“Hey, Pals, who’s that pussy running around with you there? Where are you hiding the femorc?”
I slanted my eye at Dolgunata, who had indifferently put her head on the steel beam and closed her eyes. By her entire appearance the panther was showing that she was resting, and nothing going on around concerned her in the least. But her heaving sides indicated that just a few minutes ago the druid had had to run for her life. The main question remained: why did she return?
“Logir, your task is to get all the Pals here, into the forest.” I looked into the dark eyes of the femorc. “If you hold on to this beam, the guards will not come. By moving through the forest we can cover all the teachers without running into mages.”
“Yari, I…”
“Let’s talk about it later, about why and how you were going to turn me in to the mages, ok?” I cut the femorc off. “Now the most important thing is to get you all out of the clearing. If the mages try to follow us the guards will make short work of them. Are you with me?”
“Your own people wanted to betray you?” Dolgunata said with surprise as soon as Logir returned to the clearing and started to explain something to the Paladins, constantly pointing in our direction. “Then why are you helping them?”
“Why did you come back, by the way?” I ignored the druid’s question. “We decided for sure that there wouldn’t be any agreements between us.”
“There won’t be,” the panther agreed, turning into a person. “But you did not tell me all the info on the guiding lines! You wanted to send me to respawn? After I shared food with you?!”
“What?!” Even though I was taken aback by this unexpected accusation I could not allow her to blame me for such nonsense. “I told you everything I knew! Instead of saying thank you and sharing food you made that idiotic test and now you are accusing me?! Are you bloody crazy?”
“Now I am bloody crazy?!” Dolgunata was not holding back. “Fine, then explain why the beam onto which you are holding is a guiding one, and this one is not?” The girl pointed at a piece of steel sticking out from some reinforced concrete. “What’s the difference?”
“What do you mean, what’s the difference?” I frowned. They are different… even the color…”
“Like crap they are different! There is no difference between these two pieces! But for some reason you are holding onto that one! I nearly got killed because of you!”
“Wait…” my anger at the girl suddenly left me. I was shifting my eyes between the two different pieces of metal and became more confused by the minute. In fact, if one were to disregard the color, there was no difference at all between the two pieces of steel: They were the same size, the same shape and even the same length! But still I knew very clearly that the greenish color of the guiding beams meant safety while everything else meant death. Since the guards were, well, on their guard.
“Onto what are supposed to hold here?” I was drawn out of my deep reverie by a booming voice. I focused my eyes and frowned — the Paladin who approached us was a catorian. It immediately brought up an unpleasant memory of Archibald, but I tried to stuff it deep down again. Whoever this Pal was, it was not his fault that Archibald was a jerk.
“We’ll wait for you!” The mages rough laughter was heard from the clearing, and the remaining Paladins showed up following the catorian.
“Hold on to this beam, now!” I ordered them and started towards the forest. “Those who are not touching the beam will be eaten by a guard in ten seconds!”
“Homey!” Monstrichello beamed, as he, totally unembarrassed, wrapped me in a hug. “They told us they wiped you out!”
“Here, here, I am alive!” I extracted myself from the tank’s embrace as Dolgunata snorted, and prepared to move on. “Come on, there is a teacher ahead.
“You think this will save you?” Nartalim snorted contemptuously, but he put his hand on the beam nonetheless. "The mages won’t let you out of the Academy alive.”
“Most important is that they should let you out, pretty boy,” I retorted with open anger. “I suppose Sharda will be glad to hear that one of the Paladins betrayed the order!”
“You’ll never prove anything, you goner! Monster, send him for respawn, will you? If we turn him in to the mages, they won’t bother us!”
“But…” Monstrichello lingered. "But he’s, like, helping us…”
“What helping? This is a trick!”
