The Beginning (Dark Paladin Book #1) LitRPG Series
Page 22
“Is that not an axiom? It’s always harder when you’re sick and poor. Have I satisfied your curiosity?”
“Not quite,” I glanced at the progress of my artifact, and barely contained the urge to jump up, grab the teacher by the lapels and shake him, demanding that he tell me something else. I had just 14 points till the next level, so I urgently needed to have the teacher talk about the topics I hadn’t raised before. “How many Energy-restoring elixirs would I be able to buy with one granis, and is such a purchase possible here, at the Academy training range? Or within the Academy in general?”
“You have a granis too?” The man was obviously taken aback.
“What do you mean – 'too'? Has someone… Dolgunata?!”
"It’s practically unreal to earn a granis before the Academy; the Game monitors that very thoroughly. It’s possible to trade one for some services or jewels, but even so just in order for the Game itself to transfer that granis as payment for initiation or upgrade from an NPC to a minion. Not more. I don’t know of other ways to receive a granis before the Academy, so much more surprising it is to find not one, but two recruits with granis. Where did you get it?”
“I’ll offer you a trade,” I immediately figured out a way to turn it to my advantage. “I tell you how we managed that and you tell me how to activate my defense.”
“You want me to teach you the defense abilities?” From a sweet old grandpa the teacher turned into a frowning old coot, but I was beyond stopping at that point.
“Not teach, just tell me how to activate it and what to do with it. You do want to know how two granises appeared in the Academy?”
“You cannot have a granis! It’s prohibited!” The teacher even jumped to his feet.
“Offer me a trade,” I grinned, in my mind thanking Teart who taught me this. “I’ll show you what I have and what I don’t.”
The Game carefully concealed the teacher’s real name, but it was impossible to miss the word “dartirian” in the window that popped up. So then, the teachers are players as well? That’s an interesting point. In this case, what criteria are used to select them? Also, this means that I at least know the race of this teacher. If I set this as a goal for myself, I could find this creature in the main world.
Book of Knowledge has reached a new level. You need to increase the level of the artifact properties: “Context search” (1), “Weapon” (1),
By an incredible strain of will I looked away from the words “Choose value from the list” and clicked on “Weapon”. Despite an overwhelming urge to fiddle with the list of available artifact properties, I realized: without a hefty argument represented by a weapon there was nothing I could achieve in the Academy. While if I were to get into it and investigate, I’d be more than likely to find something useful that would prevent me from using the available properties upgrade unit for “Weapon”. I noted another interesting and pleasant thing: the artifact experience bar updated and now showed the current value as “2 out of 1000”. So it looked like with each new artifact level‒which is not, by the way, shown anywhere directly‒ I gain an opportunity to raise the level of one of the properties; and the number of necessary experience points needed to reach the next level stays the same at 1000 points. Given the fast rate at which the Book of Knowledge absorbs information, leveling up at the initial stages shouldn’t be a problem.
As for the “Weapon” property, at level one it increased the “Armor ignore” parameter for all attack capabilities by 1%. At level 2 this quality would increase already by 2%, at level 5 by 3%, at level 10 by 4% and at level 15 by 5%. However, it was unclear as to whether these values would add up or replace one another. If they added up, receiving an additional +15% to “Armor ignore” looked like a very promising development.
“Why the defense?” the teacher, who had been frozen in righteous shock, recovered his senses. “I could tell you how to use secondary abilities, provide information about the Game, teach you to customize your armor. Why are you interested specifically in defense?
“Are there any restrictions associated with it?” I was surprised; this whole exchange convinced me even more that this particular training unit was exactly what I needed right now. If they didn’t want to provide it to me, it meant there was something valuable about it.
“There are only thirteen teachers in the whole Academy who teach defense. There are two hidden teachers in each of the four Academy training sectors, for teachers in the wasteland – they are also assigned to their own sector – and, finally, the Chancellor himself. Learning this unit at the initial stage of training provides a recruit too much of an advantage over the others. Particularly if he has items that replenish Energy. I cannot tell you how to use defense abilities."
“Well, if you can’t, then you can’t.” I was not going to give up. “I’ve already visited one hidden teacher in our sector, so now’s the time to visit the other. I’ll trade the information on granises for the coordinates of the hidden teachers of our sector. This information isn’t secret, right?”
“Only the Chancellor can…”
“What does the Chancellor have to do with it?” I cut the old man off. “You yourself train recruits prior to sending them to the Academy when you aren’t teaching here, right?” I was fishing for more information and the teacher’s widened eyes told me that I had guessed correctly. “Don’t you want to give your future recruits an additional chance to survive? I am not asking you to teach me anything, I’m just asking for the location coordinates of the hidden teachers of our sector.”
“All of them?”
“Why all? Just two. I know: if I ask for the location of one teacher, you’ll send me to the one I’ve already visited. So – two. By the way, how many elixirs can one buy for a granis and where can one do it? Do you have them? Or is there some special place?”
“I don’t have elixirs,” the old man was so slow to answer that I started worrying that I’d pushed too hard. “You can buy them from the trader. Now I understand why we have one in the Academy. I’d been wracking my brain over that.”
