The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series

by Vasily Mahanenko

  Acquired Ability: Templar’s blow. Description: you strike a crushing blow with a weapon enhanced by your word. Use: before the blow you need to state out loud or silently to yourself the activating key phrase: “I am the Templar’s blow”. Critical hit chance: 15%. Critical hit is defined as striking a vital body part. Cost: 25 Energy.

  In case of damage to a vital body part: gamers are sent for respawn, NPCs are killed, dungeon bosses and quest participants sustain damage that is calculated by the Game on a case by case basis.

  In case of damage to a non-vital body part: gamers and NPCs can continue battle; NPCs, in addition, suffer a state of shock for a duration of 10 seconds; dungeon bosses and quest participants sustain damage that is calculated by the Game on a case by case basis.

  “The book of spells that are available to you has a new entry now,” the old man continued as soon as I finished reading the system messages. “Open the book.”

  After a slight confusion associated with searching for the right icon there was a book in front of my eyes, previously empty. Now its virgin whiteness was marred with the black blot of a table providing a more detailed description of the acquired ability: rollback, radius and range, number of targets and other stats that were currently of no interest to me. This blow required a weapon to be used, whereas I had none. So there was no benefit at all from learning of this ability.

  “With each use the chance of a critical hit and armor ignore will increase,” the teacher continued, “up to 50%. The more frequently you use this ability, the more effective it’ll become. Oh! The! Energy cost will also diminish with each use until it reaches 3 units. That’s not bad for a professional fighter.”

  “Only I’m not a fighter,” I grumbled, closing the description. “What else is there in the attack arsenal?”

  “Nothing,” the teacher smiled, but my frowning face hinted to him that he needed to explain: “There’s nothing within the Academy. There are about a hundred different attack abilities available to Paladins, but you will learn about them in the main world. For the Academy a simple blow is enough. It’s a pity you don’t have weapons with you. You could have trained now. Several years of training to use the ability and bring it to the top level available in the Academy would’ve helped you survive.”

  “Several years?” I frowned, considering the already trained players from a different angle. What if the mages who were hunting us decided to spend some of the eternity to level up? When I was together with Monstrichello, he absorbed all the available magic. An entire thirty lightning bolts from one player. Now I don’t have Monster with me, and it would be stupid and unprofessional to hope that each player I encounter would only be able to deal three or four blows using the ability. I need to be ready to the fact that I will run into dangerous opponents.

  “These trees serve as dummies for the training of your ability,” the old man gestured toward the trees. “Time has no power over this place, and Energy doesn’t run out. So, train and develop. The whole world is open to you. And remember: the Game is a very multidimensional thing. You never know when you will win some or lose some. Tell me when you’re ready to return to the Academy. Meanwhile: farewell, Judge. It was fun talking to you.”

  The teacher settled in the lotus position and fell silent. It seemed he even stopped breathing, diving in the depths of his consciousness. My foot still hurt, so I suppressed the urge to return, deciding instead to take advantage of the teacher’s hospitality and fully recuperate. Once I returned I’d have to show wonders of agility and speed, and it’s easier to do that when you are in peak form.

  Time slowed down again. Once I was bored sitting in one place and randomly leaf through the Book of Knowledge, refreshing the forgotten bits of my short stint as a player, I started studying the clearing. Its width, types of trees and bushes, depth of forest to the impenetrable black wall that was hard and cold to the touch, the variety of grass cover and complete absence of animals. I was interested in everything that could up the progress of the Book’s development by another unit. By now its experience level had reached 923 out of 1000; in the near future that would bring it up to level two, thus upping the “Context Search” property by a whole unit. Search would activate and it would make using the artifact easier by an order of magnitude.

  Tired of twiddling my thumbs, I even tried to use the newly received attack capability by hitting a tree with my hand. Can’t hands be called weapons? Masters like Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee would not only confirm that, they would forever beat that axiom into the stupid and naïve heads of the common herd. However, reality showed that I still had a long way to go to get the level of Bruce Lee. I would hit a tree, but the activating key phrase wouldn’t work. My hands weren’t weapons like those of the famous master from Hong Kong. By the way, that was an interesting thought: was Bruce Lee a player? He was lightning-fast, he did things that were impossible even for trained fighters, and passed on from this life – in our case into another game world – while he was still quite young. As if he leveled up on Earth and moved on to conquer new heights. I should find that out once I return to the main world.

  Having practically decided to go back, I still thought to perform one more experiment. In accordance with the game rules each player had a personal artifact, enhancing his abilities depending on his chosen path of development. The artifact could be a weapon, armor, clothing, an accessory, a banner or a book. Paladins are not capable of casting lightning or ice shards, so those of us who chose weapons as artifacts are extremely valuable allies. Before the druid made Logir and Refor lose their minds, I was really safe with them.