Case received: Nartalim’s Betrayal (Slots available for: 9 more cases)
Description: Reasons have arisen to suspect that Nartalim, level one Paladin, betrayed the foundations of his class
Task: Investigate the case and deliver your verdict on it
Case investigation: 64%
Period of limitation of action: 3 months
The recently added interface changed, filling with newly received data. The inscription appeared, the status bar filled in, but the starkest change was that above the head of Nartalim, the suspect in the case, a bright yellow number “64” appeared, reflecting either my progress on the case investigation or the extent of the elf’s guilt as the system saw it.
“Monster, I don’t get it – why are you stalling?! Kill him!”
Case investigation: “Nartalim’s Betrayal”: 65%
“Nartalim!” I said, and my voice was full of hatred. If the elf had not tried to dig his heels in, I would have postponed delivering the verdict until the return from the Academy. Probably by then he would have corrected his behavior and realized how wrong he had been; then we would have found a way to resolve the issue peacefully. But since the elf decided to stand in my way, so be it! Case investigation at 65 seemed sufficient for me to make my decision. Even if it were based on emotions for the most part! “I pronounce you guilty of betrayal and attempted murder of a Paladin, and I sentence you to…”
“You sentence me?” Nartalim, laughed interrupting me. “Who the hell are you, to sentence me? Have you gone completely bonkers?”
Please verify your status
If there were not a laughing elf standing in front of me, I would have given more thought to the message that appeared. But the sight of a contemptuous sneer on Nartalim’s lips left me with just one desire – to wipe that smirk off of his face, so I growled through my teeth:
“Who am I? I am a Judge! And I sentence you to be stripped of your initiation and die! You are not worthy of being a Paladin! You are not worthy of graduating from the Academy! This sentence is final and not subject to appeal!”
Status is verified
Verdict is confirmed
Verdict is deemed: harsh
Case No. 1 “Nartalim’s Betrayal” is closed. The task is assigned to the nearest Headhunters
Reward allocated to Headhunter:1 granis
“What the…?!” I heard three surprised voices at once: Nartalim’s, Logir’s and Dolgunata’s, but I was concerned with something else at the moment. The arrow on my virtual speedometer moved to the dark side and “1” appeared over it. I grinned: the Emperor confirmed my verdict as just, but excessively harsh, and changed some parameter towards the dark side. Kindness is not my thing. Following a sudden guess, I opened the properties window and confirmed that I was right: from now on I was “Yaropolk, Paladin of Darkness”.
“Yari: are you raving mad?” Nartalim roared wildly, when for a few seconds mysterious red light flashed around him. “Return it back the way it was! I’ll complain to my dad, he’ll bury you! We paid for the initiation!”
“Yari, I can’t…," Logir whispered, giving me a stunned look. "I am not ready… This is cruel…”
“I’ll do it!” Dolgunata dropped, turning into the panther. Nartalim screamed like a stuck pig, drew his sword and tried to run it through the panther that dashed towards him, but Nata was too quick for an inexperienced swordsman. Claws flashed, we heard a stifled rasp and there was one less player in the Academy. Nartalim could be blotted from memory.
“Down them!” the catorian screamed, attacking Dolgunata. A member of
his class had just been killed in front of him, so the offender should not go unpunished. Following his emotions rather than his mind, the catorian made a decision and started acting in accordance with his own understanding of justice. A true Paladin!
“FREEZE!” My shout was probably heard even by the mages at the respawn point, but I couldn’t care less. “Anyone who as much as twitches I’ll wipe out to hell!”
I had no idea what stopped the catorian – my scream, Dolgunata’s scowl or some personal system messages, but he did freeze just a few steps before reaching Nata.
“Listen here!” I continued to roar, pouring out all the rage and anger accumulated over recent events. “Nartalim wanted to turn us all in to the mages. I personally heard his conversation with Dangard who is a leader among them. It’s harsh, but he got what he deserved! There will be no traitors among the Paladins! Now we shall move to a teacher, complete the training with him. If someone is unhappy about something, you are welcome to return to the clearing where the mages are waiting. They will welcome you with open arms. Any questions?”