“There’s a trader in the Academy as well?!” I exclaimed in surprise. “Where is he?!”
“I’ll tell you the location coordinates for a hidden teacher whom you haven’t visited yet, and the trader. That’ll make two, just as you asked”, the old man smiled. “Once you buy the elixirs, come back for training – you’ll up your “Armor ignore” by another percent.”
“Umm… Is it allowed to return?” I didn’t expect that.
“Why not? No one prohibits you from coming back to a teacher and going over the training again if you missed something the first time. Or the second time. Everyone learns at a different pace. Sometimes you see such knuckleheads, it makes you wonder how they managed to survive that long. Are you satisfied with the trade?”
As soon as the system message appeared informing me of the map updates, I opened the Book of Knowledge and read verbatim the entries on obtaining granises. Both of the one received by Dolgunata, and the one that I received from Archibald. As I was relaying the information, I came up with a tentative idea as to how I obtained my granis, and the Book of Knowledge instantly reacted, adding the corresponding entry. The three diggers who extracted me from the grave had not been included by the Game in the mandatory wipe-out list. Once these NPCs had decided that I was a zombie, the Game added them to the list of those to be destroyed and offered a reward to all the nearest headhunters. I killed one of the NPCs, so Archibald gave me the granis received from the system; he must have received the message that one ought to share. Before I had a chance to talk to the catorian, this version seemed the most plausible to me; the Book of Knowledge confirmed that.
“Interesting…” the teacher drawled meaningfully once I finished talking. “Being a Judge is not for everyone, there are generally few of them in the Game, but to arrange for several additional NPCs at the time of a player’s spawn and then immediat
ely pop them off… That’s an interesting thought; I need to work on that some more. Let me know once you’re ready to go back to the Academy.”
“Right now’s fine,” I decided, attaching the Book of Knowledge to my hand. If it was possible to come back here, first I needed to visit the local store. “Another question, by the way: besides the teachers, hidden teachers, the Chancellor and the trader, is there anyone else in the Academy?”
“Of course,” the old man smiled. “The Academy isn’t that different from the main world; you just need to look at it from the right angle. There’s a lot to be found here, you just need to know where to look. Good luck to you, Paladin…”
“What the...?” I heard a surprised yell as soon as the space around me transformed from the training range into a clearing filled with players in the midst of the reinforced concrete jungle. “Freeze!”
I had been planning the moment of my return to the Academy for the entire six months, every time I was lying on the ground completely exhausted. I had complete and detailed information on what was going on around the teacher, what the mages were doing, along with other players, what their distance was from me, who was picking their nose, how deep, and where they were looking while doing so. Unfortunately, they were all looking in my direction: falling down from a height of three meters didn’t go unnoticed. As for advantages, no one was throwing objects or lightnings at me. The players were too shocked by my unexpected tumble. That’s what I’d have to make use of.
“I am the Templar’s blow”! I shouted at a dead run, socking the face of the mage that was standing between me and the forest that would be my refuge. Of course, I could have made it even without the blow, but I really longed to test in practice the results of my six month training. No one had made the mage stay in place – he could have run off towards the sloppy hunters as everyone else did. But, since he decided to show vigilance and continued to guard the teacher, that was his problem.
You receive +200 Experience
A hit on the head proved fatal for the mage. Amazingly, besides information on receiving experience, there were no other messages. For example, that was the first player I had killed; surely there should’ve been some special achievement for that. If those exist in this game at all! Besides, for some reason I received as much experience for killing someone on my own as I did as a team member. That was strange…
“Stop!” Someone screamed again, and only now a lightning hit the boulder behind which I dove. I was lucky there wasn’t a single headhunter among the so-called guards here: those were much quicker to react to changes. Having climbed to a safe height and left a couple hundred meters between the clearing and myself, I sat down on the guiding beam and started studying the updated map. I needed to figure out what would be closer – the teacher or the trader, remembering to avoid running into the Paladins. I already had a plan for what to do with them‒ I just needed to prepare.
The trader was closer.
I’ll probably never figure out the principle by which the hidden creatures are placed within the Academy. I reached the location I needed, but there was nobody there. I climbed down. Nobody. Climbed all the way to the top. Still nobody. And only once I climbed down yet again and in a futile rage hit the reinforced concrete with my fist, it turned out that nothing was simple in this Game. The concrete block turned out to be a portal.
“Greetings, recruit!” I heard the joyful voice as soon as the swirls of the portal faded. I was standing in a small cave lit by a few dim torches. All of the cave walls were covered with cabinets, but getting to them wouldn’t be easy: there was a counter between myself and the cabinets. And a smiling leprechaun standing behind it. “Oh! You have granises as well! Decided to buy something for yourself?”
“I did,” I confirmed, looking at the content of the cabinets. The Book of Knowledge huffed and puffed, soaking up new information, while I was trying to figure out the purpose of the skulls, sticks, vials and other surprising items more suitable for an alchemist’s shop than a trader within the Academy. On the other hand, what do I know about the traders in the Game? Maybe it’s those objects that are the main goal for half the players, while I’m so naïve that I know nothing about it. Remembering the fall, I decided to kill two birds with one stone: “I need an Energy restoring potion and elves’ ointment.”
