck of the ship, and they were all armed to the teeth; I even noticed a couple of mages. What were they so afraid of?
Following my gaze, Rhyl smiled.
“The island’s guards could come at any moment. These are the usual precautions. Our actions are a direct violation of the laws of the Kingdom of Nazhar.”
Two sailors were already sitting in the boat, and as soon as we got down, it immediately sailed away from the ship…
To be continued…
Note from the author
Note from the author
Dear friends!
If you liked my book, please consider leaving a short review. It’s very important for me and my translators. I have this book translated out of pocket, and your review will help me to fund the translation of the rest of the series as quickly as possible.
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I would like to heartly recommend the books of several Russian authors, the friends of mine.
Valery Starsky Transformation. Book I
Top#1 in RealRPG in Russia of the year 2018. A post apocalyptic fantasy World, with dragons and dark elves. Overpowers MC and his crazy journey in transformed world. Recommend!!!
G. Akella Patch 17
Want to face death itself, to conduckt dark rithuals and use forbidden dark magic? Great series of Epi LitRPG. Read Now!
Vasily Mahanenko The Way of the Shaman
Barliona. A virtual world jam-packed with monsters, battles - and predictably, players.
Eugenia Dmitrieva The Bard from Barliona
A rare book, where the MC is a woman, and she is a professional rock musician joined a virtual MMO!
Arthur Stone S.T.Y.X.
Don't miss the a new series of my good friend Arthur Stone, which takes place in a world that's connected to the S.T.Y.X. universe!
Emelianov&Savinov Champion is playing
A LitRPG humorous story about MC who rolled the dice and got 99.9 luck on 100.
Andrey Vasiliev Fayroll
More Than a Game: Epic LitRPG Adventure
John Gold Gestation (Project Chrysalis)
If you mix Sword Art Online and
The Land, and make them both darker - Project Chrysalis is what you get.
These books really worth paying attention of reader who likes science fiction and litRPG!
Here is a site of Vasily Mahanenko www.Mako-books.com
He gathers free short stories of the sci-fi authors and send them to the registered users. Soon I will write a couple of short stories and will publish there. So, register and received an extra story for free. Pleasant reading!
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* * *
[D1]Too vague, what is in the shape of a low pyramid? The steps or is it a pedestal that is in the shape of a pyramid? And the statue is on top?
[D2]Thoron and celer?