I looked at the remaining group, frowning. Logir and the lanky Paladin looked down; from Sartal’s appearance it was impossible to understand what he was up to, even though the tip of the lizard’s tail was twitching nervously. Monstrichello was shifting his eyes from one player to another in bewilderment, not knowing what to do and whom he should beat up. The catorian was staring daggers at me. It was only the third of the newly-joined Paladins, who looked like some sort of gnome or maybe leprechaun‒hell knows‒ who was staring at the landscape vacantly, as if all this had nothing to do with him.
“If there are no questions, let’s move on. Our objective is to reach the teacher.”
“What good would that do?” the catorian said in a forced tone. “Soon our Energy will run out and we’ll respawn anyway.”
“What’s your level?” I turned around but faced six pairs of eyes looking sown. Nobody was in a hurry to share personal information. With a deep sigh, trying to calm down, I clarified: “Guys, if you are at the first level, the training will level you up to two. This will help the non-initiated players survive the respawn. There are no mages at the location of the teacher to whom I am leading you. It’s quite possible that each leveling up fully replenishes Energy. If you want to survive and pass through the Academy, you’ll have to trust me and tell me about yourself a little more than is strictly speaking the norm."
After this statement everyone responded, making me curse thoroughly and with feeling. By now everyone was at level one; all three of the Paladins who joined the team had not passed initiation and had ten units of Energy each. Two hours tops. We needed to hurry.
“Did you not forget something, Judge?” Dolgunata asked as soon as we reached our goal. The Paladins immediately rushed to the teacher, saving themselves from the final death, so for a few minutes Nata and I were left alone.
“Like you’d let anyone forget anything.” I tried to relieve the situation, but the druid’s eyes told me that I had failed. The anger at the elf drained away, and, while we walked towards the hidden teacher in complete silence, I had been turning the situation over and over in my mind trying to justify my verdict. It was confirmed to me that it was fair, but I could not get rid of the thought that my punishment of the elf was excessively cruel. Judging from the looks they cast in my direction, the Paladins thought the same. Not understanding very well how to give Nata her granis, I opened the list of delivered verdicts and highlighted the only line present there at the moment. A button immediately appeared in front of me saying “Complete task”; clicking on it materialized a brown coin in my hand. Granis.
“Your reward.” I handed the coin to the druid. Thank you for accepting my assignment!”
“Was this necessary?” Dolgunata’s eyes turned into two cold splinters of blue ice. “He had a weapon; passing through the Academy with him would have been easier.”
“It was.” I confirmed sadly. “If not now, he would have shown his true self later. And if he had done it during a battle with the mages, we would have all been in deep…”
“The Energy is filling up!” The joyful cry of the lanky Paladin who completed the training cut off my thought.
“I get what you’re saying,” Nata lingered a moment, then took the coin. So: a Judge?”
“So: a Headhunter?” I answered a question with a question. “I would have never thought…”
“That’s the idea,” Nata grinned. “Who would suspect a Headhunter in a lovely maiden? Particularly if she can do this: “nya!” …”
The world became still. Somewhere far away there were the merry shouts of the Paladins who completed their training, but that was completely irrelevant: a creature of divine beauty appeared next to me. I did not dare breathe lest I startle her somehow. The huge blue eyes of the goddess charmed, enthralled and made you forget the whole world. Tilting her head slightly and shifting her feet slightly, as if she were shy and not daring to do something, the goddess looked at me from under her lowered eyelashes, said another magical “nya!” of hers and smiled. Now not only did the world become still; time itself stopped! Losing my cool, I rushed towards the goddess and embraced her, wishing only one thing – to cover her lovely face with kisses. The goddess avoided my embrace deftly, while still allowing me to retain some hope. Once she was bored with the struggle, she grabbed my head, bent to my ear and breathed into it noisily a few times, making my body tremble with languor and longing for delight; then she said:
“You get close to your victim, make it lose its head and surrender to you; then you carefully run a dagger through its eye socket and turn it three times. Once to kill it, twice – for pleasure.” The magic of the moment disappeared in an instant and my awareness returned in a snap, but the druid held my head with a hand of steel, preventing me from moving. How could a delicate girl be so strong? Turning from an unearthly goddess into an ice queen in a split second, she added bloodthirstily: “No armor could save them! That’s how a real Headhunter should be.”