  But there were three points that bothered me. Number one, Monstrichello used his shield to topple players onto the ground, knock them out, injure them in other ways, and generally tried at all times to use his artifact not only for its original purpose of protection, but also for attack. Number two: Dolgunata. I had no idea what she had chosen as an artifact, but as a panther she used her claws and teeth with perfect skill, sending players to respawn in droves. Number three: I had a massive blunt object at hand; just one blow with that could knock someone out.

  So, the question of the day was – is it possible to use the Book of Knowledge as the favorite weapon of schoolkids whapping each other over the heads? Pacifism, of course, is a fine thing, nonresistance to evil by force and all that, but you can’t do good without using your fists, as wise people say. So I needed to understand whether I’d be able to fight back in the future.

  First of all I tested the Book of Knowledge for strength. A weak, medium, and, finally, strong full swing blow on a tree didn’t result in any problems with the functioning of the artifact. The Book still sucked up knowledge like a sponge, and the appearance of the artifact stayed unchanged: it developed no dents or scratches. So the crucial moment came. I grabbed the Book with both hands for a more comfortable grip, aimed, said in my mind: “I am the Templar’s blow” and with all my might whacked on the thinnest tree I could find in the vicinity: I was worried about the Book. What if something were to happen to it?

  BAM!

  New artifact property discovered: “Weapon”. Would you like to activate it?

  The clash of the Book enhanced by the attack ability and the tree resulted in such an impressive light and noise show that for a few moments I was unable to see anything around me as the stars danced in front of my eyes. If it weren’t for the system message that ignored all the effects of temporary confusion, I could easily have lost my position in space – so unexpected, loud and bright was the explosion. Shaking my head, I pushed the “activate” button without hesitation.

  Artifact property “Weapon” has been activated; current level: 0

  In order to use the property “Weapon” outside of the testing range of the Academy you need to bring its level up to 1 (current artifact development experience: 924 of 1000)

  Artifact has been modified

  As soon as the stars cleared out of my eyes, I shook my head again, chasing the phant
oms away. My А4 size Book of Knowledge, which had been sitting so conveniently on my right thigh, had disappeared! Now, instead of it, on my right glove some strange device was located, sporting spikes; only under the influence of some hard drugs would anyone call that a book. Having become several times smaller than the previous version of the artifact, the thing was an odd kind of a hand weapon; one of its halves was attached to the back side of the glove, and the other to the forearm. The part that was attached to the glove sported additional spikes that had not been there before. Apparently so my words would carry more weight.

  I clenched and unclenched my fist, checking for the freedom of movement of my hand, but there was none: the renewed Book sat there as if glued on without causing any discomfort. It took me several minutes to figure out the principle of attaching the book and shifting it from battle to transport mode: the holster on my thigh changed as well. From now on in order to attach the artifact to my hand and use it as a powerful knuckleduster, it was enough to put my hand on the Book and make a twisting motion. Having returned the Book to my hand, I made sure that the counter in the spell book, showing the use of the ability, has increased by one, and grinned. The moment I returned to the Academy, the Book would stop being a weapon, at least until I received the remaining 76 artifact experience points. However, there was a subtle point! I could actively use the weapon here, at the test range, thus upping the counter of using “The Templar’s Blow” and, as soon as I increased the “Weapon” property to at least one, I’d be able to fight back. The teacher mentioned something about several years of training? Not a problem‒ let’s see how long my patience would last... or the trees…

  Chapter Six. Testing the Knowledge

  “I am the Templar’s blow”. BAM!

  “I am the Templar’s blow”. BAM!

  “I am…

  I AM NOT here anymore!

  For the thousandth, or maybe ten-thousandth time, I dropped on the ground exhausted. That was the consequence of those unpleasant “20% of normal” physical parameters for the human race. While in the Academy I had not encountered problems in this respect as there was no serious physical strain, as soon as I attempted any serious effort, my body started drowning in lactic acid. I tried to resist to the last, bashing madly at the trees, but the result was always the same: falling on the ground. There was one positive moment though: while at first I was exhausted literally after five minutes, now, after six months of training, I managed to hang on for half an hour.

  “It’s a good day today, isn’t it?” As I was lying on the ground, I gathered just enough strength to address the teacher. During the entire time I was trying to improve myself, he didn’t make a single movement nor said a single word, even though I tried to talk to him with a determination worthy of a better cause. Back when I was still an NPC I’d watched the movie “Castaway” about a guy who ended up on an uninhabited island. A modern Robinson Crusoe, may he rot in hell. In order to preserve at least some of his sanity the character there made himself a “friend” from the materials he had on hand, and talked to it all the time. He knew that socialization was an important part of our lives. That’s why one of the worst punishments is a single cell and complete isolation. Even death is not so fearsome as the lack of a chance to socialize, or at least see another living being. Many go mad. Whether that applied to players or not, I didn’t know, but to protect myself just in case I kept talking to the old guy. I told him about my attitude to mages, Paladins, other players, weather, trees, the fact that I didn’t want to hit those damned trees; I told him fairy tales, anecdotes, jokes, entries from the Book of Knowledge… I talked about everything, just to avoid keeping silent. But the old man never responded; he couldn’t care less about my attempts to stay human.