“That I have.” The leprechaun rubbed his hands, anticipating a sale. “I’ll tell you right out: there’s no trade in goods in the Academy. You’ll have to buy it at the price I name, or not buy it at all.”
“So how many elixirs can I buy with a granis?” I tensed. In the absence of a working anti-monopoly agency the leprechaun could set the price so high that afterwards I’d be in debt to him for half a lifetime.
“Three hundred vials,” the trader stunned me with his answer. “The price is the same for Energy or ointment. I can see, though, that you’ve got no place to put them. The initial inventory space fits only thirty elixirs. I can offer you advice: buy an inventory expander, to extend it by three times at least, and then one hundred and twenty elixirs. A hundred for Energy and twenty for health. They’ll fit right in. Deal?”
“That’s for one granis?” I drawled in astonishment. Actually, I’d thought to be able to buy maybe ten or at most fifteen elixirs, but I couldn’t even hope to receive such a generous proposal. But the leprechaun thought differently, considering my rhetorical question to be an ironic one.
“Nothing more would fit in the inventory, but I could add some with that… I don’t know, everything takes space in the inventory though… Do you want fewer elixirs instead?”
“How about information?” I found a solution at once and gestured around the store. “For example, what are all those things for?”
“Oh! Information! I get it!” The leprechaun rolled his eyes indicating that all the granis in the Game wouldn’t be enough to learn the secrets of the little pot shards, empty glass bulbs and frog legs.
“In addition, I need to know the language in which all the recipes are written that can be found in the Academy,” I finished, ignoring the theatrical antics of the trader. By his behavior the leprechaun indicated that information was not one of the fixed price items, so now he was trying to figure out how much he could charge for selling it to me. Wasn’t he a naïve one! I had been a computer gamer for longer than he had lived! I had had dealings with hundreds of greedy goblins and tight-fisted gnomes! Even though I dealt with them in virtual worlds, practice showed that very many things there were similar to my current reality. Why not take advantage of that?
“Ahem,” coughed the leprechaun who hadn’t expected a new demand. “Recipes?”
“Sure,” I confirmed. “It’ll take a while to reach the crafts teacher; meanwhile I need to know here and now what I’m finding. What if it’s some kind of nonsense?”
The bargaining started in earnest. The leprechaun wrung his hands and repeated that I was not just robbing him, but depriving his brain of the last crumbs of knowledge, and then the half-witted creature would end up as a single father for twenty little hungry kids, as his wife would certainly abandon him, but I was adamant. I needed information in order to develop and if the trader could provide it I did need to pump him dry. Finally we agreed that he would tell me about applications for all the goods he carried and decipher the recipes that I already had. The trader refused outright to teach me the language in which the recipes were written. Well, not exactly outright, but he demanded a whole granis for it, which was not possible in my case.
“What, do I need to put them there by hand?” I said in surprise after we made our agreement and the leprechaun gave me 100 bottles with blue liquid and 20 with red along with three shimmering pieces of wood. As soon as I touched one of the pieces, my small inventory shelf appeared before my eyes; one edge was shimmering. I touched the new board to the shimmering part and it bound at once; I received the informational message about increased inventory space. The remaining two boards followed the first one, but the elixir bottle
s refused to jump into the inventory on their own. I had to load all of them in manually:
“Isn’t there a more convenient method?”
“No,” the trader shook his head. “Only by hand. So, what are those recipes you have there?”
“That just doesn’t make sense,” I grumbled as I finished with the vials. “The recipes I can only open in the Book of Knowledge. Will you be able to see them there? Oh, and one more thing! If we hadn’t agreed, you would have to give me some change, right? How much would that change have been?”
I didn’t ask him directly about money denominations in the Game — the trader could’ve thought that I was trying to get more information out of him. So a neutral question about the change was quite appropriate.
“Let me think…” the leprechaun said slowly, turning pensive for a moment. “120 elixirs and three inventory space units come to 0.9 granis, so I’d've given you ten gold coins for change. And then it would've been your problem where to put them. You could’ve stuffed them in your boots, I suppose.
“You use gold in the Game?” I was unable to refrain from asking, and the leprechaun’s face drooped:
“Oh, you didn’t know? Oooo…,” the trader’s face turned into such a funny grimace that I couldn’t help smiling.
“Is it normal gold or something special?”
“Gold game coins.” The leprechaun was so upset he looked really pitiful. “Here, there’s your information. Nothing much, just general initial recipes, you can buy them from any teacher. As for gold, we use it to pay the NPCs. One game coin is worth two kilos of gold, so then granis, as you can easily guess, is two hundred kilos. It’s amazing what the NPCs are willing to do in order to become even minions.”
“We? So you’re also a player?”
“Emm… So I’ve fulfilled my part of the agreement; I sold you the vials; you’ve received the information on recipes and everything I have for sale here. Thanks for visiting my store.” The trader suddenly began bustling about. “Once you get more granises, come again. The portal lets through only players who have granises. See you soon!”