"What was that?!” I exhaled noisily as soon as the druid released my head, and I took a few steps back. "You invaded my brain!”
“Ph! Like I need your brain!” Dolgunata snorted. “You are a Judge; I a Headhunter. You have the right to Judge, I have the right to execute.”
“What you did had little resemblance to punishment for the guilty," I grumbled, looking at the girl in a completely different way. A beauty who was not too hard to get along with, and moving with certainty from the category of an “acquaintance” to “close acquaintance” or even “friend” suddenly showed her true face and put a sign “deadly dangerous!” all over herself. Judging by what happened to me, Dolgunata used some kind of tricky ability the Headhunters had. Devir’s student had been able to suppress Nartalim’s will in a similar manner. Now the druid had just showed me that mental attacks in the game were as real as physical ones. I urgently needed protection from such influence.
“It happens,” Dolgunata shrugged her shoulders calmly, refusing to get further into the topic.
“Since you are a hunter, you must have a mentor.” A close look at the druid activated the Book of Knowledge, bringing up a separate page of everything I knew about the girl. There was abysmally little information, so I decided to clarify the most important part: “Is Devir your mentor?”
“What difference does it make to you?” Dolgunata frowned. “Even if he were, what does it matter?”
“It matters a lot. Devir wants to destroy me. It is on his orders that the mages are wreaking chaos in the Academy. If he is your mentor, I suggest that we part right away. I don’t want to kill you.”
“You haven’t grown yourself a killing tool for that.” Dolgunata thought for a moment, then added: "I have nothing to do with Devir. The rest is not important: you already know way too much about me. We are done with questions: there is little time.” Nata turned to the training Paladins and shouted: “Hey, Pals, are you done?”
Ha
ving agreed in advance that the Paladins would ask the hidden teacher to train them in anything they wanted except activation of artifacts and use of interface, we started on to the point where we had appeared in the Academy. The Paladins from my team had never been allowed to train with the first teacher; this lapse needed to be corrected. In additional, I wanted to test the battle worthiness of the team to see if we could fight against the mages.
“There are seven in the clearing,” whispered Teart, whom I had sent scouting‒ a leprechaun Paladin from the world called Karval. Teart was just about the only Paladin in Karval; he even had to look for a mentor in a different world. Paladins were extremely unpopular among the small, red-bearded sly humanoids known in our world from Irish fairy tales. Once you imagined Teart wearing a green hat, it immediately made you want to grab him by the lapels and demand your pot of gold. However, shaking a treasure out of the leprechaun would have to be postponed, because Teart had a truly unique gift in the Academy: like myself, he could see the guiding line. Unfortunately, trying to find out why he could see the right beams did not yield any results: the leprechaun simply did not understand what I wanted from him. The beam was green and that was it, and the fact that others could not see it was their own problem. They needed to open their eyes then.
“There are three more at each pass,” I added, trying to organize the available information, but it wasn’t working out too well for me. I was not a fighter. As soon as I realized that, I immediately tried to transfer the responsibility for making a decision from my poor head on to the entire team. If someone were to be wrong, at least let all of us be that “someone”: “What shall we do?”
“Dat’s no thinking deal!” Monstrichello was in his usual style. “Let’s kill dem freaks!”
“Not so fast, my tank-headed friend,” Logir cooled the bruiser’s urge, which made him drop his gaze and fall silent. The only reason my jaw did not drop was because I was wearing a helmet: Monstrichello submitted to the femorc! Logir put her hand on the giant’s arm and suddenly addressed the druid: “Dolgunata, what would you advise?”
The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series Page 14