  By the way, after half a year my anger and ire with the Paladins faded, leaving just sadness and regret behind. Having fallen under Dolgunata’s influence, my former comrades-in-arms could not be considered independent fighting units. From then on they were simply druid’s satellites; and throughout my six months of training I kept thinking about the same problem: should I once again rid them of her? Risk myself for the sake of others? Or would it be better to leave things as they were, moving on alone? Both options had pros and cons; so I was in no hurry to return to the Academy, madly hitting the trees, doing push-ups and squats and telling the teacher stories. Before I saved or refused to save anyone else I needed to understand myself. What was it that I needed personally?

  “In fact, it’s quite an ordinary day,” came the raspy response that made me lie completely still staring at the blue sky. It’s not so scary talking to yourself in an empty house; it’s scary to hear someone else answer! I turned my head slowly and saw the teacher’s grinning face.

  “Today it’s precisely six months since you came to the training range, so I need to explain to you the conditions of extending your stay here,” the old man clarified as I was rolling to my side. I had no strength even to sit up.

  “Are there any conditions?” I was able to groan, crashing onto my back again. I wasn’t able to roll over.

  “Of course! Players are way too devious to just let them be. They’ll figure out a way to live forever and use it until the Emperor himself comes after them. We really don’t need him showing up here, so listen carefully, I’m not going to repeat myself. From now on each day will cost you one Energy unit, which, as you understand, won’t replenish itself. If you have food or elixirs, that won’t affect you at all: eat, drink and train on. Your friend spent two years here this way before she decided that she’d had enough of scratching the trees.

  “So a hit with the claws is her attack ability and not just a physical trait of the druids?” I was surprised.

  “A trait that enables you to inflict damage, ignoring steel armor? Solitude obviously wasn’t that good for you,” said the old man sarcastically. “Your thinking ability has deteriorated. Anyway, I did inform you, I have nothing else to do here. Let me know when you’re ready to go back.”

  “Wait!” I barely had time to scream. “I have a question about the attack capability that I wasn’t able to figure out myself. Would you help me?”

  “I’m listening,” the old man, who had practically turned into a statue, revived again.

  "During six months I have leveled up the properties ‘Critical hit chance’ from 15 to 28 percent and ‘Armor ignore’ from 15 to 16 percent. Does that mean that, say, approximately with every third blow I could kill my opponent even if I were to hit him on the leg? This seems to be some mega-killer blow that completely ignores the opponent’s levels. Then why do we need 'Armor ignore'? What does that ignore with such a high critical hit chance? Or does that mean that it works for normal, non-critical hits? So, I’m confused and I need a clarification on how this works.”

  “Better late than never, right?” the teacher smiled. “I was surprised the last time, wondering if you were so upset by the absence of conventional weapons that your ability to think logically had completely shut down. Clarification: besides the attack abilities each player also learns defensive ones that provide him with one of several types of protection. The class armor, even the plate type, is never used for protection: its function is different. What it is, you’ll learn from the appropriate teacher. The players receive most of their protection from those very defense abilities which can absorb, deflect or block the hits. So even if your hit is a critical one, it doesn't mean that you’ll instantly kill the other player. First of all you need to penetrate his armor. I hope you noticed that armor ignore increased only by 1% after six months? This is one of the most important parameters for players who decide to become fighters or hunters. If you can’t pierce the armor, all your critical damage will do is lower the opponent’s Energy a little. However, if the stars are right and you are able to ignore your opponent’s armor while making a critical hit, no one will be able to survive that, regardless of his level. Even the Emperor would be sent for respawn.”

  “And the defense abiliti
es must have some kind of an opposite property, like 'block armor ignore', right?” I guessed.

  “It’s nice to see that you are regaining your ability for logical thinking. What you are talking about is called 'Armor resistance' and yes, this parameter determines the extent to which you can ignore the other."

  “Does this mean then that two players who are at the same level and equally developed wouldn’t be able to inflict any damage on each other? Is that reasonable?” I frowned.

  “You aren’t quite right. The damage lowers the level of Energy, and the stronger the hit is the more Energy it shaves off. In case of a battle of matched opponents, the most important thing becomes the agility with which the player manages to avoid blows, the strategy of using Energy-restoring elixirs and the number of those available.

  “By strategy you mean using the elixirs not when your Energy is at half-bar, but closer to the bottom?” I guessed again. “And thus risking missing a critical hit that would drop it down to zero?”

  “A standard elixir would restore Energy to 100%,” the teacher confirmed my guess. A player’s store isn’t infinite, so the more frequently he uses his elixirs, the more he has left in store. It’s elementary.”

  “Elementary…” I smirked. “It’s classic: money is strength.”